# Natty's Shrimp/Crayfish Paradise (30% Finished)



## Natty (Apr 2, 2008)

*===========INDEX (Tank Updates And Pics)=============*
*5/20/08 --- Post #1, Page 1*
*6/08/08 --- Post #23, Page 2*
*6/21/08 --- Post #35, Page 3*
*8/18/08 --- Post #49, Page 4*
*=============================================*
*=======================================================* 
*Remodeled whole tank. It will now become a shrimp tank.*

*1.4 WPG AH Supply*
*Mild pressurized CO2 injection*

*Intended Inhabitants:*
*-Dwarf Crayfish*
*-CRS*
*-RCS*
*-Oto*
*-Maybe Pleco*

*October 14, 2008 --------Page 5, Post #65*
*October 27, 2008 --------Page 5, Post #75*

*======================================================= *
Here's a tank I've been working on for 3 weeks or so. Started on April 28th 2008.

40 gallon typical
8-11 hour photo period a day
EI dosing for a 20 gallon due to low starting plant mass
30-40ppm CO2 (3-4bps)
2.5 WPG *updated. tank now has almost 4.0wpg. 96 plus 55 watt ah supply.

*NOTE: Tank picture updates are in 2 weeks to 1 month intervals.* 
*2nd NOTE: I'm a complete noob at planted tanks. I've never injected co2 before, nor dosed a tank. This is my first ever full planted tank. So if I make some mistakes please kindly help. Thank you.*
================================================
Equipment Purchased In Order:

1. CO2 Rex Regulator /w selenoid, CO2 cylinder, dry ferts.
2. Eheim 2217
3. CO2 reactor 200 and rhinox 2000 glass diffuser
4. Aquarium Heater. Visitherm submersible.


This tank's primary purpose later on would be a shrimp tank. But we'll see how it goes.
================================================
Plants:

1. Pure flame moss
2. Rotala macrandra
3. Alternanthera Reineckii

I specifically did not want another type of moss in the tank due to contamination possibilities between different moss types. I was very strict on that due to a past experience with christmas moss and stringy moss.

Driftwood is grapvine and malaysian.
================================================
Inhabitants:

1. X# Balloon Mollies (aiming for pure white and black)
2. 3 SAE's
3. 1 Pleco

EI Dosing for a 20 gallon.

MAY 19th 2008 (3 weeks~ from starting date)










It actually took me awhile to get the moss in place. I started with about 2-3 golfball size and it grew in nicely and fairly fast too! Flame moss is hard to stick onto driftwood, you just have to be really persistant in tying them down. Once they get long, you trim and tie down more. I would say they grow just a bit faster than java.

I had a lot of BBA problems at first but the problem was fairly quick in resolve. Just added some saes and turned up the co2 till the drop checker turned green to almost yellow.

























It's funny how the macrandra, which is said to be hard to retain their natural red colors, is actually easier than the Alternanthera which was said to be easier. Just comes to show that easy and difficult is a matter of opinion in many cases.


















FULL TANK VIEW

















We'll see how this is in two weeks to a month :thumbsup: 

Any comments, questions, or opinions?


----------



## deleted_user_16 (Jan 20, 2008)

looks nice, looks like it needs ground cover and a floating plant in my opinion.


----------



## Natty (Apr 2, 2008)

fishman9809 said:


> looks nice, looks like it needs ground cover and a floating plant in my opinion.


I didn't include other plants mainly because its a PITA to keep it all together. Diversity is nice, but simplicity just suits me more.

When I'm finished with this project, you'll understand it.


----------



## Natty (Apr 2, 2008)

I'm dosing EI and my nitrate readings are like 40ppm almost always.

Does this mean there's not enough plants to suck up the nutrients? Can I lower my nitrate dosing a little?

Like instead of doing the usual 1/4th tsb no3, I'll just do maybe 1/8th which is half?

Like whats the no3 ppm I have to usually keep it at, like a range?


----------



## @[email protected] (Oct 24, 2007)

in my opinion you need more of a layout (you have stems in the front), and more plant mass (you can keep only those three plants, just more of each). i like the vivid red coloration though.


