Shabir’s first attempt at a planted tank

Hi everyone.

So as you guys can remember I was going to try out my hands in keeping some plants in my fry tank before I went into a fully planted tank and I would like to think that I have achieved something that is along the lines I was going for.

The tank is 60X50X50
Limestone rocks.
2kg Substrate
8kg white sand
Lights 2 X T5 9W
Nutrients I've bought an all in one by a guy who makes his own and sells here, has Micro, Macro and iron all in one which he mixes according to the plants I have and doseage is 5drops per day for now. And as I add more plants he would advise me on how to increase the doseage

Plants:

• Anubias nana
• Hornwort
• Pennywort
• Frogbit
• Vallisneria
• Java fern

Like all tanks I have come into a few issues along the way. The vallisneria started to shed it's leaves and from a beautiful set of plants I am now left with 5 smaller plants with very healthy roots. Hornwort also started to shed it's little leaves and I was left with a few stems with small, but new and stronger leaves. Anubias nana gave me no issues and so did the java fern. The frogbit I have just 5pcs and it started to grow pretty fast. Pennywort I s exactly as I got it with a few new leaves coming up. Bout 2 per stem.

Sorry for the blurry picture but it's the best I could get

Tank has a sandfall (underwater waterfall effect) which was a pain to get right due to lack of resources but it works and it's really a beautiful addition to the tank. Just needs to be a little more visible so will be working on this in the future. The main thing is that it works.

Livestock is

3 small Malaysian trumpet snails
Over 100 lake Malawi cichlid fry from different species as you would see in my other thread. The fish really seem to love the tank and all the hiding places it offers.

Filtration for now is a 1600lt powerhead and a double sponge filter which will be replaced by a sunsun 603b or 303b series which I've placed an order for either and will receive the first to become available in stock. I'm hoping for the 303b though

This is a full tank shot with the waterfall on as I've finished the scaping today

And here's without the sandfall on


The vallisneria on the right used to be way bigger, as you can see here

This was before I started with the scape.

The sandfall I did myself using a 1000lph pump, pvc pipe and a T piece with elbows as shown here

Please excuse the mess as I took this while still working.

Open to suggestions and positive feedback. Really exciting project this has been and I'm really sorry it took me this long. The tanks been running for a week on an 8hr light schedule and seems to be working in my favour. Just hoping that the plants grow out nicely

 

Yes I used 2KG active substrate and I am dosing daily with ferts. Maybe I will up into 7 drops per day and it should come back. There was one of the plants that were sending out runners even though it melted it's leaves. Hoping for the best really.

The plants in here were all from a friend except for the Anubias nana. The problem with the middle is that it's where there's most light but I would think T5 lighting is not very powerful so this can work.

The plan is to sustain these plants for a month with them showing as healthy and then place my order of those tropicas on the old list I sent you. So work in progress. Seems to be on a good start

 

This is so creative and cool, really awesome man

 

Oh lovely so Anubias will stay at the front there as it is. Will get others soon. Thank you for this

 

Thanks bro. Will try to get a video of it working so you can see the full effect

 

Love the waterfall feature @Shabir!!!

 

Thanks. I actually thought this too. Every plant is glued to a little stone. Also attempting to build a fish trap to help me catch fish that are bothering me as I definitely won't be able to catch anything in there now. Most crevices are way too small for bigger fish to get into so it's just plants that they can hide in. Usually around the 2inch mark is when they start digging around and I'm planning to have them out by 1inch so fingers crossed

 

Thanks @MariaS lots of work went into it and it still needs some tweaking.

 

Added another Anubias on a driftwood. Got it cheap so dived right in haha

 

Really cool project and it came out really nice

 

Thanks alot @NOVA it's starting to take shape. Cannot wait to add more plants though

 

Got a bit of algae growing on some of the rocks which I really like the look of but I'm guessing is quite bad for plants so going to look at a way to manage this. I have 2 nerite snails in there and they really are shy, maybe they need some time to figure out what to do. Also some diatoms on the glass which I think is normal given the recent set up of the tank and should go away after a while. I have made the mistake of keeping my lights on a bit too much, my smart WiFi plug arrives tomorrow so this would help me combat the algae issue I'm having.

With regards to the livestock, I added 5 kuhli loaches and they were very shy at first but now I see them all together and sometimes in their caves which is really awesome to watch. Will try to get some pics of this after I clean up the glass and waterchange tomorrow.

 

Have I not shown you guys my makeshift scraper? Omg I can't believe this.

This tool helps me get into my tank without having my hands in there. I know I could have bought one of these but I had the materials on hand and the extra time so just decided to make one. Gonna give the tank a good clean up now as you can see I am water changing at the moment

 

Finally done. Such a fun time cleaning up the plants lol

 

That looks good. I always leave a little algae on rocks.
I like the look of it, it adds nice character to the tank.