Low light planted 38g

[sarcare]

I am planning on setting up a 38g tank for my tiger barbs. I got a good deal on a used tank, but it was just the tank. For lights I want to use a 4' shop light with two 34w T8 6700k lights on it. This is still pretty low light for plants--especially considering that a 38 is a full 20 inches deep. But I love having plants in the tank--and I want some even though this is so much less light then my other tanks.

My plan to somewhat overcome the depth of the tank is to build up a hill on one side sloping down, with most of the plants at the end on the hill, and more open space at the other. I'm attaching a drawing of what I'm thinking of doing, but I need some suggestions as to what plants will work. (no comments on my drawring) I would like some taller plants--possible some kind of val or stem plant--but what would work with that low of light? If it was possble to use some of the plants I have in the other tanks, that would save some money--and would be nice to spread the cuttings around.

The rest of the set up will be as follows, in case any one is curious:
1 whisper 60 filter with floss and some sort of ceramic media (If I need more filtration, I'll add another 60 that I already have)
1 elite 20 filter and a corner sponge filter
1 200w hydor submersable heater

Occupants will be:
14 tiger barbs (the seven I've had for a while, and seven more in qt right now)
5 mystery snails (I'm moving them out of the planted 55 because the lower ph from the co2 injection is bad for their shells)

[kveeti]

Well, I just have the 4' shop light with 2 bulbs like you're planning on a 50 gal long. Granted, mine isn't quite as tall as yours. My tallest plants are:

Echinodorus palaefolius var. latifolius - moderately successful. Very tall, big leaves on stems that want to grow out of the water.

Hygrophila corymbosa "Siamensis" - grows very fast, but nicer and thicker at the top. Every month or 2, I pull it out, whack off the bottom and the few lower leaves on the bottom stems and jam the stems back in the gravel. They grow new extensive roots very quickly.

Cryptocoryne crispatula var. Balansae - beautiful, beautiful plant, leaves like a brownish/redish crinkly val. But it grows very slowly.

[TwoTankAmin]

The one problem to avoid is having substrate that is too deep- ie over 5-6 inches. it encourages the formation of anerobic gas in pockets and if it is released, can wipe out a tank. If you want to have really deep substrate, then using a buries styrofoam base is one wat to do it.

I run a number of low light planted tanks and have been able to jungalize most of them without problem. When I say low light - some are under 1 wpg and are still thriving re the plants.

[sarcare]

I have some styrofoam that I could use to build the hill on, but how do I keep it down. I tried to build a hill on styrofoam before and when I put the water in it came loose. Do you glue it to the bottom, or weigh it down?

[H3D]

Sarcare I would not keep the snails with tiger barbs. They will torture them or end up killing them.

[sarcare]

That is a good heads up--I will just put them in the other low light no co2 set up--the water here is pretty hard naturally, but with the co2 it goes down pretty low. The other tank is a 20g low light, and will be stocked with just a dwarf gourami, and maybe a couple of rasboras. So there should be room for the snails in there. I'm going to put some low light plants in there too--and I feed them veggies so they will be good. They've been in with the gourami for the past month, with no harassing, so that should be ok.

[jhj]

If you are adventurous, try this mod (at your risk). I did it and the results were amazing- it will give you roughly 2.2WPG, which means you can have any plants you want.

[kveeti]

I have a styrofoam ledge under my rock wall and I siliconed it to the bottom of the tank.

Another idea is to whittle out a section in your styrofoam and silicone in something heavy, like a small slab of granite.

[sarcare]

I decided I wanted to journal the progression of this tank--cause I just love journals. So here it goes:

The landscape theme for the tank is a river bank/bed running down a hill. With lots of rounded rocks and pebbles, and a few bits of wood. I'm emphasizing grassy plants at the top of the hill, and bushy bigger leaved plants at the bottom.

Here is the tank:

I'm using a 48 inch shop light with 2 34w 6700k bulbs:



The substrate will be Pea gravel, pool sand, and eco-complete:




The hardscape will use these rocks, and two bits of driftwood that I don't have pictures of because they are in other tanks.

The hill will be built up on a styrofoam base, with a 3 inch level of sand and eco-complete on top-- the sticks are guides to determine substrate level, and will come out once the substrate is in.

These are the plants I'm looking at for the hill part (these are all plants I have in my other tanks except the val):
Lobelia cardinalis
Sagittaria (the dwarf kind)
Echinodorus (I'm not sure which variety, maybe melon)
V. spiralis (Italian val)
Cryptocoryne Retrospiralas
Aponogeton crispus
pygmy chainsword--echinodorus quadricostatus I think

Then on down the hill I'd like to have these plants(I have all but the first two):
Cryptocoryne lutea
Cryptocoryne wendtii
Microsorum pteropus
Vesicularia dubyana
A. barteri var. nana

Here is the planned layout--the rocks are in grey, and the open area in front will be the pea gravel and small stones.

I will post pictures as the tank comes together. The planning is half the fun--so any suggestions to improve my plan would be great.

[jhj]

Sarcare, the best place to get rocks for your aquarium is Mr. Mulch. They have all sorts of rocks for sale and the guys know the aquarium trade and can warn you against purchasing rocks that may alter your water chemistry.

