# 110 Tall Photo Journal (56k) Rescape 2010 Coming Soon!



## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

Hello Everyone!

This thread is being created to get input on my new 110 Tall planted aquarium. I originally started out with a 12 gallon that grew into an obsession that has finally culminated in the form of my 110. I tried to create that authentic jungle look with my first 110, but it went down the drain when my cheapo ballast exploded, my canopy dry rotted and my plants died . Thus, I'm beginning fresh with a little more experience and money better spent. 

I'm currently a pre med student in Los Angeles which means that prices are high and funds are very low. More often than not I'm completely broke so I'm hoping to fund this on a smaller budget and still get that beautiful jungle look that I'm still coveting. 

Please feel free to post any and all input, plant suggestions, plants for sale, or just ideas when you have them!

Thanks!

Sarah


* **WARNING*** Lots of Pictures!


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

*The background...*

This is my first planted tank, and my first dip into live plants. Wasn't she perty? 



I somehow managed to get one of those magic systems that are completely self sustaining. I added fresh water every week when the water level went down but the rest took care of itself. A very big change from my prior one water change per week/obsess over every detail system that I used before.

Since that tank was such a success, i got greedy and decided to go bigger. Thus began the beginning of my obsession with tall planted tanks. I have very little space lengthwise and up seemed like the best direction to go ^^. Now I'm hooked.

So, without further ado....

The first tall attempt!





I was VERY proud of this tank when it started. Sadly, the happiness could not last. I bought a very inexpensive used tank system, used reflectors and a cheapo vho ballast. Can we see a recipe for disaster here? The dry rot on my canopy eventually became too much after a year and when my ballast exploded and all my plants died I decided it was time to take the tank in a new direction. Mainly in the direction of the trash lol. 

RIP Old tank. You were awfully pretty before you died on me.


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

*A New Aquarium is Born!*

Since my last attempt at a 110 Tall was such a failure due to cheap products, I decided to shell out the dough for my next attempt. 

First step, the tank...










Right off the bat you can see that this system is in much better shape than mine was, not to mention prettier ^^ Once I got it home I sanded the interior of the canopy and the top of the stand down to bare wood and practically poured Man-O-War spar varnish onto it. I also added about 6 coats to every other wooden surface including the interior ceiling of the stand. You will not find dry rot on this canopy! $300.00 bucks but well worth it i think. I also got 2 fluval 404's, 2 emperor 400's and some lovely bottles of misc chemicals. 

Next, I finally found a background tall enough for tank. I never knew backgrounds this high existed, and I think everythingfishy.com is the only one who sells them. 










You can't see it very well, but I'm using that lovely rock wall background. I'm hoping to create a natural river look.

Once the tank and background were secured, I shelled out the 200 bucks needed for a new lighting system. I got a 48inch Sunpaq retrofit kit with 2 65 watt dual daylight bulbs and 2 65 watt actinic bulbs. I think I'm going to trade the blue bulbs for two more daylights.










I installed this kit myself ^^ and it turned out pretty good for my first attempt. However, I haven't yet figured out how to correctly install my hinges. Does anyone have any suggestions? It took my a year to finally find a company that sold them and had them in stock and now I can't manage to get them on at the right angle. 










Now, onto the set up!


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

*The Magic Equation*

What do you get when you add water, gravel, plants, and fish? Why a bacteria bloom of course!




























Thats some sexy water there. I'm hoping that bacteria settles down in about a week. To help the process along, I used the gravel from my old 110 and that little hanging basket is full of that peat moss stuff that LFS pack potted plants in. It's from the plants in a very mature tank at one of my local LFS and the guy stayed open till 10pm to give me a chance to pick it up. <3

Sadly, there were casualties :frown: Living in tiny tanks in my bathroom can't be very healthy and thats where all my lovelies were stuck while my room was being painted for a week. RIP one goldbarb, one bleeding heart tetra, one flag fish and one platty. My tank was like a graveyard of doom :'( Thankfully, everyone else seems to be doing well, especially my beloved angels. I've been obsessed with them for about 6 years. Some beauty shots...

Please excuse the foggy water









Five out of 6, I'll get a good shot eventually...










Do you have...*gasp* Food???










The big kahuna and his protege 










Don't I have lovely fins? My veil tail koi. 










The baby of the group who thinks he's a big shot.










Actually a koi, but looks like your classic gold.










My oldest and dearest. He got into a fight with a very aggressive angel I used to have and just barely survived. I had to salt dip him and then keep him alive by swirling water passed his gills and massaging his body with my fingers. To this day I have no idea how he survived. He was definitely floating pathetically on his side without breathing for a few min. He still swims a little crooked but otherwise is happy and healthy. 









My second youngest, purchased with the baby of the group

I also have a beautiful wildtype angel that is very shy. You can see a few shots of her in some of the other pics but I haven't taken a good individual shot yet. 

All the plants in the pictures are what was salvaged from my old tank. The crypt in front and that odd tall leaf plant in the back were purchased for their peat moss. 

Next step, more plants...


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## tropicalfish (Mar 29, 2007)

There were casualties, because it appears that you did not run a proper cycle. Great start, but return most of the fish, the tank needs more time to cycle.


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## kunerd (Jul 19, 2005)

It says she placed media from her old tank into her new one. i thought you were not suppose to do a fishless cycle. Good looking tank by the way. My only suggestion is dump the fake background and paint it black. But thats just me I love black backgrounds, oh and angels tooo.


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

I know the cycle was a bit early but the casualties were from lack of oxygen, the same thing that killed my first set of angels when i moved them into the first 110. My timer went bad and the air pump turned off in the middle of the night, leaving everyone gasping for breath in the morning. Unfortunately, I was on the other side of the city and didn't make it back home until those poor guys had been lost. Everyone else was on the verge of suffocating too, but i put the air back on and stuck a powerhead at the surface to help with CO2 exchange and the gasping stopped. Now everyone seems fine, but I have the air going 24/7 just to be safe.

It seems that in tall tanks there's just not enough air for a larger fish load. Hopefully my plants will make up for that once they really take off :icon_smil




tropicalfish said:


> There were casualties, because it appears that you did not run a proper cycle. Great start, but return most of the fish, the tank needs more time to cycle.


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## tropicalfish (Mar 29, 2007)

You said that you had emperor and canister filters. THere is no additional need for an airstone.


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## Roc (Mar 16, 2007)

Where are all those Vals you got from me?


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## macclellan (Dec 22, 2006)

Nice tall un! Beautiful angels and LOTS of them. I'd go with black background too...I don't see how perfectly stacked rocks makes a 'natural river scene' lol




Saraja87 said:


> What do you get when you add water, gravel, plants, and fish? Why a bacteria bloom of course!


You usually get an ammonia spike too with that few plants. Are you testing ammonia & nitrite levels? that might be the cause over lack of oxygen. HOB's with biowheels do hella surface agitation.


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

I'm only running the two canister filters. I don't like hang off the back filters. 



tropicalfish said:


> You said that you had emperor and canister filters. THere is no additional need for an airstone.


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

Glad you asked  Here's the new pictures!




























Again you have to ignore the cloudy water, but they look really lovely in there. Thank you again!



iroc said:


> Where are all those Vals you got from me?


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

Thank you ^^ I love my angels. I think the rocks were better in concept than in practice, but I think I can work with them. I always thought that black was too harsh with plants, but hopefully i'll get enough tall ones that they cover everything. I'm expecting some awesome ludwigia and crypt (balanese?) and of course the fantastic val from iroc. Deff. jump on any sales he has 

I tested the water once right before i moved everyone in and all the levels were within the "safe" range. I'm only feeding them a tiny bit every couple days to prevent an ammonia spike. Once the bacteria is established i'll get back to their regular feeding schedule: flakes twice a day, blood worms and brine shrimp once a day. They're little piggies.

I think i'm going to do another water test tomorrow. I'll post the results!





macclellan said:


> Nice tall un! Beautiful angels and LOTS of them. I'd go with black background too...I don't see how perfectly stacked rocks makes a 'natural river scene' lol
> 
> 
> You usually get an ammonia spike too with that few plants. Are you testing ammonia & nitrite levels? that might be the cause over lack of oxygen. HOB's with biowheels do hella surface agitation.


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## Roc (Mar 16, 2007)

Just my 2 cents but thats a lot of food.


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

yep ^^ They're in full breeding mode and their appetite triples. I have to say though, the frozen food makes a Huge difference. They look much healthier and more colorful. Most of the time its the angels and gouramis that get the bulk of the frozen food and everyone else is left with the flakes.



iroc said:


> Just my 2 cents but thats a lot of food.


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

Has anyone had an angel like my gold (koi) with red on their body? 










He's acting normal and healthy but I'm concerned about it. The sick fish forum suggested bacterial infection, probably from living in a small tank in my bathroom for a week. Does anyone else have any ideas? Confirmation, a completely different idea? Treatment ideas?


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## tropicalfish (Mar 29, 2007)

I think that's an angel fish.


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## Kelley (Nov 2, 2006)

Koi is also a variety of angelfish. They have koi-like coloring.


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

*The Fog Clears...sort of*

Another update!

The bacteria is finally beginning to clear so I thought everyone might enjoy a few new shots. 



































You can actually see which plants are which now and how colorful the fish are. Please ignore the powerhead and the basket of peat moss ^^ I'm thinking of getting some e. tenellus for the front, i really like it but I've already spent $65 on plants in the past week, not to mention the 300 for the tank, 200 for the lights, and I still need to switch out those blue bulbs...

Can I get a vote on whether it'll look nice enough to justify the spending?:help:


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

Haha I know, it's a koi angelfish. I was referring to the red blotches on his back and tail. Has anyone had an angelfish with a disease like that? do you think its bacterial?



tropicalfish said:


> I think that's an angel fish.


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

*You Don't Know 'Nothin Bout Hard Work...*

I don't think you've planted a hard to plant tank till you've tried to plant in a 110 Tall. It stands taller than I am (5'6) and to reach the back I actually have to get IN the aquarium...Planting normally goes something like this:

-1 hour spent trying to plant a large plant with my ineffective plastic planting tools. The little plants are no problem, but anything with multiple leaves (swords) are Impossible!
-10 min of utter frustration
-5 min getting a 6 foot ladder
-10 min standing on the second to highest step with my head, arm and chest in the water planting while someone guides me from outside the tank
-30 min showering to remove the fish water covering 50% of my body -_-

If the tank wasn't so beautiful and if i wasn't quite so obsessed I don't know how I could justify swimming with my fish every time I get a new plant.

And onto the update...

-2 lovely new swords purchased today. Surprisingly, these came from petco, the fish killer. I stopped in to get cat food and saw them misspriced...as you can see they're Quite tall (18 inches?) and were only $4.99 each because they lost the correct price tag. I think I'm gonna go back tomorrow and get the other two they had...































































Anubius









Red Crypt - does anyone think this will get big or stay small?









Green Crypt - does anyone think this will get big or stay small?









Any advice on how to bring this sword back to life?

Looks like it was worth it ^^


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

*Update!*

Thanks to the wonderfully generous cleekdafish, it looks like I'm going to get an awesome CO2 system for my beloved tank. Hopefully that will help my plants produce more oxygen and grow quicker.

I'm still having big issues with my oxygen levels in the tank. I tried to turn my air pump off today, during the day, and after only 2 hours my poor babies were gasping and I had to turn it back on. I've added more plants, but I guess they're not producing enough oxygen. Can anyone id the unknown plants?


















The top of the pretty plant I can't identify









The bottom of the pretty plant - purple!









The pretty purple plant and another unknown green plant, the one with spiky leaves.

Added this week: 2 more swords, a giant anubius in the back, 2 unknown plants- one purple/green and one green.

Aquascaping thoughts or ideas?  Oxygen ideas? Suggestions for a good diffuser?


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

*Crypt and Babies!*

The crypt balansae from wingsdlc has arrived!!



















Isn't it beautiful? A few of the stalks were broken in transit (they had a long hot journey) but overall they look really fantastic. Any idea on how to get them to grow straight? I just planted them today so maybe they need more time.

To celebrate their arrival, my angels decided they just had to breed...









Whose turn is it??









Mama doin' her thing. She got it down really quickly.









Papa inspecting









Babies!









The Proud Parents

I was Very surprised by this breeding, not only is my tank brand new, still cycling, and running hot (82-85), I was pretty sure that female (it's a girl???) was too small for breeding. I don't know how successful it will be though, the male was having some trouble fertilizing the eggs... ex: he fertilized the driftwood, a plant floating by and while she dropped the eggs in neat little rows he went zig zagging across them and was not nearly as efficient. 

Nevertheless, I'm very proud of them and am crossing my fingers for at least one baby. They're being extremely protective of the eggs so hopefully one will survive. They laid the eggs on my driftwood of all things, and there's no way I can take it out of the tank so it's all up to them.

Next update: Are the eggs still alive? And hopefully the arrival of the ludwigia and e. tenellus!


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## AlGee (Sep 7, 2006)

lol @ the ladder


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## Wingsdlc (Dec 9, 2005)

Saraja87,

Tanks looking pretty good. Give it a few months and the crypts will fill out and look sweet back there. They are really curved right now because they were in my 40 long. Not a really tall tank.


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## Jessica (Mar 1, 2007)

A very colorful collection of fish!

That purple plant is "Purple Crinkle" or "Purple Waffle"... a terrarium plant. This will eventually rot away in your tank, so remove it now. The big chain stores like to play this game...selling land plants to those who are unsure of what something is.

Good luck!


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

buggers.It's going back to the store tomorrow.



Jessica said:


> A very colorful collection of fish!
> 
> That purple plant is "Purple Crinkle" or "Purple Waffle"... a terrarium plant. This will eventually rot away in your tank, so remove it now. The big chain stores like to play this game...selling land plants to those who are unsure of what something is.
> 
> Good luck!


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

Could this spiky green plant be a terrarium plant as well? It came from the same store.


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## Wingsdlc (Dec 9, 2005)

From the picture. The green plant looks like Giant Hygro. At lest to me it does....


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

Someone else suggested that. From the pictures i've seen, giant hygro has flimsier leaves? This plant has pretty stiff leaves, does that fit with hygro?



Wingsdlc said:


> From the picture. The green plant looks like Giant Hygro. At lest to me it does....


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## Roc (Mar 16, 2007)

that spikey plant could be bamboo...........


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

More Pictures! I think i'm almost done with planting. I just need to add the e. tenellus, sunset hygro, a few more swords, ludwigia, and salvinia.





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## Roc (Mar 16, 2007)

sarah try going to image shark and uploading the pics at 1024X768 that way the pics will be much larger and everyone can see what is really going on in your tank


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

Thanks so much for the tip, the pictures look much much better!



iroc said:


> sarah try going to image shark and uploading the pics at 1024X768 that way the pics will be much larger and everyone can see what is really going on in your tank


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

Finally Id'd it, it's Hygrophila corymbosa after all. I just don't know if it's giant or dwarf or compact?...I will probably have to wait and see. 

