# medicineman's 20g : trying Staurogyne



## medicineman (Sep 28, 2005)

Hi this is my 20 gal learning tank. Studying how plant grows and why they grow.







Hope to learn aquascaping next... :icon_bigg


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## Georgiadawgger (Apr 23, 2004)

You can definitely grow plants! Nice and healthy...give yourself some time and you'll get "aquascaping down".


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## Buck (Oct 13, 2002)

You have some beautiful green crypts in there medicineman roud: 

What is that you have for substrate ? I like the look of it and it is doing wonders for your root feeders. It looks brown... roud:

Nice tank...


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## andrewwl (May 3, 2004)

What's that dollarweed-looking plant in the third picture? Is it the same stuff spilling out the back of one of Barr's tanks here?

http://www.barrreport.com/gallery/files/1/630c970c06f7aec298ec24591fa0466e-80.jpg

I like that effect alot.


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## medicineman (Sep 28, 2005)

I have seen cloudy days on the first month as a newbie. Luckily I got a helping internet connection, tons of info from the old fashioned one to latest high tech. Thanks to this forum I can grow better and on a wider variety. 

Tank specs:
20 gal : 80cm x 30cm x 35cm
overflow filtration with floss, sponge and bioballs (DIY)
lighting :20W Hagen power glo, 20W hitachi red, 2x25W mitsutec daylight
pH :around 7 or so (universal indicator)
gH :Unknown
kH: Unknown
DIY CO2 injection via vortec bioballs reactor
once a week 50% water change
fertilization (last 1 month) :
urea 2-3x a week 1/2 teaspoon
MgSO4 2x a week 1/2 teaspoon
calcium 1x a week 1/2 teaspoon
NPK 20-15-25 1x a week 1/2 teaspoon
concentrated liquified K 3x a week 5mL
all local chemical/garden product
Niche Iron + trace 3 x a week 5mL 

All dosing is based on trial and error, learning from here and there and watching how plants react to certain fert.

Substrate:
bottom layer is 1/2" 1-2mm zeolite (a very high CEC mineral) 
top layer is natural river sand size 1-5mm from Malang (a city in central Java). This sand is black and very dark brown in colour and consist of lava rock, gravel, etc. It is rough, porous but not light. Java is famous for natural fertile volcanic land. This substrate regime is interesting, the more you season it properly, the more nutritious it gets. Zeolite has a very good CEC quality while lava rock retains moderate CEC with its pores. When chemical concentration gets high in the water collumn, the substrate will absorb some. Plants consume the water nutrition and substrate will release all the stuff they absorb before until concentration is balanced. You will not see this effect in a short time. Believe me this tank gets better only after 3 months of cycle.

Flora : I still have not remember the names for all the plants, even the one in my own tank :tongue: See for yourself
Fauna : currently
13 neon tetras
4 corydoras
3 african sinodontis
3 guppies
6 ghost shrimps
4 SAEs

_What's that dollarweed-looking plant in the third picture? Is it the same stuff spilling out the back of one of Barr's tanks here?_
The round leafed one? it is monocotyl variety and it does not grow outside water, just up to the surface.

_What is that you have for substrate ? I like the look of it and it is doing wonders for your root feeders. It looks brown... _ 
natural product of zeolite and volcanic river sand with seasoning

I have my 260gal scaped but it is not seasoned yet so still doing plant changes and such. Will show you some time later.

Still learing and will learn from you great people roud:


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## medicineman (Sep 28, 2005)

Update
19/11/2005

left part










right part










last week added some cyptocoryne of 3 kinds, another piece of driftwood. Pruned and replant overgrown vals, hygrophylla and hydrocotyl. Taught tiger lotus a lesson of staying small and low. Re-planted plants and more pruning. Some re-scaping.
I still have my 260gal in progress of getting beautiful. Still a shame because I made a weekly visit to LFSs (we have several areas where there are 50+ fish shops in a row) and replace some plants. It is getting stable (thanks to cycle and added DIY chiller) and I promise I will let you see it. Yet I have another 260gal tank on order (this one is longer but shorter height to ease scaping). Man this hobby bites me!


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## Betowess (Dec 9, 2004)

Your lotus rocks! Can't wait to see the 260 gallon. i "think" the "dollar" vine is Brazilian pennywort aka Hydocotyle leacocephala or something similar...


