Low Life

[matt]

Hello everyone,

In anticipation of my new plants turning up this friday,I think this is the perfect time to start my very first journal.
The tank itself is a very old Juwel,well when i say old thats because i've had this tank over 10 years and it was a hand me down when I got it!So im not new to fish keeping nor planted tanks,i've tried my hand at the high tech approach a few times now but it has never ended well for me,too many co2 issues and working away from home most the week means that when i do get back the damage is already done.
This time I will be going low tech and hopfully have a better outcome.

A few pictures of a previous attempt

 

[matt]

umm,having a few problems with the photos at the moment

 

[matt]

 

[matt]

Ok managed to sort the photo problem,where was I,oh yeah.

Right,the photos above are of the last attempt the algae got too much of a hold in the end so it all come out,(apart from the Anubias which im planing
on keeping)I don't have any photos of this but it's fair to say it was a right mess of brown and green mush.

Tank specs:
80x42x30 cm(100L ish)
Filters:
Eheim 2036 ecco pro
Eheim thermo pro(model no unknown)
Lighting:
Aquaworld T5 4X39 Watts 90cm (Now suspended about 45 cm from water surface,only 2 bulbs running)
Substrate:
Original pond soil
Sphagnum peat moss
ADA Amazonia

Here is a photo of how it looked yesterday

But I was not happy with white(ish)gravel,so yesterday I brought 10kg of black gravel and last night swaped it out,the tank still needs a good clean so I will
get some pictures of how it looks now,up later.

Back to the plants I ordered from TGM and am expecting on friday they are:
2 x Tropica 1-2-Grow Lilaeopsis brasiliensis
1 x Pogostemon Helferi
2 x Hygrophila sp. ''Araguaia''
4 x Tropica 1-2-Grow Marsilea hirsuta
2 x Cryptocoryne wendtii 'green'
2 x Cryptocoryne wendtii 'brown'
1 x Cryptocoryne wendtii 'Mi Oya'
1 x Cryptocoryne wendtii 'Tropica'
1 x Limnobium laevigatum
I've done a bit of research on these plants,weighed up the pros and cons as a couple are apparently high tech only but have found others growing them
in a low tech setup with success.

I've no real "layout"plan for where the plants are going to go as yet,tbh every time I sit down a try to think about it,it makes my head hurt lol.
Planning things out is not one of my strong points,and honestly just getting good growth with little algae would be a real bonus.
I do however have some hardscape at my disposal

Though I'm not sure how much of it I will be using,if at all at the moment.
Anyway I think thats it for now,thanks for looking and any comments on the plant choices hard scape layout or anything I may be missing will be much appreciated.
Many thanks,
Matt.

 

[matt]

A few more pictures of after changing the gravel

Not the best photos in the world,but i only have an Nikon coolpix and I'm useless and taking photos

 

[Lindy]

It looks good but it sounds like a lot of light for a non pressurised co2 tank. That would explain the algae. For the plants you have you probably need only one bulb but I'm sure an expert can give you better advice.

 

[Alastair]

It looks good but it sounds like a lot of light for a non pressurised co2 tank. That would explain the algae. For the plants you have you probably need only one bulb but I'm sure an expert can give you better advice.

Agreed id try to lower the lighting at least until those emmersed plants take off properly. Especially the calathea on the left as that grows monstrously once its settled

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk 2

 

[matt]

It looks good but it sounds like a lot of light for a non pressurised co2 tank. That would explain the algae. For the plants you have you probably need only one bulb but I'm sure an expert can give you better advice.

Agreed id try to lower the lighting at least until those emmersed plants take off properly. Especially the calathea on the left as that grows monstrously once its settled

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk 2

Cheers guys,
I understand what your both saying,but the t5 unit I have only allows me to run either 2 or 4 bulbs,if I run it on 2 bulbs and take one out,the bulb left
does not work.However I can raise the unit further still if needs be.
The algae issues i had in the first posts was deffo due to high lighting and having problems with the co2,and any algae remaining after removing the plants
and co2 was largely because i couldn't be bothered to give it a proper clean out

Don't get me wrong,i'm not trying to bat what your saying out of the park,but the lighting issue is something i'm going to have to work around.