----------



## CL (Mar 13, 2008)

i love that moss, it is soo green


----------



## Natty (Apr 2, 2008)

@[email protected] said:


> in my opinion you need more of a layout (you have stems in the front), and more plant mass (you can keep only those three plants, just more of each). i like the vivid red coloration though.


Yeah, so basically you want me to fill out the tank more with the plants I already have right?

Confused lol

It'll take awhile before the plants grow out for me to have enough to fill the tank with.

*BTW CAN ANYONE ANSWER MY QUESTION ON MY LAST POST, THE ONE BEFORE THIS FROM ME?*

(Just trying to get the question noticed)


----------



## @[email protected] (Oct 24, 2007)

yeah. just fill it up more, and arrange it. right now the stems seem planted at random. try and arange it by height; you can group the stems and make round bushes, in front of that you can keep driftwood and under it slope some moss. have some smaller bushes in front and next to that. maybe a moss carpet. basically, yeha fill it up and shape it.

try and keep nitrates around 10.


----------



## Natty (Apr 2, 2008)

@[email protected] said:


> yeah. just fill it up more, and arrange it. right now the stems seem planted at random. try and arange it by height; you can group the stems and make round bushes, in front of that you can keep driftwood and under it slope some moss. have some smaller bushes in front and next to that. maybe a moss carpet. basically, yeha fill it up and shape it.
> 
> try and keep nitrates around 10.


So if nitrates is like 20-40ppm....does that mean I have way too much and I should cut back on dosing KNO3 (nitrates)?

I know what you're talking about, its just that I don't have enough stems yet to arrange anything yet. I started with just 6 or so rotala and 2-3 golfballs of flame moss, not exactly a whole lot of "clay" to work with if you get what I'm saying. I'm waiting for them to grow out so I will have something to work with.


----------



## cah925 (May 18, 2007)

You definately need to bring the nitrates down. I keep my nitrates low (around 5-10 ppm) to get really red leaves. Here's a pic of macrandra that came from the same tank as the ones I sent you.


----------



## Natty (Apr 2, 2008)

cah925 said:


> You definately need to bring the nitrates down. I keep my nitrates low (around 5-10 ppm) to get really red leaves. Here's a pic of macrandra that came from the same tank as the ones I sent you.
> 
> View attachment 7940


I'll definately work on it. That's my goal right there.


----------



## starsunmoon (Apr 5, 2008)

IME if you add more plants it will even out your mitrate so that is what everyone is saying you are dosing, well you need more plants to eat that dosage. i know you are low dosing , but I would still get more of the same plants or pic one more and add it in . I have some red ludwiga im selling now in the s&s that would look good in a group on the right side, you just use a tie and make a bunch out of your stems instead of having one or two in one place you could have 5 or 10 !! would look' alot better and gives your fish wonderful places to hide and play behind. I think your tank will look awsome when its done I too love the moss I need to get me some, hey if you know somone with some good prices send them my way !!! LOL , seriously !! I love that moss!!! I think I have some TW moss, and java, nothing awsome yet , my ricca is starting to fill in, I bet you would like it in your tank !! it is hard to get together !! but once you do, OMG is it worth it !!! here is a pic of a log im doing, whne it fills out you shouldent even see the tree stump anymore, just huge grass, but I will trim it down for my desired look'........great tank !! just put thopse stems in the very frount in a bunch and place back in the substrate , BTW what is that substrate>?? looks like baileys >???

ok pics of my tree stump, rember I just planted this wil be mths b4 its grown out where i want it ..


----------



## cah925 (May 18, 2007)

Starsunmoon, what kind of mesh are you using on that stump?


----------



## jaidexl (Sep 18, 2006)

Natty said:


> Can I lower my nitrate dosing a little?
> 
> Like instead of doing the usual 1/4th tsb no3, I'll just do maybe 1/8th which is half?


Yes, you can manipulate the dosage in EI. Eventually EI will be the way to ignore those tests but this is considering the tank is fully planted and growing fast. Although you have a pleasing layout so far, truthfully there are only a few stems consuming anything yet, the moss isn't so effective at stripping nutrients.

Make sure CO2 is strong and steady.


----------



## Natty (Apr 2, 2008)

Thanks for the advice guys, I'm trying to right now.

Because I have excessive nutrients I'm having some string algae growing. Trying to work on it a bit. Thanks for the heads up.


