Amazing Planted setups

Everyone interested in freshwater tanks, please check out the next slideshow on amazing planted tanks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uafmRtpK7T0

 

planted tanks are becoming extremely popular

 

like my 800L cube - i really must take some new photos and post them up here

 

Yeah henk, I saw your BIG cube. Please start a thread in the FW aquarium section.

 

roger will do - it is due for a major re-plant asap....

 

Cool. Can't wait. Starting a plated cube as well soon.

 

cool - let me know if you need any help - not all that clued up on marines any more - but i still know a thing or 2 about plants

 

Cool. Will be a while though. First need to populate my nano reef. That's gonna cost a pretty penny!

 

Well after looking at those tanks I may just give it a bash... would we need expensive equipment for planted tanks and where would I get the plants?

 

The most expensive is probably the CO2 setup. Could get away with DIY but You are probably looking at about R1,000 to R1,200 for a bottle, regulator, needle valve and guages. Possibly more. Then there's the light. As for the rest, it's mostly standard equipment. One advantage is that you don't need so much flow.

I have seen VERY VERY nice planted setups without any expensive equipment. But you'd have to ask those guys how they did it... I could never get my plants to flourish without CO2 yet other guys have awesome growth without CO2. And don't listen to any watt per liter BS when it comes to lighting. You need a lot of light for most of the nice plants. You do get low light plants though, but IME even those do better with a lot of lighting.

But Henk is an expert so best you speak to him.

 

Well the CO2 thing isn’t really needed any more. The only reason why you add the CO2 is for the carbon molecule and new technology allows us to add a liquid carbon.

One of my tanks is a completely low tech setup – well except for the lights as I am running 3 T5s on there. The substrate is completely home made and the plants are mostly cuttings.

On my 800L cube I run 2X150watt 6700K MHs as well as 4X CFs, with full on CO2 injection (due to cost of liquid carbon for tank this size) and an Eheim professional3. The substrate is actually to rich and is causing some issues with murky water. With the replant I plan on redoing the whole tank is it is being over grown with crypts. The substrate will also be thinned out as well as capped with pool filter sand.

Regarding where to get the plants from, well now that is a really k@k one in SA. We have had one or two really good plant shipments come in but not much. In fact it has gotten so bad that we are awaiting our plant import permits to arrive this week. We should be landing 4500 plant next week for sale to pet shops.

let me dig out some photos....

 

Cool. Photos would be awesome.

Henk, could you please elaborate more on the carbon liquid additive you are talking about. A link to such a product would be awesome. This is news to me.

 

Seachem Flourish Excel:

http://www.seachem.com/products/product_pages/FlourishExcel.html

 

Henk please upload some pic's I may just give this a bash. Is it hard graft like a marine tank? I have the following items to use.

a 3ft tank with 2xT5's with single reflectors, Eheim canister filter, heater and a powerhead is not too much to buy...

What else would I need?

 

low tech setup:



800L cube - eish it looks like kakka right now - serious need of a replant...



all you need is a proper plant substrate....

 

How about selling me some plant frags (man that sounds bd )

 

I'll get some of that seachem stuff if I can find it....