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Congo Swamp Monster (750l biotope)

Edvet said:
:thumbup: One of my new favorite tanks here:thumbup:
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Thank you! I’m not sure it is even one of my favourites as it stands! If I can get the emersed part to work (really need some new plants and am a bit short of ideas... the Aeschynomene will help when it arrives), the waterlillies established and keep the hair algae in check then I’ll start to be happy with it. I’m not going to add many more fish before then, unless I come across something rare that I can’t say no to (eg more Phenacogrammus ‘red Makoua’).
 
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gltjc said:
how to design the overflow with the very limited space I have behind.
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Overflow syphons are an option, probably the only without drilling the tank to save space.. Than making it the maximum tube diameter you can use behind or at the side of the tank. But these are a bit bulky. I made 2 of these from 16mm clear pvc tube and they do a pretty good job. Clear tube was astecicaly the most decorative option. And since mine only need to swallow 600l/h 16mm does the job, actualy have to trotle them down.

Another possible design, i yet didn't try out myself, only have to idea on paper. But it is actualy a down size of the standard overflow boxes for sale in LFS. Same principle, but realy mini version. 🙂 Smaller and less bulky as the above syphon design.

Also this is tube, inside and outside the tank are a piece of 25mm tube with end cap and a T. Obviously piece of tube and end cap for a cup holding water. Te T is inlet/outlet. The syphon should be a U made out of 16mm PVC using knees or warm bend, as long it a U pipe filled with water standing in the filled cups.
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As said this still is theoretical and basic diagram, i know it will work, just yet not sure about the proper dimensions. My first try out will be 25mm/16mm and see how it performs. using multiple small ones can also be an option. I always aim for 2 overflows, if for what ever reason 1 stops there is a 2nd.
🙂
 
Kitalexander said:
This tank just gets better and better. Those tetras are beautiful. What is the rush like plant on the right hand side?
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Thank you! The plants on the right are a mix of ‘pond grade’ Eleocharis acicularis and Juncus effusus

It is crazy how much more you get of the same Eleocharis species you get for your money when they are sold as pond plants rather than aquarium plants!
 
gltjc said:
It is crazy how much more you get of the same Eleocharis species you get for your money when they are sold as pond plants rather than aquarium plants!
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I've noticed the same.. 🙂 I think it comes down to the steriliity they are nursed.. In the pond shop they usualy are displayed outdoors in pots on composted (biologicaly fertilized) dirt soil. so they obviously come from the nursery out of a greenhouse where everything is nursed on dirt soils. With this a lot of bugs and shrubs come with them. I have something like a pond in the garden en yearly buy new pond plants amd pick these pots apart and always find eggs in the soil. Outdoor this aint the problem. Indoors you don't realy want uninvited geusts. Than dirt soils buffers, pH etc. it regulates itself with microbiological process and these plants only need watering and time to grow.

Nursing plants on inert rockwool not only requires more expensive fertilizers but is also more labor intensive, next to keep the workfloor tidy and clean etc.
You realy need to measure and prepare a fert schedule and constantly monitoring and adjusting if nececary.
 
Can anyone suggest what might be going wrong with my plants? The Anubias and Pistia are melting and the Eleocharis and Cyperus that were growing well have stalled.

This seems to have been triggered by me reducing the light levels rather dramatically (to ~50% if max output for 2 hours with a long slope either side) to counter the beginning of some green thread algae and a reduced level of circulation as one of the filters has stopped working. The thread algae has got rather worse since..

I suspect excess nutrients are to blame, but not sure if upping the light to help the plants take better advantage would be wise. I doubt it’s CO2 levels as the Pistia and emersed Cyperus are suffering. Could it be a lack of trace nutrients? Seems unlikely but not impossible with ~85% RO. Tempted to add some liquid carbon and up the light levels for a week and see if that helps or makes things worse.

Pics of the Pistia and Anubias:

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It's a rather difficult combination, Pistia is a nutrient hog and sun worshipper, not the easiest indoor plant even with enough ferts it can suffer from light defficiency. If it gets enough of all in an aquarium it never grows very big. People tend to name this Dwarf Pistia which doesn't realy excist it the same plant.

The Anubias on the other hand is actualy it's counterpart, hence it's named after "The Egyptian god of the underworld" I've seen this plant come out a 4 day complete blackout with accelerated new growth. It grows in extremely shaded spot it stores energy and even grows in the dark, this plant can suffer from to much light. Same for the midground, the Nymphaea next to the Anubias, if you want the Nymphaea to make floaters it wants rather a lot of light for that which again doesn't favor the Anubias.

