Wellydave

yeah i thought that might be the case so mabie ill go with the original plan and do a nano iwagimi style tank haha ill start a new thread once i start on it haha have to wait for some more funds.

yeah im prety shure my fish choices will be ok i have basicly the same fish (apart from the apisto's) in my other tank which is planted and they are all fine its actualy cranking for a low tech tank great growth and the fish are happy as larry so im not to worried about the fish going into this one. i know the lighting isnt that great but after exactly 1 week ive got shoots of hair grass coming out from the sides so its starting to spread by it self so im not to worried about that. the glosso actualy hasnt been to bad its going up and sideways so im just going to wait and see what happens there was thinking of adding mabie 1 250 mh in the middle of the tank between all the fluros do you guys think this will be of any benefit or do you think 2 would be better? i want to get an all in one dual 250w metal halides with quad t5's but like ive said b4 there are none in wellington and bloody no one wants to ship :an!gry also in unrelated news yesterday i brought another tank lol a 55l aquaone aquanano 40 which is ither going to be a nano planted or nano reef i am undecided on which yet but since i have no experiance with reefs im thinking planted may be the way to go... wanted a little tank for the lounge and this was the perfect size 40x40x40 :slfg: :slfg:

:slfg: i like your logic

what do you mean by "they do less than that of course" ?? am i missing something?

oh really? i was thinking of getting a 12000 lph one but after reading a few reviews online saying they were way over powered for 500l tanks and that they recommended getting 3000 lph ones i figured i might as well. its np tho they are cheap enough if i need 3 or 4 more then ill just get 3 or 4 more :slfg: and also that way if i do end up with 3 or 4 i can direct the flow to certain areas in the tank. well in theory that is :thup:

there is not a hell of a lot of flow so i have a 3000L/ph wave maker thingy on the way so i can get some movement going haha not keen on algae!

heres my efforts last year. didnt want to shave off what i had and start again this year.

yeah i have 5 in my other tank but unsure if they will be transfered yet i think the monando might be a bit rough for them was going to see how the bristlenose went and if they seem ok will put the pandas in and try to get mabie 10 - 15 more so there is a nice little group

haha cool yeah ive got some of that in here on the left and it seems to be stretching out rather than up where as the hair grass is going up insted of out :-? its weird. so far stock list is not to interesting really 4 - 5 german blue rams 3 of which i have and are in my other tank a pair of apistogramma cockatoo triple/super reds (still trying to find a pair of these) 50ish harlequin rasboras (waiting for tank to settle b4 buying) a couple bristlenose's that are in my other tank mabie a nice pleco (undecided on which type) and mabie some discus if my mate can ever get his to breed without eating the fry haha probably some guppies from my other tank as well since they seem to be breeding like crazy! thinking i will seperate the boys and girls so i dont end up with 100000 of the things first fish in will be the 3 rams and then go from there

i have no idea to be honest haha have never done a proper planted tank so this is all a big experiment for me. its growing up fairly rapidly but im not shure how long it will take for it to stretch out

quick update. most of the plants are in still waiting on a few more to arrive. lights are under powered so currently looking for some mh's. some of the wood wasnt quite water loged enough so after filling it lifted but i am just going to leave it to sink in its own time. have ordered fert's from valray and also a wave maker as the pump in the sump dosent make enough water movement in the tank the turn over of water is fine but the plants are not moving in the current. anyway heres some pics whole tank left side right side schweet

yeah metal halides seem like they are going to be the go so im scouring trade me at the moment trying to find a decent mh set up for a fair price that is willing to ship to me in wellington. it seems i have the co2 sitting right after a couple days of adjustments i have the drop checker sitting at a nice green colour. have ordered some fert on trademe from valray so going to see how that go's and also have gotten a 3000 l/ph wave maker from him to create some more water movement in the tank so hopefully that will sort it out. thanks!

Looking good man cant wait to see this planted

Ok so woke up thismorning and have notised growth in the tank already after only 3 or 4 days but a you said the glosso looks to be stretching so now im looking into getting some metal halides but need to know what ferts i need and at what levels/freqency i should be adding them Thanks

yeah i was looking into metal halides to start with but couldnt find anything suitable in nz i could order something in but the cost was just rediculis ive been scouring trade me and there are quite a few that pop up but people are never in wellington and very rarely willing to ship them would still like to get at least 1 250w and keep the t5's going as well but like i said its more trying to find one

Dimensions & volume of tank L - 160cm W - 61cm D - 71cm apox 680ltr + 200ltr sump Lighting 2 x glo 54w power glos and 2 x glo 54w life glows currently running power glos for 12 hours (9am - 9pm) and life glows for 6 hours during that (12 - 6pm) Substrate JBL aquabasis plus with top layer of JBL monando and a little bit of a silica sand path. Plants dawrf hair grass, glosso, asstd swords, asstd crypts, zelandiae, twisted val, water rose, hygrophilia angustifolia, green camboba, c.balnasae, red pine, rotala wallichii, thin leaf java fern, normal java fern and windelof java fern Fish stockin nothing yet tank is still cycling Goals - What you want from the tank, amount of time you have to maintain it, approximate budget you want to spend on it heaps of growth a lush looking tank no algae and happy fish once they arrive. have plenty free time to maintain it and not to fussed on what it cost's me but dont want to be spending stupid amounts every week on it :slfg: currently have a pressurized co2 system in place and it comes on 1 hour b4 lights and is off 1 hour b4 lights tank has been up and running for around 2 days

sweet as sam thanks will try that out. im still not evin shure on what ferts to use i want to do dry and i checked out the article someone linked me on here but it just confused the crap outa me :slfg: any one have like ei dosing for dummies or summit?

yeap i do it hasnt changed colour from deep blue yet. co2 has only been on for about 30minsish

sweet have just started up the co2 so how much should be going into the tank? its going at like 3 - 4 bubbles a sec i think. also sump still isnt quite set up properly need to sort the overflow so its sifon because at the moment its oxygenating the water a bit :-?

Right questions time! When should i start co2 and ferts? An im still not 100% on the whole fert thing any help would be awsome

Lol still not camboba tho

Right done for tonight bed time tanks full and all plants i had are in still need more tho wanting camboba, c.balansae and a marble sword. Thanks for the offer of anuba but ill pass cheers haha

Happy days plants are arriving left right and center and just. Had a call from craig at the pet center my plants have arrived there too. Today is the day cant wait to finish work and start planting!!! :happy1: updates to come!

looking good!!! :nfs: :spop:

Sorry your spelling of our doosh prime minsiter was wrong so i corrected it for you :digH: :slfg: