# Johnson18's Dirted 55gal



## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

I know that many of my plants need nutrients BAD!! I just recently ordered dry ferts from a forum member! I can't wait for them to arrive! I used to use the entire Seachem line of liquids. that got expensive quick! Lately I've been dosing Excel and Flourish. I am trying to figure out a CO2 setup right now too!


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

whoa.... nasty iphone pictures... & geez I need to clean the outside of the front glass like whoa...


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

Here are some shots of the tank prior to its slippery slope down hill these were in January.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

Seeing that my plants are suffering severely from a lack of ferts, I have cut the light period way back and I am only running one set of lights! USPS Tracker says my fertilizers are in Columbia this morning, but didn't make the truck and will be delivered tomorrow! 

Oooo! I totally forgot that I have a couple glass CO2 diffusers in with my ferts! sweet!

The nice little USPS tracker also says that I will have two packages of plants delivered today!! YAY! I am getting one package that has Crypt. Balansae x 5, C. Wendtii Red x 2 & C. Becketii x 6! The other is a RAOK I won of Trident Java Fern from Chase127! 

The C. Balansae will all go in this tank as will the java fern, the rest will probably be split between this tank and the 20L. 

Will update with pics of the new plants when they arrive!


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

Seeing that my plants are suffering severely from a lack of ferts, I have cut the light period way back and I am only running one set of lights! USPS Tracker says my fertilizers are in Columbia this morning, but didn't make the truck and will be delivered tomorrow! 

Oooo! I totally forgot that I have a couple glass CO2 diffusers in with my ferts! sweet!

The nice little USPS tracker also says that I will have two packages of plants delivered today!! YAY! I am getting one package that has Crypt. Balansae x 5, C. Wendtii Red x 2 & C. Becketii x 6! The other is a RAOK I won of Trident Java Fern from Chase127! 

The C. Balansae will all go in this tank as will the java fern, the rest will probably be split between this tank and the 20L. 

Will update with pics of the new plants when they arrive!


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

Yay! Plants arrived!








Balansae mostly planted! 









Lots of crypts! Some extra stems up top! Raok java fern in the middle!


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

FTS after planting!! 








I am hoping once everything start to fill in it will look better!


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

So I have been heavily dosing ferts for a couple days now. Things are really starting to look better! I'm gonna do a large water change in a couple days and then begin my regular EI dosing schedule. 

I received my glass CO2 diffusers in the mail today. I originally received drop checkers on accident. I contacted the seller, a tpt member, who was apologetic and immediately sent out the diffusers, top notch guy! 

So I set up a DIY co2 using a 2L soda bottle, a 32oz gatorade bottle & some air tubing. I had this same set up on another tank with pretty good success. So I reused the tops that I had already drilled and sealed in the tubing with marine silicone. I've mixed up sugar water and yeast in the 2L bottle. The Gatorade bottle is pretty much just an overflow bottle, used for precautionary measures. The co2 then flows into the tank and through the diffuser. 

By no means is this an ideal set up for a tank of this size, but it will probably work for now.
















This was right after I hooked it all up, so no co2 flowing through yet.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

Crypt wendtii florida sunset had really improved over the last couple days! It's only been in this tank for a week or two. 

Wow, I need to clean out the melted crypts from the recent planting I did! Lots of melting! Today was the first day I didn't go through and remove leaves that are doing poorly. It shows.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

So I'm ready to get some rams! I'm trying to decide how many to get! I want two breeding pairs. Any suggestions on how many to order? I'm thinking maybe 3 females and 4 males?? Or am I better of with a larger number of females? Hmmmm......


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

I've ordered my fish! I ordered 6 German blue rams from Matt13, split evenly between males and females. They'll be here Friday! I'm super excited!


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## Andrew H (Nov 17, 2011)

Cool looking forward to seeing the fish


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

Rams have been a long time coming! My girlfriend originally wanted a planted tank of her own last September, so we bought a 15 gallon aquarium. While we were waiting on substrate to arrive, we decided we wanted GBR's. We took the 15 back and swapped it for a 20 high. After setting up the 20 things got sidetracked and I focused on getting 2x20L tanks and some of the piece and parts for shrimp keeping, neither of which ever got fully built. Life and jobs got in the way... Blah blah blah.... So in July we decided to move to a different house, it was at this point I broke down the 20H, which had only ever house a small Pleco, and started setting up my 55 & 20L to house the GBR's & hopefully offspring. 

Got an email from Matt & Mark(Matt13) this morning! Fish are on their way & there are extras! Woohoo! I am serious so excited, my girlfriend said I'm like a kid in a candy store. Haha...

I will try to get some shots of the tank before the fish arrive. After all the melting, plants are really starting to grow!








Here is the ram image from Matt's sale thread, so photo credit to Matt13!


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## garloki72 (Oct 31, 2010)

How are your rams doing they get to you yet?


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

The fish arrived safely yesterday after spending an extra day hanging out with the USPS-it's the government you can't expect them to do anything on time!  They look great, very healthy & already showing great color after less then a day in the tank. I got a note on my invoice that having been following my posts on here, they knew I was wanting two pairs, so rather then shipping one extra in case of death they sent two! So I have 4 males and 4 females! Which is super awesome! Thanks Matt!! If anyone is ever looking for Rams, I would highly suggest Matt13! I experienced excellent communication, packing was first class & most importantly the fish look fantastic! They are already swimming around their new home.
I will get some pictures at some point today. I spent all day yesterday racing sailboats and hanging out with my parents who are visiting!


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

The rams are still kinda shy. As soon as I hold my phone up (sorry for the crappy iPhone pics!) they flee. Haha here are a couple shots.























Black neon photo bomb!


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

I fed the rams frozen brine shrimp today vs the standard flakes. Wow! The rams are looking great! Fantastic colors for such young fish! I will try to get some shots of them this evening.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

My rams seem to be enjoying their new habitat! When I fed them earlier today 7 of the 8 came right up to the top of the tank and started feeding right under my hands! I noticed the 8th fish, a little male was at the top but towards the back near a large Anubias, not far from the rest.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

Fellow ram enthusiast!! At what age do you typically see rams starting to pair off? Mine are about 3 months. They've been in the aquarium since Saturday, so four days.... I'm already seeing Pairs starting to develop & create territories within my tank. I know more experienced ram keepers know far more than I do! Please share your knowledge!


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## matt13 (Jul 17, 2012)

John- Your fish are actually a little closer to 4 months of age, and they are ready to spawn now. Rams usually become sexually mature around 3 1/2 to 4 months of age and will start to spawn at that time. We have already had several pairs from the same batch as yours spawn in our tanks. Rams are substrate spawners, and while they will spawn on rocks, plants, silicone corners of the tanks and heaters occasionally, to really help them along, we use small (2" x 2") pieces of slate placed around the back and sides of the tank. They will quickly gravitate to one of these slates and start defending their territories. If you feed them well (blood worms and brine shrimp) they should spawn really soon. Some of the others we shipped fish to had spawns within 24-48 after receiving the fish. The trick isn't in getting them to spawn, it's getting them to raise their own young!

Good Luck!


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## Andrew H (Nov 17, 2011)

Cool looking rams! Really digging your bush of ferns. Once it gets really out of control I'll take some ofF your hands!


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

These two have taken over the tall grouping of ferns on one end of the tank!







A little different shot.


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## sessionthree (Aug 24, 2012)

Nice rams and I like how your plants are looking as well!


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

I took a few different pics of the fish and tank this evening! I'm leaving tomorrow for the weekend. Going sailboat racing on Lake Norman in NC! 
























































I'm leaving the fish in the care of my loving girlfriend. I have no doubt about their safety while I'm away.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

Whoops I posted one of those pics twice!


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

HOLY ALGAE BATMAN! I've always had a small bit of algae in my tank, lots, of light, no co2 injection, its gonna happen, but damn, over the last month it has exploded. It is all my fault. Go to school all week, gone sailing all weekend. I've reduced the photo period. It's fall break, and my girlfriend, well now Fiance as we got engaged this week, is outta town for 10 days, so I'm gonna work on the tanks! doing a thorough cleaning today, massive water change. gonna see what I can do to curb some of this algae problem.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

Oh, so a little personal info. my girlfriend and I got engaged Tuesday! Super excited!


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

So I was out of town this last week(wed-mon) I arrived home to find my GBR's almost white, showing none of their regular colors and all hiding & moving really slow. Checking the temp in the tank it was down in the to 70! We had a cold snap, I didn't expect that the temp would drop that low. I've been slowly raising the temp since I got home. with the temp steadily increasing and me getting back to their regular feeding schedule they are slowly regaining color. I am hoping they all made it through my idiotness, geez I feel like a total dumbass!


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## BoxxerBoyDrew (Oct 16, 2005)

First off Congrats on the engagement!

Next I like the layout of the 55g! LOVE the GBR!!! They will be going in my 55g too! Probably within a month, so I will be checking to see if Matt has any then!

BE CAREFUL raising the temp! Do it SLOWLY!!! No reason to feel like a dumba$$, things happen, and usually do when we are out of town!!! I would let it take at least 24hrs to get to the temp you are usually at. I didn't see it posted anywhere, and if it is and I missed then sorry, but what temp do you usually keep the tank? 

It seems like my CO2 tank (5#) knows when I have to go play Cowboy at the family farm when my Parents are going out of town, because it always runs out when I am gone! I ALWAYS check it before I leave, but after a few days of being gone my wife will tell me the drop checkers are blue not green when we talk at night! GRRRRR It ALWAYS HAPPENS! I don't want her to have to change out the tank either, because my cerges reactor is a PAIN to deal with, how I have it plumbed in at the moment! So my plants suffer for a few days to a week or two sometimes, then the DA^N algae takes off! So usually about the time I get it all right again, I have to go Farm Sit!

ANYHOO Let us know how the Rams do after getting back to regular temp! And be sure to watch them close for a week or so for signs of ICH due to the temp drop!

Keep up the GREAT WORK on the 55g!
Drew


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## Andrew H (Nov 17, 2011)

Sick tank.

Congrats on the engagement.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

So it's been a crazy few months... Unfortunately it's been a bad crazy versus a good crazy.... 

The continued temperature swings killed all but one GBR.  I was not a happy camper. This was followed by more algae, a problem which was left to explode due to a busy school/finals/work schedule. 

Right as things started to slow down a few days ago, my fiancé left me... So it was a [censored][censored][censored][censored]ty end to 2012. Oh well, life goes on & it's easier now then later requiring a divorce. Haha... 

The good side is now I can go back to focusing on what I wanna do! Fish!

The tank was a wreck. So many over grown plants, decaying plants, algae....you get the point. I worked about 4-5 hours on it today. It's not perfect by any means. I siphoned out a ton of debris, removed all the algae by hand, did a massive water change. Pulled out a ton of plants and replanted them. Trimmed the hell out of some if the plants split some of them apart. I'm gonna have to wait a few days and do another water change and siphon out more junk. 

I have to get back on a regular dosing and light schedule. Like whoa! Hahaha...
A lot of the plants have done well but they all need regular nutrients to do much better like they should!







FTS








As you can see there is still some debris.








This sword has come a long way & now has all submerged growth. 








I thought this was a pretty cool find! I'd never seen a leaf with so many young plants growing from it, I'm used to maybe a couple but not that many!


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## The Dude (Feb 8, 2011)

Sorry to hear about your Rams. None of my tanks are heated since I had one cook a few fish when it broke a few years back. I've noticed my Rams aren't near as colorful as yours were. What temp do you keep them at? I'm thinking about one of the titanium heaters


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

The tank usually stays about 80*F. When I lost the rams the temp was swinging from 75 down to like 55-60.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

The tank looks so much better after the cleaning it received a couple days back. I found the last ram floating a couple hours after I had the tank put back together. Bummer. 
I've started dosing dry ferts again on a set schedule.  
I'm gonna focus on getting the tank back to where it needs to be, and keeping it there... I will be looking to get more GBR's but I'm gonna make sure the tank is getting regular maintenance for a couple months before getting them. 
I was at petsmart today for a harness for my new puppy, I always check out the fish section anytime I'm there, though I really buy anything. Well, I saw they had Otocinclus on sale for $1 they fish looked healthy so I picked up 10 of them. Awesome fun on the way home, as my puppy accidentally popped a hole in the fish bag... Nothing major just water in the shopping bag. 

The fish are now happily in the tank. If they seem to do well, I'm probably going to get a few to go into my 20L!


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## mitchfish9 (Apr 30, 2012)

It sucks to hear about your unfortunate end to 2012. Hopefully 2013 will be great. The rams were coloring up VERY nicely before the temp swings. Hopefully you can buy from matt13 again as he sells great hardy fish! I can't wait to see the tank make a comeback... keep us updated!


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## alipper (Nov 6, 2012)

First, congrats on the engagement. Secondly, sucks about loosing all those rams, they looked awesome. How did all of them behave together? I thought that would be too many for a 55?


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## mitchfish9 (Apr 30, 2012)

alipper said:


> First, congrats on the engagement. Secondly, sucks about loosing all those rams, they looked awesome. How did all of them behave together? I thought that would be too many for a 55?


They were juvies, so it would not of been much of an issue yet.


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## alipper (Nov 6, 2012)

mitchfish9 said:


> They were juvies, so it would not of been much of an issue yet.


I figured, then what do ya do with all of them when they mature ha?


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

My plan with the Rams was, and will be, to achieve two breeding pairs in the tank. I originally ordered 6 and Matt being the great breeder he is, hooked me up with eight (4m, 4f)! Hoping that I might end up several pairs, allowing me to keep 2 pairs in the 55gal then either sell off the rest of the fish or putting a third pair in my 20L. We will see! 

Otos are doing great so far! A bunch of little fatties. 





























Just a few pics!


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

*Johnson18's 55 Gallon German Blue Ram setup! (56K!)*

Just a few pics! The tank is looking much better. I am waiting for the weather to warm up just a little before I order some more Rams. 









Some riccia that was tiny, seems to be doing well. I took part of this for the outflow of the planted HOB on my 20L.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

I added 10 more otos yesterday! I also tossed in a lone mollie that was in my 20L, as I've got 40+ PFR shrimp on the way this week. I've been thinking about getting some more balansae for the background. I'm going to buy some osmocote plus from my local hardware store and make a bunch of root tabs.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

*Johnson18's 55 Gallon German Blue Ram setup! (56K!)*

So just a couple pics here

This is how the rank was looking a few weeks back.










Then I stuffed it full of 15 of the nicest, largest Cryptocoryne Balansae I've ever seen...
Here they are laying across the top of the tank!


















There were still some floating in the tank...


























Fully planted and about a week into the tank/melting... Hahaha

In these shots I've got some extra plants-amazon swords and some others, tossed into the tank..,


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

*Johnson18's 55 Gallon German Blue Ram setup! (56K!)*

Update time!! 

I've got one of Colin's Ultimate PB co2 set up on the way for this tank! My plan is not to pump as much co2 as I can into this tank but to try to add a small amount into the system. I still want to keep this tank on a little more of the lower tech end of things! 

































Sorry about the horrible photos!! I'll try to get some better shots over the weekend, while I procrastinate my studying for finals!! Anyone have any suggestions on getting started with my co2 set up?


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

*Johnson18's 55 Gallon German Blue Ram setup! (56K!)*

Here is a shot I just got of this fat oto!! I've been trying to get a decent pic of this guy for about a week! This oto is at least a couple inches long!


