stagfest Posted January 29, 2007 Share Posted January 29, 2007 I posted this on another forum so I thought it might help others on here... and yes I still keep a tank full of cichlids aswell! Enjoy... Hi All, Let me introduce myself, I'm Merv from Australia. I've been lurking on this forum for months now gathering information and passing time at work! :red_mouth . Let me just begin by saying thank you to all the people on here because without you guys, I would have spoken to some pimply school boy working part time at the fish store telling me that plants would go nicely with my 4ft tank full of African cichlids...:icon_surp Anywho on with the show. I filled this tank up with water and cycled it for about 3 weeks before putting plats inside it. This picture was taken just before I planted... Dimensions: 24inch x 15 x 18 jeez i hope thats right...:icon_smil Lighting: 24 x 3 T5 HO lights bought from Ebay for under $100! Not bad at all... i replaced the bulbs with 10 000k lights and boy the colours look amazing. Much crispier than before. Equipment: Eheim 2215, Jager 200w heater, and a dodgy old thermometer. Substate: I went down to the local hardware store ( Bunnings ) for all you Aussies, and grabbed a 25kg bag of this stuff called "Napean RIver sand". It courser than normal play sand and has small rocks in it. I then laced it with some trace element mix also from Bunnings. It took over an hour to wash out 25kg worth of sand and I still had bits of debri floating inside. :icon_evil Others: I also got an electronic timer and a DIY Co2 for the meantime... The DIY Co2 was great fun to make! I recommend it to anyone! So easy and simple! Oh just to let everyone know, method of diffusion is straight into the INLET of the eheim. No problems at all, and I havn't seen or heard it burp any type of gas back into the tank... So now lets pretend its Jan 8th! All the Aquarium store here in Sydney sux balls when it comes to aquatic plants! I visited at least 8 of them and they just didn't have the variety I was looking for. I finally located on the internet a place in Perth, (Western Australia), that stocks an amazing variety of plants and they did mail order. I ordered the plants and the following day, to my surprise it arrived at work! :icon_surp Unbelievable! They also gave me free postage because of the big order... Took the rest of the day off :icon_smil , and got home and broke open the package... Here they are on my floor...Oh and here's the list of plants... EUSTERALIS STELLATUS LYSIMACHIA NUMMULARIA ROTALA WALLACHI LUDWIGA NATANS LUDWIGA REPENS MICRATHEMUM UMBROSUM HEMIANTHUS MICRANTHEMOIDES A few plants were missing but I was happy with the order. I started planting, not knowing what the hell I was doing and just started randomly placing stuff inside. Two hours later, with a sore back the tank was finally planted. :icon_smil This is the view from my bed! Aint it georgous!:tongue: And a different view... Now a week has passed, lets pretend its the 15th Jan! During this time I have done nothing! :icon_surp . I don't have any tests kits, so I can't give you guys out the readings. What I can tell you is that the CO2 must have a great effect on the plants!!!! :icon_smil The outlet of the eheim is directed onto the back wall, it shoots across and onto the right side of the tank. The plants on that side are growing like mad and the plants on the left look like they are falling behind. I think its to do with the CO2 distribution around the tank, but it alos could be that those plants are just fast growers. Only one way to find out...:icon_smil I took the outlet pipe out and drilled a few extra holes so that some of the water goes to the left and middle. We'll see what happens now... This is only after 1 week!!! :flick: Lalalala... Ludwigia Repens going skitz! And what do we have here....:flick: Yeh!!! Another week later and it was now time to add some fish! :icon_smil . I did alot of research on this and grabbed myself 2 of these wonderful fish...:icon_surp Otocinclus....:icon_surp Beautiful fish and they seem so peaceful. They have done a great job on the glass so far. I've heard of people having trouble keeping them alive but so far they seem to be doing well... Fingers crossed!:icon_smil A few days later and I bought these guys... Well you can't actually see them but there are 2 flying foxes in there, and 10 neon tetras. I had a bit of a problem with hair algae that the Otos weren't eating so hopefully the flying foxes will take care of them for me. I didn't realise this but the neons are fairly aggressive for such a small peaceful looking fish. I constantly see one of them chase the others around the tank, I really don't know if this is normal or not? :icon_roll I've also taken out the pearl grass on either side of the tank to proide more space. When things start to grow a bit more I'll probably add some glosso in the foreground... But for now I'm fairly happy with what I have...:biggrin: Oh and another update is that i've turned the heater vertical, its HUGE, and added some Limnophila aromatica on the background. I hope it grows to cover the whole background... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cuong Posted January 29, 2007 Share Posted January 29, 2007 Great work Merv! When is it due for it's first trim? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