That brings the plant list to something like this...
Amazon Swords
Aponogetton 
Anubias nana
Anubias bartari
Anubias lanceolata
Crypt Balansae
Crypt Wendtii-Brown
Crypt Wendtii-Green
Jungle Val
Java Fern
Crinum thaianum-onion
Bacopa? That green plant in the middle?
Ludwigia Repens - there's a tiny bunch in the middle, but more came yesterday! I haven't been home, so it's sitting in a holding tank waiting to be planted this afternoon along with my new e.tenellus that also came yesterday. 

I'm also picking up a sword or two, sunset hygro, and salvinia (in moderation) on sunday. 

More Pictures To Come!







iroc said:


> that spikey plant could be bamboo...........


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## Kelley (Nov 2, 2006)

Your fish are really beautiful!


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

*New Plants!*

Well I added some beautiful ludwigia and e. tenellus and these are the results!


Right now the background kind of resembles a low bush, but I don't wanna mess with it until the plants actually grow in. I'm going for a really heavily planted jungle look, in a u shape with the sides pulling towards the front. Just a few more plants to add and then I leave it to do it's thing for a few months. 

Any preliminary aquascaping ideas?


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

Thank you!! I originally changed to a planted tank for them, but now i'm hooked....



Kelley said:


> Your fish are really beautiful!


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

Another update, though this one is less optimistic. I'm having a bit of trouble with a few of my plants and was hoping to get some suggestions. Aside from that, my catfish are tearing up my sunset hygro on a daily basis so i'm going to have to make them a house or cave to hide in to remedy their distress. I think the tank is also still cycling, even though its been a few weeks, the water is very cloudy and i'm beginning to get some algae on the front and back walls. I'm hoping this is a sign that my plants will soon start to take off? Does anyone know how to get rid of the cloudy water? Or is it just part of the natural process? I've never had a tank stay cloudy this long, especially when I have double the filtration needed. 

Here's an updated shot:


As you can see from that photo, my jungle val has yet to rebound. I was really concerned but I heard that they tank transplanting pretty hard so i've got my fingers crossed for them to perk up. I keep finding broken pieces of their leaves though, which is really disheartening. 

The second plant problem i'm having is with the lovely e tenellus I've had for a bit over a week. Instead of producing the lush grassy ground cover I've been dreaming off, the leaves are turning glassy and dying. I had a hard time taking a picture of this but here's what i got:





How can i bring these poor plantlets back to their former glory? I've been dosing with flourish excel and my lights are on from 6:30am-11:00pm, but they're still melting away. Should i shorten the light period to get rid of the algae? 

The next problem, the cloudy water. 


As you can see (or cant >_<) the visibility ends about half way through the tank. I've never had a tank stay cloudy this long and i'm really hoping its just part of the cycling process. I do have another filter I could add, but does this monster really need triple the filtration needed for it's size????

In addition to the val and e. tenellus, my anubius has a few sorry looking leaves. They have brown about the edges and little black specks on the tops. I tried to get a good picture of this but you can't see the specs:



Does anyone have any suggestions? I'm really bummed out that they're doing so poorly.

I tried resizing the images with imageshack, but even when i upload them with the resize function, they still come out the same size. Sorry about that, I'll try to take some more pics.


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

*Small Update:* I have 2 dual daylight 65 watt bulbs in the mail coming to replace my two dual actinic bulbs. Hopefully this will provide more of the light spectrum my plants need. 

The tank is 110 gallons, but I think you do watts per gallon by the actual water volume in the tank. I've got 10 gallons of substrate in it, about 7 gallons worth of driftwood, and then maybe 3 gallons of plants? So 260 watts divided by 90, gives me 2.88 wpg. If you do it light to glass size, 260/110, I still have 2.36 wpg. I don't need more light do i? My pockets have holes in them, I've already spend like 300 on lighting alone...

I'm getting my water tested tomorrow, but I'm fairly sure my nitrates and nitrites are through the roof. These plants should be sucking them up by the gallon, not turning glassy and dying. To accompany the flourish excel that i'm really nervous about dosing bc of my jungle val, I just ordered two bottles of Flourish and I'll probably follow the bottle instructions. 

Still need help on the dying plants...


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## AlGee (Sep 7, 2006)

15 hours of light :icon_eek:. You should probably cut back on that.

How tall is your tank? Since your tank is so tall that you need a ladder, your plants may not be getting enough light all the way down there. Also, some plants prefer nutrient-rich substrate. Not sure about the plants you mentioned though. It's probably more of a light issue though. You need more intensity, not duration. And those actinic bulbs didn't help. You'll probably see some improvement with your new bulbs.

Have you thought of having terraces or shelving instead of just planting at ground level? It would bring your plants up closer to the light. Also, you wouldn't have to take a swim every time you wanted to plant or do plant maintenance. I'm not too keen on terraces because the walls would take up valuable space. But I've been toying with the idea of shelves made from plastic pans. Only problem is blending them into the environment. I thought about making them look like cliffs but that's just too much work for now.


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

I don't think the shelves are much of a possibility right now since I don't have the time, but i'll deff keep them in mind for later. Would you suggest adding more light to the tank? My canopy is pretty crowded but I might be able to squeeze another strip on there....I would just be worried about the temperature since it's so hot in LA. My tank is already at 84-85 degrees during the day and i'm looking into purchasing a chiller...

30 or so inches tall.


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## Roc (Mar 16, 2007)

what you need is time and way less time with lights on. I would say start at around 6 hours a day , adding ferts/CO2 and work up from there.


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

I just reduced the light down to a much more reasonable length of time and finally got my water tested. As expected, my nitrates and nitrites are through the roof! (And my PH was nonexistent ><)They tested the water 3 times...once with a strip and twice with the liquid testers. However, the store owner said I should assume a large margin of error...if my nitrates and nitrites were really THAT bad, my fish wouldn't be so happy, spawning, etc. 

Everyone at the store seems to think it's a cycling problem, especially with that massive bacterial bloom I had yesterday. I don't know how something like this happens, and i would think that my plants would just be sucking it all up, but it may be too much for them to handle. So, before I do anything else I need to fix the water. To do that I...

-did a small water change (10 gallons)
-added enough bacteria to fully cycle 90 gallons of water in 24 hours
-vowed not to touch the tank for a week

Once it's had a week to do it's thing, I'm going to add an enzyme to help as well and some root tabs to try and get that lush grassy lawn. My substrate is already a mix of laterite and gravel, but the root tabs should give them an extra boost. Hopefully the bacteria will clear up the water, the tank was even cloudier today than it was yesterday.


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## Bee (Aug 13, 2007)

looks nice, i love ur first eva... so cute

although... the "foggy" water - is HIGH levels of Ammonia in the water.. which burns the fish.... cycling tanks also have HUGE levels of Nitrite which inhibits the fish' ability to absorb oxygen- thus the gasping

one of the worse things one can do is cycle a tank with fish IMHO


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

Funnily enough, ammonia was the one thing I didn't have in my water, the test showed zero. Also, in theory my tank was already finished cycling when it decided to do this. I had already had my nitrate/nitrite spike and then it had gone down over 2 weeks to wonderfully low levels. I thought the tank was completely done cycling when all of a sudden poof! Cloudy water and outrageous nitrate/nitrite for no discernible reason...



Bee said:


> looks nice, i love ur first eva... so cute
> 
> although... the "foggy" water - is HIGH levels of Ammonia in the water.. which burns the fish.... cycling tanks also have HUGE levels of Nitrite which inhibits the fish' ability to absorb oxygen- thus the gasping
> 
> one of the worse things one can do is cycle a tank with fish IMHO


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## kamla (Feb 17, 2005)

Saraja87 said:


> Anubius


I am not sure if any one else caught it..
But that Anubius will do a lot better if the rhizome is above the substrate and in the water ...

looking tank..


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

kamla said:


> I am not sure if any one else caught it..
> But that Anubius will do a lot better if the rhizome is above the substrate and in the water ...
> 
> looking tank..


Thanks, I've always planted them like that. How should I plant them ie what should be below the gravel?


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

*Go Bacteria, Go!*

mmm cloudy water. Hopefully that bacteria will feast on my nitrates/nitrites for the rest of the week and leave me with sparkling clear water and happy plants and fish.

EDIT: My sister took these pics for me with a not so great camera, but if you look closely at the first picture you can see that the e. tenellus is starting to rebound! YES!!!


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## kamla (Feb 17, 2005)

Saraja87 said:


> Thanks, I've always planted them like that. How should I plant them ie what should be below the gravel?



well, from what i have read is that you need to keep the rhizome above the sand.. ie the stem part..
you can put the roots in the sand if you want..


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## Roc (Mar 16, 2007)

Sarah,

Are you going to an LFS for advice on your tank? I don't want to put them down but depending on what LFS you go to they might be telling you a lot of things that arn't correct. 

This board and others like it are great places to get advice, but it seems like you getting advice from somewhere else becuase when ppl meation things your reation is to say your adding something from the store or doing small water changes.

Cycling is very imprtant and should have happened 1st however it didn't so one thing I was told that seem to keep my water from becoming cloody and my levals from getting outta control was to do large water changes, I kept this up until my levels began to stay low on their own. I am no expert FAR FROM IT, however I have learned something very important I would like to share with you. Ask a question to the board before you do something else to your tank, then use the responses to test your LFS and see if they know what they are talking about. Go slow and start with less light, it sucks to not be able to see your fish allday however you really don't want a bad algae break out in the huge and tall tank.


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

You make some very good points ^^ The LFS I go to is actually owned by my best friend's family. Her mother and father run it along with some help from another guy whose been working with fish for 45 years. Her father has been keeping and selling fish since he was 15 and started selling them out of his garage! Her mom is the 'planted tank expert' you could say and actually turned me onto planted tanks in the first place. Of course, her tanks are all custom designed with custom lighting and filtration etc but they're really amazing to look at.

They were the people I bought my first tank from and have been following my aquariums over the years so their advice for this aquarium came from background knowledge on the tank it originally came from. Her mom thought that the nitrate/nitrite problem was something that carried over from the tank I transfered from and instead of worrying about the aesthetics of the cloudy water, suggested re-cycling the tank with cultured bacteria to make the water healthy for the fish/plants. Once the new bacteria is healthy and established, i have a block of some enzyme to add to my filter to help complete the cycle. Then I might try filter floss or something like that to get any particles floating, but that won't help the bacterial bloom. Since I need the bacteria to cycle the tank, I would not want to make big water changes and end up removing all of the bacteria I just added to eat up the nitrates/nitrite. 

With all that said, I deff trust them with my aquariums and they're not trying to make money off of me or anything. They actually give me a 20-40% discount on most things :hihi: But you're 100% right about the forum, it is the best place to get the most comprehensive advice about plants and keeping them. The only reason I tend to go with the LFS advice is because they have more information on my tank than I can give people here. Also, they're always ready to make a house call if I have an emergency ^^

P.S. Once the tank is cycled, big water changes are prolly just what my tank needs. Thank you 



iroc said:


> Sarah,
> 
> Are you going to an LFS for advice on your tank? I don't want to put them down but depending on what LFS you go to they might be telling you a lot of things that arn't correct.
> 
> ...


----------



## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

Another little update, and perhaps a little more information to make the nitrate/nitrite problem more mysterious...

I have a lovely algae bloom going right now, with that murkey green water we all love lol. The good news is that my nitrates/nitrites are Rapidly disappearing as the algae eats it up and pretty soon It'll be down to reasonable levels. Oddly enough, none of it is growing on the plants or glass.

Now, a little more background in case I forgot to mention it earlier in this journal...the gravel, substrate, plants, fish, and even a good portion of the water came from my well established tank that was transformed into this one o-o. All of that was designed to prevent cycling problems lol when in fact it seems to have created them. I think this is the major fact why my friends down at the lfs store think the nitrate problem was a previously existing one. Still doesn't explain the lack of ammonia though...

Anyway, i thought i'd take a little vote though I think this is more personal preference than anything else. I'm going to be adding more fertilizer under my gravel in my 'lawn' area as well as root tabs to help the e. tenellus grow better. I was going to go with laterite, but how to people feel about flourite or any other brownish looking substrate? I deff don't like ecocomplete or aquasoil (too messy) but are there others out there that might be more rich in nutrients? 

Also, I keep hearing tons of contradictory things about CO2 (thats the problem with a forum lol, too much information) and I keep going back and forth on what to do. Do I add co2 to the aquarium because plants always grow better with co2? Do i need more light before I add co2 because co2 without at least 4 wpg on a tank this deep doesnt work? Do i go the low tech route and forget co2 all together? It's enough to make your head spin ^^. So, if this was your tank and you were pretty much broke, would you say yea co2 or nay?


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

Thanks! I'll change 'em right now. 



kamla said:


> well, from what i have read is that you need to keep the rhizome above the sand.. ie the stem part..
> you can put the roots in the sand if you want..


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

Nitrates/Nitrites dropping even further...


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## Cheesehead Cory (Mar 30, 2007)

Sounds like it's already behind you, but if you ever see another nitrite spike, go ahead and do the big WC's. You don't lose bacteria doing WC's. It lives in the substrate and in your filter media, not in the water column.

CO2 Q's: There are plants that will not grow well without CO2, but most can be grown well, if not fast, without it. Look at some of the low light/no CO2 tanks of members on this forum. Many are gorgeous! If I had to go diving every time I needed to to prune, I would not want fast growth, and thus would stay at or under 2 WPG and skip the CO2. If you do go with CO2, you don't need to have 4 WPG to start CO2, just use less with lower light.

Good luck


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

*Pea Soup!*

I finally got some new pictures! They're not very good as they were taken on a pretty crappy camera but they show _Just_ how *green* my water is.

Ta Da!


http://img187.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cimg0747qt8.jpg

Wow is that *green* . It is doing it's job though, I have 0ppm ammonia, 0ppm nitrites, and 30ppm nitrates. Just a bit more to go and then that nasty unicellular algae will disappear. 

You may also notice the pictures look a little *brighter*...this would be due to my new bulbs!  They just arrived today and I put them in right before the pictures. 

I'm counting on these guys to perk up my plants! With them came my two bottles of flourish which I dosed lightly as well. 

Also, the reason for no water changes before was because I was low on bacteria and just added a squeeze pack of liquid bacteria to the water ^^ Now that it should be healthy and well established, I'm itching to get them some fresh water to boost my PH back up. 

Has anyone from Los Angeles done a test on their tap water that they could share with me? Just a general one since I know pipes and such effect them.

Also, I posted in the low light forum but haven't gotten a response so I'll ask here. Is my tank considered low, medium, or high light? How many would add more light? How many would add co2? How many would not add co2 without more light? I think I'm going to add pressurized CO2 as per the suggestions from you guys, but didn't want to add more lights. Good idea or bad?


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## caoboy (Apr 22, 2007)

You need to do a MAJOR water change. Like 50%. You need to add the Co2 immediately. You need to quit adding fertilizers, which is causing your huge algae bloom, since your plants aren't getting enough Co2 from the fish to cause photosynthesis. 

Using the Co2, the plants will eat it up, and in turn, out compete the algae for nutrients in the water/soil. Your algae will die off, and you will have crystal clear water, no cloudy hint of a white bloom or green water. 

