My Planted Vision 180

Hi Guys,
After long, long time the forum is back and I have more good news.
I have new tank to show . I have been staring at it for at least two months or so trying to make a 'master plan' to develop a stunning planted tank with some theme in it. Unfortunately as soon as I got substrate in the tank I could not wait any longer and started planting without much consideration. In effect it is a bit red, compared to my old 'GREEN' record 96. But all in all it does not look that bad (my opinion only) so have a look for yourselves and let me know what you think

15/11/2010 3 weeks after completing the cycling:


and tonight 17/01/2011, please note that I have taken a picture after lights switch of so all plants are 'closed' and there was some grooming done just 3 days ago so some of the plants look a bit tatty.

Looks great ro0bi.

In my mind its how a fresh water tank should look, replicating the fishes real life surrounding's!

Impressive looking tank, I note all your plants look healthy and clean, do you do anything to promote that appearence?

I ask as any large leafed plants I add to my tank, after a few weeks, develop a deep green algae around the edges.

I have a couple of green Cabomba and swordplants, and a lot of vallisneria. Any advice would be appreciated.

Hi Jon, thanks for the comment and sorry for late reply. The algae issue is never ending problem in all planted tanks. The most difficult part is to balance the lights with water chemistry. The main problem here on IOM, at least in Douglas, is the high level of phosphates in the mains water.

If your issue is Green Spot Algae (GSA) then reducing the lighting period by half to one hour should help, most likely if the problem occurs only after few weeks. (I assume that you do regular water changes of at least 10% on weekly basis). However if what you described as 'deep green algae around the edges' is a Black Brush Algae (BBA) then in a high light tank it is an indication of low or fluctuating CO2 levels or not enough water circulation around the plants. In a low light tank it is often due to changing CO2 levels.

There is many causes and the solutions to the problem but it has to be identified beforehand.

As for my tank to fight (GSA) I have a crew of algae fighters there, the main being red cherry shrimps, two of zebra snails all led by best of all Otocinclus affinis (had 2 but from Thursday there is 4 of them ).

I hope this helps but please note that without knowing what is in your tank (fish, plants, lights, filter temp. etc) I am only guessing here.

What struck me in your post is that mentioned cabomba is an extremely fast growing plant and I have never managed to get any algae on it due to the growth rate. My conclusion will be that your light level may be quite low (power wise) and as such the algae take advantage over the plants when plants are starving for light leaving all the nutritions available for algae.

Please give me some more details of your setup and I do my best to help.

Please see the latest addition to the tank, as of today

Anyone have some experience with Common Ram's - are those two females? or is it just me getting totally confused on the subject?

lovely looking tank !
The phosphate in our water is a pain. I use seachem seagel , but with a planted tank like yours, carbon probably isn't a good idea. For basic tanks though, its an excellent phosphate remover/carbon mix.

those rams are beautiful, one of my favourite fish. I have never been able to sex mine, its supposed to be something to do the the rays on the top fin, but I can never see any difference . there are a few threads on google about it, with pictures that may help you.

Hi Maxi,

Thank you for good comment.

As for phosphates I use seachem phosguard with good results however it does not help on planted tanks as quite often deficits are created resulting in plants starvation and increasing levels of nitrates and nitrites.

Coming back to my Ram's I have spend good two months reading about the care, sexing etc. however real life is a notch different from all samples I have studied. I hope they are the couple and they will not fight in future.

I've had rams in several tanks in the past, and whilst they have a bit of pushing and shoving like naughty kids, there has never been any real aggression. Maybe if they were to breed if would be different with more than two , but I would think they'll be fine. They are funny, they rush at each other, excellent fish to watch. they love planted tanks, so yours should be more than happy !!

I used to feed mine live food a couple of times a week, its good that its available here now. After they'd had that, the colours in them really used to pop, not just the rams, it seems to be good for all the fish I've had. I've only got cool water minnows now, but have just fed them live daphnia, it was a feeding frenzy for a few minutes.

Hi guys,
I have done some pruning today (cuttings are ready and waiting for you Juliamar )
I am considering the change of the lights (4x35W) to a DIY LED setup, if anyone has 90cm or longer, broken or not, pendant light for sale just give me shout as I am looking for a base for new lights project.

Hi ro0bi, tank is coming along nicely!
decided to plant my rekord 120 about 2 weeks ago









Im using one Interpet daylight plus tube for 10 hrs a day on a timer and im wondering whether to add LED lighting as well? the plants have had a bit of growth already but the hygrophilia seems to be a bit spindly with wider leaves than normal???

also do you add any plant food to your setup? was also wondering what the carpet plant is in the forground and where to get some from??

thanks for your help,
Rob

Hi rammix,

Nice looking tank, from your pictures I can see that there is no mulm in the gravel, not much for the plants to feed on then. An option for your setup will be some of the root tabs/sticks with slow release formula so you can avoid algae issue. You can also use some of the liquid fertilizers like TetraPlant or similar but I will strongly suggest to use not more than 10th of the suggested dose for first 2-4 weeks to strengthen your plants a bit, also adding a CO2 will benefit the growth rate.

