Yesterday I picked up my tank, and found a few bargains along the way so ended up setting up my tank!
The tank before i cleaned it
The stuff:
The tank again, after i cleaned it and in its permenant home:
Sand!
I decided I didnt want a layered substrate showing so I put sand all around the edges before adding soil:
the soil, and going through it to pick out sticks and stones (lol)
In the tank:
Now the fun part! The plants:
At this point I was tired (it was about 3am lol) So I didnt take step by step pictures...
The finished product, the day after, still a bit cloudy but thats fine. My filter is in the mail so hasnt been set up yet, but i do have some MTS digging around in there.
I wont be adding fish for another month or so, so I am hoping the plants fill in, I still need java moss and I have a piece of driftwood to put in.
im going to be putting 6 female bettas for a sorority, which is why im waiting for the plants to fill in before adding any fish (and of course to stabilize the tank)
thanks! the water is still a tad cloudy but Im not too worried about it right now. I added java moss so I need to take a picture (though I just sort of crammed it in lol)
First of all, congrats, that is a beautiful tank! Can't wait to see what it'll look like when the plants grow even more.
Also, that divided tank in the back, I just wanted to say that those bee nest cave things are SUPER adorable! Where did you get them? :-D
I want to thank you for posting the pics! I have been thinking of starting a planted tank and had no idea how to start it, this is a good first step for me in learning how and your tank is absolutely gorgeous and will look even more amazing when all the plants fill in and your fishies are in there! PS YAYY for another person from Ontario!!
just a quick update, yesterday I added some java moss which I just squashed onto a lava rock and piece of plastic mesh, I also added in a little bag of gravel from my established tank to help get beneficial bacteria going. Today i went out and bought some trim to put on the top and a glass lid because the light is getting some condensation on it. I have a better bulb on the way and some cichild stones and hides which will be going in the tank at some point.
This is awesome!
I hate to ask but did you use the miracle grow potting soil or the garden soil in yours?
Or... *scuffs feet* if you wanted to list more of the the product names you used that we couldn't see names of....... it would be wonderful too. It's nice to know what brand of something WORKS when you go out shopping, or if you're like me you get something, say "Yea! this will work fine!" do something with it, and disaster ensues because it's not the same product.
BTW what does MTS stand for?
Edited to add: PLEASE, please, please, please, let me see a picture when you get your chichlid stones in your tank. And is that butchers string you used to tie some of the plants down with?
other then that I used some play sand (the only kind I found lol). I also picked up some flourish by seachem for fertilizer. Other then the substrate and fertilizer its just plants and rocks in the tank right now The filter I bought is a sponge filter from ebay (it hasnt arrived yet). The light strip is by perfecto, I got it cheap off a friend, it holds a t8 bulb (I ordered a hagen life glo bulb for it, as it is in the proper K spectrum). And... thats about it unless you think of something else!
I will absolutely post pictures of the cichlid stones in the tank!
I got a bag of their potting soil, rather then the garden soil. I was told it's ok to use, just wanted to know what you used. I couldn't read the bag from the picture.
You inspired me to clean out the spot I want to put the tank and get started on it right now!
I just finished up transferring my 2 mystery snails into a 5 gallon with my baby betta because I have a female that keeps laying eggs. My other snail is smaller and doesn't lay eggs so i'm guessing he's male. Who knows. I can't tell. Hopefully some magic will happen between them. If it doesn't, then no loss.
Thank you for all the pictures and information btw. This helps me so much.
No I didn't rinse it, I didn't see the need.
You can siphon with sand but the technique is different, you hold the siphon above the sand to not suck it all up. You shouldn't need to do it often as waste helps feed the plants.
new stuffs came in the mail today! The new lightbulb definately looks better
(might be hard to tell from pictures)
Cichlid stones came but arent going in the tank yet, I got the small size and the openings on two are fairly small but Im hoping with females who dont have big fins it will be ok, I held them up to presley and it looks like his body could fit in fine but if you want cichlid stones maybe try the medium size.
I also got 2 exo terra reptile caves which are supposed to be aquarium safe, Im going to silicone sand onto them to blend in better.
Sorry to poop on your parade, but with a NPT, or naturally planted tank (soil based tank), you want fast growing stem plants covering like 50-75% of the tank until the tank is established. Then you can adjust the plants and add different ones. Most of your plants are slower growing and won't suck up as many nutrients.
When a soil based tank is first setup, the dirt is going to be giving out tons of nutrients, this is when algae is most likely to occur. You should be at least one water change a day for the first week or so to rid the too many nutrients. You can then back off a bit after your first trim of stem plants and replant those stems (You don't have any though besides wisteria floating). Add way more stem plants...
Here is a picture of my tank, I need to move the plants around a bit though. (It is not current at all, this was a bit ago)
It entirely depends on what you read and who you talk to, I'm doing a low light tank and as such have low light and slower growing plants. It will come along just take longer than a tank with faster growing stem plants.
I'm also not doing daily water changes and have no algae issues probably because of the lower light.
Thanks for your post, npt tanks probably have as many different ways of doing them as as politics, everyone has different experiences and ideas of how to do it lol
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