My first Planted Community Tank

[Merviso]

Hi Bro & Sis,



This is my first try out on planted tank with some fishes, shrimps, plants and algaes.

Following are some of the parameters:

Tank Size: Standard 2ft Gex tank.
Lighting: 1x36w PL Light
Lighting hrs: 8pm to 7am (reverse the lighting hrs so that I can appreciate them throughout the night)
Substrate: Gex soil for Planted tank (Light Green packing)
Filter: Hydor Prime 20 with Mr Aqua Ceramic Ring Medium Size
Air Pump: 1 small airstone
Fertilizer: No Base Fert. Dosed Seachem Flourish and Flourish Excel every 2 to 3 days
Water Parameter: Sorry, have not bought my test kit yet
Temperature: 27c to 29c
Setup date: 1 Oct 2007

Fauna: 6 White Mountain Minnow
8 Galaxy
9 Rasboras Brigitta
4 adult endler, 6 sub-adult, many baby
4 Borneo Hillstream Loach
2 Tiger Oto, 1 Zebra Oto
2 Albino Cory
1 Kuli Loach
2 Large Wood Shrimp
10 Yamato
10 Adult Cherry, 20 to 30 baby Cherry
around 5 Bee Shrimp
around 15 Tiger Shrimp
around 10 Green Shrimp
------------ Yes, I know my bioload is high

Plants: A lot of different plants that I have not totally figure out the names


I will follow up with the pictures for the development of the tank setup. This tank will become my testing ground for the new plants and fishes. I'm not very bothered by algae developing in the tanks as I will treat it as just another plants, as long as it don't affect on my other plants or make the tank visually not acceptable.

Please feel free to comment and advice on my tank setup. Please do pardon the lousy picture quality as I'm now taking the picture using my Sony handphone. I will try to get a decent digital camera soon.

[Merviso]

Day 5: After initial planting & throwing some snails and market prawn meat for the cycling. Use water from existing fish tank to speed up the cycle process.




Day 14: Start to transfer fishes and shrimps into the tank with more water from the old tank. I know it's a bit rush, but then the other tank condition is getting bad. So not much choice.




Day 29: Some plants starting to do well and some plants showing unhealthy sign. Algae started to grow on the driftwood.




Day 34: Started my first trimming. Removed some plants that are not doing well and added more fishes and shrimp into the tank.

[mobile2007]

Nicely setup. May i know what is the foreground plant that you have?

[marle]

Very nice hardscape, why not consider an iwagumi theme bro? I think it will be nice with some HC, as your tank is not too big, you might want to consider plants that are smaller in size so as to make you tank look bigger.

[Merviso]

Nicely setup. May i know what is the foreground plant that you have?

Hi mobile2007, thanks, actually I'm also not so sure when I bought the plant. Just buy and try it out. I now believe it should Echinodorus tenellus or commonly known as Pygmy Chain Sword. Maybe some bro can confirm for me.

Very nice hardscape, why not consider an iwagumi theme bro? I think it will be nice with some HC, as your tank is not too big, you might want to consider plants that are smaller in size so as to make you tank look bigger.

Hi marle, thanks, I choose the driftwood with the intention to create a dark cave hideout for the fishes and shrimps. Maybe it's a little too big for my tank, but it also created more area for them to roam around.

As for the foreground plant, I really did not expect the Pygmy Chain Sword to grow so well. I actually planted it in the mid ground and was expected something like a mini Amazon Sword Plant. My original intention is to grow hair glass as the foreground. But seems like the hair glass got out competed too quickly. Anyway, since this is only a testing tank for learning to grow different plants, I will just let it be for the time being.

I had pull out quite a bit to stop it from invading too much area. Let me know if any bro interested to try out on this plant.

[illumnae]

wow i like your scape very much! the cave concept is great =)

pity you've decided on shrimp in your tank or i'd recommend apistos or other dwarf cichlids as inhabitants =)

[Merviso]

Hi illumnae, good to know that you like my cave concept.

I have not thought of going into apistos or other dwarf cichlids yet. But I guess that will be something I would like to try after gaining more experience.

