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Redoing my 300L planted tank

dmachado

Member
Joined
2 May 2013
Messages
46
Well, after having my planted tank in total misery for some years, while successfully selling fertilizer plans to fellow hobbyists (!!), last december I decided to give it a makeover.

Aqua1.jpg


I had 20 kg Dennerle, some river sand and black sand in there. Took most of the black sand off, and kept the rest.

Then I used a big load of unfertilized potting soil I kept in a box outside for maybe a year - mostly mineralized by now, plus a big load of fresh potting soil, no additives too.

I placed the mixed soil in the bottom layer, then the river sand plus dennerle substrate I had kept aside, then a layer of washed river sand, then "amazon" sand as a cap.

I changed the CO2 injection from inline diffuser to a ceramic disc diffuser, about 3-4bps and set the 208w T5 lights to full blast. I set it to 5 hours at start, now it runs for 8 hours on weekdays and 9 hours on weekends. CO2 starts 5 min before lights on and stops 1 hour before lights off.

I use EI fertilization, with increasing iron ppm, maybe about 2ppm/week now, and also good Ca and Mg supplementation. The water changes need to be made more frequently, the usual problem... I'm lazy. But I try.

And I got this, from bottom to top:

Aqua8.jpg


It's pretty stable now. The "problem" is the required trimming rate, and the lotus' leaf size trying to take over the tank.

I'm happy.

Regards,

Daniel
 
Last edited:
What a great transformation 👍🏻👍🏻
Thanks!
I now recall the happiness that comes from a stable tank... This is one of the lotus all covered in bubbles after a water change.
WhatsApp Image 2021-01-31 at 20.03.55.jpeg

I'm now growing a number of plants, including Pogostemon Stellata Eusteralis, but still trying to tune CO2 distribution and iron ppm.
I'll be getting more species in there soon.
Cheers.
 
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