180L Planted Tank with Rocks and Wood

[Rosco]

This is my first ever aquarium, I think I saw a planted aquarium on youtube a few months ago and decided to give it a go. Very happy so far and its all settling in nicely, however I can't get my Alternathera Reineckii to go 'Red', its very 'Red' on the under side of the leafs but not on top? Any tips from any pro aqua-scapers out there would be greatly appreciated. Is my fertiliser enough? Enough light?


Aquarium:
Dimensions: 100 x 45 x 45 - 180L

Lighting:
2x30W T8 6500K DayLight (10-20 - 10h)
Juwel reflectors

CO2:
5bps (07-17 - 10h)
2kg Fire Extinguisher
CO2Art Dual Stage Regulator and Solenoid Magnetic Valve
Intense Inline CO2 Atomizer Diffuser System

Filter:
TetraTec EX1200
Hydor 200w External Heater

Filter Media:
3 different sizes of foam
2 trays of Biohome Ultra Sintered Glass Media
2 bags Tetratec Carbon
Seachem Purigen

Substrate:
9kg CaribSea - Eco-complete Planted
20kg fine black gravel

Fertiliser:
Aqua Essentials Neutro CO2 (3.6ml daily)
Aqua Essentials Neutro + (18ml daily)

Plants:
8 Eleocharis Acicularis
1 Pogostemon Erectus
1 Cryptocoryne Pigmea
1 Anubias Nana
2 Taxiphyllum Barbieri
2 Echinodorus bleheri
1 Microsorium Pteropus Narrow
4 Alternathera Reineckii 'Mini'
1 Heteranthera Zosterifolia

Fish:
4 Zebra Danios
2 Otocinclus

Shrimp:
10 Amano Shrimp

 

[Martin in Holland]

Nice rocks and stones....
Don't worry about if you have enough light, I think you have to many hours for the beginning....6 hours for the first few weeks is plenty.
Your CO2 could run a bit longer, maybe turn off one hour before lights off.
The filter is packed...toooooo packed...you don't need Carbon and Purigen, as they do about the same, anyway you need enough flow and it seems that all the things in your filter prevent this.
The red coloring in plants is a mix of lights and (dare I say it?) Iron, but mostly light...high light will turn plants red, the need for Iron becomes more when they get more light, for now don't worry about red not being red, just get/keep them healthy.

 

[CanisDraco]

Damn, I wish my first (or third!) tank looked half as good as this! I especially like the 'sunset' shot at the end

 

[ianh]

Nice aqua-scape. Where did you get the rocks from?

 

[Rosco]

Hi Ian, my Local Fish Shop is Charterhouse Aquatics, they had them in stock. £3 a kg. I used roughly 15kg for this aquascape.

I will upload some new pictures soon, its changed a lot since I uploaded these. Totally overgrown (but in a nice way)

 

[ianh]

Hi Rosco, thanks for the information. Look forward to seeing the new pictures.

 

[Proenca]

gorgeous ! it would turn into a stunner.

my only comment is about the rednecki - I have it as well and it grows.. LARGE and TALL. if you put it so much on the front, it will imbalance the visual I guess ( again, take this opinion with a grain of salt - I just setup my first planted tank )

 

[GOSEANY]

Composition looks good, you've hit the ground running
Sean

 

[Rosco]

Thought I would post an update on the tank, its been a year and a few months. Most of the hardscape is still in there, however I have experimented with a few different plants. All the Anubias you can see grew from that 1 plant. Hair grass was a pain to trim and look after, so it went.

Some new tank mates too! Photo was taken when the Co2 was on, so that's all the little bubbles you can see. Posted next to original image to compare.

 

[BettsBP]

Great tank

 

[HiNtZ]

I found spectrum/intensity seem to play a part in the red pigments. I've had bacopa australis going pink before now under 120w LEDs (125L). Since removing the reds/blues (30watts worth) nothing goes red anymore. Not even my rotala rotundifolia which would often go really really pink on the undersides

 

[roadmaster]

My first half dozen attempt's did not turn out as nice as original poster's first.