My first planted tank

[M0oN]

Still in early developement, have some plants on the way which I'll post pictures of when they arrive, here are the specs:
6 praecox rainbow
5 cory cats (3 bronze aenus, 2 davidsansi)
1 skunk botia
3 oto's

Soon to add a harem of apistogramma panduro

Plant were just bought here and there at Petsmart to help keep fish peaceful

29 gallon bow front
2 65 watt compact flourescent lights, 10000k
1 LED moon light
co2 injection via reactor 1000 and automatic pH monitor

Substrate: Base layer of jiffy peat pellets, second layer of pure flourite, third layer of black tahitian moon sand.

Hope you like it, more pictures to come in the next few weeks.

http://www.fish-forum.com/images/upload/plant1.jpg
http://www.fish-forum.com/images/upload/plant2.jpg
http://www.fish-forum.com/images/upload/plant3.jpg
http://www.fish-forum.com/images/upload/plant4.jpg

[RAWesolowski]

Moon,

How do you have the output on the Eheim setup?

[M0oN]

I used an elbow joint to make it so that it stands up and down rather then across the tank and placed it in the right hand corner facing directly towards the front of the tank so that the water will use the convex part of the tank (the bow of the tank) to create a circular current that runs throughout the entire tank...seems to work well as I set a peice of anarchis in the middle of the tank and it circled all the way around the entire length of the tank...

I'm considering drilling a second set of holes into the spray bar so that it will not only push water out towards the bow of the front of the tank but also across the entire background of the tank...

[RAWesolowski]

Very nice idea! I was going to replumb my spraybar to do something similar, thanks for the idea!

[M0oN]

Very nice idea! I was going to replumb my spraybar to do something similar, thanks for the idea!


No problemo, I drilled an extra set of holes in the spray bar just now and it's working great, now I have flow going towards the bow of the tank and flow going across the background...

[ChloroPhil]

MOoN,

You're going to hate me, but that fine gravel on top of the coarse stuff is going to cause no end of problems with anaerobic areas in your substrate. I would _highly_ recommend syphoning off the black gravel and removing the red (flourite?) and layering the black on the bottom. While not as good, simply mixing it up well will be better than as it is now.

The reason I say this is because the fine texture of the black gravel is going to fill in the gaps and not let any oxygen into the lower substrate. This will cause a buildup of highly toxic Sulfuric gases which will escape the substrate and kill fish.

That's a pretty clever thing you did with your spray bar! Let us know how it works over the long term.

Best,
Phil

[M0oN]

MOoN,

You're going to hate me, but that fine gravel on top of the coarse stuff is going to cause no end of problems with anaerobic areas in your substrate. I would _highly_ recommend syphoning off the black gravel and removing the red (flourite?) and layering the black on the bottom. While not as good, simply mixing it up well will be better than as it is now.

The reason I say this is because the fine texture of the black gravel is going to fill in the gaps and not let any oxygen into the lower substrate. This will cause a buildup of highly toxic Sulfuric gases which will escape the substrate and kill fish.

That's a pretty clever thing you did with your spray bar! Let us know how it works over the long term.

Best,
Phil


Already have it covered Phil, left a small opening behind the intake strainer and the way the jiffy peat pellets are set up allows space between them for water and oxygen to flow through. On top of this I added malaysian trumpet snails AND dwarf flounder, the flounder do a much better job of turning the substrate, burying 5 inches of their body well below the top layer of sand constantly in various spots of the tank.

We'll see how things go, but I reckon it should be fine...spoke with quite a few people about what would work and what wouldn't before I started with this, experimenting with my own ideas to see how things go...

I'll keep a journal including photographs of how the plants fare in the tank and keep you guys updated, so far the spray bar is working perfectly, I did some tests with a handheld digital thermometer and could not find a single cold spot in the tank...soon I'll be adding a hydor inline heater to the intake of the canister filter rather then having a submersible, so it should further help the situation.

[M0oN]

Phil I thought maybe I should clarify things a bit as you are an expert and I'm just a beginner.

I've spoken to quite a few people who use pure sand as a substrate for their planted tanks and have no problems thanks to the use of large amounts of malaysian trumpet snails.

Does what I proposed in the above post seem like I've covered my bases? What is your opinion based on the information I've provided so far?

The reason I'm using sand is because I have several sand sifting species of fish in the tank that flourite would not be kind to, it's only maybe a quarter inch of sand on the top layer, whereas the peat pellets and flourite make up around 3 inches of the base layer.

So far all of the plants are doing great with the exception of the one closest to the intake strainer, one or two of the leaves are developing a clear/brownish coloration and rotting away, I'm assuming that it's because of the transplanting from the pot it was used to and I've trimmed them back, all of the other leaves seem to be doing fine, but I'm not too attached to the plant as it is and don't really plan on keeping it in the tank.

All suggestions and criticism are more then welcome, like I said I've tried to cover all of my bases before starting into the true planting of the tank in hopes of saving money. Let me know what you think.

Jason

[ChloroPhil]

The MTS will do a decent job of mixing if you've got hundreds of them in there, literally. That looks like some pretty compact gravel. Your flounder will do a good job of keeping the upper levels of the gravel turned and looking pretty, but will do nothing for the gaps in the lower levels and at the very bottom where all the nastiness will happen. The true issue is/are all those pockets of water around the larger grains at the bottom. Without adequate circulation you're going to get a nice Peat Bog effect as gases build up in the intergranular areas and are trapped under the small stuff.

Another thing I forgot to mention last night is that plants prefer to have larger grains in the higher areas so their large roots can grow easily and the smaller stuff in the bottom for the networks of fine hair roots to do the actual work. Like I said before, you don't really have to reverse the layers, just mixing them up really well will go a long way. Given enough gravel syphons the grains will settle out into an equilibrium with the bigger stuff on the top. Please don't wait too long though, it could be disastrous.

I've gone through this experience and would rather you learn from my mistake than go through it yourself.

Best,
Phil

[M0oN]

Thanks a million for sharing your experience with me Phil, I've gone ahead and lightly stirred the sand and flourite together, I think I should mention that the sand and flourite have already begun mixing with eachother on their own, so it would appear that in the long run the sand is going to settle in and be mixed anyway...

Here I had thought I spent enough time rinsing the flourite, guess I was wrong haha, I'll post a picture as soon as the dust settles back in to make sure everything looks up to par.

Hoping the best for this entire setup.

Jason