Evolution Of A 19 Us Gallon

[Bloo]

Well I guess it's about high time I start my thread ! (Apologies for the length of it!)

I've been toying with the lush planted tank idea for quite a few months now.
It all started really by seeing Jimboo's tanks in his sig on some of the other threads and sections on TFF. Before that I never knew much about planted tanks - despite keeping tropical fish for donkeys years - my fish had to make do with sparse plastic plants, wood and rocks. All plants always rotted away after a few months and bizarrely, I never questioned it - just thought they were rubbish plants little did I know.......

So, here I am on my quest for a beautiful lush planted rainforest in my 19 Gallon fish tank

I chucked in some Vallis a few months ago - in the hope that some miracle would happen and it just turned into a beautiful tank - well of course it didn't - and with no fertilisers, 1 Watt per gallon and no CO2, it all turned into a hairy algae ridden mess pretty soon

For a while I also had 1 Hagen Nutrafin set running, but (without ferts and light to support it) it just didn't help at all.
A pity I never really took a photo of it at it worst, but at the end I'll post a pic of what it looked like shortly after the Vallis went in, but before the algae started -notice the tremendous (not!) filtration going on.

The slight downside is that it's a Tropiquarium 68 - for anyone familiar with this tank, you'll realise what the disadvantage is. For those that don't, here is a picture of the lid, which explains it all:

The two 15 Watt tubes weren't strong enough to start off with - not to mention the protective waterproof cover (caked in lime scale).

I read so many of the pinned articles here (and more) but was still at a bit of a loss as to how to tackle it all.

Things only really started to make sense and fall into place when I approached gf225 (George) via pm for some help.

I have now transformed my lid into this (pic below) and (thanks to George!) have a whole 54 watts of lights (reflectors are coming).

Lights
1 x Arcadia Freshwater (18 watt)
1 x Life-Glo (18 watt)
1 x Dennerle (18 watt)

My aim is to build a proper wooden hood, but that's going to be a bit of a mission - so for the mean time, this will have to do.

I am also the owner of a pressurised CO2 kit - JBL Proflora CO2 Set Vario 500 Professional 2. Newly installed yesterday. It wasn't difficult at all and seems to be running pretty smoothly. I'm monitoring my pH like a hawk and my aim is to get it down to 7 to have a stable CO2 level of 33ppm

My current water statistics are :

pH - 7.2
kH - 11
gH - 17
NO3 - 15
PO4 - 2

I will be ordering plants tomorrow from Greenline (still need to sit down and decide, so all suggestions welcome !)

Fertilisers
My dry ferts I bought from Gardendirect, and I'll be dosing Potassium nitrate (KNO3) and Potassium phosphate (KH2PO4) to start off with.

Current Fish
My current tank inhabitants are 4 Killifish (1" each), a couple of Golden Bristlenose youngsters (2.5" each), a young Twig Catfish (4"), a couple of Kuhli loaches (2" each) and a tiny Flounder (not even 1"). I will definitely move the killifish out within the next few weeks but the rest will be staying (for now). Though in a few months time the flounder might move on to a different tank too.
I have no mid or top level fish so suggestions are welcome.

Filtration
I currently have an internal Fluval 2 - though this will be replace by an external filter within the next couple of weeks. Eheim most likely. But suggestions are most welcome.

Substrate
Plain sand at around 2". Due to the flounder I can't have any other substrate.

I don't really have any specific Aquascape in mind yet (and I'm sure I'll be changing over the next few months anyway as my taste develops and changes) so any and all suggestions are very welcome

Just again a big THANK YOU to George for all his help so far and my barrage of pm's

 

[George Farmer]

Great to see you starting the journal .

Where's your reflectors? Tut, tut! I would have put the reflectors against the wood, then screwed the brackets in over them with small self-tappers. If this works out well then making a new hood will be unecessary IMO.

Go with an Eheim external - the industry standard.

I look forward to seeing the progress. Welcome to the world of planted aquaria, enjoy!

 

[Bloo]

Where's your reflectors? Tut, tut!

) erm well I was about to order the reflectors from Aquatics Online and I'm not using my lights yet ! But thanks, easily rectified and it's a quick job so I'll adjust that within the next few days. Watch this space......

 

[houndour]

looks good bloozoo.

I was hoping for a fully planted tank picture though. I dunno why, but I got the impression you were well on your way especially with all this talk of you getting your pressurized co2 kit! Can't wait to see the plants you get.

I could recommend lots, but what types do you specifically like? My tank is 22US gallons, so not much bigger than yours. I used to have loads of huge leaved plants...swords etc, but have phased them out now, replacing them with smaller leaved plants to give an illusion of a bigger tank. But what with all the bga probs I've been having I dont have a tank thats worth looking at the mo.

I like hygro, its pretty and grows fast, so a good starting off plant. Also Ludwigia species. Anubias nana tied on bog wood. hermianthus micro...(cant remember full name...aka baby tears). Seagrass is nice. ND recommended that to me.

