# Planted Tanks > Aquascaping >  My 20 gal tank journal: From zero to hero

## medicineman

The title says it all. I started out as a total newbie, learning only from thekrib and other articles online. Back then I got nowhere to ask, not even some forum or somenone around me to be my tutor. I learned bit by bit, mostly from mistakes I've made along the journey. 

As a newbie I thought aquascaping is a piece of cake and I should be able to at least grow aquatic plants right from the start. But fact proved I was wrong. With just some soil and whatever gravel I could find, I started out using a 20 gal tank which used to house 5 fancy orandas (long moved to a pond), taking several plants choise that I dont even know names and requirements of. Lighting was wrong from the start as I use 2 x 20W which is barely enough. To make things worse I picked the wrong bulb just because some LFS claimed that it is OK for aquatic plants (yeah, my foot!  :Evil:  ). I did not use any CO2 because I thought it is supposedly OK for lower light setups and pressurised system was darn expensive (again because I rely on darn merchant/LFS that made too much money out of customers by overcharging or selling only some expensive specific brand).

As devastation goes by again and again, I learned a bit more (again online.. god bless internet!  :Smile:  ) and started using DIY CO2 and adding another strip of 20W (but still I screwed up by picking the wrong bulb from darn merchant  :Evil:  ). 

midyear 2005



I started to use DIY CO2 and purchased an internal reactor after I know more from lurking a bit in forums. 

What a newbie! I overdosed my tank using gardening NPK and some urea! I was too smart*ss that I followed EI without knowing the correct principles and fine details. Luckily the only casualties are plants that are somewhat covered by algae. Things improved a bit and I thought I started to get the hang of it. I learned of easier to grow plants and get them into the tank, while doing some trial and error on other plants along the way. I still thought I was on the right track, just needing some lessons and experience... but later things will prove that I was wrong  :Opps:  



Things continue to get better and better. I studied EI dosing carefully and purchased the right stuff from local chemical supplier. This with the combination of CO2 and somewhat more light (even though of the wrong spec) resulted in much better outcome.



By this point I didnt know the concept of using trace element and essential chelated Fe (as terrestrial plants manage to do well without them).

to be continued....

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## medicineman

I purposely post this to boost morale of newbies and those who has not yet taste sweetness of building a setuo that is nice to look at and easy to maintain out of the bitterness of failures.

continued...

Here I show you how in bad condition my tank was... everything is ruined and dying





And so after knowing more and more, I started to use liquid fert. My first fert was a trace element mix, one of Taiwan brand which I may say it worked fairly well enough.

But still there is something wrong because my tank was crappy looking compared to people's tank I saw by the forums.



Tough luck I've gotten no idea and so are the people I know at the forums. All seems to be on the right track; some EI ferts, CO2, supposedly enough watts over the tank. One thing they did not notice : temperature. I live in the tropics and a tank under lighting is baking. A dedicated mini fan blowing over the tank proved to work well in keeping the temp below 27,5C. Under cooler temp, the tank runs smoother and the plants overall appear better.

With newfound ways and more experience under my belt, repairs were made constantly and actually the tank looks much better, though IMO still far away from good. At this point I use more wood and picked easier plants.





But still many plants, esp stem plants ever easy ones like all kind of hygro and ludwigia will always die off after some time inside the tank. This puzzles me and make me wonder for months. Overall growth of the tank is not great either, unlike what I saw on tank journals. I do have alongside two huge tanks (1000L each) which are using high light (as what people use in sucessfull setups) but suffers the same fate. So I quickly sort out the problem, these three tanks have something in common : substrate. That is definately the culprit!

So I decided if I cannot get what I want, I should copy exactly what people did. I ended up with silica (pool) sand and again buying some JBL base fert. Upon setting up in the big tanks, I got satisfactionary results within the first two weeks and I concluded it was the substrate. Silica sand though inert can work quite well, unlike the old black substrate I use.

