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Planted 6.6 Journal

4K views 33 replies 9 participants last post by  leahleigh 
#1 ·
Woo, so I had my "tester tank" with my 5 gallon and it made me decide to try to get in deeper with the planted tank world. This is going to be the journal of my transition and everything i've learned. It's more for me than for the community, i'd just like to have a place to keep track of everything. :)

Before #1:
Don't have picture, but started out with pea-sized gravel, perhaps a little bigger. It didn't look very good, and my plants wouldn't stay put. It was hard to clean and overall just didn't do the tank justice or give me the feel I wanted.

Before #2:

This is the gravel switch and simple plants added. 2x Anubias, Java Fern, Java Moss, Drift Wood, Lucky Bamboo. (P.S. please don't comment on the bamboo, i know it's not full-time aquatic)

After! I bought this tank off of LittleWatty. :)

I built a shelf specifically for this tank, plywood and cinder blocks! It actually looks pretty good. Found the drift wood we had left over from the gold fish tank, something I could NEVER find until now? Tied the large Anubias to the small piece of drift wood, and anchored my very poor looking Java Fern to the hole in the large drift wood. This is what i'm going to be considering the "before" of my planted tank. It'll probably be complete rearranged and a TON more plants added. I plan on putting a small carpet of moss in there, duckweed in the top right, some type of long grassy type in the back right. Oh yeah, and buy a better light bulb.
 
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#28 ·
Also, also, (lol!) Garth seems to be marbling already! Holy cow I wasn't expecting him to actually marble, if anything. His eyes have darkened a lot and he's starting to get little black specks on his stomach and his tail is turning greyish black. Excited to see how he's going to change. I would just DIE of happiness if he turned out white and black.
 
#30 ·
Ah, I have been duped once again! Petco selling non-aquatic plants and then charging me extra. Damn them. If it wasn't already in my tank and I hadn't thrown away the package i'd take it back. Stupid. I was really excited because I wanted more cover for Garth's side but I didn't want another Anubias. I should have done my research but oh well, impulse buy and whatnot.


This is what I got, and upon further investigation it is not fully aquatic, but I don't want to waste my money. Does anyone know how to plant these to make them survive?


Tank update! Woo. Java Fern is doing MUCH, MUCH better, got a 6500k watt for my light bulb so things seem to look a bit cleaner. Anyone know what times I should keep my light on and off? I just had a bloom of brown algae and scraped most of it off.



I really wanted to switch the pennywort into the back corner but for some reason it wont stay there. So I put the nonaquatic Umbrella Plant back there and moved the pennywort to the front. Le sigh.~

Anyway, this has been an update.
 
#31 ·
I did the same thing and planted them anyways...they lasted 2 months before I saw any deterioration...started with small holes in the leaves that grew larger over time, I tossed them out before they rotted too much as I didn't want them to ruin the water quality but I bet I could've gotten about 5 months out of them? I had 6500k lights and dosed with sechemflourish excel along with root tabs...not sure if th at helped them survive longer perhaps? Id go ahead and use them, just put them in a spot that you'd be comfortable replacing them later on and put them in decent lighting. My bettas loved them.
 
#32 ·
Oh sweet, thanks! That'll definitely give me time to find a replacement, I might go ahead and just get another anubias because Garth LOVES low lying plans, but Anubias are so common and I really want something different for my tank. Next weekend i'm probably going to be doing a 100% water change to get rid of a lot of the dust that seems to be still in the tank, rearrange things before I pour in the water too is a good idea. It's hard to get plants in the right place without shuffling everything else around lol.

Note: Pennywort on Garth's side is doing A LOT better than Dimitri's side, might move all of pennywort to Garth's side, unsure.

Does anyone know how to cut down Anacharis?

Might even tie some of my java moss to the divider, or would that be a bad idea? If so, why?
 
#34 ·
I took it out because I divided it and didn't think it fit with Garth's side. I put it back in my mom's Oscar tank to be beat up on, it's still thriving, but it's little leaves don't stand chance.

I forgot to post about Baxter, but his story is right here. That happened 3-17-13. Within three days he got a new planted tank and I poured over $80 into him.


Aqueon 2.5 "Betta" version. It came with an extremely crappy divider that I don't want and a filter, along with some water conditioner and some betta food. And $2 off coupon! Which is rad, I love coupons.
I chose this tank for a few reasons: I SPECIFICALLY wanted a 2.5, no bigger no smaller, it's size is A LOT better than I thought it would be because I have never actually owned a 2.5, always 1 gallons or 5, 10, 20. I was looking for a tank to put the 6500k light bulb I put on my 5 gallon, which is now unused and in storage. I was looking for something with a filter (now unneeded) or at least some type of bubbler. I wanted something black. I already have the bubbler, the heater, and the light.

Things I bought today: Tank, Amazon Sword "Bleheri", Marimo Moss Ball, Thermometer.

Altogether: 6500k light bulb, eco complete, anubias + rock, amazon sword, marimo moss ball, bubbler + air stone, heater, thermometer, betta!
 
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