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## AntiSoberSam (Jun 8, 2013)

yeah lets see the rams!


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## du3ce (Jan 26, 2013)

most or all of your plants are low light if u add co2 you will prob experience a algae bloom


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

du3ce said:


> most or all of your plants are low light if u add co2 you will prob experience a algae bloom


Agreed, I seem to have found a happy balance in this tank without co2. All the plants are growing like crazy & I've got very little algae present in the tank. 

The co2 system from Colin is still sitting in the box it was shipped in...


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## Jahn (Apr 26, 2013)

yes, it definitely looks like whatever you have going on in your tank, right now it's working so don't futz with it!

kinda looks ram-ready to me, go for it!


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

Jahn said:


> yes, it definitely looks like whatever you have going on in your tank, right now it's working so don't futz with it!
> 
> kinda looks ram-ready to me, go for it!


Thanks! I've been thinking about switching the java fern that's attached to the driftwood on the left side with a whole bunch of Anubias barteri var nana/nana petite. I think it would look pretty sweet & less of a mess then the fern. 

I agree about this tank being ram ready. Now, if I could just stop buying emersed crypts. I think I may have a problem with addiction to crypts! Haha...

Cryptocoryne is a hell of a drug!


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## primo (Jul 28, 2013)

I love your tank and I also love rams... one of my favs!

Was wondering about your lighting setup, seems like you have a crazy amount for no CO2? 
Everywhere I've read seems to say that 1xT5HO is plenty for a 55g low tech and beyond that you should look at CO2 or run into algae problems but you seem to manage that well..

Any advice? Just getting into my first planted and taking it slow but your lighting has me baffled with everything I've read regarding 55g low tech.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

primo said:


> I love your tank and I also love rams... one of my favs!
> 
> Was wondering about your lighting setup, seems like you have a crazy amount for no CO2?
> Everywhere I've read seems to say that 1xT5HO is plenty for a 55g low tech and beyond that you should look at CO2 or run into algae problems but you seem to manage that well..
> ...



Thanks! I've been running one dual bulb t5ho since late fall of last year. I think the key to running that much light with no co2 is plant mass. I've tried to pack this tank full of plants. I actually pulled out a ton of java fern(about $100 worth) yesterday for a massive plant trade with another member here. I will be adding a bunch of stem plants to help control any algae growth. I will also probably have to reduce my photo period until I get some more plants.


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## primo (Jul 28, 2013)

Great, thanks for the info 

I thought about using floating plants too but I'm not much a fan of most of them + the long hanging roots over time.

Ryan


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

primo said:


> Great, thanks for the info
> 
> I thought about using floating plants too but I'm not much a fan of most of them + the long hanging roots over time.
> 
> Ryan











Sometimes I wonder where the alligator is hiding!


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

Here is a current shot of the tank after pulling out a ton of java fern. 

















Now I've got this!

























I definitely want to add a bunch to this tank! Time for some more color and texture! 

I also posted in the aquascaping section looking for a few suggestions.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

I have some plans for this tank. Adding some new plants into it. Getting rid of all of the floating plants. Moving some of the current plants around. I've got a ton of Anubias B. nana & nana petite that I'm going to use to cover the driftwood on the left. Blyxa japonica & Echinodorus angustifolia 'vesuvius' are both on the way. Also gonna be adding Hydrocotyle sp. 'Japan' & leucocephala. I'm just trying to get this tank looking lush again. I'm wanting a very full feeling. 

Things are looking pretty rough because the floaters have been blocking out a lot of light. My fall semester has been kicking my ass, so all my tanks have been auto. I'm finally feeling not as overwhelmed so I've gotta get my aquariums back to looking good.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

So I've been working on this tank lately! There is still plenty of work to do. I'd been thinking about setting up a 10 gal dirt or switching my 20L emersed into a 20H & making the 20L dirty. I believe I've come to the conclusion that I'm focus on the two tanks I've already got running. I'm going to try to change up this tank as well as my 20L rip. Rather then add more tanks, why not just move some things around in the current set ups. We'll see how that actually works....haha...probably won't actually be too long before I add another....

Anyways, I've currently got plants for this tank floating in multiple aquariums as I pull things apart and begin the replanting process. I will also be using some of my emersed plants too. This tank looks rough in its current state of disarray and is absolutely not picture worthy. Here is one anyway....








I had just finished ripping out the java fern from the left side and scooping out more floaters then any tank should ever see. Also a couple patches of new plants had just been planted. This tank has a long way to go before it matches my current vision. Haha...


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

*Johnson18's 55 Gallon (56K!)*

Decided to just relax at home this weekend, which really means great fun was had this last weekend/week plus a busy school week. Hahaha.... So this evening I cranked up the tunes, made some coffee and went to work on the 55! Opened up both emersed tanks to take plants out to add into the 55. Was nice to get a good look at how the emersed tanks are doing. They both look pretty healthy, the water seems to be getting a little low...I'll add more the next big round of water changes! I need to sell some of my Bacopa(there is so much you have to dig to find certain other plants-damn jungle!) & Hydrocotyle jap. Which really just means I'll decide to RAOK it all or maybe see if anyone wants to trade for some foreground plants for the 55! I always think to myself I will post a for sale ad, make just a few extra buck here and there, that I would just use for different plants. I always seem to just give them away instead. Hahaha Oh Well.... 
Anyways! I've been planting H. 'Japan' & B. caroliniana. I've so far removed a bunch of Java fern. I will be covering one whole piece of drift wood with A. barteri nana & nana petite.

































































Well there are a whole bunch of crappy pics of what's going on at this point. I think I'm about to pull the driftwood out to add all of the Anubias to it. 
Edit: Done!



























I want some other carpet plants to use in this tank. I just want a cool mix that looks super lush. I think I might have a little spot that I want to put some S. repens. I just added a decent bit of B. japonica and the E. 'Vesuvius' a few days back!


My goal is a super lush tank packed full of a variety species. If you want an example go look through the "low tech show & tell" thread.... Hahahaha So maybe even more specifically I'm totally obsessed with OVT's tanks! That man can work wonders with a glass object that holds water! I can only hope that some day my tanks will rival and be in the same class of awesomeness as the tanks of OVT! 

Well, break time is over, back to slaving over this tank! It'll be a long night of planting and tweeking(the tank that is!) that lies ahead! Any night owls out there let me know what you think!


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

Here is where I have decided to leave it for this evening.









I've already started thinking about what else I should put int this tank! It needs so taller plants in the back with some color. Some different color and texture. I'm thinking about removing all of the java fern from the driftwood. Grow some other plants up next to the dw.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

I have several things I am now considering doing at this point. Feel free to let me know what you think, good or bad... I hate saying that as I've not really been contributing much to the forum lately. Stupid life... Hahaha... 

1. Rotate the driftwood loaded with A. nana/petite pretty much 180 degrees. 
This would mean that the tallest point of the driftwood would be against the back wall but the incline would left to right. This would then rely on the nana to cover the filter that is placed in the corner behind the wood. I think I can easily swap sides and specific plants around to cover the filter. I believe this covered look could easily be achieved with the plants I've got. Plus the top of the backside of this piece is pretty sweet, will look good with a bunch of petites This would then allow more light to reach the foreground plants, namely the Blyxa japonica I just planted in that front corner. I think flipping the driftwood would also defuse the strength of the water flow across the back of the tank. Currently the swords are leaning close to 45 degrees in the current. 
Here is the current lay out of that corner, plus a height comparison showing the filter behind the driftwood. 

































2. What do I put behind the Blyxa/directly in front of the tallest portion of the driftwood.
Currently there is a small row of Cryptocoryne beckettii. The row extends from the last 1/4 of the current driftwood base as far back to end against back glass behind the E cord. 'Tropica marble queen'. These Crypts. melted a while back after I removed a bunch out of the little grove. Ha. I may just wait to see how the grow. I was considering adding some C. nurii but I don't know if it'll get lost as the large radican starts to fill in. I don't have any great pictures of this area yet. Might be easier once I flip around the driftwood, if I do so.

3. Foreground. All of it...
I'm currently pleased with the Blyxa on the left side of the tank. I do have a bit of H. 'japan' planted in the spaces between a few plants.

The middle of the tank needs some work.
Here is how it looks after planting H. 'japan'. Not the best picture in the history of the world...









The portion between the Blyxa and the C. lucens is the main area I planted the Hydrocotyle. There is also some dwarf sag mixed in that area. This is the main section I'd like to add more foreground plants into the mix. I was thinking maybe some glosso, marsilea minuta & am definitely open to other suggestions. I don't have to have a uniform single species carpet, I want a nice lush mix. I want S. repens/49 but I'm not sure where to put a patch of it yet. 

The section of the foreground from the crypt over to the nana on the main piece of drift wood needs help. I think I might just add more of the 'lucens', or maybe divide the plants I've got and let them fill the area. The A. nana will get moved more onto the driftwood, I think. Or maybe I'll met the other foreground plants fill this area around the current crypt. Hmmmm......

4. The Java Fern on the main driftwood. As well as the right end of the tank.
Here's how it looks currently. 








I've already got a 5 gallon bucket 1/4 full of Java Fern I have pulled from the tank. 

I think I'm going to pull every last bit of it from this tank. Either leave the wood uncovered or I do have a small amount of a needle leaf trident JF I could begin to recover the driftwood. I could also put some Anubias on, if I wanted. This might let some of the crypts planted around that end of the driftwood begin to grow with vigor again. 









Talking about pulling the JF from the driftwood brings us the my last concern.... The very right end of the tank. The one that's got a few weak looking amazon swords... If I pull the java fern it fully exposes the fact that end looks like sh*t. The back of that corner has the other filter hidden in it. The filter is surrounded by a bunch of C. balansae. The very end of the driftwood has a few C. beckettii too. I need something tall enough in this corner to replace the amazon swords that will also help cover the stalks of the balansae and filter. I wouldn't even mind putting some plants that taper from shorter to taller, though there's not a ton of room... A little color might be nice. 

I know I will have to go back to some sort of fertilizer dosing schedule with these changes. Any input, thoughts, ideas, criticism, laughing, dude wtf's are all welcome!


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## Italionstallion888 (Jun 29, 2013)

Stargrass would fit what you are looking for. I love your tank. Can't wait to see it mature.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

I don't know how I feel. I think I can adjust a couple plants and fully cover the filter. 

Hmmmm........


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

So I've decided to sell all of the Java Fern out of this tank. I've still got some in other tanks, so it's still available to me down the road. I've stared at the Anubias covered driftwood long enough, now that it is flipped around, I've already got changes planned. Now I've figured out a couple simple adjustments in plant placements that will make the driftwood look better & hide the filter. Several of the petites will be removed and the reg nana will be spread out more. Plus a large nana going up the tall back edge of the wood along the glass. The petites that will be removed will go into specific crevices on the far end of the driftwood that it still covered with Java Fern at the moment. Just kind of thinking ahead!  Hopefully some one will be interested in my plant packages. That is a lot of plants for a decent price, at least that's what I think, that's why I decided to only do two packages, more for each person. Hopefully if I'm way off someone would let me know. I don't sell often, so I'm used to just figuring how much shipping is going to cost. Hahaha... 

I kinda think I want to add a Red Tiger Lotus into the tank in an undetermined location, give the tank some much needed color and taller height plants.... If the JF goes away I might also add some Hygro Brown. 

Thoughts!?


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

So I pulled all of the JF as I've got a couple people interested in the whole mass! Here is a quick snapshot of the tank afterwards!








Now I've got to figure out where I want to go from here! Thoughts?


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

Italionstallion888 said:


> Stargrass would fit what you are looking for. I love your tank. Can't wait to see it mature.


I can't say that I've ever looked into stargrass, at least off the top of my head. I will look into this more. 
Thanks for the compliment on the tank. So often I feel it needs so much work! Haha... But don't we all say that some times!


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## Italionstallion888 (Jun 29, 2013)

55s are not easy to scape. Not enough depth but I would never give mine up. Special place in my heart for them lol.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

Italionstallion888 said:


> 55s are not easy to scape. Not enough depth but I would never give mine up. Special place in my heart for them lol.


Yeah, wider tanks seem like they'd be easier to give a scape great depth! Sadly, I wouldn't know! I've got two 55s set up, a third on my front porch, a ten, two 20L & 20H.... All narrow tanks! I think a 6'x2' would be a fun footprint!! Maybe I'll put more thought into a 40B..... I still don't see the 55 going anywhere though! Hahaha....


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

So I switched around the Anubias as planned, I think rearranging the plants was a good idea. They just flow better now and let more light hit the Blyxa... I also moved the nana petites onto a portion of the main driftwood now that the Java Fern has been removed. Did a wc while I was at it. I like where this tank is headed. 









Here is a shot after I finished working on it today.

I've got a few specific areas I'm wanting to focus on as far as finding something to fill the space. I might be looking for a few plant suggestions as I progress!

I still need some more foreground plants for the over all mix. I'm thinking MM, plus...?? Maybe some sort of grassy looking micro sword? 

A big one is that I've gotta figure out what to do with the foreground space between the C. lucens the Nana that's attached to the driftwood from the front glass back the the driftwood. I feel like that's a nice chuck of usable space! 

It other main area is the right end from the driftwood over. I like the C. balansae but I feel like the amazon swords need to go. Doing this would leave a major hole on that side that could be filled by any multitude of plants. This area also needs taller plants as there's a filter in the back corner of the tank. 

I would definitely like to try something I haven't used much or at all before. I'm not totally opposed to stems but definitely do want a ton of them. Still so much I want to do to this tank! There aren't enough plants in the tank without the Java Fern covered dw, so I've gotta figure something so I can pack some more plants in!


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

I've got a bunch of Marsilea minuta on the way to add to the foreground area! 

I think I've decided to go with S. repens in the other foreground section, between the c. willisii x lucens and nana on the driftwood. Haven't made any purchases as of yet. 

I'm still unsure about the other areas yet. I still need some taller plants. Hmmmm......


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

*Johnson18's 55 Gallon Rescape in Process! (56k!)*

Well I've made some decisions on plants, the species at least! I've got a couple ideas where I'm going to place some plants. I would always love to hear the thoughts of others! Here is what is on the way:
Crypt parva x 2 - depending on how it looks will decide if this goes in the 20L to add to the carpet or goes emersed.
Ludwigua sp Rubin x 8
Echinodorus angustifolia 'vesuvius' x 6(more) - a couple of these will end up else where 
Hygrophila pinnatifida x 5
Hygrophila tiger x 3 
Limnophila aromatica x 6
Hygrophila brown x 10
Staurogyne repens x 10

I will momentarily add a pic of the current tank layout! 









You can see where I've got holes to fill. I know I don't have a lot of each species coming in, but I know it'll fill in over time. I've got some time before I have to worry about planting yet. I'm pretty sure that nothing will ship until after the holiday Monday. 
I am going to start at least one of each species emersed so I'll have an ability to add more that way too. In case I kill something... Haha.. I just want a wider variety of plants in my emersed set up!


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

So far everything seems to be doing fairly well with the recently planted plants. Almost all of the Anubias plants have at least one new leaf popping out, since they arrived. There has been a little bit of melting in the Echinodorus angustifolia 'vesuvius, but nothing too horrible. The Bacopa & H. Japan have both switched over to their submersed forms quickly and with ease. The shaded Bacopa has been a little slower in the growing of new submersed growth, but that's not a surprise. That is why I went with taller stems in the heavily shaded area to start with. Some of the H. Japan has started showing upward growth. When I add the rest of the plants later this week I will replant it closer to the substrate, probably end up adding some more from my emersed tank too.
The Bylxa is the only plant that appears unchanged, not sure if this is good, bad, indifferent. That's the joy of getting new plants, you get to learn their growth patterns! 

