I'm going to show the progress of my tank setup, and would LOVE any feedback from anyone. It's a 65 gallon, 3-ft long by 24 high. Substrate is Flourite mixed with what my LFS calls "mesh" which is a slightly larger grain sand as far as I can tell. I have an Eheim 2217 external canister filter.
I set up some rocks and a couple pieces of small wood yesterday, and here's what I started with.
Sorry - phone photos. The SLR will make an appearance later on. The water's a bit cloudy as I was stirring things up, and there's obviously some aeration going on with the spraybar. The water level is low because I am scheduled to get 20 plants delivered today and it's easier in a tall tank to plan in lower water.
I think I might need to move or remove a few rocks as I'm not sure how the plants will all work out. I may need to do a major redesign. I'm not sure where to put the planted driftwood yet, right now it's just there because I'm not sure where it needs to go to help balance after I get more things in the tank.
I have a larger branchy piece of driftwood coming via mail also, which I plan on having spread lengthwise but also reach up into the higher levels of the tank - we'll see how it works out when it's here.
The one lighter speckled round rock in the right pile is temporary and is just holding down the small forked piece of driftwood until it wants to hang out there on it's own, probably tipped upwards a bit more.
PLEASE throw your suggestions at me - it's been a long time and I very open! Where future plants should go, if I should move things around, etc. etc.
That 650 nm lamp is interesting, never seen that before. Does it emit red light? I would think that if it is solely 650 nm it would be very noticably red - to the degree that Actinic lamps (420 or 460 nm, I believe) are blue.
You can tell it's red if you look underneath, but not from the front of the tank.
I might take it apart tonight and see if it will operate with the one bulb. I don't want to mess with CO2. Or do you think I should just go nuts with the floating plants? I do like the brazilian pennywort I have and could add water sprite, too.
Does the type of T5 matter, or are 2 T5s going to be too bright for a low-tech tank no matter what? Posted via Mobile Device
You can tell it's red if you look underneath, but not from the front of the tank.
I might take it apart tonight and see if it will operate with the one bulb. I don't want to mess with CO2. Or do you think I should just go nuts with the floating plants? I do like the brazilian pennywort I have and could add water sprite, too.
Does the type of T5 matter, or are 2 T5s going to be too bright for a low-tech tank no matter what? Posted via Mobile Device
Plants (aquatic) need red and blue light, and some need more red (the red-leaf forms of course). That's why the so-called aquarium or plant tubes emit a purplish light, it is primarily red and blue mixed. But they are very weak. You have T5 HO which is intense light, and the mix noted is ideal for plants. So it comes down to your viewing: if the colour appearance of the tank doesn't concern you, not an issue. The spectrum from what you've indicated should be OK from a plant perspective.
If you can remove a tube (the "red" in this case) and the other will still light, it might help long-term. Let's reconsider the light after you've tried this.;-)
Sorry, didn't mean to imply that the red was bad if that is how it came across. It was just something I hadn't seen before and was curious.
As Byron has mentioned, plants utilize both red and blue light (and reflect greens and yellows, which is why most plants appear green to us) and 650 nm is the red wavelength absorbed by chlorophyll(a) for photosynthesis.
I noticed a customer service email address at the link, maybe send them an email asking if your fixture can operate with only one bulb.
OK, it does not operate with just one tube in, I tried it out.
So, now what? I don't want to deal with CO2 unless I absolutely have to. And I'd like to have the lights on more than 8 hours, but I guess it's not a huge deal if I can't.
The cabomba needs pruning already, though. :roll:
I could still contact the company to see what they say. I need a dummy tube. ;-)
OK, it does not operate with just one tube in, I tried it out.
So, now what? I don't want to deal with CO2 unless I absolutely have to. And I'd like to have the lights on more than 8 hours, but I guess it's not a huge deal if I can't.
The cabomba needs pruning already, though. :roll:
I could still contact the company to see what they say. I need a dummy tube. ;-)
The last point is worth considering. I have often wondered if these fixtures will still work if one of the tubes is burnt out. Probably like the old fashioned Christmas tree lights--one bulb burns out, the entire string went out and you searched for hours trying to find the burnt out bulb.:lol: [This has probably really dated me...]
As I mentioned previously, the balance in the tank will determine light duration. This is a lot of bright light; my concern would be not only algae, but more the fish. Forest fish do not like ovehead light. Thick floating plants will help, both the fish and the algae. And you may find a duration of no more than 6 hours to control algae is needed. It all depends upon the nutrient level.
If it were me, I would certainly consider a new light before I went with adding CO2.
You could replace the 650 nm bulb with another 6000K bulb, or similar. This would reduce the amount of red and blue light available (the Aquatic Life website shows spectral graphs for the bulbs), thereby reducing the potential rate of photosynthesis (plant/algae growth). This would also remove the pink hue (technically magenta) imparted by plant grow bulbs, which is unnatural and found by some to be unpleasant aesthetically.
I'll email the company, and get some water sprite as well.
Thanks as always...
Edit: I got a pair of the stiphodon elegans gobies. They are adorable and I just LOVE them. They hang out on both sides of the tank so far (still new) , but I'm wondering if they'll settle on the side that has more of the current from the spray bar against that glass. I've set it up so that there's current on that side, but it doesn't go across the entire tank so those that don't like the current can avoid it, those that do can hang out near the spray bar wall. Similar to what you were saying in your large tank, Byron.
