Planted Tank Design Stage - 12 Month Update 2013

Below my initial concept for my first planted tank.
Im keeping the plant height low, want it to look more like a scape than a dutch style set up.
Will be using a rio 180, Will have F/E co2 system, and 2 x 45w tubes.

best of luck with that will look cool dont forget the pics

Did you use a specific program or tool to created your Tank diagram plan.
Very well planned and drawn.

Best of luck with the setup.

Greg

The best of luck with this mate,i'm sure it will be amazing


@greg file:///C:/Users/ger310/Desktop/Design%20your%20Fish%20Tank%20%20%20Aquarium%20Tools.htm

Ger

ger310 wrote:

The best of luck with this mate,i'm sure it will be amazing


@greg file:///C:/Users/ger310/Desktop/Design%20your%20Fish%20Tank%20%20%20Aquarium%20Tools.htm

Ger

Sorry,dont know why it didn't work....just copy and paste it in your browser...good site

Have it now thanks Ger..
www.theaquatools.com/aquasketcher

Greg

It "might" be an idea to replace the HC and lilaeopsis with something a bit taller (Crypts, mabye? Balinase at the back, parva at the front, or else put the bogwood behind the HC and add 2 more tubes?)

Thanks foir the links, will have a look to see if i can improve my plan

@jeff: I will definitely be doing a picture story over the coming weeks

@ghart: I used microsoft publisher and saved it as a .jpg so i could upload it.

@murph: I will definately check out your plant suggestions, this is exactly the response i was hoping for in order to start the project with a plan im happy with, as its my first time going planted. Really like the idea of putting bogwood behind HC Cuba, think ill do that! Not sure if ill get 2 big chunks of wood or a few smaller ones.

OK, At stage 2 of the design, and things have moved on. Now that i have my hardscape (wood & Rocks), Here are some pics of my updated plan. The next stage once i have sourced the plants (i dont think ill be able to get them all from one shop) and substrate, will be to put hardscape in tank, and use pieces of paper to determine how man of each plant i will need to buy. At this stage ill also check the plant heights for where i have them positioned.

One question if any one cares to comment, If i put in hardscape first, then substrate and gravel, my wood and rocks will be partially submersed a couple of inches, is this bad for any reason? anerobic conditions? i want the wood and rock to act as a barrier between gravel, and to keep the substrate height at the back of the tank.

Still not sure Draco, Im thinking ADA amazonia, with ADA powder underneath, but none of my LFS have it. It seems to be the business by all accounts, and I do want the best, but my gut is also telling me ADA is a Marketing Machine, and other substrates are probably as good.

I did see JBL Manado for a good price, so could get that easily.
Another of my LFS has the tetra plant complete but its much more expensive compared to the Manado.

Have you used any substrates before?

Was pricing ADA vs Manado. ADA route will cost me 150 euro, (or 120 if i dont get the 1 bag of power sand) Manado will cost me about 30 quid. BIG difference in price.

Draco, when you say prepare Manado, what do you mean?

JSleator wrote:

Still not sure Draco, Im thinking ADA amazonia, with ADA powder underneath, but none of my LFS have it. It seems to be the business by all accounts, and I do want the best, but my gut is also telling me ADA is a Marketing Machine, and other substrates are probably as good.

I did see JBL Manado for a good price, so could get that easily.
Another of my LFS has the tetra plant complete but its much more expensive compared to the Manado.

Have you used any substrates before?

Seahorse have all the above, give them a shout, and generally a differnce like that in price reflects a huge difference in quality

best of luck with setup.
if you need any help please fill free to call me:-)
We have biggest stock of ADA products and lowest prices in Ireland
www.aquaworld.ie

cheers

Fair play, thanks for the advice on the phone today.

JSleator wrote:

Fair play, thanks for the advice on the phone today.

no problem.
If you need more info or ADA book let me know:-)

Went with ADA Amazonia Soil, with power sand for underneath. Hoping the extra investment in substrate will pay off with healthy plants! The whole project is costing me about €1000 anyway (with fish), so for the sake of €100 on substrate, why try and save on one of the most important things in setting up. Once its in the tank, its in the tank if you know what i mean.

