My Tanks and how do I do it.

As requested by @Andreas.

What do I do? Well I don’t do much. I stick to the basics.
I also know a lot of people will object to what I write below. But hay, it works for me.

Hardware & Others

1. C02 on a timer at 2bpps. Goes on an hour before the lights go on, and off an hour before the lights go’s off.
2. ADA aqua soil. (Had the same results with Seachem onyx) An reliable substrate is a must.
3. Heat +- 22 degrees. Heaters plugged out during summer.
4. Proper filtration. I used to have a Tetra 700 and now I have a Dophin 1000. Terta gave up after 3 years.
5. Flow pumps. Anything as long as you have some extra flow.
6. Ferts. Seachem Excel, Flourish, Iron. Scape N and K
7. Light, lots of light. On my 3 foot I have 156Watts worth of T5 lighting and my 50L desktop tank 50Watt on a 5 hour cycle.
8. Patience - Planted tanks and great results do not happen overnight.

My substrate, heaters, light, filters, 3 foot tank , C02 regulators, cylinders and other goodies were all bought 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] hand.
Rule of thumb is to change you tubes every 6 months. I replaced one tube the last 2 years.

Maintenance

As I belong to the working class and father to a 10 month old. I also spend minimal time on my tanks. And I get the same results as when I was tinkering on the tanks every day.
I mainly do water top ups once a week. Do water Changes & Trimming about every 2 to 3 weeks. Sometimes I go a month without water changes.
I started doing this when I went on holiday for 2 weeks and found the growth to be much more than usual. So I now leave the tank so that nature can take its course.

I also don’t stick to a schedule when using the frets. When I do a water top ups, I do add frets, but don’t have a scientific formula on exactly how many ml I need to add daily.
However when I do notice BBA algae starting, I dose with 20ml – 30ml Excel daily for about 4 – 5 days. A few caps full in the morning and a few in the evening.
When I trim I don’t take my fish tank to the closest up market hair salon. Keep it rough to try and keep the natural look.

Layout

Steal with the eye. I look at a lot of other thanks and combine the ideas.
Sketch it out before time. Don’t just rush into it.
Use the basic rule of 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] principle.
A planted tank only works with a good hardscape. Take your time on this. After an hour of playing with your wood and hardscape walk away, have a cup of tea and come back and look again.

Plants

If you ask me what plants I have I can name about 3.
I say, if it looks cool, plant it. However you do need to sort of know what is foreground, middle and background plants.
And try to plant then in groups.

How to source the plants.
Make friends on the site and in your area. Go have a dop with them. You’ll be suspired how many free plants you get.
Don’t just buy plants at your local run of the mill pet shop. Try and find a pet shop that specializes in fish and plants.

And finally waist your bandwidth on YouTube vids.
Channels I like is
TheGreenMachine
Dustin’s fish tanks.
AquaDesignAmano

This is an amazing hobby and can and will be a great feature in any house being it a 20cm pico to a 6 meter TANK.

And here the link to when I started.

1. Clean Slate
2. Derik's 3 foot evolution
3. Derik's 3 foot re-scape

Thanks for Reading.

 

Good read, what are your thoughts on dosing seachem potassium and phosphorous ?

 

Used to use it. Then I stopped. Did not notice any difference.

 

I see, good to know

 

Thanks Derek . From what I have read in your thread just now, I have came to the conclusion of what my tank still needs, and it is actually very simple. ...TIME...
There is definitely a difference in the look of my setup since I started it four weeks ago, but it still needs more time to develop into a beautifully planted tank like yours is at the moment. Many thanks again for the advice!

 

Cool. For it takes about 4 - 6 months on a tank

 

Nice thread, thanks!

 

Thanks for the info. I love planted tanks. I really need to do a tank with plants as the main focus.

 

Nice Thread, Thanks for all the info!

 

Thanks for the thread - good info