# 180 Gallons of Ferny Wood



## Kathyy (Feb 22, 2010)

First the saga...............

Well the creaky cloudy old 180 long is in the back yard waiting for a new home. Found a standard 6'x2'x2' 180 gallon tank on Craig's List that was drilled with 3 holes and had a clear back, actually intended as a peninsula tank. No stand, dubious looking repair to the bottom and best of all --- coralline algae residue on the panels intended for the left and front of the tank!

First up, the stand as I couldn't leak test unless the tank was on something. I read the whole thread started by RocketEngineer on Reef Central and got brave enough to try it out. Came out okay, tank has been filled for several times now and it seems just fine. Stand isn't finished as the doors have been a very sticky point but I WILL get them done! 
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=1169964

Next was the repair. I tested the tank and it was more oozing than dripping. I used solvent and acrylic bar to reinforce the repair on the inside of the tank rather than trying to stop it on the outside. Not leaking, fingers crossed.

Tank on stand, see the coralline algae residue at front right? That was the worst of it but the whole end opposite the overflow was unsatisfactory. See the cardboard mock up of the sump?









I tried vinegar, Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, bathroom hard water deposit cleaners and d_iatomaceous_ earth to get the stuff off. Nothing. So I spent the big bucks and got a set of micro mesh polishing cloths. I tried them out on the rear of the tank that didn't much matter and the stuff came off beautifully with the #3200 mesh. So hand polished with that just where the residue was and continued with the rest of the meshes. I didn't get it all and the tank isn't perfect but it isn't bad. Then I went to diatomaceous earth with water and a wool pad on the drill to finish the whole thing then polished it.

Scary at this stage of polishing.








Filled polished tank, clear enough. 









Outside ready to come in the house, window film on and scape concept set up. This was taken Saturday afternoon. Thought I was tired then.









I picked up and carried home reddish volcanic rocks from around here. The largest is too heavy and large for me to pick up with one hand and I sure was tired after carrying it 1/4 mile. The wood is recycled from the previous tank, screwed and tied together into 3 jumbles of wood then one end of each has a bit of acrylic sheet screwed to help anchor it in the substrate. I went over each bit of wood with a dull paring knife to roughly scrape off softened wood and did find a couple pieces that were quite rotten inside. Basically the same hardscape as the 180 long with more foreground area.

The window film is definitely not perfect but seems to be sticking fine. I wish it was a bit more translucent but lit up the color matches the wall color very nicely and it sure looks better than a plastic drop sheet taped to the tank and the wall! Even though I tried to take my time and get out the bubbles they still formed and even though you are supposed to be able to work the film for a few hours before the adhesive sticks for good I wasn't able to easily remove and restick it so thought it best to leave well enough alone. It was fun anyway, used lots of soapy water and it was fun to squeegee it out.

DH and I got the tank and stand into the house just fine with a couple of dollies and sliding pads. I had forgotten to measure the door opening and stand, made it by 2". My stand was perfectly level once in place. Remarkable as the patio where I built it was NOT level anywhere! Thought that was a tiring day............

Hardscape and ground covering plants in, see the very dirty partial fill that gets dumped to rinse the substrate's surface? This was taken at about 6pm Tuesday after a total of 5 hours work.









Half an hour after planting with filter on and nearly cleared up. Taken Tuesday evening about 9:30pm. Now I am definitely tired!









What was I doing Monday you ask? I put the sump in place which wasn't easy but it did fit perfectly. And I set up the lights. Two of the ballasts decided to quit on me. Lovely. I only need 2 so another one is on order. But that took it out of me so I decided to quit for the day.

The tank is perfectly clear now, enough flow is an amazing thing! I blasted the tank with CO2 for a day even when lights were out and the tank has window screen over the top. I am moving the single metal halide from side to side and it is on for 11 hours a day. At some point I will take pictures of how nice it looks but first I need to wipe the water marks off.

Today I returned the fish to the tank which took about 1/4 the time it took to net them out of the old tank. Turned off the CO2 for the night, made sure the fish bin and tank had about the same water temperature and no ammonia and moved the fish in this morning. The fish spent 4 nights in a 25 gallon bin with the HOT filter serving as a power head with its intake covered with a prefilter sponge and a heater. One platy jumped out somehow and a female Congo tetra was dead but several tiny platies survived the rest of the hungry fish somehow. I remembered not to feed the fish the day before the move and they weren't fed while in the bin. I put the largest clumps of fern in there for cover and stuff to pick at though.

Next post will be the plants, fish and specifics on set up. Maybe even a photo of a clear tank without water spots but don't count on it.


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## Wasserpest (Jun 12, 2003)

Lots of work, but the result is great. Something to be proud of! :fish:


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## andrewss (Oct 17, 2012)

wow looks great so far... very nice work


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## izabella87 (Apr 21, 2012)

This is so beautiful ! keep it up, cant wait to see ur progress


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## jan db (Dec 20, 2011)

Looking great Kathyy! Can't wait to see it evolve!


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## Kathyy (Feb 22, 2010)

Thank you! I am enjoying this tank a great deal. Not finishing it up yet though.

Hard ware.

This tank is reef ready with a trapezoid overflow box centered on one short end. It has a 2" bulkhead and two 3/4" bulkheads. I am using the 2" as the main drain, one of the 3/4" as the emergency drain and the other 3/4" bulkhead as the return from the CO2 reactor. The main drain has a Poret foam block with a hole carved out of the center as a prefilter. Having an open drain with a ball valve, not such a good idea. Didn't check to see how large the opening is in the ball valve when the drain is running full but not sure fish that fit through the skimmer teeth can fit through the partly closed ball valve.

It worked out that outside the stand plumbing is PVC and under is mostly tubing. I discovered that hose clamps aren't just screw end but also hex so found a wrench and leaks don't stand a chance now.

Back to Reef Central to research pumps and I ended up with a pond pump - Laguna Flo-Max 1500. I am using the Laguna and the old main pump, Rio 2500 for water flow. The Laguna's return goes outside the stand and up the overflow end of the tank and is painted black. A true Y splits the return and there are two simple PVC elbows serving as returns coming in through holes drilled on the top panel of the tank. The Rio is plumbed through the bottom of the tank and is running the 20" Cerges CO2 reactor. If the output has no head then it looks okay on paper, 1500gph+780gph and not even too bad at 4' head of 1320+430gph but the truth is probably more like half that what with the inevitable turns to fit the thing together. 

For some reason the Cerge's is working better now than it did going up and over and with 6' of horizontal pipe like in the 8' tank. I have its output on 6" of Loc Line pointed at about 45* down and diagonally to the left rear corner. The Black Neon Tetras adore the big 1" returns and half the time are schooling near one or the other of them. I have some extensions I can put on them and may as the fish tend to explore and I am hearing some slurps as the fish hit the skimmer teeth and escape.

I can see debris moving steadily towards the skimmer and all the plant leaves seem clean and gently moving. There is quite a ripple on the tank's surface and somehow the left end is perfectly clean. Not sure how that works with the strong ripple from the right and the skimmer also on the right but it seems to be doing so.

The sump has two drains, one 2" and one 3/4" emergency drain. The 2" drain is causing quite the ripple in its section of the sump. I may end up drilling a number of holes near the bottom to diffuse the flow more. The 3/4" drain is just dumping straight down into the return area but I will add bits of hose and elbows so it drains to the drain area soon. Running two 200 watt heaters as before and the pumps have prefilter sponges on them as before. The filter media is the same, the original sump sponge plus some scrubbies sandwiched between a 4" 10 pore per inch Poret sponge and a 2" thick 30PPI Poret sponge. I cut a piece of sponge to make pads to dampen the vibrations of the pumps and it sure helped. At the moment I do hear a hum and water falls through the skimmer teeth, not bad. I will cut a longer 3/4" pipe so I can raise the level of the water in the overflow box at some point.

There was a platy in the overflow so I pulled up the emergency drain to flush her down. Not a great idea. I couldn't see where the pipe went in and the emergency drain blew all sorts of mulm into the return pumps so the tank was cloudy and I don't even see the platy in the sump! The tank was mostly clear inside 15 minutes and when I returned home in an hour the tank was again crystal clear. Wow.


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## Kathyy (Feb 22, 2010)

Plants currently in the tank.

All are replanted from the 8' tank.

On the wood -
Anubias nana
Bolbitis heteroclita
Bolbitis heudelotii
Microsorum pteropus varieties
'Red'
'Narrow Leaved'
'Trident'
'Dwarf Needle Leaf'

Foreground -
Eleocharis acicularis
Marsilea species
Staurogyne repens
with these planted in front as well 
Blyxa japonica
Cryptocoryne wendtii 'Green'
Lindernia rotundifolia 'Variagated'

Behind the wood
Cryptocoryne wendtii 'Bronze'?
Hydrocotyle leucocephala
Myriophyllum mattogrossense
Persicaria 'Kawagoeanum'

Since I have one working ballast until next week I am using a 12 hour photoperiod and moving the one light half way through. Tank is covered with window screen at the moment as well. I don't see any great distress from the light loving plants yet, Staurogyne leaves seem firmly stuck to the stems so far and Kawagoeanum is red at the top.

I made up root tabs and they are placed about 4" apart where ever rocks and wood aren't. Just used what Sewingalot uses, should be just fine. Fun to make but not sure I did it right as I didn't make much of a mess! 
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=187077&highlight=root

Tank is lit with 2 150 watt metal halides currently about 40" off the substrate. The bulbs are 8000K.


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## BoxxerBoyDrew (Oct 16, 2005)

You did a AWESOME JOB on the Tank!!!

I too can't wait to see this tank as it matures!!!

Subscribed!
Drew


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## 150EH (Dec 6, 2004)

I agree the tank look super and I know you put in a lot of hard work!!! I'd love to see some new photos of the tank as it stands today.


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## Kathyy (Feb 22, 2010)

Thanks everybody. That means a lot to me.

Did the first water change on Saturday. Despite all the ominous slurps against the skimmer teeth these were the only surfers, 3 platies, 1 oto, 2 black neon tetras and a corydoras. Been hearing fewer slurps, hoping they have figured it out.









It turned out to be easy to get them out. I turn off the pumps, pull out the emergency drain pipe for more access and net them out. There is still about an inch of water in the overflow box so they were fine. Just need to be sure there is enough room in the sump for the extra water or I would not be fine! 

I thought there would be a lot of mulm to vacuum up but it was gone. Kicked up by the corydoras and picked up by the water flow? Some plant debris was it. I have done a pretty good job of keeping the rocks and wood away from the tank panes so it went well. The wood seems nice and stable too.

The ballast hasn't arrived yet so only one light on. Here is the tank today. As soon as the lights are both on I will break out the tripod for steadier photos.









There is a floating Anubias I need to reseat and the pennywort is a tangle again. Not sure why the narrow leaved java fern looks odd, IRL it is flowing with the current and looks great. Except for a few melting crypt leaves so far so good. I do need to think on the background plantings, bit lumpy looking so far.

The fish have settled down, less frantic schooling by the corydoras and Black Neons. Black Neons adore current and love to school in front of the returns. Bristlenoses look great hanging from the tangle of wood and piled rocks.


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## mountaindew (Dec 10, 2008)

Wow 
This looks good, right from start.
will be nice to see this a few months from now.
md


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## GMYukonon24s (May 3, 2009)

That's a awesome! Nice work you did.


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## ua hua (Oct 30, 2009)

Very well doneroud:


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## Jeff5614 (Dec 29, 2005)

Nothing beats ferny wood  .


