daniel19831123
Member
I've setup my 16G tank a week ago and thought it would be fun to document how everything is going and see changes in a few months time. Plants to go in the tank includes pogostemon helferi, bolbitis heudelotii, ludwigia repens, pogostemon stellatus, HC, java fern narrow and windelov, and one unknown plant at the moment. Will need help to id this plant sometime in the future.
I decided to go with Diana Walstad Theory of natural aquarium. Didn't soak my top soil before using since I won't be stocking any fish atm and the ammonia leaching is good for my fishless cycling. I placed the tank on the shelf and pour the soil and top it up with some dupla substrate. I later found out that I poured too much top soil in the tank when I have a peep from behind. Some area on the slope came up to nearly 5 inches and this might caused some problems in the future with anaerobic spaces. After consulting with Diana, she suggested that I constantly poke the soil with a skewer stick or something long and pointy or the other alternative would be to grow loads of heavy rooted plants such as tiger lotus or sword. I will used the plants method but instead I will planting loads and loads of stem plants. If there is a problem they will be the first to show sign as they are normally pretty fast growing. Looking at the bright side, with this amount of soil in my tank, I would generates loads of DOC which will be beneficial for the plants. Diana reckons I could get away with growing difficult plants with no CO2 injection as long as the lighting is sufficient.
Lighting is made using 2x24w T5HO luminaire purchased from EQJ trading. A total of 48w over 16 gallon tank. Taking into consideration my huge amount of substrate and the gap between the water and the light, it most probably work out to be 3.5-4wpg. I'm not sure which colour tube was used as I've requested for planted tank tube and the seller had changed it before it was dispatched to me.
Filtration is achieved using eheim Ecco 2232 external filter.
My other plant arrived today from a Germany company and I am very pleased with the quality of the plant. I've bought 4 but they have send me another plant for free. The downoi was enough to be separated into 6-7 CLUMPS (yes clumps not stalks!) to be planted separately. HC was enough to cover some of my foreground. The item that pleased me most is the bolbitis heudelotii. It not only came fully grown on a bogwood, there is at least 5 rhizomes on it with at least 25-30 leaves on the bogwood! Crypt balansae came fine in the packing as well. The whole package costing me 22 quid including postage at delivery (which I think is a very good deal considering that greenline charge 3.50 for each stalk of downoi. )
I wanted to upload some picture but I can't seemed to get the picture onto the message. Can anyone advice me on how to do this? Thanks
I decided to go with Diana Walstad Theory of natural aquarium. Didn't soak my top soil before using since I won't be stocking any fish atm and the ammonia leaching is good for my fishless cycling. I placed the tank on the shelf and pour the soil and top it up with some dupla substrate. I later found out that I poured too much top soil in the tank when I have a peep from behind. Some area on the slope came up to nearly 5 inches and this might caused some problems in the future with anaerobic spaces. After consulting with Diana, she suggested that I constantly poke the soil with a skewer stick or something long and pointy or the other alternative would be to grow loads of heavy rooted plants such as tiger lotus or sword. I will used the plants method but instead I will planting loads and loads of stem plants. If there is a problem they will be the first to show sign as they are normally pretty fast growing. Looking at the bright side, with this amount of soil in my tank, I would generates loads of DOC which will be beneficial for the plants. Diana reckons I could get away with growing difficult plants with no CO2 injection as long as the lighting is sufficient.
Lighting is made using 2x24w T5HO luminaire purchased from EQJ trading. A total of 48w over 16 gallon tank. Taking into consideration my huge amount of substrate and the gap between the water and the light, it most probably work out to be 3.5-4wpg. I'm not sure which colour tube was used as I've requested for planted tank tube and the seller had changed it before it was dispatched to me.
Filtration is achieved using eheim Ecco 2232 external filter.
My other plant arrived today from a Germany company and I am very pleased with the quality of the plant. I've bought 4 but they have send me another plant for free. The downoi was enough to be separated into 6-7 CLUMPS (yes clumps not stalks!) to be planted separately. HC was enough to cover some of my foreground. The item that pleased me most is the bolbitis heudelotii. It not only came fully grown on a bogwood, there is at least 5 rhizomes on it with at least 25-30 leaves on the bogwood! Crypt balansae came fine in the packing as well. The whole package costing me 22 quid including postage at delivery (which I think is a very good deal considering that greenline charge 3.50 for each stalk of downoi. )
I wanted to upload some picture but I can't seemed to get the picture onto the message. Can anyone advice me on how to do this? Thanks