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Subscribe Countryfish 240g Tank log
Countryfish
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A shot of the SAE's and some Ottos swimming together.

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Post InfoPosted 07-Jul-2007 17:03Profile PM Edit Delete Report 
Countryfish
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Lastly a shot of the Gold Gourami peeking out from his favorite spot near the Driftwood .
Sorry about the standard of the photo's this week the cloudy water has made taking photo's a bit difficult .

The plan for this week is to do some trimming of the plants of the Jungle side as well as work on the rocks in the river .
Will still hold off adding any more fish especially in light of Tetras comments on the Biofilter which I happen to agree with .

Not sure about doing the log this way ( comments with photos ) . Seems a little disjointed to me . Let me know what you think ?

Thanks to everyone for the comments and ideas and keep them coming .

Enjoy
Garry

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Post InfoPosted 07-Jul-2007 17:14Profile PM Edit Delete Report 
tetratech
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Country,
It's much easier to run the UV inline on the output side of your cansister as opposed to setting it up with it's own powerhead. Less equipment the better. There is no harm running it 24/7 or you can put it on a timer or separate valve. I only clean mine twice a year, but that would probably depend on how dirty your tank is.

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Post InfoPosted 07-Jul-2007 17:45Profile PM Edit Delete Report 
RNJ_Punk
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Garry,

The tank looks amazing! Plants look great. That is quite a jungle of wisteria you have there. Its not dying off underneath? Hows the baby molly hitchhiker doing?
I hope you can find a solution to your murky water.
All plants look great!

Post InfoPosted 08-Jul-2007 00:26Profile AIM Yahoo PM Edit Delete Report 
TW
 
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wow, such a lot of growth. The comparison with the earlier shot really shows how it's coming along. Agree with Frank about moving the rocks - perhaps flattening them, but if not, finding another spot for them altogether.

I tried the idea of running a UV from a separate pump & went off the idea completely. With a cannister, you don't need to put a pump in the tank - also prefiltering it was difficult. Go with the cannister, IMO.

I'm enjoying all your pics and hope you keep them up. /:'

Cheers
TW
Post InfoPosted 08-Jul-2007 11:20Profile PM Edit Delete Report 
LITTLE_FISH
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Garry,

Growth looks good, here are a few comments:

- White cloud vs. green cloud. I have a different opinion on the white cloud than tetratech(darn hobby where everybody has a different point, LOL). I think that one has a 50/50 chance of having a white bacterial bloom when setting up a tank, and that white could once maxed out will go away within a week on its own simply because the food for this kind of bacteria is gone, it ate itself to death. Green water, aka algae, is different and tetratech knows how to deal with it first hand, aka UV.

- That filter on the left looks disturbing to the plants below. It seems as they have been cut to grow around them.

- The rocks in the river are too strong and tall. If you want to have them there then I would suggest to lay them flat and to even partially bury them. Right now they block the view to the depth of the river.

Enough for now,

Ingo


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Post InfoPosted 08-Jul-2007 14:26Profile PM Edit Delete Report 
Countryfish
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Thanks Jeff & Robyn for the advice on the UV . I've decided to get it for both tanks . Now just have to decide which type , how many watts , flow rate , zig zag . etc etc .
The different types are mind boggling .
Just one question which I can't seem to get an answer for : How many watts should I get . I see Jeff has a 9w on his 72 g. Robyn was going for 18 to 25w .
Is there a rule or a guideline .
The ratings appear to be all over the place .

Ingo ,Thanks for the info on white water , its been going for 3 weeks now , occasionally I think its got a green tinge but I convince myself its the reflection from the plants .
When I look at the water in a glass it looks clear to white .
I've read a couple of threads that suggest exactly what you said and also say that decaying plant matter will contribute to prolonging the bacteria 's life .
I've got a fair bit of that from the emersed growth stuff dying off.

So what am I going to do I hear you say . Well I'm going to trim up all the decaying leaves and get a UV .
The rocks in the river are too strong and tall.
I agree , they are going tomorrow.
That filter on the left looks disturbing to the plants below. It seems as they have been cut to grow around them.
They are actually growing that way naturally . I only moved the filter there recently . I haven't trimmed them at all .
I hope they will grow to hide the filter . Having said that they may not stay there forever , who knows
Thanks again for your thoughts .

