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First planted tank from Day 1

Chloesdad

Member
Joined
24 Jun 2015
Messages
33
Hi All

Thought I would post my journey here more for me to look back on, this is basically day 1 of starting a planted tank.

Converting a 5 foot marine tank with 3 foot sump heres a pic of when it was new to get ideas, I have thought about a planted tank for years having seen some stunning images but literally know nothing.

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I am currently reading and asking questions my initial thought was Discus as like them and I make my own RO water (for the marine) which they prefer (I have read). However it now seems discus and planted tanks are not always successful.

RO Unit

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Water Butt for RO

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Equipment I have to use which may or not be useful 2 banks of Leds split across tank 3 wavemakers 1 adjustable, 2 x 300w heaters, 1 sump circulation pump returning water through centre weir 2 outflows.
 
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Popped out and bought some John Innes no3 compost and play sand from B & Q so gonna go with that as substrate just need to find a suitable mesh to divide the layers any advice/links appreciated.
 
Welcome mate. Good luck with your scape, plenty of inspiration on here. There's a few that have done discus and planted tanks as well. Have a good read before starting. I myself have used play sand and although it did its job in a dirted tank I'm not that keen on the look of it. Looking forward to seeing how you get on. Good luck.
 
Couple of thinks spotted that I know cause issues...

- How are you stopping your RO water from freezing outside ? My mate had this issue years ago with both his RO butt outside and piping freezing on cold days. He got over the butt freezing by putting a 50W aquarium heater in it, but never got over the 4mm pipes freezing. RO unit was under kitchen sink. He wasn't on a water meter.

- Weirs and CO2. Weirs are one of the best ways of degassing all that CO2 you have carefully added to the water, as many have found. Search for BeanAnimal overflow to see what some people have done.

- Weirs and plants. Ensure your sump system can cope with the weir being blocked by plant debris (in fact any part of your system blocked with plants debris) or you may find your sump contents pumped out onto the floor !!!..
 
Thanks for the replies

Currently filling the tank scary I have put in the John Innes no3 made a few bumps and covered in Sand have pic will add but right in middle of fill so writing this. Got a few plants from local pets at home and bunged them in Basically probably all the wrong things but at least doing something to see what happens how things react etc etc as never done before.

Ian, it has froze once for doing top ups and regular changes etc for winter I just filled 2 x 25 litre containers for emergency but all was fine.

Will deffo read up on weirs and CO2 cheers

Plants blocking shouldnt be a problem I have combs on top of weir and 3 escape roots will add pics but basically I have my normal return pipe, then a second return emergency pipe 6 inches higher with a 3rd side attachment in case 1 and 2 blocks had this designed as a marine tank and snails are a nuisance for exploring everywhere and blocking pipes so hopefully Im covered if not house insurance new flooring and possibly a new tank not bad as a final outcome :0)

Now after I give this a wet run its now late lol I will read up a bit on CO2 systems and tomorrow try and order some plants that I want and see how they go fully expected thsi to all go ***s up but Im learning .
 
http://www.co2art.co.uk/collections...plete-aquarium-co2-system-for-tank-up-to-500l

Will this be ok for my system not a clue how to use it but will start with the gear also.....

My tank and sump before displacement is just over 450 litres my circulation pump is 5000 lph returned through 2 outlets left/right from centre weir currently the plants in there just a few spread through tank some centre and some at extreme left and right have all got a slight shimmy is this enough or should I be adding some wavemakers I do have a few kicking around ....is there such a thing as 2 much etc etc??

Lighting I have 2 x 165w full spectrum leds one left one right of tank that are dimmable again to much to little I will research a bit more tomorrow but if anyone has any input it will be gladly received thankyou in advance. Will add pics tomorrow to hopefully make more sense of what Im talking about.
 
http://www.co2art.co.uk/collections...plete-aquarium-co2-system-for-tank-up-to-500l
Will this be ok for my system not a clue how to use it but will start with the gear also.....
Looks fine. With a big tank & CO2 dissipating weirs you might want to consider the considerably cheaper to run 5Kg fire extinguishers or 6.35Kg pub gas CO2 cylinders.

Lighting I have 2 x 165w full spectrum leds
These sound monsterously bright...a Klingon death ray to the plants, luckily dimmable. Do you have any Lumen or even better PAR values for these lights so you can work out what to set them at initially.

99% of all planted tank failures at startup (melting plants and growing algae instead of plants) is due to
- Insufficient CO2 levels
- Insufficient CO2 distribution
- Using Klingon death ray lights.

Is there such a thing as 2 much etc etc??
In my 180litre tank I have 1500l/hr external, 600l/hr internal and 3200l/hr wavemaker, 5300l/hr in 180litres a x 30 turnover. Yes there are high flow bits, but fish play in the high flow and do find low flow places to hover and rest.
 
Thankyou again guys for the replies will get the details from my lights to find a start point.

Will read up more on co2 and try and find a solution for my needs will need to see what fits in cabinet.

Some pics added from previous discussions on posts
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Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
All looks prime CO2 degassing equipment....Issue is it is very hard to get CO2 into the water but take b*gg*r all to shake it out.