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## medicineman (Sep 28, 2005)

Time for another update current tank condition. No great shots and not as nice as my bigger tanks. But it is a very low maintenace tank now.

The crap lighting I have are messing around with my photo. It is very difficult to take a good shot on this tank. Perhaps next time I'll get a blanket and cover it at the top.

A full shot of the tank










Here is a single, small fan. Mounted on top next to lighting fixture. 










It beams to the tank water surface. Power is along with the lighting period. A simple addition that pulls down from 29-30 C to 27,5 C. It work miracles on the plants inside the tank. Just look at how the java ferns inside are propagating at maximum rate. Note all small light green new leaves. 










Right part










Left part










Center 










The tank is purposely almost neglected in terms of trimming. I want to create a jungle look and it worked. See how dense the growth is...



















There are mainly neons in this tank. There are 2 SAE and a cleaning crew of shrimps.


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## medicineman (Sep 28, 2005)

Update again...

Just some major hack and slash to the jungle to allow the bottom plants (they suffered long enough).

No stem plants for this tank, they just magically die  

I should consider changing the substrate like my bigger tank, or let it be without any stem plants.

So far this tank is the only one with the oldest plants I have, most dating back some 8 months old (well... not that old for aquascape standard).

Right










Left


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## medicineman (Sep 28, 2005)

2 Days ago I pulled up a plant and find something interesting. The roots are not white in colour. That is strange for I thought crypts always have white and extra long root system. So I pulled out more plants and find something nasty. Some of the roots are black and turning into mush. I say it is the crappy substrate which cause every mishaps in my aquascaping experience. I did change the substrate on all my big tanks and they serve me great. So I'd say so long black substrate! It is just too anaerobic even for roots type plants. I will end this suffering once and for all.

So it comes to another tear up (thank god this is just a 20 gallon tank and not another 260). Fishies goes to another nano tank, plants goes to a huge bucket, covered by wet newspaper sheets to keep moisture in while I work. Fish count alarms me as I find only 12 neons, 4 sinodontis, 1 corydora, 1 SAE and 2 shrimps. The tank condition must be that bad despite all the maintenance I did, it still kill those fish I still have months ago. Tearing up this tank gives me so much pleasure and a big relief. Good thing I have much stock of base fert and substrate, so I did everything straight away within 2 hours time. After a good cleaning of the dark substrate and a bit of scrubbing, base ferts goes in and layer upon layers of substrate. Hardscape is set, countouring done then plants goes in with the water.


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## medicineman (Sep 28, 2005)

3 driftwoods as hardscape and to retain substrate from running over to the front (the back is stacked higher).

Front view










Left










Right










Most of the plants are re-used with a bit of addition from my other tanks.
There are 1 corydoras, 1 SAE and 1 CAE. Coming in soon are cherry shrimps and perhaps some more foreground.

Now that is an extreme makeover and it looks much better!
*the stuff floating and that elodida, etc are there for extra plant load and I'm planning to remove them much later.


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## medicineman (Sep 28, 2005)

Added in more bio load slowly, today 10 cherry shrimps went in (always start with the algae squad).

I've been inspired by some aquascape and used some stones into the tank. It enhance the terracing look even more. Here's how it looks like now :




























Foreground will be filled with glosso later on.


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## fresh_lynny (Mar 9, 2006)

What is your substrate on this last tank? It looks like packing material..lol




medicineman said:


> Added in more bio load slowly, today 10 cherry shrimps went in (always start with the algae squad).
> 
> I've been inspired by some aquascape and used some stones into the tank. It enhance the terracing look even more. Here's how it looks like now :
> 
> ...


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## medicineman (Sep 28, 2005)

It is natural silica sand (it is ore for making glass if I'm right), fresh from seabed. Contains no Ca or other nasty stuff in it and it is inert, so I have to use induced base fertilizer (in this case 2 JBL florapol). The size is a bit roundish 3-5mm and it is very heavy, so far the best that I have tried for anchoring down plants - you even wont need any weights to keep those stem plants down (well, except for some stubborn plants like aerial lotus). Quality depends on the source where the material is taken, this one is from one of Indonesian islands off coast.


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## mecgeorgeneo (Aug 12, 2005)

i like that "wood terracing" can't wait to see the glosso fill in the front


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## medicineman (Sep 28, 2005)

mecgeorgeneo said:


> i like that "wood terracing" can't wait to see the glosso fill in the front


Yea... that wood terrace with stone pieces is the kind of hardscape people should consider into making more of these days.