----------



## ZooTycoonMaster (Jan 2, 2008)

Looks awesome:eek5: 

You got the Macranda to pearl with just a glass CO2 diffuser? Are the bubbles pushed around by the filter output?


----------



## TheCryptKeeper (Mar 9, 2008)

your tank looks great. I really like the macranda  I like the driftwood setup alot. see you thought out the hardscape prior to planting.. I was assbackwards and started planting and had to redo alot for hardscaping. it really want to see what it will look like when it fills in. I think you should get some limno towards the back. my shrimp love hanging out on mine!


----------



## Natty (Apr 2, 2008)

I'm trying to get the macrandras as red as possible. Meaning I have to lower my nitrates A LOT. That's going to be a huge challenge for me though.



ZooTycoonMaster said:


> Looks awesome:eek5:
> 
> You got the Macranda to pearl with just a glass CO2 diffuser? Are the bubbles pushed around by the filter output?


I use to have a glass co2 diffuser but I found it less effective and replaced it with my CO2 reactor 200, which I believe to be more effective but much bulkier in the tank. It is positioned near the intake of my eheim so that the co2 will be blown all the way through the left side of my tank, giving every plant some CO2.

The penguin 660 powerhead pushes any co2 bubbles downward even more and actually makes the water flow do a 360 throughout the tank.

*TO TorpedoBarb*

Macrandra looks nice but I'm not satisfied with it just yet. I have lots of room for improvement and will be aiming for it. Stay tune for more pics. From my vision, it should look gorgeous once everything fills in. I'll add more plants when I feel everything is comfortably placed in the tank.


----------



## TheCryptKeeper (Mar 9, 2008)

man.. if you can get that macranda to fill in.. it will look insanely awesome!


----------



## phatpanduh (Feb 17, 2008)

...not sure why u got mollies
Mollies which prefer harder water with some salinity and then you have Rotala macrandra which prefers soft water with no salinity

All to often we go forward with an idea without thinking in the best interest of the inhabitants. Some quick research would have informed you this is not a good match. 

But there are those who say they have had mollies in soft water no problem or rotala in hard water but its unlikely they would have looked as good if they were kept in there preferred settings.

"By contrast (relating back to keeping mollies in brackish water), mollies kept in freshwater aquaria are extraordinarily prone to a number of diseases, including whitespot, fungus, finrot, and “the shimmies” — a neurological disorder that manifests itself as an inability for the fish to swim properly, instead the fish can only tread water, rocking from side to side." (Dr. Neale Monks aka fish prophet)

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/FWSubWebIndex/mollies.htm

My advice would be to choose which one you would rather keep and make the proper arrangements for the other.


----------



## Bk828 (Mar 11, 2008)

good job tank looks great. I agree with the stems on the left need to be a but more bunched so its more bushy then just twigs sticking up.


----------



## ZooTycoonMaster (Jan 2, 2008)

What lighting system do you have and what kind of bulbs?


----------



## Natty (Apr 2, 2008)

Here's my tank after almost 3 weeks

6/08/08 UPDATE

As you can see the moss and plants are growing out. I'm waiting for them to grow out more so I can replant.

















Here's the plants, they've grown out enough for me to work with a lot more. I'll be trimming and adding a lot of things that you guys will see in the next update.

Macrandra (Still hard to get to super red form, working on it)




































Flame Moss (Trying to get it to fill out over hte drift wood, I'm going to tie and retie to get it completely around the driftwoods so almost no wood is shown.

































*=====THINGS THAT WILL BE ADDED TO NEXT UPDATE=====*
-HC
-Cutting and moving plants around a lot
-Rotala Colorata
(Who Knows, Stay Tune!)

This is my first planted tank, so I'm a noob but see how it improves.


----------



## Natty (Apr 2, 2008)

If anyone got any ideas or plant suggestions or where to move my current plants, I'm open to ideas! roud:

EDIT

@PhatPanduh

Actually, I didn't choose mollies for this tank. I wasn't even planning to keep them in there, but since I'm using my 10 gallon tank, I had to move them somewhere.

