# Emmanuel's 100 gallon tank journal - Rescape in progress



## mizu-chan (May 13, 2008)

I like the placement of you DW; it looks really nice!
I love the tree look in tanks  What's your foreground plant?
I think I see some hair grass but I'm not sure.


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## skoorbza (Jun 8, 2008)

LOVE the driftwood! Beautiful piece!


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## chase127 (Jun 8, 2008)

some willow moss would look awesome on that sweet piece of driftwood


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## kittytango (May 7, 2008)

Really will look nice with a huge bunch of moss growing on it!


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

That's an incredible piece of driftwood!

That's going to look _*very*_ cool once it's all grown in. :thumbsup:


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## tremendotron (May 21, 2008)

I can't wait to see when this grows out.

Is that java moss or riccia on the "tree stump" ?


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

Thanks to all! 

As far as plants go, that's javamoss on the dw. I've got a ton more in a 5 gallon that had bga, but that's dying off already, so I'll be able to add some more, if not RAOK it out .

On the left side, I've got Dwarf Sag in the back, and dwarf hairgrass in the front. The plan is to find somewhere to put that dwarf sag, or RAOK it, and just replace the whole tank with the hairgrass.

I haven't been able to identify the plant around the DW. It was sold to me as glosso at an LFS, but it definitely isn't. My money is on maybe HM or bacopa(?). I'll post some pictures when I get a chance to get help with an ID.


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

Update.
Took out the unknown plant on the right, Dwarf Hairgrass, and Dwarf Sag.
I added microsword, which I bought from rmc for $30. Enough to cover this tank, and my 20 gallon entirely! :hihi:


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## EdTheEdge (Jan 25, 2007)

Wowser! :drool: 

I like the tree stump stlye of your driftwood!

Thanks for sharing!


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## mizu-chan (May 13, 2008)

Wow! That's a ton of microsword! Tank is looking nice.


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

Due to hurricane Ike, all of my microsword is melted, and all of my fish and amano shrimp are dead


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## Basilisk (Mar 1, 2004)

I've been left no choice but to be redundant: the wood is simply great. Is it deku?


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

Basilisk said:


> I've been left no choice but to be redundant: the wood is simply great. Is it deku?


 
Not too sure what it is. I just saw it at one of my favorite LFS and I had to have it.


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

Will be upgrading this one sometime soon.

Here's the scape I'm thinking of.


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## Christine T (May 4, 2008)

Awsome Driftwood :drool:

In your picture it looks like the Neons are going to swim into the hole in the "tree".


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

Christine T said:


> Awsome Driftwood :drool:
> 
> In your picture it looks like the Neons are going to swim into the hole in the "tree".


Thanks! 

Unfortunately the neons are all dead now, thanks to Ike. 
It'd be pretty cool if that was a hole though. It's just a depression in the driftwood. I added some java moss in there with the intentions of letting itself spread out all over the dw.


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

Upgraded to a 100 gallon!


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## CL (Mar 13, 2008)

Really? That's pretty cool!


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

clwatkins10 said:


> Really? That's pretty cool!


It certainly is! I spent this whole weekend tearing down tanks and putting this one up. Thanks to the awesome power that is SafeStart (formerly BioSpira) I have my Angelfish, GBR's, Bolivian Rams, and Otos in the tank already.

Let me just say though, I need a python!

Scape-wise, I'm going to need some help. I'll post more details and a picture of the tank when I get home in a couple of hours.


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

I need some help/advice with lighting, well fixture size.
My tank is 60" long, but I can only find a handful of 60" fixtures, and they're out of my price range, or produce more lighting than I'm ready for. I'd prefer not to get 2 30" fixtures either, but will if need be. Will a 48" fixture work? Or is it too short?


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

Current scape. I'll be rescaping this weekend, and then finally upgrading my lights next weekend.


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## CL (Mar 13, 2008)

That looks nice


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## mizu-chan (May 13, 2008)

Wow, tank is looking great! That's a ton of Blyxa you got there.
Can't wait for updated pics!


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## MistyRiver (Oct 7, 2008)

Wow, thats beautiful! 

What are you using for substrate? I can't tell from the picture, but is that duckweed floating around in there?

More pics!


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

clwatkins10 said:


> That looks nice





mizu-chan said:


> Wow, tank is looking great! That's a ton of Blyxa you got there.
> Can't wait for updated pics!


Thanks for the compliments! 
I kinda like how it looks now, but I don't want to let all that manzanita wood I hogged up from HAW go to waste. :hihi:



MistyRiver said:


> Wow, thats beautiful!
> 
> What are you using for substrate? I can't tell from the picture, but is that duckweed floating around in there?
> 
> More pics!


I'm using play sand. I've got some seachem root tabs I'm going to add during the rescape. I have some giant duckweed and salvinia (courtesy of Natty ) floating around (and the blyxa that just didn't want to stay put in the substrate). 


I'll go restart my rescape in a couple of hours, I started watching Rambo and can't stop watching! I'll provide lots more pictures!


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## mizu-chan (May 13, 2008)

emmanuelchavez said:


> Thanks for the compliments!
> I kinda like how it looks now, but I don't want to let all that manzanita wood I hogged up from HAW go to waste. :hihi:
> 
> I went there toady and you weren't kidding! You took all of it! Ahh, better make it look amazingly awesome, or I might have to be ninja and steal them from you! :hihi:


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

mizu-chan said:


> I went there today and you weren't kidding! You took all of it! Ahh, better make it look amazingly awesome, or I might have to be ninja and steal them from you! :hihi:


Sneak preview just for you (to envy me :hihi!










I'm hoping fish gallery has a new big shipment of plants! I'm going tomorrow in hopes to find some HM, I'm going to need a lot of it! It'll be going in both back corners (ultimately want to get it to become a bushy slope...) and then I'm going to make it bushy around the manzanita, along with some more red stem plants... I'll see what I can find tomorrow.


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## MistyRiver (Oct 7, 2008)

:eek5: I hope you'll be posting more pictures tomorrow after you pick up those new plants...... That is just beautiful...... :icon_eek:


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## mizu-chan (May 13, 2008)

That wood is looking nice! _[STRIKE]Could have been in my tank... but whatever![/STRIKE]_
lol. I can't wait to see your tank makeover complete! It already looks great and you haven't even added everything in yet!


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

Nothing picture worthy to post. I was a bit disappointed in my plant hunt, I got some baby tears and rotala indica, but not much. I'm glad the S&S is back up though, the plant hunt continues! .


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## Green Leaf Aquariums (Feb 26, 2007)

Love the hard scape

-O


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## mizu-chan (May 13, 2008)

Hey if you need any plants don't hesitate. I've been doing weekly trims and have tons to spare!


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

I'll definitely keep that in mind. I'm going to let this thing grow out for a couple of weeks - I finally got a new supervisor at work, and the last few weeks of classes are finally here, so I've got something other than my tanks to keep me busy. :hihi: <-- that's my new favorite smiley, lol.


