# First planted tank- Two Towers



## Spider Pig (4 Jul 2008)

So hereâ€™s my set up journal of my first proper planted tank. Hereâ€™s a picture of the tank beforehand:






Hereâ€™s my plan for the new set up, which like all good plans, is only a vague guide:





Equipment Specifications
â€¢	Tank- Juwel Vision 180 (92cm W x 40cm H x 55cm L), 180L
â€¢	Lighting- 
o	2x 25w T8 (arcadia freshwater + juwel nature), 
o	additional 2x 39w T5 (856 + grolux-http://www.lampspecs.co.uk/ )Hagen GLO T5 controller-http://www.ukpetsupplies.com/Details.aspx?ProdId=3088&CatId=1350&ParentId=1349
â€¢	Filtration
o	Juwel internal- 600 Lph
o	Tetratec ex1200- 1200 LpH
â€¢	Pressurised Co2 with timed solenoid control.
â€¢	Fertilisation planned- 
o	Seachem Flourish 5ml 2x/ wk
o	PMDD 9ml/ day (KNO3, KPO4)

Plants currently in tank:
â€¢	Java fern
â€¢	Egeria densa
â€¢	Amazon sword
â€¢	Water wisteria
â€¢	Mushroom plant
â€¢	Vallis
Plants ordered from Greenline
â€¢	Monoselium tenernum
â€¢	Christmas moss
â€¢	Taiwan moss
â€¢	Eleocharis parvulus
â€¢	Glossostigma elatinoides
â€¢	Echinodorus paniculatus
â€¢	Echinodorus brevipedicellatus
â€¢	Ceratophyllum demersum
â€¢	Ludwigia natans

So, Wednesday morning, got everything cleared away and ready to spring into action as soon as the plants arrived, which they did at 1100. Very good service from Greenline by the way, well recommended. Good healthy plants (to my untrained eye), well packaged, not crushed. Washed and arranged the plants, keeping them moist with a damp tea towel.




Then took out the big piece of lava rock to tie the moss onto that. I thought that it would be quite fiddly and take a bit of time, so best get it out of the way first. Have attached some monoselium near the bottom which is a bit shaded, then Taiwan moss midway and Christmas moss at the top. Iâ€™d read that taxiphyllum species grow quicker than vesicularia so hoping the Taiwan moss will spread quickly. Left a small grid to grow on its own as well.


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## Spider Pig (4 Jul 2008)

Next step- turned everything off and drained the aquarium. The fish were transferred to a 30L tub with aeration, heating and some egeria. I also transferred the old filter sponges to a bucket of water. I felt that this should be suffient as I only expected them to be there for a couple of hours and the water was fresh treated tap water, and the fish hadnâ€™t been fed that morning, so the build up of ammonia should be minimal.. I was soon to realize that this was a fatal error.

Time for a bit of DIY- drilled a couple of holes in the back of the cabinet for the filter pipes to feed through. Replaced my backing picture with a sheet of black plastic. Set up the external filter- very easy to do. 

Finally time for the actual scaping and planting. I had to diverge from my plan as there wasnâ€™t the space to do what I hoped, so the volcanic rock is further to the left than I planned. Also there isnâ€™t as much room for the eleocharis around it. In my plan Iâ€™d completely forgotten about the vallis, so placed it behind the rock to give it extra height.




Refilling the tank was a doddle with the external filter- just put the intake into the jerry can and emptied in less than 5 minutes. Also because the spray hits the glass it doesnâ€™t disrupt any of the scaping.


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## Spider Pig (4 Jul 2008)

Next was bodging the lights. Iâ€™ve got the juwel reflectors on the t8s so first straightened the longer side out.




Have the arcadia reflectors for the t5s (much better than juwel IMO). The clip has a sliding attachment, so I attached mine so that the distance from the bulb to the edge was longer than if attached at the other side. Bit hard to explain really. Then I used the clips provided with the hagen ballast to clip on to the tubes where they would touch the t8 endcaps (as those tubes are shorter), so they acted as a buffer.




Attached the hagen endcaps and slid the new t5 reflectors, with bulbs clipped underneath, under the old juwel ones. In this way the reflector holds the bulb above the brace bar, and the juwel reflector prevents it from tipping into the water. To remove, just slide out.