For carpeting you could try glosso, but I see you have sand only. Everywhere I read says glosso benefits from a nutrient rich substrate.

Oh well, theres some names you can look up. And if you haven't been there already this is a good place for plant details: http/www.tropica.dk/plant_print.asp

 

[zig]

Hiya bloozoo

Good job on the hood not a bad bit of DIY for a girl!!!!!!

You sound well prepared for success with the tank bloozoo, just add lots of plants in the beginning and make sure to add a few fast growers as well to outcompete the algae from the start, you can remove the fast growers later and add more appropriate plants, it will just help to get the tank established in the beginning.

I presume you are going to go EI with this tank? only way to go but i would say that of course.

You should check your tapwater as well for phosphates and nitrates, and mix up the dry ferts with RO or distilled water useing chucks calculator, i feel i probably dont have to tell you this information, i would guess you have done your homework but if you need a hand with anything just ask, only to willing to help make the tank look beautiful

Im looking forward to the progress............great decision i bet you wont regret it, and id say if you have other tanks the cuttings will start spreading and soon enough..............lots of planted tanks (ask jimbooo he resisted for a week with a new tank)

Best of luck with it but you have made great preperations allready

 

[Bloo]

I was hoping for a fully planted tank picture though. I dunno why, but I got the impression you were well on your way especially with all this talk of you getting your pressurized co2 kit! Can't wait to see the plants you get.
Oh well, theres some names you can look up. And if you haven't been there already this is a good place for plant details: http/www.tropica.dk/plant_print.asp

Alas not yet it's just been a bit of a hairy mess until now !
Thanks for the tips - I'll check that out tomorrow.

Good job on the hood not a bad bit of DIY for a girl!!!!!!

I presume you are going to go EI with this tank? only way to go but i would say that of course.

You should check your tapwater as well for phosphates and nitrates, and mix up the dry ferts with RO or distilled water useing chucks calculator, i feel i probably dont have to tell you this information, i would guess you have done your homework but if you need a hand with anything just ask, only to willing to help make the tank look beautiful

Thanks so much zig ! the lid was a real pain in the rear let me tell you ! I actually had to cut it from the tank and remove all the inners (which also had to be cut apart and silicone together to get it so that I could fit the 3 x 18 Watts. thankfully I still have all my fingers !

I will indeed be going down the EI route and received loads of hand tips from George already. I have my dry ferts already and got some free RO water from my lfs so it's all ready to be mixed up once I have my plants - though I guess I can start mixing tomorrow already.

I will re-check my tapwater but when I did it about a month or so ago, my Nitrates were around 25 or so and Phosphate around 3. Though I'll re-measure tomorrow and get the API Phosphate test, as I'm not impressed with the Salifert test at all. The D&D test is probably the best but at £30 it's just far more than I'm willing to invest right now.

I know it's going to take a fair amount of trial and error, but I feel that I've already learnt a lot over these past few months by reading a lot and trying to understand how it all fits in together.

One thing I know for sure: there's a lot more than meets the eye than just a pretty picture

 

[zig]

I wouldnt spend £30 on a nitrate test kit, if you have some RO water left over and an electronic scales i can show you how to calibrate your existing one without spending any more money at all, but you need about 2 litres of RO water, auctually 1 1/12 would do, but if your scales were really accurate you could use less........anyway just an idea

Edit: the scales need to be accurate, they would need to be able to weigh grams in small quantities.

 

[pseud]

Cool! I can't wait to see progression photos!

Good luck

 

[George Farmer]

Where's your reflectors? Tut, tut!

) erm well I was about to order the reflectors from Aquatics Online and I'm not using my lights yet ! But thanks, easily rectified and it's a quick job so I'll adjust that within the next few days. Watch this space......

Dry your eyes mate! Just checking.

I'm feelin' the excitement, it's great to have yet another "decent" UK planted aquarist on board. Which remids me, has anyone heard from Nodding Dino or Jimboliana recently?

 

[RYO]

Nice one bloozoo2, i love these journel threads, keep us updated .

 

[lljdma06]

Nice one bloozoo2, i love these journel threads, keep us updated .

Me too! You make me wanna start mine already. Congrats! By the way, that's a lovely cat on your avitar. Siamese tabby point? I always admire it when you have a post. But I'm off topic, sorry.

 

[Bloo]

I wouldnt spend £30 on a nitrate test kit, if you have some RO water left over and an electronic scales i can show you how to calibrate your existing one without spending any more money at all, but you need about 2 litres of RO water, auctually 1 1/12 would do, but if your scales were really accurate you could use less........anyway just an idea

Edit: the scales need to be accurate, they would need to be able to weigh grams in small quantities.

Thanks zig - but it was actually the Phosphate test I thought was rubbish and inaccurate.
However when I'm at my lfs this weekend I'll get some more water and talk to you about the nitrates - I have very good kitchen scales

Nice one bloozoo2, i love these journel threads, keep us updated .

Me too! You make me wanna start mine already. Congrats! By the way, that's a lovely cat on your avitar. Siamese tabby point? I always admire it when you have a post. But I'm off topic, sorry.

