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400 gallon.

Echinodorus x" Regine Hildebrandt" putting out some nice red leaves:
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Moved most of the large uruguayensis from right front to left hind corner, mostly have the smaller version in front now. (wether they are horemanni or the uruguayensis???)

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These go to max 30--35 cm, have redish veins on young leaves, and readily produce new flowering stems, while the larges ones (seen in the back) grow to 75 cm's and rarely make flower spikes. Only when i realy made them think they where going to die (huge neglect) they produced stalks. I started with two of these. They grow on a rhizome. The biggest one had a wood/cork like rhizome of app 15 cm. They can grow new plants on these too.
 
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Update: Trying to get growth as good as i can. Dreaded BBA rearing it's head. Trying to clean old leaves as much as possible, try to get as much CO2 in there as possible. (wil have to try to close sump better, but the way it's set up it wont be very efficient). The plants in the back middle wil probably go. The Persicaria is full of BBA and the Hyptis old leaves are ugly and have BBA too. have to figure out a replacement for those.
Back left corner has the same echinodorus as are in the back right, if they get same height, it will look better. The staurogyne and the echinodorus carpet are starting to merge, sadly there is some BBA on the staurogyne too, can probably weed that out mostly. The zosterifolia and the diversifolia need a trim to get in better shape, will do that next weekend. Growth of the red Alternanthera's is very slow, they probably need more light, not sure if i can manage that for them. Can be i need other reds.
(link to large size file:http://m5.i.pbase.com/o9/89/200689/1/153824865.7Eg799IH.DSC_4244copy_filtered.jpg)

Question: if i cant get more CO2 in would raising the lights improve the BBA situation, or is the only solution faster growth and more pruning?. I know i could go to low CO2 to improve BBA too (BBA growths best at 10-15 ppm CO2 it seems), so that still is an option. Just not sure how the plants other then the echinodorus would react, wether they could cope with lower light.
 
The overflow and the sump are critical to keep the CO2 stable.
The quieter you can get the overflow prefilter the better. Search "Bean Animal overflow". Use something like that and modify the overflow.
Sealing up the wet/dry section of the sump is relatively easy.

I would likely use a nice wall of Vals/Uruguay swords in the rear. This will look nice and they are easy to care for and will not be BBA covered as some other plants.
You will have BBA issues for awhile otherwise and the CO2 will be an on going issue.
 
Always thought these where uruguayensis (or horemanni):
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They are app 30 inches long and app 1 inch wide. Ah wel, goes to show Echinodorus are a mixed group.

I agree i might need to tackle the plumming, problem is i can't rearange it in a big way. I can.t move the tank or add holes. But there are things i can do.
Strangely it seemed to start (the BBA that is) when i took the lighting higher up, away from the tank, in an attempt to lessen the need for CO2. On the other hand the plant load has increased too, so that
might be a factor too.
On an upnote i am almost ready to start using the 10 kg CO2 bottle, so that should make life easier, it might even keep me for 2 months... ;) , and i found a LFS that can get good quality wildcaught fish.
.
 
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Update: stil combating BBA. Looks i have to pull complete staurogyne lawn and prune affected leaves. In the proces of changing drainage to minimize CO2 loss.
Without CO2 pH is app 7, with CO2 i can get to app 6.4 at lights out, raises to 6.6-6.7 at the end of lighting period (61/2 hours), CO2 is still on for 24 hours.

Link to Original size:http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3708/11758539885_be5b74c1c3_o.jpg
 
Took out the lightunit with the 2 150W halides this weekend,. Basicaly tank is lighted with 2x 80W HO T5's now with 2 TMS 1500 tiles and one mercury vapor 125w. Managed to get an new regulator with a solenoid and changed my plumbing so i loose less CO2 in the sump. I can get the Ph down to app 6.2 now at the start of the lights.
I don't want to put in SAE's (1) wrong origin and 2) hard to catch to take them out) so i wil have to trim all affected leaves. Just want to make sure i don't see any new BBA before i start that. I will have to lift all the staurogyne and replace it with cuttings........that will take some time........
 
