(02-16-2017, 02:45 PM)GreenAmy Wrote: Thanks for the information all! I have been doing a lot of reading lately and as I have mentioned in another thread on this site I ran across a book, Ecology of the Planted Aquarium: A Practical Manual and Scientific Treatise by Diana Louise Walstad. I plan to go low tech on this large tank using her methods with soil and not injecting CO2. Fishbone, what substrate did you use for the tank you mentioned above?
The lady I got the tank from also had a Magnum 350 canaster filter I ended up with so I may start with it.
Hey Green, sorry for the so belated reply. I want to call myself low tech, I am certainly not high tech, but if there were an official "mid tech", I'd be a charter member. I'm using CarribSea's EcoComplete for a sub. I think i like it. I've also started a very low dose DIY citric acid co2 with a ceramic diffuser. I use Sera Florena fertilizer, as it has no nitrogen or phosphorus, but plenty of potassium. And when i don't have enough from fish and food waste, I can add them individually as needed. I also add a bit of iron, solely because I have a lot of red plants. I have a satellite Plus Pro LED light. The thing is amazing. My plants are literally booming into an aquatic jungle. I've just ordered a trimming kit, because I have to trim AT LEAST once a week. Damn things are out of control.
Almost all of the canister filters I have ever tried are decent, the Fluval FX series being the crazy efficient ones. But I can't see any need for something like that on a heavily planted freshwater tank. Personally, I like the SunSun in bang for the buck. They are finicky things, once you get them primed (really meaning the air out of them) they work fabulously. I have two (a 304b and a 402b). ANd the added UV filter is an awesome value. But that brings me to the point of why there are so many reviews on them leaking. And this is something I know from decades of keeping reptiles. UVB warps plastic. Period. If you get one of these, and just leave the UV on, the canister will warp, the seals won't fit tightly, and it will not stay waterproof as long as it should. That's why there is a separate switch to turn the UVB on and off. It isn't meant to be left on 24/7. Anytime I have ever had a HO UVB fluorescent in a cheap aquarium top fixture on a cage for a reptile, it is warped noticeably in less than six months with the light on for 8-12 hours a day. Trying to keep a watertight seal, with the light on 24/7, I am amazed some of these people make it 3 months.