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

So I decided I'm going to get rid of all my anubias, I didn't think it went well with what I wanted to do - one of them is still left in there though b/c the german rams were attacking me, turns out they decided to spawn on an anubias leaf.  This is their second time spawning.

I'll see if I can get a picture during the thanksgiving break.


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## CL (Mar 13, 2008)

I really like the wood


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## SeaSerpant (Feb 20, 2008)

That New scape looks awesome. When it grows in it will so be able to win competition.

Looks Great

SeaSerpant


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

Lol, thanks.

I managed to snap some fotos of some of my fish, I would've kept taking more, but I'm ridiculously tired after spending the day at the texas renaissance festival. It's ridiculously fun! If you've never been, you should go! 

Anywho, enjoy the fish.


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## Chrisinator (Jun 5, 2008)

Awesome shot of the GBR!


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

Nothing special, just some shots.

FTS










Left Side










Center










Right Side











I'm considering pulling out the rotala indica in the middle, and replacing it with sunset hygro... i'll wait a short while to decide, I'll have to let the sunset hygro I have in my other tanks grow out some more before I choose what I'll be doing anyway. 

Enjoy.


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

Just a quick picture update, b/c I have to get some shut-eye soon. 

Last Week:










This Week:


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## chase127 (Jun 8, 2008)

looks amazing! is that hygro angustifolia?


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

Thanks, yes that's Hygro Augustifolia. I'm going to update this in a sec. I did a substrate switch, along with some of the flora.


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

I'm more active on myfishtank.net :redface:, and update my journals there more, so I just did a quick copy paste. If something isn't too clear, just let me know
_______________________________________________________________ 


The water is still cloudy from the amazonia. I'm not entirely done with it. I've gotta go buy some more greens for it tomorrow.

Here we are, with the pea gravel/laterite mix on the bottom, and amazonia layer on top... I only used 3 of the 4 bags of amazonia. I'm saving that other bag for the 15g, my dad is actually pretty interested in me setting it up for him. All in due time though.

I placed that dw in a excel bath and scrubbed all (or most) of the algae off.










I then planted the Hygro 'Augustifolia' in the center, and back corners.
Then I planted Ludwigia repens in front of the hygro on the corners, and Ludwigia Glandulosa in the center. It's quite the magnificent plant!










Then came the Hygro Polysperma Rosanervig. I noticed in my previous set up that the sunset hygro nearer the center were greener, while the sunset toward the edges, where there's 'less' light were more pink. There's also some Hemianthus Micranthemoides in the back two corners... they're hard to see atm, but once they grow more and get bushier, as well as the water clearing up, they should be easier to see.










Then I added 150 stems of blyxa japonica. I had 210 stems, not including what I have in my 20g!!! I'm selling 50 of the 60 I didn't plant, so that I could buy some dwarf hairgrass for the remaining empty space in the front, and I'm holding on to 10 for someone, they know who they are.










Hopefully now that I added all my plants (with the exception of the regular hygro polysperma) the ammonia levels will start to decrease significantly. I want to add the fish back ASAP. They don't look too happy in their buckets (each breeding pair has their own bucket) or their rubbermaid container. My dad saw some gold rams today when I went to buy some more L. Glandulosa, and he really liked them, so if that particular LFS still has some in a couple of weeks, I'll get a pair for the tank.

I'll hopefully have another picture (with clear water and the dwarf hairgrass) within a month, once things settle down for me. This coming week I'm going to be busy trying to get ready for my trip, which I leave for next Sunday... Then I'm out of town a week, then I get back for a week and try to catch up with work and life, then classes start the week after that...


But anywho, comments?


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## mizu-chan (May 13, 2008)

Oh wow... first you steal the driftwood I want, and now you have fricken' amazing tank. :hihi:
Goodness, I love this tank. It's SO nice. No joke. And you're right in Houston. Ah, we should trade plants or something. [STRIKE]Trade tanks?[/STRIKE] lol. The layout is amazing and the driftwood arrangement is perfect. Are you getting all of your plants from Dan?

No joke... this makes me want to do a big rescape. :icon_eek:


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## chase127 (Jun 8, 2008)

i love it! the layout looks great


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

chris127 said:


> i love it! the layout looks great


Thanks! :icon_mrgr



mizu-chan said:


> Oh wow... first you steal the driftwood I want, and now you have fricken' amazing tank. :hihi:
> Goodness, I love this tank. It's SO nice. No joke. And you're right in Houston. Ah, we should trade plants or something. [strike]Trade tanks?[/strike] lol. The layout is amazing and the driftwood arrangement is perfect. Are you getting all of your plants from Dan?
> 
> No joke... this makes me want to do a big rescape. :icon_eek:


I hope you're not talking about rescaping your 20 long! That tank can beat mine any day, I'm sure. Most of my plants are actually coming from from Fish Gallery. If you ever need some plants or want some of the plants I have, let me know. I have the following:

Hygro Corymbosa Augustifolia
Hygro Polysperma Rosanervig
Ludwigia Repens
Ludwigia Glandulosa
Hemianthus Micranthemoides
Blyxa Japonica

I'm going to head off to Fish Gallery to buy any of the remaining dwarf hairgrass they have as well. Hooray for Christmas money! :bounce:


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## EdTheEdge (Jan 25, 2007)

WOW this tank gets even more amazing!!!!!


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

Horrible news!!!!

Tank is cracked!!!

ugh!!! Sucks big time balls!!!!

It's a huge crack that goes from the top to the bottom!!!!

This effing sucks!


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## EdTheEdge (Jan 25, 2007)

What?


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## Kayen (Oct 14, 2007)

Dude that sucks!
So what's the plan now ?


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

I don't know what the plan is entirely...... I feel so discouraged.... I want to just get rid of everything!

I've spent too much time and money on this hobby though. Since I was saving the biggest chunk of my Christmas money for this trip I'm going on next week, I guess I'll just have to get rid of the fish, and start over when I get back.... so first thing's first...

I'm going to take the fish to HAW and see if Dan will take care of my fish for 2 weeks (doubtful) or if he'll give me store credit for them.  They've been living in buckets and rubbermaid containers for 2 days already, I can't let them keep living like that for 2 weeks.... What sucks is that I've got 2 breeding pairs of fish in there, the german rams, and an angelfish pair... I didn't want to lose them!

I was about to take my 15 gallon into storage today, but I'm glad I decided to hold off for a couple of hours... Now I'm going to put that back up, and put my Hygro Augustifolia, and Ludwigia repens and glandulosa in there. I'll see how much Sunset Hygro I can add in there too without overcrowding it... I think I'm going to sell off my Blyxa... I have nowhere to put it. 




I'm just trying to figure out why it cracked!!! The crack is going from top to bottom on the front right side of the tank. I keep wanting to say it's b/c it's not entirely level. It's level horizontally, but from front to back, it's off by 1 mm... 

I'll come back with more details later on in the day... first thing's first. I've got to take those fish to a better place, then I've got to see if the LFS I got the tank from will replace the tank, or if I have to buy a new one....... 