Thanks lljdma06 Almost right on the kitty - he (sadly "was") a 75% Blue Eyed Snow Leopard Bengal and 25% Siamese I loved him lots and it broke my heart when he died a few months ago (hit by a car for the second time in his short 3 years of live) - and having as my avatar I can see him every day and all the time

But anyway thanks for the encouragement everyone ! Pseud and RYO - you guys already have gorgeous tanks !

I took my pH tonight and it's down to 6.9 and my kH is 12 at the mo - which means my CO2 reads 45ppm - is that a bad thing ? I take it I should slightly decrease my CO2 output - bringing my pH up to 7 which will give me 36ppm of CO2 ?
At the same time I took my tapwater pH and got a bit of a shock I don't often test my tapwater, but it now reads 7.4 whereas it's always been around 8.2 - what's going on ? I thought perhaps the test wasn't right so did a strip test as well as a different brand and they all read the same. Oh well guess that's better and hope it remains that way as it's less stress on my fish when I do water changes.

Tonight I'm pondering plants - I didn't have time to order them on Sunday after all. Just as well because my reflectors are still on their way too

But in the mean time, could anyone tell me what this plant is ? I had it for a short period of time but of course it all fell apart and became a brown mess pretty soon. But perhaps I can now grow it ? I looked at your link houndour, but couldn't see it in there I'd like to stick to "fine-ish" plants - nothing as big and broad leaved as Amazons.

Edit: I think I may have found it - is this it ? Rotala sp. ''Nanjenshan''. Does anyone have this plant ? It's pretty expensive in this link but I can't find it on greenline ?

 

[George Farmer]

45ppm CO2 is on the high side. Some do have it that high but mainly to combat algae issues - apparently the excessive carbon blocks enzyme production in the algae cells. This may explain why overdosing Flourish Excel ("liquid carbon") is used to good effect against BBA. Personally I would stick to around 30-35ppm CO2.

Don't worry about your tap water pH discrepencies. I have similar fluctuations and it is just varying CO2 content I believe, I'm not sure what causes it, different mains flow rates, times of year etc. I assume. As long as the KH and GH remain constant then you are fine.

That plant does look like Rotala sp. ''Nanjenshan'' (''Mayaca sellowiana'') . A very nice stem plant. If you do have it again just remember to plant the stems seperately etc. as described in one of the PMs I sent you.

Best of luck with your new plants etc. Personally I'd just get loads of cheap, fast-growing stems to start with i.e. Hygrophila polysperma etc. You shouldn't need to spend much at all. Once established you can then swap to your more demanding species. But you knew all that already didn't you?

 

[Bloo]

OK, time for a little update. I haven't had much time this week to fiddle with the tank, but got the reflectors and fitted them tonight 5 Minutes job and I think it's a pretty darn neat piece of work (if I say so myself)

I've really been struggling to try and figure out exactly "what" I want to do with the tank or what "look" I'm after (sigh). I've been browsing greenline and a few other sites but I think what I've found most useful so far is actually the new pinned thread on "member's planted tanks" ! The contributions so far are fabulous and are really giving me some good ideas.

Anyway, for the mean time, I've just plonked in some Vallis (it will probably end up in my other tank) and a couple of "Echinodorus Radicans". This is also probably not best suited to this tank as I think it can get quite tall and my tank is only approx 40cm - so again will probably end up in my other tank.

I can't wait to get rid of the internal filter and the diffuser and heater is really a bit of an eye sore, but hopefully they'll be hidden some time in the near future.

I'm planning to start on E.I during the next week, but I need to check all my latest readings tomorrow.

I have a new API PO4 test, but I can't say I'm impressed with it - though it meassures up to 10ppm, the increments are quite large and makes it difficult to judge anything between 5 and 10.

This is what the tank looks like at the moment - and is nothing what I expect to look like in a couple of months time or so.

So watch this space, and in the mean time I'm entirely open to constructive criticism and advice

 

[George Farmer]

Your lighting looks great - well done.

I use the Nutrafin PO4 kit. They measure down to 0.25ppm in quite small increments i.e. 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2.5 and 5ppm. I try to keep mine between 1 and 2.5ppm. PFK did a PO4 kit test review a couple of years ago on a load of different manufacturers and the Nutrafin came out top. They're about £8.

As for advice - You already know that you swords may not be suitable, also because they are gross-feeders and require a deeper, more nutrient-rich substrate than you currently have.

Other than that I can only re-iterate the importance of starting out with plenty of fast-growing stems. While these are "balancing" your system you can figure out your dosing regime and really think about a final layout.

Try to formulate in your mind what type of aquascape you want - do you want a jungle like effect with densely planted stems of varying textures and colour or would you prefer a simpler layout consisting of just a few species of plant? Think Nature or Dutch - two good examples are my layout (Nature) and Jimbooo's (Dutch). Check out the AGA previous contests for some ideas and inspiration.

http/showcase.aquatic-gardeners.org/2005.cgi