Help!

[Carrion]

I'm not an absolute beginner but I have some unanswered questions and concerns!

I have a 20 gallon tall aquarium set up as follows:

-First layer pure laterite about 2/3 of an inch
-A little more then 2 inches of Natural pool filter sand/rock black (seams to have some iron or other metal that is attracted to magnets in it and what appears to be fools gold! (very well rinsed.... I hope)
-Aqua-clear 30 power filter
-No name 15W heater I found
-Planted with low light grass and leafy plants
-Cora life Actintic light ( ment for corals *face-palm*) mounted inside a modified "made in china ballast"
-non functional co2 system *face-palm*
-bubbler
-some drift wood

I'm currently doing a fishless cycle with cycle and plants.
tap:
ph: 7.0
KH: 40 mg/L
GH: 60 - 80 mg/L CaCO3

tank:
PH: 7.1 - 7.2
KH: 40mg/L
GH 80 - 100 mg/L CaCO3

Question 1: will the Compact fluorescent (420nm peak) I bought be suitable for freshwater plants?

Question 2: I did not rinse the carbon pack for my filter, should I have? (dust on my plants?!)

Question 3: All I need is yeast and sugar in a sealed container to make CO2 right?

Question 3: Is there anything I am forgetting?!

Pictures up in a few min!

Thanks for the input,Carrion

[Carrion]

dumb horrible fucktards

Thanks for the input

[Carrion]

Leave my thread alone, swear to god I'm reporting you to an admin!

[rich311k]

Light is not good for plant growth.

iron based substrate is not a good idea, that means rust.

You should rinse the carbon but not the end of the world.

That is the basic idea on the CO2, read up on making one. A quick search will help you find many ideas.

[Carrion]

Light is not good for plant growth?! what?! or do u just mean the light I have selected?

[rich311k]

Yes the atnic is not good you want something around 6400K.

[Carrion]

I have the generic light that came with the ballast, should i pop that back in then? I cant afford a t5....

Damn pet store people told me I need UV light for my plants no matter what, my old tank had a t5, one bulb was purple the other was white. I thought the purple one was for the plants and the white one was for the view...?! 6400k? what nm range are we talking about here?

[HeatherH]

Hey Carrion,I realize that your LFS may have misled you abit but I just got started on planted tanks myself and I found a super cheap T5 36watt light fixture (6700k) for just $30 on ebay and they have lots more.

If you do a little searching you can find any size you need for super cheap compared to other places. Thought I'd give you a heads up about it. I have seen some on other sites and places for like around $200 give or take-I sure wasn't paying that much!

If you decide to,have a look see on ebay.