Just when I finally have the scape I want this happens!


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## mizu-chan (May 13, 2008)

I have 2 extra tanks that aren't being used right now. I can look after some of the fish if you need me too. I also have a 40 BDR that's up and running with only 20 green tetras in it. Let me know. I'll PM you my number if you need it. Sorry to hear about the crack!


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

im actually at haw right now. i put the breeding gbr in mu 29g. i may see if i could gwt store credit for the rest (except the bolivian rams). ill take this as a chance to start fresh and maybe get discus... ill see what dan says. 

agh, typing on my phone is still tricky for me. thx for offering help. ill let you know if i need help. i may need help with holding on to some plants, like the sunset hygro.


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## mizu-chan (May 13, 2008)

No problem. Just me know. Man a discus tank would be awesome.  Hope all goes well for you!


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## chase127 (Jun 8, 2008)

dude that sucks  right after a fresh scape when it was looking awesome too! i hope everything works out for you man.


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## mizu-chan (May 13, 2008)

No problem. Just me know. Man a discus tank would be awesome.  Hope all goes well for you!


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

Luckily, since I've only had the tank for 2 months, I still have warranty on it. So I'm replacing it on Friday. Dan at HAW will hold on to my fish for a couple of weeks until I can set it back up and let my tank cycle again. I'm thinking of keeping just my 2 bolivian rams and 3 bn plecos. For the Discus experts, would the rams be OK with Discus? I'm going to research them more. If I do get Discus, I won't be getting them until after August though.

I'm going to assume that the crack was caused by the weight of the gravel... There was about 175-200 lbs of gravel, which was then topped off by amazonia. I was using the gravel so that the pieces of driftwood would stay in place... Hopefully the amazonia is 'strong' enough to keep the driftwood in place now...

Anywho, I've gotta keep cleaning... What a crazy day.



Edit:

Oh, I need a scaping opinion. Should I get rid of the blyxa and do an entirely dwarf hairgrass foreground instead? Or should I, rather, do all blyxa?


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

Agh!!! A sieve would make my life so much easier right now! It's too time consuming separating the gravel from the amazonia.


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## CL (Mar 13, 2008)

Man, you lucked out big time with that warranty!
Good luck!


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## mott (Nov 23, 2006)

I'm so sorry to hear that about your tank, where you there when it happened? did it drain completely? All fauna ok?
I ask because this is all of our biggest worries and I'm sure freak things like this just "Happen" from time to time without any reason. 

That was really nice for Mizu to offer her tanks for holding fish, you gotta love this community...


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

This was the layout I was going toward before the crack. Does it look good??? Man, I spent about 2 hours separating gravel from amazonia last night... and that was only about 20lbs of the 200+ of the stuff.... I'm not going to bother with removing the very small pebbles or laterite, since I'm going to add more amazonia. I spent the money I had set aside for dwarf hairgrass (and then some) to buy more amazonia... so I'll have to do with just a very small amount of it, and let it fill out slowly... and as $$$ allows, buy a few extra pots here and there.

I'm kinda glad it decided to crack before I planted all the hairgrass I was planning on getting... or while I was out of town next week. :icon_eek:


1 Hygro Augustifolia
2 Ludwigia Repens
3 Ludwigia Glandulosa
4 Hemianthus Micranthemoides
5 Hygro Polysperma Rosanervig
6 Blyxa Japonica
7 Eleocharis Parvula


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

mott said:


> I'm so sorry to hear that about your tank, where you there when it happened? did it drain completely? All fauna ok?
> I ask because this is all of our biggest worries and I'm sure freak things like this just "Happen" from time to time without any reason.
> 
> That was really nice for Mizu to offer her tanks for holding fish, you gotta love this community...


I was in the living room, watching 'Live Free or Die Hard'. I was about to head out to buy the dwarf hairgrass for the tank, but I was like "Let me take one more look at the tank before I head out," and as I walked to my room, I heard the sound of water... I originally thought one of my filters broke and was back siphoning... but nope, giant crack! So I got my giant hoses and started pumping out the rest of the water before my room was entirely flooded. The fauna were fine, they had been living in buckets already for 2 days because I did a substrate change... I took them to an LFS and the owner said he'd watch them for me until I can get it taken care of. I gave him about 50 blyxa stems as a thank you. 

And it was very nice of Mizu! Thank you for offering to help!


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

This is what I had prior to the crack.

2 Bolivian Rams
2 German Blue Rams (breeding pair...)
5 Koi Angelfish (1 breeding pair)
24 Lemon Tetra
10 Oto (Yeah, I thought there were only 3 survivors.... turns out they're just stealthy ninjas)
3 BN Plecos.

The GBR pair I placed in my 29g, with my green neon tetra. They seem to love their new home (they colored up very quickly in there), so I'm going to leave them there.

I'm taking this as an opportunity to change my stock now...

I was originally considering: 2 Bolivian Rams, 3 BN Plecos, small school of rummynose, and some discus... I'm reconsidering the discus though, until I've read everything there is to know about them... and I know I won't be traveling so much b/c of school... so... 3.5 more years before I can dedicate myself to discus.

The new stocking plan I'm considering now:

2 Bolivian Rams
3 BN Plecos
6 German Gold Rams (or 4 gold, 2 blue?)
50-60 Green Neon Tetra (They're really cool fish!)

I see some possible aggression between that many rams... hopefully, by the time I get the gold and/or blue, the tank will be 'lush' enough to provide enough space for territories. I'm afraid that by the time I get the germans, the bolivians would have set up territories, and it would be all out war (haha, sounds like gang wars).

Thoughts?


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## thief (Jan 12, 2008)

Wow great journal. I am sorry to hear about the tank cracking! I have no idea how it feels to go through something like that! Your luckey that the fish were in safe housing when it happened but still did all the water ruin your floor?

Anyways the stocking list sounds really cool. I wonder how 50 Green neon tetras will look. I really hope you the best in rebuild everything! keep us updated.


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

No, my floor wasn't ruined. My room is actually a garage converted into a bedroom (by the previous owner). So, the floor is really just concrete covered in linoleum flooring.


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

Question - will 7 bags worth of Amazonia be enough to provide me with a mound in the center, like in this picture, to hold up my driftwood like before, and still have enough for a 2 inch thick substrate all around it?


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## MARIMOBALL (Mar 18, 2007)

what a nightmare you went through. Glad to see your not giving up. I had a 120 gal 5ft long and 7 9L bags of Amazonia should be enough. Mind you I have 7 9L bags in my 120P, Its 4ft long but the substrate is 3" in the front and almost 9" in the back. But if you can afford more go for it. Please reconsider the discus mine did great in a large tank. They were not difficult. I used regular tap water but the temp was 82F. with all the CO2 my ph went from 7.5 to 6.0 in a couple days and I had flourite the Amazonia should help out.


