# The Buce Crypt Mountain Tank Breakdown see last post



## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Hey everyone,

My girlfriend and I decided to go the cheaper route for now and use the tank that I had stashed away in the attic. (We were planning on buying a new 20 gallon long and making a stand) This is a 20 gallon high tank that my family has had for about 15 years or so. Its still in great condition silicone wise and holds water fine. See:










*Filtration*
Unfortunately the ancient HOB that went with it is not very conducive to planted tanks. Which gave me an excuse to order this from Bigals (they had a sale) $125 for a 2217, quite the bargain.










Now, I know what you are thinking, how in the world is this little 20 gallon going to contain all the flow from a 2217? Well I plan on more evenly dispersing the water with one of these (I ordered both) and throttling down my outflow by half.



















These are Eheim's versions of the stainless steel outflow pipes that people like so much, and better yet, they are only $10 a pop instead of $70. 

We also plan on adding a Cerges reactor to the system to help reduce the flow even more while adding diy CO2. I'll be going double bottling changing one every week. 

*Lighting*
We also wanted to have a good light fixture capable of handling a wide variety of options so we chose the Nova Extreme T5HO 2X24 Watt 24" freshwater fixture.










We plan on doing mostly crypts and sword species and perhaps a buce or two with anubias and moss. So we will probably only be using the 10k bulb to start off with. We'll see how it looks and see.

*Substrate*
Yesterday we had a lot of fun playing with dirt! We just started our mineralizing process for MTSoil and its looking good so far!










We will then cap it with this:










Pretty good buy 100lbs for $10.00

Plans!

So we are still very much in the works with this as far as layout and plants go:
We definitely want heavy root feeders to avoid the hassle of stem plants. I am very familiar with Crypts and sword species so we will probably do a bunch of those. (I've had my eye on E. Kleiner prinz, a big pocket of Ballansae, C. affinis metallic red, C. Wendtii Florida Sunset, and a big ole carpet of C. Parva(At least 15 pots worth, I want it lush, thankfully a 20 gallon high's foreground is rather small) and if I'm lucky some C. 'flamingo'. 

My girlfriend also wants some DW and rocks tastefully placed in their too.
(Its so awesome that she's into doing fish tanks with me) 

We are going to be doing a light EI dosing, with weekly or bi weekly water changes. I'm going for lowest maintenance high tech tank as possible. I'm thinking 7 day medicine organizer for fertilizers. So doing the weekly water change and fixing the food and medicine for the week should hopefully stay around 45 minutes of tank time only a week.

We haven't quite decided on fish, although starting with Neocaridina shrimp is a must. I reckon with all the over filtration we have and the predicted plant mass, that we will be able to fit quite a few fishies. :hihi:

Things Left to Buy

-Dry Fertz
-Dolomite, Muriate of Potash, and Clay
-Drop checker
-Pinch, Dash, and other irregular teaspoon measure tools.
-Plants
-Drift Wood
-Going to try and find rocks locally and give em a good vinegar soak.
-Maybe a hydor heater, we have several submersibles and I think I'd rather shell out money on my parva carpet than a heater. (If flow is too great with my eheim 2217 however, I will get a hydor just for the decreased flow).
-Still have to chug my 2 liters of coke for the reactors and get the airline hose.
-Also need to order 4 check valves for co2 and 1 T valve.

I reckon that's all for now folks!
I'll update it as we get closer to Easter and Spring break!
TTFN!
Please comment! I'll be happy to hear your opinions.
~Joshua


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

So I'm trying to decide on DW for the tank and I was wondering if anyone has good experience with collecting it locally, (besides manzanita(it doesn't grow down here)). I was thinking that perhaps live oak or water oak branches would be a good choice, I would debark it and give it a good boil and scrub first before putting it in the tank. What do y'all think?


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## TonyK (Aug 29, 2012)

Any updates? I want to know what the flow is like with that 2217 on the 20H. I have a 
20L that will have a 2217


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

TonyK said:


> Any updates? I want to know what the flow is like with that 2217 on the 20H. I have a
> 20L that will have a 2217


UPS stopped by to give me the little note saying that you wont get your package until Monday because we need your signature.... :/ But that's okay! 
So no right now I don't have the eheim set up yet, I will test it out as soon as I get the chance on Monday. I have a feeling that you will be fine with a 20L especially if you are going to use lily pipes, the longitudinal flow to the other side glass will decrease the overall system flow I'd imagine.

So good news folks, I got the tank and stand cleaned today! 4 hours, 1 window razor blade, 4 gallons of vinegar, and a pot scrubber later....










Here's a close up: (the heater, and the filter are just being tested, won't actually be used, same goes for the light fixtures)












I put some of my sand in ziplocks so that I can begin to see how I want to scape it and which plants and how many I want to go. I plan on having some Manzanita branches coming out of the rock pile heading towards the left. Behind that in the right corner will be 8 or 9 C. Ballansae plants. I plan on planting some C. retrospiralis in between some of the rocks in the rock pile for a neat look. I think I will shift the pile over a hair to the left and leave me some room for either C. Rosanervig or E. Aflame on the right.

Starting in the back left corner, I will have 4 C. Blassi
In the middle back I will have either E. Red rubin 'narrow' or E. Kleiner Prinz.
On the left midground in front of the Blassi I will have a pile of C. Pondertifolia. 
To the right of that will be a smaller pile of rocks / thicker piece of manzanita. In the very front I will have a massive carpet of C. parva.
Then surrounding the parva, I will have a few C. Nurii on to the left. C. Wendtii green gecko in the middle midground and then C. Willissi on the right midground.

Eventually when that all grows in, I will thin some out try to acquire some affinis metallic red, and perhaps some C. flamingo. 

I may start out with some Hygrophila Corymbosa instead of the sword plants just as a nutrient vacuum until the crypts get established.

Please shoot me some insights!


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## chew (May 18, 2012)

Did you get the eheim tubes from eheim replacement parts? If so do you remember the part number?


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

If you go to bigalspets.com, they have em listed as eheim outlet. Do a search on their site and it comes up, not sure of the part number. They are definitely a lot more bank friendly, even if they are green


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## sdaugherty (Feb 13, 2013)

Wow that tank really cleaned up nicely. I'm looking forward to the end product especially since I have a 29T I'm looking at re-doing as a planted tank.


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## Hardstuff (Oct 13, 2012)

I would choose another substrate. BGA loves to grow on that stuff. Just do a blue green algae search on u tube & you will see everybody using fine sand has the bga problem. Also you do not need to have a nutrient rich substrate if you dose EI method. This will help you cut costs. Flourite makes a decent high CEC cation exchange substrate that contains many minerals that the plants can grow on. It is not considered a nutrient rich substrate but it gets the job done for less money & maybe less nutrient leeching can mean less algae!!! Its all I use & I love the stuff. Its not fancy like eco complete but its good. Good luck new tanks are always exciting , just make sure to QT your fish before stocking your tank.


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

sdaugherty said:


> Wow that tank really cleaned up nicely. I'm looking forward to the end product especially since I have a 29T I'm looking at re-doing as a planted tank.


Thanks man, It probably won't be for at least another 2 months until its all planted, but I appreciate you looking! I'll update as I test things out.




Hardstuff said:


> I would choose another substrate. BGA loves to grow on that stuff. Just do a blue green algae search on u tube & you will see everybody using fine sand has the bga problem. Also you do not need to have a nutrient rich substrate if you dose EI method. This will help you cut costs. Flourite makes a decent high CEC cation exchange substrate that contains many minerals that the plants can grow on. It is not considered a nutrient rich substrate but it gets the job done for less money & maybe less nutrient leeching can mean less algae!!! Its all I use & I love the stuff. Its not fancy like eco complete but its good. Good luck new tanks are always exciting , just make sure to QT your fish before stocking your tank.



Its okay, I'll cross that BGA bridge if/when it comes. I've had planted tanks before and I like this method. I am really just having crypts and swords in the tank, so nutrient rich is more recommended for the growth and colors that I'm looking for. The EI dosing will be very minimal and really just there to supplement the moss and anubias. I've had flourite before and my girlfriend and I wanted something more natural looking. Thanks for the heads up with the BGA. I'll be ready with my H2O2 when the time comes  .


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## 10gallonplanted (Oct 31, 2010)

H202 is a life saver. Are you waiting on the top soil to finish mineralizing?


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Big Update!!

Had a lot of stuff happen recently!
Including the first orders of my plants, as well as getting the tank primed and ready to go!

I guess I'll start with the plants currently on their way!!!!  So pumped.

From CrazyDaz (such a swell guy):
C. Affinis "Metallic Red"
-Coming in not this but next wednesday or Thursday.

From Ghanzafar Ghori:
C. Nurii "regular compact"
C. Nurii "pahang mutated"
C. Pontederiifolia
-Coming in Wednesday or Thursday.

From chrisnif:
C. Wendtii "Green Gecko" (A nice big chunk)
-Coming in Thursday or Friday of this week. 

From sketch804:
C. Ballansae "red"
C. Lutea
-Coming in either this weekend or early next week.

Still waiting on ordering:
Bucephelandras
Christmas moss
20 pots of C. Parva for my carpet
A dozen C. Ballansae for my background
and some Hygrophila Corymbosa to keep the girlfriend happy 


On to more recent things...

My girlfriend and I have been looking for a good source of inert rocks and my pops brilliantly suggested that we try calling a marble and granite store to see if they would give us some granite scraps for cheaper than buying granite rocks from a landscaping store. So I called around and it turns out that no landscaping store has granite rocks period. But, at the granite countertop store we hit the motherload. They told us that we could fill up our 5 gallon bucket with as many scraps as we wanted. They had a huge pile the size of a large SUV all jumbled together of beautiful granite leftovers. We proceeded to smash many into more appealing shapes and look at what we got!



















We have so much stone, I really don't know what to do with it.
And the best part is, that everything you see there was jim dandy free! 
Thank you granite people!

Today's other main objective was to plumb up the tank... This took alot longer than anticipated.

My main system is run off of a eheim 2217 classic canister filter with a hydor inline heater (coming in the mail on Wednesday), cerges reactor, an inline reducing tee valve for the co2 inlet, and 2 extra inline ball valves for easy maintenance. After much planning and effort, I plan on having the inflow and outflow on the same left side (lily pipe style) and then have the water flow down into the canister up the right wall, into a suspended hydor heater, through the co2 inlet tee, and then down through a ball valve into the cerges reactor, through another ball valve and then out through the outflow.




























Full tank shot









We also put on some of that black window stick that you can easy peel it off. Looks good so far.

Other knicknacks,
-got 2 metal check valves
-got a glass dropchecker
-ordered the hydor inline 200w heater
-got all of my EI fertilizers in!
-got all the fertilizers for the dirt in!
-got a pair of 12" stainless steel tweezers

Tomorrow's objectives:
-rinse sand
-Mix dirt with fertilizers
-Come up with final rock scape and then put it all into the tank along with the dirt and sand to have everything ready for planting.
-Order driftwood pieces to be added later.
-Test out the plumbing and make sure everything works.


Let me know what you think!!
Joshua


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## TonyK (Aug 29, 2012)

I am waiting to see how the setup is. I'm especially interested in eheim pipes you will be using.