I forgot to mention that with portion of my order coming from Han, I've got a good sized Red Tiger Lotus. I plan to place this somewhere it will look crowded. If you look at the picture a few posts back, notice that there is a gap in the leaves of the large Anubias. I'm considering placing the RTL in that whole. Part of it would shade the driftwood, but that's ok, just a few A. bar. nana petite. Just a thought. I've always really liked the color and texture the RTL add to a tank but not always a fan of it being a main plant. I want it to kind of pop out of a sea of green plants. haha...

I plan to put the S. repens in the front center hole that is open to the right of the C. willisii 'lucens'


I'm still kicking around ideas for plant placement for the new plants arriving later this week. I would really love some feedback or any ideas for plant placement. I have two main areas that need to be filled. If you look at the drawing in the post above, you'll see the open space all the way to the right side of the tank as well as the area on the left side in front/next to the A. nana covered driftwood behind the Bylxa and the foreground plants.

The area all the way to the right I would like to create either a grouped, step tiered or row look with some of the stems I have. Any thoughts of ideas? Not sure if I want to use the Hygro. pinnatifida in this spot or to place it in the very back of the other spot up next to the driftwood against the back wall.
Or maybe I should put the Hygro. Brown in the back by the driftwood. Then use one of the contrasting stems(maybe the Hygro Tiger or Limnophila aromatica?) shorter in the forward section of this space. Thoughts? Suggestions? Help?


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

Got in most of the new plants today. The package of MM did not show up, the USPS site doesn't show a local scan but it still says delivery today. Who knows, maybe my post man will drop it off later or it might be tomorrow. Whatever, either way. Haha.

I'll try to figure out the rest of the plants tonight. I'm sure there will be pictures of everything tonight!


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

Plants on plants on plants!


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

So after 6 days with the usps the MM arrived... Quick look appeared to be fine. I'll know more when I get a chance to plant it tonight!


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

So I spent quite a while tonight planting M. minuta! I had to toss maybe a fifth of the mm that was shipped. Stupid usps. It's all good, I had a huge amount to start with! 

I had to replant a couple stems that had floated up the last couple days. Overall the tank is looking better. I think I like how the current layout is looking. It just needs time to grow now. Some of the stems will need to trimmed and replanted to get a thicker look and feel. 

I will try to get some pictures taken tonight.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

So I know these are horrible pictures..... I had just finished filling the tank after I finished up working on it for the night. This will give you an idea what it's looking like. I will get some better shots tomorrow after everything has had a chance to settle down. 

FTS








Right








Middle
















Left









Let me know what you think!


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

So I've noticed just in the last day or two that a couple plants are getting algae on them. It looks like staghorn. I am going to do a water change today, to try and clean up more of the mess I've been making lately. I've been thinking about adding a power head to add more flow. I think I need better water circulation.


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## Italionstallion888 (Jun 29, 2013)

Which power head are you going to go with? I've been looking at them for my tank as well. I'm unsure which one I want to go with. I have a few dead spots on the left side of the tank. Tank is looking great!


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

I've got one of the 500gph aqueon circulation pumps that I will probably use.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

So, I've been looking at where I should put the circulation pump to get rid of any mulm accumulation and best ensure there are no dead spots. Unfortunately I believe the best spot for it is going to be on the front glass, about a foot in from the right side of the tank. Maybe 3/4 the way to the top, pointing to the left and slightly toward the substrate. 

In other words, right in the middle of the damn view! 

Oh well... I guess it is about what is best for the tank... haha...

Any thoughts? You can see across the front of the tank where the mulm is in the last set of pictures.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

The flow in the tank looks something like this.









The orange is along the back of the tank.

The red comes from the back into the front top corner and then across the top of the front.


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## Italionstallion888 (Jun 29, 2013)

I'm having the same issues. Guess it just comes with having a 55g. Part of the reason I have not put an extra pump on yet. I don't want a big ugly thing blocking the wonderful view. I've kicked around the idea of a second smaller cannister (eheim classic) on a spray bar hidding along the back. I know the pumps are cheaper than the canniserts but it seems like the better alternative.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

Italionstallion888 said:


> I'm having the same issues. Guess it just comes with having a 55g. Part of the reason I have not put an extra pump on yet. I don't want a big ugly thing blocking the wonderful view. I've kicked around the idea of a second smaller cannister (eheim classic) on a spray bar hidding along the back. I know the pumps are cheaper than the canniserts but it seems like the better alternative.


I tried to fix the issue when I upgraded to the duel Fluval U series filters. I've negated a lot of the flow in the way I have arranged the driftwood to hide them. Whoops. Haha... I don't have the funds to put in any other filters at the moment.


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## Italionstallion888 (Jun 29, 2013)

I did the same thing, placement of my driftwood is creating a lot of dead zones. 

Great scape or flow

it's a toss up


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

I think this initial waiting period for growth to really get going after a big rescape is the worst part of the whole hobby. Hahaha... Seriously though, I just wanna see what this looks like after a month of growing.  Keeping my hands out of it until then is gonna be tough. Ha.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

Here is what the tank looked like last night just prior to lights out.










I noticed just after the picture was taken that the largest stem of H. pinnatifida had come up and floated into the stems next to it.

I know in time the background will be fill in, but I'm considering moving the H. brown to the opposite side to try and fill the large open space that will eventually be filled by sword and the L. Rubin and H. pinnatifida. 

Thoughts, ideas, suggestions, constructive criticism?!? Let me know! I wouldn't mind knowing what others think!


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## mihnata (Aug 1, 2012)

I love this tank as is. It looks like something I was picturing for my tank to be. 

Uhm.. maybe some more red plants somewhere in the right corner?


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

mihnata said:


> I love this tank as is. It looks like something I was picturing for my tank to be.
> 
> Uhm.. maybe some more red plants somewhere in the right corner?


Thanks! The right side currently has some hidden red! Just at the base of the right end of the drift wood is a Red Tiger Lotus. At the moment it's got a half dozen or more quarter/half dollar sized leaves. Hopefully it adapts to being in this tank quickly and starts getting bigger. 

The center of the tank has Ludwigia sp. 'Rubin' that had just started to grow.


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## mihnata (Aug 1, 2012)

Any updates?


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

mihnata said:


> Any updates?


I'll try to get some pictures soon...Haha. 

The tank currently needs a little trim and replant. I separated and replanted some of the Blyxa about a week ago. The Hygrophila pinnatifida & Hygrophila tiger have been growing slow but steady. I've just started noticing some pin hole signs of nutrient deficiencies on the H. pinnatifida,ok so I will start dosing a light ei schedule. The H. Pinnatifida also needs a trim. One of the larger original stems was planted at a low angle to the substrate, as you would do in an emersed system. Now it's got several nice side stems. I'm going to cut it up into smaller pieces to fill a larger area. 

The Limnophila aromatica, Hygrophila brown & Staurogyne repens all never seemed to adapt to the tank. I pulled them out and stuck them into my 20L before they totally melted and they have been doing well there. I just did a nice trim and replanted everything in the 20L in hopes of increasing my supply of these species. I'd like to add some back into this tank soon. There are still a couple small H. brown stems in the 55 but only a couple. 

The rest of the tank is just trucking along. All of the Anubias are doing well. Plenty of new leaves to go around. The MM is filling in too. I've been thinking of trying to add some more in the area I'd put the S. repens at first. 

I'll make sure I get new pictures up this week! School and planning the bully walk have been keeping me super busy lately.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

Here is a pic I just snapped. Not anywhere near a good photo. It'll at least give you a little idea of the tanks current look.


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## HybridHerp (May 24, 2012)

pic isn't working


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

HybridHerp said:


> pic isn't working


Still having this problem? Anyone else having a problem with pics? Every way(web browser-laptop & mobile & two tapatalk versions) I've checked this thread the pics work.


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## HybridHerp (May 24, 2012)

works now


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

Cool, thanks.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

Anyone wanna share their input on the current happenings of this tank?


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

So I've had this pb co2 system sitting around for quite some time. Finally got a co2 canister. There is a paintball place not far from my house. I'm gonna ride over tomorrow to get some co2! Gonna go ahead and put the co2 on this tank. I'm not trying to pump it as full of co2 as possible. I would just like to add a small amount of co2 in. Not trying to go high tech or high light, just trying to improve my current set up a little.


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## Italionstallion888 (Jun 29, 2013)

I've had great results keeping my co2 levels at 15ppm using a diy set up. Can't wait to see your plants expode with growth.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

Italionstallion888 said:


> I've had great results keeping my co2 levels at 15ppm using a diy set up. Can't wait to see your plants expode with growth.


I'm hopeful that the plants will begin to show some nice with the added co2. I've recently started using excel in the tank with a light ei dosing schedule with positive results. So I plan on cutting back the excel and continuing to tweak the fertilizer dosing to suit the plants.

I would like to be able to add some of the stems back in that didn't like the super low tech. I still want to fill the area in front of the driftwood with S. repens as tried a couple months ago.


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## tattooedfool83 (Mar 15, 2013)

Ive had luck with s repens in low tech that i transfered from my emersed tank. It grew great in a 20h i had with just a 10.5" dome light and cfl bulb, its grown even better in my 20long with a single t5ho over it. i dose that light ei as well. micros one day macros the next. Im actually gonna be yanking most of it to transtion to my tank in my office im setting up this weekend. so long as my light gets here tomorrow. I think your tank looks great either man. the co2 will def give a nive boost to growth, but then the adjustment to ferts is necessary. as always i love your tanks


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

I think the s. repens melted due to stress from shipping, never even had a chance to recover and adjust to the new environment. If I remember correctly it had an extended stay with the usps as have all of my packages lately. I've got one small stem growing in my emersed 55. Hopefully it's growing well enough to move a couple stems over to this tank in a month or so. Hahaha! The few stems I stuck in my 20L were tiny. They haven't died but haven't grown. Even after a couple months.


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## tattooedfool83 (Mar 15, 2013)

I bought a bag from petsmart or petco which ever one i cant remember. i split the bag in 2, half in a 20high submerged and half in my emersed tank. ive cut the repens down to almost the dirt twice and it grows back super quick. then i stick it into my submerged tank and it roots and grows.


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## tattooedfool83 (Mar 15, 2013)

Here is some of it. I actually recently chopped the emersed down again and what I chopped I left uncovered by accident for a night and it wasn't salvageable


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

Nice! I always forget the box stores carry it! lol. I was just diggin in my emersed 55 and the S. repens I've got in there has been growing nicely. Didn't get a picture. I trimmed some Hydrocotyle tripartita out and pulled a small C. pontederiifolia to plant in this tank! 










Now it's time to trim and replant this tank, add a few plants, plus add some new root tabs!


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

*Johnson18's 55 Gallon!*

You know when you trim the tank and feel like you've hacked it all to hell? hahaha.... Yeah, that's the trim I just did. 

All of the Hydro. tripartita that was in the tank got cut down to just a couple inches tall. The bottom was left in place, the tops were cut into pieces about the same length as the bottoms and replanted. I added a bunch from my emersed tank too. The look of the mixed carpet is killing me at this point. It just looks like trash. While the MM is seeing some decent growth, it hasn't really begun to spread. This combined with the messy hydro, just isn't cutting it. The dwarf sag that has been in this tank for quite a while has recently exploded, leaving the whole area even more confused. I still think that the mixed carpet will look good in time. The plants all need time to fill in and spread.

The Hydro. leucocephala in the front right corner was treated in a similar fashion as the other Hydro. species. 

I added the C. pontederiifolia into the right corner, just in front of the filter. 

Separated several of the Blyxa japonica stems and replanted. I probably could have done this to a couple more, but I decided against it. 

I topped and replanted the Bacopa. Trimmed the Ludwigia sp. Rubin and Hygro pinnatifida and replanted in a way that will propagate more of these two plants. 

With the exception of the Bacopa bottoms, pretty much everything got replanted into the tank in hopes of creating a more full feel. hahaha.... that's still a good way in the future, I think. I'm excited to see the difference a little co2 makes. 

I've got some post trim pictures on my phone. I will add them to this momentarily, unless I get distracted, in which case they'll be added tomorrow. haha.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

Here are a couple shots. No full tank as it's in need of a top off. I'll probably just add it to the wc on Sunday. Ha.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

Paintball co2 has been filled, installed and is now running! wooo! I was gonna take a ride over the the LFS to look for some corys but I might hold off a few weeks to see how the fish I've got in the tank do with the co2. IDK though... it's pretty tempting.


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## tattooedfool83 (Mar 15, 2013)

S repens. Single 24" t5ho over a 20long I dose micros one day and macros the next. That's it


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

tattooedfool83 said:


> S repens. Single 24" t5ho over a 20long I dose micros one day and macros the next. That's it


Awesome! I will definitely be adding some more S. repens into this tank. I have been dosing micros & macros in a similar manner. 

Currently have a dual 48" t5ho on this tank, with some basic Corallife bulbs(6700K & 10,000K) that are close to two years old(at least, some are closer to three...crypt tank...). I have been thinking about replacing all of my t5ho bulbs towards the end of this month. I've got 2x48", 30" & 24" t5ho dual lamps around the house. My current thought is to go with the Giesemann bulbs split between one Midday and one Aquaflora for each fixture. I think those are the correct names, if not don't worry, I'll double check prior to purchase. I've seen the Giesemann bulbs are highly recommended within this community. I've also seen a GE bulb that has been highly regarded. I really need to do some more reading on the differences between these bulb brands. I'll probably share this light info in all of my journals as the purchase will change them all.


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## tattooedfool83 (Mar 15, 2013)

Yeah I would love to see about the light info


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

This co2 system is rather disappointing. I've taken it apart several time to add more/redo Teflon tape as the on/off valve leaks worse than a colander. I didn't have super high expectations as I've read all about the hassles of pb co2. But Damn! For $70 it should at least semi-function for more than a day. It's running right now but I think it's leaking as much co2 out as it is sending into the tank. 

I will continue to tinker with this but not for long. Unfortunately I purchased it probably 6 months ago or more and haven't taken it out of the box until the last few days. Can't really complain to the seller at this point. lol.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

So it came as no surprise that the co2 was empty by lights out last night. I'll mess with everything this week and try again next weekend. Lol... The paintball places are only open on the weekends...


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## tattooedfool83 (Mar 15, 2013)

Did u take the regulator apart and Teflon tape everything with threads?


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

tattooedfool83 said:


> Did u take the regulator apart and Teflon tape everything with threads?


Yeah, I taped everything fairly well. I took it apart and retaped everything a couple times while trying to get it to stop leaking. I'd like to build a decent co2 system over the next several months as I get a little extra cash. I would love it if I could get this thing functioning and keep it that way long enough to build one. If not, I will probably just set the co2 aside until after I move. Then figure out what I wanna do. 

