220 gallon aquarium aquascaping

[Achilles1763]

Hello, I am getting a new 220 gallon aquarium in around 2-3 weeks. It's 7ftx2ftx2ft and will be home to large predator oddballs and cichlids. The plan is a sand substrate with plenty of large bogwood and rock work. I have never aquascaped a tank anywhere near this size and this is kind of my dream tank so I want it to be a bit special.

I want some large plants, I have kept Anubis and Amazon spears with varying degrees of success. Basically how do I go about having the plants in an aquarium without them dropping dead leaves all the time? The Anubis I plan on having tied to bogwood but the spear will be in the substrate.

I have heard the you can plant the plant in a basket with proper compost, then covered with a layer of substrate. Does this work?

Are there any other plants I should be considering? Light will be provided LEDs strips so plants good with low light levels I guess Would be ideal.

As far as rock work is concerned I have seen some great looking large red rocks at the local garden centre, do I need to stick them together? And if so with what?

Sorry for so many questions but like I said its my dream tank so I am very excited.

 

[xxUnRaTeDxxRkOxx]

I would use a planted substrate like flourite with a 3" depth around the swords, bury 3-4 root tabs near them, and then cap it with sand. Since most planted tankers mainly put swords in the back of the tank then use a sliding slope with the sand, this way the front of the tank will be only sand... And can do the same on the sides of the tank, again this way all you is the sand... Then add in new root tabs every 3-4 months, but be sure to bury the root tabs deep into the substrate.

 

[Achilles1763]

Okay cool that gives me a lot to think about, do I need to contain the fluorite? Or just layer the substrate? Will it stay in the correct place?

I only ask as the fish are not exactly diggers but can be quite active.

 

[xxUnRaTeDxxRkOxx]

I would make the back of the tank a 3" layer of flourite up to the middle of the tank so the roots have a good space to spread, then cap it with a 1" of sand and it should stay in place, but I would add the swords before capping it with sand this way you get them placed in the tank then add the sand cap, and you can push the sand to cover directly up to the plants.

 

[Achilles1763]

Ah okay, the roots should pretty much hold it in place a with the Sand on top should be cool. Hopefully my puffer fish will have grown out of her desire to bury herself in the substrate... It's a bit odd watching a 13 inch fish which is a thick as my clenched fist trying to hide in 4 inches of sand!

 

[Achilles1763]

Do I need to glue the Rock work? They will be quite large... But so will the fish. Any other plants I should consider?

 

[xxUnRaTeDxxRkOxx]

If the rocks are large then there's really no reason to glue them to anything, big fish may be strong but not to move large rocks... Other plants you can try hmmm, maybe some anubias barteri with thick rhizomes and tie them to driftwood or rocks, large java ferns same thing tie them to driftwood or rocks, you can try some jungle val...

 

[Achilles1763]

Cracking thanks, I love the Java ferns (I love the prehistoric look to them) tied to bogwood. I plan on using quite a lot of rhododendron roots which is very tangled and spidery to tie the Java fern to, is there anything I need to do to make sure them thrive? Or will they be okay with exposed roots? Will the Anubias barteri work the same way?

 

[Achilles1763]

Oh yeah and what is aquarium safe to tie them to the wood with?

 

[xxUnRaTeDxxRkOxx]

You can use zipties, thread, or even fishing line to tie plants to driftwood... I use dark green braided fishing line because it blends in with the plant, here's a picture of the moss I attached to my driftwood yesterday using braided fishing line...

Java Ferns and Anubias plants have what's called a rhizome, they don't actually have roots and are water column feeders meaning they get the nutrients they need through their leaves. You don't want to bury the rhizome (roots) because it will kill the plant, so you want to tie them to driftwood or rocks but not too tightly because you don't want to cut through the rhizome so just loosely tie them to driftwood and after a while they'll attach themselves to the driftwood piece.

As for nutrients, you can get a bottle of flourish comprehensive and dose the tank 2 times a week with the recommended levels, and as for co2 they'll get that from the fish as they "breathe" in the water.