Luke1939
Seedling
- Joined
- 4 Mar 2015
- Messages
- 18
Evening All!
Decided to take the plunge into attempting a planted tank.
Ok back story (sorry for the essay!)
Have had fancy goldfish (2 in a rio 180) for the last 2 years and have had some planting - crypts and val in terracotta pots. which worked very well.Fancies are far to rambunctious for a properly planted tank! But I would never consider the tank as a true planted one.
Just invested in a new 400l tank 48x24x24 (from ND Aquatics - lovely tank!) for the fancies as a new home - plan was to increase to 5 - the original 2 where fully grown and far to large for the 180! ) - but have decided to go down a tropical planted tank route instead.
I had originally set up this new tank plants in a similar set up for the old tank with plants in terracotta pots with tetra soil topped with gravel. Current flora includes a crinium, various bulbs, crypts and annubis tied to slate. I seeded the new filter (Hrydor pro 600 ) and everything was running smoothly. No spikes at all. Two weeks later after sorting out the cabinet, I had pushed the filter and had accidentally kinked the out flow pipe (very tight fit for the pipework due to awkward hole placing in the back) We then went a way for a week.....
Came back to find 1 fish in a pretty bad state (lost his protective film, gone bind, blood shot skin - all in the space of week!!) and the other just not herself. The flow rate had been reduced to around 100 LPH due to the kink . The water had a massive spike in ammonia and nitrite as the water was not being circulated correctly. The fish had stopped feeding so there was a large pile of food form the autofeeder. All very bad. I had no spare filter for a hospital tank and the canister filter bacteria had pretty much been killed off. I had to euthanise the calico fantail as after 48 hours in a spare 48l tank with 25% water changes every hour he was looked no better. I managed to rehome the redcap. So all in all a sad story.
But silver lining I guess - been running the tank since and dosing with ammonia to 4ppm to run a fishless cycle. Ammonia is now being reduced to 0PPM in 24hrs (taken a week to get to that level) but nitrite levels not yet reducing, even marginally. In the meantime gave me time to think what I wanted to do. I was tempting to go back to fancies but then wanted to try something new and that would be a true planted tank.
I'm going to strip the tank down and start again. The plants I have seem to be doing ok so will save them of course. Some algae but mainly brown as it is a new set up, Will give them a thorough clean though before replanting.
The sheer volume of info out on the old web is frankly confusing when researching - A myriad of substrates , low tech/hi tech, photo periods, PAR, lumins , macro ferts - endless lists of words not really had to think about before. So figured best thing to do is chat to people who have planted tanks so here I am!
Looking forward to this new project and meeting like minded people!
Right better get a new tank project thread going!
Cheers
Luke
Decided to take the plunge into attempting a planted tank.
Ok back story (sorry for the essay!)
Have had fancy goldfish (2 in a rio 180) for the last 2 years and have had some planting - crypts and val in terracotta pots. which worked very well.Fancies are far to rambunctious for a properly planted tank! But I would never consider the tank as a true planted one.
Just invested in a new 400l tank 48x24x24 (from ND Aquatics - lovely tank!) for the fancies as a new home - plan was to increase to 5 - the original 2 where fully grown and far to large for the 180! ) - but have decided to go down a tropical planted tank route instead.
I had originally set up this new tank plants in a similar set up for the old tank with plants in terracotta pots with tetra soil topped with gravel. Current flora includes a crinium, various bulbs, crypts and annubis tied to slate. I seeded the new filter (Hrydor pro 600 ) and everything was running smoothly. No spikes at all. Two weeks later after sorting out the cabinet, I had pushed the filter and had accidentally kinked the out flow pipe (very tight fit for the pipework due to awkward hole placing in the back) We then went a way for a week.....
Came back to find 1 fish in a pretty bad state (lost his protective film, gone bind, blood shot skin - all in the space of week!!) and the other just not herself. The flow rate had been reduced to around 100 LPH due to the kink . The water had a massive spike in ammonia and nitrite as the water was not being circulated correctly. The fish had stopped feeding so there was a large pile of food form the autofeeder. All very bad. I had no spare filter for a hospital tank and the canister filter bacteria had pretty much been killed off. I had to euthanise the calico fantail as after 48 hours in a spare 48l tank with 25% water changes every hour he was looked no better. I managed to rehome the redcap. So all in all a sad story.
But silver lining I guess - been running the tank since and dosing with ammonia to 4ppm to run a fishless cycle. Ammonia is now being reduced to 0PPM in 24hrs (taken a week to get to that level) but nitrite levels not yet reducing, even marginally. In the meantime gave me time to think what I wanted to do. I was tempting to go back to fancies but then wanted to try something new and that would be a true planted tank.
I'm going to strip the tank down and start again. The plants I have seem to be doing ok so will save them of course. Some algae but mainly brown as it is a new set up, Will give them a thorough clean though before replanting.
The sheer volume of info out on the old web is frankly confusing when researching - A myriad of substrates , low tech/hi tech, photo periods, PAR, lumins , macro ferts - endless lists of words not really had to think about before. So figured best thing to do is chat to people who have planted tanks so here I am!
Looking forward to this new project and meeting like minded people!
Right better get a new tank project thread going!
Cheers
Luke
