Ohio Reef
Reef Discussion => The Chum Bucket => Topic started by: Amstar on June 11, 2008, 11:30:00
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Well since my 16 gallon reef nano bit the dust with the heater problem. I was going to just turn it into a fresh water tank with some of the extra fish from our 5 year old tank. Lots of extra guppies, mollies etc.
however since I have a 65 watt pc 12k bulb and a 65 watt pc actinic light set I thought I might throw my hand at having some live fresh water plants.
is this difficult? am i going to have to buy alot of new things?? if so im not interested.
just thought the everyday up-keep of a freshwater tank is boring!!! I like to fiddle around.
thanks
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only thing hard thing about fresh water plants is planting them and keeping them planted. Some fish tend to dig them up
Also in such a small tank you will have to keep them groomed. once they start to grow they are like weeds
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any paticular gravel or mixture you should use for the plants??
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K temp is wrong for fw plants. More like 55-65K would be better.
Need to do some home work on the specific needs of the plants your interested in keeping, not all plant want the same water parameters (kh/ph, etc) and just like corals, not all plants want the same type / amount of light.
Substrate is very important, regular old gravel is not good for most, laterite would be a good idea. I believe that this system has a wet / dry filter? Also not god for planted aquariums, it strips the co2 two efficiently. Perhaps keeping the filter area over filled with water might be a way of decreasing this. A co2 system would be a good addition to address this as well.
Joel
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You might want to check out gcas.org. There are some pretty intense plant guys on there that could help I'm sure.
or Check out these guys:
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/south-western-ohio-aquatic-plant-enthusiasts/
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wow!!! never mind. I didnt know there was that much to fresh water live plant tanks. I will continue to spend my money on salt (my reef) and just make the nano tank the sponge-bob tank that the girls want with just guppies, and mollies.
just didnt know how much it took.
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Wow, I didn't know there was that much to it either. I just figured it was just an underwater garden. I have considered a planted tank several times...nope, I'm going to stick with my corals too! No wonder ya don't see planted tanks very often.