Rhy's First Planted Tank Ever :)

[Rhykiru]

Hi, im gonna use my old 20 gallon long tank and make it planted! woohoo

a little about me, im 13 years old and have been keeping fish for about a year. I have a 5 gallon with one betta 5 neons, and one oto. (I'm trying to rehome the neons because my friend gave me them as a "gift" not knowing i would be way over stocked xP). a 10 gallon tank with molly fry, another 10 gallon tank i soon plan to divide the fry into as a growout tank. A 29 gallon tank with two fancy goldfish and one singletailed goldfish. I got the goldfish from a neighbor who was gonna put it in the lake nearby. My biggest tank so far is my 75 gallon tank that currently holds my 4.5 inch red eared slider. He used to live in the tank that i am going to make planted until i got the 75 tank with a stand on craigslist for 60 bucks :3

Here are the tank specs, i might forget some^^:

Tank:
20 gallon long. Measurements are 30''x12''x12''

Filter:
Aquaclear 20 rated at 100 gph
Aquaclear 30 rated at 150gph

Substrate:
Sakrete Natural Playsand. About 30 pounds with 2-2.5 inches in the back and around 1in. in the front.

C02:
Nutrafin C02 system

Fertilizers:
Fish waste
Root taps but i dont know what is a good type
*Might dose Excel*

Heater
I have this neptune heater rated for a 20 gallon tank but i dont know if i will need it or not. I live in Florida so i may put it in when its winterish.

Water Parameters:
I dont know right now since i havent even started my fishless yet and i also need a kh tester i think to be able to gauge c02.
but my ph is 7.6. I know this is kinda high since i want for an Amazonian biotope but i hope that the two pieces of mopani driftwood will help lower the ph in the tank.

Plants:
vallisneria americana~Eel grass/Tape grass
Microsorum pteropus~Java Fern
Nymphaea lotus 'Zenkeri'~Tiger Lotus
Hygrophila difformis~Water Wisteria
Thats what i want for now. In the future, i might get some anubias, javamoss, moneywort, scarlet temple, red ludwigia^^

Inhabitants:
7x Moenkhausia pittieri~Diamond Tetra $4.00 each. (juveniles)
5x Corydoras trilineatus~Three-Lined Cory. $3.50 each
1x Ancistrus triradiatus~Albino Bristlenosed Pleco. $10.00 each
Yes, i know, some people may say that this is over stocked but i dont think so that much because i think i have a good mixture of middle and bottom dwellers and my filtration is also pretty big (over turn of tank water about 12 times an hour)

So far, this is all i have. I will add pics of the tank later tonight or maybe tomorrow but i will submit this now before something happens and all i have typed is lost xD. Also, i have to ask my sister on how to work photobucket because using imageshack to load my pic spam would take me days D:

and to start off with the millions of questions i will have, here is my first one
In the nutrafin c02 system thing, it gave me a free bottle of fertilizer. Its called "Plant Gro: Iron Enriched, aquatic plant fertilizer 0.15-0-0"<-w/e that means. I can list the ingrediants if needed or take a pic of it and post it later. But i was wondering, should i use it? it says to dose 5mL per 10 U.S. gal.

as said, pics later on

 

[Rhykiru]

i dont bite ._.

anyways, here are some pictures. Ill add some captions to some^^

this is what the old 20 gallon looked like with my turtle.

this is the new tank:

So then i took the old tank out to wrap it in newspaper

heres the spray paint i used

tank in place

the sand i used

filling it up^^

Then i got my plants! woohoo

After planting it...

Up close of planted spot

right side of tank

So far so good, not to shabby for a first time planter
I want to buy some pieces of slate and creat as natural of a cave as i can on the left side near the front of the glass. Behind that, i will probally put water wisteria or scarlet temple there if i can find good ones. After i get the cave, then i will put my tiger lily on the right of it kind of as a centerpiece. On the lighter piece of wood near the back side of the tank, ill probably put some anubias on that.

i have a question about c02, the nutrafin c02 thing is working. But its really slow, i have only seen it once bubble by itself but when i sit there and wait, it never comes out so i just leave(short attention span ftl lol)How must should it be approxiamatley? i dont think i can go to an lfs now so i can really measure it.

thanks

 

[DevUK]

Like the positioning of the wood and vallis

Good job so far!

