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My Fluval Spec (Lots of pics)

15K views 39 replies 18 participants last post by  parrottbay 
#1 · (Edited)
Hi all. I'm fairly new to this forum and to planted tanks in general. I picked up a Fluval Spec and decided to run it as a freshwater planted tank. I set it up last night and now it's cycling. Any advice and comments are welcome!

Specs:
Tank: Fluval Spec 2 U.S. Gal.
Light: Stock for now
Heater: Marina C10
Substrate: Seachem Flourite
C02: None
Flora: Dwarf Hairgrass, Needle Leaf Ludwigia
Fauna: None


Unboxing


Rinsing the Flourite.


Flourite meet tank


Planted and filling


Filled and cycling.

Should I be adding anything to the tank as it cycles to help the plants out? Should I add Excel or API Leaf Zone while it cycles?
 
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#2 ·
Update. So I'm pretty sure I did not plant nearly enough plants. It's cycling but I lost two parts of my Needle Leaf. :/ So now the question is what do I add to the middle of the cycle? I tossed in a Anubias Petite so we will see how it does. Ammonia is 0 but I'm off the charts with Nitrites and Nitrates. So do I go more stems or a bunch of floaters like Frogbit or Anarchis?

Pics:





If you look closely at the right needle leaf you can see some die off at the base of the plant. Top of the plant is still green and growing?

 
#4 ·
Throw in some floaters, great at absorbing nitrites and nitrates. Also, if you have any pre-established tanks squeeze some of the filter mulm into this tank. Will speed up the cycling process a ton.
 
#9 ·
It does help some. Mainly it's the lighting hat really drives how fast the plants will grow. More light, more uptake of nutrients. I'm going to be upgrading to the Fluval 13 watt powercompact light.
This is very true. If you're running low medium light plants you can suppliment once a week with excel. However, higher light plants with more lighting will need CO2 injection or excel to supply plants with organic carbon. If you're talking about your shrimp tank Deano37 I would get excel in case of algae bloom, but not really use it unless you must.
 
#10 ·
I have a larger high tech tank with Flourite red and it's a lot of work getting plants to grow properly and I have no luck with plants that are very demanding. I also have a 2.5 gallon nano with Fluval Stratum, no C02, no ferts, and the plants grow slow but nicely and it's all the plants no matter how demanding. I would consider trying a small bag of Stratum or ADA AS before you add any fish or shrimp, it makes a huge difference.

Oh, it bufferes the water nicely too, my pH, kH, & gH are lower than my tap water so it's great for shrimp, there is only one drawback I forgot to mention the Stratum is super light and moves easily, the AS only drawback is the initial ammonia spike but it is heavy like soil and your plants will grow like crazy.
 
#12 ·
You are off to a great start! I have a Spec and grow DHG, blyxa and staurogyne repens in there with the stock lighting on for 12 hours a day. I do dose excel daily as well. I have a friend that has hers with DIY CO2 and the stock lighting and it is doing well too.
 
#16 ·
Water params are looking fine and this tank is in for a re scape. I've got a nice piece of driftwood to put in here. My plants also getting re done. I'm still gonna have the Ludwigia Arctura but I'm going to add in more DHG and see if I can't get it to carpet more.
I hope to get this all done before I head off to Texas for a 3 day conference. I will be dosing two drops of Excel and only one drop Flourish as well. That should help keep everyone green and happy. I will also be adding in a few root tabs to help out the DHG and other root feeders. Flourite is good but needs some help.
 
#19 ·
Algea update. I've been having algea issues lately with my two nanos and I am positive it's from an unstable water change schedule. Now that summer is here and I now have a full time job everything should begin to fall into place. Today's water change consists of vacuuming out algea and rinsing my sponge out to remove some green hair algae. Can't wait to get my tanks cleaned up and proper again.
 
#25 ·
Well I have no new pics and the light I currently have on there is prefect both in size and power. The spec is currently undergoing some work and I'm adding in some driftwood plus more plants. I highly recommend the Fluval 13 watt fixture. As far as led lights go I have seen one person used this on their tank.
 
#26 ·
nice spec, I am waiting for my spec 2 gallon to come in the mail and I actually went with the 13 watt clamping light too - good to see you are happy with that setup :D
 
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