travdawg

Hey all,

I am an old forum dweller here, who left long ago, & have now found my way back. I had a planted 10 gallon a few years back & learned alot on these forums. Along the way I grew tired of the 10 gallon & small water column & decided to upgrade toa big tank & bought a 90. In the process of gettin items together for it, I decided that hey.. I am going to make it a saltwater tank. Well, hundreds of dollars later, & a couple of years passed while I was collecting the "good" (read expensive) gear. I was all ready to set it up, & decided that I wouldnt do it. I couldnt devote the time or attention to set up a tank like that. I am sellin off most of my stuff, & want to buy a small tank... maybe a 29 or so.

I am posting here, because I wanted to poll for several opinions. I am going to go failry low tech on this new tank. I dont want to spend hours a week weeding it, I want something pretty to look at, with some pretty fish, & some shrimp. Off the top, I am thinkin of some moss, & a nice background plan, with a few lower growth plants for midground. What I want to avoid, is alot of water changes, & dosing. I am not going to inject CO2... For lights... Well, I am torn. I have 4 13 watt PC fixtures that I could light it with, but I think I want more light than that. I have an external cannister, but for this I am going with a HOB Aquaclear, because they are easy to take care of.

hehe, this is a ridiculous post now that I read what I am saying... but the gist of what I am looking for is a tank thats going to be extremely low maint. I want to establish a bioload that is balanced by the plants. I dont want to have lights that have me fighting algae every step of the way, or have my plants growing wildly.

Any suggestions that can help me reach this end are welcome!

Thanks,

Trav

lauraleellbp

Less than 2 watts per gallon lighting. At least a few nutrient-hog stems. From there, everything else depends on your plant- and bioload selection?

hoppycalif

Checkout the el natural forum here. It sounds like what you want is a non CO2, low light, balanced tank, and that is what el natural tanks are. You haven't started yet, so you can go in any direction you wish.

trenac

Welcome back to APC & the hobby... I agree, from what you describe an El-Natural tank seems to be perfect for you. You can check out our El-Natural forum and also get a copy of Diana Walstad's "Ecology of the Planted Aquarium".

Jareardy

Welcome trav, where are you located at? I actually have a 30 Gal Hex aquarium that I'm trying to sell of if you're local.