Wednesday, October 15, 2008

SERA Planted Tanks


A SERA Planted TankThis 20 gallon high tank has been set up for three months, using the SERA plant products. I started with the SERA substrate “floredepot”, which I covered with an inch or two of brown gravel. The light is a Hagen GLO T5 reflector with two 24 watt lamps in it – one white and one actinic blue. The filter is a small Hi-Q outside power filter. After initially planting the tank, I used the SERA CO2 system which consists of adding a tablet every day or so. I am also adding the SERA plant food products as per their directions. There is a daily dose of one, a weekly dose of another, and tabs that can be used to spot feed. These I think are making a real difference in the growth of the plants. I use plants that I know do well in my water conditions, which is fairly soft and acid water. The plants in the tank are 4 types of crypts, regular Java fern and long leafed Java fern, slender leafed hygro, red ludwigia and rotal indica, Anubias nana, and a few Amazon swords.All in all, this is a really nice tank. As some of you may know, I am NOT a high-tech plant guy. I want my tanks to have nice plants, and when I set up a tank like this 20H specifically to be a planted tank I only use plants that I know do well in my water conditions, and ones that do not absolutely require CO2 and very high light levels. I also keep my tanks primarily for the fish, and I keep a lot of fish in each tank. This 20 high has 25 large neons, 3 Apisto cacuotoides, 6 cory cats, a large SAE and a very large yoyo botia, along with 3 flower shrimp. Yes -- it is overcrowded. But with heavy active plant growth it is just fine. The most interesting thing is, if you look in the upper left corner/side of the tank you can see the roots that the slender-leafed hygro is sending down to the gravel. At the same time, it is also growing out of the top of the water. Other plants that have been doing best are the two long leafed crypts and the narrow leaf Java fern. This tank is nothing that any and all of you guys couldn't do, using the SERA planted tank products