[tom sudz93]

hey ive been looking up alot of things lately and wondering what you think of this so far any advice or concerns please tell

my tank: 48"x12"x18"
filteration: tetratec in1000 (im not sure its enough)
substrate: tetraplant complete substrate & eco complete planted substrate mixed 50-50 2.5" deep
lighting: hagen glomat double starter unit 40w & 4 power glo t5 high output 54w amd reflectors
c02: Hagen A-7690 CO2 Natural Plant System (just alittle added carbon)
fertz: seachem flourish

fish:
cichlids-[ harem of apisto's (not sure which sp see what i can get) and or a few pairs of mikrogeophagus ramirezi

characins-[8 Carnegiella strigata and 12 Hemigrammus rhodostomus

catfish-[ maybe 6-8 cortdoras paleatus - 2 ancistrus sp - 1 Bunocephalus coracoideus - 4 otocinlus vittatus

plants:
Phyllanthus fluitans
Lilaeopsis brasiliensis
Hygrophila sp. 'Porto Velho'
Rotala sp. 'Goias'
Polygonum sp. 'Sao Paulo'
Bacopa sp. 'Pantanal'
Alternanthera reineckii 'lilacina'
Hygrophila sp. 'Pantanal'
Alternanthera reineckii 'rosaefolia'
Echinodorus uruguayensis
Echinodorus martii
Egeria densa

and a few nice pieces of bogwood

so what do you think

 

[davemonkey]

Seachem Flourish will only provide micronutrients. You'll also need a source of N-P-K. Seachem makes those as well, but you can also get the dry ferts and they are much cheaper (dollar for dollar, dry will last you several times longer than liquids).

-Dave

 

[tom sudz93]

thanks ill have a look for that

 

[freydo]

dave's right, you will definitely need to add NPK for your fertilizer regiment. also i'm not sure your filter will provide enough flow. from what i've worked out, you have a 45 gallon tank, and your filter provides a turn over rate of ~265 gph. you might want to consider something in the 300-400 range. however if you find that you get sufficient flow, then it should be fine.

as well, with the amount of lights you have, you may want to upsize your CO2 source, as you're around the medium to high light levels. i would consider pressurized co2 as a future upgrade, because you may have an issue with algae.

 

[tom sudz93]

whats npk? and ill upgrade my c02 to Hydor CO2 Green NRG Exclusive System would that be sufficent?
if not what would you recomend?

 

[HeyPK]

Re: what do you think? (Fertilization 101)

NPK are Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium, the 'big three' of fertilizing. These are the nutrients that plants most commonly need added. Others that are less often needed are S (sulfur), Mg (magnesium) and Ca (Calcium) All these are in the macronutrient group, macronutrient meaning that plants use relatively large amounts of these.

Iron is in the micronutrient group, but it often has to be added regularly to planted aquaria because it tends to precipitate out in the water and become unavailable to the plants. Tanks with soil, especially soil with added organic matter, such as peat, usually don't need iron additions, because the iron gets reduced from Fe+++ to Fe++ and therefore solubilized under the anaerobic conditions in the soil and continually diffuses into the water where it gets oxidized back to Fe+++ and precipitates onto the plants. Plants can take up iron when it has precipitated on their leaves and stems.