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Here's some new pics!

I got in some plants from Ghanzafar Ghori, and boy did he come through. He gave me way more than I bargained for and even some freebies.

Total I got:
At least 9 C. Nurii normal
3 C. Nurii "Pahang Mutated"
2 C. Ballansae
7 or 8 C. Ponterderiifolia

In the mail, I have coming:
C. Ballansae
C. Retrospiralis
C. Wendtii "green Gecko"
C. Lutea
C. Ballansae "red"
C. Affinis "metallic Red"
Hygrophila Corymbosa (Just to suck up nutrients, and well because my girlfriend really likes it).

I know I'm gonna have to do some picking and choosing... My tank looked soo much bigger when it didn't have plants in it lol.

So far so good.

I plumbed up my Canister to hydor heater, to cerges reactor back to tank. Its all working so far! No leaks yet!

Here's some pics of the tank with the polished granite in the tank.



















Tank with plants









C. Pontederiifolia









C. Nurii "pahang mutated"









C. Nurii Normal











Happy lookin!


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## fishboy199413 (Jan 20, 2010)

Wow your tank is really coming along! It looks great.


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Fauna list updated:

2 blue neon gobies
9 Cory Habrosus
12+ emerald Dwarf Rasboras (Microrasbora erythromicron)
and a gaggle of Supreme Red Cherries
Might try amanos if the cherries get eaten.

Thanks fishboy!


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## Coltonorr (Mar 12, 2008)

Nice piano!...its going to be cryptocoryne madness!


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## FisheriesOmen (Jan 14, 2012)

Looks really nice so far! I think a nice branching piece of driftwood on the left side would look pretty sweet. 

Also what's the mineralizing of the soil? I've never heard of anyone doing that before.

Good Luck!


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Coltonorr said:


> Nice piano!...its going to be cryptocoryne madness!


Thanks Coltonorr! I am going for a sort of Asianish stream look. I think the rasboras and the gobies along with a little school of corys is gonna look sick swimming in and out of your balansae!




FisheriesOmen said:


> Looks really nice so far! I think a nice branching piece of driftwood on the left side would look pretty sweet.
> 
> Also what's the mineralizing of the soil? I've never heard of anyone doing that before.
> 
> Good Luck!


I have driftwood on the way from Tom Barr!  I'm gonna put a few pieces coming down from the left corner back. Mineralizing the soil is a process of getting rid of the organics found in soil in order to more readily have the nutrients available to plants. It makes for really fertile silt underneath my sand that the crypts just love haha.

I'm excited fellas! I just got some C. Green Gecko in last night and I put it in the back right corner of the tank!


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Just as a quick disclaimer, I am aware that I have a problem.... I bought too many plants for my little 20 gallon to handle... but hey thats life haha. Just so you know I plan on taking all the pots out and planting a terricota basin with them to have a wabikusa of sorts outside and give it to my dad for his birthday. 

So without further ado, lets get to the fun part...

Over the last 2 weeks I've been getting plant packages in the mail like crazy:
Ghanzafar Ghori-
-C. Pontederiifolia
-C. Balansae (kind with red stem)
-C. Nurii "Pahang Mutated"
-C. Nurii "normal"

chrisnif-
-C. Wendtii "Green Gecko"

Ddavila06(from APC)-
-C. Retrospiralis

Coltonor-
-C. Balansae some with red stem, some without. (I purchase 10, but Coltonor wanted to give me a hard time, so he gave me closer to 15. which I didn't mind one bit  )
-A big mix bag
~I think a mix between Green gecko, and maybe some nurii.
-C. Wendtii "Mii Oya" - looks more like affinis "metallic Red" See pictures on bottom.

OVT-
-Hygrophila Corymbosa
-Hygrophila Corymbosa "Siamensis"

Sketch804-
-C. Balansae "Red" (Now that I see it, I'm not positive that its the rarer, red leafed variety, but I'll see, fingers crossed)
-C. Lutea, it was soo big lol... I was hoping for a nice foregroundish plant to put in between my rocks.... Yeah not gonna happen, these are each about 8 inches tall. ( I think I was thinking of C. Nevillii or C. Lucens.
-Stem Plant #1
-Stem Plant #2

Crazydaz-
-C. Affinis "Metallic Red"
-Hygrophila sp "Brown"
-"True" Dwarf Sagittaria



So in case you didn't notice, I have alot of plants in my wee little 20 gallon.

Warning- growout pots in tank Severely damage aesthetic appeal!


PPics

FTShot


Coltonor's Wendtii "Mii Oya" which looks like affinis to me?? Its a beaut either way.


C. Affinis "Metallic Red" -I've never owned any fish plant so red before :red_mouth .They were in spectacular condition with several runners!
That was really my issue with so many plants, most people gave extras. The people on this sight are so nice to deal with!



"True Dwarf Sagittaria" interspersed with my granite makes for a nice contrast.


C. Nurii "Normal"


C. Nurii "Pahang Mutated"



Hygro Brown on left, New Stem #1 in the middle and New Stem #2 on the right.


C. Ballansae Patch, This was after the major trim, I can't wait for it to really fill in. They earn their keep by hiding the filter well.




C. Pontederiifolia


Hygrophila Corymbosa with Siamensis being very small on the right hand side. Siamensis seems to get a redder stem.



Plumbing (Intake-->Canister-->Down hydor heater--> in comes co2-->House Filter-->eheim outflow wide pipe.)


Jello Yeast co2 Reactor set up


Final Front Tank Shot.


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Future Plans:
1. Take out the pots and jar as soon as the tank gets cycled. (I assure you, the granite meshes with everything much better that way) 
2. Get about 15-20 pots of parva to plant along the front middle going all the way to the right back. 
3. Adding some Driftwood as soon as my manzanita order comes in from Tom Barr.
4. I might pile the rocks up higher to where at least the back corner rock peeks over the C. ponterderiifolia.
5. Once the hardscape is finalized, I want to get several Anubias nana petites to go all over it.
6. Once everything is good and established, I'd like to get a few buces, but... thats just a dream 

Fauna plans:
-As soon as tank finishes its cycle, get Cherry shrimp.
-Then I'm going to get Dwarf Emerald Rasboras, probably around 12-15.
-After a few weeks as things settle in, I really want to get some neon blue gobies.
-I'd also like 8-9 Cory Habrosus.
And probably 1 or 2 Nerite Snails
and maybe 1 or 2 amano shrimp.

I know its asking alot, but I got an eheim 2217 on a 20 gallon for a reason 
(The cory cats and amano shrimp are optional. Definitely getting the rasboras and the gobies though. My girlfriend really likes those and they go well with the lower temperatures and high movement of my flow in the tank. My tap has a P.H. of about 7.5 so both of those fish worked out).

Let me know what you think,
Thanks,
Joshua


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Nerites ordered along with some C. Nevillii to go in between my granite slope!
Also ordered several varieties of fish flakes from Angels plus. I got the deworming kind, protozoan kind, immunity booster kind and then a couple of high quality protein mixes for a good "quarantine" of sorts. 

I also ordered 14 dwarf rasboras to ship in 2 weeks. I reckon my cycle will be finishing by then, if not then I will do a water change or 2 everyday until it does finish. These fish are Tiny so I don't think they will rock the system too hard. 
What do you think?
Thanks,
Pianofish


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## Coltonorr (Mar 12, 2008)

Nice! Going to be a crypt jungle in there once they all fill in!


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## Aquatic Delight (Mar 2, 2012)

I am digging that tank man  . but i have to ask why are you leaving the mii oya and the afinnis in the pot?


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Coltonorr said:


> Nice! Going to be a crypt jungle in there once they all fill in!


Thanks man! I think it'll be pretty cool in a few months once its all grown in! 




Aquatic Delight said:


> I am digging that tank man  . but i have to ask why are you leaving the mii oya and the afinnis in the pot?


Thanks man! I'ts in the pot mainly because I don't have my hardscape is finished yet. I have some Driftwood coming in this week and I want to get everything arranged before adding in any extra plants. It's mii oya in the pot though. All the affinis is planted. 



So a quick update. I had a very small ich outbreak in the tank, mostly due to the fact that I was still cycling the tank when I added a few LFS fish -> quickest route to sickness. So I've been treating the tank with maracide over the past 6 days and will continue to do so. I shut down my co2 and lowered my lighting period and stopped dosing however, but now that the initial outbreak is over, I think that I'm going to start adding the co2 back with the fertz. I took out the granite while dosing the tank, as granite is a very porous rock and readily absorbs liquids. I will dip them in vinegar to disinfect, and then soak them in plain water for a few days to allow any of the vinegar residue to soak out. So hopefully when its all said and done, in about 2 weeks, I should have my tank scape (which was largely already finished) back into place with some added driftwood.

I also have my order of 14X dwarf emerald rasboras coming in this week hopefully! I have my quarantine tank all primed and ready to go (10 gallon).

I also swapped my bulbs out for a geisseman mid day and aquaflora bulbs. They look pretty sweet and balance out alot nicer than my other ones.

I'm also in the process of starting an outdoor fish basin. My Dad's birthday is coming up in June and my mom isn't too keen on him having a fish tank indoors, so I thought that I would give him the next best thing. I bought two beautiful glazed pots, one probably about 10-15 gallons and another probably about 1 gallon and plan on sealing them both a then putting MTS and a sand/gravel mixture substrate with all the crypts in the unattractive pots that are currently in my tank as an experiment to see how they will fair out doors. Eventually I will put some Louisiana native sailfin mollies in there as they can bear the heat. The little one gallon will sit on the the rim of the larger bowl and have water pummped into it for a water fall/oxygenating effect. I will also put a sponge filter/air pump style in the little pot for filtration as well as further oxygenation.

Finals are coming up though so wish me luck!

~Joshua


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Time for an update!

Fish are here!!!
All 16 of my little wittle bittie emerald dwarf rasboras are here! They are soo tiny only about .75 cm long, but out of the 14 i bought, 16 survived  so not too shabby! Thanks to Dennis from Ball Aquatics.

I also moved several of the planted pots and jars over to the quarantine tank to provide some cover for the little guys, talk about they get spooked real easy. Now time for some deworming/ deprotozoan/ healthifying these little guys for the next 4 weeks.

I put all of the rocks back into place and fix the tank up nice. So really besides a few DW sticks coming from the back corner, the only other thing that I want to do with the scape is add several pots of C. parva as a carpet along the front and right sides. And then add some anubias nana petite in some of the rock crevices. But for the most part things just need some time to grow in.

Everything has been going really well with the tank lately, plants are pearling from my DIY co2 that is injected into my cerges reactor. I still have micro bubbles everywhere, but that doesn't bother me. I've been dosing EI style and doing WChanges once or twice a week.

Ich has completely gone away thanks to maracide! And I added nerites back to the tank. I took them out and put them in a planted jar inside of a ziploc bag on the side of the tank while treating them as maracide can potentially have bad effects on snails. They survived in a jar for 7 days just fine!

I'm really thinking about getting some Hara Jerdoni for the tank like maybe 4-5 of them and then 7-8 rosy loaches. Both of them would work with my Asian biotope look. 

