Grissom's dirted tank

Good to hear!

It was fine for me! My compatriots, not so much

 

Filled up today, heated to 18 degrees and planted.

4 species of plants only - I want to keep this from looking like a jungle.
2 x anubias (1 stays very small, the other has stems of about 2 cm then a leaf), cobra grass and needle leaf Java. The idea is that this must be a planted tank for my breeding stock so I need to be able to catch them. Water is still cloudy but I will post pics anyway. Will post again when the water clears.

 

Looks epic!

Just out of interest, what size tank and what filtration are you running?


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Its a custom 4ft - 1.2 x 30 cm x 30 cm. Filtration is an old power head that I had lying around. From my research dirted tanks are supposed to reach an equilibrium so WC should only happen every few months and there shouldnt be much filtration as the plants are supposed to use all the nutrients but I feel that there should be at least a little water flow. I lost the spray bar so I removed the attachments - it really is just there to circulate the water more than anything else. When I decide to try livestock I will test for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate but until then i wont be doing any testing. Will let it run for a few months (probably until September) before I think of adding livestock.

 

Thanks. Really hoping to get a nice carpet type effect all the way from the left to the rocks.

 

Ah ok, makes sense. That’s why I wondered because I keep seeing there should I go be filtration. Which is something I seriously can’t get my head around

Will you dose with anything?


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No, no dosing of any kind. I capped with fluorite as I believe this has a high CEC value (> 25) so all nutrients should hopefully be provided by the lawn dressing. In a few years when the lawn dressing is depleted I will probably dose or redo the tank depending on what the final outcome is.

 

For my emerald rasbora. I will also be adding another nano species as the emeralds are very shy and do their best displaying in the presence of other species. Thinking either a smaller rainbowfish (pseudomugil gertrudae or ithirani werneri have always caught my fancy) or possibly something along the lines of a Bororas depending if I can find any. Once I have moved the emeralds I will then have an 80 l square tank that I can use as a grow tank for the cpds. Once fry reach about 2 months I will move them to the grow tank which frees up the spawning tanks.

My CPDs have their own 3ft which works well for them, and the Sawbwas I want to split into male and female groups as the males are constantly harassing the females and I have the ratios incorrect (3 males to each female) so I need to give the females a break.

 

Just and update:

Day 3 after setup: tank is still murky. I did a 25 liter WC yesterday. This morning it looked a bit better than the photos on day 1. I will probably leave it until Saturday and then do another 25 liter WC.

 

Looks stunning @TheGrissom

 

Thanks @MariaS

 

1 week update.

The tank water is now clear, its just brown. Could be tannins leaching from the spider wood, could be something leaching from the substrate or a combination. I have done 2 more 25 l water changes and earlier today I placed some activated carbon in my filter. Also there is a fungus on the spider wood probably caused by the sugars leaching out the wood. I am pretty sure it will go away when the sugars are expended.

 

Photos dont really look that different to day 1. Maybe i am imagining a difference

 

Substrate cap might need to be a bit deeper?
I'd be surprised to see spider wood leech like that, although with the black background it is perhaps making things appear especially dark.
Not sure how direct the lighting over it is either.

 

substrate cap is pretty deep. It is 1 cm of flourite covered with another cm of inert sand. From what i researched they recommended 1 inch of dirt and 1 inch of cap. Even in the ice cream containers that I am growing plants the water goes brown and there is a much deeper cap. Logically if there is something that is water soluble in the dirt it will end up above the cap.

I also doubt its the spider wood.

 

I wonder if its not just something in the soil (wood chips or something of the sort, something fine since you cleaned it and all that good stuff) that's leaching? My guess that if that is the case, and at that amount of colour coming out, it should end off naturally and go clear... But hopefully the carbon can clear it up pretty quickly

 

The water has gone really dark now - I am a bit concerned that the plants are not getting enough light. I am now doing a 25 L WC and think I will do one daily until it clears. If the plants die it isn't the end of the world as I still have a quite a few more cobra grass plants in a different tank. The anubias and java fern will be fine I am sure.