How about some pics?

[VN]

Just wondering.... Why aren't there any pictures of plated tanks here.. I would LOVE to see some of them. Could you post some for me? ... well for everyone here.

 

[reefrunner69]

HJmmm, if I had any, I'd post them for ya. I think there are some pics of a planted aquarium in the photo gallery. I seem to remember EMS posting some, somebody help me out here.

 

[EMS503]

Planted Fish Tanks

Hi.
I have pictures of my sons 55 gallon tank with plants in the photo gallery.
Feel free to check them out & ask any questions
EMS503

 

[fishfreek]

Just posting a link to the photo gallery that EMS mentioned.

EMS planted tank photo gallery

 

[VN]

Hey thanks,
I checked out that link you posted (Photo Gallery). Pretty nice pics. Now a stupid question - as usual - how come there are no fishies in those tanks?
Do you just plant these into the gravel or do they need sand or some special soil? If you would use sand how do you clean the gravel? Wouldn't the sand get sucked out during the cleaning process?
As you can tell I know nothing about these things. I feel like such a .... anyway I should do some reading on the subject and then ask questions.

 

[EMS503]

Planted Tanks

Hi. We do have fish in my sons tank. My Digital camera is not fast enough to frezze the fish, so they appear as a blur. He has Australian Rainbows, Clown Loach's & pleco's. You just have to research the type of fish you want. Chiclids will uproot most plants, some live bearers (mollies,platty's) will eat some fine leaved plants. If you go to the user groups at the top of the page and go into that site and open the jump to section on planted tanks Myself and other members have gone into different types of substrates. You dont siphone the tank as you would a normal gravel tank you just tap the surface.If I can be of any further help feel free to contact me. Good luck

John EMS503

 

[VN]

Thanks so much!

 

[Wowzers]

Re: Planted Tanks

Hi. We do have fish in my sons tank. My Digital camera is not fast enough to frezze the fish, so they appear as a blur. He has Australian Rainbows, Clown Loach's & pleco's. You just have to research the type of fish you want. Chiclids will uproot most plants, some live bearers (mollies,platty's) will eat some fine leaved plants. If you go to the user groups at the top of the page and go into that site and open the jump to section on planted tanks Myself and other members have gone into different types of substrates. You dont siphone the tank as you would a normal gravel tank you just tap the surface.If I can be of any further help feel free to contact me. Good luck

John EMS503

Not all cichlids will uproot or eat plants. I keep cichlids almost exclusively, and almost all small cichlids won't bother plants at all. Even most of the large ones I keep are fine with plants.

 

[michealprater]

Where is Naperville? Im from keyesport Il, about 50 east of ST.louis. How far away from a major city are you VN?

 

[Guest]

I finally got a digi camera, more pics of my planted tank will be up eventually.

HOWEVER, the algae problems I'm having are driving me nuts.

Cyanobacteria, I won that battle.

Green water, defeated it also.

Current problem, 2, maybe 3 types. Staghorn or black beard algae, not sure which, looks like dirty Santa Claus beard, and clings to leaves and substrate horribly. UGLY stuff!! Also green thread algae, doesn't cling much, but grows so fast you can't believe it. Threads of this crap can grow 6 inches or more in one day. Currently pretty depressing.

Also, I researched alge eating fish till my eyes were ready to fall out. Decided on Siamese Algae Eaters, supposed to be top-notch. Well, they would rather eat flake food which p*sses me off to no end!

I WILL WIN these battles, but it could take some time. When things are more under control, I'll post pics, but not untill I'm happy with the tank.

I'm also going to post this in it's own thread.

 

[EMS503]

Corvuscorax Check your phosphates. We checked ours after we were told by a LFS that this may be the problem with our algae. It was high not drastically but elevated we did a 10 gal. water change and cleaned all (55 gal.) And put a phosphate pad in the cannister filter and now are doing 5 gal. weekly water changes, seems to be beating it down. Just a suggestion.

 

[Guest]

I have a Hagen master test kit, phosphates came out so low as to be unreadable, (under.025). checked tap water also, same result. Did this about an hour ago.

I really hate the chemistry aspect of this hobby.