Journal Of A Newbie.

[Andeekaii]

Hey guys, ive been around on here for a while, but never really particularly active.
I recently decided that i was bored of plastic plants and crappy looking plants. I decided to go the full hog and set up a planted tank. Being 17 it was difficult to find funding for this project, but nagging the parents worked

I started off with a 2ft tank. Bought eco complete and a peat. Set-up the tank and added a few plants.

Needless to say, i was not very impressed. I felt like i'd just wasted £30 on substrate. That is when my hunt began. I wanted a 3ft tank, but being on a tight budget, meant i had to do some searching. After less than 48 hours i had collected and setup a 3ft fish tank. Best of all... it cost me nothing! The guy was moving house and couldn't take the tank with him. So after setting up the new tank (and buying a £30 T5 starter and bulbs - Sylvania Grolux and Phillips Daylight) I ordered some plants.

Once again, i was still un-impressed! The water was cloudy due to moving the substrate from the old tank to the new tank - wet. It remained this way for 3-4 days. In the end i had to completely empty the tank (for the 2nd time), clean all the substrate and tank and what not. And start again.

I bet you're still thinking - "it still looks like crap". Well, you'd be right. I thought the same. The background had failed, after taking advice from my LFS who said to use watered down PVA glue. Great idea, except it doesn't dry and makes the background bubble and look cloudy. Meanwhile, even though i've been messing around with the tank for a week now, the plants are growing suprsingly well. I've dosed some equilibrium and pottasium nitrate here and there inbetween the 50% water changes to try and clear the tank.

It finally seemed to be taking shape, after a week of buggering around!

And here is how it looks as of tonight.

Finally starting to look nice, in my opinion.

I hope you guys enjoy my diary, i will continue to update this topic as the tank matures. If anyone has any questions, suggestions or ideas, please leave a comment.

Cheers, Andy

 

[lljdma06]

It is a very good start. Shall I move this to the journal section?

 

[Ipswja]

Nice one man, looks really good!!!

What fish do you have? from what I can see its just Neon Tetras?

 

[mancin]

You are being too hard on yourself. I think it looked good throughout all of its brief "rescapes" but I do agree the most recent is my favorite.

 

[Andeekaii]

lljdma06: I didn't even realise that there was a journal section. If you could move it that would be great!

Ipswja: At the moment there are 5 neon tetras, 1 honey gourami, 1 male betta and a tiny plec. However all of these fish will be given away (except sammy, the betta) because i have a plan of what fish i would like to include.

mancin: Thank you I'm a very picky person and i like everything to be perfect. Something which i have found is not a good mix with the tropical fish hobby. It is so stressing when you are trying to do something and you accidently knock a plant up, then when planting that you accidently knock the bogwood over, and when fixing that you knock another plant over!

 

[bagu]

hey mate! im really really loving the tank!

the water looks crystal clear right now, and the scaping is brilliant!

keep it up and us updates

 

[Andeekaii]

I have now removed my original filter, which was cycling my new filter. However my new filter (800 l/ph) seems to be way to strong and is blowing over my Cabomba Caroliniana. I have tried adjusting the way the filter is blowing but to no avail. Will they eventualy start growing straight by growing runners on the left hand side to balance it out? What can i do?

Also you can see my Hygrophila Polysperma seems to be growing at an alarming rate. It seems to have another set of leaves further up the stem everytime i wake up?!

Yesterday

Today

 

[Amunet]

Your tank is looking fantastic
I agree that it looked great each rescape

I wish I could help you w/ the cabomba but ugh... I don't have luck with it. It grows well for a little bit, and then all of a sudden it'll start breaking up and the leaves will get ALL over the place and just BLAH! Love it, but I hate it as well heh.

Anywho! I think once everything starts to grow out even more, you are going to have 1 stunning tank... it's already pretty darn impressive

 

[Nick16]

how about adding some more plants to develop a foreground such as smaller crypts?

here is a shot of mine to help you undertsand me.. its only the right side and i have just foreground plants but they help to build the scape up and these coupled with stems help the perception of depth. (excuse the hungry SAE)

 

[JenCliBee]

Looking really good m8, agree with nick maybe some forground plants or even maybe a full carpet effect with somethink, or is that dwarf hairgrass i already see at the front?.

Anyways looking excellent so far

 

[Andeekaii]

Yeah i already have dwarf hair grass but doesn't really seem to be doing much yet. It has only been setup for a week though so anything could happen.

Im thinking about changing from a Non C02 tank to a Seachem Flourish Excel tank, which would mean 3x the fertiliser. What do you think? If the plant growth is sufficient i might just stick to my current method.

Btw, does anyone know what plant this is... which seems to be dying? Everything else is doing brill - even my crypts; which are growing really quickly after the melting. (behind the middle log)

Im also thinking about getting some bottom feeders / algae eaters. Any recomentations? Id rather not keep shrimp as everytime ive had them they have died. Id prefer cories as theyre a lot more active than most other algae eaters, but are they any good at eating algae? I was thinking maybe 5 or 6 Sterbai Cory's

 

[Amunet]

Cories really aren't algae eaters.
If you're willing to perhaps try shrimp again, you could try cherry shrimp. They're such a nice color and as far as I can tell w/ my own and reading about them, they're pretty hardy. Just don't use any kind of copper in the tank. But then again, your gourami and betta in the tank may find any shrimp to be a nice snack

Uhm hmm.. Maybe you could try otos. Get a nice big group of them in there But I've read that they can be sensitive little fish and die for no apparent reason.

The plant looks like dwarf sag. Or maybe Vallisneria nana

 

[Andeekaii]

Update

Purchased 6 Cherry Barbs Yesterday, and removed the 2 white neons. All 6 are happy today, 2 have paired off ( i think theyre female as theyre paler ) and they seem to be purposely swimming into the relatively strong water flow and kind of "surfing" along the surface of the water. Quite amusing to watch; I will be picking up another 6 in the future.
Plants are picking up nicely, water seems to have turned a bit brown, probably from the bogwood - nothing drastic though - it's quite nice actually.

I've also had to direct the pump water flow towards the front of the tank, to prevent the flow from pushing the plants over. Will this inhibit the overall water that is filtered, and the way nutrients are spread? I don't want to ruin the water quality because of the flow, but it is really annoying that the cambomba keep falling over and growing almost horizontal.

21st June

26th June (Today)

 

[keenonfish]

This is a great looking tank Andy, you are lucky to have understanding parents Out of interest are they showing interest and what do they thing so far?

 

[CTlovesKS]

Wow that looks amazing...