My 60 gal planted after 4 months (with pic)

[gaul]

Hi all. I've been mostly a lurker here for the past 6 months or so. I have to thank you all for your knowledge and maturity (moss balls aside, and a little levity is always welcome anyway).

Anyway, This is my 60 gallon tank after about 4 months. Some of the plants have grown like crazy (like the hygro, now infesting the right and left side of the tank), others have slowly developed but are healthy, like the anubias, and a few died out. Overall I'm pleased with the progress.

I'm curious about any advice you all could provide, however. I'm going to move the anubia that's at the back, just right of center as I thought it would grow to become the "center piece" but really hasn't and is being dwarfed by the Hygro. I'm considering adding a large plant of some sort in its place and would like to hear suggestions.

Any other comments or suggestions regarding aquascaping welcome as this is my first attempt.

I'm running at about 2.5 w/g with 2 bottles of jello-yeast going that give a pretty steady 1 bubble per sec with 99% dissolution.
I run only a medium powerhead set low in the tank (just visible on the right) for a gentle current with minimal surface agitation. No filter runs during the day. At night a bubble wand and HOB filter come on and run all night (to dissipate excess CO2 and collect detritus). The system works great except that the leaf detritus falls off the intake filter in the morning before I can get to it to clean it off. It's super quiet during the day, though, which I like.

As for fish I have
17 cardinal tetras (amazing fish)
1 young veil-tail angel
2 red platies (had 3 initially)
4 black mollies (started with 5)
3 cory cats
3 oto cats (love these workaholics)
3 african dwarf frogs

So relatively heavy load but it never looks crowded (at least to my eye) and I feed lightly.


Anyway, enjoy the pic. I've taken photos every couple of weeks since I started and it's amazing to see the changes.

Matt

[Starry]

Looks nice. I like how the Hydrocotyle looks. Hygros are a pain in the butt. I'm throwing mine out in the next few days. There are some nice varieties though, the reddish-veined polyspermas. I can't really tell which ones you have. They're probably really helping with the algae battle though.

Show us more pics in a few weeks!

[TomFromStLouis]

Originally posted by Starry
I like how the Hydrocotyle looks. Hygros are a pain in the butt. I'm throwing mine out in the next few days. There are some nice varieties though, the reddish-veined polyspermas.

Inspired by Starry's blunt and accurate statement, I just purged all but two stems (I have trouble with letting go completely) of my Sunset Hygro. The leaf is a nice color but the growth habit is too unwieldy. Its not the rate of growth, just the untidy meandering that rubs me a bit. Maybe its time to try some wisteria.

That's a nice tank gaul. Although I am not a frog man, the fish selection is nice too. Considering a ground cover? It gives a whole 'nuther look...

[gaul]

Thanks for the input. The frogs are for my girlfriend who -had- to have them. They're pretty low impact, surface for air occasionally, eat maybe twice a week, stay small, etc.

As for ground cover, I did try glosso initially but I didn't "do it right" I guess and kind of grew it as a clump plant at first. My thinking was to let it adjust after shipment before cutting it up into a bunch of little plants. Well, it did die back a bit from shock but never really flourished. I suspect I don't quite have enough light for it, the stems for really lanky and it wasn't spreading out at all, just up. I really like the look it gives though, might try it again.

Thanks Starry for your comments. I like the Pennywort too. A stem came loose and was floating on the surface for a week or so (lost in a raft of hygro) and when I went to replant it I noticed all the leaves had turned to face the light (so replanted, they faced perpendicular to the surface)...so I got an idea. I thought I'd try and get it to root horizontal, along the front. It worked, I weighted it down and it put out a lot of roots and has really done well. I only wish the 'pads' were smaller as it'd be a great groundcover I think. I've pretty much let it go where it wants to go, we'll see.

I'll probably replace the hygro I have as well, eventually. I rather like the bright growth and it gives me something to practice layering and pruning with. It's getting to be a mess though...if I let the pruning go an extra week or so the leaves at the bottom fall off and I end up with a mat of growth along the surface, sprouting tap roots all over the place and suffocating the rest of the tank for light....but I do still like it...for now. ;)

[NJ Devils Fan]

Very nice looking tank you got there. How do you diffuse your CO2?

[gaul]

NJ Devil's Fan,

I use the bubble ramp thingamabob out of a Hagen system. I scrapped the canister and just have airline running from both 2 liter jello/yeast bottles running together via a Y-splitter so one hose spills into the bottom of the ramp. I swap out one bottle every 2-3 weeks and maintain a steady 1-2 bubbles per sec.

I get about 20ppm with that, with normal variation during the day (no filter on during day), at night it drops to 5ppm with the airstone and HOB filter running.

Works for me. I'm too poor for pressurized...some day.

[NJ Devils Fan]

I also use the ziz zag thing from the hagen system, but I modified it a bit. First, I have the bubbles comming through a very good airstone to make them very small, then they go through the zig zag thing and if they make it to the top, they go into the top of a soda bottle so I don't waste any of the bubbles.

[Matak]

Healthy tank Gaul. How long has it been established? (longer than the 4 months you mentioned?) Do you feel that filtering only at night is sufficient? If your setup works, it could be the ideal solution to filtering without dissipating CO2 and dispersing excess CO2 at night.

[gaul]

Matak,

It has been set up just 4 months. I added plants after just a couple of days, the first fish the following week.

As for the setup, it works for me. The main drawback, as I see it, of having the HOB filter only running at night is that the sponge insert dries out completely during the day here in Arizona. This means that most, if not all, of the beneficial bacteria are probably dying, lessening the effectiveness of the bio-filter. I don't know how much of a factor that is in a planted tank, though.

The main benefit of the filter running at night is, as you suggested, the dissipation of CO2, plus the surface agitation for O2, for the fishes' benefit, the bubble wand hooked up to the same timer does this too though.

I'm going to get a black foam background at Michael's this weekend as they're on sale and work out to be cheaper than the glossy stuff at the LFS.

I hope the tank continues to do well, I'll post more pics in a couple months. In the meantime, here's a closeup of the center of the tank.

[Matak]

The HOB's that I have ever seen spill over from a reserviour that the sponge sits in. If this is your case and it evaporates during the day, why not cover it to retard evaporation? That way you could save most of your biofilter. I believe it would go a long way to ridding your tank of ammonia etc. faster.