90L Dirted Planted Tank

The Aquarium Home said:

Just read through your whole journey and your tank has come a long way! It's amazing how much it's grown in. The algae looks like black beard algae - it's stubborn but not as annoying as hair algae.

Also it sucks that your plants are stuck in the mail. I hate it when that happens.

It looks awesome - keep it up.

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Been a lot of ups and downs with this tank since its set up. It is annoying, one of the plants I got was a more uncommon species which I've been wanting to keep for a while. Only found it available on eBay but yeah the delivery is a bummer. Thanks! I like your 40G Breeder. I've wanted to try a "blackwater-style" aquarium for a while but don't have the space for one atm.

MattW said:

Been a lot of ups and downs with this tank since its set up. It is annoying, one of the plants I got was a more uncommon species which I've been wanting to keep for a while. Only found it available on eBay but yeah the delivery is a bummer. Thanks! I like your 40G Breeder. I've wanted to try a "blackwater-style" aquarium for a while but don't have the space for one atm.

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I had the same issue - I had like 6 tanks at one point and decided to combine all the wood and plants into one. And the blackwater tank was born

To me looks more like staghorn algae. Blackbeard tends to be more straight and silky

MattW said:

Background Changes​

I thought I'd change up the background on this tank to black. It looks a lot better than when it had a frost background IMO. In person, this tank looks a lot better now since the internal filter got ditched, and the duckweed got removed. My eBay order of new stem plants didn't arrive on Saturday, a day after it was due. So Tuesday is the next available day as it's a bank holiday weekend. Expecting half-dead plants . I would like to achieve a dense bushy group of stems along the left of the back wall to get the intended look I was after when I set up this tank.

Quick question to algae experts, What sort of algae is on the Crinum in the second picture? I've been dealing with it for months and started to give up manually removing it. It has gone away naturally before then it came back a few times.
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The black background looks so much better Matt! Makes such a difference

Return of the Staghorn​

So since the last update plant growth has been very good, the Tiger lotus is growing really well, and there must be at least 3 separate plants now. The original bulb still hasn't put out any roots which is a shame but I'm thinking of plonking it in the 60L to see if it will finally sprout. The Siamensis 53B on the right side has now breached the water's surface and started growing emersed leafs which I'm just going to leave for now. I have trimmed the roots of the frogbit as they were about an inch from the substrate, the cryptocoryne undulatus runner on the bottom right is now almost as big as its adult plant. I had been tempted to remove it so the plants behind it could be seen but I might just leave it and see what happens. I've recently added two new plants to the back left Rotala Nanjenshan and Bacopa Caroliniana. I did have a rarer species of hygrohplia on order that never arrived so those two were its replacement and so far are doing ok. Surprisingly the Monte Carlo a plant I'm famously bad at growing is slowly spreading , In old scapes that even had C02 injection it always melted back but not in this tank. Now onto the algae.. Staghorn has definitely returned.. mainly on the Siamensis 53B. I think the lack of flow on the right side may be the cause, so I added in a airstone connected to a very loud battery-powered air pump that I have turned on for around 2 hours a day hoping that it will impact the Staghorn growth. Ive pretty much given up on the suspected BBA as I cause more damage to the plants by removing it . Cyanobacteria is still growing rampent in the substrate and front of the aquarium which I manually remove as much as possible every water change, same with thread algae.

Sponge filter​

I've not done much maintainence to this tank recently only just did a WC for the first time in 2 weeks . I decided to ditch the bubbler and went for a giant sponge filter instead. Its powered by the smallest and quietest air pump I've ever owned . It's in the back right corner next to the heater and is pretty much invisible! The Bolbitis covers it well and the amano shrimp have made it their no.1 place of refuge. I found another dead RCS which is a shame. Nothing ever came of that one berried shrimp sadly, so my RCS colony is slowly shrinking.. I did a large cleanup of thread algae and cyanobacteria before. It's gotten really bad even for my standards of a "planted tank". The next step for this tank will be a large trimming in a months time and perhaps adding some more crypts to the foreground area.

Return of the fern​

I've been chopping and changing around plants quite a bit recently. I know that's the last thing a "dirted" tank needs but a large die-off of stems occurred at the back left side. Which I'm assuming was emersed plants failing to form into submerged form and a lack of light as the roots of the peace lily and pothos cover that area. So I decided to add in some low light epiphytes a single Anubias barteri caladiifolia and a Microsorum pteropus Minor. This is the 3rd Java fern that has been in this tank and so far is doing better than the last two. The Siamensis 53b that was on the right side was cut back as it became a stick with a few leaves on top and what leaves that did remain were covered in staghorn algae Limnophila sessiliflora ambulia has taken its place and is growing very quickly. I also added some stems of Hygrophila Corymbosa to the far left which can't be seen due to the mass of Polysperma in front of it. Fish are doing very well and have taken a liking to Fluval bug bites even the shrimp too.


A few shots of the tank





The smallest male from the breeding group. Highly likely this fish contracted fish TB when in the fry development stage

Red Lotus pad​

For the first time, the red lotus finally breached the water's surface. I've had this plant since the start of this tank back in Jan/Feb this year and it never made it to the full height of the surface until now! I'll probably keep it for a couple of weeks then trim it off so it doesn't begin only to produce surface leaves. I also removed the peace lily as the roots became a bit too much and replaced it with emersed Hemigraphis repanda. After removal, I saw that it grew 2 new plants which is probably the cause of me not being able to shut the lid fully. The roots were about 25cm+ long and had completely absorbed the terracotta rings I first used to weigh the plant down. I have planted the peace lily into a large pot with a thick cap of Leca clay balls to stop fungus gnat breeding. I only water my house plants from the bottom now and have seen a decrease in gnat numbers (fly traps also help ). Hopefully, it will transition back into its more soil-based environment decently well.

Big Stem Trim​

I left this tank a bit too long to grow . The majority of quick-growing stems were at the water's surface and newer growth at the bottom of the tank became stunted due to the lack of lighting. The Rotala rotundifolia had become swamped in cyanobacteria and thread algae so I hacked it down to around 1-2 inch tall stems. The Limnophila sessiliflora had consumed the plant weights they were in to a ball of roots so I thinned them out and removed any roots that had grown into the substrate. The Val has been doing very well with runners popping up everywhere which I am leaving alone. I removed the hygrophila corymbosa compact as it started to become leggy. I added in my Anubias barteri Coffeefolia from my old 60L paludarium into the hygrophila's place. I'm hoping the Rotala will bounce back as it hasn't been doing very well recently which I assume is down to the algae it was being absorbed by. A nice pop of red on that right side is needed IMO which the Rotala can achieve if it grows .

An update on the stocking the 5 remaining RCS are now in my 60L and one amano shrimp from my old 60L scape is now in this tank. I found a dead female Sawbwa a few weeks back being consumed by the frogbit roots so that takes me down to 10 fish, 5 male 5 female.

Before

After