I will get camera out and take a few pictures in the week
It’s definitely a fish tank as opposed to dedicated planted tank
It’s been a year in planning and getting to where it is (not finished due to delays in supply of tank/cabinet), and lack of time
I used tropica soil powder in laundry bags, capped with unipac fine sand, I went with this as corys seem to do better in this compared to more course sand/gravel
I use Ro/tap mix at 3:1
Ph 6.5 gh 4 kh 2
It has a weir feeding two 1200xl’s, heaters(3x300w Eheim), sensors, air stones in wier, filter returns are up through weir along top inside cover returning in both rear corners
2 mp40’s (rear corners) help with flow
Lighting is fluval 3.0 2x 59w 2x 43w
All channels bar warm white ramp up to 38%, warm white 25%, used this ratio on previous tank and prefer the colour (less yellow to my eye)
I had soaked soil for 3 months (changed water a few times), on filling tank with water, I got 3ppm ammonia, seeded filters with media from other filters, tank took a week for zero ammonia, and nitrite, gradually added plants over a week (when time allowed)
Added L027x 2, L128x2, Ottos, 2x honeycomb ancistrus, rummy nosed tetras, Cory sterbai, cory venezuelanus and marbled hatchet fish
A month later added some more rummy nose’s, manacapuru angels, and 2x baryancistrus demantoides, another 3 weeks saw the addition of moenkhausia costa, and a few days ago Hyphessobrycon notidanos, am waiting on some hyphessobrycon wadai, that will be it as far as fish are concerned
Currently dosing with apt complete (as this is what I had), at recommended dose
Plants are mainly crypts, some have done really well, others not as well but 🤞🤞, a few various buces, some large java ferns, a few large echinodorus, not certain what they are as they don’t look like what they were sold to be as
Most plants doing well, some growing like weeds
No real algae problems, traces here and there but nothing terrible
Ramshorn snails (courtesy of my sister, I gave her some assassin’s), and ottos keep leaves pretty clear, multiple pleco’s keep glass clear
Tank needs a vacuum
The cable ties will be removed at a later date👍