My First Planted Tank Journal

[neo83]

Hi everyone

This is my first planted tank or should i say my first tank ever.

It started off with no live plants at all and wasted money on rubbish decorations and fake plants which are now bagged up. In the middle of my fishless cycle, i came to know about 'silent cycle'. However, i understand my tank is a fish tank with plants in it rather than a planted tank, although i do have a considerable number of plants in it. My tank is currently stocked and the stocking is in my signature. The list of plants is also in the signature.

Tank Detail:

Fluval Roma 125 - 125l or 33 US Gal

NH3, NO2: 0ppm
NO3: 40-80ppm (38ppm from tap water)
pH: 7.6
Temp: 24-25 C

Water Change: 20-40% weekly
Substrate: Pea Gravel

Lighting: 2 20W T8 tubes (power glo and aqua glo - both 18000K, came with the tank), on for 7 hours, planning to replace one tube with a cheap 6500k philips/sylvania tube
Ferts: Seachem Flourish and JBL root tabs (placed near swords)
CO2: None

Filtration: Fluval 305

Hopefully i didn't miss any information. I havent tried to get any scape really as you can clearly see and also had to move the java fern to the centre-front to define the territory after a tussle between the dwarfs. I currently trying to experiment with dosing seachem flourish twice a week rather than once to improve the plant growth. Also i reduced the lighting from 10 hours in stages down to 7 hours due to algae and there is none currently. No CO2 is used as well.

Right, now to the questions. I would like to improve the scape, not really following the many specific scapes as it's not probably going to work out for without getting more plants, but i want to just move things around a bit and probably get an additional tall bogwood and am planning to replace the bridge on the left with the bogwood. Also, at the back on the left, there is hygrophila, hornwort (think it is) and vallis planted, so not sure if i need to move them around. On the right hand side, 3 swords are planted, with crypt beckettii in the front and pygmy chain swords (not doing very well) to its left. Then the Java Fern and then to the left are crypt wendtii (around 4) along with some hygrophila. Also some Java Moss on bogwood is placed at the back visible in the centre view of the tank.

So, based on this i would appreciate any rescaping ideas which will not make me completely change everything .

The second question is the growth of the plants. Java fern and Moss are doing really week and crypts seem to be growing slowly. Amazon swords are not doing that great although new leaves are always sprouting. Hygrophila is growing quickly as well, although a bit yellowish in colour with some short one's green in colour. Vallis seems to be touching the surface now, at least some. Hornwort is recently put it. I would appreciate any help with improving the plant growth in my lowest-tech tank.

Thanks

 

[ian]

Firstly the tank looks good!

If this was my tank, i would remove the 2 ornaments on the left, this will make it a bit more natural looking. I would bring the larger bit of bogwood on the right into play and make it visual. If the backing was changed to an all black backing it would make a massive difference on the plants and fish. You would see more colours from the fish.

Swords take some time to adapt to new conditions as many are grown out of water, so in your aquarium, this could take a good month before they settle. You can remove the leaves if needed, just cut them as close to the crown of the plant. The plants will grow slower under conditions of low light, however they can still crave certain elements. Saying that your tank looks healthy from where i'm sitting. Keep a close eye on the plants, they will let you know what they need.

 

[TheDarkGoby]

Looks great! I don't know alot about specific plant species, just some amazonians and "betta" plants. Java Fern is probably going to be very slow to grow reguardless. I have had my java fern in a smaller tank, and it hasn't grown but maybe 1/2 - 1".

Amazon Sword grows relatively fast. But IME hornwort is the fastest growing plant I have ever had. It grew 2X larger in less than 2 months. It completely took over my 10g QT. I have to remove it all the time. If any of that ever gets in my amazon tank, I will freak out.

Fish look good! Pearl gouramis make good community fish from what I've heard. Love the Rasbora school! I am trying to get some Bolivian Rams myself. Your cycle is pretty much inexistant. Once you added the plants, they pretty much killed the cycle in a very good way. They took care of everything in pretty much 1 day (assuming you added them all on the same day lol). Anyway, you don't have to worry about the cycle.

I was looking at your setup and there is one fish that looks like a Lake Malawi African cichlid. . I think it is kinda blue-ish purple-ish on the upper left (<) side of the picture.

Very nice setup for a first time! You have done some good research!

(edit: Which Flourish are you useing? There are multiple types. The best one for growth is probably Flourish The Comprohensive Supplement for the Planted Tank. If I spelled comprohensive incorrectly, don't freak out, if it is spelled sorta like the way I spelled it (or even if is isn't) it should be fine)

 

[neo83]

Firstly the tank looks good!

ha, you are just saying that

If this was my tank, i would remove the 2 ornaments on the left, this will make it a bit more natural looking. I would bring the larger bit of bogwood on the right into play and make it visual. If the backing was changed to an all black backing it would make a massive difference on the plants and fish. You would see more colours from the fish.

