# Australian Native setup



## Noddy65 (Jul 8, 2005)

Hi all
Heres the photos of the setup...there is some partial nudity (you have to have your shirt off when doing this sort of work).

The tank has T5 flouros, reflectors only on the front ones for better penetration for the low growing plants.
It has pressurised CO2 and I fert every few days. This will take some tweaking as I'm not sure exactly how many of these plants will grow.

The setup. Bags of compost, gravel, laterite and tubs ready for the fish.









The tank prior to stripping. Its a 5 x 2 x 2 with T5 lights. No CO2. Plants at this stage are Narrow Val, Chain swrod and a mix of crypts. Oh and lots of duckweed.









The 'stripping' starts. I warned you about nudity. (Im gonna have to get some stick on hair)









There was a LOT of vallus in there. Ended up filling the bathtub.


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## Noddy65 (Jul 8, 2005)

Tank is now almost empty, just the last few fish to catch in the mud on the bottom.









Tank is now empty. I left a thin layer of mulm on the bottom. The theory was that it would contian good bacteria and help with any cycling probs.









I then put down a layer of laterite sourced form perth and also a layer of water lilly Compost. the laterite is about 1 cm thick, poting mix about 3 -4 deepending on if its at teh front or back of tank. I made it thicker at the back.









Substrate is finished. topped with a nice think layer of standard fine gravel


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## Noddy65 (Jul 8, 2005)

Heres a closeup of the substrate.









Water is in, lights are on no fish yet.









Time for a cup of teat.









And of course the long suffering wife.


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## Noddy65 (Jul 8, 2005)

Heres a pic a few days later, I have some GW issue now and will wait a few days for the water to clear.









And one of the plants. I think its a Native Water sprite..Ill have to do some research and will post pics and labels when the plants have grown more.









Mike


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## Noddy65 (Jul 8, 2005)

Some of these plants are really fantastic...I'm pruning and propagating some of the stem plants that only have a few shoots...everything is growing well.

Ive got a fantastic Val that is red on the leaf ends...really nice plants..Update:









So far the species list is: 
Aponogeton euryspermus 
Aponogeton vanbruggenii 
Aponogeton tofus 
Aponogeton unknown species 
ELATINE GRATIOLOIDES 
Maidenia rubra 
Hygrophila angustifolia 
Ceraptopteris thalictroides 
Potamegeton tricarinatus 
Limnophila aromatica 
Limnophila sp. 
Rotala mexicana 
R. occultiflora 
and a few species of native Val

Mike


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## erik Loza (Feb 6, 2006)

Great tank. Thanks for sharing.


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## DJKronik57 (Apr 17, 2006)

Great tank! Are you going to put in some native Australian fish as well? Some of the rainbows you can get over there are amazing. I love the tank stand/wine rack combination...you'd never see that over here!


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## AaronT (Apr 26, 2004)

Very nice setup you have there. Thanks for sharing.  I know you all have trouble importing new species, but at least you have tons of awesome native plants! I know I'd love to get my hands on those Rotalas.

Keep us updated on how things progress.


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## Cliff Hui (Dec 25, 2005)

HAHA........ your wife's reaction is so funny......... ^^

nice tank and nice sharing!!


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## Tankman (Feb 19, 2006)

Your tank looks like its coming on very well ;-)


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## pineapple (May 4, 2004)

Got a lot of potential there. The fish are not Aussi natives though, are they? I would have loved to have seen some species of rainbows. That would make the tank special, IMO. I expect you have some native forms of Eleocharis as well which might go well there.


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## erik Loza (Feb 6, 2006)

pineapple said:


> Got a lot of potential there. The fish are not Aussi natives though, are they? I would have loved to have seen some species of rainbows. That would make the tank special, IMO. I expect you have some native forms of Eleocharis as well which might go well there.


Yeah, that. Dude, we can see angelfish any time we want. Get your net and ice chest and go catch some Rainbows. Seriously, that's a nice tank but the fish are out of place. Your wife won't let you get rid of them, right?


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## jassar (Jul 30, 2006)

Very nice tank mate, can't wait to see it done...


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## redstrat (Apr 3, 2006)

Beautiful tank!!! Love the native plants! Keep us posted and thanks for sharing


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## punie (Jan 10, 2005)

Oh wow doc. you're really getting into the swing of things.
I do miss swinging by to your clinic to pass you your stuff!
And all the guys back there. Hope they're all well and not about to kill me just yet.


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## Noddy65 (Jul 8, 2005)

No Jerome...your safe although you did just seem to disapper...we miss your nice cheap gear here...I need a CO2 regulator but the cheapest I can find runs at around $150...

