My planted 20, 'inspired by seattle_aquariast'

So, I never did a journal on my old setup, but here is a picture so can see.

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obviously,  very low tech, bullet proof plants, nothing in the inert substrate etc, etc.

After seeing Roys low tech 10, and seeing what he was doing with a lowtech tank I started reading.  Hours and hours and hours of reading. I have always been inspired by the amazing works of Takashi Amano, and aquascaping or "hardscaping" in my big tanks has always been a great joy to me. In reading I have spent a bit of time on a few sites, and looking at all the different approaches that are taken by people. From Walsted, and Dustin, who LOVE dirt. To the green machine, who loves adding 3 types of substrates, and 100 different slow release in substrate additives, in very specific orders. To the massive controversy over "ADA vs ________". I have read over a dozen "beginners guides" and many "lighting and co2 balancing" articles. With all the overwhelming,  and varying opinions that are out there, I found an excellent article by Richard T. Pon and would encourage anyone thinking about starting a planted aquarium to start there, or here \/ rather.
Ironically its a cichlid forum link. [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] another great one here, with a link on it to another good one for no excel or Co2.

I also did a lot of other reading, anyway. I decided by the previously posted article on a baseline of ferts, I'm going all seachems,  starting with excel everyday, @ 1.5 the recommended dose, followed by flourish 2x a week for the trace and micros, and seachems Potassium for,,, well potassium. I have no current intention to add phosphorus, or nitrogen based off of the information I have found in several places like this one,  
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I'm sure, I will be adding root ferts here and there, because of the few heavy root feeders I have.

My chosen substrate is already iron rich, again seachems 'flourite mixed with floramax'. I ordered some plants, and took the plunge. Lets see how it turns out. Follow along, this should be interesting

FTS
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Cryptocoryne parva,  
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Dwarf chain sword "narrow leaf"
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bacopa carolinia left rear
some kind of emersed rotala, infica I think
right rear,
unknown crypt front
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This was with the rotala, emersed vs submerged I assume.
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Java fern trident.
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and java moss,
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I'm waiting on another shipment of plants that will be here on Monday,  it will include, ludwigia repens, gold lloydiella, purple cabomba,  and a few odds and ends stems for me to try. I payed the average price for two "bunches, and asked for 2-3 stems of 4-6 various species,  so I could see what I like, and,  what likes me.

Because this aquarium can be viewed from the front and the left side, I wanted to go with a traditional triangle nature style layout. Thanks for viewing.

Lookin' good nice pictures! I always love seeing progress pictures

Should be fun, thanks Poke:) I forgot to add specs.

Tank: 20L
Filter: mag hot
Lighting: mailbox see link \/v\/
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No fish, planning on embers and/or neon greens.

Man, that's pretty genius! Kudos for making that light work for your tank!!

Thanks, I need to build a.... I don't know what to call it, a way to suspend it above the tank so it can be open top.

a...suspending light fixture doo hickey... lol, I think I totally get what you're trying to describe

Very nice planted tank!

Both tanks look great Anthony J.! Defiantly will be watching this thread for updates

Thanks guys, just ordered weeping moss this mourning to go over that large hunk o wood. Should be interesting, I have never been successful with moss, I have that java moss, but I want to use that in another tank.

Hi Anthony J.

It is a very good looking start; give it a few weeks to settle down and fill in and then re-evaluate. Mosses typically are easy but because I dose Excel/glutaraldehyde (along with my other ferts) and mosses don't seem to do well with Excel I don't do mosses in my tanks.

I do excel as well, guess I will just try it in another tank too so I don't lose it. Thanks.

Well, I just wanted to do an update since the bulk of my plants came in yesterday, and I have decided to head in another direction with something. I have dropped my excel dosing over the last few days to half the recommended dose. So, in doing some research, I have decided to go injected co2. But, this will not happen for a week or so as I still have to source some parts,  wait for delivery etc. The reason is I don't want to lose my cryptocoryne parva,  they are expensive, and took a few weeks to track down. The parva, willow moss, and trident are the plants that I set this tank up for. Those three and a few stems, I was inspired by a non co2 tank, and it made me want to go further and further, and then when my mind was set on some crypts and moss, and I heard they don't do the best with excel, I made my mind up. Anyway, the update goes like this.

I received 4 stem plant species,  to go with my rotala indica,  and my bacopa caroliniana. I ordered gold lloydiella, purple cabomba, and ludwigia repens red. I also told the guy, that I would pay for a 4th stem bunch, and he could surprise me, so he sent Alternanthera reinecki, which is a nice plant, but the leaves seam I bit large for a 20L. Anyways, here's some pictures.


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This java fern trident seems happy, new growth
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And a shot from my pillow.

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I still have a few days before my willow moss gets here, its coming from the UK,  so has some traveling to do. The plan is to see which stems I want to keep where. And get rid of a few when I figure out what will and will not work long term. I am mostly trying to increase my knowledge and experience with many different types of plants. The "idea" and layout has not changed, and I am still going to be using the triangle layout. And its going to be fun shaping and finding the best placement of the stems while my trident and foreground grow in. Thanks for looking and reading.

Changed a few things, added a few more pieces of petrified wood and pulled the branch that was sitting on them out, transplanted the trident to the big log in the scape.  And did a major trim on some of the stems, replanting them into the substrate. Still to go on this tank is my co2 system, I have most of the parts, waiting on a few coming in the mail. Hopefully by next weekend.

 I added fish too, 20x ember tetras, 6x oto cats, also a few inverts 2x bumblebee nerite snails and a single amano shrimp.

