DuzMano's Leddy 60XL 72l

[DuzMano]

Ordered my pants today for arrival early next week... Exciting times

Laid the first two layers of substrate today. Just the sand cap to lay and hardscape to add. Still gotta find my loach cave rocks though... Hoping there's some improvement in the weather to go larking the seashore for some suitable boulder hahaha

[fr499y]

pants? for the fish or you?

[plankton]

Be very careful with getting stuff from the beach/shore. Most are now protected by law to stop people removing things that can act as a barrier, but, worst of all, they are usually covered in all sorts of nasties that freshwater fish won't like.

[DuzMano]

Plants...not pants... Haha

[DuzMano]

Hardscape now in still waiting on a couple of plants to be delivered, notably the buce so can't fill up till I glued that in so bit frustrating, I've put a couple of inches of water in so it's just below where I intend sticking the buce, going to plant up the other plants they'll just have to be semi emersed, I think they'll stand a better chance that way than being kept in their plastic bags with nothing...

Bit of planting advice/reassurance required ...

Stem plants plant deep, crypts plant shallow so base of plant/top of root head exposed, java ferns just perched/wedged in nooks, buce and moss glued to where I want it, lotus bulb kinda semi buried, guppy grass just hangs about, floaters float...

Anything else I need to be mindful of or anyone have some planting tips and tricks to share?

[DuzMano]

Just as I typed that the buce arrived... Should I trim the roots before I stick it down? There's an inch or two on some sections...

In fact should I trim all the longer trailing roots from everything to make them easier to plant?

[fr499y]

I tend to trim them as it can encourage new ones to grow, just be careful

[DuzMano]

The guppy grass idea was a disaster, I'd hoped I'd be able to wrap it around the twiggy thing and it'd look cool flowing in the filter breeze, however it's too fragile and has broken up and is now everywhere haha oh well, live and learn... Otherwise as a first ever go at owning a tank and setting one up it's not too bad, not what I had in mind exactly but some kind of resemblance. Mj scapes or a totm winner it isn't, but I'm a total noob haha


Now I guess I'll go through the pain and heartache of plant melt and some failures along the way, but it's all part of the fun and experience. Maybe when it grows in and fills out a little bit it'll look better...

[DuzMano]

Did my first tank water test today after adding beneficial bacteria and a healthy pinch of fish food yesterday tea time.

Ammonia is at 0 - 0.2, which is understandable, it's early days, hopefully it will spike over the next day or two, I'll add another pinch of food at teatime again. Weirdly I did a pH test and that is showing at 8, but when I did my tap water test it was 7-7.5 and that's also what my water co says is the average, but my tank water is showing at least 8... Now, I have driftwood and pH reducing substrate so I'd hoped it would be about the same or possibly a little less, not higher... I did use some (about 30%) rainwater in the first fill, but would have expected that would also have reduced my tap water pH, so I'm more than a bit confused by that result... May have to rethink my stocking plan if this proves a stable number. I've only today added some capata leaves (2, one whole down the back, and the other broken up into pieces as the leaves are massive and would take up the whole empty space front left haha)

Assuming I should be doing my first water change later on this afternoon, but as the tank isn't populated maybe I could leave it till I get the ammonia spike? I'm not bothered by the fact it's a little cloudy as there's not much to see so if you think it's better to wait for the spike then I shall.



Perhaps after the spike and a registry of nitrate I can do an almost complete water change with just tap water (and dechlorinator of course) and see where the pH is at...

[plankton]

How hard is the water?
It may be that they put CO2 into the supply to keep down the limescale in the pipes....?