I had a very hard time deciding what I was going to put in this tank. I thought about going with salt water and having live corals. I did keep salt water tanks before, but I always wanted a nice planted fresh water tank. I had tried them years ago with no success. Incorrect lighting was the problem. Back then I had no computer and I do not think the internet was established yet. Now with the internet you can pretty much find all the answers you could possible ask about fish and plants. So I decided that I was going to try to do a planted fresh water community tank.

For my substrate I use small pebbles with laterite.
10/27/04 - My plants continued to go down hill, even with twice a week gravel vac and water changes. I set up a 29 gallon bare bottom tank for my breeding pair of discus and sold the others. I removed a lot of my gravel and added Floramax when I cleaned this tank.

The tank gets about a 20% water change twice a month and gravel cleaning. At that time I add liquid fertilizer. I use Flora pride. Once a month the filters get cleaned. The Fluval filter gets new filter fiber added, and the sponges washed off. I do nothing to the chamber which holds the ceramic biological media.

When I first started out with this tank, I did the DIY CO2 (do it yourself). After a few months I stopped using it to see how the plants would do. They grew good, so I stopped using it. About two and a half years have gone by without CO2. I have decided, after seeing the Hagen Natural Plant system, to start using CO2 again. I bought the Hagen system , because I wanted the diffuser. The diffuser works great. The bubble comes out the tube, then back and forth the little grooves as it travels to the top the diffuser. While traveling, the bubble gets smaller as the CO2 is dissolved into the water. My Hornwort grows like crazy now. I trim off 6"-12" when I clean my tank every other week now.
I have again gotten lazy and no longer use CO2 in this tank.

I use 2 filters on this tank. I use a Seastorm 60 fluidized bed filter, and a Fluval 104 canister. The Seastorm is powered by a Hagen 301 power head with a pre filter on the power head so debris does not get into the fluidize bed. Maybe I have 3 filters in this tank. I have read reviews on the Fluval filter where people said that they disliked this filter. I would have to disagree. The complaint that came up most on the Fluval filter was the priming. I would agree that using the primer is a pain in the a$#. The way I found around this is to fill the filter with water, then reattaching it to the tank. When it is plugged in, it starts to circulate the water with no need to prime at all. A little shake to get the air bubbles out, which you would have to do if you primed it also, and your good to go. I find the ease of cleaning this filter excellent, I give it 2 thumbs up.

The plants in this tank are: Ceratophyllum demersum, Corkscrew vallis, Cryptocoryne crispatula, Cryptocoryne wendtii, Echinodorus rubin, Hygrophila difformis, Pistia stratiotes, Rotala rotundifolia, Sagittaria subulata, Salvinia molesta, and Vesicularia dubyana. Carnivorous plants: Utricularia aurea, Utricularia gibba, and Utricularia inflata.

Check here for extra plants that I might have for trade or cost of shipping.