100gal Planted Tank

[hellohefalump]

About a month ago I converted my Juwel rio 400 (100 gal) tank into a planted tank. As it's new, please excuse the algae.

I have two filters - the standard Juwel internal, and an external Tetratec 1500. The filters were already mature, having been running for approx 3 years now.

Heater - although it's switched off most of the time because the lights heat the tank.

I have upgraded my lights from the standard Juwel T8 lights to the new T5 Juwel system. I then found it wasn't enough. So I added two extra 54watt T5s and things are now coming along nicely.

I am dosing PPS (Perpetual Preservation System) method, which is when you dose low amounts of ferts, but every day. So the plants get what they need in a day and excess nutrients don't build up (so you don't HAVE to do water changes once a week).

I have pressurised CO2 running off two systems, one at each end.

Plants are from www.thegreenmachine.com <---recommended!

Substrate is just normal sand. I want ADA Aquasoil, but it's VERY pricey. And I'm moving house in a years time and I hear it doesn't like being moved (can turn to mud) so I'll upgrade the substrate in a year. For the moment I'm using root tabs for the more 'rooty' plants.

Plant list:
vallis
Neasea Crassicaulis
Hygophila corymbosa (red)
Crinium calamistratum
hygrophila difformis
Aponegeton Madagascarieisis (lace plant)
Anubias (not sure what variety it is)
cryptocoryne wendtii (tropica)
Microsorum pteropus 'Windelov' (I already have this)
Hemianthus micranthemeides
Hemianthus callitrichoides (cuba)
Eleocharis parvula (hairgrass)
java fern


Fish list:
2 bala sharks
1 very friendly parrot cichlid
khuli loaches
3 glowlight tetras
10ish red line rasboras
3?- bristlenose plecs, all female
2 bulldog plecs
1 whiptail cat
3 striped raphaels
some juli cories
1 albino cory
5? black widow tetras
3? gold tetras
5 angels
some otos
2 flying fox
2 SAEs
probably more but I can't remember them

Here it is:

full tank shot

left side

right side

HC and lace plant

windelov

2 of the angels

striped raphael

pumpkin the parrot cichlid

 

[angelmouse]

i love you lace plant, i really want one, all looking very healthy
regards Angel

 

[paul_219]

Thats a wonderful tank lovely aquarium. Nice stocking.

 

[hellohefalump]

thankyou.

I'd say the stocking is a little dubious - some of my fish would be better in larger shoals, but as I've had this a long time, I started off with larger shoals and some have died, most when I moved house a couple of years ago and I had a disaster with the heater in the holding tank (while the big tank heated up). My heater got stuck on 30 degrees and a lot of my fish died.

really you shouldn't have balas and a parrot cichlid in a planted tank, but they are my pets! It was just a 'fish' tank and I'm not going to rehome them just because I've got plants now.

My lace plant is rather small, but pretty. It sends out new stems quite regularly (I think I've had maybe five new leaves in 3 weeks). It's got algae on the older ones though

I'm hoping my algae will go away as the plants get bigger and things settle down in there. All the plants on the right hand side and middle back, should eventually grow right to the surface of the water. And I'm waiting for my HC and hairgrass to fill out.

angel- your discus look great!

 

[aaronnorth]

Hi the lace plant gets HUGE so you may want to consider moving it to the background now!

What type of algae you got?

 

[hellohefalump]

There's a few types of algae that are coming and going. There's some on the glass - I think it's green spot, or green dust, or a bit of both. I wipe it off every now and again but it comes back. This is my biggest issue at the moment.

There's some brown stuff that wipes off easily on my hairgrass and a tiny bit on the glass. But I think this is now receding, and it's only on the older blades of grass, and not on any of the new growth.

There's what I think is black fuzz on my crinium callimistratum older leaves and my java fern windelov. It's getting better now though - I think it was to do with the unstable CO2 levels when I was first setting it up.

I think there's some green hair algae (the hairs are very short though) on my lace plant and a little bit on my nessea crassicaulis. But this too is getting better now.

I know the lace plant gets huge, but can it stay where it is for now? Because if I moved it to the back I wouldn't be able to see it!

I want to move my crypts - they're kind of stuck in the corner! The reason they are there is because that corner doesn't get as much light as the rest of the tank. I did have it fairly central, but then the HC and HM that used to be there started dying of lack of light, so I moved the crypts there instead.

I'm letting the tank settle down first though before I start moving everything around. I don't want crypt melt, and my C.Callimistratum is a bit dodgy, but seems to be coming back to life and I've heard it doesn't like being moved.

 

[aaronnorth]

sounds like you have all the algae under control, the brown diatoms will go, it is becasue it is a new tank

GSA is linked with low PO4, which is robably because of your PPS method, maybe you could up the PO4 a little?

