# 46g Summer Shade - crypts and kribs galore!



## MikeP_123 (Aug 31, 2008)

GOLD RAMS ALL THE WAY!

BTW how much light (W) do you have over the tank?

My suggestions, to create a little more depth, would be to make sloping effect from the front to the back and maybe to the sides also. Ill also post a few plants that I've been looking at. Are you looking for red plants or all green?


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## demosthenes (Aug 23, 2008)

i was thinking mostly green. this afternoon (after posting the picture), i added a red dwarf lily, crypt. lucens, stargrass, and an anubias minima. I really want to try to add depth, but im not sure how. i'll check out some of the aquascaping threads. is it possible to add more gravel to this tank without totally ripping up all of my plants? I want to add new eco-complete, but it totally clouds up the water, and i dont want all the fish and plants that are alreadyi n there to die from it...


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## demosthenes (Aug 23, 2008)

i havent posted on this thread in a really long time, so hopefully i can improve it a little. 
Here is its entire history, starting on 10.14 after just filling it up.




































The last picture was just taken a minute ago.

I like my layout so far, and hopefully it will look a lot better once my plants grow in, especially the java ferns and star grass. I'd like some suggestions and comments on it. Im lookign for some plants to put in the center background (like next to the reineckii, on either side would be good), but i'm not sure what. What do you guys think?


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## demosthenes (Aug 23, 2008)

The last picture in the last post was just taken a minute ago, i edited that post to fix some technical difficulties i experienced.. haha

so by now everything is starting to fill in a little bit and im starting to become pretty happy with this tank. I'm not sure where to go form here though. Some of my backgroudn plants are a little out of balance with each other, and once my foreground grows in a little bit more it will look a lot better. I dont know what to add or take away that would make it look better. I'm starting to have second thoughts about my driftwood configuration. Should i put the triangular piece on the other side or something? I'm hoping to get some jungle vals soon so they can add to my jungly area on the right side of the tank. Maybe between the rotala and sunset hygros? well see.


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## demosthenes (Aug 23, 2008)

After a few more weeks everythings filled in a little bit, and im pretty happy with it. The fish are all doing well so far, too. My dwarf sag and chilensis have sent out tons of runners, and the background plants have been growing how they should.

Recently I added some crypt wendtiis from josh1694, so thanks a lot! I think theyve added a lot so far. I'm not sure where to go from here though as far as what else to do with the aquascape or the fish. Suggestions would be much appreciated!


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## davemonkey (Sep 21, 2008)

Looks like it's coming along nicely.


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## demosthenes (Aug 23, 2008)

my lighting on this tank is 2x25W T5's. (24" long on a 36" tank.... idk). should i be dosing this with anything? i have been dosing very little and i've been having a ton of algae growing on the glass.


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## demosthenes (Aug 23, 2008)

Another quick update with some coolish pictures.
Everything has been growing in alright, it looks halfway decent which is a new thing for me! I'd like something to fill it in more, like how Amano has no space between his plants, they just blend right in together. Hopefully the plants will fill out more into that effect someday.

FTS:








Left Corner:








Right Corner:









Random thoughts:
Some Crinum Natans would look cool in the back right behind the stargrass, i don't know where i'd move the sunsets to though. I want to get rid of the H. polysperma in the middle and use something more interesting, but for it'll probably stay for a while.


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## demosthenes (Aug 23, 2008)

Here's a quick update on the 46g bowfront... I chopped down some of the stargrass and hygros, one crypt wendtii, one echinodorus, and some dwarf sag, because my friend is just getting into planting his tanks and I thought he might want some. So here my tank is now:
FTS:








Cute little ludwigia bush (right foreground):








New jungle vals, chilensis, and reineckii:









so yeah. cool beans! 
i'm hoping to get my dwarf sag to fill in the entire foreground up to my ludwigia repens, and basically replace the small crypts on the right. They're getting kind of ugly:icon_eek:, and the DS still looks cool.


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## EdTheEdge (Jan 25, 2007)

I love Hygro... it's always been my favorite plant. Yours looks choice! That Ludwidgia bush is pretty sweet too!


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## demosthenes (Aug 23, 2008)

In the past week, I have lost: 3 neon tetras, 2 swordtails, 1 dwarf neon rainbow, 1 bamboo shrimp, 1 oto.