They actually never caught any diseases and are actually doing very, very well in the tank without a single problem. They're very hardy fish. I only keep them in there to help keep the moss clean as they constantly pick at it. I actually had one molly that I kept in my 10 gallon with 7.4 ph with salinity that developed some problems and after adding her to the 40 gallon, it made a complete recovery.

That's the only reason I'm keeping them in there. They still eat like pigs.


----------



## Bk828 (Mar 11, 2008)

Good job natty, looks great. With the flame moss i would just leave it as is, it looks nicer IMO when it seems like its just growing out of the wood instead of just being a big green moss branch. 
About the stem plants, i would keep them all in the background and bunched together. And since as you can see the bottom of the stems are losing leaves, i would get some mid ground plants to cover the "bald" spots, perhaps some chain sword or something. 

Post update after the hc planting lol and good luck with that.


----------



## @[email protected] (Oct 24, 2007)

ok here are suggestions:
keep your nitrates around 3. dose a lot of iron. up your light. it will bring out the red coloration in the macrandra; because at the moment it looks more like a big rotundofolia (no offense).

i agree with putting all the macrandra toward the back. also maybe shape it into bushes. but right now you dont have that many so i suggest just trimming and replanting (they are definately big enough to cut the to 1/3 off) and just getting them light so they grow fast. then shape and aquascape.

i have a suggestion of putting in a foreground carpet of dwarf hairgrass. it grows tall enough to be trimmed in a slope towards the back so it serves as a foreground in the front, and a midground in the middle hiding the bottoms of the macrandra that would go in the back. the light green would of course contrast the red of the macrandras (if you lower nitrates and up lighting and iron), but it would also have contrast against the darker green of the moss. the leaf texture is very fine, also bringing more contrast.


----------



## wearsbunnyslippers (Dec 6, 2007)

Torpedobarb said:


> man.. if you can get that macranda to fill in.. it will look insanely awesome!


 :thumbsup: 2nd that

its gonna look so pretty when those stems are planted 

how do you stop the moss spreading down the side of your driftwood?


----------



## CL (Mar 13, 2008)

starting to look really nice, love that flame moss


----------



## aquaphish (Dec 20, 2002)

Trim out the stems. They are over grown and should not be growing on the water surface. You have plenty to replant now.


----------



## Natty (Apr 2, 2008)

*Reply To Everyone After My Previous Post*

*@ Bk828*

Ditto on the bald spot, I'll definately work on it. That's why I got some rotala colorata and HC.

Hopefully I'll be able to make it fill in. I got a long way to go, I'm trying to keep my variety down though, too many plants gives me a headache :hihi: .

*@Marko*

I was planning to get some dwarf hairgrass but I heard that if you ever have problems with algae it is a big PITA to clean out. I'm not too fond on hair grass over all thats why I went with HC.

Getting the macrandra really red will be a major challenge for me. I mostly have nitrate problems. Not enough plants sucking up nitrates. My lights are 3.0 wpg, but if I go nuts I can get it to like 4.0 wpg. But I would try to prevent that.

Hc will help with the nitrate problems.

*@wearsbunnyslippers*

I actually want the moss to spread, but instead of falling off the sides, I was hoping it would go AROUND the driftwood. I think if you look carefully I have threads holding the moss down. I'm going to tie and retie the thing until I have moss covering the driftwood all around. That should look awesome but it'll take awhile.

*@clwatkins10*

Thanks man, I'll work on it a lot more and we'll see how it turns out. My first planted tank, yay!

*@aquaphish* 

BELIEVE ME....I will man, I will :hihi: .

That's my big plan actually. I'm learning more and my plan is to move the macrandra back and cut the ones growing at the top, its blocking most of the light anyhow.

I wont say much more but you should definately stay tune for the next episode....I mean post update when I move things around. Let's work on this one together, this is OUR project, lets see how it turns out shall we. roud:


----------



## @[email protected] (Oct 24, 2007)

well, you could put in some hornwort. under your conditions it would grow like mad and be a good nitrate remover, but it may be contra productive by blocking light to the bottoms of your macranrda stems (its a floating plant). but the best way to reduce your nitrates perminantly is to get some fish out of there and feed a bit less for the remaining fish (if you have 20ppm of nitrates, remove 1/2 of your fish at the next water change and see what it is at the water change after that).


