New 240L dirted/planted nano fish tank

I've been noticing some exciting new build threads on the forum lately, and it inspired me to share the progress on my own aquarium project.

About three years ago, I bought my daughter a 60L tank. It was initially filled with white gravel, artificial plants, and GMO tetras. I didn't enjoy maintaining that tank. I felt constantly burdened by the chore of cleaning, and I simply wasn't interested in keeping it.

However, last April, I stumbled upon a video by Droeks about dirted and planted tanks. This sparked a newfound interest. As a test run, I decided to convert my daughter's existing tank into a planted aquarium. I used organic soil, black sand, and some rocks I collected from my garden.

After 8 months, maintenance consisted of topping up water once a week and monthly cleaning of the internal glass:



In December I saw a 240L tank for sale in the classifieds and I decided it was time for an upgrade.

 

In the old tank I did not like the thick soil layer throughout the bottom, so in the new tank I moved the soil 10cm back from the front and then sloped it up to the back of the tank on all sides. Sorry I did not take any photos during the initial setup but this is what tank looked like on day one.


After 2 weeks:
Current occupants:

5 GMO Tetra
1 Widow Tetra
9 Neon Tetra
6 Cardinal Tetra
11 Rummy-nose Tetra
+- 80 cherry and 24k shrimp







The aim is to do a pearl weed carpet on all the sand.

 

Title is supposed to be "New 240L dirted/planted nano fish tank"

 

I love that set up. The large rocks really give it a natural feel. You should be able to carpet that pearlweed well. It'll just take some time and trimming.

Following along

 

Did my first tank cleaning today, which consisted of wiping the glass with a sponge. There is a little bit of leaching of the soil into the sand but I'm not going to faff around too much with it because it will hopefully be covered with pearlweed eventually.
I think the beneficial bacteria has started to increase in the sump because the water has cleared significantly over the last couple of days.

 

Looks nice, would love to see this tank in a couple of months time.

 

Thank you, I'll keep on posting updates if there are significant changes.

Does any of me know where I can buy pearlweed on the East rand? The couple of pieces I managed to get was from Wazeers and they trimmed it from one of their display tanks.

 

Also on the East Rand, but I've bought from aquatic plants SA before. You can buy big quantities from them, you'll get really healthy plants too. It's worth the shipping cost of R175

 

Thank you

 

That looks nice, I love the effect of the light over the planted area only.

 

Beautiful, well done!

May I suggest that you consider adding some leaf litter and twigs in an attempt to give it a more natural look?

Maybe also move the filter to the non-light side so that it doesn't stick out?

Really love the look of this tank

 

Thanks for the comments, I should have installed the overflow box to the right, but everything has been plumbed into the sump below. it's going to be a bit of a pain in the ass to move it now.

 

Ok a bit of FOMO with all the CO2 discussions going on, so I installed a single bottle yeast and sugar reactor. Still contemplating getting a pressurised co2 bottle this week. (*I just need to convince myself that it is an absolute necessity and that I will never be completely fulfilled without out it.) *done

CO2 is going into an air stone with filter floss on top, this is placed by the inlet for the sump pump so no gas is escaping. Will get a co2 indicator tomorrow.




There is a fine mist of co2 dispersed in the tank.

 

@LilMissMurder, now see what you've started....

 

I have some i can help with also on the eastrand.

 

FLY MY PRETTIES!

 

Managed to get a green drop checker, didn't think one bottle would be able to produce enough co2 for 280l of water.