Starting up a tank from scratch completely filled to the top planted with plants which thrive at the opposite end of the spectrum than it is quite a challange to find the proper mid way for both. I think what ever you do with such combination one will always suffer with serving the other. Here you have to make choises. Get the lilly floating so it shades the Anubias, that's the goal, i guess.. Mean while the Anubias will likely going to suffer from algae growth. If you worry about that and want to serve the Anubias you probably never will get those lillies to float.

also if your posting dates are real time and this tank is setup end november and about 4 weeks into startup. Than most of the plants probably still be in transplant shock and therefore stalling a bit.The grasses you planted at the left are for the biggest part of their foilage submersed, deprived from CO², that little bit that emerses has to make u for that. Imagine the depth you planted all, this needs a rather well developed rootsystem with a lot of stored energy. It yet doesn't have that.. that's where the action starts with transitioning plants, foliage comes from the rootsystem up and not the other way around. That takes time especialy under artificial light..

If you used fertilized soil bellow the sand for the lilies and the emersed parts. Than it likely aint fert defficiencies. It is more likely plant transistion you need to wait out. I would forget about the Pistia for now, focussing on that only will drive you mad, discard that plant for a later date and try again when the tank is established and starts to grow in. move the pistia away from the anubias to the other end and place it with the emersed grasses. Up the light above the emersed section and lower the light above the anubias where possible.

Fighting algae at that young stage, is rolling up sleaves and work with manualy removing and water changes and see how it goes. There is no say up front.. I had a tank driving me nuts for over 6 months, in the end it worked out well i won the batlle. But lost some hairs along the way.

Actualy, staring a tank setup like that imho, (a oh!? Now you say so scenario.) best is to do that in stages.. Dry start what you want emersed to sufficient mass, flood it plant the lillies and other faster growing submersed plants grow them to sufficient size floating and well. Then you have your shading and time for planting that what loves shade. But it's to late for that now.. Have fun!.. (Sorry..)

And succes.. It's a wonderfull tank.. 🙂
 
Thanks! Super thoughtful post.

I was probably a bit impatient.

I have 6-7 floating leaves on the Nymphaea now, so that seems to be going well. As you say the grasses on the right are a bit confused - I seem to have some that are doing well and some that aren’t of the same species next to each other - i guess some are making the transition better than others.

I think you are right that I give up on the Anubias on the left for now, until I can get the emersed plants on the left growing and shading the area.

So my strategy will be to focus on helping the emersed grasses, the Floscopa and Ammannia and the Nymphaea and looking for something else that will grow quick in the emersed section on the left to suck up nutrients if the Pistia fails - may need to temporarily go out of region with a proven emersed plant like a potho. If the grasses fail I’ll replace with ones in the riparian planters and gradually lower them to the substrate. I can then worry about Anubias later. I think this means a bit more light, enough ferts and perhaps Liquid CO2 for a while.

Does that sound right to you?
 
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I don't know if you have to give up on the Anubias, but just don't worry to much about it. It likely will survive the ordeal as long as the rhizome isn't rotting.. They are extremely resilient plants. I have them in a tank i never fertilize and they do ok, they don't require much attention. Also got one growing about emesed with 4 leaves and this took me 2 years.. Not with love and still suffering but it refuses to die on me.

Here you see an example from my experience with anubias, bucephalndra and a floating lily planted closly together. This 50 litre tank i started about 2,5 years ago was lit with medium intensity with total 50 watt led light at 100%. Actualy to small for a lily i had to keep trimming off floaters. I only kept 4 or 5 floaters at a time there wasn't much room for more.
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I kept it like this for 2 years.. I have no detail shot from the anubias at that time, only from 1 buce which was planted much lower in the tank at substrate level. Anyway All Anubias, Buce and fissidens kinda constantly looked like this in macro shot. All those 2 years i never managed to get them 100% clean. It was a constant BBA battle on the slow growers. They received way to much light..
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After 2 years i had enough of it, lowered the light intensity, switched of half the lights and did hang it 40 cm higher above the tank.
Looking like this now for 6 months. The lily stopped making floaters and only makes much smaller submersed leaves. But the Anubias etc.thrives and is spot on clean. But never seen a lily floater since.
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The Pistia is indeed a plant you can beter forget about, it will not grow big enough to do much good regarding uptake. Than you would need quite a lot more with such surface you have. I think a floater like Salvinia would be a better option, al least for the startup periode to get the tank established. For this plant it's also the same story for size.. Under the sun in eutrophic waters it will grow into this.
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In an average aquarium it wont grow much bigger than the size you buy it. But it will propagate like a little racecar and double in numbers weekly. It's also easy to maintain and scooped off what's to much. Pistia is much to demanding to be of any help and doesn't propagate that fast. It's a nice decorative plant to try in an established tank that's about it and by than for that all little bits help. 🙂

Easy carbo etc. surely will help the tank faster over the hill, it's a good algicide, but as growth accelerator it still works only mildly, nothing beats presurized CO².

gltjc said:
I was probably a bit impatient.
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That's the most difficult part of the hobby.. And having unrealistic expectations probably is something we all started with. It takes a lot of patience and many years of experience. Even with multiple tank syndrom the learning curve is an extremely slow process and can be extremely frustrating. When you think you know something after a few years than something occurs that prooves you wrong. 🙄 Welcome to the hobby.. 🙂 3 steps forward 2 steps back.
 
