My 75g planted =)

[Friendly]

I've had this tank for about 4 months. I would have had it longer but my old 75g cracked on the bottom (worst thing I ever had to deal with). Luckily the big al's that's close to me was gracious enough to give me a new 75g for free (this happened in the beginning of November 2005).

Anyway, the lighting that I have going now is 130w of pc (6700k) lighting and 60w of fluorescent (18000k) lighting.

I dose with flourish, iron, potassium, nitrogen, phosphorus, and excel. I also use flourish/jungle root tabs. I’m using a nutrafin co2 system but I’m switching to pressurized (still waiting on the delivery of parts).

The substrate that I'm using is a mix of regular gravel and flourite. I mixed the flourite with regular gravel because I didn't like the look of flourite on it's own.

The species of plants that I have in the tank are:

Rotala spec. “Green”
Bacopa caroliniana
Ludwigia palustris
Anubias (don’t know the exact species)
Vallisneria spiralis
Hygrophila difformis
Hygro rosanervig
Limnophila aquatica
Cabomba caroliniana
Myriophyllum vertcillatum (I think)
Crinum calamistratum
Cladophora aegagropila
Sagittaria subulata
Echinodorus bleheri
Microsorium pteropus
Hydrocotyle verticillata
Glossostigma elatinoides

I wanted to go with a planted tank because I really wanted everything to be natural in the tank. Plus the look of plastic plants just wasn’t as nice as the real thing. I didn’t really get inspired until I found this site. I saw some amazing planted tanks and wanted to get my tank lookin just as good (still have a long way to go imo).

Here are some random pics of my tank/plants and fish, hope you enjoy

Random tank shot.

Hygro jungle.

Anubias (does anyone know what species this is?).

Amano shrimp/glosso

Common silver hatchet fish.

Silver hatchet fish.

Male black phantom tetra.

Female black phantom tetra with amano shrimp.

Small school of neon tetras. I call them the lucky 7 (started out with 14 and 7 died for mysterious reasons). It's been about 3 weeks since I bought the neons and the 7 remaining neons have been doing great! I also wish they would stay still for pictures lol (I'm gonna try to get a better pic).

 

[BrianNY]

You're obviously doing something right Friendly. You've got excellent growth with some very difficult plants. I especially like your placement of the Val and Cabomba.

Have you thought about using driftwood or rocks?

 

[Zagz]

Wow that looks great! I personally think some Malaysian driftwood would set a beautiful color difference in that tank. Your tank is very lush and some rich brown color in it would look gorgeous.

 

[Jchillin]

Very nice looking tank friendly...love the look of the lush growth.

I'm like Brian, some driftwood and rocks placed in there would really look stunning!.

 

[Friendly]

Thanks for compliments guys I appreciate it!

I completely agree that I should add some rocks and more driftwood. I do have piece of driftwood in the back left corner of my tank but it's hard see with the bacopa in the way. You can sort of get a good look at it in the second pic I posted (it has some java fern attached to it). Looking at my tank now there isn't a lot of space for another piece of driftwood. What I was thinking was I would move the last amazon sword out and put some driftwood in its place. I’m going to make it look like a fallen log, since my other piece of driftwood is standing up and looks like a stump.

I would also like to add a nice little rock cave. I wouldn’t want to add rocks that are too big because I’m a little paranoid (don’t want the tank to crack again). I've seen planted tanks on this site that had some really nice rock caves. I think my otos would love a rock cave. Plus I'm hoping algae will grow on it (more food for my otos). I’m not sure where I should put it though.

I also think I need to add some red plants. My bacopa turns a reddish pink at the tips and my hygro also adds some color other then green, but I think I need a solid red plant. Every time I go to my lfs, they don’t have any. I’m gonna go next weekend to see if they got a new shipment in or something.

 

[czcz]

Your plants look fantastic. How much work is it to keep the Hygro like that? Is it viable long term in the foreground?

 

[Friendly]

Your plants look fantastic. How much work is it to keep the Hygro like that? Is it viable long term in the foreground?

It actually hasn't been hard at all to keep the hygro the way it is. I first started out with six small stems. For some reason they started growing horizontally and spread out all on it's own. I only cut one horizontal stem and planted it sideways just to see if it would grow. You can see it on the bottom left up at the front. It has now turned into a foreground hygro bush. Other then that one cutting, I've haven't touched the hygro and I have had it looking like that for a while. Everything is healthy and I haven't had any problems with the hygro growing the way it is. Some of the stems have recently now started growing vertically (I have no idea why though).

 

[czcz]

I think it was Simpte who made a good analogy about the way Hygro polysperma "Rosanervig" grows under high light: it goes horizontal and fills its space like water fills a bucket, then heads vertical. I can't find the post.

It is very healthy and I love your tank. Just something to keep in mind.

 

[Friendly]

I think it was Simpte who made a good analogy about the way Hygro polysperma "Rosanervig" grows under high light: it goes horizontal and fills its space like water fills a bucket, then heads vertical. I can't find the post.

It is very healthy and I love your tank. Just something to keep in mind.

Thank you for the kind words czcz! If it weren’t for this site and its members, my tank would probably be filled with dead/dying plants. I have definitely learned a lot from this site.

It's too bad you couldn't find that post it sounds very interesting.