jessewatson

Hello everyone! I thought I’d go ahead and introduce myself. I’ve been keeping tropical tanks for about 10 years, but have just recently made the step up to live plants. Here’s my 160 gallon community tank that has had plants for a few weeks now. Slowly but surely getting filled in as I figure out how to balance lights, CO2, and ferts. Tank is 30” tall, so it’s proving to be a little finicky to get the lights right, but we’re getting there. Currently stocked with a variety of rainbows, a school of harlequin rasboras, and an oto/amano/snail clean up crew.

Greetings everyone, I’ve got a 160 gallon that I recently converted from all artificial plants to live. Because the tank is tall (30”), I’m running 4 of the Plant 3.0’s: 2 x 36”, 1 x 48”, and 1 x 24. (Odd sizes, but it’s what was in stock to get two rows of 72”.) I’m injecting CO2 and dosing with Easy Green, Excel Flourish (for algae control while it gets established), and Easy Root Tabs in a pool filter sand substrate. My solenoid is tied into my Apex pH monitor and I’m still finding the balance between it and my drop checker. I ran @Bentley Pascoe day sim for the first couple of weeks and today I dialed all the settings back by 25%, because I’m trying to get the diatoms and green spot algae under control. I knew the tank was deep, but these lights are INTENSE. So, 4 may have been overkill, but I get great coverage in my “big” tank. Needless to say, today is the first day of max intensity of 75%. Hopefully, that will give the otos, amanos, and snails time to catch up while the plants fill in before gradually increasing the intensity. Anyhow, that’s my setup and my plan. If anyone that has been doing this for a while sees any flaws, feel free to educate me. That’s why we’re all here, after all. Thanks! Jesse