Starting a planted tank... help!

I have taken the plunge! I have a 90GAL tank that is fully cycled and has a few plants in it, and 4 angel fish. The problem is I have NO IDEA what i am doing and i seek advice and help acquiring some more plants.

The set up
90 GAL tank
LED marineland Light w/Timer and moonlight
SunSun canister (largest size) W/UV light
Stand
Versa Tops

This tank WAS and African tank but I have the PH at 7.0 now.

I don't have Co2.

My biggest questions....
Co2 is Ok for fish?
what other fish can I add with the current Angels
Where can i get cheap plants and a decently priced C02 thing(LOL)

Again im new to thins, i'v never tried it and I need any help and advice I can get.

Thanks

hi m_e_loo!

Co2 is ok for fish as long as you don't use too much. Co2 systems can be quite pricey however. What kind of plants do you have? Any pics?

CO2 is ok for fish is you watch your levels with a drop checker. The cheapest CO2 system you'll get is a DIY with yeast and sugar.

There are tons of info on plantedtank.net or aqauticplantcentral or even youtube.

my advice is to do a search for aquascape and see what kind of planted tank style you like.
Iwagumi, Dutch style, hardscapes with log, no logs or just stones.

Once you know have an idea of what the end result is you can follow the journals that folks have used to get there.

for me personally tropica has a great amount of info and aquascapes to be inspired by.

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The "right" way to do CO2 is to have a pressurized CO2 tank, regulator with AC-powered solenoid, a PH controller to turn it on and off, and a diffuser in the tank or a direct connect to the intake of your canister filter.

Adding CO2 to a tank decreases the PH - if the PH gets too low or swings too quickly you'll harm your fish. That's where a PH controller comes in.

But without decent lighting CO2 is arguably a waste. I'm guessing that your marineland LED fixture doesn't put out enough light to generate enough plant growth to benefit from CO2, but I'm not an expert in LED fixtures.

m_e_loo- not necessary, but then, i cant wait to see how mine does with it. look at my latest pics under "epic eheim battle". i do have avout 40 lbs of used flourite and 40 lbs of new in my tank. make the plants happy and theyll fill out fast...i think in another few weeks im gonna have to start offering clippings to folks who want them at this rate

co2 systems arent pricey if you take time to find good deals...at the swap meet i got a ph controller and a regulator/bubble counter/solenoid from two different individuals all for about 150$..the regulator assembly was new but had been sitting on a shelf for a long time. got a 5 gallon empty can from someone up in everett for $20, local welding supply company does exchanges on a 5 gal for 13 bux...thats at central welding supply. i bought a new probe for the ph controller on ebay for $15, waiting for that to arrive right now..

i have 4 t-5 tubes on separate timers so i can adjust my brightness levels throughout the day. light runs from about 430 am ttill about 9 at night with perhaps a good 6 hrs total with all 4 tubes going...your plants will tell you if they need more or less light

Hi m-e-loo,

CO2 will help improve growth but is not a necessity for a planted tank. On the tanks where I use CO2 I keep it at about 30ppm which is about the maximum you want in a tank without endangering your fish (above 30 ppm can cause respiratory distress and 50ppm is fatal to most species).

A 90 gallon is a taller tank at 25.4" high and your Marineland LED may be inadequate for growing most plant species depending on which Marineland LED fixture you have Single Bright, Double Bright, or Aquatic Plant. If you have the Double Bright you should have a PAR reading of about 40 at the substrate level and sufficient light for plants that will tolerate medium / low light levels such as cryptocoryne species, Microsorum pteropus species (java ferns), bolbitus species, and some mosses.

Angelfish look great in planted tanks but my experience has been that they will chew (and mow) softer leaf plant species as they get older. I like keeping Rummy-nose Tetras (Hemigrammus rhodostomus) with angels for a flash of color and activity.

I buy my plants at the GSAS meetings, the 'mini-auctions' at the end of the meetings have some great prices on both the common and more 'rare' species that you typically won't find in the LFS.

30 gallon w/CO2 with mostly Microsporum species
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45 gallon tall (24" tall) w/CO2 and angelfish
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20 gallon no CO2
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now that i have a mickey mouse injector rigged up to my filter, i think ill try running my CO2 this weekend, when i can observe the fish...ive got the bubble counter set for ~2 bubbles every 3 seconds..im going a bit conservative till my PH probe arrives

im not sure if i want the bubbles going into the filter where they could possibly accumulate or if i wanna do it on the venturi to my power head, which blows it out directly into the tank, but each bubble is dispersed into a large amount of tiny bubbles

nick_76 wrote:now that i have a mickey mouse injector rigged up to my filter, i think ill try running my CO2 this weekend, when i can observe the fish...ive got the bubble counter set for ~2 bubbles every 3 seconds..im going a bit conservative till my PH probe arrives

im not sure if i want the bubbles going into the filter where they could possibly accumulate or if i wanna do it on the venturi to my power head, which blows it out directly into the tank, but each bubble is dispersed into a large amount of tiny bubbles

Hi nick_76,

I have used my filters as diffusers and still do on one tank. If using a canister filter as the diffuser the canister chamber output needs to be at the top of the chamber to avoid a large accumulation of gas. I have also used Hagen Aquaclear HOB as diffusers using two sponges as the media. The horizontal placement of the media makes them excellent diffusers.

see my pics of the filtration setup in the epic eheim battle thread. the co2 is currently set to inject into the smaller of the two cuz of its lower flow rate.

my concern is a buildup of co2 in the filter would make for a significant response time lag with the ph controller...ie, the controller shuts the solenoid valve but co2 present in the filter continues mixing

i like using the venturi on the powerhead because every bubble is "pulverized" for lack of a better word, into a huge number of smaller bubbles, but these are left free floating in the tank so thats probably inefficient...not to mention ugly, with a cloud of bubbles shooting towards the front of the tank at a measured cadence...also not sure how healthy it is for a fish to suddnly find itself in a co2 gas cloud if its just minding its own business, swimming downrange of the powerhead when the PH ingests another co2 bubble and shoots it at teh fish