Hello! So this is my first post here. I heard about this place thru one of the members here that I met last night. Since I joined up with the GSAS I figured I should stop thru and say hello and post my journal.
Time reffs are messed up since I originally posted this journal a month back. And I'm just feeling too lazy to retype it all again. So bear with me..
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Ok. So I have grown bored with my 75 gal. Its established and all I have to do now is feed the fish and drop some ferts in there. minimal maintenance.
So being the addictive hobby this is. I decided that I needed another tank Specifically for aqua scaping.
Hard to do in a cichlid tank ya know..
So I went out and grabbed a 20L from a LFS that was having a sale. I also dropped some coin on a bunch of plants since they were on sale I got ALOT.
so I got to scaping.
and filled her up
I had a bag of some Eco complete and added this horrible stuff called Ironite.And this is what I used for substrate. Altho it has everything you want for your planted tank it has a little something you DONT. Ammonia. Too much actually. You can see the white grains in the eco. Theres alot more under the eco.
Now for a couple days I thought this might be ok and help the tank cycle faster. Well I let a few days go by and plants started dieing off. BAD LIKE. So I had to pull everything. And this was my task last night.
So I took all the plants out. Removed all the tainted substrate. And started draining the tank.
Now in the planning (key word here is planning. Its more important then you think) of this tank I did some research (another key word here) and seen what others were doing in the proper setups of their planted tanks.
You see for a planted tank to thrive it really should be set up from step 1 with the idea of planting in mind. SO that being said When I was at the fred meyer returning the ironite I picked up some Peat moss and some sand. Since I had destroyed my Eco-complete and not wanting to drop another 25 bucks for a new bag I went to Home Depot and got some Schultz Aquatic soil.
I layed out the peat moss (aka Sphangium moss) In the area that I had planned on having
And above the peat I placed the schultz. In the open area I added white sand. for a beach effect.
Now this time I took a hour REALLY seperating the clumps of Dwarf Hairgrass into small bushes. And I lined the "beach front" with the Dwarf hair and made a small trail that leads down the center of the tank.
Behind the DH I planted some Money wort that I expect wil probably die off and get replaced. To keep the MW down I had to place a rock on top of it. And to the left of the DH I took my micro swords and made a grassy area there. and behind that I have a rock with some Java moss tied to it.
With everything I had to use at this point in the tank I decided it was time to fill er up.
Since I have everything in place I didn't wanna mess taht up so I had the water on low.
As you can see I'm an idiot and I forgot to wash the sand. (I assumed it was prewashed. NEVER ASSUME) And the water got kinda cloudy not too bad tho.
So I plugged in the Emp280 and let it get to work. I have a bunch of poly fill in it to help polish that crap out of the water.
After a couple hours it was looking alot better.
So sadly I lost most of my plants that were in the tank. I assume it is because of amonia burn. possibly the water was too cold because theres no heater on it. At any rate that will all get corrected.
I guess i'm clairvoiant because yesterday even before I knew my plants were all hosed I ordered some off our own Dippy Eggs. So that will replace what I lost. And infact I think it will work out for the better because the plants that I had goten were kinda random. and didn't really have a theme. This tank will be much better off once the new plants get in there. And I have a feeling the plants Dip's is sending are going to be a lot better quality then the doomed to die ones I got from the pet store. Thanks again Joe!
Now as far as the details of my little tank here they are.
Its a 20L
I have a single PC 36w fixture on it.
substrate is a layer of Peatmoss covered by Schultz aquatic and sprinkled with a small amount of eco-complete. And a sand trap of white beach sand.
Ferts will be Flourish line of ferts. Comp,Excell and Phosphate. I will be adding some GW Macro ferts to the mix too. But am looking for other alternitives.
Plants are
Dwarf Hairgrass
Micro swords
Saggatira Stabula (sp,sorry)
Java moss
Moneywort
I'm wanting to add a Moss covered rock wall to conceal the intake of the filter. As it detracts from the overall look of the tank and I feel that it will give the illiusion that the tank is larger.
I am just trying to figure out what moss I can use for that as Java moss tends to be too stringy and likes to travel alot. I'm thinking about getting some Riccia. Not totally sure yet.