My current setup plan is as follows:

1. Planted Community Small Fish & Shrimp tank - 2 ft
2. Birchir & other not so monster tank - currently 2ft planning for 4ft
3. Vivarium for Fire-Bellied Newt & some goby - currently 1ft cube changing to 1.5x1.5x1 ft soon
4. River sand tank for Loaches, Eel & maybe some cherry bard - currently 2 ft small planing for 1.5x1.5x1 ft soon
5. Will be adding one more 1.5x1.5x1 ft tank, planning for Crystal Red Shrimp but not decided since I don't intend to add a chiller. Maybe doing a Angelfish Setup for now.
6. Eventually planning for a 4ft Planted Tank and shift over the Angelfish. The freed up 1.5x1.5x1 ft tank may then be for the Apistos setup.

Ops! Have not plan for the other empty 2ft tank yet.. Maybe will shift the loach tank over since they will need a bigger space and free up the 1.5x1.5x1 ft tank as a breeding tank.

[illumnae]

wow many tanks =) all the best with your setups!

[Angel Claris]

Nice scaping, lots of plants in the tank. The algae on driftwood looks nice, is it deliberately planted?

[doppelbanddwarf]

Your foreground plant could be Echnodorus latifolius but i'm not really sure either. I think the algae on the driftwood makes it more natural.

[doppelbanddwarf]

Oh actually could be Echi. quadricostatus. Haha im really not sure. Maybe you can post it as an id in the plant talk section so that other bros can help.

[Clio Jake]

Wow thats stunning,i might have a look into getting my tank to look like this.

[Merviso]

Thanks illumnae, all these tank will be implement in phases. I will take my time and slowly enjoy the fun of the process.

Hi Angel Caris, glad that you like it! The algae just grow by itself due to the long hours of light, and furthermore, it's directly under the lighting. It is now growing into a carpeting glassland look. My shrimps & Endlers is always grazing on it.

Hi limchongyu, thanks for helping to identify the plant. I'm currently not able to take a good picture of my plants and therefore quite difficult to provide them for good identification. I like the algae too, especially since I have quite a lot of algae eater to take it as snack. There are also some black hair algae and black beard algae around which I'm monitoring closely.

[Merviso]

Hi Clio Jake, glad that you like the look.

This is quite a simple setup. Just one chunky piece of driftwood and 2 piece of rock (one big and one smaller one as the support). The Gex soil make it easlier for the plant to grow well. Just throw in the plants and let things happen naturally...

[illumnae]

ah didn't notice you used Gex soil...good choice! best substrate around for planted tanks

[Merviso]

haha... I actually have another tank already filled with ADA Amazonia Soil since August. I had the rockscape in place and I'm actually very happy with the placement. Only thing is that I have not even filled up one drop of water in it. I had originally plan it to be a Crystal Red Shrimp tank.

One reason is that I'm not very comfortable with the tank. It's a Ocean Free 1.5x1x1 ft Cube tank. The base is not even and so the tank is rocking on alternate leg. Maybe it will be stable once I put in the water; however, I would then start to worry when it might start to leak. I don't like this kind of feeling, therefore, I'm now planning to replace it with a custom order 1.5x1.5x1 ft tank.

Maybe I will take a photo of this empty tank with the rockscape and shared it for some discussion later. I'm actually thinking of keeping this rockscape tank as a display in my room, but then again, the ADA soil inside is too expensive to use it in this way.

[Merviso]

As mentioned earlier, this is my ill-fated 1x1x1.5ft cube Rockscape tank that I had initially setup for Crystal Red Shrimp.

[doubleace]

nice.. Try planting some HC and let it lawn.. will be nice

[Merviso]

Hi doubleace, this tank will be replaced with a new custom order 1.5x1.5x1 ft tank. I regretted buying this tank. Not comfortable with the design and the quality of this tank. Maybe will use it as a standby or ad-hoc nursery tank, but will not be using it for scaping and long term usuage.

Maybe I'm a bit paranoid; but I just don't like the feeling of using a tank that I constantly thinking when it will breakdown.

[Chee Jin]

Nice tank Merviso. I have always wanted to start a planted tank, but get discouraged by aquarium shop personnel as they say need to put CO2, fan.
Your tank really inspire me to convert one of my 2ft tank to a planted tank. How much GEX soil did you put in your 2ft tank and how much does it cost?
Is the foreground plant Pygmy Chain Sword or Echi. quadricostatus? Can spare me some to try out?