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## jart (Jan 17, 2003)

Great project.
I hope you're proud of yourself 
Tank looks amazing as is. It already looks mature.

I'm glad you were able to rescue your fish!


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## BoCoMo (Feb 23, 2009)

Looks great!


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## Kathyy (Feb 22, 2010)

Thanks a lot. Definitely ferny wood! I am sure I will need to change the planting around but I really like the hardscape and hope it will stay the same for a really long time. Fish like it, I only see half of them except when I drop food in the tank.

This week I cut out most of the overflow teeth to increase flow through the tank. It was very easy to do with a Dremel and cutoff wheel but I need to go back and even it out. Now the pump is nearly all the way open so I may have 1500 gallons per hour going through the sump. Probably not, probably more like 1000 but it seems to be pretty decent flow. The hairgrass at the far end of the tank is leaning away from the tank end and under the front return I can see the hairgrass leaning too. I covered the overflow box's top with a piece of corrugated plastic and attached a length of black ~1/2" square plastic hardware cloth to the front of it to attempt to keep fish out of the overflow box. It is easy to take off to rinse clean and muffles the little bit of waterfall noise. I used zip ties the wrong way around so they aren't permanent and can be loosened and tightened. 

At the water change this week with the overflow teeth still on I netted a platy, the small bristlenose pleco and an oto out of the overflow box. Yesterday after a day with overflow teeth replaced by plastic hardware cloth I netted out a large platy.

The bulbs have been changed to ADA NA. Very interesting that I don't need to play with the colors now, they are fine right from the camera although I have been doing some changes to get the photos to look precisely like what my eye sees. I prefer the warmer color of the 2 year old FNI 8000K bulbs but one was looking pretty strange when I removed it, flakes of white all over the inside of the bulb.

Tank last night. Pulled up the left hand pennywort and moved most to the right and pulled up the right hand Kawagoeanum and moved to the left. Looks better this way and will be better once I trim the Kawagoeanum down a bit. Moved the java fern at far left down quite a lot and did the same for the large narrow leaved java fern on the right. Kawagoeanum actually handles water movement better than pennywort so positions might need to be switched around.









Center of tank.









Right end of tank. I put the Anubias back in the opening of the wood. Without it the opening looks strange but just a few Anubias leaves there and it looks right.









Love this crevice, hope to convince a plant to grow in it.









Close view of left end of tank showing hairgrass blowing in the current.









DH's idea of how to handle the light ballasts. With that old tower fan on the ballasts in that nice but enormous ballast box the ballasts stay nice and cool. Issue is the fan must be on and not sure I have room in the stand for the thing. You can see the wood the power strips are on hanging from the end of the stand and there is the CO2 bottle in the back as well. Cannot wait to get the doors on with lots of baskets to get stuff I use daily out of the big bin.









So you can see I still have basic work to do to finish up. The doors need to be fitted and finished, need to decide how to handle the ballasts and I am going to modify the light bar to hide the cords better.


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## HybridHerp (May 24, 2012)

Any pics of the b. heteroclita?


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## rustbucket (Oct 15, 2011)

Have loved your tanks for a very long time!!

Your one of the reasons I got congo tetra, but may I ask if yours have a problem in the highlight? I have 7 in a 125 gallon and they hide most of the day, I am wondering if its my high lights? Thanks


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## Kathyy (Feb 22, 2010)

HybridHerb, the B. heteroclita isn't doing well. There are a couple nice fronds at the left and that white spot at the top right with a couple of stems is a plantlet with no fronds left. I am leaving the rhizome on to see if new leaves form but it sure doesn't look good. Before the plant was in the area with the most current, now it is 6' from the return. Don't know if that is it, more likely the young water adapted fronds couldn't handle being stored for a couple days out of water.









rustbucket, my fish are fine in the bright light. The last tank setup was quite densely planted in back so they were forced to stay in the front. This time they have found spots to hang out in back as well. They were well treated adult fish when I got them and have been perfect tank citizens for me. They ignore baby platies, don't nibble on plants, eat their food, mostly hang out together and their 'fights' are just some shoving and fin flaring. Maybe they were in a bright tank before I got them so they were used to it already? That doesn't explain the females I bought later though that are out and about all the time.

How much cover does your tank have? Perhaps some taller or floating plants would provide more security? I have noticed that with the cooler weather that they dislike 72*F and are more active at 76*F so the second heater is now back in the sump.


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## rustbucket (Oct 15, 2011)

I'm quite heavily planted, with tall vals, my females are the bravest as well


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## Kathyy (Feb 22, 2010)

Been too lazy to take photos but sure have been enjoying watching the fish. The giant Anubias on the left has been a favorite haunt of corydoras and baby platies. I suspect I am going to have to reduce its size though.

Have been increasing the light by taking off the window screen for longer periods each week. So far so good, no explosions of algae. I have wiped the tank panes though and been dosing Metricide at water changes. 

Myriophyllum is doing very poorly and the fish have been eating it. Hoping with more light it will recover. The big Bolbitis has a lot of badly damaged fronds I have been removing. Suspect I was too rough when I wedged it in the wood. Staurogyne is sulking and most looks like tiny palm trees as lower leaves have been shed. I trimmed the hairgrass as I see lots of new growth and it is starting to shed old growth so hoping to only have short hairgrass blades floating. Marsilea is doing terrific and looks like a carpet if you look through it at substrate level. I think I may be mowing it next week to see if the main part will grow more uniform.

Full tank shot.









View of left end, the view as we come in the house. See how strong the Marsilea is growing? Loving my little fern 'island' as well.









View of the inside of the overflow box. I cut out the teeth so I can have more GPH and each week work to get them more even. The 12 year old Dremel battery only has so much juice per charge these days. You can see the white corrugated plastic top that is zip tied to the black hardware cloth, the emergency drain on the right and the blue sponge covering the main drain deep under water. I wouldn't mind a bit more waterfall but not sure fussing with the ball valve is worth it, there isn't any water noise and the water level in the tank is good so it is fine. The return on the left comes from the Cerges CO2 reactor. Fish haven't been going over any more without teeth as they did with teeth. On Nov 17th I fished out a platy and an oto and on Nov. 25 an oto and a black neon tetra were in there.









No the leaf patterned fabric isn't in the tank, that is a reflection. My returns are nearly invisible so I took a shot of just them. There is another black painted PVC elbow on the other side of the overflow box as well. That is black plastic hardware cloth more or less covering the intake. Already black and seemed to be a bit smaller mesh than the egg crate. Lots of surface ripple!


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## chad320 (Mar 7, 2010)

This tank is fantastic! I love alot about this one. The ferns, the scape, and the variety of carpet plants, alont with the Congos. Awesome job!


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## Sd760 (Apr 25, 2011)

Beautiful


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## audioaficionado (Apr 19, 2011)

Hey?!! There's two feet missing somewhere. :icon_mrgr

Nice setup Kathyy. Looks great.

How do you like the extra depth vs the extra length?


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## Kathyy (Feb 22, 2010)

Since I basically am doing the same thing in this tank as in the 18" wide tank it seems just about the same! I have lots more room in front for the low growing plants but I probably could have moved the hard scape back even more.

Even so this tank is much clearer, bows very little, larger openings to work in, no U tubes and the size is just better for the room.

Hoping with time I will be better able to use the extra depth.


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## Captgreg87 (Jan 24, 2012)

This is truly an inspirational tank!


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## jart (Jan 17, 2003)

Bolbitis is not a plant I see a lot in pictures. Odd that you have two species in the same tank! I've seen the heteroclita for sale before but never the heudelotii, the latter always being my favorite. But I've never had the room to keep one. Do you have a favorite between the two?

Great use of the hydrocotyle with your ferns.


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## Amandas tank (Oct 2, 2012)

My what a talented aquascaping artist you are! Very natural feeling and the gradual change from a Bushy forest to the bare tips of the driftwwod on the opposite end is very tasteful! Excellent work!


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## Kathyy (Feb 22, 2010)

Thank you! It has been a lot of fun playing with the sticks I have accumulated over the last couple years. I may be getting the hang of it.

I like B. heudelotii a lot more. For one thing it has been growing very nicely for me so far. There is even a 1" bit glued down that may grow out. I like the way it looks like a terrestrial fern too. Both Bolbitis species were a bit of an impulse buy. I think the heteroclita isn't going to last much longer in the tank though I won't remove it until all hope is lost. I probably should sprinkle it around the tank to see if there is a sweet spot for it.

Have you seen the videos from aquadesignamano? I have subscribed to the channel since the first Upstream streaming videos of a seminar setting up a number of tanks a year ago and been following them since. Lots of Bolbitis heudelotii used in small amounts tucked between rock and wood and kept trimmed back instead of allowed to grow into big plants. I am hedging my bet by keeping the big plant and also placing smaller rhizomes between rocks to grow out. Hope you can find some soon!


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## caique (Mar 16, 2012)

Wow, gorgeous!

What type of substrate?

Lighting?


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## octavusprime (Oct 28, 2011)

Amazing wood hardscape. well done.


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## ChadRamsey (Nov 3, 2011)

thats beautifully done Kathyy


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## Kathyy (Feb 22, 2010)

Thanks! I hope the tank continues to improve, Murphy's Law and all. Thanks to the incredibly knowledgeable people on this forum I have so many tools to deal with issues that come up now.

The substrate is 
#1 40 pounds of medium gravel purchased when I first set up a planted tank in the 1990's.
#2 Schultz's Aquatic Soil purchased when I was reading APD and learned about CEC in the first place and set up a 150 gallon tank in 2000. I think it was 40 pounds. 
#3 Pea sized gravel that came with the 180 gallon tank and I needed more substrate last year. 4 trash bags, maybe 150 pounds. The larger pieces were sifted out when I set up this tank. I rinsed and bleached it because I didn't know the fate of the fish in that tank.
#4 SafeTSorb that replaced the large gravel sifted out. 40 pounds.
#5 Mulm that has never been rinsed out of the substrate.
#6 Clay+NPK+micros root tabs I made this year. 
It all comes to about half high CEC clay substrate and half natural gravel by volume. The combination is quite natural looking. 

Lit with 2 fishneedit 150 watt metal halides hung ~40" off the substrate last time I measured. The bulbs are ADA NA 8000K, not the green. Currently 8 hour day and I am shading with window screen for part of the day still. The plants are improving in size and color as I increase the light. I probably won't be lowering the fixtures after the window screen comes off.


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## Kathyy (Feb 22, 2010)

Full tank shot. Removed the pennywort and put back about half the mass but it is currently planted. That is a first, usually it pulls right up after I turn on the pumps. I was surprised to see very few damaged leaves, thought there would lots of shredded stuff due to the surface water movement. 









P. Kawagoeanum. Leaves are getting longer and color brighter. I haven't counted how many healthy leaves the stems are carrying but when I picked off the dying leaves I was very pleased to note that few of them were BBA infested. In spite of Metricide dosing at water changes most old leaves still had BBA in the old tank.









BGA has attacked! I pushed it down beneath the gravel with a plastic card yesterday but missed a bit. See it to the left of the white pebble in the substrate? I pushed that part down after I took the photo. Hoping I don't have to break out the Koralia for more current across the left end of the tank. I got the Marsilea from Wasserpest and he didn't know which species he had. It seems to be more than one as some fronds are a lot smaller than others.









End view. I trimmed off all the damaged leaves I could find, pruned back the pennywort and attacked the BGA but didn't wipe down the tank panes. This shows 2 weeks worth of algae. My feeble excuse, poor otos and BNP need the biofilm on the panes. Hairgrass is looking fine, maybe it won't take 4 months to become a nice thick lawn, well grassy patches, this time.









