opti white tanks

Hi Lauris. Dropped you a pm..any chance you might have a look and come back to me if you have a chance? Thanks...

Hi mate. Sorry I did not see your message or somehow managed to mark it as read but never replied. I can reply here as this might help Swai too if he is going the pkanted route..

So my 5cents about the plant care and water chemistry...
I'm using EI Dry salts as Fertilizer for my plants.. I ordered a srarter Kit of aquariumplantfood.co.uk.
www.aquariumplantfood.co.uk/fertilisers/ei-starter-kit.html
It came with DRY salts and minerals in 4 packs for your macro and micro mix. Handy mix bottles and measure spoons.



For Macro mix kit came with:
500gr of Potassium Nitrate
500gr of Magnesium Sulphate
250gr of Potassium Phospate



For Micro Mix
250gr Chelated Trace elements



this kit does save your money (against the all-in-one or any other ferts you can find in your lfs). It cost me around 25€ for the kit and 20 for 3 day delivery. It was over a year ago I ordered this kit and now I'm runing low on Potassium Phospate (rest of the elements about 30-40% left). This was used on 125L setup since first day and as per instructions - 20ml of Macro one day, 20ml of micro other day and one day a week no ferts at all (just to let plants use up all available nutrients before water change).



With this fertilising method you need to change water on weekly basis 50%. Also you will be in control of more elements and it is easy to add up something once needed. You need to dose 10ml of ready mix solution per every 50l of your tank water. Also this is completely safe for your fish, inverts and plants as all elements are natural and is the same as adding salt to your food. but also it is suggested to have a good light and Co2 distribution in your tank or plants wont be able to feed up all nutrients available.

If needed you can get dry salts somewhere else (googleit) a bit cheaper but I-m happy enough with paying around 50quit to get a cost down to few cents per day for over a year.

+ it is worth to mention - if you are/will be using RO you need to re-mineralize your RO water. For that you can get additional minerals such as JBL Aquadur (mainly calcium, up to40%,)

Also here you can download few very helpful PDF articles related to EI dosing and plant care..

www.aquariumplantfood.co.uk/pdf-downloads/pdf-downloads.html

Lauris wrote:

Hi mate. Sorry I did not see your message or somehow managed to mark it as read but never replied. I can reply here as this might help Swai too if he is going the pkanted route..

So my 5cents about the plant care and water chemistry...
I'm using EI Dry salts as Fertilizer for my plants.. I ordered a srarter Kit of aquariumplantfood.co.uk.
www.aquariumplantfood.co.uk/fertilisers/ei-starter-kit.html
It came with DRY salts and minerals in 4 packs for your macro and micro mix. Handy mix bottles and measure spoons.

For Macro mix kit came with:
500gr of Potassium Nitrate
500gr of Magnesium Sulphate
250gr of Potassium Phospate

For Micro Mix
250gr Chelated Trace elements

this kit does save your money (against the all-in-one or any other ferts you can find in your lfs). It cost me around 25€ for the kit and 20 for 3 day delivery. It was over a year ago I ordered this kit and now I'm runing low on Potassium Phospate (rest of the elements about 30-40% left). This was used on 125L setup since first day and as per instructions - 20ml of Macro one day, 20ml of micro other day and one day a week no ferts at all (just to let plants use up all available nutrients before water change).

With this fertilising method you need to change water on weekly basis 50%. Also you will be in control of more elements and it is easy to add up something once needed. You need to dose 10ml of ready mix solution per every 50l of your tank water. Also this is completely safe for your fish, inverts and plants as all elements are natural and is the same as adding salt to your food. but also it is suggested to have a good light and Co2 distribution in your tank or plants wont be able to feed up all nutrients available.

If needed you can get dry salts somewhere else (googleit) a bit cheaper but I-m happy enough with paying around 50quit to get a cost down to few cents per day for over a year.

+ it is worth to mention - if you are/will be using RO you need to re-mineralize your RO water. For that you can get additional minerals such as JBL Aquadur (mainly calcium, up to40%,)

Thanks for this Lauris....much appreciated...one question: why do you say that you have to change 50% of your water on a weekly basis using this method?

ok. I maybe put it out in a wrong way. I mean it says by manuals.. but anyway.. with this method or not in order to maintain great conditions in planted tank using any ferts I would strongly recommend to change weekly 30-50% of water. Water in tank does not renews like in river or lake. In nature it does flow one or other way delivering all its benefits to plants. And mainly it keeps changing all the time with natural flow.
In our tanks we only can try to keep it that way. If I would not be as lazy as I am I would even change 2x a week. Probably I will go this way now as 30L to maintain is very easy and no hustle to change 15L 2x a week.

Lauris wrote:

ok. I maybe put it out in a wrong way. I mean it says by manuals.. but anyway.. with this method or not in order to maintain great conditions in planted tank using any ferts I would strongly recommend to change weekly 30-50% of water. Water in tank does not renews like in river or lake. In nature it does flow one or other way delivering all its benefits to plants. And mainly it keeps changing all the time with natural flow.
In our tanks we only can try to keep it that way. If I would not be as lazy as I am I would even change 2x a week. Probably I will go this way now as 30L to maintain is very easy and no hustle to change 15L 2x a week.

Thanks Lauris....thought you might have meant something else.....I do a 35% change a week myself....

Another vote for the Jbl filters. Very good any easy to clean compared to the eheim 205

Yes I think i'm also decided on the JBL1501. Been reading some good review.

Thanks Lauris, thats some real good info there. I wouldn't mind changing water in my tank twice a week if need be.

Tank size picked and filter picked and external filter picked. Next up is lighting.

I would like a stand which goes over the tank so i can hang my lights there. Still deciding between t5 bulbs or halides. Probably go to 10000k bulbs but not sure of watts or how many t5 bulbs. It will be a 120 litre tank 60 x 45 x 45.