My Planted Tank

Joby

Joby

Retired Staff
Aug 9, 2009
2,068
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36
58
West Midlands
Wow that looks amazing :clap: I've forgotten what its like to have real plants in an aquarium.

Congrats on the discus spawning :thumbup:
 
M

mr_jacks

Member
Jul 1, 2010
6
0
1
brisbane
thats a sweet tank im about to give up on my plants ive tried neally everything and they just wont grow and did you say you put salt in your tank i thought it was bad for plecos
 
phoenix44

phoenix44

Member
Jan 15, 2010
130
0
16
Palmerston North, New Zealand
mr_jacks said:
thats a sweet tank im about to give up on my plants ive tried neally everything and they just wont grow and did you say you put salt in your tank i thought it was bad for plecos
Click to expand...
Definitely don't give up on plants!
You need 3 things for a planted tank.

1. Good substrate - can use solid fertlizers like JBL balls if you are growing crypts and swords

2. Good Light - You need the right spectrum. I use 18000K powerglos and plantpros. You can also use 6500K daylight tubes or 10000K tubes but if you like red plants I'd go for the powerglos.

3. CO2 in proportion to the light. Too much light, not enough CO2 leads to algae.

__
Aside from that choose the plants wisely. Not sure how things are there, but here a lot of plants sold are either not real aquatic plants like black and green mondo; almost all are grown emersed - out of the water and need good light to convert to growing submersed -under the water.

Red plants need more light than green plants.
Carpeting plants need more lights than most other plants.

T8 tubes are fine for relatively shallow tanks and low light plants like Java ferns and anubias; and some crypts.

T5s are good as they are more efficient and produce more light per watt.
I use T5HOs (High Output) and those produce much more light per watt as they are more efficient.

Then you also get T5VHO - very HO but wont need them unless you are doing up a marine tank and have anemones.

MH; Metal Halide are probably the best but also the most expensive to buy and run. They also generate a lot of heat and you'll need to deal with the heat. especially in OZ where you don't have winters :p

HTH :eek:hmy:
 
phoenix44

phoenix44

Member
Jan 15, 2010
130
0
16
Palmerston North, New Zealand
I have recently been changing the lay out of the tank very slowly.
The plants have been getting some very special food! :lol:

Here are the results so far.








windelov

And I have been giving my tank a special fert treatment since I got the macrandra. Tank gets 15mL of comprehensive, 20mL of seachem trace, 30mL of excel + 2 DIY CO2 units with new diffusers (soon to be pressurised) :D The macrandra is the gem of my tank now and is growing 3-4cm per day!






 
phoenix44

phoenix44

Member
Jan 15, 2010
130
0
16
Palmerston North, New Zealand
Thought I should update this forum with new pics for those of you that have not seen the tank recently.
This is the first time (I think) I have photographed my blue snakeskin discus. I think they are 4 months old now.

Playing with ISO setting (ISO 100)


Hungry, happy discus!








Headstander-


Cardinals!


FTS-
 
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