cooltank suggestions

826 Views 5 Replies 4 Participants Last post by cs_gardener, Dec 5, 2008

jargonchipmunk

Discussion Starter · Dec 5, 2008

I'm thinking about doing my next tank as a cool water tank (70-72F)

Tank will be a 20L, canister filter, spray bar, blah blah.

I'd like to do a lower light setup this time since I have a few high lights already. I'm thinking 2-2.2wpg depending on which light setup I go with. At anyrate, I'd like to do an "island" type setup with the central mound of substrate and driftwood with mosses and anubiases possibly a stem or two behind(possibly) and maybe a nifty crypt or something from the middle of the mound. Non-traditional I know, but I'm wierd that way. Outside of the mound will be bare sand of course.

I need to know if there are any plant types that I've mentioned that'll do very poorly in cooler water, or maybe if there's one or two that will do BETTER in the cooler water that I should start off with.

Side note, my water is slightly hard. Not rocks, but it's not soft for sure.

I have the option to inject Co2 if I need to(splitter from my 20lb tank), and ferts are a given, I'll do a half-EI to start and work from there. Plant suggestions would be fabulous though, as I don't know the first thing about mosses. (or most crypts for that matter)

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Coralite

· #2 · Dec 5, 2008

I am not sure what part of the country you live in but you might consider doing native plants and fish. There are tons of cool aquatic plants native to the US that would probably do better in coolwater including native mosses, stem plants and even Eriocaulons. How cool would it be if you collected all the plants yourself?

For fish you could do all sorts of native darters, killifish and livebearers.

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jargonchipmunk

Discussion Starter · #3 · Dec 5, 2008

yeah there are some neat orangethroat darters here that I was thinking of trying to collect. I'm not sure about plants though. I think if I lived in Florida I'd have a better shot at more of those. Here in Kansas there's not as nifty a supply of places to go for that, especially when you like IN kansas city and have to drive an hour to get to a body of water that might have some selection. I think I'll stick to non-natives until spring lol it's been snowing here. (and there too I'm sure

)

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Scouter

· #4 · Dec 5, 2008

I've been surprised at how well my aponogenton does in cold water. The water's actually in the 68-70 range(maybe even cooler) and it flowers and continues to grow under low lighting! You could also grow some nice mosses in that cooler water, like us fissidens. Or if you want to try something different, I've heard that star moss will actually grow in alkaline waters- but that could be a bust! As for stems, I have a rotala that grew in cold water but I don't know if it could handle lower lighting. sorry- I wish I could be a little more helpful!
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jargonchipmunk

Discussion Starter · #5 · Dec 5, 2008

no worries. as long as a few different types of moss will do ok in the colder waters I think I'm well on my way. I'd like to know if the anubias nana petite could handle it. If not, I might be down to just heating the darned thing because I've fallen in love with that plant and must needs include it. The cold water idea is mostly just to do something different I guess.

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cs_gardener

· #6 · Dec 5, 2008

I have a 38 gallon tank that's set at 73 F with several different anubias (not nana petite though), java ferns, Crinums, mosses, Bolbitis, Val nana, Potomogeton gayii, and a red rubin sword. All the plants are doing quite well and have been for well over a year. It has 2.5wpg and is a healthy tank although I do have some trouble with the dense black furry algae that likes to grow on wood and the slow growing anubias. I just remove the leaves with a lot of it and ignore the rest as this is one of my super-lazy tanks. I had dwarf sag in there but had to remove it because it was growing everywhere and growing really tall too.

For about 2 and a half months earlier this fall I had various stems and other plants in a tank outside with a heater set at 70 F. At first it got a bit warmer than that during the day but then the weather cooled off and 70 was the high temp. I was using it as a temporary holding tank so I don't know how the plants would do long-term but Ludwigia arcuata and L repens both continued to grow well as did Bacopa caroliniana although the Bacopa lost some lower leaves due to poor light. Myriophyllum mattogrossense held on but didn't thrive (might also have been a light issue). The Anubias nana petite I had in there for over 6 weeks didn't show any signs of stress at all.

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