4ft planted tank journal

27th Sep 2011
The new tank is in the house and am gathering things to get it started.

Tank: 4' x 20"x 18"
Filter: Pro-Aqua 2000/LPH Canister (ordered today)
Light: 3x T5HO 54W (ordered today)
Substrate: Propagating sand/JBL AquaBasis Plus mix, Marble chips, Blood & Bone, topped with Course sand.
Hardscape: Goldvine (to be ordered in small lots cause its pricey *L*) & Rocks (gotta do a landscape crawl to find some i like)
Plants: to be honest, no idea at this stage
CO2: If i do it will be DIY
Fertz: Yep
Livestock: Redtail black shark & couple of BN (definates) and will be looking at large schools of smaller fish types.

This will not be a speedy build, budget doesnt permit it *LOL* It will come together eventually, and i will update as it happens

Tank stand is still raw and will require varnishing before anything can happen


Another tank will be going underneath, being cleaned up. Though am debating upsizing a bit

Substrate goodies (need at least another bag of marble chips i think)

30th Sep 2011

Canister and Light arrived today. Will be varnishing the stand today to waterproof it.

Wooohoooo getting closer *L*

1st Oct 2011

Tanks are back on the stand, light is in place. Back glass lids will need to go back and be cut a bit shorter and i need a larger piece taken out the corner for the canister inlet and outlet tubes (canister is going at the end not under tha tank)

The background is on, now light is on the tank and i can see better, a few spots need a bit more work. Will also be getting 2 more bits of backing to cover the sides of the tank, this will cover the canister pipework.

2nd Oct 2011

Added Blood & Bone and Marble chips


Propagating sand/JBL AquaBasis Plus mix


Course sand added to top off


Showing the Sand/JBL layer under the topping sand

2nd Oct 2011

Hardscape. Chances are will get some other things added when i find what i like

3rd Oct 2011

Planted, not finished though, gotta get my hands on some different plants now

Filling, and it WAS crystal clear, but my other half was helping and well now its not *LOL*


Filled

17th Oct 2011

Updated pic Some more plants added (thanx to the generous fellow fishkeeper!)

12th Dec 2011

Updated pic



Absolutely loving the DIY substrate

Gave up on rummynose & neons, i buy em within a day they die, out of 20rummys and 15 neons i have 1 of each left. Tank stats have been checked and checked, i've drip acclimaatised the fish tried everything, they just refuse to stay alive!!

So as yet still not fully stocked

1 RTBS
1 Sunburst platy
2 Bronze cories
1 rummynose & 1 tetra

I've been on the lookout for some young platinum angels, no luck there. So now looking at some gold gouramis *shrugs*
Not fully decided at this stage

13th Dec 2011

Tank stats
Geez was thinking discus would look good in here, but the PH is VERY high (town supply). Gonna try slowly changing over rainwater.

PH 8.2
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 40ppm

Tank is due for a WC tomorrow

I decided to switch from town supply, to rainwater (lower PH)

Slowly changing it over.

4th Jan 2012

Updated pic

The huge sword and little ones on the left are having some TLC moments in here, they are destined for another tank (not setup yet though)

Anyway here tis


Stocked with

1 RTBS
1 neon
1 rummynose
2 bronze cories
1 platy
2 male kribensis
5 pearl gouramis
1 blue gourami
4 rosy Barbs
2 glowlight Tetras
5 zebra Danios
4 harlequin Rasboras

The schoolers will get rounded out to comfy school sizes, other than that, though maybe some otos, the tank is done

Looking absolutely beautiful as always

Pearl Gourami's= <3

I'm upset.

I did a waterchange yesterday (thurs), this is not my normal day, but i didnt have to work because of Australia Day holiday, so thought i'd get in and do some tanks today and the rest on Sunday (my normal day)

Did a 50% change, topped up, used declorinator because its not my normal day and wanted to be sure the fish would be ok. Dosed the tank with the recommended amounts of Excel and Flourish.

A bit later notice my gorgeous Bomber was acting a bit off, very subdued, resting on the bottom at the front of the tank, now normally he is zipping around like a nutcase. Anyway i watched the whole tank for an hour or so, no other fish acting strangely. Decided i would catch him and move him to another tank. He was having none of it, and i tried for hours. He was getting more and more off as the time past, but again absolutely no change with any other fish. Decided to test the tank just to see if anything stat wise was off. Strip test came up with everything normal but nitrAtes, which were at 40ppm (wth?? i just did a waterchange!!) I thought i'd test with the liquid test just to be sure, same 40ppm. HUH????
Decided to do another partial waterchange, using rainwater, just incase something was wrong with the town supply.
Tested again NitrAtes down to 20ppm, acceptable.....
RTBS had disappeared into the plants after all this, so with all the other fish still acting normally i thought he'd be ok.
Home from work just now and he's passed I'm stumped as to what happened to him!!
I will be staying away from the town supply for a bit, we have had a lot of rain so they may have treated it more than normal, i dunno.
But i am devastated, i've had this guy over 3yrs and he was adult size and one of my favorites, now he's gone and not understanding why is even more painful!

Updated pic

Plants were getting very overgrown, so i pulled all plants out, along with hardscape. Some fish were caught and removed. Then rescaped and replanted the tank

As it is now, cloudy and all *L*

Still beautiful

I wish I had your talent

Looks amazings!
I wish my plants would become over grown to that extent, lol. They grow at a snails pace.

I'm gonna be setting a new tank up soon hopefully, and I really want it to be heavily planted, and I remembered about this thread. So I've come to bother you with questions ^^

Did you have to be careful about any of the substrate you used? Especially the Propagating sand, marble chips and blood and bone? Any ingredients that I would need to look out for if I was to use a similar method for my tank (I hope you don't mind?)? Ohh, and do you use cO2 aswell?

Clearer pic


Thanks guys

The only thing with the substrate i have used is do not overdose the blood and bone, i just sprinkled a very light covering on the bottom of the tank.
The marble chips generate some CO2
Propagating sand is filthy stuff so you need to make sure it is under a good capping layer.

I do not mind at all if you want to give it a go, thats why its on here No i do not add CO2 to this tank.

Totally beautiful . I have just re-read your post about Bomber, there has been an article in practical fish keeping this month where a lot of fish keepers lost all their fish after a wc. I have had it here a couple of times over the last month where I have done my normal wc and had to do an emergency extra a couple of days later, thankfully I havnt lost any fish.

Thanx Star

Yeah i dunno what happened to him, very strange. Thankfully have not experienced anything like it since!

That is good news, such a same RTBS are absolutely stunning, I have 2 (different tanks) Abby my oldest is about 5 now and she is the biggest RTBS I have ever seen.