Just some suggestions.


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## AlGee (Sep 7, 2006)

Oh no green water!  

My condolences :icon_sad:


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## natx (Jun 6, 2006)

caoboy said:


> You need to do a MAJOR water change. Like 50%.


I thought the prevailing wisdom here is that changing water during a green water outbreak worsens it. That was certainly my experience.


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

caoboy said:


> You need to do a MAJOR water change. Like 50%.


No lol you didn't read the posts before, I CAUSED the algae bloom myself on purpose. My nitrates/nitrites were through the roof and I needed a natural means of eliminating them as my tank was cycling poorly. Getting rid of the algae before it's finished it's job would be counter productive. 

Since the only things that are really feeding it are my nitrates/nitrites, as soon as they're gone the algae will be too. If you read past posts you'll see that the other day was my first day of adding fertilizers after I had my healthy algae bloom well under way.

If I'm patient enough, it'll take care of itself. If I'm impatient, I'm sure a diatom or UV filter would take care of it. Right now I'm more inclined to wait it out and if it's not clear in 3 more weeks I'll look into borrowing a diatom filter from someone. 

Only 30ppm more nitrates to go!


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## tropicalfish (Mar 29, 2007)

caoboy said:


> You need to do a MAJOR water change. Like 50%. You need to add the Co2 immediately. You need to quit adding fertilizers, which is causing your huge algae bloom, since your plants aren't getting enough Co2 from the fish to cause photosynthesis.
> 
> Using the Co2, the plants will eat it up, and in turn, out compete the algae for nutrients in the water/soil. Your algae will die off, and you will have crystal clear water, no cloudy hint of a white bloom or green water.
> 
> Just some suggestions.


Algae adapts easily to fluctuating/zero amounts of added fertilizers, so therefore removing fertilizers would not do anything or it could make the algae worse.


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## trustbran (Jun 27, 2006)

good start


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

Thanks everyone!

Now, onto the update...

I finally made my catfish house and I think it came out pretty well.


Front


Back


Side

I got some really good advice on how to make this. First, I boiled the pot with a little bit of bleach for about 3 hours. Then i smashed it with hammer, not too hard or the whole thing shatters. I needed a flat bottom because this is going on top of a piece of slate, so I left out a big side piece and a few smaller pieces in case smaller fish get trapped inside. Then I sanded all the sharp exposed edges and super glued the pot back together. I'd like to cover it entirely with java moss but my tank is running too hot to add some right now. Its also still to green to correctly place the pot lol.


After a 25% water change, I still can't find my amazon swords lol. My PH is beginning to go back up though with each little water change :icon_lol:


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

*Wow!*

:icon_eek: Well the algae magically decided to start going away last night. I'm not exactly sure why since I only did the 25% change, but I can sort of find the back now!



EDIT: Test results show the algae did its job!!!

Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 4ppm
Ammonia: 0ppm
PH: 6.0

My PH is still lower than I would like, but more water changes should bring it back up.


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## AlGee (Sep 7, 2006)

You are adorable.


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

AlGee said:


> You are adorable.


Thanks! ^^

Following the good examples found in the "pictures of under your stand" thread, I decided to finally organize my mess of a stand. 

First step, I finally found those little baskets you can mount to the doors.



I looked everywhere for these guys! The only places I found that carried them are Lowes if you have enough room for a 12.5 inch basket and The Container Store, where I got mine (11.5 inches wide).

And...Tada!



As it turns out, my door openings are different sizes  This is probably because of all the bracing added to the stand. So, I'm gonna have to return the other two bins and find another solution for the other door. Note the bottle of algaefix on the top shelf...has anyone ever used this? I got it along with some other equipment and was contemplating using it before my water cleared up on its own. If it works, I'll keep it around in case of another algae take over. 

In the meantime, my water has REALLY cleared up :icon_lol:




You can barely tell it was green just a little while ago. It's too bad I don't have discus in this tank, they would love the soft warm water. 

And just because it's pretty

Happy Hygro


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

*Under the stand...*

The stand is now about 90% complete!







I finished most of the inside, and just need to find some smaller baskets for the right door. I might add some magnetic closey things too, to hold the doors shut against my curious kitties.


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

So I realized earlier today that I made a Big Big booboo with my aquarium >< Being as this was the first time I had installed a retrofit kit, I figured if I followed the directions everything would be fine. For the most part that was true, except for one big obvious stupid mistake. I didn't take the protective coating off my reflectors. The coating was clear pink, and I didn't realize until this afternoon that it was on there. I actually though my reflectors were just pinkish, for some reason or another to better reflect light. :icon_redf:icon_redf:icon_redf Now that the lights have been running, the coating has practically cooked on there. Its taken me 4 hours, 2 broken finger nails, a razor blade, an algae scraper, a bottle of nail polish remover and a bottle of toxic adhesive remover to get rid of about half of the coating on one of my four reflectors. 

Are they ruined? Does anyone have Any ideas on how to get the coating off?? They hardly reflect anything with the coating on it...:icon_redf

Help! SOS!

Edit: I did a small test and put the reflector that I've removed 75% of the coating from back in my hood. The coating makes a HUGE difference, the light is like 3 times as bright even with 25% coating remaining...However, it's taken me 5 full hours of steady working jsut to get 75% off of one. I don't know how I'm going to manage 4 without a better method of removal.


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## AlGee (Sep 7, 2006)

Post pix lol.

Don't think this will really work but you could try baby oil. It works well to remove marker and sticker residue. Is the melted coating hard and crusty or rubbery or what?


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

AlGee said:


> Post pix lol.
> 
> Don't think this will really work but you could try baby oil. It works well to remove marker and sticker residue. Is the melted coating hard and crusty or rubbery or what?


From looking at them you would never think they had anything on them. The surface looks perfectly smooth and the only reason I noticed it was because it began to bubble a bit at the edge. It's not hard or anything, but it is darn near impossible to remove and the heat has made it brittle so it only comes off if you scratch it. I've been trying this adhesive remover called goof off, but it only works when I can get it under the coating. I'll post some pictures tomorrow, it's become a total pain in the butt.


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## AlGee (Sep 7, 2006)

Hmm maybe the reflector manufacturer should have the coating extend past the edges so people would know they need to take it off. I don't think the baby oil would work any better than goof off; it probably needs to get under the coating as well. Best of luck.


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

AlGee said:


> Hmm maybe the reflector manufacturer should have the coating extend past the edges so people would know they need to take it off. I don't think the baby oil would work any better than goof off; it probably needs to get under the coating as well. Best of luck.


Thank you! I completely agree.


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

I just received an email from Sunpaq and they are going to replace my reflectors for free! Wow, they are awesome. All I had to do was shoot them an email and leave a voice message 

Thanks for all the helpful suggestions!


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

Just ordered some lovely vals, more crypt balansae and am scouring around for inexpensive micro sword or dwarf sag. My e tenellus is finally starting to come back, I see tiny little green leaves!


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

*Update!!*

Unfortunately, with the heat wave this summer came.....

Attack of the ALGAE! ROAR!​
Right after getting my tank clear and algae free, the temperature spiked and it all returned >_<. It's finally started to go down now that the temperature is getting cooler, but the water is still a little green. 

I'm also expecting some cherry shrimp! YAY! To prepare for them and give them the best chance of survival, I purchased 9 full bags of grasses. 6 were pretty small with maybe 20 plants each, but the other 3 were BIG bags with practically an entire lawn in each. I packed the front of my tank so full of this stuff that the shrimp will have more than enough places to hide. Afterwards I still had one bag left, so I decided I just had to plant a tiny little tank so as not to put it to waste :icon_wink

Without further ado, here is my lawn in progress!









Please ignore the still green water, I'm letting it run itself out. And the messy glass, I had been planting forever and didn't clean it up until after the photos. 

Also, my jungle vals are still doing really poorly. Everyday I find broken pieces of them floating at the top  Has anyone had this problem, and do they know how to fix it?


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

Is anyone looking for Lovely brand new 34 inch Sunpaq reflectors? Sunpaq sent me the wrong ones and this is a perfect opportunity to save up for a chiller. They'll be sending the correct ones out tomorrow 

Bye bye green water...



Clearer water


Java moss rock because it wasn't holding well on the wood


New sunset hygro stems


Anyone know where I could get some female congo tetras? My three males and trying to tear each others mouths off.


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

Updated Inhabitant List:

- 6 Angels
- 4 Blue spot/Opaline Gourami
 - 3 Congo Tetras
 - 2 Gold Barbs
- 4 Rainbows (unknown type)
- 8 Colombian Blue Tetras
 - 2 Bleeding Heart Tetras
 - 6 Rummy Nose Tetras
- 2 False Upside Down Catfish
- 2 Bushy Nose Plecos
- 13 Marigold Platys 
- 1 Female Betta
- 1 Florida Flagfish
- 1 Leopard Danio
 - 1 White Tipped Tetra

Everything in blue was present in my aquarium 4-5 years ago! Wow those guys are hardy  Of course they were in larger groups back then, except the catfish, but they've made it really far! Go fishies!

Updated Plant List:

- Amazon Swords
- Crypt Balansae
- Jungle Val
- Americana Val
- Red Ludwigia
- Sunset Hygro
- E. Tenellus
- Red/Brown Crypt Wendtii
- Green Crypt Wendtii
- Anubias Nana
- Anubias (long narrow leaf)
- Anubias (BIG Plant, tall with large heart shaped leaves)
- Java Moss
- Aponogeton Ulvaceous 
- Crinium
- Bacopa


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

*New Chiller!!!*

Huzzah!!! I have just acquired a used chiller for my miserably hot tank. A local hobbyist was REALLY generous and gave me a fantastic deal on it. It's 1/3 hp and came with its digital controller and a lovely eheim pump. 

Without further ado...



Now I just need to figure out how to set it up. I'm going to need to get some PVC connectors to hook the pump up to the chiller and some hoses as well. Other than that I think its good to go. I'm gonna try and use PVC tape and slightly too small tubing instead of clamps. Has anyone had any experience with this or with chillers in general?


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

*Pictures and Chiller Update!*

Here are some new pictures! The water is still pretty hazy but has cleared up a lot since the green water.





And, an update on the chiller! After searching Home Depot, Osh, Lowes, B & B Hardware, Hirsch Plumbing Supply, and Emile's Hardware, I finally managed to plumb my pump into the chiller and create an inlet and outlet nipple for the hoses. It took about 2 hours to design and select the parts but it looks like it will work perfectly. 






I also think I may be lacking in some nutrients. I know the pictures aren't the greatest, but does this amazon sword look like its lacking iron?


Darkish green veins 


Jungle Vals not doing well. Still shocked from transplanting? 


The jungle val base looks okay, still green and healthy and sending out roots, so why are the leaf stalks melting?


Is this normal melting for swords as they transition from immersed growth to submerged growth? 


Algae on anubias? Just leave it alone and wait for it to be gobbled up?


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## Landon (Aug 22, 2007)

Sara,
It looks like its filling in nicely. 

Do you have any plans for any taller plants to reach up into the heights of that tank?

Ive got an empty 110 that Im trying to talk my wife into letting me plant out  Ive been following your thread along trying to get some ideas.

As far as your swords, Ive never grown echinos emersed, but wiht cryps and anubias there is almost always some die off when making the transition either direction. With the cryps Ive lost complete plants then seen them come back as strong as ever quite quickly.


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

Landon said:


> Do you have any plans for any taller plants to reach up into the heights of that tank?


Yep, the jungle val should actually reach the surface when it's not half dead lol. Criniums (onion plants) also get super tall as do the hygros if you give them enough time. Crypt balansae should also get really tall but they grow slower.

The back corners of my tank are planted with jungle val, while the back itself is planted with crypt balansae, sunset hygro, and some giant hygro. The sides have some crinium bulbs, some shorter americana vals and some aponogetton that used to get pretty tall in my old tank. Swords will get tallish as well, but they'll never reach the surface and they tend to grow more width wise. I toyed around with the idea of adding moss, anubias, or java fern to my driftwood to get some green up high while everything grows in but I haven't had luck with anything staying where i tie it. 

I really like sunset hygro with those bright red tops and I saw another 110 tall with sunset and giant hygro covering the entire back half of the tank


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## Roc (Mar 16, 2007)

Sarah,

your Vals look like they are being eating, not really suprising becuase of the Angels.


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

iroc said:


> Sarah,
> 
> your Vals look like they are being eating, not really suprising becuase of the Angels.


I'm fairly certain they aren't being eaten. I've kept a video camera on them before for long periods of time and the angels have no interest in the plants. The vals are breaking off in long un-nibbled pieces, like 3-6 inches that i then find floating at the top of the tank. I can take pictures of the pieces if that would help identify whats wrong, they have sort of see through streaks running through them.


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

would anyone ever add more light to this tank or am i safe in selling my extra set of reflectors?


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

Man oh man, I have yet another green water break out! Is this a sign that I'm going to be forced to add CO2? I keep getting them, and then they quickly go away, and then I get them again!

My water looks like emerald green pea soup  

Is my hand being forced on the CO2?


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

*Setbacks*

Well I've had a few very unhappy setbacks over the past couple weeks with this tank. Everyone has managed to get sick and I've lost at least 6 large fish, including 2 of my lovely gouramis and one of my congo tetras  As such I haven't really been taking care of the plants as much as I've been bombing the tank with medicine. I'm pretty sure it's a bacterial infection, but it's compromising everyone's immune system and letting in other diseases.

To follow the theme of setbacks this month, I've also managed to get a disgusting outbreak of what i think is diatom algae (nasty brown algae) that covers all the plants in my foreground. Yuck. Will anyone eat this? I'd like to add some ottos in as soon as everyone is healthy. 

All of this mess has also lowered my O2 levels and prevented me from setting up my CO2 system. Now I'm wondering if it's necessary since the plants are growing...it's just the algae thats presenting a problem. Also, will my tank ever have enough O2 to allow me to use CO2?





I was all set to buy my reactor too, and now those funds have gone to expensive medications. 

boo.


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## kunerd (Jul 19, 2005)

start pumping in the co2. low o2 levels? put a pump with an airstone on it if you neec more air. Adding the co2 would be the first step


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

I have an airstone going 24/7 right now, especially with medication in the water lowering the 02 levels. 

won't this outgas any co2 i add?




kunerd said:


> start pumping in the co2. low o2 levels? put a pump with an airstone on it if you neec more air. Adding the co2 would be the first step


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## kunerd (Jul 19, 2005)

yes it will but how do you know you have low o2 levels and why are you concerned about them. Also, why are you adding medications into your tank? most people will have a spare 10g or what not for a medication / quaritine tank so that they do not have to introduce chemicals into thier tanks. Those chemicals can really mess with your balance as i guess you have noticed. On a side note though I do like the look of the tank


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

thanks ^^

I had meds going directly into my tank because my entire tank is sick. I also have a 20 gal hospital tank set up with two gouramis that are so sick that i need to bathe them in antibiotics. With bacterial infections you have to catch them really quickly or everyone will get sick, forcing you to treat the entire tank. Obviously, I didn't catch it quick enough and now everyone is infected, leaving them open to other diseases because they're now immunocompromised. 

