Bpb Posted February 10, 2013 Share Posted February 10, 2013 Gotten tons of awesome above and several corals on this site, and met some cool folks. I also dabble in planted tanks as well. Any other planted tank folks on here? I'm in the process of making my substrate mix for my 75 gallon that will be soon heavily planted from the start. Anyone on here swap or sell plants regularly? What shops up north would you recommend I look in? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted February 10, 2013 Share Posted February 10, 2013 Aquatek is the only one worth anything IMO. Best way to go is to trade or buy on plantedtank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
(Bio)³ Posted February 10, 2013 Share Posted February 10, 2013 I think a member just started a pico planted and got items from Amazonia 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teresa Posted February 10, 2013 Share Posted February 10, 2013 I've got a four gallon pico dwarf puffer planted tank. I'm still very new and learning about how to best grow plans. I'm just starting to be successful with keeping baby tears alive, though they are growing at a painfully slow rate. I'd love to share ideas and learn from others that are also involved in freshwater planed tanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted February 10, 2013 Share Posted February 10, 2013 Amazonia ii is an ADA soil I believe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bige Posted February 10, 2013 Share Posted February 10, 2013 Amazonia ii is an ADA soil I believe. Yes it is and some people are switching back to Amazonia (original) because of dust and clumping. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbo662 Posted February 10, 2013 Share Posted February 10, 2013 When i had my 120 FW tank i used the small sand blasting gravel along with Co2 set up and my plants did great. I think the Dome still sells the gravel by the bag. it's usually pretty inexpensive. The particles are just the right size to allow food / waste to compost and work it's way down to the roots but also allow the roots to grow without too much open space between the grains. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted February 10, 2013 Share Posted February 10, 2013 Ii had very good results with Amazonia I and ii. I still have 5 gallon buckets of it somewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted February 10, 2013 Author Share Posted February 10, 2013 I would LOVE to use ADA Amazonia in my tank I'm building, but enough to cover a 75 gallon has just flat out been out of my budget unfortunately. It's the best stuff from what I understand though. I had two planted tanks over the past several years: a 10 gallon that was made with mineralized topsoil and gravel, and a 75 gallon with just play sand. I broke down the 10 gallon due to space reasons. All of the plants in my 75 gallon were low light non root feeders (java fern, mosses, anubias), but they have ALL died. I think it was a combination of having buenos aires tetras, which eat plants, and that the lighting was too low even for those species. I've upgraded my lights and am making a fresh batch of mineralized topsoil now to redo the 75 with mostly stem plants. I'll be posting a build of it eventually. Victoly, you looking to get rid of that amazonia? lol. If not i'll be capping my dirt with turface or safe t sorb probably. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted February 10, 2013 Share Posted February 10, 2013 It's been in a bucket for 3-4 years. Maybe we can work something out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jestep Posted February 13, 2013 Share Posted February 13, 2013 Ecocomplete and the other caribsea planted tank substrates are decent alternatives to the ADA soils. I still use plain old caribsea torpedo beach sand and use substrate fertilizers as needed. Aquadome has been working on the plant selection and has some nice ones as well. I used to trade plants regularly, but have since gotten rid of a lot of my plants because they were just too fast growing. I had a ton of sagittaria subulata and various swords in my 75. 2 removals, the first I took about 500 individual plants and the final one a year later about 600 got all those out of the tank. I've still got some tiger lotus I need to get rid of from time to time. Currently have almost 100% annubias barteri, a few lotus that managed to survive my last aggressive removals, and a some red crypts here and there. May be thinning out some crypts in the near future if anyone is interested. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted February 14, 2013 Author Share Posted February 14, 2013 I'll definitely be interested if you're trimming when I'm in town next. Really wanting to start planting dense to avoid the algae bloom. Been through that before and it's a headache. In the process of still making my mineralized topsoil and I'll use that regardless of what cap I choose. Do you run pressurized co2? And what kind of lights are you running? Post a pic of your tank if you can? