Andy's First Attempt At A Planted Setup

[scouse_andy]

Well I have bitten the bullet this weekend. I have bought some no-frills topsoil which is currently soaking in a big bucket in the garden, I'll be changing the water every two or three days to leech out as many nutrients as possible before it goes in as the first layer of substrate.

I'm planning on making my smaller Rena 80 litre tank the guinea pig so in 2-3 weeks I will empty it, mix one part soil with 2 parts silica sand and then add a further layer of sand over the top. I will then be checking pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrates very closely for about two weeks. If all is good there then I will add the rest of the soil (which will have had a couple of weeks extra soaking to the main Juwel tank). I have picked up some dorset pea gravel (3mm) for the top layer in the Juwel as suggested in Diana Walstad's very thorough book. It arrived on Friday morning and I was engrossed in it for a couple of hours, looking mainly at the substrate section. I'll look at it in more detail as the soil is soaking but I think I get the basics.

In the meantime, I have had a rescape of my tank. I've been suffering from an algae problem, the tank is fairly recently cycled, I've gone through the brown diatom phase and, by looking at Jamesc's website, I think I'm suffering from an outbreak of black brush algae. The algae has coated the rock background but mainly at the height of the filter outlet (fast flow area). It is also all over the leaves of my slow growing plants, the glass at the front of the tank, the sand substrate and caught in the Cabomba leaves as it has been blown around the tank.

I bought a fine mesh net to catch as much as possible, scrubbed the rock background and syphoned the substrate a bit too, I've caught most of it but I guess it will be back with a vengeance soon. I have got rid of my Mayacca as it was completely black and my swords and crypts from the front, I'll start again with some more of those when the soil substrate is in so the roots have what they need. I've had a fair bit of growth in the tank, despite the lack of CO2, inert substrate and low light level. The Mexican Oak Leaf has shot up as well as the Elodea and also the Hygro. If the growth rate continues I'll probably be about ready for some pruning at the same time as changing the substrate (4-5 weeks)

Does anybody have any advice on the algae, do you think it sounds like BBA? It looks black in the tank but then slimey green, slight blue tinge out of the tank (doesn't smell though so I don't think it is BGA) it is slimey but does wipe off pretty easily from leaves with fingertips or tapping the net on the stem. If so, what is the best way to eliminate it? I’m kind of fire fighting at the moment, and expect it back soon! My light levels are low (1.25WPG) 12 hours light with a 2 hour siesta. Loads of algae busting plants plus hornwort floating around. I could wait it out and manually remove what I can if things are likely to improve of their own accord. Otherwise what about dosing Flourish Excel (double doses?) If I did this, perhaps 2 sevenths of the recommended weekly dose per day (if you follow!) would I need to do big water changes or not and would my fish be alright? This does not appeal to me. If it is down to uneven CO2 levels then it must be due to water changes as that is how my tank acquires its CO2. As my nitrates are being consumed by my plants, I plan no water changes over the next month or so, so maybe it will clear up.

Any advice here would be most welcome. I suppose the last resort would be a 3-4 day black out with no light at all. Would this do the job for sure?

The plants are being left to do their own thing for the next month or so and I’ll just monitor and act on the algae.

A quick up to date picture of the tank this evening after the rescape and before the anticipated algae return!

 

[Underwurlde]

Hello again,

Well I have bitten the bullet this weekend. I have bought some no-frills topsoil which is currently soaking in a big bucket in the garden, I'll be changing the water every two or three days to leech out as many nutrients as possible before it goes in as the first layer of substrate.

I'm planning on making my smaller Rena 80 litre tank the guinea pig so in 2-3 weeks I will empty it, mix one part soil with 2 parts silica sand and then add a further layer of sand over the top. I will then be checking pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrates very closely for about two weeks. If all is good there then I will add the rest of the soil (which will have had a couple of weeks extra soaking to the main Juwel tank). I have picked up some dorset pea gravel (3mm) for the top layer in the Juwel as suggested in Diana Walstad's very thorough book. It arrived on Friday morning and I was engrossed in it for a couple of hours, looking mainly at the substrate section. I'll look at it in more detail as the soil is soaking but I think I get the basics.

