hamfist
Member
To set the scene - I am an experienced aquarist and shrimpkeeper of around 5 decades. However I have always sucked bigtime at keeping aquatic plants of any sort alive in the past, so I sort of just gave up trying for many years. Anyway, a couple of years ago I decided to give it another go, with some success, and I now have 3 x smaller low tech tanks (60-90 litres) which are going quite nicely. All have shrimp, some have a few nano fish, and all have inert substrates (+/- active buffering substrate in a UGF box). I fertilise these with API or Seachem root tabs (so nothing particularly high nitrogen), plus an "all in one" generic liquid fertiliser (Dennerle Liquid Plus) twice weekly (which does contain nitrogen). I feed the shrimps reasonably heavily, light is low-moderate and these tanks all seem to be thriving in every way. Algae is minimal.
Enter my 500 litre fish community tank, which I have always had decorated with just hardscape, inert fine gravel and plastic plants in for many many years. Therefore filters and substrate etc are super mature. Anyway I thought I might now have the skills to turn it into a low tech planted tank, complete with its already reasonably generous fish bioload.
Fish Stock is .....
1 x v large blue acara
1 x v large angel fish
1 x large Strawberry leporinus
1 x golden gourami
12 x congo tetras
6 x mature scissortail rasboras
6 x Cory sterbai
3 x ember tetras
3 x espei rasboras
1 x stiphodon ornatus
1 x Garra flavatus
+ a handful of female platies.
As for the new plants, they went in around 1-2 weeks go.
Various Echinodirus sp.
Various Anubias sp.
Crypt wendtii *
Staurogyne repens *
Myriophyllum mattogrossense *
Ludwigia repens “Rubin” *
Bucephalandra sp.Red *
* = cuttings or extras from my other tanks.
I initially thought I would stick with purely Anubia species and other rheophytes, but thought I could then probably pull off a more adventurous planted setup when I discovered my Leporinus showed little interest in eating finer leaved plants. hence the arrival of various rooted plants into the tank. It all looks rather bare at the moment, but hopefully a bit of growth should sort that out. I did try some valisneria too, although my acara instantly decided it would be good to dig up for some reason, and she completely trashed it, so that's now out. Hygrophila siamensis 53B also came this week, but was such a tiny portion, that I shall try and grow it out a little more in other tanks before transferring some over to this one. Apart from that I think I'm done with new plants for the moment.
I think I have got light fittings reasonably well sorted now (within my budget) and these are the same lights that I use in all my other tanks - 2 Hygger LEDS (120cm, 42W ones for this tank). They have plenty of red, green and blue as well as the white and seem to work well for me elsewhere and they are super programmable. Not fashionable I know, but they work. I have 2 x almost tank length strips to reasonably cover the 60cm depth of the tank . They're only on 20% each currently, so still plenty of room for manouvre.
Fertilising is currently my main issue. Initially I thought I would stick Seachem Root tabs under all the rooted plants, and then try just adding trace elements (FloraGrow Plant Fertiliser) into the water column. With such a good fish bioload I was hoping that macros would be mainly sorted with waste products of fish and food. However I measured the nitrates at the end of the first week, just before a water change and found they were only 5 ppm, a little lower than normal. I'm just realising that I will almost certainly need to add NPK as well as the trace elements I currently add. I've got pretty low light currently, just trying to let the plants settle in a little. The M.mattogrossense is already growing like a weed, as it always does, but the Anubias and Echinodorus are already starting to get a very noticeable sheen of soft brown algae on the leaves. I'm investigating an EI-based system of ferts, as I already do the required 50% weekly water changes. Also other options will be considered. Anything's possible currently on that front.
For those interested, the tank parameters are, 8dGH, 3dKH, 25 degrees C, pH 7.6. Ammonia and nitrite always zero, nitrate usually runs at around 10 ppm. Filtration is by 3 x large Eheim 2217 external filters. 50 % water change weekly (RO diluted tapwater plus a little extra GH), plus a large airstone.
Enter my 500 litre fish community tank, which I have always had decorated with just hardscape, inert fine gravel and plastic plants in for many many years. Therefore filters and substrate etc are super mature. Anyway I thought I might now have the skills to turn it into a low tech planted tank, complete with its already reasonably generous fish bioload.
Fish Stock is .....
1 x v large blue acara
1 x v large angel fish
1 x large Strawberry leporinus
1 x golden gourami
12 x congo tetras
6 x mature scissortail rasboras
6 x Cory sterbai
3 x ember tetras
3 x espei rasboras
1 x stiphodon ornatus
1 x Garra flavatus
+ a handful of female platies.
As for the new plants, they went in around 1-2 weeks go.
Various Echinodirus sp.
Various Anubias sp.
Crypt wendtii *
Staurogyne repens *
Myriophyllum mattogrossense *
Ludwigia repens “Rubin” *
Bucephalandra sp.Red *
* = cuttings or extras from my other tanks.
I initially thought I would stick with purely Anubia species and other rheophytes, but thought I could then probably pull off a more adventurous planted setup when I discovered my Leporinus showed little interest in eating finer leaved plants. hence the arrival of various rooted plants into the tank. It all looks rather bare at the moment, but hopefully a bit of growth should sort that out. I did try some valisneria too, although my acara instantly decided it would be good to dig up for some reason, and she completely trashed it, so that's now out. Hygrophila siamensis 53B also came this week, but was such a tiny portion, that I shall try and grow it out a little more in other tanks before transferring some over to this one. Apart from that I think I'm done with new plants for the moment.
I think I have got light fittings reasonably well sorted now (within my budget) and these are the same lights that I use in all my other tanks - 2 Hygger LEDS (120cm, 42W ones for this tank). They have plenty of red, green and blue as well as the white and seem to work well for me elsewhere and they are super programmable. Not fashionable I know, but they work. I have 2 x almost tank length strips to reasonably cover the 60cm depth of the tank . They're only on 20% each currently, so still plenty of room for manouvre.
Fertilising is currently my main issue. Initially I thought I would stick Seachem Root tabs under all the rooted plants, and then try just adding trace elements (FloraGrow Plant Fertiliser) into the water column. With such a good fish bioload I was hoping that macros would be mainly sorted with waste products of fish and food. However I measured the nitrates at the end of the first week, just before a water change and found they were only 5 ppm, a little lower than normal. I'm just realising that I will almost certainly need to add NPK as well as the trace elements I currently add. I've got pretty low light currently, just trying to let the plants settle in a little. The M.mattogrossense is already growing like a weed, as it always does, but the Anubias and Echinodorus are already starting to get a very noticeable sheen of soft brown algae on the leaves. I'm investigating an EI-based system of ferts, as I already do the required 50% weekly water changes. Also other options will be considered. Anything's possible currently on that front.
For those interested, the tank parameters are, 8dGH, 3dKH, 25 degrees C, pH 7.6. Ammonia and nitrite always zero, nitrate usually runs at around 10 ppm. Filtration is by 3 x large Eheim 2217 external filters. 50 % water change weekly (RO diluted tapwater plus a little extra GH), plus a large airstone.
