Strikingthematch Planted Tank.

First topic message reminder :

Finally getting around to posting some pictures up here of my tank and fish. This is my 90 Gal planted tank. Fairly high light tank with CO2 injection. Lots of stem plants and a very mid/fore ground plants. Driftwood is locally picked and self cured hehe... DIY spray bar up top kept under the water line for minimal surface aggregation. Fulval FX5 filter running the show with 3 layers of bio media and a bag of Purigen to keep things crystal clear. You might see the little sponge/Pre filter I added to the intake it really helps to keep me from having to clean the filter every week. Hope everyone enjoys!

Figured I would post a few update pictures just a quick "before and after" this is about 3+weeks of growth. Not to bad haha I don't think

Jan 27



Feb 6


Mar 4

Looking really good....

Don't ever apologize for hijacking a thread when the destination is so great! Looking sweet.. you'll definitely get grilled tomorrow!

To start off.. what wattage and type of lighting are ya using.. ferts? duration of lighting.. etc... My Q's are so lame cuz I'm so new!

Striking it looks awesome~~~

One more question.... what gender is your marble/koi angel? mine's a proven male from Vixen.. looking for a "dame" for some fun time!

williemcd wrote:

To start off.. what wattage and type of lighting are ya using.. ferts? duration of lighting.. etc... My Q's are so lame cuz I'm so new!

The lights are 8 T-5 54watt bulbs giving a total of 432 watts BUT they are staggered to avoid too much light.

2:30 -4 bulbs come on two front two back
4:00 -2 more bulbs on the front come on
6:00 -2 Last two bulbs come on
8:00 -2 bulbs front bulbs go off
9:00 -2 back bulbs go off
9:30 -lights off

that's a 7 hour photo period and the wattage changes from 216 (roughly 2WPG) to 324 (3WPG) to 432(4WPG) and then back down. The reason I stagger the lights is that I believe that by doing so it helps the plants to best use their time. If takes several hours even if I turned all the lights on at once for the plants to start pearling if on the other hand I slowly build up the light the plants begin to peal almost immediately after 6 bulbs come on and it looks like sprite at 8 bulbs.

My belief is that this helps the plants to use the light and nutrients CO2 ect to the fullest extent and thus keeps most algae build up away. I have a magnet cleaner that I use once a week to take care of what little build up and scrub during the weekly water changes.

As for ferts... I attempted to do EI a long time ago and it never panned out... I now do weekly monitoring of the ferts in the tank and dose as needed with dry ferts in pre mixed solutions. (example 20ML = 5PPM) I attempt to keep them all in the mid range for the recommend concentrations and it seems to work very well. Plants really don't use ferts all THAT fast and I believe that many people who use EI to dose waste a ton of ferts...

The biggest thing is CO2 I use a 5lb bottle and inject it straight into my canister filter intake pipe. It gets mixed up in there and then goes out my submerged spray bar. The plants provide the oxygen to help offset the CO2 and I turn the CO2 off at night while the plants intake oxygen.

No idea on the marble :(

I can see I'm in way way over my head here! I'll take a few reads to digest all that info! Tks for your time and efforts!

Keep in mind that is only one way of doing it there are countless other ways that work for people and no real "right" way.

Give the plants what they need and they will grow. Also keeping the water parameters within the plants needs can be important but that mainly applies to harder to keep plants... (water hardness, PH and such) just like fish. Most don't REALLY care and other wither in days if they don't get what they want...

Awesome tank, I wish mine looked that good.

Looks awesome match. Ill be getting my first live plants tomorrow.

Wow! Looking great!!

does look very nice green thumb u have

Now Thats A nice tank there. I hope I can have somewhat of the green thumb you do.

Don't worry it takes time and a little understanding but once you get it going it is really easy. I know many people have tried and failed at plants and I had my own failures but it is pssobile to keep going and try again. I have posted a few time on here with information about growing plants but if you want to know anything hit me up on PM! Always willing to help.

Chris.. Strike.. posted a very detailed "how-to" from his perspective.. I forgot to cut/paste THE Bible on how to make your tank look as good as his.. I'll be scrolling thru everyone of his posts to capture it for my use! Just got too too many things going on at once right now!

Awesome tank... I hope to set one up similar to that one.. I have a 33gal that I hope to make look almost as nice as yours. I love your angelfish very nice!!

awesome job!

Looks great !!!

Phenomenal job on your tank! Definitely inspiring