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

I would really love to get discus, but I know that this summer alone, I'll be out of town for 3 months, and the only thing my dad will do for me is feed the fish. I'll probably be coming into town once a month, and a monthly water change is definitely not good for discus, right? I'm assuming that when I go to grad school soon after I graduate, I'll be doing field work a lot too. 

I'll definitely be getting discus once I'm done with school though.


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

Tomorrow is the big day! The day I go to pick up the replacement tank. I kinda wish it was today though... I've got my ludwigias floating in my other tanks... and now they're getting twisted and deformed


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

Picked up the tank today. It's full of water, amazonia, and it has my driftwood in place. I was only able to plant the two back corners, since it's still ridiculously cloudy, and the water is cold!!! 

Over 100 of my blyxa stems melted... that was my fault for forgetting I had them in a container with no light... : \ A little bit of my sunset hygro melted too... but that'll bounce back in no time. My HM melted too, but I'm not too worried about it. 

I'm going to see if I can find some more Ludwigia Repens tomorrow as I'm out and about buying some more stuff I need for a trip I'm leaving for on Sunday. I'd really like to get some l. ovalis, but last time I went to Fish Gallery (for you Houstonians :icon_wink) they were running out already. 

I can't really decide on a foreground, so i'm just going to leave that alone for now. Maybe this camping trip I'm going on will help me clear my mind and finally decide! But for now, I'm going to put this lone dwarf sag I have in my 5g and see what happens.

Hopefully when I get back next weekend, I'll have my tank growing back to it's 'former glory.' My hygro augustifolia and both ludwigias got bent from floating in my other two tanks... : /


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

The thing is almost completely planted... I've just got some more repens to plant. 

Fish Ranch had a ton of Bolivian Rams, which I've been wanting for a long time. Granted, I've already got two, but I wanted more! I like them better than German Rams. They said they'd hold on to four of them for me until I get back next week. I hope the tank is cycled by then... I'm going to add all the giant duckweed from my other tanks and hope that helps a bit. : \


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## EdTheEdge (Jan 25, 2007)

Hey good for you!!!! Way to bounce back! Post some pics!!!!!!!!


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

I'll try to post a pic or two. The tank is still pretty cloudy. Maybe by the time I get back home later tonight, it would've cleared up more. If I don't get a chance to take one tonight... look for one next week  

I couldn't find any dwarf hairgrass today, so I'll just leave that one dwarf sag in there and see what happens, for now.


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## CL (Mar 13, 2008)

It's good to hear it's back up again! It was a wonderful tank and it would be a shame to never see it mature.


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## Tex Gal (Mar 28, 2008)

What an adventure. Reminds me of the time I had just upgraded to a 75g. In two weeks the center support fell off. Two weeks later the same thing happened to the replacement tank! That's how I ended up with a 125g. Life happens. Now you have a chance to do it all over again, knowing what you would do differently. Glad you're back up and running!


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## Lee (Feb 13, 2007)

Hey emmanuel, thanks for the post on the Bolivian rams. I went by there today and they had a huge selection and the prices were much lower than fish gallery. the Fish Ranch is a like a secret, but at least we know.


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## rekles75 (Feb 25, 2008)

Glad you are back up and running, Cant wait to see new pics.


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## mizu-chan (May 13, 2008)

Glad you're getting it all together again. Let me know if you need any help! :thumbsup:


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

Thanks all! 
I skimmed through the posts since I'm rushing to keep getting ready for my trip. Just 6 more hours and I'll be heading into the cold! I'll read through them when I get back and reply.

But for now, here's a quick shot. I'm not too crazy about the blue background, but my dad thought it would look better/more cheery. I'll see how I feel about it when I get back and the water is clearer.

Anyway, I'll be back in a week with more pics!


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## CL (Mar 13, 2008)

It looks great!


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## chase127 (Jun 8, 2008)

nicee! glad to see it back in action


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## chonhzilla (Apr 22, 2008)

diggin the dw in the 15G


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

The tank looks like total crap.

I'm about ready to call it quits. I came back just a while ago to find the vast majority of the plants dead. All that remains is the Ludwigia Repens... and even then, it doesn't look too hot. I have no idea what went wrong with the tank. 

I'm just going to pull out what's dead, if the tank is cycled already, pick my fish back up... and let the tank do whatever the heck it wants to do... or just throw out all the tanks and focus only on school and work.


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## mizu-chan (May 13, 2008)

Don't give up man! This tank was already so great!


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## demonbreedr16 (Jan 10, 2008)

Emmanuel, Most of my tanks look like crap right now too...just give it some time and plan out the new plants you want for your tank and then add those and try again, if that fails,try again with different plants. Eventually, you will get some that grow very well for you.

Oh, and remember, What works for one, harly ever works for another...so don't try to copy someone elses scape because you will surely hate your tank because it won't turn out like theirs. Try something different.


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

I spoke to my dad... according to him, the lights didn't come on like they were supposed to... I guess he think that was a problem he could've told me about during the 50+ times he called to complain about me driving my car to another state... :icon_roll Oh well, it's happened, nothing else to do... I'm going to leave the tank bare... I'm not going to put the time and energy I previously had... What little plants remain alive will have to propagate themselves over the next several months.


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## demonbreedr16 (Jan 10, 2008)

What I do is just buy a bunch at a time, let them grow or die off then let those take over the tank. evenually, you will have a very nice tank if you pick out nice plants you want each time. I hope things get better for you.

If it makes you feel any better, I lost my entire 10gal tank in ONE day after a trip to St. Augustine. Things can happen fast!! You just kind of have to try your best to clean up and take care of what little you have until you get another chance to redo. 

I do think it's better to let your tank be for a while though...


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## Tex Gal (Mar 28, 2008)

Have you thought of slow growing plants that won't take much maintenance? It might be a compromise. We have all had our share of disappointments. Hang in there. Maybe you're just overwhelmed with school and all. Give yourself some time. Love your wood. I can envision an amazing tank there!


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

Thanks for the words of encouragement guys. I think I was just so tired and cranky after a 14 hour drive. When I saw my tank that night dying instead of booming with growth it made things worse for me. 

I spent several hours last night cleaning the tank up. I had to throw out more than I hoped for... but some of the stems had a few new sideshoots to it that I could salvage. I've had pretty good growth rates with Ludwigia Repens, so I'm sure that'll be fine and filling back in in no time. I managed to salvage a few small stems (about 1-2") of Hygro Augustifolia, and very few of Ludwigia Glandulosa. I may just throw that glandulosa into the 20g and go buy some more today or tomorrow - I'm hoping they still have some at the LFS I bought it at. It's a bit expensive there though... 3 bunches for $15, and I originally bought 6 :icon_eek:. If they still have it, I'll just get 3 bunches and propagate it in the tank myself.

I stole some of the hygro polysperma from my 20g to help suck up the ammonia in the tank so I could get my fish back in there. I thought it was regular polysperma, but it had some rusty pink to the top stems, it doesn't have the veins that rosanervig has though. I also stole the blyxa from my 20g.


