A0 - 75p

[castle]

Attempt 0, 75p.

So this is the biggest I could get away with while living in a ‘small’ bungalow with the missus, actually that’s a lie, got a 90 x40 x25 now too and a 75x45x60.

Tank: 75x45x45 ADA 75P
Lighting: Kassil 160 tuna sun, 6 hours a day, around 10cm from surface.
Substrate: Dennerle 6-1 capped with sand and stones.
CO2: None, possibly liquid carbon.
Water changes, 10% every week with rain water.
Filter: EHEIM Thermo Filter eXperience 250T - aged (running on another nano)
Fertiliser: None, yet.

Don’t expect anything great, I’m a programmer.

Plants (All Tropica):
Echinodorus Palaefolius and Reni - back right.
Heteranthera zosterifolia - to grow within the wood.
Sagittaria - to grow within the wood.
Staurogyne repens - foreground.

My original list was looking like 100£+ of plants, and really I’d like to start off a little easier.

Other:
A good helping of daphnia; I'm setting this up the wrong time of year; normally I'd add some water from the pond too (through a mesh).

Hardscape:
Red moor

I've rushed this a little, but I’m very happy with this one. I haven’t really played around with it too much, the main piece is quite large, and only suits in one way, with two smaller pieces ‘padding’ it out. It’s quite generic in it’s shape, but I’m new, it’ll do.

Hardscape...

 

[castle]

Oh, I filled it today too..

I planted it, then forgot the wood floats, so there's a giant rock in there holding it down... it was planted, there may be some plant casualties!

The hardscape may be slightly tweaked to look a little more similar to image one; but I really rushed this; Christmas, illness and all sorts. Easy plants, please grow easy for me, oh and heteranthera zosterifolia, please stop loosing colour!

 

[Fiske]

Those are 1-2-grow plants? Zosterifolia might take a little time to take off, but once it does... It does like a LOT of light though. I have the same filter as you, in a 45 P, and I think you might find it lacking in the long run in a tank like yours.

 

[castle]

Oh yeah, I'm expecting it to flourish, but I need to make sure I balance light with CO2, as I don't plan to add CO2 regularly, if ever. I hope it does fill out though.

As for the filter, I'm not too worried about it right now; I guess we will see though. Noticed a little amount of surface protein, so that's my main concern at the moment; think its from some die off from surface leaves of the heteranthera zosterifolia.

 

[castle]

Ahh phone pics are crap, but removed the wood.

Planning on hanging the kessil light after xmas as I loose a lot of light to the right wall and I don't like the gooseneck. Moved in 9 CPD's from a small nano, and went straight off into egg laying - typical. They're temporary residents until I set up their long term home in another room. Didn't test the water, I used a already running mature filter to 'cycle', has yet to fail me.

Plants seem to be growing well, Heteranthera zosterifolia and Sagittaria are rooting well, but the Heteranthera zosterifolia older leaves are browning off, I assume this is it transitioning to life under water; their new leaves are a really nice green albeit a little light. Staurogyne repens isn't looking to sharp with darkened/transparent leaves. I'm planting some tonight probably, as I have another tub of them.

I turned down the brightness of the light too; just in case light was too bright for the Staurogyne repens.

Oh and I added one Echinodorus 'Reni', looking forward to seeing it grow.

 

[castle]

Ahh, may as well share some more images. Shows some real growth, Echinodorus Palaefolius shot out a new leaf with the stem growing well over 4 inches in a few days, which I found astounding.

Staurogyne repens has done a little darkening/ transparency thing. Seen this on some javafern a while ago, I'm unsure how to remedy this one.

Some growth though, so can't complain, Heteranthera zosterifolia is putting out more runners than I'd expect too, more than Sagittaria.