Supercoley's First Planted Tank Adventure

[SuperColey1]

I decided to turn my plastic ornament and plastic plant 125Ltr tank into a real natural tank after seeing the beautiful planted tanks on here, which are truly inspirational.

When I first got the tank (off ebay with stock) it had the following:

Fluval3Plus internal filter
Fluval 150W heater
Pea gravel (Still dirty with bacteria in tank)
Hood with 1 SunGlo lamp and 1 x AquaGlow lamp
Driftwood 'trunk'
Piece of 'triangular' bogwood
Resin ornamental bridge
Resin rock formation
1 twisted plastic plant
1 'grass' plastic plant

Stock was 1 male and 1 female white balloon molly
2 x Common plec about 6-7 inches
Everything else was dead in the transport container (1 Neon, 1 Zebra Danio, 2 Large Angels)
They all looked disease and this started a 1 month long battle against all sorts of illness which the male molly (I think also due to old age) fell prey to.

This is the tank as it was:

Since then, I have added the following:

Large piece of mopani bogwood (including cave section) £4.99
piece of bogwood shaped like tree trunk with roots
3 Live plants
Fake fern
Heater guard
9V UV sterilizer
Nutrafin CO2 kit
2 Arcadia Reflectors
1 Arcadia Original Tropical Light (Replaced SunGlo - Think I will get another because the colours are awesome)

Stock:
1 x red male betta veiltail (Some damage to the tail but not as much as when I bought him and is improving)
1 male and 1 female black molly
3 x pitbull plecs arriving 13th Jan (The commons are being rehomed next weekend)

This is how it looks now:

Common plec in cave (If you can make the silhouette out

CO2 working

Can someone ID these 2 plants for me - the large plant at the back and the small 'tuft' of grass in the middle

And this plant too the one with the large leaves behind the fake fern

I am waiting for a rock background (sheet), Tetra Complete Substrate, and the plants to be delivered yet.

So next weekend I will be transferring the fish in their water into a borrowed tank and rescaping with the Tetrasubstrate mixed with ¼-½ current gravel topped off with 1"-1½" of the play sand I bought from Argos, then putting the Deco back where I found them, sticking the background on the back and then planting (I aim to disguise all the equipment so it looks like a natural tank)

Any comments or advice most welcome as this is my first venture into the planted scene.

Andy

 

[SuperColey1]

I've bought some cold cathodes now for £4.75 inc. postage off ebay so I can do SmithRC's DIY moonlight.

 

[George Farmer]

Welcome to planted!

My suggestion would be to put a lot more plants in there, aim to cover at least half the substrate. Start with easy stems i.e. Hygrophila, Rotala, Ludwgia, Egeria etc.

Mixing the Arcadia Original Tropical lamp with an Arcadia Freshwater lamp will give you good results.

Be aware that your plecs may snack on some plants.

 

[SuperColey1]

Thanks for the reply George. I was looking at another Arcadia Tropical lamp to replace the AquaGlo that is in there at the moment. Do you think the Freshwater will yield better results?

My plan is to plant the entire side/background so basically if you see in my tank pic the only bit that will be left as sand will be the semicircle in front of the bogwoods.

The dark Green Plants are front left, plastic plant, Unidentified Plant1, Unidentified Plant2, Plastic Plant, Unidentified Plant3, and Fake Fern. The light green are is where I am planning to plant and the yellow will be my fishy area.

The common plecs are being collected on Thursday to be replaced by 3 Pitbull plecs hand delivered from PlecoAquatics on 13th Jan. I think these will be much friendlier to the plants.

I have disconnected the CO2 now because as I have only got the 3 plants in there the fish were gasping at the surface, so I will leave this off until I get the rest of the plants during the week.

I am looking forward to getting it all sorted probably on Friday or maybe Wednesday when the plants come. To start with I have ordered a pack of 75 plants from EPetz on ebay for £15. I know they will be basic but there will be 15 different plants in bunches of 5.

I might need advice as to wether they need burying in the substrate or planting on wood etc, as it says that some will be rootless cuttings and although weighted I will not know if I can let the weight keep it down until roots develop or if they need to be pushed into the sand.

Have you any idea what the plants I have in there are at the moment? I bought them blind with no labels about 1 month ago, and although the plecs have bashed them about they seem to be surviving quite well.

Many Thanks
Andy

 

[Themuleous]

Looking good

 

[SuperColey1]

Got the Arcadia Freshwater Lamp to go with the Orig Tropical one I bought last week. Hope George was right. Still waiting for the plants

Meanwhile I re-homed 12 fish for Meekon yesterday (5xglolight Tetras, 5 x Danios, 1 Black Molly and 1 Dalmation Molly)

Unfortunately the Dalmation tried to take over the tank and my regulars (The black Mollies, Betta, and the Boss White Balloon Molly) took her apart (literally) after the Dalmation had tried to nip them all. She died this mornig from all the wounds she got but she must've put up quite a fight cos the Betta has some damage and the Boss has a wound on her underside.

Water change 30% due to this and also the mini cycle so many fish have started (Nitrite was at 0.5, even though after only 1 day the ammonia was back to 0) Also Melafix dosed last night and tonight on top of the natural tannins coming out of the new bogwood which I am told is also good for them.

I am expecting the plants to come tomorrow, with the Substrate. They're all I'm waiting on at the minute, so when they come, I'm gonna be a busy man.

