My planted tank.

I've posted a thread of my planted tank a while back but I can't find it again. It's about my tank since day one and a weeks after again. So here is a quick summary again, back then and now.


It's a little bushy now but I'm moving to PTA soon and getting a bigger tank so I'm holding on to the plants to put them over to the new tank. The new tank is going to bigger, so I need the plants. I will post the begining, after and progress of the new tank again.

 

The tank now.

 

Awesome setup!!!

 

Nice tank.

 

Nice setup

 

Nice setup!

Just some crit that you need to move those Rotala green to the back. They are background plants and will grow tall. at the moment your plants in front are covering up your drift wood. escpecially the Crypt. Maybe move the amazon sword to one of the back corners.

But I have to say the growth is impressive! whats the specs of your tank?

 

Also you will definitely need a bigger tank for those Discus.

 

How big is the tank? looks deep though.

 

All the plants needs to be moved. The amazon got way to big and over shadowing everything around it but want to keep it for the new tank the Rotala I've just pushed it in where I've found a open space. The new tank is planned to be 1500x750x650 so all the plants will just disappear in it.

My setup is 25/26 degrees water, CO2 bubble per second one water change per week.
Seachem fertilizer once to twice a week, flourish, excel, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium.
2 x T5 lights I think it's a 6500k and some white light.

I'm looking forward to my new tank but will take picture from begining to end to show the progress.

 

yeap you have some good stock for the 1500x750x650 ... is this LxWxH ? if not 750 high is might uncomfortable to work-on unless you are rubber man. Not to mention the amount of light you will need for that extra 10cm. Now a 750 wide tank will be awesome ...

10mm with loads of bracing or 12 mm glass with minimum ? Go Fe-free if you can, at that thickness the green tinge will drive you around the bend over time.

btw ... to find a thread that you started.

My Profile (top right) -> Find latest started threads (under your avatar - last option in that block).

Later Ferdie

 

Wow!!! Very nice planted tank!

 

Very nice setup, as a beginner I would like to know what plants are best suited to me. Something that isn't difficult to maintain

 

Thank you for all the comments.

The plan is to go 750 wide and 650 high since I've picked up on other threats and internet browsing that going to deep makes planting and caring for the plants hard and that you really have to improve with your light power.

Ferdie you talk about "Go Fe-free if you can, at that thickness the green tinge will drive you around the bend over time. " what do you mean by Fe free?

With good bracing the 10mm should be strong anoth but the person I am I would rather go with 12mm with bracing as well to make sure there no change of glass braking.

thank you once again

 

Hi Cipher

Look on the forum under plants there is a data base of easy growers and medium to hard growers. It helps a lot to decide on plants you want to use in your tank. The only trouble is to find them.

The plants usually easy to find is your Amazon, Vallis and Java ferns these plants I grew with success without the use of CO2 but I have made use of Tetra's tablets and liquid fertilizer. At a time I had signs of a Potassium deficiency on my Java ferns and then changed over to the Seachem range of fertilizers. Just note that you cannot use Seachem Excel with Vallis they all will just die off but recovers again after a while if you don't add Excel again. I've removed my Vallis after a while. Short after that I stated to make use of CO2 and the plants just boom.

Making use of CO2 just gives you way wider range of plants you can plant. Save up to get yourself a CO2 system and make sure you have a selnoide to open close it automatically. Put the selnoide with your lights timer some guys say to open the CO2 only a hour after the light is on and close a hour before the lights switch off, that apparently helps not to over dose with CO2 but mine runs with my light switch and I have not had any problem.

Quick summary on growing plants with success

1. Make sure have sufficient light. Usually 2x T5 light 6500k and 10000k. Put your lights on a timer +\- 9 hours a day.
If there is to much algea growth there is to many light, although it can be to your nitrate that can be to high as well. That's the NH3 you can test I think. I've never tested mine before I just keep an eye on the algea growth.
2. Water change once every week but all depends on the amount of fish you have in the tank.
3. Tempreture should be around 25 degrees some plants grows quicker with higher temps.
4. Get pallets to feed your plants that depends on root feedings example Amazon swords. Seachem pallets only need to be replaced every 3 months.
5. Get the Seachem fertilizers excel, Florish, potassium, nitrogen, phosphorus.
6. Remove carbon in filter sistem
7. Switch off air stone. I ve heard about guys switch there air on after the lights go off. But it stopped using mine.

 

My input on this info

Quick summary on growing plants with success

Most important make sure when using co2 that is goes on an hour or two before your lights

1. Make sure have sufficient light. Usually 2x T5 light 6500k and 10000k. Put your lights on a timer +\- 9 hours a day. (Depending on the amount of plants you have ranging from 6 hours for small amount of plants and 7-8 hours from medium to lots of plants
If there is to much algea growth there is to many light, although it can be to your nitrate that can be to high as well. That's the NH3 you can test I think. I've never tested mine before I just keep an eye on the algea growth. ( Stop the boat ferts dont cause algae, if you are getting algae then you are using to much light for your plants. Dont bother using test kits they are a waste of money)
2. Water change once every week but all depends on the amount of fish you have in the tank. ( Do 50% wc every week it does not depend on the amount of fish you have)
3. Tempreture should be around 25 degrees some plants grows quicker with higher temps.( Most plants do better in the 23-25 range, plants dont grow quicker in higher temps and co2 also works better in lower temps)
4. Get pallets to feed your plants that depends on root feedings example Amazon swords. Seachem pallets only need to be replaced every 3 months. (You dont really needs root tabs they get more nutrients from the water column)
5. Get the Seachem fertilizers excel, Florish, potassium, nitrogen, phosphorus. ( The EI method is much better and cheaper then Seachem ferts) Always make sure you are dosing NPK and Micros( Traces& Iron)
6. Remove carbon in filter sistem ( This is a myth carbon becomes one of your best bio media materials, carbon does not really remove to much of the ferts)
7. Switch off air stone. I ve heard about guys switch there air on after the lights go off. But it stopped using mine. ( If your fish are doing fine without the airstone being on after lights and co2 is of then fine but it is better so you can get rid of the co2 after each days injection)

If you dont believe me go look at my tanks and tell me I am lying :nuts:

Use it dont use it :bigsmile:

 

I've trimmed my tank tonight. Trimmed the Amazon way back yo get light again on the bottom plants.

 

Thanks for the feed back Barb King, it always help to get other peoples opinion about tanks since you read things in the net about other peoples opinions and never know if they correct.

I've had a reaction on higher water tempreture. I've raised my temp to 30 degrees to treat fish for ich and my Ludwigia repens just boomed, it grew 10-15cm a week. I couldn't have skipped a week not to trim, now that my temp is back to 25 it seems to growing at a normal rate.

Around the nitrate, in Afrikaans they speak about nitrate en nitriete, and that one of them is bad for the tank and air bubbles help to get the toxic one out of the water.

What is the EI method?

 

Looking much better after the trim, but I still feel that you should move the rotala to the back.

Shouldn't your temp anyways be in the range of 27 to 29 for the discus? I might be wrong.

The EI method is the Estimative Index. You can find a great thread on APSA and it has a step by step guide on dosing, ferts, etc. The theory goes something like... "over dosing" nutrients to the water column for the plants so that there is no shortage of any one nutrient. But you will have to do a 50% water change every week. Works wonders though!

 

Nope, nitrites does not go away with aeration. Only with water changes. Easy way to remember which is the bad one is... the one with the "i" is bad for fish. And the one with the "a" is good for the plants.

 

Thanks for sharing. Always nice to see what others do and I like your setup.