The calathea in the planters have been in for just over a month now and seem to be doing really well,i'm very happy with the growth and the only reason
I put the emmersed plants in was due to reading your 'A Chocolate Puddle' journal Alastair and after spending hours reading it (Also spending hours going through
BigToms journal too)I knew that was what I wanted too.Both excellent reads by the way and the reason i decided to give planted tanks another shot

A quick pic of how the calathea looks,and the root system in the planter

Thanks again for input guys much appreciated,think i will need a lot more in the next few weeks/months as the new plant arrive on friday
can't wait
Cheers,
Matt.

 

[Lindy]

How about getting a glass lid cut for it and putting some frosted vinyl on it? I've just put some on my cube to try and cut the light.

 

[matt]

How about getting a glass lid cut for it and putting some frosted vinyl on it? I've just put some on my cube to try and cut the light.

Yeah I did think along them lines a while ago(not the frosted vinyl tho,good idea!)but i will be adding more emmersed plants in the future along the sides aswell so don't think that works well for me.
I do have some Limnobium laevigatum (floating plant) coming on friday too,was kinda hoping that would help to block some of the light to the substrate??tho i'm not sure how much you get in a portion.

 

[matt]

1700 and still no plants

 

[matt]

Plants finally turned up around 1830,so with no real plan in mind I set them out on the floor and just stared at the tank for about an hour.
Then I decided to lay in some hardscape and have a play about to see what I could come up with,but after about 10 minutes most of it all came back out again it was just looking too crowded,so at the moment i've left in one piece of wood(with a rock holding it down)tho it may still be moved or taken out still not 100% sure as yet.
Now for the planting,still unsure as what to do I just started to plonk them in and this is the result.

WARNING:MORE BAD PHOTOS

Thats pretty much it for now,I have put the emersed plants back in too and the water is now crystal clear I'll try to get some better shots later,hopefully I may be able to borrow a better camera later,tho I doubt my photo taking skills will improve much in such a short space of time
Thanks for looking,
Matt.

 

[matt]

Little update,one week on

Plenty of crypt melt

Limnobium laevigatum

Looking a bit yellow.
Thats about it,no algae yet tho

 

[Alastair]

Looking good so far matt. You could double ir triple your lileopsis carpet by splitting them up even more and spreading them out a bit too.

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk 2

 

[matt]

Looking good so far matt. You could double ir triple your lileopsis carpet by splitting them up even more and spreading them out a bit too.

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk 2

Ok cool,I'll do that thanks for the advice I wasn't sure how much I should thin it out,should I just uproot it and split it again?

 

[matt]

Week 2 and still going good,most of the crypt melt seems to of calmed down and most are throwing up new leaves.
However the limnobium laevigatum is looking very yellow and the bigger parts of the plant are turning to mush,it is still sending out new runners and sprouting new leaves.Should I be doseing with ferts?I have dry salts I just havent used them yet and not sure how much to use.

 

[Michael W]

I agree with Alastair's points. As for the amazon frogbit check this thread out Low maintainence, long term sustrate | UK Aquatic Plant Society as it will give insight to solving your problems with it.

 

[matt]

Thanks for the link Michael,that does help out a lot although I have no way to measure ppm and such like,I think i'll just start with small amounts of the dry salts I have and take it from there.

 

[Michael W]

Here is another useful link James' Planted Tank - Dosing Calculator the dosage does not need to be exact. Just roughly add the amount needed. That link will give you an idea of the amount needed.

 

[matt]

Top man,thank you sir that is a great help just as I was starting to get a headache thinking about how I was going to go about it.
Muchas gracias