3 feet setup

[BlessChwee]

Hello everyone, after 6 years of "no fish" at home, the urge to setup a new plant tank emerge recently.

I am looking to setup a 3ft tank and got some questions below and hope I can gather more information b4 I plunge into it.

1. What size of 3ft tank is most ideal for planted setup as personally I prefer a
3 x 1.5 x 2 but most off shelves are 3 x 1.5 x 1.5. I just went to Y618 and the man at counter told me that it's better to have 1.5 as height as light easier to penetrate through and easier to grow more type of plants.

2. For a 3ft setup, how many bags of base fertilizers and gravel require and please recommend what type I should buy.

3. Please recommend lighting and which filter is suitable for 3ft.

4. I have a co2 tank given by my friend with the valves but due to long time in the store room, I wonder if it is ok to use it.

For the time being, the above are the main things I need to settle before I start the setup. As a rough guide, how much would I need to spend on a 3ft setup and I am considering getting used for both tank and lighting. Thanks alot.

[kidearth]

Recently i just upgraded to a 3x2x2 tank. For me having a cabinet looks nicer than using a stand. Used to be on 2Ft used tank.

For my soil, think i used about 24kg of GEX soil.

[Shadow]

1) 3x1.5x1.5ft
2) 3 packs of 9l ADA Aquasoil amazonia will do, no need base fert or gravel
3) 4x39W T5HO or 4x36W PL, make sure at least have 2 independent switches. Filter you need around 1000l/h, you can get eheim 2217 or equivalent.
4) Check for rust, if no rust you can still use it, check for leakage especially the joins.

[Blue Whale]

I think it's the usual stuffs,
- Light (T5[refer to shadow post], MH, DIY, etc.)
- Soil (What type of soil will you be choosing)
- CO2 (Test your CO2 tank, ask yourself if manual valve or solenoid valve, bubble counter, check valve, diffuser)
- A lot of tubings, pipes, lily pipes, DIY pipes in aid of Filtration.
- Filtration System >> external or internal.
- Cooling System >> Fan or Chiller.
- Type of plants vs Type of fish
- Bioload calculation
- Plant Food, Fish Food, skip the medicine part until you need it but basic stuffs like de-chlorination is required.
- Electrical stuffs depending on your rack or Cabinet. Two Extension Cords - One for timer (3-4x), one for non-timer(4-6x).
- Cable Ties.

A basic 3ft setup should look at a budget of $500 and above.

Here are some considerations:
You could choose to do a cheapo setup but end up with a lot of problems.
You could DIY certain stuffs, might work, might not work, definitely looking at maintenance.
Should there be a point that you feel you will give up, you might want to consider a 2ft instead of 3ft. This is true if you do not have sufficient time in real life. Then a downsized one would reduce the time required daily. Or if you are required to travel for work, timer comes in handy (automatic feeder).
If budget is stretched, consider doing in phases. Water are required to cycle, hence you still could buy a few weeks of time.
Fishes are definitely one of the last thing.

So before you start, you must be willing to commit the time required to feed, to maintain the tank regularly. (You gave up previously for some reason, so it is something you have to address to yourself and not anyone) Once you pass that, you must ask what do you really want to do. Which photo would serve you as an inspiration. (Better to have something as a referral), would it be a iwa setup? A DW driven type like Amazonian setup, a mix between DW and stones? Really come down to what you want end of the day.

[BlessChwee]

Well, I have finally got myself a 3ft tank from Nanyang Aquarium last sat and will be coming tomorrow and I will test leak the tank for 1-2 days before I start the setup probably on fri after work or sat.

I have also bought 3 bags of ADA soil, a Atman DF-1000 and 2 sets of T5 39w lightsets but have not gotten any plants yet.

Can I confirm that I just need to lay all the ada soil in the tank and then on the filter to start the filtration and cycling and at this point, do I need to
plant heavily or I still can slowly plant for the first 1-2 weeks. Also do I need to on the lights for 8 hours if the tank is not fully planted.

I have got a 3l co2 tank from a friend and just went to Y618 to top up, I only bought a small glass diffuser and 2m of tube, do I need to buy the bubble counter or just connect the hose directly from the c02 tank to the diffuser. HOw do I know how much co2 is being release to the tank ?

Sorry for all the questions and hope someone can guide me along. Thanks alot.

[Blue Whale]

Well, I have finally got myself a 3ft tank from Nanyang Aquarium last sat and will be coming tomorrow and I will test leak the tank for 1-2 days before I start the setup probably on fri after work or sat.

I have also bought 3 bags of ADA soil, a Atman DF-1000 and 2 sets of T5 39w lightsets but have not gotten any plants yet.

Can I confirm that I just need to lay all the ada soil in the tank and then on the filter to start the filtration and cycling and at this point, do I need to
plant heavily or I still can slowly plant for the first 1-2 weeks. Also do I need to on the lights for 8 hours if the tank is not fully planted.

