First Planted Tank

[freded]

Be gentle, this is my first planted tank which I've had up and running for a few weeks.

Having kept fish for a couple of years, I decided to try a planted tank after I managed to acquire a Juwel 125 tank from a relative fairly cheapily.

I've got the following equipment in the tank:

Filter: Fluval 305. Also just added an Hydro Koralia 1 pump
Lighting: Just bought a Hagen Glo T5 24W x 2 luminaire. Also got a couple of lights from nano tanks I've got (18w and 11w) which I can add on if necessary. Also got 3 Marina red LED lights in the tank.
Heather: Internal heater as well as undergravel JBL cable heater (got that before I found this forum )
C02: Two Nutrafin cannisters using George Farmer's DIY suggested mixture. Got them coming into the tank at opposite ends with cheap glass/ceramic diffusers from guy in Hong Kong off ebay.
Substrate: JBL Aquabasis with gravel on top
Fertilisation: TPN (2.5mls per day), TPN+ (.5mls per day) and Easycarbo (6mls per day).

Plants: Bought a 48" collection from Java Plants to get me going as well as a couple of nice plants kindly donated by London Dragon

Fish: 12 neons, 4 black widow tetras, 3 rainbow fish and 6 harlequins and 4 cories. Also got some Jewel fry as needed home for them while they grow (some have been eaten by the tetras) and will be moved back into my cichlid tank in due course.

I've not really got a theme or anything in mind and am just seeing if I can successfully keep some plants alive before I try anything more ambitious. Have got a long term vision of converting my tank in my living room (large Fluval tank) into a planted tank with pressurised C02, top quality substrate etc.

Found this site invaluable in getting information on planted tanks and wish I'd found it before I started along this route.

Pics to follow.

 

[StevenA]

Welcome Freded, glad to see you're going to start a journal, took me alot longer to start my first one Don't think you'll need the extra lighting to start with, 2 x 24w should be enough for now. What species of plants have you used, and have you had any algae issue? Looking forward to seeing some pictures.

 

[freded]

Some pics

 

[StevenA]

Looking good. Have you thought about maybe adding some hardscape (bogwood, redmoor wood, rocks etc...) to break up the planting. Wood especially can be used to very good effect. And you'll need to keep your eye on those Nutrafin canisters, it can be quite hard sometimes to have stable consistent Co2 with the DIY method. And just a thought but you don't need to use TPN and TPN+, just the latter. TPN+ has the trace elements and also NPK.

 

[Garuf]

Polish the glass with some news paper and turn the flash off and you're onto a winner, just make sure you keep everything going nice and smooth.

 

[George Farmer]

Good start!

Learning how to grow plants is the first stage to success, and it looks like you're doing fine.

Figure out what plants you like, what do best in your set up and if you're into the more artistic side of the hobby you can try your hand at creating some cracking aquascapes.

Finally, there's no real requirement to use both Tropica products. Personally, I'd stick with the '+' version. Mixing the two may see you going deficient in N and P.

In the long-term you will benefit hugely from a pressurised CO2 system, as they provide so much more reliability and control that yeast-based systems.

Keep up the good work and thanks for the feedback on the site. Glad to have you on board.

 

[freded]

Looking good. Have you thought about maybe adding some hardscape (bogwood, redmoor wood, rocks etc...) to break up the planting. Wood especially can be used to very good effect. And you'll need to keep your eye on those Nutrafin canisters, it can be quite hard sometimes to have stable consistent Co2 with the DIY method. And just a thought but you don't need to use TPN and TPN+, just the latter. TPN+ has the trace elements and also NPK.

Thanks-there is some bogwood in there but its hard to see Once I've got the hang of growing plants, I intend to have a go at being more artistic/use hardscapte more etc.

Graeme from Greenmachine recommended the TPN/TPN+ combo when I phoned up to order some TPN+