My First Planted tank - 45g Journal

[DragonFish71]

I run basic set ups for our tanks and the plants are perfect condition. I don't use CO2, the only ferts I use are pellets with a twice a month dose of Excel. All of our lights are 6500k daylight bulbs bought at Walmart or Lowes, and we have air stones in every tank. If you look in my albums you'll see all our tanks and the plants. So really, you don't need to go high tech unless you're going with plants that are high tech.

 

[PaulieFish]

I run basic set ups for our tanks and the plants are perfect condition. I don't use CO2, the only ferts I use are pellets with a twice a month dose of Excel. All of our lights are 6500k daylight bulbs bought at Walmart or Lowes, and we have air stones in every tank. If you look in my albums you'll see all our tanks and the plants. So really, you don't need to go high tech unless you're going with plants that are high tech.

Wow Love your tank, what substrate are you using, PFS or play sand, or some other variant? Also what is the purpose of the air stone, I heard it only disrupts the water and causes to much CO2 loss.

 

[PaulieFish]

Well Update:

Good and bad news and well neutral.

Well went to Home Depot today and bought the wrong sand, well luckily while washing realized this cant be right, so it never made it to my tank. Went back and got "Play Sand" which I read is perfectly fine. Well I guess I ill do bad news first, my clown loach didn't make the transfer. I think I may of had them out of the water to long (had them stored in 7g buckets for about 2-3 hours) think the water got two cold and the transfer just couldn't handle it. Another bad news is my mystery snail, he is doing great, what he is doing to my tank not so much. He is leaving little slime trails everywhere that the sand is making very noticeable. I guess I never noticed it on the gravel, but the sand is making it very noticeable. My plan for my mystery snail is to post an add on craigslist for someone local to come and get him.

Good news, the tank is slowly clearing up and looking great, very happy with the outcome I just hope my buggers survive the transfer, it was a big step! Here are some pictures

Just dumped the sand in and filled it

About 20 minutes later, adding decorations, should of waited

About 5 minutes later

Most recent.

 

[Aquarium1]

Since you got playsand, you might wanna get some mts to keep toxic air pockets from forming. I'm sure WhiteDevil probably has some lol. Very nice btw.

 

[WhiteDevil]

Ill have more soon, I set up two new tanks for them and a plastic storage tote a few days ago and already have new babies so its only a matter of time till I have more available.

They dont leave slime trails, just trails that disappear rather quickly but are neat to see in the middle of the night or an hour before normal sunrise( mine come out an hourish after sunset and go back under the substrate an hour before sunrise, its odd) and they keep the sand aerated and clean.

 

[BettaBubbles]

Wow, in the last picture it looks like it's turning out really nice! I hope your fish will be alright!

 

[PaulieFish]

Most recent picture, and do MTS multiple like crazy? if so any easy way to maintain them..

Update:

Sadly more fish died.. algae eater is gone, all my tetra died off.. Actually let me just say what I have left.

Gourmai 3 out of 6
Molly 2 out of 2
Tetra ~2 out of 6 (the two arnt looking so well)
Algae eater 0 out of 1
Fry, all seem to still be alive..
Snail 1 out of 1.
Guppies all still seem to be alive for now.
Catfish 0 out of 2.
Swordfin 1 out of 1.

Took a pretty big hit converting, I feel so horrible, losing about 7-8 fish. Next time I will have a separate tank ready.

My thoughts on the sand. I would have to say I love the look, but do not know if its worth the hassle. Everytime I move something it kicks up some sand and my tank is semi cloudy for 20 minutes. I mean yes I dont move stuff often, but I feel as tho every-time I go to rearrange my tank, I am worried sand particles are going to get stuck in my babies gills and kill them. I washed the sand off best I could but I do not know if its enough. I am sure more deaths are to come, I hope not but knowing my luck my whole tank will get wiped out.

Tomorrow its off to the LFS to see the parameters of my tank, and maybe do a 20-30% water change for the next couple of days.

