# New low light non-CO2 tank log



## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

I have a tank in my bedroom, livingroom.. and now. In the bathroom! 
I'm going to post progress here as I go, to share experience with this new approach to running a low light planted tank (to me)
This should be interesting, I have never attempted this before, but I am trying to learn as much as I can about this style planted tank. My goal is a very healthy -virtually no maintenance- low light tank.
The Idea is to get a balance just right in the tank so water changes can be almost eliminated. With 1 Sanchezi in the tank (not yet) this might not be too hard to accomplish, but I guess we will see.









Got step one complete.. Substrate and water.. lol First I added about 1/2 an inch of pre-soaked Canadian sphagnum peat moss.

Next, I capped the Peat with about an inch or so of Soilmaster Select. (stuff is great.. very cheap, looks good, and grows excellent plants!)

Then I added about 2 quarts of filter water (mulm) from my 75g tank in the living room (the soilmaster looks grey when dry, and black when wet)

I added the rest of the Soilmaster to cap off peat/mulm layer.

Then the rocks n driftwood

It took me a while to fill the tank.. Did not want to disturb the peat layer.. what a mess that would be.. lol 
Tomorrow some plants go in. I have temporary anacharis







, Crypt walkeri, and wendtii.. going to get a few others tomorrow.


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## kyle_5rb (Dec 20, 2004)

looks good, where'd you buy the peatmoss and "soilmaster select"? did u just mix it all together?


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

Thanks Kyle

I bought the Canadian sphagnum peat moss at a local gardening center for like $4.00. 
The Soilmaster Select 'Charcoal' is actually used on basebal fields, and bought from a place called Lesco. There is one in most larger cities. I went to their website and ordered it because they only had it in red at my local store. So they sent it to the closest Lesco by me at no extra cost!







it was $17.00 for a 50lb bag, it did my whole tank
first, I soaked the peat for about 3 days in water--the stuff doesn't get wet for a long time.. that is the first layer.. about half an inch. Then comes about an inch of the Soilmaster. 
Then I dumped my canister filter water in a bucket, and cleaned the media in it, and carefully poured about a half gallon on the soilmaster, as to not disturb the 1st peat layer. This is to get bacteria down in the substrate early on. 
I believe the theory on that is it does something with the peat and makes it easier for plants to take in nutrients from their roots.
After that, I capped the rest of the soilmaster, about 2 inches, over the peat and filter water stuff, and filled the tank very carefully so I did not disturb the layers in the substrate.
wow, I hope that wasn't too long winded lol


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## BigChuckP (Feb 9, 2004)

I'll be keepin an eye on this post. I am doing a low light non-co2 planted tank, my 40 with a solitary brandtii. Thing is I am using just sand as a substrate which should be alright but certainly not as good as yours. What sucks about using sand and not doing almost any water changes is the crap shows up, hopefully my plants will start to grow in and cover it all up.
I took your advice and did a bleach dip for all of my bba infected plants from my 75. I had about 30-40 dwarf sags, my goodness did that take a long time! All these plants are in my 40 now, hopefully this tank will be more successful than my 75.
How many wpg are you going to have? You going to use excel? Are you going off that post from Tom Barr's site? Also what kind of lights are you going to use, 6700K, ...?


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

Hi Chuck!

I hope your 40g does well! The bleach dip has done good things for me when I have had to do it. It does take a long time, but I learned to take handfulls of plants by the roots, and dip that way.. Tell me more about your 40g!

I will be using a brine net for stirring up and taking out gunk at the bottom. Too many leaves and leftover small chunks of shrimp/other food will have to come out.. I have no idea where this experiment will take me, but I am going for it.. Hopefully I will have good things to post.. Hoping for that beautiful tank that is too easy to care for









Yes, I am going to try and go off of that Barr [email protected] method that I keep posting lol. I have 2 2x40w shop lights with 5,000k bulbs right now. 160w, 2.1wpg or so. I think I may head down to Home Depot to get the daylight delux 6.700k bulbs tho, these 5,000k ones are kind of old. 
I might use excell, depending on what happens, like BBA.. lol. I will try to be precise with my posts.

I dosed the tank with 7ml micros + Fe, 7ppm NO3, and 1ppm PO4.. should be good for a week or 2 now.