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The embers.
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and, just so I don't have to start another thread. I have rescaped 2 more tanks this weekend. A 10, and a 40 tall.

The 10, inhabitants 4x xiphophorus nezahualcoyotl 'ocampo' (1m/3f). and 1 oto catfish.
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the 40, inhabitants 12x C121, 12x C. Plateus, 10x black neon tetra, 2x xiphophorus mayea (1m/1f) 2x oto catfish.
Still cloudy, just rescaped a few hours ago.
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Thanks for looking.

Would you stop already, getting that itch & I have a 20L & 30 bow front needing set up.... Lol!

Looks great Anthony J. It'll take time, but once these tanks begin to fill out they will be awesome!

Thanks, I'm excited. It took Roys 10 gallon journal to really push me back into it. And I really needed a side project to help me get through until I set up my 500. 3 planted tanks, 5 c. America biotopes, and 2 growouts... should keep me busy until I save up the roughly $1200 its going to cost to set this big boy up. And I made sure I got plenty of slow growing plants so I don't get to overwhelmed.

I had most of this stuff just laying around anyway, even had a lot of the live stock. I only purchased the tetras, the amano shrimp and alot of the plants. I had most of the lighting, hardscaping, some old ferts, a few bags of fluorite etc. So its not like I went nuts. I just set it up. The light from the mailbox buil is new, and the co2 system I'm getting, but those are justifiable.

You should set those tanks up

Very effing nice tanks.

Not sure how I missed this thread...WOW...great looking tanks. Love the short rock columns in the one tank. And your pieces of wood are ginormous. Will look for updates as things fill in. What substrates did you use in the last two tanks? And what is your lighting?

Thanks sirwes,

Donna, substrate in 10 Is floramax, and the 40 tall is almost all inert because thmajority of the plans are ferns and anubias. In the back left under the melon sword and val there is a floramax mixed with sand at about an 8/1 ratio for a little needed depth.

Alot of people hate on floramax, but from what I have seen of it, it has everthing I like in a plant substrate. Its texture allows for absorption and retention of nutrients, and also creates a good rooting surface. The granule size allows for a fair amount of exchange. I would say its lightweight feeling is its only major drawback. I use root tabs where I have root feeders, and do small additions of flourish for micros, and feed heavy and overstock for macros. Regular water changes replace most trace. I will be on the look out for any shortages in all ares and go from there.

Hi Anthony J.,

All of them are looking really good! I think I like your 40 gallon with that awesome piece of mopani wood in there; it adds a lot of drama to the aquascape.

Oh, and the wood is from an old south american tank I had, I love those two pieces.thanks for the kind words Donna.

Thanks Roy.

So, an update. I did a very heavy pruning a few days ago and didn't take pics ahead of time (right palm to forehead "DOOOHH"). Anyways will share regardless, I have added another 30-40 plants of cryptocoryne parva, as well as a wendtii 'tropica', and a pressurized Co2 system. The Co2 . As been running for 4 days now and I started at 1 bp 2 seconds for 3 days, and today bumped up to 1 bps. This is a very simple co2 setup, and my first, but I already see the small (but managable) issues of not having a solenoid,  and duel pressure regulator. For now, this will work nicely though, and I can easily transfer it to another tank in time. I am having an issue with an algae I have never dealt  with before, stringy crappy, wants to go into my filter algae. But, that aside here are some photos and a video as well.


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And a video.
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Sorry, not a huge update,  just taking it slow to achieve a very dpecigic look. Critiques and comments are more then welcome. Thanks for looking.

New additions, pogostemos helferii, rotala walichii, ludwigia repens, ludwigia sp. red, mystery plant (??ID PLEASE??) and super tiger shrimp.


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a few changes, title says low tech haha, not anymore, funny how things change. Thanks for looking

Looks good. I am working on eradicating stringy algae stuff in one of my small tanks as well. Its probably an abundance of nurturance, especially if you did a major change, like cutting back A BUNCH of plants, then adding the CO2 on top if that probably didn't help.

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some pictures too

Thanks Chad man. I want it to grow back to where it was a week ago, but bushy, hence the trim.... And now I wait   

Its actually only been setup again for a little while, I had to break it down to get rid of snails, but I won the battle and the rank has been up again for 2 or 3 weeks. I had that problem for the first month of this tank before, after that time, it cleared up. So I'm hoping it's the same new tank "crud"

Your last set of pictures, 5th down from the top. There is a plant, looks like it has spikes, or fingers like a insect eating plant. I can't figure out what that is but its pretty neat looking. What is it?

I really like the layout of the tank and love those pieces of petrified wood. Looks good!

It might be my current favorite :)commonly called sawtooth hygrophila, but is not a hygro at all. Also called mermaid, mermaidweed, and marsh weed, but it grows kinda slow, not like a weed at all. The immersed form looks nothing like the submerged form and it was fun watching it go through the transformation.

scientific name is. Proserpinaca palustris and a few links
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and where I purchased mine.
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Betty wrote:I really like the layout of the tank and love those pieces of petrified wood. Looks good!

Thanks Betty.

That's a big difference between the immersed & submerged. Thanks for sharing the website too. Ill be surfing around there for the next hour or so!

Lol, the guys who run that online store are great. Jflesh and mrmom. They both have YouTube channels. MrMom is freaking hilarious, and he doesn't even know it. Shipping is a little pricey, but great quality. Good guys, and they announce what's new in the shop on their channel/s every Wednesday.
They have sp. japan right now.