Only problem is that there is a slight gap at the front:



Up and running:


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## Spider Pig (4 Jul 2008)

Fish returned, all apparently healthy. Lights on- quite dazzling having been used to weak juwel lights for some time:










It's a bit hard to see what's going on from these shots but the idea is to have a slope down from right to left. The background is a mix of swords, with the egeria densa, wisteria, ludwigia, mushroom plant dotted around to break it up. The midground is the java fern to the right giving way to a line of cryptocoryne wendtii. In front of this to the left is a field of eleocharis with a small experimental patch of glosso at the far left. The centre point is the volcanic rock rising from the plain shrouded with moss and backed by vallis. The front gravel is to remain bare and I hope to get some bark to cover the filter plus may be a moss wall. The java fern on the rock is temporary- just left it there to grow. Will move it down/ remove it later.

My planned lighting is to have the t5s on 0900 to 2100, then have the t8â€™s come on 1300 to 1700- and gradually extend this.
My planned fertilization as above. I would love to do EI but I know I wouldnâ€™t be able to keep up with the water changes. Iâ€™m going to aim for 50% every 2 weeks to start. Iâ€™m trying to think of a way of rigging a tube from the in/outflow of the external to a sink which would speed up water changes.
I also have some easycarbo if things are getting green and sticky.

Unfortunately all was not well however. 2 hrs after I reintroduced the fish 2 of the cardinals and one of the dwarf rainbowfish was showing signs of buoyancy problems. An hour later and they were dead. The next morning more cardinals had died and so far Iâ€™ve lost all my cardinals (12), 3 guppies, and the dwarf rainbowfish. Some of the fish had signs of a white spot on their eye so I suspected some toxin in the water (NH4/ NO2/ NO3 all 0, pH 7) did a 50% water change and put in carbon in the filter. This morning things seem stable but will just observe at present. This may have been from the stress of the move, or leaving them in a tub without filtration for so long, but in retrospect it probably could have been avoided.

Bit of an essay, will try and keep this updated.

Any comments/ advice welcome- especially re: lighting and fertilisation strategy.


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## beeky (4 Jul 2008)

Nice start.

It's difficult to say why the fatalaties occured. You seem to have quite a lot of fish. Even with the aeration in the tub, it's possible that they were weakened by the lack of oxygen and the stress of the move finished them off. Difficult to say though.

Keep us posted on progress.


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## GreenNeedle (4 Jul 2008)

I would suggest was definately something in the tank that caused the deaths.  Probs something you added changing the water parametrs.  I assume you did the standard acclimitisaing when reintroducing them.

Reason for saying this is when I change scape the fish will normally be in containers with lids on and no filtration/heating (just wrapped in blankets) for as much as 24 hours while I do the work, then let the tank settle, get to the desired temp etc and I haven't had any problems with the fish from this.

When you buy fish online they will be in less water and unfiltered and don't have many DOAs.  I would keep an eye on the survivors and if any more deaths then it maybe the lava rock or a plant that has brought a contaminant into the tank.

Other than that it looks a nice start and using lava rock is definately different to the usual standard rocks/wood combos we see everywhere.

Good luck and keep us posted.

Andy


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## Spider Pig (8 Jul 2008)

Thanks for the comments

With regards to the health of the fish, I'm more convinced that there was some toxin in the new tank that caused the deaths as oppose to ammonia toxicity from the temporary tub, although the stress of that may have contributed to it. I did two 50% water changes and after that fish seemed alot better. Also the white film over the eye has disappeared. The only new additions were the plants (the lava rock had been in the tank for 3-4 months), however these had been washed prior to use. May be should soak them for longer in the future.
I didn't reacclimatise the fish gradually as when adding fish from the store. The reasoning for this was that the water chemistry would be similar, both being fresh treated tap water and I ensured that both were at the same temperature. I also wanted to get the fish back into a filtered environment as soon as possible. I think that in the future I will stick to using the old tank water.

I hope that the volcanic rock will look quite striking once covered with moss, the contrast between brown and green should be quite nice. However one of the main reasons for leaving it in there is that the fish love it as cover. 

Haven't started any fertilisation yet due to the toxicity problems but will do so in the next couple of days. Lovely to see lots of pearling and o2 production already. Will post some photos soon


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## Spider Pig (9 Jul 2008)

7 days laterâ€¦

Here are the latest pics from the tank after the carnage passed. The final death toll was 12 cardinals, 3 guppies, 2 neon rainbows. Definitely not going to make that mistake again and stick to using established tank water in the future.