Here is a bad pic of the tank's future inhabitant


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## killerbee (Aug 18, 2004)

Setup looks good already, i can't imagine how much better it will look with live plants


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## harrykaa (Jan 10, 2005)

DiPpY eGgS said:


> I have 2 2x40w shop lights with 5,000k bulbs right now. 160w, 2.1wpg or so. I think I may head down to Home Depot to get the daylight delux 6.700k bulbs tho, these 5,000k ones are kind of old.
> I might use excell, depending on what happens, like BBA.. lol. I will try to be precise with my posts.


Hi,

What kind of fixtures do you have? I mean do you have separate reflectors above all the bulbs to direct all the light downwards? If you do, 2.1 wpg is quite much without CO2. Hope it works, though. It certainly is interesting to follow.

Regards,


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## kyle_5rb (Dec 20, 2004)

could you use any substrate you want instead of the soil select?


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

harrykaa said:


> could you use and substrate you want instead of the soil select?


It is better in this situation to use the organic matter, mulm, and a nutrient rich substrate like flourite, onyx, exo-complete, soilmaster, etc.
But any substrate would work, just plants wont have much nutrients to utilize from the roots. you will have to dose the water more then..


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## G_execute (Jan 13, 2005)

Hey man why did u use rocks in the tank? dont u know u can not use rock in piranha tank 
u should take off the rocks from the tank if u want to see a healty piranha.


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## kyle_5rb (Dec 20, 2004)

G_execute said:


> Hey man why did u use rocks in the tank? dont u know u can not use rock in piranha tank
> u should take off the rocks from the tank if u want to see a healty piranha.


I think you've been misinformed. rocks are fine. where'd u hear that u can't use rock in a piranha tank?


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## G_execute (Jan 13, 2005)

kyle_5rb said:


> Hey man why did u use rocks in the tank? dont u know u can not use rock in piranha tank
> u should take off the rocks from the tank if u want to see a healty piranha.


I think you've been misinformed. rocks are fine. where'd u hear that u can't use rock in a piranha tank?
[/quote]
i think u have been misinformed, can u show me rocks in the amazon river where piranha is living.


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## BigChuckP (Feb 9, 2004)

G_execute said:


> Hi Chuck!
> 
> I hope your 40g does well! The bleach dip has done good things for me when I have had to do it. It does take a long time, but I learned to take handfulls of plants by the roots, and dip that way.. Tell me more about your 40g!


I might need to start my own thread about the 40, don't want to overrun yours. I can't seem to get hygros to grow, which is pathetic because I hear they are one of the easiest plants to grow. I am on my second one now and it was just losing leaves like mad in my 75, it's in my 40 now, hopefully it will turn around.
How exactly do you dose with the GW ferts? Do you measure out what you want to add and dump it in dry, mix it in hot/cold/mild water, ...? 
Might be once again getting a co2 tank, but it will probably fall through as usual


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

G_execute said:


> Hey man why did u use rocks in the tank? dont u know u can not use rock in piranha tank
> u should take off the rocks from the tank if u want to see a healty piranha.


I think you've been misinformed. rocks are fine. where'd u hear that u can't use rock in a piranha tank?
[/quote]
i think u have been misinformed, can u show me rocks in the amazon river where piranha is living.
[/quote]
It isn't a true biotope.








I have never been in the many species of piranhas natural habitats. I would certainly guess that at one time or another, maybe a Piranha has swam by a rock or 2.. but I'm guessing.
Even if not, I wasn't going for a precise natural habitat of the fish. I didn't want brown water you can't see through, and mud at the bottom. That might be a bit more accurate, but ugly to me. 
My Rhom tank has rocks in it, and he is absolutely gorgeous? So is the sanchezi, and come to think of it, he has rocks in his tank as well.. I will keep you updated on the health of my P's, and ask you if the rocks might be a factor if one develops a health issue.