So now my stocking list is: 1 angel, 2 black mollies, 2 swordtails, 2 hatchets, 2 dwarf neon rainbows, 1 oto, 1 bamboo shrimp, 5 neon tetras, 1 honey gold dwarf gourami, and one clown loach.

I really need to get more of the same fish so they can school and all.... Tomorrow I'm going to my LFS. I am hoping to get rid of my swordtails, get 5 more neon tetras, and 2 or 3 more DNRs. That's still kind of a lot of fish, but when the angelfish and hatchets and clown loach eventually die, I won't get new ones. (although until they die, i will definitely take as good care of them as i possibly can). I'll give updated pictures either later tonight or tomorrow.


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## Phoenix-cry (Dec 25, 2008)

Looks very nice!!


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## demosthenes (Aug 23, 2008)

EdTheEdge said:


> I love Hygro... it's always been my favorite plant. Yours looks choice! That Ludwidgia bush is pretty sweet too!


thank you! the idea of a ludwigia bush popped into my head a long time ago, and once i did it i thought it was kind of a cute little thing, so i'm glad you like it!

I actually used to think hygros were really boring, but i'm starting to appreciate them a little more.


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## demosthenes (Aug 23, 2008)

A quick update - after the massive die-off slowed down a little bit (I added a few caps of parasite-guard), I decided to move out the neons (theyre in my 10g now), swordtails, and hatchet (which are back at my LFS now, the hatchet with a school of hatchets and the swords in the livebearer tank where they came from) and I got nine hengelii rasboras. They seem fine so far (knock on wood), and they look awesome! They're big enough that the angelfish hasn't even bothered them yet. The plants haven't really changed much, they've just grown a little bit.

FTS [edit: the tank is a lot bigger than it looks in the picture, I didn't realize until now that I cut off like 6 inches of tank off of either side...]:








Hengeliis (fast little buggers + slow shutter speed = terrible pictures!)


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## demosthenes (Aug 23, 2008)

*Minor Rescape, way cooler in person! lol*

So it's been a while since I have updated this journal - not much has happened. The plants in large part grew up to the surface, and it got a little crowded, and finally i decided it was time for a little rescape.

Basically, I moved the driftwood further to the right, chopped up some of the plants over there, put the vals and sag all the way in the back, added java moss, added a tiny bit of driftwood (with java moss) from my 10g setup, moved the ludwigia bush, shifted the rotala around a little to make more of a bush around the driftwood, and threw in some ambulia. And even with this whole detailed description of what i did, it barely looks different... lol.

Also, the betta fish is getting a bit aggressive, i'll move him later tonight, and one of my hengelis is missing in action... there were 8, and now theyre schooling in a group of 7, and i can't find the 8th anywhere :icon_cry:
Beyond that, all the other fish are doing the same as before.

FTS:








Right side:








Left side:


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## cah925 (May 18, 2007)

I like the new look although the left side looks a little cluttered compared to the right side.


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## ZooTycoonMaster (Jan 2, 2008)

cah925 said:


> I like the new look although the left side looks a little cluttered compared to the right side.


I agree.

And you should try to stick with 1 foreground plant - IMO the Dwarf Sag will give the tank a jungle look and you should stick with that. If not, remove the Sag, and let the Glosso (?) grow in


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## demosthenes (Aug 23, 2008)

yeah, i was wondering about that. The glosso was only put in there to compare with the growth in my 10g, i'll move it out. And the left side does look really crowded. I just took out a LOT of polysperma, and i don't want to throw all of it out at once (dont want a nitrogen spike), so i'm letting some of it float for now.


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## demosthenes (Aug 23, 2008)

i cleared out the polysperma at the top left, which made the whole tank look SO much better. I'm a little weirded out by my ludwigia though. Now that it's front and center under the lights, the tops are turning reallllly pale. Is that some kind of deficiency that i can fix?

FTS:










I also kind of miss the fun of breeding fish from back when i had livebearers, so i've been looking into breeding the neons in my 10g and the rasboras in here. Does anyone have experience breeding hengeli rasboras? they're cute little things, itd be fun to have more!


