Well since Tiff has not been keeping up her area,
I have decided to set up my home tank as a planted aquarium so I might be better able to help and answer questions on this subject..not by reading but by doing.
I will keep you informed!
well mind as well start here,
My tank is 180 gallons 60x24x30
I intend to see if 4x 40watt fluorescent
and 2x 54 HO T-5s will do the job for most popular plants, that is about 1.5 watts per gallon, to include
2 10000 k
3 18000 k
1 actinic
also to use 240 lbs of Carib Sea Eco-complete for planted Aquariums this will give approx 2-2.5 inches of substrate.
At this time I do not intend on CO2 injection of any kind, I will use fertilizers I sell in the shop and cee results, if they are to my liking I will then utilize CO2 and see what results are achieved.
In this way I hope to give the consumer a unbiased result in the pushing of high end products that not everyone wishes to purchase.
The tank was a reef tank for 15 years and has a Sump, the pump has been down sized to approx 700 gph at the return nozzle and will rely on the substrate and lace rock for biofiltration as no bioballs are in the sump, if this is not enough I can add media to the sump but do not feel it will be needed, I will use some carbon and phosphate removing resins, and RO water from this point on (initial fill was tap water as I have no patience to wait for my RO..lol)
Fish will include lots of small tetras and Discus as well as some exotic Catfish.
Let the Games begin!!
The Planted Aquarium
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Gerwin
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well ITS AWESOME,
I now have 12 Rasbora Hets,
4 Cory Cats
and
12 Jungle Val
10 Corkscrew Val
Melon Swords x 2
Baby Tears X2
Penny Wort x1
Micro Sword x 2
Chain Sword x 2
Hairgrassx1
Cherry Hedge x 1
All look good "so far" except the hairgrass, about 1/2 died in 72 hours, which I found odd as the it was fine in the store for 3 weeks...
The Jungel Val. literally grew 8" in one week!!
And as of this moment only the ecocomplete has anything for the plants, the tank has been set up for 2 weeks now.
All levels are fine.
Again as a reminder, the whole live plant aquarium is new to me, and have done no research trough reading etc. I only have listened to my customers who are hobbyist themselves.
Most of what I am adding is true aquatic plants according to the supplier
that may or not be true, either way they are common plants in the trade and I am not a purist of any sort...so we shall see how they do for any length of time.
update 3-29-08
Jungle Val. has now exceeded 27" in new growth!! I am sure if I could stand still long enough I might be able to watch it grow.
I also have new growth sprouts of the Val. in 6 area about 3-4 inches away from main plant that are about 1 inch tall and one that is about 4 " tall. Water Sprite doing well, as well as everything else. The Baby tears are taking hold and am seeing new growth as well.
As far as the fish I have about 40 neons now , 10 cory cats, 5 Clown Loaches, 2 Discus, 12 Otocinclus cats (they did a FANTASTIC job of eliminating the diatom algae growth from rocks and plant leaves.) As well as all the fish I started with
I have yet to add any fertilizers and my lights are running about 12 hours a day.
Now the bad..it appears I may be seeing a algae bloom, "the green water", this is not good as I do not want to use chemicals that may damage plants.
alas I know the fix, but I did not want to spend the money right now.....a UV sterilizer will fix this right up. hmmm..oh well thats why it is called a hobby my friends
I alsohave a slight NO2 level showing, so I put bioballs in the overflow and sump, remember this was a reef tank with no bio material in use as the live rock and sand formed the bio filter. With the reduced flow internal and the lack of 300 lbs of rock I am assuming there is not enough media for proper biological filtration for the increased fish load, we will see if this works.
I now have 12 Rasbora Hets,
4 Cory Cats
and
12 Jungle Val
10 Corkscrew Val
Melon Swords x 2
Baby Tears X2
Penny Wort x1
Micro Sword x 2
Chain Sword x 2
Hairgrassx1
Cherry Hedge x 1
All look good "so far" except the hairgrass, about 1/2 died in 72 hours, which I found odd as the it was fine in the store for 3 weeks...
The Jungel Val. literally grew 8" in one week!!
And as of this moment only the ecocomplete has anything for the plants, the tank has been set up for 2 weeks now.
All levels are fine.
Again as a reminder, the whole live plant aquarium is new to me, and have done no research trough reading etc. I only have listened to my customers who are hobbyist themselves.
Most of what I am adding is true aquatic plants according to the supplier
that may or not be true, either way they are common plants in the trade and I am not a purist of any sort...so we shall see how they do for any length of time.update 3-29-08
Jungle Val. has now exceeded 27" in new growth!! I am sure if I could stand still long enough I might be able to watch it grow.
I also have new growth sprouts of the Val. in 6 area about 3-4 inches away from main plant that are about 1 inch tall and one that is about 4 " tall. Water Sprite doing well, as well as everything else. The Baby tears are taking hold and am seeing new growth as well.
As far as the fish I have about 40 neons now , 10 cory cats, 5 Clown Loaches, 2 Discus, 12 Otocinclus cats (they did a FANTASTIC job of eliminating the diatom algae growth from rocks and plant leaves.) As well as all the fish I started with
I have yet to add any fertilizers and my lights are running about 12 hours a day.
Now the bad..it appears I may be seeing a algae bloom, "the green water", this is not good as I do not want to use chemicals that may damage plants.
alas I know the fix, but I did not want to spend the money right now.....a UV sterilizer will fix this right up. hmmm..oh well thats why it is called a hobby my friends
I alsohave a slight NO2 level showing, so I put bioballs in the overflow and sump, remember this was a reef tank with no bio material in use as the live rock and sand formed the bio filter. With the reduced flow internal and the lack of 300 lbs of rock I am assuming there is not enough media for proper biological filtration for the increased fish load, we will see if this works.