As an Indian, I guess we would always want a flourishing aquarium with minimal investment. But the fact is that minimal investment also gives minimal returns. Let me discuss the two broad types of planted aquariums from a hobbyist’s viewpoint. Most of the people I have spoken to want an aquarium with low technological inputs, a so-called low-tech planted tank. They are people who have not had much exposure to planted tanks and are worried about their investment going to waste. But there is also a wide group of hobbyists who would like to invest in equipment in their tanks to give their plants a better chance of flourishing. Let me call these type of tanks high-tech planted tanks.
There are issues with both types of tanks. Low-tech tanks, while being easy on the budget, with almost no investment but that for the plants, also result in slow growth, yellowing older leaves, and a general unkempt appearance. High-tech tanks, while looking beautiful when the plants mature, lead to issues with regular trimming or pruning of plants to keep the tank looking beautiful.
The basic elements that are necessary for converting your regular aquarium to a beautiful, flourishing tank are light, good filtration, carbon dioxide (CO2), fertilisers, and substrate.
Please keep in mind that these are general guidelines, and can be bent easily as you gain experience.
The other important factor is to plant densely at the beginning. Do not skimp on the amount of plants as this would allow algae to take hold. You can fill your aquarium with cheap stem plants that would slowly be replaced by better plants.
All the fertilisers as well as gluteraldehyde can be purchased from Mr. Nilesh Sahasrabuddhe (09820637553) in Mumbai. He also sells CO2 kits.
Cost of setting up a 2 feet tank - Let us do an approximate cost analysis of setting up a 2 feet planted tank. Let us assume that the tank dimensions are 2 feet long by 1 feet wide by 1 feet tall. I am also assuming that you already have a tank with stand, filtration, and a basic lighting hood.
So, the total approximate cost of upgrading your tank a low tech planted tank :
So, the total approximate cost of upgrading your tank a high tech planted tank :
So, I believe the costs of upgrading your current tank to a high tech planted tank are no more than buying a good smartphone! And provides a great deal of enjoyment and peace. So, what are you waiting for?
There are issues with both types of tanks. Low-tech tanks, while being easy on the budget, with almost no investment but that for the plants, also result in slow growth, yellowing older leaves, and a general unkempt appearance. High-tech tanks, while looking beautiful when the plants mature, lead to issues with regular trimming or pruning of plants to keep the tank looking beautiful.
The basic elements that are necessary for converting your regular aquarium to a beautiful, flourishing tank are light, good filtration, carbon dioxide (CO2), fertilisers, and substrate.
- Lights: Lights are one of the most important factors. This is the deciding factor between calling a tank low-tech or high tech. It is “almost” impossible, and I stress the “almost”, to maintain a tank fitted with a lot of light without additional CO2 and fertiliser dosing. For a guideline about the lighting levels required for aquariums, I found that the earlier “watts per gallon” rule was rendered unusable due to the recent influx of different types of light. But the guidelines given on Tropica’s website seemed to be quite reasonable - http://tropica.com/en/guide/make-your-aquarium-a-success/light/. Calculate the volume of your tank using any online calculator in litres. E.g. http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/converter/volume-calculator.php. Now somehow or other get a hold of the lumens from your lighting system. This will be written on the packaging or a Google search will help. Now divide the total lumens from all your light bulbs by the tank volume and check whether you fall below 25 lumens per litre. If yes, you have a low tech tank, and if not, a high tech tank would be of order. But again, keep in mind that these are broad guidelines. The colour temperature of the light should be around 6500K. I suggest regular T5 lights that you can buy from the lighting shops. You get the full setup with lights and electronic choke, typically 4 feet or two feet, for a small price. All you need to do is suspend it over your tank using a piece of plywood painted with water-resistant white paint. I prefer an open-topped tank since it helps in keeping temperatures lower.
- Filtration: A good filter(s) is a must for a planted tank. The nutrients, whatever they are, need to be circulated around the aquarium. There should be no dead spots i.e. ones without circulation. The rule of thumb is to provide a circulation rate (in litres per hour) of 10 times your tank volume. Say my tank is 250 litres. I should provide filtration that moves 2500 litres per hour. The filter should be on 24*7.
- Carbon-dioxide: I cannot stress the importance of CO2. Whether you have a low light tank or a high light tank, CO2 is always going to be beneficial. Period. I would not suggest the DIY CO2 route using yeast and sugar, due to the tediousness of the process, and the fluctuations it induces. I suggest investing in a pressurised cylinder (may be 3 kg), fitted with a regulator, a solenoid valve, a needle valve and a 3-in-1 diffuser-bubble counter-check valve. The plants would grow much better if carbon is provided to them. Typically 2 bubbles per second in an appropriately sized diffuser should bring you up to 30 ppm of CO2. You can check the levels using a drop checker. Although, I use the behaviour of the fish as an indicator of too much CO2. If there is room much dissolved CO2, the fish will gasp at the surface. Run an air-pump to outgas CO2 for a while if that happens and lower your bubble count.
- Gluteraldehyde solution (1.5%): Now this a well-kept secret (maybe not so much) of the planted aquarium hobby. The trade name is “liquid carbon”. This is supposed to be a carbon-source. It is not that good a source of carbon as CO2, but it does a fairly good job. The benefit of this compound (glut in regular lingo) is its algaecidal property that prevents algae from growing well. It can be used in both low tech and high tech tanks. In low tech tank, it becomes the only carbon source. In high tech tanks, it prevents algae from taking hold. The dosage is approximately 1 ml per 40 litres of tank water everyday. It can also be overdosed to combat certain types of algae. But that should be done with caution.
