# 150g Planted Newbie (Help Requested)



## AlaskanDad (May 17, 2009)

I decided to follow Ms. Walstad's El Natural method and use topsoil to give my plants their nutrients. The brand that was recommended in one of the posts happened to be one that was owned by my previous employer (think Col Klink's Sergeant: "I see nothing!!!"). I had two bags of it in the garage as employees were able to pick it up for pennies on the dollar. (Yep, my previous employer owned soils and fertilizers as well as fish supplies, go figure)

Here's the first layer of soil under my substrate. I chose 3/8" pea gravel from the local home improvement store since it looks great and was $3.50/50lbs.









My intent was to use three terraces of substrate with a chewy soil center. Below is the bottom terrace.









This is the middle terrace:









Finally, the top terrace:


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## boltp777 (Jan 16, 2009)

welcome to TPT! btw if you haven't seen this check it out http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/low-tech-forum/56042-excellent-list-low-light-plants.html that should help wit the low light opitions. i see you have two emperor marineland filters and a protein skimmer ? i was wondering are you using the skimmer on a planted tank if so thats not a wise choice? and i would go wit a canister also.


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## AlaskanDad (May 17, 2009)

My wife and girls wanted to get fish going right away, so on Ms. Walstad's posted advice, we got a few plants and fish.








This is what it looked like filled up.









That was about a month and a half ago. Since then, we picked up several more plants (Amazon Swords, Wisteria, Anubias, Hornwort, Corkscrew Vals, Crypts, Dwarf Sag, Moneywort, Java Fern), more fish (Cardinal Tetras, Corys, Otos, Rainbow Shark, Platys, Lots of guppies), and a large chunk of driftwood. The driftwood is still leaching tannis but the water is very healthy.









The Hornwort grew so much that I decided to wrap it around one of the filter inlets and let it continue to be a ammonia absorber/fry hotel. The guppies just started having babies this past week. If they were parasites, we'd have to say we're infested. Actually, we love having them and we've got plenty of room. I imagine we'd be able to sell them back to our favorite small LFS for a little extra plant-buying cash.

Now, what would you all recommend? I'd love to see nothing but green along the back and side walls as well as a solid carpet all along the bottom. What do you think?


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## AlaskanDad (May 17, 2009)

boltp777 said:


> welcome to TPT! btw if you haven't seen this check it out http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/low-tech-forum/56042-excellent-list-low-light-plants.html that should help wit the low light opitions. i see you have two emperor marineland filters and a protein skimmer ? i was wondering are you using the skimmer on a planted tank if so thats not a wise choice? and i would go wit a canister also.


Thanks for the welcome!

Yes, I have two 400's and a "Tom Selleck" canister underneath. The protein skimmer was from when we first thought of making this a marine tank. I don't use it anymore but I'm still grateful to the "Right-Now Sea-Water" general manager who gave it to me for free.

My T-5HO is running 4 x 55W. Is that still considered low light for my tank?


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## ESK07 (Mar 16, 2009)

with t5ho's id say your anywhere for med to high


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## lumpyfunk (Dec 22, 2004)

I would move your drift wood to the left a little bit. It seems to centered for me. Do a search on the golden ratio or triangle. The tank is looking good.


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## Vladdy (May 6, 2008)

It is best to wait for the tank to cycle before putting in any plants or fish. I like that bogwood. That is a really nice tank. For my substrate, I used play sand. 150 gallons is really big. I wish I had a tank that big. Check out my planted tank journal. The link is in my signature below.


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## Vladdy (May 6, 2008)

By the way, did you rinse the garden soil before putting it in there? You should have used Schultz aquatic soil, not Schultz garden soil. There don't appear to be any problems with the water clarity as I can infer from the pictures though. I bet the plants will grow great. How much did the whole setup cost?


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## lumpyfunk (Dec 22, 2004)

Vladdy said:


> By the way, did you rinse the garden soil before putting it in there? You should have used Schultz aquatic soil, not Schultz garden soil. There don't appear to be any problems with the water clarity as I can infer from the pictures though. I bet the plants will grow great. How much did the whole setup cost?


There are plenty of successful tanks that did not cycle before adding plants, I personally think the plants speed up the cycle. Also there are many methods for setting up soil tanks as well. Do some research and you can make just about anything work.


