Low-tech Planted Tank

[charlie4486]

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Well, if it's low-light, I don't see any reason why you can't plant once you have your substrate in place and you are ready to fill up the tank. When I ran high-tech systems, I usually waited until my CO2 levels were stable before I turned on my lighting and planted. I don't recommend running lights until you are planted though as Eco complete is a nutrient-rich substrate and you don't want to trigger algae. Oh, and a reminder, Eco-complete does something funny with the water for the first few weeks. I've never used it, but others here have complained and I remember the complaints. Something to do with either ammonia leaking or pH rising, one of the two. You might want to wait on the fish a for a month or so. I remember distinctly people had to wait like a month for something to fix itself.

llj
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Thanks i will definitely keep an eye on that.

 

[charlie4486]

Here is an update:
I Finally got some plants in. like 4 days ago. starting out with amazon sword, anubias, and not sure if it's aquatic but it's called an umbrella plant. going to add a bit more annubias on the left side on the driftwood to fill in that area( can't plant in the soil because there is a piece of driftwood in the way). Here are some pictures.

My Blue Ram in the little cave

One of my other Blue Rams

One of my C. Aeneus and my C. Trilineatus

 

[charlie4486]

Here is the stocking list:

3- German Blue Rams
3- Cherry shrimp
3- Caridina Japonica
7- Cardinal Tetras
6- C. Aeneus
1- C. Trilineatus

 

[Themuleous]

Looks good, sorry I missed this earlier.

That's quite a stocking list for a new tank?

Re the Eco-complete, you'll find it raises the GH and KH of the water a bit for a month or two, but it wont leak NH3 or anything nasty so you dont need to worry

Sam

 

[charlie4486]

Looks good, sorry I missed this earlier.

That's quite a stocking list for a new tank?

Re the Eco-complete, you'll find it raises the GH and KH of the water a bit for a month or two, but it wont leak NH3 or anything nasty so you dont need to worry

Sam

Yeah i did a fishless cycle so i had loads of bacteria built up. so far no lost fish. except a cardinal that died on the way home.

 

[Themuleous]

Cool

 

[Viettxboii]

any update? =]
looks good, seems like you stocked it fairly fast.

 

[charlie4486]

Here are some updated pics

Had to throw in a pic of the little guy.

The Plants seem to be doing great. They are growing much faster than i expected. I still need to add some plants but i don't think i'm going to add much more, i'm going to kinda just let it fill itself in.

 

[charlie4486]

any update? =]
looks good, seems like you stocked it fairly fast.

It actually took over 3 weeks to do a fishless cycle with media from my 55, so it wasn't really that fast. and with fishless cycling you build up more bacteria than any reasonable amount of fish can overload.

 

[Biulu]

I love the trilineatus! It is my favourite corydora, but unfortunately not available here. I like the uf the black substrate;it really brings out the colours of the plants and the fish. Looking very good so far!

 

[charlie4486]

thanks. the substrate is a mix of eco-complete and black moon sand.

 

[Themuleous]

Developing nicely

 

[charlie4486]

thanks