Nonplanted Puffer tank possible?

[lilacamy931]

So I have my two lovely schoutedenis and adoring them, they have some shoaling fish and bristlenoses. They have had live plants up to this point but genuinely considering going plantless.

Reason querying if possible is due to my terrible terrible luck with live plants. Back in the day when I didn't know what I was doing plants thrived, now I have everything and give good nutris/ferts etc they just melt, or produce holes or grow blankets of algae.

When adjusting one thing it throws something else out of balance. So do you guys have any plantless tanks for inspiration?

I need to keep line of sight broken up for the goodness of the puffs but what have you guys tried?

 

[Deadliestviper7]

Would personally do easy to keep plants only with lots of driftwood and some Oto catfish

 

[Deadliestviper7]

Easy plants include java fern "wendtii", java fern "lace", and once established: hornwort

 

[Fat Homer]

If live plants really dont work out for you, why not consider fake silk plants instead...

Still get the planted tank effect but when the plants get dirty you can just give them a good clean...

 

[le_tam]

The silk plants idea Fat Homer mentioned is a good one. If you want live plants, you're gonna have to slowly figure out the balance one step at a time. Algae is usually an indicator of excess nutrients and excess light. That means increasing water changes to rid yourself of the excess nutrients. You'll need to cut back on the time your lights are on as well. If your tank is getting direct sunlight, that'll give you trouble as well. Yellowing leaves can be a lack of potassium.

It's been a number of years since I've kept a planted tank, but I always started with flourite for the base substrate, then sand on top. (This was before all the ADA stuff was readily available.) Limit light cycle until the plants are happy and established then ramp up the light cycle an hour a week watching for algae. Then begin dosing small amounts of seachem flourish, still watching for algae, etc.

Take it with a grain of salt. I've been years out of the hobby I doubt much has changed.

 

[OhioCLE]

Hello,

I don't have it quite set up as it sounds, but it will be like this soon.

If any of you have seen a crickett-keeper container and how it has small legs, it will serve as refuge for the ghost shrimp to hide under as well as an underwater planter box-garden on stilts that also allows the small food chunks and turds to roll on by.
The Ghost shrimp have a longer time to hide under small nooks while they eat leftovers.
The shrimp act as house keepers and food reserves that are gut loaded with fresh food.

Planters:
The mini-planter / crickett-keeper gets filled with your favorite substrate color and stuffed with your plant of choice.

These little planters or other containers on stilts can be made from almost anything safe for the aqaurium.
The mini-planters are "modular" and can scoot around if needed as the plants grow.

The puffers will be able to roam like they are in a box garden maze.
The evolution of this idea can get pretty nice I assume.

As for now, I have a few T. schoutedeni that have different types of envirinments and plants in their tanks.

My newest larger species of puffers will be getting the box garden treatment soon.
They are bare bottom right now with many sponge filters that act as a StoneHenge style hut of foam that I can also move around as needed.

I have a planted tank that has substrate with rooted plants, but that is it.
The newest aquarium builds have to be easy to move from my apartment if needed.

I never know when I may get a new employer that pays higher, but the day that happens... I need my puffers to come along without wrecking a planted tank that takes a long time to become as beautiful as it had grown with time.

 

[twentyleagues]

You know as corny as it sounds a lfs had a bunch of random decorations that came from peoples tanks that got out or whatever. They used a bunch of greek style arcitechure stuff with a little Egyptian thrown in, in a gsp tank. I actually thought it looked pretty cool. Then I went to petsmart and saw how much those things cost, they had to have had $300 in decor in that tank.

 

[Fat Homer]

Decor never comes cheap... even nice driftwood over here can cost a few hundred bucks for a really nice showpiece...