My first planted tank, a journal

[ffmurray]

So several things have changed in my tank.. several more plants and some other things.

here it is now:

I added another piece of rootstock from the forest around my house, cleaned of course. It is currently just sitting in the front of the tank because it is wedged between the top frame and the other piece of root to keep it submerged. once it sinks I would like to move it to more of a background piece.

After finding out that mondo grass is not a fully aquatic plant(they got me!) i read where some people put it in a HOB filter and let it grow out the top, so i cut a hole in the cover and here it is. When I build a stand I am going to have a shelf that sits next to the HOB and holds one or two of my bonsai trees with a light above both them and the mondo grass


I came home one day and found one of my poor snails stuck in the filter intake, he was wedged pretty well in between the slots and I broke the inlet apart into pieces so I could remove him with no additional injury, The snail was still living at the time of the removal, but did not make it through the night. To prevent this from happening again i put a hole in a piece of aquaclear foam and put the foam block over the intake of the HOB... its not very attractive, but its better than having my filter kill things. does anyone have any Ideas on how to help this situation that might be a little more attractive?


Ive upgraded the lighting, The only light in there at first was a "bright white" 24" T8 bulb that came stock in the hood. I replaced the T8 in the hood with a aqueon floramax bulb. I also added another fixture behind it with 2 T5 bulbs, one is a 6,700k bulb and one is a "colormax" overall this seems like a lot more light, I would like to change the colormax to a floramax when I can get the money together. Both fixtures only use 24" bulbs, would switching to a 30" put out that much more light? is it worth it without any CO2?

I bought some Seachem flourish and dosed the tank once so far. I put API root tabs in the substrate.

My Anacharis is melting away and so far seems like the only plant that is not doing very well. Is this a normal die back related to the change in environment?


I added a couple of creatures to the tank ~10 ghost shrimp and 2 more(total of 3) gold mystery snails(they seem to be leaving the plants alone so far, I hope that it stays that way or they will have to live in my other tank with the plastic plants. I have put a piece of cuttlebone in the tank so that they can get the calcium they need, Its wedged under one of the root pieces


A Snail!

 

[ffmurray]

Added some diy co2 feeding into the filter impeller. Removed some melted anacharis.

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[ffmurray]

I took some pics of my diy co2 system. Hopefully this will help the plants out. Im looking at a diy drop checker.

Setting up to make the system


The system in place behind the tank. Once I build the stand and get it off this table Im going to hide it in the stand.


The outlet after the bubble counter is running directly into the inlet to the pump. The stock aqueon pump has the motor and the impeller located on the filter intake so there is some water above it. I'm hoping that running the co2 through the impeller will get enough of it dissolved to help out the tank.


I took the anacharis out and found that only a couple of pieces were starting to grow after all of it melted back. I cut the good pieces out, removed the dead leaves and replanted


If any one has some hints, tips tricks or suggestions I'm all ears.

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[ffmurray]

Sorry about the duplicate photo. Here is a picture of my setup behind the tank.



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[ffmurray]

sorry about the duplicate duplicate photos...

Ive been considering changing the sand/small gravel to entirely pool filter sand or the like. Ive been reading that because of its larger size that it will not develop any anerobic pockets, because it allows water to flow through it. Would this mean that there would be a reduced need for root tabs in the substrate?

 

[rufioman]

SnakeIce ftw. Very nice.

 

[ROYWS3]

Playsand is smaller, you are right but anaerobic pockets can develop in any substrate if it's too deep. Strong healthy, fast growing roots and a substrate that is not to deep will prevent anaerobic areas. I don't think you need to change the substrate for that reason - that is totally your call.

I would certainly suggest you add a lot more fast growing stem plants to absorb all the nutrients and light you got going on there. Most stems are water column feeders so you'll need some liquid ferts. You could add some Vals or Sag too for nutrient uptake (they are both root feeders - Sag more so that Val, but they can utilize both liquid and substrate ferts)

I'd hate to see this turn into an Algae farm - if you cant find a lot of plants locally, there are a lot of great sites online that sell good quality plants. I think there was a thread on here not to long ago asking about online plant sellers BUT like I said, get some more fast growing plants in there as soon as you can

 

[ffmurray]

What sort of stem plants should I go for? I have anacharis in there at the moment, is this sort of thing that grows quick or do I need other things as well?

What sort of liquid ferts? I have seachem flourish complete and have been dosing that?
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[THE V]

The DIY CO2 into the filter like that will just off gas and not be available for the plants. Injecting CO2 like that works with canister filters. For a DIY diffuser the chopstick/bamboo skewer method works amazingly well.

Not to scare you but you are heading on the fast lane to and algae bomb. I've done a few of these myself. The sand will likely cause a diatom bloom soon (brown algae). It will then be followed with other more fun species of algae.

Light + CO2 without proper ferts = algae bomb. Even a well balanced tank will get algae as it settles in.

Read up on fertilizers. With your current plants Barr's estimative index is the easiest. Ordering some dry ferts online is the easiest and cheapest.

 

[ffmurray]

An update on my tank.

I removed all of the playsand substrate and replaced it with dirt/pool filter sand. I used the organic miracle grow mix. The dirt layer is about 3/4 of an inch with a pool filter sand cap on it.
The playsand was anaerobic in places and when i dug it out it stunk pretty bad.
I put all the same plants that I had back in the tank, down in the new substrate.

Here is how it looks now:


I finally got some fish in the tank.

10 Neon Tetras


4 silver hatchetfish


and 3 Oto's but they were hiding when i was taking pictures, in addition to that there are two mystery snails. The ghost shrimp have been moved to a small tank on there own, they kept bothering the snails and picking at them.


when I was at petsmart I picked up another plant on a whim, It says its fully aquatic and I hope that that is true. I got some Cardinal Plants.

Ive read that it goes both ways with this plant, some people cant seem to get it to grow in a tank and some people can. If it does not do well I guess I will just have to pull it out and find something else to put in its place.

the fish have been in the tank for a while and seem to be doing well, they are swimming well and i dont see any signs of stress with them. Ive been feeding them Omega One freshwater color enhancing flakes and some Omega One green seaweed for the Oto's

Ive ordered the PPS-Pro pack from greenleafaquariums and hope to get it soon. So far I haven not had any problems with algea, I hope to keep it that way, at least for the most part.

any comments, critiques or criticism is appreciated