No fish in the overflow box this week. When I turn the pumps back on the flow has been balanced right away, no fussing with ball valves. I don't know why it took a couple weeks for that to work out and seems to be fine now. I still won't leave the house for a couple hours after pumps are off/on just in case something goes wrong.

Had a little leak on the CO2 line. When the gas was off water backed up to the brass check valve and was bubbling out. Guessing when gas was on gas was bubbling out! A hint. Don't cut the CO2 line unless there is a check valve between the water and the cut when the tank pumps are running. Bad idea. So back to the reliable Dennerle check valve with locking tubing nuts. Would like to put another check valve back on as the Dennerle is 12 years old, maybe that box of hose clamps in the garage has a couple that are small enough.


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## JerSaint (Oct 22, 2012)

This setup is beautiful! Great work, I would love to see more pics!


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## Kathyy (Feb 22, 2010)

Really been enjoying the tank. Fish are happy and healthy. Water clear. Tank quiet. Plants mostly growing. Algae easy to deal with. Maintenance easy. Haven't started seeing those annoying scaping issues yet. Really liking these ADA NA bulbs. Plants are super green but fish color is okay and I don't have to mess with color balance when I edit the photos.

Very strange though. Just before I changed the water this week I kept hearing slurps at the overflow box. When I looked into the box there were 3 Corydoras. Suspect they were being frisky and liked the danger near the overflow box? 

Got an early Christmas present, a fancy digital timer. http://coralvue.com/electronic-surge-protector/ DH had his doubts but it wasn't as big a pain to program as the single digital timer I had before. This one has 5 programmable outlets and each of those can go on and off 6 times a day plus there is a single regular outlet as well. It doesn't cost a lot less than a real controller but I suspect it is easier to use too. Right now I have the metal halides turning on 5 minutes apart so the power surge is lessened and the CO2 solenoid on it so have 2 more slots I could program if needed. Traded two power strips and 3 timers for one unit. Looks much neater not having those extra cords under the tank. After TWO ballasts failed just getting unplugged for a couple days when I moved into this tank I sure was concerned about the new timer working though. So far so good........


The Lindernia is starting to make a nice little patch.









The horror of melted Bolbitis. I don't know if rhizomes are branching or just sprouting new fronds from original rhizome ends.









Action shot of a female bristlenose pleco on zucchini. When she is on the zucchini all the fish stay away!









Middle of the tank with lots of Congo Tetras and platies. The single mystery stem behind the Blyxa japonica very abruptly hit some limit this week and is severely stunted. 









Full tank shot. Kawagoeanum is peeking over the C. wendtii and the pennywort is just about right. I am having to wait on the Myriophyllum mattogrossense, sure hope it decides to stick around but I have bought another stem that might fill out the area nicely, Potamogeton gayi.









End tank shot. I bought Hygrophilia pinnatifia. Hydrocotyle sibthorpioides is starting to perk up but a lot way from being the weed it can be. The green substrate under the Marsilea is likely BGA. Why it is there and nowhere else I don't know.


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## Kathyy (Feb 22, 2010)

The Marsilea at the left side of the tank went bonkers this past month. I have never had it go nuts like this. My little java fern island is in danger of vanishing.









FTS before trim.









Full tank after trim. I removed about 2 quarts of pennywort and Marsilea leaves. The assorted stems in right center are starting to show up better finally. Going to have to do something about the poor Blyxa in the very front real soon.









It has been dry here. The cheap acrylic I am using to cover the tanks has been warping big time. I was wondering if it would warp enough to go in the tank! All I need to do is flip it over and it flattens in an hour and is fine for a couple days.


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## smiller (Dec 4, 2011)

Two thumbs up!


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## BruceF (Aug 5, 2011)

Great tank. I love the naturalness of it all.


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## thelub (Jan 4, 2013)

Great looking setup!

I made the same mistake buying the cheapo thin plexiglass to use as a cover and its doing the same thing. I'm going to have to break down soon and buy glass tops. The evap that accumulates on the covers is blocking light to my new plants.


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## crazydaz (Mar 18, 2007)

One of my favs, Kathyy!! You have always done some really nice looking set ups, and this is no exception! The platys are genius....simple but eye-catching and compliment the scape great!


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## Saxtonhill (Dec 28, 2012)

Beautiful composition and setup! It looks so natural!  


Quick question...you mentioned some clay in your substrate...is that a source of iron?


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## jhays79 (Mar 28, 2012)

This is a beautiful tank! Looks amazingly natural! I would take a tank like this anyday!!


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## Kathyy (Feb 22, 2010)

Thanks all! This is my dream tank too. Fish seem to like it too. They aren't smashed up to the front with too much plant mass in the back - not yet at least. They like swimming through the wood and plants and I sure like the way the rocks work in there. Love using the drilled tank over the HOB overflow too. Water changes do take about 2 hours total but can I walk away during the draining and do other stuff and can just stay in the room with the tank while filling and do stuff.

Eh, $30 for tops that can be used elsewhere is fine. I would love to go open but it is sure nice not having jumpers. The Congos will bump the tops as is when flies come close, am sure they would go after bugs or get spooked and leave the tank.

The platies were more that I wanted orange fish because I have several glass paper weights that are shaped like plastic bags with orange fish in them! I just bought 3 strains I liked so the babies would be a bit different and I could tell them apart. They are lots of fun to watch unless a male gets too rude and really bothers a female. That is one reason for the floating pennywort, for some reason it is easier to hide in it than elsewhere in the tank. I didn't know that the orange/red/yellow/black would both blend and contrast with the plants that are in the tank!

The clay is the root tab matrix. I don't know if it has a lot of iron in the clay but I put iron powder in the mix. I just followed sewingalot's recipe. http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=187077

The Marsilea has already grown over the cut stems and now the mini java fern is overwhelming its stump! Will cut that and attach elsewhere. 

I have heard at least 3 slurps this morning. That usually means corydoras have gone over the edge. How they get through the mesh I don't know! Last week there were 2 in the overflow. Since there is a tall standpipe in there so it isn't super turbulent in there and some food gets in there they will be fine until the next water change.


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## BruceF (Aug 5, 2011)

I wanted to say that I have an old acrylic tank that used to have a cover before I broke it. The original cover had acrylic strips (maybe an inch and a half high) on the bottom that kept the acrylic from warping. Wouldn’t be a hard fix for the warping.


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## Kathyy (Feb 22, 2010)

That sounds interesting. Two strips per cover? Which way did they go? Must have been heavy duty strips too, not thin stuff? I have some stuff but I would need a lot more of it.

Looked in the overflow and saw at least one corydoras in there. Put a catfish stick in in case they get hungry.


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## CPDzeke (Jan 4, 2013)

Woah.
This is amazing.
180 gallons of ferny wood.
IN A RIMLESS TANK!
Where did you get this? Not like I have time, space, or money though. XD


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## BlueSlurpee (Jul 18, 2008)

Gorgeous Congos, Kathy!


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## BruceF (Aug 5, 2011)

The stiprs went across the tank front to back. There were two pieces of plastic for the lid with two stips each . So the strips were as long as the tank is wide about an inch and a half wide and maybe one quarter inch thick.


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## Kathyy (Feb 22, 2010)

CPDzeke, this is an acrylic tank with 3-4" wide eurobraces all around the top. Closest I will ever get to a rimless tank I am sure. I like the way it contrasts less with the wall.

I had a short list of fish, including Congos, that I wanted in the 180 long and a very kind person sold me his full grown spectacular school of male Congos. Love the colors with my plants and I had no idea they could be this beautiful! I always thought the big draw for these fish was the finnage, not colors.

Thanks Bruce, I have a strip of cell cast acrylic about that size. Perhaps it is long enough for one of the tops. Then I could try it on the other one. This acrylic warps a lot more than the equally thin acrylic tops that were on the 180 long so I gambled and lost. It would help me keep the tops on straight as well if I get the strips placed correctly.


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## driftwoodhunter (Jul 1, 2011)

Kathyy, let me ask you a question about your Congos - do they stay together in a loose group (like in your pic above), or do they go about every-which-way individually, like a barb tends to. only grouping when startled, etc? I ask because I've been thinking about Congos for years, but I can't stand it when individual fish are scattered throughout a tank.

Thanks!


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## sanj (Jan 11, 2004)

Congos never fail to look great.


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## smiller (Dec 4, 2011)

Kathyy said:


> I had a short list of fish, including Congos, that I wanted in the 180 long and a very kind person sold me his full grown spectacular school of male Congos. Love the colors with my plants and I had no idea they could be this beautiful! I always thought the big draw for these fish was the finnage, not colors.


I have seven Congos in my 150. You should see them with some actinic on them. :icon_eek:


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## smiller (Dec 4, 2011)

driftwoodhunter said:


> Kathyy, let me ask you a question about your Congos - do they stay together in a loose group (like in your pic above), or do they go about every-which-way individually, like a barb tends to. only grouping when startled, etc? I ask because I've been thinking about Congos for years, but I can't stand it when individual fish are scattered throughout a tank.
> 
> Thanks!


Mine sometimes stay semi-close but they don't often swim in a school. Some of mine have paired off.


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## Kathyy (Feb 22, 2010)

They are fish that look for food in the water column and surface so don't go all over hunting for goodies like the platies and barbs will do. They aren't always together though it sure isn't hard to get a photo of a good number of them at the same time. I haven't had to wait and don't take many photos of them, they really do that all on their own. I don't know that you would call them schooling fish, they just hang out in a loose extremely beautiful shoal most of the time.


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## driftwoodhunter (Jul 1, 2011)

That sounds close enough for me - I will put them on my short list.


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## jhays79 (Mar 28, 2012)

What kind of gravel is that you used? It looks extremely natural.


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## Saxtonhill (Dec 28, 2012)

Kathyy said:


> The clay is the root tab matrix. I don't know if it has a lot of iron in the clay but I put iron powder in the mix. I just followed sewingalot's recipe. http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=187077



Thanks Kathyy!


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## alkatraz (Jul 28, 2012)

Beautiful tank and scape - so natural!


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## UDGags (Sep 13, 2009)

beautiful setup!


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## Kathyy (Feb 22, 2010)

jhays79, the substrate is a mix of every modern day substrate I have used and the only reason the gravel from the 1970's isn't in there is because the bag broke and it was lost! It is medium sized dark gravel, Schultz's Aquatic Soil [tan Turface], pea sized natural gravel with the biggest bits sifted out and last some SafeTSorb which changed the overall appearance from gold to beige. So far the small stuff isn't broken down SAS but mulm and the stuff is over 10 years old now. I really like the variety in particle size and color variation.

UGags and alkatraz, thanks for the kind comments. 

Lately I have been very busy and only had time for water changes. A change this large twice a week seems to do wonders for the plants. This plus rinsing the prefilter is all I have had time for lately.









During the day.









Last night 5 minutes before the lights went off. Rocks have nearly vanished and I have so much moss and small form needle leaf java fern that the wood may be mostly covered soon as well! Usually there is more pennywort floating on the left but I took nearly all of it out this week.









I hadn't checked the overflow box for surfers for a couple weeks and found 11 fish in there last week. There was only 1 this week but no rescue this time as I do better if I pull the standpipe out and I wasn't sure there was room in the sump for the ~6 gallons of water that might be in the overflow box. They do fine in there as food goes overboard and the standpipe is tall enough that there isn't a lot of water movement at the bottom of the box.

