My journal on my planted 422 CRS tank (in progress)

Hi bros,

Starting on my 422 planted tank, second time at doing this, the first one total failure.


Spent nearly 3 weeks to read up most of the posts and finally decided to have another go. Had gotten a 422 tank from a fellow bro(magic1980) for a good price and he threw me with lots of freebies. This tank will basically be grown with US FissiDen and HC. will also throw in some stem plants to soak up all the extra nutrients.

The tank stood empty in my living room as i go around scouting for the stuff i want(basically gigantic rocks)


Actually had wanted to do a mountain/hill landscape with layers of "padi field" cut into the mountain/hill jus like wat you will see when u go to the mountain padi fields in Malaysia or Thailand.
However totally underestimated the vast vol of a 422 and thus can't find the correct size rock even after scouting areas like LCK, Pasir Ris and all the more well known LFS.

No choice but have to discard the idea and think of something else. Thus the following landscape which i got from river banks.

The white sands will be the river extending all the way rom the back of the tank to the front. hovering the idea of building a waterfall at the back of the tank to supplement the effect of the river. The black backing will be removed and replaced by a white cardboard with fading orange print to obtain a sunset look)


The main "island" will be make up of stones and will try to grow a carpet of HC to cover the whole area. thinking of inserting a bit of glosso to supplement the wild look of a open field.


the smaller island(in construction, again underestimate the vol of a 422 and thus not having enuf soil and white gravels. will rectified this tomolo)will be rather bare and cover with US Fissiden so as not to snatch the attention from the main island

Currently my arsenal is as follow
Tank spec : Standard 422
Lights : 6 x 54W 12000k FL
Substrates: Gex soil (green pack) and Ada II
Filter : Atman 1200 with SunSun 3000 wavemaker
1 x 2l CO2
cooling : Currently running on 1 x fan (looks like those use in a CPU)
going to get:
4 x T5 54w lights to replace the old ones
Hailea 300A chiller
Another external canister to go with the chiller.

Have some questions to ask
1. Will my arsenal be good enuf in term of filtration and water movement?
2. Is my lighting enuf as i knw that HC are high light demanding. (Based on 8 x 54W 12000k)
3. What stem plants can be recommended for the background? the stem plants will be removed later when all the HC and Fissiden are blossom.
4. Would like to have a moss wall oso, can the moss wall fit in?


Comments are greatly appreciated and thanks in advance.