# rocksmom's 12 Long - Grassy Valley



## rocksmom (Mar 6, 2012)

Forget take 2, I'm now on take eleventy billion. Here are the updated specs:

_Equipment_
Mr. Aqua 12 gallon long
Eheim ECCO 2232
[strike]Custom acrylic spray bar[/strike] Stainless jet pipe and intake
36" FugeRay
GLA Atomic Paintball V2 co2 setup with inline diffuser

_Hardscape_
Up Aqua shrimp sand
Pa Hai stones

_Fertilizers_
[strike]Pfertz[/strike] EI dry dosing, root tabs

_Flora_
Mixed carpet (DHG belem, Marsilea minuta, S. repens, accidental UG)
Various stems... will add names later

_Fauna_
Some kind of shrimp (red supremes? pumpkins? bv?)
Boraras maculatus

Current FTS:


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## rocksmom (Mar 6, 2012)

*Initial Setup*

I found this piece of wood at a LFS and knew I had to use it one of my 12 longs. Here it is in the empty tank the day I got it:










Finally got around to working on the tank today. First I put some "anchors" on the wood to stabilize and hopefully keep it from floating. I'll probably still have to weight it down for awhile. I'm kicking myself for not soaking since I bought it. 

Had to cut a flat spot on the one end to attach the anchor.



















Then I added a base layer of black sand and some egg crate to support the rocks and create the hill.










And here it is with the wood, rocks, and the rest of the sand in place.










For plants I'm planning on a moss carpet in between the rocks on the left and around where the wood touches on the right with and open area in the center. I have some stainless steel mesh coming from h4n for this, and a boatload of peacock moss in my current shrimp tank. I'm planning on training the hydrocotyle to grow on the wood and hopefully cover the emersed area as well. Just have to figure out the best way to attach it. I'm thinking fishing line since I haven't seen anyone use glue for stem plants. The rocks and maybe the wood will get some mini pellia and possibly fissidens as well.

I was thinking about adding something else poking up from from within the moss, but I'm not sure what. Some nice, large anubias nana would probably work, but all I have available right now is micro and it would get lost pretty quickly. I'm open to suggestions. Just something for a little height in the front right and back left corners.


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## MABJ (Mar 30, 2012)

That driftwood is b e a utiful. Wow. That tank needs a carpet, some weeping moss on the DW and maybe some anubias nana petite on the rocks and it is beautiful for life. 


From MABJ's iPhone
2G Fluval Spec ~ fauna and flora in the works!


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## nerdariostomp (Aug 23, 2012)

Oh wow! Love the scape


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## tropicalmackdaddy (Mar 7, 2012)

*tosses out 60-P and places order for a 12L*
that driftwood is f'n sexy


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## rocksmom (Mar 6, 2012)

MABJ said:


> That driftwood is b e a utiful. Wow. That tank needs a carpet, some weeping moss on the DW and maybe some anubias nana petite on the rocks and it is beautiful for life.
> 
> 
> From MABJ's iPhone
> 2G Fluval Spec ~ fauna and flora in the works!


Thanks, it was a great find. Not sure what kind of wood it is though, so hopefully it holds up well.

I thought about doing petite instead of moss on the rock side, but enough petite to look full would cost an arm and a leg. Or a kidney. I have probably 6 or so small ones, but not nearly enough.



nerdariostomp said:


> Oh wow! Love the scape


Thank you! This is definitely my favorite so far. We'll see how it turns out.



tropicalmackdaddy said:


> *tosses out 60-P and places order for a 12L*
> that driftwood is f'n sexy


Ha, made me laugh.


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## Jonnywhoop (May 30, 2012)

cant wait to see some moss grown on that DW!


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## vesparados150 (Aug 20, 2011)

WOW!!! stunning scape....the wood and the rocks...beautiful!!


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## Only One Haze (Nov 10, 2011)

LOVE this! That DW is perfect for that tank! Cant wait to see it planted.


