87L & 24L Planted Soil Tank Journal

[Paradise3]

I finally managed to get something done with my tanks on Tuesday 10th September so here's the journal I promised you all.
 
The tank - 87l.
 
Dimensions: 76L x 30W x 38H cm - 87 Litres filled to the very top with no displacement.
Lighting: 2x LED Clip-On Lights - Tank currently has one of these and a Dymax Robot LED 1.6W due to my other Clip-On LED my boyfriend got me only just turning up at his. Lights will be switched over at the weekend.
Dosing: Tropica Premium Fertilizer & Easylife Easy Carbo Liquid Carbon.
Substrate: Levington Organic Blend Topsoil capped with Unipac Black Sand.
Filtration: Currently internal but will be switching to external ASAP.
Temperature: 24 Degrees Centigrade - 75 Degrees Fahrenheit.
 
 
Planned Stock - Flora.
Ludwigia repens
Hygrophila polysperma
Cryptocoryne wendtii
Anubias nana
Nymphoides sp. "Taiwan"
Taxiphyllum sp.
Echinodorus tenellus
Cabomba caroliniana
Cabomba furcata
Cryptocoryne undulatus "Brown"
 
Planned Stock - Fauna.
2x Nannacara anomala
8x Small Rasboras - Still deciding on species but leaning towards Brevibora dorsiocellata
6x Corydoras panda
1x Chaetostoma formosae
Malaysian Trumpet Snails - For turning the sand over
Red, Pink or Blue Ramshorn Snails - For if Algae attacks
 
Pictures.
 
No pictures of the tank as I was setting it up unfortunately as my camera died and my new batteries were awol unfortunately.
 
But here's the 87 litre not 5 minutes after filling it up on Tuesday... Needless to say I put extra sponges in the filter and cleaned them about 4 times before I went to be...

 
Wednesday 11th September.
 
Wednesday morning....

 
I spent all day Wednesday doing 2 hourly waterchanges to clear it up a bit so I could actually add plants in to the tank...
 
So, after 4x 35% waterchanges on Wednesday(yesterday) - I got it to this stage where I planted it out! Finally!

 
 
Some extra photo's from this morning. Thursday 12th September.
 
I got to play with a 1-2-GROW Nymphoides sp. "Taiwan" this morning!

 
My MTS turned up too. I got them from a very lovely woman on a group on Facebook.

 
My Nymphoide sp. "Taiwan" planted. I moved it slightly more the to left after this photo was taken so that it wasn't colliding with the Hygrophila polysperma.

 
The tank as of now 

No waterchanges done today so all good and on the road to clearing.

 
 
The tank - 24l.
 
Dimensions: 38L x 25W x 25H cm - 24 Litres filled to the very top with no displacement.
Lighting: Dymax Robot LED 1.6W - Currently has a standar clip on bulb as the Dymax LED is on my 87l for reasons explained in the 87l section.
Dosing: Tropica Premium Fertilizer & Easylife Easy Carbo Liquid Carbon.
Substrate: Levington Organic Blend Topsoil capped with Unipac Black Sand.
Filtration: SuperFish Aqua-Flow 50.
Temperature: 24 Degrees Centigrade - 75 Degrees Fahrenheit.
 
Planned Stock - Flora.
Shinnersia rivularis
Taxyphillum sp.
Hygrophila difformis
Sagittaria subulata OR Vallisneria spiralis - I can't tell which it is surprisingly because I had some small sprigs of Vallis but also think I had some Dwarf Sag lol.
 
Planned Stock - Fauna.
1x Bumble Bee Goby - Alone apart from snails because he attacks even his own kind. He attacked three other BBG's and killed them when in my 3ft heavily planted tank so I won't add anything but snails to this tank with him.
Malaysian Trumpet Snails - For turning the sand over
Red, Pink or Blue Ramshorn Snails - For if Algae attacks
 
Pictures.
 
Once again, no pictures while filling up as I did both tanks at the same time and my camera was dead and batteries awol unfortunately.
 
Five minutes after filling up....

 
Wednesday 11th September.
 
A bit clearer... Spent all day Wednesday doing waterchanges like on my 87l.

