Newbie Ar620 Planted Tank

[minnnt]

Well i am well and truly hooked on this planted malarky so i just had to have a go. Thought i would give it a go in my 90 litre Aqua One tank to see if i could manage it. It is a low tech setup with nothing fancy happening.

LIGHTING: 2 x 18w.
FILTRATION: Standard built in 550 lph filter.
TEMPERATURE: Around 26 degrees celcius.

PLANTS:

Straight Vallis
Twisted Vallis
Cryptocoryne Wendtii Brown (i think)
Dwarf Hairgrass
Java Moss on bogwood

FISH STOCKING:

2 Anomalochromis Thomasi (Dwarf Cichlids)
5 Cardinal Tetras (Soon to be upped to around 10 or 12)

Here are a couple of pictures as it stands now:

Future plans would be to maybe add some sort of a nutrient rich substrate and maybe add some sort of extra filter/powerhead for water movement as this is something that the built in filter doesn't really offer.

If i have got this completely wrong then i would appreciate all the help i can get.

Many thanks, David.

 

[Trod]

Looks very nice to me David, I'm new to all this too, wish my Vallis would grow like your's has

 

[ian]

looks nice, you could do with some mid ground plants though. Some crypts would do the job nicely in this tank. Either Wendtii green or brown if you wanted a different shade of colour. I think they will set the tank of superbly.

 

[minnnt]

Thanks Ian, this is exactly the kind of info I wanted. I have been considering some anubias nana and some have fern already on wood/rock. Would this be suitable? Also have 2 more of the brown wendtii that I could add. Where would you place them? Cheers.

 

[ian]

I would use those plants, in fact, i'd use all of them...here's what i'd do.

I'd attach the nana to a pebble or rock to give it a more natural look.

this would create more textures and give you more of a golden rule style concept. This scape does have a lot of potential.

 

[minnnt]

Lol, I love it!

I believe the nana at least was on lava rock or similar. The fern might have been too. Just found 2 dead cardinals... might pay a visit then to p@h and get the anubias and fern, think they were a fiver each. The anubias was stunning also.

 

[ian]

Have you tried East Bridgford for plants? They are excellent, the closest you'll get to The Green Machine in the Midlands. They also have some good stock in at the minute.

 

[minnnt]

No I haven't, never even heard of them. May have to pay them a visit. I have 2 remaining wendtii, would you plant them both together? Would I benefit from a proper plant substrate or would that be overkill? I'm keeping the lights on for around 8 or 9 hours a day, is that correct? And finally, I have a spare filter doing nothing, its a small aqua one internal, should I use it to add more water circulation?

Thankyou.

 

[ian]

Yeah, there's a Maidenhead in East Bridgford garden center

I would plant the Wendtii either side of that twisted vallis. As long as the plants are getting the fert via the water column, they don't need a planted substrate. Eight hours max for the time being on the lighting

It also never hurts to have more flow in a planted tank.

 

[minnnt]

Ok Ian, thanks. Would there be enough goodness in the water for the plants or do I need to add some? If so then what should I look for?

Thanks again.

 

[StandbySetting]

You might just get away without fertilisers on a set up of this kind, but if it were me I'd be dosing some form of fertiliser, TPN+ will be expensive on a tank this size and making your own ferts is easy enough after a bit of reading on the subject, I agree on the call of mid ground plants too.

 

[minnnt]

Whats TPN+ ?

 

[StandbySetting]

An all in one fertiliser made by Tropica, are you in the US or the UK? I don't think it's readily available in the US.

 

[minnnt]

Nottinghamshire, UK.

 

[StandbySetting]

Awesome, not far from me, I order mine from Richard at Aqua Essentials.