55 Gallon Journal

[508]

http/imgur.com/a/Zrcz7
 
Album with pics from yesterday

 

[cambojnr]

Enjoying the heat from the lights
 

what is the tall plant in the back left?

 

[508]

Cabomba

 

[cambojnr]

Cabomba

thanks, went to the store today to look for it and turns out it's illegal to sell in australia.

 

[508]

 

Cabomba

thanks, went to the store today to look for it and turns out it's illegal to sell in australia.
 

 
Illegal in some states in the US as well. It can grow like a weed so I'm not surprised.

 

[PlumbersMerchant]

Well 508, gotta say, this has been and epic read mate, good job. I got a couple of questions for you tho.

Sand - I had it in my tank and swore never again as when cleaning the fish poop off the top, if I disturbed the surface at All some horrible black sand from below showed through. How did you counter this or is this why you went for the darker sand ? Was it the cats and bottom feeders that churned up the sand for you or is there any trick to it ? I tried planting in mine so I didn't want to churn the sand too much for the risk of moving the roots.

Secondly, plants. Did you put any fertiliser under the sand or just pretty much stick your plants in ? (I no there is more too it than that by the way when it comes to planting) do you dose the tank with liquid fertiliser ?

Cheers for writing this journal, I've learnt a lot.

 

[508]

Yeah, with the light sand there would be an accumulation of waste which made it turn a darker colour. That's primarily why I switched to black sand. Less effort, and the plants stand out more as well.
 
I've been using liquid carbon and ferts for the past few months. Ran out of root tabs a few months and haven't bought anymore but I don't think it'd make that much of a difference. I was going to go for a soil setup but decided against it, too expensive and can go wrong when topping it with sand..

 

[PlumbersMerchant]

Do you have to keep pushing the root tabs under the plants then it just bang a few in before you plant ?