Why did I use black substrate at the first place? 
It is coarse sand, accouring naturally as volcanic debris from rivers around area of Malang. They (the seller) claimed that for aquascaping this is a good substrate to use. Of course as a newbie I took their words for sure. There wasnt much option anyway, no fancy subsrate like what they use in forums; fluorite and EC (ADA was not yet popular/introduced at the time).
I've been had, again by fish merchant!! (damn them oblivion....  :Evil:  why always merchants that leads me to hell on eath) .. sorry no offence for those of you more responsible LFS in Singapore or somewhere else  :Grin:  

Morale of the story so far :
-learn your lessons well from other people
-read a lot and join forums
-post your tank if you need to, just a pic can tell a thousand words
-use the right stuff from the first time. ask if you're not sure
-never listen to mechants  :Evil:  .... they just want to sell their merchandise whatsoever, instead listen to what fellow users have to say about products
-dont give up upon failures. I endure those failures in form of multiple setups, a lot of wasted time, lots of money, three tanks that are always failed, months upon months of horror and mistakes, all the energy spent tearing up and re-planting with fresh stock, etc.

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## Fei Miao

I like the thread title :Grin:  Yes we all go through a learning curve,  :Opps:  ...fortunately there are loads of information contributed by all here to make that less painful.

This is a Good encouragement to all who just started out in planted tanks. Thanks medicineman :Well done:

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## medicineman

@Fei Miao,
You're welcome. The good part is not here yet...but will be coming  :Grin:  

back to the story continued...

As I have said before, the substrae was a failure because it turns anaerobic quite fast. To make matters worse, it is too light that buoyant plants will surely float away, making troublesome anchoring needed. I've given up on the stuff and have had enough of it. God knows what else it might contain that it cannot support plant life well enough, even worse than inert gravel.

I also added another strip of light upping the total to 80W. Having learned all the technology part of aquascaping, suspicion fell on the rest of old bulb. Have you ever heard of mitsutec bulb? OMG... the stuff is not even exist by the web. I swapped everything with osram daylight shop bulb (which I can find out the spectrum output graphic), very cheap for $1 each. The last of the last strip I use hagen red-blue spectrum for great colouring yet still useful. You dont have to get top notch plant bulb if you do not have the $, what matters is getting it right at price you can afford.

So the tank was totally torn apart, and I salvaged whatever I can take. There are some crypts, some ferns, a val, a bunch of floating hidrocotyle and a tiger lotus that made it trough the ordeal right from the start.... they are very hardy indeed. 

As a replacement I use more traditional old school approach, regular pool sand (silica sand) and JBL ferropol base fert. I tried something new this time, extreme terracing of the scape using driftwood as support. using whatever I have at my disposal, I put a big hope on the setup. If these weakened plants can grow out, this time I strike it right.

Check out how the new scape turns out!





Sometimes a fresh new start is what we need... with that fresh new look  :Smile:

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## medicineman

_A fresh new start_

Aquarium ferts are quite rare and can get very expensive around where I live (it is a segmented hobby after all). Prices are relatively high compared to living cost, especially for quality brand name ferts. I escaped to second brand ferts, namely taiwan products and local products. But as usual, darn merchants/shops only know how to sell but has no idea what are they selling. Now I know some of the products that I use are considered "fake" fert that wont work well no matter what kind of setup you have or how green your thumb is. Determined to revenge that, I started to study fert making, inspired by how in the US they are able to produce cheap PMDD that works well for those who are in need of cheaper second grade stuff and so the story goes on.... I use my own line of fert in all my tanks ever since.

Back to the setup, taking off on the right track. With cheap shoplight, DIY CO2 running, a simple fan to cool down and self made PMDD fert to top it off.
With a bit of remapping and some additional plants later, finally the plants are in position and mainly has not been changed/moved until present day. I decided to add several hygro compacta, as shown still in emmersed form. There are many plants out there that are sold like this, and will/may change drasticaly when grown under water.



I put low bio load, step by step as the tank mature, learning from regular mistake people made over and over again when they buy fish in large quantity, overcrowd the tank and upset balance. The first creatures to be put in a newly setup tank must always be the algae control squad. In this case a tiny baby CAE is used, followed by a very small SAE.

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## medicineman

And later on, "poisoned" by seeing too much japanese style tanks with neat foreground, I tried my luck growing glosso despite of the considered low-medium lighting I use. I just shoot at it since everything seems to grow much better in the tank. I was going to try supposedly easier marsiela or perhaps hemiantus cuba but luck was not on my side at that moment. I use emmersed glosso since they are much cheaper and plentiful around here. Trying never hurts when plants are relatively cheap, and it is a very good way of learning, a priceless lesson.