BBA has been a bother as I haven't gotten in and removed infested leaves and between large water changes and forgetting to refill the fertilizer cups nitrate has dropped so there is some BGA at the left front of the tank. Not the rear though, interesting. More light in the front? The huge water changes and spraying a 10:1 Metricide mix on the tank when water is low then immediately refilling seem to be annoying the BBA to the point some clumps are falling off and I am vacuuming them out. I just saw a platy attacking an apparently healthy clump yesterday as well. There were some 'cooked' clumps nearby but she wanted that BBA.


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## cichnatic (Oct 16, 2012)

Killer tank! Very mesmerizing to look at.

Glad to see someone out in the 805 area. :red_mouth


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## STS_1OO (Nov 28, 2012)

Amazing tank! I've asked this before elsewhere on TPT but I'd like your input... how is growth affected once the bottom of stem plants (and even non stems like needle leaf java fern) are shielded from light due to growth at the top?


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## Kathyy (Feb 22, 2010)

Thanks cicnatic and STS100. I love looking at it and not just to make notes as to what needs to be done either! Actually having trouble writing this as every time I look at the tank I lose my train of thought.

STS, I mostly pull and trim. I would want to top quite low and it would take forever to see the plants again. H. polysperma would take over the tank too, I think that is what that mystery stem is, the leaves are twice as long as sunset hygro though. Some stems don't do well with topping in my tank either - or I think they don't do well. One reason I have a bright, CO2 and NPK enriched tank in the first place is I am too impatient to wait for growth! The other, I am still half convinced that my plants are simply outgrowing algae rather than growing algae free.

Old leaves die, old leaves are lower in the tank, that is about all I know about it in fast growing stem plants. When I started my first journal here I cut a couple feet of mostly bare Anubias rhizome into bits and glued them all over the wood. Some ended up in nearly complete darkness and grew leaves about the size of pencil erasers where the normal leaf size in my tank is about 1.5-2" long. I wonder if java fern and Anubias and Bolbitis get too crowded and there are going to be problems but not sure that has ever happened. The rhizomes just grow out and ones inside are weaker and don't grow as fast I think. The narrow leaved java ferns aren't used where they can get shaded in my tank, Bolbitis is sort of large to place under the main shade makers in the tank and Anubias is just fine in a lot of shade.

Well this week no photos but I am not done yet. Background stems are tall and some are scraggly, there is even a Marsilea leaf up there. I pulled a lot of Marsilea and Hydrocotyle sibthorpioides out which took out the visible BBA remaining. Staurogyne repens was actually looking quite happy under all that herbage and there are several crypt weeds now visible. In spite of the quart of plants I pulled out the foreground still looks very green. One of the female Congo tetras has been supplementing her diet with Hydrocotyle sibthorpioides so I still need to clip off a couple of bare stems and keep pulling out Marsilea. I will replant the stuff with the smallest leaves, perhaps it is minuta. I need to get tough with the dwarf java fern too, it is creeping off its wood where ever it is attached and some leaves are growing the wrong way. I found a clump of sad Fissidens and tied it to wood in the light, just looked and there are some bits growing, all is not lost.


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## BoxxerBoyDrew (Oct 16, 2005)

WOW,

The tank is still looking AWESOME!!! Everything looks so green and happy! Fish are looking awesome too! You have done a BEAUTIFUL job, and hopefully I will soon have a large tank too, and this tank will be the inspiration for it!

Keep up the great work!
Drew


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## kwheeler91 (May 26, 2009)

looking good kathyy. I missed the last update but i think it is my favorite thus far and looking forward to the new pics.


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## Kathyy (Feb 22, 2010)

Thanks Kwheeler!

Plants finally are clean for the most part but some are not happy at all. H. sibthorpioides is not liking getting grazed, Persicaria 'Kawagoeanum' doesn't like getting dried out during water changes and one mystery plant which is likely Proserpinaca "Cuba" is alternately stunting, losing growing tips then bushing out, all without showing nice color and leaf shape. Really strong stems and thick leaves though.

Full tank. I did chop some of the stems back a little. When you dump out all but 4" of water 20" stems tend to get really tangled.









Fern island is visible again. I replanted the smaller leaved Marsilea but there is still quite a mess in there. Sorry about all the bubbles, this is 4 hours after the tank was full too.









Middle of tank, Anubias flower, Crypt weed and recovered Bolbitis with lovely dark shade underneath. There is actually another crypt weed in the middle of the Bolbitis clump.









Thinned out foreground with wood hanging over rocks. Loved the overgrown Marsilea but enough was enough!


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## tomfromstlouis (Apr 2, 2012)

Still loving this tank Kathyy. 

I am surprised you change out so much water each time. How often do you do this?


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## rustbucket (Oct 15, 2011)

I adore this tank, I'm always trying to mimic it in some way, but can never seem to get mine as natural, yet refined looking.


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## Yellow Jacket (Jul 27, 2009)

Without a doubt, my favorite tank on this site!


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## ThatGuyWithTheFish (Apr 29, 2012)

Do you have CO2?


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## Meganne (Sep 3, 2012)

wonderful tank!!!


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## HD Blazingwolf (May 12, 2011)

How did I miss this? Anyways this is an excellent tank and you have done an excellent job with it! Keep up the good work, it's very inspiring


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## All your base (Dec 6, 2006)

rustbucket said:


> I adore this tank, I'm always trying to mimic it in some way


Same here! I don't currently have a planted tank running, but the system I'm about to start building will definitely be inspired by this one. The aquascaping is really nice.


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## Kathyy (Feb 22, 2010)

tomfromstlouis said:


> Still loving this tank Kathyy.
> 
> I am surprised you change out so much water each time. How often do you do this?


I haven't been doing these huge water changes for very long, only about a month. I am trying to do them every 3-5 days. After the 8' tank was such a mess when it missed a couple water changes last summer I suspect keeping water really clean may be quite important to fighting algae at least in a bright CO2 injected tank. I also realized that just because the tank looks half full that isn't a 50% water change when there is a sump under the tank! When the pumps are off there are up to 35 gallons down there.



rustbucket said:


> I adore this tank, I'm always trying to mimic it in some way, but can never seem to get mine as natural, yet refined looking.


I still am working on it! I really like subscribing to channels on youtube by aquarists that put up how to videos like ADA, Green Machine, Pedro Rosa, Oliver Knott and others. I get a mini scaping session or long look at an interesting tank every day or so, nice. Seems to be getting information into my brain better than studying still pictures. I tend to skip over photos of tanks that are smaller than mine or aren't trying for the type of scape I prefer or aren't using plants I want to grow but there is something to learn from every scape successful or not and whether I want that particular type of scape or not. 



Yellow Jacket said:


> Without a doubt, my favorite tank on this site!


Wow, thanks!



ThatGuyWithTheFish said:


> Do you have CO2?


Sure do. A RIO 2500 pump sitting in the sump is running water through a 20" Cerges reactor that goes straight to the tank. I have a double stage regulator with a solenoid that turns on the CO2 ~1/2 hour before lights go on and turns off ~1/2 hour before lights go off. I am sure it is far from good enough but that is what is on the tank right now. I see pearling all over the tank anyway. This is the fanciest system I have had, lowest tech worked too - just stuck the CO2 line into the sump pump's intake for years! With 4' up to the tank and then down to the spraybar there were very few tiny bubbles in the tank.



Meganne said:


> wonderful tank!!!


Thank you so much.



All Your Base said:


> Same here! I don't currently have a planted tank running, but the system I'm about to start building will definitely be inspired by this one. The aquascaping is really nice.


Thanks, my main inspiration for this tank ended up finishing very well in IAPLC 2012 not that that matters. What mattered was this tank was working to accomplish the same sort of scape I wanted. Here is the starting point http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showpost.php?p=1604336&postcount=1 and here are the results - scroll to #34 http://igorvarnic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/iaplc-2012.html No my tank doesn't really look like this one and certainly wouldn't win any contests but the planted foreground with heavy rock and wood work covered with plants and stems behind sure was a great jumping off point.

Good news, I didn't kill the P. 'Kawagoneanum' by pruning it, tiny red sprouts are forming! I dropped the metal halides a few inches this week to see if that perks up that H. sibthorpioides. The Brazilian pennywort is loving the extra light, grown 6" at least in a couple days and the spinning mass of floating pennywort on the left hand side of the tank is doubled in size. I really should weigh it to see how much it is actually growing. The sad Fissidens I tied to the wood is getting green, I will have to rescue more from where it is hiding and find more spots to put it.


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## canlax (Sep 8, 2012)

Kathyy, have you thought about posting a video of your tank? I think the group would really appreciate it! Worth considering anyways.

Also, I am curious what evaporation is like in your tank given you have a large tank with a relatively small sump (similar to my setup). I am finding that I need to top of every 3-4 days which I don't mind however has me concerned if I choose to leave for a longer period of time. The return chamber wasn't made too small I guess, so now I end up with the pump pulling air when the water level gets low enough.


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## All your base (Dec 6, 2006)

Kathyy said:


> Thanks, my main inspiration for this tank ended up finishing very well in IAPLC 2012 not that that matters. What mattered was this tank was working to accomplish the same sort of scape I wanted. Here is the starting point http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showpost.php?p=1604336&postcount=1 and here are the results - scroll to #34 http://igorvarnic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/iaplc-2012.html No my tank doesn't really look like this one and certainly wouldn't win any contests but the planted foreground with heavy rock and wood work covered with plants and stems behind sure was a great jumping off point.


Thanks for the links, more great inspiration. Your last sentence is a great way to sum up the look.


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## Kathyy (Feb 22, 2010)

Worked in the tank this evening. Took a few very bad videos before digging in. Take Dramamine before clicking on the picture to view this Canlax. Between my unsteady hand and the plants waving around..... It doesn't look that busy IRL. 
 
And a still shot. Both of the video and photo are uncorrected for color and the truth is somewhere between.









I don't notice any evaporation in this tank. It is mostly covered with warped pieces of acrylic and the sump is covered as well. I do keep it quite full - when pumps are off and I pull the standpipe the water level in the sump is close to the top of the sump tank. This tank is so pretty I may take the covers off in time. In the 100 gallon tank with a 14 gallon sump the system lost precisely enough water so I was required to make a weekly water change. I filled the sump to the brim with pump off and at the end of the week I was nagged by the sound of the poor pump sucking air. Neither sump had/have any dividers in them so can be completely filled with water.

On April 3rd I put 48 grams of pennywort to float on the left side of the tank. Today I took out 75 grams of pennywort from that area. Guess the pennywort is growing okay at least! I really should try this with one of the Anubias too.

Speaking of Anubias I figured out how to use that huge one on the left to better effect. There is a big blank spot under the crypt and largest arch of wood, put it there! So I pried the unhappy Anubias off the rocks and moved half of it. I had to cut the lowest bit off as it was not budging. Now I can see my crypt a little. Was interested to note that the undersides of the older leaves were not pale green but had an ochre tone to them, probably seen it before and forgot about it! 

Also pruned most of the background stems back. The Rotala was looking horrible with cut and resprouted ends mixed with nice straight stems plainly visible even though the tips were looking really nice. Pennywort was taking over just the way I like so it got cut back. I left the Myrio alone and even got it untangled a little so it is the dominant background plant at the moment. The Hygro was just pruned as usual. 

BBA is still in the tank. I squirt it with Metricide and it goes red or just disappears but I keep finding new colonies - perhaps because this scape is a bit of a maze and plants are growing over so much of it. Now I am finding it on rocks though. Not on stems and very little on the Anubias and Bolbitis. They really seem to be appreciating the longer day and increased intensity of light. 

