55 Gallon Community Tank...

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Earlybird

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Feb 25, 2013
Messages
37
Location
Egg Harbor Twp, NJ
This is my first attempt at setting up a tank. In hindsight I wish it were
planted. How difficult would it be to eventually covert to live?
 

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This is my first attempt at setting up a tank. In hindsight I wish it were
planted. How difficult would it be to eventually covert to live?

Let me tell you something, Early -- looking at this tank of yours, I can honestly say you DO NOT need to convert to live plants! I WISH I could make my 60 gallon artificially planted tank look like yours! Amazing work!

I have many of the same taller green plants you have in your tank as well, in addition to similar "natural" colored gravel/pebbles, and instead of really making a "design" as you did with yours, I simply stuffed them into the corners because they were "tall"...my tank looks NOTHING like yours, and yours is what a lot of folks doing an "artificial-but-real-looking" design should strive for, IMO...(y)
 
Thank you for the kind words. My wife helped design the layout(y)
It's been a fun hobby for the whole family. My 6 year old daughter
loves to assist with water changes and feeding time!
 
I agree with everyone else - it looks great as it is. A little forethought and planning go a long way. :)

I changed my 50 gallon to sand and plants in December, and it wasn't too tough.
I moved the fish to a few buckets while i swapped the substrate. Once that was done i bought a bunch of plants (research online and talking to intelligent shop employees helped). I arranged them how I thought they'd look best and not get in the way of others' growing. Then added some fertilizer tabs, and that was it.

Every week or two i'll dip in and trim the ones that are growing too much or dead leaves, but that's all. I think the fish prefer the live plants, the leaves have a little more give to them, and the plants help with the Nitrate breakdown (although i'm not really sure how much). And changing to live plants did add an interesting visual aspect.
 
Thank you for the kind words. My wife helped design the layout(y)
It's been a fun hobby for the whole family. My 6 year old daughter
loves to assist with water changes and feeding time!

It really looks good; I, for one, would be hard pressed in figuring out whether those were real or fake plants in there, for sure...

Do you have a background on the tank?
 
That is a really really nice looking tank, it looks great as it is. But if you did want to convert to a planted aquarium the biggest investment would be a new light. I jumped the gun and tried growing some plants without upgrading my lighting system and they fared... badly. When I upgraded my lights they looked a lot better but still weren't up to par. Then I finally started dosing fertilizers and got a growth explosion with some of my plants starting to take over my tank.

Most of the effort to convert to planted is a money investment, a decent dual T5HO light will set you back about $120, fertilizers are negligible costs, and the plants can get expensive. All in all I would say that for me it was a worthwhile investment but might not be for everybody.

I will add that in my old tank there was a noticeable drop in my normal nitrate levels after I started fertilizing. Currently I don't have enough stock to make a dent in my nitrates
 
This is my first attempt at setting up a tank. In hindsight I wish it were
planted. How difficult would it be to eventually covert to live?

I agree with everyone else it looks amazing! Very nice tank I don't usually like the fake plants but you really make it work!
 
Can you tell me where you got it and exactly what brand
it is? I am VERY interested in a background like that...

It's a Hagen Marina Reversible Background in Planted Oasis / Slate Wall. You can
get it at Petsmart or Amazon. It is not self adhesive though...ours is taped on.
 
Thank you!!

So, you're running the "slate wall" side I presume, or no?

How big do these come...or do they come off those "rolls" you have to cut in the store? If so, I could never figure these out; if I have a tank that's about 48 inches in length, how do I know how much to cut...do I just get 48 inches of background exactly? :ermm: :blink: :huh:
 
Thank you!!

So, you're running the "slate wall" side I presume, or no?

How big do these come...or do they come off those "rolls" you have to cut in
the store? If so, I could never figure these out; if I have a tank that's about 48
inches in length, how do I know how much to cut...do I just get 48 inches of
background exactly? :ermm: :blink: :huh:

It's actually the planted oasis. It came in a roll (24x48") that we had to cut
to fit the tank. The funny thing is that was the only part of the setup process
that wasn't enjoyable:banghead: Here is the tank before the backdrop. We did add a
few more plants and rearranged some since then...

55nobackdrop.jpg
 
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