# 160L Planted



## Mowze (Nov 12, 2008)

Sorry about the poor pictures, my camera is not too great and neither are my camera skills... Probably didnt help that it was taken just after dosing with some blackwater for the newly introduced (at the time) discus.

Equipment:
160L Ehiem Aquarium (100 x 40 x 40)
2 x 30w 5500k T8 Bulbs
2 x 39w 6500k T5 Bulbs
700LPH Aqua one external canister filter purely biological media
5w UV steriliser
200lph Internal filter (for circulation)
Red sea drop checker
DIY CO2 reactor (gravel cleaner + Bioballs!)
DIY CO2 injection (soon to be pressurised with timed solenoid)
Substrate base of mineralised soil and playpit sand up to 8inches deep mid 1/2inch layer of tetra aqua soil and top 1inch layer of unipack congo gravel.
Ferts are dosed daily and weekly
Water change 25L un-buffered RO weekly sometimes I top up the KH with a little bit of tap water (our local is about pH 8, KH 160 and GH 200!)

Flora:
Bacopa caroliniana
Bacopa monneri
Didiplis diandra
Elocharis acicularis
Hydrocotyle leucophala
Hygrophilia polysperma
Lilaeopsis brasiliensis
Limnophila aromatica
Lobelia cardinalis
Pogostemon helferi
Rotala indica
Vallisneria spiralis

Fauna:
Apistogramma viejita (1 male + 2 Females)
Pair of discus
Soon to add some cleanup crew and dither fish although the aphistos are bold as anything anyway and even the discus come out into the open area sometimes although iv not managed to sneek up on them with the camera yet!

Just a few pics to share, some of the plants will be coming out soon as I'm not overly happy with them but I'm worried this might involve stripping the tank down and re-scaping totally as disturbing such a deep substrate (10 inches deep in places!) may release toxic substances harming my fish.










Hardscape and substrate levels


















Initial planting, I always find HC and hair grass grows much better if you start it off emmersed for the first month with as much light as possible and a reptile heat mat under the tank and regular misting. This way the plants get plenty of heat and moisture to the roots, the humidity stays high in the tank and you can blast as much light as possible at the stuff without having to worry about algae. It also helps a lot in the long run because once you fill the tank up you don't have to worry about having to constantly plant it back down as it floats up because it has had plenty of time to gain a good root structure without having to work against its usual positive buoyancy!























































The tank as it currently stands





































Apistogramma viejita I really am hoping these will spawn! Recon its a bit of live food and some small water changes away judging by the way the male is reacting to the females!

Hoping to get some Lampeye Killifish (probably a shoal of about 15 of them!) and some desperately needed Otocinclus, Sterbai cory and Tiger shrimp cleanup crew (probably about 6-8 of each.)


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## JACK SOBRAL (Dec 7, 2007)

I liked the layout, but with larger stones and Driftwoods would be even more beautiful and natural. 
Neither hit the configuration of the camera. The photos come out out of focus and so it was more difficult to leave the camera on the point of what effect the assembly of the aquarium... I am also having difficulty in acquiring some species as Apistograma Borelli and ghost shrimp.

Hugs 
JACK


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## Mowze (Nov 12, 2008)

I am 100% certain these are Apistogramma viejita... They spawned today! One of the females has filled the flower pot with eggs completely! Looking forward to babies, the parents are actually suprisingly placid. Although the female is guarding the cave and chases away other females getting too close she is fine with the discus and will happilly leave the cave for food although she always returns. The male is acting pretty much normally trying to get the other female to spawn as he usually does!


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## ghengis (Jun 11, 2008)

Congrats on the new arrivals!!

I am interested in your gravel vac diffusor...I have often considered just such a plan, and would love to see aphoto of yours for ideas...

Nice work, btw!


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## Knotty Bitz (Mar 11, 2009)

What type of rocks are you using?


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## Mowze (Nov 12, 2008)

ghengis said:


> Congrats on the new arrivals!!
> 
> I am interested in your gravel vac diffusor...I have often considered just such a plan, and would love to see aphoto of yours for ideas...
> 
> Nice work, btw!


