Juwel Rio 180L

[Duck and Dive]

I had this tank planted before but I didnt go to plan so I am going to re-do it. I really like Aarons 216L planted tank as it would look good with my shoal of corys at the bottom. I like the idea of the river looking tanks so I am going to go with that idea in mind. I am not sure on what plants, fish or decor to put in it as I am quite new to the planted side, when I first got this tank I decided to do a planted set up but that went a bit wrong! These are the specs of the tank:

Filtration

Juwel Bioflow 600Lph
Superfish Aqua Pro external 900Lph
Juwel 200w heater 25oC

Which means a turnover of 8.3x per hour.

Co2

5L of yeast Co2 with pump diffuser
Tetra Co2 Depot

Lighting

2x 45w T5

Fish

8x Bronze Corydoras
25x Preacox Rainbowfish

Plants

5x Bylxa Japonica
10x Crypt Wendtii
5x Glossostigma Elantinoides
5x Aponogeton Crispus
5x Java Moss
5x Mexican Fern Oakleaf
10x Lilaeopsis Brasiliensis
5x Giant Japanese Rush

Decor

Some river looking wood and rocks like sumatra wood, i really dont know!
Substrate will be a light brown colour ADA malaya or something similar.

So anyone got any good suggestions for plants and decor for a river style tank as I am pretty new to this!
,
Thanks in advance !

 

[Duck and Dive]

The hardscape (with water and a couple of plants) I had to do this full of water as I did not want to move the corydoras and yes they have spawned everywhere so excuse the eggs, oh also the pics are quite bad as My camera broke !

Aponogeton Crispus

The Giant Japanese Rush now added at the background, they came through the post looking really good but were a nightmare to keep their roots buried in the gravel:

Then added the Bylxa Japonica, Lilaeopsis Brasiliensis, Mexican Fern Oakleaf, Java Moss some Crypt Wendtii and finally Glossostigma Elantinoides:

Now a few close ups:

And these!

Little sods ruined my tank!

But I love em!

Now all thats left is for the plants to grow, I have added a 5L yeast system which is diffused via the pump to help add some more Co2 as the tetra one is only recommended for tanks up to 100L. I am dosing with waterlife tropiflora and it says 8ml does 180L and will last 7-14 days, should I dose more often?

 

[ian]

This is a good scape Duck and Dive, well done, it will be good to see it grow up. Have you thought about going pressurised, because the lighting is quite high in the tank. I would also probably look at dosing some liquid carbon along with the DIY. The thing with diy c02 is that its not a regular amount of c02 at regualted amounts and algae takes full advantage of this. As for ferts, Tropiflora doesn't contain any NPK, which is more valuable to planted tanks. I would dose the tropiflora every 3-4 days at the calculated amount. Though most of your plants are slow growers, they can always benifit from some NKP.

BTW, i love the Aponogeton at the back, they are great when they start flowering.

 

[Duck and Dive]

This is a good scape Duck and Dive, well done, it will be good to see it grow up. Have you thought about going pressurised, because the lighting is quite high in the tank. I would also probably look at dosing some liquid carbon along with the DIY. The thing with diy c02 is that its not a regular amount of c02 at regualted amounts and algae takes full advantage of this. As for ferts, Tropiflora doesn't contain any NPK, which is more valuable to planted tanks. I would dose the tropiflora every 3-4 days at the calculated amount. Though most of your plants are slow growers, they can always benifit from some NKP.

BTW, i love the Aponogeton at the back, they are great when they start flowering.

Awwww poo! I was hoping to get away with not going pressurised! Someone I know may be able to donate a 500g Co2 unit if he can find it hidden away in his garage. Thanks for the help though much appriciated!

 

[lljdma06]

First, welcome back! I remember you.

Second, second ianho on the CO2 thing. If the tank were smaller than say 15g or 10g, I'd say go DIY Yeast and you'll be fine, but your tank's too big. You can suppliment with the liquid stuff though until you find an affordable pressurized setup. If you can get a dropchecker to measure what your yeast CO2 does produce, that would be something to think about. It's five liters of mix, maybe you'll get lucky and the dropchecker will be a stable apple green.

Love your wood.

 

[Duck and Dive]

First, welcome back! I remember you.

Second, second ianho on the CO2 thing. If the tank were smaller than say 15g or 10g, I'd say go DIY Yeast and you'll be fine, but your tank's too big. You can suppliment with the liquid stuff though until you find an affordable pressurized setup. If you can get a dropchecker to measure what your yeast CO2 does produce, that would be something to think about. It's five liters of mix, maybe you'll get lucky and the dropchecker will be a stable apple green.

Love your wood.

Thanks! I remember you too with your crypt tank! Is that still going well?

I have just put a JBL drop checker in but i needed to redo the yeast mixture so it would give off a larger amount for a shorter period of time. Another worrying thing is I am now going on holiday for 8 days as of now! Auto feeder set, timers on, co2 working added a 1500lh powerhead should all be fine fingers crossed!

 

[Biulu]

Don't worry; I do this all the time... I am gone for about 3 weeks at a time, and with the automatic feeder and the lights on timers, that is great. The only thing is that I can't dose ferts, for that reason I have a low-light, low maintenance tank.

 

[lljdma06]

First, welcome back! I remember you.

Second, second ianho on the CO2 thing. If the tank were smaller than say 15g or 10g, I'd say go DIY Yeast and you'll be fine, but your tank's too big. You can suppliment with the liquid stuff though until you find an affordable pressurized setup. If you can get a dropchecker to measure what your yeast CO2 does produce, that would be something to think about. It's five liters of mix, maybe you'll get lucky and the dropchecker will be a stable apple green.

Love your wood.

Thanks! I remember you too with your crypt tank! Is that still going well?

I have just put a JBL drop checker in but i needed to redo the yeast mixture so it would give off a larger amount for a shorter period of time. Another worrying thing is I am now going on holiday for 8 days as of now! Auto feeder set, timers on, co2 working added a 1500lh powerhead should all be fine fingers crossed!

If you can't go pressurized yet, try a second, smaller bottle and alternate changing the mixes. The drop checker will help things.

Crypt tank is going strong. Needs a waterchange, though, been about 3 months.