Fish tank air and UV and filter media

[vauxhallman]

Hi all

Just replaced a tropical tank to a 54Gals (UK) in size
It's planted up with live plants
It's being filtered by a Fluvel Canister 205 Filter

My question being is as i have live plants in the tank should i be running air through the water, Also if i do wish to run air through the water should i run a CO2 Producer to counter the effects of the Air ( would like to keep the air as decrative only)

Secondly would it be wise to run a UV in line lamp filter on this size tank or not,

Third question With regards to filter media and the above set up with live plants my filter is set up as follows

Sponge filters
Pre filter bio cubes
Bio max Cubes
Ammonia Remover
Clear max
Polishing pads

The media is in the above order can any one advise if this is a good set up of filtration or any ideas?

[sheldon79]

may i suggest you borrow a book from your library or consult with your supplier as i did sixty years ago and i am still keeping healthy fish tanks and without some of the safistication being sold today. good luck and don't make your tank into an artificial environment.

[hammerman]

Ok...i'll try to answer what I can.

If you want to keep live plants properly...ie a planted aquarium, you need to look into all aspects of your aquarium.

Plants need a good, nutrient rich substrate and quite often, a sandy one too. Lighting should be bright....a total of at least 2.5 - 3 watts of lighting to every gallon of water. The more light you have, the more CO2 needs to be added and because of the lighting and CO2, you will have very good plant growth which will mean you will need to add liquid nutrients to feed the plants.

However, no one that wants to keep plants successfully adds oxygen. This is because it interferes with the amount of dissolved CO2 in the water (ie it disperses CO2 quickly at the water surface). Instead, what a lot of people do is to inject CO2 during the day and use a solenoid valve to shut it off at night when the plants don't need it. When the CO2 is shut off, an air pump can then be added on a timer to add O2 at night.

A very good site for planted tanks is http://ukaps.org/forum/

Go and have a read

As for a UV....personally i think they're a total waste of time. I never used one on my reef aquarium and only use one on my koi pond to keep the water clear.

As for your filter media, i'd probably have the sponges at the bottom (presuming the water enters the filter at the bottom)...in other words, the sponges should be the first thing that the dirty aquarium water touches so they remove the solids before the water reaches the biological media.

Again http://www.uk-aquarist.com/index.php?&act=idx is a good forum for general fishkeeping.

Hope this helps a bit