Bringing the fauna up to:
16 - Dwarf Emerald Rasbora's (babies right now)
5 - Hara Jerdoni (hopefully for my birthday in May)
7-8 Rosy Loaches (hopefully for my birthday in May)

What do you think?

Pics!

FTS


C. Affinis "Metallic Red"


True Dwarf Sag


Either Ludwigia Repens x Ludwigia Arcuata or Rotala Macrandra variation.
Its kinda cool, you can see the transition period from the old tank to my tank by the green on the stem.



Drop Checker is all good!





Who doesn't like overhead pics?
C. Nurii "pahang mutated"









My little Dwarf Emerald Rasboras!


FTS


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## merritt1985 (Jan 16, 2013)

Love the last pic, looks really good. I've got 12 Rosy Loaches and love them there all over the place and not shy at all.


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## Dien16 (Feb 22, 2013)

Whats the plant in the front left the tall leaf ones


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

merritt1985 said:


> Love the last pic, looks really good. I've got 12 Rosy Loaches and love them there all over the place and not shy at all.


Thanks man, I was wondering about how they would act in a tank.  I'm debating on if I want more hara Jerdoni (mini catfishes) or the rosy's I may just do like 8 of each. If all I have are those two and the dwarf rasboras I think it'll look real sweet and that won't push my tank limits too much. Then in several months after the tank matures, I'll add a pair of gobies.




Dien16 said:


> Whats the plant in the front left the tall leaf ones



Thats some Cryptocoryne Ballansae on the very left and a few Cryptocoryne Retrospiralis as you get closer to the leafy stems. Its quite the cool plant, gets very long and leafy and has a nice texture.


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## merritt1985 (Jan 16, 2013)

I'd vote rosys they are awesome little fish to be so tiny. Plus there in season right now seems like everyone has them couldn't find the at all a month ago


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

merritt1985 said:


> I'd vote rosys they are awesome little fish to be so tiny. Plus there in season right now seems like everyone has them couldn't find the at all a month ago


I vote them too haha.
I just sent my order in to Ms. Rachel (Msjinkzd) and if all goes well I should be having:

9 hara jerdoni's
9 rosy loaches
3 amano shrimp
8 ottos

all coming in the mail for this Wednesday!

Since I don't have any fish that I plan on keeping currently in this tank, I will just put the new fish into the main tank directly. I don't mind treating the whole tank as its only 20 gallons if I have to. Msjinkzd does an extensive quarantine with all of her fish and I will monitor them closely in the tank.

I think though that I will still quarantine the emeralds in the 10 gallon for a few more weeks being that they are so tiny, I want to fatten them up first before plopping them in the 20 gallon with all the other fishes.

And I decided that I will wait quite a while for this tank to mature before adding any gobies to the tank. I'll see how I like these fish and I may just end up having these 4 schoals which is quite alright with me.

Plants are all growing well and I haven't had any big problems yet.


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## Chaoslord (Feb 12, 2011)

Looking good.

Hara jerdoni was my favorite cat. I didn't know mszinkzd had them. I might have to get them again.


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Chaoslord said:


> Looking good.
> 
> Hara jerdoni was my favorite cat. I didn't know mszinkzd had them. I might have to get them again.


Well I ended up getting cory habrosus instead of hara's, but thats A okay with me! I'm super pumped!

Time for a few new Updates!!

I am now the proud owner of
13 rosy loaches
12 cory habrosus
8 ottos
3 Dario Hysginon
8 amano shrimp
16 danio erythromicron

Thanks Msjinkzd!!!!!!

Plans are to have in the 20 gallon:
13 rosy loaches
12 cory habrosus
4 amanos
16 danio erythromicron
9 nerite snails

In the 10 gallon:
4 amano shrimp
3 Dario Hysginon
8 ottos



I plan on trying my hand at breeding the darios over the summer  Eventually it would be cool to have a few breeding trios in there.

For now though I have everything from my most recent batch of orders in my 10 gallon for quarantine:
8 cory's
9 rosys
6 ottos
4 amanos
3 dario hysginon

I'll probably wait a couple of weeks before I add everything to each tank. Mostly because I have a lot of aquascaping to do with the 20 gallon.

I've been thinking that I don't really like the large rock formation all that much. Its very closed off and most of the fish liked to hide behind it.
This coupled with the fact that I have a box full of great manzanita from Tom Barr. So i've been working on a few scapes and would like some opinions. I would like to go for something with more long term pleasing natural look. So i've been thinking that a sort of sloped branchy hill will look pretty cool with some of my smaller bits of granite pressed closeby. Here are a few examples:

1st scape


2nd scape


3rd scape


4th scape


4th scape variation


Which do you like best?? My favorite is scape 4 and its variation. I was thinking something like that one with maybe a few branches pressed into the sand to look like roots, and some moss on the tips of the branches and buces all along the base.

I would put it starting to the left side going to the right as shown in the pics.



I am also going to replant everything in the front to accomodate the new scape when I put it in. That way I don't have to tailor the hardscape just for the plants placement.

I'm going to keep playing with the scapes for now and see if I can come up with something truly spectacular.


----------



## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Here are a few pictures of the fish.

Rosy's in the 10 gallon


Sneaky Dario Hysginon


Rosy posin' in the 20 gallon


Everyone having fun in the 10 gallon


One of the bigger rosy's


Male Dario lookin all swoll


FTS


Left


Right




In the left picture you can really see the sloping effect going on in the tank! I plan on using this to my advantage with my scape setup! I'm super pumped to put this all together. Please give me feedback on this leg of my fish tank journey!!


----------



## crazydaz (Mar 18, 2007)

Looks like a really great start, and it's encouraging to see all the crypts doing well!! Nice work!

In terms of hardscape, I would express a little concern about adding too much. Yes, the wood is from The Great Barr, but he would certainly agree that sometimes "less is more." I wouldn't put all of those branches in there; you will create an eyesore and draw attention away from the crypts. Hardscape should compliment the tank, not demand attention. Besides, taking a few branches out will give the buce's more room to grow and make it look more natural.

Of course, it is difficult to really comment with much certainty until I see the wood next to, or in front of, the tank for perspective. "Branchy-er" is the best way to go, and I would probably start on the left and trail it off to the right.

My two cents, at least.


----------



## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

crazydaz said:


> Looks like a really great start, and it's encouraging to see all the crypts doing well!! Nice work!
> 
> In terms of hardscape, I would express a little concern about adding too much. Yes, the wood is from The Great Barr, but he would certainly agree that sometimes "less is more." I wouldn't put all of those branches in there; you will create an eyesore and draw attention away from the crypts. Hardscape should compliment the tank, not demand attention. Besides, taking a few branches out will give the buce's more room to grow and make it look more natural.
> 
> ...



So I really have been thinking about what you said about making it more branchier and less piling. I've also read one of amano's articles about driftwood placement and have been really researching different styles of dw placement. And without further ado here is what I've come up with. I'm really happy with it and I think that I'll really enjoy planting with it and be able to really enjoy it for years to come. I boiled the wood pieces and should be putting it all together next week sometime!

I also made a sketch with my vision for the future when it grows out.  Its all I could do to superimpose the wood in relation with the tank.








So as a description for the sketch.

Everything outlined is a piece of hardscape.
Essentially , I plan on pulling out everything in the front of the tank except for the Crypt Affinis 'Metallic Red'. Other than that, I plan on replanting most of the plants around this hardscape to make it look more natural and create that "nature just took over" look  The stems in the back middle are Hygro corymbosa and Hygro sp "brown". All along the middle DW branch will be Buce. Lamandau purple. Behind that will be Buce. Golden Bell. And behind that forming the bush infront of the stems will be Buce. Bukit Betung.

All of my buces are putting out baby plantlets so I should be able to get a good start on the placement.

My buce inspiration: 

Credit to Ragn4rok, (I'll take down the pic if you don't want me to have it posted here.)

Lastly, on the tips of the DW, i plan on trying out different species of moss. Maybe fissidens on the bare right two in the sketch.

Lemme know what you think,
Cheers!!!


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Fish List:

12 Rosy Loaches
12 Cory Habrosus
17 Danio Ethyromicron
4 Amano shrimp
7 Nerite Snails

I just want to say that I love Rosy Loaches and Cory Habrosus!!!! Definitely some of the coolest fish I've ever ran across!


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

Oh man, how did I miss this?!? Looking good! I like your drawing of what you would like the grown in tank.


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## crazydaz (Mar 18, 2007)

Looks like a nice plan, Joshua. Fissidens is a beautiful moss, and would add a nice, soft touch after it takes. I hate the idea of you ripping up all of the crypts and starting over, but it'll be worth it in the long run. Just watch your algae.....many tanks can get crapped out following a major makeover!


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Yeah man, ill make sure to change out my co2 and reduce the photo period just a hair to accommodate the plant growth stunt. I'm really excited though to actually be able to do this rescape. I'm seeing great results with my tank so far and I think that this will really add a fresh element to it. I've never had a tank suitable for mosses and buces before so I'm really looking forward to the challenge.
I'm also ready to get all of my fish out of quarantine an into my tanks. They are all in a tiny 10 gallon that I do weekly water change on. But it's so sad seeing so many fish in such a tiny place, haha. 

The date for the rescape is Thursday! So wish me luck!!


----------



## sumer (Feb 6, 2010)

I have always wanted to make a crypt tank.
Wonderful tank there


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## ChadRamsey (Nov 3, 2011)

nice looking crypt tank bud!roud:


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

sumer said:


> I have always wanted to make a crypt tank.
> Wonderful tank there


Thanks man! I really do love crypts. They are very slow, but are much more managable than stems in my opinion. I'm actually looking to phase out the Hygro brown I have and replace them with larger Bucehphalandra varieties. I have a big portion of some mystery Buces coming in this week, along with a few other goodies for my rescape. So I'm pretty pumped. My goal is going to eventually be to have a tank like those Indonesians!!! One day!!!! One day.... 




ChadRamsey said:


> nice looking crypt tank bud!roud:



Thanks Chad,
Its coming along quite nicely. I can't wait to get all of my hardscape situated this week so that I can start filling in the gaps with more Buces haha. I'm thinking equal portions crypt and Buce. 



So on a side note,
I have 2 portions of Fissidens coming in this week, as well as some Anubias Micro/Petite. And also Buce "green Lamandau", and then the aforementioned big portion of a mystery Buce from Wwh2694. I'll probably be rescaping tomorrow, and then adding to it throughout the week as plants get here.

Thanks for looking guys!
Joshua


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Rescape day!!!!


----------



## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Mission success. Update to follow!


----------



## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

pianofish said:


> Mission success. Update to follow!


The suspense is horrible! lol. We want an update already! ;p


----------



## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Awe, shucks, I'll see about some pics later today


----------



## sumer (Feb 6, 2010)

Hey,
I just noticed that you have Dario hysginon in there. Great. What are you feeding them ? Are they taking frozen or dry stuff ?
Hows there temperament in your tank ? Are they shy ?

Thanks.


----------



## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

sumer said:


> Hey,
> I just noticed that you have Dario hysginon in there. Great. What are you feeding them ? Are they taking frozen or dry stuff ?
> Hows there temperament in your tank ? Are they shy ?
> 
> Thanks.



