only problem with mangroves is they are not cheap. here in fl it is illegal to harvest your own. but people still do.

other wise you have to order form Hawaii. which is not to far from yall anyway.

thats why i suggested java moss. you can get a dense mass in the sump which should help with nitrates. also using some seachem flourish excel(liqud co2 sup) will help the plants a lot with out harming the fish. they will grow fast and keep your water changes down.

put some t5 on top and run for 10-12 hrs. the plants should do a good job. i have seen guys with 125g 6ft tanks with no filters and just fish and plants. a fine balance between fish and plants but it can be done, ******** nature does it.

This is all pretty interesting to me. I suspect I am not too far away from working out something similar, or at least a large wet dry setup.

I planned on adding the flourish excel. I have some old T5 fixture hoods I can take apart and use the fixture from, if that's not enough I can back it with some of the T12's. If the aquatic plants aren't doing the trick I will go find some nice bog plants and add them and see if they help. Having 1" of boiled potting soil under 1-1/2" of sand will really help them grow fast and well. I will add root tabs as the soil nutrient level diminishes.
Java moss in a basket of sorts would be a good idea, it will also catch any chunkys.
Mangrove is mostly a salt water plant, and the ones that do well with out much salt don't do well in much water.

On my heavily planted 75g I would only do a 10% WC every month or so due to the plants.

What is a fluidized bed filter?

UGJ

Fern wrote (View Post): › What is a fluidized bed filter?

From a fish dealer I visited while i was in Florida with the fellas.
rated for 900 gallons.
they had one for each bank of tanks, about 20 forty gallon tanks.

can you tell from back of head which person is Steve Lundblad, and which is Ad Konings?

Ok TR6, now explain how it works! I really have no idea, and was getting ready to ask Ferns question on Frontosa.com. Good to see you over their btw Fern.


I thought Ad was on the far left, but then saw the third person on the far right... sooo I am going with far right. Is this the farm my Blueberries came from TR6? I was told Steve at Wet-spot-spott-ed them on his last florida trip, so figured they may be from the place you saw him at. I was told he thought very highly of the Blueberry stock. Hope they were inside during the freeze, I need more females, but he is down to the knitty gritty, and I want the pretty pretty, so I am hoping he is getting more soon, otherwise I have to wait for my fry to grow out


Sorry for the partial hijack

Ok looks like the fixtures I have are T8's and a few T12 48"'s
What wattage am I aiming for on the sump lighting? Or better yet can you give me a guesstimate in lumen's?

Yes please enlighten us on how it works....
I try to join any forum where I can broaden my knowledge!

the t8 and t12 should be good. not sure how many lumens you need but if you get good 6700k bulbs you should be fine. there are a lot of 'plant' bulbs but they dont always list their wave length. i would say about 150w would be a good start. again you can add a whole lot more if you want, but for good growth with a lot of plants i would guesstimate that. you are probably going to have a pretty shallow sump, compared to a tank, so you wont need like 3-4wpg including the main tank.

i am not sure if need to worry about lumens since the plants are not in the main tank. personally i mix 10000k, 6700k, and actinic for my plants.

no the fluidized bed filter is like a UGJ(ender gravel jet) which is what i thought tr6 meant, not a beast like that!!! it basically is a large tube where the up flow travels through sediment which acts as a mechanical and biological filter.

the water travels from the bottom to the top and the compact sand helps catch large debris. then as it travels up the bacteria grow in the sand and helps with bio. kinda like a sand filter for a pool. then once in a while you back flush it to clear it out.

also you can add some aragonite to it which will keep your alkalinity up. like keeping holy rock or limestone in the main tank.

ok so i hoped i explained this correctly and it makes sense......

Do yall see any issues with having the water running into the sump cascading down into a milk crate filled with quarts egg rock and ceramic bio rings? I think that will help diffuse the water and give my bacteria a good place to grow. Any critiquing is welcome.

That made perfect sense!
The water level in the sump is going to be approximately 1" deep. I think that is the middle of the road to grow decent plants in.

yes, cichlid exchanges steve lundblad to the left, cichlid blues david fragula in middle, and the great Ad Konings to the right.
Your fish are not from this place, your blueberries are from Laif's.

pretty much sand floats around in the water of the tube.
since sand is tiny compared to bioballs or lava rock, it has alot more surface area for good bacteria to attach to.
this is why something that is small can filter 900 gallons.
i have a 600 gallon one, but i still use canister and HOB with it, i believe in back ups.


Link



Link

nice vids.

I meant 1ft water depth in the sump
That is quite an intriguing way to filter.
I also believe in backups, I'm thinking of adding a canister rated for 50g to the tank, that will also give me some mechanical filtration.
I think I will also add some limestone into my rock box in the sump.... But I'm still looking for any holes in that logic. Let me know if yall think thats a good idea or not.....

again, i'm not a plant expert, but limestone will raise the pH, most plants don't like high pH.
so you would then have to choose plants that can tolerate what the limestone will do to the water.

limestone, great for african cichlids, not so good for plants.

I would only add enough to take the PH up to a 7.5-8 most plants are fine with that.
Thinking about it I may use sea shells to raise the PH some, I can get those easy all I have to do is take the kids to the beach and give them each a bucket to collect them in