Jallens Planted 25 Gallon

[Jallen]

So today my plants arrived from last-trading-post (highly recommend). They came the day after ordering and they were bigger and better that I could have expected

Tank dimensions: L80xW30xH40cm.
Tank Volume: 25 gallons / 95 litres.
Lights: 1x60cm T8 sunlight tube - 0.8 wpg. 10-12 hours a day.
CO2: None.
Airation: 8" air stone on for 4 hours after lights off.
Substrate: Play sand.
Fertilisers: PlantaMin.

Plants:
Vallisneria spiralis
Cryptocoryne nevelli
Cryptocoryne becketti
Cryptocoryne diversen
Echinodorus amazonicus
Microsorum pteropus
Anubias -something-
Vesicularia dubyana
Cabomba aquatica
Elodea canadensis
Plus some other stem plants I'm not entirely sure on yet.

Stocking:
1 Angelfish
4 Tiger barbs (2 of which are green)
2 Corydoras
4 Glass bloodfin tetra
10 Kuhli loach (5 banded, 5 brown)
1 Bristlenose pleco (female)
6 Cardinal tetras
1 Singapore wood shrimp


New plants:

Stripped down tank:

Everything which is going in:

Vallis:

How it ended up:

We'll just have to see how everything turns out. I've read mixed things about some of these plants and how well they will do in conditions like mine. I'll update every now and then.

 

[bagu]

wow wow wow wow wow!

what a amazing difference! and it looks fantastic aswell!

great job

 

[Jallen]

Thanks
I hope it stays that way

I'm thinking of bringing the vallis forward a bit with the swords and things because I think they may not be getting enough light behind all the other plants.
Ok done. Looks almost identical.

 

[Bobtastic]

Very nice! What did you use to do all the planting? I'm wondering if I should get a pair of tweezers.

Also what are you doing for ferts and carbon?

 

[Jallen]

Very nice! What did you use to do all the planting? I'm wondering if I should get a pair of tweezers.

Also what are you doing for ferts and carbon?

Thanks
I used my hands for the planting. All of the plants are pretty easy to plant just by pushing away some sand and kind of wiggling them in taking the pressure with your fingers. The amazon swords though... The roots are huge and planting them was really quite difficult because of how bouyant they were. But it was alright planting with my hands.

For ferts I'm using PlantaMin which is a no nitrate or phosphate liquid fertiliser (fish + food will provide those nutrients), I dose 5ml every 2 weeks.
For carbon I'm doing nothing, as my stocking is pretty heavy the fish will produce a fair amount of CO2 for the plants.

BN pleco starting his reign of terror on my swords. He hasn't done any damage and I assume he's just sat on them like he has done with my java ferns and anubias with no detrimental effect to them.

Moved the vallis. Looks almost identical but the vallis are getting more light now. Which to me is important because they are probably my favorite plant.

Video:
[URL="http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcVgjf09RbU&fmt=18"]http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcVgjf09RbU&fmt=18[/URL]

 

[Gill]

I really like how yo have used the plants well.

 

[Jallen]

Thanks
It was sort of a squeeze planting it all and I didn't really have a plan set in stone from the beginning apart from the rough positions of the wood and that I wanted big plants at the back and sides and small plants at the front so I'm probably just lucky it turned out looking pretty good

 

[bagu]

that pleco shot is sooo cute!

 

[Jallen]

Tied the bit of java moss which was in the plant pack to a tiny bit of wood, swiss army knife for size reference.

Put it in the brightest area in the tank.

 

[Jallen]

Did my first big pruning of bad leaves and things.
The cambomba has gone beserk and the amazon sword's emersed leaves are dying, being replaces by immersed leaves which are much softer and have a slightly different appearance.

Cut back the vallisneria which was sad. I liked the way it looked over the surface of the water but it needed to be trimmed where parts of the leaves had been bent in putting them in the tank and handling them. They look healthier now and will grow back soon. Every single vallisneria now has at least one runner growing. All of the stem plants have started developing root-like bits around the base of their stem which is good.

Coming along nicely, it's been 6 days since I got and planted them and so far I've had no trouble. I'll probably be getting a new light tube soon (the current one is a 9 month old sun-glo), I will probably get a life-glo; same wattage, higher intensity - from what I've read they look almost twice as bright.

Cutoffs

How it looks now:

The cabomba has gone absolutely beserk. It's growing remarkably fast which is more than I can say about the elodea...

 

[Jallen]

Split up the crypts a while back, also yesterday I bought some absolutely HUGE Java ferns and some hairgrass.

Having success with plants:
- Amazon swords are doing great, I removed all of the emersed leaves and now they have about 3-5 small immersed leaves each (they grow FAST) and i trimmed the roots to about 3"

- Vallis leaves got bent when I put them in originally, so i tried cutting them off past the snapped bit, it just turned brown at the tip and those leaves stopped growing, so I pulled all cut off leaves from the base, A LOT of new growth though. Huge amounts of runners. One of them has 6 baby plants attached.

- Cabomba is growing like mad, what more can be said

- The other stem plants are doing great except for one sort of the elodea which just went brown. I put it outside to float in a bucket with some water cress and sweet flag and now it's doing fine.

- Some Java moss was found in my initial plant pack, it began to grow up and looked quite nice, found some more in the new java fern roots and attached it to the same small bit of wood.

- The java ferns are doing great, can see new growth on leaf tips.

- The anubias has produced 2 new leaves and attached itself to the wood firmly.

- I split the crypts up and replanted them individually.

Anyway this is how it looks now:

Sword:

Narrow fern:

Hairgrass and crypts:

Vallis (remember I pulled off a lot of leaves):

 

[Truck]

looking good! theres no need to trim roots, no need to uproot the plants really.

where did you get the fern and wood from? i may get myself a piece.

over all i think its looking good, but i dont think the plantamin alone will be able to provide enough iron or magnesium for the plants

 

[Jallen]

I got the wood from southern aquatics in cadnam and I got the ferns from maidenhead aquatics in christchurch. I saw them and had to get them they were so huge.

I'd like to get a good fertiliser but I don't want to pay too much. I'd rather not mix it myself...