For now, it's back to excel.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

Went to turn on the light this morning and got nothing. ugh. I'm going to rotate the lighting schedule of this tank so I can move lights from tank to tank for now. I'll try switching bulbs around to see if the problem is ballast or bulbs. The fixture is a 48" Coralife dual t5ho that I got in mid 2011, the bulbs haven;t been replaced since Dec. '11. I was planning on ordering new bulbs for all of my lights next week, prior to this happening. I hope the whole fixture isn't shot. I need to look around to see what sort of experiences others have had.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

*Johnson18's 55 Gallon!*

Holy Fish Batman! By that I mean, I finally added some more fish to this tank! I just got home from the LFS with 7 nice looking little julii corys. They are floating right now. I also grabbed a couple mystery snails. I'm pretty excited about these corys, I've been wanting to add some for a while I just haven't seen any good looking fish. 










I also hit petsmart while I was on that side of town and picked up a package of Staurogyne repens. I dug through the packages and picked the best looking pack. They obviously don't rotate stock as they get them in, the ones in the back had some impressive growth but also a good amount of dead leaves. I chose a package from the middle, one showing nice growth but had not been there long enough to start experiencing melting.

I would love some input on location for the S. repens! The available spots are either in front of the driftwood, where I originally planted some. OR on the left hand side of the tank where the Blyxa japonica has been. I've been really struggling to keep the Blyxa planted in my flourite/gravel mixture substrate. It seems to be growing ok, but I'm replanting a large portion of it DAILY! I'm tempted to pull the Blyxa and move it all to my 20L, where is stays in the substrate with no probs. Thoughts?

I've currently got a 10000K and Actinic bulb running on this tank after the lighting fiasco I've had over the last week. I am waiting for a check in the next few days and will then be ordering new bulbs for all of my lights.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

*Johnson18's 55 Gallon! New Fish 2/20!*

Due to the lighting issues I've had, some of the stem plants have totally melted: H. pinnatifida, L. sp. Rubin & 1 of my 3 stems of H. tiger. They looked like they would be alright and within a single day they became mush stuck on other plants in the tank. I can't seem to catch a break. hahaha...

I decided I would go ahead and fill those spots. So I pulled eight Crypt. nurii plants of various sizes out of one of my emersed pots and planted them in this tank. I trimmed the smallest of the leaves. I will probably have to trim a couple more over the next few days. I went with nurii because I wanted to add a little more height to the plants in the back and side in front of the anubias covered driftwood. Plus I pulled 8 plants out of a single pot and didn't even touch the largest plants in the pot, really I pulled less than 1/3 of the plants. I've got 3 pots of nurii like that & two more that are mostly smaller nurii. 










I planted a bunch of the S. repens in front of the main DW & another smaller patch all the way to the left front corner. I planted a pot with it in my emersed tank. Pretty much everywhere I was thinking about earlier. 



















The Corys are in the tank now. I love the new movement and activity in the tank already!


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## Italionstallion888 (Jun 29, 2013)

I had the same light set up on my tank. I removed both the 10k and actinic and put in 2 coralife 6500k on 6 hours photo period. Much better growth.

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

Italionstallion888 said:


> I had the same light set up on my tank. I removed both the 10k and actinic and put in 2 coralife 6500k on 6 hours photo period. Much better growth.
> 
> Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk


That's part of the lighting issues I mentioned. I've had bulbs burn out and fixtures stop working so I'm running what I've got and can get to function at this point. I have been running 6700k/10000k bulb combos in my t5ho fixtures for the last couple years with nice results. 

I'm planning on ordering Geisemann bulbs over the weekend to replace the bulbs in all of my t5ho fixtures. I'm planning to use a Midday & Aquaflora bulb in each fixture.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

Giesemann bulbs have been installed. I like them, we'll see how the plants like them. 

All of the C. nurii plants have at least one, in most cases two new leaves(some three!!) on them since being planted. 

I ordered Anubias nana 'Snow White' & 'Stardust' neither one made the trip. The white is definitely a goner. I stuck the melted plants in here anyway, I highly doubt either will survive. There was very, very little non-mushy rhizome left.  

Got three different Bucephalandra varieties in today. Loaded the main driftwood up! Mini Catherine, 'Purple' & sp. Sokan 'shine blue', several of each! I'll try to get some good pictures tomorrow. 

I'm having a real problem keeping my water clean & clear of decaying plant matter and such. It seems the dead spot in my tank is front and center where all the MM and other foreground plants are planted. :/ I'm going to try to see if I can clear things up with a circulation pump. Every time I've used one in this tank it seems like it's way too much flow. I'd really like to upgrade my filter to one of the Eheim canisters.


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## tattooedfool83 (Mar 15, 2013)

Hey man ive read if you put goner plants like that on a bed of sphagnum moss that you can bring it back. Give it a try as those are expensive plants. They have to be emersed but at least that will get them going


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

*Johnson18's 55 Gallon! New Fish 2/20!*



tattooedfool83 said:


> Hey man ive read if you put goner plants like that on a bed of sphagnum moss that you can bring it back. Give it a try as those are expensive plants. They have to be emersed but at least that will get them going



I'll give it a try though there really isn't sh*t left. Fortunately the seller is being super awesome and reshipping some more. No 'Snow White' though, I got the last little bit of it. We've subbed a nice big portion of Bucephalandra Bukit Kelam Dark Green instead for the white.


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## tattooedfool83 (Mar 15, 2013)

Nice. Give the sphagnum a try and see if u can get it to come back


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

I am thinking about replacing the substrate in this tank upon arriving in Arizona. I'm torn on what to use. Currently I have 60lbs of aquarium gravel and 15lbs of Red Flourite. Thanks the the LFS guys saying, oh you dont really need much of that stuff to grow plants & me being uneducated enough to believe them... So now, three years later it is time for an upgrade. I would like to keep this tank low/medium tech. I don't think it'll really ever be considered true low tech as I'm running a t5ho fixture with a Giesemann Midday/Aquaflora bulb combo. Hahahaha....

I don't want to spend a huge amount on new substrate, so things like Amazonia are definitely out of the picture. I definitely want something that will help promote healthy plant growth, especially the root feeders.

I guess the feasible options are: dirt/MGOPM with a cap, all flourite, a combo of MG & flourite then capped... or....?

I would like to avoid going with totally inert substrates, though a high CEC would be nice.

I'm almost considering doing a layered MG, flourite, clay(not necessarily in that order) then capped substrate. Thoughts? Experiences? Suggestions?

Any idea one the quantity I'd need? I will have to set this up almost immediately after arriving in AZ in order to not lose a ton of plants. 

If I do something that needs to be capped, it will almost certainly get Black Diamond, just not a huge fan of the light colored sand.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

It's got some algae but here's the Anubias barteri var. barteri I just pulled out of my 55 as I'm tearing it down to move. This plant is about two feet long.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

Riccia covering half of this tank. This shows the Hydrocotyle sp. 'Japan' that had come up during a water change and took over! Hahaha....


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

*Johnson18's 55 Gallon! New Fish 2/20!*

Stands in it's new home in az, tanks cleaned and empty! Bought a couple 32qt bags of mgopm, don't plan on using them both in this tank. My 20L riparium will also be set up as a dirt tank. I am planning on mixing in some black fluorite and capping it with some black diamond. 

I think I'm only going to pick through the mg and pick out any large things. 

Anyone wanna give any tips to a first time dirt person?


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

Everything is up and running. I like the look of the black substrate SOOOO much better! I was quite surprised by how little MGOCPM I really needed to use. Once mixed with the flourite, I tried to keep the entire layer to 1". I ran out of BD sand, so the very top is the mix of black diamond and black florite that I had been using in the 20L.

I didn't really change the layout as far as the driftwood goes. 

I did move some plants around but not a ton. I don't think I put any C. wendtii back into this tank, instead replacing it all with C. nurii & beckettii. I also moved the C. affinis "Metallic Red" into a more prominent position. 

Not much of the MM survived the trip so I planted what I could and I am hoping that it will do well in the new substrate. I was amazed at the amount the dwarf sag. had spread when I was pulling it out, guess it finally had reached it's happy point. I will also be adding in some more Hydrocotyle sp. 'Japan' as I didn't add as much as I think I needed, but I spread what I had to more areas of the tank. 

Overall I'm pleased with the new look. It will take a bit to grow in, as usual, but I think I will enjoy how it looks. This tank is now in the living room of my new home so I hope it will provide a nice green pop to the room. 

I will add a couple photos off my phone in a bit. If this is still here when you read it, please check back for the pictures!


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## tattooedfool83 (Mar 15, 2013)

Waiting for pics. Glad the move went well


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

*Johnson18's 55 Gallon II-Gettin Dirty*



tattooedfool83 said:


> Waiting for pics. Glad the move went well



Thanks! Whoops, totally forgot to grab my phone & upload the pictures! Trying to do 27 things at once in order to get unpacked and settled in quickly! 

So these pictures are all with the 36" BML fixture that is usually over my 20L riparium. The light I usually put on this tank got stuck in my closet and I haven't pulled it out yet, only the other t5 that's been having ballast issues... 





































I've got 4 different types of Bucephalandra on here along with the A. barteri var. nana petites. 









The large A. barteri var. barteri that I pulled from this tank got cut into multiple plants. There are two smaller pieces placed behind the main driftwood. They are placed so that they will grow in opposite directions down the back out the tank.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

The front glass obviously needs to be cleaned, both inside and out!


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

I went through and cleaned up the tank tonight. I finally got all of the water marks off the glass, trimmed out the little bit of dying/dead plant life. Pretty much everything is already growing, most notably the Bucephalandra have all started growing better than they have in the past. I would think that within the next few weeks things will really start to take off. I'm running a 4-5 hour photo period, & have not been dosing anything. Added in the few fish I brought with me that survived the trip today, all three of them. I didn't think about pictures until I'd already shut the lights off. I'll try to get some tomorrow.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

I think most of the plants are growing well. I think many of the heavy root feeders are finally adjusted and into the mg. This was just a few minutes ago just before lights out.


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## umarnasir335 (Mar 2, 2014)

Wow! The anubias on the left recovered dramatically - lots of new growth


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

*Johnson18's 55 Gallon II-Gettin Dirty*

Haha... There is a decent size A. B. 'nana' in the corner on top of the filter. It's the plant that is floating top right in the fts above. Most of Anubias has been doing very well. Same goes for the Bucephalandra, which were some of the first plants to put out new leaves after the trip. I'll try to get a close up of the Anubias in the corner that will show the added plant.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

The Anubis 'Stardust' has started putting out new growth in two different directions!  I don't plan on splitting it anytime soon though, just pleased to see it recovering!


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

*Johnson18's 55 Gallon II-Gettin Dirty*

This tank has been doing quite well. I'm pleased with the new growth. It needs a WC to removed some of the tannins, but I don't think it'll happen for another week or so. I have been getting a small amount of green dust algae on the glass, but very little. The amount you see in the picture is a little over 3 weeks worth of build up. The hydrocotyle is going to need trimming and replanting soon. The dwarf sag has started taking off. The spread was slow at first but it is picking up rapidly. Same with the MM! I'm really glad to see how well everything is doing in the new substrate. I'm still just running about 4.5 hours of light a day. No ferts, No co2 or excel. I think I would probably get a bit more growth out of everything if I were to dose excel and bump up the photo period, but I like this whole low maintenance aspect!



I think I'm going to have to replace my filters sooner rather than later. Probably gonna go with an eheim canister. Any suggestions on size 2215 or 2217?


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

Just picked up 11 Black neon tetras to go with the one lonely fish. Also got two Otos, gonna go back next week and pick up several more.


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## kwheeler91 (May 26, 2009)

More filtration is better in my book. Once you get plants filling up the tank flow gets diffused rather quickly and you can always alter the outflow to get the desired current level.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

I spent a few hours working on this tank tonight. Did a little trim of the Hydrocotyle, cut them all down short, diced the tops and replanted them. Just trying to get a thicker overall look as it continues to fill in. I will probably add a bit more out of my emersed tank the next time I feel like working. Probably won't be for several days as I ended up with a pretty sore back after messing around this evening.

What I spent most of my time on was planting an entire package of Staurogyne repens I picked up from Petsmart. Somewhere between 30 & 40 individual stems! I have a few stems already in this tank but they were mostly dead from the move when planted & have been extremely slow to recover. I pulled apart all of the stems in the package, cleaned them off and stripped the lower leaves. If I had to guess I would think that 85% of the stems were planted with their bottom roots in the miracle grow. I'm hoping this well help them adjust and take off quickly! This will fill in one of the last wholes in the tank! The S. repens went into the open area in front of the driftwood. I tried to fill the entire area between the crypts on either side of this picture & from the front glass back to the driftwood. 











On a side note..... I sent an email this evening about a 120 gallon tank that's listed on Craigslist!


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

*Johnson18's 55 Gallon II-Gettin Dirty*

So over the last 5-6 days I've lost 6 of the tetras.  I'm not sure why. The fish all look healthy, no signs of disease. They have shown up dead one every day or so, sometimes two per day mostly just one. I tested the tank this evening & all seems well. pH is higher than it was in SC, 7.4 but that's to be expected with the liquid rock that is az water. Ammonia is 0 as are nitrite & nitrate. Phosphate is about 3. My kh test is old, I didn't test it. Don't have a gh test. All tests were done using the API tests. I'm going to do a WC tomorrow. I'll use ro water, which here isn't totally pure to see if I can lower the pH a bit. 

Anyone have any ideas? Suggestions? Want further info? Help?

The otos have been just fine. Getting fat & happy.

Plants have been growing well!


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## Italionstallion888 (Jun 29, 2013)

I've been having frequent tetra deaths as well. Ive gathered from testing there is a quick 3 or 4 degree temp change from when my lights come on. I raised the lights a bit to take some heat off and gave them some taller plants to hide under.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

I've never had a issue with temp spike/drop on either side of lights on/off, even when I was running two dual t5ho fixtures 12+ hours a day. I'll watch it more closely over the next few days to see what the temp does. I suppose any fluctuation could seem more drastic since I'm only running 5 hours of light per day. If the light is causing the tank to heat up, it's not staying hot as long which could be make any temp swing seem more drastic. 

I ordered a new filter today, an Eheim 2215. Also got some purigen on the way too. I plan on removing one of my current filters once the 2215 has had time to cycle & build up some beneficial bacteria. Use the remaining filter to add some more water circulation & a little extra filtration.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

*Johnson18's 55 Gallon II-Gettin Dirty*










Here's a shot of my Anubias barteri var nana 'stardust'! The crappy looking leaf is the only one left from prior to the move. As you can see it's got two sections growing. The new leaves are continually increasing in size. Nice to see that it has adjusted to the new spot and is back to growing.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

The new filter just arrived. 








Everything looks great & I'm quite excited to get it installed. Due to the where the power strip is the filter will probably live on the right side of the tank when facing it. I need to go through and look at what will be the best as far as placement goes for the intake and spray bar. I think the current filter, that is staying will be in the back left corner of the tank, behind the tall Anubias covered dw. 

Anyone have any thoughts or suggestions as to what locations create the best flow in a 55? Last time I had a canister filter on a tank it was a 29 many(12-16?) years ago. I'm definitely open for suggestions! 

I've gotta run get a media bag to put the purigen in. Any suggestions on where place the purigen within the filter? Top? Bottom? Middle? I'm sure I can find it searching through the forums but my internet here is slow as hell & I've been blasting through data on my phone at an insane rate. LOL!!


