[plantboy3]

My 10g (50x30x30xm) planted tank has had the same scape for 6 months and I think its time for a change. OK in the new tank I wanted to try a few more challenging plants notably glosso and submerged riccia. For substrate I was thinking of upgrading from gravel inriched with laterite to eco complete. My current lighting includes 2x15W T8s do you think this will be enough? Filtration is a 380L/h internal filter. For Co2 I will continue to use seachem excel as I have had great results from this product and prefer the slower growth.
My fertilising regime uses seachem flourish 3 times a week if my plants suffer deficiances I will also dose macros.
plants will include

rotala rotundifolia
glosso
riccia
crypts
dwarf blyxa
red tiger lotus
hemianthus micranthemoides

The focal point will be the red tiger lotus positioned in the golden ratio.

stock will include what I currently keep in this tank

10 hengel rasboras
5 red cherry shrimp
5 glass shrimp
1 oto

How does my proposed set up sound?

 

[plantboy3]

Does anyone have any suggestions?
What I really want to know is whether or not glosso and riccia will grow in this setup?

 

[plantboy3]

I would love to use ADA aquasoil but no shops around here sell it.

The lights are an Aquaone AL 18" reflector, so it has an inbuild reflector with it. The bulbs will be new becasue i was planning on changing them for the rescape with 2x6800K bubls.

 

[plantboy3]

Yes i have found australian web sites selling Aqua soil such as this one http://www.aquariumproductswholesale.com although i have never bought anything over the internet and am nervous about doing so.

 

[plantboy3]

Ok Thanks for that
I might be going to my LFS tomorow so I will see what they have.

 

[plantboy3]

Ok so i went to my LFS today and they were only selling flourite, flourite red and onynx sand. So I have decided to do what Tex gal suggested with the root tabs. I bought a 10kg bag of 3mm black gravel and soem root tabs. i plan on using the root tabs and some laterite mixed in with the gravel. There is some brown graisn of gravel mixed in with the black and apparently this raises hardness and pH. but this should be ok because my tapwater comes out at around neutral and 1 dh so it needs hardening anyway,

 

[plantboy3]

yes i have read the aritcle and i am actually in the procees of mineralizing a small amout of soil at the moment beacuse i was planning on trying it in a small tank soon with the plants i dont reuse in the rescape. The one thing about using it on the rescape was that i have the fish and shrimps already and was planning on returning them to the tank within a couple of days of the rescape. Does this mineralized soil release much ammonia after the addition to the tank? would this ammonia clear away quite quickly if a cylced filter was used? If i used soil in my substrate i wouldnt be able to move my plants around much or would i be able to do it with little drama?
BTW the fish and shrimp wont be added back into an uncylcled tank because the cycled filter im currently usuing will go with them to the QT tank.

 

[plantboy3]

yeah
Well i guess theres no other way to find out unless i experiment. But if it doesnt work out i will have to try and track down Amazonia.

 

[plantboy3]

do u mean a picture of what its like currently or after the rescape?