Hey man,
They are great fish! I'm currently trying to breed them in my 10 gallon quarantine tank. But they are doing fine. I feed them a mixture of hikari sinking mini pellets, frozen brine shrimp, and also freezedried blood worms. I plan on trying to add some special flake food later as well. They are shy right now, being that I have 28 fish in a 10 gallon for quarantine, but the male seems pretty sociable, so I don't forsee any problems. Very tiny though. About the size of a dwarf cory. 



So now time for that update!

After alot of pondering and thinking for several weeks, I've finally finished a scape that I really like and plan on enjoying for the next several years. So without further ado, here's the pics.












This C. Balansae has leaves that are like 1 inch across! Crazy right?



This little guy enjoys the new wood!



Updated C. Affinis 'Metallic Red" patch


Sold my bigger C. Nurii "pahang mutated" but still have 2 nice plantlets growing!



New mystery buces that came in today. Still trying to track down an ID for them.


Buce purple Lamandau






So overall I really like this scape, I finally got a good angle with the substrate for a deeper hilly sort of effect. I think that I got a good driftwood setup without it being too "busy". And I tried my hardest to place the buces in a more natural, "nature just took over" kind of fashion. Mainly I didn't want to distort the beautiful look of the driftwood. So Essentially I placed them over about an hour and a half period trying to keep the main line of the driftwood visible so that the buces don't really stick out, but more flow. In a 20 gallon tank though, this was quite hard, as just about anything you stick in the tank sticks out, but I did my best.

My buce "golden Bell" is doing very very well and has about 7 babies branching off of the main shoot. I plan on allowing those babies to get a bit bigger and then cutting them when they are large enough. Thats why its leaning against the driftwood at the bottom right. I also plan on finding a better location for that Buce. Bukit betung. I'm not a huge fan of its location, but I want to let it grow out a little more before finding it a permanent home.

I can't express enough though, how excited I am that I got that sloped substrate look going on. I plan on vacuuming out even more of the front glass sand to give an even bigger slope impression.

I have the fissidens and anubias micro and a buce lamandau green coming in tomorrow, so I hope to tastefully apply some of the fissidens to the branch tips in particular the far right and far left ones. I ended up using super glue to attach the buces and it seems to be holding well so I think that I will continue using that method for really sticking the buces to the well... sticks 


Cheers!
Joshua


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Here are two pics that better illustrate the sloping hill, Its hard to get the lighting right on an iphone with that white sand and bright lights.


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## Scottyhorse (Mar 13, 2013)

Very nice! It looks nice and natural, but not messy. I like it a lot


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

I feel that the left side of the driftwood in the back, on the rightside of the balansae looks pretty bare. I'm gonna see about getting either C. cordata Rosanervig, or maybe Meelboldi pink to fill it in. Thoughts?


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## sumer (Feb 6, 2010)

looks great. I really like your DW which is on the bottom. 
And I think I have what you are looking for. I dont know if I have baby plants or not but I'll try to find.


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## synaethetic (Oct 4, 2011)

Very natural looking! good job


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

sumer said:


> looks great. I really like your DW which is on the bottom.
> And I think I have what you are looking for. I dont know if I have baby plants or not but I'll try to find.


Thanks man! I ended up finding a bunch of Rosanervig from another fella! But if they don't work out. I'll hit you up haha!



synaethetic said:


> Very natural looking! good job


Thanks synaethetic! Its still very much a work in progress, but overall i'm really pumped about the hardscape. 


Small update:

Added Fissidens to a bunch of branches. Also added Buce Green Lamandau and Anubias "Micro" (AKA super tiny variety of nana petite). 

I've also ordered a few Crypt cordata rosanervigs to fill in that gap on the left side of the tank between the balansae and the driftwood. I'll post pics later this week once the Rosanervig gets in.

Thanks for looking!
Joshua


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Found out that my mystery buces are Buce "Brownie Red" !! Pretty pumped about that!


----------



## tdw1989 (Jul 2, 2012)

where did you get your bruces


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## h4n (Jan 4, 2006)

Pictures when your done!

-Sent from my Samsung Note, a "Phablet"


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## OVT (Nov 29, 2011)

Talk about progress in 3 short months.

via Droid DNA Tapatalk 2


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

tdw1989 said:


> where did you get your buces


Hey man, 
I've been getting them from all over. I got several from AzFishKid. He probably has the most extensive collection in the US that I'm aware of. I also got a few from random for sale adds on the swap and shop. I also got 1 from H4n here too. Unfortunately they aren't cheap, be prepared to shell out alot more than other plants. I saw it as an investment, because now my tank has a pretty self sustaining budget where I can trade or sell some of my expensive plants as they reproduce in order to acquire other plant species. 




h4n said:


> Pictures when your done!
> 
> -Sent from my Samsung Note, a "Phablet"


Will do sir! I'm diggin that fissidens man, It looks sick! As soon as I get a chance to snap a few you will be the first to know. Hows the purple lamandau and the metallic red recovering?




OVT said:


> Talk about progress in 3 short months.
> 
> via Droid DNA Tapatalk 2



Thanks OVT! I think progress for now is going to just continue on for a while and allow things to grow in and reproduce. Eventually I want my buce to TAKE OVER THE WORLD.... I mean take over my tank... yeah thats it. 

I still have your Hygro bee tee dubs, just chopped it really short to make it more manageable during the big rescape. They are gonna look real good once they get some height.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

How is the tank looking a couple weeks after the rescape?


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Its looking good, but is not picture worthy at the moment. My eheim impellar shaft broke this morning while I was cleaning it, so I ordered a new shaft, but I have to see if maybe tonight I can kind of jerry rig my filter with the broken shaft. Tank wise, everything is doing great. A little diatoms here and there, but I suspect that it was due to a REALLy dirty eheim that I haven't cleaned in the past 3 months. The flow was cut back substantially.

If worst comes to worst and I can't get the eheim to work until the new shaft comes in. I'll just toss as much media as possible into a HOB and keep the bacteria and the fish alive with that.

Sorry I haven't had pics in a while. Work has been busy.


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Finally fixed the eheim with replacement shaft. I got two this time just in case I ever have this incident again. Eheim works sooo much better having cleaned it all out. And all of the fish survived the ordeal that I can tell. Its hard to count numbers when you have 37 fish...
Everything is doing great though. I got my co2 plumbed back up and everything is working great.

And... Great news! I have a co2 setup coming my way. And I think I may have found a nice 20lb tank! Granted it is a crappy milwaukee setup, but at the same time, it will be loads better than DIY. I got it used, so I only paid half price. And if it does crap out on me eventually, oh well. Not a huge investment. 

I'm pretty pumped though, because this means I can finally add my second bank of t5 lights, and get some sweet, dense plant growth!
Huzzah!


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Pressurized co2... More info to come


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Here's my tank 3 almost 4 months down the road. Alot has changed since the beginning  


4/5/2013










4/12/2013


5/22/2013


6/07/2013


Today 7/24/2013




And here comes the rest of the tank pics, get ready its a bunch of em!






Its feeding time and the little ones are hungry





Plant pics:

Bucephalandra lamandau purple


More lamandau purple


Anubias nana petite"/"micro" not sure which yet. still micro 



Bucephalandra "golden Bell" 
Started off as 1 plant and here it is only 2 months later.


Bucephalandra Bukit Betung


Cryptocoryne Affinis "Mettalic Red" Probably my favorite plant.


The poor poor fissidens, finally starting to come back after a H202 treatment for hair algae. I'm revvin up the co2 to hopefully combat that.


Bucephalandra Brownie Red


Here it is with the flower pearling 




Cryptocoryne Nurii "regular"



Right now I'm still dosing EI with co2 about 1.5 bubbles per sec, probably gonna go up to around 2.25 and increase my lighting. I'm adding 2 t5no in addition to my 2 t5ho.

I also have two new additions coming soon!! 

Thanks for looking,
Joshua


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

Looking good man!


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

1 of the additions has arrived! A Cryptocoryne flamingo baby! Poor thing melted overnight. Hoping that the crown has enough juice to kick start back up. :/ I also put root tabs everywhere in the tank yesterday, and I've begun dosing extra potassium to help out with holes in leaves, so that in addition to the pressurized co2 and new bank of t5no lights plus my old t5hos should have everything running pretty smoothly!


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

I ended up changing up a few things.

First, I just acquired several new plants. 
Erio Cinereum
Erio Parkeri
Elatine Hydropiper

Erio Sulawesi
Cryptocoryne Cordata Rosanervig-> the real strain that keeps its pink in high and low light

and Clinopodium Brownei-> Underwater mint

I also sold all of my Cryptocoryne Wendtii Green Gecko to make room for the new additions. It must have been at least 30+ plants that I pulled out. Talk about muddy up the water. But I got it cleaned up.

Here are the pics. Enjoy





True Dwarf Sag


Bucephalandra Lamandau purple, is such a sweet looking plant!


Anyone know what that goop in the top left corner is? I got it as a freebie with an expensive plant purchase and I think that its the "Red moss/algae' that people have been talking about lately.


Erio Parkeri



Buce Golden Bell + Cryptocoryne flamingo


Crypt Flamingo, it melted. But the rhizome is still green, so there is hope! Its the little pink sprig in the middle. 


Erio Family


Erio Sulawesi


Elatine Hydropiper, a little rough after transport




Cryptocoryne Cordata Rosanervig!!!
Surrounded by Clinopodium Brownei


Its my girlfriend's plant haha.
Pic when I first planted it.



Let me know what you think,
Joshua


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## Phil Edwards (Jul 18, 2003)

Being a huge fan of Aroids I love this tank! The dark colors of the plants and wood contrast nicely with the light substrate. It's got a very natural feel to it. Looking forward to the future.


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## crazydaz (Mar 18, 2007)

It's turning out really nicely! I love the progress of this system, and am interested to know how that Flamingo turns out!


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Phil Edwards said:


> Being a huge fan of Aroids I love this tank! The dark colors of the plants and wood contrast nicely with the light substrate. It's got a very natural feel to it. Looking forward to the future.


 Thanks Phil! Appreciate the kind words. I really like crypts and fell in love with Aroids soon after, so it is the culmination of lots of trial and error and hard work. Also lots of generous hobbyists very ready to lend a helping hand. *Cough Cough* crazyday *cough cough* haha.



crazydaz said:


> It's turning out really nicely! I love the progress of this system, and am interested to know how that Flamingo turns out!


Thanks a bunch Don! I took my inspiration from your tank and ran with it, and here's where I landed. I'm quite content. Just gotta get rid of this last bit of algae, although I guess thats a constant battle.


I did add a koralia 425 powerhead today. And boy does that baby move water. I had a bad deadspot in the front left corner underneath my lilypipe outlet and So I put the koralia in the back left shooting towards the front and it provides the last oomph that my system needed for a full filtration. 


So the answer to the age old question is: No 1 eheim 2217 classic is not enough flow full blast for a heavily planted 20 gallon with inline reactor and inline heater.

Everything is looking good. Already see some growth on some of the Elatine Hydropiper! roud:


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## BoxxerBoyDrew (Oct 16, 2005)

REALLY COOL TANK!!!

Love the type of plants you have scaped with!

