77 Planted Community JOURNAL - NEW PICS 12/28

[monkE]

Hey guys. I hope that there's a few of you out there that can relate to me on this one. Sorry for the wall of text to follow, but this journal requires some explanation.

First off let me start with some back story:
I had been keeping a successful community tank for years in a 55G and decided that I would like to get into plants. I researched and learned as much as i could (with all of your help of course) and started out on taking an already established tank, and turning it into a planted haven and I was quite successful with this using Flourish root tabs and EI dosing. I started a journal to document the growth as i learned and got a little higher tech - CHECK IT OUT HERE

Well like I'm sure many of you did, after seeing how successful one tank could be I saw a great deal on craigslist and bought a second tank. I figured I'd learned enough about plants with my 55 gal that i could make an even better tank if i started from scratch. I spent a ton of cash on flourite black substrate and a new canister filter as well as a second Hagen GLO light fixture + bulbs (all at IPU by the way....oh yeah i got some points racked up there). I started with a couple store bought plants and a bunch of trimmings from a friend and at first everything was going smooth....

Then guess what happened?

I got lazy. Ya that's it. All the money I had spent was completely wasted because I got lazy. The new 46 gallon tank crashed and I lost 3 fish to suicide leaps of faith (i didn't research the killifish before i put them in a topless tank) I neglected my filters and i just didn't put any effort into maintaining either tank. I believe that the fact that my 55 gallon had been established and running healthily for quite some time kept it from crashing as bad as the newly set up tank, even though it was fully cycled and everything. But really i have no idea how the plants survived without a source of CO2 (besides the fish) or a source of nutrients (just root tabs?).

So now i have completely re cycled and cleaned the 46 gallon and have started on an African Cichlid Rockscaped tank. JOURNAL HERE

This journal will document the Road to Recovery of my 55 Planted Community tank.

In all of my neglect (i always fed them of course) I have only lost one fish from this tank, my German Ram *wipe a tear from my eye*. The tank is not in the worst shape imaginable, but the plants are not doing great. At the time of this writing I am 3 days into my recovery project.

Oh and the time-frame for my laziness is approximately 2-3 months of neglect.

My PH is 7.2 That is the only water parameter i can provide because i don't have testers for anything else (i will be getting a Kh/Gh tester for the cichlid tank pretty soon)
I am running a single marineland C220 canister filter and have completely cleaned it (dosed the tank with "stability" when i did so) and i have had no negative signs from the fish since that was done so i am sure my ammonia and nitrate levels are OK.

Community fish for the most part (as many of you know) are quite tolerant of changing water conditions but the plants are brutal. They require such tightly regulated levels of chemicals i can't even pronounce to thrive. They require weekly 50% water changes to maintain those levels.
My dosages (identical to the EI sticky in the planted section)
1/2 tsp KNO3 3x a week
1/8 tsp KH2PO4 3x a week
1/8 tsp K2SO4 3x a week
(all three go in on the same days Mon. Wed. Fri.)
1/8 tsp traces 3x a week
(Tues. Thurs. Sat.)
I also dose 6cc's of Metricide daily
Sunday is water change day

Here are some pictures of the plant life in my tank as of today. I will update this weekly to show the progress and response of the plant life.




Its amazing how fast the plants react to nutrients being introduced back into the water







I will spend some time this week trimming back the dead leaves (especially off of the swords) and i will try and take a lot of pictures as this tank recovers.

Thanks for reading! Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

[crazy72]

Well done for taking good care of this tank again. Your plants and fish will definitely reward you for this.

Is it a tiger barb in the last pic? One of my favourite fish, although I'm not keeping any at the moment.

[monkE]

It's only been 4 days since I started this journal, but I am already seeing a noticeable difference in the plants. With strong lighting and a source of nutrients and CO2, the plant live is just taking off! I will be upgrading this tank on the weekend up to a 77Gal. but just wanted to show how fast some of these plants will grow when provided with the right conditions. For all you guys who have never done planted tanks before, It's intimidating and confusing at first, trying to understand what the plants require, but after you've got yourself organized, growing plants is no different than maintaining a healthy PH level for your fish, albeit with a couple extra steps.

Already a few more leaves are popping up from the gravel

In a battle for sunlight, this Ambulia (i think that's what it is) has forced itself under the log


Very quickly the tips of these Ambulia just keep sprouting up and up


Dont know the name of this one, but you can see the new growth and strong colour on the upper leaves


Like I said earlier, this tank will be moving into a larger one this weekend and i will be starting a new journal when that happens.
Thanks for looking!

If any of you can help ID these plants I'd appreciate it.

[monkE]

So my recovery project took an unexpected turn this weekend when I purchased a new (used) 77 Gallon tank.

I tore down the 55 on saturday morning and went to pick up my new tank. It came with a great stand and an Eheim 2028 canister filter. Before i go on i just must say that i love this new filter, the spray bar is such a better outlet than my marine land canisters that only have single nozzle, and it was extremely easy to prim and start.

Ok on with the tank swap, i originally wanted to set up a video camera and make a time-lapse video of the entire tear down, but I never ended up doing it. I'm sure you've all torn down your tanks a few times and know what is involved. As it turns out, my girl is an amazing fish catcher! I was having a heck of a time trying to net both my Coolie loaches and my SAE but she got everything into buckets in no time.

After cleaning the new tank and stand I put in about half of the eco-complete that i was sold, and began the aquascape.

Remember to always use the correct tools, a frying pan, a pot and a dust pan work great for moving gravel lol

I wanted to take pictures at every step of this set up, but you know how it is once you start working, it's done before you know it



Just added some vals to the rear of the tank.. they should grow in and spread in no time


I just picked this one up today, but can't remember the name of it, if you can i.d. the plant below, please post or pm me

[CRS Fan]

Your mystery plant appears to be an Aponogeton species (probably Aponogeton ulvaceus).

Best Regards,

Stuart

[monkE]

thanks for the I.D. CRS fan

[CRS Fan]

It actually appears to be more like Aponogeton crispus !

Best Regards,

Stuart

[monkE]

I have a quick update to show you guys. I went out on Saturday and picked up a copule more vals, and some grassy plant to fill in the front


I also grabbed 3 clown loaches

[CRS Fan]

Hello Mike.

Just make sure you don't dose Metricide with your vals. It will cause Vallisneria species to melt . Other safer (and similar looking) species include Sagittarias and Echinodorus vesuvius.

Best Regards,

Stuart

[monkE]

wow Stuart thank you for the heads up. I've never heard that there was plant species which do not like metricide. Unfortunately that is my only source of carbon in the tank right now. I will be looking into pressurized pretty soon, but for now all i have is the metricide. Does excel have the same effect with the vals or is it just because of the higher concentration of glut in metricide that makes it damaging?

I suppose i'm just going to have to hope for the best with the vals and just keep the rest of the plants happy.