First Hi-Tech Planted

[gogol]

well here goes, my first thread on any forum and my first attempt at a hi-tech planted.

tank is old school 75 gallon with stainless steel frame, 1/2 inch thick glass and slate bottom. it is a beast. i resealed the thing two years ago when i got it and have been keeping fishies and half-alive plants. christmas came late for me this year and decided to go all out and get the rest of the set up i wanted to make this tank hi-tech. never thought i'd be so into growing plants i couldn't smoke.

layout is HC, Glosso and Eleocharis Acicularis growing emersed per the barrreports dry start method. tank is wrapped at the top with plastic wrap. gonna do this for 4-6 weeks before i add water, pump in the co2 and dose EI lite.

shots are from my iphone so they are kinda poopy. any suggestions for a newb would be cool. so far everything is still alive.

 

[BoCoMo]

Im subscribing!

Please keep updating! I cant wait to see how it turns out. Looks like you're off to s good start.

 

[Mgamer20o0]

how are you lighting it?

 

[gogol]

4x65 watt pc. kinda modest for the hc but i made the substrate deep, to move them closer to the lights. so far dry, after three days they are even showing a little new growth. and seem to be doing pretty dandy. the hairgrass doesnt look too hot, but its hanging in there. its in substrate about 2-4 inches above water line. i dont mind if the glosso grows a little on the taller side. misting 5x daily with diluted flourish.

 

[jmhart]

Metal frame, nice

 

[debaric]

how is 3.5 wpg modest?

 

[Jag1980]

Every time I notice one of these dry starts I see them have nothing but problems.
Layout looks cool. Good luck. :thm:

I would just add water :lipssealedsmilie:

 

[7itanium]

never thought i'd be so into growing plants i couldn't smoke.

ROFLMAO!!

 

[Jag1980]

ROFLMAO!!

:thumbsdown:

 

[gogol]

how is 3.5 wpg modest?

The lights are 20" from the hc. Now maybe "modest" is an overstatement and correct me if I'm wrong as I have no experiance with hc, but 4x65 cf doesn't look that intense. It's my understanding that cf is not as efficient as t5 or intense as metal halide. I'm just not sure if the cf is bright enough to make the hc grow into those nice thick juicy mats. Maybe I'm underestimating the power of pressurized co2. I once ran 180 watts of vho I scored for free on a 50 tall. Now that was intense. Pushing the limits of diy co2 I got good growth, but also farmed a lot of algae.

Will continue to go dry just to see the results. That hc is a pain to plant and can't imagine planting under water where it will float. If this thing was on wheels and it was warmer out I'd probably just let the sun take care of my electricity bill.