novafishy Posted January 29, 2007 Share Posted January 29, 2007 its looking really good merv! impressed by the amount of growth in just a week. Do your SAE's nibble your leaves? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stagfest Posted January 30, 2007 Author Share Posted January 30, 2007 Thanks, guys. First trim won't be for a while I don't think. The growth is starting to slow down, I need to start adding ferts! They are not true sae's but are in the same family, I havn't seen them nibbling at the leaves yet, but will keep an eye out. If they do, I realy don't know how i'm going to take the buggers out! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stagfest Posted January 30, 2007 Author Share Posted January 30, 2007 Update, I won this sodastream thingymibobs on ebay for next to nothing and removed the co2 canister from the back of it heres what it looks like... It looks fairly old but can hold 250g of co2 inside the thing. I called up K-mart and asked them if i could refill it there. They told me to bring it in and they will exchange it for a new bottle full of co2. A trip to the shops and $12 later and this is what they gave me! :proud: hahahaha.... I couldn't believe it I got a whole new bottle that can hold 330g no questions asked.... This thing brand new costs $45... mmmm now to look on ebay for some more old sodastream thingymibobs! :icon_mrgr I also received this in the mail, A Harris Co2 regulator that once again I won on ebay!:red_mouth . I found a bloke that sells the adaptors, so that I can connect the sodastream bottle onto this baby. I'll let you know how it pans out... Yehaaaa... i'm almost pressurized! :icon_bigg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JLL Posted February 2, 2007 Share Posted February 2, 2007 Merv, Nice idea with the CO2, keen to hear how it works out. What did you pay for the bottle and regulator? I had a quick look at lights after I read your post and decided to buy a 4X39w t5 ho light for $90 and it is daylight inside now, hope the plants like it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nornicle Posted February 2, 2007 Share Posted February 2, 2007 let me know about the adapter too i've been looking for one Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stagfest Posted February 7, 2007 Author Share Posted February 7, 2007 Merv, Nice idea with the CO2, keen to hear how it works out. What did you pay for the bottle and regulator? I had a quick look at lights after I read your post and decided to buy a 4X39w t5 ho light for $90 and it is daylight inside now, hope the plants like it. Well I got the old bottle from ebay that came with the soda stream machine. Took the old one to kmart, handed over $12 and got the new one! I'm still waiting for the adaptor.... taking a while to get to me! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Eatoff Posted February 7, 2007 Share Posted February 7, 2007 Awesome job you've done on the planted tank! are you thinking of adding any planted driftwoods/rocks to your tank? Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stagfest Posted February 13, 2007 Author Share Posted February 13, 2007 Awesome job you've done on the planted tank! are you thinking of adding any planted driftwoods/rocks to your tank? Cheers Not at this stage. I have no room! This tank is just to study how plants grow, i'll rearrange everything once it's pretty established... Update! I've finally received the adaptor for the sodastream bottle and here is what it looks like! So far so good. I tested it for leaks and no problems whatsoever. The regulator was a bit tricky to set up but I managed to get the thing down to 2bps... = ) Very very happy! I hooked it up to a bubble counter I made out of a syringe and a check valve and off we go. Now I just have to see how long this bottle will last me... Its sitting in an old money box ATM but its good enough to hold the thing upright! And here's the simple bubble counter I made.... I also received some seachem fertilizer! My plants look like they are suffering so I quickly dosed them as soon as I got the supply. I also went down to Big W and picked up some root tabs, wacked a few of them in the soil and see what happens I guess... This is just rediculous! The plants get more vitamins than I do! hahhah I also found plans on how to make an Automatic Fertilizer. It's so simple and works a treat. All you need is a container, a pump, syringe, and some airline! You just have to find out how much water your pump pumps in 1 minute and hook it up to an electronic timer. I measured enough macros in the container to last me 3 weeks! Here's what the tank looks like now.... The stem plants on the right are not doing so well atm. The stems are rotting adn turning brown. I think its lack of light so I ordered another one of those light fictures which hopefully will solve the problem... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nornicle Posted February 14, 2007 Share Posted February 14, 2007 hey mate can you let me know where you got the adapter from i really want one for myself! I have the bottle and the regulator but no adapter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kimbo Posted September 18, 2007 Share Posted September 18, 2007 Hi, hows your tank going at the moment? I was wondering if you could let me know the website you got the plants from? Im also keen to see the plans for the automatic fertilizer do you have a link to where you found it? Cheers Kim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robdog013 Posted September 18, 2007 Share Posted September 18, 2007 Thats a fantastic set-up merv, got any pics of it now? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattyr Posted September 18, 2007 Share Posted September 18, 2007 looks great nice work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattnshez Posted September 18, 2007 Share Posted September 18, 2007 cant wait to see some updates on this tank Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fongyfong Posted January 12, 2008 Share Posted January 12, 2008 Nice tanks!!! show us ur cichlid tank Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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