4 foot, 160 ltr absolute beginner- here goes

Hello all,

thanks for all of the advice on here. I have 2 community tanks with some success with very basic plant and hard scaping. I also have an ornamental garden and an allotment, so I thought i'd give a planted tank a go.

I aquired this tank off fleabay, l120 x h18 x d12. It is quite badly scratched by terrapins, but beggars can't always be choosers. It came with a sturdy home made cabinet, and a 1200mm arcadia luminere, 3 38w 42'' tubes.

Had a lot of trouble with the supports of the luminere. They have snapped several times. Also, my oh got electrocuted somehow, and one of the switches has blown. So, just down to 2x38w at the mo. This malfunctioning is due to his meddling. He likes to 'fix things'.


I've got a fluval 305 running at the moment, but might add another if I can pick one up cheap at some point. I've also got myself a big vat of TPN+. I'm hoping to go for a 'nutch' look but I don't if this means that I don't know what I want yet. I have four bits of wood, and about 10 spherical stones. These are a bit larger than a large fist.


Cleaning it out


Took OH to Travis Perkins to buy these huge breeze block things, to raise the height of the tank, without having to make a new cabinet. They were £2 each, and b****y heavy. On the invoice, it said 200kgs!!!!! Poor OH. My car looked like it had lowered suspension. The living room floor is screed concrete. Its a 10yr old house. Hope it doesn't sink!


you can actually see the tank now instead of mostly sofa:


added under susbtrate heating, know it is dubious if effective, but found it reduced from £55 to £15, so better to add it at that stage then regret later


Then added 5ltrs of aquabasis plus soil. This was about 2 to 3 cm deep


Here came the tedious bit. The jbl manado had to be dunked in water to get rid of the dust. Admitedly not as bad as washing my argos play sand for the 2foot, but still took a while. I'm so glad I bought a 79p value litter/poop scoop from Pets at home, as this lets the water through. Its about 4 cm at front, then raised up to about 14 at back. When plants arrive, I will terrace some of it, to stop it slipping down. My apple snails were not happy with the manado to start with, but fine now.


Adding water: it nearly matched the colour of the sofa. I hurried to fill and cycle it as I had an overstocked tank after rescuing some unloved fish that might have ended life in the loo. Some people.

We had put some castors on the sofa, but after a drunken escapade that involved me jumping on the sofa, they snapped. So moving the sofa for maintanance has become a right pain in the bum, especially as I had surgery on my back 8 weeks ago. I'm on the hunt for some studier castors, that are not too tall.





initial photos of it once cycled.The tank was illuminated at this stage by my SAD lamp (150w). Probably not correct spectrum, but as supports were bust on luminere, it was better than nowt, for the plants. Only bunged in a few pilfered plants from my other tanks, so the rescued fish had somewhere to hide. Bit cruel to chuck them in such a large tank with no-where to hide. The variegated vallis has been melting. Could this have been caused by flourish excel? Swords, fern, anubia, frogbit are all doing well. Rhizomes on the anubias are going mad so I might to a bit of butchery.

I've just also added a JBL easy kit, I have a better diffuser coming from ebay.

My plants are arriving this week so lots to do.


I have this vine in the tank, although it seems to be emitting this white gunk. It hasn't affected the fish in a way visible to me, the gouramis nibble it at times. The vine was in the aquatic wood section, but I have a feeling it may be suited towards a vivarium? It still floats given a choice.


Today I've been umming and ahhing about positioning my wood pieces.



settled with this for now, although this may change when I terrace the substrate in before I plant my new delivery of plants.


Its rather murky with diatoms at the mo, I think my 3 ottos are overwhelmed. I have 4 more to join them, they are in my 'quarantine' tank at the mo, they will be added later this week.

I'm looking out for some tracking to replace the black stuff I have, it works as runners for the two glass lids I have for the tank.

My dad works in shopfitting, so can get hold of materials easily, but has a feeling that this extruded track can't be obtained in clear. If I could get some in 'clear' it would make my tank look far better, or I could do away with the glass tops altogether, although OH is not keen.

If you see anything that is really wayward give me a shout. I shall fumble around until I find out what I like and what works! :?:

thanks re the variegated plant, it was in with a bunch of vallis at two of my lfs, no wonder it melted so quick. Live and learn.

p.s no plant delivery today 🙁 🙁

photo update

Hello

Plants arrived at neighbours on wed, but postie didn't put a slip through our door, neighbour works shifts, so I didn't get them til yesterday (friday), so couple were on the turn, the rest were ok.

I know they don't have a good press but I bought a bumper pack of random plants for a 48 inch tank, plus a surplass bag. I'm on a steep learning curve, especially with all the latin names, so I thought i'd get a whole load, watch them hopefully grow, and work out what I like and don't like, or what works in my tank and what doesn't. Its hard to work out and pick from a catalogue of plants with tiny thumbnails for pics. Maybe I need to get myself a good book, or better catalogue on aquatic plants. Any recommendations?

My tweezers also arrived at the same time, which were a godsend. I split the plants into piles of back, mid and foreground, and had to just bung them in asap, as I was expecting the extended family within 30 mins!!! It looked like a tip, boxes and packets everywhere, buckets and trays, I wear a silly waterproof pinny then I get mucky. So I expect some moving around and culling once the plants have established.

I've put my Riccia Fluitans in a bag, and filled with water at the mo, as I don't have any excess pipe to make a weir for it to grow in, as I want to propagate some more before I decide what to plaster it on. I might use my hatchery actually so the nutrients and co2 waft in and out. I've also just bunged my Hemianthus callitrichoides in the substrate, still in the hunk of wool as again, wait til i've got some more energy to tinker with the tank. Perhaps on monday.

Apologies for blurry photos, I can't be arsed to go and get my tripod out of the car!
















The bag of Riccia Fluitans floating around. The danio happened to whizz past, don't worry, he's not in the bag!












I'm not sure about this corner at the moment. Least favorite area. Defiantly needs reworking.

We are discussing decorating the lounge a the mo, would be a right mission, as there are 3 tanks in there, but OH wants to paint over the orange patch behind, but I quite like the contrast with the plants, and once they bulk up and grow, then less of it would be evident. I'll have to try hanging a white sheet, and black backing behind and seeing what we like.

After all the rapid planting, and having guests round, I can't face cleaning my smaller two tanks today, still got 3 days before I return to work. Its weird now not being able to spot the fish immediately, but I think the environment is loads better, places to explore and hide in, more surfaces for the ottos to clean. The corys haven't shifted the foreground plants yet. Also makes them work harder for their sinking food, which again possibly more natural for them having to forage more? Not an expert.

time for another glass of wine me thinks.