Ryan , The hithchiker , Miss Molly, is going from strength to strength and has doubled in size
Yes there is some die back at the bottom of the Wisteria . I expected it because I have it planted so thickly .
Will see how it goes after I trim tomorrow .
Thanks for stopping by.

Thanks again to eveyone for the interest and help .
Much appreciated

Garry
Post InfoPosted 09-Jul-2007 14:53Profile PM Edit Delete Report 
catdancer
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Garry:

Re the white water. This qustion might sound silly but I have a reason to ask: are you sure that you are dosing sufficient amounts of water conditioner when you are doing your water changes? I have no idea if you use well water, water that is chlorinated or contains chloramines, though.
Post InfoPosted 09-Jul-2007 15:22Profile PM Edit Delete Report 
Countryfish
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catdancer, Mate I use Town Water , and I dose Prime for the whole tank volume .
I'm very cautious when it comes to these things .
I test my water every 2 days and have tested the tap water a few times in the last week or so .
Nothing out of the ordinary .
As expected in a heavily planted tank there are no signs of a cycle , and Nitrates are at 5ppm a couple of times ( I am dosing Seachem Nitrogen twice a week )but mostly at 0 .
So mostly I think its a harmless Bacteria bloom which is being extended by decaying plant matter .

You said you had a reason for asking

Garry
Post InfoPosted 09-Jul-2007 16:00Profile PM Edit Delete Report 
catdancer
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EditedEdited by catdancer
You said you had a reason for asking


Oh yes! here it goes: when I performed water changes (30 - 40%) on my 72 G the water turned extremely cloudy over night. Always and the tank was well established. Sometimes so bad that the fish were gasping for air. I noticed the smell of cheap window cleaner and performed a test for NH3 and bingo! My fish were in acute distress. More water changes and it got worse. Finally I took tap water and tested for NH3 - -negative. I added the so-called tap water condtioner I was using ("removes chlorine and chloramines to make water safe for your fish" and performed the test again: NH3!

My LFS was in shock, they use a different brand which I am using ever since w/o any problems. On Bob Fenner's wet web media web site I found finally also a comment from one of the advisors: not all conditioners do really remove chloramines entirely, he did not say which ones for liability but hinted that conditioners containing pyrollidones will do the job for sure.

NH3 + HOCL gives NH2CL (Chloramine) + H2O. you can imagine what happened in my tank ...

After inquiring at city water works I learned that they dose high levels of chloramine after a nasty bacteria outbreak they had experienced in the past which had which killed several people.

I was thinking that small amounts of ammonia together with decaying plant matter might shift the bacterial balance in your tank resulting in cloudy water. Trace levels required to do this can be quite small and not picked up by the typically available kits.

Just my thoughts!
Post InfoPosted 09-Jul-2007 16:26Profile PM Edit Delete Report 
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EditedEdited by tankwatcher
Thanks Jeff & Robyn for the advice on the UV . I've decided to get it for both tanks . Now just have to decide which type , how many watts , flow rate , zig zag . etc etc. Just one question which I can't seem to get an answer for : How many watts should I get. I see Jeff has a 9w on his 72g. Robyn was going for 18 to 25w
Hi Gary, the research I've done here in Aus (mainly reading other Aussie hobbyist threads on the subject of UV's) it seems that lower watt is for algae kill, higher watts is for parasite kill. I want it for parasite kill (apistos & discus). The most important thing is to make sure the max flow rate for UV is not exceeded by flow rate of filter you attach it to. Water contact time against UV tube is important & if water passes through too quickly, then nothing is killed & your money is wasted. As UV's are expensive in AUS, you don't want that. The twisty type are good, because this means that water passes over a longer UV light source than it would if the light was just straight up & down. I think many of them are twisty. As mentioned, quality UV's in Aus aren't cheap. I have a Du Barry 11W with elecontric ballast $359.95 (purchased before I knew the high watt = parasite kill) & have just purchased 2 X Pentair Aqustep 25W (electronic ballast) for around same price on special - they're now back to usual price $429. These are on-line prices too. Ben has some good prices, but didn't have these brands. I have heard good things about Pondmaster and they're cheaper (36W for around $200). Ben has a 36W on introductory special for under $200, but I don't know the brand. I had a thread here asking if FP members had experience with the brand, but no response, so I got scared & didn't buy it. As you know though, I like dealing with Ben so in retrospect, I'm sure it would have been ok. As for a lot of the other cheaper ones here, the threads I've read all point to there being reasons for them being cheaper (eg cheap plastic parts that break & leak easily).

