55g Dirt Planted

[Marconis]

Sweet, cant wait to see it planted!

It's gettin' there, lol. Last night I removed all of the paver base and soil...my apartment smells like a horse stable. I'm actually tearing down the 10g (see my thread), so I'll have some plants to move over. The rest I'm going to order on aquariumplants.com probably on May 26th (day of last final exam).

Can't wait to get this going, been too much stalling thanks to school and work.

 

[LemurLad]

Haha, we're doing practically the same thing. Tearing down our 10gals to upgrade to 55gals with dirt. What do you plan to do with your fish from the 10gal while the 55 cycles? I've heard from some guys that the dirt tanks cycle quick, but I'm not sure at this point.

 

[Marconis]

Haha, we're doing practically the same thing. Tearing down our 10gals to upgrade to 55gals with dirt. What do you plan to do with your fish from the 10gal while the 55 cycles? I've heard from some guys that the dirt tanks cycle quick, but I'm not sure at this point.

I'll probably sell them or just give them away to someone. As for a dirt tank cycling quickly, not in my experience, but every tank is different. My 10g leeched ammonia for quite some time.

Yeah, the 10 is coming down for financial reasons. The joys of being a college student, right?

 

[LemurLad]

I hear that, haha. But hey, figuring out budget ways to do this hobby is half the fun! It'll be interesting to see the side by side progress of our tanks, even if I've got a head start.

 

[Marconis]

Ha, I suppose it is. Looking forward to your build.

 

[Marconis]

Hi all.

With 2x54 T5HO 10,000K, I think I am going to give this stock a go:

Vallisneria spiralis "Italian"
Proserpinaca palustris

Please, recommend me a foreground plant that is ON THIS SITE:

Aquarium Plants Pond Plants From Sweet Aquatics

Trying to put out an order tomorrow!
Transferring from old tank:
Ludwigia repens
Rotala round.

From Jon:
Amazon sword
Sunset hygro
Ludwigia narrow

It's gonna be a big mess of stuff, but I haven't really decided on a scape yet. I think I'm going to attempt to keep the Rotala bunched and low, but that may be difficult. We'll see!

 

[LemurLad]

Your light is gonna make for a nice medium level of light, I'd go with dwarf sag because it will generally stay low whereas a lot of the other plants Sweet Aquatics has grow higher without enough light. It'll pair nicely with the vals I think too.

 

[Marconis]

Yeah I had dwarf sag once before but I never kept it long enough to see how it grew. I guess I'll go for that...I'll have a cool little grass thing going. I'm pumped for my Val jungle...I really wanted to go with some less common species, but they have been very difficult to find and if I do find them, they are expensive. I'll just start with these and slowly make my way into the more rare plants.

 

[LemurLad]

That Proserpinaca palustris does look awfully cool though.

 

[Marconis]

Right!? It's sick.

 

[mfdrookie516]

I have some... it is a very finicky plant IME. Mine almost died off when I got it, now it's coming back and looking nice though.

 

[Marconis]

I'll give it a shot!

 

[mfdrookie516]

I also have a couplle trimmings of Eichhornia diversifolia that I can send you if you want to give it a shot.

 

[Marconis]

I was looking at that plant last night, and it's absolutely gorgeous. Send them over, I'll give it a go. Thanks

 

[Marconis]

Went ahead and ordered 11 Italian Vals and 11 Dwarf sag. Got them for cheap. I'll have a nice variety to plant next week, so we'll see how everything is going to look.

 

[Marconis]

Filled:

Unlevel (water lining the first lip on the left):

Finally, the substrate I have been looking for:

Come on people, it looks like dirt on dirt! Exxcccccitedddd. After I clean up a bit, get a Subway sandwich and relax a little, I'm going to get the Fluval going, heater going and then await plants next week.

 

[daileene]

woooohoooo....i finally read the whole thread...HA! I have been missing a lot....nice job nick.....that substrate is so awesome....great find....

I am surely going to follow this build...

 

[daileene]

and if you are interested in having some cabomba, let me know coz I am always trimming. when I have new trims, I will send you some...

 

[Marconis]

The Fluval 404 is really bugging me, and giving me a huge hassle. I have a Whisper 30-60 (up to 60 gallons) that came with the tank, that I may just use in conjunction with an AC70. What do you guys think?

Water currently draining so that I can make room for HOB's at the back of the tank if I do indeed go that route...*sigh*.

 

[mfdrookie516]

Lookin good. Will look even better this time next week with all the plants in there