Hi All My Name is Ravesh. Its a pleasure being part of this community. I recently taken a liking towards planted aquariums, after having a normal aquarium. Just to give you a guys on my planted tank journey... Last year in May when I had my first aquarium ever.... Looking at ideas I discovered planted tanks. I got myself some plants and aquasoil from shihr's shop. I had no livestock in this tank as I moved all of them to another tank. I didnt want to kill them if I made a mistake. I also bought the setup an ista 1kg CO2 kit. Filtering was an Aquaclear 50 HOB. I had just 1x T8 bulb :O (still learning). I was using seachem line of ferts dosing as per seachems guide. Sadly most of my plants melted, doing research (never known about APSA back then)then I realized I needed way more light.... I didnt want a fixture since the tank is in the living room so i decided to fit them inside the hood. I went and got 2x T5 Hagen GLO Ballasts and 4X 24w Hagen Life Glo T5 globes with cooling fans. I Couldn't go for the 39w because it was too long for the hood. The shorter 24w had to do...... At this time I had upgraded to a 7kg Extinguisher for CO2. In December last year I was battling with algae (cyno,green,diatoms) I had no Idea what to do....googling helped a bit but I was still batting, wanting to tear this tank apart. I had lights in check....doing regular WC's and had the ferts, I even upgraded to an Aquaclear 70 (couldnt upgrade to a canister filter due to space...see pics of setup) reading up on flowrate....now what. even tried a chineese Algae eater lol.... In June I decided to get more plants from shihr as well as ask him for advice. He had mentioned that livestock may improve growth. I also decided to try scape complete while on the order since I saw it was way cheaper than all seachems line put together and I thought I would give it a try..... So I added more plants and some livestock.... Since the addition of plants, livestock and to scape ferts . I did see a good improvement. I still dose seachem( because I bought a year supply and I need to finish them) . Slowly Things got better Heres my tank specs: 3ft tank aquasoil substrate 7 KG CO2 extinguisher with ball valve and 2 stage solenoid ( hidden behind the curtain ) ceramic CO2 diffuser aquaclear 70 HOB with intake prefilter sponge ( my ottos were getting stuck ti the intake strainer ) 100w hagen heater 2x Hagen Glo Ballasts 4x 24w Hagen Life Glo T5s: 2x on 4 hours a day during the morning and 4 hours later at night( siesta ) other 2 on for the 3rd hour to 4th (burst) 3 timers: 2 for lights and one for CO2 solenoid 1x bubble stone on to airate O2 for plants respiration whenever CO2 turns off.. 2x cooling fans on when lights are on... Plants Hemianthus micranthemoides Lysimachia nummularia 'Aurea Ludwigia glandulosa Hygrophila difformis Alternanthera reineckii Hygrophila coryombrosa 'angustifolia' As for fish I cannot remember lol.... just some ottos... raboras and tetras :O
Heres my timers Even Plumbed a tap with hose to help with water changes simply by pulling in the hose into the tank from through the window outside and opening the tap.... even got a jojo tank to drain the water into, from the tank with a siphon with an extended hose going through the window for watering plants.
welcome, glad you came right towards the end. keep up the good work. it will only get better from here.
You need some scape. your plants planted like soldiers in a row. add some rocks wood. add some height too please see this as constructive criticism. ps your carpet is growing very nicely
Yes I agree with you. I want to add it soon. I'm just a beginner so I didn't want to get into extra cost if I'm not successful in my planted tank project. Also I'm loving the carpet and want most of it visible. I initally wanted my stem plants to provide a real background and not the stick on printed ones. Now that they are growing nicely, I can go ahead and make it look more natural. Thanks for your input Paul. Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk
Don't you get it @Paul, they are strategically positioned like this to fight off the green algae armies should they appear on the horizon !
