Couple Questions Before Set-up

tsweers89

So at this time im soaking my wood, waiting for it to loose all its tannis and to sink. I have soaked it for about 2 days straight now and still floats. That is all im waiting on and i will then fill my tank and plant. But i have a few questions before then. Tank is a 72g bowfront.

1. I have 2x54w T5 glo fixture over the tank, about 5 inches above it. Using Turface as Substrate. Will be dosing Seachems comprehensive supplement and excel. How many times should i dose these two supplements per week? Trying not to go high tech with compressed co2 unless i really have to, which is why i raised the light 5" above the tank.

2. When getting a base readings of your water out of your tap do you just take a cup and fill and test right away? or do you at the water conditioners first and let sit for a bit then test? This is just to get a base of what my tap water is mind you.

3. I see Bryon and such saying to get plants that are for the fish you plan on havings enviorment. Well me being a newby to plants have no idea what plants the fish i plan on having are use to and what i should get. So could someone reccommend me some plants i should get? I do want to have some color in my tank, not just all green. Fish i plan on having are as follows: African Butterfly Fish, Dragon Goby, Pleco. Thats pretty much all i have thought about so far but im sure the list will grow as i see more fish that i like.

4. What are your thoughts on and open top tank? i have glass tops, but with the adapters i have to raise the light off the tank the glass tops wont work. So i plan on just going open top. I know i will have to deal with evaporation but i plan to do water changes weekly.

5. When i t comes to performing the break in tank cycle i hear if your plant heavily to start with you dont really need to. Is this correct? Or am i better off just using some ammonia and perforing the cylce before i add and plants and fish anyways?

6. I am running one ehiem 2217 on the tank currently. I have the "upgraded" intake and spray bar ehiem pipes(grey ones). I have the intake in the back right corner and the sparybar mounted on the left side of the glass horizontally. Will this be enough flow that i need or should i get a Hydor Koralia Pump an put it on the left with the spray bar for more water movement? Also what size do you recommend for my tank as they are avalible in many diffrent sizes.

Angel079

Sounds good.
The Comprehensive I'd use 1x week. Excel I wouldn't see no need for that unless you wanna set your tank up w/out fish? Same foer the co2, no need.

If you wanna test your tap water; fill up a cup with water, let it sit 24hrs and then test your tests to get accurate results.

It mkaes a overall nice look to choose the fish & plants form the same area yes; but its not a must have. Plants that will add color to your tank would be Ludwigia (being red&green), Red Tiger Lotus (all red) Crypto Wendtii Red, Rotala Indica (red-green)...That's all I can think of right now - You can see all these plants under my aquariums here as well in the aquarium log to the left under my name here).

I had open one's with house plants coming out of them; I pers like the look. Thou with having no cover at all you may look at a decent amount of evaporation in the summer dep on your heat there. on my 15g open planted I never lost enough water to even be able to measure it/ notice it. Just be careful with a open one if you have a cat int he house lol

All my tanks over all these years now have always been planted tanks and still unless I was able to seed from another tank I'd cycle them fishless with flakes for a while before adding fish and then start stocking slowly.

The 2217 is plently sufficient for a 72g planted from my experience/ view.

Sounds all great to me, so you're getting my thumbs up there

tsweers89

Do you think I'm going to need to go compressed co2? Or can I get away with some floating plants and raising the light fixture as I have. The tank is pretty deep, 19" I believe.

Also how many hours should I start with as far as leaving my light on per day?

Byron

A caution on open-top tank: if you plan on having the African Butterfly Fish, Pantodon buchholzi, you must have a good cover with no openings other than around the filter tubes and heater. These fish are very adept jumpers. When I had mine, they jumped out several times when the top was open for feeding or water changes.

The light period somewhat depends upon the plants, your aquarium, fishload and nutrients. Generally, aim for 10-12 hours of light. It is important to have a minimum of 10 hours each day of total darkness with no light in the room. With a timer you can schedule the lights on to cover the time when you are home to enjoy the aquarium. Always have light in the room (daylight or a lamp) before the lights come on and when they go off; this avoids the sudden change that can stress fish.

I don't quite follow the connection between CO2 and floating plants and the raised light; perhaps you could explain it a bit.

Byron.

tsweers89

I know a 2x54w t5 isn't considered. A low light fixture. Lots of people are saying I will need to go high texh because of the high light it produces. So I figured by raising the fixture up it will lessen the lights penetration and floating plants will also do the same, so I was woundering if doing that would cut down on the light enought that I wudnt need to go high tech and can just dose seachems comprehensive and excel.

Also for the top, eventhough its open top. I plan to get some steel mesh to put over the opening so nothing can escape

Byron

I'm following you now. On the light, if it is HO (high output) T5, rather than NO (normal output), yes, that is a lot of light. You can get NO tubes for a T5 fixture, if you have HO tubes you might want to consider this; makes a big difference, and fish prefer less light rather than more, esp what you are considering. And good floating plants will be beneficial in several ways. And raising the light up will somewhat lessen the intensity entering the tank, but it will also create a light space that is distracting when viewing the aquarium, at least I find it so. If it can be managed, a fixture that sits on the frame with a cover under it, with NO tubes, would be preferable.