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

> I might need to start my own thread about the 40, don't want to overrun yours. I can't seem to get hygros to grow, which is pathetic because I hear they are one of the easiest plants to grow. I am on my second one now and it was just losing leaves like mad in my 75, it's in my 40 now, hopefully it will turn around.
> How exactly do you dose with the GW ferts? Do you measure out what you want to add and dump it in dry, mix it in hot/cold/mild water, ...?
> Might be once again getting a co2 tank, but it will probably fall through as usual


I have trouble growing certain spiecies in my 75 like Rotala macrandra, L cuba etc, but in my 10g, they do great...?
With Greg Watson ferts, I mix everything 1 Tblsp (not as accurate as grams) per 250ml distilled water, then use Chucks Planted Aquarium Calculator to figure how many ppm I'm dosing. 
It seems to dissolve better in slightly warm water








If I were to do it over again, I would go with the non CO2 tank setup for both the sanchezi and the rhom tank, just because all the maintenance is getting to be too much! Good thing I will be doing low light for the sanchezi tank. IF all works out the way I plan it, I will have so many plants in his tank that there will be no need for water changes!


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

[email protected]#$%^&*((*&^%$#@!!!!!

I met rbp75 at our local pet store to trade plants, (thanks bro) so I picked up some more plants and guppies, to cycle this tank with.
To my horror, The guppies are dying left and right. amonia spike like you wouldn't believe... The dead bodies were clogging the power head I have in there








[email protected]#$%^&*^%$#@!!! Man, way to start off, eh? I guess this is a minor setback, I wasn't planning on putting the P in there for a solid 4-6 weeks.
Oh well, stuff happens..








I hope this doesn't lead to a green water bloom..


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## kyle_5rb (Dec 20, 2004)

[/quote]
i think u have been misinformed, can u show me rocks in the amazon river where piranha is living.
[/quote]

here you go. a picture of a school of piranha's in their natural amazonian habitat. right from the book. and i do believe that is some ROCK.

View attachment 86027


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## BigChuckP (Feb 9, 2004)

DiPpY eGgS said:


> [email protected]#$%^&*((*&^%$#@!!!!!
> 
> I met rbp75 at our local pet store to trade plants, (thanks bro) so I picked up some more plants and guppies, to cycle this tank with.
> To my horror, The guppies are dying left and right. amonia spike like you wouldn't believe... The dead bodies were clogging the power head I have in there
> ...


Have you thought about doing a fishless cycle? I heard the pure ammonia method works pretty well.


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

BigChuckP said:


> [email protected]#$%^&*((*&^%$#@!!!!!
> 
> I met rbp75 at our local pet store to trade plants, (thanks bro) so I picked up some more plants and guppies, to cycle this tank with.
> To my horror, The guppies are dying left and right. amonia spike like you wouldn't believe... The dead bodies were clogging the power head I have in there
> ...


Have you thought about doing a fishless cycle? I heard the pure ammonia method works pretty well.
[/quote]
I don't have to now!! LOL plenty of ammonia in there from the fish dying! lol I had to do a 50% water change. I'm going to let things happen in there for now..








The guppies had a disease or something, they were looking bad b4 I even put them in the tank.. I have no idea why I even put 'em in there, I guess cuz I had no where else to put 'em, and did not want to feed them to my fish!


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## Phtstrat (Sep 15, 2004)

DiPpY eGgS said:


> I have no idea why I even put 'em in there, I guess cuz I had no where else to put 'em, and did not want to feed them to my fish!


I did the same thing with some crappy tiger barbs recently, just because I wanted to see some life in the tank I guess.

Good thread, I will be checking up often. Good luck with the tank!


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## nick007x (Sep 9, 2005)

hey chuck-- one thing i do with a planted tank w/ a sand substrate to keep it looking good. even though i don't have to do water changes quite as often, crap does accumulate quickly on the sand. i vaccuum about twice a week with a vaccuum that draws its suction power from an air pump (bubbles flow up the intake tube forcing water up it as well--just like those crappy undergravel lift tubes function). anyway, the debris is caught in a removable filter bag and the water flows back into the tank. ---vaccuum w/ no water change. it's really easy, fast, and quiet--doesn't disturb the p's too much


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

I know this thread has been sort of derailed, but here are some bad pics of the tank w/plants in it. I am getting a Rena filstar for it in a week, so the 1 powerhead will be gone. 
The Cryptocoryne wendtii, and walkeri are emersed, so it will take time for them to acclimate to submersed growth.. They have really long leaves right now.. they will be a lot smaller once they acclimate. There is no real scape as far as plants go, I just sort of plopped them in there. My wife is making a black posterboard background tomorrow for it








She helps me a lot w/ the tanks, she rocks!!


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## Guest (Dec 30, 2005)

I like it!


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