New Planted Tank

[alunjai]

This is my new planted tank which I set up a week ago. The 45 gallon tank was found unwanted by a friend so I cleaned it up and now it sits nicely above my storage unit.

I have few neons tetras, 4 gold pearl scale angelfish and 4 unidentified fish (been trying to find out what they are but some say it may be blood parrot - shown in last picture).

Anyway I was wondering if I have enough planting for a "silent cycle".

Please free feel to comment on my set up...

Thanks

[alunjai]

Sorry I forgot to mention that I'm hoping to get a better light source but still thinking how to install that at the top of the tank. This LED light is temp only.

[Hopelessaddict101]

I'm not sure about the plants thing, but I LOVE your set up - especially the rocks.

[aemaki09]

Love your set up, but I would add some foreground plants to it. You should have atleast 75% of your substrate covered, and it looks like a lot is covered by your hard scape, so you'll want to add as many as you can into what's not covered by it.
Im not speaking from experience, just from the research I've done on them while planning to do mine.

[Hopelessaddict101]

I just know you need to have a range of surface, mid tank and bottom plants. Here, this will help you out if you haven't already looked:


http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=114575

[alunjai]

Too be honest I agree... I'm not completely happy with my planting. I kind of shoved everything in to get a quick result. I preferred if the background had more taller plants and created more layering.

I think my next step will be working on the foreground. It does look a bit empty lol.

[aemaki09]

Originally Posted by alunjai

Too be honest I agree... I'm not completely happy with my planting. I kind of shoved everything in to get a quick result. I preferred if the background had more taller plants and created more layering.

I think my next step will be working on the foreground. It does look a bit empty lol.

I actually like the background!
I think the front would look absolutely awesome with some dwarf hair grass or riccia, adding some kind of moss on the hard scape would look awesome as well, Christmas or java moss maybe?

Your definitely going to need some better lighting asap to have this tank succeed though, I know you already mentioned you were working in it but I just wanted to bring that up.

All in all though your tank looks great so far, planted tanks are always a work in progress!

[alunjai]

Thanks!

I was thinking using dwarf hair grass but they are quite hard to plant? I was also thinking of creating a tree near to one of sides.. using java moss on a small piece of drift wood branch. I've seen it done in a LFS and it looks amazing but I haven't managed to find a nice drift wood to create the tree affect...

[aemaki09]

I've heard of being able to buy the hair grass on coconut fiber mats. That makes them easier to plant and they spread on their own from that. I see it dold that way on aquabid pretty often actually, that could be something to try!
And the tree sounds really cool!

I forgot to ask if you have any floaters in the tank? I know it's highly suggested to have them, especially since they are really fast growers and suck up a lot of ammonia

[aokashi]

i find that dhg is one of the easiest foreground plants to work with. you can also try staurogen repens, microswords, Dwarf baby tears(needs CO2), glossostigma(also needs CO2), Utriculia Graminifolia(scuse the bad spelling, also needs CO3). or like abovr poster stated you can tie down riccia( pain in the butt to trim and keep down). moss grows really slowly. it will be hard growing enough for a 40 gallon carpet...