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Planted fish tank

Momotaro is AWESOME, and I *think* I've both bought and sold to him. LauraLee was really sweet (and I sold her stuff) but was really bad to regure info. As soon as I called her out on a few things, peeps who never had a green cell in their tank that wasn't suspended, hair or film jumped on me. I'm admittedly no expert, but my tanks always look great and those telling me I "don't know what I'm talking about" were easy to search past threads and expose. Nothing against her, she emailed me several times asking me to come back, and I have quoted lights, etc. for her since. But the "problem" we think we have with rep here is NOTHING compared to that joint. Just my 2 cents.
 
Ok, I don't know how to write between pictures so I'll write what I'm trying to show in each one here. It's not easy cause the critters move or are tiny, and the plants I'm trying to show tend to blend together in a mass of green sometimes. I REALLY wish I had cleaned the hard water stains off the back of the tank before I taped on the black plastic lol. But it is what it is.

1. Mama shrimp! She's the only one who seems to have kept her eggs. They all seemed to be showing saddles, and most of them aren't now, so they must have mostly dumped the eggs. I actually have one who's carrying around ONE egg. Pretty funny.
2, 3, & 4 are the snails I've seen so far. I'm guessing pond snail, rams horn, and Malaysian Trumpet(?) The possible MTS is so tiny, but I see them every now and then, and always on the substrate.
5. Will be guppy and a shrimp cruising along. Kind of blurry.

More coming...
 
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Ok, and now some plants.
1. Tiger lotus is coming in and looks great! The color is wrong here, it's really bronzy-red, except half of one leaf (the big one) which is in the shade, so it's green.
2. The baby tears are filled with hair algae, but really spreading nicely. I want this to be a full carpet.
3. The hornwort is going nuts isn't it?
4 and 5= the back and front of that cool manzanita. On the last one, you can see my java moss to the left. It's not so choked up with algae now it's in the shade.

(Couple more coming.)
 
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Last ones!

One picture of the whole view from front, and one is the long view from the right side.
 
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really? ill probably start setting everything up with in the next few days, just to start getting all the numbers right. i went to petco to check out what they had for co2 systems and they had something for like 35$, but i found some easy DIY projects which i will probably do instead of buying the product. I think all i really have to buy are some more powerful light bulbs and a check valve it should be about ready.
 
Tom, that's quite a wet thumb you have there....the tank looks amazing!

Hey, I've been thinking about your BBA problem when I remembered what I used....nerite snails! They're perfect for a planted tank because they won't eat the plant leaves and they won't reproduce in fresh water, so you won't be over run with them!

I have two sources for you...the first one is Wilma Duncan who is an amazing woman. I've purchased from her several times and her stock is top notch.
http://www.wilmasthecause.org/Packages.html

Another guy who is actually a sponsor on my forum is Frank...I've done trades and sales with him, and he's always getting great stuff in. Peruse his site at your leisure. Great guy to work with, and he has nerites as well, including zebras which are much prettier than the plain olives. www.franksaquarium.com/
 
Quick question for you fish people.. i just started a planted tank on Monday and need to make sure i have everything right.

PH: 7.1
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: Cant remember off the top of my head but it was very low.
Nitrate: same
water hardness: Hard, cant remember numbers
KH: is at 4 i believe..
I can get the actual numbers tomorrow, i just dont want to walk all the way upstairs and back down again..

I have about 3.5 inches of Eco-Complete substrate on the bottom of the tank.
There are 25 watts of florescent light in the hood right now, is it OK there or should i kick it up to 30? i keep the lights on for 10.5-11hr's a day.

I went to the LFS and traded some platies for some cheap plants, and fish food yesterday, so far they are doing good but that probably doesn't mean anything as of yet.

I have a powerhead and i feed my co2 into the tank through that (DIY system).

Probably forgetting something, but whateever!

Ill take pic's tonight and post tomorrow after i get back from fishing haha.
 
forgot to mention that i have some platies, a tetra, 5 ghost shrimp, an oto, and 2 mystery snails. I'm going to trade in the platy's (all males) and get a few guppies, another oto, and maybe some cherry shrimp.
 
How big is the tank? Your wattage will depend on that as well as the type of plants you're trying to grow. If you're at less than 2.5 watts/gallon, you don't really need co2. If you're trying to grow high light plants like blyxa or HC, then you'll need to bump up the wattage, but again it depends on the size of your tank. Eleven hours is a pretty long photo period. I'd kick that down to eight and put your lights on a timer.

Good luck...lets see some photos!
 
Sounds good to me to Myrick! You're lucky to have the tank already cycled and fish filled. Your plants will probably have plenty of food right from the start since you aren't using CO2 and REALLY high lights.
I agree with Lori, I would cut back your time on the lights for the beginning. While the plants are getting established they may not be using up all the food and you don't want to give algae too much of an edge. I've also read that plants that were grown in high co2 environment have to sort of reestablish themselves in the other, so that again gives an edge to algae for the beginning.
What plants did you pick up already? I was looking at the plants I'm going to cut for you and I worry I might be sending you a bit of algae (on top of other possible hitchhikers, lol) so be sure to look them over and pluck off any leaves that might look to have to much on them.
You're going to love your planted tank!
 
haha wow i knew i was forgetting something! right now im using a 10gal tank. i just have two plants right now.. Cabomba, and the other is like a narrow leaf sword or something like that.. ill check. What type of plants are you sending me? if i go back to the fish store i dont want to get what you may already send me.

ill get pics soon, i just got back from fishing and my hands smell pretty bad so im gonna shower haha
 
I can send you any of what I have, some of the portions may be really small (java moss for instance) but it's all growing so fast in my tank, I'm sure you'll have some large pieces in no time.
Check my first post here for plants I have. The only ones listed there that I can't send are the ones that I either have really tiny portions of (cabomba which you have already) or the ones that can't really be split (my swords aren't making 'babies' yet and my bulbs are too new..) You'll have that 10g full in no time.
 
I'm interested in the Java moss, riccia moss, dwarf sag, Water Wistera, Anubia nana, babytears, Dwarf Chain Sword, Guppy grass(if you still have some), and Bacopa.

Don't need all of it of course, but those are the one's i like.
 
I got your cuttings today! i have most planted already, all except the ones' i have to tie down. ill get pictures when all the junk i kicked up settle down and the water clears.

i soaked the stuff you said may have a little algae on it in water and some algae remover stuff for like 3 hours.. don't know if that would help at all, but i figured I'd give it a try.

thanks a lot!
 
Ok, update here! This series of five pictures says it all. The whole history. Most recently I dosed the flourish excel, which did in some of my plants- mainly I miss the riccia moss, but I did save some in a vase as I read it would do that.
You can see the other plants are no worse for wear though.. Even got a flower from my Apon. ulvaceous.

Thanks for looking!
 
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