dwalk Posted July 11, 2008 Report Share Posted July 11, 2008 I'm having my first real go at a planted tank, and have rear the article " Thinking of going planted, read here..." and it was a good read. I'm redoing one of my tanks as a planted tank, using Daltons aquatic mix with propogating sand on top. How much of each should I have??? The tank is 160l, with twin t8's above, soon to be replaced with twin t5's with reflectors. Flourish excel is my fertiliser, thou someone said that PMDD is better??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VinsonMassif Posted July 11, 2008 Report Share Posted July 11, 2008 First off Flourish Excel is not a fertilizer. It is a source of Carbon for plants. You may find it beneficial using it in addition to PMDD. If you are going to use Dalton's Aquatic mix you can lay one inch, then two inches of sand or gravel on top of the Aq Mix. That worked well for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whetu Posted July 11, 2008 Report Share Posted July 11, 2008 First of all, hooray! And congratulations! :bounce: A new planted tank is my idea of excellent fun! What are the dimensions of your tank? Is it long and low or tall and skinny? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dwalk Posted July 11, 2008 Author Report Share Posted July 11, 2008 What are the dimensions of your tank? Is it long and low or tall and skinny? Correction, about 130l, 85x40x40cm approx containing 6 zebra loaches 5 tiger barbs 1 Siamese fighter 3bn 4 gba 1 sae 3 Pearl gourami Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VinsonMassif Posted July 11, 2008 Report Share Posted July 11, 2008 How long have you had those fish. You are somewhat overstocked there, especially seeing the loaches and Pearl Gourami have a possible length of 6". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dwalk Posted July 11, 2008 Author Report Share Posted July 11, 2008 How long have you had those fish. You are somewhat overstocked there, especially seeing the loaches and Pearl Gourami have a possible length of 6". I've had this tank set up for about a year, and the tank is happy and active, Male Siamese fighter is only a short term guest b4 moving to his own tank, which is being cycled at the moment. The tank is over filtered with a fluval 205, and has plenty of hidey holes. Note that dwarf gouramis have swapped tanks with the 3 Pearls. My books show Striata loach as 4" 100mm max, and pearl gourami as 5" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dixon1990 Posted July 11, 2008 Report Share Posted July 11, 2008 The BN and GBA arent Adults are they? And you will be moving them to seperate tanks before they breed? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whetu Posted July 11, 2008 Report Share Posted July 11, 2008 A picture is worth a thousand words! Thanks for that. Just looking at the pic, the tank seems quite deep for its height, so you may have trouble getting enough light to the bottom of the tank. Your plants may end up a bit stringy looking - lush on top but spindly lower down. There are some low-light plants that will be happy in this situation and with stem plants you can always pull them up, replant the tops and throw away the spindly bottoms. So invest in as much light as you can fit on the top of your tank! Personally I would change your top layer of substrate to something finer than the pebbles you have in there. So a layer of Dalton's then a layer of fine-ish pebbles. Also for the substrate, invest in some slow-release root fertilising tabs. You can put one under each of your main plants to encourage good root growth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Insect Direct Posted July 11, 2008 Report Share Posted July 11, 2008 yea best not to mix bns and gbas, they can breed at a smallish size to so not so good to have mixed imo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dwalk Posted July 11, 2008 Author Report Share Posted July 11, 2008 GBA's are about 4cm, and 3 mpnths old, while BN are mature. Gravel in photo is for sale, Daltons propogating mix will be my new substrate on top of aquatic mix. The BN's will be moving to my Cichlid tanks some time soon, to stop interbreeding Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Insect Direct Posted July 11, 2008 Report Share Posted July 11, 2008 Ive had them breed around or just over 5cm's, so may wana look at seperating them as soon as poss, fed em up give them a nice fitting cave and should have some little morsals in no time :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.