First planted tank

[Poachedeggz]

After having my first fish for a while in @Claire's old 155l cube, I felt the time was right to fill the space in the man cave with the biggest tank I could realistically fit; to avoid any temptation to buy more tanks so I now have a Juwel Rio 350 121 x 51 x 66 cm. If I could have taken a sledgehammer to the old chimney breast...

The fish had plastic plants and decoration in the cube, however I wanted to try natural decoration and real plants this time. Claire has a nice planted tropical tank, and a nice marine tank and I felt bad when I saw all the plastic tat I had given my fish!

So far I only have two Java Fern, two types of Echinodorus, some Cryptocoryne and Frogbit. I've put a few bits of weeping moss on the wood in the hope this spreads. There are still a couple of plastic plants to fill the space and provide cover for the time being, they will be gone ASAP!

I'll update this thread with more pictures and updates as they happen.

 

[Connswater]

Juwel Rio 350 121 x 51 x 66 cm

Easiest of the 6 good sized tanks I have over the decades worked to maintain, definitely the most practical tank that I ever owned, I had the old model. I will be interested to know how things develop.

 

[Poachedeggz]

I hadn’t posted much more in regards to updates for this tank, however I had added a load more plants. It looked so good, to me anyway. It had some dense areas of twisted vallisneria to one side, and my giant vallisneria had started to reach the top and fold over. I had added some Elodea to the back snd it was growing so well. I had glued a few Anubias to the wood and that helped with the over all look.

While the tank was a mish mash of plants and fish from all over, it was doing so well. All the plants were growing well and the fish were coexisting well.

We are on holiday in Florida at the moment, currently in the Everglades. It was so cool to see so much Elodea in the wild!

Unfortunately we found out today that our power had been out for five days in the side of the house my tank was in.

Our amazing neighbours went in and restored power back to the tank; unfortunately there were a lot of casualties and I will not know the full extent of plant and fish survivors until I return home on the 25th. Our neighbours are not very clued up with fish but said they can see some catfish.

I just wish I had taken more pictures before coming on holiday to showcase how proud I was with the tank.

This was the last picture I had taken a while back during a water change; note more wood being weighed down by a brick!

 

[Poachedeggz]

While there were a lot of casualties, 10/10 of my Odessa Barbs and 6/6 Corys survived! And I still had 4 Lizard Catfish.

The only way is up!

All of my floating plants have gone, however it looks like the majority of the plants are going to be okay. The layout is slightly different due to removing all the wood to take out fish. The tank is still low tech, as I don’t want to keep a 350l tank gassed with Co2.

I’ll be looking up ideas for more floating plants that would work well with my African Butterfly Fish.

I have 3d printed a thing that hangs of the brace bars to keep the floating plants in place as I found that smaller ones used to get blown around too much.

 

[wearsbunnyslippers]

don't you think this will become a puffer tank only eventually?

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

While there were a lot of casualties, 10/10 of my Odessa Barbs and 6/6 Corys survived! And I still had 4 Lizard Catfish.

Horrible, but some good news then. I always worry while I'm on holiday <"My unfortunate vacation experience and "who dun it"">.

cheers Darrel

 

[Claire]

don't you think this will become a puffer tank only eventually?

The spotted Congo puffer is one of the most peaceful freshwater puffer species and will reach a maximum size of 4 inches. So we hope that with suitable tank mates (the mature Odessa barbs and some rainbowfish) that are quick enough to stay out of trouble that he will be able to stay in a community setup.
If not though he can have his own place!
They are known for occasionally nipping plants - we haven’t seen any of that yet but will see!