Its basically just a gravel vac on the filter outlet filled with bio balls and plugged with a bit of sponge and the CO2 input on the bottom, seems to work very well! I have a CO2 reg and solenoid I intend to use as soon as I get my hands on a bottle (bit strapped for cash!) I think when I get a proper pressurised CO2 on there I might invest in a slightly better diffuser/reactor too.



Knotty Bitz said:


> What type of rocks are you using?


These rocks were hand picked and collected on the beach by my house, really nice rocks but those are about as big as they get .

Plants are growing out like crazy although unfortunately green hair algae is too, think im going to look into a few better lighting options some time soon.


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## Knotty Bitz (Mar 11, 2009)

Im looking for rocks for my 75 gallon, do you think could send some?


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## dewalltheway (Jun 27, 2008)

The tank and fish look wonderful. The only thing out of place (which I understand why they are in there) are the flower pots. Good luck with the babies.


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## Mowze (Nov 12, 2008)

Knotty Bitz said:


> Im looking for rocks for my 75 gallon, do you think could send some?


 I may be able to if you pay for postage or collect If your interested in looking into postage options I can sort few a few rocks and take some pictures for you to choose from. Always happy to do a little swaping!



dewalltheway said:


> The tank and fish look wonderful. The only thing out of place (which I understand why they are in there) are the flower pots. Good luck with the babies.


 Unfortunately for the moment the flower pots are pretty much essential although I have tied a lot of moss to it I might make a few coconut caves which are easier to hide amoung the foliage.


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## Knotty Bitz (Mar 11, 2009)

Yea, Mowze, I can pay and I would be glad to see what you have.


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## Mowze (Nov 12, 2008)

Bit of an update here, I had a big problem with green hair algae and had to apply a 3 day blackout, huge trimming of the more badly effected leaves before double dosing with flourish excel daily and now after a week with the algae gone continuing with normal daily dosages which has worked wonders! I lost a few plants in the blackout and trimming and blame the algae on my lighting as it has been a problem in the tank from a start. I switched the 5500k T8s back to 6700k daylight bulbs but decided to switch back again to the 5500k bulbs as the plants did not seem to like it as much. It may possibly be the unsuitable poor quality cheap lights I am using to blame for the algae but as a poor student I cant really afford more expensive professional aquarium lighting at the moment even with staff discount! Either way after months of tearing my hair out, treating with peroxide and doing huge water changes the algae is finally gone! I discovered that as the plants have grown out and the rocks have turned greener they began to get hidden and did not provide the impact required of a hardscape so I managed to swap some salt and write off a few debts with a friend in exchange for a few really nice bits of wood definitely has a much bigger impact and has made the discus hugely more confident.
At the moment the aquarium also temporarily holds a number of dwarf neon rainbows, swordtails, neon tetra and glowlight tetra along with the original stocking as I am "fish sitting" for a friend. Hopefully once they are gone I will add a few more interesting species and hopefully something to help keep algae at bay!

I have kept a record of any dosing, water changes and maintenance as well as water quality since the tank was set up and at the moment have managed to maintain a very steady:

NH3: 0ppm
NO2: 0ppm
NO3: 0-10ppm
PO4: 0-0.25ppm (although there was a spike of 4ppm when the substrate was disturbed 2 months ago!)
PH: 6.5-7
KH: 60-70
GH: 120

For some reason I cannot drop the kH past 60 or the GH past 100 however many water changes I do with RO (currently 25L weekly) although im pretty happy with how it sits now despite the CO2 apparently being 60-80mg/l according to the chart (pH/KH)! My drop checker says otherwise and I am not using a pressurised system anyway.

I have also upgraded my CO2 slightly using a 5L barrel for the fermentation which seems very effective giving me about 1-3 bubbles per second.

The tank:














































Here is the CO2 reactor not the prettiest thing but it works very very well and cost me next to nothing to make! I'm looking into something a bit more external but that costs money I don't have and for the moment this is doing the job and I am very happy with it.


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## bratyboy2 (Feb 5, 2008)

ooooooooo ooooooooo ooooooooo where dis u get the dwarf cichlids?


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