fishnvw

Ok so I'm brand new posting on this forum. I have been reading a lot since I got a Takashi Amano book. And needless to say I have been to this forum to read several dozen times. So I will cut to the chase here. Here is the tank.



Its a 3 gallon hex with a built in filter. I took out the carbon because I hear that best for keeping ferts and trace elements in your tank. So I have a sponge for filtering out detrius and a couple of bio balls and it has a biowheel as part of the system. I have a colormax 10 watt c/l bulb in the fixture and there's a built in reflector. The sand and plants that are in there are not staying they are from my sons community very very low tech tank. I put them there for the cycle and to tinker with scape ideas. On Friday I plan on taking the plunge into a real planted tank. Prior to this I have only stuck plants in gravel and said please live and crossed my fingers.

I'm going to tell you my plans and you tell me if it will work or not. If not please give suggestions. I want to be succesful here the first time and I'm sure I will make some mistakes as we all do. So for substrate I'm going to go with eco-complete or like. I am not doing co2 but plan on dosing excel on a daily basis. Here's my first question what is a good all in one liqued fert? I would prefer to not have to do 30 different ferts, this is my first planted tank and I don't want to feel overwhelmed. My other 6 tanks (including a reef) are a little work but I know I can do more just want to keep it simple for now. As for plants here is the list of what I would like to keep, let me know what you think. Anubias nana (petite), riccia fluitans (carpet style), java moss, dwarf hairgrass, and micro sword. Does anyone see anything that won't work here? I have read a few places that riccia does and does not do good with excel. But I figured I would try it and see how it does. So thank you ahead of time for any suggestions and comments.

gheitman

As far as ferts go I would suggest Flourish in addition to the Flourish Excel you already plan to use. You might also want to get Flourish Tabs to help your micro swords. I'm not sure how well Riccia will do in your tank. It might be more work than you want since you are just starting out.

fishnvw

Would you say its more prep work or pruneing and keeping? Thanks for the suggestions on ferts. Will do.

gheitman

It requires high light and CO2 injection if you are trying to grow it attached to something. Checked out the plant profile at http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/f...us&spec=Riccia.

fishnvw

I see. Well when I was researching diffrent species of plants to keep micro swords and riccia where the two that I read may not do well. But then I came across a picture calender someone had done with riccia. It was over 6 weeks. They did the riccia in 2 wpg with co2 on one tank and excel in the other. The outcome was just slower and less full growth. So I figured I would try it since I really like it. Do you have any ideas for something that might do better and have the same light color as it? I also really like how it pearls up. Are there any other plants that do this that I might add to my scape? Thank you for the advice. I am hoping to have a real cool outcome wtith this hex. I thought it would be kind of challenging to scape something that is to be viewed from 3 diffrent angles. Hopefully its not to challenging since this is going to be my first real aquascape. I have two 5.5 gallon tanks a 10, 20, 20L, and 25 tall that I will choose from with my next scape if all goes well with this one. I'm just trying to get a little experiance first. Once again thanks for the help.

gonathan85

A bit of advice: When you remove the sand and add your new substrate, you might notice a water parameters fluctuation. This could interrupt a complete or almost complete cycle.

fishnvw

Even if the bio media dosent change? Wow I did not know that. Well its not a big deal there is no fauna as of yet. So I will just test in a week after adding the new substrate and go from there. Thanks for the tip.

I'm still trying to find another carpet type plant. Every where I look says they all need better lighting. I could use java moss but I plan on using the moss on my driftwood and really wanted a color contrast. Does anyone have any suggestions? I thought my light was pretty good for the size of tank but after a little more research it seems since the tank is a little deep and the light is compact flourecent that I am running in the med/low light range. I was following the wpg rule and then found out that rule is a generalization for larger tanks and goes out the window with smaller tanks. Thanks for reading.

gonathan85

I've personally noticed a change in water test results after switching out substrate, however, I had been using gravel. I know the gravel collects waste from the aquarium, and that the bio bacteria grows on this waste. Since you're using sand at first, results might be different..no experience with sand substrate here.

You could always try for a higher wattage bulb...

fishnvw

Ok so while I was empty and toying with hard scape ideas I thought I would figure out exactly how big my tank was. So I took a 5 gallon container and dumped it in. It all fit. So now I have a little issue what I thought was about 3.3 wpg is really only 2. So I scratched the riccia and I'm scratching the micro sword in place of the micro sword I'm gonna put some java fern. And in place of the riccia I'm going with a dwarf hairgrass carpet. So final plant list is anubias, java fern, java moss, and dwarf hairgrass. I think all of these are low light plants. Anybody know anything diffrently? Also how should I dose the excel and the flourish as per the bottle or should I do less because of less light? And should I still use root tabs? Thanks for the help. I really need it and I am going to pick all this up tomarrow after work so if it sounds good please feel free to chime in and let me know. Thank you.

You know at first I though of this as bad. But after a little thought I am happy. Because I wanted a dwarf puffer but would not put one in a tank smaller then 5 gallons. But guess what my tank is 5 gallons. Ahhhh the bright side of things.

fishnvw

So this is what I came home with and this is how I threw it together to follow.

Plant list
Anubias nana
Java moss
Lace java fern
Java fern
Dwarf hairgrass
Banana plants

Now for the pics sorry there bad from my phone. Best camera I have.













Thank you for looking. Comments welcome. This is my first planted tank and really want to learn to do this well. But take it easy on me if I messed up somewhere please. As I said this is attempt #1. If I like keeping this I will probably set up a 20 that I have.