The plants seem to be settling in OK. A few, especially the grasses, have been uprooted and needed replanting. The hornwort grows at a ridiculous rate, at least 1-2â€/ day. Iâ€™ve already trimmed and replanted the stuff in here.







The ferns are pearling nicely, and late in the day the water gets cloudy with all the bubbles being kicked off.




Not so sure about the hairgrass and glosso at the moment. No obvious pearling or growth, but not going brown either- watch and wait I guess. Does anyone know how long it takes to settle in and create a nice carpet? The crypts seem to be doing ok, no melt that I can see- not sure if this occurs later though.




Couple of pics of the fauna:







So fertilization continuing as planned- 9ml/ day PMDD, traces 2x/ week. Lighting 78w t5 0900- 2100, 50w t8 1300-1700. Might drop the t5 time to 10 hrs and increase the t8 time so that the plants get a shorter more intense lighting period.

Update next week.


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## Spider Pig (21 Jul 2008)

*Week 2*

Things trotting along nicely although do have some algae problems. Had some BGA growing on the side glass facing the window. Removed it manually and covered up the bottom with some black plastic- seems to have done the trick of preventing it. Also had some tufts of hair algae growing. I think this is due to the fact that Iâ€™m underdosing the fertilizers as when I tested the water before my water change it registered 0 nitrates. Going to double the dose and recheck next week. 
Shot before pruning. The Hornwort does grow at a ridiculous rate- about 1 Â½ ft a week- might have to change that soon:



Shots after









Pictures not great unfortunately as got a lot of glare from the gravel and some of the plants so had to underexpose. Will have to play around with the camera to see how I can get a better picture.

The glosso does seem to be taking and Iâ€™ve spread it further around the front, having to painstakingly replant it, as the corries have other ideas. Well worth getting the fine tweezers for this.







A few problems Iâ€™d noticed. One was abnormal growth at the tips of some java fern. I read that this may be due to nutrient shortage so hopefully can be rectified by upping the fertilizers. Any other ideas what might cause this?




Also the moss doesnâ€™t seem to be growing at all. However the pelia is showing signs of new growth. Is this normal, should I just wait and see?




Some of the crypts are showing signs of browning- I assume this is crypt melt- Does it affect all crypts and how long do they take to regrow?
All being well, thinking of adding 4 ottos next week to go help algae cleaning duties. 

Any comments/ advice welcome.


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## Mark Evans (21 Jul 2008)

ottos, shrimp, true Siamese flying foxes, they'll all help. you might want to invest in some flourish excel too. should help rid you of some algae varietys. and maybe some roots tabs in the substrate?
it appears to be an inert substrate? 

cheers
mark


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## ceg4048 (21 Jul 2008)

Hi spider,
             Analysis of your photos suggests the onset of GSA. The poor performance of glosso is most likely due to low CO2 at the substrate level. As saintly points out regular dosing of Excel will help, but you might also consider simply increasing the injection rate, which is a cheaper solution. In your original post you mentioned a dosing of 9 ml PMDD which is ambiguous since no one can tell how you prepared that solution. It's likely that your tank is PO4 limited. Some of your plants grow well with the current dosing but this is simply because some plants are better at feeding or are in a better location where nutrients are more adequately distributed.

You ought to be able to resolve most algae issues with increased water column fertilization and CO2. I'm not one to depend on fish to rid the tank of algae (since algae eaters don't answer the question of why you have algae) but algae eaters do help clean up. In my opinion root tabs are a placebo as they don't add anything more to the substrate than what your fish are already adding via feces - and your fish do a better job at distribution.  

Cheers,


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## Spider Pig (21 Jul 2008)

Thanks for the comments

Dosing-wise I'm adding 3 tsp KNO3 and 1/2 tsp KPO4 to 500ml of water. From James' website this is 18g KNO3 and 3.3g KPO4. I started on the 2ml/40L calculation giving 9ml/ day for a 180L tank. I've just looked at the website again and think I may have got confused between the all in one and pmdd, and so should be dosing 5ml/ 40L. I'm putting 20 in now which is a bit closer to this- will tweak it properly tomorrow. Substrate is inert and was hoping to stick to water column dosing if possible.

I'll up the co2 a bit. At the moment it feeds directly into the filter inlet so should be dissolving in well enough. The glosso is at the bottom of the down draft of the spray bar so it should be getting to the co2 first. The drop checker is nicely green, although I know that this isn't a good indicator of co2 levels throughout the tank. Is it worth adding excel on top of this, i.e. does excel have any anti-algae properties other than providing carbon to other plants?

