My First Planted Tank (from Start) - A Log

[dweebikus]

Howdy, I'm new to this forum and new to the hobby, so I'll give a little background: I've been doing this for a couple months. Started with a 10g tank and moved from 2 plants to about 7 plants in it, it finally finished cycling and my fiance and I made a deal, if I stick with it and am still rabid about it by the time the 10g settles down, she'd let me get a larger tank. So, last week as a birthday present to myself I picked up a brand spankin new 50g acrylic tank.

I spent quite a while with the LFS rep figuring out what to go with and now I have a 50g tank with about a 2.5" flourite substrate and a layer of pebble substrate over the top of it. With that I've got about 4 red hygro, 1 set of clippings of hygro ceylon from my other tank, 4 microsword bunches, 4 java ferns and some plants I don't recognize and can't remember the name of. I've also got 12 black skirt tetras in there cycling the whole thing. Tonight is my first water change, so before I start it I'll post some pictures of the tank currently and try to get some close ups of the plant I don't know the name of.

edit: Photo of the 50g at week 1

 

[Themuleous]

Hi and Welcome to the forum

A couple of things, firstly, being acrylic you may find the tank will scratch easily, just something to be aware of.

Please don't take the following as a criticism but if you don't learn then how will you know next time

Firstly, the pebble gavel isn't the best for a planted tank the plant roots have trouble getting through and anchoring to it. As its in there now don't worry, just something to consider next time 3mm gravel or sand are the best.

Good job on the flourite the plants will definitely appreciate the extra nutrients. You planning on adding any sort of fertiliser?

Please correct me if I'm wrong but I didn't think tetras were hardy enough to cycle a tank? So keep an eye on them for disease.

Lastly, have you read the pinned articles? They are worth a read if you get time

Hope the above helps tank looks good so far, needs some more plants IMHO and time to fill out but its got the makings of a nice tank

Sam

 

[Graeme Edwards]

DWEEB

My advice to you is read read read read until you become a nerd, listen to all advice given to you and make sure you read all the pinned articles.

IMO you have taken the best path into the whole aquarium hobby, we dont want "fish" tanks we want aquariums like this



And this



Again welcome

Graeme.

 

[Themuleous]

My advice to you is read read read read until you become a nerd, listen to all advice given to you and make sure you read all the pinned articles.

This made me chuckle, I've become a nerd in less than 6months!

 

[dweebikus]

Thanks for the feedback, I have read quite a bit, but as I'm new to this forum I haven't read much of it, so I'll probably be browsing it for the next few days

As far as fertilizer, I've been using Seachem Flourish as it advises on the back of the bottle, is there something better suited? Or should the flourish be ok?

 

[Graeme Edwards]

The flourish should be ok for the time being but i would look at getting some root tabs for such a new tank, there will be very little if anything at all for your plants to draw upon from their roots.

One of the biggest mistakes a novis aquarium keeper makes is the substrate ( I BLAME LFS ) you cant grow house plants in gravel, just gravel and nothing els, so why would your aquarium plants be able to

Thats why so many fish keeprs go for fake I HATE FAKE, the benefits of real are endless.

 

[Themuleous]

Thats why so many fish keeprs go for fake I HATE FAKE, the benefits of real are endless.

Ditto!!!

 

[dweebikus]

Well, I'll go to the store and see if I can find some root tabs. In the mean time, the substrate in my tank is mostly flourite, it's not just gravel. I'd say there's a 2:1 ratio of flourite to gravel.

Btw, Moody, what substrate is that in the two pictures you posted? I'm considering moving my 10g tank to a 20 in the future and that substrate looks nice.

 

[Qays]

I dont have root additives and my plants seem to be doing fine.

No fast growth, but if your happy with the looks, then pick plants that dont need gravel!

 

[Themuleous]

I would get a decent fert rather than root tabs, the flourite will be help via the roots and something in the water would be much better IMO. Get one of the named general ferts, like API leaf zone, JBL Ferropol or Seachem Flourish.

Sam

 

[dweebikus]

Like I mentioned earlier, I'm using Seachem Flourish. So far the plants I have in the tank don't have any noticeable growth, but as the Hygro in my 10g tank keeps growing, I just keep clipping it and putting it in the 50g.