# 55G Journal (56K Warning) Update: 2/11/2008 - TANK HAS BEEN FILLED



## danepatrick (Jul 17, 2006)

did you plan on growing the blyxa aubertii emersed as well? I don't know how it reacts but everytime I transfer some b. japonica into my own tank from someone elses, it goes through a transition phase where it melts down and then bounces back. I too am trying Barr's method of "emersion" and will hopefully see results! =-)


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## fishscale (May 29, 2007)

The blyxa is in my QT tank right now, I read it doesn't grow emersed. Looking good, except for the mass amount of snails chewing on it. There's always a ton of snails in this tank because my diamond tetras bred, so I have to feed the fry pretty often. Unfortunately, it appears I've got a bit of green spot algae growing on my substrate in the dry tank. Any suggestions for this? Not a huge deal yet, just don't want it to spread.


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## fishscale (May 29, 2007)

Maybe it's green dust? It's looks like someone put green powder on certain places in the substrate.


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## mpodolan (Mar 27, 2007)

Glad to see you finally got some pics up! Can't wait to see this thing fill out


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## dekstr (Oct 23, 2007)

Subscribed. That's a lot of duckweed for 1 1/2 weeks.
Looking forward to the updates.


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## octopus44 (Apr 23, 2007)

Cant wait to see how this turns out! How much longer are you going to let the HC and hairgrass grow before you add water?


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## mistergreen (Dec 9, 2006)

if you can, get sunlight in there too.. You'll see a crazy growth spurt.


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## fishscale (May 29, 2007)

I wish I could get sunlight. I, unfortunately, live in a basement apartment. Combined with Ann Arbor's 355 days of cloudiness (I'm exaggerating, but barely), this makes for a pretty dank place to live. Since learning about planted tanks, I have changed out some of the lightbulbs in the place for ones with better color temps, so it doesn't look so crappy. I'm trying to get a place next year that is on the 2nd floor, we'll see how that works. As for the tank, I'd like to see if I can get some more rooted HC before I fill it. It's taken me a lot of patience already, and I want to get a denser carpet. If I were to do it over again, I think I would have put a layer of aquasoil over the SMS. There really seems to be quite a big difference. Also, I would have set up the substrate dividers and scaping correctly the first time, as well as starting the HC at the lower levels instead of the hill. (The hill makes it difficult to keep the substrate moist)


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## fishscale (May 29, 2007)

UPDATE: 11/26

Last time:










Now:























































Lots of good growth, key is patience and not touching the tank (which I had problems with earlier )

Hopefully, I'll be able to have this tank filled by the end of the month.


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## JohnInFlorida (May 2, 2007)

Hmmm, basement apartment = no sunlight ... 2nd floor apartment = never having a 180/220/240gallon tank ... hmmm, decisions, decisions.

I know how I'd vote :fish: :bounce:  

Keep Smilin'
John


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## fishscale (May 29, 2007)

Hahahahah, not a concern for me yet. Apartment will only be for a year, and I can't afford the big tanks...yet


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## fishscale (May 29, 2007)

New pics:


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## Riley (Jan 24, 2006)

Looking good....really starting to fill in.


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## fishscale (May 29, 2007)

You can tell where I planted first though...Didn't have enough HC for the rest of the tank, so it's a a different color right now


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## mistergreen (Dec 9, 2006)

The dwarf hair grass isn't doing much huh?
Nice rocks btw..

I've been to the 'rock shoppe' up by your neck of the woods. It's a pretty cool landscaping place.


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## fishscale (May 29, 2007)

I've actually never been there. I was supposed to go but I ran out of time that one weekend, those are rocks I collected in the upper peninsula. The hairgrass is actually doing pretty well, I started with a pretty small amount. There's more there than I started with.


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## fishscale (May 29, 2007)

Update (1/30/2007):

Last time:









Now:








































































I had an outbreak of duckweed when I was gone for winter break, and it choked a whole section of the tank. The part that isn't filled in on the left is where it was overrun by duckweed. I had to fill it halfway and spend about an hour scooping it and teasing it out of the HC. I'm sure there's more in there, but I'll worry about it when I fill the tank. Also, I added my java fern; a couple big Philippines, and a bunch of regular.

Hopefully, it will stay green and lush when I fill it. I'm planning on getting my CO2 tank this weekend, and I will be all set to go with lights, CO2, and ferts.


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## EdTheEdge (Jan 25, 2007)

Very intresting. Nice start. Thanks for sharing.


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## fishscale (May 29, 2007)

Oh yeah, I am for sure going to change the background. Maybe paint a piece of foam board or something. I like my ghetto IKEA curtains, but not as a tank background


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## fshfanatic (Apr 20, 2006)

How is the smell in that room? I would think it would be interesting to say the least.


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## moogoo (Dec 7, 2007)

what is that plant in the middle that used to be sandy looking?


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## fishscale (May 29, 2007)

fshfanatic said:


> How is the smell in that room? I would think it would be interesting to say the least.


The room itself actually doesn't smell, probably because I plastic wrapped the tank real well. When I open it to scape, it's a different story :flick: Kinda funky, not unlike a public restroom.



moogoo said:


> what is that plant in the middle that used to be sandy looking?


I'm not sure what you're referring to, are you talking about the right side? If you're asking why the sand foreground is green, that would be algae 

Currently, the tank has HC, dwarf hair grass, java fern "Philippine", regular java fern, and a few stems of hygrophila polysperma "rosanervig" I tried growing emersed. They are growing fine emersed, but change form. I don't like how they look, so I am probably going to replace them with some of the same plant grown emersed when I fill the tank. Grows fast anyway.


