# Update on my tank



## Gumby

Well, my Pygos are long gone now. I got rid of them probably 3 months ago. I decided I wanted to go for a hardcore planted tank... and lots of plants + piranhas = lots of shreaded, dying plants.

Anyways, here's pics:
[img]http://www.impakt.net/~tyler/new/larry/tank.jpg

















I'll get more pics later. Tank needs trimming currently (I trim about every 2 days).


----------



## dipset.taliban

put a pacu in there :rasp:


----------



## Joga Bonito

looks nice


----------



## Tinkerbelle

i hate you and your pretty tank.

my f*cking pleco STILL wont let ANYTHING grow. grrrrrr.


----------



## petfish

holy cow that is one awsome planted tank! I wish I can say I need to trim every 2 days, dang!


----------



## jasert39

Wow that looks amazing...what are the deminsions of that tank and what kind of lights are you running. Filtration?...looks like wet/dry thought i'd ask to be sure. I'm trying to get into plants also, what kind of ferts are you using?


----------



## Gumby

jasert39 said:


> Wow that looks amazing...what are the deminsions of that tank and what kind of lights are you running. Filtration?...looks like wet/dry thought i'd ask to be sure. I'm trying to get into plants also, what kind of ferts are you using?


I knew specs would come into question at some point









Here they are:

125 Gallon (72lx18wx23h)
8x 39w T5s
4x 55w PCs
50/50 mix of Flourite and natural "wallnut" gravel
Wet/dry filtration (originaly set up for large predators, not best filtration for a planted tank)
20lb tank of pressurized CO2

Just a note: My lighting is big time overkill. I was thinking more was better, but it turns out if you shoot for anything over 3 watts a gallon, it's too much(in most cases). Especially with T5 lighting, T5s penetrate deeper water much better than PCs or standard floros. I'm running into problems with a lot of the lower light stem plants growing sideways instead of up because they're getting so much light.

As far as for the plants, I'm still working on figuring out a dosing schedule. My plants consume nutrients so fast that it's hard to keep fert levels up where they need to be. Once I finally got my nitrate test kit and ran a test, the nitrates were at 0ppm, as was PO4 and iron.

I keep my CO2 at 30-35ppm
I try to keep all fert levels within their respective accepted ranges, but I'm struggling. Right now I'm dosing ferts with Seachem's line of fertilizers (Flourish, Excell, Iron, Potassium, Nitrogen, Phosphorus). Unless I can talk to the Seachem rep (I work for a store who is good friends with him) and get either some free ferts and/or some pure powder ferts, I'm going to have to start ordering some much stronger powered fertilizers from gregwatson.com. Just fertilizing the 125 is starting to cost me an arm and a leg =\ A 500ml bottle of Flourish iron lasts me maybe 2 weeks if I'm lucky.

Still working on getting the quirks of the tank worked out, but once I do it should be pretty pimpin.


----------



## killerbee

Spectacular


----------



## BigChuckP

Tinkerbelle said:


> Still working on getting the quirks of the tank worked out, but once I do it should be pretty pimpin.


Your tank is already pretty pimpin! I am trying to go with a heavily planted tank with 3 pygos, we'll see how that goes.


----------



## Husky_Jim

You went to the DUTCH-SIDE of planting!!!!!


----------



## Onion

Looks perfect!


----------



## jesterx626

wow 0 nitrates? i've never heard of that before. Would it be safe to say that a heavily planted tank doesnt need waterchanges except gravel vacc'ing? since there are no wastes in the water.


----------



## BigChuckP

jesterx626 said:


> wow 0 nitrates? i've never heard of that before. Would it be safe to say that a heavily planted tank doesnt need waterchanges except gravel vacc'ing? since there are no wastes in the water.


No. Actually it is the opposite of what you said. You don't vac ever, if you disturb the gravel you disturb the root system and also stir up the mulm that has built up in the gravel and release it into the water column, which can spark an algae bloom. I think 2 25% water changes a week or one 50% is usually adequate.


----------



## Gumby

jesterx626 said:


> wow 0 nitrates? i've never heard of that before. Would it be safe to say that a heavily planted tank doesnt need waterchanges except gravel vacc'ing? since there are no wastes in the water.


Well it all depends on what method of planted tank you're doing. Some methods do weekly water changes to "reset" the tank. Some people very rarely do water changes. I'm one of those who rarely do them. I keep an eye on my nutrients and dose ferts accordingly. I typically only do a water change if my water turns yellow from the driftwood or if I'm having some sort of algae problem that can't be linked to nutrient issues (something being too high or too low).

