Hey people, come join me here and lets help each other out. I would like some people to join in and lets have a get together, share our tanks, swap plants etc. Learn from each other. Louisville is a little bit to far. Maybe we can all car pool together to one of there meetings. But for now lets try something small right here in our own town.
Joe

Here are my tank spec's.

10 Gallon (hospital tank).
Fish - Gambusia affinis Fry, Rams Horn Snails.
Plants - Duck Weed, Penny Wort .
Equipment - HOB filter, Air Stone.
Substrate - Plain natural Gravel.
Ferts - None.

29 Gallon
Fish - 4 Otto's, 1 Rubber Lipped Pleco, Red Cherry Shrimp.
Plants - Micro Crypt, Crypt Wendtii Brown, Water Sprite, Stargrass, Amazon Sword, Glosso, Ludwigia Repens, Java Moss, Cabomba, Hemianthus Callitrichoides, Pogostemon helferi, Brazilian Pennywort, Salvinia Natans, Rotala Nanjenshen subm, Duck Weed, and others unknown at this time.
Equipment - Fluval 205 filter with surface skimmer. Formosa DX JG3 with 130 watts. Pressurized C02 w/Power Head. Drop Checker.
Substrate - 100% Flourite.
Ferts - (all dosed dry) - KN03, KH2P04, Chelated Iron, CSM+B, Excel.

50 Gallon
Fish - 2 Albino CoryCats, 5 Lemon Tetra's, 5 Cherry Barbs, 7 Gold Barbs, 4 Australian Rainbow's, 2 Bristlenose catfish, 1 Darter, (Still trying to ID these guys but I think they might be 2 Shadow bass and 2 Blue spotted Sunfish).
Plants - Micro Crypt, Crypt Wendtii Brown, Water Sprite, Ludwigia Repens, Cabomba, Star Grass, Rotala Nanjenshen subm, Salvinia Natans, Ceratopteris Cornuta.
Equipment - Fluval 405 filter with surface skimmer. Pressurized C02, AH Supply retro kit (2x55) 110 watts CF lighting.
Substrate - Sand and Soil, see 12 STEPS (blog).
Ferts - (all dosed dry) - KN03, KH2P04, Chelated Iron, CSM+B, Excel.

500 Gallon Pond
Fish - Gambusia affinis (Mosquitofish).
Plants - Duckweed and a few other clippings from my other tanks.
Equipment - Bog Filter, Fountain.
Substrate - None.
Ferts - None added, sometimes I top off with a little water removed from my other tanks during water change.

12 STEPS ON HOW TO CHANGE PLAIN GRAVEL TO A LOW COST SAND SUBSTRATE WITH NUTRIENTS ADDED.

NOTE: Do not clean your filter\s prior or during this process for a while. They should be well established with bacteria etc. Also, do not clean your gravel before starting this process. It should be full of bacteria etc as well.

(1) I went down to a local creek and got a bucket of soil/clay mix that looked pretty clean. Poured it into an empty 10 gallon tank. 1/2 filled it with water from hose and stirred it up to get all the floating debris out and braking up all the clumps. Poured most of the water out and continued to stir it up real well. Then added more water and let it settle for a while and poured most of it out, keeping as much soil as possible. Filled it up again and let it set over night to settle. The next day I carefully poured out as much water as I could trying to keep the soil/clay undisturbed. Then I pured all the soil out onto a clean concrete driveway into a pile and let all the water drain away.

(2) (I have learned that "KolorScape Leveling Sand" fizzes like crazy when acid is added to it. It makes my water real hard so you might want to find a different sand.) I went to Lowes and bought 4 bags of "KolorScape Leveling Sand, step 2". It is a dark gray color, looks almost black in the bag. Each bag is .5 cu. ft. It cost $3.00 something a bag. I poured about 1/2 bag into the old 10 gallon tank and stirred and flushed it out really good. Several times until the water was about clear in the tank. Then I poured this sand out on the concrete driveway as well, letting all the water drain away. Continued this until all four bags where done.

(5) I then siphoned out enough water to nearly fill a 5 gallon bucket and put all the fish in it.

(4) Then I siphoned out all the water from the 50 gallon tank leaving as much mulm as I could. I removed all the objects, rocks, plants, heater, hoses etc. I then removed all the gravel, again being careful to leave as much mulm as I could in the tank. Whats left is maybe 1/2 to 1 inch of water and mulm.

(5) Then I cleaned the glass walls which wet paper towels being careful not to scratch the glass.

(6) Then I put into the tank, 1 part creek soil to 3 parts sand, (about 2 qts soil to 6 qts sand) for this tank (48x12). This made about a 1 inch layer. Mix it up real good. Then I added 3 inches more of the sand only for a total of 4 inches. This used a total of 3 1/2 bags of the purchased sand. Clean the glass again if necessary.

(7) Then I put in the air stone (if you use one) and heater. Then I put in the rocks and driftwood where I wanted them. (NOTE: I made sure the rocks and wood had enough room around them so that the fattest fish could swim between them without scratching their sides if they became startled and made a fast dash to hide etc.) Then set back across the room and studied the tank layout to make sure it looks good and imagined how it was going to be planted. When I satisfied, I added a little more sand around the base of rocks and wood to help hold them in place and added some more sand in the back of the tank to help it have a 3D effect.

