My craigs list 125g natural planted tank

[erthlng]

First 125g planted tank. No ferts no co2. Soil substrate with playsand and aquatic soil.




Here is a new shot to compare. Taken on 6-22-08




Another photo update: 7-26-08

[James From Cali]

Looks good. What plants you got? And is it Schultz aquatic soil?

[erthlng]

James,

It's actually 3 layers of soil.
1. 1-2" of Scotts topsoil.
2. .5 to .75" of aquariumplants.com generic aquarium substrate
3. .5 to .75" Loews playsand

I've found it's important to precompact the Scotts, before topping with the aquarium substrate and sand. Also, wash the sand to eliminate the smaller dust particles.

For this tank I grew HC and dwarf hairgrass emersed for about 90 days before adding water to the tank. I also added fungi and mulm to the substrate. The HC is starting to elongate, but I was expecting that to happen. I've had good luck with these plants in natural "low tech" nano tanks, but this is the first time I've attempted something on this scale with these foreground plants.

So far no major algae bloom and the plants seem to be doing well.

I'll put together a more detailed list of plants in the next few days and include some detail photos.

[James From Cali]

Interesting, I did not have much luck with either HC or DH. I'd be interested to see how it goes.

[erthlng]

Here are some close-up shots of the HC mixed with DH.





If this works, I attribute it to having substantial emersed growth before adding water.

[erthlng]

Update on my 125g Natural.

Here is a shot at night by LED "Moonlight".

Overall I'm seeing good growth. Also added an inline heater to stabalize temps between day and night.

[fshfanatic]

Nice work!

[Fat Man]

What are you using for water movement?

[gonzo.pete]

Wow-nice looking tank considering the low-tech nature.
How do you keep it so algae free without co2?

[erthlng]

Fat man,

I've got an Eheim Pro II with a drilled intake and outlet on opposite sides of the tank about 3 inches down from the surface. The Eheim moves about 300 gallons an hour. I supplement that with a small 75 gph circulation pump that is at the same level as the intake and the outflow from the filter. The affect is that if you were looking down at the top of the tank you would notice a nice counter clockwise flow within the tank.

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gonzo.pete,

It's not entirely algae free. I've got a small outbreak of bba that I'm working on with water changes, floating plants, Siamese Algae Eaters, fancy guppies (yes, they seem to eat bba) and I'm using a hypo to dose small amounts of Excel directly onto the affected areas. I've pretty much got it in check at this point and I'm not seeing any new bba.

A huge huge help to keeping the algae down has been the floating plants.


I'm using Salvinia and Red Root floaters. The tank also has about 20 - 30 cherry shrimp , 4 different types of snails (many), 5 SAE's, an insane pack of 4 Coreys and about 30 fancy guppies (more seem to be arriving every week).

[lauraleellbp]

Looks Awesome!

So nice to see such lush growth in a low tech tank

The Red root floater is looking beautiful- I hope mine does 1/2 as good a job as yours seems to be.

[erthlng]

LauraLee,

Thank you. It's a work in progress.

I'm enjoying the continuous balancing act that seems to take place between lighting and water and temp and fish and plants. Getting it stable, growing and mostly algae free would be fantastic. I hope I'm close to that.

What I've got so far would not have been possible without all the information I've been able to gather from this forum.

[erthlng]

So I get back from a 3 day trip and while I was away my son and wife were taking care of the 125g. I could not believe how fast the Salvinia and the Red Root floaters had grown. It now completely covers the top of the tank. I've got almost 3 wpg of light going now and it's barely getting through the floaters. The bba I mentioned before is almost gone. The tank looks great









Anyone want some extremely healthy Salvinia? drop me a pm. I've got to thin the surface out a bit :-)

[mizu-chan]

This is really great. Especially since it's low tech.
Beautiful! (:

[erthlng]

mizu-chan,

Thanks! I'm enjoying it a great deal. We started calling it "The pond". the problem is I've got in in my office and I work from home. I'll start watching the fish and the shrimp and the plants and time just seems to fly by. I've got to put my back to the tank to get any work done :-)