Planted Eclipse system 6 journal

[supaoopa]

I've had this tank for a little less then 2 months. THis tank and a 29 gal were both started at the same time, so both are basicly my first tanks. The first thing i did was add plants to the 6 gal for a more natural looking plant (instead of artificial). I don't really know what type of plants i choose and what their longterm requirments were when i purchased them but they are growing. Can someone please tell me what i have in this tank, and what other plants will work well with them.



thx.

[trenac]

The large plants in the background are swords maybe Amazon swords, if so they will get way to large for a 6G tank. The plants in the front middle look like Crypts, can't tell what the plants are on the front sides are.

[supaoopa]

well here's an update. Hope these plants do ok in the longterm.

[Buck]

Looks good...
You are going to want to pull the fern's rhyzomes out of the substrate though.

[supaoopa]

Originally Posted by Buck

Looks good...
You are going to want to pull the fern's rhyzomes out of the substrate though.

LOL, ya i just read that looking up more info on it. THey were labeled tropica ferns in the container they were in, but they are just Java ferns.

thx.


Would there be a problem if the rhymzomes were lightly buried?

[Buck]

The fine hair roots can go in but none of the rhyzome.

[Jdinh04]

Looks awesome, dramatic growth of the plants. Good job!

[supaoopa]

Originally Posted by MrMup04

Looks awesome, dramatic growth of the plants. Good job!

lol. No, just a bunch of new plants. The tall swords did grow in quite a bit. Pruned about half the leaves off each.

[harpospeaking]

Hi,

I'm thinking about starting a 6 gallon planted tank. I read that with low light tanks, you should only do water changes every few months. How often are you doing them?

Thanks!

[fishyboy]

you do water changfes weekly or twice a week no matter on your light evel

[supaoopa]

I do a 30% once a week and have had no problems.

[enchanted]

If anything you would do less water changes with High Light plants than low light plants. The higher light plants use more nutrients out of the water and thus cause lower nitrates, etc...

But, IMO, you should always do weekly water changes.

[aquarium boy]

man that looks alsome

[supaoopa]

Well i cleaned it up a bit. Took out two of the java ferns and transfered them to my 29 gal. Three of the new plants also turned out not to be true aquatic plants so i took them out. Added a mini sword type plant in the front to replace the Java fern and it has been doing very well.




only two tiny specks of algae in the 3 months running.

that is all.

[supaoopa]

update.

Between and eclipse 1 hood, system 6, and penquin 330... i've been spending a butt load on replacement filters. So i was read about replacing the marineland cartridge with a fluval sponge (203/204) in my Eclipse 1... perfect fit. So i looked at the fluval 104 sponge and compared it to the system six cartridge. Perfect fit also. Just strap the sponge onto a stripped cartridge and your done. Some bio media can be added in the pockets that hold the carbon.



Won't have to worry about spending any money on the eclipse's untill the sponges get worn out (couple months at least). Just need to rinse them clean during water changes in some tank water.

Nice little trick for all of you using a system six.