Dirt 2ft tank setup

[diazman]

Hi all, just wanted to share my 2ft setup that I managed to finally do so after clearing my BMT phase.

Couldn't stand watching an empty tank sitting by the living room day in day out, so got to work few months back and got this rojak of a tank setup as a mean to dis-stress after coming back from camp trainings.

This tank is based on a low budget setup and I make the use of potting soil (only $2 for a bag!) as an alternative to using the branded aqua soils offered out in the market. I find this method feasible for my scapes as the plants grow just the same as times where I used aqua soil in my previous setup.

Equipment listing:
- 1x 60x30x36cm glass tank
- 1x GEX M HOF
- 2ft T5 lighting powered by 2x 14Watts Philips "Daylight" (8 Hours full blast from 4pm - 12pm)
- 2 bags of $2 potting soil topped with Lapis sand, with plantacote pluss 6M as base fertilizer
- Co2 @ 1-2 Bps
- Temperature 28c - 30c constant

Flora:
- Hygrophila polysperma
- Hygrophila difformis
- Taxiphyllum Sp.
- Taxiphyllum barbieri (Disappeared in the scape)
- Rotala rotundifolia
- Micranthemum 'monte carlo'
- Cryptocoryne Wendtii
- Cryptocoryne Willisii
- Microsorum Pteropus 'Windelov'
- Sagittaria Subulata (oxygenate the substrate)
- Nymphea Lotus 'Red'

Fauna:
- 15 x Hemigrammus erythrozonus (Glowlight tetra)
- 4 x Hasemania nana (Silvertip tetra)
- 2 x Otocinclus affinis (Otto catfish)
- A couple of Planorbis rubrum (Ramshorn Snail)

Water parameters:
Not tested

(Water is yellowish probably due to the potting soil. Doesn't affect the stock though, still active as ever. Pic before trimming.)


The dwarf sag recently took off after it had a really bad melt down the last 2 weeks. Same goes for the monte carlo. Spreading slowly..

A question to the bro/sis out there. Anyone has any idea why my lotus plant is not growing upwards? It has been close to about a month or so. The plant is sending out new plant-let but it's not growing big as I imagine it would be. Even the dwarf sag is throwing bigger leaves than the lotus hahaha.. At any rate, the sag is going to overshadow the poor lotus



Any comments/tips appreciated!

[Urban Aquaria]

Lotus plants usually consume quite alot of nutrients in order to grow large, much more than other plants... maybe add some root tabs or sticks into the substrate, specifically around the base of the lotus plants (those ferts with lots of macro and micro nutrients), it should help improve the plant's growth rate and size.

[fireblade]

love the small sized lotus you have!! when they grow taller , it will be a real headache...

[diazman]

Lotus plants usually consume quite alot of nutrients in order to grow large, much more than other plants... maybe add some root tabs or sticks into the substrate, specifically around the base of the lotus plants (those ferts with lots of macro and micro nutrients), it should help improve the plant's growth rate and size.

Thanks for the tip UA. I loaded the substrate surrounding the lotus with atleast 6-9 capsule of plantacote pluss slow releasing fertilizer. Hope that helps. Does lotus have a adjustment period just like any other plants?

[diazman]

love the small sized lotus you have!! when they grow taller , it will be a real headache...

Haha thanks fireblade. The lotus initially had bigger leaves when i bought it and i had it trimmed, leaving the smaller leaves only. Wish it could grow as nice as the ones in the polyart display tank

[Urban Aquaria]

Thanks for the tip UA. I loaded the substrate surrounding the lotus with atleast 6-9 capsule of plantacote pluss slow releasing fertilizer. Hope that helps. Does lotus have a adjustment period just like any other plants?

Yeah, they do go through a transition period too when planted in a new environment, just have to give them abit of time to establish and then they'll start to grow out.

[AQMS]

They will grow big just give it some time,you probably stunt it by cutting the bigger leaves,you should at least leave one big leaf.
Since you are using plantacote, your crypt,lotus and sagi will grow like crazy...anyway if you are trimming the sagi away in near future
do contact me if you are giving it away the extras...

[diazman]

They will grow big just give it some time,you probably stunt it by cutting the bigger leaves,you should at least leave one big leaf.
Since you are using plantacote, your crypt,lotus and sagi will grow like crazy...anyway if you are trimming the sagi away in near future
do contact me if you are giving it away the extras...

that could be the very reason why the lotus hasn't grow big yet I will be trimming the sagi too in weeks to come. Keep a look out in the buy/sell section

[BFG]

Diazman, JZX had trimmed their lotus down to look like half a soccer ball when they were operating at Clementi way back in the day.

[diazman]

Diazman, JZX had trimmed their lotus down to look like half a soccer ball when they were operating at Clementi way back in the day.

I was hoping to achieve the same effect as well. The lotus currently have 21 leaves. Do i need any special requirements to make the leaves big?

[BFG]

Er, no. From what I remembered, they kept the lotus leaf small. With lotus, be careful when you want to remove them after sometime, their roots system is a thick as a mouse cable, if not more and it will snake around the whole tank. I've kept a similar plant before in my previous 3ft tank, 3/4 of the ADA Aquasoil moved when I uproot the lotus.

[diazman]

Woah pps:. I guess i should keep a lookout for the plant. Urm how small did jzx keep the plants size at?

Also last night increased the lighting hours to 9 as I have a feeling the plants are not having enough photo period

[diazman]

Book out update. The growth is noticeable. However, i found two of the silvertip tetra dead in the tank D:


12th APRIL


17th APRIL


Monte carlo's growth still is very slow according to my observations. Time to trim some of the plants. I guess the plantacote really does a good job in supplying nutrient when I am not able to dose macros/micros during my time in camp. Not much of algae breakouts other than GSA on the front glass.

[diazman]

As at: 26 April 2015


- Weekend update. Plants kept growing as per normal. Trimmed the rotala on 17th April to shine some light down for the lotus, which is still not showing any spurts of growth apart from throwing more leaves by its sides.

- Noticeable growth on the monte carlo. Should have gotten additional pot to cover more ground The dwarf sag also took off, as seen on the right.

- Going to invest on a surface skimmer to get rid of the surface scum. Does the OF brand works as good as the Eheim ones?

- Also, does any bros/sis here know why does the rotala's new growth seemed to be stunted after i trimmed them?