Daize's 120L Soil Tank

My plants arrived yesterday afternoon, a day earlier than expected, so I was up until 1:30 AM this morning setting this up!
 

 
A bit clearer and the plants a bit less bedraggled 24 hours later:
(Note the first pic is just under white LED's, the second has a Tropical T8 bulb switched on, hence it looks more red!)
 

 
I want to the focus to be on plants rather than hardscape so I've gone for a simple, densely planted layout with a single showpiece redmoor branch.
 
The substrate is mineralized topsoil with added red clay, capped with Unipac Samoa Coarse sand.  The intention is to provide a rich substrate to minimize the need for additional ferts or carbon.  The coarse sand should allow fish and shrimp droppings to settle into the soil underneath where it can be decomposed to provide carbon that the plants can use.  That's the theory anyway!
 
I'm viewing this as something of an experimental learning exercise and half prepared for it to go terribly wrong!  My goal of having dense, healthy plant growth without adding extra carbon in some form is probably unachievable, I think, especially considering the depth of the tank, but I won't know if I don't try.  My greatest fear is that this tank will succumb to the horrible black algae that's been plaguing me and spreading from tank to tank.  I am sooo sick of fighting that thrice damned stuff!
 
I've gone for some more demanding plants including a few red plants and carpet plants which might be a bit ambitious!  I've aimed for medium lighting with 2x T8 Arcadia Tropical/Freshwater bulbs, which gives a rich reddish cast to the wood and gravel, and also a dimmable TMC Aquabar LED strip strapped between them which provides a boost of 'noon' lighting.
 

 
If things go well then I hope to stock with rainbowfish, CPD's and cherry shrimp.  I'm not adding anything for at least a couple of weeks to give the soil a chance to settle in a bit, though.

This is sounding good
 
Am definitely going to be following this one
 
The T8 tubes, what do you have exactly? 24w or more?
 
Only ask since carpet plants tend to be light demanding and not sure if thats enough light for these.
 
The TMC led may certainly be of help in addition to the T8's, this was something i actually considered doing a while back but for some reason never got round to trying that.
 
Will you be adding any ferts at all, or even perhaps co2?
 
Love the set up btw, elegant and appears simple but its not.
 
Your choice of stocking is simply brilliant and will be a lovely sight to behold, 2 of my favourite species, rainbows and cpds.
Which specie of rainbows though?
 
And lastly, am assuming this is your Lido 120 tank?

Thanks Charlie!
 
The T8 tubes are only 15W each due to it being a 2ft tank (yes it's the Lido 120, stripped down and rebooted!).  Each tube has an Arcadia reflector fitted which should give me a total of around 1.5 WPG (I'm applying a fairly arbitrary multiplier of 1.5 for the reflectors, they claim to supply up to 2x the light output but I have doubts that this grade of reflector gives better than 1.5x).  My aim was to get around 2 WPG, based on general recommendation for soil tanks and past experience with this deeper-than-average tank.  I knew that 1.5 WPG wouldn't be enough for carpet plants in this tank.  I spent a long time thinking about and researching possible lighting upgrades including switching to a T5 rig or various high-end LED solutions but I eventually decided to stick with my T8's with the TMC Aquabar as an additional light source.  The Aquabar seems to tick all my boxes - it's cheap but not too nasty, it's very slimline so it fits under the hood between my existing lights and it's dimmable.  Altogether this should give me a very flexible solution where I can easily rein back the lighting if it proves too much.  The LED's are on for two hour bursts and currently dimmed to half strength while the plants settle in.
 
As for whether it's enough to grow carpet plants - there's only one way to find out!  I have chosen plants that were recommended as relatively easy and not too light-demanding - Lilaeopsis brasiliensis and Monte Carlo.  I've come to the conclusion over the last two years that research will get you so far but then you need to just try the plants and find out for yourself if it works.
 
I will be dosing potassium and not much else.  The soil substrate is already enriched with iron via the red clay and fish waste should provide most of the rest (in theory!).  Ideally I hope to avoid adding carbon.  If the dreaded black algae creeps in then I will be forced to resort to liquid carbon which might scupper my plans for a cherry shrimp colony.  I thought long and hard about CO2, even so far as to plan the equipment and tot up the costs of a soda stream system but ultimately decided I don't want to go the high tech route at this time.
 
As for fishies, I have my threadfins who are enjoying a holiday in my 64L tank.  They do actually seem to have coloured up in there despite sharing the somewhat crowded space with my platies; I guess they feel happier with the jungle of plants in there!  I've also still got a soft spot for Pseudomugils, the blue-eye rainbows, particularly gertrudae which I'd like to get hold of in decent numbers some day.
 
Cheers for the interest & questions, Charlie - hope I didn't wall-of-text too much!  

Day 6.  This tank now has livestock despite my intentions to wait before stocking, I had to put three platies and some hitchhiker snails in here due to a problem with their temporary holding tank.  They're doing fine so far.
 
Today I have readings of zero ammonia and 0.25 ppm nitrite.  I was quite amazed to see this considering that I put no mature media in the filter - the tank is cycling all by itself and already processing ammonia effectively within just a few days.  I guess that's down to bacteria in the soil substrate.

The plants in the tank will also absorb some ammonia and nitrates, and 3 platies won't have a big bioload so that helps.
 
Therefore not so fully surprised by the low levels you're seeing at the moment.
 
Keep an eye on these levels as you know anyway. Hopefully the fish in cycle won't be too bad.
 