I know i have low O2 levels because I added in the meds, came back a few hours later and found everyone gasping and 3 dead fish. My tank has always had some oxygen issues because of the lower surface exchange and they were greatly exasperated with the addition of the medicine and the temperature increase. Bacteria likes higher temperatures (they breed more quickly) but parasites and fungus do not, so it's a balancing act. 

If I wanted to avoid treating the big tank i would have to take each and every fish out and turn my bathroom into a fish room again. It's not worth stressing them or trying to catch 51 fish when I can just as easily treat the big tank and leave everyone comfortable in their environment. They're not getting the super doses of meds either, just some rid ich and rid fungus and antibiotic food. It's only the gouramis right now that are in antibiotic water that is actually green/yellow from the chemicals. 

As you can see, my fish are my top priority and the plants are just going to have to recover from the meds.


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## mott (Nov 23, 2006)

Hate to say it but I think it all stemed from overstocking in the beginning stages.
I think a few people may have suggested that because of the surface area you have in that tank.
Good luck tho


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

mott said:


> Hate to say it but I think it all stemed from overstocking in the beginning stages.


Thats a possibility I considered, the only funny thing is that this is version two of the tank. My first 110 tall with the same dimensions had the same exact fish and no O2 problems like this. Weird huh?

Right now with all the fish losses there are only 51 fish in there, while the tank has supported much more. Most are smaller fish too.

Would you second adding co2 even though I have O2 going while the tank is being medicated?


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## mott (Nov 23, 2006)

whats the meds doing to your plants?
do you have a hospital tank?


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## couch (Apr 11, 2005)

One thing that no one has mentioned that will stop all green water out breaks as well as some of the fish diseases is an ultra violet light. I did a quick google and found this


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

couch said:


> One thing that no one has mentioned that will stop all green water out breaks as well as some of the fish diseases is an ultra violet light. I did a quick google and found this


yeah i looked into getting a UV sterilizer. They're good with parasites and some fungus, but don't do much for bacteria because it lives in the host not the water column. Still, if anyone knows where to get one really cheap (20-30 shipped) please let me know 

Right now the plants don't really seem to care about the meds. The only thing they're being bothered by is the algae which won't go away until I add CO2. I have to wipe it off the glass everyday and it's still covering the lawn in front. 

I have a 20 gal hospital tank with two gouramis in antibac bath and epsom salt eating antibiotic food. I'm debating adding my other remaining gourami in or my angels who are a little chewed on but there's not enough room in there for them. I also have a weird fungusy thing going on as a result of the bacteria that manifests in little non-cottony spots on their fins. yuck.


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## jaidexl (Sep 18, 2006)

I have to agree with the few that have mentioned your fish load. I think it's the core of your problems in this tank, stability is non-existent with that much ammonia pumping through the system. The fishless cycle, for example, works with 3ppm ammonia and not 8ppm because too much ammonia can kill bacteria, like it's doing to your fish now. You might not have a gulping issue with less fish either, allowing you to stop running air and losing CO2. Just my 2 cents, when you have full grown plants packed side to side in the tank, then it'll be easier and more beneficial to have a heavy fish-load. And next time you have sky high nitrogen levels, it's a better idea to do a series of water changes and get numbers down than wait around for an algae culture to do the work for you over a period of days or weeks.


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

Ironically ammonia is the one thing i've never had a problem with in my tank. I cycled it with live filter media and live gravel. I even used the water from my other 110 so the only thing that changed was the glass. The tank has been perfectly stable since the initial cycling and my levels have consistently been:

Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
Ammonia: 0

So theres no registering ammonia in my system at all and plenty of beneficial bacteria to digest everything. The algae took care of the nitrogen, which the fish were acclimated to after living in my bathroom, along with the bio sphira very quickly and efficiently while the water changes did nothing. My tank is kind of an oddity. It also has every inch of gravel packed full of plants lol, I haven't seen the bottom in weeks. 

Also, if you peaked at the above posts, I have never added CO2 to this tank before and thus have nothing to lose lol. The main question was to add CO2 even though I'm running the airstone, and will have to keep running it at least until the meds are finished. 

The algae is another weird thing too, everything has balanced out so I have no more green water but i still have algae on the glass and plants. I'm hoping the CO2 will get rid of this if I ever get the change to add it.


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## fshfanatic (Apr 20, 2006)

Saraja87 said:


> -did a small water change (10 gallons)
> *-added enough bacteria to fully cycle 90 gallons of water in 24 hours*
> -vowed not to touch the tank for a week


If by this you mean you added Bio-spira you could be in for an explosion of not alot of fun.

You should never add it to a tank that has already started its cycle. (at full strength) Things will get so messed up that you might not ever fully recover.

Cross your fingers and prey.


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## jaidexl (Sep 18, 2006)

Saraja87 said:


> So theres no ammonia in my system at all and plenty of beneficial bacteria to digest everything.
> 
> I have never added CO2 to this tank before and thus have nothing to lose lol.


These statements aren't true:

Your fish are constantly producing ammonia, that 's what they do. Regardless whether you can see it on a test kit, there is a certain ppm ammonia that any given fish load will produce daily, in your case it is very high, which is proven by the fact that you were registering 30ppm nitrates before the GW ate it up (ammonia is converted to nitrite then to nitrate). Once your system has a horde of healthy plants, they will keep the nitrate from building that high, and in some cases require people to dose extra nitrate just to keep it present. But at this point your plants are not at that level, so you have a large amount of daily ammonia being converted into a large build up of nitrates. You don't have GW on your side anymore, so nitrate will build back up unless you do water changes to keep it down and increase your plant mass with healthy plants.


CO2 is present everywhere regardless if it's injected or not. Your plants produce it at night and your fish produce it all day and night. The amount present in natural form (like a low tech, non injected tank) is very minimal and it's important to do everything you can to help preserve it. Airstones and heavy surface agitation only serve to drive that CO2 away very quickly resulting in CO2 deficiency. You stated you never had an O2 problem in your other tank, well you don't have one here either, moderate surface agitation is sufficient for aeration in a properly stocked tank. Your fish were gasping because you cycled your tank with them and their gills were burned by ammonia and rendered useless by nitrite poisoning. Such damage lowers the immune system and brings on disease, which is why all of your fish are dying now. It has absolutely nothing to do with O2, the longer you shadow water quality issues with a theoretical O2 problem, the longer you'll be dealing with dying fish.

Not to sound mean, I'm really inclined to help here, but you seem to have responded to most peoples' helpful suggestions with a defensive posture, or proclaiming certainty that your entire problem is just O2, or stating that you have professional aquarist family and friends that give you your advice (if so, why didn't they tell you not to bury rhizomes, or not to cycle your aquarium with your angels you love so much on top of a giant fish load? Not to put down your fam, but you're missing out on a wealth of knowledge by limiting yourself to them alone, or else you're just not asking them enough Qs). If I'm not mistaken on this observation, it would be wise to drop the denial and take heed to others. Everyone here is very knowledgeable and experienced, and only want to give you the facts and help you straighten out your problems. If you haven't noticed, your tank has been in a reoccurring downward spiral throughout the thread, and now it's to the point that your fish are dying on you.

Really, I'm not trying to mean, just trying to break through. If you can bring the fish back to health and maintain the test results you have now, then you are past the hard part, but by all means don't try to cycle another tank with 50 fish including a number of beautiful full grown angelfish, they just don't deserve it.


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

I'm not trying to be defensive and I do very much appreciate the helpfulness but it seems as if you are selectively reading the thread. The nitrate spike at the beginning was attributed, from what everyone seemed to conclude, to the water I used from the temp tanks the fish were in. Not the high fish load, though I agree it is much better managed with a high plant load which I now have. I ended up originally switching tanks over the period of a week or so due to the house being painted, so the poor guys had to wait in overcrowded tiny tanks with inadequate filtration in my bathroom. Overcrowding +tiny tanks = nasty nitrate spike. When I transfered the water over I took the nitrates with it, and was out of test strips to test it first, hence the high test result right? The fish in the cycle wasn't so much a choice as it was a get your fish out of the bathroom or i'll flush them suggestion ><. 

Water changes didn't see to help, and I did do many of them, so someone suggested letting the algae bloom do its job and adding bio sphira. This seemed to take care of it pretty nicely though I'm sure as you say they had their immune systems weakened considerably by the stress. Still, a little stress is better than leaving it to fester over a period of weeks since the water changes were ineffective. Since then, I haven't been able to register any nitrate or ammonia on a test and the plants are growing nicely so I assumed they were doing their job and sucking it up. Obviously I know ammonia is produced in any natural ecosystem and my comment that I didn't have any referred ONLY to the lack of a positive test result. Since the first gw outbreak, I havent had a positive test result for ammonia, nitrate, or nitrite.

If you peek back to the original post of my fishie loves, you can see my beautiful gold angel with some red on his body. This unfortunately is the start of the bacterial infection. He obviously caught it being in such miserable close quarters in the 20 gallon he had to share with all the other angels and gouramis, but no one could ID it for me. It was not acquired during the cycling process, tho I'm sure it didn't help. One store owner (not mine) even told me it was normal and would go away, so I treated lightly until the pigmentation went away and Volla! Now everyone is sick. If I had managed to ID the sucker early on I would have been able to give a full course of antibiotics and wouldn't have any sick fishies now. It's also much stronger now that they've been infected with it for so long and this particular strain is tetracycline resistant. They are dying now because the infection is at such a point that their immune systems can no longer fight it. What they need is intramuscular injects of antibiotics, but I have never done them on fish this small and fear I would do more harm than good. I'm kind of stuck with in water treatments (kind of ineffective) antibiotic food (which takes a long time to work) and keeping my fingers crossed.

For the plants, my understanding is that in a non-co2 injected tank, which is what I meant when i said i wasn't Adding co2 (obviously I know the fish produce it lol), surface movement actually helps facilitate gas exchange and is better than nothing. Most of the plants are showing a lot of growth so I assume they're not being too limited by me not injecting it. My onion plants have actually reached the surface and my ludwigia is doing it's best to compete. Its already over 20 inches! Even the e. tenellus has bounced back and is shooting out runners like there's no tomorrow. 

The green water seems to have settled too, it would only emerge when I changed something like increased the lighting period when the plants were little, or for the biggest one, changed out my reflectors which suddenly gave them a ton more light. After that gw, it sort of converted itself to conventional algae and since it keeps popping up on the glass I guess thats my que to add co2. I should probably be dosing nitrates as well since the levels have read 0 for months, gw or no. I also do less water changes than most people, and still haven't had a build up of nitrates.

The problem I'm having with oxygen is more related to the fish being sick and the medication. Sick fish, like sick people, require more oxygen when weak or their bodies have to work harder making them even more weak to other diseases. Combine this with the medication which is proven to reduce o2 levels and the temperature increase which does the same, and my poor guys who need more o2 have a considerably reduced amount. The water quality is perfect, consistent test results of 0 for months (and as you say past the 'hard part'), but all the perfect water in the world will do nothing against a well established bacterial infection. 

In terms of my fish store, I obviously don't hang on them all the time. They are wonderfully helpful but I'm not going to go ask them each time I want to plant a plant lol. Don't dump on them for situations beyond their or my control. It's not their fault that I pushed my anubias all the way down lol or that I didn't have a place to put my fish except in their new tank. This forum is about planted tanks, not my house painting woes, so you'll have to trust me when i say there was physically no place for them to go except into the new tank, cycled or not. It's better than the toilet.

I'm sorry if I've come off as defensive, my only frustration with the forum system in general is that often times it's easy to miss earlier posts with information and then make sweeping generalizations. Anyway, I do really appreciate all help and advice, even if I can't use all of it (and since everyone is still learning the advice is often conflicting lol) so please don't be discouraged to toss in your 2 cents just because it's not immediately used. I've learned a lot on this forum from watching other people and thank everyone for their help. I'm going to cut this novel short since this is a thread for advice and pictures lol not long conversations. 

Right now I am working on fighting off the infection and was just wondering if it is a waste to add CO2 now since the airstone is necessary until the fish are healthy.


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

Now that the vals have melted down to the bottom, they're starting to recover and put out new growth! I'm really excited to see them eventually take over the back of the tank!

From what I read in the plant section, jungle val leaves rot if they're broken (like in transition) and the broken leaves should be stripped off. This is probably why they took so long to bounce back but eventually I hope to see them get back to the lovely state iroc sent them in!


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## kunerd (Jul 19, 2005)

correct vals can be funny plants. they will melt and sometime for no reason that you can think of. I had a big patch of mine melt away and now are atarting to fill back in also.


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

kunerd said:


> correct vals can be funny plants. they will melt and sometime for no reason that you can think of. I had a big patch of mine melt away and now are atarting to fill back in also.


I'm so glad to hear you say that, for the longest time I thought I was killing mine.


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## fshfanatic (Apr 20, 2006)

Have you considered getting a Vortex Diatom filter? I have one that I use for maint on all my tanks. It is a DE filter that will remove anthing down to 1 micron. Including diatom algae, ich, everything. I had a horendous GA attack about a yr ago and nothing helped. I setup the filter and ran it for 36 hrs. Removed the pea soup and it never returned.


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

fshfanatic said:


> Have you considered getting a Vortex Diatom filter? I have one that I use for maint on all my tanks. It is a DE filter that will remove anthing down to 1 micron. Including diatom algae, ich, everything. I had a horendous GA attack about a yr ago and nothing helped. I setup the filter and ran it for 36 hrs. Removed the pea soup and it never returned.


Yeah I've looked into buying some used ones but never ended up the high bidder  I've heard that you can rent them too, since you only need to run for for a day or too, but haven't found any when I asked around. Would you recommend a Diatom filter over a UV sterilizer? I don't think either will help for bacteria, but they should be really effective against parasites and fungus. Due to funds though, I can probably only afford one or the other.


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## fshfanatic (Apr 20, 2006)

You can get a new one at petsmart.com for $68 free shipping. DONT buy their DE powder. I went to a pool supply store and bought close to a 30lb box for $15

And yes I prefer them over UV


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

do they cost more/less to maintain than a UV? Can you run them 24/7 (as disease prevention)?


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## fshfanatic (Apr 20, 2006)

Saraja87 said:


> do they cost more/less to maintain than a UV?


$15 worth of DE powder will probably last me the rest of my life. Buy it at a pool supply store. I got a box 36"H X 12"W X 18"L for $15 and change. If you buy the "official" powder you pay something like $18 for a bag about the size of a brown lunch sack. Plus you will never have to buy a UV replacement bulb. Yes cheaper to buy and cheaper to maintain.



Saraja87 said:


> Can you run them 24/7 (as disease prevention)?


The Vortex Diatom filter comes in 2 sizes. The larger one can run 24/7 the smaller one only a day or so max. $89 and $69 Magnum HOT has the ability to run DE with a micron filter and can run 24/7 They are louder. I recommend Vortex


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

Minor update:

As you can see, I've let my scape go and have been focusing entirely on getting my fish healthy. Despite that, my plants seem to be weathering my massive doses of medication without any adverse effects. 


