Planted 75 gallon Tank

[Larry208]

I had a 75 gallon reef in my discus room and have since removed it, made a nano tank upstairs and gave away the rest of the inhabitants. I have decided to do a planted tank so that I could display my fully grown discus (when i get to that point) along with some German blue rams i also picked up from Tom (coral-bandit).
I decided to go with a plant substrate and a topping of sand, and also added some rock and drift wood.

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I wanted a carpet of plants on the bottom so am trying my hand at planting them by seeds and it has been not quite a week and i think it will be OK.

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I will wait the 2 weeks to allow them to get firmly rooted, then will fill the tank and start it up, plant the other plants i had bought and let it cycle.
Will post more pics as this goes on, will be interesting to see how this project develops.

Thank you.

[coralbandit]

Looks like a great start to a carpet .
I look forward to seeing the tank as it progresses .

[Larry208]

Looks like a great start to a carpet .
I look forward to seeing the tank as it progresses .

Thank you Tom, I have a picture in my mind as to what I want, but we all know what we think it will look like and what it actually does look like are sometimes 2 completely different things, hehe.....
At least I have a nice group of rams to go in it.....
Thx
Larry

[Iminit]

Only thing with carpeting plants is cleaning. Maybe also co2. Are you planing co2 and what type of lighting.

[Larry208]

Only thing with carpeting plants is cleaning. Maybe also co2. Are you planing co2 and what type of lighting.

Those are some good questions and here are my thoughts on what I am planning and my thinking:

I have selected a seed which according to the supplier should be able to be grown without CO2, but have no problem adding CO2 if I find it needs it. The light I am using is my saltwater lighting system, I am able to program the spectrum as I need to so am going to go with what I have for now, am also adding plants that can survive low to medium lighting. anubias, swords etc.

Will adding bottom cleaners to help with clean up. While having a carpeted bottom is a bit more difficult, you can carefully siphon above it and get a lot of the waste.

Thank you

[danotaylor]

Good one Larry. What is the carpeting plant you seeded? Looks like it's gonna be nice and thick. How tall will it grow?

[Larry208]

Good one Larry. What is the carpeting plant you seeded? Looks like it's gonna be nice and thick. How tall will it grow?

They call it love grass:
Description they listed:
"Easy to grow, no need of CO2, nor strong light.Temperature should not be too low, Add water daily to keep the temperature in the fish tank at around 28℃(82℉).Each bag can plant 30x30cm tank"
Bought the seeds from amazon for like 9 dollars.
Not sure how tall, figuring not that tall as it is a carpeting plant, should be able to trim if it gets too tall.
Thx
Larry

[Shan_Evolved]

Looking forward to the progress man. Haven't heard of love grass but it looks cool!

[danotaylor]

Nice one Larry...when are you gonna fill er up?

[Larry208]

I filled the tank up with water and added a couple of my Anubis plants, they are a large variety (Anubis Barteri broad-leaf), it has been filled less than 24 hours and is still a bit cloudy. Will plant the rest of my plants today (baby chain swords and some large swards and a grass type forgot what its called.) Hope you like the pics.
Also had a portion of the carpet start to die and am working to remove it and added some lava rock there.

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Thank You for stopping by.
Larry

[Larry208]

Looking forward to the progress man. Haven't heard of love grass but it looks cool!

Shan:

That is just what this seller called them, but looking at the same types of seeds on other sites, the basically call them grass seeds, for the aquarium, hopefully will grow good in my setup, i kinda messed up and didn`t add water soon enough, and had some start to die and got kind of moldy. Am fixing that and will see what I can plant in its place.
Thx
Larry

[danotaylor]

Looks great Larry. Looking forward to progress pics :D

[Larry208]

Looks great Larry. Looking forward to progress pics :D

Thank you Daniel appreciate it.

[Larry208]

Well this didn't work as I had planned. All of the carpet died for some reason, so I am taking it all out (what a mess) and am going to replant some other type of carpet.
Larry

[danotaylor]

Bummer mate

[Iminit]

Sorry to here. I’d stay away from carpeting plants unless your going to use co2. Plus the debris (food and waste) that will get stuck in it will only cause problems. I just removed anacharis from my new tank because of this. Plant was growing great but acting like a filter and catching everything.

[coralbandit]

I've always found keeping the 'high tech' planted tank more challenging then marine fish and simple corals !
I am happy if any plants grow for me !
Better luck with next choice .

[Larry208]

I am not going to do another carpet will add some tall plants l I'll keep val and leave the bottom as I have it .

[Iminit]

I got this great hygro that grows like crazy. It’s behind the rams :)128921. Can send you some if your interested.

[Larry208]

I got this great hygro that grows like crazy. It’s behind the rams :)128921. Can send you some if your interested.

Well thank you Tom for the plants you sent me, appreciate it.
here is a picture of my tank now, looks much better now I think.

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Larry

[Iminit]

Glad they work for you :).

[danotaylor]

Looking good Larry. Good onya Tom :thumbsup:

[Larry208]

So went down to the 70 gallon planted tank and found this tonight:
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I through a thought to be pair into the tank from 12 juvies I got from Tom (coralbandit).
Not sure they will make it but its a start.

Larry

[coralbandit]

That's GREAT Larry !
They like your water ..Next is feeding tiny fish for a couple weeks ..They should be able to eat fresh BBS and I use Kens Golden Pearls 50-100 micron for first couple weeks .
The parents may even grind up what you are feeding them and pass it to the fry through their gills . Very cool to watch !
I love watching fry ...:thumbsup::thumbsup:

[danotaylor]

Awesome Larry!

[Larry208]

That's GREAT Larry !
They like your water ..Next is feeding tiny fish for a couple weeks ..They should be able to eat fresh BBS and I use Kens Golden Pearls 50-100 micron for first couple weeks .
The parents may even grind up what you are feeding them and pass it to the fry through their gills . Very cool to watch !
I love watching fry ...:thumbsup::thumbsup:

Yeah I need to get those Pearl's, but for now am hatching brine shrimp, also feeding the fine food from Ken's that you feed also.

[Larry208]

Awesome Larry!

Thank you am keeping my fingers crossed that they leave me some to raise.

[Larry208]

And they are them last night, so now I have some specimen containers ordered and the Pearl's from Ken's fish, so will be ready the next time, I can take half of them out and try to raise myself.
Thx
Larry