Buces are freakin' awesome, Erios are too, and I will ALWAYS LOVE Crypts!!!

WOW those fish are soooooo small!!! I thought Otos were hard to find in my 55g, I don't think you would ever find them in anything larger than your 20! They sure are cool little guys though! After seeing them in the 20g I now under stand how you can have them with shrimp and not have to worry!

I am subscribed, and can't wait to see it grow in even more!!!
Drew


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

BoxxerBoyDrew said:


> REALLY COOL TANK!!!
> 
> Love the type of plants you have scaped with!
> 
> ...


Thanks alot man!
I really appreciate the compliments! I'm really diggin the erios as well, like little sea urchins but made of leaves haha.

O yeah, I have 2 ottos in my 20 gallon and I only see them once ever couple of days. haha.


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## Dugsul808 (Jul 30, 2012)

Very nice buces you got there, I wish mines were as great as yours. Keep up the work! I believe you tank will look amazing with more progress


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Thank Dugsul!

Yeah I'm still struggling getting algae under control though. But I just added a Koralia powerhead so hopefully that mixed with a little spot treating, and increased co2 should help things out a bit.


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

So I did the "Algae one, two punch" on Sunday night, as BBA and diatoms had started to get pretty bad. I vacuumed as much diatoms as I could and then took out the filter media then dosed 2 tbsp per 10 gallons while running the empty filter and the powerhead to get an even distribution throughout the entire tank. Then I did a 60% water change and added the filter media back. Then I dosed the initial dose of excel 5ml per 10 gallons I believe. Some of the algae turned reddish yesterday. Here's for hoping that more dies as we go this week. I may repeat the treatment this Sunday depending on the success rate. Everything is growing well. However, only 2 nodes of Elatine Hyrdopiper survived the shipping transition. Hopefully it will come back...


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## peachii (Jun 1, 2013)

That cordata rosenivarg is probably the best looking crypt I have ever seen and it has pink!! It just went up to the very top of my list (bumped down nurii a spot), going to have to chatter non-stop to the boyfriend about it until he lets me get one. -completely just fell in love-


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

peachii said:


> That cordata rosenivarg is probably the best looking crypt I have ever seen and it has pink!! It just went up to the very top of my list (bumped down nurii a spot), going to have to chatter non-stop to the boyfriend about it until he lets me get one. -completely just fell in love-


Its my girlfriend's favorite too haha, you're not alone.  If I have any babies in the next couple of months, I'll let you know!!


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Tank was in for a major cleaning today. I've been having problems with brown hair algae the past couple of weeks. I've since upped my co2, did the algae one two punch and started dosing excel for the next week to nip it all in the butt. 

Before pic:



After pic:



And here are some tank pics. Everything is growing in pretty well!. Just gotta get this last bit of algae under control. 



FTS


Left


Right




Loach on Moss


DaBucey Driftwood Island


Lots of healthy growth on my "True Dwarf Sag"


Buce Lamandau Purple


Buce Brownie Red


Erio Sulawesi+ Cryptocoryne Flamingo stub


This is a slowly reviving Cryptocoryne Flamingo, It just started to get a brighter green  !!!!!



Cryptocoryne Affinis "Metallic Red"


You can see the baby plantlets forming from the shoots


Crypt Cordata Rosanervig going strong, with Clinopodium Brownei in the background, went through the submersed transition flawlessly.





Buce Bukit Betung


Buce Golden Bell - I split it up into all the baby plantlets and got about 6 new plants from the mother plant. 


Erio Sulawesi




The one surviving node of Elatine Hydropiper!


Fish protecting the begining of the hydropiper carpet 



What do you think??
Joshua


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## austin.b (Feb 9, 2012)

wow! Ive been following since the beginning and just wanted to say your tank looks awesome! 

I do have a question though, whats the current pH? :biggrin:


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

austin.b said:


> wow! Ive been following since the beginning and just wanted to say your tank looks awesome!
> 
> I do have a question though, whats the current pH? :biggrin:


Thanks man, its definitely coming along. I still can't wait for the day when my fissidens will completely fill out haha. 

My ph without co2 is 7.4-.5 outta the tap. I'm not sure how much of a dip I get when my co2 is on however.


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## austin.b (Feb 9, 2012)

pianofish said:


> Thanks man, its definitely coming along. I still can't wait for the day when my fissidens will completely fill out haha.
> 
> My ph without co2 is 7.4-.5 outta the tap. I'm not sure how much of a dip I get when my co2 is on however.


That might be a little while, but the co2 will definitely help you out! lol definitely looking forward to the fissidens.

Oh wow, thats great. I cant wait to pickup some erios now, hopefully they'll look as great as yours!


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## Ebi (Jun 29, 2011)

Crypt Cordata Rosanervig...

You're one leaf ahead of me, but I have a new leaf shooting out so i'll be tied soon 

Im glad im not the only one who believes we have the true strain that keeps its pink veins 










How is your Cordata doing?


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

austin.b said:


> That might be a little while, but the co2 will definitely help you out! lol definitely looking forward to the fissidens.
> 
> Oh wow, thats great. I cant wait to pickup some erios now, hopefully they'll look as great as yours!


Fissidens is doing much better I must say.
Good luck with the erios, theyre real interesting plants.



Ebi said:


> Crypt Cordata Rosanervig...
> 
> You're one leaf ahead of me, but I have a new leaf shooting out so i'll be tied soon
> 
> ...



My cordata is doing great! I currently have 2 strains of it in the tank. One is doing bleh, but they one you are refering to is doing great. Its still retained its pink veins, however, the most recent leaf that just came out is a bit duller than the rest. We will see. Its only put out like 2 leaves since it was planted, so it could still just be settling in. I do believe that the strain I have is a strong one.

Here's two of the most recent pics. Pre trim and post trim. Oh yeah and I removed the Ballansae and added more stem plants. 


Pre Trim


Post Trim



Ballansae when I took it out. 4 feet long lol.


Also added 7 BN plecos. Tank looks loads better.


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## hedge_fund (Jan 1, 2006)

Love the tank


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## Bserve (Nov 4, 2012)

Wow, it's so much better than before even


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

hedge_fund said:


> Love the tank


Thanks Hedge,
Its like a mini slice of yours haha. I wish I had all that depth to play with. Must be fun 
But I agree, I'm loving this tank too.



Bserve said:


> Wow, it's so much better than before even


Thanks Bserve! I think so as well.


I thought that the Ballansae was a beautiful plant, however, it was a real eyesore in person. It took all of the attention away from the crypts and buces down below.

Also as I've been struggling with gobs of filementous diatoms over the past few weeks, I decided to,
1. Monitor my co2 more closely-> resulted in noticeably more pearling

When I took out my Ballansae, the koralia powerhead was no longer needed, so:
2. Decreased my flow without the powerhead-> resulted in more relaxed fish and an increase in plant growth.
3. Added Cherry shrimp, dario hysignon, and 7 BN plecos - 6 longfin browns and 1 short fin L-144. -> resulted in a lot more activity, and a noticeably cleaner tank at the end of the week! 

So in short, fingers crossed that tank maintenance due to diatoms will now be decreased. 

Also thinking about selling off all of my true dwarf sag and replacing it with Elatine Hydropiper. I like the grass, but its a bit too tall for the area I want carpetted. Guess I'll need to do another for sale add.

Fissidens has finally started growing much more lush! Thank you lil shrimps!
Also added several new species of stem plants to the tank.

Ludwigia Palustris 'red'
Persicaria 'Kawagoeanum' 
Persicaria 'Sao Paulo' 
Ludwigia Senegalensis 
Ludwigia glandulosa 
Rotala bangladesh
Rotala 'Mini Butterfly'
Alternanthera reineckii var. Ocipus
Murdania sp. red

I realize that's alot, but I want to try and see which ones I like the best and then consolidate later... maybe? :hihi:


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Made quite a few changes to the tank recently. 
I've condensed my plant list a good bit and done a big trim recently, so it'll be at least another week before I post new pics, but I'll describe a few of the more recent changes.
I sold my A. Reineckii var. Ocipus (just didn't like my harder water) also sold Murdania sp. red (beautiful plant, but my tank's not big enough to be able to appreciate it.

So instead, I moved all the stems around alot. Going for a slightly Dutchish look. I have the Driftwood Island still as the main focus, but I've grouped my stems into denser clumps, which helps the tank to look a little more well thought out and also further focuses the attention on the island. 

I'll go ahead and describe the tank as if I had photo's to make sense of them.
Back left corner I have a big clump of Rotala Bangladesh, in front of that in another clump I have "True" Rotala Indica (aka ammania sp bonsai), and in front of that I have Rotala mini pearl type II . I figured these smaller stems would help the appearance of depth in my tank by allowing more number of stems in smaller spaces. I ended up pulling out all of my Crypt Pontederiifolia on the front left so that I could make room for the R. type II. It will also allow me to better showcase my Cryptocoryne Ferruguinea in the front once it grows in more.

Behind the island. I will have a nice bush of Persicaria 'Kawagoeanum' and 'Sau Paulo'. Next to this will be Rotala mini butterfly which will taper to the right side leading to a nice bush of Clinopodium Brownei, with A. Reneickii 'Variagated' at the very right back corner. 

So basically all of the background and the left side of the tank will be composed of stems. Before my trim this past week, things really did look quite nice and lush. I've reduced my lighting period down to about 8 hours until things start to bounce back and then I'll slowly increase it back up. 

And guess what ya'll? Fissidens has FINALLY adapted to my tank and grown in! It is lush and fluffy and exactly what I wanted it to be. I'll probably have to trim it soon. I just wish I could get rid of the occasional tuft of BBA without killing the fissidens.


I've also started an experiment with my Cryptocoryne Affinis "Metallic Red".
After selling some of my trimmins, I purchased one of those glass planter orbs that attach to the side of the tank. Yesterday I put a nice layer of Mineralized Topsoil, peat, grohumate and grosoil root tabs, dolomite, muriate of potash, and clay into the bottom of it and capped with some sand and planted a single Cryptocoryne Affinis "Metallic Red". My experiment is that I would like to see I can slowly adapt it putting out leaves at the surface and hopefully encourage it to flower. and perhaps adapt to Louisiana normal air eventually and just have the roots under water. We will see. Right now the plant is about 2-3 inches under the surface of the water. I will slowly move it up as it establishes itself in the planter.

I'm pretty sure that's just about everything. Overall, I"m quite pleased with all of my plants, and now having gotten everything the way I want it, I'm just going to hunker down with the plants I have and focus on growing them really really well. Essentially, instead of pushing to see how many and what kind of varieties I can have; i'll push to see just how good I can get the ones that I have to grow, in both lushness and quickness. It'll give me a good chance to stay disciplined in the hobby and a better chance to work on my patience. I think I may even stop foraying the for sale adds in the forums just so I'm not tempted. 

I'll post pics once things grow in a little better.
Thanks for reading,
Joshua


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## Scottyhorse (Mar 13, 2013)

Really like the tank. I have a question. Of the crypts that you originally listed and there were (A LOT, LOL) which varieties would do best in low light, with root tabs? Your tank is a great inspiration to me, but I don't want to go high tech on my 25 gal.


