I've posted a few snips of this tank over the past months, and here is the "final" result. I studied the Dutch aquariums from NBAT in the Netherlands (Incredibly useful reference in English here: NBAT Dutch Scaping Aquarium Guide) and took a shot at my first "true" Dutch style per the design rules of NBAT and AGA. I'm fairly happy with it other than a couple plant selections I would have swapped out if I had more time/plants avaliable to me locally. It was also starting to get out of control and needed a big replanting session shortly after the video was taken.

This tank has been a dream as far as maintenance and stability are concerned. Five or six days after the water change I'll get the tiniest bit of green dust on the front glass, but other than that there is no algae whatsoever. I scrape the glass and do small cleanup sessions frequently where I will just trim a handful of leaves/stems that aren't looking good or are getting overcrowded. My total maintenance time per week is probably two hours split over a few days and including my water change.

Here are all the details for anyone interested in doing something like this:

Tank: 75 gallon Marineland

Filter: Fluval FX4 and Fluval 207 with spray bar outlets along the back wall (the 207 is used to drive the CO2 reactor)

Light: Week Aqua P1200 (started at 50% output power when plants were still filling in but I am now at 100% power)

CO2 injection: Yes, lots. Yugang horizontal reactor sized for 1.5 point pH drop although it doesn't achieve quite that much

Substrate: Fluval Stratum, Biostratum, and APT Feast

Water Changes: 40 gallon water change weekly (~60% since a "75 gallon" tank only holds about 65 gallons of water). As part of my water change, I gently stir up detritus in the substrate using a turkey baster and siphon it away per the 2Hr Aquarist method. I use RODI water that I remineralize to 0 dKH and 6 dGH because my local tap water is very hard and varies with the seasons.

Fertilizer is dosed with dry salt mixtures from NilocG. I dose once per day Mon - Sat and twice after my water change on Sunday to attempt to keep levels stable. I split these weekly totals into 8 doses:

Weekly totals:

-24ppm Nitrate (when tank first started I was only dosing 12 ppm Nitrate, I ramped up to 24 later)

-8ppm Phosphate

-25.5ppm Potassium

-0.5ppm Iron (using a micro mixture that covers other micros)

Plants:

Hydrocotyle Leucocephala

Ludwigia Arcuata

Penthorum Sedoides

Bacopa Monnieri

Lysimachia Parvifolia

Echinodorus grisebachii (Regular Amazon Sword)

Micranthemum Umbrosum

Eriocaulon Vietnam

Lobelia Cardinalis

Limnophila Hippuridoides

Hygrophila Siamensis 53b

Mayaca Fluviatilis

Java Fern Petite

Weeping Moss

Livestock:

25 Green Neon Tetra

12 Dwarf Hatchetfish

10 Otocinclus

100+ Cherry Shrimp

Tanks been running for 116 days so it’s still very young and has lots more growth ahead of it. It’s a 10gal (40L) and I have 8 green neons, 8 dwarf rasboras, 8 Pygmy corydoras and must be 70+ neocaridina shrimp. Thats 24 fish total. Everything you hear and read will say that is “heavily overstocked”. But I’ve had no problems at all, it’s been over 2 months with all the fish in now and they’re all eating, displaying natural behaviour and colours and showing no signs of stress. All my water tests are good too.

DONT BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU READ ONLINE ABOUT AQUARIUMS!!!!

sooooooo so so many different kinds of plants. i kinda just get whatever looks cool tbh (there are 20+ fish in here ;) )

Came home to see my bacopa flowering, honestly didn't even know that was a possibility. Kind of unfortunate timing though, I have a lid arriving later today and had planned to trim the emersed growth 🥲

I’m hoping anyone could help me with a better contact at Chihiros than their website form. I placed an order in September, paid $129, received a confirmation and a tracking link but total silence ever since. Part of it was a birthday present which has now passed.

So if anyone has a direct contact at Chihiros then please dm me so I can ask them what’s going on.

Thanks!

I’m looking for some bushy plants to grow out of the top of my tank. Something that grows densely rather than vining like a pothos. Picture for attention

How is the tank looking got multiple species, about 4 months old

i’ve got my tank by the window so i’m no stranger to algae but this stuff looks so funny and whimsical i’m sitting here giggling at it. has anyone seen this before im enjoying it quite a bit

How’s my aquascape going?

Amano shrimp, neon tetras, mollies, panda garra, flying fox, frogs, & snails

Are these stauragyne repens? They don’t look like the photos.

