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Hello Welcome, rsbomar
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rsbomar
New Member
Thank you for the warm welcome. Hopefully this isn't too long of an introduction.
My name is Robbie, I am 53 years old (for a few more months) and I am going to say I am new*(I'll provide context later) to this hobby. I have 4 children with the oldest being 21 and the youngest is 13, all still live at home, which is why I don't have a bigger aquarium yet. I have been married for 28 years to my wonderful wife. I am the IT Director at my company and have been with the same company for 26 years. I live in Cincinnati, and am a lifelong, die-hard Tennessee Vols fan.
I am very excited that I stumbled upon this forum, because I feel I'm jumping in the deep end from the start, so I am eager to hear opinions on what I have done so far and what I want to do to set up my new planted tank.
The reason I say I am new is because I worked at an aquarium store for about 4 years before I started my career (33 years ago). I did aquarium maintenance and installs. Back then it was mainly reef tanks with a sprinkling of freshwater tanks. But I don't think planted tanks were a thing at all, or at least I wasn't aware of them. And there have been a lot of changes in the 33 years since I was involved in the hobby. So needless to say, I know next to nothing about the plants, their names or what looks good with what. Not sure about the best way to fertilize or what to fertilize with, but I'm going to do it anyways and see how it goes.
How it started:
I bought my daughter a 10-gal aquarium a few years ago, and of course she loses interest in it after 6 months, so I started messing around with it. Bumped it up to a 20-gal (picture attached) and decided to put in a few plants. I am using a Fluval 307 canister, and the Fluval Plant 3.0 Led light. About a year ago my plants weren't doing so well, and the local aquarium shop introduced me to CO2 with an inexpensive Neo C02 kit. The plants started doing better and I have been running with it for a while. I have constantly fought algae (I think it is black beard) and snails with this setup.
Robbie
My name is Robbie, I am 53 years old (for a few more months) and I am going to say I am new*(I'll provide context later) to this hobby. I have 4 children with the oldest being 21 and the youngest is 13, all still live at home, which is why I don't have a bigger aquarium yet. I have been married for 28 years to my wonderful wife. I am the IT Director at my company and have been with the same company for 26 years. I live in Cincinnati, and am a lifelong, die-hard Tennessee Vols fan.
I am very excited that I stumbled upon this forum, because I feel I'm jumping in the deep end from the start, so I am eager to hear opinions on what I have done so far and what I want to do to set up my new planted tank.
The reason I say I am new is because I worked at an aquarium store for about 4 years before I started my career (33 years ago). I did aquarium maintenance and installs. Back then it was mainly reef tanks with a sprinkling of freshwater tanks. But I don't think planted tanks were a thing at all, or at least I wasn't aware of them. And there have been a lot of changes in the 33 years since I was involved in the hobby. So needless to say, I know next to nothing about the plants, their names or what looks good with what. Not sure about the best way to fertilize or what to fertilize with, but I'm going to do it anyways and see how it goes.
How it started:
I bought my daughter a 10-gal aquarium a few years ago, and of course she loses interest in it after 6 months, so I started messing around with it. Bumped it up to a 20-gal (picture attached) and decided to put in a few plants. I am using a Fluval 307 canister, and the Fluval Plant 3.0 Led light. About a year ago my plants weren't doing so well, and the local aquarium shop introduced me to CO2 with an inexpensive Neo C02 kit. The plants started doing better and I have been running with it for a while. I have constantly fought algae (I think it is black beard) and snails with this setup.
New Tank:
My family decided to buy me a tank for Christmas and got me a JBJ 45 AIO
and I have decided I wanted to go all in on a planted tank.
So far I have ordered the following:
C02 - Modern Aquarium Complete C02 System
Filter - Oase BioMaster Thermo 350
Substrate - Start with ADA Power Sand in the back for height. Then ADA Amazonia Ver2 and ADA Colorado sand.
Light - Chihirhos WRGB Pro II 60
Everything to finish the setup below is where I am hoping to get some opinions from the experts here.
What I am thinking of to complete the tank:- Either the Aqua Rocks Colorado CO2 reactor ver. 3 or the Yugang Stainless reactor. Please offer some opinions.
- Inkbird Temperature Controller and a 2nd Heater (1st heater is in the Oase canister)
- Lily Pipe set.
- On the outflow I see the pipes that are "Spin" outflow, when is that appropriate to use?
- Is it worth getting an inflow with a skimmer? Or just get a skimmer? I feel like aesthetically not having a separate skimmer is better, or is a skimmer not needed?
- Some kind of UV filter. I would add it in with its own pump so the flow rate could be controlled for proper exposure to the UV. Please chime in with advice/opinions.
- Best place to buy plants. I plan on using Tissue Culture plants only. I want to keep out the snails.
I have extremely hard water and have a whole house water softener. My baseline PH is 7.6 out of the tap. What is the consensus on RO/DI water? Should I make the investment in it? Opinions on starting fertilizer?
Lastly since I have struggled with algae so much I was looking at the Twinstar Algae Inhibitor to use while the tank is new and not balanced as well as putting in Amano's and a couple of Otocinclus early.
Thank you in advance for the advice you guys are going to provide and I look forward to learning all I can about this hobby. Robbie
Phish Tank
Algea Whisperer
Welcome to Scapecrunch. I hope you will entertain opinions from non experts (me!) as well.
At the suggestion of folks here, I recently got an Inkbird, it is a really good idea to have one. mine controls two heaters in my tank. My only advice is that the Inkbird model documentation a bit confusing, since some control a heater and a chiller, some have wifi. I almost purchased the wrong one.
I have a UV filter+pump , but I keep the uv light in it off unless I feel I need it. Mine happens to be a GKM brand.
If you do end up with lower PH water under 7.0 (from RO/DI and from CO2), I imagine you won’t really have as many snails. When PH is acidic, it slowly eats away at their shells.
Ask some of these other ones in the planted aquarium discussion forum, they are all good topics for discussion.
rsbomar
New Member
You say your not an expert but that is relative to who you are talking to. When your talking to me, I would consider you an expert. Anyway I really appreciate you taking the time to respond. That is excellent advice on the Inkbird, I will certainly pay attention to which model I order. I do want one that has WiFi.
