35G Hex Planted : Journal

[EOD]

As some of you may know, upon my return from Maui I found all of my fish dead. This gave me the opportunity to start over from scratch. I bleached and cleaned EVERYTHING and then rinsed it all off and let it sit in the sun. I went to a pool supply store and bought 50lbs of Silver Sand for $24. I poured the silver sand into the aquarium to roughly 2in deep. The aquarium is extremely cloudy so I put a heater in it and installed the filter (but did not turn it on). I'm now waiting for the sand to settle and then begin planting and laying scenery.
I don't have any very tall scenery so what are some good plants that will grow tall and provide some cover?

The LFS here sells mostly Anacharis. What are your thoughts on Anachris?

What are some recommendations for fish? Since this tank is in my living room I wanted a tleast one rather large fish for show as well as perhaps some smaller ones.

 

[aXio]

What type of light will you be running on the tank? Plan on using CO2 or Ferts? These things will all effect what type of plants you can keep.

 

[EOD]

Its an 18inch tropic sun daylight. I'll have some air stones in there but I don't know much about fert or co2. What do I need to do to keep my plants alive successfully?

 

[aXio]

Well first off the air stones are probably going to kill any CO2 that you have in your tank. So If your going planted I wouldn't do any extra air, the plants will provide enough for your fish.

You should be fine with out adding any CO2, but if you want to help your plants out I would atleast consider using Seachem Flourish Excel. It's a source of bio-available carbon which is basically what plants take from CO2. Also root tabs will help any root feeding plants you plan to keep. Assuming your light is just a standard fluorescent light, it probably won't be strong enough to keep plants well. I would invest in a T5 light fixture with a bulb that puts out 6,500-7,000k. I would go with low light plants whether you upgrade your light or not. Various swords, anubia, crypts, etc...

 

[EOD]

Like I said, I got the sand from a pool supply store so it isn't specifically designed for aquariums and therefor is taking a very long time to settle. This is 5 hours after I added the water.

Should I add the clear water stuff or do water changes or turn on filter or just WAIT?

 

[EOD]

In reply to your lighting advice, I still have the box for the light. It's a Zoo Med ULTRA SUN Super Daylight 18" bulb. 6500k high intensity full spectrum daylight lamp. Good enough?

 

[aXio]

In reply to your lighting advice, I still have the box for the light. It's a Zoo Med ULTRA SUN Super Daylight 18" bulb. 6500k high intensity full spectrum daylight lamp. Good enough?

Yes that should be fine for low light plants. So pick plants accordingly. You can do water changes to clear up the water.

 

[EOD]

So to continue the journal, I became impatient with the cloudiness of the water so decided to dilute it. I matched the speed of the water hose with the speed of the syphon and swapped water out of the tank until it was mostly clear.

Then I took the example from Tobaobo Koomi with his skull submersed in his sand. Here is a picture of what inspired me:

and here is what I turned it in to:



It's really awesome because that skull is not only now a dark cave, but it has a front and back entrance so the fish I get can chase it each other in and out of it.
I have already been told that the plants in this tank are not truly submersible plants and I respect your opinions, BUT I took the plants out of the tank while I was cleaning it, and just during that time they began to look horrible. The only thought I had was that they were meant to be submersed so I re-submersed them in a bucket and added a very little bit of miracle grow. They perked back up within 30 minutes. So, obviously now my opinion is that they will survive just fine underwater but only time will tell.

 

[FallenAngel]

Sweet
No offence, but you may want to change your signature

 

[EOD]

No offense taken. Signature changed. RIP to my fish that have departed. May your replacements be chosen wisely and treated with more care.