# Lego's 20 Long Journal - Geosesarma vivarium in progress! (Pic Intensive)



## Madfish

Looks nice does the Ram like to have a shrimp dinner every once and awhile?


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## bolivianram123

Nice tank! the left side is a bit empty but i saw your getting new plants so I'm pretty sure some scaping will be done. The Indian Red Sword is an awesome plant. I have one in my 20L but it grows fast and gets huge. I'm going to move it to my 29. But when it's small it is really nice, especially the transition from green to purple. And i only have 65w, you've got 130w! just a heads up


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## monkeyruler90

it'll look nice once everything fills in.

woot woot. representing South America!!


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## legomaniac89

Madfish said:


> Looks nice does the Ram like to have a shrimp dinner every once and awhile?


I have noticed the RCS population in a decline lately  Ehh, it's alright, they'll all probably get scooped out when I re-scape anyway. 

I pulled a few of the non-S.A. plants earlier and sketched up a rough design for the new biotope. I only hope it will look as good for real as it does in my mind. I should be getting the new plants on Wed. (Feb. 4) so I'll try to get most of the planting done and post the new pics then.


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## legomaniac89

Alright alright alright the tank is officially South American now. 









You can see the Indian Red to the middle-right side and the Red Rubins all the way to the right.










I pulled out the Glowlights and replaced them with about 18 Neons. That's the great part of working at a fish store; you get bored with the fish in the display tank, just pull 'em and put new ones in.










And here's those *ahem* Compacta Swords. I'm still not sure if that's really what they are.










I'm hoping in the near future to get some Potomogeton gayi and Hygrophila sp. "Porto Velho" for this baby. So that's it for now, I'll keep updating as the tank progresses.
Still open to any scape suggestions anyone has.


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## legomaniac89

Oh yeah, here the super-high tech co2 reactor.










Hydor Green NRG. Awesome, right? My bosses don't give a rat's crap about the tank, so I doubt they'll let me order a pressurized one anytime soon.

The diffuser at work.


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## legomaniac89

Man, trying to keep up with the storm of replies to this one :hihi:

What I need are scape suggestions. What I'm thinking is on the left side, I have three pieces of driftwood, and I'm thinking of removing the front two. In their place, maybe some Potomogeton gayi or a sword of some kind. 

I am looking for some South American plants that would look good along the left side, but am kind of at a loss. There's a lot of swords already, so I'd like something different, but would still flow with the tank (wow, that was vague). I can get the P. gayi from my work's supplier and plenty others, I just need ideas before I do anything.

Suggestions? Ideas?


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## legomaniac89

Don't everyone post at once :hihi:

The _Potomogeton gayi_ isn't available from my supplier now, or for a while. They're out of Florida, and I guess they lost about a quarter of their plants to the freeze down there. 
So I have some _Alternanthera reineckii_ and _Echinodorus harbich_ coming instead. I'm going to remove the front two pieces of wood on the left side and put the Alternanthera there, and probably put a Harbich or two in the front left side.

Finally, the so-called Echinodorus "Compacta". A couple of the plants have now reached the water's surface in record time, so I'm starting to suspect that the Compactas aren't really Compactas. _Echinodorus amazonicus_? Probably. I definitely don't need more of the massive amazonicus's in this thing, so they're probably gonna go fairly soon.

Once again, scape suggestions? Anyone?


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## SeaSerpant

Don't dispair over spilt milk in this case no posts. Usually this means that everybody is in awe over your tank and there speachless, so they have nothing to say 
I think it looks good. Do you have anything other that swords in there? 
WHAT DOES EVERYBODY ELSE THINK????LOL, C'MON POST


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## kid creole

I like SA tanks, and I like this one a lot. The big mamba-jamba sword looks like it is begging to be in a 90 instead of a 20L. I like that it strives to be something better.


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## kid creole

BTW, how bad are the water parameters that you are fighting?


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## legomaniac89

kid creole said:


> BTW, how bad are the water parameters that you are fighting?


The normal Elkhart water from the tap is something like...
pH: 7.8-8.2
gH and kH: can't remember off the top of my head, but they both maxed out on the Tetra strip tests last time I tested them.

As of now, the tank's pH is 6.0, the gH is about 3, and the kH is <100.


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## legomaniac89

SeaSerpant said:


> Don't dispair over spilt milk in this case no posts. Usually this means that everybody is in awe over your tank and there speachless, so they have nothing to say
> I think it looks good. Do you have anything other that swords in there?
> WHAT DOES EVERYBODY ELSE THINK????LOL, C'MON POST


Lol yeah, that's it! Everyone's in total awe! :hihi:

Most everything in the tank are swords, but the grassy plant in the front is _Lilaeopsis brasilensis_, and there's Peacock Moss on the driftwood in front of the huge Amazon sword. I have _Alternanthera reineckii_ coming next week too.


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## kid creole

legomaniac89 said:


> The normal Elkhart water from the tap is something like...
> pH: 7.8-8.2
> gH and kH: can't remember off the top of my head, but they both maxed out on the Tetra strip tests last time I tested them.
> 
> As of now, the tank's pH is 6.0, the gH is about 3, and the kH is <100.


The tap sounds perfect ... for Africans.


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## Trallen44

Great looking tank! I am jelous that you can change stuff out whith whatever you want from the store. Much easier and cheaper cheaper I am sure!!!


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## legomaniac89

Cheaper? The entire tank's been virtually free! My bosses give me quite a bit of freedom to do what I want, as long as I don't go overboard :icon_roll. I'm kinda lucky I got the light I did; they wanted to sell it, but I kinda snuck away from them and slapped it on the tank. Next: Pressurized co2.

And yeah, it is pretty nice to be able to swap out whatever I want, when I want without having to pay for it.

I can't wait for next Wednesday: Echinodorus harbich and Alternanthera reineckii, plus a few others. I think the smaller amazon swords in the front left are gonna go along with the front pieces of driftwood, and I'll put the Alternanthera and the Harbich in their place. Plus I got Nesaea pedicillata "Golden" coming too. It's African, but it's a brand new variety of the plant, so I might throw some in the tank to get it growing.


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## legomaniac89

Quickee update. Pulled some plants and added new ones.

Before. You can see how big those (not) Comapcta Swords got on the left side.









After









Echinodorus cordifolius "Harbich" in the front, Nesaea pedicilata "Golden" and Alternanthera reineckii behind. I know the Nesaea isn't South American, but I'm just keeping it in here so it can get a good start.

Closer pics of the Nesaea. Probably one of my new faves, the pic really doesn't do it justice.

















The tank after dosing Flourish Iron. High light+Flourish Iron=very cloudy water.


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## legomaniac89

'nuther update, just cause I can.










Not sure if it looks much different from the last pics, but I've made a few changes. Yes, you do see a Discus in there. I couldn't help myself :icon_redf, my fish supplier had an awesome sale price of Pigeon Bloods so I had to get a couple. There's a 40 Breeder tank that we sell plants out of that the Discus will get moved to once they outgrow this one.









Echinodorus "Red Devil". I had this one in my 20h at home, but I figured it would do a lot better in this tank. Starting to shoot up a few new leaves; I can't wait for this sucker to get bigger.









Another shot of the Nesaea "Golden". I'm really loving this plant. It's so unique and already has grown a bit.









I'm slowly straying away from the South American theme. This is _Pogostemon stellatus_ I got from a buddy in hope it'll go nuts under this light.









And _Ranunculus inudatus_. See above comment. Got it from the same guy.









The Lilaeopsis is finally starting to take off.









The big Amazon sword in the back is sending up a flower. I guess it really likes this new light.


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## legomaniac89

Courtesy of Digsy, I have a crapload of Blyxa japonica on the way, so that will probably be going ...well, somewhere in the foreground. Probably where the Harbich swords are now. I like the Harbich, but I'm not sure if it's right for the tank.

I also have some UG and Ludwigia sp. "Guinea" on the way from kotoeloncat, so they'll show up in this tank somewhere. 

I need a bigger tank. Too many plants, too little space :icon_roll.


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## legomaniac89

Alright, screw the South American theme. Too many cool non-South American plants out there. I can't control myself :icon_redf.

Did a minor resacpe, moved a few plants, butchered the huge amazon sword, trimmed up the other swords...the tank looks a lot emptier now.

Got a bunch of Blyxa japonica from Digsy. I love this plant



















The Ranunculus inundatus. In the tank less than a week, moved twice, and already spreading like wildfire.










Notice the hundreds of MTS surrounding the plants. Can't get rid of 'em. The snails, that is...

I'll probably update again tomorrow. Got a lot of Utricularia gramnifolia and a few stems of Ludwigia sp. "Guinea" sitting next to me, so they'll show up here somewhere.

I just can't leave this tank alone. So many plants, so little space. There are so many more that I want for this tank eventually. I have a really bad case of plantcollector-itis...:hihi:


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## legomaniac89

As promised, yet another update. More plants again.

UG lawn. Just planted so it looks a bit scraggly.










Got some Downoi from a buddy, so it found its way into the tank.










FTS










Not the prettiest Pigeon Blood in the world, but he just started eating after two weeks of hanging on for dear life. I'll tell ya, they just mow through the blackworms now.










Just for fun.










The lighting was so intense, it was actually frying some of the plants, especially the swords, so I have both bulbs on separate timers now, with one only on for 1.5 hours at high noon. I've never used a burst period before, so we'll see how the plants like it.


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## Coltonorr

Wow! All I can say is...
do you ever work?:hihi:
Joking of course!
When I managed an aquarium store in the 90's 
I dreamed of being able to do what you are doing
The tank looks good, but when are you going to just let it settle in
and fill in?
Oh and tell your boss you need a 75!


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## legomaniac89

Coltonorr said:


> Wow! All I can say is...
> do you ever work?:hihi:
> Joking of course!
> When I managed an aquarium store in the 90's
> I dreamed of being able to do what you are doing?
> The tank looks good, but when are you going to just let it settle in
> and fill in?
> Oh and tell your boss you need a 75!


Uhh...not much :hihi:.

Yeah, I know I need to leave it alone and let it grow, but I just can't . Actually, I'm running out of planting room, so I'm pretty much forced to leave it alone now. I have Ludwigia "Cuba" coming next week, but that should be it for the plants for a while.


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## legomaniac89

The Echinodorus have been screaming at me lately, haunting my dreams, invading my thoughts...well, not really. They look like crap right now though. Why?

Well, two reasons:
1. The DIY CO2 wouldn't work. So after resetting it about thirty times, I started to get suspicious that the yeast wasn't very good. So I ran to the store and got more and set it up again. And guess what? BUBBLES! and a lot of 'em. Tell you what, it makes a heck of a difference if the yeast you use is alive or not.

2: At the same time the CO2 was down, I ran out of Excel. Completely. So for a week's time, the plants had no carbon source and really went downhill, the swordplants were hit harder than any others. I now have CO2 _and_ Excel so let the growth begin again!

Otherwise, not much looks different so I don't have any new pics at the moment. The big Amazon sword pretty much died back without CO2, so I trimmed off all but about 6 leaves, so the back looks pretty empty now.


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## Pinto

Nice thank.
Wow didn't expect your plant to die that fast without co2 for a week.


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## legomaniac89

Well, they didn't really die, they just look kind of pathetic. I have >3wpg of light with a 1.5hr burst period at noon, doubling the light output for that time. (High light+nutrient hungry plants) - carbon = really unhappy plants.

But honestly, I didn't expect them to go downhill so fast either. Ah well, problem's solved now, thankfully


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## legomaniac89

Take my last FTS, chop down the swords. That's the tank now. No CO2 really did a number on the swords, even though the other plants really weren't affected much at all. Weird.

Anyway, the amazon sword looks like 2-day-old beard stubble behind the DW; I lopped it down to about 1/2" tall, leaving the flower though. Now that the CO2's back up and running, it'll grow back pretty quick and look a lot better than it did.

The Indian Red and Rubins were pretty much toast so I just trashed them. I got a lot more stem plants on the way so I'll fill the back of the tank up with plants again pretty soon. Hopefully, new pics this Saturday.


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## legomaniac89

This tank is living proof that CO2 is like steroids for plants. I got the system back up and running and the plants just took off. Everything is growing like crazy. For you DIY CO2'ers, here's a tip: yeast that's alive works a heckofalot better than dead yeast :icon_roll.

The Ranunculus and Lilaeopsis have more or less tripled. The Nesaea "Golden" and Polygonum "Ruby" have both grown a good 2" since the CO2 replacement. Even the butchered Amazon Sword has a few new leaves coming up already (still hasn't flowered, though :icon_evil)

With the Indian Red and Rubins gone, the back right corner is pretty empty, but I have quite a few new plants to feed my collectoritis disease. Ammania sp. "Bonsai", Arthraxon sp. "Malaysia", Rotala sp. Mini Type II, Limnophila repens "Mini", Murdannia sp. "Red", Hygrophila sp. "Red" (mostly courtesy of Kotoeloncat)...just to name a few. I have a true addiction.

The only plant I'm not sure about is the Alternanthera (hiding behind the Nesaea). I like it, but, I don't know. There's a lot of red here. It may go, it may stay. I'll see how it looks after I trim the Nesaea.

So anyway, pics tomorrow. Scout's honor.


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## chase127

alright dude ive held out for a while but... get that elephant out of the garage. the discus has got to go...

tank looks nice though


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## legomaniac89

chris127 said:


> alright dude ive held out for a while but... get that elephant out of the garage. the discus has got to go...
> 
> tank looks nice though


He's my guilty pleasure, I can't give him up :hihi:

Actually, this is the first time I've been able to keep a discus alive for more than a week. Elkhart water is perfect for African cichlids, and I've fought with it for 3 months to get it on the softer side so I _can_ keep a discus. This is more to prove to myself that I can keep one than anything else, I guess :icon_roll.

There is a 40 Breeder we sell plants out of, but I've done nothing with the parameters. Once I soften that water, he'll probably get moved into there. But with no R/O unit, I've been buying it a gallon at a time. It'll take a while to get the hardness down in the 40. Eventually, he will get moved, just...not yet...


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## crabcake

they can be too much in a planted tank, especially when it's a big group all different colors, as seems to often occur, but i think that that single discus looks OK.

the discus scales well with that big sword.


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## legomaniac89

crabcake said:


> they can be too much in a planted tank, especially when it's a big group all different colors, as seems to often occur, but i think that that single discus looks OK.
> 
> the discus scales well with that big sword.


Heh heh, well, the big sword's not there no more. At least not completely. I hacked off all but the bottom 1/2" after my bout with CO2. It looked like crap before but it's already growing back. A little time and it will be back to its former glory.


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## danakin

legomaniac89 said:


> For you DIY CO2'ers, here's a tip: yeast that's alive works a heckofalot better than dead yeast


Which is why proofing yeast can save a lot of questioning later 

Tank looks good, and I actually kinda like the discus (though the tank is a bit small for him)


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## legomaniac89

Well, a couple days later than I promised, but here's the update...this'll be a long one.

FTS










The two main changes are I trimmed the Nesaea way back, it's hiding behind the Blyxa, but it's there. The other is a new filter! A Zoomed Turtle filter 501, to be exact.


















A bit weird, but hey, it's better than that stupid HOB I had. Plus it clears out the back wall a lot more.

Sunset Hygro, showing off why it's a noxious weed. It grows about an inch a day.










Bacopa colorata










Ludwigia sp. "Guinea", established and growing almost as fast as the Sunset Hygro.










Murdannia sp. "Red". Very cool plant










Rotala sp. "Mini Type II"










Polygonum "Ruby", pearling away










Arthraxon sp. "Malaysia", following suit.










"Hey Adam, take a picture of me! Was I in the shot? Huh, was I?"


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## legomaniac89

One quick update. Nothing much has changed, but I added some Rotala sp. "Butterfly" to the right side. For some reason, my UG will not grow for me. I think my water may still be a bit too hard for it, but I don't know, it just won't spread for me. My cories have uprooted half of it, and the rest is just there...not growing, not dying.

If I don't see growth by next Tuesday, it's coming out. Maybe I'll replace it with an Elatine or Marselia or something.

Utricularia gramnifolia. Your ultimatum has been set.


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## legomaniac89

My conversation with a customer today:

40-something man walks in. "Wow, that's a nice tank. I've never seen a tang that color. What species is it?"

I look over at the saltwater system a few feet away. "Well we have a Yellow, a Blue Hepatus..."

Him: "No no no, that pink one in the tank over there," he says pointing at the 20L

Me: "Oh, that's a Pigeon Blood Discus. It's freshwater"

Him: "You sure? I've been keeping saltwater tanks for years and I know my saltwater fish. That looks like a tang of some kind. They're also called surgeonfish, you know."

Me: "Yeah, but that's not a tang. It's a discus. They're native to the Amazon River area in South America."

Him: "But that fish isn't a freshwater fish. It's too colorful."

Me: "It is. You can taste the water if you want. You won't taste any salt at all. Discus are known for their color; they're brighter than a lot of marine fish.

Him: "Never mind, I'll just go to Petco. At least there they know the difference between saltwater and freshwater." He turned around and walked out.

I was kinda left speechless, but we got a good laugh out of it after he left.


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## legomaniac89

Got lots of new plants today. I mean lots. The tank is full to the brim. I can't fit many more plants in here. 

Most of them went into the back right corner, which was mostly empty. I filled the corner and has lots left over. I pulled the big Amazon Sword too...boy was that a fight. I tried to pull it up and plants 16" away started moving. It had a root system across the entire tank, but I prevailed. It turned the tank into chocolate milk for a while, which is why I have no pics yet. You couldn't see through the back of the tank for a couple of hours, one downside to having a potting soil underlayer.

So anyway, here's a teaser for the new plants I added:

Hygrophila sp. "Tiger"
Hygrophila sp. "Bold"
Rotala sp. "Mini Type 1"
Ludwigia glandulosa
Lamiacaea sp. (Hemigraphis traian)
Poacaea sp. "Purple Bamboo"

Hopefully I'll post some pictures tomorrow...if I can get my biology paper done. Wish me luck :icon_neut


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## legomaniac89

FTS










Right side










Left side










Hygrophila sp. "Tiger". I bought this as Hygro sp. "Red", but after a few days under the lighting it turned into this.










Ranunculus inundatus, spreading like wildfire










Well I gave my UG an ultimatum. And guess what? It listened. One tiny little runner popped up from the Flourite. Hopefully you can see it, but it's there.


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## legomaniac89

I got nothin better to do, so here's another update.

FTS. Pay no attention to the piece of plastic with a rock on top. I didn't feel like planting my HC at the time, so it's being weighted down like so for now.










Blyxa japonica and Nesaea "Golden"










Ludwigia sp. "Guinea". This is supposedly a slow grower. I guess "slow" is defined as an inch a day.



















Hygrophila sp. "Araguaia". I have a weakness for hygros, right behind my weakness for crypts, and this has got to be the coolest hygro I've ever seen. It actualy creeps along the substrate and forms a sparse carpet.










Hottonia palustris and Pogostemon erectum










Rotala sp. "Mini Type II". The new leaves are coming in really small, and I'm not sure why.










Rotala sp. "Vietnam"










Rotala sp. "Butterfly", The picture does it no justice. It's such a beautiful plant.










Rotala sp. "Mini Type I"










Ludwigia glandulosa.










Hygrophila sp. "Bold" with Lamiaceae sp. in the background










Limnohila repens "Mini", it's coming in a really bright green color.










And the new tank inhabitant...well not really. He's a Harlequin Tusk Wrasse we got with our marine order last week. I thought he was so beautiful I'd share a picture of him here.
You can't tell from the pic, but he's got some wicked fangs in his mug. Looks kinda like a Halloween mask of some kind









So anyway, that's the tank so far. A true collectoritis tank, for sure.


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## legomaniac89

Talk about explosive growth. Most of the plants grew over 3" over the weekend. 










The CO2 is probably around 60+ bps. I don't have a drop checker so I don't know where it is exactly, but it's definitely close to the max.

Right side










Left side










I only made a couple changes. I tore off all the Peacock Moss on the middle piece of wood and tied some Fissidens on. The Peacock Moss was becoming a magnet for every little particle floating in the tank and it was becoming an eyesore. I also pulled the Hygro Tiger from the back and planted some Rotala Nanjenshan there instead. I love the Tiger, but it jsut wasn't working for me.

Hygrophila sp. "Bold"










Limnophila repens "Mini". About to become emergent.










Hygrophila sp, "Araguaia", flattened out and starting to creep along the substrate










Ludwigia sp. "Guinea", breaking the surface.










I jsut started dosing PMDD today instead of the Flourish line. Cheaper, easier, better.


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## will5

I think it's looks really nice.:thumbsup:


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## legomaniac89

will5 said:


> I think it's looks really nice.:thumbsup:


Thanks Will!

I was just scanning through some pics and found some comparisons of the tank right after the rescape and now.

March 19th










April 2










When you see the tank every day you don't notice the growth so much. This is 2 weeks worth of growth.


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## Yassmeena

Hey - nice tank. But that poor discus is probably miserable. They are happiest in a school of 6.


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## legomaniac89

Well, if he's miserable he doesn't show it. He eats blackworms right from my hand and is constantly begging for food and attention.

I read somewhere (on this forum I think) that discus do fine with just 1, otherwise you need a school to minimize aggression.


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## kotoeloncat

Yassmeena said:


> Hey - nice tank. But that poor discus is probably miserable. They are happiest in a school of 6.


not sure I quite agree with that, Discus are better kept at either 1 single one, a breeding pair or a group of 6+


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## legomaniac89

*Pearling!!!*

^^^
and a lot of it! I swear, two days after switching from Flourish to PMDD and the plants are pumping out O2 like there's no tomorrow.

Sunset Hygro (crazy-looking effect on the water surface :icon_eek










Limnophila repens "Mini"










HC










Rotala sp. "Mini Type 1"










Rotala sp. "Butterfly"










When I was using the Flourish line, I hardly ever had any pearling. With the PMDD, the plants pearl for 6 hours straight daily. The HC mat which _was_ rooted pearled so much it actually floated away :icon_roll

A few random slow-day-at-work shots


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## ZooTycoonMaster

Wow, congrats on the pearling! I assume you have pressurized CO2?

And is that Flourite as the substrate?


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## legomaniac89

ZooTycoonMaster said:


> Wow, congrats on the pearling! I assume you have pressurized CO2?
> 
> And is that Flourite as the substrate?


Nope! Good ol' sugar-yeast-water mix. I have two 32oz bottles hooked up so it's probably around 60-80 bps. I've been a bit worried about the fish with the CO2 bubbling so much, but they don't show any signs of stress so I'm not gonna worry about it.

And yeah, it's Flourite. I don't care for it much but I guess it works. There's a layer of Fertilome Seedling and Cutting Starter soil underneath too.


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## ZooTycoonMaster

legomaniac89 said:


> 60-80 bps.


Am I reading this right? Or do you mean 6-8?:icon_eek::eek5:


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## legomaniac89

ZooTycoonMaster said:


> Am I reading this right? Or do you mean 6-8?:icon_eek::eek5:


bpM sorry :icon_eek:. Lol


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## ZooTycoonMaster

Oh ok good

What are you using to diffuse it?


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## legomaniac89

This thing right here










It came with the Hydor Green NRG package I started with. I've since replaced most everything but the diffuser.


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## legomaniac89

Emergent Ludwigia sp. "Guinea". Notice the flower buds at the base of the petioles. I'm hoping they'll flower within a day or so.










FTS










I have a small terrarium set up with a few plants in it. One of them is this Hygrophila corymbosa "Kompakt" and it is just now flowering with a bunch more on the way.










I have a few crypts, including a Florida Sunset, in the terrarium too, so I'll try to keep it updated here.

So in other news, the impeller in my Hydor CO2 diffuser shattered, so a small limewood diffuser is hooked up instead for the time being.


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## timme278

i never knew you could keep a single discus on their own, i always thought 6 or more so i didnt bother in my 20gallon 

looks good
thought about shrimp? like crystal shrimp?


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## legomaniac89

I would love to get some CRS, but shrimp and discus don't seem to get along too well. There _was_ some cherry shrimp in here...until I got the discus. They mysteriously disappeared, along with most of my MTS. Not complaining there, though


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## timme278

i wouldnt complain either 

trick to not being able to have shrimp...... set up a shrimp tank :hihi:

ohh btw.... legomaniac89 <* legend... *


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## legomaniac89

FTS










HC, finally rooted to where I can remove the weight










Nesaea pedicellata "Golden", finally starting to grow back after I hacked them down










Bacopa colorata, showing of the "colorata" part. Thank you dry ferts!


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## B16CRXT

Great looking tank, but where is your Ludwigia 'cuba' you said you got? I got some about a week ago and I was just wanting to see what someone else's looked like after growing for a while under high light!


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## ZooTycoonMaster

Great! The HC is filling in nicely:thumbsup:


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## legomaniac89

Chris. said:


> Great looking tank, but where is your Ludwigia 'cuba' you said you got? I got some about a week ago and I was just wanting to see what someone else's looked like after growing for a while under high light!


Well I order plants from Florida Aquatic Nurseries through a pet supply company and my rep over there is very talented at messing my orders up. For every plant order I send to him, I can count on at least one of the plants being the wrong one when I get them. 

I order Hygro Kompakt, I get Echinodorus Compactas, which turn out to be just small E. amazonicus. I order Echinodorus "Red Rubin", I get E. "Ozelot Green". I ordered Ludwigia cuba, and I got Rotala indica...well you get the picture. Anyway, it never came and I'm still working on getting it.


----------



## legomaniac89

ZooTycoonMaster said:


> Great! The HC is filling in nicely:thumbsup:


Yeah! Problem is that it pearls so much it keeps uprooting itself and floating away :icon_eek:


----------



## demonbreedr16

Very nice tank!!

Love the Discus!! Pigeon Blood; Right?

I want one for the FUTURE 75-125 Aquarium.


----------



## legomaniac89

demonbreedr16 said:


> Very nice tank!!
> 
> Love the Discus!! Pigeon Blood; Right?
> 
> I want one for the FUTURE 75-125 Aquarium.


Bingo! They're my favorite discus color morph behind Blue Cobalts


----------



## legomaniac89

Update time! You might notice a few small changes here and there. See how many you can find, and don't forget to find Waldo while you're at it :hihi:














































Find any?

Well the main changes were I trimmed the Limnophila "Mini" and Ludwigia "Guinea". They were both breaking the surface of the water. I also moved the Lamiaceae sp. and Murdannia "Red" to the left side of the tank. They were basically getting buried underneath the faster growers and weren't faring so well.

Hygrophila sp. "Araguaia". It's growing in really well, I would love to have a carpet of this plant.










Hemigraphis traian (or Lamiaceae sp., or Hyptis sp., whatever you call it) in its new place.










Polygonum "Ruby"










Rotala indica "Bonsai", a lot happier after I trimmed its neighbors.










And my sad, sad, sad UG patch. The one plant that will not grow for me. It's just there, not growing, not dying.


----------



## B16CRXT

How odd about the UG. Everyone else's seems to grow like wildfire! I don't have any though. i'm sticking to e. tenellus for my ground cover if I can ever get it to fill in. Love that discus! If I had a large enough tank and wallet I'd get one. It would be my luck he dies right after the 15 day exchange policy is up though. lol, it's the one reason I shy away from expensive fish. although my rams have held up great from day one. I consider them to be 'expensive'


----------



## legomaniac89

Chris. said:


> How odd about the UG. Everyone else's seems to grow like wildfire! I don't have any though. i'm sticking to e. tenellus for my ground cover if I can ever get it to fill in. Love that discus! If I had a large enough tank and wallet I'd get one. It would be my luck he dies right after the 15 day exchange policy is up though. lol, it's the one reason I shy away from expensive fish. although my rams have held up great from day one. I consider them to be 'expensive'


I think the problem with the UG is that I'm growing it in Flourite. Most everyone else that has some grows it in Aquasoil or something similar. That's the only thing I can think of to why it's not growing.


----------



## B16CRXT

oh, prolly wouldnt grow for me either then. I'm using flourite black. If I try anything different, it will be potting soil mixed with a bit of flourite or laterite I think.


----------



## sewingalot

Your tank is great. Congratulations on the pearling. :thumbsup:


----------



## legomaniac89

Thanks sewingalot!

Here's a few more pics

FTS




























Not sure why the lighting looks so different in the last two pics. Same camera setting and they were only taken a minute apart, but oh well. 

My attempt at a macro shot










Everything's growing good except that darn UG. The only changes I have planned for this tank in right behind the middle piece of driftwood. I have Rotala nanjenshan there now, but I'm thinking of replacing it with either Tonina fluviatilis of more of the Limnophila sp. "Mini". 

Since it's been a while, here are the current params:

Nitrates: 5ppm
pH: 5.8
kH: 20
gH: 40
Temp: 85F
WC: 30-40% weekly of R/O
CO2: DIY, 2 32oz bottles, Excel
Ferts: PMDD (8 drops daily)


----------



## sewingalot

That last shot of HC is awesome. Reminds me of a crystal ball. :hihi: Your discuss looks really happy.


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## B16CRXT

I bet those cardinals are loving that acidic water!


----------



## legomaniac89

sewingalot said:


> That last shot of HC is awesome. Reminds me of a crystal ball. :hihi: Your discuss looks really happy.


Thanks! That discus has actually associated the metal tongs with blackworms. So when I'm in the tank planting or something, he's usually right there nipping at the tongs hoping a blackworms will magically appear. He's quite a pig 



Chris. said:


> I bet those cardinals are loving that acidic water!


Erm...uh *ahemNeons* :hihi:

Yeah they love the acidic water. I've kept Neons quite a few times, but never messed with the pH until this tank. They are definitely brighter and more active in here than in any of the other tanks.


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## B16CRXT

lol, one of the pics looked like the red went all the way down to me. oops!

My guppies and my rams all nip at my fingers when I'm planting. I guess they know I'm gonna feed them at some point.


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## ZooTycoonMaster

How do you get the pH so low?:icon_eek:


----------



## legomaniac89

ZooTycoonMaster said:


> How do you get the pH so low?:icon_eek:


That was the hard part. My tap water looks something like this:

pH: 8.2
gH: 500+
kH: can't remember, but it's really high too.

It's basically liquid rock.

So I started doing WCs with R/O or distilled and adding some Seachem Discus Buffer to the water before adding it to the tank. That brings the new water to something like this:

pH: 5.8
kH and gH: 0

It took me 3 months to get the pH down to where it is now. I still add some tap water to the tank now and then just to keep the kH above zero.


----------



## legomaniac89

Here's the tank again, looking pretty much the same as before.










Nesaea "Golden", this one's a really slow grower.










Polygonum "Ruby"










Rotala sp. "Mini Type 1"










Sunset Hygro, it's no wonder it's a noxious weed, it grows over an inch a day.










Hygro sp. "Red"










The discus










And just because, this is my friend, the Gargoyle Gecko.


----------



## B16CRXT

Love your gecko. I've been wanting to get an eyelash crested gecko for almost a year now. just haven't saved up the money for his terrarium yet. Tank is looking good! 

Are those discus aggressive at all?


----------



## legomaniac89

Nah, the discus hasn't shown any aggression at all. He'll plow through the Neons if they're in between him and food, but that's just because he's a pig :hihi:


----------



## legomaniac89

Couple small changes. I pulled a few plants and moved a few others. The Hygro "Rosanervig" and "Bold" and Ludwigia glandulosa I took out. I moved the E. vesuvius to the back corner and moved the Rotala Mini Type 1 to where the Vesuvius was. I'm working on getting a nice bush effect with the Type 1.
I also trimmed a bunch of the other plants. (psst...check the SnS).

I should have about a dozen Green Neons coming for the tank tomorrow. I'll try to get some half-decent pics of them.


----------



## ZooTycoonMaster

Looks great! What's the foreground plants?


----------



## legomaniac89

Let's see, there's Ranunculus inundatus, HC, and a tiny piece of UG that won't grow or die. And some Blyxa japonica on the left side.

If the UG doesn't grow soon, I'm gonna move the Ranunculus over the the right side where the UG is now, and let the HC spread across the middle foreground. I think that'll look pretty nice.


----------



## legomaniac89

New tank inhabitants! Green Fire Tetras! They look awesome with the Neons.










Yeah, I ordered Green Neons, but you know. The one species out of 50 I order that they mess up. Oh well, the Fires look nice anyway.

And the mandatory FTS



















On a side note, I cannot find a good camera setting that brings out the true colors of the tank. The pics are nice, but not nearly as crisp or bright color-wise as the tank is to my eyes.
I use a Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ8. Anyone use this camera and have a setting you like?

And finally, my class got out early today so I went to the local zoo and got a few half-decent shots. Thought I'd share with everyone


----------



## B16CRXT

the camera settings can all be different if you use manual mode. Just set your contrast normal(can experiment with different pics), saturation high and sharpness high, and you should come out with pretty decent pics that 'pop'. Avoid high ISO settings. Instead, lower the aperture and increase the shutter speed to compensate.