If you're looking at it for algae, then lower watt should do the trick. IMO matching UV & filter flow rate is the most important thing. Each UV unit will advise what the max flow rate is for effective kill rate. As you have a really good filter (Fluval FX5 - 536 g per hour)that in it itself may force you to go for a higher watt UV unit, as I found the higher the watt, the higher flow rate it can handle. Just my opinions, but I hope they help.

Cheers
TW
Post InfoPosted 10-Jul-2007 00:36Profile PM Edit Delete Report 
antman08015
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beautiful tank
Post InfoPosted 10-Jul-2007 01:22Profile PM Edit Delete Report 
Countryfish
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Folks , Thanks so much for all the advice on UV's , Especially Robyn.

I went out today and got a 36 w Boyu at at really good price from my local guy .
Gives me the peace of mind because they will fix it if I have a problem.
So will install today .

Yesterday I did a major trim and rearranged some of the rocks .
Really like the result .
Photos later in the week with hopefully clear water .

Garry
Post InfoPosted 11-Jul-2007 02:02Profile PM Edit Delete Report 
Countryfish
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Catdancer , welllll, interesting but I think I'm ok .
Always good to have others experiences to use and learn from though .
Thanks for that .

antman,
Thanks for stopping by .

Garry
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Countryfish
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Week 5 Update

This week has seen lots of changes in the tank . As mentioned in the previous posts I picked up a UV steriliser
as suggested by Tetratech and others and this has made a huge difference to the water quality .
It took about 3 days to clear the water .
It's not what I would call perfect yet , but there is no longer a bacteria bloom problem ( white or green ) .
Unfortunatley the Fluval does not lend itself to plumbing a UV into its outline .
Mostly thats due to the size of my cabinet and how I've positioned it.
So I had to use my sponge as the pump for the UV .
This has lead to some ugly equipment in the far left back of the tank which I'm not very happy with .
This will only be temporary until I can find a better solution .

Next I did a major trim of the Wisteria or jungle side of the tank and also removed a lot of decaying leaves
on the Chain swords( emersed growth ) and some of the worst affected leaves on the Amazons .
I also chopped of the baby chains that were floating and planted them in the 60 g .

I removed all but one of the rocks in the front of the river . I buried this one to give it a low profile .
I moved one of the rocks to the other rock group that has been covered by the Wisteria growth up until the trim .

Lastly I moved in some new residents in the form of my Angel group and 1 of my Sharks.
Only did this yeasterday well after the water had cleared .

Growth in the tank has continued with the hairgrass continuing to spread , the chains are spreading as well with runners criscrossing each other .
The Java fern and both lots of Hygro's are doing very well with the 2 Giant Hygro reaching the surface and the other 3 catching up quickly .
The Ludwiga both Ovals and Narrow leaf seem to be doing ok , both show some colour
although from my reading they may be lacking something as they should be showing more red I think ???
The Crypts seem to continue to do well but no startling growth .
The Amazon swords which I was most concerned about seem to be doing very well with lots of new leaves at the base and many spikes reaching for the surface .
On these spikes some babys have developed . I cut of one the spikes and planted in the 60g to see if they would grow .
Does anyone know what you are supposed to do with these as I have some fairly large ones now ??????

There continues to be some green spot algae in the tank and there was quite a bit on the glass this week .
I cleaned the glass on three sides but have left the rest for the Otto's & SAE's to handle .
I think I've noticed some BBA as well , but again the SAE's appear to be taking care of it .

All of which means I still probably haven't quite got the ferts right .I will be looking at that over the next couple of weeks.
I picked up Flourish Trace this week and have added that to my regime .Will see if that also makes a difference .

I didn't plan to make this many changes to the tank in one week ,just got a bit carried away I think
Anyway the plan for this week is stability

On to the photos ,Firstly the full tank as of last week before the trim .


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Post InfoPosted 15-Jul-2007 15:51Profile PM Edit Delete Report 
Countryfish
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Full Tank this week .

