55 gal Planted..

[StarOrbs]

Coupe of thing,

First-- Congradulations for getting into planted aquaria.

Second-- Cycling? What is this cycling? I have never heard of it!!??? j/k-- bottom line, planted aquarists don't cycle their tanks. With enough plants at the beginning, the cycle is instantaneous as plants carry live bacteria cultures. Almost all planted aquarists are ready to add fish and shrimp as soon as the tank is set up, especially if you are using eco complete or another substrate with live bacteria culture.

Third-- Where's the hardscape?

Really? I've never read anywhere that you could just add fish. I knew there was bacteria on the roots of the plants but I thought that was only good to jump start cycling. My tank is cycled now anyway. Converts the ammonia and nitrite are gone every 24 hours. Good to know though. Thanks.

 

[houndour]

Second-- Cycling? What is this cycling? I have never heard of it!!??? j/k-- bottom line, planted aquarists don't cycle their tanks. With enough plants at the beginning, the cycle is instantaneous as plants carry live bacteria cultures. Almost all planted aquarists are ready to add fish and shrimp as soon as the tank is set up, especially if you are using eco complete or another substrate with live bacteria culture.

I wouldn't recommend not cycling. I started off with a planted tank and cycled it. I would have killed my first fish if I hadn't! But surely even if the plants contain the right bacteria for cycling, you still need to go through the process of cycling. oh I'm confused.

I just wouldn't want someone to read that and think its ok to stick some plants in a tank directly with all the fish and think everything would be OK.

 

[George Farmer]

Looks great Star-Orbs, very healthy plants and a nice dense effect. When the foreground (Sagittaria) spreads it will improve the look furthur - at the moment it looks a little too uniformly fragmented.

Tear-scar has a point about hardscape though - I think a nice piece of twisted root or something similar would do your set-up a great justice.

On the cycling issue - I would only recommend not cycling if one has really fast plant growth (usually attributed with high lighting levels and lots of CO2) and low initial fish stocking. Definitely not a good idea for the "average" tank (few plants, low lighting etc.)

By the look of your tank Star-Orbs I would suggest that you could of probably got away with not cycling - still, it is better to be safe than sorry.

Anyway great work, well done!

 

[Nospherith]

Woah that's a lot of plants. Get ready for a jungle. Seriously, you need to add ~75 cardinal/neon tetras then a couple pairs of rams or apistos and about 15 ottocinclus and you would have one killer tank. Just imagine all the color swimming through the dense foliage.

 

[nitro]

Looking good Star.

I think a nice piece of twisted root or something similar would do your set-up a great justice.

I agree, get a bit of wood and it will look great

 

[Ethos]

If you dont mind me asking, how much did you pay for all those plants?
A good amison plant out here costs my near $7.

 

[StarOrbs]

It cost me a total of $83 for the plants. I just added 2 Angelfish too, once they get settled and one of them comes out of hiding heh I'll take some pictures.

I would add some wood but the problem is no where around me has anything. I couldn't find anything really online either. Then I would have to deal with tannis leaking. Does UV remove tannis?

Also aren't otos pretty weak and seem to die for no reason?

 

[RYO]

Nice tank StarOrbs, Otos can be a bit fragile when first intoduced but take care of them and they are a god send for a heavy planted tank(and imo look cool too )
As for the tannins in wood, soak the wood for a week or so (i used a plastic bin with an air line chucked in) and add boiling water every day or so. This will get rid of most of the tannins.If you realy dont want the tannin in the water you could add carbon to your filter and up the water changes to little and often.
Hope this helps

 

[nitro]

I wouldnt reccomend Otos for a new tank set up.

 

[StarOrbs]

Yah I still have the problem of finding a good piece of wood heh. Either way I'm going to let my tank settle and let my angelfish settle in to their new home.

 

[tear-scar]

When I say the phrase, "planted tank" I don't mean "a tank, oh and I tossed in some live plants." I mean, "I made sure I had adaquate lighting, substrate, and CO2 to care for many plants and have have thought about the tank's construction very carefully and planted it with many, many plants at the initial set-up." In such a set up, the plants do much of the job of chewing through ammonia and nitrites. This is such a tank, with many plants, and particularly many fast growing stem plants.