I have got a 3l co2 tank from a friend and just went to Y618 to top up, I only bought a small glass diffuser and 2m of tube, do I need to buy the bubble counter or just connect the hose directly from the c02 tank to the diffuser. HOw do I know how much co2 is being release to the tank ?

Sorry for all the questions and hope someone can guide me along. Thanks alot.

Before you go ahead, could you picture all the equipments, so that the forumers can advice you?

Homework for you.
http://www.adana.com.sg/adaArticles/articles.html

[Shadow]

you are suppose to plants heavily from start before filling up the water, easier to plant this way. Move around the hardscape when the tank dry is also much easier compare to when the tank full, also no need to worry about disturbing water too much and cloudy the water.

You need to buy couple of check valve, at least 2, and bubble counter. In order to know how much CO2 dissolve in the water, you need drop checker. It is optional, you can just blast the CO2 and observer for sign of fish gasping for air (a bit cruel though ).

[BlessChwee]

Thank you Bluewhale & Robert for your help.

Btw, where to get good price for driftwood in the north ? Is Nanyang selling cheaper driftwood than most lfs ?

[Shadow]

Their wood price is about the same.

[Blue Whale]

Thank you Bluewhale & Robert for your help.

Btw, where to get good price for driftwood in the north ? Is Nanyang selling cheaper driftwood than most lfs ?

dw can be obtained from buying tied plants.
aquastar, y618 also have cheap dw, bonsai and larger ones then will cost more. a typical small piece is $10 ea.
So it does comes down to your budget and how much can you carry.

[BlessChwee]

Can anyone advise me if 4 tubes of T5 39W sufficient for a 3 x 2 x 2 tank, intend to plant glosso, mini fissiden, tiger lotus, hair grass and some other stem plants at the back.

Btw, is horpa light as good as aquazonic T5 ?

[Peanut8787]

Can anyone advise me if 4 tubes of T5 39W sufficient for a 3 x 2 x 2 tank, intend to plant glosso, mini fissiden, tiger lotus, hair grass and some other stem plants at the back.

Btw, is horpa light as good as aquazonic T5 ?

For height of 2ft and wide of 2ft, you would be better off MH lighting. Metal Halide

[BlessChwee]

For height of 2ft and wide of 2ft, you would be better off MH lighting. Metal Halide

I dont intend to use MH lights becos I am not running a chiller just a fan so the temperature will shoot up so tot of using 4 - 6 tubes of T5HO.

[Shadow]

for glosso, I would say now. Maybe OK during the first 6 months when the tube still new. My tank 3x1.5x1.5 can't grow creeping glosso with 4x39, I need 6x39 to make it creep. Not to mention your tank is 2 ft deep. I agree with Peanut8787, for 2ft deep you might want to consider MH but without chiller your water temp might shoot up to 32C (happen to me before ) which is tough for plants. Alternatively, you might also want to consider LED. I believe sim lim selling 50W LED flood light for about $100-$150, pretty much the same price as MH light set.

PS. I don't really know whether 50W LED = 150W MH, you might need more or less.

[Peanut8787]

I remembered a method shared by someone in the forum which i forgotten. You can use 6X39watt as mentioned by shadow but for the 2ft height you can lower the water level to increase the PAR of the lighting to reach the foreground and only top up when you're having photo taking ceremony

Same as shadow I'm also using 6X39watt for my current 3x1.5x1.5 tank with chiller but for your 2ft wide, maybe try 8X39 but only on 7 tubes at a time?


*But think of it, 7 pieces of T5 also can increase your tank temp without chiller. It doesn't shoot as high as MH lighting but it still release heat wave. Maybe you should try out LED since you doesn't have any chiller

[ZackZhou]

Seems like Gc 3 feet tank did a good job in making glosso creep. If I'm not wrong, they used 2 or 3 t5ho only..

[BlessChwee]

Thank you once again for all the advice and I am intending to put the horpa 4 tubes and a aquazonic T5 light set so total 6 tubes for 8 hours. At the same time, probably I will raise the soil level higher as well as slightly lower the water level to maximise the light penetration.

Just curious if pasting of oyama black paper behind the tank will help in blocking the light and divert back to the tank but probably only the stem plants behind will benefit but not the foreground plants. I really wish to have a nice carpet plants with DW tied with mini fissiden and a tiger lotus for my upcoming dream tank.

btw are the lights suppose to be change every 9-12 mths before it loses its effectiveness.

[BlessChwee]

another thing is it having a reflector behind the light will help ?

I was thinking in the beginning to let the water fill up only to 60-70% of the tank and let the glosso creep first for few weeks after that then top up to 90%, dont know if it's workable this way.

[felix_fx2]

Shadow, my old setup when i was doing glosso was 4 x 39w. when i split light period the growth seemed more compact.

[Shadow]

felix, good to know, maybe try it next time but tough if I do split the plant will grow toward the window