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

I've got the update pics!
Please read my above post for description on recent events!










Left side









Right Side









P. Kawag, P. Sau Paulo, and R. Mini butterly in that order 









Erio Parkeri and Cinereum









My Elatine Hyrdopiper is spreading!









Replaced The C. Pontederiifolia with Rotala mini pearl type II









Going for a more bushy look with it but needs more time. Eventually the triple layered tier will fill in better. You can see the beginnings in this pic.









Shrimp Model :hihi:










It's quite fluffy 










Buce Browneii red flowering.


























Now some of you may have noticed a nice little purple intrusion amidst my crypt Nurii.












Look closer:










You betcha! Its a genuine Cryptocoryne Nurii spathe! First spathe I've ever gotten from a crypt!! Hurrah!
































Thanks for looking!
Joshua


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Scottyhorse said:


> Really like the tank. I have a question. Of the crypts that you originally listed and there were (A LOT, LOL) which varieties would do best in low light, with root tabs? Your tank is a great inspiration to me, but I don't want to go high tech on my 25 gal.



Thanks for the comments Scotty my man. I started off with quite a bit, but i've since consolidated down a little bit as my interests peaked towards stems a little more. However, as far as crypts go, I'd reccomend any type of Crypt Wendtii in lowtech. Another good option is Crypt Nurii. Both of these are medium to large leaved crypts. Smaller nice ones for lowtech are Crypt lutea, Crypt lucens, and Crypt parva. These are cool bushy stringy ones, very intense greens. You can also try crypt spiralis in the background of a lowtech tank. Soo many choices to try from hehe 

Hope this helps, ask any other questions you may have, I'm happy to help!
Joshua


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## Ebi (Jun 29, 2011)

Looking good  now spathe that 'rosanervig' next 


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Ebi said:


> Looking good  now spathe that 'rosanervig' next
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


Thanks Ebi, Thats the plan! Just waiting on it to put out a second daughter plant and then I will put it in its own glass planter orb and try to flower it.



Update: Did a small trim yesterday during the cleaning. Decided to get rid of the Rotala mini butterfly in the back right. It just wasn't looking like i thought it would. I think that I need a little bit more lighting in order to grow it well. But that's okay, I trimmed my P. Sau Paulo and planted the trimmings in the butterfly's place. So I'll have a bigger bush of Sau Paulo and a less crowded bush of Clinopodium brownei. I also moved the last couple of stems of C. Brownei over next to the Sau Paulo so that I will be able to have a larger A. Reneickii variagated bush. Also trimmed the left side stems, (R. Bangladesh, True Rotala Indica, and Rotala mini pearl type II) I started off with only a 1-2 stems of each and every so slowly I'm bring the counts of stems up to the 10's Looking for more like in the 20's though so i still have a little way to go. But it's coming along! I think that I will probably try for like 5 inches thick of R. Bangladesh from back to front. 4 inches of True Rotala Indica and like 2 inches of Rotala mini pearl type II creating a sort of mini dutchish side. It's definitely a challenge to make 12 inches of depth pop. But I'm quite content to try 

So once I get the left side filled out, all I really have left to do is wait for the A. R. Variagated to produce some more cuttings, let the Elatine Hyrdopiper fill in the front and I reckon this scape will be as filled as possible. 



My new goal with this tank is to not really add anything new, (okay... Maybe a Buce or two  but nothing else) instead, I'm going to focus on growing the current plants I have really really well. And hopefully by maintaining the tank and selling off extras I will eventually offset some of my initial purchases and help with that rock to put on the lady's hand. 



Eventually I think I would like to upgrade to a 40 gallon breeder in the next 2 years or so. It's big enough to grow just about anything that I would want or have time for and it is 6 inches of greater depth which coming from a 20 gallon high, is alot. Either that or a rimless 24X36X18. I just think depth is so cool. But its either $40 for a breeder or 400 bucks for the rimless heh. I think I would probably just go with the 40 gallon breeder just because I could do it really well with all the bells and whistles and I don't think I would be able to go all out if I burned through a rimless tank. 

Until next time,

Joshua


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## peachii (Jun 1, 2013)

You've done an awesome job on this tank. Your plants and crypts looks wonderful.

I'm still drooling over the pink crypts, jealous to the max over those!


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Hey everyone my C. affinis bloomed for me over the past 2 weeks, thought I'd share

Cryptocoryne Affinis "metallic red" spathe timeline



First Day













































































































2 weeks after in full bloom


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## erinbirdsong (Nov 15, 2013)

Your tank looks amazing! I love the variety and colors.


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## sjb1987 (Feb 23, 2012)

Very nice man!!


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## trailsnale (Dec 2, 2009)

great tank! love all the crypts...

also, big props for taking the time to identify your plants in each picture. really helps/educates.

thanks,


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## ua hua (Oct 30, 2009)

Very nice. That is one of my favorite crypts.


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

erinbirdsong said:


> Your tank looks amazing! I love the variety and colors.


Thanks! I spent alot of time, finding cool plants that I liked that would keep good coloration.



sjb1987 said:


> Very nice man!!


Thanks Sjb! Hopefully in the next year, I'll be able to set up my 60 gallon breeder and join the big boys with you and Ebi haha.



trailsnale said:


> great tank! love all the crypts...
> 
> also, big props for taking the time to identify your plants in each picture. really helps/educates.
> 
> thanks,


Thanks brother, yeah I'm a crypt fanatic. Although, I have started to like stems alot too. As you can kinda see with the evolution of the tank.




ua hua said:


> Very nice. That is one of my favorite crypts.


Mine too man, its quite the healthy momma plant, and adds a nice touch of red to everything on that side. Contrasts nice with the erios.


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## h4n (Jan 4, 2006)

Very nice man!!!


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## peachii (Jun 1, 2013)

Very, very nice. Thanks for sharing! Crypt flowers amaze me, they are so pretty and delicate looking (to me anyway).


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Thanks Han and Peachii, really appreciate the positivity!

Update:









Its been a while since I posted any pics. I've been dealing with mild thread algae recently. Most bba has disappeared due to excel treating. Not really sure what is causing the thread algae, it just started appearing one day after never having it before.

But anywho, I decided that I'm going to nix the rotala bangladesh and rotala mini type II, my light isn't quite strong enough to grow them at their full potential. So my plans are to move the ludwigia palustris red to the back right corner. Move the the A. Reneickii variagated from the back right corner to the left side infront of the true rotala indica. And going to put Mermaid weed, and ludwigia senagalensis in the back middle. My hope is to get the entire left side full of A Reneickii variagated and have a nice red patch. I would do ludwigia palustric red, but I'm gonna try this first, and then swap if I don't like it there. One of the beauties of stem plants is the swapability hehe.

Thanks for looking,
Joshua


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## Centromochlus (May 19, 2008)

WOW-- the Buces look fantastic Joshua-- what types are they again? Can't recall which ones i sold to you!


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Thanks Phil, means alot coming from you man! They sure have been some of my favorites in the tank. I find them much more pleasing to look at then anubias. 

You sent me: 
-B. Lamandau "Purple" -front left of the buce log
-B. Brownie "Red" -the rest of the buce log
-B. Golden Bell - Below the anubias to the right
-B. Bukit Betung - Big poppa in the back left

Since then I've also acquired, B. Lamandau "Green" its the kind of hidden plant next to the big erio parkeri clump in the middle of the tank, right underneath the buce log.


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## Centromochlus (May 19, 2008)

Nice man, the brownie red really looks like it's thriving. Beautiful color too.
There's just something about Buces that provides such amazing contrast with other plants… 

Your tank makes me really miss my collection!


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

Love the most recent FTS! Everything is looking awesome! I actually just recently added some buce to the driftwood in my 55, after getting tired of watching it struggle in my emersed tank for the last 6 months! I hope it will eventually fill in in a similar manner to yours!


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Centromochlus said:


> Nice man, the brownie red really looks like it's thriving. Beautiful color too.
> There's just something about Buces that provides such amazing contrast with other plants…
> 
> Your tank makes me really miss my collection!



Dude, I completely feel what you're throwing down. Buces just make driftwood pop like no other plant can. They have such a unique shape that it really adds a nice layer of texture that no other plant can replicate. Also, the colors are some of the more uncommon amongst aquarium plants, (dark green,blue, purple) 

One day once I finally get my dual 60 gallon setup running, I'm going to have 20 gallons of my sump as a refugium dedicated to shrimp and buces. Then I'll expand my collection. But gosh... I could use a good source for the said plants, such a shame that you don't collect anymore... *cough cough* get more plants * cough cough. :hihi:






johnson18 said:


> Love the most recent FTS! Everything is looking awesome! I actually just recently added some buce to the driftwood in my 55, after getting tired of watching it struggle in my emersed tank for the last 6 months! I hope it will eventually fill in in a similar manner to yours!


Now that I am remembering more correctly, I only had 4 buce lamandau purple, 1 golden bell, and 1 bukit betung. I then purchased 5 buce brownie red for a steal at $10 a piece and they were massive. Now though, it seems that they multiply rapidly now that they are all settled in. I reccomend starting with as many as possible so as to get them to bush even faster, and there is a high market demand right now for them, so catching a profit off of them isn't too bad.



Its definitely been a fun tank to play with over the months. I'm just starting to get into stem plants, but buces and crypts hold a special place in my planted heart haha. Speaking of stems, I just got some cuphea anagalloidea and some Proserpinaca palustris 'Cuba' in today, I decided to get rid of my Ludwigia sp palustris red, Rotala bangladesh, and Rotala mini pearl type II, Ludwigia needs more horizontal space in the tank to creep and bush, and I just don't have that in a 20 gallon, Rotala bangladesh is very weedy, and not really that pretty. and I needed the space occupied by the mini pearl. So I replace the bangladesh with the cuphea, the ludwigia with the mermaid weed cuba, and I moved my A. Reneickii variagated from the back right corner to the front left where the mini pearl used to be. Hoping to get some thicker groupings of all of my stems now that I know what grows well and where. I put a few stems of Lobelia Cardinalis dwarf in the back right corner, it'll look good in the back with the metallic red crypts in front of it. 



I'll post pics in a week or so, once the stems sprout up. 

Joshua


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## Centromochlus (May 19, 2008)

pianofish said:


> Dude, I completely feel what you're throwing down. Buces just make driftwood pop like no other plant can. They have such a unique shape that it really adds a nice layer of texture that no other plant can replicate. Also, the colors are some of the more uncommon amongst aquarium plants, (dark green,blue, purple)
> 
> One day once I finally get my dual 60 gallon setup running, I'm going to have 20 gallons of my sump as a refugium dedicated to shrimp and buces. Then I'll expand my collection. But gosh... I could use a good source for the said plants, such a shame that you don't collect anymore... *cough cough* get more plants * cough cough. :hihi:


Couldn't have said it better myself-- Buces are just amazing plants!

Trust me, there are plans in the works… :thumbsup: When though, not entirely sure.


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Thats awesome phil, glad to hear it haha. Just got my hands on Buce "shine blue" Very pretty plant.