----------



## dlawlor (Oct 30, 2007)

flame moss doesn't really grow around things too much, it actually tends to grow more upward towards the source of the light. if you want something that covers the logs you might want to go with something like java moss or taiwan moss


----------



## Natty (Apr 2, 2008)

dlawlor said:


> flame moss doesn't really grow around things too much, it actually tends to grow more upward towards the source of the light. if you want something that covers the logs you might want to go with something like java moss or taiwan moss


I've seen it done and I think I can at least attempt to try.


----------



## turdb0 (Apr 11, 2008)

wow that's one big bellied molly on the bottom!!?


----------



## Natty (Apr 2, 2008)

As some of you guys have known, I recently had a big problem with my tank. It sprung a leak. I had to quickly scoop out all the fish, all the plants, drain out the tank and then take everything out that's still left over inside some of which being 50 lbs of substrate  .

My carpet was soaked and wet carpet smells horrible. I got a scolding of a life time from my gf. It was the only time in my life where my mom and my gf wanted to kill me at the same time.

The tank was a 38 gallon (thought it was a 40) and luckily, the LFS carried an EXACT duplicate. Color, size, shape, everything. Finally!!! They're useful for something!

Here is the picture of it today! I tried to make it a copy of the last one with uptodate changes that I recently made. Took me 5 hours. Carrying the tank by myself wasn't an easy task. I also posted my problems here:

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/equipment/68519-eheim-2217-flooded-my-room-ugh.html

Here's the new tank in the livingroom now! I'll work on it a bit...still looks unorganized.

Lost:
A few plants
All of my SAEs.....  
A few balloon mollies


----------



## lescarpentier (Feb 2, 2008)

Glad to see everything up and running!roud: 

However,you really do need a background on your tank,and your filter would be so much easier to prime if you placed it on the floor.


----------



## Natty (Apr 2, 2008)

lescarpentier said:


> Glad to see everything up and running!roud:
> 
> However,you really do need a background on your tank,and your filter would be so much easier to prime if you placed it on the floor.


 
Well, I wanted to place it on the floor but because the last place that I had it, tank and filter was on the floor so my tubes were cut too short. That's why I had to use the chair....

Background as in picture? Couldn't find a good one.....still looking around.


----------



## stargate_geek (Mar 31, 2008)

Natty said:


> Background as in picture? Couldn't find a good one.....still looking around.


Solid black tends to look really nice with planted tanks


----------



## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

lescarpentier said:


> your filter would be so much easier to prime if you placed it on the floor.


... or got a Filstar.

Natty your fish seem to be at the surface for air- you double-checked your CO2? (I'm asking now, at 2am...:icon_roll )


----------



## lescarpentier (Feb 2, 2008)

lauraleellbp said:


> ... or got a Filstar.


Like me,natty probably doesn't like the color,or the corny name..:biggrin:



Natty said:


> Background as in picture? Couldn't find a good one.....still looking around.


I don't really like the available tank backgrounds,so black is 
probably the best choice.


----------



## Natty (Apr 2, 2008)

lauraleellbp said:


> ... or got a Filstar.
> 
> Natty your fish seem to be at the surface for air- you double-checked your CO2? (I'm asking now, at 2am...:icon_roll )


 
yeah....i was noticing that too....i've never had that happened before with the bps i had it in....i turned it down and they seem to be okay. i'm awaiting my drop checker to come.

shift button broken btw.

*at les*

where do you go for a pure black background 'question mark'


----------



## lescarpentier (Feb 2, 2008)

Natty said:


> *at les*
> where do you go for a pure black background 'question mark'


Well,I think that most people use paint,however I would be reluctant to do that even if I could.My tank has a 24" height so my selection was very limited,and only one lfs had that size.I wound up with a cheesy rock wall background that didn't have pictures of fish on it.(I can't stand fish on them)I would look for some kind of a black plastic product the same thickness as regular background that could be taped on.That's what I am hunting for...



Natty said:


> shift button broken btw.


 Don't you have two?:icon_wink


----------



## @[email protected] (Oct 24, 2007)

you could also use a black garbage bag.


----------



## CL (Mar 13, 2008)

lol @ les. hey, there are two shift keys.... 
c'mon natty, hows the tank goin?