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## CPD (Feb 7, 2012)

My jaw dropped when I saw the pic. Wow, just wow!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## DogFish (Jul 16, 2011)

Current FTS:







[/QUOTE]

Very Nice!!! You has a true artistic touch.

Do fight the urge to use more than two sp. of plant. This 'Scape is so Zen, it would be a crime to make it complicated. :smile:


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## MABJ (Mar 30, 2012)

DogFish said:


> Current FTS:


Very Nice!!! You has a true artistic touch.

Do fight the urge to use more than two sp. of plant. This 'Scape is so Zen, it would be a crime to make it complicated. :smile:[/QUOTE]

AGREED. 


From MABJ's iPhone
2G Fluval Spec ~ fauna and flora in the works!


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## DogFish (Jul 16, 2011)

Sorry can't resist, maybe a few tall hair grass plants behind the driftwood on the slope like Eleocharis montevidensis? Then in front of the wood on the slope a small version of Hair grass Eleocharis parvula Moss covered wood? Just a few whips of Eleocharis parvula behind the driftwood on the right side to repeat the planting. leaving the middle open and clear for contrast.



I think I have Tank envy. :hihi:


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## Only One Haze (Nov 10, 2011)

DogFish said:


> I think I have Tank envy. :hihi:


This.


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## if_fishes_were_wishes (Jul 29, 2007)

Wow is that a swoopy piece of wood! It was made for that tank! That'll be a fun little bridge for shrimp


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## rocksmom (Mar 6, 2012)

Thanks so much everyone! You guys have me all excited now. LOL!

dogfish: Some hairgrass would look nice, but since the substrate is just sand and I don't plan on doing root tabs I'm not sure how well it would grow. Hmm, maybe some needle leaf java fern in place of the taller hg?


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## sayurasem (Jun 17, 2011)

sexy. I love curvy stuff


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## rocksmom (Mar 6, 2012)

Quick update.

Had to take a week off from fishy stuff. Got a pretty deep cut on my finger and wanted to make sure it didn't get infected or anything. Anyway, in that time I chickened out of filling it as is and decided to (carefully) pull the wood out and soak it. I only had to move two of the rocks so it should be easy to get back together when the wood is ready. It's currently soaking in a spare 29g. It seemed to soak up the water pretty quickly when I was filling the tank, so hopefully that's a sign that it will also sink quickly. My mesh arrived from h4n a long time ago now, so I'm going to start cutting it to fit the rocks and getting the moss on it soon.


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## _FC (Apr 28, 2012)

Good luck healing! hope to see progress soon!


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## fusiongt (Nov 7, 2011)

If you just threw in a shoal of glass catfish in the tank as it looks now, it'll really look like art  But that's no fun and not a challenge without plants. Looking forward to seeing what you decide with it!


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## rocksmom (Mar 6, 2012)

_FC said:


> Good luck healing! hope to see progress soon!


Thanks! My finger's doing well, so now I'm just waiting for the wood to sink. I actually partially flooded the tank to see how the sand would hold up with the slope and so far so good. Didn't think that was really worthy of pics though.



fusiongt said:


> If you just threw in a shoal of glass catfish in the tank as it looks now, it'll really look like art  But that's no fun and not a challenge without plants. Looking forward to seeing what you decide with it!


I actually considered something like that, but it's such a perfect shrimp tank that I couldn't pass up at least doing the moss for them. These tanks really are beautiful, even empty.


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## MABJ (Mar 30, 2012)

rocksmom said:


> Thanks! My finger's doing well, so now I'm just waiting for the wood to sink. I actually partially flooded the tank to see how the sand would hold up with the slope and so far so good. Didn't think that was really worthy of pics though.
> 
> 
> 
> I actually considered something like that, but it's such a perfect shrimp tank that I couldn't pass up at least doing the moss for them. These tanks really are beautiful, even empty.


You should try some type of cories. Shoals of Pygmy cories would be amazing with a blue shrimp in there. 


