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How I Got to Where I Am Now

Claudy Banks

Seedling
Joined
5 Feb 2016
Messages
8
Location
Birmingham
Hi All
My first attempt at creating a planted tank, something I'd been meaning to do for ages. I'd kept fishes years ago, back in the days when you would buy some plants, watch them die, and go back and buy some more. So now the time was right to go for a proper planted tank, swat up on all the latest methods, follow the guidelines, buy the right equipment, have a bit of patience. All dead easy right? Wrong! I soon realised so much advice was contradicted elsewhere and every tank was different to every other. My main point of reference in the early stages was on this very forum, 'Setting Up A Higher Tech Planted Tank' and ploughing through older posts. Eventually I felt ready to take the plunge and start getting various bits of equipment together. This took the best part of a month.

My initial purchases comprised:
Tank-Juwel Rio 300 350litre
Filter-Fluval 406 (used in conjunction with internal Juwel filter)
CO2- JBL Pro Flora kit
JBL Pro Flora ph controller
Lighting- 4x T5 54watt c/w reflectors

Also, odds and ends such as 3x digital timers, driftwood, substrate etc.
In the next post I will relate some of my trials and tribulations on the setup, money well spent, money wasted, that sort of thing.
tank.jpg

 
Initial Set up Continued...
As I said in my first post, it took the best part of a month to get the assorted bits of hardware together. Knowing that driftwood would need soaking a while before use I had already purchased various pieces and these were all dumped into a wheely bin that I filled with water.

As I had run various aquariums in the past, I was fairly up to speed with most aspects of the hobby such as filtration, heating ,lighting. What was a complete mystery to me, of course, was this whole Co2 thing and one of the more trickier bits of selling this whole idea to the wife was trying to explain why our living room would soon have to have gas cylinders in it! Still, I got through that stumbling block and set about joining together the various bits and pieces of equipment.

At this stage, I had a couple of nagging concerns. That co2 cylinder, 500g, that came with the JBL m602 kit would, surely in a tank my size, run out in about 5 minutes. Well the guy in my local fish shop who seemed to know what he was talking about, reckoned it would last about a month. Hmm... I wasn't so sure, but only time would tell. Secondly, that ph controller that I'd paid £174 for,(and don't forget the sensor sir, that'll be an extra £54 please). Had I wasted my money? The general consensus on forums would indicate that I had, so at this stage it remained in the box, looking very pretty and high tech, but seemingly useless.

Next stage, substrate...what could be simpler than buying a few bags of gravel. Well lots of things actually. For best results I would need to buy special stuff and it seemed that the best stuff was a product called Amazonia soil. That's it then I'll get some of that. The only problem was, nobody seemed to sell it.However , I finally found somewhere that did, The Green Machine based in Wrexham, Wales. ( A quick look on google maps told me it was about 100 miles away, thus, a pleasant drive out for me and Mrs. Claudy. We'd buy the soil, buy the plants, get everything planted up and looking nice over the weekend. I phoned the shop to inquire about substrate and plant availability and it was then that my plans for the weekend would be dashed. The very helpful guy at the shop informed me that yes, they had everything I would require but I would have to wait a month between putting the substrate and water in the tank before adding plants. Another month! But surely on youtube i'd watched that Japanese guy put fresh soil in a tank and then proceed to plant, the add.water. Well you could, but what about the harmful amounts of ammonia the soil would release. All very confusing. Still, I said all along along that I would try and be patient, so another month it would have to be. At least that driftwood in the dustbin would get a good soaking in the meantime.

To be continued...
 
Thanks guys for your positive comments.

Aquascaping
Let me say before we go any further I am not particularly artistic or creative, I can see by looking through other tanks set-ups featured on this and other forums that a lot of people are, so my efforts look a bit feeble. Anyway, in my previous update I mentioned that we were going to take a trip to The Green Machine. This we did, and after admiring the many display tanks, we purchased the substrate. I took the advice of the helpful guy there and came away with:
3x Bags Amazonia Aqua Soil
1x Bag Power Sand
1x Bag Powder Sand

Also while we were there, my wife kindly purchased The complete works of Takashi Amano for me, presumably for inspiration. A quick flick through was enough to convince me I would never come close to that standard but I'll give it my best shot.

So, the next day I got started, first stage power sand then soil then powder sand. So far so good. However it wasn't until a couple of months later, and to late do correct, that I realised that I hadn't covered the power sand with enough soil in places, the result being there are now areas where the white power sand pieces are strewn over the surface making it look rather unsightly.

That done I now set about the artistic part, trying to assemble my random collection of driftwood and rocks (i say rocks, actually odd bits of rubble found in a yard where I work, one of my biggest regrets looking back now is being to stingy to buy some decent pieces of stone.)
IMG_8990a.jpg
My first attempt
IMG_8992 a.jpg


Being reasonably happy after a fair bit of juggling about, I carefully filled the tank with water, and over the next month, carried out checks, first for ammonia then nitrates and then nitrites, got the filters up and running and changed the water, 50% each week. Everything seemed to be falling into place. One of the things I had started to notice though, the tank was awkward to work with, it was too deep to get to the bottom of. I remembered reading somewhere about not getting a deep tank because of that very reason. Too late now, I would have to manage with what I had.

Initial water testing seemed to be as it should be i.e. very high ammonia readings, very high nitrate readings. Something i forgot to mention before by the way, my local water is very soft, about 6.4 ideal for what i was trying to achieve. Both the ammonia and nitrate readings would fall nicely over the coming weeks. I added Sera Bio-Nitrivec to the water and added Fluval G Nodes into the filter Canister. The only concern was the driftwood giving off a fair amount of tannin, and the large amount of mould growth. Both of these problems, as I know now, would cease to be a problems and sort themselves out further down the line.

During this waiting time I set up my JBL co2 system to give it a test run. I'm afraid it wasn't very successful. There was a leak somewhere and the 500g cylinder was empty the next day. It was obvious to me that a bigger cylinder was required. I set off to my (fairly) local fish store to inquire about getting something better. He said that a 2kg cylinder was available through them but suggested I went to a local co2 supplier where, for a much smaller cost, the same thing was available. Indeed it was, this was more like it, a 2kg cylinder for £35 with refills at £2 a time. Also it was only a ten minute drive from my house. Bring it on! I went spend crazy and ordered two.

Now for the plants. It was all starting to come together. Still wasn't sure what to do with that ph controller though.

To be continued...
 
After letting the tank mature for a couple of weeks I thought the time was now right for the interesting bit, adding plants. The general guidance as I understood it was to initially put in as many plants as possible. This I did, by purchasing a cheap bulk pack of mixed plants, together with a more expensive choice of plants. I must admit to being very impressed with the bulk buy, the variety, amount and quality was all far more than I had anticipated. Towards the end of planting I was struggling to find enough room to get everything in.

So for the next few weeks everything was doing really well. The plants (or most of them anyway) were growing well, no sign of algae, water quality about right. This is how the tank looked after about a month.

View attachment 84177
 
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