My 60P Planted Tank

So, as most of you know, I am the ADA guy. I thought I would do an ADA inspired tank, just to see what all the fuss was about regarding the Aquasky LED and complete substrate system... Here are the results:

I started the tank about 3 to 4 months ago. This was the kit:

ADA 60P Cube Garden
ADA Aquasky 602 LED Lighting
Eheim 2213 Filter (too small actually Should have gone for the 2215)
Cabinet built by Ivan
Pressurized Co2 (2kg bottle)
Dual Gauge Macro Aqua Regulator
ADA Bubble Counter
ADA Pollen Glass Diffuser
Hydor Micro Flow Pump

Substrate:
ADA Powersand M
ADA Bacter 100
ADA Clear Super
ADA Tourmaline BC

Hardscape:
ADA Ryouh Stone

Plants: Initially it was ONLY Dwarf Hairgrass.

This is the tank on cabinet and the light unit:


Started Playing with hardscape:


Final Layout Chosen:


Then Planted with Hairgrass:


Just before the hairgrass went weird:


Then after a while, for some unknown reason, the hairgrass started dying back, which is when I got fed up with the tank, ripped it apart and replanted with the following:

HC
Staurogyne repens
Rotala wallichii
Rotala macrandra green
Cryptocoryne Parva
Cryptocoryne Pygmea
Hydrocotyl tripartita
Dwarf Hair Grass

The results: Just after the replant, The scape stayed the same, more or less:


A couple of weeks later:


And this is what it looks like today:


I removed the Rotala macrandra green and replaced it with Ludwigia brevipes.

Thanks for watching!!

Sean

 

Stunning. Saw the tank on APSA but never the L.brevipes. Looks great!!

 

Thanks! I like the red contrast the L. brevipes gives... The wallichii has a nice coppery colour and the Ludwigia gets a deep purple, to red colour.

 

Very nice .. must say the ADA LEDs really are doing the trick.

 

Looks amazing!

 

@Sean J, could you give a rough estimate on how much it costed to set up the tank (including the tank and lights price?)

Just so I can start saving please


Love the look and I am really impressed with the LED's.

 

Hectic... Only saw your post now @Wyvren... It would be quite costly... It would probably be around R7000. I know it's a lot for a 60cm tank, but these are the results...

 

@Sean J - hahahaha It might take me a while to save up that much, but one day I will have something like that - although I might have to go bigger.

 

Absolutely stunning. Well done Sean.

 

Stunning tank!

 

LOL! Yeah, I know it's not cheap, but you can get these results with very little effort.

Thank you all for the kind words.

 

It's been a while since I updated this thread... Here's a pic from tonight.

 

Hey Sean, why did you take out the ADA Soil? What is the blue "thing" under the one rock?

Still looks stunning I must say...

 

The blue thing is just riccia stone.

I changed the scape to something a bit less maintenance heavy. The aquasoil is all behind the rocks. The front sand is ADA Colorado sand. I just wanted something a little different, so I changed it up.

Thanks for the compliment.

 

Tank looks great.