- Nutrients: Once your aquarium is set up and is starting to flourish, you will start to see deficiencies in your plants. In a low tech tank, since lighting levels are low, most of the nutrient requirements, especially nitrogen and phosphorus) are met by the food supplied. You can supply potassium and micronutrients using any reputed brand. Just use dosing that is half or quarter of the recommended dosage for your tank. You can build up the dosage as your plants respond. Don’t expect immediate results. The key is to have patience, for at least a week or two after making a change in dosage. In case you want to venture out to cheaper alternatives, I follow the Estimative Index method popularised by Tom Barr. It is an extremely easy method of dosing. Please do a Google search on the required fertilisation levels for your tank volume. I suggest that you start out with quarter or half dosage at the beginning, and then build up speed as you go ahead. If you have the money, you can always go for the proven ADA range of fertilizers!
- Substrate: A good substrate is beneficial for plants that are root feeders, common examples being Amazon swords, cryptocorynes, etc. I have had the best results with ADA Aquasoil. In India I found Controsoil or Platinum soil. But these are still inferior to Aquasoil with no price benefit. There is no need to rinse the soil, and as long as you fill water gently while filling the tank, cloudiness will be kept to a minimum. This can be achieved by placing some newspaper on the substrate where you are letting the water in while filling the tank. The drawback of this soil is that it leaches ammonia during the initial period. So, I do regular water changes during the first month, and don’t add fish till the second month. You can also setup good tanks with inert substrates, like sand, using root fertiliser tablets, sold by ISTA, Seachem, ADA etc. companies. I am not in favour of river sand and laterite based substrates, simply because of the flying debris they generate.
Please keep in mind that these are general guidelines, and can be bent easily as you gain experience.
The other important factor is to plant densely at the beginning. Do not skimp on the amount of plants as this would allow algae to take hold. You can fill your aquarium with cheap stem plants that would slowly be replaced by better plants.
All the fertilisers as well as gluteraldehyde can be purchased from Mr. Nilesh Sahasrabuddhe (09820637553) in Mumbai. He also sells CO2 kits.
Cost of setting up a 2 feet tank - Let us do an approximate cost analysis of setting up a 2 feet planted tank. Let us assume that the tank dimensions are 2 feet long by 1 feet wide by 1 feet tall. I am also assuming that you already have a tank with stand, filtration, and a basic lighting hood.
- Lights - The volume comes to 56 liters. Let me round it off to 60 liters. So, the lumen threshold is 25*60 i.e. 1500 lumens. I went through google, and the average lumens per two feet 14 watt T5 tube is approximately 1250. So, using one tube fixture puts you in the low light category, using two puts you in medium light category, and using three puts you in high light category. I would expect a Philips or Osram fixture to cost around Rs. 300-400. So, low tech comes to Rs. 400, and high tech to Rs. 1200. There is also the option of using T5HO fixtures (24W) if you want to go high-tech.
- Gluteraldehyde - Whether you want low tech or high tech tank, this is an essential ingredient. The cost of getting a 500 ml 1.5% solution is currently Rs. 100 from Nilesh. You would need to dose 5 ml per day. So, the solution should last 100 days (more than 3 months).
- Substrate - 1 bag of ADA Aquasoil (9 liter) would be enough for this tank to provide a 2 inch think substrate base. That would amount to around Rs. 2000. If you want to go low tech, sand will cost around Rs. 30-70 per kg and you would need around 15 kg sand. Let me take Rs. 800 as the cost of the sand. On top of that, you would need some substrate fertilizers. I did a search on Ebay India with "aquarium root tabs" and got plenty of options. You need to see how many needs to be put in your tank. But I am assuming Rs. 100 worth of root tabs will last for around 3 months in your tank. Be sure to bury them deep in the substrate so that they don't come out to water. There will be hell to pay if that happens!
- Nutrients - I am not sure about the exact cost of the macro and micro nutrients. If you follow EI dosing, a pack worth Rs. 300-400 should last anywhere between six months to a year. If you buy fertilizers from reputed companies like Seachem or ADA, the costs are typically Rs. 1000 per 500 ml bottles. So, you would need Rs. 2000 for a years supply of potassium (Flourish potassium) and micronutrients (Flourish Comprehensive) for a low tech tank.
- CO2 kit - I am not sure about the current cost of this part. I had bought mine about three years back. But I would assume that the cost of a cheap CO2 kit would be Rs. 2000 to 2500. The cost of the cylinder depends on the weight of the tank. The overall cost of the CO2 setup would be within Rs. 6000 - 8000. Try to buy good quality parts since lower quality may result in leaks.
So, the total approximate cost of upgrading your tank a low tech planted tank :
- Fixed cost - Rs. 1200 for lights and sand.
- Variable cost - Rs. 3000 for a years supply of root tabs, gluteraldehyde, potassium, and micronutrients. It comes to Rs. 250 per month. Keep in mind that this is an overestimated number. The costs would be much lower (Rs. 800 i.e. Rs. 70 per month) if you use the potassium sulphate (for potassium) and CSM+B (for micronutrients) from EI dosing.
- Plants - depends on what you buy. But let me assume that since you are filling up your tanks. you can buy stem plants worth Rs. 2000 - 3000.
So, the total approximate cost of upgrading your tank a high tech planted tank :
- Fixed cost - Rs. 3200 for lights and aquasoil. Rs. 8000 for the CO2 kit and cylinder.
- Variable cost - Rs. 800 for a years supply of root tabs, gluteraldehyde, and nutrients. It comes to Rs. 70 per month.
- Plants - depends on what you buy. But let me assume that since you are filling up your tanks. you can buy stem plants worth Rs. 2000 - 3000.
So, I believe the costs of upgrading your current tank to a high tech planted tank are no more than buying a good smartphone! And provides a great deal of enjoyment and peace. So, what are you waiting for?