15 Gallon - Lots of pictures

Here's a tank I set up in September of last year. Unlike the 75 Gallon I really posted I planned this one out to be a planted tank from the beginning.

It's got a commerical substrate, 55 watts of CF, a HOB filter, I put DIY co2 on the tank at some point and it's still up and running.

I acquired all of the fish from NANFA members, the swamp darters are from Nativecollector and Bob Bock, and I got the Killifish from Dustin.

Here's me starting the initial set-up - 9/7/08



9/14/08 - There's bacopa and dwarf sag in there that I eventually removed, as well as some rotala and ludwigia, fissidens moss on the hardscape and micro-swords in the foreground.



10/07/08 - Having a nutrient rich substrate really makes a difference in plant growth.



10/28/08 - I'd removed the Bacopa and started spreading the Ludwigia and and Rotala around a bit.



Side shot from the same date



12/2/08 - You can really see how the foreground and moss is starting to fill in



12/22/08 - Background starting to fill in nicely and you can see my new bluefins!



1/5/09 - After a trim



2/24/09 - Last week, I'm thinking of re-doing the foreground.

What's your substrate? I just set up a 20H a few months ago with (not enough) fine sand and 1" of Flourite on top. Other than java fern and java moss I'm not doing too hot. I can't keep Val let alone ludwigia. I suspect I'm a little light deficient (20W), but things were going great for a while with extended light and a solid layer of duckweed on top. I'm embarassed to admit that after a vacation the duckweed that I've had for 2.5 years crashed (seriously who kills off duckweed?) and now it's a losing battle. I'm thinking it's time to tear down and start over since what you had is what I was hoping to have again, just smaller.

Nice arrangement of plants too.

Very nice!

Beautiful tank!

I'd be very interested to hear about your substrate too... I am playing with a sand, peat moss, and fired clay combo right now with my exotic freshwater fishes. Brian Zimmerman has been using something similar for his softwater fish and was the one who gave me the idea. Here's a thread where I went through the combo:

http://www.traccentr...ts/Default.aspx

There's more to it after the initial back and forth "that's nice" stuff. We got into mineralized soil and that might be a cool topic for our plant forum here.

So far, I'm really liking the ease of putting together and the growth I'm seeing with the peat.

One thing I've noticed tho... The plants don't seem to be as resilient to hydrogen peroxide additions to control algae. I put some in to polish off the "new tank syndrome" algaes and totally melted my giant vals that were jamming. They've already resprouted, but they lost most all of their leaves. I wonder if the softer water contributes to this? I dunno.

But that's the only thing I haven't liked so far. I have crypts just jamming that I've never been able to grow.

Todd

Edited by farmertodd, 02 March 2009 - 03:45 PM.

Aquatic soil perfection...is that the fired fractured clay material you are using Todd? Ah play sand, sadly scarce when I need it late in the year and I settled for "aquarium sand" (i.e. more exspensive and crappy).

Two years eh, wishful thinking...?

Great tank, Patrick! Nice work!

Brian

Yeah that's the stuff Matt. I'm not sure how much iron is in it, if any. I guess I need to know more molecular people. Maybe the remediation guys would have a way to measure it. Hmmm...

Todd

Very nice tank Patrick! Looks great.

What's your substrate? I just set up a 20H a few months ago with (not enough) fine sand and 1" of Flourite on top. Other than java fern and java moss I'm not doing too hot. I can't keep Val let alone ludwigia. I suspect I'm a little light deficient (20W), but things were going great for a while with extended light and a solid layer of duckweed on top. I'm embarassed to admit that after a vacation the duckweed that I've had for 2.5 years crashed (seriously who kills off duckweed?) and now it's a losing battle. I'm thinking it's time to tear down and start over since what you had is what I was hoping to have again, just smaller.

Nice arrangement of plants too.

Matt -

I used this stuff ADA Amazonia and in the foreground I used Black Flourite sand. It would be tough to buy more expensive dirt than the Amazonia, but man, that stuff can grow some plants

PS If you need some plants let me know, it kills me to throw a bucket load out every few weeks!

Edited by pmk00001, 03 March 2009 - 06:54 PM.

Beautiful tank!

I'd be very interested to hear about your substrate too... I am playing with a sand, peat moss, and fired clay combo right now with my exotic freshwater fishes. Brian Zimmerman has been using something similar for his softwater fish and was the one who gave me the idea. Here's a thread where I went through the combo:

http://www.traccentr...ts/Default.aspx

There's more to it after the initial back and forth "that's nice" stuff. We got into mineralized soil and that might be a cool topic for our plant forum here.

So far, I'm really liking the ease of putting together and the growth I'm seeing with the peat.

One thing I've noticed tho... The plants don't seem to be as resilient to hydrogen peroxide additions to control algae. I put some in to polish off the "new tank syndrome" algaes and totally melted my giant vals that were jamming. They've already resprouted, but they lost most all of their leaves. I wonder if the softer water contributes to this? I dunno.

But that's the only thing I haven't liked so far. I have crypts just jamming that I've never been able to grow.

