AIO FW Aquarium

Hi Everyone, I am new to this forum but not fish/aquarium keeping. I had a few freshwater tanks back in my younger days and most recently a nano reef tank that I had to shut down when my family relocated. I want to set up a FW planted aquarium with my Fluval EVO 13.5. I have a few questions.

This is an AIO aquarium so I am curious what folks think would make for good filter media for freshwater. I have three chambers to work with and media baskets from inTank I can use. I was thinking of using filter floss in the top level of chamber one after the overflow. I was also planning to use a bag of carbon and a bag of pond matrix (porous little rocks basically) for added bio filtration. I was also considering one of the fluval nano CO2 systems with the defuser hidden in the rear chambers. Chamber 3 will be a heater and the return pump. Does this sound adequate or am I missing something?

This tank came with a stock LED strip light that has white and blue LEDs. Will I need a full spectrum light for plants? I have an AI Prime HD light for SW also. It has full spectrum LEDs (red, green, white, blue, uv, purple). It is still heavy on blue but I can control the spectrum. Is this a better light for plants? I would prefer to use the stock strip LED so I can keep the lid on the tank but the Prime is an option.

Thanks!

 

It sounds like it should worknout well for you. I would say you could leave out the carbon inless you are having issues or need to medicate the tank. Then use it to clean out the meds and such.

 

Thanks MrBryan723. Anyone have any thoughts on the lighting situation? I think I can probably crank up the whites, reds, greens, that the plants need, without running the blues too high on the AI Prime HD and it should be plenty powerful. My concern is that it will burn out of those LEDs quickly. Also, is there any benefit to UV and Purple for freshwater plants/fish? Thanks!

 

Thanks MrBryan723. Anyone have any thoughts on the lighting situation? I think I can probably crank up the whites, reds, greens, that the plants need, without running the blues too high on the AI Prime HD and it should be plenty powerful. My concern is that it will burn out of those LEDs quickly. Also, is there any benefit to UV and Purple for freshwater plants/fish? Thanks!

I would start small with the lighting. Full spectrum is about as good as you can get really. Including the UV and such. You might discover that you don't have to crank anything up over anything else and get good life out of all of your leds while keeping the fish and plants plenty happy.

 

Thanks again! Do you have any tips for stocking? Hah. I’d love to do some sparkling gouramis, and a few rasboras or a loaches. However, I think that may be over stocked.