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## demonbreedr16 (Jan 10, 2008)

That's a REALLY good idea Texgal!! My 5gal betta/snail tank has Anubias,crypt, java fern,java moss, and sunset hygro. All are easy and slow growing...so they are perfect! The aponogeton grows faster though...

I do hope things get better, Emmanuel!!


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

clwatkins10 said:


> It's good to hear it's back up again! It was a wonderful tank and it would be a shame to never see it mature.





chris127 said:


> nicee! glad to see it back in action





clwatkins10 said:


> It looks great!





rekles75 said:


> Glad you are back up and running, Cant wait to see new pics.


Thanks for the compliments! 



chonhzilla said:


> diggin the dw in the 15G


It's a pretty sweet piece of dw. I still have it lying around for another future tank. I have so many ideas for tanks running through my head. I try to sketch as many as I can.



Lee said:


> Hey emmanuel, thanks for the post on the Bolivian rams. I went by there today and they had a huge selection and the prices were much lower than fish gallery. the Fish Ranch is a like a secret, but at least we know.


Did you end up getting BRs? I have to remember to go pick up the ones I asked them to hold for me. I've been so busy since I got back into Houston though. My tank isn't fully cycled like I had hoped, so I may have to wait a while longer.



Tex Gal said:


> What an adventure. Reminds me of the time I had just upgraded to a 75g. In two weeks the center support fell off. Two weeks later the same thing happened to the replacement tank! That's how I ended up with a 125g. Life happens. Now you have a chance to do it all over again, knowing what you would do differently. Glad you're back up and running!


Oh wow. That was quite an adventure you had. I suppose life throws curve balls at people, and in turn, other great things can happen, right? :confused1:



demonbreedr16 said:


> What I do is just buy a bunch at a time, let them grow or die off then let those take over the tank. evenually, you will have a very nice tank if you pick out nice plants you want each time. I hope things get better for you.
> 
> If it makes you feel any better, I lost my entire 10gal tank in ONE day after a trip to St. Augustine. Things can happen fast!! You just kind of have to try your best to clean up and take care of what little you have until you get another chance to redo.
> 
> I do think it's better to let your tank be for a while though...


I usually buy a bunch of plants at one time and see how things go. I had a vision of how this tank would look, so I bought a bunch of Ludwigia Repens and Glandulosa... I spent at least $50 in just ludwigia for this tank..., plus about $40 on all the blyxa I had, $15 for the hygro augustifolia, and I can't remember how much for the hygro polysperma and the HM... Luckily, I had a bit of of some of these plants in other tanks... so it shouldn't cost me very much to get the tank back to how it was, all I need to buy to get it to what it used to be is some L. Glandulosa. Classes start next week for me, so this is the last week I get to really mess with it very much, since I'll be taking 15 credit hours and working 20+ hours each week. I've done 17 credit hours and worked 25-30 hours/week before, and it hasn't been fun. 



Tex Gal said:


> Have you thought of slow growing plants that won't take much maintenance? It might be a compromise. We have all had our share of disappointments. Hang in there. Maybe you're just overwhelmed with school and all. Give yourself some time. Love your wood. I can envision an amazing tank there!


I was hoping for some slow growing plants since I won't be able to pay too much attention to the tank once classes resume. I'll eventually have to replace the h. polysperma. I saw on APC you had some E. Tenellus sp. pink runners for sale. I've been pretty tempted to get some, since I was hoping to have this tank be dominated by reds/pinks with some green popping out in between. I'm not sure how they'd do in my tank though. I think I'm going to focus on getting my background & midground plants back to normal, and then focus on a foreground.


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## Tex Gal (Mar 28, 2008)

Emmanuelchavez - if you do decide to get some E. tennellus, I'll throw in some extra plants for free. I have some gorgeous crypts, I'll put a couple of those in there for you. You've had a hard time and deserve a little kindness. PM me over there if you go that way.


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

Wow, that's very kind of you. I'll probably get some e. tennellus, I'll have to wait till I get home, and stare at my tank and sketch up some possibilities before I decide entirely. I'll let you know.


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

wow. just read your thread, sorry about the crack. but atleast you've got another tank up and running.
yeah it sucks having to take classes/work and then do weekly water changes. but at the same time its really relaxing to watch all your fishes swim around and all your plants pearling. 
oh and yeah. l.repens is truly a warrior.it'll come back from about anything!


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

Agh! my cycle is taking so much more longer than I thought. 

I'm reconsidering getting the large school of green neon tetra. The school that I have in my 29g hides from me all the time, so I don't get too see them as much.

I'm not too sure what I could get in their place. Rummynose tetra, maybe?


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

the green neons would look amazing in such a huge tank. i heard that mizu-chan was able to get them locally for a really really good price. somewhere in Houston too.


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

monkeyruler90 said:


> the green neons would look amazing in such a huge tank. i heard that mizu-chan was able to get them locally for a really really good price. somewhere in Houston too.


Yeah, that's why I wanted to get a school of 50 for my tank. I got some from the same source as Mizu for my 29 gallon tank. They hide from me all the time, however. 

Mizu! How did you get your neons to come out of hiding? I usually have to bribe mine with food... but even then, as soon as they're done eating... back into the jungle val 'jungle' they go!


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

Agh! This is the longest cycle ever!!! Well, considering that I had some previously cycled media in my 2 filters...

I had to pick up my fish yesterday too, so now my 29g is cramped with roughly 50 green neons, 2 gbr, 6 bolivian rams, 1 bnp, and some mystery snails... 

All these guys will be going into my 100g.

The plants are doing very well though. I decided on getting some dwarf hairgrass also. There were a couple of glosso nodes in there, so I planted them just for the heck of it, for now...


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## malaybiswas (Nov 2, 2008)

if you have enough light the few nodes of glosso will cover up pretty fast. Make sure to give them a nice trim when they start growing over each other or they will create a lot of dead spots...nice nesting grounds for algae


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

50 neons in a 29? that must look amazing
can of sardines anyone


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

malaybiswas said:


> if you have enough light the few nodes of glosso will cover up pretty fast. Make sure to give them a nice trim when they start growing over each other or they will create a lot of dead spots...nice nesting grounds for algae


Well, I decided that the glosso is only going to be here for a few weeks at best. I'm going to switch substrates in my 20g, and it'll be going in there instead; I'm going to wait until it establishes itself well enough in here though, since this is the tank with the better of the substrates.




monkeyruler90 said:


> 50 neons in a 29? that must look amazing
> can of sardines anyone


They do look amazing! When I only had the 30 neons in there, they hid all the time... now that I brought home the other 20 (that I traded my angels, lemon tetra, and otos for), they're swimming out in the open all the time. Hopefully my cycle finishes up in the 100g soon though, I don't want all those fish to kill each other over space, or for there to be an ammonia spike in the 29g. :icon_eek:


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## MARIMOBALL (Mar 18, 2007)

Man i hate you now lol i have 65 green neons in my 120p and cannot find them locally anywhere. I find that they school almost as good as rummies when they are in large groups. If i had known about them when i had my 120gal i would have had about 200 green neons in there. Can you pm me the info to the store you got them from?


