Tropical Fish Keeping banner

Questions and looking for suggestions

2K views 7 replies 2 participants last post by  Kazzy 
#1 ·
I have a 29 gallon tank, inhabitants include one Pleco, several mollies, some minnows, two mystery snails, and some ghost shrimp. Soon I'm wanting to change it to a planted aquarium. The substrate will be soil and plant gravel. I'm wanting to also have a moss wall.
The water pH is around 8.0 and I'm guessing pretty hard. I keep the temps around 75-+ . The lights..well all I know is they are flouresent and one emits a blue-ish hue and the other id orange like. What types of plants would do well in this? Better yet, if you had a tank like this how would you set it up plant wise?
 
#2 ·
We will need more info on the light, specifically the Kelvin rating (printed on the package, or sometimes on the tube itself at one end). Two tubes over a 29g will certainly be adequate intensity if the correct tubes are in them.

I would recommend you do a lot of research on soil substrate tanks. Redchigh has two threads in this forum section on this topic, going through step by step. And you can find articles by authorities like Diana Walstad online or in her book. There are several significant issues with using soil, it is not at all as simple as plain gravel or even plain sand. Thorough research will hopefully allow you to avoid disasters.

Byron.
 
#3 ·
Once I get home I'll see if I can find something on the bulbs. And don't worry, read the soil substrate threads twice already and doing more research on it :)
 
#4 ·
The bulb with the blue-ish hue is a AquaGlo 20W and the one with the orange-ish hue is an Eclipse Nature Daylight (no wattage info, just says F18T8 on it). Hope this helps!
 
#5 ·
If you like the hue in the aquarium, these should be OK. I personally don't like the hue that Aqua-Glo tubes deliver, but with the daylight tube to balance it may not be so noticeable. I think the plants will be fine under this combo.
 
#6 ·
Thanks! I'm not a fan of the hue either. The other one kind of balances it out but it's still kinda yellow in there.
 
#7 ·
Assuming these tubes are T8 (T8 are narrower than the older original fluorescent T12 tubes) they will need replacing every 2-3 years. When that time comes, go to a hardware or home improvement store and buy daylight tubes (look for a kelvin rating of around 6500K) made by GE, Phillips or Sylvania. Measure your tube end to end minus the prongs, and that is what you want (wattage is irrelevant) in a daylight or daylight deluxe, or similar. For years I used Sylvania, now Phillips because Home Depot here changed over. They work fine and cost considerably less than "aquarium" tubes, about 1/5 less.
 
#8 ·
Thanks, I'll do that! And yes, they are T8s.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top