turn a jungle into an aquascape

[Eona]

Hello,

my name is Pia and I´m from Germany, so please don´t mind if my English is not perfect.

I want to show you my largest tank and also a 2 months old picture of it. I´ve got 3 wild jungle tanks and always admired aquascapes with their glorious plantbushes. The last days I´ve done the first step to reach this, but there are some questions about my lighting and plants, but at first the information of my tank.

tank today:


tank in dezember:


general information:
80x35x40 standard Juwel tank
2x 18W T8 Osram Daylight
about 18kg quarzsand
some little rocks
fertilizer: Dennerle V30 Complete each week 1/2 dose
PH:7 GH:9 KH:9 C°:26

plants:
Anubias nana (1 plant on rock)
Bacopa australis (medium bush)
Bacopa monnieri (little bush)
Cryptocoryne wendtii "brown"
Cryptocoryne parva
Eichhornia spec. (2 little ones now)
Heteranthera zosterifolia (big bush, I love it)
Javafern "Windelov"
Limnophila aquatica (4-5 plants)
Ludwigia spec. (waveless green-red, big bush)
Ludwigia palustris (little bush)
Myriophyllum spec. (green, 3)
Rotala rotundifolia (big bushes, should become the biggest)
Sagittaria pusilla (I know, some are to big, they were in the shadows over holiday)
Shinnersia rivularis (little bush )
Vallisneria nana "tiger" (beetween the bushes, young ones)

mosses:
Fissidens fontanus
Coralmoss
Flamemoss
Willowmoss
Lomariopsis lineata

plants and mosses I could put in (or I have got in other tanks), too:
Javafern, Limnophila sessiliflora, Pogostemon helferi, Glossostigma elatinoides, X-Mas moss, Cryptocoryne willisi/nevilli, Hydrocotyle leucocephala, Monsolenium tenerum, (50% true) Weeping moss, Lemna triscula, Riccia fluitans, Mayaca fluviatilis, Micranthemum umbrosum, Micranthemum micranthemoides, Hemianthus spec. "Göttingen", Najas spec.

My Questions:
I´m not very sure whether my lighting is enough for my plants to put them into compact bushes, what do you say? (I saw a lot of compact aquascapes and wondered, why their plants be so dark at the bottom but did not die off)

I only know few plants which are possible to put them into compact bushes, do I have some more ones which are able for this?

And last but not least, what do you think about my tank? Do you want information about the animals, too?


Greetings from cold Germany, Pia

[Jur4ik]

Hi Pia, as you see I'm from Germany too, but it would be unpleasant if I would answe your questions in german.

To reach same growth you've seen you need a fertilized soil ( ada aquasoil or Oliver knots nature soil), pressurized co2, micro & macro ferts and stronger lightning. I suppose your tank has total volume of approximately 130 liters, for this you need a minimum of 100watt.

Grüsse aus Frankfurt, bin übrigens auf dem weg nach Hannover

[Eona]

Hi,

in my previous forums there were a lot of people of the opinion, that fertilized soil is not necessary and would only support plants like Echinodorus with strong roots and that the necessity of CO2 is not given in every aquarium (I´ve got a natural saturation of 25 mg/l). Should I forget these things? I could build a Bio-CO2 system, no problem.

Is my Dennerle fetilizer not good? I also use the Dennerle E15 with white iron.

My tank gots about 85l (less soil, filter, decoration), so how many watt do I need now? The waterdeep is about 34-35cm.

Klar können wir hier trotzdem Englisch reden, sonst bringt es hier ja kaum jemand anderem etwas. Danke für deine Ratschläge! Frankfurt und Hannover sind zu weit weg, sonst hätte ich dich um ein paar Pflanzen erleichtert *g*

LG, Pia

[Jur4ik]

Hi Pia,
please forgive my delay.I've last weekend at the expo in hannover and past few days had a lot of work to do.

Back in to the jungle:
nutrient rich soil is a great benefit for every plant
monitor your co2 lvl over the day, with bio co2 you should reach at least a minimum of 30mg/l
dennerle fert line has no macro ferts, such as npk
I use tropica plant nutrition + it contains all micro and macro nutrients you need
as for lightning you should upgrade to 1wat/liter and set it up for a period of 6-8 hours per day, once things go well you can increase it up to max 10h/day
regular water changes are very important, minimum 1x 50% per week, better twice or even more often

[CHUNTC]

Eona, you tank looks great. I think Jur is right when she recomended ADA aquasoil. Friends of mine is raving about it. But generally you tank seems to lack lighting judging from the pictures. But it do look nice. Congratulations!

[Eona]

Hi,

thanks
maybe I will test ADA in my 25l tank, I do also not know whether it would be clever to buy it for my 112l tank, because I maybe have to sell it this sommer (relocation to switzerland). I will wait some weeks to see how the growth of my plantbushes ist, before I think about a third lamp.

My lighting is on over 12h per day, does this balance my lack of light? 6-8h seems to be very few to me.
I will look after the tropica fertilizer, thanks!

I will show you my little 25l tank next week, I think it´s better at all.

LG; Pia

[Jur4ik]

longer lightning period does NOT balance your lack of light!
I´m using plant soils in all of my tanks and i highly recommend this to everybody
you only need stronger light if you add more ferts and co2

CHUNTC,
I´m male dude!