Advice on 4 ft. semi-planted tank

[saugata]

Hi! All,

Planning to setup a 4 ft semi-planted tank. This is my plan:-

1. 4 inch substrate of "calcium free river sand" with 5 mugfulls of laterite as the bottom most layer.
2. place a long driftwood on the middle of the tank (the driftwood would be about 3 ft long and will be placed horizontally).
3. The driftwood will be covered with Java Ferns & Anubias Nana.
4. Other than this I would like to plant some Spiral Vallisneria, Crypt etc. but not plant very densely.
5. The fauna in the tank will be 5 medium size Orandas.
6. Filter will be Eheim Professional 2224 (hope this filter would be sufficient?)
7. Lights Philips Truelite @ 2 gallons per watt. Lights I want to keep low as most of the flora don't require high lights.
8. I do have a provision for injecting pressurised CO2 but then even if I do it, I don't want to add any ferts. In other words I want to have as natural a setup as possible.
9. What heater should I aim for?
10. How long the lights needs to be switched on? Do I have to follow the 12. hrs photoperiod or I can go for less?
13. Can I manage to maintain the plants without adding any macros & by only adding micros?
14. My experience of adding ferts hasn't been good and hence would like to avoid getting into it again.

Suggestions from Planted Experts will be very helpful.

Regards,

saugata

[juggler]

Hi saugata, looks like you want to do a low tech tank...

4. Other than this I would like to plant some Spiral Vallisneria, Crypt etc. but not plant very densely.
5. The fauna in the tank will be 5 medium size Orandas.

You should plant densely. The Orandas are goldfish, right? They feed a lot and therefore need more plants to soak up the excess nutrients. The plants will produce the O2 for the goldfish. Moreover, need to find plants that are tough so as not to be goldfish food. You choices seem OK. Try Hornwort too - very fast grower.

6. Filter will be Eheim Professional 2224 (hope this filter would be sufficient?)

Eheim catalog says 2224 useful for tank size up to 250L. Is you tank about this size or smaller?

9. What heater should I aim for?

Plants and goldfish need cool water. No heater needed.

10. How long the lights needs to be switched on? Do I have to follow the 12. hrs photoperiod or I can go for less?

10 to 12 hours should be good.

13. Can I manage to maintain the plants without adding any macros & by only adding micros?

I foresee NO3 would be in abundance. Have to control via water change. Some PO4 and K would be good to balance things up. Traces once in a while or maybe not even necessary.

[saugata]

Hi!Juggler,

Thanks for your reply. Well, first of all let me congratulate you on your grand tanks. They are really mind-blowing. God alone knows how you manage so many of them and that too in such excellent condition. Congratulatiosn once again.

Now coming to my point, I actually don't want to plant heavily as I want to provide the Orandas (yes they are gold fish) ample space to move around. I just want to 3 ft driftwood in the middle covered with Java Fern & Anubias. Behind the Java Fern I plan to put a Nuphar Japonica (which I already have and is growing quite well). Other than this I want to put a few Spiral Vallisneria & Crypts, just to give some character to the tank.

Do you thik this should work?

Reg. heater, the place I am talking about becomes extremely cold i.e., the ttemperature goes down to 5 degree Celcius, thus it heater becomes mandatory.

Looking forward to your comments.

regards,

[celticfish]

hi saugata,

your concept and idea for your tank should work. but as juggler mentioned you should use water changes to balance the waste from the orandas.

as for temparature i'm no expert on orandas but i think they can take low temparatures. but mid twenties should be good. one suggestion i have is for you to have 2 x 150 Watt heaters. that way you have redundancy if one should fail. i assume your orandas are not cheap or you love them enough to buy some insurance...

[saugata]

Hi!Celticfish,

Well I don't mind doing regular water change. I guess a 40% w/c once every week should be fine. Reg. wastes created by Orandas you are correct but then with optimum feeding i am sure that could be controled to a large extent.

Yeah, I do love my Orandas a lot. In fact my better-half dotes on them so no way can I stop having them. Infact my idea for this setup is basically to go for a via-media wherein I can have a decent planted tank (ofcourse not an exotic one like Juggler & others) and also keep the Orandas.

Reg. insurance I don't think that would be required as I am sure I will be able to take good care of them. But maybe can be thought about them once I have a breeding pair. What say?

Regards,