pbassdude

I'm a newbie with plant tanks, but have been keeping fish for over 30 years. Anyway, I have a 240 gal. that measures 72"x 24" x 31". It's drilled, and has two 1 1/2" overflow boxes. This tank held some large SA fish for 3 years that have been sold or given away. Well, all except 2, which will be moved to another tank soon. I want to make it a planted tank of sorts, with several large sword plants, driftwood, and add some of my Discus collection to it. I thought of using a good planting substrate for the swords to grow in, then cover the bottom with pool filter sand. This tank has a 55 gal. filter sump with micron rated filter bags, and several gallons of SeaChem Pond Matrix bio media for filtration. It also has drip water change, which is turned off at the moment with only 2 fish in it. I'm leaving the fish in the tank at the moment to keep the filter cycled. Lighting on the tank now is a 2, 55 watt AH kit. It was fine for fish viewing, but won't be for swords I'm guessing. I never really liked it on this tank anyway. I was thinking about reefgeek kit using Giessman (spelling) 6000k midday sun bulbs.
http://www.reefgeek.com/lighting/T5_...bs_by_ReefGeek
Would this lighting keep the swords happy with good substrate and root tabs added, or just make an algae mess? Would 2 bulbs instead of 3, or even 4 work better? Or would MH be the answer? Would CO2 injection be necessary? Sorry to ask what I'm sure seem like stupid questions, but I've read until my eyes hurt, and I'm more confused than ever! Most of the info out there seems to be for smaller tanks, and I'm finding out that the "rules" for lack of a better word, change on larger tanks. Any advice you can give me will be welcomed. If anyone is interested, I'll post some pictures when I get the tank finally going. I am really enjoying looking around this forum. Some real planted tank experts around here.

MNellis3023

Im a litle new to the planted tanks also, but If Im not mistaking sumps are bad for planted tanks. They degas the co2 that is vital to plants growth. It seems to be that canister filters are the filters of choice becuase they have the least amount of H2o to air contact and less surface movement. Just a idea to keep in mind

BryceM

I'm sorry you haven't had much input here.

Those lights would be fine. To grow swords in an aquarium that size I'd probably recommend about 1.5 wpg. CO2 is not strictly required, but even moderate (but consistent) amounts would be enormously beneficial - the difference in quantity & quality of plant growth will be enormous.

Swords are heavy root feeders, but water column fertilization is perfectly fine IME. If you want to stick with root tabs that's fine too, and actually simplifies things to some extent. Algae blooms are possible, but not any worse than if you used water column ferts. It should be quite manageable if you stick with your plan of moderate light levels.

For a 72" tank I prefer two 36" fixtures unless it's difficult to arrange with your hardware. 5' long bulbs leave a bit of shadow at the tank edges. 3' HO T-5's are 39 watts. A total of 6-8 of these bulbs would get you to about the right intensity. MH is nice, but is overkill if you're goal is to grow swords IMO.

oblongshrimp

MH's have the nice shimmer effect like in this pic

http://aquariumdesigngroup.com/#mi=2...8&p=3&a=0&at=0

If you don't use CO2 a sump is fine, if you do you will want to try and minimize the amount that can outgas (not sure how to do that but there are threads around here with tips). Worst case you put more CO2 into the water since some will be getting gassed out. CO2 is cheap so its really not a big deal.