T4U 125 Gallon Planted Tank Journal

[tennis4you]

Well, it was around the end of July 08 when I came in here looking for help. My plants were not growing and I had bba. I was not using any CO2 and I was only dosing with Flourish. I was also only turning the tank over about 4x per hour. I got my butt handed to me about my neglect and I chose to do something about it.

I added CO2, I am using dry ferts now (PMDD and Phosphates), I added another canister filter and a powerhead (tank turns over 10x per hour now) and I am using SMS for my substrate rather than the gravel that I had.

Long story short, the plants have exploded in size and they all look pretty good. It's not a fantastic looking aquascape by any means but it is my first planted tank and I am trying to get a good handle on it all. Plus, I still have some very big fish in the tank for a planted tank. The biggest one is 12" long so I need well rooted plants. Those fish were all bought a year before I discovered how much I love planted tanks.

So, below is a picture of where I am at. I have come a long way but it is still a long way to get it where I want it. I am an Architect so layout and design is important to me even if it is not a building I am designing.

I am not sure I have a good dosing strategy yet, I am just dosing daily and changing water once per every other week. I tested for iron the other day but it came up with a reading of Zero, it always has.

The bba has been defeated for now, let's hope it stays away. I appreciate everyone's help with the tank thus far, you guys have been awesome!

Also, I cannot seem to get good photos of the tank, the flash always reflects off of the glass if I take it dead on and without the flash the tank is very dark.

 

[Steve Smith]

Looking great! I'm still, after a lot of faffing and wayning interest, stuck at trying to make a good looking scape, and not learning enough about my plants. I'm starting to get that I need to just grow plants well before I get to the full on scaping thing.

Looking forward to how you re-scape. Any ideas for what you want to do?

 

[Luketendo]

Looks good and almost like a jungle. Although the sides aren't as tightly packed.

You might want to get a plain background on the tank also.

 

[Steve Smith]

When taking your photos, try taking it with the room dark and the lights on in the tank, and no flash. See if that comes out OK. If you're using a compact, it might not work so well unless you can rest the camera on something stable.

A trick for using the flash is to cover over the flash with some white paper. Try it out, you might need use several layers. This should diffuse the flash enough so you don't get the reflection. Again, try this is a dark room

I've managed to take some nice shots using my old DSLR and these techniques

 

[tennis4you]

Thanks for 4 the tips.

As far as re-scaping, it will be a while before I get a chance to. With our lovely economy I should probably wait a while before I run out and buy more plants. I am also going to wait for some of the bigger fish to pass, and that could be (hopefully) several years. Although I have debated getting rid of the 3 plecos and seeing if someone with a bigger tank wants to take them on. But the 12" ghost knife I could never get rid of. 2 of the 3 plecos are pretty big and they can rip across the tank and really up root stuff.

 

[tennis4you]

Looks good and almost like a jungle. Although the sides aren't as tightly packed.

You might want to get a plain background on the tank also.

Yeah, I have heard that about the background. What colors look good? I could probably grab a black foam core piece large enough to slide back there.

When I didn't have any plants I just used a huge house rendering that I designed and used it as the background. Now it is probably time to upgrade.