MABJ's iDevice used for this message


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## rocksmom (Mar 6, 2012)

So it's only been what, 5 or 6 months since I updated? Well not much happened in the meantime. Basically that wood was a nightmare. Took months to stop floating and even then I couldn't get it to stay put. I switched out the plastic "anchors" for some slate and it still wanted to tip because it was so top heavy. It was really soft too, I don't think it would have stood up well longterm.

In the meantime the tank was just full of HUNDREDS of shrimp and about 5 pounds of moss and riccia. I finally cleaned it out on the weekend to work on it again. I had bought Up Aqua shrimp sand to go in it thinking I would try my hand at some CBS since I was successful with neos. Then my husband suggested I finally get my co2 setup that I've longed for since I started with planted tanks. I think he just felt guilty because he set up a reef tank in our second 12L which was some definite $$$.

So now this tank has a split personality. Intended as a shrimp tank, with shrimp sand and all, but now going high tech. I guess it will be a nice little experiment for me. If I stick with neos I wouldn't necessarily mind a slower breeding rate. My blue velvet population is a bit overwhelming.

Went on a bit of a spending spree this week. Have a 36" FugeRay coming to replace the 30" that's currently hanging over the tank. The 36" will sit right on it. Ordered some plants on the SnS. GLA setup is ordered including a really cool drop checker that hangs on the rim of the tank. Paintball tank coming from Amazon tomorrow. Next update should be the new equipment set up on the tank. Current photo with new hardscape is in the first post.


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## rocksmom (Mar 6, 2012)

It's like Christmas in February. My GLA order, paintball tank, light, and the DHG I ordered on the SnS all got here today! Guess I need to actually decide on a hardscape and set it up soon.

GLA order:









The regulator:









Drop checker:









The new 36" FugeRay on the tank (Yes, that's a different piece of wood than the other photo. I don't think I like it though. Too bulky in this tank.):









And where the co2 will sit on the stand:


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## Conrad283 (Dec 10, 2012)

Looks great, both versions


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## rocksmom (Mar 6, 2012)

So I finally settled on a scape and got a few plants in. I ended up skipping out on the wood entirely and used the set of Pa Hai stones I bought from AFA last year. There's already some anubias and mini pellia on them, and I'll probably add some more pellia soon. I have to trim some from another tank. Maybe some fissidens as well. Here's the tank with the rocks and some DHG:










I haven't filled the tank yet. Right now I have it covered with plastic wrap and the light on it, so basically in DSM. I'm considering keeping it like that for a little while. Not long enough for the hairgrass to fill in, just enough for the roots to establish a little so that when I fill it and hook up the filter I don't have to replant them. Thoughts? Any idea how long that would take?

Here's the same picture but with my lovely artist's rendition of what I'm picturing for it. The red is rotala mini butterfly and the green is echinodorus angustifolia vesuvius. I have a few stems of the rotala coming from the SnS already. I went to buy the vesuvius locally this weekend, but they were sold out. Probably look for that on the SnS as well.










Oh and my husband convinced me to get the inline diffuser so I'm going to order that today. Hopefully get my lily pipes made this weekend as well. Think I'm going to try a do aqua "jet" type instead of the spray bar.


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## Jsquared (Jan 14, 2013)

Love the plant choice; If you find someone selling that rotala mini butterfly gimme a headsup maybe if they have some left over^^

I just ordered an Inline diffuser last week haha. Tired of breaking my glass LOL. I am interested in how that jet outflow is. I haven't seen one in use or watched a video. maybe i will troll around youtube for a bit... 

I think once you get those plants and it all grows in; its going to be an amazing tank. Keep up the good updates! cheers


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## justari (Feb 10, 2008)

Your scape plan looks awesome! Only thing I would suggest would be to leave out that vesuvius you have planned for the far right side. I think the scape would have much better "flow" if you only had that rock outcrop sticking out of the hairgrass carpet. Either way the tank's lookin great, can't wait to see this one filled!


