I set up my tank today. Any advice?

[luis138]

So, after about 10 years of living a fishless life I am back in the hobby. I finally set up my first tank today. In the past I have kept both fresh water and salt water tanks. However, I have never kept live plants. I realized that I still have much to learn, specially when it comes to successful planted aquaria.

My tank is:

40 Gl tank.
3” of Eco-Complete substrate
Aqualight 96W, 6,500 K
304 Fluval filter

The filter has only sponge and the three chambers have ceramic rings. One of the chambers has pre-cultured rings that I purchased today from my LFS.

I set up the tank two days ago and it has been running fine. Today in the morning I added three plants. I forgot to write down the name of the plants, so I don’t know what they are. Also, per advice of my LFS, I added two fish. The fish I added are one molly and one dojo loach (my all time favorite fish). Eventually I want some clown loaches, pictus cats, khuli loaches, maybe some bala sharks.

I also added some Excel per the bottle’s instructions. I have a piece of driftwood that I am soaking and some rocks that I will be placing. Plus I have a nice PVC cave that I am waiting for the sealant to cure. I also will be adding a bubble wand. Besides aesthetic reasons, is there a reason why I shouldn't add it?

I did a test with a kit I purchased today and these are the results as of today:

Nitrate = 20
Nitrite = 0
Hardness = 300 (is this high?)
Chlorine = 0
Alkalinity = 300
Ph = 7.8

Another change I want to do is cut the outflow of the filter. It rests right on the substrate. It was for a turtle tank with a bare bottom. How long below the surface should it be?

Also, I will be using pressurized CO2, in a couple of months. How long can I get away without it?

Besides the fact that I need to add way more plants, any tips, ideas, suggestions, critiques that anybody could offer?

Thank you so much for all your time.

Luis

 

[Zagz]

Moved to the planted tank forum. Your tank is starting out great. I commend you for doing research before diving in.

 

[luis138]

Moved to the planted tank forum. Your tank is starting out great. I commend you for doing research before diving in.

Thank you.

Luis

 

[rich311k]

I would add some hardscape first. Try for two or three separate pieces and then plant around them. Avoid centering it makes the whole thing lose the natural feel. Very nice setup, good luck with it.

 

[Purrbox]

Unfortuantely your lighting puts you in that grey area where CO2 may or may not be necessary. Since you're supplementing with Excel, that will help immensely. Both are carbon sources, but most plants tend to prefer CO2.

You do have hard water, but your plants won't mind especially since it means that there's plenty of Magnesium and Calcium in your water. I do notice that you didn't mention any kind of fertilization other than the Flourish Excel. You'll probably need to pick up a good trace fert and macros, especially once you start injecting CO2. At minimum you'll probalby need the trace fert and potassium.

Try to make sure to research your plants before you buy them, the same way you would a fish. This will prevent accidently buying non aquatic plants or plants that are otherwise inappropriate for your aquarium. Also try to take a piece of paper when you go to the store, that way you can write down the names of plants that you're interested in or buy. PlantGeek.net has a great Plant Guide which is a good resource for researching and identifying plants.

 

[luis138]

Thank you so much for your help. I always write down the names of the species that I buy, unfortunately this time it escaped me.

I am not adding any ferts. I will get some today. Any particular brand?

Luis

 

[Purrbox]

For Traces you're best bet is Flourish "Comprehensive", Tropica Plant Nutrition, or CSM+B. You can also go with the Seachem Flourish line for Potassium, Phosphate, and Nitrate, but most LFS don't carry them. They may be willing to special order for you though. Long term you'll be better off with dry ferts. There are a couple of sites online that sell them (Rex Grigg or Planted Aquarium Fertilizer) or you can look for the following at your local store. For Nitrates you'd want Stump Remover (make sure it's pure KNO3), for Potassium you'll want a salt substitute like NoSalt (it should say KCl), and for Phosphates you would need Fleet Enema.

 

[pitt420dude]

Nice tank luis, with that blue background and black substrate it sort of looks like mine.

 

[ingg]

Second the notion of figuring out your hardscape and getting it in before adding plants.

One thing you may want to consider is working with your substrate line some. It is currently sort of wavy and uneven - uneven is great in a planned way, but wavy can be distracting to the eye.

Typical setups:

Even, but graded front to back - lower in front, higher in back, even line across the front of the tank.

Mounded - again shoot for even across the front, but built to a mound in the center rear. This will usually have the hardscaped centered and shooting out of the mound.

Concave - opposite of the mounded, ends are built up, center is a negative space. This usually has hardcaped on either side, accenting the center negative space.

Corner sloped - one rear corner is a high spot, with substrate sloping down and away both to the front and to the sides. This will usually have the hardscape focus in that corner, letting the substrate flow down and away from the hardscape.

 

[neilanh]

Ingg, did you attend a scaping workshop or something recently?

 

[ingg]

Nope, would have, but we already had 20-something people in there and no mroe could fit in. Heard it was nice, though.....

 

[luis138]

Thank you. The reason the substrate is so uneven is because the tubing for the filter outflow is so low it constantly stirs that particular corner. I have to cut the tubing.

Luis

 

[luis138]

I set up my tank today. Any advice? **UPDATE**

Ok, so I have added several new plants. Several stems of Anarchis, Hygrophila polysperma, some Cabomba carolinia, some Amazon swords and Melon swords, needle leaf Java fern and some Hygrophyla difformis.

I evened out the substrate. I repositioned the outflow tube on my filter. I added some rocks and a piece of driftwood with some Amazon sword already growing on it.

Do you have any recommendation as far as the positioning of the plants? Are they ok where I positioned them?

Should the rocks be placed differently? I have a piece of driftwood soaking for the center space.

Any help/tips/critiques will be appreciated.

Thank you,

Luis

 

[Purrbox]

I'd recommend removing the weights from the stem plants. They'll just tend to kill the base of the plants.

 

[luis138]

I'd recommend removing the weights from the stem plants. They'll just tend to kill the base of the plants.

Thy are rubber bands. If I remove them, how do I prevent the plant from floating away eventually?

Luis

 

[Purrbox]

Plant them in the substrate. Pushing them in at an angle will help to anchor them until they grow new roots.

 

[luis138]

Plant them in the substrate. Pushing them in at an angle will help to anchor them until they grow new roots.

Thank you, will try that today.

Luis