Well, the glosso are already planted 2 days ago, but I only managed to get emersed form of glosso which is harder to keep low initially and they do take some time before spreading out if you compare it to submersed glosso.

I hope the whole thing will be looking good upon maturity, perhaps in 1-2 months time, that is if nothing goes wrong.


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## fresh_lynny (Mar 9, 2006)

medicineman said:


> It is natural silica sand (it is ore for making glass if I'm right), fresh from seabed. Contains no Ca or other nasty stuff in it and it is inert, so I have to use induced base fertilizer (in this case 2 JBL florapol). The size is a bit roundish 3-5mm and it is very heavy, so far the best that I have tried for anchoring down plants - you even wont need any weights to keep those stem plants down (well, except for some stubborn plants like aerial lotus). Quality depends on the source where the material is taken, this one is from one of Indonesian islands off coast.


cool......well it is shaping up that is for sure. I just ordered a lotus. I hope it looks half as good as yours.


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## medicineman (Sep 28, 2005)

Tiger lotus will usually crappy looking by the time you get them. The plant is quite delicate and will take some time to acclimate into the tank, just leave them be and they will bounce back.

The glosso after almost a week days. I planted them too thickly I think, I should have thinned them a bit and spread them more evenly.










Most plants have improved significantly since I did some extreme changes on the substrate, lighting and fan repositioning. Even floating plants like the brazilian pennywort is now much more robust with longer roots.

whole tank


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## Y0uH0 (Dec 19, 2005)

tank looks really good. i have had tiger lotus before. perhaps you may want to insert some iron pelllets for the roots,it will make the plant more robust and with wider leaves.


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## ianmoede (Oct 1, 2004)

medicineman said:


> It is natural silica sand (it is ore for making glass if I'm right), fresh from seabed. Contains no Ca or other nasty stuff in it and it is inert, so I have to use induced base fertilizer (in this case 2 JBL florapol).


Just to let you know, youd be pretty hard pressed to find any sand, anywhere without a little Calcium in it, unless youre in a desert. If youre underwater, and in the equatorial region, at some point in the past or currently there are reefs in place, which lead to reefs which lead to calcium sediments. You are correct though about high silica content sands, they are VERY insoluble, taking something like 10^19 years to completely dissolve. I'm a geologist, im aloud to be nitpicky


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## deeplove (Dec 27, 2005)

Big man, are all those little patches Glosso? I can see why you wouldn't want to trim each little piece out, but man that's something.

:icon_wink


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## medicineman (Sep 28, 2005)

@ianmoede, 
Thanks for the correction. Should have said "contains no significant soluble Ca" despite of the sea origin.

Y0uH0,
Will consider that. Perhaps right now I will use azoo balls on stock.

deeplove,
Yes, those patches are all glosso. They look compact like that because they are emersed growth of glosso. In fact I bought them as glosso mat, the size of a book and tear them smaller for planting. Not that I'm too lazy to plant them chain by chain, but the mat is too tangled unlike submersed glosso and I have no time or patience for that.

Boy I'm glad that so far the only algae I can see is only GSA (that is perhaps the CAE and cherry shrimps works too well). Now how do I get rid of that hard-cased algae....


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## fresh_lynny (Mar 9, 2006)

looking good medman!


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## medicineman (Sep 28, 2005)

Time for update.

Higrophila corimbosa leaves are now almost completely in submersed form, while the old emmersed leaves shed. This plant gets huge quite fast, but fortunately the stay short and compact (as the name suggest).

The glosso patches are still growing... but no carpet yet. Perhaps I should have rip out some, cut them smaller and re-plant. Or another good thing is to add more light and use softer water.

No algae outbreak so far, and I'm very glad about that. My cherry shrimps doubled in quantity, ignoring the fact that this setup is just merely a month old.

Many plants really doing well with this setup, I had harvested the floating wort twice... they grow really fast with much thicker stems and I have to watch out or they will take over the whole tank.

Full front shot :


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## medicineman (Sep 28, 2005)

The side :










Now the bio load becomes :

-11 hengel's rasbora
-1 bronze cory
-1 SAE
-1 CAE
-1 Ottocinclus
-20s cherry shrimp

A bit of the messy-ness outside the tank :icon_redf


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## Y0uH0 (Dec 19, 2005)

Things are looking great,except for the glosso foreground. I guess it isn't giving you the effect that you desired right?