Lol my Crypt affinis metallic red mother plant that I've had in the same spot for about 5 months, started blooming for a second time  Happy momma plant

Joshua


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Quick Update, added Bucephalandra Shine Blue and Bucephalandra Copper to the tank. You can see copper in the bottom right hand corner of the tank.










The Shine blue is on the left in the middle gap, its still bouncing back from shipping.









My Tillandsia Ionantha "Fuego" was blooming today. Such a cool little plant!









And lastly here is the promised pic of my C. Affinis Metallic Red blooming for the second time this year 









Joshua


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## OVT (Nov 29, 2011)

That's quet a collection. Somehow, I have not gotten into buces ... yet. Probably because playing $40 for a tiny plant was just too rich for me. Still is. And my pitiful history of keeping crypts does not give me much confidence of keeping these guys alive.

Time for me to read up and to man up.
Seeing your guy's tanks is motivation enough.

v3


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## Duck5003 (Oct 1, 2012)

Lookin good. You run CO2 right? If so those plants should bounce back very well. I do light DIY CO2. The copper grows much faster than the shine.

OVT you definitely wont be disappointed with buces. And as fas as price, every so often there are some really good deals on buces in the FS section. I would also, so far in my experience, consider them easier than crypts to keep. They really are a beautiful plant! Just beware the of the bug


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

OVT said:


> That's quet a collection. Somehow, I have not gotten into buces ... yet. Probably because playing $40 for a tiny plant was just too rich for me. Still is. And my pitiful history of keeping crypts does not give me much confidence of keeping these guys alive.
> 
> Time for me to read up and to man up.
> Seeing your guy's tanks is motivation enough.
> ...


Thanks OVT, you've got quite the tanks yourself! But don't let a little crypt trouble get you down. Give buces a try, I justify the expense by using only money made from selling plants to buy more plants. Let the trimmings do all the work. And, it might be a little investment up front, but the return from selling baby plantlets is rather rewarding as well 



Duck5003 said:


> Lookin good. You run CO2 right? If so those plants should bounce back very well. I do light DIY CO2. The copper grows much faster than the shine.
> 
> OVT you definitely wont be disappointed with buces. And as fas as price, every so often there are some really good deals on buces in the FS section. I would also, so far in my experience, consider them easier than crypts to keep. They really are a beautiful plant! J*ust beware the of the bug *



I do run co2 through a cerges reactor. And I'm not worried, I've had very few plants that I couldn't grow in here. They are both really pretty plants. That bolded sentence is right :hihi:


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## CherryRed (Feb 6, 2014)

Wow what a tank journey! I love the FTS posted on 9/1 (or was it 9/2?). Anyway, wonderful job, it looks very natural but there is so much detail and variety!


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## cape (Oct 26, 2013)

Great collection and thread.

Was wondering, is CO2 necessary for buces? Also, what is best way to propagate them? Just cut top section off and replant?


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Thanks Cherry, really pleased that you enjoyed the thread. I have really been enjoying keeping this tank. And you nailed it on the head. I was shooting for as much variety as possible without making it look unnatural. I feel like it's coming along nicely.  

Hey cape! Co2 is not necessary for buces but just like most plants, co2 will promote much more robust growth that looks a lot better. Propagation wise, each buce is a little different. Some of them make pups, while others you can chop off the tops. Most of the ones I have make pups as they creep along the driftwood. 


This tank is going to stay the same for a while as I continue to prepare for my 60 gallon setup. Imagine this tank but 3x times as large lol. 
Joshua


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Quick update, I removed the Crypt cordata rosanervig on the leftside. It was getting massive, and I wanted more room for my True rotala indica bush. It was massive, had 2 baby plants attached a good 6 inches away from the base of the plant!










Here's the tank after my tirm today, still a little cloudy









You can see the corner where i thickened up the true rotala indica 










Some cool pics of some Schrimps playing tag 




















Lastly here are some pics of my Cryptocoryne Affinis Pahang Barat "Metallic Red" Spathe from the past 2 weeks!
























































Thanks for looking!
Joshua


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

I see you've got your affinis "met. Red" now listed with Pahang Barat in the name. Did you actually get some of the plant collected at that location?


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## rajah_22 (Dec 12, 2013)

Joshua, one of the nurii you sent me is putting out a spathe (pretty confident it's a spathe - it's still really small though). 

Also, are you sure the cordata is 'rosanervig'? Doesn't seem to have the characteristic markings of that variety. 

Your tank is looking good! Huge spathe on that affinis.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

rajah_22 said:


> Joshua, one of the nurii you sent me is putting out a spathe (pretty confident it's a spathe - it's still really small though).
> 
> Also, are you sure the cordata is 'rosanervig'? Doesn't seem to have the characteristic markings of that variety.
> 
> Your tank is looking good! Huge spathe on that affinis.


Most C. nurii spathes are pretty small. Most of the ones I have had were not more than a few inches tall. Although those were all emersed, submersed will often be a bit taller as they reach for the surface. 

Many of the variations such as the 'rosanervig' are often environment dependent, so if this species/variant thrives in black water habitats(or hardwater..etc.) they may do well in a slightly low pH but not show the full colors/characteristics of that variant.


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

johnson18 said:


> I see you've got your affinis "met. Red" now listed with Pahang Barat in the name. Did you actually get some of the plant collected at that location?


Its the same plant my man. I originally got mine from CrazyDaz on here, and i'm almost certain that Pahang Barat was the original collection spot of all Metallic Reds. But I will confirm that for you my friend. 




rajah_22 said:


> Joshua, one of the nurii you sent me is putting out a spathe (pretty confident it's a spathe - it's still really small though).
> 
> Also, are you sure the cordata is 'rosanervig'? Doesn't seem to have the characteristic markings of that variety.
> 
> Your tank is looking good! Huge spathe on that affinis.


Rajah! thats awesome man! congrats. I bet you're one proud crypt father haha. And yes that is cordata rosanervig. The one you have only shows its stripes rarely. it all depends on the lineage of the plant. i've never been able to get that one to show its true stripes, however, it does have some really awesome maroon undersides!

Thanks on the compliment my friend, yep my little momma crypt is treatin me well. haha



johnson18 said:


> Most C. nurii spathes are pretty small. Most of the ones I have had were not more than a few inches tall. Although those were all emersed, submersed will often be a bit taller as they reach for the surface.
> 
> Many of the variations such as the 'rosanervig' are often environment dependent, so if this species/variant thrives in black water habitats(or hardwater..etc.) they may do well in a slightly low pH but not show the full colors/characteristics of that variant.



johnson's got it right on both accounts. You can see my nurii spathe earlier in the journal for pics to compare. And as far as the striping goes, its hard to meet every plants specific needs, so i never really tried to get them to show on that variety. My other variety that I paid 45$ a plant for actually has the stripes, but yeah, i paid for the lineage lol. 
Joshua


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

That's an interesting tidbit about the collection location of the 'metallic red.' I'd definitely be interested in the verification of that.  Always fun learning new information. 

I'm gonna have a 'rosanervig' variety of a different Crypt species on the way soon. The person I'm getting from got it from the original collector. He has found that if he keeps the plant is grown in fairly neutral/slightly acidic water it loses the stripes/color. While, if it's in water with a pH of 5ish it shows the characteristics of that variant.


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Lol, my crypt nurii bloomed again. So many submersed spathes haha. Pics in a bit


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Theme change,
Bucephalandra Dutch Hybrid scape. (Majority Buces, a couple crypts, and anubias, little to no stems) Stay tuned!
Joshua


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Tearing down this tank, and replanting it all in a 30 breeder  Dat extra foot of planting though! 
Joshua


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## Duck5003 (Oct 1, 2012)

Nice! Those 30 breeders are sweeeet tanks. A buddy of mine has one and i just convinced him to convert it from a cichlid tank to his first planted tank (he is now addicted :icon_twis) and i've really been wanting one. Such a nice footprint. 

Are you going to keep the same general layout?? Or doing something totally different?


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Gonna be a good bit different. Large Black lava rock will be used heavily along with some of my current manzy and adding some more. Basically This will be a trial run for whenever I get my 60 gallon up. I've never had so much square footage to plant before haha. 18" deep will be incredible!
Joshua


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

Nice! I am going to switch over several of my tanks to 40 breeders & add several more the next time they are on sale. I think the 30B is a great alternative to the 20L. I love my 20L but they are just too narrow. Looking forward to seeing the new tank build!


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Well it ended up being a 30 long. 36" Long by 12" wide by 18" high. But. It's still a foot more space than I have now  still pumped!! 
I'll keep y'all updated! Probably redo it on Thursday. I did get a 24" tek 4 bulb t5ho fixture to hang for a light. I'm thinking that should be enough light for a medium light buce crypt and Anubias tank?
Joshua


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Here's a teaser of what's to come!

Completely tore down the 20 gallon. Removed fissidens from branches, and took off most buces from current locations. Going to completely come up with a new look. I'll keep yall posted. Fishies are safe in a quarantine tank for the next week or so while things settle in.

Joshua


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

So after several long hours of tearing down and then several more of setting everything up, I think I've pretty much finalized my hardscape. Imagine this, but in the style of one of those crazy indonesian buce tanks. Also when I actually set this up with substrate, there will be a much greater slope from front to back, so everything will be a good bit higher and more sloped angles. Also more fissidens on many many things heh.
Also, this 24" tek 4 bulb t5ho pendant fixture is beautiful, it lights up the entire tank like a champ. I plan on having buces and crypts on the edges anyway, so the lower light on the sides will be fine. 





















What do you think?
Joshua


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## rajah_22 (Dec 12, 2013)

Looks sweet! I have that same Tek light and love it. I've got it over a 27 g cube tank and it's actually too much light with all four bulbs on. I was getting a lot of algae near the surface so I raised it up and only run two bulbs now. Looks like you should be able to raise it up a bit if you want to later as well.


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## Duck5003 (Oct 1, 2012)

Very nice! That setup is sweet, i love those intertwined wood rock combos. Gives such a natural look and texture. Throw your beautiful plants in there and your gonna have one sweet scape :thumbsup: 

Looking forward to the updates!


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

The deed is done. 




















Korelia power head was a must. The eheim with inline heater and co2 reactor could not handle the flow for this length of tank. 
But the Korelia made it a perfect filtration setup. 

I have 10 more buce species on the way. So I'll finish planting this week and then add the fish back at the end of the week.


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## lamiskool (Jul 1, 2011)

looken good! Kinda reminds me of a beach with some driftwood intertwined with the rocks


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Hey everyone, So as you've seen in my previous updates, I have been very busy with rescaping the tank. In order to keep all my plant species in order, I've made a portfolio of them to go along with my normal tank updates. 

It took hours upon hours of sitting/ staring/ glueing/ placing in order to finally get my tank scape finalized, but it is now finished, and I am very satisfied.

