My 125g Freshwater Aquarium

Rob F

Administrator
Staff member
I've been in the fish hobby for about 2 years now and love my little guys and gals. I started with a 4ft 40g tank using plastic plants which never did look good. Then I stumbled acrossed Diana Walstad's "The Ecology of the Planted Aquarium" book and that forever changed me. I went out got me a bag of dirt and went to work. The results were amazing and my tank became a show piece considering it was all plastic before. So I figured I would upgrade to 125g which I currently have.

My first planted tank went quick, and never clouded but when I did the large tank I had a major bacteria bloom that lasted for weeks. So anyone doing the dirt setup needs to be patient but the benefits are worth it.

The tank isn't setup exactly as Diana explains but its the same idea. It's using Miracle Grow Organic Soil about 1-2" thick then topped with black gravel about 1/2". I do water changes every 7-10 days and have never vacuumed the bottom although I'm going to soon, it's getting to be a mess. I don't add any fertilizers or do anything special to the plants. I cut some out maybe once a month, the long grass, sorry don't know the name, grows really fast and took over the tank. I'm currently slowly cutting it all out and going to redo a lot of it. I let it get to thick the back so some started turning brown. The tank has had fish in it for just over year now. Tank doesn't look quite as good today, these are pictures from 8 months ago, my friend took them and did a good job. I'll post new ones as soon as I get it finished.

Here's the equipment I'm using.


  • API XP Filstar XL Canister Filter
  • API XP Filstar L Canister Filter
  • approx 500w heater
  • 2 - Jebao WP10 powerheads
This is the bacterial bloom that lasted maybe a month.
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This is it after about 2 weeks of planting it.
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And this is about 8 months ago.
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Last edited:
Thanks Dom, its looking empty now, I just took out another big section of the long grass. The sword in the front is to big now so I'm going to try moving it to the back of the tank. Lots of fun...
 
I guess you have LEDs.
I have seen Walstad's method, but i am not sure it' s ok for my discus.
ASAP I finish my system with our program, i Will post few picture of the whole. In few weeks or months...
 
Yeah, using 9w LED's, 6500k and 2700k mixed, there's 26 in total. I only drive them to about 6w using LDD-700's and run them just over half power during the day. Looking forward to seeing what you're up to.
 
robsworld78 said:
Yeah, using 9w LED's, 6500k and 2700k mixed, there's 26 in total. I only drive them to about 6w using LDD-700's and run them just over half power during the day. Looking forward to seeing what you're up to.

Oups! I wanted to say : your program. Not ours...
 
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