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## the_noobinator (Jun 10, 2006)

i have trouble carpeting my bottom as well, probably for the same reason. i lack the patience to cut up my tiny plant pieces and replant them. someday it will eventually grow in...
i love the rest of your tank.


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## sNApple (Nov 6, 2005)

i think the glossos just gonan grow up, hah good luck


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## medicineman (Sep 28, 2005)

There is a high probability that the glosso will do just that. The tank is not a high light tank in the first place, and it is expectable that glosso might grow upwards instead of growing low. The CO2 is just DIY and lighting from normal T8 totalling 80W. If that is the case, later I will change into marselia (clover) which will definately grow low and fill in all the space slowly but steadily.


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## deeplove (Dec 27, 2005)

the_noobinator said:


> i have trouble carpeting my bottom as well, probably for the same reason. i lack the patience to cut up my tiny plant pieces and replant them. someday it will eventually grow in...
> i love the rest of your tank.


All you have to cut is about a couple to get it started. In the right conditions, it spreads out like a weed. I took it out completely because of that. Even then, I still had some growing in my HM and now it's growing back.

You don't have to cut a handfull to get it started. That's for sure.

*MediMan*... The tanks is coming out pretty sweet. Good job Spud.


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## the_noobinator (Jun 10, 2006)

deeplove said:


> All you have to cut is about a couple to get it started. In the right conditions, it spreads out like a weed. I took it out completely because of that. Even then, I still had some growing in my HM and now it's growing back.
> 
> You don't have to cut a handfull to get it started. That's for sure.


that stinks because i had 3 huge clumps. i gave one away and i've separated the other 2 into 8 smaller clumps, which still probably each have at least 50 microsword blades in it.


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## medicineman (Sep 28, 2005)

Quick update... a month later

Surprisingly the tank becomes a jungle scape in no time, despite of medium lighting, self made PMDD and anyhow DIY CO2. As expected, the glosso carpet failed to form properly, mainly due to lack of light... I'll be trying marsiela sometime later. That hygrophylla compacta is a real menace for small tank ... it did very well in a non high tech tank, now I have to trim it and re-plant the top 3-4 row of leaves to keep it in check.

pardon me for slightly off focus pic on the fishies, I did it freehand.










Looking back at how I did the tank in the early days of me as a newbie, I'd say now it rocks.


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## Y0uH0 (Dec 19, 2005)

I love the look of your tank,especially the midground. Guess i am just crazy over all those greens.lol


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## Urkevitz (Jan 12, 2004)

The tank looks outstanding, maybe some moss covered rocks would look good as a foreground.


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## fresh_lynny (Mar 9, 2006)

It Rocks!:thumbsup:


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## medicineman (Sep 28, 2005)

@Youho, 
I'm also crazy on the green. My Hygro compacta growed more than expectation, and it looks so big and full. 

@Urkevitz,
I'll consider that, maybe using moss on stone slates, creating a layer of carpet moss on the foreground.

@fresh_newby,
Thanks... it does indeed look much better than the crappy tank last time.

All over, the tank exceeds my expectations out of 80W T8 shoplight, DIY CO2 and self-made ferts. I guess it proved again that good results doesnt always come in expensive packages


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## medicineman (Sep 28, 2005)

Almost one month later...

After a WC and minor pruning:










Everything keeps growing bigger, taking out all what left of empty space in the tank. The pruning goes on to keep them in check. I have no glosso carpet after all it seems that the tank is not lit enough and with all the empty lot occupied by higro compacta. What I get is a patch of straight glosso chain (almost 70cm long) forming a thin carpet by the front line  .. at least I manage to grow some in the end.


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## medicineman (Sep 28, 2005)

And then some time later.... Now I can say the tank has matured!










Sure I've lost almost all of the remaining of my glosso (ridden over by the rest of the plants). Sure now the tank is too stuffed with plants. Sure I lost the shape of my hardscape and now you barely notice the terrace anymore because it is partially covered. But who cares?? With that very nice green and growth in the tank, I can forget them right away.