As for foreground plants the one on the middle is Glossostigma elatinoides, please note that this plant has quite high light requirements (3-5 WPG fluorescent), then on the right is the Dwarf Hairgrass (Elocharis acicularis) and on the left, still looking like a black pad is the Lilaeopsis brasiliensis however due to low light there it is hardly growing at all.
Suggested choice for your tank may be Hemianthus (Micranthemum) micranthemoides it is easy and fast growing plant. I can spare you some cuttings just give me shout if you want some.

some cuttings would be brilliant!

Had a look at my tank last night after its weekly water change and noticed theres no reflector in the hood!
didnt notice this when I bought the tank 2 years ago for £20 inc stand! bargain!

have ordered one now and should be here in a weeks time along with some Esha Pro-Phyll Plant Food which was on offer

also the hygrophilia is now near touching the spray bar already so I think its its time to cut it back to half the height and replant to make it more bushy??

unsure what to do about the Co2, I believe seachem make a product that you can add to the water in weekly doses??

If you want to stay on the cheep with CO2 you can do DIY yeast setup all yo need is some glue/silicone, 2ltr plastic bottle, one check valve and some air tube. Easy to do and cost close to nothing. There is plenty of samples on youtube just type in 'DIY CO2.

As for lighting I had my record 96 running on 110W t5's (2 x 55W compact bulbs - DIY setup) if you want to grow plants you have to think of some improvement on this matter as standard bulb will not be sufficient. Your tank has about 1,2W per gallon which is not sufficient for demanding plants for most of the aquqtic plants it will only keep them alive so you are very limited on the variety of plants. All mosses, Java fern and maybe amazon sword should do well, majority of other available plants will struggle to survive more than few months on the lighting you have.

cheers, will def try a diy co2

whats your view on the LED lights that are on ebay and other sites? theres not a lot of room in the hood, dont think i can get another tube in there or maybe increase the light time to 12 hrs aday?

You can easily add 2 tubes of t5's, have a look on the link below:
http://www.netpetshop.co.uk/p-22145-hagen-glo-t5-ho-twin-light-electronic-light-starter-24w.aspx

One of those can be purchased on ebay (£15 to £30). As for the LED lights I am tempted but there is the cost issue. Some decent lights for my tank will cost about £350, an DIY setup will still cost £100 to £150 to buy the parts alone.

thats not bad for a twin unit! will be a good few months till I can get something like that

was thinking something like this when you mentioned LED?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/120cm-120-LED-strip-light-white-12v-power-Aquarium-Car-/150526527387?pt=UK_Pet_Supplies_Fish&hash=item230c14879b#ht_3709wt_1002

Found all the bits I need to make a CO2 reactor



Just need to get the ingredients now, have also put the timer to 12 hours light a day now and will be trimming some of the plants back and re-planting tonight

Those LED's have no power in them if you looking for something decent you should look for at least SMD 5050 LED's. Those LEDs are around 0.24W and 10 Lumen each where those you found will be about 2 Lumen each.

As for increasing the light period to 10h you should do it slowly by let say 0.5h a day. The reason is that you plants have got use to 8h and they will shoot themselves after 8hrs, as a result you will get algae very quickly.

CO2, sugar and yeast that is all you need, very important not to use to much yeast so it does not foam to much. Also would suggest you to check every 5 min for the first 3-4hrs as I had to do emergency water change once ,

cheers for the info about the lighting and the led's , my mate is sh#t hot with electronics and maybe able to source them for me to make a custom light?

will make the CO2 reactor during the week so I can keep an eye on it, will be using a not return valve and a gang valve set to regulate it, have also seen plans to make a bubble counter out of a syringe, have a few of these knocking around from the kids medicines

when you say 'shoot' do you mean spindly?

sorry for the 'shoot' what I meant was that plants are switching chemosynthesis off when lights are out, I have also noticed in my tank that about 10-15min before light goes off most of the plants stop bubbling and close the top leafs (protection for night?)

sure sounds like it havent got any plants that close their leaves, gonna stick with the easier varieties for a while, been having a look at various crypts on ebay, various types and heights, only downfall is they can be slow growing but are good for low light levels

ro0bi wrote:Those LED's have no power in them if you looking for something decent you should look for at least SMD 5050 LED's. Those LEDs are around 0.24W and 10 Lumen each where those you found will be about 2 Lumen each.

As for increasing the light period to 10h you should do it slowly by let say 0.5h a day. The reason is that you plants have got use to 8h and they will shoot themselves after 8hrs, as a result you will get algae very quickly.

CO2, sugar and yeast that is all you need, very important not to use to much yeast so it does not foam to much. Also would suggest you to check every 5 min for the first 3-4hrs as I had to do emergency water change once ,

Just found these on ebay what do you think?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/2x-30cm-15-leds-5050-SMD-12V-LED-Strip-waterproof-WHITE-/190480341334?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item2c59835956#ht_3985wt_905

HI, it will be about 7W the price it is tempting but I am sure there are cheaper options for 30Leds.

found this one, but his feedback looks a bit dodgy

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/3FT-1M-12V-Flexible-RGB-60-LED-Strip-Light-5050-SMD-/110627914635?pt=UK_HomeGarden_Lighting_Lamps_Lighting_SM&hash=item19c1f0038b#ht_2893wt_1139

It is a RGB Led's you will need designated driver which is £10-15. What you get there is 3 colors for each led (red,green,blue) it is good idea to create mood light tho

18.02.2011 Plants are slowly coming