Newbie's planted tank

[sherwin]

Showing my first try at planted tank.

Budget's pretty low so i guess lots of mistakes to learn on the way...

My tank size: 3x1.5x1.5 ft
Substrate: bottom layer is potting soil covered by normal aquarium sand/gravel
Dosing: Easy-life easy carbo alternate days, seachem flourish twice a week.

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I dunno the name of the plants, they're just cheap ones i bought from C328. The ones i know are the java moss and flame moss i tied ont he drift wood and some on the wire mesh and the darker green java moss tied also on wire mesh.

Any advise guys?

Im thinking of dosing some DIY CO2.

[Mossboss]

Very neat setup. How about adding some rocks for a more natural look?

[sherwin]

Thanks. Will try to find some nice rock to add.

[sherwin]

some updates.
havent found the right rock i wanted. so these were mostly the same plants. some were eaten by gold fish when wife thought its ok and bought 5 big goldfish and put them inside. poor plants.


all plants seemed to grow painfully slow except for the tall plants which seemed to grow every second. i kept on trimming them almost every other day...
maybe i should start doing some diy co2

[felix_fx2]

Hello there sherwin,

some plants are slow by nature (eg moss types), you'll have to have some patience when doing low tech. sometimes it is painfully slow.
i guess your using potting soil covered by lapis sand? might want to share how the thickness of each.. as rooting plants will only grow well after roots grow to the soil layer..

You might want to take Mahjong paper or something to cover the rear when taking photo, else eyes will look for the wild animal you have on the table :P

[sherwin]

Thanks felix.
The potting soil is around 2~1inches with sand/gravel around 1-1.5in.

Im gonna rescape soon. Just tried the potting soil if it works. Just bought an aquarium soil. So ill be using that on my rescape.

I guess this can be a lesson to which plants i can grow without melting much on a low tech tank. Melted leaves are a pain to remove coz they dont float. They just sink down and tried to be unreachable as possible.

[felix_fx2]

Good to hear the trial is over. Better understanding will greatly aid you

Compressed soils are easier to deal with. Especially when changing the scape itself. Less mud