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Post InfoPosted 15-Jul-2007 15:52Profile PM Edit Delete Report 
Countryfish
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EditedEdited by countryfish
The Right side showing the major Trim

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Countryfish
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The pennywort area with the new rock.

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Countryfish
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The Amazon swords with lots of spikes

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Countryfish
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Next the Giant Hygro reaching the surface

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Countryfish
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Baby Amazons on the spikes

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Post InfoPosted 15-Jul-2007 16:03Profile PM Edit Delete Report 
Countryfish
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EditedEdited by countryfish
A shot looking up the river past the driftwood .

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Countryfish
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A shot of the Java Fern on the driftwood

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Post InfoPosted 15-Jul-2007 16:10Profile PM Edit Delete Report 
Countryfish
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I also moved 3 plants that were not doing very well in my 60g to see if they would do better here .
Planted them in the river next to the driftwood . No idea what they are called .
Heres a shot , anyone know what they are ?

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Post InfoPosted 15-Jul-2007 16:13Profile PM Edit Delete Report 
Countryfish
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Last Plant shot for this week is the Hairgrass spreading

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Countryfish
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Couple of shots of the new residents inspecting their new abode . Seem to be enjoying all the room .
First the Angels

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Countryfish
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The Albino Redfin

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An SAE conference called to discuss the algae problem on the rocks

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Countryfish
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Last shot for this update is of our Hithchiker " Miss Molly " who has at least trippled in size in the last couple of weeks .

Thanks again to everyone for the suggestions and comment .

Appreciate all of those who have taken the time to stop by and help .

Enjoy
Garry

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Post InfoPosted 15-Jul-2007 16:22Profile PM Edit Delete Report 
TW
 
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Great shots Gary. Thanks looks is looking really good. Never seen an Albino Redfin before - he looks great.

Cheers
TW
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I think it looks great after the trim and i guess the UV sterelizer is working.
Also, you have some beautiful angels, and I also have never seen an albino redfin.
The spikes serve as a stalk for the flowers and also small plantlests grow off of it. I would wait until they have 6-8 leaves and some roots before removing them. The plants in the rver look like some kind of sword.

-Vincent
Post InfoPosted 15-Jul-2007 16:46Profile PM Edit Delete Report 
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Garry,

Yup looking nice, seems like the cloud is gone, 3 days is for sure fast to clear such a huge tank.

Here are some thoughts:

- When trimming your right side, how did the lower parts look like? Where they decaying or still ok? And how did you trim it, by cutting off tops and disposing of them or by disposing of the old bottoms? I probably would have done the prior rather than the latter, but with such fast growers it does not really matter I think.

- Removing and burying the remaining rock was a good move.

- Nice fishies in there by now (not little fish, so not my style ), is it stocked now?

- I would trim the giant hygro soon, about two thirds down, and keeping the lower parts in there while adding the trimmings next to it.

- The Ludwigia would probably need loads of light (and probably quite some iron) to be really red, your color seems pretty much in line for what I would expect in this tank.

- Crypts need quite a while to settle, but once done they can grow rather fast.

- Baby swords can be cut of the spikes and then be replanted in the substrate, as long as they have developed sufficient roots already. You did the right thing.

- Adjustments to changes in ferts are showing themselves mostly very slowly, only extreme changes show themselves fast and most often for the worse. Look at your fast growers for changes first.

And that is it for now, again, looking nice, keep it up,

Ingo


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Post InfoPosted 16-Jul-2007 01:41Profile PM Edit Delete Report 
catdancer
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Awesome, awesome Garry!

I admire the spikes on the swords. How many angels did you get and how big are they already?
Post InfoPosted 16-Jul-2007 07:07Profile PM Edit Delete Report 
TW
 
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Are your Angels new additions, or did they transfer across from your other tank?

I must say I'm glad we have another good photographer on the forums now, as I enjoy your pics. Though I've been at this planted tank caper for over 12mths now, don't think I'll ever feel knowledgeable enough to say much about planting choices other than "how pretty" - which is true, but probably gets very boring & doesn't help much. I do enjoy your detail though. My camera can't capture movement of fish, nor cope with close ups very well. Moving objects are a blur (lucky discus move slow & apistos jerky style allows me to capture them) but even closeups of still objects (eg plants) don't come out well.

