# First attempt at a dutch style aquarium



## Down_Shift (Sep 20, 2008)

Looks VERY nice steve


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## tennis4you (Aug 9, 2008)

I like that grass on the bottom right, what is that called?


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## bsmith (Jan 8, 2007)

Nice looking tank and Discus. :thumbsup:


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## Gatekeeper (Feb 20, 2007)

tennis4you said:


> I like that grass on the bottom right, what is that called?


Blyxa japonica. And I must say, that is a beautiful harvest of it. You must have got that from a good looking, charming, lavishly intelligent moderator.

I would actually spread that blyxa out a bit. Its going to swallow itself. Perhaps pull some to the left?


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## Green Leaf Aquariums (Feb 26, 2007)

Looking very nice Stevie D!!!

Your fish look very happy and your plants seem to be growing like gangbusters

Cheers! Orlando


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## gasteriaphile (Nov 21, 2008)

*Dutch Style?*

Your Discus will really appreciate all of the plants. They like to move in and out of same in their natural habitat (I have on good authority :fish.

I agree with previous poster, re: the _Blyxa japonica_. It looks great now; just perfect, in fact. But you may have succumbed to the typical householder who wants "instant landscape" and so over-plants his landscape. Then in a few years the plants are growing into each other and the whole landscape looks like jungle.

So give your plants some room to grow...because it looks like they will!

By the way, the Dutch style relies heavily on tiers. Did you do yours that way?

Looks very good. Your plants are way above average and already look like they have been there a long while.

G


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## jinx© (Oct 17, 2007)

bsmith782 said:


> Nice looking tank and Discus. :thumbsup:


x2 roud:


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## Stevie D (Jul 16, 2008)

Thanks everybody ;-)

About the blxya, it seems like it is such a slow growing plant. I've had some in my other tank for a few months now and it has hardly grown, and everything else grows just fine. I could spread it out some. Is it a slow growing plant?? Does it send runners or just grow taller? 

I really really want a HC half diamond foreground in front of the tank. I don't think the discus would mind, as they are picking at food all through the plants just as much as the ground. Besides they get hand fed all the time anyway!!

Stevie D


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## cah925 (May 18, 2007)

Beautiful looking plants and fish! Can't wait to see more.


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## Stevie D (Jul 16, 2008)

OH by the way there are 6 discus (3 Red Turquoise and 3 Blue Snakeskin), 4 pepper cory cats, a pair of GBRs, a female beta, 6 amano shrimp, 5 otos, 12 Cardinals, and a few black nerite snails. I'm still deciding what else i want to put in there. I'm thinking about a gold nugget pleco, a couple loaches of some kind and 8-12 more cardinals. 


It's funny even with all those fish and critters you almost never notice any fish except the discus swimming around.


Stevie D


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## fishscale (May 29, 2007)

Blyxa starts slow but soon you'll be selling the extras off


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

gasteriaphile said:


> Your Discus will really appreciate all of the plants. They like to move in and out of same in their natural habitat (I have on good authority :fish.
> 
> I agree with previous poster, re: the _Blyxa japonica_. It looks great now; just perfect, in fact. But you may have succumbed to the typical householder who wants "instant landscape" and so over-plants his landscape. Then in a few years the plants are growing into each other and the whole landscape looks like jungle.
> 
> ...


Just a request- would you mind changing your font color? This one is downright painful on my end... :icon_eek:


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## queensalmon (Oct 15, 2008)

The plants looks so healthy and happy in there already - the SNS sure was a great choice to get this tank started off on the right track. Thank you for sharing this...

Queensalmon


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## brion0 (Sep 28, 2008)

Looks realy good.


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## talontsiawd (Oct 19, 2008)

Looks very similar to what i'm trying to do with my tank with some differences. So i'm a fan obviously.


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## Stevie D (Jul 16, 2008)

Hey Talontsiawd, 

Your tank's looking nice. It's funny you are into bonsai because at one time i had over 23 bonsai with more than half of them i scouted out and shaped myself. I had an accident with new lighting i bought for them when i was going away for a few days and they all dried out and were almost dead when i returned. I was devistated and haven't really got back into it, but last year i bought a nice set of bonsai tools and supplies, but never got a bonsai so that's coming soon....

I was lucky to get such excellent sized and quality stock from the swap and shop. Everything in my tank except the large Crypt Wendtii and the pennywort came from the Swap and shop, all within about a week or so. Tonight i just filled in the left hand corner with a bunch ofHydro Angustifolia (which i think will all be replaced) and some other small stems to grow out just to give it a full look, but i'm doing a lot of research and looking at a lot of tanks to decide how I want to arrange the left side of the tank. You know i really regret not getting a 75 gallon instead because of the discus, but i already had the tank, stand and filters and other things so it would have been a lot more for me to setup the 75 gallon, and knew I already needed a bunch of equipment just to run the 55... but i can always upgrade ;-) And I already plan to move the discus to a 120xhigh 60x18x26 in about 6-8 months if all goes well.

The tank has already started to fill in nicely and it's only been a few days. The reds are staying pretty red so that's a good sign. I'm only lighting the tank for 9 hours with 2 of the T5's and have the other two on for a 3 hour noon burst. I might increase this soon if the plants aren't growing and looking the way i want them to. We will see.

Absolutely no algae so far (well a little on the rear wall on the left side glass, but that's before i put a bunch of plants on that side) and I only had 1 of the reducing t's installed while i was waiting for my quick disconnects to come in the mail so i just installed both reducing t's tonight to pump some co2 on the left side of the tank. I have 2 cal aqua drop checkers and i was placing them around the tank tonight and just about everywhere they were the exact same color as the reference solution so it seems like there is plenty of circulation and co2 throughout the tank. I'll be posting pictures probably tomorrow or the next day to show the new growth.

Steve D


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## Stevie D (Jul 16, 2008)

Ok here are some new pics. As you can see the tank is really full now with the added Hydro, but doesn't quite match the right side. As i find the plants i want the hydro will be replaced. 

Everything is starting to fill in nicely. Plants are growing great. The water is a little cloudy because i watched one of my discus rip a couple blyxa stems up while searching for some food. Just ripped it up and pushed it away, lol. Hopefully he doesn't get into a habit of doing that. I took a few stems of Blxya out to thin that bunch out just a little bit. You can see the Rotala verticillaris in the right corner better now.


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## brohawk (May 19, 2008)

Keep it up!



Stevie D said:


> I really really want a HC half diamond foreground in front of the tank.


Can we just call it a triangle?


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## Veloth (Jun 25, 2008)

Very nice tank!


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## LeTigra (Nov 25, 2008)

Your tank is beautiful. I love the Dutch style


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