I am still in love with the goby pair. They be-bop around and are active during the day. I saw them in a little cave in one of the rock piles at one point when it was dark, so I wonder if they sleep hidden. They definitely like each others' company.
There's not a ton of info out there about them specifically, but I did read in a couple places that they might be picky eaters. Not these two - I dropped in an Omega One veggie wafer and they ate off of it. Probably didn't need to put a whole one in there (oops) but they snack on it, go back and hang out on plants/rocks/glass for awhile and then back to the wafer. Of course right now they have no competition.
They're not afraid of me at all and are not skittish. They didn't even care when a dog nose went up to the glass in front of them. Or a camera lens. ;-) So far, so good!
Here are some photos of the new duo.
The female.
I hang on rocks
I hang on plants.
I hang on glass.
And I swim around, too.
Hey, ladies...
His fins are gorgeous - spotted and striped.
Mmmm... algae wafer.
You can see the blue and red tips on his dorsal fin here
Thanks! They are easier to photograph since they stop moving now and again.
I do feel really, really lucky to have the LFS that I do. Not only for the variety, but they are healthy and already well acclimated before thy even go to the store itself (they raise babies and acclimate shipped fish in an offsite location I guess). You never see ich there, even. So when you get fish there is less of a "break in" period I think than fish from other stores.
Did I mention that I love the gobies yet? Posted via Mobile Device
Those are awesome! I really enjoyed the pictures (and the captions lol). How big will they get? I spent 3 years in Okinawa Japan while in the Corps and did a ton of diving over there. If I saw a Goby my dive buddies would get pissed cause I would hover there for 10 minutes just watching them! They are really fun to watch
Everyone's still doing well. I'm getting some water sprite today, hopefully, and adding the driftwood. I heard back from the light folks and it won't run without two functioning bulbs (so yeah, like the old Christmas lights.) I guess I just get lots of floating plants and see how things pan out as I slowly increase the light period.
If there is too much light, it just means algae, yes? Or do other things go haywire? If the floating plants can keep it dim enough for the fish to be happy, what else do I have to keep an eye on?
Should I replace the 650nm bulb with another 6000K?
Can I do something to the glass lids of the tank or to the fixture's plastic cover to help but yet keep good light available to the plants? Posted via Mobile Device
One last question- (too late to edit)
If I have the top essentially filled with floating plants, does that mean I shouldn't have hatchetfish or clown killlies because they like to be at the surface? Or will they be ok (or maybe even prefer) hanging out underneath plants? I don't have my heart set on either one, but need to know if I need to think about another species that likes the top part of the tank, or possibly just increasing the schoolers I'm going to have. Thanks! Posted via Mobile Device
Mainly the concern is algae and of course the fish. I noticed a change in the behavior of my fish when I went from T5HO to T8, they seemed more settled. Floating plants should help with this.
I think changing the bulb would help a bit, probably not make a huge difference since there is a lot of light either way and considering the cost of these bulbs, maybe just wait until it is time to replace it anyway, then go with a 6500K.
The glass lid is something I thought about as well. Window tint would diminish the amount of light entering the tank, but would it reduce all wavelengths equally or selectively reduce some and allow others. I don't know. Another option (I believe I read on this site, but can't remeber who said it) is window screen, the aluminum or fiberglass mesh type from Home Depot or Lowe's. This might be worth a try, it is cheap and easily removed if it doesn't work.
I did! I put it in there, but had to weight it down with a large rock, and I rubber-banded another rock to the top of it. Looks great. :roll: No, the branch looks fantastic but I'm excited for it to be waterlogged. There is another smaller piece that came with it, and I am soaking it submerged in a bucket before I put it in there. It was too hard to get it anchored in the tank with a rock so I'll add it once it is sinking on its own.
The female goby loves to spend her time on one of the branches.
I would definitely recommend buying from that shop. It was very reasonably priced (some driftwood is crazy expensive out there), great quality, and he has good customer service. The USPS had issues with their tracking system, so it looked like it hadn't moved out of the original location about 3-4 days later when I typed in the tracking number. I emailed him and he got back to me right away, and looked into it for me. Communication was great. In the middle of that process it just showed up on my door. So all was well but for the online tracking system.
I'll have to take a couple of photos today. Once it sinks more readily and I get the other piece in there, I may need to shuffle around some plants as well. The plants are growing wonderfully. I've had to prune back a few things already.
Yesterday I also increased my lighting to 9 hrs/day, and I got some screen from home depot to put over the light to dim it down a bit. Will let you know how that works - I'm doing that today.
Does anyone here anchor their floating plants somehow? Maybe tie to the intake tube? My floating plants cluster near the spray bar. They would provide better surface coverage if they didn't get so clumped up over there... Ideas? Or do I just need to wait for it to grow out more?
The airline suction rings would work great with thin stem plants . The extra ones I have are a fully closed circle but a quick cut with some scissors would allow you to pop the atems in and would hold them secure. Only downside is they are confined to the wall
That's OK - at this point I have so many that they'd still spread out if I could just attach them maybe to the wall near the intake (vs. the output where they hang out now).
Thanks!
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