keenonfish
Fish Addict
ok I have actually filled my tank with water and plants now 
Had this tank since before Christmas and first it made way for the tree as usual spot was taken up. Then the misses insisted on me redecorating so again it was sidelined but last Sunday enough was enough and I got it done - Only three months after I bought the b!@#'y thing!
Basically I had all sorts of visions of a stunning planted oasis as demonstrated by some members here but at the end of the day my plant knowledge and skills / hardware just aren't up to that task so we went to the LFS and just picked what we liked the look of hehe. Kind of felt I could have done better in my selection but in retrospect it is possibly best that I buy some really basic plants move on from their.
Specs so far.
Juwel Vison 180 with standard compact h filter.
70W T5 lighting I think Watts / gallon just over 2 but not sure how you would normally work this out with T5.
Dosing following the E.I method to the letter as pinned in planted section. Dosing Kh2PO4 & KNO3 and trace elements every other day. All powders from Fluid Sensor very quick delivery
Substrate, at the moment just gravel of varying sizes. Will see how things progress but hoping not to have to add any ferts.
CO2 at the moment is 2 x home brew bottles 500ml sugar with 1/4 yeast and 1/2 bicarb. Seems to be working well so far with my drop checker a nice green colour. I have connected an air pump to the CO2 line for evening use to hopefully drive off majority of the CO2.
Plants are 2 x Echinodorus unknown (bleheri?) 1 x Echinodorus osiris var. rubra, Rotala sp, Egeria densa, Myriophyllum hippuroides or Cabomba not sure! ~ 5 x Valis Spiralis and some sort of water cress. I think in all there are probably too many plants so the Egeria will be thinned out soon and maybe loose a Sword. I am also not able to add any rocks as the planting is that heavy but not going to lose sleep over that yet!
Fish wise I moved all the fish from my 30 litre in stages so 2 platies first then the 3 neons and I could see a change in attitude straight away
They were playing in the currents for the first two days and then the Neons were patrolling round the tank checking this and that out. They have all calmed down now. Since then added half my baby platies (3) who seem happy These will eventually go to the lfs or friend I think.
I have built a DIY reactor using an old Flu1plus filter and some pipe work I will post a piccy later maybe tomorrow when I do my water change.
here are some pics...
Echinodorus osiris var. rubra is growing surprisingly quickly already... I thought plants would take a week before any growth appeared but the 3 red leaves you see below were not their 5 days ago! Also note the train of bubbles comming from the plant... These appear only during lights on so I hope and assume they are good old O2 and not Co2 bleeding or whatever it is...
Hygrophila polysperma is also a quick grower. Am I right in thinking the leaves should grow a bit closer together? Is this plant good at gauging tank light levels for this reason?
Even my Rotala sp. is growing, but at a much slower rate...
One more pic at lights out...
I am surprised with some of the plants though! I think my Cabomba is growing but very slowly. Not too sure about the Egeria I think again some very slow growth but my Valis has me worried the most. There has been no movement with this plant and the leaves seem quite pale in the centre with a deeper green line round the outside. Maybe they need time to adjust?
I also have some frogbit penned at the top of the tank and this is the one plant that seems to be showing very poor growth and even the roots seem to be deteriorating! It was growing rapidly in my other tank but soon ran out of nutrients so moved across and while I am getting new growth it is quite disappointing really. Maybe it is showing signs of shock?
On the plus side no sign of algae atm but I am not getting too cocky maybe it would be too early to expect this...
Anyway I appreciate any comments from forum members good or bad - bear in mind this is my first serious attempt at planting so try not to be too harsh
Oh and the pony was a little present for my daughter as she was very good in the lfs and am trying to get her interested but she isn't having any of it Kind of like, "look at the baby fish Soph" I get the replay, "Oh yeah, Can I have my pony back?" me " not until you look at the fish" 
Had this tank since before Christmas and first it made way for the tree as usual spot was taken up. Then the misses insisted on me redecorating so again it was sidelined but last Sunday enough was enough and I got it done - Only three months after I bought the b!@#'y thing!Basically I had all sorts of visions of a stunning planted oasis as demonstrated by some members here but at the end of the day my plant knowledge and skills / hardware just aren't up to that task so we went to the LFS and just picked what we liked the look of hehe. Kind of felt I could have done better in my selection but in retrospect it is possibly best that I buy some really basic plants move on from their.
Specs so far.
Juwel Vison 180 with standard compact h filter.
70W T5 lighting I think Watts / gallon just over 2 but not sure how you would normally work this out with T5.
Dosing following the E.I method to the letter as pinned in planted section. Dosing Kh2PO4 & KNO3 and trace elements every other day. All powders from Fluid Sensor very quick delivery
Substrate, at the moment just gravel of varying sizes. Will see how things progress but hoping not to have to add any ferts.
CO2 at the moment is 2 x home brew bottles 500ml sugar with 1/4 yeast and 1/2 bicarb. Seems to be working well so far with my drop checker a nice green colour. I have connected an air pump to the CO2 line for evening use to hopefully drive off majority of the CO2.
Plants are 2 x Echinodorus unknown (bleheri?) 1 x Echinodorus osiris var. rubra, Rotala sp, Egeria densa, Myriophyllum hippuroides or Cabomba not sure! ~ 5 x Valis Spiralis and some sort of water cress. I think in all there are probably too many plants so the Egeria will be thinned out soon and maybe loose a Sword. I am also not able to add any rocks as the planting is that heavy but not going to lose sleep over that yet!
Fish wise I moved all the fish from my 30 litre in stages so 2 platies first then the 3 neons and I could see a change in attitude straight away
They were playing in the currents for the first two days and then the Neons were patrolling round the tank checking this and that out. They have all calmed down now. Since then added half my baby platies (3) who seem happy These will eventually go to the lfs or friend I think.I have built a DIY reactor using an old Flu1plus filter and some pipe work I will post a piccy later maybe tomorrow when I do my water change.
here are some pics...
Echinodorus osiris var. rubra is growing surprisingly quickly already... I thought plants would take a week before any growth appeared but the 3 red leaves you see below were not their 5 days ago! Also note the train of bubbles comming from the plant... These appear only during lights on so I hope and assume they are good old O2 and not Co2 bleeding or whatever it is...
Hygrophila polysperma is also a quick grower. Am I right in thinking the leaves should grow a bit closer together? Is this plant good at gauging tank light levels for this reason?
Even my Rotala sp. is growing, but at a much slower rate...
One more pic at lights out...
I am surprised with some of the plants though! I think my Cabomba is growing but very slowly. Not too sure about the Egeria I think again some very slow growth but my Valis has me worried the most. There has been no movement with this plant and the leaves seem quite pale in the centre with a deeper green line round the outside. Maybe they need time to adjust?
I also have some frogbit penned at the top of the tank and this is the one plant that seems to be showing very poor growth and even the roots seem to be deteriorating! It was growing rapidly in my other tank but soon ran out of nutrients so moved across and while I am getting new growth it is quite disappointing really. Maybe it is showing signs of shock?
On the plus side no sign of algae atm but I am not getting too cocky maybe it would be too early to expect this...
Anyway I appreciate any comments from forum members good or bad - bear in mind this is my first serious attempt at planting so try not to be too harsh
Oh and the pony was a little present for my daughter as she was very good in the lfs and am trying to get her interested but she isn't having any of it
Kind of like, "look at the baby fish Soph" I get the replay, "Oh yeah, Can I have my pony back?" me " not until you look at the fish" 
but still an amazing tank!!
