I am submitting this thread, which I intended to post in the DIY sub-forum here, since the whole deal in this project (on-going since day one set-up) is to succeed in keeping Oscars in a heavily planted tank.

The sketch below is what I'm aiming right now. Not everything in the drawing is actually there right now. Plants are already in the tank (to keep surface floating plants I built a DIY tank height extension), some of the lighting I'm still working on to assure high light demanding plants (e.g. Water Lettuce and Water Hyacinth) can adapt (I'm not aiming at fast growth).

This would be a lot easier if aquarium use light assemblies with two and three fixtures were locally available. Not the case for me.

My intentions in sharing this are two-fold:
1) getting feedback from those experienced and versed in different aspects of this project (e.g. lighting, plants) and
2) encourage Oscarfishlovers to go planted!

Pepe
Santo Domingo

good luck

good luck pepetj.........and nice to see you

Good luck with this project! I would advise you scratch duckweed off the list... these plants reproduce like crap and get all over everything... not to mention they're not terribly good looking (IMO).

Cheers,
Art

I wanna see him do it.

looks good pepe cant wait to see the finished product

Well I'm still working hard on this one. I'm waiting for the sketch of a structurally sound yet aesthetically built stand for this tank (hired another architect for it).

I upgraded the tank height extensions, again. This time I used aquarium safe silicon to hold the pieces of glass together, among other things.

I replaced the submersible UV Sterilizer with an external unit so I freed some space inside the tank. I am out of substrate (waiting for Eco-Complete orders to arrive) so some clay pots are out of the tank in stand by.

I have upgraded the lighting mostly as planned, but something is out of track light-wise: I need to get the right type of lights (e.g. 6,400K instead of 3,000K in the Compact Fluorescents) and still working on the timers on-off cycle (have four timers there).

As for the plants:

Water hyacynth is making it there, some died but survivors are now growing at much slower rate than they were outdoors (expected) but at least they are healthy. I have been doing some root trimming lately.

Water lettuce has adapted by noticeably shortening the size and rounding the shape of its new leaves. Looks almost like another plant.

Duckweed and Eared watermoss survive but barely make it as it seems OK in some restricted areas of the tank (too much surface agitation) which is great so they don't end up covering the whole tank and add a nice wild touch.

Hygrophyla diformis is being put to test not by Oscars but by Silver Dollars, however they are growing and emerging but some fish have been uprooting some of them (unexpectedly) one of the Convicts pair didn't like the location I placed them.

Anacharis is back in and Tropical Hornwort is out (something is out of place and they needle like leaves of the latter ended up clogging the intakes of the HOBs on almost a daily basis)

Parrot Feathers are almost extinct thanks to (no surprises here) the Silver Dollars.

Endemic (or maybe just Native) Heart Leave plants were recently introduced. Some of this plant did changed their leaf shape in another tank (from almost perfect circles to elongated ovals).

Endemic (or maybe just Native) Fern is being raised in another tank (likely to make a river-like effect in a some spot of the tank)

I've added fertilization (but likely erring on the lower side of dosage until some tests arrive). Also I am waiting for some 2L bottles order of Seachem's Flourish Excel as a source of CO2.

I got more natural river sand and bigger river rocks I'm still cleaning.

Nitrates reading are detected but noticeable lower than before, zero being an usual reading a week after water changes, so I'm going every other week now (unless I can't help it, which happens more often than not).

Pepe
Santo Domingo

Any pics?

sounds great pepe but like glen asked...........picsB)

OK I promise pics for tomorrow, after I clean the front glass (I've been adjusting the UV Sterilizer flow without a flow meter checking white-like algae growth in the interior glass walls). And of course after I do the gardening work scheduled for tomorrow (finding another spot for two uprooted plants, adding more substrate and a few more rocks).

I have a problem taking pics in this tank due to the fact that it is placed at floor level and the light coloured ceramic floor tiles end up reflecting in the glass so any tip as to how to avoid that "tile image overlapping" in the front glass would be appreciated.

Pepe
Santo Domingo

Sorry but I'm not into taking pics as I go through my blues after loosing Moon so unexpectedly.

Give me a couple of days.

Pepe
Santo Domingo

Good luck with your project.