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Dog's going "whats this? doesn't look like a toy or food :c" btw glad to see an owner that keeps up on toenail clipping their dog! 
I can't offer advice from experience on canister since mine is hooked up to an aquaponic system then is just spills straight down into the tank. I'm thinking of adding a diy baffle (or be lazy and slap an elbow on the end) to push the flow across the tank though to try to push all the pleco poo towards the intakes since right now its just straight down, great for aeration.. but not much flow (got a new filter for my 55 too.. it has 2 intakes I put on the opposite side of the tank from the output).
(from past reading..) I think most set up outflow either on the back wall at the opposite side of long tanks and have it push to the front of the tank and over to the intake side... or will set it up on the opposite side's side wall and just do spray bar straight across... from what I recall people use different methods depending on what scape/plants are in the way of affecting the flow.
When I looked into purgerion as an option a while back many people said it did not matter where in the filter you put it as long as its got flowing water going over it.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

*Johnson18's 55 Gallon II-Gettin Dirty*

Haha, he was definitely interested in everything, always is! Oh yeah, all three of my dogs get regular nail maintenance! Although it's been much easier since the move. There's no grass, so everything they walk on is hard, like rock, cement, kool decking, it all helps keep their nails short. 

I'd probably go for the elbow if I were you, but that's just personal choice!

I got the filter installed, I haven't figured out the end layout of the system. I want to play with a few different options. Overall, I like how the tank is looking. Most everything is growing well. I've gotta figure out something different for the back left side of the tank, next to the Anubias covered driftwood. I've got a couple marbled queen radican swords there that seem to want to stay low to the substrate. I don't think they like the low tech environment. I think I will pull them out and stick them in an emersed tank and find something else for that spot. There is also a C. affinis "Metallic Red" growing right in front of the swords. I think it was being shaded too much by the larger swords when I first planted the tank. I recently trimmed the sword leaves back some and the affinis has started growing more. I would like something in that spot that will grow taller but also add another color to the sea of greens. I'm probably going to take a look through my Cryptocoryne collection and see if there is anything that would work well to fill the spot, if not I will look around. If I do go with a Crypt I want something with a little different color and texture than the other plants in the area, probably something with heavily bullated leaves. I've not already got anything specific in mind. The right side of the tank has a nice patch of C. nurii that has been doing well. It's starting to get a little bigger. There is also, at the base of the right end of the driftwood, two Red Tiger Lotus plants. They are still fairly small but I doubt that will last a whole lot longer. When these plants get larger the tank won't seem like such a sea of green, which has been kind of bugging me lately. lol. 










Here's a picture I took last night. It's overexposed but it's the best I've been able to do so far with my iPhone. I spoke to my dad this morning, who has been a hobbyist photographer for 40+ years(I grew up with a dark room set up in the bedroom next to mine!) he is going to help me get some better shots of the tank tonight. We will bust out the tripod and a real camera and see what we can do. Might try for some shots of the 20L too!


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

The growth of this tank has been incredible. It looks nothing like the above picture. I've had a little bit of an algae problem. I think I will have to split the photo-period, which is still only 4.5 hours. The water changes probably need to occur more often as well. Been pretty hard to do that with the back issues I've been dealing with. I see the surgeon to schedule a date for surgery this Friday. There's a little more about that in the 20L journal.


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## tattooedfool83 (Mar 15, 2013)

Any pics man?


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

Here's a crappy one from about a month ago. You can see some of the algae in it. Most has been removed by hand since then. I think I might have some time to clean it up some this weekend and do a WC. I'll try to get some new pictures!


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## tattooedfool83 (Mar 15, 2013)

[censored][censored][censored][censored] man looks so green and lush


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

*Johnson18's 55 Gallon II-Gettin Dirty*

There's been a lot of growth since this picture. The Aponogeton in the middle has close to doubled in size. It's also got a shoot growing babies. A lot of other growth too. Like I said, I haven't had much time to pay attention to the tank, unfortunately. It's still only got a couple otos, like two black neon tetras and two clown plecos as it's inhabitants. I've would really like to add some more life to the tank. I've really been thinking about Rainbows lately. No, not just because of the article in the most recent edition of Amazonas, though it has made me think about adding them even more. My largest concern though is the amount of time I've had to do maintenance since school started. No point in adding more fish if I'm not gonna be able to keep up with the maintenance.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

I'm finally going to get a little bit of time to focus on my tanks. This tank has seen months of neglect. I struggled with huge quantities of algae for months, it covered everything. I think it was a combo of unable to do water changes as often as it needed and the use of way too many root tabs with the brand new soil. even though I was getting some fantastic plant growth the amount of nutrients in the water was too high.

Unfortunately, I was unable to actually do much about it. I've got a bunch of back problems, so spending a lot of time bent over into the tank wasn't an option. I finally just shut off the lights, and left them off for about the last five months. Much of my house is windows, so the tank received some residual light but nothing else. The algae died along with a lot of the plants. I didn't originally set out to leave the lights off that long, but this fall semester kicked my ass. I was pretty much only home long enough on a daily basis, to sleep a little, shower and leave again. I finished my semester Friday, I spent several hours working on the tank Saturday but had to take a couple extra pain pills in order to do so.

I siphoned out more than 50% of the water, along with much of the degraded plant/algae material. I manually removed as much crap as possible. The tank looks better but still not decent. I plan on doing a water change at least weekly for the next month & sucking up as much junk as I can with it. I discovered part of the issue was that the filter out flow hose was kinked which reduced the flow to almost nothing. I have fixed that issue, hopefully in a permanent manner.

I added a few bunches of NL Java Fern & Windelov from the local petsmart. There are some remaining dwarf sag plants that I'm hoping will repopulate a new carpet. I also trimmed a bunch of the Hydrocotyle sp. 'Japan' out of one of my emersed tanks, and planted in as a carpet which should spread well.

I guess it shouldn't be much of a surprise that the Crypts are pretty much all still there, though their growth has been limited. I have no doubts that they will quickly rebound with fresh water and the return of light. From my last picture of this tank, the amount of Anubias has at least doubled! Most of the Buce. is also still around with stunted growth. 

The lights are currently set on a three hour photoperiod. I will see how that goes and adjust from there. 

Trust me, you don't want to see a picture. I will update with one soon though.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

I've done a bunch of work to this tank over the last month. A couple different deep cleanings. Added a bunch of new plants into it. There is still mulm on the substrate in places, which I've been unable to suck out during water changes. There's also a bit of hair/stringy algae in places. Most of it it left from when the tank was neglected & on slow growing plants like anubias. It seems to be slowly going away though. 

Most recently (Monday) I removed the two pos fluval submersible filters that I'd been meaning to take out forever. I also replaced the Eheim 2215 with a new 2217. The 2215 got moved over to the 20L. I took about half of the media from the 2215 & swapped it for new media, placing the removed media into the 2217. I expected the tank to have some sort of cycle but I don't see much evidence of that after two days. 
I tested the water today. The results are as follows:
pH 7.4ish
Ammonia 0ppm
Nitrite 0ppm
Nitrate 0ppm
Phosphate <0.5ppm 
KH 6 drops ~107.4ppm
GH 5 drops ~89.5ppm
TDS is 158
I use ro water on the tank but this is Tucson, we've got liquid rock for water. Super high pH here too, the tap water is crazy. 

I think I mostly just want to toss some red cherry shrimp & ember tetras in the tank. 

Here is a picture from almost two weeks ago. The plants have been growing great since then. 











Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

After a trip to ANA & a nice convo with Ben, I added 15 nice looking Red Cherry Shrimp to the tank this evening. I will be grabbing a few Amanos next week when he gets some more in. My current plan is to order more shrimp from one of the members here this week. This will let me get a little diversity into the gene pool. I'm thinking that I'll probably order some PFR shrimp. I don't plan on adding the ember tetras for a month or so to really let the shrimp colony get established. I've never successfully kept shrimp so any advice or tips would be welcome! 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

Today I picked up two of the spotted nerite snails, and three horned. The spotted ones are about a half inch in diameter, I put one of them into my 20L. The horned are the smallest nerites I've ever seen! They might be a quarter of an inch, but that's probably on the large side! I placed all three into this tank. Twenty minutes after adding them I could only find one in the area I originally placed them. I located one like halfway across the tank!

All of the shrimp I added yesterday are looking happy and healthy today. I went ahead and ordered 25 PFRs from a forum member!! I'm looking forward to getting them into this tank. When these shrimp arrive, they will be the last livestock addition to this tank for a while. 

I'm thinking about adding more Hydrocotyle sp. 'Japan' to the left side. I'm hoping to create a kind of carpet look with it. I've got more than I could ever use in my emersed 55. Seriously, it is at least 4" deep all over and some places is more than half of the overall depth of the tank! I can definitely spare some more for this tank! The Dwarf Sag. appears to have begun growing. The biggest surprise of all is that the MM which was formerly part of the carpet prior to the neglect, has started to pop up in places!! This is a surprise to me as there was absolutely none left!


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

Added two Amano shrimp and ten Otocinclus today!! The PFRs have finally shipped, the seller chose to wait until the nasty cold weather had passed in his area of the country. I totally respect and appreciate his decision to do so! If all goes as planned with the USPS the PFRs should be here Thursday!!

I planted a bunch of the Hydrocotyle sp. 'Japan' to the left side as mentioned in my previous post. The previously planted Hydrocotyle has switched to submersed growth and is growing well. I would guess it will need a trim within a couple weeks. 

Today I also picked up some new Crypts that I planted in this tank. They were marked as C. willisii, but are quite obviously not such. They are a brownish red color with bullated leaves, possibly Crypt. beckettii but more heavily bullated. Once they grow out a bit, I will take one of the baby plants and toss it into the emersed tank to flower and properly identify. 

I will try to get some pictures within the next few days. Maybe I will remember to snap some pics when the PFRs arrive!!


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

The unknown crypt 
























































Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

I'm planning on added quite a few more crypts to this tank. I would like to go for more of the rarer types. The plan is to get a couple of each for this tank and get a couple for the emersed set up. I miss having rare crypts around. This tank currently only has a few C. nurii and a C. affinis 'Metallic Red', the rest of the crypts are fairly basic & found almost anywhere. If anyone has some rare cryptocorynes they wanna get rid of let me know!


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

25 Painted Fire Red Shrimp arrived the middle of last week. They look amazing!

Added four more Amano shrimp on Sunday! This will be the last livestock added for a while! 

The current stock list:
40 cherry shrimp, mostly PFR grade
6 Amano shrimp
3 nerite snails
Lots of ramshorn & pond snails(too many)

Out of all the shrimp there have been several recent molts and probably 10ish saddled females! 

I planted a small portion of Marsilea minuta throughout the "carpet" area on the left. There was a small amount already there but I wanted to mix a bit more in! 

Since I was home today(sick af) I sat in front on this tank and ate my lunch. It was so fun to watch all the otos swim around together or play in the outflow.

I dosed some macros today(on both tanks). I drastically reduce EI. I don't plan on dosing regularly but I wanted to see how things went. I'll dose micros later in the week. 

So... if you made it this far, thank you! Please let me know what you think or ask any questions you may have. Now here are a few pictures! I've only got my iPhone for pics, so that's what you get.

Otos!!



















A couple shrimp pics...



















Plant pics! This group of Anubias has been growing well & the shrimp love it!










"Carpet" area. You can see all of the crypts surrounding this area.










The "carpet"mix!










I guess I didn't take a fts, just this one that was only on my SnapChat












Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

johnson18 said:


> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


UH OH!!!!! This Nymphaea rubra must've enjoyed the dose of macros a lot or finally hit an O+ root tab, or both. I came home this evening and these three leaves have easily DOUBLED in size AND there is a new surface leaf that is probably 6 inches BELOW the surface!! Damn!

I'll probably trim the surface leaf off tomorrow, if the lights are still on when I get home. I want to try to get it to produce more submerged growth. 


The other SUPER exciting news of the day, I found a berried female! YAY for happy shrimp!


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

*Johnson18's 55gal Dirted Shrimp Tank*

Idk what I did to my original post of this, but I obviously deleted the majority of it....



Since the semester is underway and gonna be a busy one I think progress on the Mr. Aqua 17.4 is gonna be kinda slow. So.... I went ahead and threw the new CO2 system on this tank. Right now it's running < 0.5bps w/horrible dispersion throughout the water column. I had originally set the system up using an upaqua(?) glass diffuser. I decided I might as well go ahead and make a C02 reactor. So like halfway through building a cerges reactor I went to move the glass diffuser to a better location and broke it. I snagged an air stone from my supplies and tossed it in. I unfortunately haven't had the time to plumb in the reactor for the last week. Hopefully I will find some time this week. 






























The plants have responded surprisingly well to the CO2 even with the [censored][censored][censored][censored]ty set up. I added some different plants two weeks ago. The main one being a Lagenandra meeboldi 'red round'. It arrived in rough shape leaf wise, but seems like it will recover quickly. Everything else is looking good. 










Last time I counted there were like 5-7 berried PFRs. I keep checking around for baby shrimp, but not super hard. Hell, half of this last week I wasn't home at all during the time lights are on. 





















I don't remember what else I'd posted.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

Questions on the cerges reactor before I install it later today!!

Do I need some sort of media inside? Sponge? bioballs? etc?

I've also not installed a check valve where the CO2 line enters the reactor. I've done this under the assumption that the pressure from the tank will keep water from entering back up the line. The reactor will be about a foot below the outlet on the regulator, there's already a check valve at the regulator before the line outlet, and about 3 feet of hose. I was thinking I'd put a hook in the wall behind the tank to hold the CO2 line up to create an n shaped "loop" in between the reactor and the regulator.

Thoughts?? Thanks for any advice!


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## BettaBettas (Aug 21, 2016)

when that carpet fills in more it will make the hardscape really stand out and grab attention, nice start


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

BettaBettas said:


> when that carpet fills in more it will make the hardscape really stand out and grab attention, nice start




Thanks! I just surprised myself scrolling through the above pics on my laptop as I looked through a couple fts I took at the end of the photoperiod last night. The carpet looks so full compared to a couple weeks ago! The Hydrocotyle will probably need a trim whenever I get a chance this week. The MM I planted has settled in nicely. 

Hair/thread algae continues to be an issue. I've been manually removing some of it on a weekly basis. 


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

I've lost a couple of my Otos, each several weeks apart. I'm guessing it's fairly random. I found the last one Friday. Parameters all look fine. I haven't been supplementing their food with veggies or anything. I have seen them eating some of the shrimp food that I've been feeding about once a week. 

I did a huge trim and replanting Saturday along with a large (~18g) water change. Largest WC I've done since added the shrimp. I've been trying to keep my changes fairly small ~5 gallons at a time plus any that has been lost to evaporation. I'd just dirtied up the water with all my playing around that I wanted to get things cleaned up. I also gave the glass lids a good scrubbing. The plastic that holds the folding glass lids together has started to die. The right side, when facing the tank, has totally dried out and broken, I just took it off so the glass panels are separated. 

I really hacked down the Hydrocotyle but replanted everything I cut out. I moved around a couple smaller crypts, this tank is seriously filled with them. I'm thinking about grabbing some more C. beckettii. I've been trying to just pack the area around & under the lily full of different species of crypts, mostly beckettii, pontederiifolia, and undulata. The C. pontederiifolia has been doing well in that space. I've been wanting a taller species to mix into the back left but I don't quite know what I want or if I just need to let the Lagenandra meeboldi 'red round' fill in as I've read those can be monsters.

