First 75 Gallon Tank

[xXSTi-lynXx]

Originally Posted by ItalionStallion888

I don't do water changes that often because my goal is to keep the tannins in the tank (brown coloration)

All that fish poo and leaf litter falls to my substrate and feeds the roots of my plants.

Carbon has a half life of about 14 days, then it's inert. Only really meant to strip medication from the tank. I have not ran carbon in my tanks for a good 3 years.

If you continually get bacterial blooms, ie cloudy water it's from messing with your substrate and kicking up all of the gunk giving the bacteria food causing it to multiply. I never ever touch my substrate. Ever.

In the reef aquarium hobby it's common to see carbon being used about once a month only for a few days to remove yellowing compounds and toxins that can be released by coral fighting for space (think chemical warfare), only use it for a few days because some carbon will lose its polarity in saltwater after 72 hours or so.
Works wonders on polishing water for better light penetration for our coral, figured it would be the same with plants, guess I was wrong.
Wouldn't you want good light/PAR penetration?

Edit:just asking cause I am considering setting up my first planted tank so I'm curious, but looking at the big picture you planted tank guys, like us reefers are trying to recreate the natural environment and I doubt amazon basin water bodies and rivers are crystal clear, so I see your justification on wanting to keep those tannins/yellow compounds in there.

[ItalionStallion888]

Originally Posted by xXSTi-lynXx

In the reef aquarium hobby it's common to see carbon being used about once a month only for a few days to remove yellowing compounds and toxins that can be released by coral fighting for space (think chemical warfare), only use it for a few days because some carbon will lose its polarity in saltwater after 72 hours or so.
Works wonders on polishing water for better light penetration for our coral, figured it would be the same with plants, guess I was wrong.
Wouldn't you want good light/PAR penetration?

Edit:just asking cause I am considering setting up my first planted tank so I'm curious, but looking at the big picture you planted tank guys, like us reefers are trying to recreate the natural environment and I doubt amazon basin water bodies and rivers are crystal clear, so I see your justification on wanting to keep those tannins/yellow compounds in there.

That's why we use more powerful light/different spectrum lights vs salt water.

Planted tanks it's a balance of

light
co2
nutrients

doesn't matter how much of each as long as they are in balance with each other. Obviously the more light the better more compact growth you will get, but it's not always needed. I ran 3 med light tanks for years with good success. Here recently I went down to 1 tank and I'm working on getting that tank into the high tech/high light area.

My planted tanks are a bit different than your traditional planted tanks, because I house Apistogramma Macmasteri and they need a more blackwater type tank. So I split the difference on it. My tank isn't super dark like it should, but it has as tinge of tea at all times from my indian almond leaves. I only measure TDS, unless the fish are acting funny or I see some plant melt, I have no need to test anything else on a regular basis.

[xXSTi-lynXx]

very cool, don't want thread jack but I am looking to setup a 75 planted maybe.

I was thinking about a 4 bulb t-5 fixture, running mostly 5500k bulbs or maybe a 50/50 mix of plant spec bulbs and 5500-6500k.

Really considering running two metal halides since I have the fixtures and ballasts already.
maybe 2x250watt burning 6500-10000k bulbs?

I am not a big fan of LED when it comes to coral/ growth, work well for plants???

Basically I guess I am asking WWYD? I don't want to be limited by what plants i can house from a light stand point.

[ItalionStallion888]

you are thinking about it backwards a bit.

This guy hasn't really posted in here to threadjack away.

You start with the plants you want to grow, what light/co2/nutrient levels they require. If you want plants that are more than just green, you will need high micros/iron and higher light with low sub 20ppm nitrate. Not all plants will require the same light levels. So I position my lights to hit the fast growing demanding plants head on, leaving shade for my slower growing ones.

I'm a fan of led's simply for their reduction in heat output. T5's grow great, but they bulbs really need to be replaced every 6 months and that becomes $$$, Halides are solid plant growing lights, but once again they consume a lot of power and put off a lot of heat. Heat on top of tank=high evaporation rate. Also height above the tank will play a factor in your par ratings. I keep my planted+ directly on top, but suspend my grow light and cfl.

Kessil makes a great light(s) but they are $$ as well.

I'm a fan of Finnex, I've ran their planted+ lights for a long time, the planted + 24/7 is just gimmicky and has had some issues, avoid it.

If you want solid compact colorful growth, a combo of Finnex Ray2 and a finnex monster ray are perfect.

I'm currently running a 36 inch planted+, 1 6500k 13w CFL and a galaxyhygro 138w uv/ir grow light. Once I have enough funs I will be swapping out the planted+ and cfl for a Ray2.