My planted aquarium journey

[PeterBD]

I am about to embark on my first planted tank. I have kept fish in various ways for over 30 years but never with real plants. My current tank is an African Cichlid tank which I am in the process of shutting down. I will also be changing my tank as I can't change the light on my current tank. I don’t want an open top tank so I am going for a Seabray tank. The tank will be a 4' x 1.5' x 2' (about 340 litres) and will have a closed hood. I will be fitting a Fluval Plant 3.0 light, hopefully the 59W version.

Filtration will be by two Fluval 407 external filters

I will have two 300W JBL heaters controlled by an Inkbird temperature controller.

I am not planning on using CO2 at least to start with.

My inspiration for the intended aquascape is from the Takashi Amano tank forests underwater, in the sense that I like the idea of separate islands of planted areas separated by a pure clean sand substrate. Something like below. I am certainly no aquascaping expert but I will give it a good go!



The plants I am planning are Anubias and Bucephalandra on the rocks and wood and some java moss on the wood. In the two island areas on the corners I will have a mix of reds and greens with a combination of Rotala Rotundifolia, Rotala H'ra, Rotala Bonsai, Ludwigia Palustrus Super Red, Limnophila Sessiliflora and Tiger Lotus. I have a few other on my list if I have room and fancy more variety or if some of those mentioned don’t do well.

In terms of livestock I initially thought I would like mainly rainbowfish, and I haven't totally discounted that, but at the moment I am thinking of less rainbowfish with the following mix:

5 banded Barb (x12)
Denison Barb (x3)
Rainbow Shiner (x12)
Wapoga Rainbowfish (x6)
Sterbai Corydoras (x 6)
Otocinclus (x5)
Siamese algae eaters (x5)
Cherry shrimp
Snails - ramshorn?

My plan is to go for a dark start method. I want to set up the hardscape and add the aqua soil and sand then run the tank for about a month with no plants or livestock and the lights off. I will then plant the tank and run it for a week before starting to add the livestock.

I think this is going to be slow progress but I will post updates when I can.

I re-homed the fish from my current tank yesterday. Just need to sell the tank then I can order the new tank and start my new setup.

 

[PeterBD]

Unfortunately my plans are on hold for a bit as life happened!

Apart from struggling to sell my current aquarium, we have just lost our two Border Collies just over a month apart. We loved them dearly and it has been very hard. We are getting a new puppy but all our focus has been on that.

Hopefully, I will get some renewed energy for this project and hope to make some progress in the next 2 or 3 months.

 

[PeterBD]

So... I have managed to get going again.

I have collected together all the stuff I need and I have just ordered a Fluval Siena 330 which I will hopefully get in the next week or 2. I didn't go for the Seabray in the end. Maybe I can then start posting some pictures! I just need to remember to take photos as I progress.

No doubt I will mess about with the aquascape for a week or so until I am happy. I plan to do a dark start of sorts. There will be some natural light but hopefully the filters will have matured sufficiently by the time I do most of the planting.

Hopefully I can keep this thread up to date and with any luck there will be some progress over the next few months.

 

[PeterBD]

At last it has begun and here are some pictures...







I am really not artistic at all so struggling with the aquascape. The idea is I will have planting areas behind the rocks in each corner and sand in front. I have so far gone for lava rock instead of something like mountain rock or Seiryu stone as I don't want to raise the PH. It is already quite high in my area. Happy to change that if advised to do so. I have some spider wood and bog wood. I don't want to mix them but not sure which to use. I am thinking the spider wood might be more interesting. I plan to have stem plants behind the rocks and Anubias and Bucephalandra on the rocks and wood. I like to keep plenty of open swimming space. I am also not sure whether to put the rocks on the glass and then put the sand in or put in the substrate and then the hardscape like MD Fish Tanks does it. I will be using a very similar substrate mix to MD Fish Tanks. Any advice or thoughts gratefully received!

 

[PeterBD]

I have the day off today so I thought I would get the hardscape done.

I am not very good at this sort of thing and I am certainly not very artistic (I am an Engineer!) but I am quite pleased with what I have done. I am not going to fiddle with it. I will quit while I'm ahead! I hope to fill it up this evening. The plan is to run it for 4 weeks with no lights as a sort of dark start. It will give me time to work out what plants I want to put where and source them.