Unfortunately, my vals are still taking their sweet time bouncing back. I'm waiting for the day when they finally settle in and take over my tank. Please ignore the floating plants, whatever that green plant is (water sprite?) is just taking off and seems to like to float. I also just did a huge water change and added meds so the water is a little messy.


This is the disgusting algae I was left with after my green water outbreak. I want to add an army of ottos to eat it but since the tank is still sick I can't risk it. I should also probably be adding CO2 to take care of the rest of the algae. 

Sorry about the crappy photo quality. Comments, questions, suggestions?


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

Well my chiller sprung a leak so that needs to be fixed this week! I also have a UV sterilizer coming (supposedly better at killing bacteria than the diatom, just not great for water polishing). I'm cleaning both filters and adding Purigen, fresh carbon, ammonia chips, etc tomorrow. 

Is there a way to vacuum a planted tank without ripping everything up? When my chiller leaked my tank got low and my filter spit mulm all over everything when it got restarted. Yuck. Now I have mulm and such hanging out in my nasty algae. I need to suck it all out.

It's also time for a BIG trim, my ludwigia is growing wonderfully in a little bush but I want to flesh it out a bit. My hygro is stunning too but is too long and stringy. I need to chop it all in half and replant it to get that fuller look. I should also probably clip the dead leaves off my swords etc.

Pictures coming soon!


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

Thanksgiving update!!

So it took me all day but I hacked most of the dead leaves off my swords and tamed the stem plant forests. My ludwigia and sunset hygro were just going crazy with like 5 stems of new growth coming off one old stem. I had to cut everything at least in half and replant them to get that denser look.

I also added two little melon swords and a baby crinium. My LFS gave me a bunch of free little plants ^^ so I had a net with all sorts of crypt, dwarf onions, micro sword and java fern hanging in all the pictures. You'll also have to excuse the mess, I just stirred everything up and haven't cleaned off the water marks. 

I also cleaned both filters, but haven't done a water change yet bc of the water lost in the chiller leak. I did add filter floss, which I've never used before, and it seems to be awesome ^^ Great for polishing the water. My UV sterilizer should be here around next Wednesday to kill any external bacteria. Unfortunately, the leak in my chiller is inside, not at my fittings. I think it's a punctured hose after the water is cooled, bc it leaks cold water, but have no idea how to fix it. Any suggestions are more than welcome 


 Full shot


Replanted ludwigia


Replanted hygro


Anubias tied on wood. I can't seem to grow moss so I decided to try out anibuas on the driftwood. 

Does anyone have any aquascaping suggestions? This is the first tank where I've been able to really get a scape going besides just throwing plants in. The only thing I can't move is the wood because it has a slate bottom. That also means that I can't plant right up against it because the slate pokes up. 

On another topic, having three breeding pairs of angels in one tank is just proving to be impossible. I'm thinking of finding a new home for possibly two of the pairs, at least both of the males, but cringe at the idea of taking them to the fish store. If they went as a pair they would have to be the only two angels in the tank, or if the boys go they can't go to the same tank. They're just too fussy and they're stressing each other out. I may post them in the swap and shop later.

Happy Thanksgiving!

EDIT: Pictures fixed! I don't know why imageshack keeps making them small when I tell it to resize the pictures...


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## fshfanatic (Apr 20, 2006)

Been thinking about your constant green water issues. I did this yrs ago and it worked really well. If you can find one of those little fine meshed boxes (baby fish keeper) that connect to you tank for baby fish, get one with fine mesh. Then if you can find it get yourself a daphnia culture and pour them into your baby fish keeper. The daphnia will eat the free floating algae. Shouldnt take more than a few days. After the green water is gone, feed the culture to your fish,.


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

I haven't had green water in about a month, do you think it will come back? It looked like it was gone before and then came back once or twice but this time it looks pretty clear. I have a little breeder net with super fine mesh, the kind shaped like a little box, and I'm sure I could get my hands on some daphnia. Would that work? The algae on the glass has also been disappearing. It used to coat the glass everyday but I haven't seen any for the past week or so. Maybe increased plant mass?

I also cut down on my lighting, my timer got bumped somehow and and was on from 7:00am-10:30pm which I'm sure wasn't helping. I cut it down to 7:00am-12:00pm and 3:30-10:00pm. Does that sound okay? or more breaks? I'm trying to find a used ballast for two 65 watt actinic bulbs that I have to use as night lighting. Then I can cut down my lighting in the evening. 

I also haven't been dosing anything. I have flourish and excel but I haven't been dosing the flourish while I've been medicating and am scared to dose excel with vals in my tank.


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## fshfanatic (Apr 20, 2006)

Yes that would work. Since you already have it and Daphnia is hella cheap, give it a shot. 

I have used Excel with Vals. never an issue. 

I use a 4' 40wtt light as my "night light" on my 180. and it is on 24/7. I only turn off my other lights (4 48" 6700 bulbs) late at night and on again in the am. At night it has a nice dim "glow".

And I have zero algae. No CO2 no ferts. 

my inhabitants are:
1: 10" jardini Arowana
4: 8" Ornate Bichirs
2: Breeding Pair of HUGE Green Severums
3: Columbian Shark Cats
6: Silver Dollars
2: 8"ish needle Nose Gars
1: 4" Highfin marble Pleco

I feed these buggers 3 times a day heavily and change 30% of the water weekly. For filtration I have an eheim classic 2217 and an Eheim 2260 filled with eheim media (noodles and substratpro and a course sponge and quilt batting instead of floss as you can get a yrs supply for $9 at walmart) the filters get rinsed every 3-4 months.


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

How did you install the lights? I'm mechanically inclined but would like to stay away from electrical wiring just in case. I already have two actinic bulbs so I thought I'd use those, but I'm having a hard time justifying the cost of a ballast for just aesthetic lighting. 

I have a bottle of co2 and regulator but I haven't set it up yet. Also, what are eheim noodles? I have two fluval 404s both filled with eheim ceramic pieces (like little tunnels), ammonia pure, carbon, sponge and the filter floss. I bought a big bag of it for 3 bucks but quilt batting sounds like a perfect substitute 

My vals are still having a hard time bouncing back. I'm almost wondering if it would be better to pull them up, pull the leaves off and replant. I don't suppose excel could make them melt any more than they already have. 

Those are some big fish there! Do they all get along? My breeding angel pairs are being little jack a**es. I'm probably going to have to find a new home for the two males that just can't stand each other.


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

I just got some AMAZING balansae! Pictures coming as soon as I have time to rearrange it! Only 58/86 pages left to write before break!


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## tazcrash69 (Sep 27, 2005)

Wow, this tank has been through the ringer. Glad to see it settling in. 


Saraja87 said:


> I just got some AMAZING balansae! Pictures coming as soon as I have time to rearrange it! Only 58/86 pages left to write before break!


Been lurking to see the pics of them in your tank. 

I think the Eheim noodles fshfanatic are referring to are the ehfimech. Basically little Ceramic tubes in the first levels of the filter. Exactly what you put in yours.


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

Transitional update!

I won't have time to Really get things done until the 14th when I can kiss my pain in the ass work goodbye. Once I finish, I will have written over 100 pages in the past month alone. Oh the joys of finishing college early...

So the scape here is anything but permanent but it gives you an idea of how awesome the balansae is. I'm torn between having it fill the background of the tank or highlighting it in a large group in the back. Major thanks to tazcrash69!!!






The balansae is having a little bit of meltage, but hopefully it wont be too bad 


Giant java fern I just HAD to have. May have to part with it as I have overspent on my christmas shopping...


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## fshfanatic (Apr 20, 2006)

tazcrash69 said:


> I think the Eheim noodles fshfanatic are referring to are the ehfimech. Basically little Ceramic tubes in the first levels of the filter. Exactly what you put in yours.


That would be them... Couldnt remember the name..


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

lovely  Is it true that purigen shouldn't be used with products like stress coat? I read somewhere that it makes it toxic...


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## fshfanatic (Apr 20, 2006)

No only when regenerating purigen is when it shouldnt be used.


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## BiscuitSlayer (Apr 1, 2005)

Saraja87,

I just read your thread from start to finish, and I have found your journey to be quite interesting. One thing that I have noticed by reading the thread is that you are fertilizing the tank with excel and thats about it. Correct me if I am wrong here. I haven't seen anywhere in the thread where you are using potassium and nitrogen. At one point in the thread I also read where you had stated that the nitrogen was at 0 ppm. You actually want nitrogen in the tank for your plants. Nitrogen is good for planted tanks and bad for reef tanks. This might explain why you are having problems with some of your plants.

One thing that I have noticed with green water outbreaks is that they are usually centered around major changes to the tank or too much light (duration of photo period). I personally have had two happen to me. One was because my photo period was too long and the other was because I added too many fish to my tank at once. Not saying that is what your problem was, but just sharing some of my own experience.

The other thing that I noticed was that you were having a problem with your fish dieing off due to the lack of oxygen. One thing that I think might have been a contributing factor to this was the temperature of the tank. I have never run an airstone in any of my tanks, and currently the fishload in my 29 is very high. The temperature of my water is a constant 74 to 76 degrees. I know for a fact that if I were to boost the temps up to a sustained 82 degrees, probably half of my fish would die off. If my fishload were half of what it is now they would probably survive without any issues, but the temps + the high number of fish is not going to end well.

An example that I have seen this before is actually not aquarium related. Being and avid fisherman, I have purchased minnows in the past to use as bait. When you buy these minnows in the winter through the late spring, the minnows do fantastic in a minnow bucket that probably holds about 2 to 3 gallons of cool or cold water. You might have to swap out the water one or two times a day when you start seeing them gasp for air at the surface, but for the most part they are in pretty good shape and maint free. During the summer and fall months when the outside tems are in the high/hot range, keeping minnows is not quite as easy. Constant water changes are nessecary to keep them alive because they either consume the oxygen quicker or the warmer water does not hold the oxygen as well (not sure what the case is).


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

BiscuitSlayer said:


> I have noticed by reading the thread is that you are fertilizing the tank with excel and thats about it.


I actually dose exclusively with regular flourish. I bought a gallon of excel before I got my jungle vals but haven't dosed it since I added them. With the flourish I'm really inconsistent, I usually throw some in at water changes or if I'm pruning the plants. I don't live in the house where my tank is kept so I haven't figured out a good system for dosing yet. My plants would probably do Much better with a consistent routine. 



BiscuitSlayer said:


> The other thing that I noticed was that you were having a problem with your fish dieing off due to the lack of oxygen. One thing that I think might have been a contributing factor to this was the temperature of the tank


You're right about the temperature and fish but I've never considered lowering it before. When temperatures are increased, the fish's metabolism increases and they use more oxygen, grow faster and spawn easier. This unfortunately also means that their life spans are shortened. Turning down the temp is probably not the best decision long term since I'm dreaming about discus (yeah right...) but it's a really valuable suggestion. I'll give it a test run when I get my new heater. 

Thanks for the input


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## BiscuitSlayer (Apr 1, 2005)

Saraja87 said:


> I actually dose exclusively with regular flourish. I bought a gallon of excel before I got my jungle vals but haven't dosed it since I added them. With the flourish I'm really inconsistent, I usually throw some in at water changes or if I'm pruning the plants. I don't live in the house where my tank is kept so I haven't figured out a good system for dosing yet. My plants would probably do Much better with a consistent routine.


When you say regular flourish, do you mean the micro ferts? There are several products on the flourish line. If this is the case, I can almost guarentee that is why you are having problems with certain plants. The plants that are yellowing and dieing off aren't getting any macro ferts. 

I can honnestly say that I have been there and done that. Prior to dosing macros properly, I had the same types of problems with the same types of plants. Now that I dose macros, the problems have all but gone away.


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

Is there an efficient way to autodose? I am in college and don't live at home. It's enough to ask that my fish be fed lol, asking for dosing might get my ass kicked.


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## equus_peduus (Oct 20, 2007)

BiscuitSlayer said:


> either consume the oxygen quicker or the warmer water does not hold the oxygen as well (not sure what the case is).


Warmer water doesn't allow as much gas to be dissolved in it. So warm water = less oxygen available. Probably doesn't help that warmer temperatures lead to the whole fish having higher metabolism thing either.


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

Yeah, its a toss up between healthy growth and breeding or a longer lifespan overall. Still lookin around for a liquid autodoser or some sort ^^


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## BiscuitSlayer (Apr 1, 2005)

Saraja87 said:


> Is there an efficient way to autodose? I am in college and don't live at home. It's enough to ask that my fish be fed lol, asking for dosing might get my ass kicked.


If someone is feeding your fish on a daily basis, then it shouldn't be that big of a deal to dose the macros. I loosely follow the EI method and dose macros every other day. I dose them dry right into the tank. You can get the ferts at http://www.aquariumfertilizer.com/store/products.php . You will probably want Mono Potassium Phosphate, Potassium Nitrate, and Potassium Sulfate. Generally people consume Potassium Sulfate more quickly than the others. Rex Grigg's site is pretty helpful when it comes to dosing.

http://www.rexgrigg.com/


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## tazcrash69 (Sep 27, 2005)

Wow, those Crypts just kind of got absorbed in your tank, for me they stood out too much growing across most of it. 
As far as automatic liquid dosing here are my takes on it:
Eheim liquid doser: nice, but you will need at least 2 if not more due to tank size and amount needing to dose, and they aren't cheap.
Surge1976 has a great one here: http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/equipment/44513-my-automatic-fert-doser-no-56k.html once again, it might be a bit expensive. 
I also know Bgoodwins has one recently as well. 

And Lastly, Wasserpest's compilation & flowchart of cheap autodosing methods, some hits, some misses. 
here:http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/equipment/46367-overview-autodosing-methods.html

Overall though, I have to agree with BSlayer. If someone is feeding your fish, a measuring spoon of dry ferts, or a medicine cup of liquids shouldn't be too bad. 

HTH


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

Update coming soon! I've been slowly battling algae but I finally seem to be winning the battle. I had a nasty bout of that black bushy algae that covered all my plumbing, probably due to a mass amount of floating plants blocking light to all my other plants. I removed all of these (huge watersprites) and the algae is disappearing more each day. It's already almost completely gone from my driftwood and plumbing and each new plant leaf put out is algae free.

I'll post some new pics as soon as it finishes settling down. I put some excel in a pump bottle and have been putting a pump in (just a little bit) with each feeding and that seems to be helping as well. 

I have a 5lb CO2 bottle and a Milwaukee regulator but I have NO idea how to set it up. The regulator is screwed on, I connected it to CO2 tubing but when I opened the valve it sounded like the CO2 wooshed out into the bedroom, not the tubing. I tried again a few more times but each time I think I'm just releasing the CO2. Is my regulator broken or am I just missing something? I really don't want my plants to become dependent on pressurized CO2 but I thought it would help give them a jump start against the algae. 

Happy St. Patrick's Day!