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## demosthenes (Aug 23, 2008)

today i went to my LFS and bought a bunch of stuff, like new driftwood, some moss, some dwarf hairgrass, an apono. ulvaceous bulb, and two german blue rams! the rams are really cool, they seem to be in good health and adjusting well to their new home. I'm also sellign a bunch of stuff on the SnS, so i've uprooted a whole bunch of plants. No _new_ FTS today though, it doesn't look that good. I still have a rock on top of the new driftwood to hold it down and a ton of plants floating on the surface.

New driftwood:









FTS before uprooting plants and adding driftwood an stuff:









Plants waiting to be shipped out:









Awesome new blue rams!:


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## CL (Mar 13, 2008)

Cool driftwood!


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## cjp999 (Nov 18, 2008)

I love your tank! I also have 46g bow, and will try to take some inspiration from your tank. However, I have a very large piece of driftwood, so in general your layout would not work with it. 

BTW, your first post makes it look like you got your tank in awesome shape in just 11 days. I now realize the pic was updated 2 to 3 months after your first posted. You might want to edit your post to clarify that.


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## Tex Gal (Mar 28, 2008)

I think that the dwarf sag. looks a little big for your foreground. I liked your glosso. Dwarf Sag. has a tendency to take over and go everywhere. Your sword on the left is a little too big. Looks like maybe you have removed it?... You might try a rubin sword. They are a little smaller, with a pretty pink blush.

Have you thought of Lobelia Cardinals for the left. It has a nice small round leaf and will compliment your other round leaf.

The giant hygro on the right needs to be moved to the background. The leaf shape is nice, it just looks too big where it is. 

Have you thought of moving your lily up to mid ground? You could keep it trimmed short and it would give you a nice burst of color. 

Your tank has come a long way. It's getting better all the time!


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## demosthenes (Aug 23, 2008)

*Major trim and partial rescape*

Everyone thank you very much for your comments! 

cjp999 - haha it took me a long time to realize why that picture was so weird, but the URL is from my tank profile on this site instead of shutterfly, so when i updated the profile, it updated that picture, too. I'll fix it asap. 

tex gal - the glosso didn't grow very well in here, it looked kind of weird i though. Lobelias actually haven't crossed my mind. Now that you mention it, i think they might be a good idea. I'll definitely look into that 
also, sold the swords to KevinC and chopped up the corymbosa a lot. I actually don't think that side of the tank looks so good anymore, i'd like to fix it somehow, but i'm not sure what to put there instead. any suggestions? i was thinking filligree myrio or something like that. not cabomba or ambulia though, my ambulias in there don't look so good anyway.

In other news, i added the driftwood with some moss and anubias and java ferns. The rotalas have grown a lot and i think the ludwigia repens looks a lot better now. I think i'm going to try to start shifting more towards bushes of things instead of individual plants, it looks much better and more natural. I don't know about stems, but i'm hoping to start using more java ferns and green crypts, like willisii, spiralis, and balansae. I love the look of tanks with huge java fern bushes, but mine just refuse to grow like that. i dont even know why! well, enough with the talking; heres the pics.

FTS:
















new driftwood:








cool shot of some alt. reineckii:









well thats it. comments much appreciated, as always! :thumbsup:


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## CAM6467 (Feb 11, 2009)

awesome tank! it's amazing how well you're plants grew in like they did. i can't wait to see it once you get the new scape done and your plants grow back in.


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## demosthenes (Aug 23, 2008)

well, by the time this weekend came around, my tank was pretty overgrown and out of shape. it looked awesome, but it didn't really fit the title of this post, so i'm trying to make it more jungly. Sooooo..... i did a major rescape, including some of the suggestions made here. It honestly doesn't look great now, but i think in a few weeks it will. i am selling most of the dwarf sag, but i'm keeping a little to re-fill in the foreground. instead, i'm growing out a whole bunch of java moss on little rock fragments, and hopefully i can get a moss foreground going. i'm hoping to go more towards the side of crypts and ferns and mosses than stems and stuff.

I also moved the lilies up to the front and the corymbosas and reineckii to the back to even out the scape a little more. I may get some more glosso in the very foreground eventually, but not for a while at least. 

In other news, my friend is getting rid of all of his tanks, so i *might* get to grab his 10g to use as a breeder! idk if ill get it for sure yet (or for that matter if my parents will let me (which they wouldn't ever...)), but i'm pretty excited about it, because it'd be really fun to get into breeding again, especially with neons and rams. 

