Planted Aquarium

In order to get away with no filters, you have to have a ton of plants per fish. In this case, its not that you have no filtration, but that the plants are the filtration. That's how lakes work in the real world. However, in a tank you have such a small volume of water that you really need a large margin of safety to make it work consistently, so you need lots of plants and almost no fish. I'd still recommend doing regular water testing and making sure that condition are under control if you decide to go that route.

You can run your CO2 into the HOB filter and the impeller will break up the CO2 bubbles and then distribute them in the tank. A couple of other notes to consider will be a way to monitor the CO2 level in your aquarium. Take a look at this site, http://www.njagc.net/articles/co2dropchecker.htm. I have not personally read the whole thing but it appears to give a lot of really good information regarding a "drop checker" and why it is necessary. This is especially true with DIY CO2. Also make sure you have a check valve on your line running into your diffuser device (whatever that may be). If your CO2 generator is below your waterline there is a chance that it could start to siphon off water from the tank which could lead to puddles. You also need to watch out for overfilling your CO2 generator with water. It will make bubbles and muck from the yeast and if you overfill it will spill out into the tank. I do not think it is harmless (never read anything that said otherwise), but it will still make a mess of your tank. And finally, if you have not read this already, DIY CO2 could explode (albeit very unlikely). Make sure that there are no restrictions or other items that could block the ability for the pressure to be released. I have read some posts of people coming home to find DIY CO2 muck splattered all over the room, not to mention the plastic shrapnel that it could cause. I am not trying to be Gordon Gloom here, but just wanting to make you aware. Simple precautions will easily mitigate these risks.

So once you are setup, what lighting will you use and will you be fertilizing? With CO2, you will need more light than standard aquariums provide in order to take advantage of the increased carbon nutrient. With CO2 you will start to see major plant growth but you also need to consider another nutrient source or you will start seeing problems with the plants. These may be in the form of holes in the leaves, brown leaves, and algae. When your tank is out of balance regarding nutrients, light, and CO2 it creates an environment where algae can take over. You want your plants to compete with, and beat the algae for the uptake of nutrients. Depending on your plants you may just be able to use root tab fertilizers or you can use the others. This is the fertilization method I use on my tanks: http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/pps-analysis-feedback/39491-.... I have also read (here is an example post: http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/general-planted-tank-discussion/7945-j...) about enthusiasts using Jobes Plant Sticks rather than the super expensive Aquarium branded root tabs. Something to think about as you progress.

Also, I should have some plants if you wanted some extras. I have some Stargrass(Heteranthera zosterifolia), Bacopa Caroliniana, and some Rotala species, but I do not know the specific name. all of these are grown in lower light tanks and would do great in yours.

Hope that helps.

Looks great FastJ1! Those will start to fill in I bet very soon. I really like what you have done with the wood, you have certainly got a knack for aquascaping. I will be on the lookout in the other forums for some shrimp and see what is available.

Have a good one, and keep the pictures coming.

Hey there FastJ, sorry I did not respond earlier but life get's in the way. So you are correct, the addition of CO2 to any tank will create a noticeable increase in growth. Don't worry though, a nicely lit tank with slow growth will turn out to be less maintenance in the long run. As long as your plants are not yellowing or dieing back, then you should be well on your way to a nice low maintenance planted tank. Now if you want more growth, then start adding the CO2, but like we talked about, on a tank that big it will be difficult to get DIY CO2 pushing out enough consistently to get your levels to the right place.

I posted a response on your other post regarding the Assassin snails, if I have some left they are yours. Mine ate all my pest snails.

Regarding the rams, I do not know of anyone local that breeds these but I do know that Clark's sells them from time to time. Personally, I would take a look at http://www.mainlycichlids.com/Fish_List.html if you wanted to get them because I feel they have a better quality of fish. However, they are not cheap.

Anyway, hope all is going well with your tanks! Talk to you soon.

For mainlycichlids.com and all the other places I order from, they normally will ask that you send them photos of the fish and then will either refund the amount or send you new fish depending on their stock. Mainlycichlids ships via Southwest airlines so you go and pick it up at the airport the same day the flight occurs so they are only in bags for about 5-7 hours depending on the flight. I have only order from him once but they were in great shape (actually the Severums and Geophagus you saw). Buying online is a little daunting at first but honestly I would not do anything else after the first time I ordered. Another great place is Anubiasdesign.com. Mark has a Yahoo group where he posts what his suppliers will have available and you can order directly. Shipping is high, but all his fish are great. I had an incident where Fedex did not deliver on time (they were 10 hours late) and 6 Geos did not make it. Mark provided me credit and I ended up getting a bunch of Angels from him. He is a really good guy.

Anyway, hope that helps. And I will try to find some of the Assassins. Otherwise, order them from these guys: http://www.invertzfactory.com/stocklist.htm. They are GREAT and their shipping is awesome as well. They species Anetoma helena.

Anyway, talk to you later!

I don't know much about puffers, but don't they prefer a brackish environment?

Depends on the puffer. Indian dwarf puffers are straight up fresh water, as is my South American puffer, but he really doesn't have much interest in snails. Interestingly, you would be doing the dwarf puffers at Clark's a favor by purchasing one and putting it in fresh water, because they incorrectly keep them in brackish. I'm always perplexed at how a pet shop with the reputation of Clark's can incorrectly house fish, but I digress.

You're correct about the green spotted puffer too. I have one in heavy brackish, and if kept in fresh water for long periods of time, their health diminishes.

Might be a cool solution to your snail problem, especially since dwarfs don't really get much bigger than 3/4 of an inch. The ones at Clark's right now are very small - probably each only weighing a gram or two.

Greg

As with salt concentrations, the level of aggressiveness depends on the genus/species, as well as on the individual fish. Puffers are most aggressive towards each other. Luckily I have a male and a female so they tolerate each other (male chases the female away when she gets too close - very entertaining to watch). They don't really bother or even notice other fish. Honestly, they spend most of their time surveying the plants and tank walls for snails. With that said, I've seen my one dwarf go after my African leaf fish on a whim, and that fish is probably 10 - 20x the size of the puffer. They're really too small to do much damage though, unlike the larger puffers with their large teeth and powerful jaws. My South American spends all his time swimming up and down the glass and is probably not even aware there are other fish in the tank. On the other end of the spectrum is my brackish fugu puffer, that will methodically kill anything else put in the tank with him if he can catch it (he's flat out bitten some of his other tank mates in half). So I would start with one dwarf, and see how you like it and how he/she takes care of the snails. Since it was my recommendation, if you decide you don't want it, I'll buy it from you and put it in one of my tanks, but I think you'll be pleased.