----------



## legomaniac89

Had to read through that a couple times to get it :hihi:

I think I got everything figured out you said. I'll snap a few pics tomorrow and see how they look as compared to the old ones. Thanks Chris.

BTW, good to see you got the avatar problems worked out. Pirate Bob is no more


----------



## B16CRXT

yea, they got worked out but we had to change my user name unfortunately. Good luck with the picture taking! I had a canon 350D a while back until I needed to sell it. I'll eventually have another DSLR.


----------



## legomaniac89

Alright, new camera setting, let's see how it looks.










The plants were in pearling overload today. Everything was pumping out the O2 like no tomorrow.














































And no, that isn't diatoms on the plants, it's residual dust from moving the Ranunculus and a couple others. That's the one drawback to having a potting soil underlayer.

I just got a huge truckload of plants from GenaVorn, including a bunch of Toninas, L. cuba, and about 6 others. I'm gonna be doing some planting tomorrow, pics to come!


----------



## speedie408

No wonder you sold all your plants to me... you're getting even nicer plants to replace them.  The tank looks good man, I really like some of the plants you sent me man. Thanks!


----------



## legomaniac89

Hey thanks Speedie, good to hear the plants made it to you alright! Enjoy the Hygros, they grow over 4 inches a week for me.


----------



## legomaniac89

New plants, new plants, new plants. I got a huge, massive truckload of plants in. So I did a few substitutions for the new ones. Notice any differences?




























Ones I added are Syngonanthus sp. "Belem", Tonina fluviatilis, Ludwigia cuba, and a few others.


----------



## ZooTycoonMaster

Wow:icon_eek: Where do you get these plants? They look great!


----------



## legomaniac89

legomaniac89 said:


> I just got a huge truckload of plants from *GenaVorn*, including a bunch of Toninas, L. cuba, and about 6 others.


:thumbsup:


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## B16CRXT

Where is your l. cuba? Behind that chain sword? Or is that Blyxa?


----------



## legomaniac89

In the very back left corner. It's hiding behind the Blyxa/Nesaea/Polygonum monster


----------



## legomaniac89

Yup, still looks the same.


----------



## funkyfish

Looking good!  
And is that mopani wood in the tank? How do you get it not to color water? I got some and boiled it like 3 times but the water still comes out really brown.


----------



## Grandpa_V

Nice looking tank. I like it.


----------



## B16CRXT

funkyfish said:


> Looking good!
> And is that mopani wood in the tank? How do you get it not to color water? I got some and boiled it like 3 times but the water still comes out really brown.



that stuff really has to soak for a long time. I have a small piece that has been in a big Tupperware container for at least 3 months. It's just starting not to color the water anymore. When I do water changes on my tanks, I did them on the Tupperware also, but refilled it with hot water to get it to soak into the wood quicker.


----------



## legomaniac89

funkyfish said:


> Looking good!
> And is that mopani wood in the tank? How do you get it not to color water? I got some and boiled it like 3 times but the water still comes out really brown.





B16CRXT said:


> that stuff really has to soak for a long time. I have a small piece that has been in a big Tupperware container for at least 3 months. It's just starting not to color the water anymore. When I do water changes on my tanks, I did them on the Tupperware also, but refilled it with hot water to get it to soak into the wood quicker.


You can't really tell from the pics but it is still slightly yellow. It's been in here for 6 or 7 months and it is still leaching tannins. I almost hate to tell you this, but I have Mopani in another tank that's been in there for almost 18 months and is still turning the tank yellow. And this is after 4 boiling sessions and a month-long soak. This stuff has a never-ending supply of tannins, I guess :icon_roll



Grandpa_V said:


> Nice looking tank. I like it.


Thanks Grandpa!


----------



## ZooTycoonMaster

legomaniac89 said:


> You can't really tell from the pics but it is still slightly yellow. It's been in here for 6 or 7 months and it is still leaching tannins. I almost hate to tell you this, but I have Mopani in another tank that's been in there for almost 18 months and is still turning the tank yellow. And this is after 4 boiling sessions and a month-long soak. This stuff has a never-ending supply of tannins, I guess :icon_roll


Put some Purigen in the filter! It really helps for tannins and discolorations.


----------



## legomaniac89

ZooTycoonMaster said:


> Put some Purigen in the filter! It really helps for tannins and discolorations.


Heh, well I had some in there for a while, but I left it in there for too long and...uh...killed it. I couldn't recharge it for anything. I need to get more but I just haven't remembered.


----------



## B16CRXT

How do you know when to recharge it? when it is slightly brown, or pretty dark? Mine got slightly brown within a week!


----------



## legomaniac89

I usually recharge mine (in another tank) every other week. It's usually a lighter brown color, kinda the color of cardboard. It seems to recharge okay at that point. With the one I killed, it was in there after I pulled all the swords and sorta rescaped, so I think with all the soil and nitrogenous junk floating around, it absorbed too much and fizzled out. It was super dark brown at that point and even after recharging it like normal, it didn't do anything for the water clarity. It just took up space in the filter


----------



## legomaniac89

Not much has changed, but here's an update anyway.



















The Limnophila sp. "Mini" has turned into a nice thick bush for me. The Syngonanthus sp. "Belem" and Tonina fluviatilis are both doing pretty well, they haven't melted yet, at least .

I got a new CO2 diffuser to replace the last one that shattered. Please ignore the GSA on the glass 










Looking down a the Blyxa monster.










My lone stem of Eichornia diversifolia.










Nesaea "Golden", such a beautiful plant. It'll be trim time fairly soon for this guy.










Well, that's all for now folks


----------



## timme278

weres mr discus gone? :O


----------



## legomaniac89

timme278 said:


> weres mr discus gone? :O


haha he's still there, he's just being camera shy


----------



## ZooTycoonMaster

Wow that's a good diffuser! Are you using pressurized?


----------



## legomaniac89

I'm working on it. I don't have the money for a full blown pressurized system yet...but soon.


----------



## ZooTycoonMaster

:eek5:You mean...you get all that CO2 from DIY?:eek5:


----------



## legomaniac89

ZooTycoonMaster said:


> :eek5:You mean...you get all that CO2 from DIY?:eek5:


Yup. I'm getting about 100bpm from it normally. I have 2 32oz bottles set up and I have to redo it almost every week.


----------



## B16CRXT

legomaniac89 said:


> Yup. I'm getting about 100bpm from it normally. I have 2 32oz bottles set up and I have to redo it almost every week.


I know that gets old quick! I got tired of doing it every 3 weeks!


----------



## legomaniac89

A few changes have taken place. That big chunk of petrified wood...gone. Rotala indica "Bonsai" put in the rock's place. I chopped up the Hygrophila sp. "Araguaia" and spread it out and I added some Rotala magenta too. So...pics.




























Polygonum sp. "Sao Paulo", really reddening up under these lights.










I'm finally getting to the look I want, it's just taken me a while to find out what that look is


----------



## Tex Gal

Looking good. I'm very impressed with your DIY CO2 skills!


----------



## ZooTycoonMaster

Woah I just realized how big the Hygro in the back is:eek5:


----------



## legomaniac89

Tex Gal said:


> Looking good. I'm very impressed with your DIY CO2 skills!


Thanks Tex Gal! I'm saving up for a nice pressurized system now, hopefully within a couple months.



ZooTycoonMaster said:


> Woah I just realized how big the Hygro in the back is:eek5:


Hygro? Oh wait, you mean the Limnophila sp. "Mini"? Yeah, it's turned into a nice thick bush for me. It all came from 3 small stems back in February and it really took off.


----------



## legomaniac89

Name that Plant!!!

I'm pretty sure it's a Vallisneria of some kind, I just don't know what. It's about 8-10" tall, been in the tank a week and already has 4 daughter plants on a runner. It definitely grows like a Val


----------



## legomaniac89

Wooo! Yeah!! New filter! Ehiem 2213!! On sale!! 40 bucks!!! Woohoo!

:hihi: Okay I'm done. So I was at another LFS and the owner had an *almost* new Ehiem 2213 for sale. He has used it for a month and got a better filter for free, so he sold this one to me. According to him, it works perfectly, but it didn't filter enough for his 60g.

I can't wait for tomorrow now. Gonna hook up a nice new filter 

Any guesses on my mystery Val? ^^^


----------



## B16CRXT

you are going to love the 2213! I put one on my 20H about 3 weeks ago. I LOVE the flow it gives!


----------



## demosthenes

the tank is soooo cool! i found this from your post about erios... i think some well placed erios in here would look fantastic. maybe some toninas, too? there are some real cool erios, but i personally find toninas a lot more appealing. belem and fluviatilis both just look so.... i dont even know how to describe it, theyre just too cool.

as for the val, it almost looks like some sort of Isoetes sp. Until its identified for sure, maybe its just a "needle leaf" val or something. idk. its pretty sweet though!


----------



## legomaniac89

demosthenes said:


> the tank is soooo cool! i found this from your post about erios... i think some well placed erios in here would look fantastic. maybe some toninas, too? there are some real cool erios, but i personally find toninas a lot more appealing. belem and fluviatilis both just look so.... i dont even know how to describe it, theyre just too cool.
> 
> as for the val, it almost looks like some sort of Isoetes sp. Until its identified for sure, maybe its just a "needle leaf" val or something. idk. its pretty sweet though!


Thanks man!

I actually have Syngonanthus sp. "Belem" (ex-Tonina) and a few tiny stems of Tonina fluviatilis in the background. They're not doing too growing real well, but not dying either, so I'm kinda hesitant to try Erios until I get the Toninas growing.

That Val or Isoetes or whatever it is now has 7 runners throughout the left side of the tank. I've never seen a plant spread so fast. It is pretty cool, but man is it prolific.

By the way, I got that new 2213 set up and running today and I gotta say, it rocks. It's got so much more flow than that Zoomed 501 had.

The E. vesuvius (...or Helanthium now I guess. I hate taxonomy) in the back right corner has a bunch of runners going off in all directions. It's gotta be one of my favorite plants out there. 

Oh yeah, I got some hair/thread algae starting to take hold in here. Any ideas how I can knock it out before it takes over? I'm probably going to add a SAE on Wednesday for some cleanup. Any other ideas for hair algae control?


----------



## ZooTycoonMaster

legomaniac89 said:


> Any other ideas for hair algae control?


Spot dose Excel!


----------



## legomaniac89

ZooTycoonMaster said:


> Spot dose Excel!


Ugh. That'd be a lot of spot treating. Unfortunately, it's not just in one spot, but kinda spread out everywhere. Especially in the Fissidens, and I know how much Fissidens and Excel get along.


----------



## B16CRXT

Tinker with you light timer. A shortened day might help. Add more fertilizers. Are you doing DIY CO2? I forgot.


----------



## legomaniac89

I was thinking about trying a siesta period with the lights. I've used one before and it worked pretty well. Maybe I'll set the timer to do that tomorrow.

Yeah I use DIY, just redid it today. 80-100bpm. 

Today I Exceled the worst patches, added a SAE and upped the ferts, so hopefully with a siesta period screwing with the algae's photosynthesizing time it'll start to die back.

Oh yeah, no more Toninas. They wouldn't grow for me. They wouldn't die either. Drove me freakin nuts so I pulled em. I'm thinking about replacing the HC too. My cories really enjoy digging it up each time it roots. Maybe I'll try Elatine triandra or something. And I think Rotala sp. "Green" will go where the Belem was. Or the L. cuba. I don't know.

Anyway, done with my ramble. It's been one of those days...


----------



## jfrank85

I get trimmings from this tank! Everyone buy anything legomaniac89 sells, its always in good condition. (there you go Adam, free advertisement):icon_bigg


----------



## malaybiswas

legomaniac89 said:


> Oh yeah, no more Toninas. They wouldn't grow for me. They wouldn't die either. Drove me freakin nuts so I pulled em.


Tonina's need soft acidic water. If your water is moderately hard, they won't die, but they won't grow either. I had the same situation and consulted with AFA. They suggested RO water but I don't want to do RO since it wastes a lot of water and depletes oxygen content in it, so they suggested using peat extract (in petsmart you get peat extract for ponds). I have had good success so far with that method, good enough that I can think of moving back my toninas from the hospital tank to the main display tanks.


----------



## B16CRXT

I have the same problem with my Red Temple as you did with Toninas. Mine grows extremely slowly. I have watched two leaves on one particular stem grow from tiny buds to about 1/4" over the last 4 days. Driving me insane!


----------



## legomaniac89

jfrank85 said:


> I get trimmings from this tank! Everyone buy anything legomaniac89 sells, its always in good condition. (there you go Adam, free advertisement):icon_bigg


Thanks Justin, the plants usually are in good condition when when I give them to you, and then you toss them into your stinkin hardwater tanks lol. Set up a softwater tank already! :biggrin:



malaybiswas said:


> Tonina's need soft acidic water. If your water is moderately hard, they won't die, but they won't grow either. I had the same situation and consulted with AFA. They suggested RO water but I don't want to do RO since it wastes a lot of water and depletes oxygen content in it, so they suggested using peat extract (in petsmart you get peat extract for ponds). I have had good success so far with that method, good enough that I can think of moving back my toninas from the hospital tank to the main display tanks.


My pH is 6, gH and kH are both around 2. CO2 is fairly consistent and there's plenty of ferts so I'm not sure what the problem was. The soil underlayer contains peat, so I don't know. Maybe when I get my pressurized CO2 system I'll try them again.



B16CRXT said:


> I have the same problem with my Red Temple as you did with Toninas. Mine grows extremely slowly. I have watched two leaves on one particular stem grow from tiny buds to about 1/4" over the last 4 days. Driving me insane!


Totally one of my pet peeves in the hobby. Either it's gonna die or grow, not something halfway in between. Mine wouldn't even sprout new leaves, it just sat there, mocking me...


----------



## jfrank85

Only two plants died and one of them wasn't doing too good for you either. This is the thanks i get for complementing your plants. geez :icon_mrgr


----------



## legomaniac89

Alright, I got a question for you all. Anyone here ever killed fish from CO2 poisoning via a DIY system before? Because I did today. That yeast-sugar mix was cranking out over 5bps, so much to the point that the fish were not happy. Not at all. I put an airstone running full bore to help outgas the CO2, but by the time it all panned out about half the fish were dead. Strangely enough, the discus didn't seem too affected by it much at all. Just to be safe, I acclimated him into another tank anyway. So the tank is fish free now.

On the plus side, I've never seen such a huge amount of pearling from the plants. And the intense CO2 did quite a number on the hair algae.



















So after all this, I'm thinking the tank is going to stay fish-less for a while as I let the plants really take off. I'll just keep the CO2 at the ungodly high level and have a farm tank to help fund my pressurized CO2 I need.


----------



## sewingalot

Your blyxa is looking great! It'll really take off with the co2. Sorry about the fish. I am also glad to hear the discus is okay.


----------



## oldpunk78

sorry about your fish, that sucks.

i have a couple questions:

can you post a pic of your diy co2 and explain the mixture?

and how are you injecting it?

- i have a hard time trying to keep those (high) levels of co2 consistent (which leads to bba algae for me).


----------



## legomaniac89

sewingalot said:


> Your blyxa is looking great! It'll really take off with the co2. Sorry about the fish. I am also glad to hear the discus is okay.


Thanks Sewing, the Blyxa is a weed in this tank, but it won't grow for anything in any of my others for some reason. It's alright though, this Blyxa grows fast enough for 3 tanks.



oldpunk78 said:


> sorry about your fish, that sucks.
> 
> i have a couple questions:
> 
> can you post a pic of your diy co2 and explain the mixture?
> 
> and how are you injecting it?
> 
> - i have a hard time trying to keep those (high) levels of co2 consistent (which leads to bba algae for me).


My system is two 32oz bottles hooked up to this










I use Fleischmann's Dry high performance (or quick rising, you know what I mean) and about 3/4-1 cup of sugar, mixed in 80-90F water. For some reason, it says the yeast is activated at 110F, but when I used water at this temp it killed the yeast. I got about 5 bpM out of that. So when I redid it, I tried cooler water and now I get about 5bpS. I do have to redo the mixture once a week to keep up. This is exactly why I'm now saving for a real pressurized system.

I'm off work tomorrow, but I'll take pics of the full system Friday and post them here.


----------



## ZooTycoonMaster

How much yeast?


----------



## legomaniac89

ZooTycoonMaster said:


> How much yeast?


Oh yeah, that detail might be important :icon_bigg. I honestly don't know exactly how much I use, but between both bottles, I use around half of one of the Fleischmann's quick rise yeast packages. You know, these things










It's more than I should use, I know, but otherwise the CO2 usually can't keep up with the 130W of light. I guess I hit the magic number with this time, cause it went crazy.


----------



## ZooTycoonMaster

Holy crap:icon_eek: No wonder you have to replace it once a week...more yeast = more CO2 produced but for a shorter time

I just replaced it after reading your recipe...I used 1/4 teaspoon


----------



## legomaniac89

Yup, but hey, the plants love it. I _was_ measuring it out...I think 1/2 tsp per bottle, but I wasn't getting enough CO2 and the plants were kinda...ehh. So one day I got frustrated and dumped a bunch of yeast in without measuring and the plants took off. I've just been doing that ever since.

So my mind's made up. This'll be a farm tank for a while to help me raise money for a nice (probably GLA) pressurized system. I'll just keep the CO2 cranked up and let the plants explode.

While I'm thinking about it, here's a random question. Is there such a thing as too much carbon for the plants? Without fish or anything in the tank I won't have to worry about them.


----------



## B16CRXT

I used 3 cups of sugar and 1/2 tsp of yeast in my DIY setup. I had problems with BBA also. But my lighting then was mediocre at best.


----------



## hydrophyte

sorry to hear that you lost your fish, but that is pretty fantastic CO2 output from your DIY. your plants look really happy and you have some nice stuff in there. is that _Ranunculus inundatus_ in the lower right? how has that done for you?


----------



## legomaniac89

hydrophyte said:


> sorry to hear that you lost your fish, but that is pretty fantastic CO2 output from your DIY. your plants look really happy and you have some nice stuff in there. is that _Ranunculus inundatus_ in the lower right? how has that done for you?


Thanks Hydrophyte!_ Ranunculus inundatus_ it is. It's doing really well for me, the nodes are massive and packed with leaves. Unfortunately, it's stopped sending out runners for some reason and I have no idea why. New leaves abound, but no propagation. 

Just one of the many mysteries of aquatic plants :icon_roll


----------



## hydrophyte

legomaniac89 said:


> Thanks Hydrophyte!_ Ranunculus inundatus_ it is. It's doing really well for me, the nodes are massive and packed with leaves. Unfortunately, it's stopped sending out runners for some reason and I have no idea why. New leaves abound, but no propagation.
> 
> Just one of the many mysteries of aquatic plants :icon_roll


Yeah, plants do funny stuff for mysterious reasons. Who knows what kind of cue it is responding to?

I remember doing a Google search a while back and seeing images of wild _ R. inundatus_ that were just clean rosettes with no runners. Perhaps in really good conditions the plant perceives no need to go anywhere(?).


----------



## legomaniac89

hydrophyte said:


> Yeah, plants do funny stuff for mysterious reasons. Who knows what kind of cue it is responding to?
> 
> I remember doing a Google search a while back and seeing images of wild _ R. inundatus_ that were just clean rosettes with no runners. Perhaps in really good conditions the plant perceives no need to go anywhere(?).


Hmmm...that could be. Maybe I'll try some in my low tech tank and see what happens.


----------



## oldpunk78

thanks for the feedback on your diy co2. i too am trying to save for pressurized and currently have to use 3 1 gallon containers to keep up with my lights. the only way i've been able to fend of the bba so far has been to keep it as consistent as possible. ei: the 3 containers rotating one out every week.


----------



## ZooTycoonMaster

Agh I used your DIY CO2 recipe yesterday afternoon (with less yeast of course:icon_roll) and it still hasn't fermented yet


----------



## legomaniac89

oldpunk78 said:


> thanks for the feedback on your diy co2. i too am trying to save for pressurized and currently have to use 3 1 gallon containers to keep up with my lights. the only way i've been able to fend of the bba so far has been to keep it as consistent as possible. ei: the 3 containers rotating one out every week.


Sounds like a good plan you got going. DIY can be such a pain. I'll try to remember to take some pics of my CO2 setup tomorrow at work.



ZooTycoonMaster said:


> Agh I used your DIY CO2 recipe yesterday afternoon (with less yeast of course:icon_roll) and it still hasn't fermented yet


Hmmm...not to seem arrogant, but mine usually starts bubbling within 15 minutes. Maybe the yeast was packaged at different times so something's different about them? Like I said, it says on the packet that the yeast is activated at 110F, I think. I killed mine at that temp, but it goes crazy when I use 80-90F water. 

So earlier today I ordered my first piece to my CO2 system. A Milwaukee NA957 Regulator, brand new, and for a great price! It comes with dual flow regulators, needle valve, solenoid, and a bubble counter. I'm seriously eyeballing a nice glass check valve now.

So what else would I need other than a tank (probably 10lb), drop checker and CO2 tubing? I'll probably go with GLA's Oracle Drop Checker and CO2 tubing. Would getting a Brass Permaseal be a really good idea too?

I figured I'd get all my questions out of the way now. This'll be my first experience with pressurized CO2, and I want to do it right.


----------



## B16CRXT

I have had those inline bubble counters and I don't like them. I use a Pepsi bottle filled with aquarium water and have the hoses go through the lid similarly to how you do a DIY CO2 bottle. Works like a charm and you don't have to refill the counter constantly.


----------



## jfrank85

If possible id get brewing yeast. If you know anything about brewing beer you want to pitch your yeast when your wart is around 70-74 degrees depending on the beer you wish to make (some require a second pitch). This can last a 5 gallon fermentor about 2 weeks at a steady fermentation rate. So if we apply these principles to the diy co2 method, it should work pretty well.


----------



## legomaniac89

So who's ready to be shocked?


If you're not sitting down, you probably should be.



Ready?



Take a deep breath



Brace yourself












:icon_eek::eek5:.............................

Yup, the farm is torn down. With my DIY freaking out, the pH plummeted (like, to less than 5) and the plants definitely didn't appreciate it. A couple melted, but it was enough to put the idea of a rescape into my head.

So Jfrank85 and I sketched up a layout of the tank, and found a sweet piece of Mopani that'll be the hardscape of the tank. So tomorrow, I'll be setting it back up, as a true scape, not a farm this time around. And of course, I'll take plenty of pics along the way.

I'm curing my collectoritis as I the day goes on.


----------



## ZooTycoonMaster

Noooooooooooo:icon_eek:


----------



## legomaniac89

The new scape's gonna be awesome ZTM, I promise!


----------



## ZooTycoonMaster

So whatcha doing with your plants and fish now?


----------



## legomaniac89

Nearly all the plants are going to my aquarium club this Sunday. Gonna be racking up the HAP points lol. The discus is in a larger tank in the store along with the Neons. I couldn't care less what happens to those Green Fires. Those little boogers were evil.

As far as new fish, I'm really leaning towards a big school of a Microrasbora of some kind. I really like _Boraras briggitae_. And I'll probably try some kind of Neocaridina shrimp, but other than that, I'm not set on anything.


----------



## timme278

ohhh noooooooooooooooo


what happend to mr dicus?


----------



## legomaniac89

Haha he's in a 40 Breeder tank across the room from the 20. He's still happy and healthy, and he has more room to swim now.

The tank's been totally rescaped! I'll post pics later on tonight.


----------



## legomaniac89

Alright, here we go. I spent most of the day working on this when my bosses weren't looking .

The start










Set in substrate and Mopani wood. The substrate has a bottom layer of a clay/soil/greensand mix, and it is topped off with about an inch of play sand.










Planted! And almost filled. I had to run to the supermarket to get some R/O water. This tank will be kept at about a neutral pH and moderate hardness.










I replaced the GE 9325K bulbs (about 3 years old :icon_redf) with Sunpaq 6700/10000K bulbs. See the difference?



















Left side, Mopani feature










The Crypts. C. wendtii "Green x Hybrid" of the left, C. wendtii "Green Gecko" on the right.










Of course, the scape is nowhere near finished. All along the back left side I'm planning on lots of Rotala sp. "Green" or "Green Narrow". In the left foreground, I'll probably try Elatine triandra, and fill the left side up with UG. I may add some Rotala sp. "Mini Type 1" somewhere too.

So what do you think? Any suggestions? Comments? Rude remarks?


----------



## ZooTycoonMaster

Looks like a great start! Although idk why you didn't choose ADA AquaSoil as a substrate


----------



## legomaniac89

Well, I got the bottom layer mix free from Jfrank85, and I paid $3.50 for the sand.

1 9-liter bag of ADA AS costs $28+shipping.

Betcha my substrate can grow plants almost as well ADA AS


----------



## ZooTycoonMaster

legomaniac89 said:


> Betcha my substrate can grow plants almost as well ADA AS


You don't know how close I am to betting a free shipment of plants

I just realized from the first picture that the tank is in a pet store!


----------



## legomaniac89

ZooTycoonMaster said:


> You don't know how close I am to betting a free shipment of plants
> 
> I just realized from the first picture that the tank is in a pet store!


Lol I may just have to take that bet :hihi:. Plus mine won't leach ammonia for a month after setup. And it's a lot cheaper.

Yup, the tank is at my work at a LFS in Elkhart.


----------



## legomaniac89

The scape's gettin there. I added a couple more plants today. I planted a bunch of Elatine triandra in the left foreground and moved the Vesuvius to the right. 



















The Elatine. Hopefully it'll do well for me.



















So yeah, I know the Vesuvius looks pretty lonely over on the right side, but here's the plan. I want to cover the entire right side in UG, and I think that one lone node of Vesuvius will look great shooting up out of the carpet.

I also just ordered a whole bunch of Rotala sp. "Green" and "Green Narrow" for the background. I might try some Rotala nanjenshan or something similar next to those plants, between them and the Bonsai. Now I just need to find a nice patch of UG...

As far as fish go, how's a school of Celebes Rainbows sound? I'm thinking 3 males and 6 females, along with a bunch of Neocaridina's of some kind.

And yes, the Mopani tannins are in full swing.


----------



## B16CRXT

you can expect the mopani to leech tannins for at least a month. I had to soak my small piece for about 2 months before it finally stopped.


----------



## legomaniac89

Haha well I've had Mopani in a 20H of mine for a year and a half and it's still leaching tannins. It seems to have an eternal supply of the stuff. Ah well, nothing a little Purigen won't fix.


----------



## Ebichua

I don't normally post on people's journals but...

your 20L always looks bigger than a 20 gallon tank. Great stuff


----------



## legomaniac89

Ebichua said:


> I don't normally post on people's journals but...
> 
> your 20L always looks bigger than a 20 gallon tank. Great stuff


Ssshhhh...don't tell anyone....it's actually a 30L....:hihi:

Lol thanks man. I can't wait to get the rest of my plants to finish the scape


----------



## B16CRXT

is it really? The panoramic tank really makes it look huge! I always think I'm looking at a 50 or something.


----------



## rbarn

legomaniac89 said:


> and yes, the mopani tannins are in full swing.



purigan


----------



## legomaniac89

B16CRXT said:


> is it really? The panoramic tank really makes it look huge! I always think I'm looking at a 50 or something.


I promise it is a 20L! 30x12x12 (or something like that).



rbarn said:


> purigan


Yeah I love the stuff, I just gotta get some. The tannins don't bother me much, I kinda like the blackwater look


----------



## ZooTycoonMaster

legomaniac89 said:


> Yeah I love the stuff, I just gotta get some.


That pet store doesn't have it?


----------



## legomaniac89

ZooTycoonMaster said:


> That pet store doesn't have it?


Yeah we've got it. I just need to grab some off the shelf. Or recharge my old pad.

Hmmm, I wonder how a small field of Purple Bamboo would look amidst the UG lawn...


----------



## Vladdy

That looks like 20 gallons not 2 litres. Nice plants! I was thinking of getting some shrimp. Check out my journal.


----------



## legomaniac89

Vladdy said:


> That looks like 20 gallons not 2 litres. Nice plants! I was thinking of getting some shrimp. Check out my journal.


Oh haha sorry, 20L = 20 gallon Long (30"x12"x12"). As compared to a 20 gallon High (24"x12"x18")


----------



## legomaniac89

I just realized I never posted pictures of my DIY setup like oldpunk requested. So here they are.










El Cheapo Bubble Counter










Diffusion method, straight into the Eheim. I get pretty darn close to 100% dissolvation (is that a word?) with this method.



















And that's it.

Nothing much's changed in the tank. I added some Anubias Petite around the front of the Mopani, but other than that I'm still waiting for it to fill in.


----------



## legomaniac89

We're getting there. Here's the scape as it stands now.




























I added the tank's first inhabitants today. 5 Celebes Rainbows, 2 male, 3 female. I'll end up adding more of them at a later date, along with about 6 Amano Shrimp and probably some kind of Neocaridinas.

I got in some Rotala sp. "Green Narrow" from Imeridian that's now in the back corner, and I have a bunch more of the same plant sitting next to me from Nokturnalkid, so I'll be doing more planting tomorrow. I'm still playing around with the placing of the Anubias Petite, and I (hopefully) have some Java Fern Narrow Leaf coming next week. I'm not real sure about the Hygro Araguaia either.

Anyway, I'll post pics tomorrow when I'm done planting. Stay tuned!


----------



## speedie408

Tank is lookin empty bro, but I know you'll fill it up quick. Didn't know you tore it down. Your diy co2 setup looks like my old diy, how it's plumb'd. I just hated having to mix mix mix........and mix. Pressurized is so much easier, but I'm sure you already know that


----------



## legomaniac89

speedie408 said:


> Tank is lookin empty bro, but I know you'll fill it up quick. Didn't know you tore it down. Your diy co2 setup looks like my old diy, how it's plumb'd. I just hated having to mix mix mix........and mix. Pressurized is so much easier, but I'm sure you already know that


Oh yeah, it'll fill in fast. Check a few posts up and you'll see why...my DIY totally system freaked out. Like 6bps or something ridiculous like that. The pH dropped to below 4 and most everything was either very unhappy or dead. So I figured, screw it...I'm going for a real scape instead of a farm. But...it's tough resisting my collectoritis :hihi:

As of now, the CO2 in running at 1 bps, the lighting and ferts are mostly cut in half. And I haven't replaced the CO2 in a week and it's still running strong :biggrin:.

Right now, I have a Milwaukee MA957 Reg and an ADA knockoff check valve, so I'm about halfway to a pressurized system. I'll probably order a 10lb canister, Oracle drop checker, and tubing from GLA within a week or two. I can't wait.


----------



## jfrank85

Yeah hurry up man geez. Lol im really curious to see what kind of growth that soil will provide with pressurized co2.


----------



## ZooTycoonMaster

legomaniac89 said:


> Diffusion method, straight into the Eheim. I get pretty darn close to 100% dissolvation (is that a word?) with this method.


I wish I could do that...but I have shrimp, and without a prefilter they would get sucked in


----------



## legomaniac89

ZooTycoonMaster said:


> I wish I could do that...but I have shrimp, and without a prefilter they would get sucked in


Been there, done that :hihi:


----------



## legomaniac89

It's shaping up nicely. I added a lot more green to the background.



















Left side










The Elatine triandra is starting to take hold










I added a few more Celebes today also, up to 3 males and 5 females now. Now if only I can find some Utricularia gramnifolia for the right side...


----------



## legomaniac89

Hmmm, here's a scaping thought: what if I were to move the Rotala Bonsai to the left so that it's up against the Rotala Green and Green Narrow, and put a bush of Elatine americana where the Bonsai is now? Think that would look natural? It looks good in my head, at least 

What about any other foreground plants for the right side. UG seems pretty sparse right now, anyone got any suggestions that would look good there? (Jfrank - OTHER than H. tenellum). Maybe Ranalisma rostrata or something?


----------



## jfrank85

I would never place that plague upon you.


----------



## hydrophyte

nice! that's great placement of that mopani wood. that stuff is often quite flat on one side and difficult to situate in a convincing way, but that looks real good.


----------



## bartak

I like where this is going.


----------



## legomaniac89

jfrank85 said:


> I would never place that plague upon you.


It's more like a curse :biggrin:



hydrophyte said:


> nice! that's great placement of that mopani wood. that stuff is often quite flat on one side and difficult to situate in a convincing way, but that looks real good.


Thanks Hydrophyte! I actually can't take credit for the Mopani, Jfrank found it for me, I just placed it in the tank.



bartak said:


> I like where this is going.


Thanks Bartak, I think it's gonna look sweet in a couple months once I get a good foreground going


----------



## sewingalot

That mopani is mega awesome. If you ever tire of it, look me up. :hihi:


----------



## legomaniac89

Help! Something is invading my tank! Oh, wait...never mind. It's just Jfrank85










The real FTS










So this tank's been up, what, a week? The Green Gecko has already sent off a runner.