The rocks cost almost 10% of what you would pay at an LFS.

[sarcare]

I got these rocks down at whetstone park--they were free. I will look at Mr. Mulch for further rock purchase--I'd passed them a couple times and thought about stopping by.

[sarcare]

I've been working on getting my tank set up--though the fish wont be coming in for quite some time. The plants are slowly going in as I get them from my other tanks and from other people .

Last night I cleared a space for the tank, by moving the furniture in my living room around. I then went and bought a stand and a bag of eco-complete. Then I attempted to assemble the stand and the lights I'd already bought. It took a lot longer then I thought it would, proving that I am not handy at all. the stand is rated at 450lbs per shelf, and has four shelves that can be installed in two sets of two.

Once I got the stand assembled:
I placed the tank on top of the stand, and put the styrofoam base in the tank.

Even though it was 12:30 at night, and letterman was over, I decided to play with the rocks and added the substrate. I added gravel in the front and far sides, then layered sand and eco-complete in the back to a level of three inches. I put the rocks in the tank, and tried to form a river bank look.

After a short night's sleep--I came back to play with my tank. I pulled the java fern covered log that reiverix gave me from one tank, and a moss covered log from another. Here is where I thought I was going to put them:

The tank isn't as wide as the layout I sketched--I'm not too good at scale models, so the log takes up more space then I'd thought.

Anyway, I finished rinsing the gravel in the tank, by filling it partway and draining it a couple of times, then filled up the tank to the top. Lo, and behold, there was a half-inch difference between the water level at the front and back of the tank. Since I wasn't sure what wasn't level, I ran to the store and bought a level and some buckets. It turns out the floor isn't level along that wall. So I crawled along the floor looking for a level spot to put the tank--it turns out that the only space that was level that doesn't already have a tank on it, was behind my couch. It was at an angle to the wall already, so I just moved it out further and put the tank behind.

So I took out all of the substrate and rocks, and transfered the tank and stand across the room. This time I added a slab of styrofoam beneath the tank. Also I put sand in with the gravel at the front and side, and changed the angle on the wood. I then planted a red melon sword, Cryptocoryne Retrospiralas, Aponogeton crispus, a baby crypt wendtii, pygmy chainsword, two Lobielas, and put in some anubias.


Here is a shot of my living room, with the 38 and 55. It is still kind of messy, but I live alone and the fish don't complain. I keep their tanks' cleaner.

[DaisyTattoo]

So you can use a shoplight as a cheaper way of getting more WPG than using a tank light? Or am I missing something?
EDIT: I am going to start my own thread on this...don't want to hijack

Do you have any updated pics of your tank? How's everything going?

[sarcare]

Well, in the way of all good plans, the best go astray. A variety of calamaties have happened on the way of this tank. I set it up, then went to an auction. I put the fish from the acution in there as a temp qt till I got the 30g set up. Then the tiger barbs that were going in the 38 got sick and started to die. So that was on hold. I put the barbs that were in qt (the new ones) in the 30, which is a VERY low light ghetto fantastic tank. That tank is maybe too ghetto fabulous to show. . Anyway, the 38g has become the love nest. A more or less permanent home to my m/f pair o angels, and my m/f ram--the female doesn't like the male on that duo, but the male keeps trying.

The entire aquascape has gone out the window, as I kind of stuffed plants hapazardly in there to try absorbe the wastes. When I move the other angels out of the 20g qt into the 55g I'm going to pull some of the plants out. The pictures of my angels have the tank in.

Right now it is more medium light, as it has the 2 32w and 1 40w. There is a bit of staghorn algae--probably from plants transfered over from the 55g.

[ghost_shrimp]

Where did you get that stand? It looks like a table you might find at a Home Depot. I am interested in a low-cost alternative to the stands you find in a fish store.

[sarcare]

The stand was a very good low-cost alternative. I bought a shelving unit from mejier rated for 450lbs per shelf, it could be constructed in two parts to make a work bench. I am using both halves of the shelving unit--one to hold a 38g and one to hold a 30g. I plan on putting a second tank--either a 38g or a 20g on the bottom shelf. The dimensions are 36 inches by 18 inches I think.

[sarcare]

This 38g is taking a new direction--I got a 4x36w used light fixture for the tank for 30$. The bulbs are much more money. So now this is no longer a low light tank--particularly with the terrace I built up and the amount of rock I added. So about 4.5 wpg at the higher levels, and lower further from the light.

In order to cope with this higher amount of light, I'm going to need to get more plants and get the co2 and ferts cranked up and ready to go.

I'm thinking of getting these plants from aquadise--he seems to have a lot of interesting stem plants. These are the plants I'm thinking of adding from him, they'll be split between this tank and my 20g:

Potamogeton perfotiatus
Potomageton gayi
elatine triandra
Ammania Gracills
Diaplis Diandra
Ammania Bonsai
Hygrophila corymbossa "compact"
Hemigraphis Trajan
Proserphaca Palustris
Hygrophila sp "rosanervig"

In order to make room for all these plants, I'll be taking out some of the rocks in the back, and shifting some of the plants to other tanks I've heard some of these really need a lot of direct light, so I'm a little concerned about how well the light will be disperssed through the whole tank--will it be focused just under the light, or will the whole tank get enough of the light?