I know some of you will laugh when you see how I planted glosso... in small bunch  :Laughing:  ....instead of in small cuttings of 2-3 nodes. That's why I said learning is priceless.

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## medicineman

Some time after that....

The glosso, not as expected, grew despite of lower than requirement lighting, underfed CO2 and harder water (gH10, kH :Cool: . Not too great, but started spreading by the foreground. In the mean time, the emmersed hygro compacta slowly changed leaves into submersed form, increasing in size. Other plants are growing in just nicely, no melting (for the crypts) and so far no algae outbreak (and so on eversince there has been no algae outbreak up to date). All I got to the point was a bit of GSA, while dust algae was almost eradicated from exsistance thanks to algae eating crew and relatively balanced tank. I give credits to heavy plant load and correct selection of species (a thing many of us must learn to do when setting up new tank).

By this time I added 15 cherry shrimp, 13 rasbora hengeli and a pair of cory to clean up the bottom. Adding them slowly over time will do good as not upsetting balance/tank cycle.

The tank started to take off smoothly and I'm glad for that!

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## medicineman

The size of this tank (and slightly bigger recommended) is suitable for starter tank, while allowed on most flats/apartments, not requiring too much work and cost low to start with. Maintenance cost as it runs is also low enough, a likely option for those who wish to start with a limited budget.

As I've set it up right this time, I've done very little maintenance from the point onwards (with water changes as the only maintenance and time consuming). It is just important to pick the right hardware and choose the right plants with it, keeping in mind of what lies in the future of the tank.



Month after month went by, and so the tank becomes matured. I like how things are growing that I decided not to touch anything except for removing dead leaves and cutting any excess floating plant (hydrocotyle). The tank looked full at this point with lots of green from hygro compacta.
This time the glosso went under, with only small patches growing by the front area (and not carpet-like too)... the tank condition after all is not suited for this plant. The lighting is barely enough, the CO2 is just too low. Lesson learnt, such plant truly belongs to high tech tank with more proper equipments (and more maintenance as well).

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## |squee|

Very nice time line and write ups. 

I love how the tank has progressed! I'm amazed at your enthusiasm and persistence.

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## Fei Miao

I have been following up your thread...Thumbs up for your write-ups :Smile:   :Well done:

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## medicineman

It is nice that my writing can be appreciated and put into use by fellow readers. I guess making my own tank journals is becoming some kind of a habit carried along. I'd take pictures of my tanks every now and then (although some will never be showed in forums), it is very important to see and learn of progress/growth.

Yea... you can say I'm a very stubborn one. I've failed miserably, over and over again, even though I do not intend to fell twice into the same hole. I've had critical mistake on my much bigger 1000L tanks as well, two of them and you can start to imagine the pain... :Knockout:  ... from wrong substrate to trial fert, from failed DIY equipment to (almost) electrocution. 

My tanks are my battleground... and not only I'm winning lately, this hobby rewards me with satisfaction and beauty to gaze at. As bonus, the persistance and curiousity led me to creative DIY stuff and hopefully enough a brand new trace element fert for the market, from my very own formula (self test it for months already, my tanks and nearby friends/relatives are my guinea pigs  :Grin: ).

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## griffin1

i've enjoyed reading, indeed a hero's journey  :Smile:

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## medicineman

And so the tank remains roughly as is until today, low maintenance and the same scape. The hygro keep growing strong and taller, the rest of the plants just force to fill the tank. I lost the glosso, also due to other plants flourishing, killing the patch by overshadowing.

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## medicineman

Sometimes later...

It seems that those compacta hygro does not stop growing at halfpoint. With other plants in the tank, it came to a point of choking the whole tank down.



It is getting dark below and so full by the top that it looks more like a jungle than a scape. My rasboras became truly "surface" fish as they have nowhere else to hang around other than by the surface or inbetween roots.

So I decided to do a main hack and slash job on the tank. The hygros are trimmed down and re-planted, thus giving much more free space and return that white shoreline look to the foreground. I pulled a bit of the loose substrate a bit to the back (it will eventually slides back a litte over time). Hydrocotyle is also trimmed down, allowing more light to penetrate.

one day after trimming :


I know my plants are a lot happier now, so are the fish with improved swimming space. You can see good pearling on hydrocotyle and microsorum two days after I do hack and slash, 70%WC to remove excess stirrup, replace DIY CO2 mixture and dose like usual.