Hey ZTM, still think that this substrate isn't as good as Aquasoil? I may just prove you wrong :biggrin:


----------



## jfrank85

I think someone owes someone a shipment of plants. :icon_mrgr


----------



## legomaniac89

So you know how that Green Gecko Crypt had already sent off a runner? Now there's another. One to the left, and the other behind to the left of the middle leaf. 










I've had this Crypt in another tank for about 3 months and it never once produced a runner. Now it's been in here for a week and a half and it's sent off two.

I also planted a small _Cryptocoryne cordata "Rosanervig"_ all the way to the right of the Mopani earlier. I'm hoping it'll take off like this Green Gecko is.


----------



## hydrophyte

you have nice plants in there. this tank is gonna look cool when it grows in. really it already looks pretty nice.

i have just a couple of _wendtii_ 'Green Gecko'. i get the impression that they might be slow to off-set. mine have grown pretty big big and i have had them for >4 months, but i haven't seen a sinlge ne wrunner.


----------



## jfrank85

fyi got a tropica runner in the prop tank.


----------



## ZooTycoonMaster

legomaniac89 said:


> Hey ZTM, still think that this substrate isn't as good as Aquasoil? I may just prove you wrong :biggrin:





jfrank85 said:


> I think someone owes someone a shipment of plants. :icon_mrgr


Psh. We never agreed to that bet


----------



## legomaniac89

Blurry FTS



















My favorite angle for photos










Hygro sp. "Araguaia" patch. It's filling in well.










The Rotala sp. "Green Narrow" seemed really happy today.










For some reason unknown to me, there's been a nitrite spike in the tank recently. So I did a 60% wc followed by another 60% wc earlier and the plants went crazy.

I have a bunch of Eleocharis sp. "Belem" coming for the foreground. UG is nowhere to be found it seems, but the Belem will look pretty awesome, I think. I might try to blend some Cryptocoryne parva into the Belem also, but we'll see how that pans out.


----------



## legomaniac89

legomaniac89 said:


> For some reason unknown to me, there's been a nitrite spike in the tank recently. So I did a 60% wc followed by another 60% wc earlier and the plants went crazy.


Well it wasn't just the plants that went crazy. I came into work today only to see my dominant male Celebes courting the females and they spawned later in the day!
These are horrible pictures of them, but you can get the idea of what was going on.





































Those of you with a sharp eye should be able to find the eggs in these next two pics



















There was a lot of eggs scattered behind the Rotala Green too, but I wasn't able to get a good pic of those.

So anyway, that's my big update. Here's the rest that no one cares about .

FTS









I picked up some Crypt parva and am trying it in here.









2 of the 5 new Otos I introduced today. The Celebes were spawning the entire time I was drip acclimating these guys.









So that's it. My very first fish spawn ever. I'm not planning on hatching the eggs and raising the fry at this point. If I ever want to, I figure that the rainbows spawned once, they'll do it again.


----------



## jfrank85

Congrats on the spawn man! After the first it gets easier.


----------



## ZooTycoonMaster

legomaniac89 said:


> Those of you with a sharp eye should be able to find the eggs in these next two pics


There's one right below the suction cup and there's one on the 5th leaf from the right on the val


----------



## jfrank85

Winner! roud:


----------



## B16CRXT

There is also another egg just above the one mentioned on the leaf.

I thought the same thing about spawning as you. My pepper cory cats did the mating dance a while back (almost a year ago) and I haven't seen them do it since. I wish they would do it again so I could attempt to raise the eggs.


----------



## jfrank85

its all about finding the trigger. for corries it could be a combo of a large water change with cool water and feeding heavily with blackworms. Or with african cichlids you put one male with a few females and you go from 4 fish to 60 in a month lol. (my problem)


----------



## B16CRXT

I had the same problem with guppies as you did with cichlids. I rounded up all the females once they were juvies and traded them all in to the LFS for some pygmy corys.


----------



## legomaniac89

Thanks guys. In this case, I'm pretty sure the trigger was the massive water change I did. Late next week I'll probably do another big water change and see if that's really what triggered the Celebes.


----------



## legomaniac89

...and then there were 3. Yes, the Green Gecko now has a 3rd runner growing up. I swear I've never seen a crypt grow so fast.










There's one to the left, one behind, and the new one in front.










Vesuvius is happy










The Rotala is bushing up. A couple of trims and it'll look like I want it to.










I got a shipment of Eleocharis sp. "Belem" today, so I can finally start my right foreground tomorrow. I have some Hydrocotyle verticillata coming too that'll probably end up in the back right corner, poking through the Belem. I think that will look pretty sweet .

And...(drumroll please)...I will have pressurized CO2 running on this tank within 2 weeks! I got my modified regulator back from GLA (thanks Orlando!) and I just need to finish up my order and we'll be in business.


----------



## B16CRXT

man that vesuvius is going to grow like wildfire. I have to trim 5-10 pieces off of mine every week! That rotala is looking NICE!

What is the process you do to prime your eheim after a water change?


----------



## jfrank85

lol


----------



## legomaniac89

Thanks! Uh prime? I unplug it when I take water out and plug it back in when the tank is full :biggrin:. 

When I clean it out, I just fill it to the top with water and turn it on. If it isn't working yet, I usually barely lift the cap off and it will siphon water into the filter, and then quickly shut the flow off, snap the top back on and that's it. It's kinda a pain, I personally like the Marineland cansiters better, but the 2213 works fine for me. I just need to get rid of the ugly green pipes...


----------



## fastfreddie

Really nice layout man!


----------



## jfrank85

once the rotala grows out itll look like apart of the foliage imo.


----------



## B16CRXT

I think something may be wrong with mine or one of the pads may be clogged or something. The output is just sooo weak after this w/c. It ran for about 20 seconds 'dry' during the w/c because I didn't realize I took enough water out of the tank to get below the intake. I'll rinse the pads out next w/c and see if that helps...


----------



## legomaniac89

fastfreddie said:


> Really nice layout man!


Thanks Freddie!



jfrank85 said:


> once the rotala grows out itll look like apart of the foliage imo.


Oh yeah, month from now that Rotala will be in full swing. Now go update your journal. We need pics of the new Rummynoses!

Got the foreground finally planted earlier.










The Eleocharis sp. "Belem" field










Pearling never gets old 










Man, I update this journal a lot. Ah well, gives me an excuse to waste time on the computer.


----------



## speedie408

I'd like to see how the Eleocharis sp. "Belem" fills in.


----------



## rekles75

speedie408 said:


> I'd like to see how the Eleocharis sp. "Belem" fills in.


x2. 

Glad to see you got the "Belem" planted.


----------



## legomaniac89

Thanks guys. Rekles, it is a beautiful plant, I just hope it'll form a nice carpet like in your 55. If it really takes off, I may let it spread throughout the entire foreground and not just the right side.


----------



## sewingalot

I am also looking forward to seeing the belem grow in. I totally want some of this plant.


----------



## monkeyruler90

wow, just read the entire journal, it definitely had a great progression! the tank looks great now. i love how the bonsai grows straight up, looks great! and yeah it would have looked cool to see evesuvious growing out of a field of ug. 

congrats on getting pressurized, no more diy bottles to refill.


----------



## legomaniac89

Thanks monkeyruler. I was just getting ready to upload more pics, so good timing :icon_smil

I finally got my shipment of plants from FAN today, so I added some Narrow Leaf Java Fern (I would've preferred Needle Leaf, but whatever), Bolbitis, a few random stems of Bacopa myriophylloides and more Anubias Petite.
I pulled out all of the Hygro Araguaia too. I love that plant, but it wasn't working for me.










Left side, the Mopani's filling up!










Anyone want to take a stab at IDing this Crypt for me? I'm nearly positive it's a C. wendtii, but after that I'm not sure. It's got a cool green/brown mottling pattern on the leaves that's hard to see in the pic










And this one. I think this is a C. wendtii "Mi Oya", but I'd like a second opinion.










Thanks for looking!


----------



## legomaniac89

Oh, and thanks Sewingalot! I somehow missed your post up there :biggrin:. Once the Belem fills in, hit me up for a few nodes. In a month's time, I hopefully should have more than plenty


----------



## vtkid

the driftwood is being engulfed in greenery I like it a lot


----------



## snoz0r

everything looks good man, where about in N Indiana are you?


----------



## legomaniac89

snoz0r said:


> everything looks good man, where about in N Indiana are you?


Thanks! I'm in Elkhart Co., about 5 minutes from the Michigan border. I see you're from Brownsburg, if I remember correctly, that's pretty close to Indy, right?


----------



## sewingalot

legomaniac89 said:


> Oh, and thanks Sewingalot! I somehow missed your post up there :biggrin:. Once the Belem fills in, hit me up for a few nodes. In a month's time, I hopefully should have more than plenty


Totally will! This is fun. Who ever said watching grass grow was borring? Lol.


----------



## legomaniac89

Yet another update. I got some Hydrocotyle verticillata from skewlboy yesterday. Normally, I don't care for Hydrocotyle, but when it's mixed in with other stems I think it looks pretty nice.










Oh yeah, for those of you with open topped tanks, Celebes Rainbows aren't the best idea. Especially when you have one very anxious male and no competition. One female had been jumping out each night until he was the only Celebes left. So I nabbed him and am trying some Praecox Rainbows instead. Hopefully they'll stay put :icon_roll.










Here's the Green Gecko and its 3 runners. The new leaves on the mother are finally coming up with a lot of red and brown like a Green Gecko should be.










In other news, we had a pair of angels spawn in a 40 Breeder we sell plants out of (same tank the Pigeon Blood is in now). Pretty weird cause the tank is a mess and I'm always digging around in it. 

This is daddy angel being a good parent and guarding the eggs.










Not really planning on raising the fry or anything, I just thought it was kinda cool.


----------



## B16CRXT

is that a brick?


----------



## legomaniac89

Red slate. A buddy in my local aquarium club sexed them for me and said if I put a piece of slate in there, they'd probably spawn on it. He was right, they did 2 days later.


----------



## legomaniac89

Jfrank found a new setting on my camera today and it takes great fish pictures! Believe it or not, there really are fish in this tank, not just blueish streaks in the water column .

A few of my Praecox rainbows





































Love this one









20% of my Oto population









The Green Gecko. It's finally starting to look like a Green Gecko should




























And for those of you who have followed my journal for a while, you may recognize this guy


----------



## B16CRXT

good to see he is still around! Tank is looking good man. Nice pics!


----------



## malaybiswas

Nice tank. Love those mopani. Did you ever have fungus growing on them. I always have fungus growing on mopani at the startup.


----------



## ZooTycoonMaster

Wow nice pearling!


----------



## timme278

legomaniac89 said:


> And for those of you who have followed my journal for a while, you may recognize this guy



yay llol


----------



## fastfreddie

Beautiful tank and fish.


----------



## legomaniac89

B16CRXT said:


> good to see he is still around! Tank is looking good man. Nice pics!


Thanks Chris!



malaybiswas said:


> Nice tank. Love those mopani. Did you ever have fungus growing on them. I always have fungus growing on mopani at the startup.


Thanks! I've never seen any fungus growing in this piece, but I have 5 hungry Otos to control it if it ever pops up.



ZooTycoonMaster said:


> Wow nice pearling!


Thanks, but a lot of that is post-water-change-pearling. The plants always go nuts after a wc



timme278 said:


> yay llol


He's as happy as ever Tim. And he's got twice the room he had before. I never really noticed until looking at some older pics, but the discus has grown almost 1.5" since I got him.



fastfreddie said:


> Beautiful tank and fish.


Thanks Freddie. I just wish it would grow faster


----------



## fastfreddie

legomaniac89 said:


> Thanks Freddie. I just wish it would grow faster


Careful what you wish for!


----------



## jfrank85

LOL yea we'll see what he says after he has pressurized for about a month.


----------



## Plantnewb

Looks very nice! How are you liking the Eheim 2213?


----------



## legomaniac89

fastfreddie said:


> Careful what you wish for!





jfrank85 said:


> LOL yea we'll see what he says after he has pressurized for about a month.


Well right now my DIY system's been giving me hell. I can't wait for my pressurized system, and hey, faster growth means more HAP points, right Jfrank?



Plantnewb said:


> Looks very nice! How are you liking the Eheim 2213?


Thanks Plantnewb! I do like the 2213, but I prefer the Marineland canisters over Eheims. I have Marineland C-160s running on two other tanks and I have no complaints with them. The 2213 is a serious pain to get going again after cleaing it. Like the time I almost flooded the store when I forgot to shut off the flow before taking the cap off :biggrin:. Good times...


----------



## jfrank85

Hey im no longer in the running for High Point this year so you got sean to compete with. I think he could prolly get it even if he didnt even turn anymore in. lol Imagine doing what you did with the Eheim in a customer's living room. The first time i worked on one i spilled about a gallons worth of water on their new carpet. Good thing i had lots of towels.


----------



## legomaniac89

Yeah, you think I had collectoritis bad? He turned in like 55 different species last meeting, and most all of them were new lol


----------



## Plantnewb

Whoa, that must have been pretty fun to clean up! Knowing that, I don't know if I should get one then. Having my tank set up on carpet at the moment, I wouldn't want that to happen. :eek5:


----------



## sewingalot

Looking great! How is the little guy doing these days? That was a great shot of the discus, he looks kind of sad. Like he is saying "You don't take pictures of me much anymore....." Lol.


----------



## jfrank85

that little stinker has no reason to be sad. Adam treats that thing like it is his own child.


----------



## legomaniac89

jfrank85 said:


> that little stinker has no reason to be sad. Adam treats that thing like it is his own child.


Yes...it's true. The discus is my baby . He still gets hand-fed and everything

That's his "I wonder if I can find any blackworms on the ground to eat" pose


----------



## legomaniac89

Plantnewb said:


> Whoa, that must have been pretty fun to clean up! Knowing that, I don't know if I should get one then. Having my tank set up on carpet at the moment, I wouldn't want that to happen. :eek5:


Once you know how they work, it's not too bad. They are good filters, they just have a couple features that make it a bit difficult to get running again after cleaning it out.


----------



## malaybiswas

legomaniac89 said:


> Like the time I almost flooded the store when I forgot to shut off the flow before taking the cap off :biggrin:. Good times...


That's a genuine problem with the 221x series. The new Eheim Ecco is nice. Same quality but much easier to maintain and clean without spill-ups. But pricey.


----------



## sewingalot

You are still hand feeding that guy? You are spoiling him - he's going to start throwing temper tantrums in the worm isle at the grocery store. No wonder he is so photogenic.


----------



## legomaniac89

sewingalot said:


> You are still hand feeding that guy? You are spoiling him - he's going to start throwing temper tantrums in the worm isle at the grocery store. No wonder he is so photogenic.


:hihi: yeah, I'm guilty of completely spoiling that guy. He begs for food every time I'm near the tank and attacks the forceps when I'm using them in the tank. You know, there might be a stray blackworm hanging on somewhere


----------



## legomaniac89

Jfrank informed me earlier that the Green Gecko crypt now has a 4th runner growing up. Who needs ADA Aquasoil when you got a substrate like this?


----------



## jfrank85

> :hihi: yeah, I'm guilty of completely spoiling that guy. He begs for food every time I'm near the tank and attacks the forceps when I'm using them in the tank. You know, there might be a stray blackworm hanging on somewhere


Attacks forceps and fingers. I always get nipped by him when i reach in and pull out plants. Its kinda startling, guess hes trying to get some extra protein in his system :icon_bigg.


----------



## chase127

Hey i love the new scape! and its good to see the discus is gone


----------



## legomaniac89

jfrank85 said:


> Attacks forceps and fingers. I always get nipped by him when i reach in and pull out plants. Its kinda startling, guess hes trying to get some extra protein in his system :icon_bigg.


Yeah, he likes fingers too. I guess he thinks he's pretty bad or something



chase127 said:


> Hey i love the new scape! and its good to see the discus is gone


Thanks! He's not actually gone, he's right across the room in a bigger tank. He's still my baby :icon_mrgr. By the way, when'd you change your UN? Last I knew, you were going by chris127.


----------



## chase127

i killed chris and took over his life :icon_twis

jk that was a pseudonym and it got annoying. my real name is chase


----------



## legomaniac89

Got my shipment from GLA earlier today! Legomaniac89's 20 long is now running on a pressurized CO2 system...as soon as I get the tank filled :icon_roll. Of course I have pics of everything. What a dumb question :hihi:

10lb tank and regulator









Victor/Milwaukee dual stage hybrid - courtesy of Orlando at GLA









Drop Checker









Check valve, permaseal and tubing









My new maintenance toys









I'll get the cylinder filled tomorrow and we'll be in business!

I also got 8 Amanos for some cleanup control









Aaaaand...I added a few more plants from a 2.5 I tore down. 









Java Fern "Trident"


----------



## Plantnewb

Woo! Congratulations on going pressurized!


----------



## Ugly Genius

Is this your first pressurized CO2 system? If so, you're about to have some fun!


----------



## legomaniac89

Plantnewb said:


> Woo! Congratulations on going pressurized!


Thanks!



Ugly Genius said:


> Is this your first pressurized CO2 system? If so, you're about to have some fun!


Yeah, sure is. It's been a long time coming. I'm so sick of DIY


----------



## hydrophyte

hey that's looking great. your plants will fill in quick with your new CO2 system.


----------



## ZooTycoonMaster

Lucky-_- I'm still stuck with diy


----------



## da1001

Where is your discus hiding?


----------



## legomaniac89

hydrophyte said:


> hey that's looking great. your plants will fill in quick with your new CO2 system.


Thanks Hydro. Right now they're living off Excel since my DIY system's been pooping out on me. It's going through the window when the pressurized system's up and running :biggrin:



ZooTycoonMaster said:


> Lucky-_- I'm still stuck with diy


Man ZTM, pressurized is gonna be great! It's so much better and easier than DIY. No more remixing every week! :icon_twis:hihi:



da1001 said:


> Where is your discus hiding?


He's in another tank across the room. If you read a few pages back, you'll see the reason the tank got rescaped. My DIY CO2 went crazy and crashed the tank, like the pH dropped below 4 and killed most everything. I got him out and into another tank without problem, but the rest of the tank didn't fare as well. Actually, the discus seemed unphased by the massive pH drop. He didn't seem to care much at all, but I just wanted to be safe.


----------



## sewingalot

Woo hoo! Co2 pressurized. Welcome to the try not to out gas your fish club. :hihi: Your discus is going to want to go back to the jungle before too long.


----------



## monkeyruler90

congrats on the step up


----------



## bolivianram123

wow i can honestly say that i had to look at the title twice to make sure it was a 20g. :thumbsup: keep up the awesome job!


----------



## B16CRXT

where did u get your amanos? I need more asap


----------



## vtkid

pressurized.. lucky dog! are the tanks expensive?


----------



## legomaniac89

Wow, thanks for all the replies guys



sewingalot said:


> Woo hoo! Co2 pressurized. Welcome to the try not to out gas your fish club. :hihi: Your discus is going to want to go back to the jungle before too long.


Haha I'm already a member of that club. Just gonna try not to be a repeat offender 



monkeyruler90 said:


> congrats on the step up


Thanks! I can't wait to get it up and running. Every place near me that fills CO2 is closed on Saturday, so it's gonna have to wait till Monday



bolivianram123 said:


> wow i can honestly say that i had to look at the title twice to make sure it was a 20g. :thumbsup: keep up the awesome job!


Thanks! That Mopani really scales well, it makes the tank look bigger than it really is



B16CRXT said:


> where did u get your amanos? I need more asap


Well my answer's not gonna be a lot of help to you. I got em from another LFS that deals mainly in marine, but they can get a number of FW shrimp too.



vtkid said:


> pressurized.. lucky dog! are the tanks expensive?


Thanks vt, I got mine from GLA. The 10lb tank wasn't as expensive as I thought it would be. And I can't say it enough...GLA rocks!


----------



## legomaniac89

Thought this was a cool pic. The prime Amano hangout spot lol










I can count 6 of the 8 total in this picture. Can you find them all? :biggrin:


----------



## FSM

That's a lot of money for a small tank. Now you need a 75, right?


----------



## legomaniac89

FSM said:


> That's a lot of money for a small tank. Now you need a 75, right?


More like a 175


----------



## sunfire99

Awesome lego, I like it a lot:thumbsup:. It really does look bigger than a 20.


----------



## legomaniac89

sunfire99 said:


> Awesome lego, I like it a lot:thumbsup:. It really does look bigger than a 20.


Thanks Sunfire!

We are running completely on pressurized CO2 now! I got everything up and running earlier. 



















Yes, I know, it's still blue. I'm trying to find that magic number to bring out some green. By the end of the day, it was a dark green, so it's getting there.

12 psi, not too bad for my first try










Unfortunately, the only place that fills CO2 tanks on the spot is about an hour away from me. Every other place will only swap out empty tanks for full ones. So I had to trade in my nice shiny new GLA tank for this guy. Oh well, it still does the job, it's just not as shiny .

I'm running it around 1 bps right now, running the diffused bubbles directly into the Eheim, so I'm getting pretty close to 100% of the CO2 dissolved in the water.

I've only been using pressurized for one day and I already love it :biggrin:


----------



## speedie408

Dude... you need to up your bps to at least 3. I'd say just watch your fish and adjust accordingly. I've got the same exact GLA drop checker and it's always a light yellow at the end of the day. All my fish n shrimp do just fine. 

That's just sucks about your shiny C02 tank man.


----------



## legomaniac89

speedie408 said:


> Dude... you need to up your bps to at least 3. I'd say just watch your fish and adjust accordingly. I've got the same exact GLA drop checker and it's always a light yellow at the end of the day. All my fish n shrimp do just fine.
> 
> That's just sucks about your shiny C02 tank man.


That's where it'll probably end up, I'm just trying to get everything to where it need to be. I didn't get it running until about noon yesterday, and it shut off at 6, and by that time the drop checker was dark green, so I'll probably increase it a bit today. Based on the DIY system, 2bps seemed like a good number. Any more and the fish started to act funny.


----------



## sewingalot

legomaniac89 said:


> Thought this was a cool pic. The prime Amano hangout spot lol
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I can count 6 of the 8 total in this picture. Can you find them all? :biggrin:


I give up. I stared at this until my eyes :icon_eek: hurt and could only find five, lol.


----------



## B16CRXT

I found 7.


----------



## legomaniac89

B16CRXT said:


> I found 7.


Lol even I missed the one down below! Actually, when I went to snap that pic, all 8 of them were all on top of the branch, but by the time I got my camera out a few had wandered away.

I think I got my CO2 flow rate figured out pretty good. I ran it at 1bps all day and my drop checker was yellow by the time it shut off. The stream of CO2 bubbles goes directly into the Eheim intake, so very little gets wasted. This 10lb tank is gonna last forever at 1bps lol.

And the plants definitely like the new system. They were pearling like crazy all afternoon.


----------



## legomaniac89

It's getting there...


----------



## legomaniac89

Time for a big update. I went picture crazy at work today playing with some new settings on the camera.

FTS's



























Plants - Cryptocoryne cordata "Blassii"









Rotala indica - turning into a very nice bush


















Cryptocoryne wendtii "Green Gecko"









Crypt wendtii "Green Gecko" and Cryptocoryne affinis (?)









Helanthium tenellum "Micro" - new growth is coming in pink, and I'm still not sure if I like it or not









Eleocharis sp. "Belem" is filling in quickly









Fish - Praecox Rainbows
My dominant male









His girl (or one of them, anyway)









That's all for now. I can now officially say that pressurized CO2 rocks


----------



## B16CRXT

That's some heavy pearling!!!


----------



## CL

Awesome stuff! I love that wood. Definitely a great 20L. It looks like a 75 to me  Nice pearling too. Good work


----------



## speedie408

It's def coming along man. I see the crypt now


----------



## legomaniac89

B16CRXT said:


> That's some heavy pearling!!!


By the time 3:30 hits, the drop checker is yellow and the plants just pump out oxygen. Between that and the CO2 mist created by the Eheim, there's bubbles everywhere.



clwatkins10 said:


> Awesome stuff! I love that wood. Definitely a great 20L. It looks like a 75 to me  Nice pearling too. Good work


Thanks cl! Your Mini-M's are coming along really well too. I'm not sure which I like better  



speedie408 said:


> It's def coming along man. I see the crypt now


Thanks man, I have 2 of your crypts in here, but I'm thinking of moving the one in the back. Maybe I'll try some _Pogostemon erectum _or _Elatine americana_ there instead. They're both growing in pretty well, even though I'm still not positive on what species they are


----------



## legomaniac89

I am here to tell you, rainbowfish have no personality whatsoever. Those Praecox would come out in the morning to be fed, chase each other for about 10 minutes, and then go and hide for the rest of the day. And I really got tired of it.

Soooooooooo......I snagged em all out and replaced them with Harlequin Rasboras. I like them better already. 




























Can't go wrong with Harlequins. I think they'll look pretty good once they color up a bit more.

I really like this shot for some reason










Excpet you can see the camera in the reflection :hihi:


----------



## monkeyruler90

wow, that rotala is looking nice. i love how the top leaves get a nice pinkish hue to them. good job with the harlequins


----------



## Vladdy

That's an awesome looking tank! Thanks for the advice.


----------



## @[email protected]

:thumbsup: for the e. belem 
i love that plant


----------



## FrostyNYC

Wow, looking at your Rotala indica, I dont see how it could possibly be confused with Rotala rotundifiola. Also, your tank looks great. Nice job. Im sure the rainbows appreciate all the open swimming space


----------



## legomaniac89

Vladdy said:


> That's an awesome looking tank! Thanks for the advice.


Thanks Vladdy!



@[email protected] said:


> :thumbsup: for the e. belem
> i love that plant


You know, I wasn't too sure about it at first, but now that it's filled in I'm really liking it.

The tank's growing in very nicely. And very quickly.










Once the Rotala sp. "Green Narrow" starts filling in, I'm gonna go for the sloping look. Highest on the left side with the Limno sp. "Mini", and slope downwards to the right to the Rotala indica. I also added a new plant in the gap in the background. Can't wait for it to grow up.










Limnophila sp. "Guinea Broad Leaf", courtesy of speedie408. Pretty scraggly right now, but I really hope it'll fill in well. And I really need some Nerites for that algae on the mopani. But I don't know, I kind of like that look. As long as it stays on the wood and off the plants, I don't have much of an issue with it I guess.

Alright, here's a scaping question for you all. In the foreground, I have Eleocharis sp. "Belem" on the right side, Helanthium tenellum "Micro" on the left side, and Elatine triandra on the very far left side. I'm still not sure how I like the "Micro", so here's my options.

1. Leave it as is. (or get rid of the Elatine completely)
2. Wait for the Elatine to grow out and replace the entire left side with ET.
3. Let the E. "Belem" carpet the entire foreground, right and left side.

Or maybe a 4th thing I haven't thought of yet. What do you all think? If I don't get much of a response here, I might post this over in the Aquascaping forum.


----------



## legomaniac89

FrostyNYC said:


> Wow, looking at your Rotala indica, I dont see how it could possibly be confused with Rotala rotundifiola. Also, your tank looks great. Nice job. Im sure the rainbows appreciate all the open swimming space


Thanks, I'm pretty pleased with the way it's growing out. I know that Rotala indica (the one I have) was once called Ammania sp. "Bonsai", and I think that R. indica was considered a different plant at the time, very similar to R. rotundifolia. I'm not real sure what happened to the old R. indica, but I have the new R. indica. I really hate taxonomy :icon_mrgr.

Something to ask Cavan Allen, I guess.


----------



## oldpunk78

i got some of that Limnophila sp. "Guinea Broad Leaf" from speedie too. (i thought it was a bigger plant, lol) pretty cool looking though. as for your scape, i'd kinda like to see it fill in some as is.


----------



## legomaniac89

oldpunk78 said:


> i got some of that Limnophila sp. "Guinea Broad Leaf" from speedie too. (i thought it was a bigger plant, lol) pretty cool looking though. as for your scape, i'd kinda like to see it fill in some as is.


It is a pretty wicked plant, isn't it? I can't wait for it to grow up.

I added a couple new fish earlier. 2 _Poecilia formosa._ Normally I'm not a big fan of livebearers, but these girls are pretty unique. They are a gynogenic species, meaning every single fish is female. More info on them here



















Also, anyone know the ID of this snail? It looks like a ramshorn, but the shell is sideways.


----------



## JamesQuall

Tank is looking sweeeet.

I have the same snails (or a similar species) and they are indeed 'ramshorn' snails. However, It appears that there are numerious species and therefore, the best I can do is say Planoribis or Helisoma sp. or maybe even something else. I think the only way to rid a tank of them is with a botia. My assasin snail is utterly useless.


----------



## ZooTycoonMaster

legomaniac89 said:


> Also, anyone know the ID of this snail? It looks like a ramshorn, but the shell is sideways.


omg...how big are those? I think I have those same exact ones.


----------



## legomaniac89

JamesQuall said:


> Tank is looking sweeeet.
> 
> I have the same snails (or a similar species) and they are indeed 'ramshorn' snails. However, It appears that there are numerious species and therefore, the best I can do is say Planoribis or Helisoma sp. or maybe even something else. I think the only way to rid a tank of them is with a botia. My assasin snail is utterly useless.


Thanks James! It is a ramshorn then? I've never seem them with a flattened shell before. It's just like a ramshorn shell, but turned on its side. I'm not really worried about getting rid of them. They don't seem to do a lot yet.



ZooTycoonMaster said:


> omg...how big are those? I think I have those same exact ones.


They're about 1/4", if even that. Reeeaaal tiny. I got lucky and my camera's macro focused pretty well for that shot.


----------



## JamesQuall

"ram's horn" snails usually indicate a species of gastropod in the family Planorbae, which have left-coiling shells. Although, in the aquarium trade, some species that look similar are also called ram's horn snails even though they belong to a completely different families.

It is a fairly broad definition, but any snail with a planispiral coiled shell (like yours) could be described as a 'ram's horn' snail.


----------



## legomaniac89

JamesQuall said:


> "ram's horn" snails usually indicate a species of gastropod in the family Planorbae, which have left-coiling shells. Although, in the aquarium trade, some species that look similar are also called ram's horn snails even though they belong to a completely different families.
> 
> It is a fairly broad definition, but any snail with a planispiral coiled shell (like yours) could be described as a 'ram's horn' snail.


Another reason I hate taxonomy . I guess as long as they don't eat my plants, I'm fine with them being there. At last look, I have MTS, regular ramshorns, these other flat ramshorns, and pond snails. Along with my 8 Amanos, and all these tiny microworm-like things that live in the sand (fish love em roud, this tank is an invert-breeding farm.


----------



## speedie408

That molly is unique indeed. They kinda look like regular guppies tho haha. 

Sooner than you know it, those L. mini's will take off like crazy. Your gonna love it man.


----------



## legomaniac89

speedie408 said:


> That molly is unique indeed. They kinda look like regular guppies tho haha.
> 
> Sooner than you know it, those L. mini's will take off like crazy. Your gonna love it man.


Yeah, they aren't much to look at. They look like a giant ugly female guppy to me . But still, they're gynogenic. That's just crazy.


----------



## legomaniac89

Well I found both of those P. formosas as cat jerky next to the tank the morning after I introduced them, so I won't be trying them in an open-topped tank again any time soon. Here's a couple pics I took after I did some maintenance on the tank.










I love this pic. It's currently my laptop wallpaper :biggrin:










So I went to pick up two textbooks I need for the summer class I'm taking, and these two books put me out $150. $150 for two books I'm going to use for 6 weeks and that's it. Hold on, here's the good part. According to my prof in this class, both books have a new edition coming out within 2 months. Meaning neither of these books are going to have any resale value whatsoever by the time I'm done with them. Ridiculous, I say. Just ridiculous.


----------



## @[email protected]

wow what plant is that? rotala green?


----------



## ZooTycoonMaster

legomaniac89 said:


> They're about 1/4", if even that. Reeeaaal tiny. I got lucky and my camera's macro focused pretty well for that shot.


Yeah I have those same snails too


----------



## legomaniac89

@[email protected] said:


> wow what plant is that? rotala green?


Close! Rotala sp. "Green Narrow"


----------



## legomaniac89

A few new pics










Green Gecko Crypt to the left, Cryptocoryne idontknow to the right









Limnophila "Guinea" is growing in pretty well. I'm really liking this plant


----------



## jfrank85

i really like that green gecko pic.


----------



## hydrophyte

legomaniac89 said:


>


hey great picture of these Amazons--a unique view.

those Green Gecko look nice too. i have a couple of those and i really like their shape.

your tank is looking awesome. your photos are a little bit on the yellow side. do you have yellowish lams in that fixture? you might try to monkey with camera white balance for better color rendering.


