[Conesus_Kid]

This tank was formerly a reef aquarium, (I now do my reefing in my classroom ), so decided to convert my home tank to a FW planted.

Substrate is cheap topsoil from Walmart with a black gravel cap. No CO2 or ferts w/ a dual 40w shop light fixture.

The tank has been set up for a couple of months, with fish additions beginning about three weeks ago.

Thanks for looking!

Scott

 

[tames]

Very very nice tank!

 

[Tex Gal]

Those apons are so beautiful. So how are you liking the freshwater side.

 

[leodeal384]

I love it! It looks very natural...
What kind of floaters are you using? It looks like duckweed? For some reason, that is one of the few plants I can't keep alive!!

 

[Conesus_Kid]

I had freshwater tanks since I was a teen, (now a thirtysomething), but never had live plants. I'm really enjoying the low-maintenance aspect of this (vs. the reef aquarium).

The floaters are duckweed that hitchhiked in on a plant order. I guess you could call it a bonus!

 

[dwalstad]

It is a nice looking tank, and I hear your enthusiasm.

A couple things to monitor:

I hope that the rocks/driftwood shown in your pictures are not covering the gravel/soil. If so, the rocks may prevent the necessary oxygen exchange between water and soil. Over time, a "sealed substrate" can become severely anaerobic and kill rooted plants and endanger the fish.

Also, make sure that you replace the light bulbs within a year. Ordinary fluorescent bulbs like shop-lights can lose half of their intensity within 6 months.

Perhaps you are already aware of these issues. If not, my comments may be helpful.

Good luck!

 

[m-jackson]

Ah Quite a few I think would not believe such nice looking low tech lower light tank. It is nice. I used to keep quite a few plant with only a watt a gallon. Sometimes it is harder to get it going but you don't have to trim as much. One of my favourite tanks in the past was a crypt and echinodorus sp? with hap. livistoni , hap. venustus(both species about 5 inches, less than 1 inch when I got them). It had just a single strip light but about once a year I had to separated all of the new swords(and others) out to other aquariums. Btw. lfs swore the were only livistoni but after digging thru the lit(diffences in the layout of the spots) I saw that one time they sold me one species(4 or 5) and the other species(4 or 5) the next. I try to always have at lest eight if I can.