I've added a couple new stem species, not sure I'm injecting enough co2/light/fertz to make them grow well. It's just two stems of each. One is Rotala macrandra mini pink & the other is Ammania gracilis. They've both been putting out new growth, but the rotala is losing some color. No surprise there. I put both of these in the 20L too. I guess I mostly just wanted to see what I could grow. These I grabbed at ANA for decent prices, I figured it was worth a shot. The AR stems have been doing well, still growing super slow but they look nice and healthy. I've read the super slow growth is the norm, which is fine which me! The Baby Tears was starting to look kinda [censored][censored][censored][censored]ty before I added the co2, getting a bit of algae on it. That all went away and its got nice bright green new growth. Everything else is doing well. Some of the random rhizomes that used to be nice looking Buce before the melt down have started to pop out new growth. The funny thing is that they have spread all over the tank. It's like as I cleaned and replanted the tank, the little bits of rhizome got spread around. I think it's kinda cool. I'm just leaving it alone unless it is in a location that it is likely to die. 

I feel like the algae is slowly becoming less of an issue the longer the CO2 is running. I'm still running ~0.5bps. With the cerges reactor I've got no bubbles in the tank. The hair/string algae is still present but in smaller amounts all the time. Some of the big Anubias leaves have a few diatoms on them which I'm mostly ignoring to keep the inhabitants happy and fed! I suppose if it got worse I'd wipe it off. The other algae on the glass around the tank has mostly gone away or been greatly reduced to the point I'm wondering if I need to start adding food for the Otos and Nerites!  

I've decided to start dosing a fairly light EI regime of fertz. We'll see how it goes. I'm mostly doing this because my 20L needs it because it's packed full of stems. I figured if I'm gonna take the time to get the fertilizers out daily I might as well add a little in here too! Any thoughts on fertilizers and shrimp that I need to keep an eye on? 

I also threw some more root tabs around in certain areas. The new leaves on the sword right up front we're looking kinda funky so I wanted to get more nutrients to it! This same plant has a bloom stem shooting up which will hopefully be packed full of little baby plantlets soon! Gotta make sure those babies can grow! 

The shrimp seem to be mostly doing well. I haven't seen any baby shrimp but I think a couple of the berried females are no longer berried. I saw one a couple days ago, who looked like a younger female, that had partially dropped her eggs. Her eggs were totally gone the next day. This was prior to working in the tank and the water change. I've been thinking about putting some IAL into the tank in the areas I've not got heavily planted. 


I know this tank still has a long way to go but I feel like I've finally got things on the right track. Now to keep up the work! 

Ok pics! From my iPhone of course....





















































































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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

Since my last big trim, I've pretty much just left this tank alone. Things have been filling in well. 























































I had started a modified EI dosing which I decided to stop. With my schedule I was unable to maintain an appropriate schedule. Not dosing was a better option for this tank than inconsistent dosing. 

I bumped the CO2 from 0.5bps to right about 1.0bps. I've also reduced the photoperiod by 0.5hr. 

So I believe that due to my inconsistency in the dosing BBA started popping up a little more on the older leaves, where it had already begun. I haven't had time to really clean it off the leaves but I will be hitting it directly with Excel & cleaning it off manually but not until next week during my spring break. 



















I'm hoping to spend some time next week working on this tank. I'll get into that once I actually get some time to take a close look at how everything it growing. 




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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

*Johnson18's 55gal Dirted Shrimp Tank-added pressurized CO2!*

I believe that I messed up when I dropped the photoperiod at the same time I upped the CO2. Since I redid this tank in December, I've tried quite hard to never make more then one change at a time & give the tank a couple weeks to adjust in between these changes. Well, I failed to do that when I reduced the photoperiod by 0.5hr the same day I increased the gas from 0.5 to 1.0 bps about a week ago. The result was an almost immediate(within a couple days) appearance of green dust algae in the front glass. At this point it is a super light coating. I have gone ahead and bumped the photoperiod back up that 30min. I'm going to do a decent water change today, probably around 10 gallons. Since it is just a super light dusting, I doubt I'll even clean the GDA off the glass. I will wipe the bba off the Anubias leaves as I'm sucking water out. 

Honestly, this is probably a combo of several different things that occurred around the same time period. When I did my huge trim three weeks ago I loaded the tank with a bunch of new O+ root tabs. There always seems to be a bit of new algae that pops up in the first few weeks after replacing all the root tabs in the tank. It doesn't help that I've not had a chance to do a water change since I stopped the fert dosing, so that definitely has helped create the imbalance! The last couple weeks have been nonstop midterm exams and such at school which leaves me with absolutely no time for anything besides school! I'm sure glad that's over with for a few weeks until the next round of exams!  

You can see the dusting of gda just above the carpet. 









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## BettaBettas (Aug 21, 2016)

Wow! tank is looking very very nice! At first it was so/so had potential, now you have really taken that potential and kicked its butt! Let that lily get some height in the back right corner I'd say, let that ar mini / the crypt (I cant tell if that's ar. mini or a crypt of some kind? either way looks redish brown lol) spread a bit more in that location its in to look slightly bushier. will look fantastic! is looking fantastic! Very good job! haven't seen this thread since the huge anubias was just sitting on a log in the middle. I think im getting to excited for your tank lol! good job


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

Well, [censored][censored][censored][censored]! Turned on the lights early to do a little maintenance and I noticed two dead shrimp! My immediate reaction was to do a water change. I have set aside a glass of the water to test later this evening. When I got most of the way through the WC I realized my filter, an Eheim 2217, had barely any flow. So I finished filling the tank & started looking at the filter. I mostly just expected there to be a kinked hose as I've had that issue in the past with my 2215, but nope. I took apart the filter & cleaned everything up, nothing inside looked too bad. The filter has only been installed since the second week of January, when I purchased it new. The impeller looks fine. Not really sure wtf is going on. I'm headed to ANA with the top of the filter & impeller. Maybe Ben can help me out. Luckily I had a brand new 2215 in my closet that I got for my Mr. Aqua build. I tossed that together and threw it into the tank. I think I'm gonna lose at least one oto. Hopefully not much else, but we'll see..... ugh. 

Betta, Thanks! I'll fully respond to your post as soon as I get this crap under control! 


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

After an extremely stressful 24 hours, I got the 2217 back to working at full flow! The problem was the coarse "sponge" media I have shoved in the bottom of the cerges co2 reactor. When I cut the tube for the inside of the reactor I was about an inch from the bottom of the filter canister. I took a course filter pad, cut it into a round piece the diameter of the bottom of the housing. My thought was that it would help diffuse any left over co2 bubbles. Well, where it met the hose was packed full of dead pond snails! Ugh. I've been trying to reduce the number of those damn things in the tank but killing them inside my co2 reactor wasn't my plan! So All of the media within the reactor has been removed and flow has been restored! 




























This highlights the huge problem with not being able to check out how your tank is functioning on a daily basis! Who knows how long the flow had been reduced! It was enough time that the water parameters took a hit & started killing livestock! Might be part of reason that I've had some new types of algae pop up this week! Ugh. Sucks but I've resolved the issue... 

Currently I'm still running both filters. I left them both just in case this was the only reason for the reduced flow. Plus, I figured it was an easier way to get the 2215 seeded. I've started the shelving build for the stand that will hold my Mr. Aqua 60p. That way the filter will already have some beneficial bacteria built up. Well, my water break is over, back to the wood shop! 


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

BettaBettas said:


> Wow! tank is looking very very nice! At first it was so/so had potential, now you have really taken that potential and kicked its butt! Let that lily get some height in the back right corner I'd say, let that ar mini / the crypt (I cant tell if that's ar. mini or a crypt of some kind? either way looks redish brown lol) spread a bit more in that location its in to look slightly bushier. will look fantastic! is looking fantastic! Very good job! haven't seen this thread since the huge anubias was just sitting on a log in the middle. I think im getting to excited for your tank lol! good job




Thanks @BettaBettas! I appreciate your comments. It's nice to have the view point of another hobbyist. This tank definitely still has a long way to go! Things are getting there slowly though. 

I'm really hoping that the lily will continue to grow and fill in the full height of the tank. I've tried hard to pack the whole area around and under the lily full of plants, mostly random Crypts. Toward the back there are some C. balansae, C. undulata, the front has C. beckettii, C. x willisii 'lucens', some random stem, baby tears... I don't remember the rest. I've just been trying to trim and replant all the stems to get thinks thicker. Plus I've moved some Crypts around in order to have more under the lily! 



















The AR that is behind the short end of the wood is Alternanthera reineckii 'cardinalis', it has been a slow grower but should eventually get pretty tall. These stems took a super long time to transition from the tissue culture to the submersed growth. Over the last few weeks these stems have really started growing well. 










As far as more red in that area, I'm hoping the Lagenandra meeboldi 'red round' will fill out and provide a different texture above the carpet & a nice pink color! You can see the plant in the picture above 

Also in this picture you can see a line of brownish Crypts running from front to back splitting the carpet off from the rest of the tank. This row is a combo of C. nurii & C. beckettii! I'm really hoping they will gain some height! I replanted this whole row about a month ago. All of the plants have at least one or two new leaves! 



















I added a couple stems of Ammania gracilis almost a month ago which have been growing slow but well. I'm hoping to use this to fill in the background of the left most portion of the carpet, just in front of the Crypts that are stuffed against the back wall. 

Overall, I've just tried to add a couple different colors and textures that I plan on expanding into larger groupings of the same things. I know this is probably WAY more of a response then you excepted or wanted! Haha. Oh well, this is all gonna be going happening within the tank quite slowly due to the speed things are growing in the tank! 

Thanks again for the comments and critiques!! I welcome them from pretty much anyone! I'd love to hear from more members on the forums!

Here's a random pfr!













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## Pat24601 (Mar 4, 2017)

I've been reading your thread. Awesome looking tank!


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

Pat24601 said:


> I've been reading your thread. Awesome looking tank!




Thanks! It has fun journey! I think I'm enjoying this current set up more than any of the previous that have been in this tank! 


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

I lost a shrimp yesterday. I probably should've done a second water change last weekend when I had the issues with the filter. 










I tested the water last night. This was right at the end of the photoperiod, the CO2 had been off about an hour, maybe a bit more. Tests was done using the API liquid tests. I did notice that my phosphate test recently expired, I doubt it was far off though. I'll pick up a new one today. 

3/15/16 eod
pH <7.4ish
TDS 152
Ammonia 0ppm
Nitrite 0ppm
Nitrate 0ppm
Phosphate ~1.0ppm
KH 4 drops
GH 4drops ~71.6ppm

Any thoughts? 

I didn't have any ro water at the house last night, which is odd as I usually refill my jugs as soon as I empty them. I will do a WC today to try and get the phosphate level down a bit. I'm still running both the 2217 & 2215, yes, it's too much flow. While I did up the co2 a small amount recently, I don't think that it's an issue of too much co2 as I'm only running 1bps. 


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

*Johnson18's 55gal Dirted Shrimp Tank-Huge Update 4/4/17*

This tank has been growing well! Over the past couple days I've snatched bits and pieces from here and mostly stuck them into the new Killifish tank #1. Probably the largest portion was wisteria, followed by a couple chunks of Anubias barteri var nana & nana petite, a little Peacock moss & some narrow lead Java Fern. Nothing that will be drastically missed for now. The two pairs of Killifish, Aphysemion cinnamomeum, that went into this tank are coloring up nicely but all of the shrimp have disappeared. I am pretty sure they're NOT being eaten, yet, but they're definitely being picked on!!! The killies should have they're own 10g tank ready for them within the next week at the longest! 

The A. cinnamomeum:not my pic









One of the females


















Males starting to get a little color.









At the same auction where I purchased the Killifish(and my new F1 Apistos!) I also got a few plants! The plant I'm probably happiest about is one of the older Cryptocoryne species in the hobby, while also being a Crypt. that is not seen as often these days! Cryptocoryne aponogetifolia! A gorgeous specimen too! For those not familiar with this Cryptocoryne species, it is one of the larger Crypts and probably the largest in the hobby, reaching up to 1 meter in length/height! This particular plant is not quite that large & of course has started to melt a bit after a week in my tank. 

Cryptocoryne aponogetifolia




























The other plants have been doing great. The Rotala sp. 'mini butterfly var. pink' has definitely been one that has impressed me! I started out with two stems in here, both tops that might have been 3 inches, if we're lucky! Now they're almost to the top of the tank, and have branched into like 9 or 10 stems! I'm seriously amazed! The branching has all been on its own too, I've not done any trimming to this cluster! I will probably trim some this weekend! There are also a couple stems in my 20g Apisto/Pencilfish tank that don't look anything like this, they'll be getting moved over as well! 



















The Lagenandra meeboldii 'red round' that I got from @burr740 a while back has been growing well! It has put out a few new leaves and has another nice big one on the way! This has to be one of my favorite plants, including my beloved Crypts! Unfortunately, my camera doesn't do it justice! 










The lagenandra meeboldii 'red round' can also be seen in a number of other pictures in this post! 

A few weeks ago I made a new addition to this tank! I added several more Cryptocoryne affinis 'Metallic Red' to the lonely one already growing within! Sadly, the mass of Hydrocotyle tripartita 'Japan' that has become the carpet hides them almost completely, as they're just behind it & I have to pull the Hydrocotyle off of them multiple times a week. It's quite a pain in the ass. I did plant a couple tiny bits right up front to let them grow & within a week they had new leaves popping up! Yay! 

A leaf of the original visible just in front of the stems. The new C. affinis 'Metallic Red' run straight to the left in a line!









New baby leaf









Now for the new stuff & the changes to come!!! If you've read this far, thank you! I hope I've included enough decent pictures to make it interesting! Haha! 

Why is it that as soon as everything in our tanks get settled in and doing well, we decide to make changes?!?! It seems to happen like clockwork EVERY DAMN TIME!! 

Well, my carpet is a mix of Hydrocotyle tripartita 'Japan', dwarf sag., and marsilea minuta. It is a trio that I enjoy and have done halfway decent with. I definitely enjoy the mix of textures it offers, but there's a problem. My tank is just too freaking green!! Granted, it's a variety of greens, along with a bunch of textures... I just wanna try something different! 










I'm going to ditch the dwarf sag & Hydrocotyle. At this point my plan is to keep the Masilea minuta, it's a cool little plant and adds a neat shape/texture combo. Actually, I'm adding more! The big change is that I'm going to add in as much Hygrophila sp. 'araguaia' as I can find! I've already got a small portion in my 20g long it's kinda hidden though! Time for it to come forth into the light in a more prominent position, plus getting that CO2 action!! I've got some more of it on the way & will be keeping an eye out for more! Surrounding this carpet area on all three sides(except the front glass) are groupings of different Crypts! Hopefully we'll finally be able to see them!! 

Random internet pic of Hygrophila sp. 'araguaia'!










The tough part about this is reducing the amount of fast growing plants, such as the Hydrocotyle & replacing them with something that won't absorb nutrients quite as quickly. I've finally reached a point where I've got most of the algae under control. The hair algae is all but gone, the green dust on the front glass has finally subsided..... and now I do this! Ugh.... why do I (we!) constantly do this to ourselves?! "Oh, hey look! The tank is finally looking decent! What TF can I change now?!" Oh well!! It's all for fun! I like to think of it a never ending science fair project! 

Thanks for reading, or just looking at the pics! Lol. Let me know what you think! 