Keep up the photos

Cheers
TW
Post InfoPosted 16-Jul-2007 08:03Profile PM Edit Delete Report 
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Unfortunatley the Fluval does not lend itself to plumbing a UV into its outline .


Not sure I follow. Why can't you just cut the output tubing and place the UV inbetween, but than again I'm not familiar with the UV you have.

Things look good with the tank, although I think the Chain swords are going to completely overun your hairgrass.


My Scapes
Post InfoPosted 16-Jul-2007 13:11Profile PM Edit Delete Report 
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Never seen an Albino Redfin before - he looks great.

Thanks Robyn & Vincent for you comments . I've had the Albino and my other sharks for 2 years .
They are quite common in the LFS around here .He is a beauty and very tame as well as good tempered .
He's really enjoying being away from the other Sharks who were always bullying him .

Vincent , thanks for your advice on the Amazons , I've got a couple of babys that are close to what you describe .
I'll give them a little longer then plant .

Robyn , wish I could accept the compliment on the photography , but I fear I have a long way to go yet .
The camera is the wifes( she's the expert in photography ) and its a Canon EOS 350D Digital SLR which helps a lot .
It has settings for taking fast action shots etc as well as adjusting White balance and depth of field .
I've just learned a bit more about Jpeg files and compression ratio's which should help me get better more consistent results in the future .

Catdancer , The Angels are from my over crowded 60g and were in the plan for this tank from the start .
They are about 2 years old and hopefully fully grown at about 4-5inches each .

Tetra , well the fluval is a huge piece of gear and it does not give me a lot of room to bend pipes underneath the top of the cabinet if that makes sense .
The pipe is also a lot fatter than other filter pipe so I have to get some attachments to fix it in place . I've not given up on doing it .
I did it on my other tank with the Eheim and its working a treat .
I think the Chain swords are going to completely overun your hairgrass.

You've warned me about the Chains overpowering the Hairgrass before and I've been watching them closely .
I'll not let it happen believe me . If it looks like thats going to occur one or the other will end up in the redo of the 60g .

Thanks everone for your comments , compliments and help .
Much appreciated .

Garry
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Ingo , Thanks for your help once again .
You always give me so much to think about

- When trimming your right side, how did the lower parts look like? Where they decaying or still ok?
The Wisteria ( which was the major trim plant ) was mainly stalks down below . I tried to thin out the top of that area that you pointed out a few weeks ago looked very dark, to encourage some regrowth . Will see how it goes . The amazons down below were fine lots of new growth .
And how did you trim it, by cutting off tops and disposing of them or by disposing of the old bottoms?
I trimmed the top of the Wisteria and disposed of it . I thought about doing it the other way but it seemed a lot of work and substrate disturbance for a weed that in the long run will not be in the tank .

Removing and burying the remaining rock was a good move.
Thanks for that , I was never happy with the original addition and am pretty pleased with the result now .
Nice fishies in there by now (not little fish, so not my style ), is it stocked now?
Yes I know its not your style , but it is mine . I don't subscribe to the empty tank look , "Vive le Difference" my friend . And no it's not stocked yet, there is many more to come .
- I would trim the giant hygro soon, about two thirds down, and keeping the lower parts in there while adding the trimmings next to it.
Thats very interesting , why do you say that ? I've no problem doing it , just interested in the rationale ?
The Ludwigia would probably need loads of light (and probably quite some iron) to be really red, your color seems pretty much in line for what I would expect in this tank.
Thats reassuring , I am dosing Seachems Iron twice a week , as well as Flourish and Flourish Traces . I assume by the light you mean my 2.4 WPG V over 3 wpg if I turned on the other light .
I may do that in the future if I decide to add C02.
- Crypts need quite a while to settle, but once done they can grow rather fast
Thanks for that ,when I look back at the photos of when I put them in , there has been a lot of dieback and melting and they were very small to start with . They seem to be coming back ok now .
Adjustments to changes in ferts are showing themselves mostly very slowly, only extreme changes show themselves fast and most often for the worse. Look at your fast growers for changes first.
Thanks for that advice , I'm very much trying to follow that and make changes slowly .
As you can tell from this week I sometimes get carried away
But this is one area where I've listened to all the advice and attempted to keep it very stable .
I'm not really that worried by the algae I have in the tank , its really quite minor .
I do need some food for all the Algae eaters after all

Thanks again Ingo for all you help and advice .
Very much appreciated .