Everything growed out the tank but in a nice way. The only plant getting any pruning is hydrocotyle, necessary to prevent them covering surface and blocking light. Luckily my snails love the old leaves of that plant, so ordinary snails do have a function here. I did not touch the other plants, what you see here does grew naturally.

Actually last month the system started to decline a bit, I suspect due to too much debris at the bottom... leading to anaerobic condition. A good deep vaccuming proves to be very effective judging from the result a month later.

If you do comparison, you will find everything grew jumbo sized. From hygro to crypt, the single sag and lush lotus that (fortunately) remains low. With very little algae and almost no maintenance except for weekly WC, this tank is what aquascaping supposed to be, PURE ENJOYMENT!  ... done at low cost (DIY CO2, relatively low light, self made PMDD)

Satisfaction guaranteed!


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## fresh_lynny (Mar 9, 2006)

Low maintenance...music to my ears. Nice job. It looks healthy. Where do the fish swim? lol


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## TankCleaner (Oct 16, 2006)

Outstanding tank!!! I love the look of it.


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## TheOtherGeoff (Feb 11, 2003)

i really like how the corybosa filled out. i love that plant if only i could find more of it


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## Y0uH0 (Dec 19, 2005)

Wow,those greens! I'm really amazed. For a moment,everything seemed like edible vegetables.Man,i must be hungry. Very beautiful and healthy.


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## medicineman (Sep 28, 2005)

See... out of the misery it is now time to enjoy what I put in the tank.

@fresh_newby,
beautiful sound indeed. Especially because my algae does not grow jumbo as well. Very minute amount of GSA only, almost not noticeable by camera or untrained eyes. 
LOL.. I know the fish are getting cramped, the rasboras school there and the cories got no more empty space to graze on.

@TankCleaner,
An evolution over a time when you have figured out how to do it the right way. Flip a few pages behind and you will see nightmare and lots of shameful pics (a cheer up message for you to try and ride it out).

@TheOtherGeoff,
If your area is temperate/hot enough you can cultivate them outside water. They grow faster that way. By then you will also be a plant supplier 

@Y0uH0,
I also never thought it is going to be like this (green, jumbo and all). LOL... the edible one as far as I know is only the hydrocotyle. 

Perhaps now I can claim that my green PMDD stuff really works well  (this kind of tank can never live out of KNO3, KCl, CO2 and fish poop alone). Maybe I should go to patent office and start production... starting making money instead of wasting money from the hobby :hihi:


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## medicineman (Sep 28, 2005)

Side shot










The terrace is still there but from the front it is no longer obvious. From this point of view you can see how the crypts are growing well and getting very big (Wendtii tropica green). They grow so big that the green internal reactor by the rear is now partially visible.


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## medicineman (Sep 28, 2005)

Sometimes later...

It seems that those compacta hygro does not stop growing at halfpoint. With other plants in the tank, it came to a point of choking the whole tank down.










It is getting dark below and so full by the top that it looks more like a jungle than a scape. My rasboras became truly "surface" fish as they have nowhere else to hang around other than by the surface or inbetween roots.

So I decided to do a main hack and slash job on the tank. The hygros are trimmed down and re-planted, thus giving much more free space and return that white shoreline look to the foreground. I pulled a bit of the loose substrate a bit to the back (it will eventually slides back a litte over time). Hydrocotyle is also trimmed down, allowing more light to penetrate.

one day after trimming :









I know my plants are a lot happier now, so are the fish with improved swimming space. You can see good pearling on hydrocotyle and microsorum two days after I do hack and slash, 70%WC to remove excess stirrup, replace DIY CO2 mixture and dose like usual.


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## medicineman (Sep 28, 2005)

Fast forward several months...

Upon refining fert formula and dosing, doubling DIY CO2 capacity to 2 liter bottle instead of 1 liter, showed positive result.
Plants keep growing, the tank back to the jungle it used to be in no time. It came to the point of choking again (I can see my lotus as a potential victim as shown here if nothing is done immediately. Notably the crypts keeps on growing longer and establish a sure colony, while my hygro compacta seems to love the overall treatment despite of it being periodically hacked. The leaves grow big and so compact inbetween each node. It is too compact and cramp each other that the lower part gets no light and became unsighty.