In stable, well planted tanks do you still get algae on the glass, or should you have none if your fertilisation is correct? I hoped that by having the hornwort this would outcompete the algae, but it appears to be outcompeting the other plants instead.


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## Mark Evans (21 Jul 2008)

are you using 4dkh water in your drop cheker? thats important apperntly.



			
				ceg4048 said:
			
		

> I'm not one to depend on fish to rid the tank of algae (since algae eaters don't answer the question of why you have algae)



good point!



			
				Spider Pig said:
			
		

> Is it worth adding excel on top of this, i.e. does excel have any anti-algae properties other than providing carbon to other plants?



personly i have stable co2, a fert regime and dose excel. from start up 5/6 weeks ago until now...no signs of algae!


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## Spider Pig (21 Jul 2008)

I've upped the co2 and will add easycarbo on top of that over the next week to see how things go (use 4kdh in the drop checker). Do you still get algae on the glass? I think the fact that the glosso keeps getting uprooted probably isn't helping, but it's definately growing. Just wish the eleocharis would start spreading as well. What do you think about the moss, does it normally take a bit of time to get growing?


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## ceg4048 (21 Jul 2008)

Spider Pig said:
			
		

> In stable, well planted tanks do you still get algae on the glass, or should you have none if your fertilisation is correct? I hoped that by having the hornwort this would outcompete the algae, but it appears to be outcompeting the other plants instead.



Hi spider,
     You need to completely purge your mind of this concept. It could only have been invented by someone who failed to comprehend the role of algae within an ecosystem. It is such a debilitating concept that it continues to ensnare its victims as if it were a Venus flytrap.

Algae and higher order plants do not share the same niche in an ecosystem. Their needs are worlds apart and therefore they cannot possibly compete with each other. In order for your plants to thrive under high lighting they may require something like a weekly supply of 3 ppm (parts per million) of Phosphate. Algae can thrive under the same lighting conditions with as little as 3 ppb (parts per billion) of Phosphate. That means that there is 3 orders of magnitude, or 1000 times the difference in the nutritional requirement of GSA versus the nutritional requirement of hornwort. It's not even close. It's the difference between the nutritional requirement of an elephant versus the nutritional requirement of a mouse.

You therefore need to feed the elephants and forget about the mice. The good news though is that algal spores are able to sense the aquatic environments. They sense when the conditions are favorable for their development. Favorable conditions for algae are the opposite conditions of those that are favorable to plants. Nutrient rich waters, high in CO2 and low in NH4 are favorable for plants. Nutrient poor waters, low in CO2 and high in NH4 are favorable to algae.

If algae are present in your tank in significant quantity this means that your tank water has satisfied at least one of those (algae favorable) conditions. Poor nutrient and/or low CO2 waters also causes plants to suffer structural failure and to leech NH4 into the water column thereby satisfying the conditions which facilitate the rise and dominance of algae.

The way to suppress algae therefore is optimize the environmental conditions for healthy plants. Can you see now that there is nothing to do with competition? When plants are healthy algae is abated. When plants are unhealthy algae dominate. It's that simple. Hornwort would vanish into oblivion if it had to depend on winning a competition against algae because it needs 1000 times more food to survive than algae does.

If the algae on your glass is GSA then this is an indication that you need to feed your plants more PO4. Since you have already increased your dosing, wait 3 weeks for the effects to be fully realized. If GSA persists after that time then consider enriching your mixture with more PO4.

Hope this makes sense.  

Cheers,


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## Spider Pig (21 Jul 2008)

Purge completed. Definately need to do some more reading. Thanks Ceg

The dosing I'm doing now will be adding about 4ppm of phosphate a week so hopefully kick start the other plants and stop the algae overrun. Just looked closely and can see the glosso roots running between the glass and the gravel and can see it extending runners so at least something is working.


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## Spider Pig (31 Jul 2008)

*Week 4 update*

Things have moved on a bit with a few additions and plant moves.

Added 4 ottos just under a week ago- all seem to healthy and well. They had been in the LFS for 7-8 weeks and had nice fat stomachs so hopefully will be ok with them.
Moved the vallis from behind the volcanic rock to the right rear corner. Was getting annoyed with the number of runners being sent out and also it was disrupting the slope too much.
Also moved the co2 diffuser to the back behind the volcanic rock. Lots of gas was getting trapped in the filter and it was getting really noisy. Surprisingly I didnâ€™t need to up the co2 rate in the new position.










