Planted tank without CO2 ... worth it or wait ?

[cichlidicted]

Hey .. am in the process of building a planted tank... but at the moment am not able to afford the C02, after paying a large amount of my budget on the lighting. My question would be?

Can i run the tank with the lighting t5 tek 4ft 4 bulbs and the substrate (eco-complete carrib) only, without the CO2. I will be getting it in a month or two.

Am thinking of probably make a use of the time and plant some ground cover plants. But then am worried i would face problems with algea cuz of the high light.

Advice please.
What shall i do ? shall i wait for the CO2 and add a goldfish to start the cycle  or start planting now and use nutrients ?

[fischkopp]

In my experience it is better to wait until you have the CO2 setup if you plan to do that anyway. You are right: the light you got is very powerful, using it without CO2 will very likely end up in an algae bloom. If you have a chance to use only half the light then you could start that way, but I would still wait.

You can start start cycling your tank though, that doesn't require any light or plant. Keep in mind that plants will take up the ammonia, kind of help cycling the tank a bit by reducing the ammonia in the water.

[cichlidicted]

will wait then, thank you fischkopp

[Laura]

why don't you just add some filter material from your other tank instead of cycling it with a goldfish?  You'll have an instant kick start to your cycle with some grungy filter material.

[cichlidicted]

i actually thought about it, but when i opened my running filter, boyyy the smell that went was awful ... and the water inside was kinda black ... so am like i dont want that in my new aquarium .... but then i thought okay, so if i took the foam or the gravel thing from and washed it ... wouldn't the beneficial bacteria be washed away

[Ormarr]

As long as it is cleaned in existing tank water (during a water change usually), you should be ok.  Never use tap water to clean out filters, the chlorine in your tap water would most likely kill any useful bacteria.

[Thumpya]

I had the 70gal tank loaded with plants, those same lights, with a DIY CO2 reactor, with a ladder I had bought from fishkopp, i had trouble with BGA off and on for about a month, I did a black out for three days, did a 50% water change and BANGO it turned out to be a smoking tank. No algae problems.     so really it's how you maintain the plants and water changes.