 

[Rhykiru]

thanks.

what i also like is the natural cave the wood makes, you can see it on the second to last picture underneath the javafern. Heres a close up but not perfect shot xD

and i cant take the picture but after going in , you can turn left and there is about a 3-4 inche square piece inside the wood. Perfect for the corydoras or the bristlenose^^

hm, it seems that the c02 is more stable now. I saw it coming out faster than it did yesterday
what i am worried about is the light. I forgot to add it in my tank specs in my first post.

It is only 20 watts so thats 1 wpg.
I want more but i cant find a 24 inch 40 watt bulb, not even a 30. I cant afford those awsomely cool light fixture that can hold two bulbs etc since im on a low budget n.n
I wonder if i can add light somehow. There is sunlight going in from the left though, i dont know if that will help me or harm me since i think sunlight can cause algae to grow.

 

[fiskkeeperpro]

Maybe you could buy a t5 lighting high intensity fixture and put it in the hood of your tank? They come in 24inch tubes and give out lots of watts, although the fixture/starter unit might cost a lot, im not 2 sure. BTW gr8 tank and nice plant layout!

 

[Rhykiru]

yeah, i wanted one but the problem is the cost. The doubles are like 100+ and i only have 80 something dollars left to spend and that goes to the expensive fish. I do have more money but i dont want to spend it all because getting the new turtle tank and doing this has already cost me about 200 dollars, not counting the other hundreds i have spend in the last few months for my other fish tanks D:

 

[Rhykiru]

I might be getting another filter for the tank instead.

an xp3 ^^

i cant really explain right now since i have to go to sleep but i think this will be alright. I mean, even though the flow is less (i think its 187 with all the media) compared with an aquaclear20 and 30, it has a bigger range of media so i will have a lot of lava rocks for bacteria so imo, it will keep the tank healthier

Edit: ok, the reason why i am going to use an xp3 is because i have two on my 75 gallon turtle tank. I wanted to run two on it but then, i had another idea to make an overflow system in the tank so that it goes into a sump. So, now that the sump i am going to build takes the place of one xp3... i have an extra one :>

I will probably keep the spray bar on the left hand corner of the tank since there will be water wisteria there and hopefully, it will hide the tube a bit. But i dont know where to place the intake strainer. Should i keep it on the far right? Or should i move the c02 ladder there and put the intake where the c02 ladder is now. Im so confused xD. Another problem is the color, the intake is blue D: i will probably buy some safe black paint so that it blends in.

The c02 system now is crazy. I see 5 bubbles on the ladder at once. If only i can go buy the other thing i need to test it lol. Its so cool seeing the bubbles get smaller.

p.s. im not to popular am it o.o
i wrote 5 out of the 7 post as of now D:

 

[Rhykiru]

Update

well, i have bad news and good news xD. Bad news is i had to take out a little bit more than one third of the vallisneria. I replanted it and this time, i used one stem at a time (last time i planted it in 3 stems per group) The problem is the lighting; It doesnt go out that far. So, i returned it and we went to homedepot. My dad and i are thinking of making out own light with 2 20watt bulbs. Kinda like a poor man's t5 lighting lol.
The bulbs that will go with it is kinda wierd. There is a 20 watt bulb that says its use is for plants and aquariums. *the manufactorer is Phillip btw* Should i use the "plants and aquariums" one or should i use the "Natural Daylight" xD

Good new: I put my red tiger lily in and its very pretty. The stems are kinda entangled right now so its not as spread out as it was before. The other good news is i got the xp3 on there

Heres how i set up the filter:

bottom basket: 1 pound of pony beads which fill up the bottom half. Two course sponges on top

middle basket: two of the finer sponges on the bottom. An old filter wool on top xD

top basket: Seachems Matrix on the bottom half of the basket. Its for biofiltration, ill take a pic of it later lol. Top part is two layers of very fine white filter wool.

enough talk, heres the piccies:

Vallisneria thrown away...

