is it at SS15 ? and how much they sell?

Starting a Planted Tank Using Dry Start Method

What is it about?

The concept is to create a scape and use aquatic plants, but instead of filling the tank with water, we grow the plants in an emersed stage till it fills in the scape and then fill in the water.

Why is this done?

Different people may have different opinions on this, but in my opinion this is the easiest way to create a scape especially "Iwagumi" style aquascapes where the plants we use are just foreground plants. One of the biggest challenges when we create aquascapes with just one variety of foreground plants is the plant mass is less when the initial planting is done. Now when we use substrate like ADA Amazonia II which is rich in nutrients the plant volume is not enough to absorb all the excess nutrients that algae takes over and it becomes extremely difficult to maintain such tanks until the plants have established and grown fully. Now for people who don't want to go through this trouble of the initial phase but yet end up with a Iwagumi scape like the one below, this method is the perfect solution.



Once you finish planting, seal the top of the tank airtight with a glass plate or another easy way is to use plastic wrap used for food. Fit your lights and your done.

Maintenance during Dry Start Method

During this phase you really don't need to do much maintenance on the tank. You don't need to have very high lights on the tank as well as there is no water column to penetrate. No CO2 injection required. All you need to do is keep your lights on for 8-10 Hrs a day, open the wrap once a week for 5 min so that fresh air gets in and seal it back up. The results after two and half months is below.



Flooding the Tank

Once the plants have filled in like shown above, it's time to fill the tank with water. Once the water is filled, CO2 injection is required and needs to be kept very high for 2 weeks close to 5 bubbles per second (bps). Afterward, bring it down to 3bps. Setup lights as per the plants requirements. (Cuba is not a very light demanding plant). Setup filter that you have decided on using. If you are using nutrient rich substrate like ADA Amazonia II, follow the below light and water change routine.



Your tank is completely cycled after this stage and if you follow the above routine you will have minimal algae issues except for some diatom algae during the first 2 weeks on the glass which is easily wiped off during your water changes.

credit to : http://www.shrimpnow.com/content.php/245-S...ry-Start-Method

This post has been edited by ciohbu: Sep 29 2011, 04:37 PM

always teracun sendiri...

i watched video on youtube, how to do a proper planting. done that oso.
now i thing gimme a headache. after several day putting new soil, my glass look dirty, especially near the soil. i try to rub with sponge. cannot remove! ayoo..

Natural Aquatic World (NA) No. 17, Jalan SS19/6, 47500 Subang Jaya Selangor Darul Ehsan Malaysia Tel: +603 5633 1368

for yamato i think is rm2.5 per piece

hi guys,

i have a planted aquarium with a couple of cory fish and lots of red cherry shrimps.
currently having problem.. bba algae attack.. any suggestion on how to control it without harming my precious rcs and cory fish..

thanks in advance.

put oto inside, but i think sae eats bba?
So if tank have many plants, small sae will be fine

oto is already there.. but seems they didn't like bba..
will try again sae.. previously not working.. i thought i bought wrong sae (false siamensis).

Put some SAE inside, clean your filter, water hose.
SAE likes to work in group. 3 or more would be nice.

Maybe you can add a few yamato also

is SAE can be mixed with shrimplet? i'm afraid they will eat newborn shrimps..

to check its real siamese algae eater or not



http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/fish/929...gae-eaters.html

i have 2 SAE 2inch inside my cherry and fire red tank.
I provide lots of mosses for shimplets to hide

just bought 3 more oto and 5 rummynose...

hi....i jz bought new aquanic canister filter. i accidentally suck some gravel into he pump and trap inside there. anybody got this experience?? it is ok to leave it inside there??

if they are in ur canister then should be ok, u can take them out next time

if stuck in ur pump then habis.. lolx

i hav check they are not in the canister... the canister cover where the pump is make noise when shake ... but still can use for now and no noise when operating

is it safe to open the pump?? i see there are 4 screws .

i see.. maybe they stuck in between ur pump and canister then.. if u wanna DIY of course can.. if u dun mind they staying inside then just ignore them lo

after spending 12pm -> 6pm today







next ...

- get some white sand to fill up the empty space in front, take out the bowl of course b4 kena goreng by my mom
- put the black background
- transfer back my fish and canister from quarantine tank after 1 week

Popped into NA after lunch today, ended up getting ADA Malaya (1 kg only), Ceratophyllum demersum and Utricularia graminifolia; the intention was to go get different color variant guppy. See how the STOP BUYING on IMPULSE syndrome doesn't work for me either!

Re-arranged the scape:


Waiting for Michanz's Fissiden - so can add little fissiden platelets...

This post has been edited by geediver: Oct 2 2011, 12:26 AM

i baru trimmed my rotala yesterday.. and threw them out. didnt know u getting soil hahahahha

fissiden is coming soon

I plan to upgrade my 2x1x1 tank to 3x1.5x1.5. Is my existing Eheim 2215 sufficient enough?

currently I only have moss and Subwassertang tie on mesh and rock. I only have some sand as base. Shall I upgrade to soil also?

My Lighting is 55W PLL and CO2 tank with 1bps. If 3ft tank how many watts light I need? 3 ft light is how many watt?

Hi, as usual, google is ur best tool

for substrate, depending on what plants u wanna grow, of course if u wanna grow hairgrass, crypts, glosso, thats impossible with sand, but u still can grow moss, fern, maybe fissiden with some liquid fert

lightning - again, depends on ur plants requirement and density... too high light + few plants + little co2= algae farm, low light = slower grow rate (which might frus those starter who wish miracle will happen and they can get full planted tank in 1 week)
3-4 watt or above per gallon consider high light

co2, ur current 1bps is too little for 2feet tank and nearly nothing for 3feet, more plants = more co2 needed, higher light = more co2 and fert, out of balance = algae farm
get a co2 indicator and u will know where is the limit, also depending how well ur co2 diffuser can diffuse co2 gas in water

for canister, need to see which sifu using eheim with 3 feet i can't comment on that bcoz i not using eheim

thanks ~