I dunno kind of disappointed in myself for doing this, should of just stuck with the gravel, it was working great and well yeah.. disappointed in myself, I feel like a mass murderer of fish.

Anyway off to bed for the night.

P.s - What also stinks is all of my rocks and plants have a coat of sand on them and look horrible. Ugg what a horrible night.. the fish killer is going to bed. UGG.

 

[PaulieFish]

Update:

Tank has really cleared out and fish seem a lot happier, I still have sand all over my rocks and moss, but I guess its something I will have to deal with. No of my LFS have MTS so I do not know what I am going to do.

 

[PaulieFish]

Bought these today but before I use them or if I should I was wondering what people think..

Stuff thats hard to see..

Boron (B) .... 0.029%
Chlorine (Cl) .... 0.55%
Cobalt (Co) ... .001%
Copper ...... 0.001%
0.001% Soluble Copper (Cu)
Iron (Fe) ... 2.2%
2.2% Soluble Iron (Fe)

 

[PaulieFish]

Today's dailys Picture: I think I am going to star taking a daily picture to see the changes going through my tank, and so that people have stuff to look at . Once I get my MTS its going to be picture frenzy beware!

 

[Etunes]

lol, then why dont you have mts already?

 

[WhiteDevil]

they multiply to the numbers they need to clean the place up. when there is less fodd the rate of birth slows down.

youd need about 90 assassin snails to keep the population in check, other then that, let em be and send em down the line.

 

[PaulieFish]

they multiply to the numbers they need to clean the place up. when there is less fodd the rate of birth slows down.

youd need about 90 assassin snails to keep the population in check, other then that, let em be and send em down the line.

Wait, so assassin snails, are snails that kill other snails? I don't think i could deal with 100 MTS and 90 assassin snails.

I cant wait for my shipment of MTS come Saturday, so excited. Then I am gonna let them do their work for a day or two, do some water tests, and maybe repopulate the tank with the missing fish. Or maybe get some plants actually. My current ones are not doing so well. I am trying to save my root tabs until I get more plants because I do not want to waste them.

 

[PaulieFish]

lol, then why dont you have mts already?

because there is NO one around me who have MTS. I recently talked to a member who is going to send me a bunch, im so excited!

 

[WhiteDevil]

root tabs are good for a while, like 3 months or something I think per tab.

dont get the assassins right away, I only got them and only got 6 because I got thousands of MTS in this tank and knew they wouldnt make a dent really and they havnt but they are eating like its the last time lol.

 

[PaulieFish]

Daily Update:

Rearranged somethings and added root tabs, but I checked back 30 mintues later and randomly my one molly died.. he was being eatin by my snail at the bottom of the tank..

 

[TheNamelessPoet]

I did the snapshots as well on my tank originaly in antoher forum I am in.
Original Tank had a yeast DISASTER, but I have reccently started over

Here is the "Restart" of my tank
I LOVED the java Moss when it was in my tank just keep at it because if u ignore it, it can get out of control and in EVERYTHING. The pictures Daily or every few days are a TON of fun to look at all at once in like a month because it may not seem like things crow very fast but man... when they take off...

I like your setup btw. The different rocks all together look very nice

 

[AdamHorton]

I still have sand all over my rocks and moss, but I guess its something I will have to deal with.

Try using a turkey baster to squirt the sand off. You may have to do it a couple of times and it will make your tank cloudy for a while after each time, but eventually the sand will stay off the rock.

 

[PaulieFish]

Try using a turkey baster to squirt the sand off. You may have to do it a couple of times and it will make your tank cloudy for a while after each time, but eventually the sand will stay off the rock.

I dont think my girlfriend will like me using her turkey baster for my fish tank .

 

[AdamHorton]

I dont think my girlfriend will like me using her turkey baster for my fish tank .

I bought a separate turkey baster for fish tank only use. You'd be surprised how much you'll use it if you're as obsessive as I am.