Garry
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Garry,

Some info:

"I would trim the giant hygro soon, about two thirds down, and keeping the lower parts in there while adding the trimmings next to it."
Why, you ask, would I do that. Well, Once they reach the surface they got nowhere to go and as such don't do you any good with regards to eating up more and more of the nutrients that are available to algae. As such, I would try to increase the group. If you trim so that only the lower third will remain then you cannot see that short piece from the front anymore, but it would most likely create two or more new shoots from it, giving it a bushy appearance (aka full without too many stems in the substrate). the trimmed tops I would add just to increase the group, nutrient sucking at this stage is important.

You say "I assume by the light you mean my 2.4 WPG V over 3 wpg if I turned on the other light ."
Well, not quite what I meant, but I have no personal experience with it. I know a guy with the reddest plants I have seen in a tank (at least at some point, as this tank no longer exists). That was a 125G, so not a small tank. He ran - hold on tight - about 6wpg on it

Hope this explains,

Ingo


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Post InfoPosted 16-Jul-2007 17:27Profile PM Edit Delete Report 
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Folks ,2 of our Angels have decided they like the conditions in their new home and have spawned .
They chose the Sponge filter at the left hand end of the tank .
We woke this morning to a bunch of eggs on the filter and the Male making runs up and down presumably fertilising the eggs .
They are being good parents so far and protecting that end of the tank .
Quite facinating to watch the behaviour , the female goes over to inspect the eggs after each time the Male makes a run .
We are facinated to see if we get any hatchings . Will get a fry trap just in case .
Couple of shots , firstly the Male making a run .


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The Female inspecting the eggs after the Male has finished a run .
Will keep you posted .
Garry

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breeding fish is always a good sign, and great pictures. The two types will make an interseting pattern if you get fry.

-Vincent
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Congratulations Garry!

this is very exciting, I hope you will have hatchlings
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Week 6 Update

This week I have stayed out of the tank except for the water change (as promised)
I took Ingo's advice and trimmed & replanted 2 Giant Hygro stems that had reached the surface .
I will have to do the same again this week as the other 3 stems have now reached as well .
The Hairgrass is showing some die off in the centre of the plants , however it continues to spread,even underneath the Tennulus.
It has also sent out what appear to be seeds from a number of plants .
The Water Sprite has taken off this week and will require a trim very shortly .
The Wisteria has sent out a lot of different shaped leaves from the area that has been trimmed , which I've seen reported in other peoples logs .

On the fish front , no new additions this week and the only major interest was from the Angels .
The Breeders were not succesfull in getting any of their brood to wriggler stage . It appears they have a lot to learn .
They certainly defended the area very well however , even when I tried to get a couple of eggs .
I've never been bitten by one of my fish before . Quite an experience .

Thats it for this week , the plan for next week is to trim a few more plants and to add a few more fish .

On to the photos , firstly the tank as it was last week

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Full Tank this Week

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The Right Side of the tank , which shows Giant Hygro reaching the surface again , and the other Hygro in the centre reaching as well .

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Left side

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Down the river under the driftwood

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The Water Sprite , also showing the Pennywort growing well now its not shaded .

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The Hairgrass spreading under the Tennulus

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The Hairgrass sending off seeds ?? I think .

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Thats it for the plants this week . A couple of fish shots to finish . First one of the Gold Angels .

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And of course one of "Miss Molly" who continues to grow very fast . Best shot yet .

Thanks again for all your contributions and Help.

Garry

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Those "hairgrass seeds" are actually weed. They will overtake the tank if you arent careful.
I noticed some in one of my tanks a couple of months ago and now pull out handfuls on a weekly basis.
It is a pain because it anchors itself and breaks apart very easily.

Get rid of it quickly.

Good luck
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Hi Country,
My only comment is that it's time to "get rid" of that
apparatus in the background. Some stem plants or something
that will grow to hide that ugly stuff...

Frank


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You've had a lot of growth this week and your Angels (even if they do need more practice) have signalled their approval by laying. Better luck next time.

Cheers
TW
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Dangerous Dave , Interesting . Do you mean that the Hairgrass grew like a weed ? I'm not sure that would be a problem
Can you expand a bit ?

