# My first ever planted tank and Tank alone!



## chilled84 (7 Sep 2009)

This is my first ever Aquarium and i choose to have a planted tank. I have jumped right in the deep end here with this one. I wanted to be brave. This is my first tank i have ever done. Its 2ft and a half long by jewell will exchanged filter stystem to an internal stystem by hydor. Its also has plant nutrition by tetra, Tetra optimat, Tetra complete substrate and crypto tabs. Fine gravel top substrate. Three dimensional backround made in fibreglass! NOT BY MYSELF! im not that gifted. lol.  I have a varity of plants. Cant remember many names. lol. Amazon sword, pigmy swords in front with couple of other carpeting plants, HC on left to hopefully fill forground. I hope the hc grows. Many have failed in there. 3rd time lucky lol. Its two weeks old this tank and i hope im sucessfull with it and it all grows nicely. Hope u all like. Ps i think i have hair algau growing, its real fine and brown on leaves and pigmy plant in front. Hope you like and hello from me. 

NEWBIE FROM ENGLAND. HELLO. AND THANKS FOR LOOKING!


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## samc (7 Sep 2009)

first of all welcome to the forum!  

your tank is great for first time and the plants all look really healthy. well done

PS. when posting images right click the pic on imageshack and the click copy link location and paste that into the img brackets


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## glenn (7 Sep 2009)

welcome to the forum, nice background and betta btw. well done on it being your 1st tanke also


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## chilled84 (8 Sep 2009)

thanks again. I just wish i could get rd of this brown vainy looking stuff building on leaves and stuff. Its looks horrid.


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## mattyc (8 Sep 2009)

here you go this is your pick  , this is a nice looking tank good work. you are probably lacking in co2 which is causing you some algae problems. look at this excelent algae guide by James C http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/algae.htm


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## chilled84 (8 Sep 2009)

Nice one, Yippe. My pic haha. Thanks mate. I didnt know how to do it. lol. Lacking co2 u say. I am running co2 optimat, And refilling two too three times a day on that.


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## chilled84 (8 Sep 2009)

Just read that article u sent, Seems i have staghorn! and possible oedogonium. Must be circulation. I pointed my exit pipe towards water surface to agitate it. Think ill turn it down to face the floor or side of tank later. Will that be enought to agitate top of thewater thou?


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## mattyc (8 Sep 2009)

how much turn oner do you have (your filters L/hour) this should be 10x the volume of the tank IMO the juel internal filter isnt enough to supply this flow. if this is low then you could add a power head. HC loves CO2 how are you ahhing this to the tank. i have the same algae in my tank because a pipe came off my co2 system

I have writen a short article about building a FE CO2 system, http://www.ukaps.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=7776


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## chilled84 (8 Sep 2009)

Im running an internal hydor r1011 cystal duoflow rate 800 (210 gph) And my tank is 80ltrs 2ft and a half by 1ft by 1ft.

And im useing a co2 optimat by tetra, Wich i fill two too three times a day.

i think its cos i have my filter pointing the jet up towards surface and not towards hc or the ground inside aquarium. I have the tetra optimat co2 right next to filter for the co2 to rise up into filter and spray out on exit.


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## mattyc (8 Sep 2009)

I hanvt used this system, but unstable co2 will trigger algae in the tank. i would do exactley what you are going to do and supply the flow down towards the bottom on the aquairum you should be trying to set up a flow that can supply nutrients to all the plants in your tank.


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## chilled84 (8 Sep 2009)

I will defo do that. I was so scared of blowing the hc around and makeing it hard for it to root. Lost so much money trying to grow hc. But iloveit and realy want to. But i just cant afford a co2 setup better than i have.


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## mattyc (8 Sep 2009)

I would reccomend adding some liquid carbon like excell or easy carbo, i belive HC loves this stuff and it is known to kill off algae. it isnt too expensive here http://www.fluidsensoronline.com/ep...s/BT2928/Products/EL-EC/SubProducts/EL-EC-100


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## chilled84 (8 Sep 2009)

Sounds good. Is it difficult to use. Any side effects?


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## mattyc (8 Sep 2009)

all the instructions are on the side of the bottel i think it is 5 ml per 50l per week. it has been said it can effect shrimp but i use it and all my shrimp are healthy and hapily breeding away.


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## chilled84 (8 Sep 2009)

Wicked. Sounds good. Hopefully that will help my hc grab hold and not drop away. Its so costy. Im loveing thehelp im getting here. Much apreciated.


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## mattyc (8 Sep 2009)

That is what this forum is for. if you have any problems just ask on here betwen us we have seen it all!!!


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## chilled84 (8 Sep 2009)

Ha Ha. Will do. All i want is a nice carpet of HC and ill be happy. Spend too much already. Your tank looks great too. Just had a look.


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## chilled84 (8 Sep 2009)

Gona try everything to get hc going good and ill hopefully update pics laters. Few close shots of tank so u get better viewof layout too.


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## mattyc (8 Sep 2009)

That would be good, is always nice to see peoples tanks on here!! I have a HC carpet as you might have seen, thanks for your nice comment i will be posting some more picks up later.


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## John Starkey (8 Sep 2009)

Hi chilled that's a great first effort mate well done,
john.


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## chilled84 (8 Sep 2009)

As promised. And after being a member of this site and seeing all yours, Im feeling very hard done and down over my layout and overall aquarium lol. You are all so very good at what you do. As you can see i have a hydor internal filter and a co2 optimat lower down but next to it and direct next the optimat slightly higher i decided to recycle and old filter without the filter medea installed to act as a wave generator to force co2 right through and low throughout tank even thou the hydor also does this i was not seeing results. I also as you can see, seen to have a unsightly build up of hair algae, Not just there in pic , all over.   







Pogostimon Helferi




HC Terrible pic quality.


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## mattyc (9 Sep 2009)

I do realy like the look of this tank, it looks like a Dutch style tank and i think it will look quite impresive when you get it to grow in!!!


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## chilled84 (9 Sep 2009)

I realy hope so. Because im haveing a hard time with it. Im so new to the hobby. And cash flow is very limited wich is slowing process down. I have orderd some easy carb so hopefully that will help.


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## mattyc (15 Sep 2009)

I have been having a think about your problems with the HC, i have managed to grow it the 2nd time i tryed. the first time i had a lot of problems with it. it didnt realy melt but it wouldnt grow spread and just came free from the substrate then got full of algae. 

What is your water like PH, dKH and dGH. i found that the water in my tank and the water i was adding in water changes was quite diffrent. i carried out some tests on the water that came from my tap which had a ph of 5 to 6 the dKH (alcalinity test) was low at around 1 to 2 and the dGH was simalar at about 2. adding co2 etc into my tank pushed the ph down to about 4. i am quite sure this was causing the problems with my crypts and stopping the HC from growing. i started to use reminarlised RO water as reccomended by TGM which was 4 DKH and 4 dGH. this worked for me i cant garentee it will for you. i was told to think of RO water as a  blank canvas and you can paint it the way you want!

the more information you can get from your water and tank the easier you will find out what is going on. 

do you have a drop checker in the tank? is the co2 checker lyme green which is about 30 ppm (ideal co2 level)
What is your ph like before you do a water change and after?
have a look on the tropica website and see if the water peramiters fit with the plants.

dont worry too much if you cant grow it even some of the most experanced aquarists struggle with this plant change the plant to maby a hair grass which can be easier to grow.

If anyone dis agrees or if i am not correct please say!


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