ayobreezie's First Planted Tank - High Tech

5621 Views 10 Replies 7 Participants Last post by parrottbay, Sep 22, 2013

ayobreezie

Discussion Starter · Aug 16, 2012

Technically, not first.. but 2nd attempt, I guess.. First one was about a year and a half ago.. saw some planted tanks, got excited, went and bought a cheap acrylic 10 gallon, Amazonia soil some rocks and a cheap light, planted HC.. then, went to another store and got hooked on reefs. So that lasted about a month.. then, I started cycling a rimless reef.. went from that to a 40 breeder reef.. that lasted about 8 months.. then ended up shutting it down when I moved.. tried to control the urge to start again..

...but I started the 40 back up as a FH tank, then just realized I wanted something that required more work and would gain more appreciation.. so I ended up where I am now.. I collected the following throughout the timespan of a couple months.. this is the first time I've planned everything fully before starting.. and it should be ready to get it wet in the next week or so..

Setup:
ADA 60P
FishNeedIt 150W MH fixture 10,000k bulb for now.
Eheim 2215
Aqua Pipes Stainless Steel lily pipes
ADA Thermometer (still had from reef)
ADA c02 Drop Checker
eBay glass bubble counter, check valve, diffuser
Rumford Aquatics Toolset
ADA New Amazonia soil
Aquatek c02 regulator
Paintball adaptor
20 oz paintball tank for now.. still waiting on the 5lb. tank to arrive.
20 or so lbs of Seiryu stones
Pfertz High-Tech Set
Neptune Aquacontroller (from old reef setup) for controlling light schedule, temp, c02, etc.

Flora plans:
Eleocharis sp. belem
Rotala sp. green
Hydrocotyle sp. Japan or Hemianthus micranthemoides

Unsure on hardscape yet. I would like to stay on a minimalist scape, but really can't decide how.

Quick shot of the setup:

Beginning of hardscape at about midnight.. was bored and couldn't sleep.

If I keep this scape, I'll be adding sand to that open path.
Kind'a tired now, so will update tomorrow maybe.

Here's a couple pics of my past reef setups.

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Kai808

· #2 · Aug 16, 2012

ayobreezie said:
Technically, not first.. but 2nd attempt, I guess.. First one was about a year and a half ago.. saw some planted tanks, got excited, went and bought a cheap acrylic 10 gallon, Amazonia soil some rocks and a cheap light, planted HC.. then, went to another store and got hooked on reefs. So that lasted about a month.. then, I started cycling a rimless reef.. went from that to a 40 breeder reef.. that lasted about 8 months.. then ended up shutting it down when I moved.. tried to control the urge to start again..

...but I started the 40 back up as a FH tank, then just realized I wanted something that required more work and would gain more appreciation.. so I ended up where I am now.. I collected the following throughout the timespan of a couple months.. this is the first time I've planned everything fully before starting.. and it should be ready to get it wet in the next week or so..

Setup:
ADA 60P
FishNeedIt 150W MH fixture 10,000k bulb for now.
Eheim 2215
Aqua Pipes Stainless Steel lily pipes
ADA Thermometer (still had from reef)
ADA c02 Drop Checker
eBay glass bubble counter, check valve, diffuser
Rumford Aquatics Toolset
ADA New Amazonia soil
Aquatek c02 regulator
Paintball adaptor
20 oz paintball tank for now.. still waiting on the 5lb. tank to arrive.
20 or so lbs of Seiryu stones
Pfertz High-Tech Set
Neptune Aquacontroller (from old reef setup) for controlling light schedule, temp, c02, etc.

Flora plans:
Eleocharis sp. belem
Rotala sp. green
Hydrocotyle sp. Japan or Hemianthus micranthemoides

Unsure on hardscape yet. I would like to stay on a minimalist scape, but really can't decide how.

Quick shot of the setup:

Beginning of hardscape at about midnight.. was bored and couldn't sleep.

If I keep this scape, I'll be adding sand to that open path.
Kind'a tired now, so will update tomorrow maybe.

I like the stones and your arrangement! Were you planning to use the belem as a carpet? It might cover the smaller stones up front once it fills in. But I can't wait to see it filled!

Kai

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garloki72

· #3 · Aug 16, 2012

The hardscape deffinatly is a keeper, simple yet intriguing. Looking forward to seeing this progress.

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ayobreezie

Discussion Starter · #4 · Aug 16, 2012

Kai808 said:
I like the stones and your arrangement! Were you planning to use the belem as a carpet? It might cover the smaller stones up front once it fills in. But I can't wait to see it filled!

Kai

Thanks. Yeah, I'm undecided with hc or the dhg Belem for carpet. But I think it'll be Belem. I'll probably just try to stick those stones up a little more, they're a little bigger than that, just buried.

garloki72 said:
The hardscape deffinatly is a keeper, simple yet intriguing. Looking forward to seeing this progress.

Thanks. I'm still unsure on final scape yet.. Just uncertain about whether I want the sand path or not. But any advice would help. I may try to slope the back a little more for a bit more depth.

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ayobreezie

Discussion Starter · #5 · Aug 18, 2012 (Edited)

Possibly what I'll be settling on. Time to find plants. Anyone have some eleocharis belem, rotala sp. green, or hydrocotyle sp. japan for sale?

Also.. was in SF yesterday. Stopped by Aqua Forest and got me a ADA 8000k bulb and some Bio Rio. Received my lily pipes yesterday, too. :/ need plants. LFS doesn't have anything I want.. I don't really want HC, but may have to settle if no one has e. belem for sale.

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ayobreezie

Discussion Starter · #6 · Aug 18, 2012

Realized I needed to make the substrate a bit deeper..

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antbug

· #7 · Aug 20, 2012

Looking good. I posted something for you on the SAPS site in your thread.

E. belem in the back, HC in the front. You'll need to keep the HC very short so they don't cover the rocks, but it will look sweet once filled in. You will also have a hard time keep the AS and white sand separate. A dry start might be your friend with this layout.

Fish or shrimp for this tank?

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maxwellag

· #8 · Aug 20, 2012

Looks great!

what are you using in the middle? I might have to try that....

Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using Tapatalk 2

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ayobreezie

Discussion Starter · #9 · Aug 21, 2012

antbug said:
Looking good. I posted something for you on the SAPS site in your thread.

E. belem in the back, HC in the front. You'll need to keep the HC very short so they don't cover the rocks, but it will look sweet once filled in. You will also have a hard time keep the AS and white sand separate. A dry start might be your friend with this layout.

Fish or shrimp for this tank?

Thank you, I was debating on whether I should add HC to the foreground, but right now I have the following planned:

E. Belem foreground, Bacopa sp. Japan mid, and Rotala sp. Green for the background.

I'm leaning towards fish, but have been going back and forth with shrimp or fish. Maybe Boraras brigittae and shrimp and hope it goes well..

maxwellag said:
Looks great! what are you using in the middle? I might have to try that....

Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using Tapatalk 2

As far as the middle, it's really fine white sand. And I cut up my dog's old E-collar (those cone collars for after surgery) and used those as dividers. So the sand is divided from the AS and I stuck a few pieces in the landscape for substrate support.