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Rob's Planted Tank


missy

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This is Rob(Out Of Africa)'s planted tank. Beautiful tank Rob, a job well done :thumb Sorry it took so long putting up the pics, got a bit distracted with things :B

IPB Image

IPB Image

Rob you're gonna have to fill us in on the tank stats :)

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kinda make you wanna get a planted tank, doesnt it!

:clap love ya work mate :clap

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Hi everyone,

Thanks Missy, great job with the pics.

OK, now the tank is a 4x2x2. Filtration is an Eheim 2217 and an Aqua Nova 1200. I have put the spray bars facing the glass at a slight elevation ( holes in the spraybar face up a lilttle ) to minimise the plants being blasted around too much. I must mention that I use Purigen to cut out tannins due to the large piece of driftwood and the water is crystal clear!

Lighting is 4x36 watt daylight globes , I bought everything from Turks Electrical wholesalers , best globes I have found are Sylvania as they are a very bright white daylight ( and only $4.00 each :thumb ). I keep the lights on 9 hrs a day and one double switches on one hr after the first and at night one set turns off first followed by the other an hr later to minimise shock to the plants ...easy to do with 2 cheap timers.

I have used 120kgs of white river sand which cost me $24 and it's great for the root systems and makes it easy to see debis to suck out. In hindsight I would have first put a layer of aqua soil under the sand but I used JBL balls instead and stuck them in all over the place ( tigerlotus loves them and puts out 3 new leaves a week ). I cut them into halves with a hacksaw blade as they are tough clay and they last up to 12 months . I also have been using the basic Flourish at 1 capfull twice a week. For CO2 I use the DIY brewers yeast method. I have found that it works best with a Lees wooden diffuser ( like an airstone ) stuck down to the bottom side of the tank near the sand and as the fine co2 stream snakes up it gets swished into the tank by the spraybar current. I have tried many ways to get good results with DIY co2 and this I believe is the best! If anyone wants my co2 recipe pls let me know as I have already gone on a little too long here...I think :dntknw:

Plants are: in rear behind driftwood I have from left to right bacopa ( was pruned before shot ), milfoil , pogo stemon and water sprite. Then in the middle I have blue strictas , ludwigia and in the foreground I have water rose at the sides a red tiger lotus and 4 baby tiger lotus's. I plan for the front of the tank to have a row of lotus the same size as the larger one ...am waiting patiently!

I do a 15% water change every 4-5 days . I find that as the tank ages the less needs to be done. It is now 10 wks old. In the first 6 weeks I was doing 2 x 25% water changes a wk without fail! to beat the algae. I don't have much algae at all partly due to my setup and the 3 chinese golden suckers I have , they are the best algae eater I have found and unlike SAE they don't go for fish food at all!!! but they are best bought tiny and introduced first so they get an appetite for algae. Temp is 26.

Fish : 20 neons , 3 CAE aka golden suckers , 2 black mollies , 2 rosy barbs and I want about 2 more little schools of fish to complete the look I am after.

Thanks for your positive feedback everyone :thumbup:

Rob

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Thanks again everyone for the kind words. It's amazing how the tank has developed in the past 3-4 wks. The watersprite hit the top of the tank just about and a sml piece of it came off and floated around the tank , now that piece is huge and I tied it with it's free floating roots to the top of the driftwood and it looks like a plant anenomae with it's long roots hairs floating all over the place , looks quite interesting. I am doing a makeover this wk and re organising plants to create a better visual effect between the fore and back ground.

Take care all :raisehand:

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