Got Any Tank Pics?

[RMC]

This is one of my 125-gal tanks.

[TBSDave]

Nice looking tank

[Charlie]

NONE HERE....SORRY

PICT0038.jpg
new at taking pics 1st 29 gal 2 months ago

[RMC]

Nice looking tank. I'll be rescaping one of my 75-gallon tanks this weekend hopefully. It's my "experimental" tank equipped with 520 watts of pc lighting and pressurized co2. I can almost hear the plants grow

I haven't trimmed anything for a few weeks and now have almost as much stuff growing out of the water as I do in the tank. My empire gudgeons are in there now but I may move them to another tank and replace them with a hundred or more cardinal tetras.

Maybe I should be smart and not put anything in there that I'll have to catch for a long time........ Naw, that makes too much sense, it'll never work.

[HobbyTowne]

How in the world did you end up with such gorgeous tanks RMC? The only two aquatic plants I have managed NOT to kill so far are Java moss and Hornwort. Pathetic, I know. I just don't know enough about plants to be able to have those breath-taking planted tanks. I would love to though! I have a 29 gallon tank that I am going to be setting up during the next week as my 'show' tank. I know that plants can make your life a bit easier when it comes to tank maintenance or so I have been told. But what has to be done to set up the planted tanks in the first place? As I said, I know NOTHING about planted tanks.

[RMC]

It's really not difficult except the part about being patient. When working with fish we see results in a few days but with plants it takes weeks or months.

I'm a distributor for one of the largest if not the largest aquatic nurseries in Florida so all my plants are pretty darn nice from the start.

What I like to do when setting up a new planted tank is start off with a good substrate. You don't need to spend a fortune on it either. I don't care for most of the aquarium gravel at fish stores because most of it is epoxy coated so it provides zero minerals and retains zero nutrients for plants. In most cases, if you see something at a stone or landscaping center that is fine-grained, it will work just fine. Sand compacts too much for my liking but some folks like it.

The stuff I use looks like this

Keeping the tank on the cool side and not overpowering it with light or ferts for a few weeks seems to help IMHO. It's also a good idea to trim the roots back just a little before planting. About the only other must would be the color or spectrum of light that you use. Something close to 6500 kelvin degrees works perfect. A lower number gets too yellow and higher numbers tend to get too blue.

It's common to get some die-off and some plants are more prone to it than others. Most folks panic or get discouraged when they see it and start messing with everything. The best thing to do is just cut the dead stuff off with scissors and leave the plant/roots alone.

Most of the plants available in the hobby don't require a whole lot of anything other than being left alone. However, just like any hobby, you can get as crazy as you want and spend as much as you want. Out of 100 or so tanks, I only have one with nuclear-powered lights and co2 injection. It's my experimental tank where I can live out my Dr. Frankenplant fantasies. The rest are low-tech and very low-maintenance.

[HobbyTowne]

This is my main tank at the moment. This weekend I will be setting up a 29 Gallon I picked up at a yard sale.


I have more pics of my tanks. I will post them later. Most are not very appealing to the eye. Just have a divider, some java moss, hornwort and lots of fish.