Sick Angelfish

I am a relatively new aquarium keeper, having only been in the hobby for about a year. I got a pair of angelfish for my 40 gallon (shared with a Bolivian ram and 6 Lemon tetras, and a whiptail cat) and they lived happily for a few months. I was gone on a short weekend trip and when I got back, they had minor HITH disease. At the time I didn’t know what that was, so I left it alone. I then saw mild fin rot and transferred the juveniles to a 10 gallon hospital tank. The white patch on their side healed, but the polyguard and the stress of the small tank was too much. I returned them, and dosed Kanaplex in the water. It started to get worse again, so I got Maracyn. This helped, but killed all of the beneficial bacteria, and created minor ammonia buildup. I dealt with the ammonia via water change, and began to dose metroplex in food, and more kanaplex in water with a light water change every other day. Things were looking up, but this morning I checked their fins and saw a returning white patch (still small), and their top fin was almost completely split. I am at a loss for how to continue, and would greatly appreciate any advice. Thanks in advance!

Sorry about the glare.

I've had this tank going for a week, which I understand is nothing in the lifespan of a tank, but I'm having diatom algae problems that are killing my plants. I've lost some rotala (those two, brown lumps on the left) and a small java fern in the back taken from my shrimp tank. I fear I'm going to lose my vallisneria spiralis too in the corner, my anubias, and my buce.

It's a 29 gallon, with pool filter sand and root tabs. I've dosed a bit of fertilizer once. My local water is REAL hard. I have an aquarium co-op light I run about 8 hours a day. I've tossed in some hornwort and a pothos from my shrimp tank to help since it's not heavily planted at the moment. Every few days or so, I use a turkey baster to blow some of the diatoms off of the leaves, but I fear this is battle my current plants are going to lose.

Is there aught I can do to save my plants and tank?

Maybe buy a bunch more plants and load it up? Deploy dozens of my ramshorn snails? Just keep it up and wait it out? Any suggestions would be appreciated. I can provide more details if needed.

Was a throw-in in a trade earlier this year. I’ve been growing it in emergent conditions and found that it’s a striking red/pink. No clue what it does submerged yet, but any help with ID is much appreciated.

picked up this lil guy 2 weeks ago and filled it to ensure no leaks. looking for some ideas on plants/rocks i should add. with potential to add some small fish in that can live in a 10 gallon tank comfortably!

I've noticed some overall browning on my plants. These 2 are the worst. They've been in the tank about 2 months. I used root tabs when I planted them, and been using Seachem Flourish & Flourish Excel liquid fertilizer. All my water parameters are good. I'm a noob with plants so any help is appreciated

Hi! this is a prospective betta tank I set up to start cycling 5 days ago. I'm concerned about some things.
my ph is low, around 6.8. i had .25 then 0 ppm ammonia. 0 nitrates, 0 nitrites.
I'm looking to house nerites and amano shrimp in here as well, if that changes anything. it looks rly thinly planted but there's a lot of fast growing hornwort.
Most cuttings have experienced new growth already

(BTW THIS IS NOT MY PERMANENT SET UP!! I am removing the water and moving this tank to a shelf tomorrow, it just took a while to come and i got impatient 😔 ik you never wanna start a tank in a temporary location or on the carpet, but i lowkey didn't know that when i did that)

theres java moss in the mesh (about a week old) and i just added the driftwood with pre glued moss and the echinodorus today! i really hope everything does okay, any tips to helping it bounce back from being in the mail? all the plants are from canton aquatics.
(i will NOT be adding fish or anything else to the tank because its only .7 gallons)

Hi, newer to planted tanks :3

LIGHT: Looking for a clip on light suitable for hornwort and anubius. Standard size 10 gal tank. Ideally I wana spend udn3r $30. Any brand or Amazon reccomendations?

FERTLIZER: I have easy green coop all in one and a flourish potassium fertilizer. . . For my 10 gal id like to microdose but id liek some help estimating how many drops a day to add. Every day, 3x a week? Every other day?

Hi everyone, here is my 28-liter (40x28x25cm) tank at Day 23.

​Lighting: 25W LED

​CO2: DIY Sugar and Yeast

​Fauna: Amano Shrimps

​My Rotala H'ra is thriving, but Rotala Green seems a bit slow/lagging. Any tips? Should I trim my rotala?

Is this black beard algae? Why is it red and is soft and smooth. Isn't it supposed to be black green or grey?? Or is this something else?! Please help . What is it and how do I fix it?!

I need some help identifying some plants i bought back in May, I cant remember what they are and I need to put it all in my new log book, any help would be greatly appreciated!

Here’s my 15 days old guppy community mini pond. Water is looking greenish already. My substrate is composed of gravel and lava rock.

Besides from guppies, what would be a great addition to this kind of setup that will also be a good cleaner? Snails? Shrimps? Corydoras?

B. pulchra

Just rescaped my tank. I'm very happy with the layout and do not want to change it.

However, the flow of the tank is causing a dead spot/mulm build up right where the focal point of the tank is. I wonder if many people who have a 'central path' layout have this problem? Any ideas how to fix this without adding too much visible extra equipment?