kukayla Posted January 23, 2014 Report Share Posted January 23, 2014 Hello to everyone from Calgary. I am new to aquariums and planted tanks. Randomly came across a video from dustinsdirttanks on youtube couple months ago and got interested. Snagged a 10g off a friend. Used a mixture of Miracle Grow organic mix and dirt from backyard for substrate, capped with pink/purple gravel (terrible choice). Everything was going okay but I didn't like the bright gravel. A week ago I decided to tear everything down. The second time around I only used 1/2 inch of the same substrate capped with 1.5 inch of Seachem Flourite. Tank today, a week after setup. It's nothing special. I am so glad I picked up this hobby. Everything is new to me and I am just learning on the fly. Has been an exciting process thus far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckmullin Posted January 23, 2014 Report Share Posted January 23, 2014 (edited) Hello and welcome to AA. Good looking tank that you've started. Edited September 18, 2016 by ckmullin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJIsaac Posted January 23, 2014 Report Share Posted January 23, 2014 Indeed, a beautiful set up for you first tank. The bloodfin, and Blackskirt Tetra's look good in it, You will find the Marimo ball super easy to grow and to make into smaller balls later when it gets larger. Cant tell if you have a CO2 setup from the picture, but if not it would be a good idea to look into if you want to keep your plants looking their best... Welcome to the group! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kukayla Posted January 24, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 24, 2014 Thanks guys. Ya I am a little nervous of the MG, I tried to get 100% of the dirt from my backyard, in December, that didn't turn out well lol. Plus it seemed like I had to mineralized it and the more I read into that the more headaches I got. So I gave up for now and bought MG. So far the ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite are good. Would you guys recommend me getting the tester for PH and GH/KH? The first tank I ran into some black beard algae and I got rid of some plants. There are non in this tank. Then I ran into hair algae with my rotala indicas, it's pretty much stunted there growth. The cambomba carolinia are growing great. The corked Val's are slow, when I bought them they were in bad shape. Moneywort, they are alright besides some dead leafs and some black spots on leafs, I am not sure if they are algae. Am I missing some nutrients? Should I dose with fert? The tank is running 2 13w cfl bulbs with 4.1k rating for about 8-9 hours per day. Should I change them to 5.1k bulbs? Little to no sun light hit the tank. The co2 is DIY system. Water temp is about 24 during the day and 22 at night. Also, the tank is probably overstocked. I have 2 ghost shrimps, 8 bloodfins, 5 black skirts, and 2 mystery snails. I got a little carried away at lps. I will probably get a bigger tank in the summer, but in the mean time will having more plants help with the overstock? Thanks for reading the wall of text. Would appreciate any suggestions and comments. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckmullin Posted January 24, 2014 Report Share Posted January 24, 2014 Some of the advice regarding soil over complicates this issue greatly. 100 fold! lol Not sure why advice givers always over complicate things. Mineralization is not needed! GH/KH isn't needed however a ph tester is always good to have. I have an electronic tester from ebay ~$10 and works decent. You already have one for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate so your good there. An iron and phosphate tester isn't a bad bet if you really want to know levels behind dosing and what the dosing does to the water column. I'll give you a pm with some other details and to answer your questions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tri7on Posted January 26, 2014 Report Share Posted January 26, 2014 Hey man. Just wanted to say I love the way your tank looks. I always try and get my tank to look natural like that. So far no success though. Maybe I need to get away from the gravel substrate. Anyways, just thought I would pass on the thumbs up for the tanks man. Looks awesome!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattthepilot03 Posted January 28, 2014 Report Share Posted January 28, 2014 Great looking tank. Im a huge fan of Dustin myself Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
N45TY Posted March 5, 2014 Report Share Posted March 5, 2014 Nice to see a fellow calgaryian! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbadboss101 Posted March 22, 2014 Report Share Posted March 22, 2014 That is a sweet set up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frogfish Posted March 25, 2014 Report Share Posted March 25, 2014 Welcome, nice tank. Keep reading and trying things out the learning process is the most fun and exciting yet challenging part. CO₂ is your friend however you decide to add it is your choice just don't waste your money on the fluval88. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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