Keepers:

Tank Shot:

Replanted vallisneria:

Tiger lily:

Filter xD:

Biofilter i used:

Ok, the c02 is wierding me out. Last time, it only let out like 1 bubble per 30-45 seconds.
then i saw like 5 bubbles on the ladder at once
now theres only 3 bubbles on the ladder at once when this morning, there was only 2 bubbles on the ladder at once.
Also, i cant find the a Kh tester at my lfs. i have a ph one though, any suggestions on where i can get it?

Also, i am going to start my fishless cycle now. *BTW, im just like gibbering on here so that if i ever forget how much ammonia to add, i can look on here* I took a two gallon bucket, dechlorinated and added 4 drops of ammonia. So thats 2 drops per gallon. I tested it and the thing says that my ammonia level is at .5 ppm. I want my ammonia at .5 so if 2 drops per gallon gives me .5, i will need 20 drops per gallon to give me 5 ppm. Does that seem right? So then i will add enough ammonia after the ammonia spike to get to 2 ppm... Thats 8 drops per gallon. Because the 20 gallon has sand and all, lets say that the tank only holds 18 gallons now. Wait, Its says that the xp3 filter has a capacity of 2 gallons, should i count that? If i do, then to get my ammonia to 5 in the tank, i will need to put 200 drops.... DANG am i wrong somewhere on here? 200drops to get to 5ppm...

Oh yeah, since a fishless cycle takes like 2-3 weeks, i expect this thread to die off by then even thought its not that alive right now

Edit: oops, i put the wrong pic for the vallisneria thrown away

 

[Biulu]

I would take the natural daylight lamp. These normally have a full spectrum. Why did you have to throw the Vallisneria away? Don't forget to add fertilizer, especially while you don't have any fish, so no extra nutrients!

Good luck, and keep posting!

 

[Rhykiru]

yeah, i posted the wrong pic of the vallisneria thrown away xD
You cant really see it in the pic but its all brown in the water and when you pull at the leaves, it snaps off easily which i think means that its dead.

I dont really have any types of fertilizer except the Plant Gro thing that came with the nutrafin c02 system.
I will probably buy root tabs when i go to my lfs though. It just seems to expensive...

Anyways, I will start my fishless cycle right now so hopefully the plants will be able to grow with the ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. One question though, if there is too much ammonia, will it harm the plants too? say 5-6 ppm

 

[jimbooo]

hi there, good start but one pointer for you. dont throw vallis away just prune it. in general removing dead leaves from any plant will promote new growth. what you want to end up with is a curtain of vallis that has grown from scratch in your tank water. as they are now those leaves have been grown in a nursery with very different water parameters to your own so however good your water quality those initial leaves need to die off to be replaced by new growth. dont be afraid to pull out whole leaves, vallis is a very fast grower once it gets established. i have in the past had to prune out whole bucketfuls a month in order to maintain a neat appearance.

prune by pulling the leaf gently but firmly at the leaf base removing it from the bottom part (cant remember technical name sorry) as low as possible.

Vallis does prefer hard water by the way. i'm not sure where you are but is your water hard or soft? Lillies are fine in both.

 

[SuperColey1]

I think the word Jimboo is after for the bottom of the plant is 'crown'

I can vouch for Jimboos comments here.

The first time I had Vallis,I did what you did and threw 'em out. The next time I left them in and ended up prunning off dead leaves 1 at a time and I noticed that it grew new ones and they were staying healthy.

Nice looking tank BTW

Andy

 

[jimbooo]

I think the word Jimboo is after for the bottom of the plant is 'crown'

thats the one, thanks andy. too late for this.. brain's not on form lol

 

[Rhykiru]

thats what i did o.o

i took out all the plants, located the brown ones, and snapped it off the main part. I know its dead cuz it comes off really easy.
In the first picture, does it really look like im throwing out the whole plant. The second picture is what i did keep ._.

hm, i still dont know what i should stock it xD
5 cories ands 15 neon tetras? thats what my dad would like lol, a mob of tetras.

 

[jimbooo]

Update
well, i have bad news and good news xD. Bad news is i had to take out a little bit more than one third of the vallisneria.

sorry i took this to mean you discarded 1/3 of the plants. in that case things are going to plan. i would fully expect some leaves to die off soon after planting.

sorry i got the wrong idea and best of luck.