Todd

Hey Todd - Thanks for the compliment, I'm a big fan of your tanks

Click on the Amazonia link I gave Matt and you'll see that the substrate does what yours is doing. I'm gonna keep an eye on that thread because I sure as heck can't afford to redo my 75 with Amazonia LOL

One interesting thing about the aqua soil that they don't mention in the description is that it's loaded with ammonia, the works it way out of the soil in the first two weeks or so and cycles your tank without fish. I've got a 10 gallon or so tank that's just amazonia and I grow just about grow any plant in it (diy co2 as well).



Check this out Mineralized Soil, it's pretty popular with the local plant guys, it looks way too much like work though to me.

I've melted a few vals in my day, either with Excel or Peroxide. I wouldn't be surprised if the soft water played a role. Crypts love soft water, many are tough enough to grow in anything but they really thrive in soft water.

pH may play a role in how plants react to the peroxide.
Todd is the fired clay red in color at all? [haven't read the link yet]
I wonder if I could grind some up and mix with water and use my Hach DR/890 colorimeter [for water samples]. I can run several different tests to measure ferrous and total iron in water samples.
Sure do wish I could find the red clay kitty litter I used to use years ago. I wish I bought a ton. Haven't seen it for years. All the pure clay kitty litters are grey or white. Besides having little iron [I suspect], the white and grey clay seem more slimy and prone to ooze up through the cover sand. The red clay kitty litter was grainier and stayed put. I think I paid like $3.00 for an 8 lb bag.

Hey Patrick , thanks!

Yeah that's a much cleaner link than the one my fellow club member post. I think it arrives at that page eventually, but it's nice to just have the link straight up. I may give that a shot in a 10 gallon once it's warmer out to see what kind of difference it makes.

Wow that is some expensive dirt. I think I'll use my brain and time, not my wallet on that stuff! lol

Mike, the substrate is a gray color, and I'm concerned it's just inert. I found out my advisor can pulverize stuff and at least see if there's any isotope spikes, so I'm going to ask him to run a couple. That kitty litter sounds like the real deal.

I wonder if you can get the modelling clay that they use in the mineralized soil, bake it slightly and bust it into chips? That might be the cheapest way to go. Then the iron would be readily available by root. I've use soluable Potash and then epsom salt in the past to make up the other macro nutrients, and that's cheap and easy to do without having to feel like a mad chemist.

Todd

very nice aquascape....... Keep up the good work.

I wonder if you can get the modelling clay that they use in the mineralized soil, bake it slightly and bust it into chips? That might be the cheapest way to go. Then the iron would be readily available by root. I've use soluable Potash and then epsom salt in the past to make up the other macro nutrients, and that's cheap and easy to do without having to feel like a mad chemist.

I've tried Turface as a substrate (the fine stuff that they sold at one point - I don't think they make it that fine now). It is a similar idea - a baked clay. I wasn't pleased with the results. Not surprising, though, when I think about it. The good part about clay is that it provides great root contact and high cation exchange capacty. When baked into tiny bits, the root contact is no better than fine gravel. CEC is slightly reduced, too. I think I'll just stick to dirt that contains clay. BTW, most people have ready access to clay if they just did down in their yard. Soil is layered in horizons, there is usually a clay-rich layer under the topsoil.

Very nice tank! Reminds me of an Amano set up!
D

So when you fire it, you basically eliminate all the surface area inside the "shell"? Makes a lot of sense to me. So something that's fired all frilly like would be a trade off... You loose the interior, but you have stable, non-messy product to work with?

Todd

Wow that is some expensive dirt. I think I'll use my brain and time, not my wallet on that stuff! lol

Yeah, importing dirt from Japan is kind of crazy but saying that it's not that much more expensive than other commercially available substrates and in my experience it's head and shoulders above the rest.

I wouldn't use it for anything above 20 gallons though. (unless I win the lottery), I'm thinking if I ever get around to setting up a larger planted tank (55+ gallon) I'd seriously consider just using an inert substrate and fertilizing through the water column. Should be about a year before I set up a big planted tank, I'm hoping you guys work out the ultimate DIY solution in the interim

So when you fire it, you basically eliminate all the surface area inside the "shell"? Makes a lot of sense to me. So something that's fired all frilly like would be a trade off... You loose the interior, but you have stable, non-messy product to work with?

Todd

Pretty much.

Oh - to add - you have a non-messy product to work with that is also very light and can be easily pushed around by the fish, thus uprooting your plants...

Beautiful tank! I've always loved the look of stems just never wanted to take care of them. Kudos to all your time, it turned out exceptionally well.

I'm gonna keep an eye on that thread because I sure as heck can't afford to redo my 75 with Amazonia LOL

Patrick and others who may be interested in my soil concoction... I updated the thread. This link will take you there so you don't have to deal with all of the annoying scrolling, just some

http://www.traccentr...ts/Default.aspx

I'm only posting this because I may be doing a disappearing act with fixing my house and then field season, and I'd hate for someone to get a question, and I not see the post. But, just maybe, y'all will enjoy the exotics a bit. It's no welaka, but how can you go wrong with a neon pink nose "shiner"?

Todd