Journal my 1st dirt tank.
Decided to go with dirt for my plant build.

~2" of Mircael Grow Organic, ~ 1" Eco-Complete cap.
Tank Dim: 36wx15dx16h
Lights: Nova Extreme, 2 T5HO, (1) 10K, (1) Fresh water Grow, Light to sub ~ 15"
Penn Plax 1200.
300w heater.

Current photoperiod is ~ 12hours
edit: Reduced photoperiod to ~ 8 hours. Forgot when. Gonna guess ~ 11/7/11

Dirt in tank 10/12/11.
First plants to show up. 10/18/11 Red Ludwigia (Ludwigia repens) (Thank jrman83!)



In the tank.

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100 Dirt + Stuff. To be Angel baby tank.
37 Planted. http://www.aquariumforum.com/f45/pla...nal-20774.html
29 Tall community tank. 5+ Years up and running.
15 Soon to be RCS tank.

yay! I'll be watching for pointers. btw i love the random cat parts in the pic :D

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"Being ignorant is not so much a Shame, as being unwilling to learn".-- Benjamin Franklin

10/19/11 More plants arrived and in the tank.

1 of : Hygrophila corymbosa ‘Angustifolia’
1 of : Octopus Plant (Isoetes lacustris)
1 of : Sword, Amazon Compacta (Echinorodus bleheri 'Compacta'
1 of : Vallisneria "Dark Red Jungle Val" (Vallisneria americana var. americana) (sold 10 plants per order)

Order 4 plants, get 5. Now I get to guess what is what! haha.


Oct Plant, Amazon Sword, Red Val, Hygro corymbosa (or willow), Jungle Val

In the tank:

__________________
100 Dirt + Stuff. To be Angel baby tank.
37 Planted. http://www.aquariumforum.com/f45/pla...nal-20774.html
29 Tall community tank. 5+ Years up and running.
15 Soon to be RCS tank.

10/22/11

Picked up another bunch of plants. I don't recall the name. Ended up being 5 stems.

They are Anacharis

__________________
100 Dirt + Stuff. To be Angel baby tank.
37 Planted. http://www.aquariumforum.com/f45/pla...nal-20774.html
29 Tall community tank. 5+ Years up and running.
15 Soon to be RCS tank.

10/27/11 Added some more plants.

Spiral Crypt


Cryptocoryne wendtii (no pic)

Water is finally not turning brown 24 hours after a waterchange. This is after adding the plants and WC was 2 days ago.



(The "green crypts are the shorter ones upfront in the tank)

And most excitng for me is today I saw new growth for the 1st time in this tank.


It's one of the mystery plants. I believe it's the hygro

__________________
100 Dirt + Stuff. To be Angel baby tank.
37 Planted. http://www.aquariumforum.com/f45/pla...nal-20774.html
29 Tall community tank. 5+ Years up and running.
15 Soon to be RCS tank.

I might be wrong, but the mystery plant that you thought was a hygro might be a willow hygro. I've got a couple stems that look fairly similar

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Lead me not to temptation...I can make it there myself just fine, thank you

Hook up some CO2....then watch them grow. Keep up the good work!

CO2 is next on the list, I'm eyeballing aquariumplants 20lb + milwakee ma957 reg for ~ $200.

__________________
100 Dirt + Stuff. To be Angel baby tank.
37 Planted. http://www.aquariumforum.com/f45/pla...nal-20774.html
29 Tall community tank. 5+ Years up and running.
15 Soon to be RCS tank.

tank is looking good fish, keep up the good work

__________________
What happens if you get scared half to death, twice?

11/5/11 Added 1 anubia and clipping from a red crypt to the 37 from the other tank. These pics are from today though. 11/9/11

__________________
100 Dirt + Stuff. To be Angel baby tank.
37 Planted. http://www.aquariumforum.com/f45/pla...nal-20774.html
29 Tall community tank. 5+ Years up and running.
15 Soon to be RCS tank.

It's looking pretty good!

__________________
"Being ignorant is not so much a Shame, as being unwilling to learn".-- Benjamin Franklin

I gots algae! And not all plants are showing good signs. :(


Spiral crypt algae.


Red Val algae. (staghorn beginning to grow)


Octo stag


No Co2, I am 1/2 - full EI dosing now. Lights still reduced. One area I've devated from npt is the absence of floating plants. I am patiently waiting for my shipment. So for the most part I expect the algae and am cleaning it out every couple of days.

__________________
100 Dirt + Stuff. To be Angel baby tank.
37 Planted. http://www.aquariumforum.com/f45/pla...nal-20774.html
29 Tall community tank. 5+ Years up and running.
15 Soon to be RCS tank.

Death:

This guy did this in less than 36 hours.



Whatever this is:



Jungle Vals:
These guys were one of my oe ins* that just ain't doing nothing. No new growth, all cracked, and quickly brown/melt where I cut them. (which may be the issue) I pulled one out Sat due to I had clipped it down to the nub.