For those of you unawares of fish in cycle, here is a couple of helpful articles -
 
Fish in Cycle Part I
 
Fish in Cycle Part II

I was more surprised to see a decent amount of nitrite in the tank already, considering I didn't start with any mature media and I haven't actually added any ammonia.  It confirms that I have ammonia-eating bacteria in the tank.  I'm quite pleased about it because nitrite is easy to deal with, as per the guide you linked, and also if I recall correctly nitrite is less toxic at high pH levels (the reverse of ammonia), which works well for me because I have high pH.
 
I had a minor disappointment today when the new extension cord I ordered turned up from Amazon.  I wanted a switched extension cord in the cabinet so that I can switch filter & heater off individually instead of pulling the plugs out.  I deliberately chose a model with enough space to accommodate my timer switches but they've sent me a different model to the one pictured and it's no good.

Ah, yes, nitrite at the early stages is a good start. I see what you mean now yes.
 
Thats annoying about amazon sending a different set of switched extension leads.
 
I got mine from Wilkos, cheap too at £8, albiet only 4 plugs but it suits me as it has the leds to show which sockets are switch on or off. Doubt its the one you want as the spaces between each plug sockets are fairly standard.
I cheat with my timers, I actually open these up and faff around to turn the timer around so it can be plugged in at a 90 degree angle 
 
Wilkos extension lead

That actually looks pretty good Charlie but unfortunately I need a 3m cable, doesn't look like they do it.
To be fair it's not Amazon but a third party selling through Amazon.  They're all very ambiguous with which model they promise and which you actually get.

Bit of early growth, bun fight going on among the stems at the back.  No algae yet.
 

 
The redmoor branch still hasn't sunk and I've got a rock trying to hold it down (and crushing my windelov in the process).  For some reason I thought this big heavy branch would just sink without needing to be soaked first!  
 

Two happy weeks after being rescued from the contaminated holding tank, Mickey the platy is not looking well this morning.  He's hanging around the top of the tank much as he did before being rescued.  I'm currently doing a water change in the hopes that it might perk him back up.  He is pretty old for a platy now, about 2 years and 8 months old, so maybe it's just old age setting in combined with the stresses he's suffered recently.  
 
The tank seems to be cycled with zero ammonia and nitrite readings so I added four female threadfins three days ago and they seem very happy.  I'm planning to let the male threadfins join them within a week.
 
All the plants seem to be doing fairly well and the Hygrophila polysperma has won the race to reach the top of the tank.  I'm still not sure about the carpet plants and whether they will thrive or not.  The lilaeopsis seems to be adjusting, gradually shedding old leaves and producing some smaller new growth so we'll have to see how that goes.  The monte carlo could be starting to struggle.
 
There were a few diatoms on leaves for the first time yesterday so I've reduced the LED lighting back to half power and will keep an eye on it.  Otherwise there's still no algae and the snails have done a sterling job to keep the wood clear of fungus.  I put seven snails in the tank two weeks ago but there's many times that number now  Wheesh they breed fast!  The biggest is nearly two centimetres across.  I had no idea that pond snails grew that big.
 

I expected to have sad news about Mickey today.  He spent all of yesterday hiding at the bottom of the tank, not moving at all, at a slight downwards angle.  I didn't know what else to do for him.  Once I actually tried to fish him out of the tank thinking he was dead because he wasn't moving at all, but a slight wriggle of his tail when I got close convinced me he wasn't done for yet.
 
I fully expected to be removing his corpse from the tank this morning.  Instead, he came out for breakfast and is swimming around like nothing happened! 
That's twice in as many weeks that the old codger has narrowly escaped death.  I'm glad he's recovered again but I wish I knew what the problem was.  He's the last of my original fish now, since Clarabel my last remaining female died of old age earlier this week.
 
Anyway, here he is bright and cheerful again this morning:

 

 
Here's my biggest hitchhiker snail, just to show the size of him!  Do pond snails normally grow this big?  Will he get any bigger?

 
Here's my first aponogeton leaf sprouting at the back left.  I'm hoping this guy will grow big!

 
And my red lotus putting out it's first little leaf at back right:

 
This is my Echinodorus rosea, just to show the difference between the emersed and submerged growth.  The plant came with only the (emersed) green leaves on long stems.  All the new underwater growth looks very different, long reddish leaves on short stems:

I actually prefer the new reddish growth of the Echinodorus rosea to be entirely honest, will add a splash of colour to your tank
 
Look forward to seeing how your lotus plant grows.
 
A great start, an marvellous stuff about Mickey, he fights for another day
 
An am a bit unsure how big pond snails actually grows to, they never stay around for long in my tank due to my assassin snails

I had an idea that the echinodorus rose would go through a big transition, since this is the emersed form that they sell:

 
and this is what I see when I google images of Echinodorus rose:

 
So it goes through a pretty impressive transformation underwater!
 
I think I might know what was making Mickey sick.  Do you remember the white stuff that contaminated my 35L holding tank?  It's starting to appear on some anubias leaves in this tank too.  I'm beginning to think that it must be a toxic fungus of some sort.  Mickey recovered a day after I removed the affected leaves and did a water change, so I'll continue with that strategy if I see them again.  Or perhaps I should just chuck all the anubias out now before it gets worse.
 

 
 
 
 

Yuck that's no good daize. I'd toss out anything infected if it's known to be toxic. Best to be safe than sorry.
Tank looks good by the way.

Thanks TallTree.  I'm trying to find out more about this horrible stuff and I've seen a couple of other threads around the internet with similar pictures so it's not just me.  Nobody can say what it is so far though.  I'm starting to chuck out any anubias plants that show signs of it now.  I like this tank too much to see it become a death trap.