Sid's 60L Attempt

Good good mate, if so it will be fine.

Does the pink or white ness of the bulb make any difference to the plants growth?

Not sure to be honest mate, out of my two ARC's one is a pinky 11w and the whiter is 18w but I grow HC under both, only reason it grows tho is the tank is half the size lol.

The weekend didn’t really provide much progress. In fact, it’s probably gone backwards. Before the weekend I had the empty tank stood in place. And now the tank is on the floor and the table is upside-down elsewhere.

Things I’ve learnt this weekend: my little bedside table probably isn’t strong enough to hold a tank with ~60L of water. Haha

On a more positive note, I set the filter up, and bought a piece of wood that I quite like, and that I should be able to get some moss growing on.

But then having put the eco-complete (plus top up of black gravel) in, and filling the tank, the table looked very wobbly. It was standing and would have stood, but even the smallest little push and the legs didn’t look good. So I emptied it out of water, and it’s now sitting on my floor with about 10cm of water and 5cm of substrate.

I’m wondering whether to put some support on the table, or call it a lost cause and get something stronger to put it on.

I’d rather not take the chance of finding a collapsed table and escaped water (and fish).

Some further update;

My room has been moved around again and I like where everything is now.

The table has been masterfully bodged up - lots of glue and supports for the legs. It no longer wobbles when the tank sits on it with water.

The tank is full, the filter is set up and working - Big thanks for the recommendation, the filter is exceeding my expectations AND it's soo quiet - even more so now that all of the initial bubbles seem to have been pushed through.

And my piece of driftwood is in (although I suspect it will need moving a lot to find where I like it).

Here's a pic with water:

And based on the plant list above I've had a play with paint and hope it will turn out something like this:



(I hope the labels are readable - if not I hope you get the plants from my amazing art skills)
Edit - the labels were not readable - see attached without labels.

Are there any websites that you would recommend for getting plants? And how good are they for arranging delivery - because I'll have to try and arrange a day when I can be in.

Thanks,

Sid

Brilliant mate! Glad you like the filter... I love my TetraTEC's. Excellent quality and the media capacity compared to other filters is fantastic.

Edit: LOVE the artwork!

Plants alive is a good website.

Yes - I can see why you like them - Thank you.

Next step is plants

Try your local Pets At Home as they now stock Tropica Plants. I believe they're 3 for £10.

Hi,

It’s been a while since I updated. But quite a lot has happened. So here goes.

I went to my local Pets at Home and they did have plants in, but none of them looked any good and the only plants on my list were the crypts (and I knew I could raid my old tank for some of them).

So I went to my local Maidenshead aquatics. And their plants looked better but they didn’t have what I was looking for, but I decided to get some to start filling my tank. I bought 4 pots - 2 hygro(something), I though stems would be good/fast growing to start with, a pot of glosso (I think this is out of my league), and a potted anubias (not sure what one, but it looked good and healthy.

I also raided my old tank for some crypts and planted it all up.

[I should probably explain my old tank – my sister took it over when I moved out while I had the intention to sort and move it. Getting sorted has taken a long time and in the mean time my tank hasn’t been looked after that well – mostly algae and looking overgrown and a mess. So the plan was to empty that tank and move the fish over.]

So all those plants so far went in, and it looked ok – but very bare and I still didn’t really have the plants that I was planning.

So when in another local aquaria I bought a really nice java fern on bogwood (pretty large, and maybe too large when I actually got it back). So that went in the back right of the tank, somewhat as planned. The crypts are around the wood – pretty much as planned. I haven’t got the moss or hair grass as planned. And I couldn’t manage to tie the anubias to the wood – so that is planted in the substrate – but only the roots are covered not the bulb part – will it be ok like that?

So once I had that set up I moved the fish (and about half of the water with them – I know you said that black neons would be too big, but the 6 I had in my other tank are all around 2cm and I’ve had them over 2 years. I also a single cardinal tetra (which I’ve had nearly 5 years). And 3 amarno shrimps and 1 cherry red shrimp. They’re all moved and seem to be settled.

Anyway, all of that was a long winded way of saying, here’s a pic of my tank:




I'll keep you updated with the progress. And hopefully I'll tidy it up somewhat (and it'll tidy itself as it grows in).

Thanks,
Sid

Just a quick update.

All fish seem to have settled in fine, and no losses, so that’s good.

The plants are doing ok, I think.

The java fern looks good still.
The crypts are growing some new leaves, but some of the older leaves have died, so maybe they weren’t keen on their replanting.
The hygro is growing, surprisingly – It may be that it needs some trimming relatively soon, it’s mostly in there so that it can keep soaking up excess nutrients (that’s the idea).
The glosso has lost some leaves/stems, but the bits that are remaining seem to be healthy. I cant tell if that has grown. (And some bits have been unplanted by shrimps).

I haven’t seem much sign of algae yet. Although yesterday I did spot a few patches, which may mean that a bloom is on the way… I hope not.

I will hopefully take some photos this weekend and try to compare the growth from when it started.

Sid

Hi All,

I have some updated pics of how things are going. But... I cant remember how to post pics. Could someone point me in the right direction for posting pics? Thank you.

Sid

Host them on Flickr or Photobucket and copy and paste the IMG code into your thread and they will show.

Look forward to seeing them

OK Thank you Minnnt. I'll give this a try.

I took a couple of pics back in Feb and only just finding the time to put them on here. The tank is going well. There is algae, it is growing slowly. The plants are growing pretty well, especially the crypts at the front. (and please excuse the quality of photos, they're taken on my phone and I realise that the front on the glass could do with a clean from inside and out).





Sid

These few pics should bring things up to date (well maybe a week behind).

Things were growing fast and it was getting a little crowded at the front. So i have trimmed the crypts right down - I cut off all of the larger, older leaves. That revealed that there were lots of smaller plants that had started growing, which was good to see. Now the crypts look a lot neater and it gives a bit more room at the front of the tank.



Here are the crypts - again, please excuse the pics - they're taken on a phone and knowing me the glass could do with a clean.



The Java fern initially lost a lot of it's larger leaves, but I could see new leaves growing. It's now much smaller than it was when I got it, but I think finally it's looking better. There are still quite a few leaves that look a bit mucky and covered in algae - should I cut these off, even if it means cutting off a lot of leaves?



Here's the hygro - it was only there while the tank was starting out, as something that grows fast. But I dont have the heart to take it out. I like the idea of having crypts 3 quarters of the way around the wood and then the java fern in the other corner.



And my little Anubis, got covered in algae initially, but is now starting to produce new leaves with some regularity. I've never grown one before, so it's good that it's still going.



Algae has built up on the glass, I will be giving it a good clean soon. And maybe, if I can bring myself to do it, start removing some of the hygro.

Does the algae mean that there is still some imbalance somewhere between the light, nutrients and water quality? I am concerned by the water quality that comes from the taps - how do other people deal with this?

Anyway, that's my update. I'll try and get around to giving things a good clean and post more updates.

Sid