TY re the tank.
Three more things I should have mentioned. The first has to do with refilling the gas bottle. No mater what time of year (meaning even in a summer heat wave) always bring gloves with you. I since i owned a nice bottle I wanted it refilled as opposed to exchaning and empty for a full one. The bottles must be inspected every few years and recertified. I wanted to get back my bottle.
When they refill the CO2 bottle it puts the gas under a lot of pressure. The cylander will be ice cold and you will be glad you have gloves. It will warm tto room temp. but when first filled it is ice cold.
Next, in all the years I ran CO2 I never had an end of tank dump. Maybe the needle valve protected against that, I am not sure. But I believe there is a lot of overkill wasting money on planted tanks.
1. My tank in those pics used Estes bits of Walnut a small sized coated gravel with no sharp edges as the substrate. I relied on two things to keep the substrate nutricious, The first was the build up of mulm over time. I never vac the substrate in planted tanks. AT most I will vac. to remove surface debris off of the plants and ground cover. I do not use any fancy substrate, dirt or specialized substrate for planted tanks.
2. I fertilized my substrate using this. But, this is not for those who like to rescape and redo their tanks often, If you dig this up so it gets into the water column you will leanr the true meaning of an algae outbreak.
3. The only other piece of equipment I used because of plants is long tweezers, I have 2 one has a curved tip and the other is flat and straight.
I see no need for almost any of the specialized equipment , substrate etc,, for planted tanks. IMO it is overpriced, often unsightly and not needed. I spent my money on quality for what I did use. I started using Tropica Liquid ferts and, as they reformulated and rebranded it over the past 20+ years, I have stayed with Tropica. I figured if it was good enough for the worlds major grower of aquarium plants it was certainly good enough for me.
I still have 10- tanks and all but 3 are planted. One is a temporary tank holding excess plants and no fish or inverts, not even snails. My 150 gal all anubias tank. I has two 3 foot, old T-8 bulb lights over it. I use a very high quality (i.e. high CRI of 98) full spectrum Ultra Sun bulbs from Zoo Med. They are each 25w, so the total is 50w. So much for all the fancy expensive alternatives.
Most of my tanks will be gone before the end of the year. I am working down from 20 to an ultimate of 4 by Xmas or sooner and then to just two in 2026. Old age has caught up with me as I will turn 77 fairly soon.
but I still miss it. Find easy (and inexpesive) plants that work in your tank as is and the job is really easy. You don't have to buy a lot if you have patience. I bought a single bunch of each species and propogated by divide and conquer.
