Hi everybody,
I'm taking the plunge and am starting my first journal here at UKAPS. First, I want to thank everyone for their positive contributions to the following thread.
viewtopic.php?f=50&t=6768
The lighting for this tank was a tricky decision to make and I appreciate the imput. Second, I want to thank everybody for their warm UKAPS welcome. I look forward to attempting to keep up with all these lovely planted tanks! I think I will never finish!
The tank's been running for three years, but suffered some neglect when work got hectic. Once I cleaned it up, I thought a rescape was in order, but I did not want the lighting level I previously had. At 1.8WPG of CFs, I was asking for trouble if I wasn't absolutely ontop of maintenance. When I''m not working this isn't a problem, and I have maintained this light level without CO2 in the past, but with work increasing in the Fall, I can't offer the tank the same maintenance. So I opted to downgrade my lighting and see if the lower light levels will help with maintenance.
Tank: 36g corner bow, 21" deep, 24" radius
Lighting: An old 24" 2x14W T5 fixture with reflectors. Giving me .77WPG, which is just a guideline, I know, but still useful. I meant it when I said "welcome to the dark side".
Substrate: Took advantage of 3 years of tank waste and capped my current substrate with a thick layer of very fine white sand from Carib sea. It is thick enough to allow for settling and mixing.
CO2: None
Fertilisation: Rootabs as most of my plants are heavy root feeders. I also have Seachem Flourish standing by incase I need it.
Hardscape: Several pieces of Mopani interlocked together. Will be nice for mosses and bolbitis. Some of the wood is new, so I expect tannins and hopefully I won't get the yucky white stuff, but you never know.
Plants: Cryptocoryne spiralis, C. lutea, C. wendtii "bronze", Anubia species, Echinodorus species (red melon, red rubin, ozelot). I'm taking a risk with the new swords. There is conflicting information about their care. The current swords in the tank are doing great, but they are not the same species. All of the plants are from LFS.
Livestock: Barbus titteya, Hyphessobrycon species.
Maintenance: For now waterchanges 2x a week. I got things very dirty, and I'm wary of an ammonia spike. Hopefully by Summer's end, this will calm down and I can eventually reduce it to every two weeks.
This is an experiment to see just how low light I can go. I have some plant species that I know will do well, but I've also added some that are more "iffy" so I can see exactly what I can get away with. I'm actually surprised how bright the lighting is compared to the CF bulb I was using before. For less than half the lighting 65W vs 28W, it is only a little less visibly bright. Not that that really matters.
Growth will be slow. I'm expecting this, and I also expect some of the usual crypt melting and the swords will be transitioning from emersed to submerged growth. These transitions will take time at these lighting levels. Since the plants are from a Floridian nursery, they won't have to adapt to grossly different water conditions, so hopefully the crypts will not melt too badly. What I want is healthy growth and living plants that I can maintain with a hectic schedule.
This isn't the final plant list. Once these plants adapt and I see that all is clear, I'll be ordering some Bolbitis heudelotti and weeping moss to add to the scape.
This isn't the final livestock list either. I'll be keeping about 7-10 cherry barbs and finding new homes for the rest of the fish. While lovely, they are your usual species and I'm not that into them anymore, especially tetras. I've a soft spot for the cherry barbs, which I raised myself and do not look like LFS fish. The new sand substrate begs for corydoras, but the tank size will also lend itself to a small loach species, which I have never tried. A larger oto school will also do well. This, of course, all hinges on whether I can find good homes for the fish. If I can't, the stocking will remain the same.
I've yet to attach my anubias, so I will post pictures when I'm finished. The water will be cloudy for a day or two. My goal is for this to be another long-term scape. I'd like to see how the plants develop over the course of years. I'm excited. Any thoughts are always appreciated.
llj 🙂
I'm taking the plunge and am starting my first journal here at UKAPS. First, I want to thank everyone for their positive contributions to the following thread.
viewtopic.php?f=50&t=6768
The lighting for this tank was a tricky decision to make and I appreciate the imput. Second, I want to thank everybody for their warm UKAPS welcome. I look forward to attempting to keep up with all these lovely planted tanks! I think I will never finish!
The tank's been running for three years, but suffered some neglect when work got hectic. Once I cleaned it up, I thought a rescape was in order, but I did not want the lighting level I previously had. At 1.8WPG of CFs, I was asking for trouble if I wasn't absolutely ontop of maintenance. When I''m not working this isn't a problem, and I have maintained this light level without CO2 in the past, but with work increasing in the Fall, I can't offer the tank the same maintenance. So I opted to downgrade my lighting and see if the lower light levels will help with maintenance.
Tank: 36g corner bow, 21" deep, 24" radius
Lighting: An old 24" 2x14W T5 fixture with reflectors. Giving me .77WPG, which is just a guideline, I know, but still useful. I meant it when I said "welcome to the dark side".
Substrate: Took advantage of 3 years of tank waste and capped my current substrate with a thick layer of very fine white sand from Carib sea. It is thick enough to allow for settling and mixing.
CO2: None
Fertilisation: Rootabs as most of my plants are heavy root feeders. I also have Seachem Flourish standing by incase I need it.
Hardscape: Several pieces of Mopani interlocked together. Will be nice for mosses and bolbitis. Some of the wood is new, so I expect tannins and hopefully I won't get the yucky white stuff, but you never know.
Plants: Cryptocoryne spiralis, C. lutea, C. wendtii "bronze", Anubia species, Echinodorus species (red melon, red rubin, ozelot). I'm taking a risk with the new swords. There is conflicting information about their care. The current swords in the tank are doing great, but they are not the same species. All of the plants are from LFS.
Livestock: Barbus titteya, Hyphessobrycon species.
Maintenance: For now waterchanges 2x a week. I got things very dirty, and I'm wary of an ammonia spike. Hopefully by Summer's end, this will calm down and I can eventually reduce it to every two weeks.
This is an experiment to see just how low light I can go. I have some plant species that I know will do well, but I've also added some that are more "iffy" so I can see exactly what I can get away with. I'm actually surprised how bright the lighting is compared to the CF bulb I was using before. For less than half the lighting 65W vs 28W, it is only a little less visibly bright. Not that that really matters.
Growth will be slow. I'm expecting this, and I also expect some of the usual crypt melting and the swords will be transitioning from emersed to submerged growth. These transitions will take time at these lighting levels. Since the plants are from a Floridian nursery, they won't have to adapt to grossly different water conditions, so hopefully the crypts will not melt too badly. What I want is healthy growth and living plants that I can maintain with a hectic schedule.
This isn't the final plant list. Once these plants adapt and I see that all is clear, I'll be ordering some Bolbitis heudelotti and weeping moss to add to the scape.
This isn't the final livestock list either. I'll be keeping about 7-10 cherry barbs and finding new homes for the rest of the fish. While lovely, they are your usual species and I'm not that into them anymore, especially tetras. I've a soft spot for the cherry barbs, which I raised myself and do not look like LFS fish. The new sand substrate begs for corydoras, but the tank size will also lend itself to a small loach species, which I have never tried. A larger oto school will also do well. This, of course, all hinges on whether I can find good homes for the fish. If I can't, the stocking will remain the same.
I've yet to attach my anubias, so I will post pictures when I'm finished. The water will be cloudy for a day or two. My goal is for this to be another long-term scape. I'd like to see how the plants develop over the course of years. I'm excited. Any thoughts are always appreciated.
llj 🙂
