Major Rescape Planned - Please help & comment!

[oblivion]

Hi bros,

I'm planning a major overhaul of my tank maybe around next month.
Would dearly need and appreciate some comments and help on my questions.

Current equipment to reuse:
Tank: 50cm x 30cm x 30 cm 4mm thick glass tank
Lighting: 36W 8000K PL with e-ballast
Filtration: Eden 501
CO2: Pressurised cylinder with solenoid

Items to buy:
Gravel: ADA Aquasoil Amazonia
Cooling: 'Blower" type fan as per fan in pic (borrowed from CAU) below.
(Actually I'm using a small 5cm x 5cm fan now but want to change to a nice-looking & most importantly quieter fan as the tank will be in bedroom. Heard this type of fan is quiet.)

Attachment 3900

Planned flora & arrangement (to buy as well):
2-3 pieces of dark branchy driftwood tied with Java ferns (which variant?) as background & main centerpiece.
Small bits of moss will be tied at ends of the driftwood branches as a contrast to the fern leaves.
E. tenellus & some small-sized crypts & echinodorus to be planted in spaces between & beside the main driftwoods to act as midground plants & to provide contrast to the greenery.
Area of roughly 30cm x 10 cm (1/3 ground area of tank) to be left as the foreground.
Am yet undecided what to do with it. Options in mind are to:
a) leave the foreground empty
b) have small pieces of granite rocks
c) hairgrass
d) HC
e) a combination of all or some of the above?

Planned routine:
Photoperiod: 8hrs daily from 4pm to 12am
Co2: 1bps on timer with lights
WC: 40% weekly
Fertilization: To be decided (see below questions)

Questions:
1) For my proposed setup should I get Power Sand Special S?
Or will the ADA Aquasoil alone do for the planned plants?
Do not wish to make my substrate level too thick due to small size of tank

2) Is my lighting, filtration & Co2 good for the proposed setup? If not what should be needed/changed?

3) Am dosing Seachem's entire range of ferts (Flourish, NPK, Trace, Iron) twice weekly per dosing instructions currently.
Would this be recommended? I'm looking at EI method or other ferts (i.e. Dr Mallick, Tropica, Ferka) as alternatives or to mix with some of SeaChem products
Please recommend and comment.

4) Equilibrium added to new water during weekly WC at half the instructed dosage. Should I continue or change this?

5) Where can I get the "blower" type fan as shown in pic? Any other quiet fan type to recommend? Chiller is abit out of budget.

6) Currently CO2 is via ceramic diffusor. If change to reactor will results be better? Considering the Aista reactor. Seems like can use externally.

7) Eden 501 comes with a fin-like accessory that can be used in place of the rainbar as the outlet. Works like a "lily pipe" style.
Any comments on using that? Or stick to rainbar (slightly above middle height of tank)

What variant of java fern would be better for me tank?

9) Also whats the recommended crypts and echinodorus plants for my setup? (Keeping in mind my tank's small size)

9) Moss on the driftwoods thinking of either Xmas or willow moss. Any comments?

10) What should I do with my foreground?

11) Any other comments or advice all are welcome. =)

Thanks in advance and all please help advise.

[BFG]

Wow Lee1224, this is some plan you sum up. I'll put my input wherever I can.

1) If budget is ok for you, get it. However, Green Chapter has brought in a base fert that is very concentrated and it goes by the brand Ferka. It is powdery texture so it would not increase the height of your substrate but you'll need to be careful not to leech the base fert into the water column when you're uprooting the plants. Same with other brand of base fert too.

2) Looks ok to me.

3) Can't help you there. Never tried Seachem on the long run.

4) Same as above. Had only used pressurised co2.

5) The blower fan is kinda similar to a pc fan but air only exit at the side of the fan. The part that you've seen can be fabricated with those wire trunking thingy so you'll need to diy. Attached that to the blower fan.

6) You could try 1st and see the result. I'm not sure the Eden 501 will have adequare water flow coming into the tank. If the water flow is weak, you'll might need 2 Eden 501. Just a thought.

7) This depend on your aquascape. Do you want to see the rainbar in that tank?

Someone else should pitch in with this one.

9) Same as above. I'm not really good in aquascaping.

9) Have you thought about trying with fissiden? X'mas moss is ok too. ( Hey, did you know that there are 2 nbr 9 question? )

10) Cover it? Either HC or glosso oe even Japanese hairgrass. Depends on your aquascape. Bare is also ok.

11) Good luck and hope you'll achieve what you aim for!

Hope this helps!

[oblivion]

thanks BFG for the advice!

1) think i will get a small bag (2L) of Power Sand Special S and try it out oin addition to 1 bag (9L) of Amazonia i'm going to get

any powder substrate bacteria to add in to recommend to add in?
will it help?

2) guess i'll be keeping the routine then

36W on 8 hrs daily
weekly 40% WC
1bps on timer with lights (will monitor this and may crank it up if needed)

3) thinking of switching to EI method for the long run but haven't figured it out yet. read Tom Barr's article but still not quite sure what to add and how much to add.
seems like i need test kits since it seems to involve lotsa calculations of ppm etc which i have never done at all

4) with this new setup i still need to add equilibrium during weekly WC?
any dosage advices on this?

5) think i'll look around the LFSes for an effective and quieter fan. my curent one is kinda noisy

6) i'll stick to diffusor since iits a small tank. don;'t want to reduce the eden's flowrate

7) am more concerned about the flowrate being provided by rainbar vs lily pipe.
i know this is dumb question but can i check again where do you guys place your rainbar?
mine's in middle back of tank at about 3/4 tank height, holes facing slightly upward and theres some dead spots so trying to eliminate this

think narrow leave java fern is the best way to go?
already have some in existing tank from bro shihyong

9) thinking of the following:
e. tenellus
c. parva
c. wendtii 'tropica'
c. wendtii 'green'
n maybe get some e. acicularis to stick into the backdrop as well
the above choices seem to be more suitable for my tank size
most of the other echinodorus n crypts can grow quite big so didnt chose them
any comments???

HC as foreground.
think should i mix in some normal hairgrass (e. parvula right?) or jap hairgrass into the foreground?

n where can all get all these plants?? preferably in submersed form and definitely all healthy n algae-free!

10) hmm.. fissiden is good idea
doesnt grow too fast (slower than moss) n easy to keep
n i already have some! (from bro hii)

11) any other comments? dearly hope to get good advice as its first time for me venturing into crypts, ET, HG n HC, so would like to know if my plans are good for this kinda setup.
not so worried about the fissidens, java ferns etc as they are more hardy n easily kept

load will be kept low. planned bioload is:
a few otos
some shrimps (yet to decide what shrimp, but will be with algae combat in mind)
small school (about 10-12) of either tetras (again not yet decided what kind) or rasboras

Thanks all in advance to advice

[oblivion]

anyone else with advise n tips??
all r welcome!