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## burr740 (Feb 19, 2014)

Looking good! Everything is so clean and healthy too. Nice


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

burr740 said:


> Looking good! Everything is so clean and healthy too. Nice




Thank you Joe! I'm gonna try my hardest to continue the nice, healthy plant growth. I may have to float the Hydrocotyle for a few days while the tank adjusts to the new growth after replacing the carpet! We'll see though, definitely going to have to play it be ear for a bit. 


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## BettaBettas (Aug 21, 2016)

green!


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## Greggz (May 19, 2008)

Great tank and journal. Plants look healthy, and I like the Killifish. I've never kept them, but they look like adult colors should be great.

Keep up the good work!


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

I think the killis were breeding in the plants this morning.....


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

Greggz said:


> Great tank and journal. Plants look healthy, and I like the Killifish. I've never kept them, but they look like adult colors should be great.
> 
> 
> 
> Keep up the good work!




Thanks! I have been quite pleased with the plant growth lately. They've been looking great! I hope I don't mess it all up by changing the carpet plants this weekend! 


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

So..... I did a thing... I'm not done though. I'm mostly finished for this evening I've been at it for about 5 hours now. I'm not fast at the whole rescaping, especially since I've got a super bad back(I'll be scheduling back surgery next Monday.) I supposed I'll get to the changes now.

I yanked out like 98% of the Hydrocotyle tripartita sp. 'Japan' as well as almost all of the Dwarf sag. Most of the Hydrocotyle will go back into the tank as floaters for probably the next week or so until the new plants get adjusted. Well, that and I get all of the plants from the various places they are coming from. I'll be adding a few different stems to the tanks.

In place of the Hydrocotyle tripartita & Dwarf sag is a combo of the remaining Marsilea minuta, to which I added a bunch more ~100 nodes, and a bunch of Hygrophila sp. 'araguaia'. Part of the Hygro came from Burr & I had a few nice stems in my 20L. I think it looks a bit funky right now, but I'm pretty sure once both plants fill in it'll look good. 

Just the MM:









Here's the carpet area now:



























I thinned the Crypt undulata along the back wall. Moves most of them into other areas of the tank. I wanted to clear the back wall out for some taller stems. The Rotala sp. 'mini butterfly pink' that is already in the tank needs to be trimmed and replanted. I moved a couple from the 20L. Along with some Ludwigia Sp. 'Rubin'. There are some other things on the way too. 

The killis have been crazy interested in everything I've been doing in the tank. Spending as much time checking out the tools and the plants in them as they pretty much could have! They've been spawning nonstop for a few days. The males have more color today than I've seen before! It's difficult to get the camera to show. 





















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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

Last night's final FTS


















Crowding the Lagenandra meeboldii 'red round' a bit. 









And finally, the whole reason I started thinking about rescaping a bit... the Cryptocoryne affinis 'metallic red' will now be getting some light!! 










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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

*Johnson18's 55gal Dirted Shrimp Tank-Huge Update 4/8*

Well, I think I messed up when I switched things up. Not because of the ACTUAL plants or anything, everything I got was awesome. Just stepping up to the more high tech, demanding plants at the time I did. Last week I scheduled back surgery for the middle of May, which comes with a huge recovery period that has many things heavily restricted. Maintenance throughout the summer is going to be nearly impossible for me to do, & will have to be done by my sister, who I live with. 


No plans to actually get rid of the new plants. There are certain species that will probably get thinned out, going to at least one local hobbyist who I've swapped stuff with before. Besides, he currently has some Sunset Hygro that he is growing out to give me. Some might also go to the plant auction at the next local club meeting, which is conveniently three days before my surgery. 


I guess I never fully updated this after switching this up. I'll put a picture up from my phone as soon as I post this. A couple members hooked it up. I never actually finished rearranging thing, busy with the last couple weeks of a hellish semester. Plus I threw my back out again & spent most of last week stuck in bed.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

Oh, these four damn killifish have done a number on the population of shrimp in this tank. I'm just waiting for their 10g to be fully ready. It's pretty much good to go, but I see no real reason to rush it. Not to mention there is absolutely no way I'd be able to net those speedy little things with my back in its current condition. Hopefully after this insanely busy upcoming week I'll be able to get them moved. They've turned into quite good looking little fish, I don't think their eggs will successfully hatch unless they get a bit of a dry period, so not in this tank. Although, I will have to keep an eye on this tank for a while, as they've done PLENTY of breeding in here!


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

*Johnson18's 55gal Dirted Shrimp Tank-Huge Update 4/8*

Today I bit the bullet on some more fish for this tank. I fully blame @Greggz for this.... At my local fish club's auction I bought 6 juvenile Pseudomugil gertrudae, Spotted Blue-Eye Rainbowfish. Now, I know he is gonna say, "Oh, but I've never kept the Blue-eye's!" That's okay, his tank full of absolutely gorgeous 'bows was enough! haha. 



I just hope they can survive the killis long enough to grow large enough they won't wanna eat them. Gotta get another tank going for them asap! I also added some sukura grade cherries. I don't have any beautiful pics yet. I noticed the killis chasing the rainbows and immediately fed a huge bunch of baby brine shrimp and killed the lights. There should be plenty of hiding spaces for the rainbows to survive. I hope.


Edit: here are some pics I took this morning(before co2 & lights actually kick on) prior to trimming some stuff to sell at our club auction. I need to make so adjustments to things before I have back surgery next week and can't play in my tank for the summer.


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## SteppingStones (Aug 8, 2014)

Pseudomugil are favorites! I have a couple species, including some gertrudae that I just got from another member. Let me know how the killifish interact with the rainbows. I might move my killis in with the gertrudae to free up some space


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## Greggz (May 19, 2008)

johnson18 said:


> Today I bit the bullet on some more fish for this tank. I fully blame @Greggz for this.... At my local fish club's auction I bought 6 juvenile Pseudomugil gertrudae, Spotted Blue-Eye Rainbowfish. Now, I know he is gonna say, "Oh, but I've never kept the Blue-eye's!" That's okay, his tank full of absolutely gorgeous 'bows was enough! haha.


You are correct, I have never kept the smaller Blue Eyes, but I would like to learn more about them. Once they get settled in, I would love to see some pictures. 

I'll be following along, as I would like to learn more about their behavior. Particularly interested in what level of the tank they tend to hang out in. I've read mixed reports. Wondering if they stay mostly near the surface, or if they cruise the entire tank. 

And more importantly good luck with the back surgery, and wishing you a speedy recovery.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

SteppingStones said:


> Pseudomugil are favorites! I have a couple species, including some gertrudae that I just got from another member. Let me know how the killifish interact with the rainbows. I might move my killis in with the gertrudae to free up some space


At this point I wouldn't recommend mixing the two species. Although, I'm sure it would depend a lot on the species of killi and size of the two fish. My concern with the killis at this point, is the fact they are trying to eat the baby rainbows. The Aphysemion cinnamomeum killifish are almost 3" which compared to the juve blue-eyes that are 0.5-0.75" at best, unfortunately puts the rainbows the in food sized range. I obviously made a huge mistake there, but I'm never gonna catch all those little rainbows. I could easily sell them to the LFS for well above what I paid for them. 



Greggz said:


> You are correct, I have never kept the smaller Blue Eyes, but I would like to learn more about them. Once they get settled in, I would love to see some pictures.
> 
> I'll be following along, as I would like to learn more about their behavior. Particularly interested in what level of the tank they tend to hang out in. I've read mixed reports. Wondering if they stay mostly near the surface, or if they cruise the entire tank.
> 
> And more importantly good luck with the back surgery, and wishing you a speedy recovery.


Currently, they are hanging out in the weeds. haha. I sat down for about half and hour and watched them this afternoon. I think I found four of the six individual fish. I saw one that was hanging in the H. difformis that's floating on the surface on the left side of the tank. the rest were down in the plants. a couple on the right in the mass of baby tears, and a couple on the center-left in the P. erectus and such. I'm going to continue to feed the Ocean Nutrition Instant Baby Brine a couple times per day. My fish bioload compared to the plant mass is so insignificant that I don't mind feeding a bit extra.

I would like to get another tank set up for the killis by the end of the week. I've got enough extra sponge filters around that I should be able to swap one over and seed the tank from one of my canister filters and have a pretty short cycle. I'd like to set up a couple tanks this week as I won't have another chance for a while.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

*Johnson18's 55gal Dirted Shrimp &amp; Gertrude's Rainbowfish*

Well, it's been some time since I updated the journal for this tank. The damn thing has become a jungle, packed full almost from front to back. Sunday I added ten more Gertrude's Rainbowfish. They are from the same hatching as the first batch. There might be one or two from the original six that survived the adult killi's hunt. They were just too small & sadly became a snack. The fish just added are large enough to mostly be left alone. There were some ripped fins though so I will be keeping an eye on things. My goal is to build a breeding colony of Gertrude's in this tank.





































A few weeks ago I noticed that there were a couple juveniles of the killifish, Aphyosemion cinnamomeum Kurume APL 13-35, hiding in the plants down close to the substrate. Since then there are maybe a dozen I see on a regular basis that are various sizes ranging from 3/8" to 3/4". A couple days ago I was trimming some plants for our club auction when I decided to give the large Anubias that runs across the back of the tank a bit of a shake & little fish went everywhere!! Probably a few dozen juvenile killifish at least!! Whenever I move the killies out I think I'll be finding baby fish for months. Hahaha. 



















I've got a ton of new pics of the plant growth and full tank shots but it is time to head to Costco so we can be there when it opens! I'll add the rest either later today or tomorrow! 


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

Ugh! The rainbows went from mostly ok to fins all torn to hell in less than a day. The killifish are trying to eat them & I think they succeeded with a couple. I pulled them all out of the 55. I stuck them in a 5.5gal with tank water from the 55 and an oversized cycled dual sponge filter from one of my other tanks. I pulled a bunch of floaters from my 10g killifish tank. 

Not sure if I should dose anything to help prevent infection or not. Thoughts? 


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## Greggz (May 19, 2008)

johnson18 said:


> Ugh! The rainbows went from mostly ok to fins all torn to hell in less than a day. The killifish are trying to eat them & I think they succeeded with a couple. I pulled them all out of the 55. I stuck them in a 5.5gal with tank water from the 55 and an oversized cycled dual sponge filter from one of my other tanks. I pulled a bunch of floaters from my 10g killifish tank.
> 
> Not sure if I should dose anything to help prevent infection or not. Thoughts?


I was wondering about this combination. Killifish are Africans and aggressive. Rainbows are pretty mellow by nature. Sorry to see this happened. 

I doubt any dosing is going to make a difference. Hopefully the Bows bounce back for you.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

Thanks @Greggz! I sure hope they bounce back too! This tank WILL have some of the the Blue-eyed Rainbowfish in it! They have totally caught my attention & I've had them long enough now that I have seen small glimpses of their beauty! 

I think killi aggression depends on the species and size. I was hoping it wouldn't be a problem since I've got other small fish in the tank that have no problems with the killifish. Unfortunately, it obviously didn't work. In the long run the Killifish will be the ones that will be evicted from the tank.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

This tank has become a total jungle. I kinda like it that way...



















There was a large mass of Wisteria floating at the left end of the tank over the Anubias covered driftwood. It was blocking the light over the "carpet" area, as well as the whole left end. I removed it a couple weeks ago. Stuffed a bit into the rainbow's 5.5 and sold off the rest at our local club auction. 










Unfortunately, since then duckweed and other floaters have taken over the surface on the left HALF of the tank. [emoji35]I will be clearing it out today. I enjoy some of the floaters but duckweed is obnoxious. 










After I removed the wisteria everything under it has taken off and done quite well. The Crypts have started throwing off new plants like crazy. I've left them in place for now, even though they're inconveniently placed, bc I know @forrestcook wants some for the 120. The Hygrophila sp. 'araguaia' did not like being shaded after it finally got established. It will take some time to get it nice an bushy. 

The Crypt. affinis 'Metallic Red' that I cleared space around in April have easily tripled in size. I haven't seen any offshoots yet, but they're pretty crowded again & I haven't done a thorough inspection. 

The stems in the back have grown to the surface and been hacked down multiple times since the partial rescape in April. 









































































The killies have gone from the original two pairs to at least a dozen, probably closer to two dozen. They're everywhere!!! 











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## forrestcook (Jan 25, 2008)

Man - those fish are probably loving all the nooks and crannies they can hide in there! I'm just waiting on plants to fill my 120, I should be doing a big order through ANA this week. I'd love to meet up with you around then, you can PM me your prices etc. 


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## geektom (Dec 17, 2012)

Awesome update- thanks for all the pics. Sometimes a "jungle" tank is really special.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

I pulled a bunch of Crypts out of this tank and my 20L for @forrestcook's new 120! hopefully I got him enough plants of a wide variety to make the drive across town worthwhile! [emoji23] I can't wait to see his 120 up and running. 

I needed to thin some out of this tank anyways as I was starting to lose some plants due to the crowding and excess shade. Some of the larger plants have now been removed which should help. I need to rearrange a few things now but I had to give my back a break after pulling all the plants for him this morning. 

I also netted out most of the floaters, it'll need to be done again in a few days. 

Here are some shots from this evening & a couple from this morning right before I started pulling plants.




























This leopard Val blade is laying across our 18" tiles... funny bc the guy I got it from can't get em taller than 12"









The big Crypt. wendtii from the left side























































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## forrestcook (Jan 25, 2008)

Thanks for the crypts! Going through the melt right now, excited for them to bounce back. 


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

I finally took steps to change the inhabitants of this tank!! Mainly because I bought some fish for this tank yesterday, plus I ordered some more at the same time. I picked up a pair of Apistogramma baenschi, and three fish that were labeled Nannostomus anomalus, Golden Pencilfish sp. red. I believe Nannostomus anomalus is synonymous with Nannostomus beckfordi. I know three Pencilfish is WAY too few for them to be comfortable, so I ordered another twenty that should be here next Wednesday of next week. 

Of course the damn killifish in the tank started beating up on the three Pencilfish... I pulled the Pencilfish out of the tank & placed them into one of my other tanks for now. The killies have pretty much left the Apistos alone. 

The killies have mostly been moved to a 5.5 gallon tank on my rack. There are still three or four of them that were too sketched out after catching the rest of them. They would bolt for the plants anytime I got within like four feet of the tank. Hopefully the rest will be moved tomorrow. 

Here are a few fish pics! I'm sure I'll get some better shots, especially of the Apistos since the only pic I have is in the bag. I can't wait to get the rest of the Pencilfish in & have a nice big school of them! Super stoked about that! 
















































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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

Added 20 more Golden Pencilfish, Nannostomus beckfordi, this evening! Wow! I'm already loving them! This gives me 23 in the tank. I think I might bump it up to 30 total but I want to give the tank time to adjust to the new bioload. 

I have also been thinking about getting another batch of otocinclus. I believe there are about 8 currently. I'm not sure though.

Ok picture time!




























Right after I got them all in the tank, I was like, "Wow! Look at this tight little school!"


















Then I was like, "Damn! There is a bunch more over here!"









That's about the time I was like, "Hell yes! This size school is gonna be super badass!!"










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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

I trimmed some plants out to sell this weekend. Honestly, I feel like the tank is looking pretty ragged. I'm going to try and clean it up a bit this weekend. The majority of the work might have to wait until after next week, exams & such. It mostly just needs the stems trimmed and replanted. I've been growing most of them out a month or two in advance of this. There are a couple species of which I wanted to be able to make a larger group, Ammannia gracilis, being one of the main ones. I was given a few Barclaya longifolia, I've placed them in the front left corner where the big Crypts were. I may need to move them further over, all the way into the corner. I'm looking forward to watching them grow.










