29 Gallon Planted Tank Journal

Well I've decided to start up a planted tank journal because of everybody starting one. I want to share my experiences with you on my low tech, low light planted tank. Please comment on my tank, and give me advice where you find it appropriate. I'm still very new to the whole concept of aquascaping so please help me out however you can. Thanks!

Here are the stats on the tank:
29 Gallon Planted Tank
.6 wpg lighting
Hagen PlantGro Fertilizer dosed weekly-biweekly
Four Neon Tetras, many many guppies
Java moss, amazon sword, and water sprite.

This is a picture of the tank before I went planted


And here is the tank after planting it, what it looks like now


I plan on adding some spiral val on the left, and thinning out the floating water sprite. Don't know what else I should do, any suggestions?

very nice im thinking about getting water sprite

I like it what the surface plant you've got in there? By the looks of those roots, it must be growing like mad!

Sam

what the surface plant you've got in there?

Click to expand...

That would be water sprite, it's just same as the plant that is planted on the substrate. It does grow very quickly on the surface, in a matter of weeks I will have to sell some out to my LFS. The planted ones don't grow as quickly, but they still grow very fast.

Isaac

Looks good......might consider some different color plants to accentuate things.

Tank looks kinda small to be 29 Gallons....maybe it's just my eyes.

Yea, I always get told that the tank isn't 29 gallons, but I'm sure that it is(30"x12"x18"). Any help as to why the tank looks small? I know most people aim to make the tank look bigger than it is, how do I go about doing this? Is there some sort of technique that I'm not catching onto? Other color plants won't really do in my tank, because it only has .6wpg and plants of other colors require brighter lighting.

Hi,

It could be due to the plants being so big, if the tank is 30" long that would make the plants 6-8" wide, which could change the way it looks.

Have you thought about changing the substrate? It looks like quite large gravel and gravel of 3-4mm is much better for plants, as it helps root development. Just a thought

Sam

It looks very nice and it also looks like a 29 gallon to me as I have one in my kitchen! As Themuleous mentioned smaller gravel may be better -- it would also make the tank look bigger. Perhaps some bogwood, too -- laying horizontal across the substrate would also make the tank look wider. Then you could get some other low light plants like anubias and attach it to the bogwood.

Also, maybe try putting all of the water sprite together in one area?

I can't restrict it one area, because there's so much of it, HAHA. That is why in a couple of weeks, I will try to sell some to my LFS.

I've always thought about getting smaller gravel, but that'll mean an entire tank change, which will change the way it looks. I like it pretty much the way it is, and don't want to go through moving fish, changing gravel, filling water, etc. If the plants don't grow, that is another story, but they are growing fine so I think I'll leave it.

Any suggestions as to plants I could put to the left? I'd like something really tall like spiral vallisneria, but are there other plants? Anything that'll cover the entire height of the tank is fine, as long as it can grow inside my low light tank.

Isaac

Go for Vallisneria americana then. I prefer it to the spiral val anyways because its hardier, and it doesn't need a lot of light to thrive, so I'd highly recommend it for your tank. Also, I really like how it grows long and covers the surface, but although it is pleasing to the eye, it will block light reaching the plants below it.

Lastly, is your fertilisers helping any? I'm only asking because of the low lighting you have...

Cheers,

Okay, so I've decided that I will be getting Vallisneria americana then. I didn't know spiral val was harder to keep, just thought that since everyone had it, it must be pretty easy to manage. Anyone know where I can get it? I'll probably be getting it sometime next month, as it is starting to get warmer(although I just got off from school for it snowing xP). If anyone would like to trade some vallisneria with me for some water sprite, I'd love to. Just PM me and we'll see if we can work something out.

On the note about the fertilizer, yes it definately helped with plant growth. Reason is my amazon sword's new leaves were growing smaller and smaller, so I decided to buy some fertilizer. Now the leaves are starting to grow larger again, almost as large as when I first got the plant. So definately, I think fertilizer will help in any tank, whether a little bit or a lot.

Isaac

..I really believe changing the gravel is out of the question right now. I don't want to do anything unneccesary changes which could affect the fishs' health.

Does anyone have any aquascaping ideas for me? I am thinking of moving the water sprite together, and planting some more water sprite. That'll be it's own little jungle in the middle of the tank, where I'll just let it grow wild. The right will be a java moss jungle, as I'll just let the java moss grow up towards the light and look like a lawn of grass. On the left will be the vallisneria that I will be getting. And the back, will be for the amazon sword, which is pretty much be main focal point.

Isaac

Here's my layout that I want to follow. What do you guys think?
View attachment layout.bmp

Just a little update.



The water sprite has grown tremendously, so much that I had to throw away some live plant That's something I thought I would never do. I've also started transplanting some of the water sprite to the substrate to let it start forming a jungle. Right now, I'm waiting for the water sprite to "evolve" into a submersed form, as you can see which water sprite was formerly floating.

On another note, I got two dwarf gouramis and two angelfish. They are happily nesting(the gouramis, I mean) and have started building some nice bubble nests using the roots of the water sprite. The angelfish have started eating, and its great to see them hide in the plants that I provided

My plan now is to wait for it to get a little warmer, then order some vallisneria to fill the left side of the tank. I'm also waiting for the java moss to grow, so that the left side will be a safe haven for the fry that I have. The water sprite will be slowly transplanted until that entire section of the tank is covered in water sprite. Also, the amazon sword in the back is continuing to grow larger and larger leaves. Can't wait till it grows large enough leaves to be considered a "background" plant.

Isaac

Dimensions 76 x 30 x 46cm/30" x 12" x 18
Surface area 0.23 sqm/2.48 sq ft/ inches sq in
Volume 106 l./23 gal. (28 US gal.)
Probable volume 95 l./21 gal. (25 US gal.)

Hope this helps