Newbie Planted Setup

**Jon-san** · 8th Nov 2011, 11:45

My first plunge into full planted setup. Hope you guys don't mind the awful planting. Too nervous on my first try. Size of the tank is 1.5 x 1 x 1 Ocean Free rimless, curved corner tank. Soil setup is Mosura Old Sea Mud Powder, followed by ADA Power Sand, and ADA New Amazonia Soil. Filtration is Eheim 2213. CO2 injection currently at 1bps. Lights are Aquazonic 16W x 2, photo period approx 9-12 hours. Flora currently is Pogostemon Helferi "Downoi" and Normal Hairgrass. Fauna in the tank includes 29 Neon Tetras, 1 Juve Guppy, 1 Otocinclus, 1 Zebra Nerite and 1 Horned Nerite.

Thanks for viewing! Any comments welcome.

**benjidog** · 8th Nov 2011, 12:12

The current looks too strong!. The hairgrass looks like there is a typhoon in there.
Try tilting the rainbar.
Also position the airstone to the side so that it does not stick out like a blue sore thumb.

The placement of the rocks is too rigid and unnatural.

It will look better if you have a taller mountain at the right side (so that the inlet tube is hidden from view), and
one/two smaller rocks at the right side. If you get some Sudo sand, you can even create a waterfall effect.
More substrate/sand, and heavier planting (moss tree?)

**Jon-san** · 8th Nov 2011, 12:20

Originally Posted by benjidog

The current looks too strong!. The hairgrass looks like there is a typhoon in there.
Try tilting the rainbar.
Also position the airstone to the side so that it does not stick out like a blue sore thumb.

The placement of the rocks is too rigid and unnatural.

It will look better if you have a taller mountain at the right side (so that the inlet tube is hidden from view), and
one/two smaller rocks at the right side. If you get some Sudo sand, you can even create a waterfall effect.
More substrate/sand, and heavier planting (moss tree?)

Thanks for the tips! Am going to have to find more rocks then. 1 question, will a moss tree obstruct my HG and cause them to have insufficient light?

**Rooster** · 8th Nov 2011, 12:28

Hi,
In my opinion, I think it's a commendable first attempt.

I do think that the rocks will be locked by the hairgrass as the growth thickens though. In fact, I think that the hairgrass are already blocking the front view of the rocks now.
Ditto on the placement of the rocks; I also think that you may need to slope back to front (ie higher back lower front) to create a sense of depth.

**edmund_83** · 8th Nov 2011, 12:37

You should swap the plant instead.. hairgrass at the back and foreground for downoi

**Peanut8787** · 11th Nov 2011, 16:50

Bro, your tank is looking great !

Some suggestion of mine. Plant some rotala sp behind those rocks, move your downoi to the front of the rocks, move your normal hairgrass to the side of the stone. Think of whether to use HC or JHG as your main foreground. Just imagine if your hairgrass matures and cover your whole rock scape?

Cheers

**benjidog** · 12th Nov 2011, 02:02

Another comment is that you have 9-12 hours of lighting. I think you may have too much lighting and based on the plants (or lack of plants), there is way too much lighting and you will probably get algae at this rate.

I think it is better if you break up the lighting into blocks, for example, 4hours with 1 hour break, or other permutations, depending on your work/study periods.
Solution? Use a timer to control the lighting.
Get some cheap stem plants (from the market lfs), those cheap $1/bunch type, get about 3-4 bunches (some sword plants, rotalas, common water plants/weeds (it does not really matter, as you are just using these plants to stablise the tank, cheap and good method, rather than to add more chemicals) to absorb extra nutrients/excess nitrates, and remove them after 2-3 months (when you finally decide to upgrade to other plants/slightly more high tech.

You know it is time to change these cheap(er) plants when their leaves and stems grow long and thin or they start browning.

**Apistoinka** · 12th Nov 2011, 11:33

Split up the rock and place it separately will look better... Maybe you can try iwagumi style of scape... New tank are prone to have brown algae attack as too much nutrients in the tank so be careful...

Nice effort there bro...

**Jon-san** · 16th Jan 2012, 13:11

An update to share. After returning from a 2 week long vacation in Japan, found my planted in total chaotic shambles. The full package of the myriad types of algae could be found in my small tank. Thankfully, all of my fauna survived. Had to tear up the whole scape, manually remove most of the algae and trash some of more severely algae-infested plants. Been re-scaping bit by bit for the last 1 month. Just wanted to share the current look. Any comments welcome.

**Neondagger** · 16th Jan 2012, 13:49

haha definitely got improvement. Great job. The Hairgrass at the back give sense of depth well. But why different size. got 2 tall one then other so short. lol trim all ma.
Bro my own opinion. The rocks give a sense of conflict le. Like abit conflicting unless you got something in the middle to accomodate. The red plants can be further driven till redder and look like more different. But the rocks got something I dun really like. Just my 2 cent

**Jon-san** · 16th Jan 2012, 13:57

Originally Posted by Neondagger

haha definitely got improvement. Great job. The Hairgrass at the back give sense of depth well. But why different size. got 2 tall one then other so short. lol trim all ma.
Bro my own opinion. The rocks give a sense of conflict le. Like abit conflicting unless you got something in the middle to accomodate. The red plants can be further driven till redder and look like more different. But the rocks got something I dun really like. Just my 2 cent

Haha, erm the 2 different heights of hairgrass at the back were originally of the same height. Thanks to my 4 jumbo Yamatos (already removed) who gave most of my normal and japanese HG a haircut, only those 2 clusters were spared. Now waiting for all to grow back.

Any suggestions what I should do with the middle section? Wanted to leave it empty to have some open space for the fishes to swim.

Thanks for your comments!

**Neondagger** · 16th Jan 2012, 14:03

I think I know why already. Maybe is the soil on the left and on the right thats has such as differences. Then Look Very distorted. Especially the bigger rock leaning on the lower side looks like it's going to fall apart thats why I having this feel.
Haha but I still damn green. Wait for the experts to comment ba. They can give alot better comments. I just want to take something off my mind lol.
Ya the main problem is the balances. The looks not balances. thats why