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## moogoo (Dec 7, 2007)

Hahaha. Yes I was asking about the foreground sand. I kept wondering why you weren't taking closeup shots of the nice green lawn there! It almost looked like a very fine riccia that you somehow anchored there. I was impressed! 

I guess I shouldn't be. I can grow algae too!


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## JHipkin (Dec 18, 2004)

Nice job. Have you filed the tank w/ water?

I'm about to start a tank using the emmersed method to grow out the foreground plants and SMS. I also have a sand in the front of the tank with a channel moving toward the back. Did you add fertilizer to the water soaking the SMS? And what are you using to divide the sand from the substrate?


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## fishscale (May 29, 2007)

First, I washed the SMS, and I washed it a lot. Then, I soaked the SMS in a fert solution (dry ferts dumped into the bucket of water and SMS, mixed around a bit). Then, I took the SMS and dumped it into the tank, shaping and whatnot. Eventually, you will have to fertilize again. Just make a dilute fert spray (don't forget to make a macro spray every once in a while), and spray it on the HC. Don't keep it too wet, but make sure the air in the tank is humid. To separate the sand and the SMS, I cut strips from soda bottles and used silicone to glue them together.

Small world, I used to live in Walnut Creek. Montego Way and Bancroft Elementary


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## BiscuitSlayer (Apr 1, 2005)

fishscale said:


> The room itself actually doesn't smell, probably because I plastic wrapped the tank real well. When I open it to scape, it's a different story :flick: Kinda funky, not unlike a public restroom.


LMAO! Nice! Its funny how you can mention a smell on a message board and it instantly went through my mind almost as if I had experienced it myself.

On another note, your HC is looking great! It has filled in that much in 9 - 10days?

What kind of photoperiod are you running for the emersed growth?


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## fishscale (May 29, 2007)

Update (2/11/2008):

Last time:










Now:





































Today, I got the last piece of the puzzle:










Which means...(sorry about the bad picture)










THE TANK HAS BEEN FILLED!!!!!!11ONE



















After my midterms are over, there will be much updating.


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## mpodolan (Mar 27, 2007)

Great progress, man. I'm glad to see you were able to stay patient enough to wait until it filled in so well. Can't wait to see this one progress. What are your stocking plans?


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## rasetsu (Oct 11, 2007)

Love the 'scape...but I have to ask, what's up with that background?


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## Matthew_Machine (Oct 12, 2003)

nice growth! Is the plastic guard going to come out at all?


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## fishscale (May 29, 2007)

rasetsu said:


> Love the 'scape...but I have to ask, what's up with that background?





fishscale said:


> Oh yeah, I am for sure going to change the background. Maybe paint a piece of foam board or something. I like my ghetto IKEA curtains, but not as a tank background


I think I am going to get a piece of posterboard and give it a nice gray-black coat.



BiscuitSlayer said:


> LMAO! Nice! Its funny how you can mention a smell on a message board and it instantly went through my mind almost as if I had experienced it myself.
> 
> On another note, your HC is looking great! It has filled in that much in 9 - 10days?
> 
> What kind of photoperiod are you running for the emersed growth?


It wasn't just 9-10 days, it took a long time. Initial planting on the hill was in November, and it still hasn't filled in that well. Hills are hard to do, and even harder to have them stay down, I found out unfortunately last night. When you fill the tank, the air bubbles have a tendency to lift the HC off the substrate. I lost a couple of chunks, so now they're just being held down. I'll rescape the hill later, but that annoyed the hell out of me. The part that filled in really nicely was only planted at the end of December, though. I ran a 17 hour photoperiod  Tough on the electric bill, though.



mpodolan said:


> Great progress, man. I'm glad to see you were able to stay patient enough to wait until it filled in so well. Can't wait to see this one progress. What are your stocking plans?


I trying to get rid of my 2 10g's and replacing them with a 20L, so I want to put the 9 diamond tetras I have in one of them (Yes, I know, it's over stocked, but I started with 4, and then they had babies.) into the 50g. I'm also going with a large school of cardinals, a smaller school of rummies, and 2 apistogramma cacatuoides. For cleanup, I am going to move the otos from my shrimp tank and get a small school of cories. 



Matthew_Machine said:


> nice growth! Is the plastic guard going to come out at all?


The plastic guard will come out when the HC adjusts to the submersed growth and roots a little better.


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## Chucknorris (Feb 17, 2006)

That is crazy how similar they look. You're hc growth is awesome hopefully mine will fill out the same way.


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## fishscale (May 29, 2007)

Booo. I see diatoms starting to form. Going to home depot today for a wrench to set up my CO2. I hate my landlord even more now, for not letting me borrow a wrench. It's right there in the maintenance closet I can seeeeee ittttt....

P.S. If any of you ever move to Ann Arbor, avoid Gallatin Realty at all costs. If actually seeing the apartments didn't drive you off already, you should run before my landlord and his terrible toupee try to steal your security deposit.


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## moogoo (Dec 7, 2007)

I hope my HC fills out as nice as yours has. My HC is a long way from being thick and lush, but I can see it growing low and spreading out slowly. So, I've got my fingers crossed.

Sucks you had to go out and buy a wrench. No friends had any? Use that fish muscle in your avatar and do it barehanded.. :hihi:


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## owlavatar (Feb 15, 2008)

nice looking greens you have going there fishscale!


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## Gezza (Mar 6, 2008)

The pictures are great and show a steady progression of growth from start to fill time. I look foreward to seeing more pictures of your tank in the future, it's got me interested!


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## Lorenmws (Jul 27, 2008)

Update please!


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## fishscale (May 29, 2007)

Sorry guys, this tank is long gone. I tore it up in August and sold the tank, no room for big ones anymore. But, fear not, I will be putting up my 20g long journal soon. Started it the same way.


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