My 60 gallon planted tank

[Tiapan]

This is my newest tank and the largest i have ever kep So Far (at least at my house) anyway it originally did not hold water and i had to reseal the tank ( with homeless's help of course) low and behold it held water. HAzzah. anyway i didnt want to spend an arm and a leg filling it with eco complete and i hava had good experience with flourite, but i wanted to try something new so i did a mix, i put flourite all around the front base for appearences and mixed some into plain potting soil, then i capped it with a thin layer of flourite. Used 2 bags and half a 30 lbs bag of potting soil ( i got 4 in case so now i need more tanks up and running (yeah right need who am i kidding i want more) here is a picture of how it looked the first day i got it up and running with just a double 4 ft strip on there. no fish in it at this time.

[Tiapan]

Re: My 60 gallon planted tank

the plants added at that point were some wisteria, crypt lupens (i think thats right) bronze wendii(another crypt) and some baby swords with some floating stems just going around top

[Tiapan]

Re: My 60 gallon planted tank

i have now added dwarf coral platies, red blue colombian tetras, cherry barbs, white clouds, ghost shrimp, a group of very small loaches their name escapes me right now, and o-cat and a ton more plants including corkscrew val, italian val, val gigantea, frill plants, planted the anacharis, and hronwort, broad leave sagitaria, dwarg sag, 3 or 4 other kinds of crypticorns, and several small anubias that will eventuall be tied to drift wood. and it looks like this now

[Tiapan]

Re: My 60 gallon planted tank

i also added a 36 inch compact florecent light to give it more light and the plants are doing amazing. especially the swords, they will look gret in another week for the swap i am going to bring a few. the larger of my crypt sprigs will come with me to the LHA swap because i know the smaller ones will grow plenty fast under that much light. the only other fish i will add will probably be another alge fish or two max, and then some south american dwarf cichlids (cockatoos at least hopefully borelii as well, but deffinately cockatoo) i will keep you posted as to how the tank is going and keep fresh pics as the plants fill in. that is after i prune and pic some out for the swap.

[Tiapan]

Re: My 60 gallon planted tank

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[jbicb3]

Re: My 60 gallon planted tank

The tank and plants are all looking great from these pictures. How long has it been set up now?

And are you injecting CO2?

[Ellen]

Re: My 60 gallon planted tank

I love seeing other people's tanks.    It looks good, and its great that the plants are growing so well for you. Thanks for sharing!

Ellen

[Tiapan]

Re: My 60 gallon planted tank

its been up about 2 weeks. there is no co2 added at all, im kinda going for more of an all natural approach (i dont add any fertilizers either) i have tried co2 on my 29 and dont see a whole lot of difference, gonna give it another few weeks on that tank but if i dont see a marked improvement then im gonna take it out.

[daisymac]

Re: My 60 gallon planted tank

Are you sure you don't want a couple bandtail tetras? Haha! They won't bother anything that doesn't have long fins. They want a big tank, and yours is awful pretty! Good job.

[Tiapan]

Re: My 60 gallon planted tank

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[Jetta47]

Re: My 60 gallon planted tank

[b]GOOD JOB!!! Looks great, glad you got it up and running, :)

[eklikewhoa]

Re: My 60 gallon planted tank

wow! that's starting to look good.

i have a 29gal that i am wanting to setup for plants and a pair of zebra plecos but havent had the time for it yet. also dont know much of what to do other than what i have read on forums. do you use and chemicals or additives for the plants? i am kinda worried about just adding stuff to the tank cause it might not be good for the plecos.

[Tiapan]

Re: My 60 gallon planted tank

i dont use any additives for my tanks. just a good substrate and lots of light. eco complete is popular as is flourite (i love my flourite) but i mixed flourite and scotts lawnsoil. if you dont add anything you cant hurt anything.

[armthehomeless]

Re: My 60 gallon planted tank

The tank is coming along nicely, Tiapan!

eklikewhoa - Zebra Plecos!!! Is there someone in town who has them? I don't think I have ever seen one in person... You may want to think of low light plants(Anubias, Java Fern, Java Moss...), as the Zebra Plecos don't like bright light. I imagine you'll get caves of some sort; are you planning on trying to breed them?

[eklikewhoa]

Re: My 60 gallon planted tank

not to hijack the thread but...

i found someone in dallas that breeds them and plan to get it from him due to his great background but that wont go through till i get the tank stable. i have caves that the breeders use for their zebra's and planned on the low light plants. i remember when i was a kid inwood tropical fish had some in his display tank but that was much nicer times for the place. i plan on getting between two to four and eventually im sure that i would want to breed them.

when i get them you are more than welcome to come check them out.