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Re-doing My Fluval Spec II

5K views 34 replies 8 participants last post by  Padded Wall 
#1 ·
Hi everyone,

After having all of my shrimp die out a while back, I decided it was time to tear down my Fluval Spec and start over.

I bought a new bag of eco-complete, scrubbed all the algae off the tank, emptied the water, boiled the wood and rinsed off the plants, so now it's time to rescape.

So far all I have in the tank is the wood, but I have the choice between eco-complete or ADA Amazonia for my substrate, and some vals, java ferns, java moss, anubias nana, swords, and some sort of stem plant for my plants, although I can buy more.

I'll be posting my progress in this thread, and asking for advice.

Here's a pic of the tank:



So my questions are: What substrate should I use?
Any ideas at all on the plants? I'm completely stumped.
What do you think of the hardscape?
 
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#35 ·
Thank you! The hairgrass has really grown, and I'm about 2 weeks into my cycle. I'm happy with my diffuser and I expect this will deal with some of my algae problems.

As of now my parameters are:
ph:5.5
kh:2-3
gh:~6
Nitrites and nitrates are maxed out on my test chart (I did a 50% water change but I didn't test afterwards)
Ammonia: 0-.6
TDS: a ridiculously high 304 (with RO water) but I believe this is just due to the cycling (super high nitrates and nitrites) as well as the co2 which I will stop before adding my shrimp. Also I may have added too much gh booster.

It appears as though the rock isn't drastically raising my kh or gh, so it looks like I should be able to get some CRS down the line.

Any comments or helpful tips are more than welcome as this is my first CRS tank.
 
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