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Fresh start

mlgt

mlgt

LFKC Mod
Joined
28 Jun 2009
Messages
1,260
Location
London
Hi there,

New to the board. I have shuffled my tank around and need some direction from the forum to improve.

I have attached a copy of the image.

Been experimenting from this Picture054.jpg

To this as of last night - Picture018.jpg

I am thinking I need a carpet of Cuba or hair grass.

The tank itself is around 77l and have rehomed the discus as it was getting bulled. He/she(unsure of sex) was dark colour and a recluse for a month and now seems to have perked up alot 🙂

Welcome to all comments.

Thank you for reading.
 
wlecome 🙂

I think your tank looks good, just needs a few more plants to creeate a smoother transitions to the forground. I think it neds a plant where the dicus is, to hide the bottom of the stems, something like blyxa japonica.

can you tell us a few more specs such as lighting, CO2 & fertilisation etc,
thanks
 
Hi there,

I dont run any co2 or fertilisation.

I use 2 x 15w of the following -

Arcadia 15w fresh water lamp
Interpet triplus relector lamp

As I am still new to the planted world I am still learning.
Thank you for the suggestion and I will look into this over the week.

In the meantime is there any other types of "carpet" plants should I be looking at? Pictures of references are welcome.

I just google aquatic plants and so many page turn up LOL.
 
I think a nice Microsorum Pteropus (Java Fern) would look great in the right corner, attached to the wood (not too high) 🙂

I'd definitely suggest reading up on plant fertilisers and CO2 🙂 Mind, if you find your plants are growing and you've got no algae, then you're probably doing OK so far 🙂
 
Plants are growing well. I have it on timer from around 11-9pm and daily water changes and clean up the poo from the discus and plecs.

Fish are fed once or twice a day on a varient of solid food, frozen bloodworms and cyclops. The plecs and corys are fed algae wafers and each week i plonk a small piece of courgette in there and remove after 1 night if unconsumed.

Plants have now been given a trim and replanted and I will have a look at the named plant to cover the stems.

Because its a small tank for now, are the benefits of co2 that great? I mean will it improve the overall well being of my tank and not just my plants?

In the meantime I will look at a carpet type moss/plant to cover the bottom, but was told to best do it on slate or mesh as its easier to hoover up mess that way 🙂
 
mlgt said:
Plants are growing well. I have it on timer from around 11-9pm and daily water changes and clean up the poo from the discus and plecs.

Fish are fed once or twice a day on a varient of solid food, frozen bloodworms and cyclops. The plecs and corys are fed algae wafers and each week i plonk a small piece of courgette in there and remove after 1 night if unconsumed.

Plants have now been given a trim and replanted and I will have a look at the named plant to cover the stems.

Because its a small tank for now, are the benefits of co2 that great? I mean will it improve the overall well being of my tank and not just my plants?

In the meantime I will look at a carpet type moss/plant to cover the bottom, but was told to best do it on slate or mesh as its easier to hoover up mess that way 🙂
Click to expand...

blyxa might not be the best choice wthout CO2, it does like lots of it!
You could add some crytocorynes instead.

CO2 improves plant growth massively, so the extra growth produces more O2 for the fish, however you might have to add fertiliser too. I would suggest you stick with what you have got, there aren't many low tech tanks around.
 
Will look into the named plants this week and head on over to living waters or order it in at least 🙂

I think for the time being I will stick with it till i get the hang of it and then when I get lucky on ebay I will buy a bigger tank and prepare a proper aquascape with Co2 and substrate etc 🙂

Thanks for advice and keep it coming with comments 🙂
 
So I got my hands on a 180l tank last week and slowly built it up..

Heres how it looks right now, simply moved everything over and placed it the same way LOL.

Picture031.jpg

Im after inspiration. I dont want to get rid of the wood as its taken me months to grow the moss and to make it look good 🙁
 
Heres an update of my tank after a bored Sunday afternoon.

Picture042.jpg

Im planning to remove the bigger rear rocks and replace with giant vallis and place a piece of bogwood and attach anubias there.

Comments please 🙂
 
So its been a while. Ive learnt alot over the past few months.

Heres a rehaul of my current low tech tank, soon to be adding some FE co2 setup.

From this -Picture068.jpg

The calm before the storm....Picture109.jpg

To this -Picture076.jpg

Please feel free to comment and even suggest me plants.

I am planning to remove all my vallis and replace with something like Aponogeton Crispus/crinium natans/C.Balansae.
Something wavy as I like this, but gotten bored of Vallis over the years.

Then in the left Im thinking maybe plant a tiger lotus to add some contrast to the wood.
 
Cheers Chris,

Partially keeping the internal filter means I can sell the tank on and get a new bigger tank when I move next year.

In the meantime I will simply add co2 and learn about plants rather than fish 🙂

But yes, over time it will look quite nice when I replace the vallis and various random plant clippings Ive picked up over the year 🙂
 
Recent update of my tank.

Have learnt alot since the last update. Now have co2, updated my lighting and added 2 x 39 T5 and EI regime.


little091.jpg
little096.jpg

Still along way to go partially because of the simplicity of the plants, but now Im going to take out the amazons and replace with some nicer crypts.

Also have about 6 tubs of moss to try out in the tank, but because the tank houses discus the tempreture might affect the mosses.
 
Any suggestions for the middle?
Im going to wait for the balansae to grow bigger, but still need something...
 
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