----------



## legomaniac89

hydrophyte said:


> hey great picture of these Amazons--a unique view.
> 
> those Green Gecko look nice too. i have a couple of those and i really like their shape.
> 
> your tank is looking awesome. your photos are a little bit on the yellow side. do you have yellowish lams in that fixture? you might try to monkey with camera white balance for better color rendering.


Thanks hydrophyte! You know, I hadn't really realized that the pics were yellowish until you said something. I've been using the auto-white-balance setting on my camera and that's what it gave me. Anyway, I messed around with the white balance setting earlier and found a pretty good one. I think it gives the best color rendering of any other setting I tried.










I've noticed it kinda makes everything else look blue, but the tank looks good with this setting










This shot does a lot more justice to the green gecko's coloration










A random Amano pic


----------



## sewingalot

That last picture of the amano is so neat. And I can count the number in this picture, too. :hihi:


----------



## legomaniac89

sewingalot said:


> That last picture of the amano is so neat. And I can count the number in this picture, too. :hihi:


So you found all 3 of them?









:hihi: just kidding. He actually posed for me and I was able to get a couple good closeups shots of him before he got bored and swam away.


----------



## jfrank85

well youve got 6700k/10000k bulbs on the tank. of course its gonna look a little blue silly. i dont think it looks bad at all. IMO it looks better.


----------



## legomaniac89

jfrank85 said:


> well youve got 6700k/10000k bulbs on the tank. of course its gonna look a little blue silly. i dont think it looks bad at all. IMO it looks better.


Lol I meant everything outside of the tank. That camera setting made the tank look nice, but turned everything else blueish.


----------



## speedie408

I like the new camera setting better man. Def makes the pics alot more crisp as well. Maybe it's just my eyes lol.


----------



## legomaniac89

Thanks speedie, the more I look at the new pictures as compared to the old ones, the more I wonder "wow, that old setting was horrible". This new one definitely shows the colors off a lot better. They're a lot more true to what they actually are in person.


----------



## ZooTycoonMaster

Do customers at the pet store ever ask about it?


----------



## sewingalot

You had me going on that! I was looking for the other two.


----------



## legomaniac89

ZooTycoonMaster said:


> Do customers at the pet store ever ask about it?


Oh yeah. I've been asked how they can make their 10 gallon with 15 goldfish look that good. I've also been told that this tank was a saltwater tank, and the discus (when he was residing in this tank) was a surgeonfish, and I had no idea what I was talking about. That one definitely had me laughing for a while.



sewingalot said:


> You had me going on that! I was looking for the other two.


Lol you should know better than to trust me :icon_twis:biggrin:


----------



## sewingalot

True, true.


----------



## monkeyruler90

wow, i like the last set of pics with the different white balance. really makes the tank look different!


----------



## funkyfish

The tank looks very nice  
what kind of substrate are you using?


----------



## legomaniac89

monkeyruler90 said:


> wow, i like the last set of pics with the different white balance. really makes the tank look different!





funkyfish said:


> The tank looks very nice
> what kind of substrate are you using?


Thanks guys. For the substrate, I used a base layer of potting soil/clay/greensand, and then covered it with about an inch of play sand. So far, I have no complaints about the soil underlayer, and it grows plants better than any other substrate I've ever used.


----------



## legomaniac89

I love photobucket :biggrin:

Limnophila sp. "Guinea Broad Leaf"









Limnophila sp. "Mini"









It's kinda hard to believe these two plants are in the same genus. Just about the only thing they have in common is that they both grow quickly.


----------



## speedie408

The broadleaf is already on its way to become a weed. You sure you dont need anymore? haha


----------



## legomaniac89

Haha nope, I'm good. The stems you sent me have almost doubled in height already.


----------



## monkeyruler90

wow really? let me know when the guinea broad leaf gets out of hand and we can do a trade for whatever plant i have


----------



## legomaniac89

monkeyruler90 said:


> wow really? let me know when the guinea broad leaf gets out of hand and we can do a trade for whatever plant i have


Definitely! It's really a unique plant, it looks like parsley to me. I bet it tastes better though :hihi:


----------



## mountaindew

Good looking display, very healthy and clean.
Looks like you take good care of your systems!
MD!


----------



## legomaniac89

Thanks MD! I treat this tank like it's my baby, and I'm pretty sure that Jfrank85 would definitely agree with me on that :biggrin:


----------



## legomaniac89

Alright, picture time! I've made a number of changes here and there, for the better I think.



















First, and probably most obvious, I took out all of the Helanthium tenellum "Micro" and spread the ET across that area. You know your substrate's good when a two inch plant can have an 8 inch root system, after only growing in the tank for 2 weeks :icon_eek:.

I moved the Crypt cordata "Blassii" to the left also. It was getting crowded out in the midst of the Rotalas. I also got a stem of Rotala sp. "Singapore" from Jfrank for a nice focal point. It stands out real well against the light green of the other Rotalas.










This is a cool shot










I'm still not sure what species this is, but I'm leaning towards Crypt wendtii "Mi Oya". I love the striping on the leaves.










Crypt "Green Gecko" and Crypt idontknow. Maybe C. affinis? It grows flat on top of the substrate, though.










Just some of my snail friends




























Apparently, I also have a blackworm colony living in the sand.










Mirror-image-Oto










I've been considering removing the big E. vesuvius on the right to help maintain the sloping look. Yes? No? I like the plant, but I don't think it's working for me.


----------



## Ugly Genius

Looks great!
I'd remove the E.V. as I'm with you in thinking it would help maintain flow from right to left. As is, it looks a bit like an exclamation point shouting something in a moment of silence.


----------



## legomaniac89

Thanks UG! I think I'll probably remove it Monday when I get to work then. I like the idea of a big grassy plant growing up and out of a bunch of small grassy plants, but it definitely disrupts the flow of the plants here.

I'm kind of afraid to see just how massive the vesuvius' root system is going to be. A 2-inch Helanthium had an 8 inch root system, what's a 12 inch one going to have? :icon_eek:


----------



## Hilde

legomaniac89 said:


> Apparently, I also have a blackworm colony living in the sand.


Got any idea how that happened? Perhaps survived from a feeding of them at 1 time? Perhaps they will stimulate fauna to breed.


----------



## legomaniac89

Hilde said:


> Got any idea how that happened? Perhaps survived from a feeding of them at 1 time? Perhaps they will stimulate fauna to breed.


Well I do feed blackworms almost daily. That might have had something to do with it :hihi:.

It's pretty funny when the lights come on in the morning, you can see a bunch of tiny worm heads suddenly shoot back under the sand and then slowly reveal themselves again after a couple minutes.


----------



## crimsonbull57

thats so cool, how often do the blackworms get picked off when they're in the sand?


----------



## hydrophyte

Hey this is looking really nice. I like that 'Guinea Broad Leaf' what a funny plant. 

Do you have any close-ups of that _C. cordata_ var. _blassii_? I am considering an order of some of that, but I run into such inconsistent information about growth and care.


----------



## legomaniac89

crimsonbull57 said:


> thats so cool, how often do the blackworms get picked off when they're in the sand?


The Harlequins seem to pretty much ignore them once the worms hit the sand, but I've seen the SAE and Amanos snatch one up from time to time. I'd love if they became a big self-maintaining colony (it'd be kinda gross, but...), but I'm not sure how they'd be able to reproduce in 78 degree water. IME with culturing them, they need fairly cool temps or they just stink and die :icon_roll.



hydrophyte said:


> Hey this is looking really nice. I like that 'Guinea Broad Leaf' what a funny plant.
> 
> Do you have any close-ups of that _C. cordata_ var. _blassii_? I am considering an order of some of that, but I run into such inconsistent information about growth and care.


Thanks Hydro. I'll try to get some shots of the Blassii tomorrow. It's a really sweet plant, especially for a crypt junkie like me. It gets a nice subtle iridescence that really stands out among the greens in the tank. So far, I haven't found it's care to be much different from any other crypts, other than it likes a bit more light than some. I know it stays smaller underwater too. I've seen a picture of FAN's mother plant and it's absolutely massive (like 3+ feet tall), so it might make a good riparium plant if you have a big tank for it.


----------



## malaybiswas

Hilde said:


> Got any idea how that happened? Perhaps survived from a feeding of them at 1 time? Perhaps they will stimulate fauna to breed.


Your fish will bless you


----------



## fastfreddie

The way you've chosen to lay this out is really nice. Not many people do it on the forum, but I think it's very pleasing to the eye. The open space on the right is just the right amount, and I love the way your fish seem to gather there. You have made a statement with empty space, and I think that's hard to do. Great job!


----------



## legomaniac89

malaybiswas said:


> Your fish will bless you


You know, it would be awesome if the Harlies spawned for me, but I doubt that they will in my liquid rock water. I don't know much about breeding tetras, but from what I understand, they need pretty soft and acidic water. Mine is none of the above 



fastfreddie said:


> The way you've chosen to lay this out is really nice. Not many people do it on the forum, but I think it's very pleasing to the eye. The open space on the right is just the right amount, and I love the way your fish seem to gather there. You have made a statement with empty space, and I think that's hard to do. Great job!


Thanks a lot Freddie! The piece of Mopani is real easy to scape around, and I'm working on getting the plants to flow from the left to right. Speaking of....










There's the slope I'm going for!

And as promised, here'e the Crypt Blassii pics. Where it's positioned, it's pretty difficult to get a good shot of it, but here's what I got.



















I love the pink undersides. On a totally unrelated note, my _Hygrophila corymbosa "Kompakt"_ that I'm growing emersed started flowering for me today. This is the first of 7 or 8 buds to open.


----------



## Sarkazmo

Could you explain your substrate mixture?

Also, what's this PPMD fert?

Sark


----------



## legomaniac89

Sarkazmo said:


> Could you explain your substrate mixture?
> 
> Also, what's this PPMD fert?
> 
> Sark


Sure thing. The substrate is a mix of Fertilome potting soil, clay gravel (like the stuff they use on baseball diamonds), and greensand (slow release K and Fe). This mix has regular old play sand on top to keep it in place. With the way the plants are growing in this soil, I honestly don't see why Aquasoil is so hyped up. I've never seen crypts grow so fast before, and the entire mix cost less than $10.

PMDD is short for Poor Man's Dosing Drops, or something like that. It's basically a mix of all the macro and micronutrients, dissolved in water. It seems to work pretty good, but with it already being pre-mixed, the nutrient levels are fixed and you can't tweak it to the tank's specific needs. 
So right now, my N is virtually zero, and my K and P are way high, which I'm sure is the cause of the algae outbreak on the wood. I'm dosing almost 1.5ml of the stuff daily, and N is still zero. But that's fine, because I have the full dry ferts package coming from GLA, it should get here tomorrow. I'm going with the EI (Estimative Index) schedule in Wö£fëñxXx's dosing regime thread for now and see what happens.


----------



## Karackle

WOW! This tank looks FANTASTIC! I love the long sweeping look of the slope, definitely looks better with out the E.V. in there, even though I agree, that plant is VERY cool!  

I'm looking into trading my 20H for a 20L, if it works out, this might just be my inspiration! Otherwise, I'll use it for inspiration when I redo my 30


----------



## legomaniac89

Hey, thanks Karackle! The scape's not quite where I want it yet, but it's really close, that's for sure. I have a bunch of Mini Pellia from Craigthor I'm gonna be working with today. Hopefully I can get it to cover the wood in between the Anubias Petite over time.

With the site being moved to a new server, my connection to the forum really been going bonkers lately, but I'll try to get some pics posted after I get the MP attached tonight.


----------



## legomaniac89

I tell ya, super glue gel is my new best friend. It works so well for attaching Mini Pellia to most anything, including fingers .



















I also got some Black Horned Nerites from Mgamer20o0 to help clean up the Mopani.



















And now for my adventure story for today. So the Eheim's flow had pretty much disappeared overnight, so yesterday, I took it all apart and cleaned it. Well today, there's still barely any flow so took it apart again, thinking that the new filter pad may have been restricting the flow. So I put it all back together, filled it with water, capped it and plugged it in. Nothing but a grinding motor.

So after 35 minutes of fighting with the 2213 and still nothing but the motor grinding, I caved in and hooked this bad boy up.










Say hello to the Marineland C-220. I've been running two C-160s on other tanks for over a year now with absolutely no problems whatsoever. In ten minute's time, I had this guy up and running like a dream. And my favorite feature: the prime button! It makes starting the filter back up SO much easier than the Eheims.

I think it's safe to say I won't be using another Eheim filter for quite a while. They're far more trouble than they're worth.


----------



## B16CRXT

If I dont close the valves during a water change before unplugging it, my 2213 does the same crap. Doesnt flow anything and just sits there and grinds like its going to do something. Drives me nuts. So, now I make sure to close the valves, then unplug it for WC day. Mine got so filled with plant debris once that it barely put out any water also. Cleaned the filter media and it flowed like new. 

That super glue doesn't kill your plants or put some kind of chemical into the water that harms the fish?


----------



## CL

B16CRXT said:


> That super glue doesn't kill your plants or put some kind of chemical into the water that harms the fish?


Nope, It works like a charm! I love it  People use it in reefs too 

The tank is looking freakin' sweet, bro!


----------



## legomaniac89

B16CRXT said:


> If I dont close the valves during a water change before unplugging it, my 2213 does the same crap. Doesnt flow anything and just sits there and grinds like its going to do something. Drives me nuts. So, now I make sure to close the valves, then unplug it for WC day. Mine got so filled with plant debris once that it barely put out any water also. Cleaned the filter media and it flowed like new.
> 
> That super glue doesn't kill your plants or put some kind of chemical into the water that harms the fish?


I did that actually. And it still crapped out on me. It was an older filter, maybe the motor just had problems. I don't know, problem's solved now. The Marinelands rock!



clwatkins10 said:


> Nope, It works like a charm! I love it  People use it in reefs too
> 
> The tank is looking freakin' sweet, bro!


Thanks CL! Yeah, super glue rocks doesn't it? This was the first time I've used it, and apart from gluing my fingers together once, it worked perfectly for attaching the MP.


----------



## kameia

Thanks for the super glue tip! I hate using fishing line, I'm so clumsy with it.


----------



## legomaniac89

Picture of the day, right here










That's all I've got now. I took a bunch of pics of the tank, but after I got home and uploaded them to my computer, I realized they are waaay overexposed and look terrible. So a new FTS will have to wait till Monday :thumbsup:


----------



## Craigthor

MP looks great!


----------



## legomaniac89

Thanks Craig! It's such a unique plant. I'm really hoping it'll spread out and cover the left side of the wood completely.


----------



## Craigthor

Given time it will. It took 6 months to a mass the quantity that I had from 3 2x2 portions.

Craig


----------



## sewingalot

Very, very beautiful. The purple flowering is lovely. What is the last plant pictured? I want it!


----------



## legomaniac89

Thanks sewingalot! The last picture is of my lone stem of _Rotala sp. "Singapore"_. It's grown about 3" in the week I've had it, so I'll probably have some for sale in the near future :thumbsup:


----------



## sewingalot

It looks even better when you first put it in. The Singapore looks like it adapted quite well to your liquid rock, lol. I actually didn't know it was the same plant. When you are ready to sell that and your Belem, let me know. I definitely want both.


----------



## legomaniac89

Can do. I'll probably need to thin out the Belem fairly soon. It's really spreading like wildfire, and I'm finding it in a lot of places where it doesn't belong :icon_roll


----------



## Sarkazmo

legomaniac89 said:


> Sure thing. The substrate is a mix of Fertilome potting soil, clay gravel (like the stuff they use on baseball diamonds), and greensand (slow release K and Fe). This mix has regular old play sand on top to keep it in place. With the way the plants are growing in this soil, I honestly don't see why Aquasoil is so hyped up. I've never seen crypts grow so fast before, and the entire mix cost less than $10.


Are you mixing the substrate components in equal parts (ie: 1/3 potting soil, 1/3 clay, 1/3 greensand?)

Sark


----------



## legomaniac89

Sarkazmo said:


> Are you mixing the substrate components in equal parts (ie: 1/3 potting soil, 1/3 clay, 1/3 greensand?)
> 
> Sark


I didn't mix it up myself (came from Jfrank85), but it looked like about 65% potting soil, 30% clay gravel, and 5% greensand. You could always change it up any way you wanted to. Next time I set up a tank, I'll probably use some Kelp Meal or Blood Meal in the mix too.

Anyway, here's some new FTS's




























Enjoy!


----------



## ZooTycoonMaster

Oh. My. God.:eek5:

I think the slope/scape looks awesome!roud:


----------



## legomaniac89

Haha thanks ZTM! It's getting there, but it still needs about a month or so to get where I really want it


----------



## ZooTycoonMaster

legomaniac89 said:


> Haha thanks ZTM! It's getting there, but it still needs about a month or so to get where I really want it


Really? I think it's already there


----------



## legomaniac89

Nah, not yet. The ET's still gotta fill in and the back row has a bit more growing to do. And the Eleocharis has yet to fill in the empty hole where the E. vesuvius was. That looks a bit weird to my eyes


----------



## monkeyruler90

wow. looks great. i love the slope you made with the trim! and that Rotala sp. "Singapore" looks amazing. like r. butterfly. great tank


----------



## ZooTycoonMaster

What's the red-ish plant near the bottom of the slope?


----------



## legomaniac89

monkeyruler90 said:


> wow. looks great. i love the slope you made with the trim! and that Rotala sp. "Singapore" looks amazing. like r. butterfly. great tank


Thanks Monkeyruler! I was originally going to go with Rotala Butterfly here, but in this tank's last incarnation I had a few stems that didn't do so well for me. Not sure why, but I really like the Singapore so far.



ZooTycoonMaster said:


> What's the red-ish plant near the bottom of the slope?


At the end of the slope is Rotala indica, at the far right tip of the Mopani is a small Crypt cordata "Rosanervig". I've noticed that when I trim the R. indica, the new growth comes in bright orange to hot pink, and then fades out to the normal greenish color as it grows.


----------



## sewingalot

Lovely. I like the manicured look. You are right about the Belem taking over. Looks excellent, though. You have one of the best tanks out there. :thumbsup:


----------



## hydrophyte

really nice. i love the way that _Eleocharis_ looks it reminds of a clean lake bottom up in Northern Wisconsin. do the rasboras often hover over the hairgrass like that? that is also cool.


----------



## legomaniac89

sewingalot said:


> Lovely. I like the manicured look. You are right about the Belem taking over. Looks excellent, though. You have one of the best tanks out there. :thumbsup:


Thanks so much Sewing!



hydrophyte said:


> really nice. i love the way that _Eleocharis_ looks it reminds of a clean lake bottom up in Northern Wisconsin. do the rasboras often hover over the hairgrass like that? that is also cool.


Thanks Hydro! The rasboras are usually all over the tank, but they do spend more time in the open right side. They always seem to gather over there for pictures for some reason.


----------



## speedie408

Tanks looks real good lego. I think once the belem thickens up, it's going to look pretty badass.


----------



## legomaniac89

Thanks Nick!

Here's a photo from today. I really need to trim that Rotala 










In other non-aquatic news, I got a flower from my _Pleiospilos nelii_ succulent today. The plant itself is little more than two fleshy half-eggshells, but the flowers are beautiful.










Nature at work



















(Click on the resize bar above the pics, they can be enlarged for better detail)


----------



## oldpunk78

wow man! it's really starting to come together. kinda makes me wish i'd gotten a 20 long instead of the 29. keep up the good work.
oh, have you considered doing a full carpet in the foreground? don't get me wrong, i like it alot the way it is now, but i think a full grassy wrap-a-round foreground would be amazing.


----------



## legomaniac89

oldpunk78 said:


> wow man! it's really starting to come together. kinda makes me wish i'd gotten a 20 long instead of the 29. keep up the good work.
> oh, have you considered doing a full carpet in the foreground? don't get me wrong, i like it alot the way it is now, but i think a full grassy wrap-a-round foreground would be amazing.


Thanks oldpunk! I have definitely considered a full Eleocharis foreground. I think I'm gonna let the Elatine fill in the left side completely and see how I like it then, and just go from there. I do think a full grassy foreground would look pretty sick though.

The jungle got a haircut today. I got almost 1/2lb of plants from this thing.

Before:









After:









I'll tell ya, that was one dense bush of Rotala. It took about 5 minutes to cut through it all.


----------



## ZooTycoonMaster

The rasboras are like "wtf happened to all of the plants?"


----------



## CL

Oh wow that looks awesome! I love the eleocharis and rotala! Brilliant 


ZooTycoonMaster said:


> The rasboras are like "wtf happened to all of the plants?"


haha, they are 

I'm gonna have to buy some of that belem from you this fall


----------



## sewingalot

Holy haircut, Batman! I really anticipate this growing in beautifully. Those fish are cracking me up. They look like they are planning on a new scape. Hehe.


----------



## talontsiawd

Looking great. I have gone through much of the thread more than a few times and got interrupted before I got to the end.

I can't wait for the left side to fill in, should look very good.


----------



## jfrank85

haza! i can get plantedtank on my psp! anyways that belem is filling in like a nice kenucky blue grass blend. (damn seed bins lol)


----------



## legomaniac89

ZooTycoonMaster said:


> The rasboras are like "wtf happened to all of the plants?"


Haha yeah they are. I swear I was getting death looks from them when I started pulling plants out 



clwatkins10 said:


> Oh wow that looks awesome! I love the eleocharis and rotala! Brilliant
> 
> 
> haha, they are
> 
> I'm gonna have to buy some of that belem from you this fall


Thanks CL! The Belem need to grow out a bit more before I'll have some for sale, but it won't be too long hopefully. I'm really liking the way it stays short and curves downward.



sewingalot said:


> Holy haircut, Batman! I really anticipate this growing in beautifully. Those fish are cracking me up. They look like they are planning on a new scape. Hehe.


Thanks Sara! The Rotala was dense enough before, and now it's gonna grow back twice as much! 



talontsiawd said:


> Looking great. I have gone through much of the thread more than a few times and got interrupted before I got to the end.
> 
> I can't wait for the left side to fill in, should look very good.


Thanks talon! It still got a bit of growing to do, but it's almost there.



jfrank85 said:


> haza! i can get plantedtank on my psp! anyways that belem is filling in like a nice kenucky blue grass blend. (damn seed bins lol)


Woo!! I need to get me one of those things .


----------



## CL

How tall does that belem get?


----------



## legomaniac89

I'd say about 2" max under high lighting.


----------



## CL

Thanks boss  This tank is definitely inspiring!


----------



## Craigthor

Nice looks so much bigger than a 20L.

Craig


----------



## legomaniac89

No prob CL. I'll get you some of that Belem soon here


----------



## speedie408

Did you just toss all your Rotala trimmings?


----------



## legomaniac89

speedie408 said:


> Did you just toss all your Rotala trimmings?


Nah man, it's floating around in the SnS somewhere. You want some more?

I pulled a football-sized clump of the stuff, so I have tons that needs to find a new home :icon_wink


----------



## Ugly Genius

On 07-20-2009 you nailed it and it's gotten better since.

Have you read your own post from the beginning lately? You, my friend, have gotten _hella_ better. After the 05-16-2009 rescape, you shed the awkward, try-everything-all-at-once phase we all go through and started to zero in on the mature 'scape we all see here.
And it shows no signs of slowing.
Good job, man!


----------



## legomaniac89

Craigthor said:


> Nice looks so much bigger than a 20L.
> 
> Craig


Thanks Craig! Guess I somehow missed your post earlier :icon_wink



Ugly Genius said:


> On 07-20-2009 you nailed it and it's gotten better since.
> 
> Have you read your own post from the beginning lately? You, my friend, have gotten _hella_ better. After the 05-16-2009 rescape, you shed the awkward, try-everything-all-at-once phase we all go through and started to zero in on the mature 'scape we all see here.
> And it shows no signs of slowing.
> Good job, man!


Thanks a lot, UG! That means a lot to me coming from a master aquascapist like you. I really did go through a brutal collectoritis phase a few months back (55-ish species in this thing before I rescaped :icon_eek, but after the last scape crashed, I swore to not give in to collectoritis again. At least, not in this tank :icon_wink

After reading your post, I had to go back and skim through my thread from May forward, and I'll admit, I didn't have much of a plan when I rescaped this thing. But so far it's turned out better than I would have ever hoped for. And I have definitely learned a lot through this forum, like:

-Pressurized CO2 rocks! I will never go back to DIY again.
-Dry ferts are _way_ easier to use than the liquid stuff
-Eheims hate me
-Transformers 2 was an awesome movie, despite what the critics say.
-130W is possibly a bit too much light over a 20g, but it can grow plants like none other
-Soil-based substrates kick butt
-GLA is the best online store ever


----------



## ZooTycoonMaster

legomaniac89 said:


> -130W is possibly a bit too much light over a 20g, but it can grow plants like none other


You have 130 watts over this tank???:icon_eek:


----------



## legomaniac89

Yup. 2x65W of compact flourescents. You can't look straight into the fixture without your eyes burning, and then you see spots for the next 20 minutes 

It's one of the Coralife fixtures designed for reef tanks, but I just replaced the bulbs with plant-friendly 6700/10000K full spectrum ones.


----------



## B16CRXT

I have the 2x65 coralife fixture too but I'm using the 6700K bulbs on both. I stopped using the second bulb because it caused a LOT of algae problems for me. I also had a terrible time getting dry ferts to work out for me. Overdosed the tank a couple times and lost shrimp and fish. Now I just dose CSM+B maybe twice a week along with some excel now and then.


----------



## legomaniac89

B16CRXT said:


> I have the 2x65 coralife fixture too but I'm using the 6700K bulbs on both. I stopped using the second bulb because it caused a LOT of algae problems for me. I also had a terrible time getting dry ferts to work out for me. Overdosed the tank a couple times and lost shrimp and fish. Now I just dose CSM+B maybe twice a week along with some excel now and then.


Before I started using pressurized CO2, I had algae pretty bad in here. Hair, fuzz, GDA, GSA, some green and red stuff that coats the driftwood, you name it. But now that I run the drop checker at light yellow and am almost overdosing GLA dry ferts, the algae's started to recede quite a bit. It is a lot of light though, and it makes it tough to keep the tank stable.


----------



## demonbreedr16

It doesn't *SEEM* so tough...you make it look easy...*green with envy*

I really hope my 20gL [krib tank] will look HALF as good as yours...but you do have fewer tanks then I do...so more time to devote to specific ones 

BTW: I LOVE Harlequins!! I have 6 in my 29 [soon to be 75] and am considering the black and gold ones adding in the school!

But anyways,
Good job!! :thumbsup:

kENNY


----------



## legomaniac89

Hey, thanks a lot Kenny! This tank is at my work, so I do have quite a bit of time to devote to it to keep it looking nice.

I've been through several types of fish in this tank. Celebes Rainbows, then Praecox Rainbows, and now the Harlequins. And I gotta say that the Harlies are definitely my favorite of the 3. Rainbowfish have zero personality.


----------



## demonbreedr16

I've noticed rainbows are mainly for show...They are beautiful...but unaware of you or anything else & go about their lives.

I *DO* have 2 M. Splendida 'Splendida' Rainbowfish in my 55gal and they are THRIVING!! Really personable too...The swim so fast though and dart everywhere like Danios.


----------



## speedie408

legomaniac89 said:


> Hey, thanks a lot Kenny! This tank is at my work, so I do have quite a bit of time to devote to it to keep it looking nice.
> 
> I've been through several types of fish in this tank. Celebes Rainbows, then Praecox Rainbows, and now the Harlequins. And I gotta say that the Harlies are definitely my favorite of the 3. Rainbowfish have zero personality.


lego,

Have you seen Threadfin Rainbows in full color and how the males interact (flash) with each other when they're around females? B E A U Te FULLL! Too bad all but one of my six died shortly after I put them in my tank.


----------



## Robert H

I found this thread really interesting to see from the very begining from January to now how drastically the tank changed several times in such a short period of time.

You went from a collection of common florida sword plants which would obviously quickly outgrow a 20 gallon long to a vast assortment of collector type plants in a some what hap hazard layout, to a more organized lay out, to a very minimalistic layout with a very small number of species, to the begining of a serious aquascape, all in what six months?

You burned through a LOT of plants during that time. More plants than some people encounter over a period of years. I am curious what you have gained from the experience thus far. What have you learned from your brief encounter with all these different plants? Will you now settle into one long term aquascape or will it continue to be a tank in constant flux?


----------



## legomaniac89

Robert H said:


> I found this thread really interesting to see from the very begining from January to now how drastically the tank changed several times in such a short period of time.
> 
> You went from a collection of common florida sword plants which would obviously quickly outgrow a 20 gallon long to a vast assortment of collector type plants in a some what hap hazard layout, to a more organized lay out, to a very minimalistic layout with a very small number of species, to the begining of a serious aquascape, all in what six months?
> 
> You burned through a LOT of plants during that time. More plants than some people encounter over a period of years. I am curious what you have gained from the experience thus far. What have you learned from your brief encounter with all these different plants? Will you now settle into one long term aquascape or will it continue to be a tank in constant flux?


Thanks a lot Robert! The one big thing I've learned through all of this is that once you catch collectoritis, you can't get rid of it. I still have to control myself when I'm cruising through the SnS . 

When I think back about this tank, I really have gone through a huge amount of plants. I mean, I had some 55 species in this thing at one time a few months back. Another thing I've found is that the best way to learn about a plant in to just grow it yourself. For example, _Ludwigia senegalensis_ (_sp. "Guinea"_). All the websites I found about it say that it needs soft, acidic water and it is a slow grower. I had it growing around 1" per day in my liquid rock water. 

I'm planning to keep the scape the way it is now for quite a while. I'm actually satisfying my rescape urges with a 10g I'm redoing very soon.

Just to emphasize what Robert was saying above, here's a picture progression of this tank from the beginning:




























CO2 died, so the swords got yanked


















The collectoritis apex









Rescaped


----------



## Kolkri

legomaniac89 said:


> CO2 died, so the swords got yanked


Really like this one.


----------



## legomaniac89

It been a while since new pics, so here's a couple from yesterday. It's still growing back from the massive trim.

The Elatine's really took off









I got some of the AFA Staurogyne from ZTM, and I'm growing it side-by-side with Staurogyne sp. "Low Grow". Sure looks like different species to me.









Any idea why my Anubias Petite would be getting a marbled pattern? Several of them are doing this, and it's really weird. I kinda like it, though.
See the top middle leaf?


----------



## CL

Did you get that petite from me? like as a hitch hiker or something?
The tank is sick. the et really did take off and the rotala indica is, purple


----------



## legomaniac89

clwatkins10 said:


> Did you get that petite from me? like as a hitch hiker or something?
> The tank is sick. the et really did take off and the rotala indica is, purple


Thanks man! No, I actually got all the Petite in this tank straight from FAN (Florida Aquatic Nurseries). I can get plants from them via our livestock supplier at my work.


----------



## CL

legomaniac89 said:


> Thanks man! No, I actually got all the Petite in this tank straight from FAN (Florida Aquatic Nurseries). I can get plants from them via our livestock supplier at my work.


That's wild. If it keeps the variegation, and stays petite size, I call first dibs on cuttings! :thumbsup:


----------



## Craigthor

I would be curious to see if this Petite keeps its varigation also. I want second dibs after CL.

Craig


----------



## legomaniac89

clwatkins10 said:


> That's wild. If it keeps the variegation, and stays petite size, I call first dibs on cuttings! :thumbsup:





Craigthor said:


> I would be curious to see if this Petite keeps its varigation also. I want second dibs after CL.
> 
> Craig


Can do, guys! It's not just the one plant that getting the variegation, it's several of them. Actually, I noticed it for the first time right after I started using EI dosing. Maybe it has something to do with that?


----------



## CL

Well keep us updated on them!


----------



## sewingalot

Awesome plants. Thanks for sharing with me!  I am inspired to get rid of some of my collectoritis now and actually try scaping.


----------



## CL

sewingalot said:


> Awesome plants. Thanks for sharing with me!  I am inspired to get rid of some of my collectoritis now and actually try scaping.


Yeah, this tank has really been my inspiration the last couple of days :thumbsup:


----------



## legomaniac89

sewingalot said:


> Awesome plants. Thanks for sharing with me!  I am inspired to get rid of some of my collectoritis now and actually try scaping.





clwatkins10 said:


> Yeah, this tank has really been my inspiration the last couple of days :thumbsup:


Thanks for all the support guys! I really appreciate it!


----------



## vtkid

the crypts and such look so cool coming out of the driftwood nooks. and all of you collectoritis patients can channel your energy into a dutch scape.:hihi: its the best of both worlds.


----------



## legomaniac89

Thanks vtkid! Collectoritis can be a pain, that's for sure, but once you learn to master it you can make some nice scapes out if it. Take a look at Sewingalot's 55 and Tex Gal's 125. They both have collectoritis and have both made beautiful scapes.