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## doppelbanddwarf

Very nice. It is really a "zero to hero" tank. The end result is simply amazing

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## Dabolox

Wild style rocks... nice tank  :Smile:

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## taz_boy

very nice tank bro....really enjoy reading ur journey towards ur final tank..

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## medicineman

I'm glad you guys find it appealing  :Grin:  

It has been fun slack job and perhaps I'll be keeping it as is for quite some time that is until I get tired of the view. Low maintenance, reasonable electrical bill, great view, light expense... it is quite hard to get tired at. 

Now go and pimp up your tank right!
(note the tank is a remnant of Luohan craze which is slightly modified)

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## medicineman

Fast forward several months...

Upon refining fert formula and dosing, doubling DIY CO2 capacity to 2 liter bottle instead of 1 liter, showed positive result.
Plants keep growing, the tank back to the jungle it used to be in no time. It came to the point of choking again (I can see my lotus as a potential victim if nothing is done immediately. Notably the crypts keeps on growing longer and establish a sure colony, while my hygro compacta seems to love the overall treatment despite of it being periodically hacked. The leaves grow big and so compact inbetween each node. It is too compact and cramp each other that the lower part gets no light and became unsighty.

And time for another hack job!
Finished :

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## V31

very nice.

personally I'd put round stones in foreground away and substitute quartz sand for some fine bright sand  :Smile:  it's just an idea  :Wink:

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## medicineman

May 2007 update.

The tank is going steady, endlessly filling in and went trough hack jobs every couple of months. Plants keep growing and growing... they are choking each other. My lotus is gone now, "eaten" away into the jungle.



Man... I know I have to hack those floating plants again!  :Grin:  

Hey... I missed the specs for this one!

- Size : 80L tank
- Light : 4 x 18W TL, daylight shop lamp, 8hrs a day
- CO2: 2 x 1.5L DIY CO2 via internal reactor
- Cooling :1 x mini fan @27C
- Ferts: Wonder-gro macro+, micro+ and root+ 
- Filter : built in type

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## Fei Miao

The tank looks good, plants very healthy and lush :Smile:  yes, certainly some trimming back will makes the scape looks even better.

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## FishFan

Great looking tank!  :Smile: 

Where did you get the plant you call hygro compacta from? Is it a hygrophila or a Echinodorus? Do you know if it is called by another name? Thanks!

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## medicineman

The plant is Hygrophila corymbosa "compacta" variety.
You can find the spec on the net I believe (one site is tropica)

I believe it is a product of careful plant selection of a mutation, and some said the ones we have today originated from Tropica imports while other agree that such plant is a result of steady natural mutation, which with local skills and natural resources are now commonly cultivated. Usually one can find it on sale in emmersed form, which is the easiest and cheapest way to produce.

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## FishFan

Thanks for the clarification. Hygrophila Corymbosa "Compacta" looks great as a mid-ground plant.  :Smile:

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## Salphur

Great looking tank and sharing of an amazing journey, do keep us updated on the evolution of your tank!

Cheers! :Grin:

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## medicineman

After some time I had enough of the tank green salad shelf look. It was getting older and always cramped and with some plants better not trimmed down (such as anubias, crypts and microsorum), it is best to move them to other home.

So on Oct 2007 the tank was torn down to bits and re-setup using existing plants and some donors from my other tanks.

This time I deliberately set it up using no base fertiliser or any form of soil by the plain quartz gravel. Any form of fertilisation comes from water collumn (wonder-gro liquid fert) and root tabs (wonder-gro root tabs).



Doesnt look too good initially.

Plants :
vallisneria spiralis
saggitaria subulata
hygro poliserma "rose" (fast grower as counterbalance)
microsorum pteropus
anubias nana
cryptocoryne wendtii

Specs and equipments remain the same.

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## tcy81

any lastest photo of your tank ?
 :Smile:

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## medicineman

Fast forward one month later at the end of November 2007

I pulled out some of the weedy poliserma since the tank is balancing just nice. In its place I use several limnophila aromatica, though I know the weak lighting might slowly kill it but still trying (a month later the concern become a reality)



Note that the foreground of vallis and saggitaria are doing just fine, other than growing they also start to spread.

