My trips with planted tank

[VictorTQT]

Hi every one.

I am Victor. I am also a newbie in planted tank and I have just jumped in planted tank for 2 month. Here are my trips:

And here is my first setup planted tank (2 month ago):



And with some discus added later:





All the plants grew well after that. However after a month I realized that there was not much space for the discus to swim, and also not much area to feed the discus. Another problem is that the white substrate-stone was getting brown very soon. Got some suggestion of senior bro to rearrange the layout, and my idea is to try a sandy-tank. I love the white sandy substrate and here is my 2nd setup. The fern branch in the first setup was removed, and the stone was moved to the corner:

The tank is a bit cloudy:



There was much more space for the discus to swim:



However very soon I realized that the white sandy will not be white anymore, it was very easily getting dark and dirty by the black soil:



And after 1 week, I had to give up this idea, and come back to a planted tank again, but this time I created more space in the center so the discus could come to eat, and it is also easier for me to remove the excess food. The fern branch was put in again. This time I did not use white gravel on the substrate, and I am trying to do the HC carpet in the foreground (not sure it is a good idea or not since I know the HC is carpet is really a challenge work):





I think this setup will stay for a while, at least after the HC carpet will fully spread out.

Thank you for your recommendation.

[thebaldingaquarist]

Good job!
Looking good! natural scape!

Must be back breaking to remove the sand.. twice..

[David]

Wow ...Victor...two thumbs up WAY UP for you. Beautiful tank. You sure you only 2 months into planted tank...

HC is fine. Just that you need a large suction cup attached to hose to pull out the muck. If it gets thick, just mow the lawn.

[David]

Is that Anubis at the center near the top of the waterline? If it is, be careful. Too close to light source gets you algae. You can consider hornwort to provide some shading and also a good nutrient sucker and oxygenator of the water column.

If there is any more space behind, consider Hydrophia Polyspomer. Very good nutrient sucker to stablise your tank then change later.

[VictorTQT]

Thanks bro David very much. Yes, the Anubis is at the center, I just tied it to the rock, and thanks for your suggestion, I will use frogbit or hornwort to provide the shading for it. And I will try to put some hygrophila polysperma in the behind corner.

Here is the video of my tank, the discus's color are nice, although they are not the best shape because I am also a beginner in discus.

[David]

Is that an air stone running? Your plants are not going to do well if you do not inject CO2 and running an air stone is going to further reduce CO2 for the plants.

[VictorTQT]

Yes, it is an air stone running. I do not inject CO2 but I am using Flourish Excel to provide organic carbon for plants. I will turn off an air stone for the plant to grow well.

[David]

I may be wrong but your is no longer consider low tech as you have a good amount of light.

Excel can only do so much. I don't think it's the and all and but all.

[ConcaveLiNkiN]

Be careful with the corydora, once it gets engrossed into digging, your tank might turn cloudy if you do not have good filtration system. But you only have 1 of them, it might be okay.


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[VictorTQT]

@ Bro David: Thank you, I am using the 3ft Aqua zonic 4 bulb 39W T5 HO (12000K). I think the light should be OK. Could you explain what is the low tech vs high tech planted tank, since I am a beginner. I could not setup the CO2 injector due to space constraint, so hopefully the Excel can do its job.

@ Bro ConcaveLiNkiN: I have 4 corydoras, and they help to vacate well all the excess food of the discus. I do not notice any digging action of them, but maybe they are still small. I am thinking of upgrading to a Canister for better filtration.

[ConcaveLiNkiN]

@ Bro David: Thank you, I am using the 3ft Aqua zonic 4 bulb 39W T5 HO (12000K). I think the light should be OK. Could you explain what is the low tech vs high tech planted tank, since I am a beginner. I could not setup the CO2 injector due to space constraint, so hopefully the Excel can do its job.

@ Bro ConcaveLiNkiN: I have 4 corydoras, and they help to vacate well all the excess food of the discus. I do not notice any digging action of them, but maybe they are still small. I am thinking of upgrading to a Canister for better filtration.

I heard that as long as they have sufficent space to dig, you will do fine. But once your HC fully carpet your foreground, they might try to dig into them in search for open sand patches to dig. So beware, and pay close attention to them before they try something funny. It is really great to see the fishes doing their stuffs in the tank, they always surprize you.

What filter are you currently on? For your 3ft with substantial amount of Faura and plants, you might need a better filtration system, I believe you will need an Eheim Ecco Pro 300 or equivalent. A good filtration system will provide good housing for good baterials to properly breakdown the substance within your tank.

