My very first dirt planted tank

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

musicmarn1

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Feb 16, 2013
Messages
66
Location
Colorado
Hey guys,

aquascaping was harder than i realized ! so be gentle with me this is my first attempt at a dirt planted tank and my new 55g , got more plants to put in but this is it so far.

Just running one canister filter for the beta thought it still might be too much for him but he seems to be so happy actually, the tank was cycled before i planted, bacterially so now im doing heavy water changes for the
excess nutrients

i know ill get some major melting of the crypts and possibly a few others so im ready, got my new lights coming a 4 x finnex hood with two t5 ho and ill add two pink bulbs i think to replace the actinic that come as standard.

Any feedback or suggestions on arrangement is great, its a LOT of fun but phew it was hard to decide where to put all the plants i didnt realize how mucky it would get whilst doing it. :dance:
 

Attachments

  • 55gplantedirttank.jpg
    55gplantedirttank.jpg
    199.7 KB · Views: 88
  • beta55g.jpg
    beta55g.jpg
    223.4 KB · Views: 76
  • 55g day 7.jpg
    55g day 7.jpg
    232.1 KB · Views: 76
Looks good!! Is that watersprite that is bunched together in the middle left of the tank? If so you might want to separate it and plant them individually. They will bush out, and get tall. I have to trim mine every week:lol:
 
Water sprite

Looks good!! Is that watersprite that is bunched together in the middle left of the tank? If so you might want to separate it and plant them individually. They will bush out, and get tall. I have to trim mine every week:lol:

Thanks! I wasn't sure WHAT.that was, was trying to I'd it, got a pick and mix from aquabid.

Doesn't have roots yet so was thinking of leaving it bunched until they come in? Or I can spread it out and replant now, thanks again
 
Stem plants are always do better when spread out. They don't need roots to be planted. Also I've never, not once had a crypt of any kind melt when I've added them to dirted tanks. Are you using any ferts? What about CO2 or liquid carbon!
 
Crypts do tend to melt when disturbed or transitioning to submersed growth. Tank looks good!
 
not using anything yet River, this was supposed to be low tech tank but thats wonderful you never had crypt melt ! you must be doing it right, everyone else i spoke to said expect melting but that they would come back.

Also i was told by several dirt people that i didnt need co2 or frets added until later since the dirt mix has so much in it etc but i am totally open to adding more, im interested in what dry ferts to get? and id be open to getting a canister set up for CO2 i saw there was a thread somewhere that should turn into a sticky i hope :)

great to know about stem plants, really appreciate all the input everyone ! its so helpful thank you.

i DONT want to loose all these plants and i do want to do everything to make them happy.
 
I use the macro/micro mix from Greenleaf Aquariums and dose PPS-Pro. I began dosing the dry ferts by week 3 in the 220g. The reason I'd do dry ferts is they are so much more economical especially for larger tanks. There are people who don't use ferts in dirted tanks but they tend to have alot of fish and feed heavily in order to add alot of nutrients to the water from fish waste and food. With low light tolerant plants liquid ferts used 1 or 2 times a week is often sufficient but in a large tank they just get too costly.

I don't use CO2 even tho I have a high light tank. I use Liquid Carbon daily. But when using either since they aid in photosynthesis and growth plants will use more ferts, even low light tolerant plants.

Also I find that swords, crypts, and many bulb plants like Tiger Lotus do much better with root tabs even in dirt. I started adding root tabs to those plants around the 3rd month after dirting.
 
Back
Top Bottom