Andy's First Attempt At A Planted Setup

[scouse_andy]

Well I have done something rather drastic over the last couple of days.

I have completely stripped down my Rio 240 and then transferred the plants into a Juwel Rio 300, which I picked up second hand. The tanks look scarily similar even down to the same Juwel Rock background, obviously the 300 is a bit taller and deeper from front to back.

I have shelled out on a couple of tubs of Tetra Complete substrate and then added a thin layer of fine gravel over the top.

I have used a lot of bogwood in the scape for the new tank, there are some nice chunky pieces in there going most of the height of the tank. The scape of the tank looks entirely different because of this and the plants currently look really lush and green as I stripped a lot of the outer leaves off as they were looking a little the worse for wear. It was also a nightmare trying to plant the Onion plants and big swords with so many leaves and really thick roots so I have trimmed many of the roots back too.

The plants do look a little slim at the moment but over the next few months they should obviously bush up quite a lot.

I have decided to start using fertilisers and added carbon in the tank for the first time. This is mainly because I have found that the optimum photoperiod for this kind of tank with these plants is four to five hours - anything much more than that and I ran into algae problems and the leaves turned yellow due to lack of nutrients. I am using exactly the same lighting unit and bulbs as before so Arcadia Freshwater and Tropical tubes 38 watts each with reflectors.

I am anticipating that with extra ferts and carbon I can push the photoperiod up considerably. I have set the timer for 7 hours of light for now and will try to push this up gradually towards around 9 hours gradually if the plants look like they can use the extra light. So today I added 35 mls of Seachem Flourish Excel and 5 mls of Seachem Flourish to start the tank off. I will be adding a weekly dose of 5mls of Flourish and 7 mls of Excel every 2 days. It will be very interesting to see how these added components effect plant growth over the coming months.

I have planted some large Sword plants across the background and an Onion plant at each end of the tank. In the midground I have a variety of other Swords including Echinodorus Harbii, Ozelot Green, Bleheri and some other assorted mid-height swords. Just in front of that I have a patch of Straight Vallis and a patch of Twisted Vallis. A bit of an unusual place for them, I know, as they grow tall – but I like the look of the bogwood behind these and the way the Hengel Rasbora shoal through the Vallis.
The other reason is that I have quite a few plecs in the tank and expect to find a few uprooted stems and it will be easier to replant where they are. In front of that I have some Crypts towards the front of the tank, these are Cryptocoryne Beckettii Petchii, Cryptocoryne Pontederiifolia, Cryptocoryne Wendtii and Cryptocoryne Undulata.

I have left the plecs out of the tank for the time being as I am going to give the plants three weeks or so to root into the substrate, that way I hope to have far less uprooting when they are introduced.

The other issue that worries me a bit is Vallis with Flourish Excel as apparently it can often cause the plants to melt but I have heard lots of people say they have no problems so I’ll just have to see if it works for me.

Current stocking for the tank is 10 Hengel’s Rasbora, 5 Swordtails, 2 Siamese Flying Fixes, 4 Cherry Barbs and a pair of Bolivian Rams. In a few weeks I will be adding 3 Bristlenose Plecs, a Starlight, a Rusty, a Chocolate Zebra and an Imperial Ranger Plec.

To finish the tank off I will be getting shoals of 6 Congo Tetras and 6 Puntius Denisonii.

Here are some pictures of the tank:

Side view:

Front view:

Left side of tank:

Right side of tank:

I will add some more pictures in a few weeks when the plants have hopefully thickened out and grown up quite a bit. The plecs will be in by then and I may well have the Congos in there too to add a bit more life to the tank.

Any comments welcome as always, I’m really pleased with how it looks, easily the best scape I’ve done.

 

[Esfa]

Wow, that's looking really good.

 

[Themuleous]

Tank looks great the extra plants certainly add a nice green feel to the tank I have heard of some people not having any issues with excel and vals so you never know

Keep up the good work and let us know how it matures

Sam

 

[Biulu]

Lovely tank! The way you used the bogwood is great. It is also inspiring to see what you can do with a tank with only low light, relatively undemanding plants.

 

[scouse_andy]

Lovely tank! The way you used the bogwood is great. It is also inspiring to see what you can do with a tank with only low light, relatively undemanding plants.

Thanks for the nice comments. This is exactly the feel that I have been trying to create in my low-tech setups over the last 9 months. Just waiting for everything to grow in nicely. The plants just lack a bit of height at the back but should come fairly quickly. I really like the way the lush greens mix in with the bogwood and the wood looks so nice in the light of the pinkish tropical bulb.

Tank looks great the extra plants certainly add a nice green feel to the tank I have heard of some people not having any issues with excel and vals so you never know

Keep up the good work and let us know how it matures

Sam

Thanks Sam, I'll keep the thread updated with pictures as the tank matures. I have added a shoal of 6 Congo Tetras and 3 small Keyhole Cichlids which I just culdn't resist. Just a shoal of 6 Puntius Denisonii to add a few months down the line. I will wait for the tank to mature a fair bit more first though.

I am going to get myself a new Tetratec EX1200 external filter soon too as it should deal more comfortably with the bioload and keep things sparkling. I have a couple of smaller Eheims and the Juwel internal in there at the moment.

 

[Biulu]

Good choice for both the new fish (especially the congos!) and the filter!

 

[scouse_andy]

Well the plecs certainly enjoyed my planted setup. The problem hasn't so much been the uprooting as the constant munching.

I have had to remove all of the various swordplants which was a shame as they originally looked great but they were getting very holey thanks to my plecs so either the plants or the plecs had to go - plecs won hands down!

The straight vallis has been pretty rampant even with the addition of Flourish Excel although the twisted Vallis has died off pretty much and I'll be removing it.

I have decided to continue dosing the Flourish and Flourish Excel until it runs out and then just leave the substrate to provide the nutrients.

This weekend I am doing a minor rescape. I have picked up a couple of really nice bits of big bogwood from a friend and they will go nicely in the tank. I'm then going to add 3 more Onion Plants to add height to the tank. The plecs give these a wide berth. I have some extra Vallis to add to the background and two new crypts for the foreground; Balansae and Undulatus Brown. They may end up being expensive plec food but we'll see!

When the scape is done I'll get some more pictures taken.

As far as fish goes, I am going to take out my Bristlenose pair and add in 3 new plecs, which I have had in quarantine - two Green Phantoms and a Golden Nugget. (Are you getting the feeling that I'm quite keen on these plecs by now??)

Future plans are to take out the swordtails and add in a few more Congo Tetras (4 males as I think I may have been unfortunate enough to buy all females!) and a shoal of Puntius Denisonii but that will be a while yet!

pics to follow...