Regarding the CO2, you are referring to space constrains within the tank itself? You could probably remove 1 of the airstones to make way for a CO2 diffuser, it is pretty small in size and will not take up much of a spot. A pressurized CO2 cylinder for your planted tank with discus, healthy looking plants, you will need it bro!

Have fun and enjoy your weekend.

[thebaldingaquarist]

What i am about to say will sound un-orthodox.

If the tank flora and fauna is fine, no gasping for air, no dying, browning leaves, no algae blooming. Plants are growing, discus is growing and eating well...

I would suggest to leave things as they are, perhaps with 1 change.. a better filtration system. no harm (except to wallet) to change to a better filtration.

[Atham]

Victor, I like your setup. I am also think about adding discus to my 3 ft tank. Can share with me about big is your tank (sounds like 3ft, but you tank looks bigger than that)? How many discus is in your tank (count like there are 5)? What is temperature and PH of your tank?

[VictorTQT]

Thank you all suggestion from bros. I am going to upgrade to a Eheim 2217 Canister, but can I ask whether a strong filter is good for planted tank or not? I know it is good for the fishes, but too clean water may clear all the nutrients for the plants to absorb? And if I am using the Eheim 2217 Canister, could I apply Fluorish Excel into my tank anymore or it will be removed by the Canister?

@Atham: Thank you for your encouragement. Actually I am also a newbie in discus, so I do not have much experience with them. However my discus seem to be fine. My tank is 3ft with 6 discus (smallest is 3, biggest is 5"). I know I should not keep the different size of them in a same tank, but now luckily they are living peacefully. I did not monitor the temperature and pH very often.

[thebaldingaquarist]

Thank you all suggestion from bros. I am going to upgrade to a Eheim 2217 Canister, but can I ask whether a strong filter is good for planted tank or not? I know it is good for the fishes, but too clean water may clear all the nutrients for the plants to absorb? And if I am using the Eheim 2217 Canister, could I apply Fluorish Excel into my tank anymore or it will be removed by the Canister?

@Atham: Thank you for your encouragement. Actually I am also a newbie in discus, so I do not have much experience with them. However my discus seem to be fine. My tank is 3ft with 6 discus (smallest is 3, biggest is 5"). I know I should not keep the different size of them in a same tank, but now luckily they are living peacefully. I did not monitor the temperature and pH very often.

Stronger flow means plants will sway. So position the inflow and outflow strategically.

Do not use carbon for filtration and the excel will not be filtered off.

Good luck!

[VictorTQT]

Thank you very much. Got the recommendation from senior bro and upgraded to a new Eheim Classic 2217 Canister already.
Here is my new tool (I did not use the Carbon pad in my planted tank as suggested by bro Erctheanda):



After upgrading to a Canister, I removed some of air sprayer and internal filters, and can save some more space in the behind. I am going to put some hygrophila polysperma as suggested by bro David in those behind corner.



However after one week, my HC carpet is still grows very slowly. It seem some new roots are growing, but the spreading is too slow. I am thinking of applying some CO2. Could other bro give me idea of how long do I need for the HC to double spread out?




Thank you very much.

[David]

If you are going to be in this hobby for the long haul. Get a pressurized refillable CO2 system.

[thebaldingaquarist]

Please think carefully before making the CO2 investment.
With CO2, your plants will grow better.... if and only if you manage the CO2 and lighting and fert balance well.

You have slow growing and fast growing plants in the same tank, expect to have slow growing and fast growing algae if the above mentioned balance is not achieved in an appropriate amount of time.

My take. Get that CO2!!!!! And start enjoying algae farming like me. over time i hope to achieve the balance between me and the algae. Every tank is different, so it has to be managed by the hobbyist.

[ConcaveLiNkiN]

Pressurised CO2 cylinder's the way to go bro. So far I have no (or perhaps not yet) issue with algae in my 2ft, apart from the occasion green spot algae where scraping and water change will do the trick.

HC is a pretty difficult plant as it is sensitive to water conditions:

Information
Common Name:HC, Hemianthus callitrichoides
Proper Name:Hemianthus callitrichoides
Category:Stem Plants
Temperature:18 - 28 C
PH:5.0 - 7.0
Lighting:High
Growth Rate:Fast
Difficulty:Medium
Origin:Cuba
Position in Aquascape:Foreground
Source: http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/my...allitrichoides

More for reading:
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/f...ails.php?id=51

You might stick the conditions a little, it might improve the growth. It is mentioned that the growth is pretty slow too.


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[David]

You have no Algae is because you are using a super duper expensive Brightly-K from ADA... joking ...joking

In a serious note, it's because of your Riccia. They are a turbo charged nutrient sucker and if you don't dose enough nutrients you other plants will suffer.