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jestep Posted February 14, 2013 Share Posted February 14, 2013 I run CO2 and a 4 - T5-HO fixture. I've got some older pictures I can post. Had some CO2 issues last month, so I'm dealing with a hair algae outbreak at the moment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jestep Posted February 14, 2013 Share Posted February 14, 2013 Here's pre-trim. Amazingly, there are 2 breeding pairs of Bolivian rams and over 100 cardinal and rummy nose tetras in the tank when I took this. Immediately, post trim. Messy from the mass pulling and the anubias has probably doubled now. Some of the lotus survived, luckily none of the sagittaria has come back. Here's how much annubias was removed as well: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted February 14, 2013 Author Share Posted February 14, 2013 That's some thick growth! I love the look of Anubias dominated tanks, they just grow so slowly. I've got a 75 I'm working with, two bulb t5ho fixture, and another 2 bulb t5no fixture. I'll likely use both. I don't run co2 though. I take it you didn't like the dwarf sag? I was planning to try to have kind of a long dwarf sag carpet in mine. Lol I'll also likely be going with a large amazon sword as well, though most people may regret both those decisions. I am aiming for decent growth but nothing requiring weekly pruning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted February 14, 2013 Share Posted February 14, 2013 don't do the dwarf sag. it never makes a nice short carpet, they grow out of control and will make you hate your life. the problem i had when I had an anubias dominated tank is that the growth rate was so slow that they would get BBA on them. sucked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jestep Posted February 14, 2013 Share Posted February 14, 2013 I haven't had a problem with that algae, but I'm fighting some fluorescent GHA right now. Was totally fine until my CO2 tank went empty and I wasn't paying attention. Another one of those, once you start using it, you can't quit it. My biggest issues with the large swords is the roots. You can somewhat circumvent the problems by keeping them in a pot or basket but it's no guarantee. I had an awesome marble queen and a huge amazon. The roots literally covered the entire surface area of the tank under the gravel. When I finally pulled the marble queen it weighed more than 10 lbs with the root structure. Made a heck of a mess pulling it out as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted February 14, 2013 Author Share Posted February 14, 2013 Couldn't one just trim the sword down to its roots and let the roots decompose naturally in the substrate? Would prevent a big mess. I know having a good carpeting plant like hc, glosso, or even dwarf hair grass needs co2 to really fill in nicely, and I've seen some really clean looking dwarf sag carpets before but I don't want to regret it if they start taking over too much. I'm sure it's a played out question, but got another good low growin foreground plant recommendation? I'm kind of trying to avoid going pressurized co2. Trying to save all aquarium expenses for my reef, but want to get my planted tank looking good again on the cheap Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jestep Posted February 15, 2013 Share Posted February 15, 2013 You might be able to trim but 4 or 5 lbs of root material is a massive amount of decay in a closed system like this. Those black slotted pots work pretty well at preventing excessive root growth and they can be completely buried.You could probably get HC (Hemianthus callitrichoides) to carpet without CO2. I might opt for using something like excel a few times a week as a replacement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted February 22, 2013 Author Share Posted February 22, 2013 Working on my third dry cycle of my mineralized topsoil. Found a home for my plant munching buenos aires tetras and I am on my way to getting this tank completely redone. Unfortunately today I discovered my German blue ram has died. Bummer. Most likely of old age. Had her for many years now. Oh well! Now I'm wondering what I should do as far as stocking goes! Current inhabitants are a bala shark and featherfin catfish. Each about 7" And 4 tiger barbs And a handful of tiny black bar endlers 75 gallon tank Considering maybe some rainbow fish or Bolivian rams. No idea though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted March 6, 2013 Author Share Posted March 6, 2013 Mineralized topsoil is finished. I went ahead and got a 50# bag of turface pro league to cap it with. Picked up a bunch of plants today. Several amazon swords, jungle val, some wisteria and water sprite, some baby tears, new java fern. I'll probably pick up some micro sword tomorrow and try to get that going as a carpet. Removed all of the sand from the tank today as well as the rock and driftwood. Letting the fish recover from that which stressed them out. I've got the substrate sitting and ready to go, and the plants floating in buckets right now. I'll be pulling the fish, laying down the new substrate on Thursday and then planting. Hope all goes well. I'll post pics Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted March 14, 2013 Author Share Posted March 14, 2013 I'll be in Austin this Saturday if anyone has any plant trimmings they are needing or able to get rid of. Let me know what you've got! Would love coral frags too but unfortunately they'd be bagged for too long for my comfort as I won't be home until late late that night. Preferably meet up in north Austin if anyone had anything Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted March 14, 2013 Share Posted March 14, 2013 Still want that ADA aquasoil? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted March 14, 2013 Author Share Posted March 14, 2013 Man I do, but I went ahead and used turface as my soil cap. The guy that loaded me up with plants found a buyer for his tank and basically said "two full 5 gallon buckets of plants: free to you right now, or in the garbage" so I had to get the substrate down faster than I wanted. Kinda sucks because I'd have preferred Ada, but at this point, the idea of redoing the whole tank again makes my eyeball twitch lol. I do appreciate the offer. Still huntin for trimmings or some decent priced lps corals though. I'll be rolling into town around lunchtime saturday and leaving after the show in the evening Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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