what do you think? my two 20g planted

[Ficious]

hey all...i set this up a few weekends ago...

this video shows both tanks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E74QRNAWrEo



heres a few pics of the potted plant tank

lighting: 2x 40watt t-12s
tank on left has regular substrate, lots of fert tabs.
both tanks get daily liquid ferts

potted tank, used potting soil, gravel, and sand layers.
threw some fert tabs in as well

let me know what you think, thanks!

 

[Ficious]

i guess noboby has anything to say about this. does anybody know if these pots will work? it was my first time doing it.

 

[poly-nomial]

Pots will work. Nice tanks. Breeding setup or what

 

[ridehardorgohome]

I just pick up some pots like that, Have you have any probs with your clouding the water or anything???

 

[Lissaspence]

Looks good. I like the pots.

 

[marth]

Looks purdy
do the fish like it?

I kinda want to do a planted tank like that when i actually get to set one up

 

[Ficious]

ok so thanks for responding!

these tanks were kind of going to crap, fishless, so i decided to put some money into them. i was thinking about breeding something small but dont have enough tanks. i went with the "variatus" platy (unsure). since the day i got them, theyve been producing lil ones.

the fish seem to like the pots. im going to throw some cherry shrimp in once things mature a bit. its neat to see the ghost shrimp grazing on the different levels.

the soil will be cloudy..not as cloudy as flourite if not thoroughly rinsed. so i just filled a big bucket up with water and dipped them in. you certainly need to "seal" the soil with wet sand or gravel.

heres a pic of the first baby they had. it seems all 3 females are having a few babies everynight. should i remove the babies or leave them in? ive taken dozens out and have them in fry traps.

 

[SINEK]

if you want a nice planted tank you will need a substrate , some rocks , adn some wood

 

[ridehardorgohome]

if you want a nice planted tank you will need a substrate , some rocks , adn some wood

You don't really need substrate for a planted tank, I'm running both in two different tanks. One is a eco-complete substrate and the other is a very fine black sand which grow plants just fine and I don't even use CO2 just Flourish Excel 2x a week.I attached pics,for you to see i'm not BSin 1-2 are fine sand pic #3 is eco-complete

 

[Ficious]

wow ridehard..like the tank.

im going to see how this goes and if the unpotted tank doesnt grow plants, ill switch to flourite or something. do you battle algae? do you do enough wc's to keep it at bay?