Going For It A 2Nd Time. Will It Work This Time

[Dan-CR4]

Well a week into having my plants and the major clean up, I can say that the plants are growing really well so far, well they aint dead yet and apart from the first couple of days where my bigger keyholes uprooted them while darting past, all seems to be going well.

im being strict on my lighting and the lights are only on for 8 hours a day and im dosing with flourish every other day. Im thinking of taking some cuttings of a few and growing them on, esp the Ergeria densa as they are getting long.

I have noticed that the 3d wall is starting to go black again, not lots but a little as you can see. Im starting to hate 3d backgrounds .

These photos were taken this morning.

The plants on the left (Ergeria densa) are bending over at the top every morning but when lights come on they go straight .

again any advice or tips is greatly appreciated. If you think im doing anything wrong please join in as I aint got a clue and still learning as I go.

Danny

 

[Biulu]

I think it is a really good start, but I would put that tank full of plants. Easily triple the amount you are having now, to outcompete the algae. The forming of brownish algae is normal though, or are you getting BBA again? In that case you should probably dose Flourish every day. I have the same size tank as you do with around the same lighting (48 W) and am dosing liquid carbon every day to get rid of the BBA that built up.

 

[lljdma06]

they are apparently good filters, it will be my next filter. I have you thought about adding a small powerhead just to help push the nutrient around the tank? Something like a koralia nano will be fine, this will give you 10x turnover, i know you're not using pressurised C02, but IME flow is just important than anything else in my tanks. I haven't seen the powerhead in the link, i use koralias and have never been disappointed with the performance.

If i was you i'd see which plants do well, and think about adding a few more of the ones that do well. Once you know you can grow plants the tank is your oyster (i'll get mi coat)

Yes, flow, regardless of the planted tank type is very important. Biulu, I'm removing two of your posts, as it tripled posted your reply for some reason.

 

[Dan-CR4]

Yes, flow, regardless of the planted tank type is very important. Biulu, I'm removing two of your posts, as it tripled posted your reply for some reason.

Yes going to buy a new powerhead soon, to give me some more flow. I also bought some more plants off ebay this time so will probably need some ids on them if I cant find them.

also bought some bogwood today as well, so gonna do a little bit better scape than I got already. doubt if it will be mind blowing as I suck at stuff like that

will update with some newer pics tomorrow.

 

[Dan-CR4]

I soaked the new bogwood over night and not much tanins came out so I rescaped today with the plants I got already plus the ones I ordered of Ebay yesterday. Im sure tanins will leak from my new bogwood and give me a tea colour in the tank, but thats ok. so once I added all me plants and got the camera out, the batteries are dead

Anyway I have taken a few pics with me phone camera, not great but will get some newer ones up later once I got me batteries charged.

Heres my first real go at scaping so please be kind. Im sure some of the plants are not in the right place and some back plants are probably at the front, but this is just a real test if they will grow. I got some Taiwan Moss coming as well.

please let me know what you think.

Danny

 

[Biulu]

Looks very good! I would only plant more, especially mid and foreground plants.

 

[Dan-CR4]

just a quick update, one of the plants was not doing well, so I removed it the other day and the twisted vallis is not liking the tank, I have read it could be due to the carbon im dosing everyday. Today I got my ferts through the post and have started dosing the tank, hopefully I will get some results, but apart from the two plants above, all my others have been doing well. I had to trim some of the plants yesterday as they were reaching nearly the top of the tank.

tomorrow I will start taking a photo every couple of days to see if im getting any improvement. Also still waiting for the power head I ordered which hopefully will arrive tomorrow.

BTW, these are the plants I got in my tank

Elodea Densa
Green Cabomba
Alternanthera Reineckii
Echinodorus bleheri
taxiphllyum alternans (Taiwan Moss)
+ a few others that I still need to get ID on.