The Planted Tank Forum banner

Jaguar's Low Tech ADA 60-P (Celebrating 6 Years of Failure!)

40K views 202 replies 41 participants last post by  Jaguar 
#1 · (Edited)
LATEST FTS Jan 20 2018:



TANK: ADA 60-P (17 gallon)
SUBSTRATE: Flourite mix - original, black, onyx sand
FILTRATION: Eheim Ecco 2234 w/ knockoff Lily pipes
LIGHTS: 12 3w Cree XPG LEDs, cool white, dimmable, 8 hrs a day on a dawn/dusk cycle

Scape will be very lush and natural, lots of leaves, texture, mostly green with a splash of red. Spider wood hardscape. Dosing EI light twice a week. Excel when I remember to. Some Osmocote+ capsules in there too.

FAUNA:
6x albino corydora
1x ember tetra
1x bristlenose pleco, longfin
1x assassin snail

FLORA:
Java fern windeloev
Java fern narrow leaf

Crypt wendtii green/red
Crypt walkeri
Crypt lucens
Crypt parva

Hygro sunset
Rotala rotundifolia

Anubias nana
 
See less See more
1
#2 ·
I picked up a aponogeton crispus today. I think I'm going to bunch the wood up and have it all branch out from one back corner of the tank. Then put the crispus, java fern, and red wendtii in between the branches. Then some pygmy chain in the front. Vals in either back corner. Java moss (for now) on the wood.

Gotta wait for the manzanita to sink first though. :p
 
#5 ·
You have quite a few things there. Crypts can be used to line the edges of driftwood to make nice transitions between carpet plants and background plants. From what I've learned its not how big your selection is, its how much you have. For example, if you put your driftwood set up in only one corner and leave the left/right side and small space in front then put glosso for carpet right... Plant maybe 1 species of hygro behind and through the driftwood. But plant densely, so that it grows very thick, then put e. Tennelus I'm a front corner ect, and then line the driftwood with crypts. Depending on the look you have in mind, I would be careful using java fern in a 60p unless its needle leaf. The leafs on it are rather broad and could easily distort the overall image of the tank, in other words you don't just one plant by itself with bigger leafs ect. larger than your driftwood lol. In a short time, the glosso or whatever your using for a carpet and the crypts will all grow in together, the objective is to have something natural looking. Unless you are shooting for a dutch style approach you don't want 15 types of plants in a 2ft tank with the exception of your foreground plants. You often seen riccia, glosso, and dhg planted together to give an over all natural look.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5v1lbAFUhg

Those two tanks are a tad larger, but could be implemented into any sized layout- IMO they best fit your layout with what driftwood it looks that you have.
Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk
 
#6 ·
Yeah I see what you mean, unfortunately the only plants I have a lot of are the red ludwigia and the water wisteria, neither of which I really want to use in this tank. the crispus is just a wee little thing yet. I have no real carpeting plant, it's impossible to find anything like HC or glosso locally :S I am still looking for new stuff every few days though... like I found the crispus last night.

I see what you mean about the java fern though, mine really is a beast, it's probably taller than the tank LOL. It's just so nice, I want to show it off... it's shoved in the back corner of my 10 gallon and bent in half because it's so tall.
 
#8 ·
Haha, thanks, but I'm up in Canada so you might not want to ship, the weather has been fabulously warm for almost January but you never know :p

In other news though, I managed to find some HC-looking plant (and a crypt mi oya) at a local store today... I raid their plant tanks every 2 weeks or so and have never seen HC till now. They had glosso too but I didn't get any. Gonna look for some needle leaf java fern and bigger crypts now. :) I want to do something like this:

 
#20 ·
Ohhhh yeah. It almost looks TOO bright. That was at 50% brightness, and with my phone auto adjusting it. Plus I'm adding a reflector later on.

I have no proper silicone or epoxy to attach the lenses so that kind of stinks. I tried hot glue but they fell off as soon as it got warm again. Haha.
 
#24 ·
Well, I am using an iPhone to take the pics after all. In both of those pictures, the lights in the room were ON... that's how much my phone had to crank down the brightness to get a decent picture :icon_smil

Can you give me a link to the thread S&KGray? I can't find it :icon_sad:
 
#23 · (Edited)
The LED's might not look bright but a PAR meter will tell the true story.

Check out Rockhoe14er's build and the PAR he got at different heights with 14 LED's (12 XP-G cool whites and 2 XP-E Royal Blues). This is over a 29g.

h2oaggie is also using 12 XP-G's over a 29g.

I think you will have to keep your fixture raised and dimmed to not get too much light for a 60p. A reflector would be good for shielding the light spilling out from the sides of the optics; but won't do much for LED's since their light is directional, more so with optics. Not that your LED's would need any help from a reflector anyway, hehehe.
 
#26 ·
Wow those PAR readings are crazy... my light is at about 26 inches right now and with the optics on I can just tell 100% power is too much light. According to his info 26" would be ~130umol, not sure how much those 2 extra blues would increase that but it gives me a good estimate. Thanks :)
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top