first semi serious planted tank

[smicko]

Hi all, I started my planted tank today and thought I'd share a pic and ask some questions.

The tank is 40x40x40cm, has natural black gravel around 7cm thick.

Filtration is a 400lph power head with biofoam that I plan to never clean to well

I have a 45cm led light with 5rows of white lights

( thanks to spiderzzz).

Fluval 20g c02 setup, which I will upgrade later

Livestock is yellow cherries aNd riffle shrimp

Plants are hm which I plan to carpet if i can a few stems of blue stricta and a few stems of a plant the shop called aluminium?

A couple of pics of driftwood

Question time, i got some easylife profito liquid fertiliser, how often should I dose?

Should I put tablet ferts in the gravel and if so which ones?

Do I need to dose carbon if i run c02?

What other ferts could I use?

And lastly should I let the leafy stem plants establish in other tank while the hm grows?

Sorry about the long post but it's my first mid technology planted tank.

Thanks in advance, mick

[Shrimp Aqua]

G'day Mick, sorry to tell you the Aluminium plant will not grow submersed as it is a terrestial plant,one of the Pileas (Pilea cadierei) you will find it will just rot away over a short time. Sorry to be a bearer of bad news. Regards Gary

[smicko]

Thanks Gary, that's ok I will just move it to the greenhouse.

Also interested in some second hand c02 gear and mosses, i don't even have any Java around that isn't infested with algae from the ponds lol.

Cheers mick

[HJ V6]

Question time, i got some easylife profito liquid fertiliser, how often should I dose?..................should say on the back of the bottle...but i do mine everyday

Should I put tablet ferts in the gravel and if so which ones? ...............not really as most of the tank will have HM right? the HM roots are too short and wont use them

Do I need to dose carbon if i run c02?..............................................you shouldnt need to

What other ferts could I use?...........................................................what ever you want to dose

And lastly should I let the leafy stem plants establish in other tank while the hm grows?...........no as you will need to replant them when the HM grows out....it would be ezyer to let the HM grow around them

[daz88]

Profito iirc is 10ml per 100l per week. Adjust for your litres say 60 so 6ml per week and then divide that by the number of times u doae per week. Eg 1 ml every day.

Blue stricta will eventually perish if always under water.

[smicko]

Thanks for the replies, I'm learning already.

I got told when I bought the profito to only does during waterchange so thanks for letting me know I can do small doses daily.

So no need for carbon or tables is good but 2 of the 3 plants I bought yesterday are going to the greenhouse as I want it to be a long term setup.

What plants could I use as a large feature,

I have a couple of crypts for foreground plants and the hm will eventually carpet the floor hopefully and moss will be sorted, so I want something that grows around 30-40cm tall and is leafy( no Val).

Cheers mick

[HJ V6]

hey mate here is a web site for plants its better them me typing them all in haha .....this guy sell some beautiful plants

http://www.liverpoolcreekaquariums.com/store/c1/Featured_Products.html

[smicko]

Thanks mate I didn't think of looking there because I don't know the names, but pictures confused me. There's too many nice plants lol.

Cheers mick

[Wraithie]

I use profito twice per week (because im too lazy to do it daily). One thing to note that is that ferts are taken up by roots so if you are using fresh stem plants there is no point dosing until they grow roots (week or 2).

Tablets again are only useful for stem plants/those with long roots (i dont have much success with stems in general, have moved towards ferns/bolbitis/crypts for larger plants).

You asked about carbon dosing, you wont need this for carbon if you have CO2, HOWEVER i use it daily on my small scape tank (overdose of Excel) as it has helped a lot to control the algae that was growing on my hardscape and fissidens moss.

[smicko]

I got carried away, new plant list;

Crypt wendtii green

Crypt unsure of name has small narrow leaves

Eichhornia diversifolia

Nesuea triflora

Ludwigia arcuata

Myriophyllum tuberculatum

Ludwigia brevipes

Limnophila aromatica

Didiplisdiandra

Myriophyllum mattogrosense

Rotala h'ra

Persicaria Sao Paulo

Hydrocotyle tripartita

Us fisidens

Sydney fisidens

Subbwesertang

Riccia

Dwarf Japanese hairgrass

Hm

And finally and hopefully AUSSIEMO.

Now running diy c02 through a Fluval diffuser

Hopefully it will be overgrown in 2-4 weeks

Cheers mick

[newbreed]

I got carried away' date=' new plant list;

Crypt wendtii green

Crypt unsure of name has small narrow leaves

Eichhornia diversifolia

Nesuea triflora

Ludwigia arcuata

Myriophyllum tuberculatum

Ludwigia brevipes

Limnophila aromatica

Didiplisdiandra

Myriophyllum mattogrosense

Rotala h'ra

Persicaria Sao Paulo

Hydrocotyle tripartita

Us fisidens

Sydney fisidens

Subbwesertang

Riccia

Dwarf Japanese hairgrass

Hm

And finally and hopefully AUSSIEMO.

Now running diy c02 through a Fluval diffuser

Hopefully it will be overgrown in 2-4 weeks

Cheers mick[/quote']

Now that's a shopping list!!! It's gunna look amazing!!

[Squiggle]

Nice list dude, wouldn't mind a few of them myself. :encouragement:

[smicko]

Thanks, i got them all, enough to do the cube and some extras in my daughters 3ft plus an extra that I can't remember the name of in a bucket of cuttings for $10, i don't know what's what but it looks awesome if i do say so myself lol.

Once they take root and overgrow the tank I will share the bounty on SKF.

In a couple of days, once they've started standing up again I will put up a new pic.

Cheers mick

[smicko]

Updated pic of the cube planted

Cheers mick

[ineke]

Looking good Mick, it will look great when the plants fill out!

[Squiggle]

Definitely looks awesome, should look like a forest in no time! :beer:

[smicko]

Hi all got an updated pic today.

I did put an ehiem 2215 on for a little while but went back to the powerhead as it was overkill lol.

Everything is growing awesome, I've had to trim it twice already.

Cheers mick

[newbreed]

It's amazing the difference a month makes! It's grown in really well! Great work.

[Squiggle]

Definitely looks awesome, has grown heaps! :encouragement:

[smicko]

Thanks guys, I will try to get some individual pics of the plants tomorrow.

About time I updated.

Cheers mick

[petfish]

good job Mick, growing in very well

[OzShrimp]

Is it a plant only tank mick or you got some shrimp hiding in there somewhere?

How did you find it getting your co2 and all that setup? I have contemplated co2 but no where to get it refilled lol

[smicko]

Thanks peeps, it has some yellow cherries, riffles and a couple of goodeied.

I was running a 2 litre bottle with diy c02 through a Fluval diffuser which is pretty much the same as the ista version, but I went back to using the Fluval 20g cans as it's easier to control the flow.

I have a 3x18x18 that I'm thinking of doing a dirt base in and real c02 but that's a little way of yet.

Cheers mick