Took the dive...

Two days ago I received my first (and hopefully only, lol) plant order.

3 bunches of cabomba - green
3 bunches of cabomba - purple
2 four leaf clovers
2 cultured dwarf grass
2 flame moss
2 stringy moss

The initial plan was "strictly native" but the purple cabomba and the clovers were just too cool to pass up. So we'll call it "native inspired" lol.
I purchased these from aquariumplants, and was really happy with how lush and green everything was. After a rinse in some H2O2, I was ready to start planting.

So here it is. I know tannins aren't going away anytime soon, but it does add some character. The cabomba has quite a bit of growing to do before I get the wall effect I'm going for. I can't wait for the dwarf grass and mosses to fill in a bit either, lol. The moss already covers the "joint" where the 2 stumps come together. It already looks like one stump! I threw some rosy red minnows and some nerite snails to help establish a bioload. Future plans are bluespotted sunfish, blackbanded sunfish, flagfish, bluefin killies, goldenear minnows, dwarf crayfish, and a madtom. All native species, so I'm not straying that far from the "strictly native" theme.

Some technical specs,
90 gallon tank (48"x 18"x 24")
Eheim Pro4+ 600 filter
Finnex planted+ 24/7 48" light
Finnex planted+ 48" light
Eco-complete black (4 bags)
dosing with flourish and flourish excel

I live in southern California, and our water is liquid rock. After playing with ratios however, I found that about 40/60 RO/tap water would give me a pretty balanced water.
KH - 4
GH - 9
PH - 7.6
EC/TDS - 200
My hopes are as the bioload increases, and as the plants consume some of the calcium/ magnesium, that the PH will drop a bit. Although I'm not too concerned, as most everything I have chosen to inhabit the tank should be able to handle a harder water. I hope to do water changes with a 25/75 RO/tap ratio.

Well, there it is. I hope to get a better camera soon, so I can get some quality shots once the water starts to clear and the tannins work themselves out. The excitement of all of this has been too much and so I just had to share. Thanks for looking!

Purigen won't remove minerals, it's for organic wastes and such. I've always run it in my tanks with no adverse effects that I can see. Plus it can be regenerated, so you don't have to always buy new stuff when it gets used up. Carbon I would recommend staying away from as it will remove some nutrients from the water. The only times I ran carbon were maybe at the very, very beginning of tank setup just in case there were some detergents or residue leaching from any new equipment, and the other time would be if I dosed any medications and wanted to see they were removed (did this after using algaefix, for example). Otherwise it's not necessary to run carbon.

And you may need to be dosing nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium (often abbreviated NPK dosing), keep an eye on your plants and see if they're struggling or melting. You can check your nitrates first (basic test kits will have nitrate tests) and somewhat frequently at first until the tank is well-established to see how they're doing, as too much of those will kill your fish (any stress usually shows up with the fish not shauling properly or swimming at the surface of the water gasping). Phosphates aren't often that big of a deal unless you are overloaded with fish or lazy with water changes. And potassium is important as well (though not usually necessary to test for), but you should get that from your water changes.

You had a pretty awesome setup with the terrarium! This tank is definitely looking good as well. I really do like the stump! Though, if I may say so, I feel the small pieces sticking straight up on the left and far right look out of place. Maybe put them at more of an angle or even laid down sideways?

Keep up the good work! Oh and welcome to the forum and planted tanks!

ChemGuyEthan said:

Purigen won't remove minerals, it's for organic wastes and such.

Click to expand...

You beat me to it! Just read up on purigen. Also found out API stress coat doesn't mix with it long term. So I will be doing more shopping, and cleaning out a tray in the the new filter. As for supplements, I think I will use the root tabs I picked up the other day. Should get the ball rolling at least.

The smaller stumps are an attempt to replicate the sunken trees in a reservoir/lake with a fluctuating water level. I'm a big fisherman. Anybody who has done any bass fishing has seen these stumps before. they are exposed to air and dry rot in the summer months, then become submerged in the winter months and become prime bass hunting territory. I know, I know, it's not very "iwagumi" of me, lol, but when , the dwarf grass fills in, with a sunfish perched behind them waiting to ambush, it will all come together.

Thanks for the tips!

Finally got around to an update.

Plants are thriving. Fish are happy. I even found some ghost shrimp at my LFS to help with the room service.

After almost three months of weekly %50 water changes, the tannins are still a major pain. Like a hot cup of Lipton, after only 7 days kind of pain.

So I decided to make a separate "purigen filter". I pulled the bag of purigen from my main filter, which was the color of coffee beans, bleached, and added 250ml more to the bag. I also bought a Eheim 2213, and stuffed my 750ml bag o purigen in there. I hooked everything up, and all I can say is wow. It is the clearest the water has been since I started this whole thing. I'm thinking of buying a second purigen bag. The idea is I would rather bleach a bag of purigen every week, then have to do 40 gallon weekly water changes. Just pop out the small filter, swap bags, and enjoy. I will try to update with the performance.

I was so stoked that I had sourced these awesome pieces of driftwood from my own neck of the woods. They were just too big to properly boil. I know it will eventually leach out, but seriously, what a pain in the a$$. This stump hasn't stumped me yet though...