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## rocksmom (Mar 6, 2012)

Jsquared said:


> Love the plant choice; If you find someone selling that rotala mini butterfly gimme a headsup maybe if they have some left over^^
> 
> I just ordered an Inline diffuser last week haha. Tired of breaking my glass LOL. I am interested in how that jet outflow is. I haven't seen one in use or watched a video. maybe i will troll around youtube for a bit...
> 
> I think once you get those plants and it all grows in; its going to be an amazing tank. Keep up the good updates! cheers


Thanks! I knew I wanted to finally try something red since I've really only had lower light plants until now. I ordered 5 stems of it from h4n. He has it listed in his sale thread, but you have to pm to see how much he has available. I think I saw bartohog also had some listed in his last sale thread. 

I ordered my diffuser yesterday and it says it shipped already today, so I should have it soon. And yeah, I haven't seen the jet pipe working either. I did a quick youtube search the other day, but I couldn't find anything. I'll have to look again. The filter I'm using on the tank made a pretty good flow even with the stock eheim outflow, which is essentially just an open pipe. I think the jet will be fine.



justari said:


> Your scape plan looks awesome! Only thing I would suggest would be to leave out that vesuvius you have planned for the far right side. I think the scape would have much better "flow" if you only had that rock outcrop sticking out of the hairgrass carpet. Either way the tank's lookin great, can't wait to see this one filled!


Thank you! I was going back and forth on the vesuvius on the right. I guess I'll let it depend on how many of them I can find. I can always pull it out and let the hairgrass spread if the real thing doesn't look better than my drawing.


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## rocksmom (Mar 6, 2012)

*Finally!*

So I finally have an update worth sharing. Worked on the tank this weekend and it's finally up and running. Still have a couple more varieties of plants I want to get for it, but it's started at least. Had to take out the slope on the left because of the flow from the jet, it was blowing the substrate everywhere. Also took out the anubias. Changed the plants to a "dutch-ish" scape after buying a ton of stems last week. They need to fill in a lot obviously. Also changed out the black background for a frosted one. Kind of reminds me of those ADA mist tanks they sold awhile ago.


















































































Plans/thoughts/notes:

Empty spot towards the right side is waiting for some limnophila aromatica.
DHG will eventually be planted along the whole front, just ran out. Actually plan on doing a mixed carpet, adding in some MM and a little hydrocotyle japan.
Flow is STRONG. Will probably have to add a ball valve to keep stems from getting knocked for a loop like the poor HM (I think?) in the middle.
Was planning on having the co2 hidden down below, but it was a little too tall once assembled. I don't think it looks bad though. Husband said between that, ss pipes, and the light that it looks "industral."


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## sayurasem (Jun 17, 2011)

Sexy SS pipes 

I have the same too, by looking at your picture I assume you cut the intake to fit this tank? Because that's what I did too lol.

Btw I would like to see the progress with the finnex light. It seems that the par is still very high on this unique tank dimension.


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## hisxlency (Jan 26, 2013)

how is the GLA reg working out so far? Lovely tank btw


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## rocksmom (Mar 6, 2012)

sayurasem said:


> Sexy SS pipes
> 
> I have the same too, by looking at your picture I assume you cut the intake to fit this tank? Because that's what I did too lol.
> 
> Btw I would like to see the progress with the finnex light. It seems that the par is still very high on this unique tank dimension.


Thanks! Luckily I didn't have to cut it. I bought them on the SnS and they had already been cut to fit a mini m. The only thing I did was switch the mesh out for a finer grade so it would be shrimp safe if/when I add some.

Since it's just the Fugeray and not the Ray 2 I don't think I'll have any issues. I was actually wondering if the par wasn't high enough because I haven't been getting a whole lot of pearling. You have the Ray 2 for yours, don't you? Have you started working on it again?



hisxlency said:


> how is the GLA reg working out so far? Lovely tank btw


Thank you! I'm a complete noob to co2, but so far so good. The bubble rate has held steady since I set it up. I installed the inline diffuser on the filter's intake line and you can hardly see the bubbles in the tank. No 7-up water like I've seen people complain about.