I was lucky enough to be able to get one of Hoppy's PAR meters but I need a couple of dry hands to take better notes. All I could get on my own were air readings, 15 in the dim corners to 280 under the bulbs at a distance of about 12". I think I got 60-90PAR on tops of plants but what plants??


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## shawnleon (Dec 10, 2012)

This is really a great project. My girlfriend has been pushing Congo Tetras for weeks now and this makes it official, they've totally earned a place in my next tank!


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## driftwoodhunter (Jul 1, 2011)

Crazy good tank! I can never see enough of this one - and the vids were hardly shaky at all!


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## Saxtonhill (Dec 28, 2012)

Very much enjoyed the video. Every time I look at photos of this tank, I am in awe


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## shawnleon (Dec 10, 2012)

shawnleon said:


> This is really a great project. My girlfriend has been pushing Congo Tetras for weeks now and this makes it official, they've totally earned a place in my next tank!


I'm a man of word! Attended a fish auction today and had this tank in mind when I purchased six congo tetras!


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## Dfektor (May 8, 2013)

Again super work! A beauty of a tank!


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## Kathyy (Feb 22, 2010)

Really haven't abandoned my tank, it is going strong. Just haven't taken any photos until tonight. Didn't wipe the drips off the tank, didn't wipe the GSA off the bottom of the panes, didn't do any pruning either though. Fish are happy and BBA is hanging on as a minor nuisance. I cannot see any algae from my chair, the plants are looking nice and I like the way the fish swim around my scape.

Rehomed most of the narrow leaved java fern and all the red java fern. No idea how large a tank the red java fern deserves, a lot larger than mine! It grew like a super sized trident for the most part, really big. The many stems in the back are all showing up now and I am liking all the variety. Potamogeton gayi, Proserpinaca palustris 'Cuba' I think, Rotala rotundifolia, Hygrophilia polysperma, Lysimachia nummularia and my old favorites Hydrocotyle leucocephala and Myriophyllum mattogrossense plus a little of the red Ludwigia are on the right and the left center has Persicaria sp. 'Kawagoeanum'. A scrap of hornwort has finally grown into something healthy and is anchored around a branch. It would rather wind around the java fern though. Need to work on what goes where I suppose.... later. I am thinking some stems look good mixed together and some don't.

FTS. Moved my java fern island to where the red java fern was before and some Blyxa japonica is in its place. The Trident java fern and the island really clashed. I didn't know Trident grew so large! That female Congo tetra reduced the Hydrocotyle sibthorpioides to stems and the Lindernia had no where else to go so am trying it in the dark right front corner. It looks nice but not sure it will do well. I put the H. sibthorpioides stems into a little glass jar with a bit of potting soil to see if it can grow back from bare stems just in moist air. A strand of java moss got in there as well.


Center of tank, love the way the rock and wood fit together and the crypt is finally showing its stuff. Staurogyne repens has decided to hunker down and grow nice and thick but it still doesn't look right. Marsilea has thickened into a nice carpet again out of sight on the left and there is a small amount of Elatine triandra that might get S. repens evicted once and for all if it takes off. It is scattered all through the front of the tank. Right where the two rocks meet is a 9 leaved Buce of some sort. It has had 9 leaves for a couple weeks but it was a cutting that now has 3 strong roots so that counts for something. It is tied to a small rock as the actual stem still wobbles a bit.


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## shawnleon (Dec 10, 2012)

Love the density of the scape, everything flows nicely and feels very organic. The rocks feel appropriately sized and blend in nicely. How are the Congo tetras treating the ferns?


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## Kathyy (Feb 22, 2010)

Java, no interest. Bolbitis, I have seen them eying them and I think one took a chunk off one time - and that is how the H. sibthorpioides feasting started. Leaving the fine leaved plants alone though. It took them a year to decide they wanted fresh greens and they still stay away from the zucchini. Maybe I will try blanching some greens for them.

Thanks. It took me a long time to realize an aquarium scape needs to come from the same place as a terrestrial garden - the hard scape comes first. Once the shape is in you can figure out what plants go where. Ideally I would be choosing plants to fit the scape rather than placing the plants I have in the best spot for them in the tank but haven't gotten there yet.


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## rustbucket (Oct 15, 2011)

Looking so nice, and the Congos!!!!!!!!! I'll switch my plants to suit them if I have too, love these fish so much, and yours are gorgeous:angel:


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## HD Blazingwolf (May 12, 2011)

Kathyy said:


> I suspect keeping water really clean may be quite important to fighting algae at least in a bright CO2 injected tank.


very true statement
i find this very so in my 75 gallon. i have 324 watts sitting over it from a Tek fixture
i've missed a water change before... BAD idea


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## nikonD70s (Apr 6, 2008)

looking good as always kathy. congo's look so much better in a planted tank. changed my substrate back to white sand the my congo's arent as nice. makes me want to sell all congos. or go back to planted.


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## jfynyson (Apr 15, 2013)

Curious. Could you share what your latest tank parameters are ?

temp
pH
KH
CO2 set up & bps
NO3
PO4
Dosing frequency
etc...


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## Kathyy (Feb 22, 2010)

shawnleon said:


> Love the density of the scape, everything flows nicely and feels very organic. The rocks feel appropriately sized and blend in nicely. How are the Congo tetras treating the ferns?


 Thanks! I have been trying avoid total anarchy by having a stronger hardscape than I have ever put together but it is rapidly vanishing. I think I have seen a couple of fern samples taken but so far they have been able to outgrow any grazing. I love my rocks but a neighbor has a larger one just rolling around the shrubbery and am thinking of asking if he wouldn't mind rehoming that one and any others he has that aren't being used. It would be nice to have fewer and larger rocks as they just vanish under the plants. You think that looks dense, the ferns have been going nuts for the past 2 months.



rustbucket said:


> Looking so nice, and the Congos!!!!!!!!! I'll switch my plants to suit them if I have too, love these fish so much, and yours are gorgeous:angel:


 They sure are gorgeous!



HD Blazingwolf said:


> very true statement
> i find this very so in my 75 gallon. i have 324 watts sitting over it from a Tek fixture
> i've missed a water change before... BAD idea


 It is amazing what a difference they make! Last summer the tank missed maybe 2 changes and what a mess I came home to!



jfynyson said:


> Curious. Could you share what your latest tank parameters are ?
> 
> temp
> pH
> ...


temp - about 76*F but the thermometer is in the sump and hard to read!
pH - 6.2-6.4 with CO2 on, 7.6 when it turns on each day.
KH - I think it is between 3-4 but my test is really old.
CO2 - set up & bps A 20" Cerges reactor powered by a RIO 2500 on its own open loop sitting in the sump. Cannot count the bubbles per second but 10 pounds of CO2 lasts for about a month.
NO3 - varies depending on how many water changes I do, 5-10 if 75% 2x a week, 30 if 50% 1x a week
PO4 - I haven't used the test lately but it was quite high last time. Plants did not like 2x 75% water changes with the same dosing I do at 1x and 50% change. I sure did though, the water was so clear and clean and there seemed to be less algae starting up.
Dosing frequency - 3x a week NO3+P, 3x a week micros, at water change I currently only dose Mg and Ca as I ran out of K. Staurogyne repens really took off when I was using the K.

On to the photos. I have been enjoying the tank and haven't missed water changes and even took out all the stems and reorganized them but my main obsession for the past month has been my new little 19 pound dog Ginger. Working on the fat [couldn't feel any torso bones at all when she came home], no longer flea ridden [I couldn't sleep the first night because I was itchy in sympathy with the poor thing] and a spunky fun little dog. She is supposed to be about 5 years old and really looks up to 13 year old Max. Have been reading up on going slow with a new dog and have mostly resisted heavy training but she is taking a lot of my brain power lately. Simply having her stay out of the kitchen at meal prep time has been quite a lot of work as she is really good at hiding behind me without getting stepped on. She looks to be a min pin/chihuahua/pomeranian/spaniel/JRT sort of dog. Be really interesting if she is actually a large flop eared long haired 'landrace' chihuahua as I have long been interested in natural breeds.








Tank today after a 75% water change and a week's worth of growth on stems. Giving up on pennywort in the fastest water movement. That mystery stem is very stiff and doing much better in that spot. I think it is _Proserpinaca palustris_ but a very vigorous one that isn't getting red or divided leaves in my tank.








What the tank looked like before I did the weeding out last week and another just before I rehomed the enormous narrow leaf java fern. Most of the java is now the dwarf one which isn't so dwarf anymore. I really like the way it grows but of course it needs to be pruned and I will let it grow until that wood is completely covered...........


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## jfynyson (Apr 15, 2013)

Tank is still looking great. I always love coming back to see your tank. My water parameters are very very close to yours. I'm seeing good growth (have to do bi-weekly trimming of some plants). I know you've mentioned you've had your bouts with algae. Have you ever experienced green beard algae (aka fuzz algae) ? If so what did you do ? I also have platies but I do not see them peaking at this stuff. My otos do not touch it either. DarkCobra's 1-2 punch with H2O2 & Excel do not touch this stuff either. I cannot find any info at all with regards to why I'm seeing this in the past month in my system when things were going so well. Thinking about trying black mollies as they may hit it up a bit. 


I have 135gal high light (~ 80-100 PAR from LEDs at substrate) for 7 hrs (cut down from 8hrs), running about 40ppm CO2 (I titrated it), dosing EI (keeping NO3 around 30-40ppm, phos around 2-5ppm, adding potassium at same level as NO3, adding micros & Mg sulfate at same level as micros). I have good flow across the top of the water with a powerhead on each tank end(maybe too much as some plants lean side to side vs a gentle sway ???), add air stone at night, perform 50-60% WC weekly.


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## jfynyson (Apr 15, 2013)

Any updates here ? I've always loved the looks of the tank...


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## Kathyy (Feb 22, 2010)

Thank you very much. I still like the basic idea a lot too.

You wouldn't like the look of it right now! I got hurt 5 months ago and was only topping off the tank, feeding the fish and rinsing the prefilters when they clogged. An experiment of sorts let's call it. Allowed hornwort and pennywort to grow a deep layer in the tank and the plants weren't fed. No CO2 but lights still on. No fertilizer added to tank and no dechlor added to the small amount of water needed to keep the sump pumps from complaining.

Result? Anubias thrived. Crypts dealt fine but got elongated and pale in color. Stems mostly disappeared. Bits of P. gayi, feeble pennywort and happy hornwort remain. Java ferns NOT happy! Lost all leaves and trident seems to be gone. Bolbitis fronds and most rhizomes died but there are tiny new plants sunk in the bottom right of the tank same as the P. gayi. I found one bit of Marsilia floating with a couple tiny new leaves and all other ground covering plants gone. Hornwort took over the tank, pennywort was doing fine until nutrients ran out a couple months ago then turned into bare stems. 

Lots of buildup of debris in right corners of the tank which turned out to be mostly dead java fern rhizomes and dead looking moss rather than mulm, sort of a surprise. Lost a lot of fish, down to ~dozen small platies, 1/2 dozen Congos and black neon tetras, 2 Corydoras, couple of otos and Ms. Bristlenose.

Since I had just been topping off the tank I assumed without actually testing that KH and GH would different than the tap water so I made 10% water changes daily for a week. Turned out to be a good idea as the Congo tetra male was looking peaked after the first few water changes, breathing rapidly with nose up. After a week I did dig out the KH test and tank and tap were the same so I am clear to doing bigger water changes now. Mr. Congo is looking fine now, I didn't mess it up too badly for him.