And time for another hack job!
Finished :









Story behind the dosing : my own brew of ferts









Red = macro nutrient
Green = micro nutrient


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## Storm_Rider (Sep 30, 2006)

oooh i like it!! but too many of that front green plant imo


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## medicineman (Sep 28, 2005)

Heheh... that is the interesting part. I know about it being too many, the plant is so compact and planted cramped to each other.
I'm planning to save some in emmersed form for the future, so perhaps after nicely rooted I'll harvest some (and reduce a bit of that too much green in the process).

Anyway, after looking closely, I found my single anubias plant has 3 flowers. Quite amusing. (it is by the top right of the pic)


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## medicineman (Sep 28, 2005)

After some time I had enough of the tank green salad shelf look. It was getting older and always cramped and with some plants better not trimmed down (such as anubias, crypts and microsorum), it is best to move them to other home.

So on Oct 2007 the tank was torn down to bits and re-setup using existing plants and some donors from my other tanks.

This time I deliberately set it up using no base fertiliser or any form of soil by the plain quartz gravel. Any form of fertilisation comes from water collumn (wonder-gro liquid fert) and root tabs (wonder-gro root tabs).










Doesnt look too good initially.

Plants :
vallisneria spiralis
saggitaria subulata
hygro poliserma "rose" (fast grower as counterbalance)
microsorum pteropus
anubias nana
cryptocoryne wendtii


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## ZooTycoonMaster (Jan 2, 2008)

Nice tank!

How did you make your own ferts?


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## Green Leaf Aquariums (Feb 26, 2007)

Is that nitromethane in those bottles? Now wonder your plants grow so well. Hence the name "Wonder".


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## medicineman (Sep 28, 2005)

Fast forward one month later at the end of November 2007

I pulled out some of the weedy poliserma since the tank is balancing just nice. In its place I use several limnophila aromatica, though I know the weak lighting might slowly kill it but still trying (a month later the concern become a reality)










Note that the foreground of vallis and saggitaria are doing just fine, other than growing they also start to spread.

You can notice that holes develop on many of anubias nana leaves. This is due to old leaves getting eaten by nerite snails (lots of GSA on old, softening leaves). Learn from this and never have too many nerite it your anubias tank!


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## loachlady5 (Dec 9, 2007)

Truly an amazingly beautiful tank:drool:! You must have your parameters straight to have a healthy algae free tank without stem plants. How did you tame your lotus to stay small?


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## mistergreen (Dec 9, 2006)

cool tank.. too bad about the hole in the anubias.. You might have to trim those eventually...

and you might want a mix of foreground plants instead just having subulata, maybe hairgrass and dwarf swords.... Subulata gets pretty tall.


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## medicineman (Sep 28, 2005)

@ZooTycoonMaster,
I can make my own fert by knowing what to mix, what ratio, formulation and such. Basically just having the know how and equipments to do it.

A normal guy could also try using PMDD dry fert and EI on bigger tank for personal use. Look at existing topics on EI dosing.

@Orlando,
Those are my own brew. They contain the needed macro and micro elements, as well as Fe enriched. They are available locally, but it would take some time until any US folks try one.

@loachlady5,
Just some based on experience balancing act and patience.
Keep it right from the start and it would take just several weeks for this tank to really pick up pace and remain algae free.
The trick for lotus is to keep them healthy (usually by making sure of fertile substrate to live on) and trimming excessively large/aerial leaves.

@mistergreen,
Those nerite sure to be double edged blade. If only anyone warned me beforehand, I would have used just one or even none.
The subulata is not the only kind there. If you look there is also vallisneria spiralis inbetween the subulata. 
It does grow very tall and quite massive when allowed to, even with numerous flowers.


Fast forward to current status...










The aromatica has long gone mainly due lack of light and replaced by echinodorus red flame (a gift from a friend) on early January.

The bunch of anubias nana grown many new leaves, replacing the half dead old leaves infested by holes. Most new leaves are slightly smaller than the old ones (probably due to mass, simultaneous damage), though some retains the generous size.

You can notice how the foreground of subulata and vallisneria spiralis has grown into thick lawn. They spread to every free space and fill them up while growing thick bunches. They do grow a bit tall, but some sporadic trimming keep them down. Contrary to most beliefs, they actually do not melt when cut down halfway (at least in my tank).










From another point of view where you can see the sloping and thick foliage of weedy foreground.


