Pittbully's planted tank journey

[pittbully13]

Before I joined AA I was always lurking, but never shared my progression. I just wanted to put together a few pictures from when I started till now. Ok, maybe not exactly from when I started...since I don't have any pics of my glow in the dark fake plants, multicolored gravel, spongebob decor tank. Maybe this might inspire someone to take the plunge into planted tanks.



This was my 10g. It had regular flourite, some wood I collected from a stream with tied java fern, flat rock to make a cave, a twig with java moss tied to it to resemble a tree, a amazon sword and some dwarf sag. No co2 and 2 13 watt cfl



Here it is grown out. I don't remember how long it took, but looking through the pics on my old phone it seemed like a while. Took out the twig tree. It cut the fins on my betta.



Now I had the 10g for over a year I believe until I picked up this 29g from craiglist. I came with a hood, filter, heater, and some decor. I used a fake reef decor that came with it, painted it black and tied java moss all over it. Brought everything over from the 10g and had enough to fill out the tank. Oh and I bought 60lbs of fluorite black. Wish would have bought eco complete since I heard its more black.



Here is the 29g again. Power head was new.




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[pittbully13]

Herevis the 29g after sometime. The water spite was taking over. Also got a new phone with better camera.

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[pittbully13]

Heres the 29g with diy co2 and some crypts from petsmart added to the foregroung.

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[pittbully13]

Water sprite still dominating and the gel packed crypts starting to develop

The second pic I took out all if the water sprite and hastily planted a plant package I bought from jungle fowl. Just wanted to get them in there and start growing.

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[pittbully13]

Here's the 29 with about a month of growth after receiving the plant package.

The second pic is two weeks after.

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[pittbully13]

Heres the 29g two weeks later even after a move. Man it sucked moving this thing.

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[pittbully13]

Here's the 29g currently in all it's glory.







I hope you enjoyed my trip down memory lane, it was fun to see how far I've come. Its crazy to think I bought the 10g for my daughter and I just took it over...what a dad, right? I will update when I get something new. Comments and suggestions welcomed.

 

[Fresh2o]

Thanks for posting! I enjoy watching tank progressions. Sometimes you really don't appreciate growth until you see the before & after (& after, & after) pics. You've come quite a way. I did a similar pictorial on my planted tank and it was interesting to see which plants did and did not do well.

 

[pittbully13]

Thanks for posting! I enjoy watching tank progressions. Sometimes you really don't appreciate growth until you see the before & after (& after, & after) pics. You've come quite a way. I did a similar pictorial on my planted tank and it was interesting to see which plants did and did not do well.

Thanks Fresh! I've been itching to put this together for a while now (should've been sleeping last night though lol). I too enjoy the magic of tank progressions, and when it yours...it's that much sweeter. My next course of action is pressurized co2 and led lighting, but for the short term PPS pro ferts. I wish I had a lil more mula to throw around, but doesn't everybody?

 

[Brookster123]

Nice postings! Tanks come a long way..i destroyed the evidence of my glow SpongeBob tank too man. Had to be done..

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[Fresh2o]

Nice postings! Tanks come a long way..i destroyed the evidence of my glow SpongeBob tank too man. Had to be done..

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Don't worry...WE have not forgotten it.

 

[Brookster123]

Don't worry...WE have not forgotten it.

Ohh geesh..funny thing is I know there are still pics in the depths of AA's database.. i still have nightmares about it..

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[pittbully13]

Nice postings! Tanks come a long way..i destroyed the evidence of my glow SpongeBob tank too man. Had to be done..

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Thanks Brookster. Bring out spongebob!

 

[Brookster123]

Never!!! How long has the diy co2 been running? How noticeable are the benefits If any?

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[pittbully13]

In the 10g I was lazy and had a BBA outbreak and always had my lights on without ferts.

I learned to split the photo period ( 0700-1200 then 1500-1800) and change my co2 bi weekly. It helped control algae and I add a cap full of seachem flourish every two days. That's about it. Oh and spot treat algae with excel.

 

[Fresh2o]

Good to know about the split photo period. May have to try that.
You can also spot treat BBA with H2O2. Works well but the snails (MTS) hate it.

 

[fishenthusiast]

Awesome tanks!

 

[pittbully13]

Since I cut the photo period, it has work

 

[pittbully13]

Since I cut the photo period, it has work

Worked wonders. Sorry. My fat thumb accidentally hit reply before I finished with what I wanted to type.

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

Cool evolution... glad I didn't see the sponge Bob. Haha