From Marine to Planted. New Setup. Need Advise

[benshthong]

Dear All,

I had just converted by 4FT(W) x 2FT(H) x 10inches(W) Marine to Planted tank.

Things i bought from NA:
1 bag of Lapis sand - 22.7kg
1 pail of JBJ Substrate Nutrient - 5kg
Cost me $37 in total.

Existing Equipment
1/5 Arctirca Chiller
Lighting- T5. Shd i use
(A)4nos x 54W
(B)2nos x 54W
(C)4nos x 39W
(D)2nos x 39W

Plan to keep
Low mantainance plants with fishes and shrimps only.

Happily went back home after getting the stuff from N.A.At 4pm, started to add the Substrate in followed by the Lapis sand. Lastly put in 2 DW that my friend gave me. (Didnt even soak in water for long- straight away add in the tank). Water is cloudy and yellowish.

At 10pm, checked on the water. Temp at 30 Deg.It's still very cloudy and Yellowish.There like lots of fine particle in the tank. By now, sian already, hook up the chiller and let it run. when the chiller comes on, there's even more particles. How can i get rid of the particles and yellowish water. I had added some carbon hoping to clear the water. It didnt work.

1) Must i do water change? How much?
2) When can i add plants?

Hope to get some advise from experiecnced hobbyists.

[grey_fox]

It won't clear immediately, it will take a while for the water to clear. The yellowish tint must be the tannis leaking from the DW. There is no exact timeframe when the water will clear, just note that it will clear up in time. For the time being, guess you will need to quickly add in your plants before the algae takes over.

As for the lighting portion, some others can better answer that question.

Hope this helps

[benshthong]

Thanks for your advise. will get some taiwan moss tomorrow.
I have another question. Is it okie for my chiller outlet to be blowing at this direction? See pic. Thanks

[crazzz]

Thanks for your advise. will get some taiwan moss tomorrow.
I have another question. Is it okie for my chiller outlet to be blowing at this direction? See pic. Thanks

Bro, so fast post here alady ah?
As spoken last nite,
given dat u only wan a Low maintainence tank,
2x55w PL will be more den enough.
As for e DW, Think its will be better to take it out
and Service it...
If need help wif e lightings,
my place is jus few Blks away...


Oh ya...
If there is Particles at e Surface,
Think best if u were to get a Surface Skimmer...
N u might wanna do a water change.

[grey_fox]

Thanks for your advise. will get some taiwan moss tomorrow.
I have another question. Is it okie for my chiller outlet to be blowing at this direction? See pic. Thanks

Should not be a problem. Are you going to use any CO2 or this will be a non-CO2 tank?

[|squee|]

Welcome to AQ!

The lights are normal white lights (6500K to 10000K) aren't they? If so you can use them.

Particles are normal, your water won't be crystal clear until a month later at least.

Get some filter media from another filter and squeeze the dirty water out into your tank. Don't do a water change, just let the bacteria propagate and stablise.

You can add plants now, the sooner the better.

In fact you've set it up all wrong. You should buy all your plants on the same day and setup the tank in one shot.

What you must do now in sequence:

1) Buy all the plants you intend to have. Buy as many as possible, fill up the tank, don't wait for plants to grow to fill it up.

2) Drain the tank of water, or until the substrate line, and start planting. Best if you can get your friend crazzz to help you out. Refill the tank with water.

3) Get the filter bacteria seeded into the tank.

4) Start the chiller, filter and CO2 (if you use CO2) running from now onwards. For lights, first day turn on 4 hours, and increase the lighting period 1 hour everyday until you hit 10 hours, afterwhich leave it at 10 hours daily.

5) Take this time to read and read and get as much (correct) information as you can about planted tanks. This forum is a good idea to ask questions and do searches on. I believe it's the same, if not more important, requirement of reefkeeping, that you know as much as you can.

If you do not intend to use CO2, then there's a different approach I can introduce you to.

[benshthong]

Thanks for all the advise. I am still looking ard for a 2nd hand CO2 set. Till I can find 1, it will be a NON-CO2 tank.What i have in mind is just to have Foreground and WD filled with moss. Not to sure which type of moss tho. I had bought and tied some taiwan moss onto a portion of the base WD.

Will be collecting some more in the next few days. hopefully can fill up the tank with moss by the weekend.

[ranmasatome]

try spiky moss.. i think its really nice on the foregorund.

[kensk]

For short term solution to the cloudiness, you can try use Seachem Clarity. Works for me. Clear up within one day. I even tried it on my diet coke!

[|squee|]

So it's going to be a non-CO2 moss tank.

You need good water flow, and a low temperature, both of which you can achieve already. Keep the temperature at 25 degrees or lower and you should be able to grow damn nice mosses like Willow/etc.

Get the mosses you want and tie them thinly on the surface you want them to grow on.

Don't do water changes for this tank, just do water top-ups when the water gets too low for your liking. Keep the bioload low in this tank. You can try not fertilising this tank at all; the JBL substrate fertiliser you bought will be redundant then because mosses can't reach into the substrate to get the fertiliser there.

Good water flow is important, this is because your tank is a moss-only one, and mosses are very easily clogged up with dirt and fish poo and uneaten fish food etc. This will give rise to ammonia hot-spots, and that's where algae will hit you. Do give the mosses a "fluff" to release possible dirt buildup at times.

I can't advise you on lighting issues because I've only experience with 2ft tanks.

I hope I've covered everything. Let us know if you have doubts about others.

For the bacteria seeding thing, it means getting a source of matured filter media from another tank and putting it into your tank so that matured bacteria will get into your tank, and this will help your tank to complete the cycling phase much quicker.

[benshthong]

thanks for your wonderful advise. You have been very helpful. I had learnt alot. thanks again.

[|squee|]

You're welcome Ask away if you have other questions, or if you come across different views of what I've said in the earlier post. There're many ways up the mountian.

[benshthong]

Had decided to remove the 2 driftwood and to change the concept to rocks. Will be looking for nice rocks. Can anyone recommend which shop sell, beside NA.

Thanks

[valice]

For rocks, you might want to check out farms in Pasir Ris areas... they have a wide selection of different rocks...

[benshthong]

okie, will check them out since i stay in Pasir Ris too. BTW, i bought some HC ($12) from yishun- "that aquarium" for my foreground. will post pic soon