Thanks for the background tip. i'll definitely change it as i think currently some things get lost with the current background. I'm planning to take the bridge away as well and either get another slightly bigger bogwood or move the on the right as you say.

Swords take some time to adapt to new conditions as many are grown out of water, so in your aquarium, this could take a good month before they settle. You can remove the leaves if needed, just cut them as close to the crown of the plant. The plants will grow slower under conditions of low light, however they can still crave certain elements. Saying that your tank looks healthy from where i'm sitting. Keep a close eye on the plants, they will let you know what they need.

Swords have been in the tank for more than 2.5 months now, so hopefully dosing seachem flourish twice might help them a bit (hoping). Will remove the leaves as you suggest. I'll try and take a much closer snaps and different angles to make the plants a bit more clear as to how they are looking. I have some pics in my album in here Old Plant Photos

Thanks

 

[neo83]

Looks great!

Thanks TDG

Fish look good! Pearl gouramis make good community fish from what I've heard. Love the Rasbora school! I am trying to get some Bolivian Rams myself. Your cycle is pretty much inexistant. Once you added the plants, they pretty much killed the cycle in a very good way. They took care of everything in pretty much 1 day (assuming you added them all on the same day lol). Anyway, you don't have to worry about the cycle.

Yes, thankfully fish seem healthy. i do love the pearl gourami, he is a character and the hungriest of all. The rasboras school well, but that depends on their mood as well. Recently i have seen some dwarf rasboras with lemon yellow and some chilli rasbora and if it was now, i would have probably gone for a big shoal of these dwarfs. But still, i'm happy with my current shaol of 10 harlequins. Bolivian is always my favourite of them. I'm trying to get him a female but that's going to be a hard mission. Another shoal which is not visible in the pic is a shoal of 10 dwarf cory (corydoras habrosus). They are amazing and shaol very very closely in the middle part of the tank and if i knew about them before, i would have probably got 20-25 of them

In terms of the cycle, yes i was very impatient with dropping ammonia and when i read about silent cycle, that's what i wanted to do although mine is not exaclty a planted tank. I added a few fish every weekend and there have been only a few losses, but that's not to bad water quality.

I was looking at your setup and there is one fish that looks like a Lake Malawi African cichlid. . I think it is kinda blue-ish purple-ish on the upper left (<) side of the picture.

No . It's an Apistogramma Macmasteri (bought as A. Viejita), bought as a female but i have another thread going on in which it was suggested that it is a male so now i have to give this back and get a new female. Gow knows how that will go. I wish to have more bigger cichlids, but limited by tank, money and space. Hopefully one day

Very nice setup for a first time! You have done some good research!

Weel, it's all down this wonderful forum and it's members

(edit: Which Flourish are you useing? There are multiple types. The best one for growth is probably Flourish The Comprohensive Supplement for the Planted Tank. If I spelled comprohensive incorrectly, don't freak out, if it is spelled sorta like the way I spelled it (or even if is isn't) it should be fine)

i'm using the seachem flourish comprehensive

Thanks

 

[lljdma06]

However, i understand my tank is a fish tank with plants in it rather than a planted tank, although i do have a considerable number of plants in it.

Hogwash, this is a planted tank. I don't bog myself down with little minor details about the original intent of the setup. I like both fish and plants. A very nice start too. Black background will help. For those swords, though, you may want to consider dosing macros (Nitrogen, phosphorus, Potassium) and swords are hungry plants.

 

[neo83]

However, i understand my tank is a fish tank with plants in it rather than a planted tank, although i do have a considerable number of plants in it.

Hogwash, this is a planted tank. I don't bog myself down with little minor details about the original intent of the setup. I like both fish and plants. A very nice start too. Black background will help. For those swords, though, you may want to consider dosing macros (Nitrogen, phosphorus, Potassium) and swords are hungry plants.

ha, if it comes from you, well i would proudly start saying that i have a planted tank from now on will definitely change the background to black. In terms of swords, do you think switching to TPN+ instead of seachem flourish will be good for the tank? Or any suggestions for replacing swords with big-leafed bushy easy to grow plants please?

Thanks

 

[neo83]

More pics from different angles. Don't have a black bin bag, need to get one and the black backgrounds are expensive. Hopefully will get something this weekend.

BTW, any advice on whether to change from seachem flourish to TPN+ please?

Cheers

 

[lljdma06]

I like TPN+. It's easy to use and it'll give you a source of NPK without too hard to figure out. Really nice for low-tech where the nutrient demands are not so extreme.

Liz