Natures Call: Alex's First Planted Tank

[fish.com1]

Hi all,

This is my first attempt at a planted set up. Enjoy.

Tank and Equipment:
Arcadia Arc Tank 35 litre/ 9 gallons
2x Arcadia Arc Pod 11 watts
50 Watt visi-therm heater

Set up and data:
Eco complete --sloped 2-7cm
Tropica Plant Nutrition+ - 1ml per day
Easylife Easycarbo - 1/2ml per day
Lights on for 8 hours a day - 14:00-21:00

General Water Parameters:
pH - 7.6
Kh - 9Dkh
Gh - 20Dkh

Maintenance:
Weekly 30% water change
Prune when necessary

Hardscape:
Bogwood

Plants:
Eleocharis parvula
Marsilea hirsuta
Anubias bateri var nana
Vesicularia dubyana

Stock:
Snowball shrimp

The tank was set up on the 23rd of last month. I added a classica powerbio 280 to the tank for water movement. The sponge filter is now over 3 months mature after sitting in my other mature tank. After the tank is one month old, if water parameters allow, I will remove the classica filter and add the sponge filter to the tank, then I will add the snowball shrimp. I have been doing weekly 30% water changes to combat algae and have also reduced the photoperiod to 7 hours and upped the easycarbo dosage to 1ml per day. I haven't got the Tropica Plant Nutrition+ yet but will be putting an order in on Aqua essentials soon to get some.

Anyway now for some pictures of the tank. Hope there not too bad.

Shot of the whole tank.

Different angle.

Close up of the moss and eleocharis.

I am hoping the marsilea will form some sort of a carpet.I am going to add some vallisneria soon most probably at either side of the tank at the back to hopefully form an arch over the water's surface. Anyone got any other ideas to improve the tank?

Thanks for looking any comments and criticism are welcome.

Alex.

 

[GobyMaster]

For a first planted, I think it looks great!

Yeah, it doesn't have that many plants, but that bogwood is gorgeous! How much did it cost (if you don't mind my asking)?

I don't have any advice, but I am looking forward to seeing this tank mature.

Cheers,
GobyMaster

 

[fish.com1]

For a first planted, I think it looks great!

Yeah, it doesn't have that many plants, but that bogwood is gorgeous! How much did it cost (if you don't mind my asking)?

I don't have any advice, but I am looking forward to seeing this tank mature.

Cheers,
GobyMaster

Thanks.

There are 2 pieces of bogwood each ware about a fiver. I am getting some more plants hopefully tomorrow.

 

[fish.com1]

Got some cabomba today it was three pots for a fiver from pets at home. It's really healthy some of them have even started to flower. Theres loads too I could only just fit it all in. The tank looks much less bare now.

Thanks for looking. Please comment.

 

[fish.com1]

Time for an update. The marsilea was getting covered in algae so I removed it. I also moved half of the eleocharis to the front and will soon be ordering a crptocoryne wendetti tropica to put where the eleocharis was. Other plants I may be ordering as well are cryptocoryne parva and rotala rotundfolio. Also I have noticed a lot of "dust" gathering on the wood. I don't know if it is dust so i've taken a picture to see if anyone knows what it is.

The "dust"

Some updates on how the tanks looking. The anubias has two new leaves.

And finally a side view to show how dense the cabomba is

Please comment.

 

[Smoothy]

Looking really nice ... can't wait to see the progress on this one

 

[fish.com1]

Looking really nice ... can't wait to see the progress on this one

Thanks smoothy.

 

[IovaykInD]

The picture of the "dust" is quite blurry but that is probably just gunk that got trapped on the wood, if you move the water around it quickly it will come right off..or just use a gravel vac to get it out.

Btw, the tank looks nice, once the moss grows in it should look great!

 

[fish.com1]

Another update. I started to get bored of seeing the "dust" on the wood so i decided to take action. So I took both pieces out of the tank and gave them a good old wipe with some kitchen towel. I think it was just rotted plant debris in the substrate that had been disturbed during maintenance and then settled on the wood. When I took the wood out I accidentally uprooted some cabomba so i decided to take it all out and replant it. I was in a bit of a rush planting it first time so some of the stems were a bit bruised so i neatened them up and replanted them all. That was friday but today i got fed up of seeing lots of bits of plants getting trapped in the eleocharis. So i uprooted it and removed the debris and it is all now in the foreground. There is no sign of any algae so I have plugged the other arcpod back in. I am 99% sure that i will be ordering the following plants tomorrow:
Microsorum pteropus "narrow"
rotala rotundfolio
cryptocoryne parva

Now for some pictures. I arranged the cabomba so the smallest stems were in the middle and i will try to retain that shape when pruning.

As for the shrimp hopefully they will be coming soon.

 

[Dwarf-P.]

looks nice, i bet you cant wait to get the shrimp!- which types are you getting?

 

[fish.com1]

looks nice, i bet you cant wait to get the shrimp!- which types are you getting?

The shrimp i'm getting are snowballs.

 

[puppyjess123]

Do you not need CO2?

 

[fish.com1]

Do you not need CO2?

No i can't afford one at the minute so i'm using a carbon supplement called easylife easycarbo. Does the same job as c02.

 

[sangah10]

Wow seriously? the easylife easycarbo? I wonder if australia has some.

sounds very handy, CO2 is so priceyy

 

[Truck]

Wow seriously? the easylife easycarbo? I wonder if australia has some.

sounds very handy, CO2 is so priceyy

i doubt youll get it in oz, so you may have to find seachem excel its the same stuff under a different name