A beginner's attempt at a 6 feet planted tank

[mgsim]

After much wait, my tank finally arrived today.

Tank specs:
Dimension: 6 x 2 x 2 with starphire front glass

Was rather displeased to notice a 3 cm light scratch on the inside of the front glass after the tank maker has left. He will be coming again tomorrow and hopefully can repair the scratch.

Light: 8 tubes of 3 feet T5s rated at 39W each (12000 Kelvin rating). I reckon that should work out to be about 1 WPG, just nice for a low light low tech tank. Will also have at least 2 fans to lower the temperature, hopefully to about 28 degrees celsius, I hope.

Substrate:
Have managed to purchase 5 bags of Aquasoil Amazonia so far. A LFS told me new stock should be coming in tomorrow or day after. Finally !

Addictive: Bacter 100, Penac W, Penac P, Tourmaline BC, Clear Super

Decoration: So far, only managed to purchase 2 pieces of driftwood and a piece of bogwood. These have been soaked for about a month now to get rid of tannins. Am thinking of buying more driftwood that come with moss on them.

Plants - Have not really decided what kind of plants I want. For foreground, I am thinking of Marsilea Spp. or Hairgrass, or Elatine tiandra or maybe someone can help recommend an easy and nice foreground plant for a low light low tech tank ?

For background, I will most likely have lots of crypts, or any fast growing plants. Any recommendations would be appreciated.

For now, first task will be to cycle the soil once I have purchase enough to start.

Updates later...

[bossteck]

What filter you using?
Choice of plants really depends on your personal preference. If I were you, I would go for crypts as 1) your tank is low light 2) no need to trim that often.

[mgsim]

My tank comes with a sump. Tank maker loaded it with bio rings and japan mate.

[zonkkie]

Wow! 6 feet! Must see it. Think about the amount you spend on the soil alone is already .
By the way, 12000k lighting too high right?

[blue33]

Wow, beginner's on 6 feet planted tank. It will be a great challenge and experience you will have. Those foreground plant you mentioned doesnt seem to work on low tech tank. 12000k is too high for planted tank as they are more for marine, 6500-8000k is more suitable.

[globalcookie]

Decoration: So far, only managed to purchase 2 pieces of driftwood and a piece of bogwood. These have been soaked for about a month now to get rid of tannins.

Be mentally prepared that despite 1 month of soaking, the tannins will not be fully discharged. I have a driftwood that has been in tank since June/July 2009 and it's still causing the water to look a little yellowish/brown despite numerous large water change.

Apart from that, I'm not experienced in planted tank.

[KWL]

Plants - Have not really decided what kind of plants I want. For foreground, I am thinking of Marsilea Spp. or Hairgrass, or Elatine tiandra or maybe someone can help recommend an easy and nice foreground plant for a low light low tech tank ?

For background, I will most likely have lots of crypts, or any fast growing plants. Any recommendations would be appreciated.

Marsilea Spp. or Hairgrass might work, Elatine tiandra won't work unless you don't mind they grow tall.

No such thing as fast growing plants in low tech tank, when you go to low tech tank, everything will grow slowly.

[barmby]

How I wish all beginner starts with 6 feet - 4 feet. Only the expert can do 2 feet really well hor blue33 ? And the hobby will prosper. More championship tanks.

Reason - more water less pollution and you can get away, and more forgiving.

I am staying to see the tank develop. Cheers.

[Ben555]

mgsim, all the best for your 6 ft tank

Can't wait to see you start posting pictures?

[blue33]

Hahaha... i know what you mean. Any sponsor for 3ft full set? yeah 2ft you get instant result from tank crash , that's where you learn fast also, 4ft and above it can be more tolerate.

How I wish all beginner starts with 6 feet - 4 feet. Only the expert can do 2 feet really well hor blue33 ? And the hobby will prosper. More championship tanks.

Reason - more water less pollution and you can get away, and more forgiving.

I am staying to see the tank develop. Cheers.

[Mizu World]

A larger tank is a good size for beginners, if you can afford it. There's just absolutely more room for error and so much more room to play with!

Since your substrate is rich, it will be a good idea to plant heavily with Echinodorus and Crypts.
Cryptocoryne "balansae" is a tall and very graceful plant for the background.
Echinodorus tenellus (dwarf sword) or Cryptocoryne parva (very slow growth) will be good for your foreground cover. You can also consider Staurogyne sp. "Tropica".

Driftwood can be easily decorated with lots of mosses and ferns. Enjoy!

[Wahlin]

I think 300+ watt of light on 6 ft tank is not consider as low light. You may need 8-10 bags of ADA soil and that is alot of money.

