I'm new, hoping to be old someday! :D

R

riseabovethesun

Large Fish
#1
Jun 14, 2010
649
0
0
California
aquatic-underworld.blogspot.com
#1
Hii :) I'm Mercedes, a third year psychology major at CSUC. I had fish tanks growing up as a kid and decided February of 2010 to try out planted tanks. I have a 36-40 gallon tank (I can't recall specifically) with:

10 Cardinals
10-14 Rummy Nosed Tetras
1 Galaxy guppy and about 5 of his babies. (females aren't in the tank anymore)
4 Kuhli Loaches
1 misc. fish
Bamboo shrimp, ghost shrimp, cherry, shrimp and some others.
I also have a snail issue right now, ugly little guys. There population is getting back under control. I also have a nerite snail coming in the mail.

Some of the plants:
Madagascar lace leaf
Java Moss
Anubia (I have the label at home for the specific name)
Aponogeton Ulvaceus (Someone managed to find the name of that plant for me, it's really beautiful)
Java Fern
Dwarf Sagittaria
Java Fern Lace
I also used to have lily pads, they seem to have died off but are coming back..
2 pieces of driftwood

And I have 3 dogs, a hamster and a 10 gallon tank (it holds my rude fish or pregnant fish)

Nice to meet you all~!
 

lauraf

lauraf

Superstar Fish
#4
Jan 1, 2010
2,181
0
0
Vancouver, British Columbia
#4
Welcome Mercedes! I also had fish as a kid and decided to jump back into the hobby after many years, and with a planted tank.
BTW, OrangeCones is AMAZING on plant advice and pretty much everything else.
Cheers,
Laura
 

R

riseabovethesun

Large Fish
#6
Jun 14, 2010
649
0
0
California
aquatic-underworld.blogspot.com
#6
OrangeCones said:
Nice to meet you too, Mercedes!



I've always wanted to try this plant but have been told and read its very difficult to keep. How long have you had yours? Would you mind sharing your water parameters/substrate/lighting etc?
Click to expand...
I have had my tank since February of 2010, the people before me had it for at least 3 years to my knowledge (possibly more). When I was buying it they said it took about 2 years to get all the plants stable, so I am assuming the Madagascar took some time. So as for the amount of time I can't be exact, my apologies!

The pH in my tank used to be about 6.6-6.8, the past few weeks it has been about 6.2-6.4 I have no idea why it decreased the only change was CO2, which has now run out. Either way the plants and fish have not been affected by the change. Earlier this week I measured the ammonia at 0 the nitrites at 0 (those are the only two besides pH that my test kit has). The water temperature remains between 76-80(F).

I actually posted a question about my substrate under the general forum, nobody responded yet. I don't know the name of the substrate but it is brown pellet like that when stirred gets dusty and if squished between your fingers gets muddy. Is there somewhere online to know the exact type of light I might have? One thing is that the Madagascar is a bit sheltered to avoid direct light - I can post a photo at some point if you'd like.

Lastly, I added a heater to the tank to keep it at that temperature and the Madagascar started growing more leaves rapidly. It's been growing so well lately that I don't even want to alter the tank haha, but am still wondering about my substrate question.

If you want to know anything else just let me know, I'll try and be a bit more specific and can look at things much better once I'm home~

P.S. I totally forgot to mention that I use RO water.
 

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