I hear you al about the foreign fish...I wish I could get rid of the angels, discus etc but the wife wont let me...i really do need to try and keep on her good side..
I have had a few problems in the tank recently, most of the discus have passed on (died) and I popped a few praecox rainbows in there the other day only to have them all die overnight...
I really don't know what is going on as all water parameters appear ok and the fish that are in there still surviving seem to be doing well...I might leave it for a few more months and see if the tank settles down..with a bit of luck the remaining angels and discus will all die...

Mike


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## Mikee (May 8, 2006)

From experience discus are alot harder to keep alive in planted tanks expecially thoughs that are still growing. I have seen some nice planted tanks with discus although i still recommend discus to be kept in none planted and without sand since they like to have clean water constantly and are easy to get a sickness when with other fish and if water is not in tip top condition. Nice looking tank though!


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## taybelZ (Dec 5, 2004)

hey Punie, never got a reply back from AQ about the co2 gear, not to worry.

Mike, nice tank and your wifes reaction cracks me up.

Dave


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## punie (Jan 10, 2005)

Dave,

I did reply your mail regarding the gear, but never got a reply from you so i figured out you had it licked and didn't need my help. I'll drop you another reply in a day or two, lemme know if you don't get it.

Dr. Miller,

Guilty as charged i owe you guys an explaination over a cuppa, but things have been moving so fast for me i haven't had anytime to catch my breath! Drop me a PM with what you need and i'll hook you up with it. No worries.

I figured that even after I left you'd be able to contact me via emails to order your stuff if needed.


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## graedog (Jul 10, 2004)

*Cool tank*

Nice tank Mike

great to see a fellow aussie or two on here as well.
And Punie, the magician.I honestly thought you were gone this time.
I did email you and leave pm on 3 forums......Check apc or aq or pcs LOL
Sorry about the discus Mike.....................not really.
Sorry about the preacox though
Graeme


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## lildark185 (Jul 7, 2006)

Hey Mike, great tank! I'm sure the plants will grow in and fill it all up.  . Did the discus pass on because of illness or did they pass because of the water parameters? Could it have been that there were bacteria in the potting soil that leaked into the water column? What kind of potting soil did you use?


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## Noddy65 (Jul 8, 2005)

Hmmm...Im not really sure why the discus died...they just sort of faded away until there only one left.

Im suspicious that there may have been something in the potting mix or sand. I used a Water Lilly mix that many people here in Perth have used without any problem before.

Except for an ammonia problem after the tank was stripped and relandscaped all water parameters have been pretty much the same as before.
Even the praecox that I put in died basically overnight. The exisiting tank inhabitants are doing ok but theyre not eating and moving as well as they used to, which makes me suspicious that there is still something not quite right about the tank.

Mike


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## Miss Fishy (May 13, 2006)

Great tank, Mike! I love growing native plants too so I always enjoy seeing other people's native plant tanks. As others have said, all it needs now is some native fish! How about some native invertebrates too? Which Val species are in the tank?

Sorry to hear that the fish are not doing too well. Did you actually use sand to cover the soil, or is it fine gravel? Have you ever run a soil based tank before? The "El Natural" section of this forum is devoted to low-tech tanks with soil substrates, so you might find some useful tips about using soil in tanks there even though your tank is not a low-tech tank.

From Alex.

P.S. You might like to have a look at this thread about one of my tanks. It is a soil based tank containing native plants and fish from south eastern Australia.


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## Noddy65 (Jul 8, 2005)

Thanks Alex
Yep...I covered the potting mix with fine gravel...Im thinking that the problem may be CO2 induced. Im using a BOC regulator which is far from ideal and its difficult to maintain a steady Bubbles per second. It's a possiblity although I did have some loses when I had turned the CO2 off as well...

At the moment things appears to have settled down...

The Val species are a bit of a problem...
I have :
Vallisneria caulescens 
Vallisneria nana 
and a few other species: one has very red tips to the fronds and thick leaves, another has very fine leaves with little darker stripes along the leaves (may be the Tiger Val), another has thick leaves with a darker green central vein and an almost transparent edge to the leaf. Many of these are probably Val nana given its variable form across the top end. Honestly the different forms cannot be more different in colour and shape.

A mate over here (Graeme) put me onto your thread a few weeks back. It's a great looking tank.

Ill be moving to Darwin in about 2 years. I cant wait, its amazing that all these wonderful plants (and fish) just live in the local creek. The wifes parents live in Darwin and the local man-made lake is full of native vals and rainbows, theyre all very hoh hum about it and cant understand why I get all excited.
The plants are growing VERY well, im throwing bucket loads of trimmings out each week. My original two pieces of Rotala mexicana is now around 12 or so and is growing nicely.
We have a very active (but small) group of aquatic plant growers here in Perth, we have swap meets every few months, where people bring along trimming etc and others can help themselves. Ill be taking along a lot of natives to the next one..the nice thing is that no money changes hands and if people have no plants to contribute then that's ok as well, they can just take what they want.

Mike


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