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## mizu-chan (May 13, 2008)

You can't go wrong with Green Neons


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

PM sent.

I love how they school in larger numbers, so I may increase their numbers a bit more yet again, once they're in the 100g.

I was thinking of doing a school of 100+ micro rasboras, but then I realized that they would probably get eaten by the bolivian rams once they reach adult size... and then there goes my whole south-american fish theme.


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

well in south america its either eat or be eaten. so it might turn out to be a more realistic theme that you imagined :hihi:


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

monkeyruler90 said:


> well in south america its either eat or be eaten. so it might turn out to be a more realistic theme that you imagined :hihi:


 I didn't think about it that way, but so true, haha!

I don't get to enjoy seeing my fish swim joyfully in the 100g because the ammonia is still 4ppm, but I do get to enjoy seeing plant growth! It's awesome!

Ludwigia glandulosa is showing lots of magnificent growth and color, it's a very bright red (the new growth, the original parts are still reddish/green)! From what I've read on it, it's growing at about the rate people claim it to grow; 1"/week. I'm glad I chose this as my 'centerpiece' plant.

Ludwigia Repens is recovering, a bit slowly, but recovering. It's still mostly green, but the new growth is showing some hints of red. I can't be too sure if it's lack of some type of nutrient(?).

Hygro Polysperma Regular (Gold/Green) is growing rather quickly. I don't know if this is one of the plants I should thank for keeping algae at bay for the moment (more on this in a bit). I really like the gold on it, so it'll be a bit sad seeing this plant go, eventually. I don't think I could keep up with the growth on this monster! 

Hygro Polysperma Rosanervig (pink w/veins) is making a great recovery as well! Lots of pink with this plant. It's growing a bit on the quick side as well, but definitely not at the same rate as the golden variety.
Blyxa Japonica is getting bushier as well! It was sad to see so many stems of blyxa die, but these are making up for it. 

Hemianthus Micranthemoides is showing some growth as well. I only added them on Saturday, with only (how do I describe this?) one 'head' sticking out of the substrate per stem, and now there's multiple. I can't wait to see it get bushy like it is in my 20g.

Dwarf Hairgrass was just planted on Saturday as well, and they're sending some new runners as well. Hooray! 

Dwarf Sag has sent out its third runner. I was expecting the dwarf sag to get between 2-3" minimum in size, as they had in my other tanks, but this one has stayed around 1" long. I may end up preferring this as my main foreground, so as it grows out, I'll be thinning out the dwarf hairgrass.

Glosso also has a bit of new growth. One of the two nodes of glosso that hitched a ride in the hairgrass I got on Saturday has already sent out two runners. Question for any glosso experts... are there differently sized glosso? I've seen some glosso in a display tank at one of my lfs, and the glosso was bigger than the one in my tank. I could easily fit at least 10 glosso nodes on my pinky fingernail; is that the emersed shape of it maybe? Anywho, this'll be going into one of my other tanks, eventually.

Now for the algae. There is none. 
I'm a bit surprised, but glad. I haven't had the time to replace the broken timer (which resulted in that massive die-off after setting the tank back up after the crack), so I've been turning the lights on when I leave for work or school, and then turning them off after I get back, which gives me a photoperiod between 12-16 hours. Hopefully I get to get another timer this weekend, as my school schedule is about to get crazier.

Fert routine is nothing like it used to be, for the moment. I'm only dosing excel every day, and flourish every other day. I was only doing flourish 2x a week, but bumped it up when the new growth on my l. glandulosa wasn't coming out as red as it is now. 

But anywho, that is all I have for now. Enjoy.


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

Because I know people enjoy photos, and this journal is useless without photos; enjoy!

Picture to accompany my novel from... earlier today?! WTH, my school/work schedule is tripping me out, I thought I wrote that last post on Tuesday, haha.


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## bolivianram123 (Jun 5, 2008)

awesome tank! i cant believe this is from houston! it seems like a lot more people are into cichlids than planted tanks here. 
I have a question, when using ADA AS you planted it all as soon as possible? because dan at HAW said it would kill all my plants but i saw mizu's tank cycle with plants and nothing happened to them, i was just wondering since im planing to plant dwarf hairgrass with the AS and would definately not want to kill it.


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

Hm, Dan didn't tell me that. My tank is actually still cycling. The plants are flourishing quite well. I don't see why they would die, other than maybe changing the pH and hardness of the water very quickly. The plants would be using up the ammonia put out from the AS.


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## EdTheEdge (Jan 25, 2007)

Hey Lookin' Good Emmanuel!!!!


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

bolivianram123 said:


> awesome tank! i cant believe this is from houston! it seems like a lot more people are into cichlids than planted tanks here.
> .


wow pictures really are worth a thousand words, great looking tank emmanuel!:thumbsup:

oh and yeah i understand bolivianram, here in florida most people are into Saltwater tanks, so its pretty rare to find a good LFS that has experienced people and a decent selection of plants.


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## bolivianram123 (Jun 5, 2008)

oh lol i meant a nice planted tank like that is hard to come by here.

but that's what i thought about the ammonia, thanks for the reply.

keep up the awesome job on this tank! ill be looking into future updates for this one!


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

Quick update:

My cycle finished up last week, so I transferred the majority of the fish to the tank. There are still quite a few in the 29g that have evaded my catching them, which was probably for the best.

There was an outbreak of ich in the tank amongst the neons, the rams were left untouched. It seems to be under control for the moment; since I typically just go home to sleep now, all I was able to do was raise the temperature to 82 and it seems to have worked.

I may start tearing down my 29g this weekend and finish transferring the fish over, depending on how much homework I manage to get done today and tomorrow.

The L. Glandulosa has doubled in size!  
Hopefully I'll get the chance to take a picture of the tank this weekend... someone do my homework!!! :hihi:


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

man, i got a case of Ich in my QT tank too. it sucks. i feel like i failed as a keepr. just keep the temp up and plenty of aquarium salt. that oaughta help. and thats weird. my neons had a few dots but my gouramies were completely clean. odd.

can't wait to see the tank.


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

1/22/2009










2/10/2009


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## jeffboyarrdee (Aug 25, 2004)

kind of symmetrical, i know it will look slightly different when grown out, but i think it would be cool if you just pullled a couple out from the center, or get the curvier ones and aim them downward toward the center or something. just a tip on the scape, plants look great though im diggging the red


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

nice, those plants are really filling in!! post some higher rez pictures


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

Can someone venture a guess as to what type of deficiency my L. Glandulosa is experiencing? It's been doing this and dying off massively for the past week or so. I've spent nearly an hour getting out all the decaying leaves out... but everytime I think I've got them all, more show up! It's making me have high nitrates, well higher than usual. They're up to 20ppm atm. They're usually just at 5-10ppm.

All I've been dosing is Excel and Flourish. Should I ditch the Flourish and go back to dry ferts, dosing K & Fe?