Sword: Hard to see, but top leaf crinkled.

__________________
100 Dirt + Stuff. To be Angel baby tank.
37 Planted. http://www.aquariumforum.com/f45/pla...nal-20774.html
29 Tall community tank. 5+ Years up and running.
15 Soon to be RCS tank.

But it's not all bad news!! Several plants are doing well.

Most of the Ludwigia is growing. Some alot more than others. This one, while hard to tell, started out as one stem. It's not only grown taller, but it's sprouted off 2-4 other stems and is doing very well.



Then of course the hygro, it's doubled in size again. Still small that's 2-3" tall, and about as wide too.



Tank as of today:

__________________
100 Dirt + Stuff. To be Angel baby tank.
37 Planted. http://www.aquariumforum.com/f45/pla...nal-20774.html
29 Tall community tank. 5+ Years up and running.
15 Soon to be RCS tank.

Your algae issues look fairly minor, but I think you may have a tad too much light for the tank size. I think if you went down to one bulb, you'd still have enough light for what you have in there and you would have less issues for sure. Just until you get the CO2 going. I would cut your lighting time back, depending on what it is now if you keep both bulbs going. The one pic of the crypt going away in 36hrs is common for crypts. I personally had never experienced it until recently when I moved some out of my high light/CO2 tanks to my non-CO2 shrimp tank. New sprouts started in about 4 days though. I would cut them off at the substrate as they just become mush and muck your tank up. On the Vals that don't look so good, just cut their leaves off and leave the base. It will sprout new leaves. Normal for them to get new tank shock also.

On the CO2, a 20lb bottle is way too big. Also, check the length of the bottle, do you have that much room? I would think that either a 5 or 10lb bottle would suffice. I have a 10lb bottle that has been going on my 125 for almost 6 months and haven't had to refill yet. My 5lb lasted around 5 months on my 75g. I have a 20lb on my other 125 that I bought used.....I may have to refill sometime in 2013.

The crypt is having issues with crypt melt which can be normal for them, Do not toss it as it will come back. One of the issues with the val besides the algae is its buried to deep. The anubia shouldn't be planted like that either, needs to be tied to a rock or wood, or just let it sit on the bottom and let the roots bury themselves.

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SUCCESS IS MEASURED BY YEARS, NOT MONTHS!!!
220 Tank build
http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/sta...late-3253.html

Looking pretty good.Still lighting it for 12 hours a day?Perhaps cut that back to about eight,and see how that does.

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http://bountifulbettas.blogspot.com/

"Come to the dark side....we have cookies...and filters/heaters/and water changes!"

11/10/11 - Duckweed showed up on the 10th.



And of course the canister filter kept all the duckweed pegged to the front of the tank and causing alot of it to circle down into the tank. The Ludwigia is a good duckweed catcher! haha.

11/11/11 - picked up 15 stems of Anacharis. Was told these can be floaters too.



Ended up redirecting the flow of the outflow down. Still to much so cut the flow at the can. (maybe 30%)




Noticed today, algae growing pretty good on the substrate. YeA! Lol.

__________________
100 Dirt + Stuff. To be Angel baby tank.
37 Planted. http://www.aquariumforum.com/f45/pla...nal-20774.html
29 Tall community tank. 5+ Years up and running.
15 Soon to be RCS tank.

jrman83. Thanks for your comments. As I was eyeballing my new substrate algae, I was comtemplating removing the 10K bulb and see what happens. The photoperiod is ~ 8 hours. 11 - 7pmish.

CO2 bottle. The price for 20 is just incremental from a 10, figured why not. :D I do have a 29 that I wouldn't mind tossing the yeast bottles in the trash, and then the dual 40's that may find their way into the house eventually. :D


Susankat: Vals too deep. Roger. I attempted to push the rootball past the 1" eco-complete into the dirt. How deep should they be? Anubia, that anubia is tied down to a small rock which is sitting ontop of the substrate. (weight to keep it on the bottom of the tank) The rhizome isn't buried at all. One of the pics, you can see the rock and rubber band.

Thanks again for the feedback. I sure do apprieciate it.

__________________
100 Dirt + Stuff. To be Angel baby tank.
37 Planted. http://www.aquariumforum.com/f45/pla...nal-20774.html
29 Tall community tank. 5+ Years up and running.
15 Soon to be RCS tank.

11/19/11 LFS got their plant shipment in and I brought home some. :D

4 stems of wisteria
1 Echinodorus Vesuvius (spiral crypt?)
(sry the pic i took before putting into tank went to la la land.) New plants are center, and far far right.)

Pic of tank this week.

__________________
100 Dirt + Stuff. To be Angel baby tank.
37 Planted. http://www.aquariumforum.com/f45/pla...nal-20774.html
29 Tall community tank. 5+ Years up and running.
15 Soon to be RCS tank.