You can notice that holes develop on many of anubias nana leaves. This is due to old leaves getting eaten by nerite snails (lots of GSA on old, softening leaves). Learn from this and never have too many nerite it your anubias tank!

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## dwgi32

Thanks a lot, bro for sharing your journey. Nice setup.

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## medicineman

Fast forward to current status...



The aromatica has long gone mainly due lack of light and replaced by echinodorus red flame (a gift from a friend) on early January.

The bunch of anubias nana grown many new leaves, replacing the half dead old leaves infested by holes. Most new leaves are slightly smaller than the old ones (probably due to mass, simultaneous damage), though some retains the generous size.

You can notice how the foreground of subulata and vallisneria spiralis has grown into thick lawn. They spread to every free space and fill them up while growing thick bunches. They do grow a bit tall, but some sporadic trimming keep them down. Contrary to most beliefs, they actually do not melt when cut down halfway (at least in my tank).



From another point of view where you can see the sloping and thick foliage of weedy foreground.

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## medicineman

Switched from 4 x 18W T8 tubes to 2 x 36 PL tubes. I ripped apart one of the old lighting fixture due to failure in one of the bulbs.
Same consumption, more efficiency in form of more light output.

My plants love it that they responded instantly by pearling.





Lets see the long term effect in several weeks time. I need to make sure of more steady suppy of CO2 and liquid fertilizer from now on.

*started to try daily dosing routine via pumps using WG Macro+ and WG Micro+.

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## Cpark188

Hi Medicineman,

Thanks and greatly appreciate this journal which post here, read thru the whole testimonies about your experience in aquascaping. Many facts and pointers contribute to us for not going to make the same mistake. Many of us usually just kept to ourselve include me when something wrong occurs, but you took the effort writing out to contribute to us what and how you encounter with plants growth over time with disappointment and frustration. Aftermaths that how you recovered and rejoice this issue with us, thanks.

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## torque6

Medi,

I didnt know your tank so BIG. lol. congratulations, its quite an achievement.

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## medicineman

@torque6,
Cant play with the big toys forever, worse still as a starter tank  :Roll Eyes: 
They take a lot of resources to set up and not to mention time consuming in maintenance (as I'm now already preoccupied with 3 huge setups and several small ones).

@Cpark188,
Lets share and keep the spirit up!
Maybe there should be more books like : "Aquascaping is easy" and "Aquascaping for dummies" to help troubled folks even more.

More pics :

I have reduced several of the twisted nerite snails that eats away my old anubias leaves. Now the bunch is slowly replacing holed parts as I trim one at a time.
The foreground is almost fully grown by runners with no empty lot to spare. I keep them (saggitaria and vallisneria spiralis) low by cutting the tall leaves.



Side view.
The sloped quartz gravel proves to last for quite a long time. Lava rocks to hold them back is indeed effective enough. 



To newbies with budget/difficulty in getting cylinder/gas :
You can see an idea how a DIY CO2 is sufficient enough for an average, reasonably small tank. Here you notice the reactor is full of CO2 gas, indicating that output is more than what can be dissolved at the time. 
So use it while you slowly save up for that CO2 cylinder!

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## krabbie

Hi medicineman, reading your journal is always a joy.  :Smile: 

Got a question: Won't the water flow be slow in the thick undergrowth? How do you maintain no algae problems there?

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## torque6

Looks like alot of people upgrading lights at the right time to help their plants on uptake on co2+ nutrients, great timing Medi.

Looks like i will be keeping some of my old tank lights/tubes instead of discarding them.

Great journal.

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## medicineman

Fast forward.



The foregorund of vallisneria sprialis have grown so thick and full, a frequent cleaning during WC is needed to avoid thread algae growth within the lower, cramped foliage. They are just given a flat trimming to keep the height in check. A bit too tall for the tank, but surely fit in a larger setup.

Echinodorus flame turned somewhat too big. Either I'm forced to replace, or trim it down.

The Hygrophila poliserma turned nice pink hue all over, not only along the veins. They have morphed and adapt long way, none similar to what we usually get.