When I accidentally gassed my fish, when I first started CO2, the fish were either gasping at the surface or floating listlessly on bottom, I immediately put my air pump on in an attempt to reduce CO2. Within maybe a minute the fish were back to normal, having managed to drive off enough CO2. Wasn't a lack of oxygen issue, as plants were pearling like made, showing water saturated with oxygen.

So you have a big think on your hands...You need to see what other people with sumps have done. Large CO2 cylinder is one solution of course.
 
In my 180litre tank I have 1500l/hr external, 600l/hr internal and 3200l/hr wavemaker, 5300l/hr in 180litres a x 30 turnover. Yes there are high flow bits, but fish play in the high flow and do find low flow places to hover and rest.
Are you keeping discus in this tank?

Chloesdad there are many successful planted tanks that run with 4-5x turnover & moderate CO2 levels
Layout 48 - tank details (including filters) are listed at the end of the video
Layout 95

Definitely take the time to establish plants & scape before adding in the discus (note how densely planted many tanks are at startup)
 
Are you keeping discus in this tank?
The powerhead was added as the low bits of my plants were getting BBA and when placing a drop checker there it hardly moved off blue indicating I had a CO2 distribution issue. Adding powerhead, trimming affected stems and no BBA and green/yellow drop checker.

This is a picture yesterday, in need of a serious trim due to not having much time beyond 50% water changes (&vacuum) in last couple of weeks. A lot of the plants have decided they have had enough and have broken surface and starting to leave the tank via the bracing bar...
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Ok guys my thoughts and bits and bobs so far......

I do want a lovely green planted tank thankyou for pics Ian they are deffo growing in yours I was adamant about discus but read bits on gassing etc so a bit scared but ....I need to get my head around a few things.

For most of my plant needs and the bits I have read so far I think the plants I like (as I know nothing else) are amazon swords and Dwarf Hairgrass. I have also added a few Hygrophila spermine (may be wrong)? which are all hardy beginner plants if I didnt add CO2 would all these plants just melt away and die. If co2 is deffo needed to keep green healthy plants is some better than none hope that makes sense. What I mean is should I do some kind of DIY system where I constantly add a small amount of CO2 to keep plants healthy to survive rather than have them flourish.

My main object is to keep fish with the added benefits of having a green healthy planted tank as someone said on another post the discus and their health should be the main concentration.

I may need to simplify what I want a discus tank with healthy plants basically. Anyway in from work now so off to reading again and thankyou for the replies.
 
Are you keeping discus in this tank?

Chloesdad there are many successful planted tanks that run with 4-5x turnover & moderate CO2 levels
Layout 48 - tank details (including filters) are listed at the end of the video
Layout 95

Definitely take the time to establish plants & scape before adding in the discus (note how densely planted many tanks are at startup)

Thankyou great info
 
Right after some more reading and being a noob at this game Im going for the lowtech route so wish me luck. :)

Any info/tips appreciated.
 
I will add a few pics of progress so far I am currently soaking mopani wood to get rid of some tannings before putting in tank and will hopefully get some moss type plant to tie onto it.
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Plants added so far that I know of Cryptocoryne beckettii 'Petchii' Ludwigia repens 'Rubin' Anubias var. nana, Amazon Sword, Vallis, eleocharis parvula, hygrophila polysperma. These are what I am reading from labels of the ones which had them.
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I am adding plants daily at the minute but really just fancy a good mix and may just do a bulk order but before I do I need a bit of help around the lights I have them set at lowest setting on both my blues and my daylights. Have just set them up to have blues (set to minimum) come on 30 mins before daylights (set at minimum) are added with a 2 hour siesta period during day then back on both and then down to blues for last 30 mins at night. I know this is just trial and error for me but what percentage of full daytime lights could I safely go up to anyone any experience with these.

Over the last day I have noticed uneaten flake at the centre of my tank indicating dead spot so I have just added a wavemaker to help move this.

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Apologies for terrible pics just took with my phone
 
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You need to "unbunch" the plants - if there is any "tie" or metal clip, remove this even if you want to leave the plants loosely "bunched" while deciding on a layout.
You want "space" between adjacent stems (for most plants), remove any damaged leave, trim roots etc - Tropica has an excellent series of videos showing plant handling, there are also some additional clips in the layout videos.
Generally swords & crypts prefer a deeper substrate of 3-4 inches as they like to root extensively, grasses, stems etc are fine with 1-2 inch depth; note that (in general) your soil should be an inch or so & the covering sand forms the bulk of the substrate (commercial products such as ADA soil, Tropica soil, etc are very different than "dirt" after the manufacture processing).
Swords & crypts are also less forgiving of being moved "too often" as you're sorting your layout - plan on paper & consider growth details for each plant type when you're choosing positioning.

I'd be concerned about debris collecting in the slate chip area (sorry not sure what that is), with Discus it's important to be able to vacuum uneaten foods & waste etc from the substrate.
 
Thankyou alto will read up now on Tropica as its their plants Im stocking at present. The slate chip area was me trying to define a planted area behind in my head but not sure lol I have cleaned the area when water changing with wide mouthed gravel cleaner and seemed ok but the more I read Im scaring myself off discus so we will see.
 
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