----------



## ZooTycoonMaster (Jan 2, 2008)

Mom? Gf? How old are you?

And how's the tank going?


----------



## lescarpentier (Feb 2, 2008)

Come on Natty,the suspense is killing me.

Pics??:icon_wink


----------



## CL (Mar 13, 2008)

whats up natty? Oh, hey, You know what would be great?!? ......An update!!   . Seriously though, hows it growin?


----------



## TANKd (Jul 28, 2008)

Planning to get a bigger tank? with stand? with more fish? it would be nice if you're planning to do that.


----------



## Natty (Apr 2, 2008)

8/18/08

Here's my most recent tank picture. However, I plan a big giant remake after this picture. This is for all those that are curious.

My macrandra is literally going to heck, but I'll come back to it again soon. 

Everything just grew out a lot more. Too bad a few days after this picture, the tank will look a lot different. I seriously need to learn how to trim my moss....




























Stay tune for more updates! First planted tank, but I'll work on it until it looks completely awesome.


----------



## CL (Mar 13, 2008)

That moss is unbelievable!


----------



## Karackle (Dec 11, 2007)

Updates?

I agree, the moss is amazing, and the growth is all awesome. 

I want to see the rescape though!


----------



## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

Natty's too busy playing with his roaches.

He let the tank get all overrun; the plants are all running down the sides of the tank and now have rooted and are growing emersed on the floor in his carpet. He doesn't vacuum very often...

(I TOLD you ya better watch out... :icon_lol


----------



## Karackle (Dec 11, 2007)

hahahahaha nice


----------



## octopus44 (Apr 23, 2007)

lauraleellbp said:


> Natty's too busy playing with his roaches.
> 
> He let the tank get all overrun; the plants are all running down the sides of the tank and now have rooted and are growing emersed on the floor in his carpet. He doesn't vacuum very often...
> 
> (I TOLD you ya better watch out... :icon_lol


Haha, that put a smile on my face this morning. 

I look forward to seeing how you are going to remake this tank natty. 

That is some serious moss growth that you got there.:icon_bigg


----------



## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

Whassup, Natty- you STILL trying to think up a snappy comeback? :flick:


----------



## CL (Mar 13, 2008)

Update!!


----------



## Bk828 (Mar 11, 2008)

^^ x2

Last i heard he got rid of the flame moss


----------



## ZooTycoonMaster (Jan 2, 2008)

Natty said:


> *NOTE: Tank picture updates are in 2 weeks to 1 month intervals.*
> *2nd NOTE: I'm a complete noob at planted tanks. I've never injected co2 before, nor dosed a tank. This is my first ever full planted tank. So if I make some mistakes please kindly help. Thank you.*



It's been more than a month


----------



## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

Yeah, Natty keeps track of time just as well as Ken and MikeS.

Men. Anything they say, ya gotta multiply it x3.


----------



## CL (Mar 13, 2008)

So what is the new substrate that is going in?


----------



## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

Ya know, he's been on and posted all over the Lounge... he's seriously dissing us!!


----------



## ZooTycoonMaster (Jan 2, 2008)

How bout we all PM him and/or leave a visitor message on his profile:hihi:


----------



## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

oOo I like the way you think! :fish:


----------



## Karackle (Dec 11, 2007)

ooooo excellent idea! heeheehee


----------



## Natty (Apr 2, 2008)

*OCTOBER 14th 2008 UPDATE*

As always, I love starting from the ground up and growing my few stems out slowly.

Okay, this use to be the thread where I was going to post my tank:

Natty's Green and Red Paradise. However, I've been having a lot of issues and not enough time to deal with it so I downgraded my tank to half low tech.

It is still pressurized with CO2 but I only have 1.4 wpg.

I'm planning to keep dwarf crayfish, crs, and rcs all together in this tank with a few ottos and maybe a pleco.

Plants are rotala colorata, hornwort left side, blyxa Japonica. Other plant to the back right I don't remember... EDIT! Plant to the back that I'll grow in mass is MYRIOPHYLLUM MATTOGROSSENSE and the other one is ammania bonsai.

One day, hopefully, I'll return back to my good o' planted tank when I have more money and time. But for the time being, I'll stick to this to gain more experience.