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## meerkat

Been reading your write-ups though I have just joined AQ and I must say your "tank adventures" were really impressive!! 

Just curious about your Rasboras: are they the same guys since 2006?

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## route

tank looks great  :Smile:

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## medicineman

Thanks.

Around half of the rasboras were the original ones (all hengeli), dated back from 2006, while the others were obtained in 2007 and added later on. These are hardy fish indeed.

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## Salphur

Wow,

Amazing growth of the plants without base ferts but with root tabs and macro, micro liquids.

Now i can try something new.

Cheers!

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## iantan05

wow nice tank.... wish i had something like that... and btw whats the watts on ur tank

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## medicineman

@iantan05,

You can definately have a nice growing tank like mine. Probably in less time because you can learn good things out from the forum. What's left is experience and good hands at scaping, depends on every person's skill.

This tank has 90W of fluorescent lighting which comes from 2 x 36W PL tubes and a single 18W T8 tube. All are your regular osram home tubes. 
CO2 comes from DIY unit via a reactor. Filter is built in.
I purposely made and left this tank for example of cheap DIY equipments.
Doesnt have to be hard to find or expensive as long as you dont mind the home-made look.

@Salphur,
Try for yourself. It worked well here and has been running for some time, even though I left it on minimal DIY equipments.

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## blue33

I'm just curious! What is the dosing like of wondergro products in terms of cost and economical? How long can it last? After seeing great results you have. Thanks!  :Smile:

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## illumnae

the recommended dosage for wondergro macro is ~10ml/50 litres per week for macro and ~5ml/50 litres per week for micro. divide into 3 doses if you do EI style daily dosing. you can check on how economical it is for you by checking the price from UncleBen/NA/Mizuworld. When I did the math for my 4x2x2, it was the most economical fert product for me based on their 5litre macro and 1litre micro bottles (old packaging). Not sure how the new packaging measures up on pricing  :Smile:

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## medicineman

I have been running this tank on exactly the same dosing routine for several months now. 
I dose my ferts on the lean side; 3ml of macro+ and 2ml of micro+ every day.
Maybe quite lean, but it worked well here!

The plant load would increase all the time, but they were hacked off to keep in check. Fish load remains roughly the same as there is no addition nor death.

Hence a bottle of 500ml macro and 500ml micro would last roughly 160 and 250 days respectively in 80l liter tank.

While the tabs are given by breaking into half or quarter to the foreground vallisneria, while the much bigger echinodorus red flame received a full tablet every month.

If you take into account budget as a concern, in theory this tank cost $ 0.0925 per day of macros (500ml bottle) and $ 0.0592 worth for micros (500ml bottle). And there are some time until you need to open up a new bottle while the root tabs would last this tank for more than a year, probably two.
In my opinion the use is cost friendly. Not to mention it worked just fine for me, in all my tanks (otherwise they would never reach market).

Results may vary as tank condition and local waters are always different.
A tank will always grow and condition changes, it is wise to adjust dosing following that.

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## blue33

Thanks guys for sharing the the info on wondergro! Wondering how many ml per pup of wondergro? Cause the bottle looks pretty small to me.  :Grin:

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## illumnae

the new packaging maxes out at 500ml/bottle at the moment. they're supposedly working on larger packaging at the moment, but no news about it yet.  :Smile:

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## medicineman

My plants have eventually grown out the small tank (and it is the nature of the plants anyway) despite of reasonable trimming effort done.

As you can see, echinodorus red flame can get quite huge, especially when you feed it right.

To get the shape back again, I have decided to swap and trim some of the plants. Out goes the big flame sword and again a flat trimming to the vallisneria carpet. On the spot I have some tropica's Staurogyne sp, a new plant in aquascaping. People said it may stay low-growing and grows slow enough despite the hygrophila-look and hence suitable as midground plant in smaller tanks, or even forground plant in larger tanks.
Heck... later on it probably prove more suitable than my vallis.
Gut feeling says this is future popular plant!

I left the steadily spreading anubias nana to grow, maybe leave it for a while before cutting any for propagation. They start to grow overlapping each other and eventually I must selectively trim them down. 



From the side :
You can see better of the hygrophila poliserma "sunset" growth emerging behind the stack of anubias.

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## UncleBen

Simple but nicely done. 

Cheers,

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