Pictures to come in like 15 minutes.


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## demosthenes (Aug 23, 2008)

Note: i think this post will be the first on the third page, in which case i just waned to let you know to go and see the second page, where i wrote all about the new rescape.

FTS:








with "Foliage" camera setting:








cute little anubias that i cut off from the non-growing end of another anubia like three months ago as an experiment to see if it would start growing again:








awkward-looking foreground... it should fill in with java moss eventually, it'll take like a month though:








awkward-looking left side... the wendtii 'bronze's are too tall to be in the foreground, but i dont know where else to put them. should i just leave them be, or find a new spot for them? i'm open to suggestions.:








a cool little dwarf lily, used to be in the background, but someone (tex gal i think?) said i should move it up to the front, so i did:









well, thats it. enjoy! haha


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## jojojohentr (Sep 11, 2005)

Great job. I have a 46g bf too, and just restarted my planted tank after a long hiatus. Hope to look half as good as yours in a few months.


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## demosthenes (Aug 23, 2008)

A quick update:

I've done a lot of changes in this tank recently. I've been trying to take out and eventually eliminate all of my stem plants (except stargrass because its *the man*.) and err more on the side of mosses, crypts, and ferns, and maybe a sword or two. So i got this massive piece of driftwood and a bunch of mosses (and some more ferns are on their way.)

I only took one picture because i haven't cleaned the tank in... a while...., so I didn't want to make myself look bad, but here's a preview of tomorrow when i'll hopefully find a blip in my ADD and xbox addiction and clean and take some pictures.

Also, the fish seem very happy, and not too fat. I've been feeding them flake foods, freeze-dried bloodworms, frozen bloodworms, and frozen daphnia. So in admitting that I haven't cleaned in a while, I don't mean i neglect the tank, it just hasn't needed it that much, so there is a fair amount of GSA and GDA on the glass.

Ughh... another "quick update" ended up to be not so quick..... i've got to talk less.









I also bought a cute little plant to put on top (and also an excuse to show off my cool new ferts from Green Leaf). And also, I made the pot that it is in on a ceramics wheel, fired it, and then glazed it all myself. haha i'm so cool. 
Edit: Props if you can tell me what kind of plant this is, i'm not good with terrestrial plants... my green thumb is wet.


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## cjp999 (Nov 18, 2008)

demosthenes said:


> A quick update:
> 
> I've done a lot of changes in this tank recently. I've been trying to take out and eventually eliminate all of my stem plants (except stargrass because its *the man*.) and err more on the side of mosses, crypts, and ferns, and maybe a sword or two. So i got this massive piece of driftwood and a bunch of mosses (and some more ferns are on their way.)


My stargrass is growing so bushy and tall in my 46g that I just move a bunch of cuttings to the back corner to replace the Myrio which refuses to grow.


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## demosthenes (Aug 23, 2008)

^yeah, stargrass is a sweet plant. Here are some new picture of the tank! For the most part, nothing exciting has happened, except that my stargrass (does anyone call it HZ? itd be a lot easier to type.) has grown a lot. I added some anubia in the foreground after taking this picture, and I moved one of the large aponos in the middle-right to the back-center, so that should fill in a little more. A few of the aponos are starting to flower, and I'm not really sure what to do with them, but it'd be great if i could propagate some of them.

FTS:

















Here is a very cute little aponogeton that is starting to grow into a really nice bush. I don't know the latin name of it because there are probably thousands of apono-genus species, so I'm calling it Aponogeton 'lucens' because it looks a lot like Cryptocoryne x willisii 'lucens'.


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## organic sideburns (Dec 22, 2005)

wow this tank looks so much smaller than my 46 gal low tech! it looks great tho, i love jungles.


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## demosthenes (Aug 23, 2008)

organic sideburns said:


> wow this tank looks so much smaller than my 46 gal low tech! it looks great tho, i love jungles.


haha thanks. yeah, i really need to work on that. i've been trying to come up with basic rescape designs and ways to make it seem bigger and ways to add a lot more depth. it looks big in person though, i swear! haha

heres a quick update...

