40G Breeder Low Tech Planted

[phantomlink]

I wanted to improve on my corydora tank so I needed something larger and I wanted to experiment with low tech plants as well.  The 40g breeder tank was as large as I could go without moving to 75g so its a 36x18x16 tank.
 
Tank: 40g Breeder 36x18x16
Lighting: 2x 23w CFL 6500k lights
Substrate SeaChem Flourite Black sand capped with regular black sand
Ferts: liquid ferts and root tabs
KH/GH: Unknown I forgot to buy a test >.<
 
 

Getting the stand ready to build
 

The 40g breeder aquarium, I had a custom glass lid cut at the glass place in town, far cheaper then buying a glass lid at the fish store
 

 
The Stingray stand, its meant for 75g tanks so I have extra width which is fine with me
 

Girlfriend is painting the back of the tank with acrylic pant
 

The tank on the stand all nicely evened out 
 

 
My flourite black sand, I'm only planning on putting most plants in the back and around the side so thats where I put it, the rest of the tank is capped off with black sand
 

Put the rest of the sand in the tank and my two pieces of wood, the larger center is one brand new, the smaller one in the corner was in the 20g for the last month and a half or so, still wont stay sunk by itself
 

All setup for now, the only live plants are the WasterSprite and Wisteria in the corners, the rest will have to be replaced in two weeks when my order is shipped out
 

 

[blackops]

looks good

 

[PlumbersMerchant]

Looks good mate, Well Done

 

[phantomlink]

Special ordered some plants from the only Canadian seller I could find, Will be shipped out on the 25th and I should get it on the 28th
 
4x Java Fern (Microsorium pteropus)
3x Wendtii - Green  (Cryptocoryne wendtii - Green)
4x Dwarf Sagittaria
3x Pennywort, Brazilian   (Hydrocotyle leucocephala)
 
Still pricey, but I hope they work well

 

[phantomlink]

Got my plants today and put them in, I also got 15 pieces of Italian Vails on my order which I forgot to mention above
 

All the plants were nicely bagged and labeled 
 

Planted some of the vails and the sagittaria, turns out of all the plants I bought the sagiitaria is my favourite right now
 

 

 

 

Had to take my log out to put the Java Fern on, two pieces are tied on, the other two I used instant glue
 

Everything is setup now.  The tank is about 80% real plants now, the fake leaves on the left by the other driftwood will be replaced with real anubias later.  Ignore all the air bubbles they'll go away later
 

 

 

 

 

[Ruskull]

Looks great Phantom, I'm impressed.  What filter are you running?

 

[phantomlink]

One of my Aquaclear 110's I had before I moved to canisters.  Even using cheap CFL lighting and a sheet of glass instead of a glass hinge lid from the fish store the setup was already like $300 more then I expected so I'll have to get a canister later in order to keep the surface agitation down

 

[VickyChaiTea]

Niiiice! I don't usually like mixing fake plants with live but that looks good. What species of corys do you have?

 

[phantomlink]

4 peppers, 15 skunk, 4 orange laser and 3 albino, as well as like 4-5 kuhli and 5-6 black kuhli

 

[This Old Spouse]

Very nice looking tank. What did you use to cycle it?

 

[phantomlink]

I took the media out of my 20 gallon that was housing my clown loaches so I could fatten them up a little and remove any internal parasites for a few weeks, added some new media and donated some from my canister filters.  I did go through a tiny mini cycle but thats out of the way now

 

[phantomlink]

Heres an update from today
 

This little guy was barely living from my first attempt a few months ago, after I planted him in this tank hes done really well pretty much quintupling in size in 3 weeks or so
 

Heres the watersprite before I started cutting it up, this thing got massive I cut it up into 6 pieces I replanted around the tank, and a few pieces I'm letting float since I removed the HOB and put a canister in the tank. 
 

Heres the tank before the waterchange and cutting up the Watersprite
 

Here it is now with the WS cut up and replanted around the tank, my dwarf saggitaria I gathered together and put it into one bunch in the center of my tank
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
My Java Fern is still browning, I hope new leaves start to grow soon

 

[This Old Spouse]

This is looking great. 
 
My java fern always has brown spots here and there, and I have it in all 3 tanks. But I'll take that over the BBA I've been battling.

 

[phantomlink]

Ya but some of these are really brown like I might as well remove 80% of the leaves because its just gonna rot off anyways.  The largest one which I glued onto the wood has some roots flowing around which are growing, I should prob tie them around the wood for awhile

 

[This Old Spouse]

I did that when I first got mine.....pulled off all the *mostly* brown leaves. They do take eventually!  Tying them off is a good idea.