My 65 Gallon Low Tech Planted Tank Journal

[dragonfisher33]

Hi guys, I'm gonna setup a 65gal low tech planted tank in my parents home. The 65 gal was previously used for a variety of fish with sand substrates. Because of the stocking i previously had, i was pretty much cleaning up poop every time i do a routine maintenance. This journal will be updated weekly because I have to travel between my own house and my parents house. The round trip between two places takes two hours and I have the habit of coming over to my parents' every weekend to catch up.

My plan is the walstad method that people've been talking about and I did a lot of research into it before i made the jump. I want this tank to be as maintenance free as possible with the exception of water change and gravel clean (something easy but relaxing for my parents ).

Equipment: 65 gal tank, Eheim canister filter, heater, and possibly some diy co2
Substrate: organic potting mix, fourite substrate(these were on clearance two months ago and i grabbed then for $4 a piece, not a bad deal if you ask me)

 

[dragonfisher33]

First Step: cleaning the fish tank from before; then adding the potting mix and flourite substrate. the metal cup shows the portion size i'm going by for even distribution of the substrate. in the end, there's about 1 - 1.5 inch of substrate in total. i may need to add more substrate later on, but we'll see.

 

[dragonfisher33]

Filling in the water and skimming through the debris. The water is not as cloudy as i had imagined.

 

[dragonfisher33]

Now for the heavy hitter: these are the driftwoods that i have to work with. I might add some smaller pieces later on but as of right now, they're the center pieces. For size comparison, i've added some items for size comparison

 

[Psychocircus91]

cool, look forward to seeing it progress.
What lighting are you planning, and what are your stocking plans?

 

[dragonfisher33]

cool, look forward to seeing it progress.
What lighting are you planning, and what are your stocking plans?

lighting: should be regular HO T5. the tank will be low to medium light
stocking: not set yet. i want something that's colorful and takes flakes. i don't want my parents to feed them frozen or live worms because it will be too bothersome for them. Bioload as low as possible. i have a thing for rainbows, thread rainbows and bosem. rainbows but i understand that bose. rainbow has large bio load.

 

[dragonfisher33]

Plant list so far, to be updated later as i get more from my own fish tank
1. jungle vals
2. ruffle sword
3. ludwigia repens
4. wisteria
5. banana plant
6. echinodorus bleheris
7. crypt, don't know which species
8. java ferns
9. dwarf sags
10. some onion plant i don't know of, see last pic, the plant on the right
11. java moss
12. anubia species
13. some small swords, difficult to tell what they are now.
14. salvina for floating plant

 

[Jkeating8]

Following along!

 

[dragonfisher33]

hi guys, suggestions are always welcomed

 

[dragonfisher33]

so i have been doing my parents' fish tank for the last 3hrs. i've filled the water up and everything is cloudy right now. i will see if it clears up in the morning and take a picture of it when possible.

 

[Zimmanski]

Just my suggestion, DIY co2 probably won't do much good and will probably only help algae unless you have several large reactors and you'll be going through sugar like willy wonka. I tried the sugar yeast thing on my 75 for a while, a month and 2 whole bags of sugar later I still couldn't get co2 levels up much. If I were in your shoes I would save up for a 5lb tank and regulator with a solenoid, it would be much more consistent and would be much easier especially since you'd only be with the tank on the weekends. But really if you're only going with low light plants you may not really need added co2

Edit: looks like a great start btw!

 

[dragonfisher33]

i know i should've taken pictures as i go, but i was really occupied with the tank last night and spent 3 solid hrs on everything that i forgot to take some pictures. sorry about the lack of step by step proecess

 

[dragonfisher33]

from different angles.

 

[dragonfisher33]

here's more

 

[dragonfisher33]

Just my suggestion, DIY co2 probably won't do much good and will probably only help algae unless you have several large reactors and you'll be going through sugar like willy wonka. I tried the sugar yeast thing on my 75 for a while, a month and 2 whole bags of sugar later I still couldn't get co2 levels up much. If I were in your shoes I would save up for a 5lb tank and regulator with a solenoid, it would be much more consistent and would be much easier especially since you'd only be with the tank on the weekends. But really if you're only going with low light plants you may not really need added co2

Edit: looks like a great start btw!

tanks for your input. i'm pretty well-versed in the co2 subject. i know that diy co2 is only effective for up to 20-30gal. the reason why i want to do diy co2 is because only a few of the plants require co2 and i would like to "target feed" them. i plan on making the co2 reactor as instructed by the "tom barr" design (i forgot his name). the other plants are really low on maintenance and once they pick the nutrients out of the substrate i have i don't doubt i will have any problem growing them.

 

[dragonfisher33]

while i'm at it, i'm thinking of upgrade the lights i have (pending on craiglist or other source for used light) to somewhat medium to high lighting instead of what i have right now, which is low-medium.

 

[dragonfisher33]

so the water parameters are not what i was expecting. the pH is off while ammonia and nitrite are good



does anyone know if this is normal?

 

[Zimmanski]

Are your parents on well water? Did you add ammonia to the tank?

 

[dragonfisher33]

Are your parents on well water? Did you add ammonia to the tank?

no, this is regular tap water. the filter has healthy media that was used from previous tank. ammonia to the tank? not that i'm aware of. just water straight from the faucet.

 

[Zimmanski]

no, this is regular tap water. the filter has healthy media that was used from previous tank. ammonia to the tank? not that i'm aware of. just water straight from the faucet.

Well then looks pretty normal to me, your DW should lower the ph enough to not worry about it and with cycled media there shouldn't be any ammonia or nitrite. If the tank doesn't have fish don't forget to feed the bacteria