I've been trying to get more java ferns and anubias and less stem plants lately. I started an anubias garden, and the mosses on the center piece of DW have finally acclimated and started to grow. There is even some HC and riccia in it! the thought of having that whole piece of dw covered in HC... :icon_eek: SO COOL. i doubt it will happen, but how sick would it be if it did?? I got some java windelov, but its still small. it should grow and fill in the empty looking DW on the left side.

i'm thinking of putting narrow leaf java ferns on top of the center DW and pushing it all the way back, tossing the sag and jungle val. idk though, it won't happen until august if it does. This is the way its staying over the summer.

Also, i trimmed the alternanthera reineckii a LOT (it was getting really big, it reached the surface like two weeks ago...), so now it is for sale. Check out my sales threads on the SnS, or shoot me a PM if your interested.

FTS:









anubias garden*:








*note: still in its infant stage. there are a bunch of tiny rhizome fragments that have like one or two tiny little leaves, but they are growing surprisingly fast, and once they fill in, they'll look pretty cool. i love the look of a really well grown anubias garden!


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## demosthenes (Aug 23, 2008)

oh! the reineckii in the very front is what is for sale. check out the woolly mammoth of a base the one on the left is! each one will be like a dollar or two or three, idk. but thats why its there, i know it takes a fair amount away from the tank having those big tall plants in the front, its just temporary.


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## demosthenes (Aug 23, 2008)

*a quick update for a slow growing tank...*

well, its that time again. Not much has happened with this tank. I switched around some of the mosses, added some hairgrass and glosso where there used to not really be much. I also added some more ferns, and my anubias plants have been flowering*. haha actually i guess a lot has happened... i also got a new clown loach, only about an inch long! plus, he only cost a few dollars. He seems to be adapting well.

*what should i do to these flowers? they are like 17" from the top of the tank, so theyll never reach the surface, but will they flower underwater? how can i propagate them from the flowers? can i? so many questions! AGH haha...

so here are the pictures...
FTS:









new foreground:









the anubias garden and a handful of cardinals:









in the future, im sorta hoping for a major rescape. Right now, the tank looks bigger than it did, but its still pretty small feeling. I think in august i'll bring home some cool driftwood from my cottage and completely re-do this tank, but maintain the same feeling, just having it look a lot better. I still want to have a lot of anubia and different types of java ferns though, and i'll probably find a place for some lobelia cardinalis. idk, we'll see what happens in a few months. for now though, this is where it is.


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## fishydaze (May 1, 2009)

Well, since plants are going up FS I guess you really are tearing it down?...reading through the journal, it has become a pretty great tank...a low tech to give me hope for my tiny beginning low tech. Will you be staying lowtech? Since you are getting rid of stuff, has the plan solidified further? Is it a further intensifying of the java/anubias/moss scheme?

I hope you keep a lot of the feel of the latest incarnation: I love the narrow, high range of plants, like things are growing on a log. Could angle that forward a bit, like a rising ridge from low front right up to the back left, to add depth, and have clearing/or light colored smallleaved plants/and or raise the height of gravel along the back as 'depth illusions'. (sorry, can never resist suggesting something).
I did not agree with the comment that it looked small, odd to read it from another low tech guy with a dark dense tank; As a low tech, it could always have a darker relatively smaller feel, like you would get snorkeling in an active river versus the caribbean. And, by the way, I think the raspboras were The Right addition, excellent choice especially as you began focusing the plants down.


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

demosthenes said:


> ...I think in august i'll bring home some cool driftwood from my cottage and completely re-do this tank, but maintain the same feeling, just having it look a lot better. I still want to have a lot of anubia and different types of java ferns though, and i'll probably find a place for some lobelia cardinalis. idk, we'll see what happens in a few months. for now though, this is where it is.


i like this picture a lot. it wasn't quite photo-ready, but like you say it conveyed a very nice _feeling_--it is so soft and natural looking. i hope that you can put it back together with a look similar to this here.


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## Hilde (May 19, 2008)

Love the placement of the plants. It apperars as if you have 3 tiers.


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## demosthenes (Aug 23, 2008)

wow thanks guys! fishydaze and hydrophyte, those were some of the best compliments i think i've ever gotten on here! haha. 