I pulled out the hornwort and put back all the healthy looking growth so not to mess with the plant mass of the tank too suddenly. Sorted through the debris piles and so far removed and replanted most of the P. gayi, some rooted itself through the debris! Planted the stray Marsilia. Now have lots of bare java fern rhizomes and tiny Bolbitis plants to find homes for. Will be moving the green crypts from left to somewhere else, cut back and move the extremely happy Anubias that is pushing on the front of the tank and hope the pennywort and gayi get happy soon. Pulled off dead looking moss and to my surprise it has started growing again.

BBA vanished but the plaques it forms on wood are still there. GSA stuck around. Cyano appeared especially in the hornwort thicket. I had a huge layer of cyano on the back left hand side of the tank that kept creeping towards the middle of the tank. Critters were eating it so it got all sorts of creepy holes in it. Finally got tired of watching it so wiped it off with paper towels so it was completely removed from tank. Have a couple photos on my phone but there they stay for now.

Since plant mass is much reduced I have been dosing with a lot less fertilizer so GSA is going to continue to form I think. I did wipe most off best I could this week though. I found window screen and have put it on top of the tank to screen light. Before I did anything even started changing water I did dump some N and P into the tank. Inside a week I could see tiny new java fern leaves appearing. They are now 3" long or so. The bare pennywort stems started growing new leaves but new growth is feeble with only 1" leaves. Even putting CO2 back on the tank last week hasn't perked up pennywort yet although I do see a lot of pearling going on.

Continuing plan of action? Go through the debris, toss dead stuff and glue/plant living stuff around the tank. Keep up water changes and keep feeding the plants. Move the plants mentioned, possibly buying more stems and ground covering plants. Increase Corydoras, Congo tetra numbers and probably buy a couple more pairs of platies as they have been breeding for 4 years without new blood. Oh - get up energy to get sponges out of sump and slap them around. Pretty sure they need it by now! Should be fine, I am improving daily and need to get moving.

Even before my injury I wasn't doing much in the tank. The attached photo is from February 2014 and obviously I wasn't doing a lot of pruning! That Ginger is a time sucker let me tell you!


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## jfynyson (Apr 15, 2013)

So sorry to hear about you getting hurt and having to watch such a beautiful tank take a back seat to real life. I'll be willing to help donate any stems I may have if they line up with your wish list.


John 14:6 
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Kathyy (Feb 22, 2010)

Thank you for the kind offer. I am going to experiment using just the gayi for now.

Well the tank looks like a planted tank again! No photos as the camera batteries are doubtless dead and it is over there and I am here. I have no clue as to how to take photos off my phone either. Want more excuses? I probably could come up with more.

I moved crypts from the front, cut back one of the giant Anubias nanas and placed it elsewhere, cleaned out the corners of the gayi, tiny Bolbitis and Java fern and various bits of dead stuff and glued some of the ferns back on the wood. 

Some of the Java fern bits have divided leaves so I made a point of using them first on the wood. I don't think it is Trident, that seems to be gone but maybe this variation will be durable. 

Pennywort stems are now visible above the hardscape as are a few gayi stems. Cut back moss is turning green. The big crypts now have leaves growing above the wood. Just now I polished most of the GSA off the front pane. All the water changes have cleared the water, it is now nicely colorless rather than yellowish.


I did buy a pack of Staurogyne repens from Petsmart and it is currently melting away and floating stems show no root growth. I can bring easy stuff back from the dead but not old PS stock apparently. I found that Marsilea stem in the hornwort AGAIN and needed to plant it upside down as it was so curled from living in the hornwort. Also found a Hydrocotyle sibthorpioides stem but so have the Congo tetras so it may not be long for this world.

Also picked up 15 tiny new Congo tetras, 12 gorgeous Sterbai Corydoras and 4 Rainbow Gudgeons that are currently in quarantine. At least there is no way the congos could be sexed and the males separated out! They are the size of the black neons in the tank!

This time round I will NOT let pennywort rule the tank! 
I will remove and prune oversized plants!


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## rustbucket (Oct 15, 2011)

I think the tank must look good despite it, this tank has always been one of my favorites.

I will say though I think young Congo's can be sexed, I have heard of it before, and had pretty good success sexing my young ones. But hopefully you'll get a good mix.

I am letting my tank grow out a bit as well, but its kind of a controlled mess (if that's possible) I liked it for a bit, but I think I may do a big trim today. I have baby bn's that I want to survive though.

I want a pic, I'll say nice things


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## Kathyy (Feb 22, 2010)

Teeny toothpick size from above Congos? Wow.. They are all fine and eating well in quarantine and I am so tempted to put them in the big tank! Just another week....

Been on track again this week and glued more ferns to wood. Baby Bolbitis are just the cutest things too. Mini ferns they are unlike the java fern which look like what they are, sprouted tips of rhizomes. Tied the stray bits of wood together so it isn't all over the tank and got more gunk out of the tank. I tried to get all the algae off the front of the tank but no luck, the bottom few inches front and center are still clouded up. I tried to reach without the stepstool, no way and no way I could go back on the stepstool as I was too tired. The pennywort I neatly planted last week decided to make a break for it during the water change so I need to pull them out trim and replant but otherwise the tank looks nice and tidy. 

The main pump stopped working last Sunday so I got to spend a good hour taking it and the CO2 reactor's pump apart and cleaning them out plus rinsing out the prefilters but it is working well now.

Getting good at going on the ladder anyway. Guess that is what hobbies are for, get you moving and doing stuff! And emptying the old bank account but that is for next week's installment I hope. Hoping to find the camera and the batteries and the charger before then.


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## Kathyy (Feb 22, 2010)

Got a few photos done this evening. I did take out the floaters though before taking photos though, sorted them out and put back some of it.

Experimented with floaters when I put them back in though. Put the hornwort in then lay the pennywort stems on top. Seems to be keeping the mass from rolling, it is only spinning a little and all the stems are staying together with pretty pennywort stem tips spinning off the edges. Before the hornwort was tangling with the pennywort and looked awful.

On the full tank shot you can see the algae line on the left tank pane. That's as far as I drained the tank. I did get some more algae off the front pane and GSA isn't regrowing. Some BBA did appear but a little glut and some rubbing and it seems to be on the wane. I hope!

The P. gayii is starting to show up behind the Java Fern and is also planted on the left side of the tank behind the large crypt that is just showing its leaves above the wood - and it is still lurking in the front of the tank. It roots and then sprouts from roots so is not so easy to dislodge when it is happy!









I cannot believe I didn't realize that Anubias belonged in the left rear of the tank between those rocks! It was completely covering the large pointy rock at front left center. Soon enough it will be covering that plastic card trying to keep the gravel in place. One branch broke off and I moved it to the gap between the pointy rock and the one to its left. Now that rock has root remnants of Anubias root on it. The Bolbitis roots and rhizome look really jungly and natural though.

















Can you see the tiny Java fern fronds on the right side of the tank? Some of them are actually forked but I don't think they are 'Trident'. Sad thing is I actually glued about half the remaining growth back on the wood. If you look closely at the second photo from the end you can see a fern frond with a white spot of glue on it showing no harm whatsoever after 4 days. Super gel glue isn't toxic! 

The green crypt that grew too tall has been relocated to the back center and right front and looks very nice there. Hides any remaining junk on the substrate as well!









Foreground is going to be Eleocharis 'Belem'. Probably mostly on the left and left side, we will see. The tiny green bits in the front center are Staurogyne repens and these are actually rooted and growing 'well'.








Watching the fish swim through and round I realize that I have created in miniature my ideal playground! Can you imagine sitting on that thick branch and watching the world go by or playing hide and seek in the Anubias thickets?


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## rustbucket (Oct 15, 2011)

I love it. I can totally imagine sitting on that branch.
I love the big stones, I removed all my stones, I need to get more.
Only thing missing is fish, I barely see any. When you add the new fish it will look really good.


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## Kathyy (Feb 22, 2010)

Yes, my front and center Congos are hiding more now. Be a while before the new babies really show up in the tank though, they are an inch long and colorless. 

Hoping to see lots of Corydoras zoomies. The two remaining Peppered Corydoras [likely born and raised in the tank] are getting frisky in spite of just being a pair so the baby C. sterbai should have a really good time in the tank.

The four black neon tetras were schooling very nicely front and center last night though. Nice to see although 4 isn't much of a school.

The patches of algae on the lower front of the tank are driving me batty. Sure hope I can get those polished off next water change.


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## Riceman (Nov 17, 2014)

Love the tank,sorry to see the set back but I will be watching the rebirth!


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## Kathyy (Feb 22, 2010)

The new fish went into the tank last week. Baby Congo tetras are really pretty, they flash blue but I couldn't see the anal fins to attempt to sex them, too small. Rainbow Gudgeons are awesome, tiny predators with wonderful colors. Picky eaters but I see them choosing to eat some flakes. Corydoras sterbai are dying off slowly sad to say. The baby congos vanished a couple a day until I hadn't seen any for several days. Today there were 7 baby congos in the tank! I was thinking that suspiciously plump female Congo had eaten them all. They were probably in the overflow but how and when they got out I don't know. Now I can see the anal fins, some of them are convex I think. Might be a mix of male and female.

Got new plants in the tank.
There is now a little ruffle of 'Belem' hairgrass around the bottom of the rocks. I am going to see if it will thicken up near the rocks and spread out rather than going for a solid lawn. Blyxa japonica is front and center, Hygrophila 'Araguaia' looks really great between a couple of big reddish rocks in front. 

Other plants are continuing to grow well. I even topped a few Potamogeton gayi stems and replanted them. The mini pennywort is gone for good but the Brazilian looks great although I am trying to reduce its mass in favor of P. gayi and hornwort. Hornwort that is anchored on a stick at the right is serving as shade over the right hand ferns and Anubias. Working quite well and I am planning to continue this until the Java fern is showing up well. Not a fan of the pointy rock on the right but Bolbitis has decided to send a rhizome right on that sharp angle. Might be just the right plant in that spot!

Algae. 
I did get the left side panel mostly cleaned off last night. It was hard to see through and was mostly gritty diatoms with some fairly soft GSA in top corners. I was even able to start cleaning off the back pane and got about half way down. Looks much nicer cleaned off. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to get much GSA off the back but it was soft and wiped off quite easily, 2-4 swipes per area where doing the front pane a couple of weeks ago was hard work. I didn't do much to the front pane but I do see a couple places with some haze to them. Maybe if I do a really good job next session all will stay away the way it used to. 

Diatoms are covering older Anubias leaves. I see my lonely 2 otos and ramshorn snails working hard but the leaves are still dusty brown. 

There have been a few BBA tufts here and there on the wood that I have scraped off and some rocks have quite a bit of the stuff. I have been squirting 1/2 strength glut on the rocks then snails, otos and platies eat the 'cooked' BBA.

I have a really good excuse for no photos after the water change this week. All those diatoms clouded the water badly and even though water was clear inside 45 minutes the lights were going out.


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## jay973 (Feb 5, 2009)

This will be stunning once again amazingly your 180g looks a lot bigger than mine definitely digging the scape as it matures =)


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## Kathyy (Feb 22, 2010)

[Jay, don't go look at the 12 long club then. Those people know how to do more with less! I have been down sizing my plants steadily. C. balansae, gone. That long leaved narrow java fern, gone. Big is out of there! I even downsized the hairgrass, E. Belem is in the tank!

