My latest planted tank

[Dave C]

I've sold all of the tanks in my fishroom and I'm left with a 180g in my office and a 55g in the wall of my office. I kept the Discus, some plants & clown loaches for my 180g. There are only 6 plants in this tank, all attached to either driftwood or lava rock. It took about 5 minutes to place them in this tank, as well as the 3 pieces of bare driftwood. That means it will take very little time to remove them if I want to do a thorough cleaning. So you see planted tanks need not be dirty, nor do you have to go for potted plants to keep them clean. Mind you, I've been growing these plants on wood/rock for over a year now. This tank is all low-tech, 198w light, no co2, no fertlilizer, the same as the other tanks that these plants came from. I've also been growing the clowns for over a year.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v601/dclubine/DSCN9246.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v601/dclubine/DSCN9268.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v601/dclubine/DSCN9264.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v601/dclubine/DSCN9258.jpg

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http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v601/dclubine/DSCN9246.jpg

[justafishguy]

Looks very nice, I like having large discus in a large tank. That setup looks very natural. Fish have nice color too.

[cobaltblue]

Very nice Dave. I have java fern growing off driftwood as well. Yours are much more established than mine though. Very nice fish too. Did you paint the back and sides, or just the back? What about the bottom. I just got a 125g and am about to start painting it. Im looking at doing something similar, but with no substrate at all. :)

[Chrisb]

What a Awesome setup.
Wish I could get a tank that size.

Chris

[Westie]

Any heat/algae problems with the window so close. Very jealous.

[Dave C]

Only the back is painted blue. There is a pretty thin layer of Estes black sand on the bottom, about 1/2" overall. And while there is a small window at the top of those blinds, this is in the basement so the blinds extend to the ground as a decorative thing. No heat or light issues.

[Tad]

L:) :) King great Dave!!!,

How about some pics of that built in tank and wheres the Rays????

regards,
Tad

[Dissident]

That is going to be stunning once the bolbitis really takes off!!! I found they really respond well to flourish excel (if you are not using a pressurised CO2 system), same with the java ferns you have (both types)

[Dave C]

How about some pics of that built in tank and wheres the Rays????

Hey Tad, the rays are gone. Everything is old other then the fish in the 180g. There are the 10 Discus, 7 larger (6") clown loaches, a dozen smaller clowns and about 20 bristlenose plecos. The built in tank is to be used for hospital/quarantine/breeding. Ah, the joys of simplicity.

[chago09]

hey I have a much smaller tank then yours but on my 30 gallon I have a light fixture that holds a 24" flourescent tube. I just wanted to know if you had any suggestions for a good tube for my planted tank. I bought a Hagen Aqua Glo which is supposed to be beneficial for plants and the color of your fish. Well its kinda a bluey light and the tank looks really dim escpecially with the dark substrate. does a brighter light mean a better light???

[Dave C]

I use 96w compact fluorescents from AH Supply.

[ed8t]

That looks really good Dave!!

How much time would you spend on maintenance in a given week?

I was under the impression that PB based fish would tend to pepper and/or darken a bit more with a dark coloured substrate...but your red fish looks very clean. Did any of your fish darken at all?

[Dave C]

I do a 50% w/c twice a week. I barely siphon the tank bottom, mainly just drain & refill. So it's pretty mindless time... just hook up a siphon & walk away until it's done, then refill & wait for the water detector to beep when it's full.

I expected to see more peppering on the Red Melons but it hasn't happened.

[Dave C]

If you look at the 4th picture in the first post you'll see that the sides of my tank were pretty dark. I had 2x96w of light but they were only 3' bulbs and were centered over the tank so the light didn't get to the outer edges. In time either the plants would die or be overcome by algae. So I ordered & received a couple of 2x13w kits from AH Supply. I stuck one on each side of the tank and now it's fully lit.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v601/dclubine/DSCN9377.jpg

[Dissident]

I like the new lighting a lot better. It makes the tank seem a lot larger too.

[pcsb23]

Dave, that is one very nice tank. I love the simple elegance of it.

Paul.

[JeffreyRichard]

Excellent! I love the black gravel base ...

[Dave C]

Thanks. It's actually sand, Estes black sand. I've added some taller plants to give the tank more overall height and I'm happy with the effect.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v601/dclubine/DSCN9392.jpg