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## AlaskanDad (May 17, 2009)

Vladdy said:


> By the way, did you rinse the garden soil before putting it in there? You should have used Schultz aquatic soil, not Schultz garden soil. There don't appear to be any problems with the water clarity as I can infer from the pictures though. I bet the plants will grow great. How much did the whole setup cost?


I guess it's part of my whole theme: Keep it simple, fish and plants are hearty. As I posted earlier, I used to work for the corporation. I leased all of the heavy equipment for the operations plant that churned this stuff out and I'd be amazed to learn that aquatic soil and garden soil are that different. I know their operations fairly well and most stuff just got different labels. 

I didn't rinse the soil at all; just laid it in there like the picture shows and put pea gravel on top. The water is pretty clear except for the tannis from the log.

When it's time to do some plant work, I have to drain about half the water or I'd have to use a snorkel. I bought clear hose from Menards and it works like a charm. With a few connectors I got there, we fill the tank back up with water from my tap. Then, I dump in a couple of tablespoons of "Begin Correctly" from Tarzan's-Home Labs to de-chlorinate. The power head (got it for free) mixes it up in the tank. No kid gloves here.

(I'm doing my best not to name the companies directly so as to never run into problems with my severance agreement. Even so, I'll probably only tell you the good stories. I really loved working with the Tarzan's-Home Labs guys; they were terribly nice and hooked me up with a HUGE bucket of "Begin Correctly". The folks from Leather-Neck-land and Right-Now-Salt-Water really took care of me as well with cool free stuff.)

All in all, I've paid about $500 or so for everything I've got. Most of it was at employee discount, LOTS of it was free. I never would have gotten a setup this large without the discounts.

I'm encouraged that the water is doing well because we've got "clouds" of guppies in there now. We can't count them but we've more than doubled our population. Fortunately, we have the room...


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## fishydaze (May 1, 2009)

I think you start with building your forests; look at the three (medium to tall) plants that you already have that are doing the best (new growth? any little baby plants sprouting?) and purchase many more of those to create your first layers of forests ( in matching or contrasting colors/textures).(and consider Big Big Anubias, and Moss)

I really agree with the earlier suggestion to shift the log off center; You might consider trying to angle it upwards, too, to get it to cover more territory top to bottom (but watch disturbing that soil). 

I think that you have room for more hardscape, here are a couple of ideas:
a)Roots down: news.mongabay.com/2007/0705-mangroves.html
or http://www.zooplus.co.uk/bilder/1/41700_1.jpg; 
b)More rocks, same size as what you have but piled up in couple spots to plant moss and anubias on and to let the grass grow up between 

I also back up the earlier suggestion that you make sure to look in the Low Tech Forum, Low Light Plant list (on the Sticky, the first thread in the forum) to make sure you are buying plants that will ace the low light. IMO your tank is low light.

(A nice 'flock' of hatchet fish would be cool to see coasting along right beneath the surface in this, maybe the first time I think I would feel that they would have enough room! 

And, in my opinion, maybe most importantly, I would plant more more more; you may not have nearly enough plants in there to balance the 10, 249 baby guppies you have..er...34,549 baby guppies, oh, wait, 175,000 baby guppies that you have right now (they don't call it Millionfish for nothing (avoid the inbalance and potential sudden algae bloom/disease and the death of thousands/dogs and cats living together etc./ and Plant Plant Plant)

Sorry for the book: the tank gave me ideas...


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## AlaskanDad (May 17, 2009)

I've engaged the "patience" part of planted tank/fishkeeping and have let the plants grow in for the past several months. I couldn't be happier with the results! My water is crystal clear and the plants are growing well.

I took your advice (following the Golden Triangle layout) and moved the driftwood to the left. I've also moved all of the taller plants to the right and ground cover to the lower right and left.

I used to have a problem with Staghorn algae but it's gone now. Diatoms are the only detractors I have now.

What do you think?









My fauna report has changed a bit.

Platies: Started with 3, we now have about 18 or so. I can't count them all
Corys: 2
Otos: 4
Rainbow Shark: 1
Clown Loach: 2
Cardinal Tetra: 24
Guppies: Started with 11 and I honestly can't tell you how many we have now. I think at least 30 to 40 fry made it but there's no way to count. Things got so bad that we had to pick up the Angels. The fry clouds went away in a week.
Angels: 3


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

Looks awesome!!

What lighting schedule are you running? I suspect if you run all 4 of those bulbs all day you'll end up with more algae issues over time than anything else; you may want to consider staggering the bulbs.

