The 220 is by far my best work to date in the aquarium hobby. Some of my other tanks have been great, but this is my best work yet.
I recently added the rare Melatonia Fredricki (sp?) to the tank. (fish at 133) This helped me get back into the groove with it. I also added some of the fattest jungle val I have ever seen in the back. As you all know, I love jungle val, when I got this species at the AGA for 4$ I was thrilled.
I don’t want this to sound like a bragging post, but I have received many compliments on this tank and feel it is worth sharing what has made it work so far, and how it got there. I will also touch on what is lacking and could be improved.
What sets this 220 planted tank apart is the use of the thirds rule. You can kinda break it down into sections from left to right. I have been told that I make most of my tanks left to right. Not sure why this is, but its how I roll.
You’ll notice the tanks line of plants cuts diagonally from the top left, down to the bottom right. This is intentional. I am trying to “use” the open space to give the sheer size of the tank an opportunity to show. Basically, I am leaving part of it lightly planted for a reason. The rainbows love this open space too.
One of my favorite parts of the tank is the drift wood that runs about 2/3 of the tank. The piece still needs a rock on it to hold it down. (lord knows its been in the tank a damn year, plus out in my pond the year before that!) I wish it would sink so I can take that rock off that you see right at the middle third of the tank. That driftwood is meant to flow through the tank.
The plants growing up the left side of the drift wood is called Trident Java fern. I paid $25 for a small piece of it at the AGA in 2008. It is still worth that much as it was going in the plant auction for 19. Worth every penny. It is a good hardy grower like most ferns. I also like the way if flares out.
Amazon swords occupy the back, middle half of the tank. I never trim them. Occasionally I’ll pull out a leaf that looks bad, but for the most part I leave them alone. I have some of the little baby Amazon Swords for sale that grow up off of this plant.
The baby tears almost right in the middle gets over grown on occasion. This past summer I cut it way back and planted it out back. It was either that plant or the star grass that had baby rainbow eggs on it.
Originally this tank had three different types of gravel in it. Mixed brown on the left half, black on the right and a patch of white sand in the front. I have kinda let them mix a little. It doesn’t bother me.
What I’ve enjoyed about this tank is how well I did the dirt in it. I have the perfect recipe in there and it is working well. I also have just the right amount of rainbows rolling to where it looks cool, but isn’t hard to clean.
The 4 siamensis do a decent job cleaning up the bottom. I have already purchase 6 clown loaches because of the constant and needed pestering from Sean on here. (Thanks bro) The dude at the shop knows about this site and wouldn’t sell them to me because they had some ich spots after a few days. They looked good to me, but I’ll take his word. God knows he doesn’t want me bashing his shop. ( I wouldn’t unless something crazy happened)
If I could do it over again I might have used some crazier swords in the back instead of the regular amazons. ( Indian Red Swords) I might have done more with the jungle val on the left.
The crypts on the right are there as I hadn’t yet ever owned crypt parva, or I would have probably used crypt parva. Never too late.
I have thought about only using one species school of rainbows in it. But I like the different colors. “a rainbow of rainbows” was kinda my first thought.
Playing in this tank has been a nice return to the actual hobby for me. It’s relaxing. I love this site, but doing what got me to here has felt great. I am also excited that this tank is about 1 year old. I remember setting it up like it was yesterday. It was one of my first flip videos, and was pretty much the starting point for me making videos of my tanks.
So if you’ve gotten this far, Thank you and thank you 220 for being the start of the snowball that is my Fishtanktv and YouTube Channel.
What do you guys think about it? Ask me some design/ plant questions. I can do filter and DIY questions another day.
Dustin
PS
Species Sundays will be back next week. I ‘ve been working on a better/easier layout for all my plant species videos.
I'm afraid of Nano tanks and Palludariums. There I said it.
Imagine giving a painter the same size canvas every day for over 5 years and having him paint on that. Every now and then you could throw in one that was a little smaller than normal, but for the most part they are all the same. (55s,75s, 40 highs, 125s and 220's)
(you might be thinking 220 is kinda outta the norm, your right, but I stared at it painfully for 2 years.)