Big changes. I treated myself to a new lighting fixture for Christmas. The ADA MH bulbs were 2 years old and putting out all of 100PAR at 12" on center. Rather than get new bulbs I went twenty first century with LED.

Ended up getting a 5 foot long S400 Malibu LEDzeal fixture with slightly customized spectrum, wired controller and 12' fixture to power box cord so I can run it to the ceiling and down the wall with no extension cords! Unit has fans everywhere and is aluminum finished and very slimline.

This fixture has 4 channels. The vendor suggested channel#1 - royal blue, violet and green. Channel#2 - 6000K white, #3 - deep red, red, neutral white and #4 - 7000K cool white. I thought that much too cool and changed channel #2 to 3500K and left it at that.

Nailed it! With equal percentages of each channel the color in the tank is terrific. I am running 50% of the white channels and 20% of the red and blue channels today and that is fine as well. 

The controller is easy to deal with but has to be left plugged in so I really should have spent the extra to get a wireless controller. Oh well, I will deal. Every day I am planning a new variation to see what works best for me and using my DIY PAR meter from Hoppy to compare lighting level. Yesterday's top PAR of 120 with 60% whites and 10% blue/red was a bit high so at 50% whites, 20% blue/red today for instance. 

My plan is to have the lights on for a long time but have a short high light period. I have already discovered I hate long ramp up/downs so not doing that for beginning and ending the day starting tomorrow.

Lucky for us I just upgraded the lighting in the house as this thing doesn't light up the room the way the MH did. It doesn't blind people sitting on the sofa either, point in its favor for sure. It does look like Christmas lights what with blue, green, violet, almost yellow and red as well as white LEDs but there isn't any disco color on the tank or floor.

First photo is 100% all channels which comes to 500PAR at the top of the tank and so not going to be happening much if at all.







All blue @50%, see how well it blends? Okay, it is 15" or so off the tank but still. Blue and red together was a horrible lavender color. Red alone was orange. Whites together were fairly nice.







Last is the current program of 50% whites and 20% blue/red. I fed the fish so flake is flying around the tank. 







Here is Belem and Hygrophila Araquaia. Like the ruffle between rocks and substrate a lot but am hoping it fills out in time.


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## rustbucket (Oct 15, 2011)

Nice new light, any reason why you went that one over other brands?


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## Kathyy (Feb 22, 2010)

Oh so many reasons!

A whole lot of it was tank coverage. I haven't been real impressed by photos of fixtures that have pucks or need several units put up like DsunY, Reefbreeders or Razors as one sees bad shadowing in the tank. Granted some of this is probably poor photo quality and the tanks probably look great in real life. At the top of the tank my Hoppy PAR meter does show quite difference in PAR between pucks but I cannot see that in my lousy photos.

Clean looking setup was important. One terrific looking choice had one power cord per unit for the 4 channel series and I would want 4 units - 2 power cords for the MH were driving me nuts already! RB and Radion are black boxes. A series of black boxes hanging in mid air, not a good look for my house! Wondered about painting them even.

One gets so confused by color choices. After a number of less than optimal MH bulb choices made in the past didn't want to get stuck with something I hated for several years rather than a single year. Sadly that eliminated another very good choice, BuildMyLED. Hurt to take that one out of the running as they would be such a clean set up but they were as expensive as others with multiple channels and I would be stuck if I hated the color. I seriously doubt I would have actually hated any BML color though.

LEDzeal, as well as a number of other Chinese made units like RB and DsunY will customize your fixture. While there are now a lot of great LED choices for smaller planted tanks most of the big guns are for reef tanks and we PTers either won't use but half the LEDs or would have nasty looking planted tanks if we use reef centric fixtures. Okay there are a couple of to die for ones designed for big tanks like Giesemann Futura but the cost and just getting them on this side of the planet???

Another reason was this brand has been discussed on a couple different forums quite thoroughly and reading through every single one I could find helped cement my decision. One was an Australian planted tank forum, thread is many pages long with a number of tanks showing the fixture in use.

My main issue with the fixture so far is the fan on the power supply is always on and it hums at a pitch higher than the sump pumps. Doesn't actually add any decibels [iphone ap meter] but is noticeable. Both power supply and LEDs have been running cold so suspect the LED fans won't be running much. Bet they are really quiet!

Loving having a small amount of light over the tank for more of the day. Here in so Cal there has been actual weather and it has been nice not having that wall dark until afternoon. Love not having to have shields up to keep from being blinded by the light. Still seems odd to have to need other lights on in the room at night though.

Next project is cleaning up under the tank. Quite the mess. I think I can do a single power strip now and need to anchor the CO2 tank better.


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## jfynyson (Apr 15, 2013)

Fyi BML now sells a multichannel fixture so you can basically tune it to any of their spectrums or create your own. You'll pay for them though, especially on a tank your size. I know they had a beta launch earlier but not 100% sure they've fully launched. Worth looking in to.


John 14:6 
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## knm<>< (Mar 18, 2010)

First time seeing this tank, WOW, I love it!


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## Kathyy (Feb 22, 2010)

knm<>< said:


> First time seeing this tank, WOW, I love it!


 Thank you so much! I look back at how it looked before and am a bit sad but I think it will look better in time.



jfynyson said:


> Fyi BML now sells a multichannel fixture so you can basically tune it to any of their spectrums or create your own. You'll pay for them though, especially on a tank your size. I know they had a beta launch earlier but not 100% sure they've fully launched. Worth looking in to.
> John 14:6
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


I know I saw it mentioned on the site but totally missed how that was set up and had a very itchy BIN finger.


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## jeffkrol (Jun 5, 2013)

Kathyy said:


> My main issue with the fixture so far is the fan on the power supply is always on and it hums at a pitch higher than the sump pumps.


is this a seperate Meanwell ps ? 24V? Some have replaced ps fans w/ quieter ones..


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## Kathyy (Feb 22, 2010)

Yes it is a Meanwell but I am not going to open up the case. Way over my comfort level.

Still playing with intensity and sunset. Sunrise colors don't matter because it is just so the tank isn't too dark to see color in the morning but at night we found that blue/green as the last color is not to our taste so have gone with a very subtle color change. All channels are on 10% at 11pm, first the blue channel dims to 0 so the light is very warm but not orange, then the red goes off leaving the whites for a yellowish look and last the WW go off leaving CW as the last channel which is quite blue when dimmed.

Plants are chugging along. Anubias looks horrible up close but fine at a distance, they have a lot of incrusting brown algae the snails and otos haven't taken care of. I need to pull most of them out anyway to trim so will try pruning off the bad leaves. Scary but they are very healthy plants. Hairgrass is growing very slowly. Belem is a lot slower than whatever species I had before for sure. 

Staurogyne, Bolbitis, Java fern and P. gayi are stepping up though. Just this week the java ferns have filled out the branches so they look like little plants rather than sad fragments. Same with the others. I am still leaving the hornwort in the tank though. If any stems come off the handy branch it is hooked around I am tossing it though.

Only have before and cloudy after water change photos today. Lights started dimming before the tank was cleared up. Got the side and front panes pretty well polished up as well as the back down to 6". Only used the stepstool so that was as far as I could reach. Lots of green stuff on the back which accounts for the green water. I worked pretty hard on the area just at substrate level and got most of the GSA that was lurking right there.

















Got close to a dozen fish out of the overflow. There have been 2 baby congos in the tank, I fished 5 out of the overflow and 2 I couldn't get and this morning I see one of the new ones in the tank. Not too bright. They weren't getting much food in there apparently and are 1/4 the size of the smart ones that stayed out of the overflow.


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## Kathyy (Feb 22, 2010)

Tank is chugging along nicely.

Corydoras have been spawning constantly so in a couple months I might spot a tiny mini cory. Brown algae is continuing to plague the Anubias and you can see I haven't gotten up the courage to strip the bad leaves from the plants that are too large in the first place. Liking the seaweedy strands of P. gayi but the platies miss their hornwort.

Big changes planned. I just traded my 10 pound for a 20 pound CO2 tank and need to build a cover for it to put at the side of the tank as it just misses fitting under the tank. I bought a 29 gallon glass tank for a sump as I am tired of half my expensive sponges being out of water in the old acrylic 40B. Much has been planned, nothing has been done - yet. 

Took some iphone photos and actually got them loaded on the computer this morning. First is with lights off at 9AM, second is lights at 15% at 9:30AM and last is lights 'blazing' at about 6PM with 50% power. Sorry about the upside down photo, didn't look like that on the computer! You can see the tank and colors with 15% but it doesn't seem to be causing any more algae trouble than usual. IRL it is a bit dimmer than it appears in the photo as well, sort of a picture on the wall look.


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## Fuze (Jul 26, 2012)

Wow, looking good, nice Congos too.

How are the plants responding to the new fixture? I am waiting for mine to ship!


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## BruceF (Aug 5, 2011)

Been a while since I looked in here. Tank looks great as always.


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## Kathyy (Feb 22, 2010)

Thanks. I am loving looking at it. I wanted programmable LED for the sunrise/sunset feature and it is working out well. So nice to be able to see the tank all day long. Hope I am not stressing fish/plants out by having such a long photoperiod even though light is dim for 6.5 of those hours. I cannot measure anything at the bottom of the tank and the top of the cover has all of 35PAR at 15%.


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## tomfromstlouis (Apr 2, 2012)

Love this tank. Love this journal. 

I really liked the old look and look forward to this one maturing. I think we both are experiencing that it takes significant time to reboot a look in a large tank. I confess that my efforts are being influenced by your overall balance, with more openness at one end. I think that works well.


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## Kathyy (Feb 22, 2010)

Thanks for the nice comments everybody. If it wasn't for this place and all the threads about scaping and the sale forum so I could nickel and dime all the wood and plants in there it sure wouldn't look like it does today.

I haven't changed the hardscape at all and most of the changes to the plants are in the rear and fore where it is just going to be P. gayi for the time being in back and a couple of new types of plants in front. 

There are a couple of new buces that have attached to rocks in the front. Pygmea is going pretty well but Pinky Mambo is taking time to get going. I tried to glue one down but had to resort to a rubber band so just banded the other down. This week I removed the bands and they are stuck down nicely so maybe they will start to show their stuff soon.

The tank is open on the left side as that end is viewed when you come into the house. Makes perfect sense to have the scape open on that side, I really think it is the way to go with a tank placed like this.

I have some light over the tank from 9am-12am! Peak light is currently at 2pm for 10 minutes at 70% for the white LEDs. Lighting seems bright enough until 10 pm though. This means unless I specially turn the lights up I am either shooting in dim light or there are going to be reflections. For some reason it is exhausting standing up at the tripod even for 5 minutes so these photos are taken from my usual POV, my comfy chair.

Still having fun playing with the programming. While equal amounts of all channels is rich and true I don't like the fluorescent orange of the platies so am experimenting with differing amounts of the channels. With RB turned to about 1/2 the whites platies are a more natural color to my eye.

The scape is close to my vision other than the ground covers haven't grown in yet. I finally pulled out a couple of overgrown Anubias that were cramping things, that really made a difference. The P. gayi, Bolbitis and java fern are finally looking like plants. There is moss attaching to some of the rocks and I really love that look. I have been pulling weed moss with gravel+STS bits attached from the substrate and draping it on rocks to see if it will start growing but that has been a flop as the water currents push the moss+substrate right off by the next day. Maybe I will glue one of the substrate bits to the rock next time.


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## tomfromstlouis (Apr 2, 2012)

Yeah, I like how this is coming together. Still love those congos too.

