Starting a 46G Planted Tank -- First Timer

[Fishperson]

My bad. If your water is soft yes buffers are important.

 

[NielsenE]

No problem From what I'm learning, our water here is quite unusual

Just got the tank planted, stirred up a lot of the substrate, so waiting for it to clear again and then I'll get a photo!

 

[sallyjano]

You can put some substrate barriers, like cut up polypropylene placemats to help block the runners from getting all over the place.

Brilliant!! I am battling keeping my vals under control. This is great!! Thx for the tip.


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[Puckhog429]

The setup looks great. I like the plant plans. Imo aq advisor is a waste of time. Also instead of a dwarf gourami and a ram i would get 3-4 rams or gouramis, not keep them mixed. Also I would up the amount of panda corys to 7-10 and add 3-4 otos. Unless you are dead set on the swordtails I would go with something else more interesting and that doesn't poop as much. Maybe a few angels? I also like rainbows a lot but never kept them and don't know anything about them.


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[NielsenE]

Here's a picture showing the current (actually this is ~1 day old) status:

I still need to attach the longer air cable for the reactor to move that down in the tank, and after another day or so when the plants are better rooted, I'll try to relocate the one cabomba that's been floating around near the front.

 

[NielsenE]

How many days after initial planting should I expect to see changes (for good or ill)?

I planted on friday Evening, so its been about 3.5 days. There's not noticeable change to me on the majority of the plants. I think I can see new growth on the S. repens, and I think I see some possible melting on the dwarf lily. I don't see noticeable new root growth, but I'm not sure I'd be able to in most cases.

Just trying to make sure I'm on the right track with no obvious bad signs. I sorta expected to see more change (probably stuff looking unhealthy) so I'm somewhat optimistic. I expect most of the plants energies are going into root growth/getting established and not into foliage growth yet.

 

[Brookster123]

Are you dosing ferts? Root tabs? Lighting schedule? Co2 levels? Water temp?

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[NielsenE]

Dosing ferts (Flourish brand liquid, Potassium, Iron, Trace according to the quantities/timing listed on their bottles), + a fishless cycle going on so there should be a nitrogen source. Planning to switch to PPS or EI once I decide which one I want to do. Root tabs near for the plants that want them.

Lighting schedule is currently ~12 hours a day (probably too long), water temp 78-80 over the course of the day

I don't have a drop checker yet, so no exact figures on the co2 levels, but I've been keeping it between 1-2bps (been aiming mainly at having a large visible cyclone in the reactor, without it overflowing).

 

[Brookster123]

Dosing ferts (Flourish brand liquid, Potassium, Iron, Trace according to the quantities/timing listed on their bottles), + a fishless cycle going on so there should be a nitrogen source. Planning to switch to PPS or EI once I decide which one I want to do. Root tabs near for the plants that want them.

Lighting schedule is currently ~12 hours a day (probably too long), water temp 78-80 over the course of the day

I don't have a drop checker yet, so no exact figures on the co2 levels, but I've been keeping it between 1-2bps (been aiming mainly at having a large visible cyclone in the reactor, without it overflowing).

Over dose seachem ferts, put root tabs by every plant or one every square inches, lights shouldn't be on more than 7-8 hours or else you're inviting algae issues. In that size tank I'd up the co2 to 4 bps, i run 1 bps in my 5.5, 2 bps in my 20 and 3-4 bps in my 30.. you're using a reactor so it's probably way more efficient than a standard diffuser which I'm using.
You don't really have to worry about gassing your fish now, obviously. .. you should def get a dc when you get fish.
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[NielsenE]

Thanks for the feedback! I'll up everything you mention when I get home tonight and I'll change my light cycle for fewer hours.

 

[Brookster123]

Alot of us actually run split photoperiods to reduce algae growth, i really hope you don't have to much trouble with it. I've been battling the algae demons for some time and it sucks..

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[NielsenE]

What timer do you like for the split photo period? I've been considering that, but the light's built in timer doesn't support it so I need to go buys one or two( I've been manually turning on/off the co2.)

I don't think I have any noticeable algae yet. Theoretically the UV sterilizer should help -- I think I've calculated out that the flow rate/dwell time sufficient to kill any algae that flows through. Of course that doesn't directly help with any that's attached to a surface.

 

[Brookster123]

I use woods digital timers, they are capable of 15 settings and have battery backup which is nice for programming. Algae is funny, many forms and causes. Just keep an eye on the tank, first sign? Take action!

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[Autumnsky]

The tank looks nice so far with different colors and textures for the plants!

 

[NielsenE]

That was one of my goals! Glad its showing.

 

[Autumnsky]

My tanks aren't on a timer (still) but I use split photo period and it works great! I run low tech though.

Fert tabs 3 inches below surface every 4 inches works well for me. If they are too close to the surface you can get cloudy water.

 

[NielsenE]

Upped the CO2 this morning, reduced the photoperiod, 10% WC, added more fertz (going from every other day to every day, today would have been an offer day)

Unfortunately I was a little too splashy/fast pouring on the WC and uprooted most of my foreground plants so had to re-plant them. I'll need to be more careful in the future.

Hoping it all helps since I think the plants are slowly declining.

 

[Fishperson]

Oh yeah, be careful about that. If you use an old milk jug to pour it in you can drill a bunch of holes in to the cap and pour water out with the cap on with the holes. It will go more slowly but if you drill more holes it will go fast enough.

 

[NielsenE]

Thanks for the tip! I'll definitely try that next time.

Came home from work and my tank is less happy More purple cabomba uprooted itself and it was fine this morning and since friday... All the top leaves (that were the nice purple/pink) are turning white in both the floating ones and the rooted ones.. And the Apon U is looking a little worse for wear. Attaching two photos, would love any attempts at a diagnosis.

 

[Brookster123]

You'll usually get some melt, the purple cabomba?? that was most likely under a ton of light with a ton of co2..

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