----------



## legomaniac89

Just for Craig and CL, here's a better pic of the Petite's marbling effect.


----------



## Craigthor

legomaniac89 said:


> Just for Craig and CL, here's a better pic of the Petite's marbling effect.


Nice. :icon_smil That Mini Pellia looks good 2.

Craig


----------



## CL

That definitely looks like a true morph to me! If it stays petite size, you've got the next big craze on your hands, IMO I would love variegated petite!


----------



## legomaniac89

Craigthor said:


> Nice. :icon_smil That Mini Pellia looks good 2.
> 
> Craig


The MP's growing a lot faster than I thought it would too. I can't seem to get a good picture of the stuff, but it's a really nice bright green.



clwatkins10 said:


> That definitely looks like a true morph to me! If it stays petite size, you've got the next big craze on your hands, IMO I would love variegated petite!


Are you trying to see how fast you can go from 5000 posts to 10000? Dude, you're freaking everywhere on this forum lately! :biggrin:

But yeah, it would be awesome if it stayed variegated. I might take one to put in my no-tech 10g to see if the pattern stays there or not.


----------



## CL

Lol, I noticed that I was posting a lot lately too. I guess I'm just trying to keep from doing my summer reading :icon_roll:


----------



## legomaniac89

clwatkins10 said:


> Lol, I noticed that I was posting a lot lately too. I guess I'm just trying to keep from doing my summer reading :icon_roll:


Been there before. I hate when you have assigned homework over summer vacation. Kinda defeats the purpose IMO.


----------



## malaybiswas

Love your current layout. My stem plants seldom all incline forward to create this kind of effect. Figured that's because of the well spaced led fixture I got. Maybe that's a new project coming up


----------



## sewingalot

legomaniac89 said:


> Thanks vtkid! Collectoritis can be a pain, that's for sure, but once you learn to master it you can make some nice scapes out if it. Take a look at Sewingalot's 55 and Tex Gal's 125. They both have collectoritis and have both made beautiful scapes.


Tex Gal's tank is awesome. Mine, meh. I am actually looking to cut back. :help: You really want to see a nice scape? Pull up Rich815's tank. That is amazing collectoritis beauty.

Speaking of beautiful tanks, can you take some more close up pictures, Lego?


----------



## legomaniac89

malaybiswas said:


> Love your current layout. My stem plants seldom all incline forward to create this kind of effect. Figured that's because of the well spaced led fixture I got. Maybe that's a new project coming up


Thanks Malay! The Marineland C-220 I have running gives a lot of flow, and combined with 130W of CF, the stems are growing in real nice. Once they grow back from my last trim, it'll look even nicer I think.



sewingalot said:


> Tex Gal's tank is awesome. Mine, meh. I am actually looking to cut back. :help: You really want to see a nice scape? Pull up Rich815's tank. That is amazing collectoritis beauty.
> 
> Speaking of beautiful tanks, can you take some more close up pictures, Lego?


Hey, your tank is great! It's a true collectoritis tank and that's what makes it nice.

I'm out of town at the moment, until late Monday night, but I'll try to get a bunch of pics for ya on Tuesday. I'm kinda excited to see how much it's grown when I get to work on Tuesday. That Elatine exploded last week and I can't wait to see how it's filled in.


----------



## dooboogoo

legomaniac89 said:


> Been there before. I hate when you have assigned homework over summer vacation. Kinda defeats the purpose IMO.


Haha, I think I've finished a total of 3 summer reading books....EVER.

Anyways, Lego, great tank! It makes me itch to start a new tank when I move in a week.


----------



## legomaniac89

Thanks dooboogoo!

You know what I just realized this tank needs? A name! I'm terrible at coming up with names like this, so does anyone have any suggestions? Maybe I'll ship some RAOK plants to whoever comes up with the best name


----------



## ZooTycoonMaster

You know how great this tank is? It was the very first thread I checked (after my journal of course) that I checked after getting Internet back in San Diego


----------



## legomaniac89

Haha thanks ZTM! Your journal kinda got trashed while you were gone. See what happens when you're not here to keep us under control? :hihi:


----------



## legomaniac89

First thing I noticed about the tank when I got back was that the Elatine had more or less quadrupled over the weekend. That stuff is a weed!










Side view









Elatine triandra. This stuff is ridiculous









Crypt wendtii "Green x Hybrid"









Rotala indica









That's it for now. I might post more pics tomorrow if I have time to hack down the Elatine.

Anyone come up with a good name for this guy yet?


----------



## hydrophyte

Looks great! You have such a nice variety of plants in there and I think that your picture-taking for this tank has improved over time. That _wendtii_ "Green X Hybrid" looks just exactly like my 'Green Gecko'(?).


----------



## legomaniac89

hydrophyte said:


> Looks great! You have such a nice variety of plants in there and I think that your picture-taking for this tank has improved over time. That _wendtii_ "Green X Hybrid" looks just exactly like my 'Green Gecko'(?).


Thanks man! I actually have a "Green Gecko" right next to this guy. I've found that the Green Gecko gets the brownish mottling all over the leaves, while the Green x Hybrid only get the brown around the center vein on the leaf. This is a runner of a plant that came from Lowcoaster quite a while back.


----------



## CL

That elatine really did take off. The hydrocoytle looks really good and I love that rotala indica!


----------



## legomaniac89

Thanks CL! I do like the Hydrocotyle, but I wish that it stayed shorter. I'd love to get some _H. vulgaris_ to replace this one. H. vulgaris only grows to like 1.5" tall.


----------



## CL

1.5 inches tall would be awesome. You've definitely got me pumped to get back in the high- tech game!


----------



## ZooTycoonMaster

Do you have any problems with detritus getting stuck in the Hairgrass?

I think the best plants in this tank are the hairgrass, ET, rotala green, and rotala indica


----------



## legomaniac89

ZooTycoonMaster said:


> Do you have any problems with detritus getting stuck in the Hairgrass?
> 
> I think the best plants in this tank are the hairgrass, ET, rotala green, and rotala indica


I have enough flow getting to the hairgrass I don't really have a problem with it. Instead it all gets stuck in the Elatine . I usually skim over the top of the sand to pick any loose stuff up when I do the weekly water change.


----------



## speedie408

Bro, if my UG don't work out, let me get some of that elatine from you. I love that plant! Your tank grows plants ridiculously fast man.


----------



## legomaniac89

speedie408 said:


> Bro, if my UG don't work out, let me get some of that elatine from you. I love that plant! Your tank grows plants ridiculously fast man.


Sure thing bud. This stuff is the fastest growing plant in the tank right now. Just hit me up when you want some.

Who needs Aquadirt when a soil-based substrate can grow plants like this?


----------



## ZooTycoonMaster

legomaniac89 said:


> Who needs Aquadirt when a soil-based substrate can grow plants like this?


Hahahaha...yeah I _completely_ agree

Don't look at post #158:hihi:


----------



## CAM6467

Wow, this is an amazing tank. I'm with *speedie408*, I would love a small scrap of that elatine. I'm trying to find a good foreground plant for my 10g, but I can't really find one that looks right. I've been concidering HM, but this elatine is totally something that would be worth a try. I'm going to be making a trim one of these weeks, so maybe we could trade scraps. I've got e. diversifolia, rotala colorata, r. macrandra, r. indica, lobelia cardinalis, fissidens, etc. Let me know if you're interested...

Regards,

Charlie


----------



## chase127

I lik yur tank.


----------



## legomaniac89

ZooTycoonMaster said:


> Hahahaha...yeah I _completely_ agree
> 
> Don't look at post #158:hihi:


You should totally throw out the AS in your 10g and do a soil-based substrate instead :thumbsup:



CAM6467 said:


> Wow, this is an amazing tank. I'm with *speedie408*, I would love a small scrap of that elatine. I'm trying to find a good foreground plant for my 10g, but I can't really find one that looks right. I've been concidering HM, but this elatine is totally something that would be worth a try. I'm going to be making a trim one of these weeks, so maybe we could trade scraps. I've got e. diversifolia, rotala colorata, r. macrandra, r. indica, lobelia cardinalis, fissidens, etc. Let me know if you're interested...
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Charlie


Thanks man! This is the first time I've tried Elatine and I'm pretty impressed at the way it's growing. It'll be a while before I have some for sale, but I see it in the SnS pretty often if you're interested in trying it.



chase127 said:


> I lik yur tank.


Translation: I miss freshwater planted tanks. Reefs are too expensive.

:biggrin:


----------



## CL

legomaniac89 said:


> Translation: I miss freshwater planted tanks. Reefs are too expensive.
> 
> :biggrin:


He sold a bunch of frags and is buying some crs :icon_mrgr

You should post your marbled petite pics on APC in the id subforum and see what people like cavin and bert have to say.


----------



## legomaniac89

clwatkins10 said:


> He sold a bunch of frags and is buying some crs :icon_mrgr
> 
> You should post your marbled petite pics on APC in the id subforum and see what people like cavin and bert have to say.


Sounds like a plan. I'll do that tonight after I get back from seeing G.I Joe. I'm pretty sure the movie's gonna suck, but it still looks cool


----------



## chase127

dude wtf why do you guys think ive totally abandoned FW tanks?  my 75 and 5.5 have been running the whole time!!


----------



## legomaniac89

chase127 said:


> dude wtf why do you guys think ive totally abandoned FW tanks?  my 75 and 5.5 have been running the whole time!!


But we never get to see new pictures of them :icon_neut.


----------



## chase127

75 is a big raggy cause the duckweed population got a little out of hand, and the 5.5 is empty cycling


----------



## chase127

But soon my minions, soon...


----------



## CL

This tank reminds me a lot of Tom Barr's 180, but with a little less wood, and smaller in scale of course


----------



## legomaniac89

chase127 said:


> 75 is a big raggy cause the duckweed population got a little out of hand, and the 5.5 is empty cycling :icon_neut


Friggin duckweed


----------



## chase127

Guys. lets get back to the topic. i need to derail this thread in as few posts as possible.


----------



## legomaniac89

clwatkins10 said:


> This tank reminds me a lot of Tom Barr's 180, but with a little less wood, and smaller in scale of course


Whoa, thanks for the compliment! But I'm nowhere near the caliber of Tom Barr. He's amazing


----------



## legomaniac89

Panda in a go-kart. There's something you don't see everyday :hihi:


----------



## CL

lol Chase. Becoming quite the troll aren't we :hihi:


----------



## chase127

Im going to stalk all of your friends CL and make them giggle with pandas in gokarts :icon_twis


----------



## legomaniac89

chase127 said:


> Im going to stalk all of your friends CL and make them giggle with pandas in gokarts :icon_twis


My friend, you need a job or something to pass the time. :flick:


----------



## chase127

i know....... :\


----------



## dewalltheway

Love the tank and your Indica is beautiful! Your right about the elantine being a weed but I love the stuff. Good job on the scape!


----------



## legomaniac89

Thanks Dew! The Elatine is pretty invasive isn't it? It really looks nice though if you can keep it under control.


----------



## soup_nazi

While seconding the notion to derail this thread in as few posts as possible... I have a name for it... It. Just. Wont. Die.


----------



## legomaniac89

It's growing up well! I have quite a few more detail pics, but it's late and I'm tired


----------



## CL

Woooooowww!
Everything about this tank is great. The grass is awesome, the elatine adds good contrast to the HG (but it does look a little like the rotala) The stems are a mishmash of colors and textures and the water is crystal clear. As soon as the rotala grows out a bit more, I suggest that you take a few (several) pictures of the tank/ plants/ inhabitants without equipment. Beautiful!

Hmm, is that a real lizard soakin' up the heat on top of the light fixture?


----------



## ZooTycoonMaster

I'm speechless:icon_eek: You gotta send me some of that hairgrass

And just wondering, why don't you ever take FTS from the front?


----------



## legomaniac89

clwatkins10 said:


> Woooooowww!
> Everything about this tank is great. The grass is awesome, the elatine adds good contrast to the HG (but it does look a little like the rotala) The stems are a mishmash of colors and textures and the water is crystal clear. As soon as the rotala grows out a bit more, I suggest that you take a few (several) pictures of the tank/ plants/ inhabitants without equipment. Beautiful!
> 
> Hmm, is that a real lizard soakin' up the heat on top of the light fixture?


Haha! I wondered if anyone would notice the lizard! It's a super-rare species - _Rubberus plasticus_. 

But yeah, thanks a lot! Once it grows out a bit more, I'll definitely remove all the hardware and get a real photo shoot going.



ZooTycoonMaster said:


> I'm speechless:icon_eek: You gotta send me some of that hairgrass
> 
> And just wondering, why don't you ever take FTS from the front?


Thanks bud! Just shoot me a PM when you want some of the Belem. It's a weed for me. I have taken FTS's from the front, but they never seem to turn out as well as ones taken from an angle. They're always crooked or something. One of these days I'll remember to bring the tripod and get some better pics.


----------



## hyphination

Nice growth! Awesome tank man.


----------



## speedie408

I gotta say lego... this tank is one of my favs! Great job man! Like they were saying above, once the R. narrow grows back out and give it that pouring out look, it's gonna be SICK! 

When will my tank ever look as good


----------



## legomaniac89

hyphination said:


> Nice growth! Awesome tank man.


Thanks Hyph!



speedie408 said:


> I gotta say lego... this tank is one of my favs! Great job man! Like they were saying above, once the R. narrow grows back out and give it that pouring out look, it's gonna be SICK!
> 
> When will my tank ever look as good


Hey thanks bud! You just set up your 40, give it some time. I can see it growing in beautifully in a few month's time.


----------



## legomaniac89

Alrighty, here's a few more detail pics now that I'm awake and fully concious

Rotala sp. "Singapore"









Eleocharis sp. "Belem" field (and lots of stinkin snails )









Limnophila sp. "Guinea Broad Leaf" from Speedie408. This stuff grows almost as fast as that Elatine









Stauogyne sp. "AFA". That's what I'm calling it until it gets a positive ID









And just for ZTM...









So I went to see District 9 last night with a buddy. I gotta say, it was awesome! Definitely the best movie I've seen this year. Don't go in expecting the typical alien movie, because it's not. I definitely recommend it for any sci-fi fan who was really disappointed by GI Joe (like me)


----------



## demosthenes

great job with this tank! i like the high-tech/low-tech hybrid you have, with high light plants and low light plants. The scape looks great with the general shape of your layout when you look at it head on, with the left side being tall and slowly sloping down to the right. you might benefit from something between the driftwood and the eleocharis though, to make that transition a little smoother.

[edit: oh! and also, i really like the rare plants you have. the rotala's color is beautiful! and the staurogyne and L. guinea broadleaf are really cool, too. haha, i thought i might point that out if you hadnt noticed. ]

you saw district 9? Ive seen a few commercials for it, and i thought it looked really interesting, but i hadnt really decided if it looked like it would be some hokey alein movie, or actually a good film. should i go?


----------



## speedie408

Lemme know when you're ready to get rid of some elantine. I'm thinking about swapping out my e. tennellus. Those L. Guinea are pretty much a weed but they sure look nice.

Has anyone told you your tank looks much larger then it really is? You need to take a picture with a dollar bill or a gallon of milk next to it for size comparison haha.


----------



## vtkid

that rotala sp. singapore is unbelievable. where did you pick that up? and the tank is looking great.


----------



## ZooTycoonMaster

legomaniac89 said:


> Eleocharis sp. "Belem" field (and lots of stinkin snails )
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> And just for ZTM...


Very nice HG field!

And it may be just me, but I prefer the FTS from the front


----------



## CL

Awesome, just awesome. You've actually got most of the plants that I am going to be using in my 40. I'll send you a pm when it's time 
But who knows how long it will be until then


----------



## chase127

I have to say i am very impressed with this tank. Bravo my man  the carpet is amazing


----------



## legomaniac89

demosthenes said:


> great job with this tank! i like the high-tech/low-tech hybrid you have, with high light plants and low light plants. The scape looks great with the general shape of your layout when you look at it head on, with the left side being tall and slowly sloping down to the right. you might benefit from something between the driftwood and the eleocharis though, to make that transition a little smoother.
> 
> [edit: oh! and also, i really like the rare plants you have. the rotala's color is beautiful! and the staurogyne and L. guinea broadleaf are really cool, too. haha, i thought i might point that out if you hadnt noticed. ]
> 
> you saw district 9? Ive seen a few commercials for it, and i thought it looked really interesting, but i hadnt really decided if it looked like it would be some hokey alein movie, or actually a good film. should i go?


Thanks demosthenes! I do have a small Crypt cordata "Rosanervig" right at the end of the mopani to help soften the transition, but it still need time to grow up a bit more.

If you like sci-fi movies, you need to go see District 9. It's probably the best alien movie I've ever seen. Now I definitely wouldn't take a 5-year-old to go see it or anything. They use the F-bomb very freely throughout the entire movie and it is quite violent, but what good sci-fi movie isn't? 



speedie408 said:


> Lemme know when you're ready to get rid of some elantine. I'm thinking about swapping out my e. tennellus. Those L. Guinea are pretty much a weed but they sure look nice.
> 
> Has anyone told you your tank looks much larger then it really is? You need to take a picture with a dollar bill or a gallon of milk next to it for size comparison haha.


I'll probably need to give the Elatine a haircut in about a week or so. I'll shoot you a PM when I have it ready to go. You think that the Limno Guinea grows fast? You aint seen nothin yet. The only plant I've ever seen grow faster than the ET is Sunset Hygro, and it's a noxious weed!



vtkid said:


> that rotala sp. singapore is unbelievable. where did you pick that up? and the tank is looking great.


Thanks vt! I got the Singapore from Ebichua here on the forum originally. Back when I rescaped this thing, I gave all of it to jfrank85 and then I got a single stem back from him about a month ago. It's now branched off into about 6 individual stems after the last trimming.



ZooTycoonMaster said:


> Very nice HG field!
> 
> And it may be just me, but I prefer the FTS from the front


Thanks! I guess I just prefer FTSs off to the side because my straight-on shots always turn out blurry or crooked. I took about 20 of these to get one that looked nice :icon_roll



clwatkins10 said:


> Awesome, just awesome. You've actually got most of the plants that I am going to be using in my 40. I'll send you a pm when it's time
> But who knows how long it will be until then


Gracias senor Watkins. 



chase127 said:


> I have to say i am very impressed with this tank. Bravo my man  the carpet is amazing


Thank you good sir! Believe it or not, that Eleocharis carpet started from 20 nodes.


----------



## Digsy

I saw your field of Eleocharis sp. belem and just wanted to cry. That is one amazing spread from 40 nodes. Mine is taking forever to carpet and just isn't looking nearly as healthy as yours. This tank never ceases to amaze me, it just keeps looking better and better!

Also, I have to agree that District 9 was a great movie! I wasn't sure if I would think it was cheesy and was pleasantly surprised.


----------



## legomaniac89

Digsy said:


> I saw your field of Eleocharis sp. belem and just wanted to cry. That is one amazing spread from 40 nodes. Mine is taking forever to carpet and just isn't looking nearly as healthy as yours. This tank never ceases to amaze me, it just keeps looking better and better!
> 
> Also, I have to agree that District 9 was a great movie! I wasn't sure if I would think it was cheesy and was pleasantly surprised.


Haha thanks Digsy! The Belem grew a lot faster than I expected. What sucks about them is that they have huge root systems! A 2-inch-tall plant had a 6 inch root system last time I pulled some up.


----------



## dewalltheway

Just look through some of your journal and your tank looks awesome. Very well done.


----------



## chase127

Does belem need CO2? mine melted last time


----------



## legomaniac89

dewalltheway said:


> Just look through some of your journal and your tank looks awesome. Very well done.


Thanks Dew!



chase127 said:


> Does belem need CO2? mine melted last time


I've never grown it without CO2, so I honestly couldn't say. I know it appreciates lots of light and a good substrate though


----------



## sewingalot

Beautiful! Congratulations on nailing down that scape!


----------



## fastfreddie

Have customers shown interest in your planted tank? Does the store carry more planted tank product now that your tank is the sweetest in the store(I'm guessing)


----------



## legomaniac89

sewingalot said:


> Beautiful! Congratulations on nailing down that scape!


Thanks Sara!



fastfreddie said:


> Have customers shown interest in your planted tank? Does the store carry more planted tank product now that your tank is the sweetest in the store(I'm guessing)


There's a few people that really like the tank, but it seems like a lot of people don't even notice it. I get more comments about the tank we sell plants out of, and it's a total mess :icon_roll


----------



## jfrank85

lol i know what you mean it was the same way when the 29 was set up and the sell out tank was below it. some people dont know art when they see it.


----------



## Craigthor

Lego, what sp of Hydrocotyle is that?

Craig


----------



## CL

Hey, here's a name
"_Les Jardins de roulement_" (lay zhar-dan de roo-lay-mont :hihi
Which means "The Rolling Gardens"
I know that there are already two tanks with French names, bought I have been thinking about this for a couple of days and like this name. Do what you want with it :tongue:


----------



## legomaniac89

jfrank85 said:


> lol i know what you mean it was the same way when the 29 was set up and the sell out tank was below it. some people dont know art when they see it.


Lol right? People walk into the store and see the 40B and are like "wow, that's awesome!", and it's a total wreck. And it's like they don't even notice the 20. Why? I dunno. Elkhart is a sucky area for planted tanks I guess :icon_roll



Craigthor said:


> Lego, what sp of Hydrocotyle is that?
> 
> Craig


I got it from skewlboy as H. verticillata, but I know that the true verticillata is a lot smaller than this species. So your guess is as good as mine 



clwatkins10 said:


> Hey, here's a name
> "_Les Jardins de roulement_" (lay zhar-dan de roo-lay-mont :hihi
> Which means "The Rolling Gardens"
> I know that there are already two tanks with French names, bought I have been thinking about this for a couple of days and like this name. Do what you want with it :tongue:


Man, I think the name fits the tank perfectly, but I think I'm gonna have to stick with a name that I can pronounce. I just wish English sounded as sexy as French does :hihi:


----------



## Craigthor

Here are the 3 I know of:

Verticillata: ~1.5-2" I purchased this from Armedbiggot over at APC, he imported it from Taiwan I think and sold me a tiny bit of what he brought in last order.

Vulgaris: ~2-4" I bought some of this in the past from Armedbigget but have since sold off my nodes and need to find some more.

Sipthroboides (sp?): ~6" never had this variety but it gets tall. 

If you ever harvest some of teh Hydrocotyle let me know as I wouldn't mind a few nodes to grow out.

Craig


----------



## legomaniac89

No problem Craig. Now that it's established itself it's spreading like a weed, whatever species it is.


----------



## CL

Haha, Lego, everyone wants a piece of this tank!


----------



## legomaniac89

That Elatine is out of control. Again. Man that stuff is a weed.










I got a berried Amano too. Too bad the babies don't survive without a brackish setup.


----------



## sewingalot

With your liquid rock, who knows? Maybe the amano will have surviving shrimplets! Amazing picture. You have come a long way with camera skills!


----------



## B16CRXT

I doubt it. The baby shrimp have to be raised ina SW environment until they become juveniles. I had an amano get berried once, and I bought a small tank to move her into when she was close to release and to raise the babies in, but unfortunately, I missed her due date and couldnt find any of the eggs once they were released. I was constantly keeping an eye on her to see the color of the eggs to somewhat predict when she would release them.


----------



## legomaniac89

sewingalot said:


> With your liquid rock, who knows? Maybe the amano will have surviving shrimplets! Amazing picture. You have come a long way with camera skills!





B16CRXT said:


> I doubt it. The baby shrimp have to be raised ina SW environment until they become juveniles. I had an amano get berried once, and I bought a small tank to move her into when she was close to release and to raise the babies in, but unfortunately, I missed her due date and couldnt find any of the eggs once they were released. I was constantly keeping an eye on her to see the color of the eggs to somewhat predict when she would release them.


Thanks guys. It would be awesome if the eggs survived, but I really doubt it's possible. Now I did hear a rumor once that someone had an Amano-only tank and fed them nothing but algae, and he's actually had some larvae survive and grow to adulthood. Not sure how true that is, but it's interesting anyway.

Tomorrow, the Elatine and Eleocharis are both getting thinned out. I have lots of requests for each, plus they're both just out of control. If anyone's wanting some of either, shoot me a PM asap and I can trim some up for you and get it to the PO either tomorrow or Tuesday.


----------



## CL

Well, I'm not ready for the eleo. yet, but I'll pm you about it in a few weeks/ months :thumbsup:


----------



## hydrophyte

That hairgrass sure looks nice--what a neat effect.


----------



## legomaniac89

clwatkins10 said:


> Well, I'm not ready for the eleo. yet, but I'll pm you about it in a few weeks/ months :thumbsup:


No problem bud. I just tore up a solid 6"x10" mat of the stuff, and I'll definitely have more in the future



hydrophyte said:


> That hairgrass sure looks nice--what a neat effect.


Thanks Hydro!


----------



## legomaniac89

So I tore up a huge chunk of the Eleocharis. I was hoping I could just pull it up in a checkerboard pattern so that it would grow back in evenly. Yeah, not gonna happen. That stuff came up in one huge dense mat. I've never seen such a thick root system before. I'll work on spreading it out again, but man...










Rotala sp. "Singapore" - such a beautiful plant









I think that this may be Crypt affinis, but I still don't know. I'm loving the bullation the new leaves are getting.









My lone stem of Pogostemon helferi. This is my third try at growing this plant. The first two times didn't end well. This time looks like it may end differently (knock on wood ). It's growing really well for me and has put out quite a few new leaves.









By the end of the day, this tank looked like a bottle of 7up. The plants were pearling like crazy. Weird thing is, there are some days where the pearling will be at a minimum, but then the next day the plants will pearl 30 minutes after the lights come on. Why? I dunno. As long as they keep growing I don't really care either :flick:


----------



## ZooTycoonMaster

legomaniac89 said:


> So I tore up a huge chunk of the Eleocharis. I was hoping I could just pull it up in a checkerboard pattern so that it would grow back in evenly. Yeah, not gonna happen. That stuff came up in one huge dense mat. I've never seen such a thick root system before. I'll work on spreading it out again, but man...
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> My lone stem of Pogostemon helferi. This is my third try at growing this plant. The first two times didn't end well. This time looks like it may end differently (knock on wood ). It's growing really well for me and has put out quite a few new leaves.


Dang, how many people did you sell the eleocharis to?

I think the Downoi would do better if it's not shaded by anything (maybe it's just me, but it looks like it's partially shaded). Maybe you could move it up to the front right hand corner? But then again it would stand out amongst all of the sand...


----------



## legomaniac89

ZooTycoonMaster said:


> Dang, how many people did you sell the eleocharis to?


Um...two :hihi:



> I think the Downoi would do better if it's not shaded by anything (maybe it's just me, but it looks like it's partially shaded). Maybe you could move it up to the front right hand corner? But then again it would stand out amongst all of the sand...


It does get mostly direct light. I turned the exposure way down for that shot, so it looks a bit dark


----------



## ZooTycoonMaster

legomaniac89 said:


> Um...two :hihi:


You took out alot for 2 people I think I just have to plant the whole thing to have a carpet, no need to wait for it to grow:hihi:

Do you notice the bottom part of the stem plants dying because of lack of light?


----------



## legomaniac89

ZooTycoonMaster said:


> You took out alot for 2 people I think I just have to plant the whole thing to have a carpet, no need to wait for it to grow:hihi:
> 
> Do you notice the bottom part of the stem plants dying because of lack of light?


:hihi: yours should make it to you tomorrow hopefully. Someone that you all know from the southeast US bought most of what I tore out. 

You know, I've never noticed the lower halves of the stems dying off. They do get a bit ratty underneath, but it's nothing too bad. I think the lights are intense enough that it's not really an issue.


----------



## speedie408

I just got me some R. Singapore from AFA. Very nice plant indeed. Damn they had some nice plants there! Yours look alot more red in your pics tho. 

You're pics just keep getting better n better.


----------



## B16CRXT

ZooTycoonMaster said:


> You took out alot for 2 people I think I just have to plant the whole thing to have a carpet, no need to wait for it to grow:hihi:
> 
> Do you notice the bottom part of the stem plants dying because of lack of light?


I have that problem with L. Cuba, and a couple other stem species. Don't really understand why though. I've got the cuba in the front corner, so it sees tons of light for 10 hours...The others are in the back among tons of other stems, so it's understandable.


----------



## ZooTycoonMaster

legomaniac89 said:


> :hihi: yours should make it to you tomorrow hopefully. Someone that you all know from the southeast US bought most of what I tore out.


Lemme guess, Chris? lol:hihi:

But on a more serious note, your tank is incredible. It's one of my many inspirations for my new tank


----------



## hydrophyte

legomaniac89 said:


>


What a cool picture.


----------



## jfrank85

> I think the Downoi would do better if it's not shaded by anything (maybe it's just me, but it looks like it's partially shaded). Maybe you could move it up to the front right hand corner? But then again it would stand out amongst all of the sand...


Don't jinx him this is the first time hes been able to grow it! :hihi: I


----------



## legomaniac89

speedie408 said:


> I just got me some R. Singapore from AFA. Very nice plant indeed. Damn they had some nice plants there! Yours look alot more red in your pics tho.
> 
> You're pics just keep getting better n better.


Thanks man! It's a really nice plant, isn't it? When I got mine originally, it had a faint pink stem and green leaves, so I'm sure it'll color up for you pretty quickly.



B16CRXT said:


> I have that problem with L. Cuba, and a couple other stem species. Don't really understand why though. I've got the cuba in the front corner, so it sees tons of light for 10 hours...The others are in the back among tons of other stems, so it's understandable.


IME Ludwigias are more inclined to lose their bottom leaves than other stems if light levels are too low. I've never really had that problems with Rotalas before.



ZooTycoonMaster said:


> Lemme guess, Chris? lol:hihi:
> 
> But on a more serious note, your tank is incredible. It's one of my many inspirations for my new tank


Mmm...nope :biggrin:. Thanks though, I can't wait to see what you do with your rescape.



hydrophyte said:


> What a cool picture.


Thanks Devin!



jfrank85 said:


> Don't jinx him this is the first time hes been able to grow it! :hihi: I


Third time's a charm!


----------



## dewalltheway

legomaniac89 said:


> Someone that you all know from the southeast US bought most of what I tore out.


That person would be Orlando! (Am I right?)


----------



## CL

dewalltheway said:


> That person would be Orlando! (Am I right?)


Probably. He's setting up 15 tanks after all.

I love that rotala! I hope that I can get in on some plants next time! I will most likely buy some of most of the plants in there!


----------



## jfrank85

> That person would be Orlando! (Am I right?)


I ain't pointin any elbows but all signs point to yes.


----------



## legomaniac89

dewalltheway said:


> That person would be Orlando! (Am I right?)


It just might be :flick:



clwatkins10 said:


> Probably. He's setting up 15 tanks after all.
> 
> I love that rotala! I hope that I can get in on some plants next time! I will most likely buy some of most of the plants in there!


Hey, you know where to find me when you get that 40 up and running. I'm gonna get me one of those things one of these days.



jfrank85 said:


> I ain't pointin any elbows but all signs point to yes.


Yeah well, you know, it's not like I told you or anything :biggrin:


----------



## Craigthor

legomaniac89 said:


> It been a while since new pics, so here's a couple from yesterday. It's still growing back from the massive trim.
> 
> The Elatine's really took off
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I got some of the AFA Staurogyne from ZTM, and I'm growing it side-by-side with Staurogyne sp. "Low Grow". Sure looks like different species to me.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Any idea why my Anubias Petite would be getting a marbled pattern? Several of them are doing this, and it's really weird. I kinda like it, though.
> See the top middle leaf?


This still growing varigated?

Craig


----------



## legomaniac89

Craigthor said:


> This still growing varigated?
> 
> Craig


Unfortunately, not as much. The newest leaves are straight green with no white at all. I haven't changed anything in the tank other than trimming down the background plants, but I wouldn't think that it would make a difference.

I pulled a few crypts out from under the Elatine monster earlier and discovered something terrible. My tank has a major disease. It's called supersubstrate syndrome, and the main symptoms are insanely healthy crypts with gigantic root systems










Unfortunately, once it starts, there's no stopping it. *Sigh* I guess I'm doomed to having ridiculously healthy crypts forever :biggrin:


----------



## CL

You poor thing. I hope your tank makes it.


----------



## speedie408

Almost got me there.


----------



## jfrank85

no cure im afraid :frown: once youve got SSS youre pretty much doomed to a life of trimming and breaking up huge masses of foreground plants. sad really, if only you went with aqua soil. alas this is not the case.


----------



## legomaniac89

clwatkins10 said:


> You poor thing. I hope your tank makes it.





speedie408 said:


> Almost got me there.