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

I look forward to the pics! Very lovely!




fshfanatic said:


> No only when regenerating purigen is when it shouldnt be used.


This is on SeaChem's website:

Caution: some slime coat products may permanently foul Purigen™ and render regeneration difficult. 

http://www.seachem.com/products/product_pages/Purigen.html

This is on BigAl's website:

"Not to be used with any products with slime coat in them as this can cause the product to become toxic."

http://www.bigalsonline.com/StoreCa...gen_250_ml?&query=purigen&queryType=0&offset=


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

Thanks! I'll hold off on the purigen and stick with some filter floss and carbon. 



lauraleellbp said:


> This is on SeaChem's website:
> 
> Caution: some slime coat products may permanently foul Purigen™ and render regeneration difficult.
> 
> ...


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

Quick update!

Well it seems that the black brush is officially making its exit and the plants are beginning to make a comeback. The beautiful crypts I put in have finished their melting and are beginning to peak up in the back. The sunset hygro and ludiwgia are also beginning to grow in algae free, but my vals are still absent. 

Sorry for the bad picture quality, I didn't have my good camera on me. Anything tied down in white is java fern from a mother plant I picked up. It promptly began to melt away but now it's putting out babies like crazy.


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## BiscuitSlayer (Apr 1, 2005)

Saraja87 - 

Glad to hear things are working better for you. Did you get your CO2 running yet? That will help with some of your algae problems.

Also, have you started dosing NPK (macro ferts) into the water column?


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

I think there's still a problem with my CO2. Whenever I try to open the valve there's a large hissing sound like the CO2 is escaping. I think there might be a leak somewhere but I'm not sure where to look since I've never run CO2 before. 

Since my vals are MIA, I put some excel into a pump bottle and have been adding a couple pumps with every morning feeding. 

I read something about a soap test or something for my reactor? Though I should probably just find someone in LA who can show me how to work it...


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## BiscuitSlayer (Apr 1, 2005)

The soap test will work. I think you might even be able to use windex. It is pretty easy though. Get some soapy water on your finger (pretty wet) and let it drip around seals and joints. My first thought is that your regulator might not be tight enough or there is a problem with the gasket seal that fits inside the regulator connection that connects to the tank. That would make sense since you hear the leak as soon as you turn the gas on.

I am pretty sure windex will work, but I know dish soap will do the trick. If you do use dish soap, mix a little water with it.


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

Quick update:





I've officially got no idea what to do with this scape lol. The plants don't seem to like growing the way I want them too. I moved the giant java fern into the back left corner, and trimmed down the sunset hygro and planted it behind the right java fern. My aponogetton has sent up two flowers, though i'm not sure what to do with them, and I bought a handful of those dried bulbs to try out. 

I'm almost contemplating paying someone to come over for a day or so to redo the tank. I'm so swamped with work, school and the MCAT that I don't have the time to give it a proper rescape. It seems the only plant that does well in this tank is the watersprite I can't keep down lol.

Any suggestions are welcome, and time permitting, will be implemented!


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## BiscuitSlayer (Apr 1, 2005)

Saraja87 said:


> It seems the only plant that does well in this tank is the water sprite I can't keep down lol.
> 
> Any suggestions are welcome, and time permitting, will be implemented!


CO2 injection will definitely help if you were ever able to figure out where the leak was. This will most definitely have the largest impact on any algae issues that you might be having. Your plants will respond better as well. Your plants (especially fast growers) will benefit immensely from the CO2 injection. They need CO2 to photosynthesize.

The black beard algae that you mentioned a little earlier in the thread is an indication of low CO2 concentrations. The worst outbreak I ever had with it was when I ran a lot of light over a tank with no CO2 injection. Shade was not a factor in its growth. I still get a little now and then, but since I started injecting CO2, it is under control now.

Along with the CO2 injection fertilization is extremely important for plant growth. Nitrate, Phosphate, and Potassium (NPK) are the macro ferts that need to be dosed regularly into the tank. Without these nutrients plants will yellow and melt away leaf by leaf or stem by stem. Micro ferts are important as well (like Flourish Comprehensive), but ultimately not quite as important as the other three.

Light is the driving factor with regards to plant growth. I flipped back to the beginning of the thread and saw where you had 4 65W PC retro fixtures in your canopy. I would not consider this amount of light to bring you up to the high tech side of things which means that the CO2 injection and Macro fertilization is very important. When you pump this amount of light at plants, they go into overdrive with regards to uptake of nutrients and need for CO2 in the water column for photosynthesis.

If you have started these things recently you should be in good shape. If you haven't started them, you will be fighting an uphill battle until you do.

The reason I quoted you on the comment you made about water sprite is because I ran my tank with high light, no CO2, and no macro fertilization for a while and water sprite was the only plant that survived in my tank. It appears that it is MUCH less demanding than other plants with regards to growth and nutrient needs. It did, however, have its limit as well. At one point I believe that it sucked up all available nitrates in my tank. I believe that this in turn led to a blue green algae outbreak. After researching BGA and it's causes, I read several times that BGA can form as a result of nitrates bottoming out in a tank. Even though BGA is not a true algae, I did tend to agree with this fact for several reasons:

I tried complete blackouts starting at 3 days with no effect. I then increased my blackout to three months and it still didn't work. After the lights being on for a couple of weeks, the BGA came right back. I could not get rid of this stuff to save my life until I dosed my tank with Erythromycin and started dosing potassium nitrate. It finally went away.


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

Oh no, I'm not having anymore new algae issues. The black bush algae that is there is only on older leaves that I haven't had a chance to prune off. All the new ones are shiny and free of anything, even BBA. Shameful I know, the tank REALLY needs a serious pruning. Even my swords have a bunch of dead leaves. 

Everything is growing, they're just growing slowly. My giant java fern in the back began melting when I put it in and is now sending off babies every day. I now have little java ferns floating all over my tank (though I have yet to get them to stay tied down) and I even saw them pearling today for the first time. The only plants which have steadfastly refused to grow are the vals I put in. My red ludwigia in there was originally just a few stems and its now a great big messy bush lol. The same is true of the sunset hygro and even that bushy mystery stem I put in sent up a new shoot. In general, everything has a burst of growth when I remove the floating plants. 

I think I'm more frustrated with my lack of time to shape it into the lovely scape I know it could be. I added in some root tabs and have been dosing with flourish and excel, which is just what I have on hand, and haven't had a chance to soap test that CO2. What it needs more than anything is someone with a whole day and a lot of experience to come in and hack it into shape. I know right now that I have plants a bit out of order (medium where there should be tall) and it's really a bit of a mess. 

So to summarize lol: 

- plant growth, check
- pearling, check
- ferts, i'd say half a check
- CO2, another half check. I turned off the bubbler I used to have running all day and now only run it at night. It appears to have made a big difference as I haven't seen a drop of any new algae yet, not even on the glass. 
- complete disorder? Definite check

So aside from the fact that I still need to set up the CO2 and order a box of those conveniently combined powered ferts, does anyone have any scape suggestions? I can't really move the wood since it has a slate bottom but everything else is generally movable. I'm also having difficulty getting some of the stem plants to stay planted, but I'm almost positive its because i'm trying to plant them on top of slate. 

On the left, there's that giant java fern, a bunch of swords, some anubias and watersprite the red ludwigia. The middle is mostly anubias, the taller variety in the back, and some crypts. There was originally crypt balansae planted all along the back but its still rebounding after melting away. The right has more swords, anubias, sunset hygro, water sprite, flowering aponogetton, and more crypt. The front is all e. tenellus but it's growing in slowly.


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## esteroali (Oct 24, 2007)

*Pro Bono Aquascaping*

I had a local PTer come to my house to get some RCS that I gave him (Jaide). One of my tanks was really bothering me. A 20 g NPT that the watersprite had over run. I asked him what to do. So like Edward Scissorhands he said move this here that there and this here. The next day my tank looked like a mud puddle. I wish I had a before and after pic but suffice it to say HUGE improvement. I am sure there are PT's that would love to help!


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

hehe exactly. There are so many people here who have so much more experience than I do! If I ever get the money/time, I'll post in the swap and shop aqua scaper wanted! I'll provide monetary, food and plant compensation lol. There has to be someone nearby whos been itching to scape a big tank.



esteroali said:


> I had a local PTer come to my house to get some RCS that I gave him (Jaide). One of my tanks was really bothering me. A 20 g NPT that the watersprite had over run. I asked him what to do. So like Edward Scissorhands he said move this here that there and this here. The next day my tank looked like a mud puddle. I wish I had a before and after pic but suffice it to say HUGE improvement. I am sure there are PT's that would love to help!


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

My aponogetton has sent up two flowers! Should i leave them be or clip them?


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## eyebeatbadgers (Aug 6, 2007)

Pull them off the plant completely. If you pull from the stem with a quick jerk, the whole thing should come off. Healthy bulbs send up new flowers every two or three days.

It is recommended to pull these flowers as soon as possible so that the plant can focus using it's energy on making new leaves, and not flowers.


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

<quote>CO2 injection will definitely help if you were ever able to figure out where the leak was. This will most definitely have the largest impact on any algae issues that you might be having. Your plants will respond better as well. Your plants (especially fast growers) will benefit immensely from the CO2 injection. They need CO2 to photosynthesize.</quote>

Well I Coated the darn thing in soapy water and all I get is 'hissss' I'm wondering if maybe I'm not able to tighten the regulator enough and am not adding enough soap to my water to test lol. Can I take off the regulator or will that just let out all the CO2?


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

CO2 system has been figured out!!!! Huzzah!!

The problem was, I killed my solenoid. So no bubbles could come through and I kept turning up the pressure since I had no idea how to work it. When I opened the bottle, the co2 shot out of the gauge as a safety release which explains why my soap didn't bubble. I only had soap around the fittings, not the dials. I also managed to blow out the psi dial with the pressure, because I'm just special like that lol.

Now, the big to do: I filled the CO2 bottle and tested the regulator. It's working great and the co2 guy said I don't really need to replace the psi gauge if I want to count bubbles. I do however, need a new solenoid and I have no idea where to find one cheap. The regulator itself was something like 50 bucks so it doesn't seem worth it to pay 30 for a new solenoid when the regulator already has a broken gauge. Suggestions or ideas? I'd like to finally get this going!


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

Aww, it looks like my bleeding heart tetra is going to pass away today. He's about 7 years old, which I guess isn't bad for a fish with a 3-5 year lifespan but I'll be very sad to see him go. He's had a good life but has now lost his equilibrium


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

*Rescape Step 1*

Inventory of Plants!

I drained half the water, got a ladder and hopped in. I just moved things around a bit to get the tall stuff in the back but this is by no means the final design. I have a lot of medium height plants like fat Amazon swords but I'm still missing a lot of tall plant mass. 

CO2 manifold, bubble counter and check valves are in the mail. As soon as they get here, I'll hook them up to my Milwaukee and we'll be in business! How many bps (or bpm?) should I have going on this tank? It's a 110 tall with 4x65 power compact lighting.

I'm looking for some major input on how to rescape this! Please nothing like 'cover the bottom with hm!' which would require me buying more lights etc. I have to pretty much stick with what I have in terms of equipment but I'd lick a lush, tall jungly look. If you're local to LA and would like to come over and help me scape, you'll be more than welcome!


Here are some quick snap shots mid-rescape. They're absolute carp but that's okay. 


This is the left side. I have that stump there that I'm not sure how to plant on.


The right side


I attempted to cover my pot with moss.


A sort of full tank shot.

You can't tell, but theres ludwigia repens planted along the back on the left and sunset hygro planted along the back on the right. Things may need to grow in more before more scaping can happen but who knows. 

Input please!


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## mott (Nov 23, 2006)

Looks good but the background is distracting IMO, ever think of trying a black background?


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

mott said:


> Looks good but the background is distracting IMO, ever think of trying a black background?


When I set up the tank i couldnt find black backgrounds 30 inches high anywhere! Now it seems that a couple companies are making them. If you think it'll make a big difference, I'll replace it


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## SeaSerpant (Feb 20, 2008)

you could just use a black garbage bag, i used it on my 120g and you don't notice it unless you use flash on pictures or if your trying to stare right at it.


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

Would anyone change anything besides the background (which i will be changing to black).

Any plant suggestions? Lay out? etc?


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## TheCryptKeeper (Mar 9, 2008)

I think that a black background would look better.. but the one you have is definitely unique!


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

*New Clean Up Crew!*

Beautiful little Asolene Spixis!


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

Black background is here!!!! Let me tell you it was NOT easy to put on. One side of my tank is pushed up against a bookshelf so I had only two inches to stick my arm in try to tape it down. I think my circulation is permanently cut off 

Pictures soon to come!


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

New black background!!! No matter how I took it, I could not get a decent picture of the background. Please excuse the glare, shadows, mess, etc!



My smokey angel posing  I couldn't leave him out. 


Please let me know what you think!


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## dewalltheway (Jan 19, 2005)

A suggestion....turn off all lights in the room and take a straight on shot of the tank. That will get rid of the glare. Make sure you turn your flash off too.


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

Flash and lights are off, I think the glare is from my windows. Do most people take pics at night?



dewalltheway said:


> A suggestion....turn off all lights in the room and take a straight on shot of the tank. That will get rid of the glare. Make sure you turn your flash off too.


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## Tex Gal (Mar 28, 2008)

I take my pxs at night. Too much window glare during the day.

... and yes... you couldn't leave your smokey angel out!


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

*Another attempt at photos*







Please excuse the messy water, I took pics before my water change to avoid the floating bits but my UV sterilizer tipped over and stirred things up anyway. The fish also wouldn't stay still so each image is a bit blurry.


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## MikeS (Apr 27, 2008)

Wow, your tank looks good. roud:


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

*After water change, small trim pictures*


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## mizu-chan (May 13, 2008)

Your tank looks beautiful!


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## MARIMOBALL (Mar 18, 2007)

Your tank looks lush, and I like all the shades of green you got going. Also good job in creating a sense of depth, considering your tank looks to be narrow.


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

Thank you! Yes, the tank is a little on the narrow side. It's only 18 inches deep. 

I'm going to be starting up pressurized CO2 in a week or so so hopefully that will help the plants that are a little scraggly. 

Any suggestions for the scape? I've been admiring L. Cuba lately so I think I'd like to try some of that as soon as my CO2 is up and running.


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

*New Drop Checker!*

Well my new drop checker came from Greenleaf aquariums so I thought I'd give you guys a picture and quick review! I'm gonna give it a few hours to color up. 



Pros: 
- the only complete CO2 kit with 4DKH, PH reagent and the drop checker
- incredibly fast shipping, it arrived way faster than I thought it would!
- quality glass construction, none of this cheap plastic business 

Cons:
- it was hard to come up with a con, I guess the only suggestion I have would be the 4DKH standard didn't come with the convenient applicator tip that the PH reagent had. I had to get a syringe, which was of course too large to fit in the bottle mouth, so I had to have someone hold it at an angle so I could suck some out to put in the drop checker. 

Overall:
- Awesome, I'd highly recommend this to anyone though I'd suggest they have a small syringe on hand.