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## sayurasem (Jun 17, 2011)

I tore down my tank, going to redo when my UG arrive 

Yeah the par on these ray two is pretty intense lol.


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## rocksmom (Mar 6, 2012)

I posted a thread in the plants section with these pics, but I figure I'll put them here too. I've gotten a lot of new growth this week in the tank, but everything's coming in a very bland green. Debating on upgrading the lights, but waiting to see what the experts have to say.





































The tank has a bad case of diatoms right now as you can probably tell from the lower leaves in the pictures. Here's how bad:










I moved an oto in yesterday, but he hasn't really made a dent so far. I also moved my dwarf puffer (Lil' Goozy) in a few days ago. I was considering making it his tank, but he's not going to be in there for long. I taught him to eat from a dropper so now whenever he sees my hand he charges me and bobs around at the surface. I'm afraid he's either going to nip me (lame, I know) or get cut when I'm trimming the plants. Here's a shot of him in his temporary home:










I got some l. aromatica in the mail today from OVT and I have some rotala pearl coming from h4n soon. They should both be in sometime next week. I have the l. aromatica just floating right now because it lost some leaves in transit. I'll let it float until the rotala gets here, then trim the bottoms and plant both.


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## MABJ (Mar 30, 2012)

*rocksmom's 12 Long - finally up and running, lots of pics post #30*

BEAUTIFUL puffer. Ugh I want a puffer tank so bad.


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## lamiskool (Jul 1, 2011)

ok im either overfeeding my dp, its a bad shot, or does your dp look extrememly skinny? I usually feed mine so that it belly is nice and round....


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## rocksmom (Mar 6, 2012)

MABJ said:


> BEAUTIFUL puffer. Ugh I want a puffer tank so bad.


Thanks! He's an awesome little fish.



lamiskool said:


> ok im either overfeeding my dp, its a bad shot, or does your dp look extrememly skinny? I usually feed mine so that it belly is nice and round....


He's never been round, even when he was in tanks with "unlimited" snails to hunt. He'll get a visible belly bump after eating, but the rest of the time he's pretty slim. Is yours a female? I know females tend to be more plump than males.


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## kl86 (Feb 7, 2013)

Coming along nice!


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## MABJ (Mar 30, 2012)

*rocksmom's 12 Long - finally up and running, lots of pics post #30*

Is he the only DP in 12g?


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## rocksmom (Mar 6, 2012)

kl86 said:


> Coming along nice!


Thanks!



MABJ said:


> Is he the only DP in 12g?


Yep. I've had him for about a year and a half and have been too afraid to try to get a girl or two for him. I know when they're younger it's hard to sex them and don't want to risk ending up with another male that could fight with him.


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## Rbp917 (Dec 9, 2012)

I really like those Mr. Aqua 12s. 

I'm curios if your regulator is working out?

I'm also curious if the otos will eat the brown algae? Will anything else eat it?


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## rocksmom (Mar 6, 2012)

Yep, regulator has been great. Easy to set up and holds a steady bps.

And yes, otos LOVE diatoms. Ramshorns also eat it, but they aren't as "neat." They leave little tracks through it while the otos are pretty thorough. That's all I really have experience with, but there might be others. Amanos maybe?


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## MABJ (Mar 30, 2012)

*rocksmom's 12 Long - finally up and running, lots of pics post #30*



rocksmom said:


> Thanks!
> 
> 
> 
> Yep. I've had him for about a year and a half and have been too afraid to try to get a girl or two for him. I know when they're younger it's hard to sex them and don't want to risk ending up with another male that could fight with him.


You must be kinda bored with the tank :/ one fishy in a 12g. 

I think male/female you could put at least one more in, don't you?


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## lamiskool (Jul 1, 2011)

dp are very territorial so good for you on just getting one. I only have one by itself in a 10gallon and from the looks of it I think its a female so maybe thats why it looks more full then yours.