:icon_wink:hihi:



jfrank85 said:


> no cure im afraid :frown: once youve got SSS youre pretty much doomed to a life of trimming and breaking up huge masses of foreground plants. sad really, if only you went with aqua soil. alas this is not the case.


Ahahahahahahaha!


----------



## Minsc

Wow, I'm glad I finally got around to reading past the first couple pages.
The tank looks totally awesome!

You say your customers don't notice or appreciate this tank, how about calling it "My love for you is ticking clock". Or is that too obscure?


----------



## legomaniac89

Thanks Minsc! The name suggestion is...interesting, but I have no idea what it means :hihi:. I finally got a new pic of the tank. It's not looking the greatest right now, but it should grow back in no time.










I actually trimmed the Elatine right after I took the pic, but I forgot to take one afterwards. I ripped out a good dense baseball of that stuff.


----------



## Dollface

Your hairgrass looks rediculously good. It looks so soft and .. grassy. Makes me want to frolic through it.


----------



## ZooTycoonMaster

legomaniac89 said:


>


Is it just me, or is the Downoi as tall as the Elatine?:icon_eek:


----------



## speedie408

I can't tell if you planted anything in that bare spot but if not what are your plans for it?


----------



## legomaniac89

Dollface said:


> Your hairgrass looks rediculously good. It looks so soft and .. grassy. Makes me want to frolic through it.


Thanks Dollface!



ZooTycoonMaster said:


> Is it just me, or is the Downoi as tall as the Elatine?:icon_eek:


Nah. It's taller :hihi:



speedie408 said:


> I can't tell if you planted anything in that bare spot but if not what are your plans for it?


I'm going to let the Eleocharis fill it back in. I've been meaning to replant that area a bit to help it get started, but I haven't had the time yet. Work's been fairly busy lately, which is probably a good thing I guess.


----------



## Dollface

legomaniac89 said:


> I'm going to let the Eleocharis fill it back in. I've been meaning to replant that area a bit to help it get started, but I haven't had the time yet. Work's been fairly busy lately, which is probably a good thing I guess.


Personally I would pull all that elatine and [strike]give it to me[/strike] do a full eleocharis foreground. 

Then again I have a thing for hair grass.


----------



## Tex Gal

I saw some red in the back... where has it gone....

I think a you need to ease the Elatine into the hairgrass as you go to the right side, getting thinner and thinner. It'll look more natural. Would love to see a little more of the ranunculus.  It's looking so good.


----------



## Ashok

Absolutely gorgeous!


----------



## jh1392

may i ask what is this super substrate you are using? i'm sure its back there somewhere but i looked through 10 pages and couldn't find it.


----------



## CL

jh1392 said:


> may i ask what is this super substrate you are using? i'm sure its back there somewhere but i looked through 10 pages and couldn't find it.


Aquasoil


----------



## CL

Just kidding.
Top soil capped with sand.


----------



## legomaniac89

Dollface said:


> Personally I would pull all that elatine and [strike]give it to me[/strike] do a full eleocharis foreground.
> 
> Then again I have a thing for hair grass.


You know, I've really been considering that. The Elatine grows way too fast for my tastes and it makes an incredible mess when you trim it. Maybe if I get some free time at work this weekend, I'll do just that.



Tex Gal said:


> I saw some red in the back... where has it gone....
> 
> I think a you need to ease the Elatine into the hairgrass as you go to the right side, getting thinner and thinner. It'll look more natural. Would love to see a little more of the ranunculus.  It's looking so good.


Thanks Tex Gal! The red you saw is Rotala sp. "Singapore", and it's still there, it's just recovering from the trim in the midst of all the R. green. I may end up letting the Ranunculus grow out a bit more at the right side of the R. indica. I agree that it's a really cool plant. It looks even cooler emersed 



Ashok said:


> Absolutely gorgeous!


Thanks Ashok!



jh1392 said:


> may i ask what is this super substrate you are using? i'm sure its back there somewhere but i looked through 10 pages and couldn't find it.





clwatkins10 said:


> Aquasoil


Hahahaha, funny joke there Chris :hihi:



clwatkins10 said:


> Just kidding.
> Top soil capped with sand.


Technically, it's a potting soil mix. About 70% generic potting soil, 25% clay infield gravel, and 5% greensand. Grows plants better than Aquasoil ever could :flick:


----------



## jh1392

imo, your tank is one of the nicest i've seen. did you need to do that mineralizing process? i've been trying to find a cheap substrate that doesn't also require all that time and labor.


----------



## legomaniac89

Thanks jh! Nope, no mineralizing at all. Just take a bag of your favorite potting soil, dump it in the bottom of the tank and cap it off with whatever you want. It grows Cryptocorynes like none other.

For other good soil tanks, check out Torpedobarb's 75g thread, Jfrank85's 90g and Coltonnorr's 100g. All used soil or mineralized soil and have had awesome growth with pretty much every plant.


----------



## jfrank85

Awesome crypt grower also. Nice substrate really for any heavy substrate feeder. Im also trying an working with a new amendment that includes mycorrhiza and earthworm castings along with the clay, soil, and green sand. The results are promising.


----------



## B16CRXT

You are talking about potting soil that doesn't have fertilizer's in it, right? None of that miracle grow potting soil.(?) Did you sift it before dumping it in?


----------



## legomaniac89

B16CRXT said:


> You are talking about potting soil that doesn't have fertilizer's in it, right? None of that miracle grow potting soil.(?) Did you sift it before dumping it in?


No it's straight up potting soil. Straight from the bag. I used Fertilome Ultimate Potting Soil, but any normal kind would probably work.


----------



## legomaniac89

jfrank85 said:


> Awesome crypt grower also. Nice substrate really for any heavy substrate feeder. Im also trying an working with a new amendment that includes mycorrhiza and earthworm castings along with the clay, soil, and green sand. The results are promising.


And if it works, I'm definitely gonna use it in my 10g when it gets rescaped.

Can you imagine how big some of the already huge Echinodorus species would get in this stuff?


----------



## jfrank85

No miracle grow, you want to make sure it is free from ferts. You can sift it if you'd like, i usually do with topsoil or garden soil. I like having the small pieces of pearlite and vermiculite in my mix but thats just my method.


----------



## jfrank85

> And if it works, I'm definitely gonna use it in my 10g when it gets rescaped.
> 
> Can you imagine how big some of the already huge Echinodorus species would get in this stuff?


No doubt i prolly owe you at least 10gals of it anyways.


----------



## legomaniac89

I don't really care for Miracle-Gro's stuff anyway. Plants grow twice as big, twice as fast when potted in Fertilome.



> No doubt i prolly owe you at least 10gals of it anyways.


Lol well you only owe me a couple more cans of Vault. Like 15 :hihi:


----------



## jfrank85

Give or take...lol


----------



## B16CRXT

jfrank85 said:


> No miracle grow, you want to make sure it is free from ferts. You can sift it if you'd like, i usually do with topsoil or garden soil. I like having the small pieces of pearlite and vermiculite in my mix but thats just my method.


Thats what I thought too, because it releases nitrates or something, right? It's been a while since I researched El Natural type tanks so I can't remember the pro's/con's of certain soil types.


----------



## jfrank85

http://home.infinet.net/teban/jamie.htm
Great site on the chemical composition of alot of different substrates. Check out The Ecology of the Planted Aquarium by Diana Walstad. Tons of info, even break down of what NPK and trace are in fish foods. Good stuff.


----------



## jfrank85

Lego, the orange clay substance in the soil mix.

Montmorillonite - one of the major components of bentonite and fuller's earth. Hydrous aluminum silicate with a considerable capacity for exchanging part of the aluminum for Mg and bases. High natural adsorptive power. Good CEC.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montmorillonite


----------



## legomaniac89

Notice anything new?









With my liquid rock, I can't grow Erios worth a crap, so I guess P. helferi is the next best thing. It's doing great for me this time!









My new golden brig snail









That's it for now. Nap time for Lego.


----------



## Dollface

Yay, hair grass!


----------



## speedie408

haha you took out the elantine. Is it that much of a nuisance plant? 

I'm surprised you can't grow erios. I'm able to grow my erio with liquid rock. Maybe it's because you're not using The Magic dirt :icon_lol:? 

I'd keep a close eye on that new snail of yours. I had to remove mine (gave it away) because I caught it eating my downoi, leaf by leaf :angryfire.


----------



## legomaniac89

Dollface said:


> Yay, hair grass!





speedie408 said:


> haha you took out the elantine. Is it that much of a nuisance plant?


Yup, Elatine's gone. It just grows so fast it was starting to cover up the crypts and everything else on the left side of the tank . I was trimming it weekly to keep up with the growth. It's a nice plant, but I like the Eleocharis a lot more.



> I'm surprised you can't grow erios. I'm able to grow my erio with liquid rock. Maybe it's because you're not using The Magic dirt :icon_lol:?
> 
> I'd keep a close eye on that new snail of yours. I had to remove mine (gave it away) because I caught it eating my downoi, leaf by leaf :angryfire.


Actually, I honestly don't know if I can grow Erios in here or not. The last water report the city did put the kH and gH both above 25 degrees, and I've just been hesitant to drop the money on a plant that hates hard water. And nope, I'm not using magic dirt. I'm using holy, über-awesome dirt :hihi:.

So far the snail's done okay and I've been feeding him and the Nerites zucchini and dried algae, but first sign of him munching on the plants and he goes bye-bye.


----------



## ZooTycoonMaster

What'd you do with all the ET? Sold it to the customers?


----------



## legomaniac89

I just gave it all to a friend who's rescaping a tank. Mostly what was left was just stumps and scraggly runners leftover from the last trim, so I wasn't gonna try to sell it to anyone.


----------



## legomaniac89

It's getting there...










For those of you that don't know, I work at a pet store. Well there's one customer who's been coming to the store for years, and he and his wife are moving to Arizona at the end of October. He had mentioned at some point that he had a bunch of TFH magazines that he didn't really want to take with him to AZ, and I jokingly said that I'd take them from him. So earlier today, he walks in with two big bags full of TFH mags! 3 years worth to be exact. This'll keep me entertained for a while :biggrin:


----------



## CL

Woohoo! Nice score on the magazines too! The tank looks awesome


----------



## legomaniac89

Thanks Chris. It's been so long since I've actually read through an entire TFH magazine, I'd kinda forgotten how great they were


----------



## B16CRXT

Tank is lookin good dude!


----------



## mistergreen

legomaniac89 said:


>


this stuff is like crack. I remember reading one of these magazines as a kid over and over until they tore apart. Not sure why I don't read them anymore.


----------



## legomaniac89

B16CRXT said:


> Tank is lookin good dude!


Thanks man!



mistergreen said:


> this stuff is like crack. I remember reading one of these magazines as a kid over and over until they tore apart. Not sure why I don't read them anymore.


Tell me about it . I couldn't wait to get home from work today to get back to reading these things


----------



## legomaniac89

Talk about pearling. The Rotalas were about to float away earlier. It looked like a shaken bottle of Sprite in there.


----------



## ZooTycoonMaster

If TPT had a "Like" option for pictures (like Facebook does), that picture would have the most likes


----------



## seds

Still need a name?

How about "Sans quels Elatine triandra"

Ha ha, anyways, tank is looking great as usual.


----------



## legomaniac89

ZooTycoonMaster said:


> If TPT had a "Like" option for pictures (like Facebook does), that picture would have the most likes


Thanks ZTM. I swear, I laugh every time I see your avatar :hihi:



seds said:


> Still need a name?
> 
> How about "Sans quels Elatine triandra"
> 
> Ha ha, anyways, tank is looking great as usual.


Thanks man! Not sure what the name means, but if it's something along the lines of "Elatine triandra is a cool, but uncontrollable plant", then I agree


----------



## seds

It means "without any Elatine triandra," In french.

French names for tanks are the new HIP THING to do.


----------



## ZooTycoonMaster

legomaniac89 said:


> Thanks ZTM. I swear, I laugh every time I see your avatar :hihi:


Merci beaucoup (I'm learning French in high school now)

I like my avatar too


----------



## Killi

"Sans quels Elatine triandra"

Don't want to ruin your fun, but that doesn't sound correct in French, if so it is uncommon. "Without any" translates to "sans aucune"or plural "sans aucunes" feminine "sans aucuns" masculine. I see seds is from Canada so maybe it works over there. But anyways names are artistic so it's up to you. If you want a name translated ask.

"L'Elatine Triandra a disparu" The Elatine Triandras has disappeared. 
" Cherchons L'Elatine" Let's look for the Elatine or "Trouvons L'Elatine" Let's find the Elatine.
"L'abominable Elatine" The Abomidable Elatine
"L'Elatine, c'est cool" Using english words "The Elatine, it's cool"
"Tartine d'Elatine" A spread of Elatine on toast, haha it rhymes 
"L'incontrôlable Elatine" The uncontrollable Elatine
"Être, ou ne pas être Elatine" To be or not to be Elatine


----------



## demosthenes

hahaha wow killi, thats awesome! i like "to be or not to be elatine."

i personally only know a little french. i speak mandarin, but naming something "Fayu hui de hen haokan" just doesn't sound appealing.


----------



## seds

"Il n'est pas de elatine"

EDITS: apparently that is wrong too. "it is not elatine triandra"... It'd work for my tank, my "elatine triandra" is actually callitriche heterophylla. Haven't had french class since grade 8...

I wasn't sure if it was right anyways... SANS means none but I could have got rid of "quels"... so is "Sans Elatine Triandra" correct?

I like "to be or not to be elatine"


----------



## Killi

"Il n'est pas de elatine"

Translates to He isn't from Elatine, but sounds better if "Il n'est pas d'Elatine" or even better "Il ne vient pas d'Elatine" He doesn't come from Elatine. I think "Il n'y a pas d'Elatine" is better, translates to There is no Elatine.

Is he not from Elatine translates to "N'est-il pas D'Elatine? ". Yes "Sans Elatine Triandra" is correct, translates to Without Elatine Triandra.
It is not elatine triandra translates to "Ce n'est pas de L'Elatine"

Another one could be "Être Elatine, c'est exister" To be Elatine is to exist
"Être Elatine, c'est vivre" To be Elatine is to live


----------



## legomaniac89

Interesting French lesson guys, but I think I want to stick with a name that I can pronounce . French makes everything sound so sexy :hihi:


----------



## demonbreedr16

:hihi: A person after my own heart! I like being able to pronounce my tank's names!


----------



## Hilde

legomaniac89 said:


> I've been through several types of fish in this tank. Celebes Rainbows, then Praecox Rainbows, and now the Harlequins.


I am working on getting a few Praecox Rainbows. Read that they are best kept in a 30 gallon tank. How did they fair in the 20L gallon tank. I ask for thinking of downgrading to a 20 L for move to Florida.

The Harlequins seemed like nervous fish fearful of people to me when I saw them in a pet store. Are they different in the planted tank?


----------



## demonbreedr16

One time, after work, I brought my laptop home and set, more like threw it, on my bed since I really had to go to the bathroom, and the computer bounced off my bed & hit their tank...it didn't even affect them [or the computer]! In the morning or anytime, especially when I have food, they look like they could just about wiggle out of the tank for my attention...so no, once they are established in their tank, they aren't skittish in the least.


----------



## legomaniac89

demonbreedr16 said:


> :hihi: A person after my own heart! I like being able to pronounce my tank's names!


roud:



Hilde said:


> I am working on getting a few Praecox Rainbows. Read that they are best kept in a 30 gallon tank. How did they fair in the 20L gallon tank. I ask for thinking of downgrading to a 20 L for move to Florida.
> 
> The Harlequins seemed like nervous fish fearful of people to me when I saw them in a pet store. Are they different in the planted tank?





demonbreedr16 said:


> One time, after work, I brought my laptop home and set, more like threw it, on my bed since I really had to go to the bathroom, and the computer bounced off my bed & hit their tank...it didn't even affect them [or the computer]! In the morning or anytime, especially when I have food, they look like they could just about wiggle out of the tank for my attention...so no, once they are established in their tank, they aren't skittish in the least.


For me, the Praecox weren't really scared of things going on outside the tank, they just hid constantly. I had tons of light over them, and I don't think they appreciated it much at all. The Harlies don't seem to care much about anything. They're always in the open and rarely hide from anything. Even when I'm digging around in the tank, they stay out in the open. Plus they contrast all the green plants really well.


----------



## Dollface

All these highschool french tank names are overrated 
And why is everyone so hung up on the elatine? DHG is where it's at. 

If you really need a name I say you call it Soylent green [strike]is people![/strike]


----------



## problemman

when your done with the mags i will pay for shipping for them to be sent to me lol i love these damn things


----------



## legomaniac89

Dollface said:


> All these highschool french tank names are overrated
> And why is everyone so hung up on the elatine? DHG is where it's at.
> 
> If you really need a name I say you call it Soylent green [strike]is people![/strike]


Soylent Green...had to google that one. Can't say I've ever heard of that movie before. 

Oh, and just to prove my post right a while back, there is now a bunch of tiiiiiiiny baby Elatines growing up in the between the Eleocharis. I'm gonna be tearing this stuff out of there for two months 



problemman said:


> when your done with the mags i will pay for shipping for them to be sent to me lol i love these damn things


Mine! My TFH's :biggrin:


----------



## hydrophyte

Dollface said:


> If you really need a name I say you call it Soylent green [strike]is people![/strike]


I'm naming my next tank "Cold Dead Hands".


----------



## Dollface

legomaniac89 said:


> Soylent Green...had to google that one. Can't say I've ever heard of that movie before.


Really? It's actually quite a good movie.
While we're on the subjet of old movie spoilers, _It was earth all along_.



hydrophyte said:


> I'm naming my next tank "Cold Dead Hands".


Hahaha, I've always been partial to "Damn dirty apes." myself.


----------



## legomaniac89

hydrophyte said:


> I'm naming my next tank "Cold Dead Hands".





Dollface said:


> Really? It's actually quite a good movie.
> While we're on the subjet of old movie spoilers, _It was earth all along_.
> 
> 
> 
> Hahaha, I've always been partial to "Damn dirty apes." myself.


Hahahaha! Can you imagine me helping a customer at the store: "So if you look at Damn Dirty Apes over there, you can see some nice plants". Imagine the looks I'd get from that :biggrin:



shirusecu said:


> They are really very cool, very wonderful
> Great work .. really informative .. and thanks a lot for sharing ..
> Glad it works as expected for you
> looking good


Thanks...I think. Interesting signature there...


----------



## Dollface

legomaniac89 said:


> Hahahaha! Can you imagine me helping a customer at the store: "So if you look at Damn Dirty Apes over there, you can see some nice plants". Imagine the looks I'd get from that :biggrin:


The only obvious option is to install a hidden camera to capture their reactions so you can post them on youtube :hihi:

You could call it 'Green Ledgend Ran', how's that for obscure? Or you could take the easy route out and just name it 'that tank.'


----------



## Killi

Dollface said:


> All these highschool french tank names are overrated



High school French ? I am French :icon_lol: What are you insinuating


----------



## legomaniac89

Dollface said:


> The only obvious option is to install a hidden camera to capture their reactions so you can post them on youtube :hihi:
> 
> You could call it 'Green Ledgend Ran', how's that for obscure? Or you could take the easy route out and just name it 'that tank.'


That would be classic. I see a new youtube sensation in the making . "That Tank" is its current name, actually :hihi:


----------



## Dollface

Killi said:


> What do you mean by high school French ? I am French :icon_lol:


I mean I doupt a bunch of people naming their tanks in French are really French, though. 
I love French, I just have a bias against naming tanks in general, wich should be obvious from my suggestions. :hihi: [strike]Soylent Greeeeeeeeeeeeeen.[/strike] 

As a side note, I just typed French so many times it's stopped looking like a word.

Edit: Help! This thread moves too fast!


Killi said:


> High school French ? I am French What are you insinuating


That tank names are silly in any language. 



legomaniac89 said:


> That would be classic. I see a new youtube sensation in the making . "That Tank" is its current name, actually


"That Tank" really is an excellent name, It's short, descriptive, and you don't have to rename it every time you rescape! It's a win/win really.


----------



## dooboogoo

I've always liked the name Sheila...:hihi:


----------



## hydrophyte

Why don't you just name it "Charlton Heston"?


----------



## legomaniac89

Haha interesting name suggestions, guys. I kinda like the name "Halcyon". Why? I dunno. I think it sounds cool. The definition fits the tank pretty well. Anyway, new pictures:

Not the best color in this pic









C. wendtii "Mi Oya" (I think)









C. wendtii "Green Gecko" - look at that coloration 









R. sp. "Singapore" - I really seem to like these kind of pics


----------



## CL

the tank looks awesome man. Gotta love that gecko.


----------



## Dollface

I think Halcyon is an excellent name.


----------



## jfrank85

i trimmed up some scraggly rotala green while i was at work. (was bored)


----------



## legomaniac89

clwatkins10 said:


> the tank looks awesome man. Gotta love that gecko.


Thanks Chris! The Green Gecko's gotta be one of my favorite crypts out there.



Dollface said:


> I think Halcyon is an excellent name.


Thanks!



jfrank85 said:


> i trimmed up some scraggly rotala green while i was at work. (was bored)


That slow, huh? Welcome to Thursdays in the animal room


----------



## speedie408

Adam,

That Singapore has some intense red coloration. The stems I got from my lfs turned green. I'm not sure if it's my ferts or my lights. Tank looks awesome as usual. 

That Mi Oya looks exactly like the one in my tank. :hihi:


----------



## sewingalot

Stupid question, Lego. What is the difference between the Singapore and the Colorata species of Rotala? In pictures, I cannot tell. I figured you would definitely know.


----------



## dooboogoo

Lookin' great! I especially like how the HG thins out in the foreground.


----------



## legomaniac89

speedie408 said:


> Adam,
> 
> That Singapore has some intense red coloration. The stems I got from my lfs turned green. I'm not sure if it's my ferts or my lights. Tank looks awesome as usual.
> 
> That Mi Oya looks exactly like the one in my tank. :hihi:


Thanks Nick! I can't imagine why our crypts would look the same :hihi:



sewingalot said:


> Stupid question, Lego. What is the difference between the Singapore and the Colorata species of Rotala? In pictures, I cannot tell. I figured you would definitely know.


Uhh, as far as I can tell, R. Singapore turns a darker shade of pink to red, while the Colorata is a lighter pink to orange. If you look in Sergio's 75 (can't remember his username, sorry), he used Colorata in the background of his tank, and it's bright orange. 

I actually have a small stem of R. Colorata I put in here as a comparison to the Singapore. I'll try to get some pics of it later today.



dooboogoo said:


> Lookin' great! I especially like how the HG thins out in the foreground.


Thanks! Eventually, the HG is going to make a full carpet. I think it'll look awesome then.


----------



## legomaniac89

Here's the stem of R. Colorata. You can see it's a lot less red than the Singapore.


----------



## hydrophyte

I really like those plant close-up shots. The whole tank is looking great.


----------



## sewingalot

Thanks for the comparison shot. I have colorata in my 55, but it never colors up, the singapore I got from you is fantastic. I think I need to add more light to get mine to look like that.


----------



## legomaniac89

hydrophyte said:


> I really like those plant close-up shots. The whole tank is looking great.


Thanks Devin!



sewingalot said:


> Thanks for the comparison shot. I have colorata in my 55, but it never colors up, the singapore I got from you is fantastic. I think I need to add more light to get mine to look like that.


No problem. I'm glad you like the Singapore. It seems like it keeps good color even in lower lighting, and it grows at twice the speed of the R. "Green" around it.

I'm about to make you all very jealous.........










Now...wanna know how much I paid for it? How about $11 :biggrin:. I just got back from my local fish club's annual fish show and auction and snagged this one about halfway through. Most of the guys in the club focus on fish and don't care much about plants, and when this came up, the auctioneer said "Oh, it's one of Amano's books, it's probably in Japanese", so nobody wanted a book they couldn't read. Apparently, nobody there knew it was translated to English. And I sure as heck wasn't going to say anything :icon_twis. Score!!!

I also got a brand new Rena XP-1 for $30 and a 20 long tank for $10.


----------



## fastfreddie

Score!


----------



## kwheeler91

awesome tank... especially when you skip ahead to the end from about page three =)


----------



## legomaniac89

Thanks kwheeler!

Ok, so we got in a big shipment of fish at my work that we've never been able to get before. Like Cardinal Tetras, Rummynoses, Orange Von Rios, Apisto borelli "Blue Face", Apisto cacatuoides, and quite a few others. I'm thinking of adding another smaller school of fish to Halcyon, but I'm not sure which ones. Right now, I'm leaning towards the Rummies, but I'm still not sure. Any suggestions on what looks good schooling with Harlequins?


----------



## CL

I <3 Rummies


----------



## Dollface

I second(or third?) rummies


----------



## Ugly Genius

Rummies _are_ rad.

And I'm a guy who doesn't like fish all that much.


----------



## legomaniac89

Haha this is the exact same response I got at work. Rummynoses it is, then.


----------



## legomaniac89

I added a few new fishies yesterday.

Rummynose Tetras - these buggers are fast. I took 25 pics and this was the best one I got









Apisto borelli Blue Face male


















There's a tiny Apisto cacatuoides in here somewhere too, but he was being really camera shy. If I was at one end of the tank taking pictures, he was at the other end


----------



## FloridaFishGuy

legomaniac89 said:


> Apisto borelli Blue Face male


Where did you get these? They are nice!


----------



## Karackle

Wow, this tank is looking fantastic! i love the fish selection too! That blue-face is a truly stunning specimen, what gorgeous colors!


----------



## hydrophyte

Nice! That apisto is awesome. What a cool fish.


----------



## legomaniac89

FloridaFishGuy said:


> Where did you get these? They are nice!





Karackle said:


> Wow, this tank is looking fantastic! i love the fish selection too! That blue-face is a truly stunning specimen, what gorgeous colors!





hydrophyte said:


> Nice! That apisto is awesome. What a cool fish.


Thanks everyone! We just got a shipment of the Apistos in at my work, and they look really nice. He's still a little guy and has quite a bit of growing to do yet. I can't wait till he's full grown and breeding size. If I can find a nice female somewhere, maybe I'll try my hand at spawning Apistos.


----------



## B16CRXT

He is definitely a beautiful fish!


----------



## legomaniac89

Thanks Chris! Here's a small teaser for an update tomorrow:










Even baby _Ranunculus inundatus_ pearls in this tank (look closely. You can see my camera in the bubble ). I'll have lots of pics tomorrow. The tank is a bit scraggly cause I'm in the middle of trimming, but the Eleocharis has almost filled in completely!


----------



## CL

is that a nikon, or a cybershot?


----------



## legomaniac89

Lol, I had to go look. It's actually a Panasonic Lumix


----------



## speedie408

Dude, you're a pro photographer already. I remember not too long ago you were asking for tips... look at you now man. Great shot! 

Got the package today as well bro. Thanks again.


----------



## legomaniac89

Thanks Nick! I'm getting better with this thing, but I still have a long way to go. I'm really hoping to get a nicer camera sometime soon. Like a Canon Rebel or something ridiculously expensive like that


----------



## B16CRXT

Dont get a Canon. Nikon is where it's at. This is coming from a former Canon guy. Nikons pictures are just so much more vivid.


----------



## kid creole

I need to take more pictures if this is evidence of what practice will do for you.


----------



## legomaniac89

B16CRXT said:


> Dont get a Canon. Nikon is where it's at. This is coming from a former Canon guy. Nikons pictures are just so much more vivid.


Hmm, I've heard the opposite too. I'll do all my research before buying, but thanks for the input!



kid creole said:


> I need to take more pictures if this is evidence of what practice will do for you.


Thanks! I still haven't figured out exactly how this camera works, but I'm getting there.

Here's the new pics, as promised.

I managed to get a decent picture of the little A. cacatuoides. She's starting to get a slight orange tinge in her tail (actually, I have no idea if she's really a she or not).










Staurogyne sp. "AFA". That's what I'm calling it until proven otherwise 









Hey ZTM! Remember that small Pogostemon helferi you sent me? Check it out now! It loves the soil!


















I never got a good FTS, but the tank's looking kinda gnarly now anyway. I was really hoping to have the plants grow out well and get some awesome ADA-style pics, but a few of the plants didn't grow in real well after the last trim. Maybe next time...


----------



## ZooTycoonMaster

legomaniac89 said:


> Hey ZTM! Remember that small Pogostemon helferi you sent me? Check it out now! It loves the soil!


asdfghjkl;

All...my....Downoi...died...*twitch*

*envy*


----------



## B16CRXT

IMO a D40 takes better pics than a 350D...I've shot with both. the D40 just isn't near as adjustable as the rebel, but something about Nikon's just makes for a better image. They just POP more often than not. My next camera will probably be a D90.


----------



## speedie408

B16CRXT said:


> Dont get a Canon. Nikon is where it's at. This is coming from a former Canon guy. Nikons pictures are just so much more vivid.


There will always be a Nikon vs Canon war my friend. You're def entitled to your own opinions but please don't bash on Canon because it hurts some of us :hihi:. That being said, I think Canons are far superior over Nikon when you're talking digital :wink:. Canon has a wider range of lens available let alone camera body styles catered to a wide range of users from beginners to pros. 

It all boils down to personal preference.



B16CRXT said:


> IMO a D40 takes better pics than a 350D...I've shot with both. the D40 just isn't near as adjustable as the rebel, but something about Nikon's just makes for a better image. They just POP more often than not. My next camera will probably be a D90.


If you're comparing camera bodies mated with kit (stock) lens, then I agree with you the 350D kit lens is garbage and the D40 kit lens wins hands down out of the box. But mate the canon with a decent lens and you'll be amazed at the difference. The pop you're talking about is in the lens. The 18-55mm kit lens that comes with the canon rebels don't give you that narrow depth of field that gives you that 'pop' look you're referring to. 

The D90 is very robust and is in a whole different ball park compared to the lesser bodies such as the D40 and 350D. A formiddable foe for that camera is the 50D, but if you're comparing prices and video capabilities, then go with the D90. 

Adam sorry for clogging your thread bro.


----------



## B16CRXT

Different strokes for different folks. I used my Rebel XT for a couple years with L glass and a nifty 50 f1.8. The pictures never came out as vivid as the nikon with a lesser lens. And the pop I'm talking about is not bokeh. The color depth, warmth, and sharpness all just seem to be 'on' with the nikons I've played with. I was comparing the D40 to the rebel XT btw. I know you can't really make a fair judgement from 350d vs. d90. lol. I'm not trying to argue with you or anything. I think we may be helping Lego make a decision on which brand to get into. That being said, I would only need about 4 to 5 lenses to be happy with any DSLR. I'd need my close range zoom, mid range zoom, long range zoom, a good macro lens and a 50mm.


----------



## legomaniac89

Update time! I just realized that it's been almost a month since my last FTS. It looks a bit different than the last pics. I pulled out all of the Limnophila because it just wasn't growing like I thought it would. I also topped and replanted all of the Rotala in the back.










The Eleocharis has filled in pretty nicely. Now here's a scape idea: Jfrank85 gave me the idea of filling in the back (where the Rotalas are now) with a tall Eleocharis species ad slowly sloping it down with something like E. acicularis to the E. "Belem" field. I really think it would look pretty sick in front of the crypts.

Anyway, I found the Amanos' hiding place earlier.



























Oh yeah, and just to confirm the fact that a soil substrate is the best thing ever...I counted a total of 9, yes NINE runners from my Cryptocoryne cordata "Rosanervig" in here today. I also found 3 C. wendtii "Mi Oya" runners, 3 C. wendtii x "Hybrid" runners and 2 C. wendtii "Green Gecko" runners. Who needs Aquasoil?


----------



## speedie408

Awesome dude! Now tell me your exact ingredients 

Tank's looking great as usual man. I'm hoping to get that lush belem lawn going in my tank... not so promising.


----------



## demosthenes

lookin good! what are the lights over this tank? 

i like the idea that Jfrank85 gave you with the different eleocharis sp... thatd be really cool! also, in that last package that i bought from you, i found a little E. belem hitchhiker on the hydrocotyle, so i'm excited to see if it will grow haha :biggrin:


----------



## hydrophyte

Nice. I like those shrimp pictures. It looks like you don't have any algae in there at all.


----------



## RipariumGuy

I really like the 'grass patch' and school of tetras! Good Job!


----------



## Retrogamer82

Just spent way too much of my life reading through this thread but it was well worth it. Amazing tank. I also second the idea of all the eleocharis sp sloping down the back.

I have been sitting here with an empty 40B and had previously decided to go with AS. I am now having second thoughts and was wondering if you had anymore specifics on the substrate you are using? Thanks!


----------



## legomaniac89

speedie408 said:


> Awesome dude! Now tell me your exact ingredients
> 
> Tank's looking great as usual man. I'm hoping to get that lush belem lawn going in my tank... not so promising.


