My Dual Tank Distraction

[NotoriousENG]

Hi Everyone,

After shutting down my previous tank (a high tech, sumped 20 long) due to moving, I am back with two new mental health distractions aka planted tanks!

This time round I'm hoping to keep things lower maintenence and thus have decided to go with high tech and medium-low light. My ultimate goal is have these tanks on a two week water change schedule and filled with mostly slow growers like anubias, buce, and crypts.

Tank 1:
29 gallon
Substrate: BDBS
Light: Finnex Ray 2 dual 7K
Filter: oase thermomaster 350
Co2: Yes, inline reactor
Hardscape: eucalyptus root

Tank 2:
Fluval flex 15
Substrate: BDBS
Light: Stock
Filter: Stock with extra sponge
Co2: Yes, ceramic diffuser
Hardscape: spiderwood

I dark started both tanks using frozen shrimp and tetra safe start for about 2 weeks. The cycle isn't fully done but is progressing nicely with ammonia and nitrite both starting to drop.

Yesterday I got the first round of plants in. Nothing fancy or well thought out yet, just what I could get my hands on locally to start building plant mass and start getting things established.

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[NotoriousENG]

So dosing, this time my goal is to target a two week water change schedule since I'll be keeping mostly slower growers and would like less maintenance.

So far this what I'm thinking, front load macros and mg after a water change to the levels in the (bad quality) picture below. For micros, I think I came up with a low ish level dose with Fe-edta from CSM+B and and some extra iron from Fe-DTPA. Let me know yalls thoughts or suggestions.

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[NotoriousENG]

Been a hot minute since my last update. In general both tanks are doing well and are now mostly to fully stocked.

The 15 flex is currently home to 5 sparkling gouramis, two peacock gudegons, 2 asian stone cat fish, and 1 apple snail. Future stocking plans are maybe another 2 stone catfish and a amano shrimp or two.

The 29 is currently home to 12 dwarf emeralds rasboras, 10 bronze corys, 2 hillstream loaches, 2 mystery snails, and 2 nerite snails. Thinking about doubling the emerald rasboras but worried that might be stretching my stock levels.

Plants are doing prettt good aside from having staghorn start to show up. I also fought staghorn in my last tank so hopping i can get ahead of it this time.

Equipment wise, I added an inline diffuser upstream of the reactor on the 29 as i was burning through co2, the diffuser seems to have improved effiency.

The other exciting thing is that i just placed a large plant order that should be coming this week. When it comes in i should have enough plant mass to reach goal of havinf zero stem plants in either tank

 

[_Maq_]

I'll be keeping mostly slower growers and would like less maintenance.

This is something I don't gather. You prefer slower growers and less maintenance, yet you don't hesitate to employ CO2. You're far from the only one.
Do you guys think that without CO2 no planted tank is possible?

 

[NotoriousENG]

This is something I don't gather. You prefer slower growers and less maintenance, yet you don't hesitate to employ CO2. You're far from the only one.
Do you guys think that without CO2 no planted tank is possible?

Well some of it is that I already had the co2 stuff so might as well use it. Im also an engineer and love to over complicate things that don't need to be.

From a practical standpoint, I personally have never had much luck with low tech planted tanks, I know many do but I've always struggled with them so some of it is I'm just more comfortable with high tech (got my first high tech tank in middle school). As for result, I've had much more robust growth with co2, even under low light and don't want growth to be too slow. Having to trim stems everyweek get annoying but having anubias and crypts put up atleast one new leaf a week, lilies throwing a new leaf everyday, and being able to carpet with dwarf hair grass in only a month or two is super cool and not to much to handle. Keeping light limiting and having ferts and co2 in excess also makes it really easy to control growth rate. Faster growth, increase light, slower growth, lower light. Great for longer vacations and busy periods. Lastly some slow growers show different colors if you have enough co2 to run more light. Just my personal thoughts and at the end of the day its a hobby so its all about what you enjoy. I won't lie, it is entertaining to tell people you run hightech with no stems and or hightech low light. Stems are cool but crypts, anubias, and buce are my passion.

On a side note, my plants are here!

 

[NotoriousENG]

I need to do a proper update soon but just wanted to share a picture of my red tiger lotus. It's becoming quite the specimen and putting atleast 2 leaves a day now. This picture is after I removed a good number of older damaged leaves.

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[NotoriousENG]

A big update is needed as there have been some MAJOR changes including new lights, more fish, new equipment, and a new regulator build. As a motivator for me to write it up once th3 changes are all complete here's some teasers

 

[NotoriousENG]

Finally found the time to type up a more detailed update!

First up is the 29-gallon. I took the plunge and converted this tank to a high-flow temperate stream tank. To do so I moved the output from the canister filter to the short side of the tank and added a cross-flow wave maker along the back of the tank. I also recently switched the standard oase inlet pipe out for a glass intake with a skimmer as I had some issues with protein film build-up, even with a pretty decent amount of surface ripple. I also upgraded the lights and now running a pair of AI Prime 16HD freshwaters on the tank with the old Finnex Ray II perched on top of the mounts to light the new riparium section of the tank.

I just planted the riparium section today and have two more planters to add at some point so it should fill start filling here nicley.

Other equipment changes include a new regulator build to replace my previous regulator build that was limited to a max pressure output of 25 psi. I could never get the reactor tuned right and it would take hours for the tank to reach a steady pH drop with the reactor. Eventually, I got fed up and decided to go with an inline atomic diffuser and a new regulator with a higher pressure output. I did decide to keep the reactor to increase dwell time and have some floating biomedia in it which seems to be helping since the bubbles aren't terrible.

Lastly, stocking for this tank has evolved to match the stream theme. The current stocking is 21 Tanichthys micagemmae (Vietnamese cardinal minnows), 10 bronze corys, 2 hillstream loaches (rescued from a 10-gallon), a bamboo shrimp, nerites, and amanos. To me its a very heavy stocking load compared to how I usually stock my tanks so I'm considering this tank to be fully stocked aside from possibly a pair of Stiphodon gobies.

Of the fish, I really love the T. micagemmae. They're a fish that I've wanted for quite a while so its nice to have finally found them. They are definitely smaller than white clouds and look absolutely stunning when the males flare their fins out.

Now on to the flex 15.

As part of an all-around CO2 upgrade, I switched from a needle wheel powerhead for injection over to an inline atomic diffuser that I placed inline on the verticle tubing running up from the pump to the outlet. I also finally ditched the stock light and upgraded to a Fluval nano. Definitely an upgrade but I find myself not loving the color of the lamp much like how I didn't love the color of the Fluval 3.0 on on my previous 20 long. I find the fluval lights tend to lean towards warmer colors whereas my preference seems to be cooler lamps. The finnex Ray II was a perfect color for me other than how it aggressively washed out reds.

Stocking for this tank is also a bit on the heavy side at 2 peacock gudgeons, 7 emerald dwarf rasboras, 5 sparkling gouramis, and 5 Asian stone catfish.

On the wood on the front left side you can see a homalomena doing quite well. Such a cool plant as it has kind of crypt-like leaves but grows like an anubias anchored to wood.