Bobtastic's 240l Planted Tank Journal

[Bobtastic]

Ok, following the inspirational demonstration from Oliver Knott @ The Green Machine on Sunday I decided it was time to finally start planting my tank!

Plants arrived, all be it with minor blip in their delivery (namely that the original batch took 5 days to arrive due to a Bank holiday, but replacements were sent out). That meant I ended up with more plants than were originally ordered, tho some of them are still a little worse for wear and a couple have had to be thrown away... :'(

So, here is a picture of the tank with the plants waiting patiently in the tank pre-planting.

I had intented to take more pictures of as I was going along... but got caught up in the moment! Thanks to Oliver's demo had a better idea of what I had to do with the preperation of the plant b4 planting, tho it he made it look a hell of a lot easier to de-pot, trim and separate then I did. I'm gonna put that down to the Tropica plants he was using! Oh and the years of experience too...

Here are some pictures of the finished planting (so far :thumbup: )!

Comments, suggestions extremely welcome!!

 

[Aequora]

It's going to be gorgeous! T.T I wish I knew enough about plants or could find a Dummies Guide to setting up and planting a tank.

 

[Bobtastic]

Really need to get some more picture of how the tank is doing now. Tho... I must admit that I have quite an aglae problems atm...

Here are some pics of the Angels to start off with.

 

[lljdma06]

I really like the hardscape and the layout for the initial planting. How are things going with the algae. I found that my initial layout for my nano has changed quite a bit and that I had to remove quite a few plants that were not doing as well and then kind let things do their own thing.

 

[FishBeast]

Its been nearly two months. I would love to see an update

 

[Bobtastic]

Aglae has been a right pain in the #14###! And I had a major set back when I accidently turned up the temp to 30c on the heater during a water change... I've lost most of the P. Helferi and HC as a result...

I'm gonna be getting a pressurised Co2 setup in the next couple of months, that will hopefully control the aglae. I've added a second power head, Hydor Koralia 1. Which is sat top left pointing diagonally down to front centre. But I think I need to increase the Co2 and ferts as they are currently too low.

Tho... I'm a little confused because I thought I had sufficient light, but now it seems that I might not... There are 2 T5 39w strips that run the complete length of the tank. As the tank is 240litres that works out quite low...

But also by that logic I shouldn't need to add much ferts or Co2. Just don't understand why there's so much algae.

Also there hasn't really been that much growth from most of the plants... Tho I'm not sure if that is due to the lack of Co2 or because the light is too low...

 

[Bobtastic]

Here are a few current picture of the tank. As can be seen I'm having a bit of an aglae problem...

I don't mind it so much on the wood and the rock, in fact I quite like it. But on the sand and the plants... not so much.

I'm looking to get a pressurised Co2, and I'm hoping that this will eradicate the aglae. Not sure if I'll have to physically remove the aglae or if it will just "magically" disappear...

 

[Bobtastic]

I've cleaned out as much of the algae off the sand as I could managed and this is what it looks like now.

 

[Bobtastic]

I am all gas'd up thanks to the guys at TGM. Special thanks to Graham for spending the time talking us through everything and even supplying a drawing!

Tho... I think we forgot to put in a suction cup for the defuser... So I'm currently running on the "spare" one... Also I'm not able to use the J-tube as the rim of my tank is too wide... *sniff*

Hopefully it will give my plants the well needed boost! Now just have to get my hands of some more fert as FluidSenor is currently out of TPN+...

I'll post up some more pics as an when I take some.

 

[Bobtastic]

I've been extremely lax-y-dazical with this "journal", but here is a picture of how it looks now.

Had a lot more growth thanks to the addition of Co2. The Crypts are looking a lot more healthy as are what is left of the Eleocharis Acicularis and Pogostemon Helferi after the heater mishap.Algae is a lot less now to and I find I'm only sucking up fish poo and dead algae rather than living stuff...

The Hydrocotyle verticillata has gone crazy and is sprouting up all over the place. Tho I need to gather up, trim and replant the bushy one at the back (can't remember its name....)

Future plans -

I plan to get some Rotala Rotundifolia (red tipped), Rotala Nanjenshan (green), and Alternanthera reineckii (red) and put it in back right and probably back left to fill in the background.

Also get some more Eleocharis Acicularis, Hemianthus Callitrichoides 'Cuba' and Pogostemon Helferi to fill in the foreground more.

I also want to get some java fern and mosses and attach them to the wood but haven't quite decided where I want them to go.

 

[hensonc4098]

It looks good now that you've got your algae problem sorted out. I really like the hardscape wood that you've used - was it just one big piece or did you put it together yourself? I'm looking forward to see how this one progresses!

Claire

 

[Bobtastic]

It's actually two bits, the right hand clump of roots and then the left bitis tucked underneath it.

Yeah, the aglae was pretty bad. And I must admit that since is "tidied" the plant at the back the aglae is creeping back in... I must have release some Ammonia into the water column... Tho I have added another 30mins to the light so that may have added to it too.

I'm planning to switch to a DIY TPN+ formula which cuts my fert costs to about a 10th so I'll beable to dose twice as much without being concerned about the money.

 

[hensonc4098]

Ah yeh - I can see the split in it now that you say that, or now that I actually use my eyes lol

Have you still got your CO2 running? That can certainly help keep algae at bay from the extra plant growth.

 

[Bobtastic]

I was meaning since the above photie was taken.

Yep Co2 is still running. I'm not sure I'll be able to turn it up much past what it is on atm tho. I find that if I crank it up I just get lots of bubbles floating around the tank and then up to the surface... I may have to look at some sort of inline defuser or reactor if/when I decide to crank up the gas!

 

[flyhawk]

love the angels!!