Emmanuel's Tanks Journals

[emmanuelchavez]

I suppose it's time for a picture update...

15 gallon w/o flash



Then with flash... b/c a lot of the algae distorts the colors, etc... I have no more otos to clean off the diatoms... so I'll just have to do it by hand until it sorts itself out... I've got the magnet to clean the front and sides.... but I've got to use my algae scrubber for the back. : |



Plants I've got: Alternathera reineckii, Dwarf Hairgrass, Italian Val (it's still recovering from the H202 treatment to get rid of the bba while in the 10 gallon), Aponogeton crispus(?), banana plant, dwarf sag. On driftwood; anubias nana, java moss, purple waffle (non aquatic, but has been surviving and putting out lots of new leaves... doesn't have roots in water... all others that had roots in water died... let's see how long this one can keep going).


10 gallon



It has no inhabitants. I've got 2 HOB filters running in it at the time, enough for 30 gallons.

Plants I've got: glosso, javamoss on driftwood (left), anubias nana and javamoss on driftwood (right). There's a bit of hc from the 20 gallon that kept getting uprooted, as well as a small dwarf sag offshoot from the 15 gallon that was uprooted.

After the glosso settles in, and the tank finishes re-cycling (ok, it already has, but the glosso needs to settle), and there's no risk of it getting uprooted by the cories, I'll put the peppered cories in here, and probably the female betta, b/c she keeps living in hiding in the 15 gallon.

Also, the 10 gallon is going to be open top now. I've got a 40 watt 'daylight' flourescent bulb on that clip-on lamp. I'm going to make a 'custom edge' to place the lamp higher... and so i won't keep risking breaking the glass by clipping it there...

[Sticky Fish]

the photo w/o the flash was the best. imo the algae adds to the tank. do you have co2 in the glosso tank?

[ishar]

they look good, but watch your glosso. It needs pretty high light and CO2 is almost a must. It didn't last too long in my tank with DIY CO2, 2WPG and ferts.

[emmanuelchavez]

I have a DIY CO2 in the glosso tank.
It's at 4 WPG right now, and I'm probably going to up it to 6 WPG, depending on how the glosso keeps growing. It's showing good vertical growth right now. I'm going to have to keep cutting and 'train' it to grow horizontally. Hopefully that works.

If the HC doesn't work out in my 20... I may put the glosso in there, w/5 WPG and CO2 using the paintball cylinder I've got.

[ishar]

Cool. I would say 4WPG is plenty- NO need to go to 6wpg at all. That would be way too high I think.

How did you hook up your paintball cylinder? Mine has been going well enough for the two days its been up, but I am curious of how you did it

[emmanuelchavez]

I haven't set it up yet. I'm waiting till I finish paying off my summer class before I buy the parts. I paid my dad's car this month too... so there's several $100 gone

I'll probably be able to order the parts in 3 weeks or so. I'm going to the field for a week, so I'm getting some major overtime! oh yeah! lol.

I may set it up the same way as you. That seemed like a simple enough way. I've still got time to set it up though, so we'll see how it turns out.

[emmanuelchavez]

oh snap! OK, I think I was sold HM under the name glosso.... haha, idk why it didn't strike me till today.

It's definitely not glosso, but I'm not 100% sure if it's HM... I'll take pics if I can tomorrow, but depending on how swamped I am trying to get ready for my trip, I may just wait till next weekend.

[emmanuelchavez]

The new look! I think I'm sticking to this one... That's the piece of driftwood I was planning on using on my 20 gallon.... I thought it looked better like this! Plus, it wouldn't sink when it was lying horizontally, but it stayed when vertical, go figure.

What may change though, after I get more time, I'm going to replace the (what I'm assuming is) HM and the dwarf sag with more hairgrass.

I'm going to replace that bio-wheel filter with a small canister filter I ordered from Drs. Foster & Smith, which should help me with CO2 loss. That other small filter you see with the blue airline is what I'm using for diffusion. Cheaper than a powerhead, and not excessively powerful (it's rated for a 3 gallon). I'm going to stick with DIY co2 for now, but eventually, I'm going to use my paintball cylinder in this tank, and get a 5 or 10 lbs co2 cylinder to split between the 20 and 10 gallons.

[big54bob]

Looks pretty good.

BTW wtf does HC stand for.

[emmanuelchavez]

Originally Posted by big54bob

BTW wtf does HC stand for.

LOL. it's Hemianthus Callitrichoides, only one of the most awesome foreground plants there is!