I was just warning you about the lace, you n leave it there, they also get huge root systems, take a look at this tank and notice the growth rate & size:

http/www.fishforums.net/content-page/174...ination/page/0/

 

[hellohefalump]

My goodness that plant got huge!!!! If mine does that, it's definately getting moved! I'll leave it where it is for now just so it gets a good start and settles (not being moved about, played with etc) and then I'll move it.

I worry about mine, because it's just in sand with root tabs - not ideal. If it survives the year, it'll be getting ada aquasoil when I move. Hope it makes it.

I wonder if aquasoil will be cheaper in a years time? Probably not, but I can hope.

Good news, my nessea crassicaulis on the right hand side has reached the top! I'll be pruning soon!

Is it normal for it to grow so fast? It's growing faster than my hygrophila difformis and that's meant to be very fast.

 

[aaronnorth]

My goodness that plant got huge!!!! If mine does that, it's definately getting moved! I'll leave it where it is for now just so it gets a good start and settles (not being moved about, played with etc) and then I'll move it.

I worry about mine, because it's just in sand with root tabs - not ideal. If it survives the year, it'll be getting ada aquasoil when I move. Hope it makes it.

I wonder if aquasoil will be cheaper in a years time? Probably not, but I can hope.

Good news, my nessea crassicaulis on the right hand side has reached the top! I'll be pruning soon!

Is it normal for it to grow so fast? It's growing faster than my hygrophila difformis and that's meant to be very fast.

lol, i never realised they got that big until i saw the pic!

well there is a new substrate possibly coming out that is similar to AS, but it will be cheaper so maybe the price will come down a bit, it is still unconfirmed though.

As long as the plant isnt leggy, then it is ok for it to grow fast.

 

[hellohefalump]

it's not leggy, there are loads of leaves. It's turned a lovely reddish colour aswell so I'm happy.

Let's hope that new substrate comes out soon!

 

[skimmy290]

looks great. does the parrot cichlid eat your plants?

 

[Cossack1977]

nice start to the planted tank.
A few schools would look really nice. Nice looking lace plant.
Try turning the light off an hr sooner. might help starve the algae a bit.

 

[hellohefalump]

looks great. does the parrot cichlid eat your plants?

nope! he's very good, just digs a little sometimes, but not that much.

nice start to the planted tank.
A few schools would look really nice. Nice looking lace plant.
Try turning the light off an hr sooner. might help starve the algae a bit.

I'm worried if I add anymore fish I'll be overstocked. I agree though, schools would be great. I was actually thinking earlier I'd really like more glowlight tetras - because the ones I have are lovely and red and look really healthy (female looks like she might burst, she's so full of eggs) - so glowlights must like my water! I also like the look of rummy noses. That would be best next year though when I get the aquasoil, and my water gets a bit softer.

For now though, I'm waiting for fish to 'die off' naturally as some of my fish are very old. My black widows and gold tetras in particular are getting on a bit. Half my black widow shoal already died this year, and the three left are looking like they're on their last legs. No illness in particular, they just look 'old'.

I MIGHT be willing to rehome my balas. But only if the right person, with a truly huge and impressive tank came along.

I'm thinking I might decrease the amount of time my light's on by turning it off for a couple of hours in the middle of the day. I've heard algae doesn't like that.

Aaron, I've increased my PO4. Too early to see if it's working though, I'll update on that in a week/two weeks.

 

[aaronnorth]

there a few people on here with massive tanks, BigC has a 900g!

algae is more adaptable than plants so the siesta period wont work, it is only reccomended for tanks with feremntation CO2, so it allows the leveks to build up agin. Your lpants can sometimes come worst off.

Make sure you dont up it anymore, it has also known that high PO4 levels cause GSA too, so you have to find the sweet spot.

BTW for anyone reading this this is the only algae caused by high PO4!!!

 

[hellohefalump]

I'll have to see how the PO4 goes then. I asked Edward on APC and he said it can't hurt to try doubling the PO4 in the solution. So that's what I've done.

Luckily the only plant that's been effected by the GSA is the anubias, and it's well easy to just pull off the old leaves and have nice new ones grow. So it's not too much of an issue. My anubias has given off LOADS of new leaves since I upgraded my lighting/CO2/ferts etc. And it's pearling like mad.

I'm thinking of getting some floaters and positioning them with string sticky taped to the sides of the tank, over the left hand side to block out the light and to see if the anubias got less algae on it.

My xmas moss came through the post the other day, and I'm trying out a moss wall on the right side glass, and I've put it all over the wood in the left/middle of the tank. I'm going to swap the windelov and the moss/wood around. I think it'd look better.

I want to get some really thin, branchy wood but I'm worried my balas would hurt themselves on it.

Do you have a link to BigC's tank? I don't think I've ever seen a tank that big apart from Amano's huge angel tank!