 
 
After 3x 20% waterchanges I could finally see inside to plant it out. I put the Dymax on for these photo's to show how the light will look.

 
Blurry close up of the moss 

 
His caves and rocks.

 
Thursday 12th September - This morning.

 
Will keep this as up to date as possible but I'm away at weekends so weekends will be written updates only. Tuesday-Friday will be picture updates!

Hope you enjoyed reading this

Sorry for the long post and loads of pictures.

 

[214jay]

Tanks look brilliant, nice job!  Love seeing all the pictures of progress, keep them coming

 

[Paradise3]

Thanks Still got a few plants to arrive as they are on order at the moment but will have them planted soon too. 

 

[Blondielovesfish]

Great tanks! Love the wood!
Can't wait to see how it progresses

 

[Paradise3]

Great tanks! Love the wood!
Can't wait to see how it progresses

 
If it happened this quickly I could have sworn I saw growth already

 

[ncguppy830]

Looking good!!

 

[Paradise3]

Thanks NC Here's some updated photo's of the 24l and some close ups of the plants. The short plant is Vallisneria spiralis not Sagittaria subulata lol. I put the Dymax Robot LED on for these photo's to give an impression of how it will look after this weekend rather than the horrible yellow bulb it has on currently.
 
Full tank.

 
Cabomba caroliniana - I shamefully forgot to mention this in my first post under "Planned Stock - Flora"

 
Taxyphyllum sp.

 
Hygrophila difformis.

 
Shinnersia rivularis.

 
Vallisneria spiralis.

 

[Paradise3]

Latest updates These were taken on Friday but I've saved them till now to keep the thread interesting for you all

My properly planting tweezers turned up on Friday! Just a little bit late for me XD

 
My Cryptocoryne undulatus "Brown" & Echinodorus tenellus too

 
All of them

 
Separating all the plants so that I could plant them

 
And the tank after planting

 

[BriansAquarium]

WOW, looking phenomenal. Can't wait to see it grow, going to subscribe to this thread!

 

[Paradise3]

Haha, thanks I can't wait for the E. tenellus to start growing out, that will look nice as a carpet It's a slow grower though so could take a while
 
I'm already keeping an eye on your thread

 

[BriansAquarium]

hehe thanks. Just waiting for the lights to come in now, then I will start planting, once tank is fully cycled going to start throwing fish in, just don't know what to start with yet....I have plans, but they always change hehe.

 

[Paradise3]

hehe thanks. Just waiting for the lights to come in now, then I will start planting, once tank is fully cycled going to start throwing fish in, just don't know what to start with yet....I have plans, but they always change hehe.

 
I know the first fish I add to mine will most likely be the C. panda or the Rasboras

 

[BriansAquarium]

I'm doing a semi aggressive tank. But I think I will add my c. Julies and my Leopard  Fish first, then go from there. I really want a dinosaur bichir but I think I need a bigger tank for him

 

[Paradise3]

I'd add the most aggressive last. Hence why my Nannacara are going in last They are cichlids after all

 

[Paradise3]

Here's some late updates

Sorry about that!!
 
My second lot of plants finally turned up a week after I ordered them!

They weren't even in the post that long, ordered from a "reputable" seller on eBay and they were only posted on Tuesday 17th September yet I ordered them on Thursday 12th! And then! They turned up in a box in this state!

 
Please excuse the mess, I rushed out to buy batteries for my cam when the plants turned up like that so that I had photographic evidence.
 
The 87l tank now

 
Some close-ups - Some are blurry. My camera appears to be having trouble focusing

Also, excuse the mess on some of the leaves, my Chaetostoma formosae(Blonde Rubber Lipped Plecostomus) decides when he wants to give them a clean but I do siphon up dirt too lol.
Cabomba furcata - One of the new ones.

Anubias nana

Hygrophila polysperma.

Really close picture of some of the new C. caroliniana

Echinodorus tenellus.

 
You know the teeny tiny little Nymphoides sp. "Taiwan" I got last Thursday(12th September)? Well here it is today!! Look further up the thread if you haven't already for pictures of it when I got it

 
The 24l tank with my BBG in