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New Buce Tank - Inspiration needed


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Hi everyone! I'm new to the forum and excited to be here. I just won a giveaway and received a ton of Bucephalandra which I have decided to use as the showpiece in my Fluval Spec V (5 gallon). Does anyone have advice for other plants that I can use to complete my scape? I'm running a low tech tank with the stock light (for now) and am using fine sand for substrate with root tabs. I intend to purchase red root floaters to provide shade, so this will ultimately be a low light tank. I'm currently thinking that the eventual occupants of the tank will be a betta and a Dwarf Mexican Crayfish, but that is TBD. I've been considering maybe doing some crpyt wendtii along the sides and some crypt parva throughout the middle of the tank, but I'm not sure how successful that will be with my sand substrate. I was also thinking microsword?? I want the buce to remain the star of the tank, but I also want to increase my plant load to fight algae and clean the water. I'm currently only running the light for 6 hours a day as the tank establishes and have popped in some EZ green to get things going.

Any other general advice people have for a tank this young?

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I would add either some more wood, or rocks and plant them with your choice of Anubias, Bucephalandra, Java fern, or Bolbitis because as you surmised Cryptocoryne, and Amazon swords are root feeders that rely heavily on the substrate, that even more so than stem plants don't do so well in sand. Of course it seems it would be easy enough to drain the tank and add some regular substrate of your choice  wherever you want to plant Crypts, or swords but if you want the buces to remain the focal point keep in mind that swords tend to grow large. From what I've seen many beginners seem to have trouble with microswords, so I would rather recommend Helanthium quadricostatus, a plant that was once considered part of the sword plant family and referred to as Broadleaf Chain Sword, and is comparable in size to crypts.

Hope this helps.

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Maybe floating plants like dwarf water lettuce or Amazon frogbit? Both grow really long roots if you let them, are good at sucking up nitrogen, and can help with blocking out some light so that the buce won't get too covered in algae.

Update: nevermind, I saw that you're going to be adding red root floaters, which are also gorgeous. 🙂

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I have sand substrate with some crypts and Amazon sword plants.  They do work but you do need to be generous with the root tabs.  I only surface vacuum the sand lightly when there is an accumulation of mulm built up in spots.  As time goes on your root feeding plants will do better when the sand gets more enriched.  Just make sure your floating plants don’t block the light from the sword plants too much.

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My advice would be to make sure you have high enough water flow in the tank, because buce seem to get less algae in high flow. (That may mean you would need to pick a different fish than a betta, though.) The first time I tried to grow buce they melted away in a mass of hair algae. The second time I put them on the other end of my driftwood, right next to the powerhead, and they’re doing better. Not awesome, but better. 😆 

Looks great so far!

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Thank you all, your feedback is very appreciated and gives me a lot to consider. I think I will stay away from the swords because I fear they won't great in the sand, but I'm going to give it a go with the crypts and see what happens. I'm glad some people have had success with this setup. I might also try out that chain sword that Jungle Fan mentioned Noted on the root tabs, I'll up the dosage I had planned.

Re; algae on the buce, this is my #1 anxiety at the moment. I had buce in another tank that got murdered by the trifecta of green spot, staghorn, and hair algae, so I'm trying to figure out how to avoid this. Great tip from Hobbit on the high water flow, I'll keep that in mind. 

I'll provide updates as the tank gets settled, thanks everyone for your advice!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hey everyone, I just wanted to provide an update on the tank and let folks know the direction I've decided to go in. This tank is becoming an experiment in "What root feeders won't implode in fine sand." I've got C. parva, C. lucens, C. Wendtii (classic and green), dwarf sag, and microsword. I also tossed in red root floaters and floating fern (Salvinia Natans) which are extremely happy. I've had a good bit of melt on two of my 5 buce, but the other 2 are holding up super well. So far so good.

I'll report back with more updates. I have so far managed to avoid any algae in the first two weeks of having the tank up and running and I'd guess I'm about a week or maybe two away from having the tank sufficiently cycled for livestock according to my current parameters.

Thanks again for all of the input so far!

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