[barmby]

Seriously speaking,

Hi mgsim,

you will need 150 W x 4 MH , place them in a zig zag manner. go with ADA green and ADA red MH bulbs, alternate them.

with such strong light, no amount of fan will help. you will need chiller. the bigger the better. if you insist on having fan on the tank - you will need to top up water practically every other day.

with chiller, you will need 2 good ehiem 2028 filters. one connected to the chiller to obtain fast cooling effect

we all know CO2 is important, isn't it? And 6 feet tank do require 3 outlets for CO2 diffusing to the whole tank. If not - BGA will like you

One thing I learn about big tank is - one cannot shrink from big ticket item. And chiller is definitely a must. It is one of the most magical thing to aid planted tank. Yes, magical - alot agree with me

With these basic fundamentals in place- it will give you a strong start. Did i mention plant heavily ? You will need to ..

I realize - I failed badly when I first started because I want my tank to be low tech. But then, low tech tank and attractiveness doesn't always link especially hard on newbie.

[blue33]

Well i have to said Barmy is absolutely correct, chiller is a magical thing for planted tank, reason why is temperature >28 degree, you will see effect on plant, conditions is bad, grow is bad, plant starts to rot(just like you have a tank of warm vegetable soup keeping warm all the while), when plant starts to rot, algae sure visit you and you will have hard time managing it. No matter how much you do on the maintenance will not get you anywhere than having the chiller. This is through personal experience also.

Hmm... i though we should talk about low tech tank?

[barmby]

Actually 30 degree can grow plant. The metabolism is just too fast for us to handle. They deplete nutrient faster than I thought. Everything is fast in a 30 deg planted tank. It is crazy. Chiller kind of slow things down.

[blue33]

It can grow but it will not grow in compact, mostly leggy or loose leaves in between. I used to without the chiller, i can grow plant at least 1" a day on those stem plant. When they hunger, all bad thing starts to come in.

[reveru]

actually, 8x39watt considered low light for 6x2x2? i thought its considered medium light already. since the wpg doesn't scale well for small and large tanks, i think 8x39watt should be good enough, no? anyway i'm keen to see how the 6x2x2 develops! so exciting to see others set up a tank. personally not brave enough to start such a big tank!! i only have a single 2 feet tank and the maintenance is enough to keep me occupied on weekends already.

i think getting a chiller would be good since you already decided to have a large tank. both my flora and fauna seems to like the cooler temperatures, and it helps alot in getting CO2 to dissolve more in the water column. just my thoughts, good luck in your setup!

[Shadow]

You need to know plants requirement. Chiller is good to have but not a magic. In fact those 3 Malaysian in top 27 does not use chiller. Some plants do grow better in lower water temperature but others no different at all. The key thing is plant selection.

One thing for sure higher temperature will increase plants metabolism. Say comparing 20C and 30C, there is about 30-50% intake increase (quote from Tom Barr but can't remember the exact thread ) so you need to keep up with CO2 and fertilizer. Not impossible, 50% increase is do able.

Your tank is 2ft deep and you want to use only T5. I'm concern that it may not have sufficiently light reaching the substrate surface. You might need to forgo the idea of foreground plant

[felix_fx2]

Actually 30 degree can grow plant. The metabolism is just too fast for us to handle. They deplete nutrient faster than I thought. Everything is fast in a 30 deg planted tank. It is crazy. Chiller kind of slow things down.

30Deg will be able to grow plants i am doing it now. Growth rate & how they grow differs with Temp and WPG.

PS: lets keep to invite him to 3ft or larger.

[ProjectTank]

well~ the pro said it! actually, i started straight off with a 422 and the amount of money spent on upgrading equipment is crazy. my advices are, get best equipment you can and have not worry about upgrading later on. more over, upgrading 422 equipments already killed me lol, do not mention a 622! i used 2 ehelm pro 2 2028 for my tank and it is good enough. maybe you might need 3 to have very good water circulation / or a good. chiller is a must! i love the water cold and my plants definitely love it. with cold water,algae grow slower(what i experience before) thus plants grow slower too but beautifully and require less trimming in time to come~ and my 422 was an iwagumi scape lol.. so plant heavily as mention and when things stable down, you might want to remove some plants then is up to you~ anyway, hope i share some of my experience here. i will be looking forward to seeing your tank. i just love big tanks!!!

Seriously speaking,

Hi mgsim,

you will need 150 W x 4 MH , place them in a zig zag manner. go with ADA green and ADA red MH bulbs, alternate them.

with such strong light, no amount of fan will help. you will need chiller. the bigger the better. if you insist on having fan on the tank - you will need to top up water practically every other day.

with chiller, you will need 2 good ehiem 2028 filters. one connected to the chiller to obtain fast cooling effect

we all know CO2 is important, isn't it? And 6 feet tank do require 3 outlets for CO2 diffusing to the whole tank. If not - BGA will like you

One thing I learn about big tank is - one cannot shrink from big ticket item. And chiller is definitely a must. It is one of the most magical thing to aid planted tank. Yes, magical - alot agree with me

With these basic fundamentals in place- it will give you a strong start. Did i mention plant heavily ? You will need to ..

I realize - I failed badly when I first started because I want my tank to be low tech. But then, low tech tank and attractiveness doesn't always link especially hard on newbie.