Please help - planted breeder tank

[deepflyball]

My wife and I have been trying to set up a planted 40 gal breeder tank. We have the following-- 1- redsea turbo co2 bio system for a 40 gal tank. also a 2liter coke bottle of home made co2. 2- our lights are the nova extreme 4x 39w T-5s. The lights were changed out so they could be used for plants. we have failed at everything except we are able to grow algea and moss which has taken over everything. no gravel just substrate.

We just tossed everything out for the 3rd time and treating for algea once again. im really getting tired of the whole thing. How do i set it up right with out breaking the bank. doris and Jerry

[David Rose]

I'm not sure trying to have a planted breeder tank is the best thing. I think most of us keep it very simple: bare bottom, simple florescent lighting, heater and sponge filters. Hatching eggs and raising fry would be difficult IMO given the added accumulation of debris in the substrate and plants all impacting pristine water quality that is needed for breeding. Just my bias I guess.

Best of luck though and hopefully someone that has actually been successful in having a planted breeding tank for discus can jump in here.

Take care,
David

[dbfzurowski]

hey,
seems like your getting 4watts/gal lighting which i think is 2much for a diy co2.
anyhow like David said, bb would be best for breeder.

[deepflyball]

David its a 40 gal breeder tank. Thats what its called,were not going to breed fish in it. Jerry

[David Rose]

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/forumdisplay.php?f=37

[Larry Bugg]

You have WAY too much light for diy Co2 and for that matter you really have too much light even if you were running pressurized Co2. When I first started planted tanks several years ago my first tank was at 4 wpg with diy. What a disaster. It is a algae factory. My suggestion is to cut two of the lights off entirely. You should then be able to get by on diy.

[theblondskeleton]

I agree that your trouble starts with too much light. The WPG rule kind of fails with T5 - they are pretty powerful. You could get away with 2 lamps over a 40 breeder, and comfortably grow anything you want. If you are looking to use yeast + sugar CO2, I'd recommend keeping the lights pretty high above the tank to reduce the intensity enough to balance with the CO2.

If you are just starting out with plants, I'd say start with one lamp and your moss. I'd add some java fern and other plants that do well in lower light. Also, make sure you use some sort of nutrient supplement like root tabs. When you can grow those with no problems, then you can add light and CO2 and move up to more demanding plants.