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

*Updated Stocking*

In anticipation of my new CO2 system, I have reduced the stocking list to the following: 

Flora:
- Ludwigia repens
- Sunset hygro
- Anubias
- Bacopa Carolina 
- Amazon swords
- Red rubin sword
- Crypt Wendii
- Misc bulbs
- Water sprite
- A teeny bit of E. Tennelus 
- Crinium Calamistratum
- Crypt balansae
- Aponogeton 
- Java fern
- More?

Fauna: 
- 4 Angelfish (1 koi, 1 smokey, 1 marble, 1 veil tail koi)
- 2 Catfish - Synodontis eupterus
- 3 Colombian Tetras
- 2 Rainbow fish
- 3 Rummy noses tetras (was 25, got eaten)
- 6 Neon tetras (were more, got eaten)
- 3 Sunset Platies
- 1 Congo tetra
- 1 White tipped tetra
- 1 Gold barb
- 2 Bushy nose plecos 
- Asolene Spixi snails


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

I'd suspect your angels and Synod cats as the prime culprits for eating the tetras. I learned the hard way I can't keep either of those fish with small fish.


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

It's my angels  No matter how well they're fed, any small fish is still food. I need to buy them in very large quantities to keep any alive.


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

I'd stop buying them expensive "feeders" and pick out some bigger fish! What about some of the bigger-bodied tetras, like Congos or Diamonds?


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

lauraleellbp said:


> I'd stop buying them expensive "feeders" and pick out some bigger fish! What about some of the bigger-bodied tetras, like Congos or Diamonds?


I have congos, they're about 5 inches <333 I love little schooling fish and rummies just happen to be my favorite. I read a post on this site where someone could buy 100 cardinals for a buck or something. I need to talk to them lol, though I'm pretty sure he was in Canada.


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

Pretty sure it was $1 each, lol

Dr.F&S had them for less than $2 each recently...


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

*Rescape 2!*

Yay for another rescape!

I got some gorgeous Ludwigia Cuba and my CO2 stuff came so I figured today would be the perfect day. First I set up the CO2, which seems to be working okay. My new manifold works well and my check valves are great too. I have to say, despite some of the bad reviews, I didn't have any problem ordering from aquaspot world. The only things I'm unclear on for CO2 are bpm and whether or not I should see CO2 'misting'. I set my bpm at about 3bpm per second and see some teeny bubbles but not a ton. My drop checker is hovering somewhere between blue and green.

To rescape, I got out my ladder and my pruners and pulled up every large plant and stem plant in my tank. The swords got a ton of leaves stripped off, all my stems were hacked in half with and the gravel was given a serious vacuum. Most people probably won't be able to tell the difference, but I moved all the plants around, took out the watersprite, and planted a big field of L. Cuba in the middle back of my tank. It looks like I'm going to need to order more E. Tenellus to recarpet the front and some plant that grows inbetween my swords and stems. My stems will happily reach 30 inches (ludwigia, sunset hygro, etc) but my swords are only 12-18 leaving a big height gap. Any suggestions?

This is the part where I post a bunch of pictures for you....only I can't. I took a ton, but cannot find my camera cord Anywhere! The pictures will have to wait till I can find a way to upload them.


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

lauraleellbp said:


> Pretty sure it was $1 each, lol
> 
> Dr.F&S had them for less than $2 each recently...


Nope, that was the crazy part. It was sNApple in Canada
"A local fish store sells cardinals at 1$ for 100"


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

I'm still pretty sure he meant $1 each if you buy 100 :icon_cool


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

*And brought to you by my awesome printer...*











I seriously apologize for the quality of these photos. The water was still pretty cloudy when I took them and though I tried to lower the exposure a bit to make it easier to see, they're still pretty bad.


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## da1001 (Jan 9, 2008)

Looks pretty darn natural except for the pot in the corner, except im not a fan of pots, so thats just me complaining. Keep up the good work!


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## mizu-chan (May 13, 2008)

This tank is looking really great. :thumbsup:


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

Thanks!! I didn't really have a place to put the pot so I kinda just stuck it there. I don't know if I want to keep it or not, but my fish do seem to love it. Maybe if the moss grows in it will hide the pot and then I'll stick it in the back somewhere.


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

Looking into doing some restocking! Could you please put in your opinion here or on my other thread over here:
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/fish/71636-schooling-fish-stocking-please-vote-2.html

I'm trying to get some larger schools, at least one school of 'smaller' fish. However, really small fish are angelfish food so they need to be 2+ inches. 

Choices:
- Yellow Congo Tetras (5 inches)
- Emperor Tetras (2 inches)
- Rainbow Fish (2-5 inches)
- Colombian Tetras (3 inches)

Keep in mind I already have 1 congo, 3 colombians, and 3 rainbow fish.


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

I'm beginning to think that you might have been right about the cats. I couldnt resist buying a whole bunch of beautiful, expensive, big cardinals and overnight 7 have disappeared. None of my angels look fat but my syndo cats bellies are HUGE! I think I need to set up a tank just for them and get them out of there. The only problem is they are very very large fish and I think they need a lot of room. I dunno if I have enough room to take them out.



lauraleellbp said:


> I'd suspect your angels and Synod cats as the prime culprits for eating the tetras. I learned the hard way I can't keep either of those fish with small fish.


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## Karlo (Aug 6, 2008)

I have never had a problem with my fat synodontis eupterus eating my small tetras. but thats just me.


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

Oh it was DEFINITELY them lol. My dominant male would swim underneath my sleeping tetras and suck them into his mouth which was about the size of a dime. My smaller, non-dominant male, didn't touch them. My big guy went through 7 of my cardinals in one night and his belly was so bloated he looked like he might explode. I should add that my big guy was about 8 inches long and the dominant fish in the tank bottom. 

I took both of them (couldn't bear to separate them) and re-homed them in a gigantic tank maintained by one of my best friends. It was really hard to give them up since I've had them for so long but I haven't lost a fish since and they seem pretty happy in their new home. They definitely aren't as spoiled though! At my house they used to swim to the top and open their mouthes and someone would drop food in for them whenever they walked by the tank. While they were in the store, they would swim to the top and no one would feed them. Needless to say, they were seriously disappointed. 

Since then, I've added a few rummies, 2 more cardinals, 8 rainbow fish, 2 gouramis, 5 cories, 3 congo tetras, and a pair of rams. All are happy and healthy and no one has been eaten. The cardinals and rummies are more relaxed now that they're not worrying about being eaten. The plants are growing a bit better too since the cats arent there to rip them up when they swim by. 




Karlo said:


> I have never had a problem with my fat synodontis eupterus eating my small tetras. but thats just me.


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

*9/12 Update - 1 month w/ CO2+ EI dosing*

A quick update on growth and issues!

*Full Tank Shots: *





*
Issues/Close ups: *

L. Cuba - sadly no pink leaves of 6inch caps. I just ordered some TMG to help bring out better color. 


Sunset hygro - beginning to turn pink again! And this time it's not from nitrogen deficiency 


Aponogetton finally came back after being dormant


Rotala Indica - not a lot of growth though they were originally just tiny tops. I wonder if they're not getting enough light down there? They also aren't very pink.


Old leaves v new leaves - the old ones are covered in a weird brown algae that showed up after I started adding CO2. It's on some sword leaves and totally ate up one of my bulbs. 


Java fern's algae pearling lol


Chewed up bulb with brown algae. Hopefully this guy will come back. 

As you can see from the pictures, I still have a lot of BBA left over from when I had no CO2. Excel took care of most of it on my anubias on the wood but I haven't been able to reach down to the bottom with a syringe to spot treat it on the lower anubias. 

I also removed the slate bottom from the driftwood on the right so there's not a pretty big dip in the substrate and it's propped up by a piece of rock. I'm thinking of adding a nice red plant in front of it, maybe l. glandulosa to give it a nice accent and hide the rock. 

I've been dosing EI:
MWF
1 1/2 tsp kno3
1/2 tsp k2so4
1/2 tsp kh2po4

T,TH,Sun
1/2 tsp csm+b

but I think I want to even things out more. Instead, I'm going to try:

MTWTHFS:
3/4 tsp kno3
1/4 tsp k2so4
1/4 tsp khpo4
TMG

This way, the nitrogen levels will stay more consistant and the red plants will get TMG everyday. Don't worry, I'll wait a few hours before dosing the micros after the macros. 

I think I may also want to turn up the CO2 a little bit and see if the fish can handle it to give the plants a boost. My needle valves aren't that great, but if you're patient with them you can get them pretty accurate. 

I need to fill in the hole left by the slate and was thinking about adding mroe substrate to the back. However, the fish and plants have to stay in there so it can't be something that will affect the water parameters. Since I have laterite, river clay, gravel already in there, I was thinking it would have to be something similar. Maybe more laterite or flourite or florabase?

Comments and criticism welcome!


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

Come on, everyone loves to comment on pictures!


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## Wingsdlc (Dec 9, 2005)

Fine I will play the comment game with you if you play the comment game with me and my 55G. = P

Your plants are looking the best I think I have seen them. It is really amazing what they do for you when you give them what they need. As far as CO2 goes, I wouldn't be afraid to crank it up some. I have run mine close to 75 ppm before and the fish were fine.

As you mentioned, some sort of red plant would look nice with the set up. Just make sure you don't center it. The second plant concern I have is the trimming of the plants. It would be nice to see tighter groups of stem plants.


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

I'd like to see some tighter groups myself though I have a few concerns. For the l. cuba, I've heard that if you trim it the bottom stem will die instead of making a new cap. Has this been anyone's experience? The online information said it's better to wait till they put off a branch and then trim the branch off. 

For the l. repens, I keep hacking off the branches and planting them down but not a lot are tall enough to see yet. I'm also running into a space issue since my swords are growing out instead of up. They seem to enjoy getting bunchy and wide and since my tank is only 18 inches deep, I feel like I don't have enough room. Any suggestions on something to replace it with? I like the swords but I want one thats going to be inclinced to grow up. 

I just added a little bit of rotala macrandra in front of my driftwood on the right. If it decides to grow for me instead of melting, I'll move it back and find something else to put there. It should be able to get over 20 inches but that's only if it'll grow for me lol.



Wingsdlc said:


> As you mentioned, some sort of red plant would look nice with the set up. Just make sure you don't center it. The second plant concern I have is the trimming of the plants. It would be nice to see tighter groups of stem plants.


*Sunday To Do List: *
- remove the slate bottom from the piece of wood on the left
- move the amazon sword to the right of the wood forward so more ludwigia can be planted
- remove the java fern from behind the right driftwood and tie it to the left driftwood. 
- fill in the space left by the java fern with sunset hygro trimmings
- if possible, add some new substrate in. Not sure what kind yet. 
- move the centered front anubias forward a few inches

Is there anything else anyone would like to see done in terms of the scape?


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

It looks like I'll have to post pone my scape change a bit until I can get some flourite. Does anyone have any other suggestions on where they'd like to see things moved/removed/added?


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

*Update w/ different white balance*

FTS:






New Pink Plant:


In other news, I just ordered a wonderful deal from aquabuys! I got 2x 48 inch 54 T5HO lights to add to the set up and help some of my higher light plants do better. Now I just need a bag of flourite, to fix my CO2 which won't come on in the morning and to rescape some things. 

I also need a shorter awesome focus plant to put in front of the l. Cuba and slightly to the right. I was thinking something red but I'm open to suggestions. 

Comments or suggestions?


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## epicfish (Sep 11, 2006)

Just gotta wait until the new lighting helps you fill in the back stems a bit more. 

How much Fluorite did you need? A whole bag?


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

Probably, I want to slope the back a bit, fill in the hole on the right from where I took out the slate and prepare to fill in the hole on the left that will be there as soon as I remove the slate from that driftwood too.

The slate I removed from the right is 12"x11" and .5" thick so the other one should be about the same. 

I'm really hoping for some dense stem growth and a field of e. tenellus


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

Well, I've been dosing this daily since 9/11/08 and my nitrate levels still read as 0. 

MTWTHFS:
3/4 tsp kno3
1/4 tsp k2so4
1/4 tsp khpo4
Splash of flourish

Should I up the dosage? Remember, this is daily not every other day. I think my stems, esp l. cuba, might just be so greedy that they need more nutrients...


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

Any dosing advice from someone who has been dosing longer than I have?


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

*Leeeeeak!*

So this morning I wake up and look over to my tank, half asleep, and for some reason my tank seems to be missing 2-3 inches of water. I think hmm, I don't remember doing a water change this morning...

I get up, and instead of hard wood and rug, my feet are in a puddle of water! I jump up to look at my tank and start checking ever inch of the glass but I can't find a crack anywhere! I move onto the filter tubes and even those look good, no matter how many times I run my hands down them I can't find any water. I check the seals on the canisters, the connections and the stand but there's still no leak.

Finally, I move onto my CO2 system and BAM, there's the darn leak! The tubing going to my left bubble counter, the bubble counter that hasn't been working, has tiny pin prick holes in it from where my cat thought it would be a good idea to chew on it. I am so lucky that he only chewed on that tubing instead of my filter tubing or I would have had an empty tank. 

I'm also really glad now that I used extra long tubing because I could just cut out the leaking portion and reattach the non-leaking portion. Hopefully, this will fix the problem with my bubble counter and get my CO2 system back on track.


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

*RESCAPE coming Tomorrow!*

Here is my tank as it is as of last week:



Tomorrow I will be yanking ALL the plants out and adding one bag of flourite original. It will be sloped pretty high in the back, maybe 6-7 inches deep. I have some new lighting coming on the 22nd so I will also be changing the lights around to make it more even and better suited to a burst of light in the middle of the day. 

Please please please comment and tell me what you think would make the tank look better! I'm going to have everything out so I can rearrange it accordingly! I am planning on making the stems into denser, tighter bunches, but where should those bunches be?

Come on people, I need to see some of that brilliant creativity!


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

It's kind of hard to make suggestions with that blank a canvas... what about posting some pictures of tanks that inspire you, with features you'll like to incorporate or adapt a little for your own tank?


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

Sorry for the late response, a friend had a major emotional crisis that I had to take care of. So, I thought things through a bit and I came up with these pictures that I like. They all belong to their respective owners and are all beautiful tanks put together on this forum.