Good plan: "1 part soil with 2 parts sand" - don't you mean: 2 parts soil to 1 part sand, i.e. twice as much soil as sand?

Re: algae:
For now, don't worry about it, just keep picking it out - concentrate on it AFTER your changes - main reason you have it (from your pics) is not enough plants. Keep the lighting at 10 hrs a day should be fine (I'm coming to believe that the siestas are a waste of time - there is NO proof I can find that they do *anything* & in my mind is not a natural occurence so doesn't bode well with my way of thinking). Blackouts don't really work and are only temporary.

Andy

 

[scouse_andy]

Thanks for that. I had misread Tom Barr's figures it should be about 1/2 inch sand with one inch soil plus an inch to an inch and a half of pea gravel / silica sand over the top.

I did a test on the soaked soil this morning (48 hrs after I started soaking). Ammonia was 0.3, zero nitrite and about 15 nitrates. pH was also 7.8 (the same as my tapwater) obviously this was without any filter bacteria to process the ammonia so I bit the bullet and redid the Rena. I will be checking the water stats very carefully with a view to redoing the substrate in the main tank if all is well in a few weeks time. The soil I put in was still quite damp as it was a bit of a spur of the moment decision to do it today. Next time I'll get it bone dry as this will make things easier.

Thanks for the advice about the algae. I will keep firefighting for now and then when I redo the soil I'll do a complete water change, scrub the hell out of the rock background, prune my stems and add extra biomass and hope for the best.

I added my three Honey Gourami to the main tank tonight and they immediately set about eating the algae so I may get a helping hand from them. Having read up more, it appears it is BGA, although I thought nothing ate this stuff.

Regular tests of the Rena soil-tank to follow in the coming weeks.

 

[Underwurlde]

If it's BGA, nowt eats it when alive. Dead, Amano will chomp on it. As BGA is bacterial, anti-bacterials will kill it. Maracyn has worked extremely well for me & cleanup crew of Amano's.

PM me & I'll send some tablets in the post if u want as 100 are very expensive.

Andy

 

[scouse_andy]

Well I decided to go for the blackout option. I added a couple of airstones just in case, fed the fish and taped the tank up and left it for four full days. When I took away the covering I was almost blinded by the light in the tank. All the plants were the right shade of green, the background was spotless and the sand wasn't dirty anymore!

I left it for a couple of days until the weekend and then stripped the tank right down. I took all the plants out.

Then I removed the water and put in my soil substrate, about an inch to an inch and a half deep, largely garden topsoil with a small amount of silica sand and small grain pea gravel. I made sure this stayed below the level of the glass and the front and sides and sloped it up towards the back.

I then added a further layer of silica sand again sloping down towards the front.

I added the plants and the water. I took the opportunity to reposition some of the plants, at the back from left to right I have Green Cabomba, Hygrophila Polysperma, Red Ludwigia, Creeping Jenny and Elodea Densa. In front from left to right I have straight Vallis, Indian Fern, Java Fern, Java Fern Windelov and Anubias Barteri var Nana all on bogwood, Mexican Oak Leaf and Bacopa Baby Tears. I also planted a cutting of an unidentified plant which a fellow forum member kindly gave me in the front right. Close up to follow in the next thread. I have left some open space in the middle as I plan to get some crypts, amazon swords and an onion plant in the next couple of weeks.

The new substrate has been in for a couple of weeks now and things seem to be growing nicely, especially the Red Ludwigia and Mexican Oak Leaf.

I will add some more pictures in the next few days.

 

[scouse_andy]

The substrate has been in for a couple of months now and I have made a quite a few changes to the plants in there since then. I have removed all of the Anubias Barteri var Nana, the Java Fern and the straight Vallis to other tanks. I have dispensed entirely with the Indian Fern and the Green Cabomba, which was dying and looking black and ugly. I think the fern maybe needed more light and the Cabomba I think is better suited to softer water. It was breaking up and making a real mess of the filter inlet and the substrate.

I had traces of BGA on the top of the sand in by the glass at the front of the tank and I have reduced the lighting to six hours solid in the evening and so far this seems to be doing the trick. The plants I have do not require any more light than that and seem to be doing OK.

