A Crazy Attempt at a Planted Tank

[BBradbury]

This is an old time 55 G I bought a few years ago for $40.00, that has a thick, glass cross piece. Had no clue what a planted tank was supposed to look like, let alone how to put one together. The lighting is one T8, 32 watts, I bought at Lowe's for $6.00. The plants are essentially the low to moderate light types, with a couple that require more lighting. Not really sure how they've survived so long.

The substrate is pea gravel from the LFS. The plastic pots have holes in the bottom and contain a little pea gravel at the bottom and a layer of organic potting soil covered by a little more pea gravel.

The inhabitants are 100 + or - Fancy Guppies of various shapes and sizes and 1 Albino Corydora that rarely appears.

Filtration and aeration is minimal, but I do a 50 percent water change every three weeks.

Not sure you want to try this at home. But, maybe you will just for the heck of it.

B

 

[Mr.Albiman]

You need to be doing that water change % every week and upgrade the filtration. Also the Albino Cory is a aschooling fish so should have at least 3 more of its kind to feel comfortable. It will make an appearane more often if it has schooling buddies

 

[fouldsy]

Those plants do look pretty healthy for a 32W strip light from Lowes I always struggle with plants so generally stick to Anubias and such. That's a good number of fish, even with guppies being fairly small, so I'd also suggest looking at a little more regular PWC.

 

[BBradbury]

Crazy Attempt...

You need to be doing that water change % every week and upgrade the filtration. Also the Albino Cory is a aschooling fish so should have at least 3 more of its kind to feel comfortable. It will make an appearane more often if it has schooling buddies

Hello Mr. A...

I appreciate the time you took to respond. I have an Aqua Clear 50 HOB power filter and with a lot of plants, the water conditions seem fine. Can't confirm that, don't test the water. A weekly 50 percent water change would be ideal, but I got into the hobby a little too heavily and have several other large tanks, so three weeks between water changes is the best I can do. This just turned out to be a really inexpensive experiment.

B

 

[BBradbury]

A Crazy Attempt...

Those plants do look pretty healthy for a 32W strip light from Lowes I always struggle with plants so generally stick to Anubias and such. That's a good number of fish, even with guppies being fairly small, so I'd also suggest looking at a little more regular PWC.

Hello fouldsy...

Thanks for responding. I'm in agreement with you on the plant issue. The tank is an old one and not as tall as the standard 55 G and is a little wider. Could be why the plants do a little better, they're somewhat closer to the light source. But, I try to stick to the plants requiring low light. There are a number of Anubias in this tank along with Ferns, Crypts and Singapore moss.

I do dose a couple of different kinds of liquid ferts two to three times a week when I top off the tanks. I've found low light plants need a bit more help to thrive.

More regular water changes would be a good idea, but with my other large tanks, three weeks is the norm. Am banking on the idea that more plants mean a cleaner tank and more time between water changes.

B

 

[doublenerds]

I really like this tank - it's kinda chaotic and busy, but in a good way