Crlkeep's 75 Gallon Fw Plant Tank

[crlkeep]

75 Gallon Fresh Water Plant Tank:

48"x18"x21" Perfecto Tank
90 Pounds of Dark Aquarium gravel as substrate
Spectrapure RO DI waste water for water changes (manual top-off)
4 x 36 Watt 10K daylight Power compacts (12 hours/day)
Homemade CO2 injection (15 bubbles/hour)
Fluval 303 canister filter with sponge and bio-nodes

Live Stock Fish:

2 Angel Fish (Pterophyllum scalare)
(1 Gold Marbled Veiltail, 1 Gold Pearl)
1 Dwarf Sucker Catfish (Otocinclus affinus)
1 Blue Tetra (Hemigrammus sp.)
2 X-ray fish (Pristella maxillaris)
1 Black Molly (Poecilia sp.)

Live Stock Plants:

Anacharis
Anubius barteri
Amazon Sword
Cabomba
Cryptocoryne ballensae
Hornwart
Java Fern
Java Moss
Rotalla indica
Wisteria
? sea grass

This is my wifes tank actually, I just do all the maintenance.

more pics to follow..................

[craigandsimon]

plants look good, any algae problems?

[crlkeep]

We used to have algae problems, but then I decided that my wife wasn't able to propery care for the tank. 6 months between water changes was to much for me to handle. So now I do the tank, and haven't had any algae problems since.

Keeping the fish load low, means that the plants can absorb all the nutrient, and not leave any for the algae. At least thats my story and I'm stickn to it....

[kim]

Full tank pikky would be great ! I always enjoyed the plants more than the fish, I think.

In fact, that may be why I like reefs....I know corals aren't plants, but they appear to be part of the landscape, rather than the population, if you see what I mean.... I like landscapes....

kim

[crlkeep]

Kim,

I don't have any recent full tank shots. I admit that when I recently had a digital camera, I was so involved with the reef tanks, that I forgot about the FW tank. Here is a pic from October 2001 though..................

Chuck

[perculaClown]

hey mate whats ur substrate mix in there? I gave up on plants due to to much algae spoiling the look....(even tho water was as good as it gets)....

Thanks

[bonny2]

the tetras and the Otocinclus would appreciate some freinds. And you say you're using the run off from the RO/DI unit? surely that's super hard water not suitable for the fish u have there.

[crlkeep]

I don't have any plant specific substrate, I just used a dark gravel about 2 invhes thick. I never clean the substarte, after a while, the plants root system will start to be come extensive, and utilize a great deal of the fishes waste. I also went with a very low bioload fish wise. I believe that with the moderate lighting, 2 Watts per gallon, mixed with the CO2 dosing, helps to keep the algae at a minimum. I did have MH on this tank, 2 x 150W @ 6500K, but the pruning was a bit much for my schedule to keep up with.

Cheers m8

Chuck

[crlkeep]

I would imagine that it is very hard, but I rely on the fish and plants to dictate the conditions. The oxygen content is very good, and my Angels breed every two weeks like clockwork. I have not tried to rear the frye myself, but will eventually.

All the tetras school together, as there are 3 of them. The angels can be very territorial when breeding, and tetras are very dense about boundries, and often end up dead. The otto killed his two friends, I tried to feed the tank to stop the aggression, but they ignored my attempts. So I leave him by himself, and will get more when he passes. I have never had that happen before, poor guy must have come from a disfunctional family... :lol:

Chuck