Thanks Nick! That Belem will take off after a while. It took about a month for mine to really start spreading.



demosthenes said:


> lookin good! what are the lights over this tank?
> 
> i like the idea that Jfrank85 gave you with the different eleocharis sp... thatd be really cool! also, in that last package that i bought from you, i found a little E. belem hitchhiker on the hydrocotyle, so i'm excited to see if it will grow haha :biggrin:


Thanks! I'm using a Coralife 2x65W CF fixture. Yes, that's 130W of light over this thing, and yes, it's way too much. I don't recommend this much light to anyone unless there's coral frags in your tank .



hydrophyte said:


> Nice. I like those shrimp pictures. It looks like you don't have any algae in there at all.


Thanks Devin! I just finished off the Clado I've been fighting for a while (knock on wood). When I pulled out all the stems, there was a clump of Cladophora buried in there the size of a golf ball. I think that was the mother of it all, and I haven't seen any since. But between the Nerites, Amanos, Otos and the SAE, there's not much algae in here at all.



JakeJ said:


> I really like the 'grass patch' and school of tetras! Good Job!


Thanks Jake!



Retrogamer82 said:


> Just spent way too much of my life reading through this thread but it was well worth it. Amazing tank. I also second the idea of all the eleocharis sp sloping down the back.
> 
> I have been sitting here with an empty 40B and had previously decided to go with AS. I am now having second thoughts and was wondering if you had anymore specifics on the substrate you are using? Thanks!


Well I'm glad that someone's still reading from the beginning :icon_smil. Thanks man! The soil substrate I'm using is just a mix of potting soil, clay gravel and greensand.

I used about 70% Fertilome Ultimate Potting Mix, 25% clay gravel and 5% greensand. The soil needs to be a no-fertilizers-added soil, so no Miracle-Gro stuff. The clay gravel is the same stuff they use in baseball diamonds (it had K, P, Fe, and a few other micros). Finally, the greensand is kind of a specialty product that has slow-release K, Fe and all the micronutrients. All together, it costs about $20 to put together and 5 minutes to mix. It has no cycling period (like aquasoil) and contains enough nutrients to last for several years (unlike aquasoil).

You can cap it with whatever you want. I used play sand here, but you could use whatever you like. I've grown a lots of plants in lots of different substrates, and this is by far the best. Heavy root feeders especially really go crazy in this stuff. I've never grown crypts so big, so fast before


----------



## legomaniac89

Well, this tank may have a new home in the near future. My boss decided he has bigger and grander plans for the 2.5 square feet that this tank takes up, so he said I can either take the tank down, or pay him $50 a month to "rent" the space. Yes....$50 a month for 2.5 square feet of space that will probably never be used for anything important. Needless to say, I went with none of the above. So sometime really soon, I'll probably drain the tank and move it to my house. This ain't gonna be fun...

So the big question is, do I try to salvage the current scape after the move or go with an all new one? I'm kinda worried that the move will stir the substrate up and I'll end up with a tank full of mud. Ugh...it's just one of those days (kinda like the Limp Bizkit song)


----------



## demonbreedr16

Eeekk!! Well, if you move it to your house at least it'll be safe! I'd just focus on moving it keeping it intact and redo-ing the scape if you want, later.


----------



## ZooTycoonMaster

legomaniac89 said:


> Well, this tank may have a new home in the near future. My boss decided he has bigger and grander plans for the 2.5 square feet that this tank takes up, so he said I can either take the tank down, or pay him $50 a month to "rent" the space. Yes....$50 a month for 2.5 square feet of space that will probably never be used for anything important. Needless to say, I went with none of the above. So sometime really soon, I'll probably drain the tank and move it to my house. This ain't gonna be fun...
> 
> So the big question is, do I try to salvage the current scape after the move or go with an all new one? I'm kinda worried that the move will stir the substrate up and I'll end up with a tank full of mud. Ugh...it's just one of those days (kinda like the Limp Bizkit song)


Sorry to hear about that


----------



## Karackle

Aw man, what a bummer! I'd just go for the rescape, you'll probably stir up less of your soil if you move the tank without water in it, though I suppose you could just drain it and leave the plants where they are, throw some saran wrap over the top to keep the plants moist in transit and then you wouldn't have to rescape. 

Just some thoughts


----------



## speedie408

Sad day homey. To tell you the truth Adam, this tank has already reached it's glory a few updates back. You should just do a rescape, imo. Time to have some more fun and obviously new plants as you've already planned on doing.


----------



## legomaniac89

Thanks guys! Nick, as much as I hate to see this scape go, I think you may be right. It may be more trouble than it's worth trying to keep the scape intact during the move. Ten bucks says I'll be up way too late tonight finding inspiration for a new scape


----------



## speedie408

legomaniac89 said:


> Thanks guys! Nick, as much as I hate to see this scape go, I think you may be right. It may be more trouble than it's worth trying to keep the scape intact during the move. Ten bucks says I'll be up way too late tonight finding inspiration for a new scape


Do it up again man. I bet it'll only take you a month max to get everything thriving in your soon to be, new setup. roud: Now lets see those inspirational tanks!


----------



## legomaniac89

This one is just straight-up sick. I might be able to do something like this but with more stems in the back. This one is awesome too, but a piece of wood like that is kind of a one-in-a-million thing.

I've been cruising through the Nature Aquarium World books, and there's just so many things I want to try. Maybe I should just hire Amano himself to come scape the tank for me :biggrin:


----------



## Tex Gal

A new scape is always tempting. It gets your creativity in an uproar. 

I do think you'd be able to move it. You'd have to drain it almost entirely. If you have everything ready to just sit it in place you'd be fine. Most all your good bacteria would be fine. Speed would be the most important thing - AND friends to help you move it. You could just save some of the water you removed and put it back in the tank. It would be fine. The only way to stir it up to a tank of mud would be to leave too much water in it and really slosh it around. With it planted as thickly as you have it, I think it would stay in place.

Even if you start a new one you'll have a mud mess to deal with. If you at least try I don't' think you have much to loose.


----------



## speedie408

Those tanks you posted got me breathless. I say take the plung and do it. You can always replicate Halycon later.


----------



## legomaniac89

Tex Gal, I'm sure it could be done, but this tank has a potting soil substrate. Even a slight disturbance causes the dust to fly everywhere (which is truly the only downside to a soil substrate ). If this was AS or Flourite or something, it probably wouldn't be a problem, but you should have seen the mess it made when I last thinned out the Eleocharis.

However, I probably won't be taking any plants out until I get it back to my house, so we'll see how it fares the trip. But man, I'm really liking this tank:









If Jake's able to find me some Manzy like this, there's no way I can resist a rescape


----------



## sewingalot

legomaniac89 said:


> Well, this tank may have a new home in the near future. My boss decided he has bigger and grander plans for the 2.5 square feet that this tank takes up, so he said I can either take the tank down, or pay him $50 a month to "rent" the space. Yes....$50 a month for 2.5 square feet of space that will probably never be used for anything important. Needless to say, I went with none of the above. So sometime really soon, I'll probably drain the tank and move it to my house. This ain't gonna be fun...
> 
> So the big question is, do I try to salvage the current scape after the move or go with an all new one? I'm kinda worried that the move will stir the substrate up and I'll end up with a tank full of mud. Ugh...it's just one of those days (kinda like the Limp Bizkit song)


What the?!? And doesn't he realize this tank probably brings a lot of business??? Gah! My vote is a new scape as well. Stick with the soil substrate, though.


----------



## Karackle

sewingalot said:


> What the?!? And doesn't he realize this tank probably brings a lot of business??? Gah! My vote is a new scape as well. Stick with the soil substrate, though.


Where do you work that this would bring in business? I see a poster of some fish in the background there!


----------



## legomaniac89

sewingalot said:


> What the?!? And doesn't he realize this tank probably brings a lot of business??? Gah! My vote is a new scape as well. Stick with the soil substrate, though.


I guess not. I really don't know what's going through his head (I'd rather not know ), but he's the boss and I don't want to argue with him. He thinks he can put something else there and make more money off of it. My boss gets on these rants from time to time, usually about something pretty pointless, but he usually just forgets about it in a few days. I was hoping that it would be the case here, but unfortunately not.



Karackle said:


> Where do you work that this would bring in business? I see a poster of some fish in the background there!


I work at a small locally-owned pet store. We're pretty much the only store around here that does anything with aquatic plants. I'll still have the 40 breeder to sell plants out of, but it's not scaped in any way, shape or form.


----------



## sewingalot

Doesn't seem sensible to me. I want to call your boss. :hihi:


----------



## Retrogamer82

This just doesn't make sense... I am kind of blown away by the fact that not many customers have been all over this tank. I mean, if I walked into a lfs and they had a tank setup like that I'd probably poop myself. And then shop there if they let me stay.

In all seriousness... what the hay man.


----------



## legomaniac89

sewingalot said:


> Doesn't seem sensible to me. I want to call your boss. :hihi:





Retrogamer82 said:


> This just doesn't make sense... I am kind of blown away by the fact that not many customers have been all over this tank. I mean, if I walked into a lfs and they had a tank setup like that I'd probably poop myself. And then shop there if they let me stay.
> 
> In all seriousness... what the hay man.


Thanks for the support guys. No it really doesn't make much sense to me either, but my boss only sees things with $$ signs attached. He think that the tank isn't cost-effective (but I can't tell you how many Harlequins and Rummynoses I've sold since they're both in the tank). He doesn't like the fact that I make money off this tank and he doesn't see any of the profits. But when you average it out, I make _maybe_ $30 a month from plants here. I wouldn't even have to pay taxes with that amount .

But whatever. It's his decision and I don't want to jeopardize my job over it. On the plus side, I drew up a pretty sick sketch of a new scape idea. If I can pull it off, I think it'll be pretty sweet.


----------



## legomaniac89

And if all goes according to plan, I'll drain the tank and move it to my house sometime Monday evening. I'm planning on keeping the crypts, Trident Java Fern, MP and Eleocharis for the new scape.


----------



## EdTheEdge

What a great thread!


----------



## Retrogamer82

Let us know how well this substrate holds up for the move.


----------



## crimsonbull57

any idea on what your boss is going to use the space for? Good luck with moving the tank.


----------



## legomaniac89

crimsonbull57 said:


> any idea on what your boss is going to use the space for? Good luck with moving the tank.


I really have no idea, and I don't think my boss knows either. He just thinks that he needs the 2 square feet for something more important. I think he knows that I'm kinda pissed at him right now cause he avoided me most all of Saturday 

Right now, the plan is to move this guy on Tuesday after I get out of class.


----------



## CL

legomaniac89 said:


> Right now, the plan is to move this guy on Tuesday...


... straight to my house. roud:


----------



## legomaniac89

CL said:


> ... straight to my house. roud:


Sure, no problem. I'll trade you for your GLA tank :hihi:


----------



## CL

uh.
*cough*
suuuure.


----------



## demosthenes

omg NO!!!! they cant do that! this tank is really amazing, i hope you continue to have the same kind of success you have with this tank in the past.


----------



## demosthenes

legomaniac89 said:


> Ugh...it's just one of those days (kinda like the Limp Bizkit song)



hahahah yep.


----------



## legomaniac89

Thanks man. I'm getting pretty pumped up about rescaping this thing actually. I have an awesome scape idea in my head, and if I can make it happen it'll definitely be worth it.

I thought about posting a link to that video embedded in the text, but that may have gotten me in trouble with the mods :biggrin:


----------



## Coltonorr

Wow super cool tank...I was wondering...
I assume this tank is still at the job...has the tank caused anyone to set up a planted aquarium?
If I was a bettin' man...


----------



## legomaniac89

Coltonorr said:


> Wow super cool tank...I was wondering...
> I assume this tank is still at the job...has the tank caused anyone to set up a planted aquarium?
> If I was a bettin' man...


Thanks! Yeah, there's actually been a number of customers that have started buying plants just because they liked this tank. Our live plant sales have more or less doubled since I've had the tank running, but it still doesn't bring in much profit. 

The tank is mostly drained and everything's unhooked. The move should be later today. Wish me luck!


----------



## Dollface

Man, that's lame :S

but hey, you basically got a free tank out of the deal, plants included. And you get to enjoy this tank at home now, I think it's the bosses loss. The rescape you're planning looks like it's gonna be killer.


----------



## legomaniac89

Dollface said:


> Man, that's lame :S
> 
> but hey, you basically got a free tank out of the deal, plants included. And you get to enjoy this tank at home now, I think it's the bosses loss. The rescape you're planning looks like it's gonna be killer.


Thanks! Yeah, I guess one big plus to this is that I get to have the tank at home now.

The last pic of Halcyon...










And now, remind me again why people insist on spending a fortune on Aquasoil?










The Green Gecko is massive!!!









For those of you who have already pm'd me about the crypts, give me a bit longer. I'm going to divide the plants up now.

Jake sent me a picture of the manzy I'm gonna get for the new scape and it is freaking incredible. I seriously cannot wait to get this thing up and running again.


----------



## Dollface

legomaniac89 said:


> And now, remind me again why people insist on spending a fortune on Aquasoil?


It's conveniant and I'm lazy, and I'm not into crypts :hihi:

I do have to say though, that is a pretty spectacular plant.


----------



## ZooTycoonMaster

Do you have a picture of that HUGE Downoi?


----------



## legomaniac89

Dollface said:


> It's conveniant and I'm lazy, and I'm not into crypts :hihi:
> 
> I do have to say though, that is a pretty spectacular plant.


It doesn't just grow crypts. It grows a pretty wicked Eleocharis too 



ZooTycoonMaster said:


> Do you have a picture of that HUGE Downoi?


Sure. And look! It finally decided to throw a baby shoot out for me!


----------



## ZooTycoonMaster

legomaniac89 said:


> Sure. And look! It finally decided to throw a baby shoot out for me!


*faints*


----------



## Dollface

legomaniac89 said:


> It doesn't just grow crypts. It grows a pretty wicked Eleocharis too


Touche good sir.

I think you may have killed poor Zoo! that's some amazing downoi!


----------



## legomaniac89

Dollface said:


> Touche good sir.
> 
> I think you may have killed poor Zoo! that's some amazing downoi!


Haha let's hope not. Just to prove my point a bit further...










Excuse the brown crud stuck everywhere. I was trying to catch the fish before moving the tank


----------



## Dollface

legomaniac89 said:


> Haha let's hope not. Just to prove my point a bit further...
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Excuse the brown crud stuck everywhere. I was trying to catch the fish before moving the tank


Is that the sp. belem? (I can't remember)

Gorgeous stuff, It needed just another month to completely grow in and it would be amazing. 

This is totally reminding me, I may actually get to set up my 20L when I move next month! I'm so psyched. :bounce:


----------



## legomaniac89

Dollface said:


> Is that the sp. belem? (I can't remember)
> 
> Gorgeous stuff, It needed just another month to completely grow in and it would be amazing.
> 
> This is totally reminding me, I may actually get to set up my 20L when I move next month! I'm so psyched. :bounce:


Yup, sp. "Belem" it is. I'm using quite a bit of it in the new scape, but I got lots to get rid of before then. I probably have 16x16" square total of this now.


----------



## CL

Dang, I don't know how those crypts were staying alive. Just look at those signs of deficiency!


----------



## legomaniac89

CL said:


> Dang, I don't know how those crypts were staying alive. Just look at those signs of deficiency!


Yeah man, I was starving those suckers :hihi:.

So I'm reading through my lab notebook for chemistry tomorrow, and I get to dissolve a piece of steel in boiling, concentrated nitric and phosphoric acid. That sounds like great fun :icon_roll. If I disappear from the forum, you can blame science.


----------



## sewingalot

CL said:


> Dang, I don't know how those crypts were staying alive. Just look at those signs of deficiency!


I choked on this! LMAO.


----------



## Dollface

legomaniac89 said:


> Yup, sp. "Belem" it is. I'm using quite a bit of it in the new scape, but I got lots to get rid of before then. I probably have 16x16" square total of this now.


I, uh, may be intrested in a bit of that. Everyone and their mom is raving about sp. belem, and It might be intresting to check it out. 

if I may ask, were you still using that ehiem 2213 on this tank?


----------



## legomaniac89

Dollface said:


> I, uh, may be intrested in a bit of that. Everyone and their mom is raving about sp. belem, and It might be intresting to check it out.
> 
> if I may ask, were you still using that ehiem 2213 on this tank?


Ugh. No. I got rid of the Eheim long ago. That thing hated me. I cleaned it out once and spent the next 45 minutes trying to get it started again. At that point I threw it in a box and slapped a Marineland C220 on here instead. Marineland >> Eheim, any day.


----------



## Dollface

legomaniac89 said:


> Ugh. No. I got rid of the Eheim long ago. That thing hated me. I cleaned it out once and spent the next 45 minutes trying to get it started again. At that point I threw it in a box and slapped a Marineland C220 on here instead. Marineland >> Eheim, any day.


Ouch, man. Was there any issues with the flow from the ehiem though? The marineland looks a bit out of my budget unless I find one used somewhere. 

I'm not very adept at catching filters on sale, but somehow I seem to collect alot of tanks, I'm plauged with a bit of equipment deficiency you could say.


----------



## legomaniac89

Dollface said:


> Ouch, man. Was there any issues with the flow from the ehiem though? The marineland looks a bit out of my budget unless I find one used somewhere.
> 
> I'm not very adept at catching filters on sale, but somehow I seem to collect alot of tanks, I'm plauged with a bit of equipment deficiency you could say.


Well, the flow was the main reason I went to clean the Eheim in the first place. If it didn't get cleaned at least every other week, the flow would just disappear. I've had a Marineland C160 running on a 20 high for over two years now and I've cleaned it _maybe_ 3 times. The flow is still the same as when I took it out of the box. And the Marineland's have a priming button, which is something the Eheims really need.

You can sometimes find C160s for around $80. There's one on Amazon now for $85, new. They're way worth the extra cost.


----------



## Dollface

legomaniac89 said:


> Well, the flow was the main reason I went to clean the Eheim in the first place. If it didn't get cleaned at least every other week, the flow would just disappear. I've had a Marineland C160 running on a 20 high for over two years now and I've cleaned it _maybe_ 3 times. The flow is still the same as when I took it out of the box. And the Marineland's have a priming button, which is something the Eheims really need.
> 
> You can sometimes find C160s for around $80. There's one on Amazon now for $85, new. They're way worth the extra cost.


Intresting, I'll keep that in mind when I'm looking around. Thanks for the input


----------



## legomaniac89

Halcyon should be up and running again sometime next week. All I need to get is the manzy from Jake (which is AWESOME, by the way) and a couple bags of Onyx Sand to top the soil base. Both should be here sometime next week roud:


----------



## legomaniac89

I just paid for the Manzanita! Check it:


----------



## CL

That's tight! Sure is a sexy piece, very streamlined. I like it


----------



## Digsy

Nice looking driftwood! I'm really looking forward to seeing what you've got planned for this new scape!


----------



## legomaniac89

The manzy should be here sometime early next week, and the new light and Onyx Sand should come in by Tuesday, hopefully. I have everything else I need to start this thing up again! In the meantime, here's some Hygrophila flowers to help pass the time roud:


----------



## legomaniac89

:biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:


----------



## demonbreedr16

Alright, stop teasing us! We want to see new px of Halcyon...not Driftwood! LOL :hihi:


----------



## CL

ooooooooooooooooooohh

Hurry, don't leave that wood in an empty tank. Only losers do that.


----------



## demonbreedr16

CL said:


> ooooooooooooooooooohh
> 
> Hurry, don't leave that wood in an empty tank. Only losers do that.


Ummmm.... *COUGH* LOL J/K


----------



## jfrank85

OH SNAP! That is wicked sick!


----------



## hydrophyte

Manzanita is great stuff. It seems like every piece has a perfect shape, to put somewhere.


----------



## speedie408

Manzy looks nice dude.


----------



## legomaniac89

Thanks guys! This one is a Badcop special. Jake picked this one out specifically for the scape I had in mind, and I couldn't be happier with it.


----------



## legomaniac89

The time has come! The rescape is in progress right now. I'll be working on the tank most of tonight, and I'll keep updating the thread as I go.

Clean Slate









The new power source: Nova Extreme 2x24W T5HO









Ya gotta love T5s


----------



## legomaniac89

That's the good stuff









A light dusting of Bone Meal and Kelp Meal (yes, that's a cereal box. Ya gotta do whatcha gotta do )









Plant growing goodness









Added the sand and manzy. The bare bones of the tank are done!









Filling and planting yet to come!


----------



## chase127

sick manzy! i thought you were supposed to mineralize the soil first?


----------



## legomaniac89

Ehh, mineralizing takes too long. I've used straight potting soil in all my tanks


----------



## chase127

aww cmon its fun  wont that cause algae blooms when you rescape and stir up all the ferts in the soil? or is your soil just straight soil no ferts?


----------



## legomaniac89

chase127 said:


> aww cmon its fun  wont that cause algae blooms when you rescape and stir up all the ferts in the soil? or is your soil just straight soil no ferts?


Nah, I'm not that patient . The Fertilome stuff is just soil, no ferts added. That's why I like it so much. I will never use Miracle-Gro (or any other brand of soil) for anything ever again. Fertilome grows everything twice as big, twice as fast than anything else I've ever tried


----------



## legomaniac89

And that includes Aquasoil. Expensive clay is all it is :biggrin:


----------



## jfrank85

Looks sick dood. cant wait to see the final product!


----------



## Digsy

Interesting...remind me why I paid so much for aquasoil?!?! I've definitely got to try straight potting soil in my next tank. It clearly works well for you!


----------



## agutt

That is some awesome driftwood!

Gonna go all crypt??? lol


----------



## legomaniac89

jfrank85 said:


> Looks sick dood. cant wait to see the final product!


Thanks Justin!



Digsy said:


> Interesting...remind me why I paid so much for aquasoil?!?! I've definitely got to try straight potting soil in my next tank. It clearly works well for you!


Haha I've been asking myself that question ever since I started this hobby. You won't regret using soil. It's awesome stuff!



agutt said:


> That is some awesome driftwood!
> 
> Gonna go all crypt??? lol


Thanks Adam! As tempting as it is, no. I have my emersed tanks to help me with that addiction 

Well, here it is so far. Let me know what you think!










Plants:
-Eleocharis sp. "Belem"
-Cryptocoryne wendtii x "Hybrid"
-Cryptocoryne affinis "Brown"
-Cryptocoryne cordata "Rosanervig"
-Limnophila sp. "Vietnam Mini"
-Pogostemon helferi
-Nymphaea micrantha
-Ricciocarpus natans

Still need to add:
-Pottias moss
-Weeping Moss
-Eleocharis sp. "Tall" or Eleocharis vivipara
-Blyxa japonica
-Anubias barteri var. nana "Petite"
-Starogyne sp. "Purple"

Planned inhabitants:
-1 Male Electric Blue Ram
-8 or 10 Pygmy Cories
-Some kind of dwarf shrimp
-Some kind of schooling fish

Criticism, positive or negative, is welcome!


----------



## vtkid

Man that driftwood is to cool. and this tank is going to be righteous. cant wait to see it take off witch im sure will be soon.
And with that straight potting soil you dont use anything else, you just put it in the tank.?..


----------



## legomaniac89

vtkid said:


> Man that driftwood is to cool. and this tank is going to be righteous. cant wait to see it take off witch im sure will be soon.
> And with that straight potting soil you dont use anything else, you just put it in the tank.?..


Thanks vt! The just added a bit of Bone Meal and Kelp Meal underneath the soil, but that's it. Just dump it in and throw the sand on top and you're good to go! Grows plants better than anything else I've tried.


----------



## Green Leaf Aquariums

This will be nice. Lego grows plants like no other I have seen. Lego's magic soil is as good as it gets.

-O


----------



## Gatekeeper

legomaniac89 said:


>


Not going to lie. I am very interested to see how you take the very horizontal lines of this and create a scape with alot of vertical plants.


PS: That driftwood scape gives me that impression of the old "Is it live, or is it Memorex" commercial


----------



## CL

Oooh, I know, you should grow some tall eleocharis in the background and "comb" it over to make the whole scape look windswept like these


----------



## legomaniac89

Orlando said:


> This will be nice. Lego grows plants like no other I have seen. Lego's magic soil is as good as it gets.
> 
> -O


Thanks O! Ya gotta love real soil 



gmccreedy said:


> Not going to lie. I am very interested to see how you take the very horizontal lines of this and create a scape with alot of vertical plants.
> 
> 
> PS: That driftwood scape gives me that impression of the old "Is it live, or is it Memorex" commercial


Thanks Glenn! It's gonna challenge my aquascaping abilities, that's for sure. For a sec there, I thought you were Momo, until I realized something was different about his avatar :biggrin:



CL said:


> Oooh, I know, you should grow some tall eleocharis in the background and "comb" it over to make the whole scape look windswept like these


CL, great minds think alike I guess . I'm in the hunt for either the tall Eleocharis that Aaron used to sell or some Eleocharis vivipara. The majority of the background is going to be that plant.

I saw some E. vivipara for sale on AB, but the seller's from Mexico. I'm not sure on the importation regulations from there, and I'd rather be safe then sorry. I don't want the plants to get nailed by customs or something.


----------



## CL

Do you know what I actually just found out about ten minutes ago? I got a clump of tall hairgrass in a package, and put it in my emersed tank to grow until I can use it. I just got a pm from the guy who sold me the package, and he said that he got the grass from a guy who got it from AaronT! Small world.


----------



## B16CRXT

I love my Pygmy corys dude. The ones with the stripe down the length of their bodies stay very small and are very hard to find on black substrate. I have some that look like tiny pepper corys too and they are great! For the schoolers I say neon tetras or cardinals. I love these guys! I can't wait to see this scape in a couple months!


----------



## legomaniac89

CL said:


> Do you know what I actually just found out about ten minutes ago? I got a clump of tall hairgrass in a package, and put it in my emersed tank to grow until I can use it. I just got a pm from the guy who sold me the package, and he said that he got the grass from a guy who got it from AaronT! Small world.


I call dibs on leftovers! :biggrin:



B16CRXT said:


> I love my Pygmy corys dude. The ones with the stripe down the length of their bodies stay very small and are very hard to find on black substrate. I have some that look like tiny pepper corys too and they are great! For the schoolers I say neon tetras or cardinals. I love these guys! I can't wait to see this scape in a couple months!


Yeah, we just got a shipment of the pygmies at my work. They're like 1/2" long and they're so cool! I've never kept pygmy cories before so I really can't wait for the tank to cycle.

As far as schoolers, neons and cardinals are always nice, but IMO they're overused. Don't get me wrong, they're both beautiful fish, but it seems like everyone has them. I want some sort of fish that you don't see very often. I'd love to get a school of Jae Barbs, but you can't find them anywhere. Maybe I'll try a microrasbora school or something.


----------



## jfrank85

Yeah his soil does great, i wonder who he got the formula from....


----------



## legomaniac89

jfrank85 said:


> Yeah his soil does great, i wonder who he got the formula from....


Hmmm...I dunno :hihi:


----------



## speedie408

Adam,

Do you mind sharing you're substrate laydown process. I'm curious to try this formula in a 10g I got just laying around. I know you laid down some bone meal and kelp meal... did you mix them together? and how much do you lay down (depthwise)? You also used Fertilome... is this the top layer? Seems like you used something else to top it off... do share your forumula  please. Also I don't remember if you dosed your tank or not with this substrate... do you?

btw are those Gueismanns? You'll love the Nova Xtreme man. Tank looks dope so far.


----------



## legomaniac89

Nick, I just started with a thin sprinkling of Bone Meal (0-10-0) and Kelp Meal (1-0-2 + micros) and threw 1.5-2" of the Fertilome on top of it. There's about an inch of regular old sand on top of the Fertilome to hold it down. I was planning on using Flourite Onyx Sand to top it off, but I couldn't get a hold of any. Dirt floats until it's waterlogged, so you need something on top unless you like a tank full of chocolate milk .

I do dose ferts in the tank, but only as the plants need. I use the fast-growing stems as my guide. The soil leaches quite a bit of nutrients into the water column for the first couple months, so ferts aren't really needed right away. And I only wish they were Geisemann bulbs. They're just the stock bulbs that came with the fixture (1 freshwater, 1 10000K).


----------



## Bad-Daddio

> Nick, I just started with a thin sprinkling of Bone Meal (0-10-0) and Kelp Meal (1-0-2 + micros) and threw 1.5-2" of the Fertilome on top of it. There's about an inch of regular old sand on top of the Fertilome to hold it down. I was planning on using Flourite Onyx Sand to top it off, but I couldn't get a hold of any. Dirt floats until it's waterlogged, so you need something on top unless you like a tank full of chocolate milk .


soo.... this would be the 934th question about your soil. i'm sure you're a little tired of answering them but with your results, you're obligated to answer any and all questions we have. i'm sure you know this 

anyway, the bone and kelp meal method is different from what you were doing before (ferilome/clay/greensand mix). why didn't you stick with the old mix? have you tried the bone and kelp meal method? why didn't you mix the bone and kelp meal with the soil?

ok, so it was three questions. sorry...


----------



## legomaniac89

Bad-Daddio said:


> soo.... this would be the 934th question about your soil. i'm sure you're a little tired of answering them but with your results, you're obligated to answer any and all questions we have. i'm sure you know this
> 
> anyway, the bone and kelp meal method is different from what you were doing before (ferilome/clay/greensand mix). why didn't you stick with the old mix? have you tried the bone and kelp meal method? why didn't you mix the bone and kelp meal with the soil?
> 
> ok, so it was three questions. sorry...


Haha no problem! I'd love to get more people using soil in their tanks. Anyway, the main reason I didn't stick with the last mixture I used is because I like to experiment. That, and I was out of greensand . The last one was awesome, but now I'm trying to improve upon it even more. I've never tried Bone or Kelp Meal in submerged conditions before, only in houseplants. I could easily have just mixed the conditioners into the soil, but my hope is that when the crypts grow out some more, they can tap into the stuff underneath the soil for an extra boost.


----------



## legomaniac89

Here's the new scape as it stands now. I'm still searching for a few plants to finish up the species list. It just looks so...empty.










Limnophila sp. "Vietnam Mini" - I'm hoping this will spread horizontally like and cover the right corner of the tank









A new floater I just got from Cavan: Ricciocarpus natans


----------



## Gatekeeper

Has a very "caged" look. This needs a few months.


----------



## mistergreen

I'd take out the white sand. it's distracting. The horizontal DW could be interesting.


----------



## vtkid

nice to see it planted up are you gonna hook up any of the wood with mosses and such. some fissidens would look really good.


----------



## Digsy

Ah, I remember when my scape looked "empty." It won't take long at all to fill in. Keep up the good work!


----------



## roybot73

mistergreen said:


> I'd take out the white sand. it's distracting. The horizontal DW could be interesting.


Agreed.


----------



## B16CRXT

I'm just gonna warn you. Floaters are cool, but they are such a pain when it comes time to trim. Dip your arm in the tank and comes out green, covered with floaters. I used to have some floaters but I have finally almost gotten rid of them all. I think some weeping moss would look great on the tips of the wood over the sandy area.


----------



## legomaniac89

gmccreedy said:


> Has a very "caged" look. This needs a few months.


Doesn't every new scape need a few months to start looking good? 



mistergreen said:


> I'd take out the white sand. it's distracting. The horizontal DW could be interesting.





roybot73 said:


> Agreed.


Unfortunately, the white sand is pretty much there to stay. I could easily take it out, but that means adding more soil to the empty spot and black sand on top of that. Tough to do when there's already water in the tank. Plus, by doing that, the plant arrangement would pretty much be a mirror image of the last scape. I'm trying to avoid that.



vtkid said:


> nice to see it planted up are you gonna hook up any of the wood with mosses and such. some fissidens would look really good.


Yup, I'm planning on some Weeping Moss and Pottias somewhere on the wood. I have a couple clumps of each in one of my emersed setups, but I'm waiting to add them after the fungus junk subsides.



Digsy said:


> Ah, I remember when my scape looked "empty." It won't take long at all to fill in. Keep up the good work!


Thanks Tara!



B16CRXT said:


> I'm just gonna warn you. Floaters are cool, but they are such a pain when it comes time to trim. Dip your arm in the tank and comes out green, covered with floaters. I used to have some floaters but I have finally almost gotten rid of them all. I think some weeping moss would look great on the tips of the wood over the sandy area.


Haha yeah, I know what you mean. My 20 high is usually buried under an inch of duckweed . Ricciocarpus is supposed to be a slower grower than the other floaters, so we'll see how it's going in a couple months.

My whole goal with this tank is to have the plants flow along with the manzy. I'm not going to use many "vertical" plants at all (i.e. stems). I'm going to have a bunch of either Eleocharis sp. (tall form) or Eleocharis vivipara in the back corner right next to the outflow pipe, so they'll be "waving in the breeze". I'll probably get some Blyxa japonica for the empty area under the manzy, and other than that it's just a matter of patience, waiting for the plants to grow into the scape.