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## SearunSimpson (Jun 5, 2007)

I'm going to guess that gadget thingy on the far left of the tank is the Co2 diffuser thingy; just curious how it works and where you got it from. I am looking for something similar, if thts what I think it is, but i'm not sure how that one you have works. 
Thanks,
J


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## medicineman (Sep 28, 2005)

It works, let me assure you.
The name is internal CO2 reactor. It is made of clear green plastic (probably PVC material), round like cylinder so the mixing process goes well as vortex. You insert CO2 from the bottom and power it with a pump from top side. CO2 enriched water exit from side at bottom.

This tank did not get so much CO2. Just running from DIY.
Why did I bother to keep on using DIY? I need it to show local people that this way is doable to an extent and the result is still super.


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## medicineman (Sep 28, 2005)

Switched from 4 x 18W T8 tubes to 2 x 36 PL tubes. I ripped apart one of the old lighting fixture due to failure in one of the bulbs.
Same consumption, more efficiency in form of more light output.

My plants love it that they responded instantly by pearling.



















Lets see the long term effect in several weeks time. I need to make sure of more steady suppy of CO2 and liquid fertilizer from now on.

*started to try daily dosing routine via pumps using WG Macro+ and WG Micro+.


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## medicineman (Sep 28, 2005)

More pics :

I have reduced several of the twisted nerite snails that eats away my old anubias leaves. Now the bunch is slowly replacing holed parts as I trim one at a time.
The foreground is almost fully grown by runners with no empty lot to spare. I keep them (saggitaria and vallisneria spiralis) low by cutting the tall leaves. They do not die out or mass melt this way. The thick foliage is a potential problem to debris accumulation, so they are wiggled during every weekly WC.










Side view.
The sloped quartz gravel proves to last for quite a long time. Lava rocks to hold them back is indeed effective enough. 










To folks with budget/difficulty in getting cylinder/refilling gas :
You can see an idea how a DIY CO2 is sufficient enough for an average, reasonably small tank. Here you notice the reactor is full of CO2 gas, indicating that output is more than what can be dissolved at the time. 
So use it while you slowly save up/looking for that CO2 cylinder/gas!

Around a week away from light upgrade now. Stable so far. 
My only problem is a slight infestation of thread algae.


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## medicineman (Sep 28, 2005)

Fast forward several months.










The foregorund of vallisneria sprialis had grown so thick and full that a frequent cleaning during WC is needed to avoid thread algae growth within the lower, cramped foliage. They are just given a simple flat trimming to keep the height in check. A bit too tall for the tank, but surely fit in a larger setup.

Echinodorus flame turned somewhat too big for this tank. Either I'm forced to replace, or trim it down.

The Hygrophila poliserma turned unusual nice pink hue all over, not only along the veins as in normal sunset poliserma. They have morphed and adapt long way, none similar to what we usually get.


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## medicineman (Sep 28, 2005)

-double-


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## medicineman (Sep 28, 2005)

My plants have eventually grown out the small tank (and it is the nature of the plants anyway) despite of reasonable trimming effort done.

As you can see, echinodorus red flame can get quite huge, especially when you feed it right.

To get the shape back again, I have decided to swap and trim some of the plants. Out goes the big flame sword and again a flat trimming to the vallisneria carpet. 

To fill the spot I have some tropica's Staurogyne sp, a new plant in aquascaping. People said it may stay low-growing and grows slow enough despite the hygrophila-look and hence suitable as midground plant in smaller tanks, or even forground plant in larger tanks.
Heck... later on it probably prove more suitable than my vallis.
Gut feeling says this is future popular plant!

I left the steadily spreading anubias nana to grow, maybe leave it for a while before cutting any for propagation. They start to grow overlapping each other and eventually I must selectively trim them down. 










From the side :
You can see better of the hygrophila poliserma "sunset" growth emerging behind the stack of anubias.










Pack of assorted rasboras. 
Some dated back from 2005. They do live long enough.


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## medicineman (Sep 28, 2005)

Log after several days :

Again, my (this time a bit extreme) trimming on vallisneria spiralis does not cause them to crease. This behaviour, by my personal experience is quite unique on this species of vallis.

The Staurogyne started to fluff up. It is quite amazing considering that this plant actually endure very well despite quite very long and lengthy journey (14-08 to 22-08, that is 9 days) from Denmark in an insulated envelope, arrived flattened, but intact. I left them afloat for 2 days before planting. No melting or signs of rotting for now.


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