My Rio 125l Dp Tank

[wackystarfish]

Ok, I have been researching a long while, and have decided on setting up my Rio125l tank as a Dwarf Puffer, planted tank. Unfortunately i am a real noob when it comes to plants, so I will be asking looads of questions along the way, hopefully to avoid disaster???!!!

I have decided I will keep 5 or 6 dp's in this tank which, due to lack of puffers around these parts, i will need to resort to Trimar, so for now i will just have to wait until they are back in stock.
I want to make this tank as low spec as possible, really this is me saying I don't want to be meddling in CO2, as it all seems to technical and expensive to me. I will however be putting thought into upgrading lights and fertilising. But anywho, before i do all this, i will need to give you my tank specs!!!
It is a Juwel Rio 125, completely cycled and matured, with an internal compact filter, and medium current.
Lighting is 2X SunGlo 20 watt bulbs
Water is generally around the Ph7 mark, I don't have the test for water hardness so do you think this is necessary?
Substrate is roughly 3" thick normal pea gravel, but i am definitely putting some thought into sand.
At best, i would really like a busy, jungle look with twigs and rocks, filled with easy to keep plants, that grow tall and busy. In my tank currently (as it is a community until ready to be converted) The only thing that does really well in my tank is tall valis, which has been sending off shoots everywhere lately, and growing huge. I will be buying most of my plants on-line, so any suggestions of a good website would be wonderful I was thinking of using Java ferns and moss as these are native to a puffers biotope. Looking forward to any suggestions!!
Finlay
Oh and as this is a meaningless droll post, I was wanting to add a current FTS for good measure, however have lost the lead to my computer!!!! I will update this as soon as I find it lol.
Oh yeah, budget is £100

 

[AdAndrews]

sounds fine. just make sure it is planted full, otherwise you may get aggression problems. have you sorted out your plant list?- post your specs on here and we will sort it out

 

[wackystarfish]

Water specs you mean?
Ammonia nitrate yadda yadda are all zero
Ph is 7
Havn't got the test for water hardness, will be getting one tomorrow
I was looking at
Some sort of moss to attach to twigs, java probably
Java ferns
Straight Valis
Water Lettuce for the top
Hydrocotyle leucocephala
Echinodorus osiris
Sagittaria subulata
Vallisneria spiralis
Egeria densa
Pistia stratiotes
I really want something that is gonna look jungle like, however i do worry about the puffers bieng in hiding all day...
Thanks,
Finlay

 

[wackystarfish]

Anyone?
Finlay

 

[AdAndrews]

sorry it took me so long to reply again... been busy. i mean by stats, how many watts per gallon you have, what c02 you are doing, what ferts you are using, including substrate ferts, pm aaron north about the plants, as i am no expert. a jungle look sounds good, what substrate are you using??- sand is best

 

[RadaR]

Current lighting is good for low-tech. SunGlo lamps on there own are too "warm" in my opinion, but if you like them that's all that matters.
Don't plan on upgrading light if you don't want to delve into gas injected CO2. That's just asking for trouble.
The plant list looks fine.
Want a jungle but don't want the DPs hiding all the time......?I would try a "C" shape aquascape then. Basically towards the back of the tank have tall plants, and then don't extend this beyond the middle of the tank but have smaller plants come round the sides. You are left with an empty space in the middle where the DPs can swim about but if feel threatened, they can seek safety of plants.
I would have lights on for 8-9 hours a day, dose 2ml of EasyLife EasyCarbo and 2ml of Tropica plant nutrition + everyday. Water change 25% weekly.

 

[wackystarfish]

Sounds ace!! Thanks for the comments guys! i like the idea of a 'c' shaped aquascape a lot!!! Maby with a big spiraly bit of bog wood as a center?? heh heh...
Does anyone know of a good source to get these plants from? I will ebay for the ferts
Thanks for your support guys!
Finlay

 

[wackystarfish]

Sorry for the quick reply guys! My laptop battery was going!!!! I am quite wary about changing to sand,
a) nowhere around me really sells it and
b) Where am i going ot put all my gravel! haha
If i was going to change the gravel which colour would you get?
Anyway, a quick shopping list:
Java ferns
Straight Valis
Water Lettuce for the top
Hydrocotyle leucocephala
Echinodorus osiris
Sagittaria subulata
Vallisneria spiralis
Egeria densa
Pistia stratiotes
5/6 dwarf Puffers - Usually around £10

 

[AdAndrews]

get sand, it will be fine, the argos play sand is like 15kg and under £3- loadz of members use it.

note:
DO 50% WATER CHANGE EACH WEEK

 

[wackystarfish]

I normally, do anyway However, as my family do go away several times throughout the year, what should i do when we go for long, two week holidays? A friend would be able to pop in and feed the fish, and dose the ferts, however i wouldn't as them to do a 50% water change...

 

[AdAndrews]

it will probably be fine, just tell them to feed very little and put some of that biological filter stuff like stress zyme

 

[wackystarfish]

Awesome! Okay, it looks like it will be argos play sand for substrate. Any advances on where i should get my plants?

 

[RadaR]

Why the need to change to sand?
What you have already is fine to use.
And I don't agree on 50% water changes a week. That is more for medium/high light tanks. This is because there is more light in those set-ups and the water changes attempt at decreasing the ammonia in the tank because ammonia and light = algae.
Less light means less chance of algae. No need for large water changes. Also, the 25% weekly water changes helps keep things more stable.

 

[wackystarfish]

Its probably more to do with the puffers, for such little guys they can be quite messy! haha. Im still swaying towards the gravel, however i have read that puffers like to dig themselves in. However, on the other side of the argument, my current, dark coloured pea gravel is very jungley. I think ill stick, as i can always change it somewhere along the line.

 

[RadaR]

Never heard of DPs digging themselves in substrate.
BTW, plants can be found at Java-plants.