The pencils have settled in nicely. I'm fairly certain there was breeding occurring earlier. There are a couple fish in the group who are wicked skinny. 

The Apistogramma baenschi are getting comfortable. The male is far more hesitant then the female. They'll get there though! 

Male









Female









Over the weekend I somehow wound up with a 4 year old blue dwarf gourami... A local hobby buddy is moving & couldn't take him. The fish is quite healthy and, well, blue. As long as it doesn't mess with the fish I like, I will tolerate it for a friend.






































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## ChrisX (May 28, 2017)

Looks like a happy gourami!


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## Rogozhin75 (Aug 15, 2017)

Love the heavily planted look, and those are some happy fish!


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

The heavily planted appearance definitely isn't going anywhere. If anything it will be increasing in the long run. I just want to rearrange a few things. I've actually got a couple more plants to add, such as a couple more of the E. parviflorus in the front. 


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## The Dude1 (Jun 17, 2016)

Apisto's and Pencilfish.. i.wanted to do that with the coral red pencilfish... until I was it was $72 for 6 of them... so a couple hundred for any decent size school. Looks awesome!


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

The Dude1 said:


> Apisto's and Pencilfish.. i.wanted to do that with the coral red pencilfish... until I was it was $72 for 6 of them... so a couple hundred for any decent size school. Looks awesome!




Yeah, not an option I can afford. I've been impressed at how red these have become over the last week. 


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

Just a few pics. Haven't had time to work on the plants yet. 








































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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

I took a video tonight of this tank. It was with my phone, bc that's what I've got. Can't say I've got lots of experience wth YouTube, since this is only the second video I've ever uploaded. Haha. 

https://youtu.be/ZYJmrw7j0zs

The female Apisto has been getting quite yellow over the last couple days. 




























The Pencilfish are freakin awesome! The males are constantly doing this little display. You can see it several times in the longer video but here is another one of just the pencils.

https://youtu.be/RLodxrIfnoA






































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## The Dude1 (Jun 17, 2016)

That is looking awesome! The pencilfish look as though they are really coloring up! I need to decide on a dither for my 75 gallon. I was sold on cardinals, but the pencils seem alot more personable.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

The Dude1 said:


> That is looking awesome! The pencilfish look as though they are really coloring up! I need to decide on a dither for my 75 gallon. I was sold on cardinals, but the pencils seem alot more personable.




Dude! These Pencilfish have colored up so amazingly! They get super red most of the time with these light neon blue tips on their fins! The males have staked out little territories & when others come near they respond with the act that I posted the video of. The territories aren't really set like with cichlids but it is fun to watch. They will still all school together. Although, I think they'd be better at schooling if the tank was more open rather than being such a jungle. They do use all levels of my 55 though versus just the top or middle water.

If you want to have some nice colorful pencils without purchasing the $12-20 per fish species, I would absolutely recommend these Nannostomus beckfordi! 

Another option if you want a school that stays right at the top of your tank, I'd recommend Nannostomus marginatus, the Dwarf Pencilfish. I've got 14 in my 20L that is linked in my signature. Their color is more set rather something that changes as readily as the colors of the Golden/Beckford's. The body of the marginatus is quite deep which makes them seem large even though they're a small fish. While the body of the Golden is quite slender. I really like how the Dwarf Pencilfish stay close the the surface of the water & are usually in a fairly tight school. Just thought I'd mention them as well, since I know you're undecided on dithers! 


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

This tank has seen a lot of work over the last few months. A lot of growing out so I️ could replant a little thicker. Some cleaning up and adding to specific areas, all with one goal. 

The goal since early summer has been to have the tank ready to enter in the local Desert Aquarist Society’s annual Home Show. At one time this was a show where the members drove to everyone’s house to check out the tank & vote of who had the best. Well, the club doesn’t have 5 members anymore... so we all send in one picture per tank we wish to enter. There are three categories: Freshwater, Saltwater, & Vivarium/Terrarium. The winners of each category then go against each other for the Best of Show. 

In today’s Home Show there were 31 FW entries, 3 SW, & 3 Viv/Ter. entries. I️ was honored to tie for 1st place Freshwater, & went on the win the Best of Show! 

My best friend came by last week, before the entries were due, to take the photos. She actually has a real digital camera, rather than using my iPhone camera. The lighting on this tank is the 48” dual lamp T5HO with Giesemann Aquaflora & Midday bulbs, but for the pictures I added my new 36” T5HO fixture with the same bulbs. This fixture was placed over the left side of the tank so the stems were better illuminated. 

Well, enough words. Pics now. 

This is the pic I️ entered in the Show. 










Here are a couple other shots that were not used , in low res versions. 



























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## burr740 (Feb 19, 2014)

Boy that's looking great. So lush and thick I want to crawl up in there and take a nap!

Nice win too, congrats!


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## trailsnale (Dec 2, 2009)

congrats! beautiful tank.

what is the crypt on the far right, leaves are running along the surface?

thanks,


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## Greggz (May 19, 2008)

Congratulations and nice work. We need to start a new category for you.......Aquatic Jungle!

Nicely done.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

trailsnale said:


> congrats! beautiful tank.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Thanks! That is Cryptocoryne aponogetifolia. It recently had several leaves melt when the Anubias haustifolia had an old leaf die. It is an awesome Crypt, just not one you see often. 



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## trailsnale (Dec 2, 2009)

johnson18 said:


> Thanks! That is Cryptocoryne aponogetifolia. It recently had several leaves melt when the Anubias haustifolia had an old leaf die. It is an awesome Crypt, just not one you see often.
> 
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


kinda had a feeling it was. not often you see crypts that tall! have you given any thought to how you will handle trimming it when it reaches the left side of your tank? it will create a canopy affect as to light...

i'm in that situation now w/ my tank. hurts to think of hacking away at the bottom of a stalk. my best guess so far was to trim an end in the 'arrow' shape the ends grow naturally. 

we have similarly styled tanks. props!


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

trailsnale said:


> kinda had a feeling it was. not often you see crypts that tall! have you given any thought to how you will handle trimming it when it reaches the left side of your tank? it will create a canopy affect as to light...
> 
> 
> 
> ...




I️ will probably trim of older leave from the base. If you trim from the tip of the leaf you remove the meristem, and create an entry point for disease & such. This will cause the leaf to melt sooner rather than later, which might create a chain reaction with the leaves around it. When it comes to that point I️ May also just consider either extending the photoperiod or increasing light levels. Since I️ currently only run around a 6hr photoperiod, it wouldn’t be hard to just blast the tank with more light. 


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## The Dude1 (Jun 17, 2016)

That is some dense plant mass. How many pencil fish? Any chance that you get fry that survive? I don't know much about pencil fish. I had hoped I'd get some Emporer tetra fry to survive with as dense as the Bacopa, windolev java fern, and bolbitus are... but my numbers are somehow decreasing... no bodies.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

*Johnson18's Dirted 55gal - Added Apisto Pair &amp; Golden Pencilfish!!*

@The Dude1 There are 26 or 27 of the Nannostomus beckfordi in this tank. I’ve not seen any fry of the pencilfish, although I️ have seen plenty of breeding activity. I️ would be highly surprised if any survived. Especially with the number of hungry mouths that are in this tank! 


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## Raith (Jun 27, 2014)

I have been reading, and following this journey for two hours now, from the gradual rise, to a fall, and rising again. This blog is like a rollercoaster of excitement, and surprises. You have SOOOOOOOO many plants, what do you do when you prune it, RAOK?


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## BeeBop (Nov 4, 2017)

Very impressive tank. Your journal has been very educational for me. Keep up the great work.


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## The Dude1 (Jun 17, 2016)

I love this tank... I especially love that anubias in the center. Hastifolia?? I have one in my cichlid tank that I haven't gotten around to hooking up the C02, but I think they nibble on the fresh leaves. If i.wanted to incorporate it into another tank I would have to make room and then grow and trim for months before it looked decent.... so if you ever consider selling it please let me know. You don't come across nice big anubias like that often. That's years of perfect husbandry


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

*Johnson18's Dirted 55gal - Added Apisto Pair &amp; Golden Pencilfish!!*

Thanks guys! This tank has been seven years worth of learning. The Anubias in the center is actually an Anubias barteri var. coffeefolia. That was one of the first plants I purchased as when I got into planted tanks. It has grown across the back of the tank several times. When I moved across country in 2014 it was like 3’ long, there’s a pic of it somewhere way back in the journal. It currently runs all the way over the the filter intake on the right side of the tank, mostly covered by moss at such though. There are a couple foot long pieces stuffed back there as well. They all have roots grown down into the miracle grow, & all over the tank. 

I do have an A. haustifolia though, it is on the right side. It has about ten leaves right now but they are all fairly small. It’s about to explode in size quite soon. The plant has only been in the tank since maybe May(?)... the leaves that were on it were emersed grown, so they have pretty much all died since I got it. The plant came from Craig’s short-lived West African blackwater tank. 

Right now the tank is has a ton of random things floating. lol, it’s actually a bunch of leopard val, along with a couple other things. That stuff(leopard val) is growing like crazy. I’m actually digging it as a floater, being that close to the lights it is turning super red/pink! Absolutely beautiful right now! I know as soon as I plant it the color will disappear. 










I recently planted a few Eriocaulon sp. ‘Vietnam’. They are kind of randomly planted where ever I had room. I stuffed a few tiny stems of Ludwigia senegalensis in the “foreground” area. It was the place I thought it would get the most light. There are a couple new sets of leaves on each stem. 

Yesterday I changed the fixture to one of the Flexi-M T5HO fixtures that has better reflectors than my old Coralife. I also put new bulbs in it. I’m considering adding a second dual lamp T5HO fixture, for a short period during the photoperiod. I’m going to start with just increasing the length of the photoperiod. I’ve got an ATI Purple Plus bulb on the way & haven’t decided between the PowerVeg 633 or 660. We’ll see where it goes from here. 


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

After not seeing the adult female Apisto for a couple days, I found her dead this evening. Definitely a bummer! I’ll be keeping a close eye on the tank for the next week or two. I guess it’s a good thing I’ve got 10 juveniles who are growing rapidly. 

The stems already seem to be responding to the new bulbs. I’m borrowing a buddy’s PAR meter over the weekend to compare the old fixture & bulbs to the new one, just out of curiosity. 

Random picture from tonight. I’ve gotta get the floating leopard val planted somewhere, probably not in this tank though. 










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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

Just a few thoughts on the lights. 

While I am planning on adding a second fixture to the tank, I’m not planning to run it for a long period. Most of what I will be doing is simply lengthening the photoperiod, but not to more than 8 hours. I’m currently running a 6hr photoperiod. What I’m considering is extending the photoperiod by an hour or two, and running the second fixture for an hour or so in the middle of the photoperiod. 

The reason I want to add the second fixture isn’t just to increase PAR but to adjust the overall spectrum of light being provided to the plants in the tank. Part of this is basically me just being a curious plant scientist wanting to experiment with my plants. 

I’d like to get better growth from all the plants in the tank, while not having to take all of the slower growing plants, such as Anubias, ferns, & Crypts, out of the tank. I’m not trying to step this tank up to the high tech level of tanks like those of Burr, Slipfinger or Immortal. 

This is going to require me to actually start dosing fertz on a regular basis. I’ve got plenty of dry fertz. The CO2 injection into the tank will also have to be increased. Not an issue as I’m running a 15lb tank, so I won’t be worried about running out all the time. 

Do I start by bumping the photoperiod up with the single fixture? Or would it be better to keep the current photo period and add the second fixture for an hour in the middle? 

Thoughts? Suggestions? Ideas? Any thing I’m totally thinking about incorrectly? 


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## mbkemp (Dec 15, 2016)

I would keep the original photoperiod the same and add the other light in the middle. I would add an hour and then bump up in 30 minute increments 


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

Unfortunately, my schedule for work and school along with my back problems has left me with little time to maintain so many tanks. This one in particular has taken a beating. I'd say that it is fortunate that this happened prior to me adding the second fixture. Although, I do now have the bulbs for it which I will just stick in the back of the closet. The tanks that have less to trim are doing great. I can handle the water changes and a little trimming here and there. With that in mind, I'm going to be removing the majority of the stems from this tank. A few will stay but only the slow growers. I'd like to kind of back track a bit with this tank and bump up the number of aroids in it. I'll be increasing the number of random species of Anubias, Crypts, Lagenandra, and such. It'll still have CO2 running on it of course. The stems I've got left in the tank now will go into an emersed tank so that I've still got them. I see no point in selling them all off and having to repurchase them at a later date. The goal is to ensure that this tank continues to look good on a regular basis without requiring a couple hours of work every two weeks. I'll update more as I make progress.


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## The Dude1 (Jun 17, 2016)

johnson18 said:


> Unfortunately, my schedule for work and school along with my back problems has left me with little time to maintain so many tanks. This one in particular has taken a beating. I'd say that it is fortunate that this happened prior to me adding the second fixture. Although, I do now have the bulbs for it which I will just stick in the back of the closet. The tanks that have less to trim are doing great. I can handle the water changes and a little trimming here and there. With that in mind, I'm going to be removing the majority of the stems from this tank. A few will stay but only the slow growers. I'd like to kind of back track a bit with this tank and bump up the number of aroids in it. I'll be increasing the number of random species of Anubias, Crypts, Lagenandra, and such. It'll still have CO2 running on it of course. The stems I've got left in the tank now will go into an emersed tank so that I've still got them. I see no point in selling them all off and having to repurchase them at a later date. The goal is to ensure that this tank continues to look good on a regular basis without requiring a couple hours of work every two weeks. I'll update more as I make progress.


I went down that road too.. that's why my tanks are all ferns, crypts, and anubias. They look simply stunning once they fill in.. but it takes them alot longer to do so than the tanks with a large proportion of stems. That presents the other problem... adjusting C02 and ferts while your biomass accumulates... the tank can process ALOT less C02... and thereby alot less light. On my 150 I'm running the same bps as on my 75's... and by the end of the injection period my drop checker is BRIGHT yellow... but it never gets past lime green in the smaller 75 gallon tanks. I also need longer photo periods to enjoy the tanks. I have both LED fixtures on in my 150 for like 8 hours... then another 3 or so with just a single dimmer one. 
I would lengthen your photoperiod by an hour if everything is good now and add the other fixture for a middle period burst of 2 hours.

And I meant to ask you... my LFS has some Beckfords pencilfish... they have a bright red stripe and are really killer looking. They only got 3, but maybe ask them to get 20 more?? We're those the ones that weren't so hardy? I've got that single 4" Syno Euruptus that I haven't moved along with the coupe of smaller syno's in my 150. Right now I've got groups of Pristilla, Black phantom tetras, and have 20 Neons in QT. I think once the tank fills in it will still look good with so many different fish if they tend to group up (which they do now).
What do you think?


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

The majority of the tank is already Crypts, ferns, Anubias & the like. I’m not worried about any issues with removing & replacing the stems. I don’t run CO2 at 30ppm or ei dose. I’ve been through the whole range with this tank so I’m comfortable adjusting from up or down in levels of low to high tech. I’ve already got many of the plants that will replace the stems initially. 


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