New, My first planted tank *pics*

Just signed up and figured before I barrage everyone with questions I would introduce myself.

I have had several tanks including saltwater over the past 15 or so years but never got to deep into a planted aquarium. I really wanted another saltwater setup but I live in Germany and move every 3-4 years so my wife and I agreed that a saltwater is too costly in the long run. When I bought the 42 gallon tank I started researching and decided that I wanted to plant it. A bit frustrating at first getting everything together but 3 weeks later I am very pleased with the results! As soon as I added more light and only 3 days of dosing with dry ferts from Greg and my plants are growing at an extremely fast rate! Some 1-2" or more a day it seems.

Here is what I have.
42G
PH controller
Pressurized CO2
Fluval 204
60watts of NO light
96watt bright kit from AH
Home made canopy

Here are some first set up pictures, The pictures that have week 3 are from tonight

http://images.ibpwr.com/aquarium/

 

Re: New, My first planted tank *pics*

Cornhusker, Well actually the plants where getting sicker and sicker looking until I almost doubled my light and started dosing. It only took a few days for the plants to literally take off. As for the substrate. I don’t speak German so I just picked the best I could based on the pictures :lol: alot of the brands you all use are not available to me here. The bottom layer is basically a sandy mud about 1" thick. Then on top is a clay based rock that is very pourus supposedly high in nutrients. The roots literally grow through the rocks. It is about 2" thick.

Tom, The egeria is worrying me a bit. I like the bushy look in planted tanks and it really gives that look but I have to prune almost daily to keep it from covering all my light. It grows FAST! However growing even faster is the Asian Ambulia. I see lots of pruning in my future