The main addition is the moss wall, xmas moss courtesy of Dan Crawford. Moss looked nice and healthy and can  already see it poking through the grid so hopefully will have more luck with this than the last lot.







Still having a problem with GSA and crypt melt (I assume). Hopefully this will respond to the increased fertilization. Using James DIY all in one, dosing 30ml daily for the 180L which is just above his recommendation. This should add 2.6ppm nitrate and 0.6ppm phosphate so should be adequate. However I did test the nitrate level at the end of the week and this was 0, although Iâ€™m not 100% confident in the test kit (API) Is it worth upping the dose? Iâ€™m also using easycarbo 7ml daily in addition and hope this will bring the algae under control.




Glosso doing well, carpeting nicely. Canâ€™t say the same for the hairgrass, but it isnâ€™t all dead so there is some hope left.

Always nice to see plants pumping out oxygen




Advice/ comments welcome.


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## LondonDragon (31 Jul 2008)

Looking great  just the mesh you used for the wall is not ideal, it will take a very very long time before you see any results. Specially with Xmas moss as it grows very slow indeed, keep us update on the process.


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## aaronnorth (31 Jul 2008)

looking lovely, you have hidden the diffuser line well, but how will you get it off to clean it? It will be very fiddly trying to thread it around the back of the net every time!


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## LondonDragon (31 Jul 2008)

aaronnorth said:
			
		

> looking lovely, you have hidden the diffuser line well, but how will you get it off to clean it? It will be very fiddly trying to thread it around the back of the net every time!


Also when the moss grows it will just block the space above the diffusor and not sure how good of an idea it is for the bubbles just to go into the moss!


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## Spider Pig (31 Jul 2008)

Hadn't thought about diffuser maintenance- could just unplug the mesh from the wall though. If the bubbles are getting trapped could move the diffuser to the side wall. Thinking of upgrading to a rhinox 5000 as some of the current bubbles are quite large. If I do then it should be less of a problem as they are 2" diameter which should spread the bubbles away from the wall.

Looking at the grid on the aquatic magic site I think I should have gone with that- probably will do when I order some stuff from them. Picked this stuff up from a craft shop and had seen it used in a moss wall before. Can see a few fronds poking through but I can see that it could cause problems later on- don't want this stuff to die on me as well!

When you say slow, how slow? how long did your wall take to fill out LD? I guess I'm lucky Dan was generous with the amount of moss he gave. Considering another similar sized wall on the other side- any faster growing mosses that are better suited?


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## LondonDragon (31 Jul 2008)

Spider Pig said:
			
		

> When you say slow, how slow? how long did your wall take to fill out LD? I guess I'm lucky Dan was generous with the amount of moss he gave. Considering another similar sized wall on the other side- any faster growing mosses that are better suited?


I have had some Xmas moss in my shrimp tank and its taken ages to grow, set it up over two months ago and hasn't grown pretty much since.
I use weeping moss for my wall and it covered the wall in about a couple of months, you can always wait and see, if it dies on you just let me know and I will send you some weeping moss instead  when you get the new mesh.
I just sent out two packages of weeping moss today, but I am sure I will have plenty more in a couple of weeks.


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## Spider Pig (4 Aug 2008)

Thanks for the offer LD. I'll probably order some of the mesh from aquaticmagic soon so may take you up on your offer then. 

Just come back from a long weekend and the growth rate has really shot up. I think the plants are responding well to the higher fertiliser dose.


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## Brenmuk (13 Aug 2008)

Your rooted plants would benefit from a richer substrate as some plants mainly absorb nutrients through the roots such as cryptocornes. One thing I have tried is JBL solid fertiler balls. They are made out of clay and can be pushed to the bottom of your gravel. I think I paid about Â£10 for a box of 20 from Maidenhead Acquatics.
see 
http://www.jblaquaria.com/cart_prod...le=JBL 7 PLUS 13 BALLS SOLID FERTILISER BALLS


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## Spider Pig (22 Aug 2008)

*Tank update week 7*

Itâ€™s been some time since an update so decided to put up some pics now that I have a DSLR. So nice to be able to actually focus on things!