The reason my nitrates sit at 0ppm if I don't keep up with dosing is because Nitrogen is one of the main things that plants need to grow(ie: NPK). Plants can take up nitrogen in the form of ammonia(NH3) and nitrate(NO3). I'm about to just order a 1lb bucket of KNO3 powder to start doing nitrate, it'll be much more cost efficent than buying seachem products that are gone within a month









As was said, you never do gravel vac on planted tanks. All the crap that falls down into the gravel is actually a great source of nurtients for plants and you want that stuff there


----------



## smokinbubbles

what kinda plant is that that the ghost shrimp is on?

J-Rod


----------



## bmpower007

Nice Gumby one of the nicest planted tanks ive seen


----------



## DiPpY eGgS

heh, looking great man. keep posting those pics when you get them!

I am waiting for my aquasoil to get here before I post again.


----------



## Gumby

smokinbubbles said:


> what kinda plant is that that the ghost shrimp is on?
> 
> J-Rod


The green plant is Glossostigma and the red plant is Red Tiger Lotus.


----------



## Kain

That's an awesome setup gumby


----------



## B. Rodgers

That is so beautiful, I'm sooo jealous. Nice job with it as I know it's hard work making plants grow and especailly landscaping them like that! Nice work!


----------



## rchan11

Love your tank Gumby!!!!


----------



## jesterx626

BigChuckP said:


> wow 0 nitrates? i've never heard of that before. Would it be safe to say that a heavily planted tank doesnt need waterchanges except gravel vacc'ing? since there are no wastes in the water.


Well it all depends on what method of planted tank you're doing. Some methods do weekly water changes to "reset" the tank. Some people very rarely do water changes. I'm one of those who rarely do them. I keep an eye on my nutrients and dose ferts accordingly. I typically only do a water change if my water turns yellow from the driftwood or if I'm having some sort of algae problem that can't be linked to nutrient issues (something being too high or too low).

The reason my nitrates sit at 0ppm if I don't keep up with dosing is because Nitrogen is one of the main things that plants need to grow(ie: NPK). Plants can take up nitrogen in the form of ammonia(NH3) and nitrate(NO3). I'm about to just order a 1lb bucket of KNO3 powder to start doing nitrate, it'll be much more cost efficent than buying seachem products that are gone within a month









As was said, you never do gravel vac on planted tanks. All the crap that falls down into the gravel is actually a great source of nurtients for plants and you want that stuff there








[/quote]

wow, i learn something new everyday. thanks for the info.


----------



## Gumby

smokinbubbles said:


> what kinda plant is that that the ghost shrimp is on?
> 
> J-Rod


The green plant is Glossostigma elatinoides, the red plant is Nymphaea lotus 'Red Tiger Lotus'


----------



## wasabi-glow

Gumby, 
How hard is it to care for a glossostigma? am planning on doing a carpet of it on my 35 gallon tank.. Do you plant em individually or you have some other way of planting them?


----------



## Gumby

wasabi-glow said:


> Gumby,
> How hard is it to care for a glossostigma? am planning on doing a carpet of it on my 35 gallon tank.. Do you plant em individually or you have some other way of planting them?


Glosso grows like a damn weed in my tank. It grows so much that it will over take other plants. I just recently had to rip out some glosso that was choking out my Bylaxa japonica.

As far as it's requirments go... the finer the gravel the better. High light is also a must. I'd shoot for 3wpg if you want a carpet of the stuff. When it doesn't have enough light it grows taller and more lanky. It also loves CO2 and iron.

Planting carpet plants is kind of a pain in the ass. Since glosso goes on runners, it makes it a pain because you need to plant them horizontally. What I do is dig a hole in the gravel and stick the gloss in it. Then I cover it with gravel to the point that the leaves are just sticking out of the gravel. It takes about 1-2 weeks for it to get "settled in" and start growing like crazy. If possible, don't plant it in an area of the tank with no flow. It needs a little bit of flow because stuff(poop and such) likes to get trapped in the dense carpet.


----------



## rocker

i cant see anyhting


----------



## Uncle Rico

thats just beautiful.................beautiful.


----------



## rocker

i can see them now.
HOLY sh*t MAN NICE TANK


----------



## Donq8

Nice lookin tank, keep up the amazin work.....


----------



## b_ack51

great looking tank


----------



## harrykaa

Gumby said:


> Plants can take up nitrogen in the form of ammonia(NH3) and nitrate(NO3).


Gumby,

Actually plants can use up nitrates and ammonium (NH4+).

Ammonia (NH3) dissolves in the water easily into ammonium hydroxide:
NH3 + H2O <-> NH4OH.
Ammonium (NH4+) is, in the form of salts (ammonium nitrate, NH4NO3 etc.), used as a fertilizer for plants.

