Hi all, after a lot of lurking around and trying to fill my head with a lot of good info I feel I should at least say hello and thanks to you all.
I've had a Juwel Rekord 700 tank in my loft for 4 years and at last after 30 years without a tank i've come back to the hobby.
I decided that i would go for the low tech soil based tank, part down to costs and time, in truth a bit put off by the c02 route and all that entails. If all goes well then it might give me confidence to up my game, but for the meantime i'm keeping it simple.
Can i just say a big thanks to Troi, as it is from his article The Soil Substrate or Dirted Planted Tank that i have got this far.
My tank has been running for now for 4 weeks and so far so good ( hope i've not jinxed it ).
Set up is how Troi explains, Westlands aquatic compost being the soil.
Black gravel as capping, a couple of pieces of boxwood and a couple of bags of plants from Pets at Home.
I don't have a massive choice of fish shops here and as they sell Tropica plants i thought it would be a good start.
I did think of writing down a planting scheme, but the reality is they would not have what i wanted so i just bought the easy plants in the range and just bunged them in.
Microsorum pteropus, Anubias barteri, Murdannia kaisak, Penthorum sedoides, Echinodorus bleheri, and a wild card Ludwiga glandulosa with a couple of moss balls thrown in as well.
After the first week i did a 50% water change then added TNC complete dosage of 7ml.
3 guppies added at the end of week 2.
Week 3 25% water change then 5 phantom tetras added with another 7ml dose of TNC.
I will probably add another 6 fish of small community size over the next few weeks, then as the fish stocks increase then if you guys think right then reduce the dosage of TNC to 2/3ml weekly.
Yes growth is slow, but then i knew it would be like that, but so far i'm pleased that it all seems stable, no algae.
Please excuse picture quality and my aquascaping is rubbish, i know i'll have to move a few things around as they grow. I just wanted to see how it would go.
I've had a Juwel Rekord 700 tank in my loft for 4 years and at last after 30 years without a tank i've come back to the hobby.
I decided that i would go for the low tech soil based tank, part down to costs and time, in truth a bit put off by the c02 route and all that entails. If all goes well then it might give me confidence to up my game, but for the meantime i'm keeping it simple.
Can i just say a big thanks to Troi, as it is from his article The Soil Substrate or Dirted Planted Tank that i have got this far.
My tank has been running for now for 4 weeks and so far so good ( hope i've not jinxed it ).
Set up is how Troi explains, Westlands aquatic compost being the soil.
Black gravel as capping, a couple of pieces of boxwood and a couple of bags of plants from Pets at Home.
I don't have a massive choice of fish shops here and as they sell Tropica plants i thought it would be a good start.
I did think of writing down a planting scheme, but the reality is they would not have what i wanted so i just bought the easy plants in the range and just bunged them in.
Microsorum pteropus, Anubias barteri, Murdannia kaisak, Penthorum sedoides, Echinodorus bleheri, and a wild card Ludwiga glandulosa with a couple of moss balls thrown in as well.
After the first week i did a 50% water change then added TNC complete dosage of 7ml.
3 guppies added at the end of week 2.
Week 3 25% water change then 5 phantom tetras added with another 7ml dose of TNC.
I will probably add another 6 fish of small community size over the next few weeks, then as the fish stocks increase then if you guys think right then reduce the dosage of TNC to 2/3ml weekly.
Yes growth is slow, but then i knew it would be like that, but so far i'm pleased that it all seems stable, no algae.
Please excuse picture quality and my aquascaping is rubbish, i know i'll have to move a few things around as they grow. I just wanted to see how it would go.