Hehe wel it's larger then yours:cool:
Actualy there are 2 crypts in there, but you cant see them in the pic, they're hidden.(came with some plants from Germany as a piece of root with two tiny leaves, i decided to plant it and C. wendtii emerged; they will need to move out seeing there are only south american plants in this tank).
So no crypts are visible. The centergroup is Staurogyne Porto Velho, with some Echinodorus latifolius coming in from behind, imediately on their right is Najas Guadeloupe, and right of those is Najas Roraima. Far right is Heteranthera zosterifolia 75 cm high.
Stil seeing if i can get some nice wood, just don't think having some sent from USA is viable.
Been experimenting with backgrounds ( wel actualy cut opened bin bags) to see what i like, problem is i can't move the tank, so i can drop in something behind it, but can't do much else.I have looked around for something to put in the tank, but i cant find something i like'(like for instance those "slim" Back to Nature panels)
 
Edvet said:
Hehe wel it's larger then yours:cool:
Actualy there are 2 crypts in there, but you cant see them in the pic, they're hidden.(came with some plants from Germany as a piece of root with two tiny leaves, i decided to plant it and C. wendtii emerged; they will need to move out seeing there are only south american plants in this tank).
So no crypts are visible. The centergroup is Staurogyne Porto Velho, with some Echinodorus latifolius coming in from behind, imediately on their right is Najas Guadeloupe, and right of those is Najas Roraima. Far right is Heteranthera zosterifolia 75 cm high.
Stil seeing if i can get some nice wood, just don't think having some sent from USA is viable.
Been experimenting with backgrounds ( wel actualy cut opened bin bags) to see what i like, problem is i can't move the tank, so i can drop in something behind it, but can't do much else.I have looked around for something to put in the tank, but i cant find something i like'(like for instance those "slim" Back to Nature panels)
Click to expand...

Larger than mine.......for now ;) 2 years time we will see then.

You could try black tissue paper at the back that looks nice.
 
Or a blind but I guess you would need to settle on a colour for that

Sent from my GT-I9505G using Tapatalk
 
I seem to be wining (not whining) the war on BBA, I've raised my lights (added back the 150W halides, but much higher above tank) and have a regulator with a solenoid now, so when lights are on i have a big stream of CO2 going through the bubblecounter. Lights are on 61/2 hour, Co2 starts app 2 hours before, on till 30 mins before lights out.
I don't think i see BBA on new leaves. Sooooo....... Now i need to remove and clean the whole "frontlawn"............dairing project.
 
That's some good progress Ed! It's really cool to see those big plants in a tank big enough for them to grow and grow and grow. :thumbup:
 
Basically i found out that i don't like to prune and prune and prune to keep everything tidy. Part of the fun of a big tank is having the plants grow to their max and not have to prune them. Just BBA throws a spanner in the works.
Only thing i am wondering about "the lawn" is: do i keep the Staurogyne or use only the Echinodorus latifolius. it makes a lot of runners.
 
I've been considering the same thing with my big tank lately. One of the big aquatic plant nurseries here in the US has recently started using coconut fiber mats with a coated metal mesh over it to grow large sheets of things like HC, Glosso, mosses, and ferns. The same concept should work well for any plant that puts out runners. Doing something similar would allow you to make a large shaped surface for your foreground species that can be taken out of the tank for trimming/mowing and then dropped back in. It seems to me to be a convenient way to maintain a well shaped and groomed mass of short plants in a large and/or tall tank without having to spend hours with your arms in the tank uprooting and replanting.

Do you want something up front that will make a thick carpet or would a large group of something like Anubias barteri, Nymphaea sp., or Echinodorus parviflorus be suitable? I've made nice low-growing masses of Nymphaea by replanting daughter plants and tubers and just trimming the leaves if they started growing too high.
 
I've been looking for Nymphaea rudgeana or N. glandulifera, you got some?:cool:
Up til now Staurogyne works, get's a bit to thick maybe, the latifolius makes runners everywhere. I guess i will use the staurogyne for now combined with the echinodorus.
 
Unfortunately I don't have any of those species. :( You've probably got better access to things like that in Europe than we do here in the States. Best of luck taking care of the BBA on the Staurogyne. I've been having issues with a different alga on the stuff I'm starting in a new tank. It's driving me crazy! :mad: Sometimes it's difficult to be patient and let things go while then plants establish.
 
Bit the bullit and did the lawn. Started at app 09.00 and was finished at app 16.00. Did clean the filter too. So a lot less plantmass and a lot less dirt, should help in the battle with BBA.

09.00
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09.30 Total lawn removed;
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Also trimmed, cleaned and or moved some small plants.

Still a lot to do with the larger backgroundplants, but need to be "sure' i am on the winning hand with the BBA.
 
Should you not cut out everything with bba? As long as it is in the tank it is sending out spores.
 
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