But then again, if it's working now, don't mess with it. :smile:


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## AlaskanDad (May 17, 2009)

Thanks!

I'm only running 2 x 54W 6500K bulbs for 12 hours a day on a timer. I still get brown algae to show up on the glass but I imagine another couple of Oto's could help out with that.


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## FSM (Jan 13, 2009)

Do you have CO2?


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## AlaskanDad (May 17, 2009)

No CO2.

I'm doing 50% WC every other week just to do some plant maintenance. I wanted to do little to no WC's but I have to drain half the water just to get to the gravel; it's too deep otherwise.

I'm really pleasantly surprised to see how well the Wisteria has spread, the Dwarf Sags have sprouted from some great runners, and the Hygro has grown to the top of the tank (30") twice after a half-way prune a few weeks ago.

Now, I'm a BIG proponent of garden soil under the substrate. My plants seem to love it!


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## Kolkri (Dec 9, 2006)

Your tank looks great. Pretty angelfish. Surprised it is not helping keep the fry in check.


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## AlaskanDad (May 17, 2009)

Thanks! The Angels DID clear up the clouds of fry. They cleaned up just about all of the fry specks that were about 5mm or smaller. The others were too big/fast and they survived. I think we've got a good balance now even though we have MANY more places for fry to hide.

I almost feel a bit irresponsible when I tell friends that I can't tell how many fish I have...


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

LOL Invite 'em over and ask THEM to count the fish! :hihi: (I've only got a dozen-ish dwarf rasboras in a 10gal, and I can't count them for the life of me...)

It's the way it always goes with livebearer tanks. They'll breed you out of house and home!

You came up with a good solution, I think. :smile:


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## Kolkri (Dec 9, 2006)

I use to keep guppies and never knew how many I had and that was in a 20 gallon tank. lol


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## pskorf (Mar 10, 2009)

AlaskanDad said:


> Thanks!
> 
> I'm only running 2 x 54W 6500K bulbs for 12 hours a day on a timer. I still get brown algae to show up on the glass but I imagine another couple of Oto's could help out with that.


 
We have a 150 gal tank that looks exactly like yours. We have been trying to determine what kind of light to get for this tank - especially since this is so deep. Can you tell me what kind of light you have? and any specs on it. Thanks!


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## AlaskanDad (May 17, 2009)

I did notice that your tank looks like ours (down to the same stand!). 

My T5 canopy has room for four bulbs but I'm only using the two 6500K bulbs. I tried all four for awhile and it only made more algae. I paid employee cost for the canopy so I couldn't advise you on what a good price would be for one.

If you do a google search on "54W 6500K bulbs" you'll find quite a few sources. Unfortunately, I don't remember where I bought mine online but I only paid about $30 for the two (if I recall).

I'm brand new to planted tanks this year but my plants are really growing well with the lights I've got and the garden soil under the substrate. I'm very pleased with the results.


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## AlaskanDad (May 17, 2009)

My Hygros are growing like mad! I had to cut them in half and replant them. Plus, I took some time to re-distribute the Wisteria. The Swords weren't doing well since they were covered in diatoms. I also thinned out the Dwarf Sags (since when is foot-high a "dwarf" plant?) since they've been spreading out nicely and thickening.

What do you think? Any suggestions?


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## oldpunk78 (Nov 1, 2008)

looks good.

another piece of drift wood might look good in there.


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## yikesjason (Jul 2, 2008)

I really like the dimensions on that tank. I wish they were more common so I could have found one for a good price on craigslist when I was looking for my big tank. 
I am not really a livebearer fan normally, but they make for great color in your tank. To get some more plant color in there, you could try some red tiger lotus. They will give you great color even without a lot of light. Also you have the height to really let them grow big. 

Looks great!


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## Down_Shift (Sep 20, 2008)

unique sized tank. Time to get some rocks in there too!


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## AlaskanDad (May 17, 2009)

Thanks for the suggestions and compliments!

I'm looking into the Red Tiger Lotus and they're impressive. I've got 30" of height and 24" of depth to play with so I'll look forward to some big growth.

I've got quite a few rocks (ave 7" x 5") in there now. The left side of the tank is raised about 10-12" above the bottom because of these tiers. However, I think it might look nice with some additional, fully exposed rocks as well. I've got plenty in the back yard (that's where I got these first ten or so).

Where would a large rock look best?


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## kangshiang (Jun 28, 2006)

wowowow.....hugh tank....maybe one day I could try this size of tank....
Good work!!!


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