Just Joined...pic Of My Current Tank

[digimac]

Hi there, just joined these forums. Ive been keeping tropical FW for over 10 years, but just got seriously back into the hobby last yr. This is my first attempt at a pretty heavily planted tank
See what you think.
Cheers Brian

 

[Themuleous]

Nice although Ive never had any myself I am a big fan of the branch type bogwood, think the snarlled and twisted look it has is really cool.

Any other pics?

What you planning on doing next? Do you use EI?

Sam

 

[DarkSeraph]

Looks nice

 

[digimac]

Thanks for the comments
Just added the twisted branches about a week ago, pleased with the look of them.
I dont use EI. Just have laterite mixed with the gravel, dose 15ml of leaf zone plant food once a week when doing water changes. Have one nutrafin CO2 kit running with a DIY yeast mix. Lighting is one T8 triplus (38 watt) and a T8 Daylight Plus (38 watt), both with arcadia reflectors.
Plants etc seem to be doing ok and not had any major algae probs so far.
Just letting things grow in a bit just now, then some trimming and rearranging depending on how things look.

 

[Anita]

Hi

Anita

 

[Alex_]

How bigg is your tank?
and
what plants do you have in it?
and
what fish do you have in it?

-Alex

 

[lljdma06]

Welcome. That wood is really cool looking! I would also like to know the plants and fish you keep.

 

[digimac]

The Tank is a 4' long one..........about 40 UK Gallons.
Fish
One Common Pleco
One Siamese Fighter (male)
One Congo Tetra (Used to have more)
Two Debauwi Catfish
Three False SAE's
Two Bala Sharks
5 Chequar Barbs
3 Red Banded Barbs
6 Danios

Thats it for the fish.
I will need to look up the names of some of the plants
But I Have
Valis
Amazon Swords
Java Moss
Java Fern
Not sure on the names for the others, but I will find out

 

[George Farmer]

Welcome to the forum!

Lovely looking tank digimac and an excellent effort for a first attempt at planted, you obviously have some natural ability with aquascaping.

How old are the plants? They look very healthy from here, a good sign that you have struck an ideal balance of light and nutrients. Another fine example of how a lower-tech tank can still look very good.

 

[digimac]

Cheers M8, I started planting the tank in early november last year, so some of the plants go back to then. Had a few that didnt do so well so stayed away from that kind of plant.
Added the CO2 in january I think it was, maybe a wee bit later than that.
Second light tube was added about two weeks ago.

 

[steve711]

That's a very nice looking set up you have there.

Just a couple of words of warning, whilst your sharks and Plec are small they are fine but as they grow they will make keeping a planted aquascape as you want it more difficult.

I found that as the sharks get bigger they tend to get more nervous and will dart around knocking into things and with that much wood they will damage themselves.

Also, once the plec is bigger although a gentle giant will 'accidentally' up-root plants.
Mine grew to about 12"-14" in a 5 foot tank at was very funny, he would swim upside down at the surface for me to drop algae wafers straight into his mouth, even in daylight hours, the trouble was he was like a foot long bull-dozer, if he bumped into anything he would just swim harder until he pushed it out of the way, usually that meant finding floating plants in the morning!!

 

[digimac]

Thanks for the advice, ive had the sharks and the plec years now and realise the probs they can cause with planted tanks. May change them eventually, but they are ok just now.
Plec is my fav fish too, dont know if i could give him up lol

 

[steve711]

I know, it was a tough decision for me to rehome my sharks and my plec, but for the good of the tank and my sanity they had to go.

I know for a fact the plec went to very good home because the guy at my local shop was vetting people before he found the right new owner for him, he went to someone with a much bigger tank than mine.

 

[oldwhitewood]

I like your wood it looks great, a good find there