Dave Gray's 430l Planted Tank.

[dave_gray2077]

So far I have the following.

Tank:
120x50x70cm Rena

Filter:
1 xP 3 filet rated at 1350lph

Substrate:
Tropica plant substrate,
Flourish literate,
On top of them will be a mix of sand and gravel for a natural look.

C02:
12liter pressurised cylinder from old tank. With ceramic diffuser.

Fertilizers:
Basic IE. KNO3, PNO3, KNO4 and trace mix.

Heater
With the tank I got 2x200w heaters. How ever I was thinking of replacing them with a 300w inline heater.

Water Parameters:
16GH
14KH
7.2Ph once CO2 injection starts. Ph is 8.0 from tap.

Random musings

No pics so far as I have only just assembled the cabinet flat pack.
Also on the shopping list is 1 150w halide light to increase the lighting. I have riccia and HC in my old tank and I am planning on transplanting it so higher light is required. The jury is still out on halide light however depends if I can get some locally available t5’s. My local pets at home stocks some tubes but I have never taken note of the tube size. I want to avoid having to order tubes online. 55w t5s to look tempting tough if I can get them locally as 3 of then will drop right in place with a few clamps on the existing lights.

Haven’t decided on plants how ever plants from the old tank that can be transferred are:

Reineckii Rose flora. Huge plant that is the centre of my current tank so im not getting rid of it. Its 18â€￾ talland a foot wide now.
Vallisneria nana
Anubias barteri coffeefolia its tiny though. About 8 leaves on it.
Ceratopteris thalictroides. 3 of them
Hemianthus micranthemoides but this is only 4 stems so not much I can do with that.
Limnophila sessiliflora. Backing plant for old aquarium. Was going to reuse it here. Grows like mad.
Microsorum pteropus. Still sapling though.
Riccia fluitans about a foot square size
And dwarf Riccia. Covers about 3 feet square
And hairgrass and HC but just a small crop. Its been out competed by the other plants.
Echinodorus bleher 3 of them.

Im still open to suggestions of other plants but am planning on the following

Foreground

Pogostemon helferi
Along with HC and Riccia
Glossostigma elatinoides

Mid ground

Reineckii Rose flora
Hygrophila polysperma Rosanervig
Ludwigia inclinata var. verticillata
Microsorum pteropus
Nesaea crassicaulis

Back ground

Rotala wallichii
Hemianthus micranthemoides if I get it to grow.
Rotala wallichii

 

[mlawson]

This sounds like it is going to be a big impressive tank.

You have quite a plant list with most of the firm favourites in the hobby.

Are you having any hardscape? Wood, rocks etc..

 

[dave_gray2077]

was not planning on much hard scape.

Probably just a few rocks and bits of Mopani wood I have hanging around. The Mopani will probably just be used as a anchor for the Anubias. All the rocks from my old tank are fully covered in Riccia. SO it will be a case of just drop them in after all the rooting plants have been added.

 

[dave_gray2077]

Finaly got a chance to fill the tank and add the equipment.

Iv been starting to remove the plants for my old tank and add them to this one.

The filter has been running for a day now however the water still has a slight haze to it.

 

[pratty675]

needs some plants and fish but other wise pritty gud

 

[dave_gray2077]

I'm waiting for Birstall to deliver my plants.

Ordered.

Rotala wallichii
Rotala sp. Green
Hemianthus micranthemoides
Bolbitis heudelotii
Vesicularia du byana
Pogostemon helferi
Micranthemum umbrosum

Should be here by Wednesdays. Ill post some more picks once they are in.

I am moving all the plants form my 125 litre tank. I don't want to move everything at once as I'm unsure of how much biological filtration the plants are doing in the other tank.

Iv added a large crop of hair grass to the right hand side along with a large Java fern at the back.

 

[Themuleous]

Should be good

 

[dave_gray2077]

So the plants arrived yesterday. Spent today planting them and pulling 125l appart.

Here are some pics. I don’t have a working Digital cam so they were taken with my webcam.

Iv also set up the CO2 but I only have a 1.5cm ceramic disk so I’m not sure if that is up to the task. So I will have to wait a day to see if it can get the CO2 levels up to 30ppm. Also the Spray bar isn’t very affective at pushing the bubble around the tank so a power head may be in order. At the moment the bubbles are only getting ½ way across the tank.

No fish have been added yet. Until the CO2 is stable im leaving livestock out of the equation.

 

[Themuleous]

Looks promising