I have added a potted Echinodorus Ozelot Green, which I have split in two, two small sword plants and also a couple of crypts; Cryptocoryne Beckettii Petchii and Cryptocoryne Pontederiifolia to the midground of the tank. It is really starting to take shape now and I think it is the best it has looked. They've been in for a month now and no sign of crypt melt so they should establish themselves more fully now.

I am on the lookout for an Onion Plant to put between the Ludwigia and the Creeping Jenny in the centre rear of the tank and maybe a bit more Hygrophila Polysperma and Red Ludwigia for there too. I will probably be able to take cuttings of the Hygro and Ludwigia soon and replant. I have been able to take loads of cuttings of the Mexican Oak Leaf and replant on the front left as well as the front right. That stuff really thrives in the tank. The Elodea took a good while to establish itself after my 4 day blackout but now it is really growing vigorously too. I have taken some out to another tank and replanted a load in place of the Cabomba at the back left.

Can anybody ID this plant? It was donated to me by a lady off here, who sold me her nano tank and I really like the look of it. It's growing very fast and I have been able to take a cutting and replant it so that I have a stem on each side of the tank at the front. It is the plant with the long leaves in the foreground of both pictures below:

I have some new additions to the tank - my 16 (not so) baby Zebra Danio. There are now 22 danio in total in there, they are great to watch in such a large number. I'm planning on leaving the tank well alone over the Summer holidays and then in September I'm going to continue adding my fish. My plans are for 6 Congo tetra for the middle, 6 Denison's Barbs and either a pair of Bristlenose plecs or 10 corydoras for the bottom. Plecs should help with the algae and I'll make sure they get plenty of vegetables and algae wafers to prevent them from eating the plants. My only concern is that the Denison's Barbs may look a little big in the tank. They are such beautiful fish and I just want to make sure that they don't look completely out of proportion in there with all the smallish plants and fish I have. What does anyone think? I have seen them in a huge planted tank in my LFS in a shoal of ten and they look breathtaking. I will then be up to capacity and I may rehome some of my danio in a spare tank if it is starting to look a little crowded in there.

I think most of my major aquascaping has been done now. Just the onion plant to add, a bit of pruning and replanting to do to bush things out and then I'll just add a few small bits of bogwood to the midground and a couple of plec caves to the back if I go for a pair of Bristlenoses.

I'm very happy with how my low-tech effort is taking shape, the tank has been through rather a lot of changes in the 4 months I have had it up and running but things should calm down now. The soil substrate has definitely been a good move. Any comments on the tank would be greatly appreciated.

 

[fishstick]

Hi Andy its great reading your ongoing saga, everything looking really good. The long pointy-leaved plant is a hygrophila of some sort, it grows like mad (even in my substrate-less temporary tanks)

 

[scouse_andy]

I have managed to find an Onion Plant at my LFS today, I have planted it at the back of the tank. I'm taking out all of the Elodea from the tank in the near future as the algae in the tank seems well and truly under control (fingers crossed). I will be putting some Vallis from one of my other tanks back into the Juwel.

I'll be adding some pictures of my latest rescape in the next week or so. I have big plans to change the stock of fish in there too now that I'm back off holiday so watch this space.

 

[Themuleous]

Great looking tank

 

[scouse_andy]

Thank you, I see you are an Oxfordshire man too. I'm in Abingdon, whereabouts are you?

 

[scouse_andy]

I've had a major change around in my tank.

Pretty drastic really. I've ripped out all the stems and have added a couple more swords and the like.

At the moment it looks pretty bare but I'm hoping it will fill out a bit. I have four different crypts across the front of the tank and these are starting to establish and bush out a bit. I've added a couple of caves, one from smithrc on here and one a botched homemade job from yours truly - guess which is which.

I now have a pair of bristlenose plecs which I hope will breed in there. I have decided to go with some slightly larger fish so am waiting for my SAEs and swordtails to grow and then add some congo tetras and one or two more types, perhaps Bolivian rams, any other suggestions welcome.