The 75 will also be in for a major overhaul soon too.
Time reffs are messed up since I originally posted this journal a month back. And I'm just feeling too lazy to retype it all again. So bear with me..
******************************************************
Ok. So I have grown bored with my 75 gal. Its established and all I have to do now is feed the fish and drop some ferts in there. minimal maintenance.
So being the addictive hobby this is. I decided that I needed another tank Specifically for aqua scaping.
Hard to do in a cichlid tank ya know..
So I went out and grabbed a 20L from a LFS that was having a sale. I also dropped some coin on a bunch of plants since they were on sale I got ALOT.
so I got to scaping.
and filled her up
I had a bag of some Eco complete and added this horrible stuff called Ironite.And this is what I used for substrate. Altho it has everything you want for your planted tank it has a little something you DONT. Ammonia. Too much actually. You can see the white grains in the eco. Theres alot more under the eco.
Now for a couple days I thought this might be ok and help the tank cycle faster. Well I let a few days go by and plants started dieing off. BAD LIKE. So I had to pull everything. And this was my task last night.
So I took all the plants out. Removed all the tainted substrate. And started draining the tank.
Now in the planning (key word here is planning. Its more important then you think) of this tank I did some research (another key word here) and seen what others were doing in the proper setups of their planted tanks.
You see for a planted tank to thrive it really should be set up from step 1 with the idea of planting in mind. SO that being said When I was at the fred meyer returning the ironite I picked up some Peat moss and some sand. Since I had destroyed my Eco-complete and not wanting to drop another 25 bucks for a new bag I went to Home Depot and got some Schultz Aquatic soil.
I layed out the peat moss (aka Sphangium moss) In the area that I had planned on having
And above the peat I placed the schultz. In the open area I added white sand. for a beach effect.
Now this time I took a hour REALLY seperating the clumps of Dwarf Hairgrass into small bushes. And I lined the "beach front" with the Dwarf hair and made a small trail that leads down the center of the tank.
Behind the DH I planted some Money wort that I expect wil probably die off and get replaced. To keep the MW down I had to place a rock on top of it. And to the left of the DH I took my micro swords and made a grassy area there. and behind that I have a rock with some Java moss tied to it.
With everything I had to use at this point in the tank I decided it was time to fill er up.
Since I have everything in place I didn't wanna mess taht up so I had the water on low.
As you can see I'm an idiot and I forgot to wash the sand. (I assumed it was prewashed. NEVER ASSUME) And the water got kinda cloudy not too bad tho.
So I plugged in the Emp280 and let it get to work. I have a bunch of poly fill in it to help polish that crap out of the water.
After a couple hours it was looking alot better.
So sadly I lost most of my plants that were in the tank. I assume it is because of amonia burn. possibly the water was too cold because theres no heater on it. At any rate that will all get corrected.
I guess i'm clairvoiant because yesterday even before I knew my plants were all hosed I ordered some off our own Dippy Eggs. So that will replace what I lost. And infact I think it will work out for the better because the plants that I had goten were kinda random. and didn't really have a theme. This tank will be much better off once the new plants get in there. And I have a feeling the plants Dip's is sending are going to be a lot better quality then the doomed to die ones I got from the pet store. Thanks again Joe!
Now as far as the details of my little tank here they are.
Its a 20L
I have a single PC 36w fixture on it.
substrate is a layer of Peatmoss covered by Schultz aquatic and sprinkled with a small amount of eco-complete. And a sand trap of white beach sand.
Ferts will be Flourish line of ferts. Comp,Excell and Phosphate. I will be adding some GW Macro ferts to the mix too. But am looking for other alternitives.
Plants are
Dwarf Hairgrass
Micro swords
Saggatira Stabula (sp,sorry)
Java moss
Moneywort
I'm wanting to add a Moss covered rock wall to conceal the intake of the filter. As it detracts from the overall look of the tank and I feel that it will give the illiusion that the tank is larger.
I am just trying to figure out what moss I can use for that as Java moss tends to be too stringy and likes to travel alot. I'm thinking about getting some Riccia. Not totally sure yet.
The 75 will also be in for a major overhaul soon too.