Regards,


----------



## seven11junkey

dipset.taliban said:


> put a pacu in there :rasp:


my advanced tank i had i set up real nice spent like 50 bucks on all the plants it was a 55 gallon set up real nice i decided to get some pacu because p's are not allowed in florida. boy did i regret puting all thos plants in that tank.(now i have 50$ of fake plants)


----------



## dc2rtek

wow, nice tank.


----------



## Mughal

Gumby, can you come out to Utah and help me set up a nice tank too? Everytime I try the plants turn brownish and start falling apart. Then they clog up everything! I really would like some advice from you considering you look like the expert.


----------



## BigChuckP

Take a look at aquaticplantcentral.com plantgeek.net and try a search. Also try them again after your read about them, experience is the only way to truly learn how to keep live plants.


----------



## Gumby

New update on the tank. This was taken a few days ago. The tank is still a work in progress. I didn't scrub the glass before the picture was taken and I took the pic at night after a lot of the plants had closed up a little bit (yep, they close up at night time).

Full tank:









Left side:









Right side:









The right side of the tank needs some SERIOUS work, I'm waiting to get a few plants and I'm going to rescape it. I'm contemplating adding more gravel to that side of the tank too. Need some money to do that one, so it might not happen for a while.

Sorry about the algae on the front glass. My nitrates dipped too low and I got an outbreak of green dust algae on the glass. Like I said, took the pics at about 1 in the morning and I was drinking rum, last thing I wanted to do was scrub the tank


----------



## DiPpY eGgS

Looking great Gumby

Nice collection of gorgeous rare plants! Did you get more japonica, or did it go wild?








The fore/midground is comming along nice. Nice E tenellus 'micro' and it looks like your P stellata broad leaf is taking off!
I could go on and on.. I'll leave it at that.. nice tank!


----------



## Gumby

DiPpY eGgS said:


> Looking great Gumby
> 
> Nice collection of gorgeous rare plants! Did you get more japonica, or did it go wild?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> The fore/midground is comming along nice. Nice E tenellus 'micro' and it looks like your P stellata broad leaf is taking off!
> I could go on and on.. I'll leave it at that.. nice tank!


The B. japonica grows like crazy in my tank. It never gets tall but it always gets very bushy. Last major trimming I uprooted what was 6 plants and turned it into around 15 plants. It forms side shoots like crazy.

My E. tenellus 'micro' is supposed to be the red form but it's more of a grey pink most days.

The P. stellata probably one of my favorite plants but by far the most problematic one I've ever delt with. Once stems get nice and big (stem diameter of 1/2 inch) the new growth at the top becomes tiny, wrinkled and deformed... yet my Ca levels are just fine. It always sends out a million side shoots when the top stunts out, so I guess that's a plus.

One thing I am excited about is that my P. helferi is taking off. 2 months ago it was one plant. I uprooted it and trimmed off about 10 side shoots. Wewt.

I've got plans for a new tank: 
Once I get enough saved up I'm going to set up a 46gal bow front tank. I'm going with eco complete as substrate. There will be a ton of petrified rock in the tank too. My goal is to set up a valley/mountain style tank. Plants will be reminicent of a swamp forest from the Palaeozoic era. I'm going to use a bunch of rare "spikey" looking plants. It should be pretty elite looking once I get the money, supplies, plants, and time.


----------



## killerbee

wow, thats beautifully green


----------



## H4N

beautiful man ... wow


----------



## traumatic

nice gumby, the tank looks great.

you say the right side needs work, you ought to put some onion plants or tall spindly plants to grow up behind the wood. It could act as a backdrop and accent the anubias on the wood.


----------



## BigChuckP

Simply an AMAZING set-up! 
You should get a small serra for your tank, like a manny, brandtii, rhom, etc. I have a small brandtii in my 40 gallon planted, he doesn't disturb the plants at all.
On the left what is growing on the driftwood? Is it just java moss?


----------



## RB 32

beautiful tank, good job.


----------



## Gumby

BigChuckP said:


> Simply an AMAZING set-up!
> You should get a small serra for your tank, like a manny, brandtii, rhom, etc. I have a small brandtii in my 40 gallon planted, he doesn't disturb the plants at all.
> On the left what is growing on the driftwood? Is it just java moss?


Heh. Funny thing about that moss. I don't know what it is. I saw some weird looking moss mixed in with the java moss at the LFS that had triangular fronds so I picked out 3 or 4 fronds and that's what it turned into. It's one of those weird mosses from Asia. My best guess is xmas moss or singapore moss. I had just trimmed it before I took that pic. It looks much better once it's been growing for a while.

I have all kinds of moss in that tank... Java Moss, Giant moss, and 2 unknown species of moss.


----------

