Wednesday, March 01, 2006

55 gallon Planted Tank



This is our 55 gallon planted tank. Set up late summer 2005. We started with 130 watts of power compact flourescent light and 2 DIY CO2 reactors and had pretty nice results. Then upgraded the lighting to 260 watts and noticed a dramatic improvements in growth of leaves, rooot systems and of course algae. You can see a couple blue colored fish in the center.. those guys are called Florida Flag Fish. Florida Flag Fish basically rid the tank completely of hair algae in a matter of a week. Once the hair algae was gone they started munching on other plants. We had 8 originally but got rid of 6 of them because in a big group they tend to gang up on select plants. Now with just two left they leave all the other plants alone but still take care of any hair algae they find. The more fish food you feed the less hair algae they eat, so when you run out algae, start feeding them twice a day so they keep off your other plants.

This is a mid tank view. I add like 2ml - 4ml of potassium and iron every week. I do about a 30% water change every week as well. Its great for the plants, they love it, but that much water change is bad for the fish. So to make up for stripping stuff from their water every week, I feed them frozen food which has been soaked in vitamins (like Zoe) overnight. I'm not just geeking out, I lost a bunch of fish before and couldn't figure out why, I tried this vitamin formula and the fish are all strong and very active.

The aquatic clovers in the foreground are called Marsilea Minuta and the larger ones are called Marsilea Quadrifolia. These are the only foreground cover plants I've had any luck with.. they took off like a week after I planted them. Everyday there are a few new leaves. I tried riccia fluitans, but I think i didn't have enough light.. also the thread I used to tie the plant down into a mesh with kept disolving or someone was eating it. I have some bits of Pellia still kickin around as well and Glostima, which I managed to kill like 6 bunches of. These clovers never even had a down time or acclimation period.

The plant coming out of the tank is Water Sprite. Interesting plant, super easy to grow, you can plant it, let it float, whatever you like. I personally love seeing the roots come from the surface down into the tank. I have a team of Siamese Algae Eaters that spend most the day in the roots nibbling, so I'm not the only one who likes it. The leaves change over time depending on how you trim the plant, and how much light its getting. The leaves became needles when I up-ed the light from 130 to 260 watts.. All in all this plant is great at covering the less attractive "under construction" areas of the tank.

In the foreground, Sarah's Fuzzy Green Ball (Marimo Balls). In the distance Christmas Moss.

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