Re: NANFA-- That whole sandbed thing.

Todd Crail (farmertodd_at_buckeye-express.com)
Sun, 2 Feb 2003 16:45:56 -0500

See below...

> Todd, what's your lighting like in these tanks. How about turbulence from
> filters etc? What kind of filtration, if any?

The 75 gallon is 5 40 watt GE Daylight ultras ($6 a Home Depot or Lowes).
The 30 is 2 30 watt GE Aquarium lamps you get at the LFS ($12) and one 20
watt GE Plant/Aquarium lamp ($6 at HD or Lowes).

Filtration on the 75 is an Eheim 2217 and a Second Nature WDF something or
other. The one that has the cup like floss cartridges and the real sponge
as the last stage (not the drop in like the Whisper 1,2, 3, 4). I like both
of these because they catch plant matter and poop and keep it right there
for the bacteria to work on :) The turbulence is created by the canister
and is done without disturbing the surface.

Filtration on the 30 is an Eheim 2213 which creates a considerable amount of
turbulence in that tank. Additionally, I have a Whisper 1 running open to
blow food off the surface and put carbon in when I think it's necessary
(which isn't very often after the tank is established).

> I thought the purpose of the flourite was to provide nutrients to the
roots
> of the plants? With your set up, where will the nutrients come from if
the
> roots are below the flourite into the sand?

I said that all wrong I guess. There is a considerable amount of Flourite
mixed into the sand. I did 3 bags of play sand and one bag of Flourite in
the 75 and it seemed like a reasonable mixture. The Flourite on the surface
is just for aestetics.

> I like your experimenting, but I am critical. Sounds like you have a
bunch
> of things going on and it might be hard to tell what is causing what. But
> then again, if the tank looks good, then I suppose it works?

Please be skeptical, not critical :)

> Keep up the experimenting, and let us know what you find.

You bet :)

> My interest is trying to get things going without the Flourite. I plan on
> playing with red art clay to be used as a gravel additive. I also am
> interested in getting some "live sand" from a stream and seeing what kind
of
> creepy crawlies a system can support. Then I would be curious to see how
> well fishes such as hog suckers do. It may be two different set ups but I
> will reason all that out when the time comes. All stuff we have talked
> about before.

I hear you there. Flourite is ridiculously priced. I've known people to
use Profile, which is a garden pond planter gravel rich in iron. I think
Sajjad was using this? It's a heckuva lot less expensive if you can find
it. Like $6 instead of $19 for a similar sized bag of Flourite.

I got tanks, sumps and pumps... You got space and electricity? It is a new
year, you know ;)

Todd
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