New tank

[tltan]

Hi all,

Going to help my friend setup a 3 ft tank tomorrow.
Need some help from fellow forumers in here..
My friend is on a budget..so he is DIYing CO2 for a start..
also, he only got a 2 tube lights totalling 50 Watts..Air-man brand or something..(is it possible to change to 36 watts tubes for this lighting set? cos the shopkeeper also dont know. =( (budget lah)

Ok, the DIYing of the CO2 i understand would be better with a diffuser (or is it a ceramic diffuser..or a reactor..may have to get one tomorrow or is it really neccesary? can just use an airstone?

Thinking of getting soil fert tomorrow at Capricorn and sand..Is there any brand for soil fert and how much is required for a 3 ft tank? Gravel he got aqua-colisa brand (darkish colour one) but the shop only left with 3 pkts 10kg..so may have to get 3 more or so.

Also finally, what are the low lights and low requirements plants that will survive in such a budget tank? hehe..
Background plants? those riccia? other easily grown plants?

Besides that, how do we tie up plants like christmas moss to logs? Where to get those fishnetting material cos i have been asking around but dont know where to get also...

Sorry for such a long post and hope to get some answers soon..
Wish all good luck and it is a nice forum!!
regards,
tltan

[David]

hi tltan

you may want to ask your friend to change to a twin 36 watts of PL and not 50 watts. This is because a standard 3ft tank, the water volume will more or less estimated at 45 gallons of water (less the base fert and gravel). That means that your watts per gallon is estimated at 1.6watts which I think is pretty decent for low light plants.

Since he is on a budget, seriously consider the JBL basefert. you would probably need about 15 to 20kg worth of it...which i think will be around 3 to 4 packs.

For the plants, do consider plants like.....

1. Anubuis (sorry wrong spelling....hey I dont have my book now. )
2. Cryptos
3. Certain Echinodorus
4. Java fern
5. java moss

it may be best to avoid ricca as i remember they need quite a fair bit of light and christmas moss needs low temperature to thrive...unless Chan is willing to sell you some of his christmas moss that somehow is acclimatised to our local temperature.

As for the net thingy, sorry ...cant help you here as i am not a really big fan of plants that needs to be tied[]

[DEA]

3ft tanks are normally 25 gallon, not 45, david
the 50 watts should do just fine

if you want to DIY co2, a diffusor will work, but it could waste the co2 produced as the bubbles might not exchange all the co2 with the water before they reach the surface
try a cheap taiwanese reactor (petmart has them IIRC) and get a check valve too

as for plants, i find it's easier to simply go to a fish shop and take a look at what they DO HAVE instead of thinking what to get, and finding it's not being stocked

if your friend is free, you could ask him to come along with us when we go to teo's farm
very convenient for all the Q&As

and like david, i'm not into tying plants [:]

[David]

yimin

huh...how can it be 25gallons?

standard 3ft = 3ftx1.5ftx1.5ft this means = 90cm x 45cm x45cm

Total litre volume = 182 litres
Total US gallons = 182 x0.264
= 48gallons....?

[DEA]

3ft tanks are 90x30x30, david

[koon]

Java moss or christmas moss, you can cut into small pieces and tie them randomly onto your log, stone or wire mess.
Get from Nature.

U can use a thin fish line (from hardware shop)or some black sewing string.

For net, u can use it to cover riccia or hairgrass (recent trend) U can put the net to cover the riccia over the stone or some log and later tie them up with fishing line.
Get from Capricorn for the riccia net.

If you want to tie your riccia or moss onto wire mesh, and lay them as a carpet on your sand, you can get the stainless steel wire mesh from Nature or Capricorn (need to request).

rgds

[tltan]

Thanks guys
that helps quite a bit
maybe next time ask him to get another set of lights as the current one is those elevated type so still got space for another set of 2X36W PLs.

As for the outing we are not able to make it..(the first workshop was an eyeopener for me though..learnt a lot from David, DEA and the other guys as well) Am low on budget myself so get to experiment with his tank first hehe
he pay i try

Ok, will tryout the taiwan reactor...i saw a ceramic reactor (is it those round type just like a air-stone thingy?) selling at 4 bucks? or roughly how much is it?

Thanks for the experience of tying the plants as well, Koon!!

=)
gd luck and have a fruitful trip tomolo guyz
regards,
tltan