This is an insanely long post, so i'll add in some titles for ease of reading:

*This tank over the summer:*
well over the summer my dad said he would be really nervous if there was a lot of running water in the house, and he make the executive decision that itd be a lot cheaper to buy all new plants in the fall than it would be to fix 46g of water damage sitting in our house for two months.:icon_eek:

*Feeding the addiction over the summer:*:flick:
So i don't have much of a concrete idea of what i'll do in the fall. I have a 20H tank at my cottage in michigan, and i'm hoping to save my most prized plants by bringing them with me and growing them there. But this summer i'm also hoping to experiment with mineralized topsoil and natural clay deposits and mulm and stuff underneath local sand from the beach, as well as trying to find driftwood to use, like driftwood from the beaches and oak and beech branches/twigs from the woods. Dont worry guys, i'll take a lot of pictures.. lol. I'm hoping to have a pretty open tank with maybe a small foreground and a little driftwood with some local myrios and vals in the background. I'm hoping for either a few nice healthy perch or some small bass and a round goby or two, and maybe a small crayfish. 

Then once i come back, i'll definitely bring some driftwood and stuff home, and maybe sell some of it to you guys, and i'm hoping to find a lot of local plants to either keep or sell, too. There are local Eleocharis, Vallisnera, Myriophyllum, Potamogetons, and maybe some others, so if i find anything especially rare, i'll try to cultivate it. 

*Here is my vision of this tank when i get back:*
I am envisioning something with a lot of interesting logs and driftwood and places to hide. Like in saltwater tanks there are piles and piles of Live Rock with corals on top, i'm thinking some sort of web of logs and wood with anubia and ferns and maybe bolbitis on top. Oh and definitely mosses. I'm learning to LOVE flame moss. Then for the foreground i'm hoping maybe some lilaeopsis? And i'll definitely be using some potamogeton gayi, i'm really starting to like the way it looks. i might get a slightly stronger light for this tank that will give some light to the plants on the very sides, but i'll have to make enough money this summer to buy it.

And also, i HATE the pipes sticking up on the right side of this tank for the filter going through the bottom. I'm going to buy new pipes for my filter to that space isnt ruined and so that i can make the tank look a lot better. Its a huge inconvenience in scaping to have those things there.

*As for stocking this tank*.... I am beginning to love dwarf cichlids. I am hoping to have either a decent sized group of gold and blue rams or a small group of smaller Apisto sp. Then i'll definitely by finding a new dwarf albino BNP, i LOVE the one i have now. hes to cool! So my algae cleanup crew will stay about the same. And then for the middle of the tank, i think i might get a new school of tetras, but i'm hoping for Paracheirodon simulans instead of P. axelrodis. and then a big school of Rasbora pauciperforata (red line rasboras) or marbled hatchets (or both! :icon_mrgr) for the top of the tank. So we'll see. I promise youll like it though! haha.

I might try using some of the same mineralized topsoil and stuff that i'll be using this summer in this tank when i come back, but only if its not too expensive or time consuming to produce, and obviously only if i like using it in my tank this summer.


WELLL that was a creepishly long essay i just wrote. If anyone actually reads that whole thing, i will be frankly amazed. Props to ya if you do though! haha


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## demosthenes (Aug 23, 2008)

*the last update until august!*

well, here it is... the last update for two and a half months. :icon_cry: haha
So i've finally taken down everything in this tank. I've taken all of the plants in here and either thrown in a big tub in my backyard or sold them to michu. I also put all of my rasboras and my albino bristlenose pleco out in the tub yesterday, but last night was (quite unexpectedly) REALLY cold (like 45 degrees), so they all died. my GOD, life is frustrating. the plants look fine though, which i guess is good. here is the last shot of the tank, about three days ago:


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## CL (Mar 13, 2008)

I'm sorry to hear that 
At least you have a clean new tank to work with


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## demosthenes (Aug 23, 2008)

*finally worth taking a picture of after this summer!*

Current Specs:
Filter: Fluval 205 with custom fitted pipes
Lighting: 2x24W T5's
Fauna: 6 werneri rainbowfish, a pair of kribensis, 1 black molly, 1 dwarf albino bristlenose pleco (say THAT 10 times fast! :flick: )
Flora: Anubias sp, Bolbitis heudelotti, Fissidens fontanus, Microsorium pteropus, Potamogeton gayi, Potamogeton eleocharifolia (lol it looks like DHG and idk the name), various mosses, various Echinodorus sp, various Crpytocoryne sp.
Params: still some NH4, lots of NO2, waiting for NO3 bacteria to really settle down. not nearly cycled, but getting there. water has obscenely high kH and GH, but pH is around 7.5.