Kotoeloncat 
http://i340.photobucket.com/albums/o356/kotoeloncat/100_0408.jpg

Erirku
http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee246/GeekPhysique/105 Gallon aquarium/105g2_031208.jpg

Kookaburra
http://portail.aquagora.fr/CAPA2007/photos/1179173815_kookaburra_photo1.jpg

Wö£fëñxXx
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/avatars/w-f-xxx.gif?type=sigpic&dateline=1167629129

Wasserpest
http://www.plantedtank.net/imageh/images/12/4051013a.jpg

crshadow
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/a...-high-journal-56k-angelsinparadise1-1024a.jpg

unix2k
http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o103/unix2k/DSC02820.jpg

SuRje1976
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q146/SuRje1976/Planted ADA 120P/CIMG7371a.jpg

Things I like:
- I really want a Lush look, I like lots of plant mass instead of the minimalist style
- I don't want to see much of my background, I want tall plants covering it
- I love the contrasts of rich reds against bright green plants
- I don't want to deal with separation of substrate, so I want the whole thing planted 
- I like the fully planted tank look as opposed to the all plants on one side edge of the forest look. It would just look way too weird in my tall tank
- I definitely want defined bunches not scattered stems
- I want my stems to be dense, not scraggly 
- I want a lush green grassy field!
- I'd love to try moss on the wood but it hasn't worked so far
- I want plants that have height, unlike the sad little swords that won't grow taller than 12 inches. I thought they were amazons but apparently not. 
- I really really like red plants 
- I find trimming things every week to be relaxing, not a hassle 
- I like the thick jungle look, lots of plant mass in beautiful bunches
- I like wood that branches upwards because my tank is so tall


The plants I have now don't seem to match up to the heights they're supposed to so I'm not sure where things should go. It's also hard for me to see while staring at it where things would look best. Any advice going off of that would really help.


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

No suggestions? For starters, I was thinking of removing the java fern and sword from behind the right driftwood and just planting sunset hygro there


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

3:30pm 
Well, the flourite is washed and is drying on a sheet in the backyard. I had to pressure wash small batches of it to get the water to run clear, but its pretty good now. 

Almost all the plants are out of the tank, I'm just fighting to get a few stubborn stems out of the back.

6:30pm
I had just enough time to get the substrate into the tank and the driftwood back into place before I had to leave for work. The fish are doing well and I replaced the broken impeller on my 404. I think it's still having trouble priming because the flow is very weak so i'll have to look at it when I get back. 

For scaping I'm not sure what I want yet. Let me make a little diagram and I'll post it in a bit.


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## epicfish (Sep 11, 2006)

- I want a lush green grassy field! = E. tenellus, "dwarf" sag that (mine never stayed so dwarf)
- I love the contrasts of rich reds against bright green plants
--Red: Ludwigia inclinata var. verticillata 'Cuba', Ludwigia inclinata var. verticillata 'Pantanal' , Ludiwiga repens x Ludwigia arcuata, L. brevripes., Nesaea sp., Ludwigia inclinata are all fast growers and will grow nice and tall to fill up your tank.
--Green: Any other stems. 

You could accomplish a lush look with a few larger anubias, java ferns, or Bolbitis heudelotii.

What plants do you have now?


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

Right now I've got...

- L. repens
- L. cuba
- R. indica (a few stems)
- Sunset hygro
- Bacopa Carolina (a few stems)
- Java fern 
- Anubias barteri
- Anubias (A teller variety)
- Amazon swords (aren't very 'amazon', they're wide but only 12 inches)
- Some random bulbs that look like crypt 
- Some random bulbs, green, narrow leaves, 27 inches tall
- E. tenellus


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

Here's kind of what I had before but I definitely don't like it. I don't know what to do with the middle and it looked too short because my swords are only 12 inches.


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

These Amano aquariums are incredible:

http://www.adana.co.jp/aj_web/img/suikei_0807_03.jpg

http://www.adaaust.com.au/gallery/contest2005/photo/foto_04_05.jpg

http://www.adaaust.com.au/gallery/contest2005/photo/foto_05_05.jpg

http://www.adaaust.com.au/gallery/contest2005/photo/foto_03_05.jpg

Looking at these, I really feel like I'm letting down the middle of the aquarium. What can I do here to give it a more balanced look??


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

more ideas...


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

Planting has begun! It's pretty slow due to a lack of a definite plan, but I think it's going well. The sunset hygro is planted densely in the right corner but I'm having some problems in the left because there's a lot more room back there and I don't have as much ludwigia repens as I need. I also have only a stem of bacopa and a few stems of rotala indica so I'm not sure how to plant them.


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

End of day one planting! 

I got the sunset hygro planted in the right corner, the ludwigia repens planted in the left corner, the ludwigia cuba planted in the middle, the rotala indica planted in front of the ludwigia repens and the e. tenellus foreground planted. I also put in the swords but I definitely don't like them where they are so I need to move them. The anubias and everything else in the middle is just thrown in to keep it warm overnight and the rest of the plants are in two 5 gallon buckets. 

I bought a new bubble counter but unfortunately it leaks. I put it on and it immediately began spitting CO2. I am going to need to take it back to the store tomorrow.


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

Quick-N-Dirty Update:



Here's the tank as of this morning. I have two buckets full of swords, an aponogetton, anubias, and bulbs that look like crypts. 

Where should I put them??


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

Quick-N-Dirty Update 2:


Swords are in, what do people think of the java fern? I wasn't sure where to stick it, there or on the other driftwood stump. 


Stuff that still has to go in

Any suggestions on the anubias?


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## epicfish (Sep 11, 2006)

I'd put the java fern in the middle, between the two wood branches.


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

In the middle of the two branches on the left?



epicfish said:


> I'd put the java fern in the middle, between the two wood branches.


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

Rescape halted due to impending arrival of family from out of town. They just don't appreciate the organized chaos of a rescape.


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

Definitely triggered a mini cycle with all my disruptive fussing the other day. My tank has ammonia in it for the first time in forever o-o 30% water change to hopefully take care of it.


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

Another quick bad update:





Please excuse the bad picture quality. I just snapped some new ones to show you how bright the new lights are. I'm still looking for someone with a deep red plant that I can put where that floating amazon sword is.


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

Another quick update!

I'm dealing with a lot of green dust algae as I mess around with my lighting schedule/configuration so please excuse the mess. I ended up removing a lot of plant mass when I rescaped the tank and I added the lights so it's making a nice thin film on everything. I think I've finally got it worked out though, 4 bulbs (2 PC 2 T5HO) on all day and 2 bulbs (2 PC) on for a four hour burst in the middle of the day. I'd ideally like to get some moonlights as well that I can have on in the morning and at night to shorten my overall photo period but I haven't had the cash to do so yet. 

So, here's a few quick pics and a video of all the pearling my plants have been doing lately 





Quick video:
http://img531.imageshack.us/my.php?image=mvi02919230594dq2.flv

Problems to deal with so far:
- Still need to get my bubble counter exchanged 
- I found the leak in my chiller and it's ugly


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

Man this LA heat wave sucks! It's 80 degrees at 11:30pm and my tank is 86 degrees. I don't even want to know what it was earlier today. I've already lost one otto 

I hope my chiller is back in working order soon!!!


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## jaidexl (Sep 18, 2006)

Is your CO2 not working? I see the drop checker is blue and the BBA looks pretty bad. :frown:


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

jaidexl said:


> Is your CO2 not working? I see the drop checker is blue and the BBA looks pretty bad. :frown:


You would be correct. One of my bubble counters is broken and leaks (the one I just bought). I'm waiting on a replacement which should have been in on Saturday but wasnt  

To try and salvage some things, I have that bubble counter turned off and the working one turned up but it can't compensate for such a big tank and I can't turn it up all the way or it just lets out big bubbles. You can tell that only the reactor on the right is working bc the plants are growing well there while the ones on the left are growing slowly. 

Add in that the flow is reduced on both my fluvals - the right bc the pipe was clogged in the rescape (fixed) and the left for reasons as of yet unknown. Unfortunately, the left one is the spray bar one so the CO2 that is being injected isn't circulating. 

Add in the heat which the algae just loooooooves and I'm just surprised I don't have pea soup lol. I managed to set my lighting in a somewhat coherent fashion, 4 bulbs most of the day and 6 bulbs for 4 hours at noon. Eventually, I'd like to have them come on gradually and have moon lighting on in the morning and evening but I haven't gotten there yet. I'm also not sure if my 4 hour burst has been coming on because the timer has been acting wonky and I haven't been home to check it. 

Sigh, it's been a crazy week and it's only tuesday, or technically wednesday. At least I got some new plants in today so maybe those will help outcompete the algae.


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## jaidexl (Sep 18, 2006)

Have you tried dosing Excel?


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

jaidexl said:


> Have you tried dosing Excel?


Yep, I was using it to spot treat the algae. If you look, it was mostly gone from my anubias and my java fern, the two slow growers it liked the most. Now I think there's a touch more on the java fern but I think the anubias is still okay for the most part. 

I've just added a bit to the water once or twice but it was definitely an eyeballed dose. Do you think I should mix that into the dosing routine until the CO2 is back?


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## jaidexl (Sep 18, 2006)

I think you should dose it period, once every day as directed.


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

jaidexl said:


> I think you should dose it period, once every day as directed.


Even after the CO2 is fixed? I was under the impression that it was one or the other. Or do you mean just until the BBA has finally decided to go away?

I do have another half gallon of it so dosing it wouldn't be a big problem.


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## jaidexl (Sep 18, 2006)

Excel is gluteraldahyde, which is an algaecide. Seache4m can't and won't market it as an algaecide due to legal mumbo jumbo. I would dose it until the BBA is gone whether CO2 is running or not. Adding both together might not be necessary forever, but shouldn't hurt anything to do both (some plants don't agree with it) and they'll assist each other to make a stronger fight against the BBA.


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

im totally in love with your gouramies!!
i love the opaline ones, they're beautiful. and all your tetras look amazing.


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

monkeyruler90 said:


> im totally in love with your gouramies!!
> i love the opaline ones, they're beautiful. and all your tetras look amazing.


Thank you!!! And just because you were so nice to comment, I have some mid-update beauty shots of the tank. They look a little odd because my sunset hygro is only half trimmed. I sold the large middle chunk and I'm saving a few stems on the left for a friend who wants to try it out. 

I'm also looking for a few dark blue female opaline gouramis because my males are getting testy. They're hard to come by but I think I've found some.




fyi, this pic here is the view from my bed


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## bigguy05641 (Nov 19, 2005)

Wow I just read this thread from beginning to end. Your enthusiasm and diligence are admirable. The tank is beautiful.


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## John7429 (Jan 11, 2008)

Having seen this tank in person, I can say that the pictures do not do it justice.

Very nice~~~


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## Wingsdlc (Dec 9, 2005)

The tank is looking mighty sweet!


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

Thanks everyone!!!

Here's a quick update. Please excuse the low water level as I'm allowing the baby SAE to become accustomed to the tank without jumping. I tried to get some pictures that were more true to life color-wise but I'm not sure if I succeeded. 













New Ram Meet and Greet:










Some Itty Bitty Baby Cardinals!




As you can see, these 4 new guys are about 1/3 the size of mine.

My seriously ugly bushy nose  He's awesome




New SAE. They're awesome cleaners!



Now I need more Cuba to fill in my background and Gladulosa to fill in the left middle.


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## John7429 (Jan 11, 2008)

Lookin good Sara~!!!

Now lets get some shrimp in there


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

Thanks


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## NATURE AQUARIUM (Dec 16, 2007)

roud:roud: Good looking tank, the rams look very healthy.


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## melissa3 (Apr 18, 2007)

Jealousy ensues!!! :biggrin:

Awesome, awesome, awesome!! I want to swim in it :tongue:


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## Captain Hooked (Oct 13, 2008)

Hey! Somebody tell all those SAE's to get back to work!

Seriously, I love the tank. I hope to have something this nice in my living room some day soon. Thanks for sharing! :thumbsup:

I also love the ram pics- they're so animated! Drama queens....


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## unirdna (Jan 22, 2004)

A very difficult tank to aquascape. Nice use of driftwood - adding a horizontal element to a tank usually dominated by vertical growth. roud:


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

Thanks everyone! 

The rams really are total drama queens. Even after I got my males a set of females, one tried to hog all of them to himself. The new ram is supposed to be a Bolivian but he's not colored up yet in the pics. 

@ captain - you nailed it! I've had a ton of CO2 issues in this tank, from one side not working to the CO2 just not coming on it the morning o-o. You can see the remnants of BBA on the driftwood and anubias from when the CO2 wouldnt come on and some lovely fuzzy green algae from when one side (the reactor on that side) didn't work. Luckily, the SAE are like miniature vacuums and are making fairly quick work of it. 

@ unirda - you are completely right! This take has been the biggest pain in the butt to scape. I've been working on it forever and it still isn't quite right. I'm just glad that I can finally get my plants up to the surface and I don't have a bunch of negative space from the middle up. When I bought it, it was primarily for my angels who like tall tanks and I didn't think about how i was going to make something work on that scale. 

Anyone have scaping suggestions? I'm finding that plants don't really follow the rules in my tank. Crypts that are supposed to stay small are getting giant 24 inch leaves and even my bacopa is pretty giant lol.


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## deleted_user_16 (Jan 20, 2008)

those are some pretty GBR's!! where'd you find such nice ones? 

nice work on the tank!!!


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

Thanks!! My friend gets them in from a local breeder. I haven't seen some as nice as these guys are in a while though, even my teeny male (that I originally thought was a female lol) is bright and colorful. Their color is consistent as well (good parents!) since the second batch of babies to come in from that breeder has the same lovely coloring. 




fishman9809 said:


> those are some pretty GBR's!! where'd you find such nice ones?
> 
> nice work on the tank!!!


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

Whoops! While graduating from college, I let my tank get a bit overgrown! The watersprite at the surface completely took over, blocking a lot of light and it got really cold here as well. As a result, a lot of my stem plants like my bacopa and ludwigia have lost their leaves. Does anyone know if the leaves will come back once the light is no longer blocked?


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## cyberhog05 (Jan 5, 2009)

Nice looking tank! I just stumbled onto your thread and I had to chuckle when I seen the ladder in front of your tank in the first posts you made! I have a 110t as well and I have the same size ladder too!:icon_lol: I sure get tired of submerging my entire arm and shoulder to reach the bottom


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

*Major Rescape!*

*!Massive re-scape coming soon! *​
So far...


1/2 the bulbs have been changed out
Substrate mixed, aerated and turned over
CO2 canister replaced
Plants purchased from 7Matt7 and Jim's Exotic Fish and planted blindly with help from a long armed friend
To do...


One more T5HO and two more 65watt PCs need replacing
One Fluval 404 needs to be trouble shooted as of an hour ago :/
Wait patiently while everything rebounds and begins to grow in

Pictures coming soon 

Update 5/4/10

So apparently replacing just half the bulbs was a bit too much for the anubias. It looks like it's actually being scorched, even as it pearls, so I may hold off for just a bit on replacing the other T5 and PCs. A lot of the plants damaged in transit are also pretty melty so it'll be a bit longer before pics are ready.


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

So I tried the two pieces of wood on one side, kind of like a tree. Unfortunately, instead of a tree it looks more like a mess so I think I'm going to have to switch it back. The plants have also strangely melted despite more than adequate lights, ferts, CO2 and substrate. I think when i stirred up all my gravel I released some icky gasses that melted things, since there's no sign of anything on a test kit, the fish are fine, and there's new growth. More to come, definitely another rescape I think.


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## BIGFOOTRoger (Jan 18, 2009)

roud:

wow,

That first pic is fantastic :bounce:

Alas, I agree , that perhaps there was a cycling issue of sorts.

I love "Micron" polishing filters..........

You could get back to that Sparkle Look with a Micron filter.
No!....I do not own the company... but i wear the hair piece.:help:


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