My First Planted Tank : 4'x2'x2.5' (LxWxH)

[ethan2008]

After 5 months of having my tank sat empty in my living room, I have finally started my first planted tank 5 days ago.

Why planted tank? Actually I was running a marine tank in the past, but man the electricity bills and time spent in maintenance really kills me. Running 250W MH with chiller 24/7 is already no joke, so for this new tank I will not be running any chiller, and will make do with plants that don't need chiller.

Well, I have no specific theme in mind for this tank, just wanna have a planted tank that would ultimately be a planted discus tank. And for sure I will be learning along the way, and god knows how many rescapes I would do before ariving at the final scape (hopefully not too many, really back breaking planting the glosso).

All comments are welcome, as I am really looking forward to learn from many gurus in this forum.

Tank
Formerly a marine tank, bought second hand
4'x2'x2.5' (LxWxH) 12mm glass with overflow and sump

--Substrates--
Lapis Sand
JBL Base Fert

--Filtration--
Sump with Eheim 1262 return pump

--CO2--
5L CO2 Tank with JBJ Solenoid Regulator
Internal Reactor located in sump
JBL CO2 Drop Checker

--Lighting--
2x150W MH (10,000K), 2x55W T5 (10,000K), 2x36W T5 (8000K)

--Cooling--
6 DIY DC Fans with Auto Top Up (left over item from my previous marine set-up)

Here's the tank

[ethan2008]

Filling up with lapis and JBL base Fert



Hard Scape - Bog wood with nana and moss



Filling up with some water to start planting glosso

[k3nlim]

Think you might need more plant mass...those fast growing plants or floating plants to soak up the excess nutrients

[ethan2008]

Progressing



Top view of the scape

[ethan2008]

Filling up water while planting stem plants



Finally filled up the tank, bog wood on the left hand side still float that's why the ugly "sand-bags" to keep it submerge. Tank water was relatively clear, was worried initialy that the water might be cloudy as I didn't wash the Lapis Sand (apparently it's been pre-wash).



Another view

[ethan2008]

Day 1:



Day 3:



Day 4:



Day 5:

[benny]

Very impressive start! Do keep us posted of the development of this aquascape.

Cheers,

[yeoyl87]

sweet. Day 5 only and it already started to look good. Good job. Keep us posted

[Verminator]

Lovely little tank. I look forward to seeing the growth step by step (if possible). From the initial set-up it looks like this will be a very promising tank.

[craftsman]

Very nice bro! I can imagine how it will look in a couple of weeks. Nice and Natural!

[ethan2008]

Thanks all bros for the encouragement.

Here's the update:

Day 6 - Decided to remove the Riccia from the center of the tank and may tie them to smaller rocks and re-introduce them later. Like the cleaner look w/o riccia...



Moon Light popular in marine tank, not sure if it's relevant in Planted tank though





Lastly, auto-top up recycled from my previous marine set-up. Evaporation rate is about 17L in 3 days, I am glad I have this guy to help me keep my sump water level in-check.

[ethan2008]

Right now I am puzzle about how should I go about dosing fert, dare not any how dose cause affraid of creating algae problem

Below is what I have got from NA last week:

LUSH Gro-AQUA
LUSH Gro MICRO
LUSH Gro KH2PO4
Iron-EDTA (13% Fe)
Seachem Equilibrium

Am I missing anything? Or any of the above is not needed?

I am hoping to come out with the proper weekly dosage (EI Method?), mixed them well into my top up tank, and let the auto-top up slowly add the fert into my tank while replenishing the evaporated tank water, what do you guys think about this idea? All inputs are greatly appreciated

[craftsman]

Bro, how much did you pay for your tubby?

[ethan2008]

Bro, how much did you pay for your tubby?

Bought it second hand long time back, I think it's around $80 at that time. Now there're few models from other manufacturers available in the market (no longer use float switch, uses something like proximity sensor or similar that's more superior, no more moving part).

[craftsman]

Wah... Looking for something like that in the future once I have a proper study and piping facilities.

[rayade76]

Day 1:



Day 3:



Day 4:



Day 5:

Wow setup , keep it up bro.

[StanChung]

It's looking good, I just thought you'd be interested in keeping a white sand space for your future discus to 'graze' especially since discus are messy eaters.
Some cories are also good tank mates with discus plus they help to clean the white sand.
The only downside is some holland sand bits like to mess up the white sand.

[ethan2008]

It's looking good, I just thought you'd be interested in keeping a white sand space for your future discus to 'graze' especially since discus are messy eaters.
Some cories are also good tank mates with discus plus they help to clean the white sand.
The only downside is some holland sand bits like to mess up the white sand.

Thanks for your advise bro. Was having this thought earlier but not sure as some discus tanks seems to not have any white sand space too. I kinda like the idea of having a full grown foreground but then again not sure if the glosso wld actually cover the foreground fully or not. If it doen't cover the full foreground I will leave the uncover area as "white sand" area lor

[Viper007]

Well bro your pix had cos me to decide getting lapis sand instead of GEX. Thanks

[StanChung]

Yes, it ok this way too. Just have to be very careful with the excess food that may get trapped between the leaves. If not removed, will foul up the water.