----------



## B16CRXT

I've got a good bit of blyxa for sale if you are interested.:wink:


----------



## Gatekeeper

> Doesn't every new scape need a few months to start looking good?


Don't take it the wrong way. Yes, most setups do have a quirky moment in the beiginning, but what I am trying to see is where this thing will be maintained. 

I applaud your effort to do something different and I am excited to see it evolve. I hope it hits your vision. I think its one of the more bolder attempts I have seen on here in a while.


----------



## legomaniac89

B16CRXT said:


> I've got a good bit of blyxa for sale if you are interested.:wink:


Actually I've already got some coming from a friend. Thanks for the offer though!



gmccreedy said:


> Don't take it the wrong way. Yes, most setups do have a quirky moment in the beiginning, but what I am trying to see is where this thing will be maintained.
> 
> I applaud your effort to do something different and I am excited to see it evolve. I hope it hits your vision. I think its one of the more bolder attempts I have seen on here in a while.


Nah, I didn't take it that way at all. If it comes out the way I'm envisioning it, I think it'll be pretty awesome. To be honest, I'm just scaping as I go, as I think it looks good. I have a good idea of what I want it to look like as a finished product, it's just getting there and making it work that's gonna challenge me.

I'm horrible at sketching up a scape and sticking with it to the end. As you probably saw in my last scape, it was constantly changing until I was satisfied with how it looked. I'm sure that this scape will be no different


----------



## hydrophyte

legomaniac89 said:


>


Hey that looks really neat. I had missed these new updates. You make such huge changes to this tank.

That _Ricciocarpus_ gorws wild in certain spots around here. Have you ever seen it in the wild?


----------



## justin182

I love your DW, is it from Dollface? I saw his DW sale's thread and he has something like yours too, but not as stunning.


----------



## Dollface

Haha, no, lego did not get the driftwood from *her* sadly.  
I believe the manzanita is from badcop, who manages to find some spectacular pieces. 

Waiting to see how the white sand does from you, if this turns out anywhere near the quality of your last scape, it's gonna be amazing!


----------



## speedie408

You'll make me proud. I know you will Adam.  I'll give it 2 months. Mark my words haha.


----------



## legomaniac89

hydrophyte said:


> Hey that looks really neat. I had missed these new updates. You make such huge changes to this tank.
> 
> That _Ricciocarpus_ gorws wild in certain spots around here. Have you ever seen it in the wild?


Thanks Devin! Read a few pages back, you'll see that the tank had to be moved to a new location completely, hence the rescape. I've never seen Ricciocarpus in the wild before. To be honest, I didn't even know it was a native species :icon_smil.



justin182 said:


> I love your DW, is it from Dollface? I saw his DW sale's thread and he has something like yours too, but not as stunning.





Dollface said:


> Haha, no, lego did not get the driftwood from *her* sadly.
> I believe the manzanita is from badcop, who manages to find some spectacular pieces.
> 
> Waiting to see how the white sand does from you, if this turns out anywhere near the quality of your last scape, it's gonna be amazing!


Haha, no Dollface is right, this manzy came from Jake (Badcopnofishtank). It's actually a piece that he used in one of his previous scapes that got taken down. You know if the driftwood ninja kept a piece back for himself, there must be something special about it .



speedie408 said:


> You'll make me proud. I know you will Adam.  I'll give it 2 months. Mark my words haha.


Thanks Nick! I can't wait for this to start filling in


----------



## legomaniac89

So I'm sitting here digesting Thanksgiving dinner, waiting for the tryptophan to start doing it's thing so I can fall asleep in front of the Mythbusters marathon. While were waiting, here's some pictures of my driftwood fungus collection :biggrin:


----------



## oldpunk78

mine looks a lot like yours. just brush it off and pour boiling water over it or run it through the dish washer.


----------



## speedie408

Back when I had that stuff, my ABN plecos made good work of it and it dissapeared on it's own.


----------



## legomaniac89

Yeah, I'm not real worried about it. Once the tank cycles, I'm planning on getting several Otos and I know they'll make a meal out of it. At least I can watch something grow this early in the tank's life


----------



## legomaniac89

The Good: The initial algae bloom is starting to recede noticeably. The Limnophila sp. "Vietnam Mini" and Staurogyne sp. "Purple" are both growing pretty well due to the jacked up CO2 levels I'm running now.










The Bad: While the algae dies off, the fungus is still going strong. I know it'll die off eventually, but it's pretty gnarly stuff to look at in the meantime. I've been removing it manually just enough to keep in from smothering the plants. Luckily, it's mostly covering the manzy and leaving the plants alone.










The Ugly: I'll let the pics speak for themselves



















As bad as it looks now, I can see the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. NH3 has started to go down and NO3 has just started to show up in the tests. NO2 is spiked now, so hopefully this means I'm about halfway through the N-cycle. I'll be glad when it's over.

I'm still working on what to stock this tank with. I really want a school of _Sawbwa resplendens_ and a LFS is able to get them for me, but it'll be a while before he can get them back in stock. The only fish I'm getting for sure at this point are a bunch of Pygmy Cories. I have like 10 of them held back for me at my work right now, and I have fallen in love with them


----------



## B16CRXT

EEEK!!! That is terrible looking! I hope it clears up for you soon!

I love my pygmy cories!


----------



## Neoman

really liking that hardscape, eager to see this once it clears up and grows in a bit.


----------



## bsmith

I have some gnarly DW fungus in a tank full of it for my plecs. It seems to be dieing after about a month and a half of being submerged under water. 

The tank looks great. I will enjoy watching this one unfold. Since you don't have any fish in the tank I would crank the gas up as far as your reactor/diffuser/whatever can handle, the plants are going to have allot of N to devour! But im sure you already knew that. 

Let me know what y our looking for, I have recently received some pretty cool plants.


----------



## chase127

youu need floaterz!


----------



## legomaniac89

B16CRXT said:


> EEEK!!! That is terrible looking! I hope it clears up for you soon!
> 
> I love my pygmy cories!


It's already showing signs of clearing, so hopefully we'll be good to go soon!



Neoman said:


> really liking that hardscape, eager to see this once it clears up and grows in a bit.


Thanks!



bsmith said:


> I have some gnarly DW fungus in a tank full of it for my plecs. It seems to be dieing after about a month and a half of being submerged under water.
> 
> The tank looks great. I will enjoy watching this one unfold. Since you don't have any fish in the tank I would crank the gas up as far as your reactor/diffuser/whatever can handle, the plants are going to have allot of N to devour! But im sure you already knew that.
> 
> Let me know what y our looking for, I have recently received some pretty cool plants.


Thanks man! Right now the drop checker is yellow for almost the entire day. I think it's somewhere around 4-5 bps at the moment, so the levels are pretty high. The only living (okay, animal) things in the tank now are a bunch of microramshorns and a lone Nerite from the last scape I threw in there to help with the algae. They don't seem to care much about the high CO2 levels.



chase127 said:


> youu need floaterz!


I got floaterz! I have some _Ricciocarpus natans_ I got from Cavan in this tank now. So far, it doesn't seem like it's nearly as invasive as duckweed is, so I'm hoping to keep them long term.


----------



## Karackle

Well under all that fungus the hardscape is fantastic! I love it! 

Can't wait to see it when it clears and the plants grow in more!  

And pygmy cories are adorable and awesome little buggers! I have 6 of them in my 30g and I want to add more, I love them! :hihi:


----------



## legomaniac89

Thanks Karackle!

Well, some good news. The diatoms on the glass cleared up almost overnight and the other stringy brown crud (whatever it is) is starting to die back significantly.

The _Eleocharis sp. "Belem"_ is starting to spread again and I found some _Eleocharis vivipara_ that I put in the back right corner. Hopefully it'll fill in given a bit of time. I still need to get some _Blyxa japonica_ to put around the Trident Java Fern too.










My Limnophila sp. "Vietnam Mini" is growing like a weed. I was a bit worried at first that it wouldn't appreciate my liquid rock, but it doesn't seem to care.


----------



## Amazonfish

The tank is looking great (i'm imagining it without the fungus)! I'll definitely be watching its progress  Your wood/scape makes the tank look much bigger than it actually is.


----------



## speedie408

Adam,

I just happened to pull my blyxa japonica bush I had in my 40B. Let me know if you want it. It's kinda red and really healthy.


----------



## funkyfish

The tank is looking good even with some fungus! 
Hope all that will clear up very soon


----------



## non_compliance

Wow... that looks way bigger than a 20L... nice job!


----------



## legomaniac89

Amazonfish said:


> The tank is looking great (i'm imagining it without the fungus)! I'll definitely be watching its progress  Your wood/scape makes the tank look much bigger than it actually is.


Thanks Amazon!



speedie408 said:


> Adam,
> 
> I just happened to pull my blyxa japonica bush I had in my 40B. Let me know if you want it. It's kinda red and really healthy.


You don't have to convince me . But I'm a bit afraid to have plants shipped to me at the moment. It's all of 2 degrees outside right now and I'm not at home hardly at all until school wraps up, so most likely they'd end up freezing into a big Blyxa popsicle. Thanks anyway bud!



funkyfish said:


> The tank is looking good even with some fungus!
> Hope all that will clear up very soon





non_compliance said:


> Wow... that looks way bigger than a 20L... nice job!


Thanks! Hopefully the algae and fungus will clear soon and I can get some real scaping done


----------



## jfrank85

Its like an ugly chick got a make over! Tank looks absolutely amazing!


----------



## Apteronotus Albifrons

Awesome tank


----------



## chris.rivera3

do you get mudd clouds or dust flying everywhere when you pull up stems??? I want to find an alternative to aquasoil and I've seen your plants thrive in your home-made substrate!



legomaniac89 said:


> That's the good stuff
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> A light dusting of Bone Meal and Kelp Meal (yes, that's a cereal box. Ya gotta do whatcha gotta do )
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Plant growing goodness
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Added the sand and manzy. The bare bones of the tank are done!
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Filling and planting yet to come!


----------



## non_compliance

Lookin good...


----------



## legomaniac89

jfrank85 said:


> Its like an ugly chick got a make over! Tank looks absolutely amazing!


Haha I guess it is! Thanks bud!



Apteronotus Albifrons said:


> Awesome tank


Thanks!



chris.rivera3 said:


> do you get mudd clouds or dust flying everywhere when you pull up stems??? I want to find an alternative to aquasoil and I've seen your plants thrive in your home-made substrate!


No more than Aquasoil produces. The good thing about the soil is that once it's saturated, it quickly sinks. So any particles that get brought up with an uprooted plant usually settle out in a few minutes.



non_compliance said:


> Lookin good...


Thanks!


----------



## vtkid

is that DW loosing a litlle bit of that algae?


----------



## legomaniac89

Nothing's really changed. The plants keep growing, but I seem to be stuck in the middle of the cycle. NO2 won't go away for some reason. All I know is that this thing is taking for-freaking-ever to cycle and I'm getting impatient.










The diatoms and brown stingy stuff are dying off, but now I'm getting BBA and Staghorn on the manzy. I'm hoping they'll both die off naturally, but I'm not getting my hopes up. I have a bottle of H2O2 ready to nuke them if they persist.

Oh yeah, and I got a new camera :biggrin:. I've only had it since Thursday and I love it already. http://www.amazon.com/Canon-XS-Digital-18-55mm-Black/dp/B001CBKJGG/ref=pd_ecc_rvi_cart_1. I still can't figure out how to take good aquarium pictures, but all the normal pics are far better than the Panasonic could ever take. I never realized how awesome having a manual focus could be :icon_wink.


----------



## hydrophyte

This latest iteration looks great--nice work! I think I missed the replanting.

Do you intend to keep groups of just a few different kinds of plants this time, or will you add more and more variety?


----------



## CL

Sweet camera! Is that the one A.Hill posted a link of in the S&S?
Looks like you need to add some purigen or carbon to get rid of those tannins :biggrin: (unless you like them, of course)
I was shocked when I woke up this morning and the carbon that I got with my XP2 removed all the tannins from my 91L.
Looks like the plants don't mind the substrate 
Looks great man!


----------



## legomaniac89

hydrophyte said:


> This latest iteration looks great--nice work! I think I missed the replanting.
> 
> Do you intend to keep groups of just a few different kinds of plants this time, or will you add more and more variety?


Thanks man! I'm doing my best to resist my collectoritis and keep only a few species in here. There's still a couple kinds I need to find to polish off the scape, but some of it is going to wait till the algae subsides.



CL said:


> Sweet camera! Is that the one A.Hill posted a link of in the S&S?
> Looks like you need to add some purigen or carbon to get rid of those tannins :biggrin: (unless you like them, of course)
> I was shocked when I woke up this morning and the carbon that I got with my XP2 removed all the tannins from my 91L.
> Looks like the plants don't mind the substrate
> Looks great man!


Haha, yup that's the one. I've been saving for a new camera for a few months now and when I saw that thread, I couldn't resist :icon_wink. And yeah, the tannins are everywhere but I don't really mind them. They help soften my liquid rock somewhat I guess.


----------



## hydrophyte

So what is the stem plant on the right? I could probably go and flip back a few pages to find it but I am lazy.

I really like how you rendered that open sand area.


----------



## legomaniac89

That's _Limonphila sp. "Vietnam Mini"_. I got 5 or 6 tiny stems from Orlando a couple months back and it's pretty much exploded in this tank. I was hoping it would grow low and form a compact bush, but it may take a couple of trims before that happens.


----------



## legomaniac89

I brought home the tank's first inhabitant earlier. One lone _Synodontis nigriventris_. I was hoping to get a trio, but I could only find one so the other two will have to wait for another time. No pics at the moment. The light is off and I don't want to piss off my new fish by waking him up on his first night in the new home .

I'm planning on a school of _Sawbwa resplendens_ and a school of Pygmy Cories eventually, which will probably be joined by a few Otos and maybe some Amanos, but they won't come for probably another month.


----------



## legomaniac89

This tank is really starting to frustrate me. The diatoms, which had completely disappeared, are now coming back all over the place. BBA and Staghorn is popping up all over the manzy. And now I think I might have a greenwater bloom. I keep the drop checker light green and am only running the lights for 6 hours a day, what else can I do?


----------



## oldpunk78

maybe your supersoil is leaching excess nutrients into the water column. it might just need a while for things to balance out. how often are you doing water changes?


----------



## legomaniac89

I have a feeling that's part of the problem, but the last two incarnations of the tank had nowhere near this algae. Right now I'm doing 50% wc's twice a week, but I might have to go up to 3 a week.


----------



## bsmith

I had the same bba and staghorn problem in my high tech tank when my AS would break down and settle on the leaves of some plants. I had pretty high flow in the tank too so that just made the problem worse. How is flow in your tank?


----------



## legomaniac89

bsmith said:


> I had the same bba and staghorn problem in my high tech tank when my AS would break down and settle on the leaves of some plants. I had pretty high flow in the tank too so that just made the problem worse. How is flow in your tank?


I have a Marineland C-220 on the tank, so there's lots of flow. There's quite a few particles from the soil settling on the hardscape...could that be causing all the bba?


----------



## bsmith

I would guarantee it. I cut my flow down, recapped the AS with some fresh and the algae has become markedly better. Maybe a pre filter on your intake could help too. 



legomaniac89 said:


> I have a Marineland C-220 on the tank, so there's lots of flow. There's quite a few particles from the soil settling on the hardscape...could that be causing all the bba?


----------



## legomaniac89

bsmith said:


> I would guarantee it. I cut my flow down, recapped the AS with some fresh and the algae has become markedly better. Maybe a pre filter on your intake could help too.


Interesting, thanks! I'll try to siphon off as much gunk from the surface as I can and throw a sponge or something on the filter intake. Hopefully that'll cut back the flow a bit. I'll keep you updated on how it works.


----------



## bsmith

Sounds good. Also is there any way to cap the substrate with some fresh sand or whatever you prefer?


----------



## legomaniac89

I probably could. I have a couple extra bags left over from the rescape, I just gotta dig them out of my junk pile


----------



## lauraleellbp

Tried dosing Excel to kill the algae?


----------



## hydrophyte

I haven't read back though the latest pages for more detail, but I wonder if you might be using any new kind of sand(?). I had some pool filter sand that I was using for some time and the tanks with that material had relentless growth of diatoms for months and months. I wondered if that particular silica sand was somehow dissolving in the water and creating favorable conditions for diatoms. 

I have never seen diatoms like that before and the pool filter sand was the only common denominator that I could identify.

On a totally unrelated note, here is something that might interest you.

International Aroid Society, April 24 Meeting in St. Louis

I am going to try to go if I can. Aroid superstar Dr. Tom Croat works there at MOBOT and he will be there for a lot of the meeting. It looks good. Please excuse this quick hijack.


----------



## legomaniac89

Not yet. I'm hoping it'll die off without me having to dump chemicals into the tank. I have both Excel and H2O2 on hand if the algae doesn't go away on its own.


----------



## legomaniac89

That's a possibility Hydro. I actually did try a new brand of sand in this tank. Don't remember the name, but it was all we had at my work.

That Aroid meeting looks awesome, but...that's the week before my finals :icon_eek:. Leaving then probably wouldn't be good for my GPA


----------



## legomaniac89

Broke out the tripod and got some new pics. Oddly enough, the diatoms are dying back again. Is there such a thing as a 24-hour algae outbreak? 

My _P. helferi_ is finally making lots of baby _P. helferi_'s, so I'm working on a field of those. They're going crazy in the soil. The _E. sp. "Belem"_ is spreading like wildfire too, but I sorta expected that. I trimmed back the _Limno "Vietnam Mini"_ and _Staurogyne sp. "Purple"_ yesterday too. The _Staurogyne_ had actually broken the surface of the water.










The BBA and Staghorn. Ugly stuff isn't it? I need some Amanos to clean up the leftovers.


----------



## chase127

Hey man, i love the tank, the right side is looking great (now that the algae is gone ) but i'm thinking that the little patch of AS on the left is throwing me off... if the left third was all white sand i think it would look really really good... but thats just me


----------



## legomaniac89

Thanks bro. The left patch is kinda there to stay at this point. I think it'll look smoother once the Belem fills in and softens the edges more, but it still needs a couple months of growing.


----------



## legomaniac89

Just over two months after setup and the tank's finally cycled. Took long enough. I've never had any tank take that long to cycle before. Anyhoo, I brought home a bunch of Pygmy Cories last night, but I can't get a good picture of them to save my life, so pics will have to wait till they feel like cooperating.


----------



## hydrophyte

That's good. Have you reined in the algae yet?

You'll like those pygmy cories. They are really cool little fish. Have you ever kept them before?


----------



## legomaniac89

The algae's more or less getting under control. The staghorn's gone completely and the BBA is...well, still there. It's only on the manzy though, so I'm not worried about it. 

This is my first time with Pygmy Cories. I've kept lots of other bigger _Corydoras_ species before, but never Pygmies. I love them already


----------



## legomaniac89

Caught one of em sitting still :icon_wink


----------



## Amazonfish

Wait a minute! That's actually not Corydoras pygmaeus. It's Corydoras habrosus. Still a dwarf cory though, and as you've seen, they are awesome. I have some of both (pygmaeus and habrosus) in one of my tanks and they all school together. They're sooo cute. Congrats!


----------



## hydrophyte

Does that cory swim around up in the middle of the water the way that _pygmaeus_ do?


----------



## legomaniac89

Amazonfish said:


> Wait a minute! That's actually not Corydoras pygmaeus. It's Corydoras habrosus. Still a dwarf cory though, and as you've seen, they are awesome. I have some of both (pygmaeus and habrosus) in one of my tanks and they all school together. They're sooo cute. Congrats!


Ah, correct you are! I hadn't looked that closely at them, apparently . Either way, they're pretty sweet little guys



hydrophyte said:


> Does that cory swim around up in the middle of the water the way that _pygmaeus_ do?


Yup, they're all over the place. I swear these guys have ADHD or something :hihi:. They can't sit still for more than 2 seconds!


----------



## legomaniac89

Haha, it's ironic, cause for the past two weeks I've been ID'ing fish in the Name That Fish thread here, but I didn't even realize that my own _Corydoras pygmaeus_ were actually _Corydoras habrosus_.

*bangs head against wall*


----------



## Amazonfish

legomaniac89 said:


> Haha, it's ironic, cause for the past two weeks I've been ID'ing fish in the Name That Fish thread here, but I didn't even realize that my own _Corydoras pygmaeus_ were actually _Corydoras habrosus_.
> 
> *bangs head against wall*


LOL. It happens :icon_wink


----------



## legomaniac89

Alright, I'm still working on getting where I want to go with this tank. I made a few changes here and there and I think it looks a lot better.

1). I took out all the _Limnophila_, _Staurogyne_ and _Nymphaea micrantha_. They weren't growing like I'd hoped they would, and the Limno was dropping all the lower leaves.

2). I planted the right foreground completely with _Cryptocoryne parva_. 2 pots and 29 plants total :icon_eek:

3). I finally got some Purigen for the filter, even though you can't tell yet.

And yes, the BBA is still there.










And look, I can finally grow Downoi!!! I have not had good luck with this plant in the past


----------



## CL

Gotta love the growth on that trident. The downoi looks good too! Good luck killing that bba


----------



## B16CRXT

Turn off your filter and spot treat the BBA with Excel. Wait about 10-20 minutes before turning the filter back on so it can kill the BBA.


----------



## speedie408

Your downoi is growing up instead of staying low. How come?

I like how the fern is turning out. God I hate BBA. I just set up a 20L for my wild bettas and I'm getting the same white goo you had a while back on my manzanitas. That stuff goes away on it's own right? 

Your tank is moving right along. Looks good.


----------



## legomaniac89

Thanks guys!

Nick - I have no idea why my downoi isn't staying low. I can't imagine that it's lack of light. The T5HO's hit the plants directly and the tank's only 12" tall. I'm just glad I haven't killed it yet . The fungus-y stuff should die off on its own eventually. If not, Otos love it.


----------



## legomaniac89

I found my new favorite Ancistrus. This little guy cleared out all the brown and green algae in the tank within a matter of 2 days. Plus he's just a cool looking fish

Ancistrus sp. "Pucallpa"










And I just bought a brand new 100mm macro lens for a steal! Should be here by the weekend I hope.


----------



## kyle3

He's a good lookin fish! And nice lens!

cheers-K


----------



## problemman

i like how you trident fern is growing


----------



## legomaniac89

Thanks guys!

I just picked up more fish for the tank: 9 Ember Tetras and 8 more Habrosus Cories. They are acclimating as I type. I also got a freebie Bluefin Killifish that came in with the feeder rosies as my work. Since it's an Indiana native, we can't charge any money for him so I took him home. Hopefully he'll do well, but he's not in the best health after spending a week in the feeder system. 

I'll try to get some pics once the fish are in the tank.


----------



## kyle3

ooh that's a fun freebie hope he comes around for you


----------



## legomaniac89

Ember Tetras!



















And yes, I'm still fighting the algae. Slowly but surely, I'm winning.


----------



## redfalconf35

looking good!


----------



## legomaniac89

I've really been debating on keeping this tank running much longer. School keeps me so busy that I don't have the time to properly maintain the scape (I haven't done a wc in over 3 weeks, in all honesty). BBA is still everywhere. Plants that shouldn't be floating, are. And these stinkin Embers don't ever come out of hiding. I'm just getting a bit frustrated with this this tank.

If I do end up taking it down, I'll most likely turn it into a vivarium for _Geosesarma_ crabs or something low maintenance like that. Until school lets up some, I just don't have the time to maintain more than one aquarium.


----------



## !shadow!

l know the feeling all to well. l'm an air conditioning installer and well during the summer we get so busy it's not even funny working from 7 am to 9-12pm no time : /. Glad there are timers to control your tank but even then you don't get the priviledge of working on your tank. Well l hope your schedule works out for you in the end. l would hate to see such a nice tank go to waste.


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## kyle3

This tank has come so far I'd be a shame to let it all go after you've put in so much work. you should try putting it on "pause". . . or something similar if you lower you wattage and photo period, quit dosing ferts and just keep a minimum of Co2 going you can change the water every 2-3 weeks. the plants will grow slower and you can skimp on trimming more easily. it'll keep algae from taking over while allowing you to focus on school.

whatever you decide to do- good luck with it, and thanks for sharing it with us. it's a great tank to watch 

cheers-K


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## Jdub777

Man the tank is looking sweet! My 45 gal was set up similarly. Word of advice: I had a bad outbreak of staghorn with that tank and i was told the sand had something to do with it. I was told it is a known algae causer/grower. Don't beleive it! Once the tank kind of balanced out, it was all good. Algae is extremely minimal. The only issue i find is the sand doesn't stay white/beige. The algae grows underneath it kind of. 

Hey man don't get too stressed with the algae. Let each kind run it's cycle and the plants will take care of the algae, if you take care of the plants. Plants are like the green mafia.


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## legomaniac89

Thanks guys.

I'm only running the lights 6 hours a day and have the co2 cranked way up, so I don't really know why the algae won't go away, but it doesn't really bother me much. It's just one of those things.

If I do tear down this scape, I'll definitely keep all the hardware to use in a future scape. I really don't want to take down this tank again, but until school lets up some I just can't give this tank the attention it needs. I'm still debating on tearing it down though.


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## chris.rivera3

any updates???


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## legomaniac89

Well...the tank's a mess. No matter how much I nuke the BBA with Excel, it keeps coming back. I've pretty much decided that I need to tear down this tank, but the problem now is finding time to do it. It'll probably have to wait till school ends (May 5th).

9 hours of school and/or work followed by 4 hours of homework every single night makes it virtually impossible to maintain a nice scape. I'm just glad my 20 high can be ignored for weeks on end without any problems, otherwise that one would probably end up coming down too.


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## Amazonfish

So sad! I've been watching this tank since you set it up, and it is gorgeous!

Have you tried doing excel and H2O2 at the same time? After an 80% water change, I did that to control hair algae in one of my tanks. To my surprise, ALL the hair algae and ALL the BBA was gone after about 10 days. Tank looks great now and it's been over a month. It would be a shame to give up now, especially since you don't have time to take the tank down anyway. And also, since school is ending soon for you, you'll have the time to take care of the tank after that, right? :biggrin:

What are you studying at school? Are you in college? Believe me when I say that I know how tough it is to balance time. I find that for me, no matter how little or how much studying/work I have to do, I feel stressed. If I try to make my life easier by getting rid of a few responsibilities, I still somehow find a way to stay occupied and stay stressed! In that jumble of words, I'm saying that if you really like the tank, you shouldnt' give up on it. I always look up to people who do a million things in a day and still have time for a good night's sleep, and that helps me stay motivated :icon_smil


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## chris.rivera3

Hey Amazonfish!!! where do you get H202...I'm dealing with a little bit of BBA also on my driftwood




Amazonfish said:


> So sad! I've been watching this tank since you set it up, and it is gorgeous!
> 
> Have you tried doing excel and H2O2 at the same time? After an 80% water change, I did that to control hair algae in one of my tanks. To my surprise, ALL the hair algae and ALL the BBA was gone after about 10 days. Tank looks great now and it's been over a month. It would be a shame to give up now, especially since you don't have time to take the tank down anyway. And also, since school is ending soon for you, you'll have the time to take care of the tank after that, right? :biggrin:
> 
> What are you studying at school? Are you in college? Believe me when I say that I know how tough it is to balance time. I find that for me, no matter how little or how much studying/work I have to do, I feel stressed. If I try to make my life easier by getting rid of a few responsibilities, I still somehow find a way to stay occupied and stay stressed! In that jumble of words, I'm saying that if you really like the tank, you shouldnt' give up on it. I always look up to people who do a million things in a day and still have time for a good night's sleep, and that helps me stay motivated :icon_smil


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## jeremy0247

I'm not amazonfish, but H2O2 is Hydrogen peroxide found at any grocery store. There is a food grade version if it matters.


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## CL

Is this thing still around?


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## legomaniac89

CL said:


> Is this thing still around?


Yeah, it's still around, but not for much longer. I pretty much gave up fighting the BBA. No matter how much I nuked the stuff, it kept coming back even thicker than before. In two weeks, I'll be done with my summer class and have that week off of work, so I'll most likely be taking the tank down then.


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## sewingalot

Did you ever figure out what was causing the BBA? Do you think it was the wood or soil?


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## legomaniac89

Nope. I don't have a clue what's triggering the BBA. I don't think it's the soil because I've used it multiple times in the past, and I'm sure it's not the manzy. The sand is my best guess, but really don't know. It's as frustrating as all get out though.


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## speedie408

3rd times the charm Adam. Redo your second scape.  That one was very inspiring dude.


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## sewingalot

Sand causes issues for me as well. I always had problems with diatoms when I tried using it.


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## Karackle

That's so frustrating dude, sorry to hear it! But I guess the good is that it's always fun to do a rescape! My tanks are both in need of rescapes due to all my stems dying off, so I know how it is!  Good luck with the tear down / rescape, can't wait to see it! If the previous incarnations of this tank are anything to go by, it'll be stunning!


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## legomaniac89

Thanks guys. I really hate to disappoint everyone, but as of right now, I don't think I'll be rescaping it. I'll most likely be tearing the tank down completely for the time being. Over the summer, I'll have no problem keeping up with the regular maintenance, but once the fall semester starts up again any semi-high-tech tanks I have up will suffer badly. That's the main reason this one didn't turn out like I'd hoped, because my school schedule just about killed me last semester, and this upcoming one will be just as tough.

My low tech 20H is pretty much bulletproof. I can ignore that one for months on end, with the only repercussion being overgrown _Rotala_ and Duckweed. So unless I can duplicate that one somehow, I just don't think I'll have enough free time to maintain more than one tank for now.

If I do anything with this tank, it'll be a pseudo-riparium/palaudrium tank for _Geosesarma_ crabs. I can keep it extremely low maintenance while still looking sweet, and the crabs are just plain awesome. If I go that route, I'll do a mostly Manzy scape with a couple inches of water in the bottom and lots of small bromeliads and other epiphytes inhabiting the branches. But that's still in the works. If I can find a good cheap source for bromeliads, this incarnation will most likely happen fairly soon.

But enough rambling. I need to go to bed


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## legomaniac89

R.I.P.

This scape is gone completely. I wish it would have worked out, but the combination of a heavy school schedule and the invincible algae blooms made it impossible for me to maintain properly. 

On the plus side, I'm been working out ideas for a vivarium setup to house some Vampire Crabs. I'll most likely use the manzy from the last scape and deck it out with a few _Neoregelia_ and/or _Tillandsia_ bromeliads and a few kinds of moss. 

I've been drawing a lot of inspiration from Jdowns' huge 225g Viv in the Viv/Terr subforum lately. Hopefully I can get some new plants and have this thing up a running within 2 weeks. I'll continue to document the build and new scape here, of course.


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## hydrophyte

Wow I look forward to seeing a setup with vampire crabs. I have wondered about those things.

Sorry to hear the famous 20 long has been retired, but I am sure you will build something even more awesome.


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## legomaniac89

Thanks Devin. I'm actually getting pretty pumped about redoing this tank again. You have any suggestions for a groundcover plant that can handle moderate light, fairly wet conditions and some minor abuse? I'm leaning towards _Hydrocotyle sibthorpiodes_, but I'm open to suggestions.


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## speedie408

Adam,

Lemme know if you need some Hydrocotyle sibthorpiodes. I took all of mine out from my 10g... all of it.


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## legomaniac89

Sweet. I might hit you up sometime soon when I get this thing going again.


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## legomaniac89

Bromeliads are on the way. I sent in an order from Josh's Frogs for one each of _Neoregelia "Midget", N. "Hot Pink", N. "Rien's Pride", N. lilliputiana hybrid,_ and _N. (cyanea x Charm)_. I may or may not use all of them in the scape, but I still am working out how to put the whole thing together.

I'll probably create a big slope on one side and fill the lower side with water, using a mix of pea gravel and spaghnum peat for a substrate. I'm going to reuse the manzy I had in the last scape for this one, and the plants will be mostly bromeliads, mosses and some sort of groundcover plant. 

This thing's coming together soon. Stay tuned!


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## legomaniac89

So I totally just found a 29G in the basement I had completely forgotten about. I'm testing it for leaks right now, and if it holds I'll probably upgrade to that tank. 6" more vertical space would be wonderful for this scape.


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## hydrophyte

_H. sibthorpiodes_ is a cool little plant and should make an excellent groundcover.

I just love those mini _Neoregelia_ bromeliads.

A 29 will be a nice shape too.


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## Chrisinator

Is the build still on?


OOO by the way, I found a source for Vamps


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## legomaniac89

Well......due to a couple unforeseen complications, this Viv may not be happening after all. A few things came up and I'll probably have to hold off on this build for a while at least. But mark my words: I will have a _Geosesarma_ vivarium built sometime in the future. Hopefully sooner rather than later.


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