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First planted tank


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gday all, I am about to set up my first planted tank and was advised to put laterlite down first then a substrate of my choice on top.

I have managed to get hold of some LL and have just put into the tank with about 4" water.

My questions are:

the LL was quite lumpy is this normal and will it break down?

and the water was very dirty will this also settle over time, if so how long?

any advice on what to do next?

Cheers

Edited by Tonz
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The cloudiness of the water is almost unavoidable. One way to reduce it is to keep spraying the gravel with a spray bottle while you're planting the tank out and then fill very gently. But I guess it's too late for that now. The filter should eventually take care of it. It might take a few days to clear up. You should see a bit of an improvement each day. It doesn't really matter if the laterite was lumpy although you could have broken it up with your hand.

What to do next? Umm... take a photo?

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thx,

its not to late though, I have simply put the laterlite in the tank alone with about 4" water, the water isnt really cloudy but dirty from the laterlite, I've been told I should rinse it but I wonder if this will remove any goodness from the soil (I dunno), I am able to give it a stir and syphon the murky water out and keep on repeating this till it simply is cloudy but is this normal to do?, I am also hoping leaving it overnight the water will make it easier to break up, I broke up as much as I could but there was some big lumps in there.

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No. Don't rinse it. I thought that you'd already filled the tank with water. If you haven't then what you do is gently place the gravel on top of the laterite. Ideally you should do this without any water at all. That's the best way to reduce the murkiness when you finally fill the tank. I know some people who are able to get a completely clear tank straight up. I never bother washing my gravel. I just place it in over the clay, or garden soil, or whatever I'm experimenting with. You want at least a couple of centimetres over the laterite. Then using a spray bottle, spray all over the gravel. This will get a lot of the dust in the gravel settled down into the bottom. You're not trying to fill the bottom, just dampen down the substrate. Then you start placing in your rocks or driftwood and keep spraying down any dry substrate that you keep adding. Once you start planting you can start progressively filling the tank. What I do is plant the lowest plants first and only fill enough water to support the height of plant that you're working on. The more patient and gentle you are when you fill the tank, the less murky it's going to be. Oh, and it's mandatory to take pictures at every stage. :)

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ok, tanks clear

its 4' long 14" wide 18" deep

Im going to use a double standard fluro (ex demolition) which I need to make a cover for, it alredy has a couple standard 36w globes in it are these ok?

if not can you recomend globes without to much expense.

I guess the answer to the above will depend on the type of plants, I'm not fussed I reckon they all look good. Thinking low tech though, I would like a couple broad leaf swords of some description in there and maybe something with a bit of red and anything else you could recomend.

I will put a background on and put some pics up soon.

Thanks *lol*

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I don't think that 2 x 36 watts is going to cut it over a 4 footer. That not even enough for low light plants. Red plants really need very bright light. If you can get 4 x 36 watts over that tank then you'll have much better success with the low to medium light plants. See if you can find some NEC Tri-phosphors. Shouldn't be too expensive. Try Middy's or somewhere like that.

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