Mt First Planted Tank Whaooo

[johnnywortho]

So i finally decided to take some pictures of my first ever planted tank. But at the minute in having some little problems regarding substrates and lighting.

Ok so substrate am i under the impression that for a good planted tank you need to have some sort of decent substrate to keep the plants in good condition and strive from the nutrients that the substrate with provide? Also as you can see from my tank pictures below i only have sand down at the minute, now i no it will be a quite big job but would it be best if i removed all the sane and places some substrate down 1st then my sand on top of that?

i also have a co2 unit that is on roughly on 4 hours on weekdays and around 8 on weekends. it is set to 1 bubble every 2 seconds, and i have also placed the juwel filter outlet directly onto the diffuser so all the little bubbles gets blows around the tank so all plants get most of the bubbles from the unit/.

Now my lighting i currently have 2 45 watt high lite juwel lights set up in my tank. (its a rio 180) i have the light on for around 5 hours a day on weekdays and at weekends its usually on for 8 hours at least, but as you will see from the pictures below the fish always seem to hide from the light as its to powerful for the lil fish to handle. So basically is my current light set up too much for the tank i have.

The clown loach i have at the min done seem to be bothered about the light and also my red tailed shark, its just my tigers that always hide under the plant to get away from the light.


what do you guys think. Go easy on my being as its my 1st planted tank hehe.

 

[Nick16]

looks, nice, some rich green colours.

 

[aaronnorth]

Rather than remove the substrate i would add some tropica capsules to the substrate, if you wish you could change the substrate.

The plants around the cave are non-aquatic.

Nice start

 

[nosoup4you]

The ones to the right of the wood are non-aquatic as well.

 

[aaronnorth]

The ones to the right of the wood are non-aquatic as well.

yes they are, i couldnt see the first 2 pics the first time

 

[Nick16]

the anubia needs to go on wood or rock not in the substrate. read up on plants before you buy as you have come a cropper here.

 

[johnnywortho]

thats weird the guy at the lfs didn't mention that they are non aquatic when i bought them
so can u guys recommend any good plants that would be easy to maintain for a beginner like me

 

[Nick16]

well get the anubia tied to some wood or rock. get some vallis and maybe some crypts.

 

[lljdma06]

thats weird the guy at the lfs didn't mention that they are non aquatic when i bought them
so can u guys recommend any good plants that would be easy to maintain for a beginner like me

Oh, they'll never tell you that they're non-aquatic. The species is Draconia. If you just got them, take them out and plant them in soil. They really make a lovely houseplant.

 

[theshadowinc]

I can't identify the plant on the right of the bog wood but looks like non aquatic to me

Easy plants for a begginer would be Mosses but slow growing, ricca, stem plants, swords depending on ferts and what kind they are. Example something like an Ozelet Sword I would not recommend right away you need it to shoot a stem up and collect the new plants off of the stem and grow them cause after that they do it again and then they die. Cause they are a hybrid. Very pretty if it actually flowers

~ Story for ya ~

The other day I went to the lfs in our city. There is a person there that specializes in Aquatic Plants so called! When I go I always take the wife me as she knows alot about bog plants so basically her job is I see the plant I like and ask her is it bog or not and she tells me. Well to make the long story short we where looking for plants for when we setup our tank with pressurized co2 and of course a pushy sales person lol. I think they make commision on sales. I have picked his brain before and not happy with his knowledge and that day I was actually very dissapointed in him. He was showing me all the plants that they had and said this one would be a good one. Well had it already it was a 15 dollar plant ><. Remember I am Canadian funds here. He showed me the grass and said this would be good cover for the bottom Hair grass. It looked kinda funny cause I know what it looks like and at that time I said well to be honest I have java moss something they didn't have and said I am looking for ricca for a cover a much better looking cover for the bottom of any aquarium just my thaught. Right in front of him I guess it was kinda ruied, but I said it don't like an aquatic plant at all. So I asked the wife is this a bog plant and she examined it and started laughing and I didn't know why at first but she said its not Aquatic and definitly not a bog plant she said why would you over pay for grass lol. The plant guy just kinda looked at her and I said are you sure, and she said ya I am 110% sure. I knew it looked funny but wow what some places will do to make a profit ><. They had a few bog plants that day in there tanks the wife identified, one had purple leafs she knew exactly what the plant was called by the science name. And said to the person it shouldn't be sumerged underwater its going to die in about a month to 2 months time. <- Thanks to the wife or I would have baught another bog plant in my life time thinking it was aquatic!

Figured I would share it with you!

 

[Dave Spencer]

When I go I always take the wife me as she knows alot about bog plants so basically her job is I see the plant I like and ask her is it bog or not and she tells me.

The vast majority of plants we use could be called bog plants, as it is an environment to which they can easily adapt to. Most Tropica plants are sold in their emersed form.

Vallisneria sp are one of very few 100% aquatic species.

Dave.

 

[RadaR]

the anubia needs to go on wood or rock not in the substrate.

Looks like it should be ok because most of the rhizome is out of the sand, therefore flow can get around it.
Looks healthy enough too.

 

[Smoothy]

Tank looks very nice indeed

 

[theshadowinc]

When I go I always take the wife me as she knows alot about bog plants so basically her job is I see the plant I like and ask her is it bog or not and she tells me.

The vast majority of plants we use could be called bog plants, as it is an environment to which they can easily adapt to. Most Tropica plants are sold in their emersed form.

Vallisneria sp are one of very few 100% aquatic species.

Dave.

True very true, my wife told me one day what bog actually stood for and yet havn't gone to our bog to see it where we live but she studied it in High school and basically told me how the system works with bog plants and that not all are bad for an aquarium, this might piss some people off but Anubias is a bog plant she even told me that when I seen one and said I wanted it and when she told me its a bog plant i said well i don't want it then it won't survive in my tank she said well you are right it won't live in your tank with only 30 watts of lighting for a 200litre tank lol, she told me it requires medium lighting somewhere in the area of 1.5-2wpg and can survive with high lighting 2-3wpg. And decent ferts to be able to make it flower in the tank. She new a few things about the plant and yet was my first time ever seeing one in a lfs. She even said it adapts to emersed growth very easy if all the conditions are right.

Amazon Sword is a true aquatic plant same with most of they hybrids
I think Moneywort would be a good one to dicuss it grows both under water and above water but needs lots of water to live above water I mean like out in the garden!
Creeping Jenny would be another very good example not even a bog plant grows both above, and underwater not even a true aquatic plant!
But there are some bog plants that will just not grow under water rather the root system underwater would work but not fully under water.

 

[johnnywortho]

do u guys have any comments on weather or not my lighting is adequate for the tank and the problem with the fish hiding under the plant to get away from the light?