I am sorry to say it appears your photography skills are no better than mine. :icon_frow


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## zaminter (Jan 24, 2015)

Kathyy said:


> Another reason was this brand has been discussed on a couple different forums quite thoroughly and reading through every single one I could find helped cement my decision. One was an Australian planted tank forum, thread is many pages long with a number of tanks showing the fixture in use.


Can I get a link to the forum where this light was discussed please? I am thinking about ordering one.

Thanks!


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## Kathyy (Feb 22, 2010)

Hope my link helped with your research!

Tank is looking nice now, pretty much as I wanted it to look. Algae has been nearly gone for a few weeks now and all plants are growing well not that you can tell from my lousy photos. Have been continuing to move the lighting so tank is bright during the day and quite dim at night.

I think I finally may have my above tank plantings worked out! I have always wanted plants above the tank but have failed miserably so far. Skinny window boxes behind, I forget to water. Couldn't figure out how to anchor plants in the tank [pre riparium planter era] and the tank had a wide center brace anyway. The tank now has a 3" wide brace all around so riparium planters cannot work but reading back through Crazydaz's journal again I noted that he was experimenting with a wicking fabric called Hygrolon on top of manzanita here are some photos. I looked into it and while that fabric is no longer available one called Spyra is offered by the same importer. 

This type of fabric is used in quite a lot in vivarium and to mount orchids. I also read up on capillary matting/living wall fabric and realized all that is is felt. Tried my unused filter felt suspended in a glass of water, it could pull water up 2". Not good enough so I went for the Spyra. It can pull water horizontally or vertically for 12" or so. 

So my plan? Bend PVC pipe with the aid of a heat gun so it goes into water every 12" and balances on the rim of the tank then cover it with that old felt because more water is always better and then Spyra. I tested for a few days before planting and it does stay good and wet. Hoping that my plants won't be overwatered but that is usually due to low O2 at the roots and that shouldn't be an issue in this case. I hope.

Ended up doing this *3* times. First one [shown in construction photos] was massive and looked like a stuffed sock in the tank. Second one was 2 'branches' with a sand bag covered with felt/Spyra laying on top to hold them in place, very clunky plus I forgot my main point was to have just enough fabric in the water to keep the stuff out of water wet! 


Anyway here are some build photos. First two are construction, next is how my final version looks then last how it looks planted.
































Final version [I hope] is of 1" PVC with 2/3s of it cut away for the branches and left whole for the part on top of the overflow and all bent mostly to fit in the water where needed. I am VERY glad I decided to just sew the fabric on so didn't lose any when I kept ripping it apart to redo it! I did sort of a corset stitch with very strong nylon thread so the slightly stretchy fabrics are very snug fitting. Last version was much tighter than what is shown.

Plants are simply houseplants I bought locally plus java moss, a stray Bolbitis and some Hydrocotyle 'Japan'. I suspect Brazilian pennywort will be growing out of the water as well.
Microsorum diversifolium, kangaroo foot fern
Davallia fejeensis, rabbit foot fern
Ficus pumila 'Variegata', variegated creeping fig


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## andrewss (Oct 17, 2012)

great looking tank


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## vanish (Apr 21, 2014)

Interesting. In your last photo it looks like an actual branch, so I'd say success for now!


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## Kathyy (Feb 22, 2010)

Interesting that just twisting and bending to fit makes for a natural feel. Branch is completely damp throughout this morning but I will use a sponge to water it all several times today anyway.

Be great if the rabbit foot fern grows well as it is one of my favorites. If this is a go then I have a link [or road trip] to a terrific orchid nursery and a real branch with some tillandsias growing would be pretty great as well. Main reason I can keep aquatics alive is the water situation is taken care of, if this works in the house then I can keep small epiphytic house plants alive without watering problems as well.


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## Kathyy (Feb 22, 2010)

Got out the tripod and took some photos with the lights on 'sunrise' mode. Kind of pretty. Light was still too dim to capture fish and no idea what is going on the left side, looks fuzzy.

My experimental branch is doing fine but no growth after all of 3 days.No news is good news I suppose. Loving the variegated creeping fig. It is so commonly planted here one discounts its attractiveness I guess.


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## fishophile (Feb 6, 2012)

What made you get rid of the marsilea? I'm not having the best of luck getting it to carpet and am debating replacing it with s. repens. 

Great looking tank, the newest edition is really cool.


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## Kathyy (Feb 22, 2010)

Thanks. I haven't changed the hardscape at all and the tank looks so different with the differing background and foreground plants. After 2 years the rocks are just starting to get covered with moss and I really love that.

Marsilea is still in the tank but there isn't enough of it to show up. Only a floating 3 leaf fragment survived the latest apocalypse and it took a while to settle down and start growing. The fragment is maybe 5" long now and I will pull it to cut up to replant soon. Right now it is growing in a perfectly straight line and I am sort of wondering what will happen. Will it branch out at the oldest part at some point? Will it branch out when it runs into the rock it is headed for?

Ground covers are high maintenance. Even if you do get the Marselia to carpet then you will have to pull it up and replant it as it will pile on top of itself and get algae or pull out of the substrate. S. repens loves to sulk even when you think you have it figured out and melt on you but it will come right back so long as the stems are solid. Hairgrass has never failed me but it needs regularly mowing or pulling up and replanting too.


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## BigJay180 (Jul 20, 2014)

Absolutely stunning tank. I love the branch coming out of the top, that's definitely something I want to do


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## Kathyy (Feb 22, 2010)

Well it is early days yet. It may or may not work. I am sure just felt wouldn't work but it is possible the plants would be better off with either just Spyra or Spyra+something that doesn't hold water at all. Is there enough room for plants to develop, will salts build up too fast, what about gnats and other pests and so on.

Lots of options for growing plants out of water these days. My creation is an elaboration of part of Crazydaz square tank's out of water planting, riparium planters, planted walls behind the tank, just planting an HOB filter and that nifty window box planter sump theatermusic87 has just set up. When I was first trying to do this it was either allow aquatics to grow out of the tank which created quite a mess in the underwater scape I had at the time or put planters behind the tank and that was difficult for me to care for.


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## Dzrtman (Mar 4, 2014)

*An amazing 'journey' with a great end!*

Thank you Kathy for taking the time to share your amazing story of patience and success. It will be an inspiration to any of us that have had 'down moments' when 'disaster' strikes our tank and we wonder if we have the energy to carry on. Your story certainly inspired me!!

Robin


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## navarro1950 (Jul 25, 2014)

Kathyy you have a remarkable talent .


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## Kathyy (Feb 22, 2010)

Either that or too much time on my hands! I am the daughter of a librarian and librarians research to the end. That dendro board is amazing, I never would have thought to make a faux branch without seeing it there first.

Down with knee replacement surgery at the moment so have just been feeding/fertilizing the tank. My daughter and I did a water change yesterday though. Daughter moved the python around outside so I didn't have to go in and out of the house half a dozen times so one plant didn't get 90 gallons of water and I started the siphon and yelled to turn off the kitchen faucet when it was time. Hoping to get the sponges out to rinse this morning and maybe will get the tank wiped down tomorrow. Stooping over is big time leg work and going up a step is terrifying. Good to have a half ton tank that cannot be pulled over to hold on to! I cleaned up the tank last year feeling just about like this, I can do it! The idiot congo tetras that like the overflow probably will just get a couple flakes of food though, doubt I will want to fish them out any time soon.

The 'branch' has been awesome. One unrooted rhizome of the rabbit's foot fern has lost a frond but there is a new frond growing elsewhere and I see new light colored tips on most rhizomes. The pennywort has a few tiny leaves, the moss is mostly brown but I am sure it will sprout again. The creeping fig has roots going in the water now and sure didn't skip a beat getting planted on the 'branch'. Am concerned about Amano shrimp though. Saw one picking at the branch and it could walk on up and out of the tank. Acrylic tanks have overhangs that make it pretty hard to get out usually.

Four of the tiny Congo tetra fry have decided to stay in the big tank rather than the overflow and two have turned out to be male so of the 6 young ones I seem to have 3/3 combining with the 4 mature females. Lost my old male, he swam to the front of the tank and locked eyes with me his last day. Since he generally headed for the pennywort when I got close to the tank I knew it was the end for him. The tinies are now the size of black neons and the 2 largest ones are the size of platies. Congo tetras are pigs and grow fast. 

I decided to increase the LED lighting but changed the whole program. LEDzeal has a built in 'sunrise' mode that lights the tank from 6am-12am and has a lot of red early and late in the lighting period. A bit long so I squished it to run from 9am-11:30pm and had the twilight last longer so the brightest peak is sharper. Plants are delighted with more light. Hairgrass is finally carpeting, that 18" tall crypt is shrinking to more like 12" and Blyxa is bronzing. This program seems to avoid the green look the tank was getting with too much WW and so far [knocking on wood] no increase in algae.


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## navarro1950 (Jul 25, 2014)

Kathyy I'm not down and I'm taking chemo for Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia for the 4th time and I'm still enjoying my aquarium, plants, water changes and all. I was diagnosed at age 52 and this year I'll be 65, so you keep putting together those beautiful aquascapes and we'll keep those compliments coming your way.


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## audioaficionado (Apr 19, 2011)

Just had eye surgery. Nice to have two eyes again. All the better to see your tank Kathy. Beautiful and natural look to it. My tank is a mess, but has tons of over growth. I fill up a 5 gal bucket when I thin it every few months.


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## Kathyy (Feb 22, 2010)

Bunch of us overcoming adversity right now. LOVE having a hobby so I am not just wishing I could do this or that and can obsess over something beautiful. 

Today I attempted to be strict and only play in the tank for short periods of time and rest 3x as long but I kept ignoring the timer chime and worked longer. All I was doing was standing on the step [the hardest thing still], wiping down the tank walls [super easy but time consuming] and pruning out excessive growth plus removing the little bit of BBA on wood and substrate that remains in the tank. I am wiped out and only got about 2/3 of the way through.

Plants are extremely happy with the lighting. I planted 4 stems of pennywort last week and it was starting to bloom and covering half the water surface this week! Hairgrass has finally carpeted in the only spot the ferns haven't shaded and the ferns are growing ridiculously fast. I just pruned off a couple of old Anubias flowers as well. P. gayi is equally robust and I pulled a couple of its vigorous rhizomes from the front of the tank this week.

Review of the plants on the faux branch is mixed. The Kangaroo Paw fern and variegated fig are doing very well with lots of new growth. Moss below the water line is growing nicely and I ought to remove the thread. The Rabbit's Foot fern isn't doing well. New fronds sprout then dry up. I suspect I broke the plant apart too much so there isn't quite enough root on each piece and will try with another plant. I see white salt deposits on the fabric so have started putting it in the water on water change day to try to soak them off.

I missed the point where the tank was where I was hoping it could be and it is seriously overgrown now. One can see very little of the supporting wood and rocks. I cannot believe how huge those pitiful fern fragments I glued down in November have gotten! It is time for a rescape at last and plans are afoot.

First photo shows how full the tank is and you can see how long the Marsilea fragment has gotten. It continues into the darkness with larger lobed fronds. Taken at 30% of all channels. 

Second, the Hygrophila Araguaia is looking good now it is well rooted so I could pull out the crypt weeds growing through it. I pulled Utricularia gibba off it today. Must have been a really tiny fragment as I've never seen it in my tank and there haven't been any new plants introduced for months and months. Taken at 100% of all channels.

Last, tank shot showing the emerse branch. Clearly I need to prune the P. gayi tomorrow! Taken at 30% of all channels.


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