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Old 09-03-2011, 05:33 PM   #1
globalcookie
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Default Planning a 4ft Planted Tank (Globalcookie)

Dear bros,

Firstly, sorry I will end up asking possibly common or repeated questions.

I have just cleared my 4ft tank. It is totally bare and I have yet to plan how to scape the tank, what plants, rocks, wood, etc to use. Will give myself about 2mths to plan and source.

Just some brief thoughts:
- I don't intend to get a chiller
- I hope to use Quartz as my base as I would like to leave the tank permanent.
- If CO2 is needed, I'll look into that as well. Pardon me for attaching a sticky here. For easy reference later.
http://www.arofanatics.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=271220
- Prefers low maintenance plants
- What are some LFS that carries good supply of plants
- Will be using ehiem 2217 (it will be slightly under powered, so may add in a blower)


Kindly advise where can I go to view more display/showcase planted tanks in LFS. I like to keep my options open.

Thank you in advance for giving me some guidance.

(p/s : Currently, I have a 2ft US Fissiden tank in the office where I keep CRS. The 4ft tank I'm planning, will be different. Not for shrimps, no chilled water, etc.)

Last edited by globalcookie; 09-03-2011 at 05:34 PM.
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Old 09-03-2011, 06:46 PM   #2
sfk7
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Some ideas from me:

1) guess you're going for low tech minimal maintenance. That would mean low light so that you wont run into huge algae problems. Light will determine the type of plants that you can grow.

2) quartz and if you decide to use lapis sand, i would suggest that you add a layer of base fertiliser to aid initial growth. If you're not going to add livestock immediately, even garden soil will make a good and budget fertiliser. Just make sure your substrate is thick and the fertiliser is really at the bottom most layer.

3) u can get more information at aquaticquotient than LFS
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Old 09-03-2011, 07:07 PM   #3
clearsky2011
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Colorful should have good supply of plants. They have some showcase tanks too.
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Old 10-03-2011, 04:46 PM   #4
globalcookie
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I went down to Colorful, spoke to the boss, Richard.

For a non-chilled tank, he advised me to use fan, probably maintain at 28 degrees max. He had advised me to use soil instead of quartz. I wonder, if I still stick to Quartz, will I be able to still have a nice tank?

Btw, my tank will not have a back area. Tank use as a screen between living and dining, thus both sides won't be blocked

One problem with his tank/plants tho, snail infested.

Last edited by globalcookie; 10-03-2011 at 04:49 PM.
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Old 10-03-2011, 05:51 PM   #5
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better to use aqua soil if you plan on planting rooted plants , can also mix quartz and aqua soil(planted area) like partition it , it all boils down to what sort of scape
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Old 10-03-2011, 06:20 PM   #6
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Rosette plants like Echindorus and Cryptocoryne do well in quartz sand if you keep them well fed with base fertilizer and root supplements. They are also good for all round view. Hardy low maintainance plants like anubias,Java fern,bolbitis,moss on wood are good space fillers too.Avoid stem plants if you don't like constant trimming. Good online plant guides are plantgeek and tropica. Snails are hard to avoid, keep some small botia species to control them.
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Old 10-03-2011, 07:26 PM   #7
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Thank you bros for the advise.

Burntrubber mentioned a lot of plants I'll go visit some of the online sites to learn a little more.

Was at Wuhu awhile ago and spoke to the boss, Ben. He advised, start ground up, base, driftwood/rock/etc, than decide on the plants. Friendly guy, visited his shop on random occassions and he is always willing to share knowledge.

P/S : I realised I've a submissible light, which I'll also use if necessary.
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Old 25-03-2011, 12:26 PM   #8
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If the tank can be viewed from both sides, I would suggest going for a wood heavy hardscape that will be in the center of your tank. Then plant foreground plants all around the hardscape. This way, you have a dominating feature in your scape supported by foreground plants all around it. When viewed from both the 'front' and 'back' of the tank, you will see a foreground and a hardscape. There is depth presented.

On the hardscape, you can attach moss, nana or ferns. Within the hardscape, you can plant tall plants if wish it to look more natural.
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Old 28-03-2011, 10:54 AM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JadeIceGreen View Post
If the tank can be viewed from both sides, I would suggest going for a wood heavy hardscape that will be in the center of your tank. Then plant foreground plants all around the hardscape
Thank u bro for the advise. I will give that a thought.

I gotten some items from fellow af bros, including dw from qwertivity and approx 30kg of quartz from Crazyfish (very kind of CF to give it to me. Thank u once again bro) recently. Here's how the dw looks like:


That piece of dw shd be able to achieve the heavy hardscape you mentioned but since it's branchy with the curve section, may need to be more careful in how I plant it so that it doesn't look either congested or to cover the features of the dw.
(had to struggle to get the dw into the tank. Was very narrow/tight.)

The light you see there has 2 tubes. One of which is a marine tank light, 10,000k. So I guess the lighting shd be sufficient. Next, have to get base fertilizer. Can any bros advise if I shd add fertilizers before pouring in quartz? The quartz has been washed and left to dry.

Last edited by globalcookie; 28-03-2011 at 10:59 AM.
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Old 28-03-2011, 03:51 PM   #10
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is that a 4 feet tank?
the tank looks very small with that wood:P

fo me if possible, I will prefer to have a few pieces of small wood instead of a huge wood because with smaller pieces of wood, you can change the look if one is not good..
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