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## lamiskool (Jul 1, 2011)

oh heres a vid of mine when I first got it to feed from a dropper


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## MABJ (Mar 30, 2012)

*rocksmom's 12 Long - finally up and running, lots of pics post #30*

I love DPs. Very much. Neat video


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## rocksmom (Mar 6, 2012)

Wow, she is a chubby little bugger! Cute. The only way I know for sure to tell male vs. female is that the males get blue "wrinkle" lines around their eyes once they're mature.


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## lamiskool (Jul 1, 2011)

Males also usually have a black line down there belly


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## rocksmom (Mar 6, 2012)

Tank is looking pretty bad right now  Diatoms are out of control and making the plants look terrible. Only the newest growth isn't being smothered by them. I ended up doing a little work on it today anyway. I trimmed the stems back pretty far, scraped the front glass, and did a small water change to try to suck out some of the loose diatoms and oto poop.Turns out the shrimp sand is kind of a pain. It's so light that it sucks up before anything else does. Went ahead and planted the l. aromatica after removing most of the melted leaves.

After doing the water change I dosed NPK ignoring the instructions on the bottles and tested the water instead. Well, I tested for nitrate and phosphate, I don't have a potassium test. I'll do micros tomorrow, but I'm not sure how much to add of those since I don't have any way to test for them. Hmm. Maybe I'll just follow the directions for those and see how everything does for now. Hopefully the plants will be happier with the higher NPK and co2 levels.

Couple pics from today. FTS:










Thick with diatoms:










My lone oto:










I need to head down to San Diego soon and pick up a few friends for him. One is definitely not cutting it.


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## MABJ (Mar 30, 2012)

*rocksmom's 12 Long - finally up and running, lots of pics post #30*

Ottos don't appreciate lonely living anyways. They're shoalers!


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## rocksmom (Mar 6, 2012)

I know they should be kept in groups, but since all but one of my tanks are small I don't want to get more than I can keep fed long term. I haven't had much luck getting these guys to eat veggies or any prepared foods. I want to try the veggie formula repashy though. I think msjinkzd said she had her otos eating it. Maybe because the texture is closer to their natural food or something.


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## MABJ (Mar 30, 2012)

*rocksmom's 12 Long - finally up and running, lots of pics post #30*

Definitely introduce Blanched veggies to them and be persistent. They will begin to eat it, especially if they are hungry. 

I wouldn't give up


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## rocksmom (Mar 6, 2012)

Haven't updated this in awhile. After fighting a losing battle with the diatoms I decided to salvage the plants I could, clean the tank out, and start again. I put the stems in another tank with my filter and co2. The shrimps cleaned them up nicely and they're currently growing well. I bought some new dhg and restarted my mixed carpet. I think I realized what went wrong about a week into my new dry start. I had been misting everything with tap water which is very hard (400+ tds) and contains silicates. Basically I was making a mineral crust on everything so that when I flooded it the diatoms just went crazy. After realizing this I spent an afternoon alternately misting with RO and sucking the excess water out with a turkey baster. I did this probably a half dozen times or more. I also scrubbed the rocks with a toothbrush each time. Hopefully that took care of the mineral build up. I've only been using RO since and plan to use remineralized RO when I flood the tank. I switched my other small tanks over to RO and haven't had a diatom issue since.

Current pictures:





The belem's been growing pretty slow, so I don't think I'll wait until it's filled in to flood. I'm thinking probably in the next week or two. For stems right now I'm thinking rotala mini butterfly, possibly a little brown hygro, and rotala bangladesh as a green background for those two. I think I have some rotala pearl as well, but I may have lost it in the transition.

I have my fish already. I got around 20 boraras maculatus from msjinkzd. They're currently in a qt tank and very healthy. I only lost one despite the cross country trip they had to make. They'll be joined by some neos, but I'm not sure what ones yet. I have bv, red supremes, and pumpkins.


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