Full tank Shot









Left Side









Right Side









Middle Shot










*Bucephalandra Portfolio*



Bucephalandra Shiny Blue









Bucephalandra Lamandau Green









Bucephalandra Lamandau Purple









Bucephalandra Antyovani #2










Bucephalandra Shiny Purple










Bucephalandra Icarus Bell









Bucephalandra Bukit Betung









Bucephalandra Theia Big









Bucephalandra Bronze









Bucephalandra Theia









Bucephalandra Mini Catherine









Bucephalandra Kir Adonis









Bucephalandra Golden Bell









Bucephalandra Pink Centipede









Bucephalandra Super Blue (CrazyDaz version)









Bucephalandra Mini Lagoon









Bucephalandra Copper









Bucephalandra Brownie Ghost


















Bucephalandra Super Blue (Duck version)









Bucephalandra Red Stem









Bucephalandra Shine Green



















Bucephalandra Fake Catherine



















Bucephalandra Variagated - pic to be added

Bucephalandra Brownie Red - pic to be added

Bucephalandra Grey - pic to be added

Cryptocoryne Ferruginea











Thanks for looking,
Joshua


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## Duck5003 (Oct 1, 2012)

Now THAT'S an update!! lol lookin awesome dude! That bucephalandra bronze is one i've never seen. Beautiful! 

Great pics too btw, really gives a true perspective of the different types. Can't wait to see this fill in :thumbsup:


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

Looks awesome! Nice to see all of the different varieties up close. This is gonna be an amazing tank when it fills in! Imagine that, one good tank gets broken down and made into another sweet tank!


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Duck5003 said:


> Now THAT'S an update!! lol lookin awesome dude! That bucephalandra bronze is one i've never seen. Beautiful!
> 
> Great pics too btw, really gives a true perspective of the different types. Can't wait to see this fill in :thumbsup:


Appreciate the compliment Duck! I'm really enjoying this rendition of the tank. I did an algae one two punch last night to take care of any remnants of bba or hair algae. Then I added my fish back to the tank this morning. Everyone is doing fine. Having a mature filter allowed for cycling in about 2 days. And dude I'm really loving the bronze. I really hope it keeps its coloration. The person I got it from had ridiculously high lighting, so we will see what happens.



johnson18 said:


> Looks awesome! Nice to see all of the different varieties up close. This is gonna be an amazing tank when it fills in! Imagine that, one good tank gets broken down and made into another sweet tank!


Thanks Johnson! I personally enjoy looking back to all of my old single species photos to see how much my plants have grown, where I started from to where they are now kinda thing). I can't wait to see it fill in either. My goal for this tank is to be a more low maintenance high tech tank. Only have 3 stem species. Rest are all Aroids, which are definitely my preferred style. I think adding the rocks to the tank brought out a new good layer. And I don't know if you can tell from the pics or not, but while I intentionally sloped the substrate from back to front. What unintentionally happened was that in the ravine in the middle of the scape, the substrate rose from front to the back, but in the middle dipped back down, and then rose again. It's hard to describe it, but in real life it makes the tank look much deeper than it really is. (I was quite please haha)

Thanks for looking everyone.
Joshua


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

This is how I take my breaks from finals
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKgg4wpLiD8&feature=youtu.be


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Anyone know how to embed youtube videos? That link is a video of the tank.


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## Duck5003 (Oct 1, 2012)

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=241410&highlight=embed

There ya go! Ya, definitely missed that video. Looks great! Those green neons are a nice compliment to the scape. What's that you have tucked away on the right there?? Looks like a young snow white or marbled nana?


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## Ebi (Jun 29, 2011)

Duck5003 said:


> http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=241410&highlight=embed
> 
> There ya go! Ya, definitely missed that video. Looks great! Those green neons are a nice compliment to the scape. What's that you have tucked away on the right there?? Looks like a young snow white or marbled nana?


That is a young marbled nana from me teehee  



LOOKS AMAZING JOSH!!!


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## Dr Fishbait (Mar 16, 2013)

One question; Is that you playing the piano on your video?
By the way, the Downoi I wanted to give you has all melted!!!! Must have been grown with CO2 or some way that it didn't like my tank.(that's one reason I wanted you to have some cuz I know you would have kept it alive.) Well, $15 down the drain. Went ahead and ordered a CO2 setup from Bettatail and I'll build the regulator I have later. Hope finals went well.


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Duck5003 said:


> http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=241410&highlight=embed
> 
> There ya go! Ya, definitely missed that video. Looks great! Those green neons are a nice compliment to the scape. What's that you have tucked away on the right there?? Looks like a young snow white or marbled nana?



Thanks Duck! I agree man. It is so very peaceful after work or school to go just sit in front of my tank and watch the school move all over the tank!
Your buces are doing great by the way! That Bucephalandra Copper is really a pretty plant! And Mike(Ebi) is right, thats a marbled nana, my crown jewel of the tank. Thats why it gets its own planter orb haha.




Ebi said:


> That is a young marbled nana from me teehee
> 
> 
> 
> LOOKS AMAZING JOSH!!!



Thanks again Mike, from the rocks, to the plants, this tank would not have been possible without your help bro!




Dr Fishbait said:


> One question; Is that you playing the piano on your video?
> By the way, the Downoi I wanted to give you has all melted!!!! Must have been grown with CO2 or some way that it didn't like my tank.(that's one reason I wanted you to have some cuz I know you would have kept it alive.) Well, $15 down the drain. Went ahead and ordered a CO2 setup from Bettatail and I'll build the regulator I have later. Hope finals went well.


No that is not me unfortunately, although, I should think about that for my next video, I have a few recordings that I could use.... 
Awe man, stinks about the Downoi! But trust me man, you won't go wrong with a solid co2 setup like that. It is very very beneficial to all your plant growth. I've never heard anyone get sad over having better plant growth haha...





Tank is continuing to grow well. I've been very busy with finals over the past few weeks. Exams are over though, and bam scored 2 B's and 3 A's. All of my not fish forumming paid off. :hihi: 

In other news, I got some Cryptocoryne Petchii Pink for this tank. It is a really cool plant comes from one of those gel cup distributors in Europe. I got some off a guy on the forum. 

All the bucephalandras have been steady growing except for one, which melted back a good bit. Things are starting to stabalize and mature, as a nice small layer of green is forming on the new rocks added to the tank. Foreground of Marselia Crenata is coming in quite nicely. So now I just keep everything up and farm out these buces, so that when it's time to move to the 60 gallon, I have plenty to choose from.
Joshua


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## Duck5003 (Oct 1, 2012)

pianofish said:


> Thanks Duck! I agree man. It is so very peaceful after work or school to go just sit in front of my tank and watch the school move all over the tank!
> Your buces are doing great by the way! That Bucephalandra Copper is really a pretty plant! And Mike(Ebi) is right, thats a marbled nana, my crown jewel of the tank. Thats why it gets its own planter orb haha.


Glad to hear they are doing well! Its funny because i like to call my aquariums my "sanity" lol I can always relax and think watching my tanks :thumbsup: Nice job on the finals, always feels good when sacrifices pay off!

The copper is really cool, very unique buce. You know, I saw that pic of the super blue and i'm shocked at how green yours is. Mine, same plant that i had split is much darker. Have you seen much new growth from it? I know its one of my slowest growers. 

Sweet marbled too, i had a feeling Mike had a hand in that  i have a jewel or two of his as well. Cool plants! As always, a pleasure reading through your updates.


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Got a new video up check it out!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwJ_H7rZ0EQ


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## Dr Fishbait (Mar 16, 2013)

Hey! You're still there! Thought you had fallen off the face of the earth or had gone offshore. (Same thing!). Tank looks Great!


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Dr Fishbait said:


> Hey! You're still there! Thought you had fallen off the face of the earth or had gone offshore. (Same thing!). Tank looks Great!


Hey man. nah school got busy, and then a really crazy week of being really sick. All better now. but you should of seen the BBA when I got back to my apartment.... But taking every piece of driftwood out one at a time and directly squirting excel made quick work of that. Only lost 2 shrimp out of the entire livestock in the tank through the entire ordeal. Not too shabby...

Joshua


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## Dr Fishbait (Mar 16, 2013)

Josha, its time for an update, don't you think.
Buces must be taking over the whole tank!


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Dr Fishbait said:


> Josha, its time for an update, don't you think.
> Buces must be taking over the whole tank!


I wish I could say as much. Actually, BBA took over the whole tank and melted several of my buces. I did a major overhaul and killed all the BBA and the tank is in farm/recovery mode. I removed all of the hardscape and tied the buces to lava rocks so that I can easily algae dip them when necessary. I planted larger clumps of stems and am working on getting a better balance between my lights and the fertilizers. I raised my lights 8 inches and only dose EI 2x a week instead of 3x. And everything is still growing fine, but BBA has chilled out. Buces are slowly but surely coming back. Just have to keep up with tank maintenance. I had gotten busy with work and just lazy with the tank. I'm doing much better tank care though over the past month, so things are starting to clear up. 

I'll post pics after next WC. 
Hope all is well,
Joshua


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## Dr Fishbait (Mar 16, 2013)

Glad to hear from you! Was hoping you weren't burned out from the hobby. You're so talented with your scapes. I've been having my share of woes too (Fish loss, shrimp getting eaten, and my tank rack is still not up and running). Also been trying to get straight my CO2-ferts situation. Looking forward to the pics.


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Dr Fishbait said:


> Glad to hear from you! Was hoping you weren't burned out from the hobby. You're so talented with your scapes. I've been having my share of woes too (Fish loss, shrimp getting eaten, and my tank rack is still not up and running). Also been trying to get straight my CO2-ferts situation. Looking forward to the pics.


Hey Man, yeah, I'm still alive and kicking. Its been a long summer, haha, and I guess in a way I'm sort of burnt out with plants. Not really burnt out, but just coming to terms with the realization that electrical engineering bachelors degree is starting to require more and more of my time. I still love planted tanks, and still enjoy scaping, but I intend on changing things up quite a bit. In the next few weeks, this tank is going to undergo a complete transformation. And I am very excited about it, as its something new that I've never tried before. 

Very sorry to hear about your setbacks man. Hope it all settles out for you.

I'm going to be turning this tank into a river manifold tank to house Hillstream loaches and Stiphodon Gobies. I've already got the powerbeads on order, and I have lots and lots of rock to do a really cool river scape with. Slap on a bunch of anubias var. Nana and I'll be rocking. I may also try to keep a few pockets of crypts. But my goal for this tank is high oxygenation, high light with 14-16 hours photoperiod, and yes... trying to grow algae on everything, and just keep the front glass clean. So probably every plant that I will have will some algae on it. And thats okay  (slowly break myself of my OCD planted tank habits haha). 

I feel like for where I am at in my life right now, this is going to simplify my tank experience and let me get more enjoyment out of my tank with less stress. One day when I can drop big bucks for the setup of my dreams and get everything I want for the tank, I may get back into co2 highlight setups. 

But don't worry, I'll still be scaping, just focusing more on the hardscape than the plants. But trust me I have some beautiful rock to work with that I got from a buddy of mine on here, Ebi (Mike). And I will still use my Manzy driftwood.

So it looks like I'll be getting rid of most of my Buces and other plants, hint hint :icon_roll

I'll probably make a new journal for this phase of the tank whenever I start getting things set up. 
Joshua


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Breaking down this tank, adds on APC and the Barrreport. Sad time, but looking forward to the next phase of this tank!
Joshua


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Alot of work has been done on this tank. Here it is before the teardown.









And here is what it looks like as of tonight. Finished building my river manifold. I'll make a seperate journal thread with details soon. 










Thanks for looking,
Joshua


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