Ishar's 20GH Planted tank

ishar

MFT Staff
Jul 27, 2007
1,490
0
36
36
Hamilton, ON.
#42
Update: January 8, '08

Well I figure it is about time I get an interesting, not lengthy, not wordy update full of pictures!

a weirdly bright FTS


Showing the odd growth patterns of my rotala indica (sorry for windex smears :p)


Here is a failed attempt at a shot of one of my shrimp


Right end shot


Left end shot


Close-up of new windelov fern and growing Anubias barteri var. nana.


Close-up of my Anubias Barteri


Left hand side (notice new Anubias Barteri leaf sprouting with growing Anubias Barteri var. nana)


Right hand side


Don't forget the newest craze- a video! It's resolution isn't great but it is half decent :).
Click here to watch Fish-tank-Jan-8-08


To finish this post I guess I should mention my water p-rams. I tested yesterday morning, had amo, but no trite. I did a water change a little later (50%) and then after a few hours checked the p-rams again- no change (quite baffling if you ask me). I did another full set of tests today- no more amo or trite, and the GH is down by one degree. So all is well.
 

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ishar

MFT Staff
Jul 27, 2007
1,490
0
36
36
Hamilton, ON.
#46
Update: January 24, '08

Well I think it may be time for a little word update. Warning: quite lengthy.

Flora:
Well let's see.
>Since moving to Flourite, I have added N to my fert regime (on the 14th) and upped the dosage of Flourish in an attempt to help my jungle val recover- I think it is working :D. I am getting a few bunches with new growth, and about half of them have sent out runners. Growth is still slow on the growing ones though, but I will give it time before raising any alarms (thanks to Avalon for that advice).
>My rotala is doing amazing in my tank- it has more new shoots growing than I started out with, and it is growing quite quickly and fully in a beautiful pink hue.
>The windelov is growing quite nicely, and since having uppe lighting and N and increased flourish it has been growing very fast and beautifully.
>Finally, my java moss is exploding with growth! Since having more lights it has been growing like mad- I am hoping to use it is a compete ground cover for the fore/midground, letting the fern and anubias to grow out of it.

Fauna:
>Well the black female has been developing an iridescent blue glow to her fins, and many of the half-black babies have yellow tails from the father- looks cool right now, and I can't wait to see if any of them are males to get some real neat colour patterns :D. I have another guppy fry maturing as a male- so now I will have two golden cobra males.
>My amano shrimp just hang out in the shade under my driftwood, so I need to figure out what I am doing to displease them and fix it.
>No death's since the camallanus victim.

In other news, I am having a crazy algae outbreak lol. Again, I will be letting my plants outcompete it with time rather than freak out and try to fix it myself (that being said, if anyone has any suggestion as to why it might be happening then please let me know- I get the feeling my water quality/nutrients are off kilter). I have some black beard algae- has been minimal for a long time (I thought that was what diatoms looked like :p) but suddenly it is growing and spreading. I also have this really light green stuff that looks hard, not slimy or soft by any means- like a salt 'stain' when saltwater evaporates from a surface, only green).. On top of that I also have diatoms breaking out again- I just cleaned the front glass pane yesterday and it is already marred with diatoms. Finally I also have this turquoise coloured spotty algae in my bacopa leaves. As I said, my plan is to either find what I am doing wrong in terms of water quality or let it fix itself.

I get the feeling it was from my changing fert routine as well as the increased amount with a slight decrease in CO2 production (bottle slowing down a bit). I have finally settled on a good fertilization routine (see attachment) and will stick to it for a while. I will be doing a 50% w.c. today to sort of reset the water a bit and get rid of some tannins.

That is everything I think. I might post some pictures tomorrow or this weekend to show the growth of the plants and the rotala. Thanks for reading. Feel free to post in this thread or in this one if you have any idea on what is causing the algae. I have set the lights off for two hours less each day for now to see if it helps.
 

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ishar

MFT Staff
Jul 27, 2007
1,490
0
36
36
Hamilton, ON.
#49
Unfortunately it is time for another update (pictures will be tomorrow after a water change to reduce tannins).

Camallanus strikes again*SICK*. I am working on trying to obtain some meds to cure it, but to be honest I don't have very high hopes. I believe I am going to lose one of the cool fry (black body with a yellow tail) and my black female to it first (but it shouldn't be for a few weeks before anything dies anyways) and then the rest will follow eventually if I can't circumvent it from happening.

In other news, I have been procrastinating doing homework all day and decided to aquascape with a different goal in mind. Generally I scaped to make the tank look good right then, without considering too much future growth and looks. Then yesterday I rescaped a bit just for a new look, and with the goal of future growth in mind. I was unhappy with this one though, and then today I redid it and now I am absolutely stunned at it.

I have been doing a lot of reading on scaping and looking at the tanks at The Planted Tank and noticed similarities to the ones that I always loved and was so jealous of. They had a lot of ground cover and the plants were in bunches and there weren't many different types, and the wood and rocks were all blended in with mosses and low growing plants. Once I did this to my tank, I was leery as to how it looked when I stood close to it as I could see holes that aren't grown in yet, and I can see a lot of empty space reserved for future growth.

Then I stepped back. In all honesty my heart actually skipped a beat.

Lesson to be learned? A few.

1) Plant according to future growth to minimize later disturbances and rescaping
2) Don't worry too much about holes and/or 'ugly' spots. If you plan for future growth they should fill in anyways.
3) Finally, what I believe to be the most important, STEP BACK. Once you think you have it in a pretty good position and things are looking ok, step back and look at it. The holes will be less visible and weak spots not as prominent. If that looks good then I would say that you are done.

Here is a little laptop picture so you can get the general idea of what I mean, but tomorrow I will be posting a quite comprehensive picture set showing stepped back views as well as close ups of weak spots that are there for future growth plans.

 

ishar

MFT Staff
Jul 27, 2007
1,490
0
36
36
Hamilton, ON.
#52
Thanks jen and Kissyboots.

jen- the ground cover is just a lot of java moss spread out on the bottom. I am very glad you like it :D.

Kissyboots- look Tang tanks. They are ALL rocks most of the time :p. It is all about what suits you and your fishies :). I would like to see a picture of your tank- I can't find it anywhere.
 

Big Vine

Elite Fish
Feb 7, 2006
3,895
9
0
47
Florida
#53
I gotta tell you man, my jaw literally dropped when I saw those latest pics.
I'm speechless...I think it looks fantastic, and I really hope to see you stick with this scaping (or at least build off of it/around it). Can't wait to see more pics. *SUNSMILE*

BV
 

alter40

Superstar Fish
Nov 26, 2007
1,293
0
0
39
Charlotte, NC
#57
ishar: my tank is in the POTM right now. That's why it's not posted anywhere...yet. Actually, I wouldn't mind getting disqualified since I have ZERO votes. Not surprising actually.
HAHA I could tell which one was yours just by the pictures of the fish you have posted here. I think your tank looks pretty nice though but your up against some stiff competition in that contest.