All other plants seem to be doing great, it's just the Glandulosa that has been experiencing this. I thought it could also be that they need stronger lighting, I have 2.6wpg pc. Then I also thought it could be that I hadn't done a wc in almost 3 weeks and that I haven't had a consistent lighting schedule since my timer had broken. The lights were on for nearly 16 hours a day, from the time I went for school/work, till I got back later that night...

I have since gotten another timer, and have them set for 10 hours/day. 

Anywho, thoughts about what it could be that caused this?


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

No one can venture a guess?


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## mizu-chan (May 13, 2008)

Hmm, I'm not too sure. But I know that before when I didn't have a timer for my lights my plants used to get like that. I even managed to burn my java moss half to death. I don't know anything about water chemistry or anything... Maybe the ammonia form the AS?
Sorry I couldn't be of much help. Just thought I'd take a whack at it.

And thank you for the plants! They are absolutely wonderful!


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

No problem on the plants.

I don't really get to see the plants very much during the week anymore, now that I have the timer, since I'm at school very late, but hopefully they'll do better by the weekend.


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## Tex Gal (Mar 28, 2008)

I know you have a new tank but I wonder if you need to be dosing KNO3? I think they might be starving. I have Amazonia in all my tanks and I still have to dose KNO3. I've done it from the beginning (after tank cycle). Have you tested for that? It seems like there are some plants that are more sensitive to not having as much and end up melting sooner. I'm having a hard time keeping enough in my 125g and I dose every other day. I've begun to put some in on the odd days now. If I don't I will loose only certain plants, while others do fine....


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

There certainly isn't a need for nitrates at the moment, they've been pretty high (20ppm+) since there's a bunch of decaying leaves that I always miss. I haven't dosed potassium in a long while though, so I started to again today. I may go in another direction with the glandulosa, since I've noticed that the stems that aren't crowded very much are doing much better.

I was thinking of using another plant in the center that isn't as bright red/purple and has a different 'texture' to it, and have some random stems of glandulosa popping out.

I can't decide what that new stem should be though.


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

Something just isn't working out for the glandulosa. This weekend, I'm going to pull all of it out, hunt any remaining leaves that are decaying in the tank, and cut off any part of the ludwigia that's turning to mush. I'll probably end up with about half of what I started with, but that's alright. I'll see how things go with that. 

I'm going to do 75% or so water-change as well, and start a better dosing regime and see if that helps.


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

Quick FTS. I need a tripod!










My L. Glandulosa is slowly recovering to its former glory!  I started dosing potassium every day, along with extra iron. I may have to start dosing nitrates though. My nitrates are now 5ppm... I've been feeding the fish lots of extra food just to keep it 'that high.'










On another note though... anyone know what these plants are? They hitched a ride into my 20g back when I had riccia. I was going to throw them, but figured I'd just keep them and see what happens.

I know this one is a crypt, but any idea what kind? It's been reddish and stayed at around a inch ever since I got it several months ago.









No idea what this is... thoughts?


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## fishbguy1 (Feb 29, 2008)

Looks kinda like eichornia diversifolia to me. check the spelling on thast though...lol


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## deleted_user_16 (Jan 20, 2008)

heteranthera zosterifolia=stargrass


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## `XD (Jun 2, 2008)

it looks like a hand crawling out of my bed. ^__^ butstill luv the wood :icon_excl




emmanuelchavez said:


> 1/22/2009
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

`XD said:


> it looks like a hand crawling out of my bed. ^__^ butstill luv the wood :icon_excl



:red_mouth Thanks!
I think I'm going to rescape it though. As someone has already said, it's a bit too symmetrical.

I don't think my lighting is strong enough for the plants I want to keep though... I'm thinking I'm going to save up and go with either some T5's or MH's from www.fishneedit.com

This tank was supposed to be priority over my 29 and 20, haha, but it seems that my 29 is going to become my priority, since I have 4.5 wpg and the plants I put in there until I could change the substrate and rescape are looking much better (and algae free) than what's in my 100g.


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

hows the tank doing ?


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

monkeyruler90 said:


> hows the tank doing ?


 
Sorry, I just saw this. I was doing fieldwork this summer, so I was away from my tanks the entire time.

This is what it currently looks like. I'll come back to give a few details on it later on. It's a busy day today!


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

Alright, some details:

Flora:
Background

Pogostemon Stellatus 'Broadleaf' 
Hygro Corymbosa 'Augustifolia' (there's one survivor from the last scape, it hasn't grown very much, which is suprising. It used to be a weed for me...)
Midground

Cryptocoryne Cordata 'Rosanervig' 
Cryptocoryne Wendtii Green 
Cryptocoryne Wendtii Bronze 
Cryptocoryne ?? (Unidentified Crypt... I'll do a search later...) 
Blyxa Japonica
Foreground:

Echinodorus Tennellus Micro


Fauna:
2 German Blue Ram (M/F pair) 
6 Bolivian Ram 
5 Female Betta (these gals were moved from their sorority 29g tank) 
1 Bristlenose Pleco (female, I believe) 
? Neon Tetra 
? Green Neon Tetra 
4 Olive Nerite snails 


I'm fighting BBA at the moment. I have the CO2 cranked up as high as it could be. I feel like I'm wasting a bunch of it as is, by having it higher than what it should be. It hasn't done too much to keep the BBA at bay. Luckily, the BBA has only made home of the driftwood and the E. Tennellus micro. I employed the use of Excel overdosing and H2O2 to help me get rid of it. I think the olive nerites are helping me get rid of it too. I need to cut back the photoperiod and hope it helps control the bba. I'm not sure whether it's at 8 or 10 hours, the aquarium turns on while I'm not at home; either ways, I'm cutting off 2 hours from the photoperiod.

I'm thinking of covering the piece of driftwood to the right, and the two to the far left with anubias, and the two center ones with moss. I've got moss and anubias growing in emersed form in my 20g at the moment (along with other plants). 

The original plan was also to have only crypts surrounding the pogostemon. I really like how quickly the blyxa got bushy though. I had 5x's the amount seen in there now, but ended up trashing a bunch of it (since it was algae infested and ratty from my summer away from home). So I'll see how that goes. I was also considering replacing the pogostemon with some of the larger anubias species, or java ferns for easier maintenance. I"ll see how that goes later on. I like the color and texture of the pogostemon, but it's a very quick grower for me. I had half the amount of it there last month. It seems like it takes about a week to recover from being trimmed, and then it starts rocketing up.

The E. Tennellus has grown quickly too. I've been doing some heavy Fe dosing to get it red. The rams keep uprooting some of nodes though, while trying to eat some of the BBA, which is why I'm hoping to be rid of it soon. 

I believe that's all the info I've got for the tank...


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

In case anyone is interested.


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

Ah, I forgot to show what my scape looked like prior to this last scape...










Due to 3 months of neglect, from being away from home all summer, it looked terrible when I got back. So, I decided to scape it to something simpler, which is the current scape I have (see previous posts.)