I have grown Salvinia before. Will get hold of some. Guess I am guilty of thinking that all floating plants are the same and dead easy.
 
🙂 That Easy, as manny plants are described is also very relative and sometimes misguiding.. It's marketing, after all they have to say something to make you buy it. I can name you at least 5 plants described as (very) easy i completely failed to grow in my aqauriums. It beats me why, i just can't.. I don't know if it's me.. Lots of other plants are doing well but these are easily to dificult for me or for the way i setup the tank. I don't know..
 
gltjc said:
Thanks! Super thoughtful post.

I was probably a bit impatient.

I have 6-7 floating leaves on the Nymphaea now, so that seems to be going well. As you say the grasses on the right are a bit confused - I seem to have some that are doing well and some that aren’t of the same species next to each other - i guess some are making the transition better than others.

I think you are right that I give up on the Anubias on the left for now, until I can get the emersed plants on the left growing and shading the area.

So my strategy will be to focus on helping the emersed grasses, the Floscopa and Ammannia and the Nymphaea and looking for something else that will grow quick in the emersed section on the right to suck up nutrients if the Pistia fails - may need to temporarily go out of region with a proven emersed plant like a potho. If the grasses fail I’ll replace with ones in the riparian planters and gradually lower them to the substrate. I can then worry about Anubias later. I think this means a bit more light, enough ferts and perhaps Liquid CO2 for a while.

Does that sound right to you?
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I wouldn't worry too much about plants not doing good in freshly started tank. They need to adjust, just fertilize, give them time. When Nymphaea's roots will be established you will have another worry - it will cover all the surface. Mine is sprouting around 10-15 floating leaves every week (African butterfly fish love it!).
 
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Updated full tank shot and series of pictures down the length of the tank - usual caveat/embarrassment at quality of photos applies!

A bunch of changes since the last update. Most notably the Juncus clearly failed (as Darrell predicted) and has gone, and the large Anubias at back left has also largely gone. I suspect it never made the transition from being supplied emersed to submerged growth. Will have another go with more Anubias ‘congensis arrow’, which is growing well for me on the front of the wood, when I have a bit more shade in that area from the water lilies and emersed grass.

On the positive side the plants in the middle two ‘sections’ (the ‘lily pond’ and the big chunk of wood) are doing well (albeit growing slowly). The Nymphaea are putting out masses of floating leaves, the mix of Pistia, Salvinia and Lemna floating plants all doing fine - the Pistia has recovered remarkably well from looking very dodgy a month or so ago. The Ammania senegalensis and Floscopa in the front part of the big slope and in front of the wood also doing OK and the odd bits of Glossostigma are slowly carpeting.

I have the lights dialled back a lot (50% for about 5 hours, sloping down 2 hours either side), and am dosing liquid CO2 and only micronutrients to try to limit algae growth. I still get a fair amount of green hair algae but it is manageabale with physical removal and I don’t get much diatom or green spot growth.

I’ve done a bunch of replanting of the far right and far left.

On the left, the emersed section is probably the biggest frustration still and I still don’t have a full plan. I’ve moved an Anubias hastifolia from the far right to the front left corner to see how it does and have added some Hygrophila pinnatifida and some Marsilea crenata as I’ve seen them do well emersed in other tanks. The Bolbitis that is in about an inch of water is not doing well, but I’ve read that they can take a lot of time to transition to emersed growth...

On the right I’ve added a bunch of Ludwigia palustris and interplanted it with dwarf vallis and some relocated Floscopa. I’ve also added some more Marsilea and small Eleocharis in front. I’m excited about how this will look when grown in... the pond grade Eleocharis on the right is doing fairly well - throwing out 4-5 leaves to twice the height of the tank every week or so. I will get some more when the pond season starts in the Spring!

Any questions, comments and suggestions very much appreciated!

Have also done some more fish stocking but will leave that to a separate update!
 
Hydrocotyle sp japan grew well for me emersed if you wanted something smaller and speedy growing to fit gaps.

You're sure you aren't short of macros if you have a low stock and started with RO?
 
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