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50 Gal Shallow Planted tank going High tech

3K views 28 replies 8 participants last post by  aquaoz 
#1 ·
Hi All - New here so be kind !

Wanted to kick off new tank re-incarnation as a log on this wonderful forum.

Tank Specs: 1500mm Long 200-ish (50gal)

Here are a few photos of it in a previous life (2016):





I am looking to kick it off again as a high tech tank. More posts to come!
 
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#4 ·
So here is a pic of the tank as it was prior to last weekend.

I have built a study in Garage area and made an opening in feature wall for the tank
Plans for Tank include:

New Equipment
1 x Aquel Ultramax 1500
1 x Titan G3 600W heater
1 x Dual outlet CO2 Kit
1 x Jaebo WaveMaker

Existing Equpiment
2 x Kessil Tuna Sun LEDs with spectral controller
1 x 4 channel dosing pump

 
#7 ·
Plans

So i have 14 Pots of tissue culture Monte Carlo on the way - i am going to try DSM for the first time. I am hoping 14 pots will be enough.

Stocking - thinking of 5-10 lemon tetras, 40+ Cardinals, and 10 clown killifish.

PS: I am a massive planted tank (High tech ) noob. I have never done DSM before or grown any carpeting plant successfully ever so any tips i would be very grateful for.
 
#8 ·
I have also not done dsm before though I am planning it for my next tank. You should have it easier than some since your substrate has fertilizer in it already. My understanding is that you still want some air movement in the tank just not much. How is access to the tank handled from the other side of the wall?
 
#15 ·
I am going though DSM with my 20 Gallon. I did make one mistake. I added Monte Carlo, Dwarf Hair Grass, and bunch of red plants in the back. Now, the mistake is, I should have waited until I flooded my tank, then add those red plants. Currently, hair grass and monte carlo, both are spreading, but so are the red plants. They are also spreading laterally. I was going to add some more plants, but now I will wait until I flood the tank. The temptation to flood it right now is very strong, but I am just struggling with it everyday.
Your tank looks wonderful BTW.
 
#16 ·
Noticed a very small amount of mould/fungus on one (and one only) plant two days ago. I removed the plant, cut off the fungus affected leaves and replanted. Following that, i left the plastic wrap completely off the tank overnight, then resealed and continued the same watering once per day and air exchange schedule. There has been no additional fungus/mould appear anywhere yet so fingers crossed. I think i will probably have to leave the wrap open for longer each day (I had it open for 10 minutes per day up till this point). I am going to push it out to 30 minutes to allow for better air exchange.

On the positive side I did a tug test on 3 or 4 other plants in the tank and noticed that they all had some good root growth (Probably enough to sustain flooding if i had too). This is great news at 1.5 weeks. The plants look healthy and are showing new growth so i am still hopeful.
 
#17 · (Edited)
DSM "seems" to be plodding along ok. No further signs of mould or similar so far. Some yellowing of older leaves but new growth showing and starting to speed up.


As i prepare to flood the tank in the coming weeks i am gathering things like Co2 etc and making sure i am ready to flood. One of the concerns/questions i have at the moment is our tap water. Are there any experts who might be able to cast their eye over these screenshots from our water authority showing reported values of our tap water. Do these values look manageable for a planted tank with Amazonia substrate and Sieryu stone hardscape?:



 
#18 ·
Yellowing has increased a fair bit in the last two days. Im wondering about flooding this weekend after 2.5 weeks. From what i read once root structure has established DSM doesn't provide too much benefit for MC vs flooding and high CO2.
I will do a test flood first to make sure roots are all good, but i tested on one plant and they were certainly well bedded down.

 
#24 ·
I love the scape of this tank.
How do you keep the plants wet during the DSM that are placed in the high soil in the left and right corner?
Those roots are not constantly in water?

I cannot see the last pictures unfortunately. Not sure what happened there.
How wide is this tank?
 
#25 ·
I just sprayed twice a day to keep all plants wet as possible, in fact i never really had enough water in the tank for the roots to be constantly submerged in water.

Tank width was in first post on this thread. Aprox 1500mm long. if you meant the "other" width (Font to back) that is around 350mm
 
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