Migrating over to the Dark Side

[ms.alice]

Hello All I've been toying with the idea of setting up a nano SW for a while now, but honestly I'm a FW planted sort of person. Unfortunately, I only have one tank to do with as I please and I haven't been able to commit to the idea of going SW because I'm a gadget fanatic and I WANT a vortech, darn it, no matter how ridiculously small my tank is. Sigh. Anyway.

 

Let's assume that I've been running a 3.5 gallon rimless FW, nada filtration, with a 3700(ish)K 23 watt compact fluorescent...which is a lot of light for my current purposes.

 

Let's also assume that I have no real interest in keeping corals for the moment...just a planted tank.

 

What would I have to do to make that happen?

 

I'm guessing I can't use my amazonia soil for this , and I need some rock. I'd prefer to get some texas holey rock and some very bright white sand and just seed the bacteria myself. I'm patient. I can wait for my tank to cycle and establish itself....although I have to ask: is that even necessary? In FW, you can throw plants in there from square one, with or without cycling. They don't mind the ammonia.

 

Would I need a powerhead? I was under the impression those were mainly for the benefit of corals.

 

Is my lighting sufficient? I realize it's not very blue light, but I came to the conclusion that my plants do better when there's a tad more red in the spectrum...so I do that for a reason, but I can just as well switch back to a 6400K.

 

What water parameters do I need to pay attention to? I'm a total newb when it comes to SW...and I imagine it's a little different if all I want to do is grow macroalgae. Maybe a fish. Or some shrimp.

 

Do I need to dose nutrients? I don't do this in my water column because I have a fairly rich substrate...every now and then I toss in some traces, and I have a mind to get onto dosing some K regularly to see what happens, but on the whole, I do 20% water changes once a week and a drop of bacterial supplement and call it a day. Even the DIY CO2 will go for about 2 or 3 weeks before I have to replenish. Never had even the slightest algae problem and my growth/health is great.

 

 

Sorry for writing a book here...I need someone to hold my hand on this idea

 

TIA!

[Dr.eclipse]

i dont know if the light will work or not. but for a tank that small it wouldnt be too expensive to go LED,

for filtration you could go BB(bare bottom) or with sand youll need ~4 pounds and ~4 pounds of live rock. for flow you could use an AC 30 or 70.

 

by plants do you mean you want macroalgae tank?

[johnmaloney]

I'm guessing I can't use my amazonia soil for this tongue.gif , and I need some rock. I'd prefer to get some texas holey rock

 

--- hole rock is limestone based and will be a suitable substrate, although in most reef tanks people opt for more porous rock for nutrient removal.

 

and some very bright white sand and just seed the bacteria myself. I'm patient. I can wait for my tank to cycle and establish itself....although I have to ask: is that even necessary? In FW, you can throw plants in there from square one, with or without cycling. They don't mind the ammonia.

 

-----It is the same with SW, except they are usually algae, rather than plants with the esception of mangroves and seagrasses.

 

Would I need a powerhead? I was under the impression those were mainly for the benefit of corals.

 

---you need some current in there

 

Is my lighting sufficient? I realize it's not very blue light, but I came to the conclusion that my plants do better when there's a tad more red in the spectrum...so I do that for a reason, but I can just as well switch back to a 6400K.

 

-----for many macro species yes.

 

What water parameters do I need to pay attention to? I'm a total newb when it comes to SW...and I imagine it's a little different if all I want to do is grow macroalgae. Maybe a fish. Or some shrimp.

 

Same parameters (different numbers) + calcium + alk + magnesium

 

Do I need to dose nutrients? I don't do this in my water column because I have a fairly rich substrate...every now and then I toss in some traces, and I have a mind to get onto dosing some K regularly to see what happens, but on the whole, I do 20% water changes once a week and a drop of bacterial supplement and call it a day. Even the DIY CO2 will go for about 2 or 3 weeks before I have to replenish. Never had even the slightest algae problem and my growth/health is great.

 

only sparingly if you have much more plants than fish, but usually it works out on its own.

[ms.alice]

When I say plants, I do mean macro algae more so than vascular plants. I'm just mentally separating macros from undesirable algae.

 

thanks guys. this is pretty helpful!

[johnmaloney]

we all do the same and then have fun correcting each other. to NR by the way

[ms.alice]

ah, lol I see. thanks for the warm welcome

 

So what kind of bioload am I looking at if I have a dense collection of macros? It would be nice if I could get a fairly self-sufficient population going that can feed on what's already in there.

[bitts]

looks like you already talked to the most knowledgeable guy on the site so I just say howdy & wait to see the tank.