Ishar's 20 Gallon Long Planted Tank

[ishar]

lol well unfortunately the neons did not fare well at all. They are all dead, including one of the old ones. I have no idea what is going on in my tank right now that could be causing all of these deaths. Guppy fry are doing fine and growing up, and the corys are doing just fine. I don't understand it, but I guess I am done buying fish for a while. It is goign to be a boring tank to look at for a long time lol.

[mistercoffee]

Originally Posted by ishar

lol well unfortunately the neons did not fare well at all. They are all dead, including one of the old ones. I have no idea what is going on in my tank right now that could be causing all of these deaths. Guppy fry are doing fine and growing up, and the corys are doing just fine. I don't understand it, but I guess I am done buying fish for a while. It is goign to be a boring tank to look at for a long time lol.

'

lol going through the same thing, except I'm pretty sure it was the Ich. It looks better now, no spots, but I'm still playing it safe. No fish buying for awhile. School of 4 neons is quite boring. At least the gourami is swimming around, but the Red Tail usually hides away somewhere. It just kills me because I was getting my tank real nice for thanksgiving because people are coming to see it. Oh well.

[love_fish]

I had that problem a while ago, turned out to be my acclimation. Bought several tetras and all died over the course of a week. I did it much slower adding little bits of water to the bag at a time and worked well. I'd try acclimating for a little longer and see how that plays out.

Great looking tank tho, prolly would look even nicer with a digicam

[TMony]

This is inspiring me to try a planted tank.
Looks great . . .

[ishar]

Well long time no pics or replies, but I have been around. Before my Christmas break, I was going to ween the tank off of ferts and CO2, but upon Avalon's smart advice I just trained someone to dose the plants for me. I come back after two weeks and... oh man.

The tank had filled every nook and cranny with vals and stargrass and hygro ceylon and bacopa!!!! haha It was so grown in, it took me a week and a half to summon the back strength to trim and replant the sucker... and it took me no fewer than 5 hours. I took *everything* out, driftwood and plants, and did a major and much needed trim and rescape. I propagated some java fern rhizomes so the wood is more covered (strings are still there for now), and I am making the stargrass my main plant, covering about half of the tank, with my bacopa (which has taken a nice reddish hue) as a small feature in front of the stargrass, and hyrgo ceylon that will poke out and above it in the middle. I realize a picture will be far better but it has MUCH growing in to do... however come Friday I hope to borrow my girlfriends picture and snap a few quick ones for all of you .

In other news, I submerged some soil in a 10G (tall ) tank so I will be, with time, moving the small piece of driftwood and the vals from my main tank to this one, and then making my 20G almost purely a stem plant tank with the large piece of driftwood still in it, and then the 10 will by a val tank with the small wood and some other decor. I am still looking for some decently priced E. tenellus aka Microsword for a foreground, as my main tank has no plants there at all and the new one won't either.

So anyways, I am sorry if you sat through all of that haha. I was using it more for a place to jot down my plans for the tanks and such, but to also let anyone who may be interested know what's been up. Hopefully Friday will bring some pics so cross your fingers for me .

[ishar]

so... no pics as the camera's batteries were dead. Sometime this week perhaps. Hopefully

[ishar]

I went to the LFS for the first time in a long long time, and I came back with some new plants to try . Since I set up my old 20G as a grow out tank I am going to transfer all of my vals over to it and make this tank a little more nicely scaped.

plants grabbed:
-Cryptocoryne wendtii 'green'
-Cabomba caroliniana (one of the first plants I ever tried but I didn't have the lighting back then- thought I'd give them another try)
-Red Myrio
-Pogostemon stellatus 'broad leaf'

[emmanuelchavez]

So will we be getting pictures, or do we have to wait till 2010?

[ishar]

lol well I am really hoping I can get some on Sunday or Monday- I am waiting for my girlfriend who's camera I am going to use to come back to school so I can get them.

[ishar]

Originally Posted by Lotus

Looking nice I have a feeling the jungle vals will be going away at some point. I think you'll find keeping them trimmed too time consuming.

yeah? so? maybe you are right! whatever!! hahahaha

Yeah, with my purchase of new stem plants the goal was to replace the vals with stem plants- easier to scape, easier to control and easier to trim. I transferred my vals to the other 20G tank, and my onion bulb... well I will wait for the camera to talk about that one lol. But yeah, the vals are gone. I still lack a foreground plant, but I am thinking I might use the crypt for this purpose... we'll see how fast/slow it grows.