All of the driftwood that is currently in the tank i found on the beach in michigan, and I have a bunch more that i didn't use, so i'm hoping to sell most of it on the SnS soon. Here's what it looks like:
FTS:








Anubias garden, mostly courtesy of clwatkins (thanks man!!):








Finally stable Bolbitis, after melting away and getting downright nasty last year, and then spending three months in a bucket in my backyard:








My favorite piece of driftwood, Anubia courtesy of clwatkins, and mosses and Echinodorus courtesy of customdrumfinishes (thanks again!):








Other cool piece of driftwood, I'm hoping to get some needle-leaf java ferns to put in the middle there:








My new pair of kribs (my first african cichlids! :icon_smil), looking flirtatious as ever:









Thanks for checking out my tank, please leave any thought, questions, comments or concerns!


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## demosthenes (Aug 23, 2008)

omgomgomg i have baby kribs!!!!!! aaaaaaaahahaahha SO COOL!


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## skratikans (May 23, 2008)

You'll have new batches of fry soon after..
I love the aquatic ferns you have in there


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

Congratulations! I'll light up a cigar.

I missed the rescape update from 8-19. Please post more as this grows in again.


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## demosthenes (Aug 23, 2008)

This tank has gone through a fair amount since the last update, so i thought it was time to fill you guys in! So i've got a new background now, Cryptocoryne retrospiralis and balansae from *Engold*, and a new foreground of Staurogyne sp from *monkeyruler90*, and some Cardinal plants and new java ferns from [/B]customdrumfinishes[/B]. I also chopped up my fissidens rocks and spread it around across a few different rocks, and i added some shorter crypts behind the cave-shaped piece of DW from *eleontie*.

As for fish, I now have a school of 5 Celebes Rainbows (most of them used to be in my 10g tank), a black molly (who was born in my 10g tank in may 07), an albino dwarf bristlenose pleco, and my same pair of kribs who spawned(AH!!!!!:biggrin:!!!!). The featherfin rainbows who used to be in here i moved to my 10g tank. With the low lighting in this tank, they just didnt look very good, but they look awesome in my 10g. Overall a perfect switch-off, except i lost on of the featherfins a week or two later.

Here it is:









Anubia/fern/fissidens garden:









new foreground/middle of tank:









thanks for looking! sorry about the camera quality, my good camera is with my mom at her friend's kid's wedding, so i had to use my phone.


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## CL (Mar 13, 2008)

That anubias seems to have perked up a lot!


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## demosthenes (Aug 23, 2008)

haha yeah, its been great! you sent me so much i had to start a second patch on the other side of the tank.. oh darn. :icon_mrgr

thanks a ton, cl!


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## demosthenes (Aug 23, 2008)

new pics!

so this tank doesn't look _too_ different, but i've added a few things, including some Limnophila aromatica (only temporary, i'm going to move it behind the big sloping driftwood, but my hand is too big to fit back there to plant it, so i'm waiting to find longer tweezers to plant it), and some Hygrophila balsamica in the foreground.

My kribs spawned again, and there about 3x as many fry this time, so i'm excited to watch them grow up. The parents have done a fantastic job of protecting them from my six new serpae tetras (!) and the celebes rainbows. I've been squirting Hikari First Bites at them through an eye-dropper, and they've been eating up! more info to come as they grow.

Beyond that, not much has happened. I'm thinking of maybe adding some more fish, but i have no idea what to add. Would the kribs completely destroy a pair of Apistos if i added them? It'd be cool if i had two pairs of two different dwarf cichlids spawning in the same tank. Also, the Bolbitis ferns may just have grown a little bit! haha they grow slowly enough that I can't really tell, but they seem bigger now than they were in those last pictures^ so i guess they have grown.

and now the pictures!

FTS:









cave-like driftwood that the kribs spawned in:









the krib pair, krib fry, and H. balsamica:









serpae tetras, tall C. retrospiralis, and the tips of my echino:


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