Couple of changes. Started EI dosing now that Iâ€™ve got a pump and hosepipe for water changes instead of buckets. Having tried this I really donâ€™t know why anyone would do any different unless you have a small tank. Can do 50% water changes it about Â½ hour, and at least you can do some gardening whilst the water is emptying/ refilling. Also changed lighting to 8hrs straight without a siesta. Noticed a big drop in the amount of GSA. Still a way to go.

Picked up some bargains from greenline before it shut- some bacopa monnieri, hairgrass and anubias nana petite. Iâ€™ve planted some of the hairgrass but have left some more floating to grow roots. Iâ€™m hoping this will increase its survival and not turn into a brown mush.

Not much happening on the moss front. I think my tank is toxic to it. Ordered some mesh off aquaticmagic and will try different moss. 

Otherwise everything seems to be filling in nicely. 

Before trim:





After trim:




O2 pumps:




Fauna:
















Thanks for your comments Brenmuk. I thought about root tabs but decided to see how things go with water column dosing alone. At the moment I'm happy with the growth of everything apart from the crypts, which I'm still not sure if they're half dead or not. Most are sprouting new leaves, albeit slowly. The swords are shooting up and I don't want them to go any faster.

Advice/ comments welcome as always.


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## aaronnorth (22 Aug 2008)

looking nice, good pics too. The hairgrass will be better planted, the roots will eventually grow.


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## a1Matt (22 Aug 2008)

yes, looking nice indeed.

With regards to the speed of the moss growth... I have not tried xmas.  But I can say that taiwan and weeping both grow fast for me.  Spiky is a slower grower. and flame is a really slow grower.


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## Spider Pig (22 Aug 2008)

aaronnorth said:
			
		

> looking nice, good pics too. The hairgrass will be better planted, the roots will eventually grow.



I tried floating the hairgrass as this was the advice from greenline (not there before though). I'll see how it goes but one advantage is that you can pick out the viable plants after a week and get rid of the dying ones. Also hopefully the longer root will give it a better chance of staying in the gravel and not getting pulled out. Took the time to separate out the plantlets this time as well so hopefully that will make a difference.

Londondragon said that he might have some weeping moss in a bit so might try that. I think that one of the problems getting moss from shops is that it is emersed and so takes time to adapt to submerged. Trying to be patient though  .

Thanks for the comments


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## natalie (4 Sep 2008)

This is beautiful! The fish look gorgeous and I adore the Glosso!


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## vauxhallmark (4 Sep 2008)

It's looking great, you're getting some nice photos too.

Don't worry about the crypts - they hate change. There's probably a lot going on under the gravel that you can't see. And if they've started sending new leaves then you're pretty much there. Just let them get on with it, and one day you'll be amazed at how many leaves they've quietly put up!

Best,

Mark


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## ceg4048 (4 Sep 2008)

Add more CO2 mate and you will see your moss, hairgrass and crypts accelerate. Crypts don't hate change - they just hate poor CO2....  

Cheers,


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## ziggy_909 (5 Sep 2008)

SAE's in my tank eat newly growing moss, remove them and your moss will grow, you can re add SAE's at a later stage to keep your moss in check....


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## Spider Pig (30 Nov 2008)

*5 months later...*

Itâ€™s been sometime since updating this threadâ€¦usual excuses time, work, blah blah blah..

Lots of changes, though probably not all apparent.










CO2- Got a bigger diffuser (Rhinox 5000) and put it at the bottom of the juwel internal filter stack. Initially used the juwel sponges, but a lot of the gas was getting trapped and not diffusing resulting in occasional splurges of gas clouding the place up. More efficient than diffusion straight into the tank though. Recently filled the filter with bioballs instead, topped with one sponge and fine filter wool. Much more efficient although can hear the fizzing of the diffuser.

Filter- Changed most of the standard filter media in the tetratec to ehfisubstrat pro.

Substrate- added some Miracle-gro controlled release plant tablets. I think that this has made a big difference as my amazon sword and crypts are growing much more. However I have also upped the fertilization so this would have contributed as well.

Fertiliser- Changed to double dose of EI. Found that growth would shoot up after a trim and that nitrates measured only 0-5ppm even if I hadnâ€™t done a water change for 2 weeks. As I said- have noticed a big improvement in growth but part of this might be to do with the root tabs.