Substrate and All tropica plants from the plan I posted on this thread have been ordered with one of our sponsors, aquaworld.ie Have to give them credit for the very knowledgeable advice and time they gave me over several phone calls and private messages. Cant wait to go and see their showroom next time im in dublin. They Seem to be best price for ADA substrate too.

Hopefully next update ill have some pics of something worth looking at.

JSleator wrote:

Went with ADA Amazonia Soil, with power sand for underneath.

...You wont regret it...It gives great results, and worth the inital investment to save heartache later on.

Next week it will be happening, Ill be planting and plugging the whole thing in.
I have learned so much from the forum, thanks everyone for all the great info. Below is a brief of the set up, and FIVE FINAL QUESTIONS, im hoping to get some advice on. Thanks in advance. I will be posting pics soon.

180L
2 x 45w T5's
ADA Aqua Soil & Power sand
F/E Co2
Heavy planting with a decent mix of fast growers
A lot of bog wood
fluval 205 filter

1. FERTS: When should I start adding ferts (profito)

2. KH & DH: I have not tested my water hardness (kh or dh) although i suspect it is hard enough, i will test in due course, im depending on the ADA soil and bog wood to keep the water soft, what is an ideal range for plants? (my fish will be soft water species)from what i read the hardness doesn't matter to much for plants, if everything else is sound, as long as it is not very hard.

3. PH. My tap water is 8. The water i have been soaking my bog wood in for a week is 7.5 I am not concerned once the wood, plants, co2 and soil are all working together in the tank, that ill end up with a reading under 7. The bit im wondering about is, when im doing water changes, should i treat the replacement water for ph, otherwise im creating a ph spike in the tank when adding fresh water??

3. LIGHTING: Im starting off with 3 hours (c02 coming on 1hr before and staying on 1hr after) Increase 1 hr per week until im at 10 hrs.

4. FILTER MEDIUM: What are the thoughts on using carbon in filter? (fluval 205) I plan on using it initially but once the carbon bag becomes defunct, i will leave it to act as further biological medium as i don't want it eating up my ferts.

5. WATER CHANGES:How much water and how frequent should i be doing partial water changes for the first few weeks. (My greatest fear is algae)

THANKS!

Great stuff thanks Draco. I have been pondering the filter alright, as in down the line getting a second, not just for filtration but also water current.

So nearly a year has passed, here are a few pictures of what ACTUALY happened since my sketches

Pic 1 is 2 months after planting
Pic 2 is 7 months after planting
Pic 3 is a couple of weeks ago

I have not done much "aqua scaping" and have really let the plants do theior own thing, so I have had a very changing scape, some plants thrived and then were taken over by others, My cuba and gloss didnt make it, gloss was doing great but i didnt trim it until it was neatly 6 inches tall, it died off after i did trim it. Also added a few extra plants along the way. All in all im happy with my first year, but do want to acieve more in terms of the look, just not sure what to do next, There is a LOT of Hydrocotyle sp."Japan" in fact it is really thriving and has ended up being my carpet plant. Have a little bit of an algae problem on the plants despite having ottos.

profito weekly
co2 (2-3 bbs)
8 hrs light (2 x t5 45w)
fluval 205 and fluval 305
random doses of easycarbo

Fabulous looking tank!

Quick question, what's the pH and how do you deal with water changes?

Niall

Very nice. Yeah i'd be interested in how you do the water changes as well. Do you not vacuum the substrate?

Beautiful tank

Thanks for the update mate the tank is looking amazing fair play to yeh love it

My water Chang procedure is fairly handy, routine every thesday evening. So on Monday sending or morning depending on if its summer or winter I fill up an 80 L plastic dustbin, positioned beside the tank via a hose from outside coming in the window. I dump in my conditioner and fill her up. I then put a 100w heater in the full bin and its ready warm beside the tank for refilling via a 700 lph pond pump .

I remove the water with a vacuum hose thingy. The soil does not get siphoned off it's too heavy, I just go gently around the plants.

My tap water is close to ph8, the Ada soil and the bog wood soften and bring that down to under 6 and when the co2 is on I've taking readings close to 5.5

.... All work in progress, it's never a finished thing.....