The 2 Original Black Mollys and the new female (Original female a whopping 8cm)

The Boss Woman (Silver/White Molly)

 

[SuperColey1]

Update:

Got my Indian Fern from Voo. There was enough for 5 seperate plants (although I know I should really have bunched them). Was delighted to find out that as the water ran through them a resaonable amount of Riccia Fluitans ended up collecting anywhere it could, so I'll let this float around until it is large enough to get a grass roof to the bogwood cave going.

Tank as it stands now

One of the indian Ferns

A little of the Riccia gathering at the top of the filter

Cheers Voo

Can't wait for my other plants to arrive.

 

[voo]

Glad the plants arrived so soon. Is it the photo that's making the fern look slightly brown?
I wouldnt worry too much about putting them close together, once settled they'll soon start to bush out a lot and new plantlets forming. Had i have known you wanted the riccia before posting i wouldnt have removed most of it before posting

As for the other plants you're trying to identify, not too sure on what they could be. The small grass one might be a kind of chain sword. The one at the back i havent a clue though, sorry.

 

[atmmachine816]

Sounds like you have a good plan . Sorry can't help with the plants, plantgeek is helpful sometimes for that. You said you used melafix with a betta in your tank, I would keep an eye on him as I'v know people that have lost their bettas due to this as it is harmful to labrynth breathing fish though in larger tanks it doesn't hurt them as much. Looking forward to see all the new plants come in

 

[SuperColey1]

I'll watch the Betta after hearing this. Its strange I was just telling someone else that I like Melafix but there are differences of opinion on it.

Betta has never seemed bothered by it, but I will keep a close eye on it. It's just that for wounds I have always found it does the job quickly whereas the other meds tend to not work at all sometimes, and then when you find 'the one that works this time' it takes ages.

Thanks for the warning. I will keep my eyes open (Obvs until I go to bed, and after I wake up. lol)

 

[SuperColey1]

Voo - the plants are a little 'light green to yellow' around the edges but that will soon get better. I'm very happy with them, especially the amount of Riccia that was caught up in them. lol

My Betta has been examining them very carefully, to see if the branches are strong enough to hold his 'rests' Given up now and 'gone to sleep' on top of the filter as usual.

 

[SuperColey1]

Its been a busy day.

Up at 8-30am
Plants Arrived 9-30am
Started Washing Play Sand 10am
Chap came to pick up the common plecs 10-15am
Started emptying tank 11-30am
Transferred fish to borrowed tank 11-45am
Completed emptying tank 12pm.

Had a rest and a nibble

Washed and dried tank 2pm
Polished Tank 2-30pm
Put back ground on back 2-45pm
Put in the Tetra Complete Substrate 3-30pm
Put in the Play Sand 4pm
Half filled the tank with clean water 4-30pm
Put back the ornaments 5-30pm
Planted out the tank 6pm
Filled the tank to top with old tank water 7pm
Put the fish into a container and let them float on surface, as if new to the tank, in case of any water diffs (swopping water back and forth from container to tank etc. 7-15pm to 7-45pm
Reconnected everything at this point to the sides of the tank (were working put not fixed in place)

This is the Result

All the plants came from a place on ebay, and although very nice looking they weren't labelled or anything so if anyone can ID them for me and also tell me if I have any 'problem' plants either lightwise or non aquatic then please do. I have tried to keep the redder plants in the ventre to get the most light as I was told they would need it.

Left side of tank

Right Side of tank

What do you think, does it look OK, should I put more plants at the back or wait for these to grow out.

 

[atmmachine816]

Looks good, I likely

I don't see any non-aquatic plants that I know of. I wouldn't add any more plants as I see you have anarchis, cambomba and looks like moneywort and you have co2 so your plants should grow fairly fast. Did you take the anarchis and cambomba out of the buncha and plant the stems an inch apart. It looks like you have one red plant shaded on the right, not sure

sounds like you had a busy day

 

[SuperColey1]

Which is which. I planted them virtually all in bunches together, but if you can tell me which plant they and advice on spacing for it I can move it.

Silly of me, maybe a little naive but I thought they might be labelled or have some sort of ID. lol

Probs the angle I took the photo at, the 3 red plants (1 just behind the cave, 1 left of 'tree' and 1right of 'tree' are all in brightspots as I look now.

The one that looks like it is red is actually Green/Brown and has been in their 2 months (bought at P@H Aaaargh) It is 2 times its original size and seems to be doing well. (Was potted)

 

[atmmachine816]

O sorry thought you knew, the anarchis is the plant in the back left corner, and the cambomba is in the back righ corner. Those are called stem plants, if you have any other that have those little stems at the bottom and not much of any roots plant them about an inch apart and sort of like this

. . . .
. . .

so they look thicker. You can leave the anarchis floating if you want and same witht the cambomba, not sure if you have any other stem plants if you can or not. Once they reach a desired height let them grow some more 4-6" then cut them off where you want them and replant the top part you cut off as it will grow again. The stem where you cut it off will grow side shoots that you can cut off and plant for more plants, sorry if you already knew this. Check out plantgeek.net for plant ID's. The really tall plant on the left looks like jungle val and the small grassy type on the left almost looks like dwarf hairgrass but not sure, best to take a close up or two of each plant to help with IDing.