My first attempt at keeping plants alive...4 foot

So I normally buy plants they look great then they die after a month or so .
I got a 4ft couple of months back and decided to go planted route . I kind of like the wild forest bushy look , the fish seem to love it too
Lighting:
1x54w Daylight t5
1x54 Aquastar t5
Also have 2x39w daylight which i leave off , I found all the lighting was overkill.
PFP and pool filter sand as substrate
2x DIY 2l yeast CO2 bottles .
2x glas nano diffusers (went nano as the cost me R80 for both imported)
Ferts , using Excel Flourish when I remember , and Flourish comprehensive when I remember
Not a clue on plants names , alos have some java and spikey moss
Fish : 2 clown loaches , coupld of Kribs , some guppies , 2 khuli loaches and 6 rummy nose tetras .
comments / criticism
1st pic is 2,5 months ago very brown from the PFP and added more plants as well
2nd pic is 1,5 months ago then the rest are recent

 

@byronb - Nice dude. It's looking very nice. Congrats.

 

hey @byronb, Tank is stunning man. You did one hell of a job there. That piece of wood looks super in the tank. I am at your first pic's stage. The brown water. How many water changes did you do per month for the water to clear like that?

+1 on a job well done man!

 

thanks !
I did weekly changes of about 40% , also changed the charcoal in filter every week I put loads of it in the canister filter weekly . ( I bought the cheapest charcaol i could get ) . The Water got to 85 % clear , decided to try out the purigen . I only used 250g of purigen in a diy stocking bag , and left that inbetween the charcoal , seems to have done the trick.

 

Sounds good. Mine is starting to look a bit better every WC. I do 25% twice weekly. Have Purigen in my filter, but I suspect I'll have to get more because it doesn't cover the whole compartment in the filter. Also the DIY stocking. Not gonna pay R150 for an empty bag for Purigen.

 

@byronb, Well done this is looking really stunning. What did you do with your other tank? Are your Kribs still breeding in this tank?

 

@byronb i think you done a pretty amazing job here dude!

awesomeness!!

 

lol had to sell the other tank under strict instructions from the gf . "only 1 tank !!!"
Yep Kribs have bred in this tank , to be honest i think my female is a bit of a slapper .. does not stop dancing for the male , and keeps trying to get him into the cave I made them ! My guppies have also bred although not sure how many survived , I think they hiding in the forest. so i guess time will tell ..

 

@byronb - that is looking great! Keep up the great work!

 

Ha ha. :dancing2: Awesome.

 

It looks like you have succeeded in keeping plants alive, well done!!!

 

Yeah welldone. Looks great

 

Very nice looking tank! Big congrats. Will you elaborate a bit more on your DIY CO2 system. Some pics and how you implemented it?

 

thanks ..
The DIY co2 :
I made 2 identical .
1x 2l coke bottle , made small hole in cap just smaller than the airhose . pull the airline through the cap about 2 cm deep using pliers . Then siliconed around the pipe on the inside and outside of cap . ran that pipe into small 1l coke bottle. The cap of the 1l make 2 holes both smaller than airline , then the one pipe only goes in about 2 cm deep (outlet to tank ), the other one to about half way down the bottle (inlet from 2l bottle). Silicone the outsides of both pipes to seal properly.
My mix : I use about 2 cups suger , 1.5 teaspoons yeast , and some baking soda . fill the 2l about 3 quarters , give a good shake . the smaller bottle I fill with water a few cms above the pipe inside it . this way any milky yeast liquid stuff gets trapped in the smaller bottle , which also works as a bubble counter . After about an hour the bubbles start .. This mixture lasts me about 2.5 - 3 weeks .
Initially I ran the pipe into my powerhead , worked well but then I had the tiny bubbles everywhere in the tank ,was using only 1 bottle making co2 .After I bought two diffusers on ebay , I added a second co2 bottle..
Will try take some pics.
I copied this method for the holes in the caps etc
DIY Yeast CO2 Reactor

 

Awesome man such a genius.
Some pics will be great thanx!

 

awesome tank , the set up with plants look cool what did u use for the base of the tank

 

thanks , What do you mean by the base ? as in the stand or substrate ?

 

the substrate

 

Read his very first post.

 

Hehe and you cant call it an attempt any more but rather a huge success