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

Update...










... So, I'm under the impression that this *is* Limno instead of P. Stellatus.

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/swap-n-shop/95427-fs-pogostemon-stellatus.html

Thoughts? There was a discussion on it in a S&S thread of mine.


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## CL (Mar 13, 2008)

That actually looks pretty cool. I really like that last scape you had. The cards go with this scape great. It's doing good so far :thumbsup:


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

Thanks. I really liked the old scape... so I'm thinking of doing the same thing with the wood... but making it a riparium. I think it'd look good with pieces of manzy sticking out of water. That's a long way from happening though, unless I win the lottery, or find me a very rich wife whom is supportive of my hobby.:hihi: I'm going to enjoy this scape for a while; I have a tendency of rescaping too often.

I can't decide what to do with the one stem of hygro augustifolia. It's already long overdue for a trimming. I may just trim and stick it inbetween the p. stellatus, see how that looks. Or maybe I'll stick it in my experimental "see what you can grow emmersed" set-up.

I'm so happy to see just how quickly the e. tenellus micro I got from Tex-Gal earlier this year is spreading. I started out with ~25 nodes or so, I think. Within a few more months, I think it'll actually carpet my entire tank. :icon_lol:


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

So the p. stellatus broadleaf has reached the top!
Let me know if the picture doesn't work. I linked it straight from facebook, since photobucket is giving me problems, and I've had problems with facebook linking before.

I'm about to go trim, so I'll take an after photo either later today or tomorrow. I'm considering pulling the entire p. stellatus and going with some large anubias plants.


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## EdTheEdge (Jan 25, 2007)

Still lookin' good! roud:


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

Thanks!

I decided to go to my favorite LFS to donate my trimmings, since I didn't want to risk shipping them during a crazy time for USPS. I saw that they had some giant anubias plants that I wanted, and decided to get them. I got home, and pulled the ratty bottoms from the p. stellatus broadleaf, and put the three giant anubias in their place. I then got my coffeefolia and nana that I had in my emmersed set ups and put them in here. I'm keeping the hygro augustifolia for now.

I've decided that within the next six months, I'm going to rescape. I'm going to low-tech this guy. I'm going to make this my anubias/crypt garden.

Sorry for the blurry photos... I just couldn't stand still well enough, because I'm anxious about all the thing I've got to do today.










Can anyone venture a guess as to what type of anubias this is?


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## dewalltheway (Jan 19, 2005)

emmanuelchavez said:


> Update...
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I still say that it is Limnophila Aromatica. I have both, and I am 99.9% sure it is Limno Aromatica.


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

Whatever it was, it was fast-growing and beautiful! However, I couldn't keep up with it thanks to the ever-so-demanding college, so to the LFS it went.


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

Not really the best of images. But this is what my tank has looked like for the past 1.5 weeks. The new pieces of manzanita are mostly water-logged already, well enough for me to finally start scaping. I'll probably start scaping some time this week.


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

It seems I've failed to maintain my journal.

A couple of months ago, it looked like this:










However, there was a bad outbreak of BBA, a lot of it is still there, on the dw and rocks, but i've managed to get a bunch of it off of my plants, though some still has it.

Now that it started warming up though, some plants started to die, as they couldn't handle the 84-86F temps the tank has been in. 

I'm thinking rescape, keeping primarily the anubias, java fern, and maybe using dwarf sag for a foreground. I may add val for the background... it'll be months before I do much of anything. Since I trimmed a bunch of anubias leaves to get rid of some of the bba growing on it, a bunch of new leaves have started to pop up, and a couple of flowers.

Hopefully I can find time to take a picture. School, work & life keeping me busy. :|


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

Wow that was looking great. Sorry to hear about your algae troubles. Have you considered a chiller for this setup?

Hey just holler whenever you might want to settle up for that trade. I have lots of plants and other stuff around here. Those _Hydrocotyle_ you sent are doing well.


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

Thanks. 
It doesn't look so great now, as a lot of things have died and it looks more sparse, but once I finish this semester of classes, I think I can dedicate a bit more time to clean things up.

I don't recall sending Hydrocotyle. Was that me? I can't say I remember ever having any. ???


Ah, and re: the chiller. Last summer, I used a computer fan and it did a fantastic job. I got a few discus during the winter, so the tank'll have to stay in that temp range, I suppose. The plants did fine in 82F temps, but once they hit 84-86, they suffered.


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

I think I'm going to rescape, more than likely get rid of the dw, since it always somehow manages to get bba. I'll probably stick with something very simple, very low-tech. Rescape to start happening sometime in the summer... or fall. Maybe next year , I haven't decided.


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

I'm thinking that after almost a year... I may actually rescape this tank, I just can't make up my mind as far as what to do.

I was considering keeping this simple by mimicking this old scape: 










However, I got rid of the manzanita dw, but still have this beauty:










I was thinking of having the "tree" look, with an e. tenellus grass (that plant must be as invasive and fast growing as glosso!).

In the back of my mind, though, I also want to try stems again or a sword-scape. 

I can't decide.

Anyone want to push me in a scaping direction?


Current fauna so far is:

2 - stunted discus 
1 - 5" discus
4 - bolivian rams
2 - angels
1 - albino bn pleco
1,234,735,234,234,126,756,123, - MTS

I have some flower pots in there that the rams and pleco love to use as caves, so I'll most likely keep a couple of them in there for their hiding-pleasure.


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

Ta-da!

I kept feeling distracted at work today, so I took a quick 15 minute breather and drew up a potential plan for my rescape.

We're supposed to be fixin' the living room, and rearranging furniture, so the 100g will go there after we're done painting, and such. It'll be 3 weeks, roughly, before I even move it.










I'm trying to decide whether I should leave the driftwood bare, of use subwassertang on it. Regardless, I should probably start soaking it in the meantime, so it'll sink once I begin the rescape.

I can't decide what to use for a carpet, either. I originally wanted to use (formerly known as) "E. Tenellus Micro," but it's growing pretty tall with T5HO lighting. I added a couple of dwarf sag pieces from my 29g tank in there not too long ago, and the runners are staying about 1" long, and hugging the substrate. I'm also considering Dwarf Hairgrass, but would need to get my hands on some, whereas I alread have the tenellus and dwarf sag. I have some staurogyne sp. 'porto velho' in the tank too. If I go with that, it'll take me a long while to get a carpet. Anyone have suggestions as to which would look better?

E. Tenellus Micro
Dwarf Sag
Dwarf Hairgrass
Staurogyne sp. 'Porto Velho'

I'm pretty sure I'm getting rid of the black background as well. I'm considering light blue, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

Recommendations, or other feedback?


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## MoeBetta (Feb 5, 2011)

I don't have a whole lot to add, except that is an AWESOME stump.


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## emmanuelchavez (Apr 20, 2008)

Thanks! I've had it several years, but sadly, only used it for a short while in small tanks.

It took me a long time to sink it the first time... so I should probably get started on sinking it again.


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