So now I am faced with a smaller canvas and a half canvas. It's not that I don't think that I can still paint, Hell no. But I am just going to have to use very tiny brushes and be very careful. I'm also going to be making plants come up out of the water. (I do this but not all the time.)
So I am doing something that I believe more people should spend more time doing. I am thinking. I am just going to sit and look at the tanks and figure out what I am going to do. I'm gonna make a plan.
The good news is that there are some ideas flowing that I hadn't thought of before. Its good for my mind to be working in different directions and trying to fit my design in to different formats.
But don't go betting on me busting anything out any time soon. It will be a while...
I have lots of planning to do....
Here is a photo of the Winning 10 Gallon tank in my Dirted Tank Contest- Great work Tyler and good meeting you in Chicago.
.Check out the new video... Dustin interviews George Farmer on the different Aquascaping styles!
But the Halides are when to be on my main tank in the living room of my house. I hate to say it, but I think that Halides make any tank look better.
Here’s why, Point source lighting. That is to say that all of the light is being shot down from a single concentrated force into the water. This is unlike a florescent bulb which spreads the light out more evenly.
But what are the benefits of this. I’d like for you to think about it like a magnified glass and the sun. That power is enough to light something on fire. Obviously we are under water here, but something happens with the water that makes the this affective. That is the water has a magnifying affect on the light coming in. This give the plants a serious kick of light with the halides on. (even a greater impact or a coral)
You can see by this video what I am talking about with my plants. They are obviously growing fine.
What is interesting about this tank is that I used to hate it. I was my first tank and went past its prime. It had developed a slime algae and had lots of java moss running wild. To me, it was not nearly what I wanted it to be. The reason was simple though, During this time I was running Florescent bulbs that were way past their prime. (your bulbs should be replaced every year)
Also too I was convinced that the soil was depleted of any and all nutrients. While I know it isn’t as nourishing as it had been 4 years ago, the metal halide lights have overcome it. They have compensated for the lack of light and the missing spectrum of the past due florescent.
The halides BEAT on my plants in the 125 Gallon planted tank. They are so powerful that I even keep the middle on off as the fan is kinda noisy,
That noisy fan is actually my only complaint about the halides. They rock…
]]>Fluorescent Lighting for the Planted Aquarium.
When you walk into a dark room you turn the lights on to see what is going on. In an aquarium you are going to need to have some solid lighting to see what is going on in you underwater ecosystem.
Lights can really make a tank and can also hurt a tank.
The easiest type of light that I recommend using is florescent. They are cheap and easy and come in nearly all the spectrums you could ever possibly want . (ok almost) But they are darn good.
They come in all kinds of sizes to fit any application too. I won’t get detailed about the color spectrums yet. But if you are looking to keep plants you want the majority of your bulbs to be “pink” that is that they look pink when you turn them on. This is the best light for freshwater plants. They love it. A lot depends on the set up of you tank and what you are trying to do when it comes to the lighting. Obviously a simple 10 gallon with just a few fish doesn’t need much lighting. However the deeper and the bigger the tank, the more you are going to have to light it.
Fluorescent lights are the cheapest way to go and are currently what I use on 90% of my tanks. I recommend building a canopy yourself or searching around on craigslist for people selling their tanks. Used stuff can be had for 1/8th of the price of new. Even if you need to replace the bulbs, you’ll still have a great housing.
The best use I have made is with my 6 foot light setup. I used 2 ballasts made for 4 4foot 32 watt bulbs. This would give me 256 watts (8 x 32 watts each) I used this over my 125 for about 4 years and loved it. If you hunt around you can get cheap bulbs at Home Depot and Lowes. This is the way to do well and stay on a budget. (save your money for wild fish and plants, not equipment if you can)
When you have lighting you HAVE TO USE TIMERS. Fish love timer plants love timers and you will love timers. The goal is to simulate nature. With that said, currently I am running my tanks off the timers to enjoy them on the weekend longer. But I always switch them back to timer mode.
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