This is how the tank looks now

I saw an unusual sword in my local LFS so snapped it up. Here is a close up:

It was labelled as Echinodorus Harbii. I am planning on adding a couple of large tall swords to the tank, one on the left just to the inside of the vallis and the other on the far back right by the filter.

I know it looks a bit sparse but the crypts in the mid/foreground should bush up and the two tall swords I will add should help a bit, I actually think it is the best it has looked and it is pretty much zero maintenance instead of constant pruning, which was needed even in my low-light setup.

Any comments greatly appreciated. Can you recommend me a couple of tall swords anyone?

More pics when the new swords are in.

 

[MadMan-JaMeS]

Looking good andy

 

[Themuleous]

Looks good

Sam

 

[scouse_andy]

Well I have gone and merged my two planted community tanks into one. As I managed to persuade the missus to allow me to have a big 300 litre tank in the living room I had to close down my 80 litre Rena and have merged it with my Rio 240.

I have added an external filter to the tank (Eheim Ecco) to run alongside the internal Juwel and it seems to be doing very nicely.

My wife has now rescaped the tank to her liking (and to mine) and I have more or less donated it to her so that I can look after my 300 litre.

Across the back of the tank are a row of amazon swords, along with the onion plant. In the midground are a couple of smaller swords including Harbii and Ozelot Red flanking a large slate structure and a piece of bogwood plus the plec cave. Across the front is an open area of sand with a lot of crypts surrounded by pebbles. I hate to say it but this is by far the best the tank has looked. There are also two big airstones in there, largely for effect. They do not seem to have adversely effected plant growth.

I have done far too much meddling with this tank but am now finally happy with it. It is going to be well left alone in the coming months and should look even better as the crypts continue to bush up at the front and the swords grow to the surface in the background.

It has been a steep learning curve over the last six months but I got a nice densely planted tank in the end and I have some valuable experience to save me some time (and no little money) when it comes to setting up my moderately planted Rio 300.

The main lessons I have learnt are that substrate is key, you can grow a fair variety of plants nicely at well under 2 WPG, I do not really have the patience for a lot of pruning and when it comes to scaping my wife has a far better eye than me.

Here are a couple of pics of the new look tank. As I said, I really don't expect it to change much from here as I am finally happy.

Stocking is 17 Zebra Danio, 3 Leopard Danio, 10 Hengel's Rasbora, 4 Columbian Tetras, 5 Swordtails (1m,4f), 7 Black Phantom Tetras, 3 Siamese Flying Foxes, 4 male Cherry Barbs, a pair of Bolivian Rams, a pair of Bristlenose Plecs, a juvenile BN plec and 6 Black Kuhli Loaches. I intend to add another 5 Columbian Tetras as they are a lovely colour and are really the centrepiece fish in the tank and also a trio of Apistogramma Cacatuoides plus caves for them. I may well rehome about ten of my Zebra Danios to create space as I think I'm about fully stocked.

Comments are very welcome as always.

As already mentioned, I will shortly be turning my attention to the Juwel Rio 300 in my living room. I bought it off a forum member complete with 3 Severums, 3 Blood Parrot Cichlids, 1 African Blockhead, 1 BN plec, 1 Chocolate Zebra Plec and 1 Rusty Plec. It has a gravel substrate and some lovely bogwood and rocks in there.

Once I have had my laminate flooring put down in the room I plan to rehome many of the fish, keeping just the plecs (these guys are really growing on me - even though I used to find them ugly) and plant the tank with some onion plants, giant vallis, corkscrew vallis, amazon swords and cryptocorynes. Rather than using a soil substrate again I think I am likely to use root tabs under the gravel in the key areas. I am wanting to stock a few shoals of larger fish along with the plecs. Dead certs are a shoal of 6 Denison's Barbs and 6 Congo Tetras. After that I am undecided but quite like the idea of some rainbowfish (Boesemani and Lake Kutubu quite possibly) and maybe some Giant Danio or Scissortail Rasbora.

I am sure that the experience of setting up the 240 will stand me in good stead and you can be sure that there will be a new planted tank journal starting up sometime in the new year, I'll also be sure to update this thread as my 240 matures.

 

[Themuleous]

Very nice will only get better as it develops.

Sam