My tank in this update is still cycling so I can't add any shrimps in and I'm waiting for the plants to grow out. More updates are soon to come.

As you can see I got some GSD issues, but that's easy to clean.


----------



## ZooTycoonMaster (Jan 2, 2008)

Oooh is that mystery plant this?

What's that plant on the right of the Blyxa? Some mis-shapen Bacopa?:hihi:

It looks great! I just had an envision of having the Blyxa "carpet" the entire foreground


----------



## Natty (Apr 2, 2008)

ZooTycoonMaster said:


> Oooh is that mystery plant this?
> 
> What's that plant on the right of the Blyxa? Some mis-shapen Bacopa?:hihi:
> 
> It looks great! I just had an envision of having the Blyxa "carpet" the entire foreground


LMAO, yeah thats it!! Slipped off my mind, I'll update that post now.

Yeah I forgot, its 'bonsai'.


----------



## mistergreen (Dec 9, 2006)

awww, that's too bad. The old tank was starting to look good.
That's the downside to a hi-tech tank. If you have other things to do and neglect it for a bit, it blows up on you.


----------



## Karackle (Dec 11, 2007)

I LOVE that piece of DW! I can't wait to see the new incarnation of the tank and how it progresses! 

Also I love the pic of the Molly looking at the camera like it's thinking "what are yoooouuuuu looking at?"


----------



## Natty (Apr 2, 2008)

Lol, it's probably going to take about two more months till its all grown out.

The matto (short abrv.) melted till there was almost nothing left and its gradually rooting itself out. Once it does, I'm expecting fast growth from this. Another fast grower I'm planning to amass in the tank is the hornworts. But we'll see about that. I might grow flame moss again on that driftwood later on.


----------



## A Hill (Jul 25, 2005)

clwatkins10 said:


> That moss is unbelievable!


Natty that is the second best crop of flame moss I've ever seen. Second only to mine:thumbsup: It stinks that you rid yourself of it. I think Taiwan would look really good in your new scape though.

I like the driftwood nice and simple. 

-Andrew


----------



## ZooTycoonMaster (Jan 2, 2008)

C'mon, update _this_ already...


----------



## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

Waiting on Natty updates is like waiting on dial-up downloads...

And Godot.


----------



## Karackle (Dec 11, 2007)

lauraleellbp said:


> Waiting on Natty updates is like waiting on dial-up downloads...
> 
> And Godot.


Hahahahahaha awesome. And, it seems, quite true!


----------



## Natty (Apr 2, 2008)

K here's an update for Nov 26, about a month later from my last post.

This is how many tank currently looks. I'm doing another major upgrade very soon so we'll see how it goes. Take note that I usually aim to start with only a few stems or even one stem of each plant and grow them out slowly. I like watching stuff grow from almost nothing.

I want a shrimp tank but I'm getting addicted to planted tanks again...which isn't too great.

Anywho, here's my tank right now. We'll see how it is in another month or so:

I had a lot of GW for awhile and when GW went away, I ended up having a case of cloudy waters which is gradually going away.


----------



## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

An update? Is this an update? *falls over again* I guess Hell froze over!

So what livestock do you have in here now?

And is that Indonesian DW?


----------



## deleted_user_16 (Jan 20, 2008)

dont u mean malaysian DW? lol


----------



## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

No, AquaBotanic is selling Indonesian DW that looks kinda like that, so I'm just wondering.

Looks like root wood, wherever it's from.


----------



## deleted_user_16 (Jan 20, 2008)

looks a lil like mopani, but the texture looks off.


----------



## Shadow Cichlid (Dec 6, 2008)

I love the tank! its very very nice.


----------



## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

Hey Natty, it's been almost a month, how're things going?


----------



## ZooTycoonMaster (Jan 2, 2008)

Natty update this before we go insane:icon_sad:


----------



## Coral Keeper (Sep 14, 2007)

Bump.


----------



## suebe333 (Feb 17, 2009)

Dang , its been months since this was updated


----------



## CL (Mar 13, 2008)

Natty forgot that there are other parts of this forum besides the lounge :hihi:


----------



## conduct (Mar 25, 2005)

I am also interested in a update. I seen your your tank before it was all taken down and I thought it looked great. I would love to see what it looks like now.


----------

