going to planted

[pReDaToR]

You folks out there with planted tanks.... What is the best way to filter? Currently I have two powerheads hooked up to an undergravel filter (an aquaclear 402 and a penguin... cant remeber the size right now). My tank is a 50 gal pentagon. I have been thinking of jumping to a canister filter and maybe keeping one of the powerheads and getting a sponge filter attachment for it. I have a couple of sword plants (not sure what species), a little wendti and an anubias in the tank currently. My worry is that with the current system i have; roots will take over and clog the filter plates? I was thinking maybe ditching the undergravel filter and using something like this jebo 828...
http://www.aquatraders.com/aquatraders/product_info.php?cPath=24&products_id=31&osCsid=c5d55657d4e0ab1cdc809f855985b687

and to get the wattage up i thought THIS light in addition to 1 or 2 18watt lights i have already.. I like the way the combination of the daylight white and the actinic blue make both the plants and fish look.
http://www.aquatraders.com/aquatraders/product_info.php?cPath=26&products_id=35&osCsid=c5d55657d4e0ab1cdc809f855985b687

The idea is to go low tech as far as plants go. I read an article about a low tech planted discus tank and want to go this direction if i can. ANY HELP WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED!!! thanks in advance..
HERES THE ARTICLE!!!!! lemme know what you think
http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/People/opsomer.html

By the way the tank inhabitants are 4 discus - 5 corrys, a pleco, (who will be leaving soon... too much poop) and 15 Black neon tetras. With a planted tank I may lose the neons to gain another discus.

[funkyfish]

don't think the antic light would help the growth of the plants
and i the undergravel filter when i first set up a planted tank i used
a ugf and it did not work out to go good now i use a canister
filter and a hang-on with a layer of florite an toped of with some pea gravel
and it works a lot better than the ugf . i don't use co2 so i keep my
watt per gal low the more light the faster the growth the more co2 the
plants need that is just my experience with planted tanks

love what u do an do what u love

[pReDaToR]

Thanks funky. I thought the Actinic might be ok because of the rate at which my current plants are growing with it. I used to have some normal flourescent lighting on them and with the 2 little 18 watts i have on them they have started growing rapidly,(atleast more rapid than before:) Do you have any pics of your tank? How do you keep the gravel clean without being able to syphon everything? What size tank do you have? How many watts? How many fish? What kind of canister? What kind of plants? And how much laterite and pea gravel on the bottom... Sorry for all the questions. THANKS in advance to Funky and anyone else with some planted tank knowledge and info :)

[funkyfish]

i can see were the acntinic light is high in blue spectrum witch does promote
vegatation but the plants do need more than the blue spectrum that does not mean to get ride of them me i would ad some full spectrum light to it bout 5500 k to 6500 k that will give them what they need to flouish
i have seveal 30 gal tanks with diy canister's full of floss and hang on's
full of bio-balls discus in some an angels in others bout 5 fish per tank
i use a ge aquarium bulb and a ge cool white which has a color of 6500k
on each tank there is bout 1.5 to 2 in. of laterite and bout a 1in. of pea gravel i got it from home depot i have tiger lotus ,sword ,hair grass,apogentas,anubisone more but think of the name of it
hope that helped some good luck


love what u do and do what u love


i keep the middle open for feeding
and lots of water changes every other day
40 watts in all

[pReDaToR]

Ok, heres whats going on in the old noodle.....
I went ahead and bought the jebo light. I found one place online with a 5500k 55w bulb and a 6700k 55w bulb to replace the 10000k bulb. Would the 6700k be ok or is it a little too much? As far as filters go, I am leaning towards a Rena Filstar XP2 canister. The idea is to either run this one alone, or to keep the Aquaclear powerhead i have and put a sponge filter attachment on it. My only worry is with having a 50 Pentagon, the footprint is not as large as the standard rectangle tank... Will this cause to much agitation and current? The Rena XP@ is rated at 300gph. I am also totally curious about the "NOISE" factor in both the Jebo 828 and the Rena. I want SILENCE!!! I am thinking that the Rena is going to be better in all cases, including the noise... ANYONE have any personal experience?
I am also toying with the idea of changing out most of my gravel for black flourite. Are there any negatives to having just black flourite as the substrate in my discus tank? I hear that it can work wonders in planted tanks. I also think the black might look nice with all of the green in the tank. I would probably keep a thin layer of my natural gravel on top of it to keep the bacteria colony healthy while the new filter settled in. Can you put a sack established gravel in a canister for a bit to build its (the canisters) colony?
THANKS AGAIN FOR ALL THE HELP.

[KIWI13]

I had a 50 gallon planted tank with discus and I used a Fluval 404 canister filter, with the usual sponge, ceramic and carbon combo. It worked like a lil gem. You can even direct the water to fall on the back glass so it doesnt disturb the fish and you have total control of the flow rate. I had absolutely no problems with this filter and I tend to never use undergravel filteration. Infact i advice against it. Esp for plants its not too good cause it creats an unwanted circulation under the gravel and it is soo outdated. A good canister filter is all you need. I used the same filter with oscars and trust me if it works for oscars it will work for just about any fish.

[Terrybo]

I added a Jebo 828 filter to my 75 gallon planted tank recently and find it to be very quiet.

Terry

[funkyfish]

now that sounds groovy for a planted tank good luck

love what u do and do what u love