Recent content by Hooked on Fish

Quick update to share results four years after of setting up a dirt substrate (no tech) planted tank. Only maintenance is regular water changes and removing decaying plant material.

Forgot to answer your lighting question. I use 2 x Aqua One PlantGlo LED lighting. The plants seem to like it and its cheap to run. I have the lights on a siesta lighting schedule (5 hours on, 4 hours off, followed by 5 hours on again). Between that and a daily dose of glut the algae is kept...

Yep my tank is definitely a low tech setup (but that is exactly what Diana Walstad calls her method). Agree that filtration doesn't rate highly in her book but then her tanks are only lightly stocked. I figured that as I already owned an Aqua One Nautilus 2700UVC I might as well use it. A...

Hi Boet, I've had a Walstad style tank going for a little over 5 months now. So far pleased with the results. I've deviated slightly from the Walstad method in that I do a weekly 10% water change, have a reasonably heavy fish load, use a daily dose of Glutaraldehyde and every few days add...

Hi Cloaker, I recon the clown is the culprit. Below is the damage caused by a L333 pleco. It also only seemed to eat the newer leaves. I've since replaced it with an albino bristle-nose and I haven't had a repeat of the problem. As a suggestion, if there isn't a lot of algae to feed on then...

Hi Daven, I use 2 x Aqua One PlantGlo LED lighting on my 4x2x2 planted. LED is a bit expensive up front but cheap to run and the plants seem to grow well under it. Also the light really makes the colors come out in the fish.

Hi irdajoh, I don't have experience with carpet plants and their specific requirements but I can share with you my experience in setting up a dirted tank. Below is a photo taken as I was adding the "dirt" to the aquarium. I did things a little differently in that I placed a layer of course...

Wisteria gets my vote. Its easy to grow and is an attractive background plant.

Agree with Autumnsky. If you are using soft water (ie rain water/RO) then you will need to add some aquarium salts to supply K, Ca , Mg and bicarbonates. I just use a freshwater aquarium salts mix purchased from my LFS.

Hi Mom2reds, GH 12 and pH 8.2 is definitely high for plants. I usually aim for GH 6-7 and a pH between 7.0-7.4. What are you using for a substrate? This could influencing the pH and or hardness. As for the issue with the well water it's possibly high in zinc or copper. Fish are far more...

Hi Mebbid, There is nothing "super specific" about my set up. I'm using river sand and the same plants that everybody else is using. The most significant difference is instead of using a commercial soil based substrate (the're basically just baked soil) I'm using plain unprocessed. Rather...