Algae- Still having problems with GSA on the glass and on leaves. Also get black spots on the slow growers like the anubias and old java fern leaves. I think the main reason behind this is overstocking (for a planted tank). Must have a good 18-20 platies now of varying sizes and havenâ€™t managed to get rid of some to the LFS. The other factor is hygiene. Havenâ€™t managed to keep up the weekly water changes and debris building up. The last water change I made sure to suck up all debris and it is surprising how much there is. I imagine this would contribute to any ammonia in the tank.

Moss- a resolute failure, for which I blame the Siamese algae eaters and the platies to a lesser extent. I can see them eating the new shoots and so much of the moss visible is brown and dying. Behind the mesh the moss is actually green.

Decided a new approach and used a couple of cladophora algae balls as dressing for my volcanic rock. Quite like it and might use some more. Using the other balls to cover substrate in the shade as I struggled to get any hairgrass to grow there.




Hairgrass is doing well in the open- hope it spread around the front. Cut down on the glosso I had as it was too high maintenance and was just invading everywhere and rotting at the base. Trying out some HC to see if it will be better foreground plant.




Plans for the future are to get rid of the platies and get more ottos and hopefully a shoal of harlequin rasbora.

Advice and comments welcome.


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## aaronnorth (30 Nov 2008)

tank is looking great, i love seeing large thickets of java fern together, looks really natural.


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## Spider Pig (1 Dec 2008)

aaronnorth said:
			
		

> tank is looking great, i love seeing large thickets of java fern together, looks really natural.



In my next tank I'd like to have a go with some of the other varieties of fern like windelov as well as Bolbitis but no space at the moment as the java fern is taking over. Need to be a bit more aggressive with trimming. Thinking about moving the central "tower" (can't really see as covered in fern) to the right hand side to provide more of a slope, then move the stems more centrally to make them more easily trimmed to a slope shape. The shape is pretty lost at the moment.


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## jay (1 Dec 2008)

The ferns are looking really healthy in those pics. All fresh leaves. Good stuff!!


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## Spider Pig (2 Dec 2008)

jay said:
			
		

> The ferns are looking really healthy in those pics. All fresh leaves. Good stuff!!


 
Trying to be a bit more aggressive hacking away the old leaves, but they do grow quickly.


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## Spider Pig (5 Dec 2008)

Finally got around to offloading some of my platies to the LFS- got good credit for them too which is always good. 

Was hoping to get some ottos however was told that there was a problem with supply because of bad weather. They had some harlequin rasboras which had just arrived and so might pick bout 12 of these up in a couple of weeks once they've settled in.

I'm hoping the lower fish load will help reduce the amount of GSA i'm getting on plants. Another factor might be poor flow due to the fact that the plants are getting tangled together. Thinking about a small shuffle around in the next couple of weeks.

One thing I noted was that some of the moss is still growing where it has been shielded. Also I fed some cucumber to my SAE the last couple of days and I'm sure that there are more green shoots on the moss. Might try it over the next week to see if I can tempt them away long enough for the moss to take hold.


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## Themuleous (14 Dec 2008)

Great photos, tank looks great, nice healthy plants 

Sam


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## Spider Pig (15 Dec 2008)

THanks for the comments.

Planning a rescape in the new year. Going to move the volcanic rock to the the right and maybe get rid of the other "tower" all together. This will give more room and give a more traditional triangular arrangement. I knew the current arrangement was aesthetically unbalanced but the fish seemed to love the volcanic rock so couldn't think what to do with it. In the new arrangement there should be more open area which I hope to fill with hairgrass or HC (if it starts growing.)

As an off shoot am trying to grow some hairgrass, HC and glosso outside in waterlogged compost and then hopefully transplant it into the tank if it grows well. 

Busy until after new year so putting things off until then.


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## beeky (15 Jan 2009)

Any updates on this?


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## Spider Pig (27 Jan 2009)

Been pretty busy over last month or so and unfortunately have neglected the tank a bit. Went away for 10 days over xmas and when I came back all the plants were overgrown. However this had the beneficial effect of acting like a feedback loop as it blocked light and so slowed growth and demand from other plants and so there actually wasn't that much algae- a few patches of BGA at the top and BBA where the flow had been totally blocked. I kept on procrastinating about cleaning up as I knew it would be a big job and cut down on ferts in case they were not all being used up. Finally got around to it this weekend and cleared it out (or at least the wife did.) Nothing dramatic to report, just ticking along, however it does demonstrate the inherent stability of planted tanks.

Planning to do a rescape in a month or so's time as going to be busy till then so just going to keep things stable.


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