(8) Then I placed a saucer in the tank to run water onto real slow so I don't stir up the sand while filling it. Then check the temp of the water in the bucket where the fish are and adjust the water from the sink to match this temp (this adds in acclimating the fish faster) and start filling the tank real slow with my hose. (When the water is maybe 1/3rd full you can choose to plant the tank now or later in step 10). When the water is high enough (about 1/2 full) I started the filter\s. I then added a double dose of Prime water conditioner. When I water is high enough, start your heater and air stone (if used). When tank was full, I added another double dose of Prime, just to make sure ammonia and nitrite are safe for the fish.

(9) I then added the fish back into the tank and let them settle down for a while before I did anything else in the tank like planting plants.

(10) After the fish has settled down a bit, its time to start planting your plants. A lot of plants will help your water and fish. Then dose your ferts, (Macro's on day 1, 3, & 5 and Micro's on day 2, 4, & 6. Day 7 is a day off for adding ferts. Day 1 is water change day, approx. 50%. Some people don't fertilize during cycling. I do. It's your call).

(11) You should check your water parameters often until the cycling of your tank completes. You will probably need to change 25% of the tanks water maybe every 2 or 3 days for a while depending on your ammonia & nitrite levels. What I found was on the day of Macro dosing I would change 25% of the water before dosing. After a week or so, I was able to wait 4 days between water changes. Your ammonia and nitrite will determon how often you need to change water. My ammonia level started to clear up after about a week. Then my nitrite was at .5ppm for a while. The fish seemed to not be bothered so I waited to change water. You can add Prime to detoxify ammonia and nitrite if necessary, (It's better to add Prime to the new water before adding it to the tank). You don't really need them to be zero (though it would be better) as long as your fish are not bothered. You need some to let your filter bacteria feed on to grow and to completely recycle your tank.

(12) The water was pretty clear but not perfect so I added some Seachem's Clarity to help clear it up. According to Seachem, Clarity will not harm or effect the cycling of a new tank. I placed a power head in the tank to help circulate the water and let it clear faster. It helped the Clarity clear the water faster. You will have to rinse out your filter floss or filter media a lot when using Clarity. Just siphon out some tank water and rinse it in a bucket. Do not replace the filter media. After you are satisfied with the water clarity of your water you can remove the power head if you choose.

Joetee

Moving to a new home 2200 mile away with my Tank, Fish, and Plants. I was moving from Washington State to Kentucky and wanted to take my tank, fish, and plants with me. Here is what I did that worked.

Washington State to Lexington, KY. (2200 miles) for those who might be planning a long moving trip.

A three days driving trip meant my fish and plants were going to be in transit for 5 to 6 days. I planned on leaving early in the morning so I had to tear down my tank the day before. I arrived late in the day after driving 3 days and was beat. So my fish had to wait for a day or two before I had the tank all back together and cleaned ready for them to be placed back in it. I didn't loose one fish or plant. Also my plants grew while they were in a bucket.

I put the fish in an upright metal Igloo (Ice Chest) with water from the tank. I also placed my drift wood and my Amazon Sword in there as well to help the fish be able to hide a bit and feel a little safe. I purchased 2 new white 5 gallon buckets from Home Depot. One I placed all of my substrate with as much mulm as I could. It actually filled the bucket from my 29 gallon. I added enough water from the tank to just cover the substrate and covered it with its lid.
I filled a second new white bucket with tank water and placed all the rest of my plants in it and covered it with its lid.
I used a 130 watt DC/AC converter which was plugged into my cigarette lighter. I plugged my power strip into the DC/AC converter. I plugged in my canister filter and hung the hoses down under the drift wood to keep them under water. I also used my air pump with the air stone and 100 watt submersible heater.
I just laid the lid to the Igloo on top the hoses and cords on the Igloo leaving the water down about 8 to 10 inches from the top.
Result: No fish deaths, the plants all grew some, no water spilled, didn't have to do any water changes, I just topped up the water level a little a couple of times, and most of the good bacteria in the filter and substrate survived.
After setting up the tank again, plants, fish, etc, with the same water, everything seems to be growing better than ever. The next day I did a 50 % water change and then again 3 days later. The fish are happy and the plants are happy, and I am happy too.

When I stayed at a motel, I asked if they had an outlet that I could plug an extension cord into, and just ran the cord in through the door jam and plugged the power strip into it so my battery would not go dead. I don't know if it would have or not but just to be safe I did it anyway.

I hope this helps someone.

Joe

Haha, that's awesome how you had the filter running in your car!

I figured I would share two of my current tanks:







They are still growing in, but hopefully they will turn out nice in the end.
My more prized plants that I have in there are UG, mini pellia, ammania sp. bonsai, rotala colorata, and anthraxon sp.

I really hope we get this group going, so that we can add to our plant collections and maybe get some group buys going or something and work on scaping techniques. I've been looking forward to maybe getting a local club together.

Man you got some awesome looking tanks. We sure have some great plants for sharing. Do you have shrimp or fish in these?
Joe

Thanks for the invite. I'll try to get some updated pics of my tanks up sometime this week.

Man your tanks look nice!

Right now I have some zebra danios along with some danio that I forgot the name of. I have some cherry shrimp in my downstairs tank. I am planning on ordering some snowballs and/ or some yellow shrimp/ crs