Frank , yes I know . Its a temporary solution so I suppose you are right I should put up a screen of temporary stems
untill I can get time to fix up the UV to the cannister.
Thanks for reminding me .

Thanks Robyn, Hopefully they will keep their enthusism untill I get my breeding tanks set up next year
Unlike activated carbon, Purigen does not leach out phosphate or remove trace elements

Ingo , One for you . You asked where I saw the comments on Carbon leaching P . Above is a comment from the Seachem site .
I've also seen it on several other forums which I can't seem to locate now .
I've still got high P readings (+10ppm)even after not using Neutral regulator for 6 weeks. Only used at set up, not since and I do have carbon in the Cannister.
May be right ?
I'm not doing anything out of the ordinary to reduce the P levels . Just going to wait it out .
I'm not using any buffers at all at the moment and interestingly my KH is remaining fairly stable around 4 or 5
and the PH has reduced slightly from 7.2 to 7.0 over the 6 weeks .
I'm not drawing any conclusions as yet , just observations .

Garry



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What I am saying is that what you have a photo of is not hairgrass seed. It is just a weed that has hooked itself on to your hairgrass.
In fact, it will hook itself on any plant and grow in clumps.
I would get rid of it ASAP before it gets right through your tank.
Be careful when you pull it out as it will break apart easily.

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Garry,

DangerousDave is right. I have the same myerious growth in one of my tanks and there is absolutely no hairgrass in it! The plant is very resistant to abusive treatment like pulling out and it prospers there for several months now (happily growing ...). No idea where it came from
Post InfoPosted 25-Jul-2007 15:30Profile PM Edit Delete Report 
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I also used to have this stuff in my tank. At one point I had a link that told me what it was. If I remember right it was a type of algae.

55G Planted tank thread
19G Container Pond
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/Wingsdlc/Ric
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Thanks Guys , I will search & destroy .

Garry
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Garry,

I did spend a little (that I did not really have) on the Seachem website and searched for the quote above with regards to the Phosphate leaching. I could not find it, please link to the page directly. I checked the Purigen product page and it's FAQ page, not a word about activated carbon leaching P (but you quoted it so it must be there somewhere). I found some reference on the Matrix Carbon product page, in detail:

"While all carbons contain phosphate, regardless of false claims to the contrary, MatrixCarbon has the lowest detectable leachable phosphate content of all major carbon brands tested."

And

"Leachable Phosphate <0.00001 g/cc"

Ingo


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Week 7 Update .

Not a lot of activity of the good kind this week . Unfortunatley I ran out of Pottassium this week so the Fert Schedule went slightly out of wack .
Seems to be a lack of Seachem ferts in this part of the world at the moment ( I'm sick of the word's "Back Order".)

Algae growth ,both Green and Black is starting to get to be more than I would like .
Still haven't made any changes to lighting or Ferts to address it .
My Phospate level is still too high which could be the problem ,I haven't added any phosphate to the tank.
It appears to be lightening off by the colour of the test solutions .
I know these things are hardly very accurate, but I'm reluctant to add more phosphate when the test tells me that the level is +10ppm.
The Fert Schedule is Excel everyday, N, P, K twice a week , Flourish twice a week , Iron 3 times aweek and Traces once a week.
Light is 11/ 12 Hours per day .
If anyone has any suggestions , they would be appreciated .

As far as plant growth is concerned , most the fast growers ( Giant Highgrow, Highgrow, Water Sprite )were trimmed during the week .
As you will see from the photos they look like nothing was done so the growth has been substantial again .
The Crypts are very pleasing as they all look very healthy .
The Tennulus and Hairgrass are powering ahead and I have added a whole field of Tennulus to the 60g .
The Amazons continue to put out lots of new leaves as well as spikes with babies ( Most of which I'm putting in the 60g until they get some more size ).
I've let some of the Ceratopteris Pteroides float to the surface . It has powered on both there and in the substrate.
Both Ludwigia's appear to be colouring up as the weeks go on although growth is quite slow .
The Java Fern and the Anubia's continue to be very slow as expected but the Annubia Barteri appear to be starting to put on some growth .
The Unknown plants in the river seem to be recovering as well . Older leaves are dying off but some new leaves appearing and doing well .

I cleaned the Fluval and the Sponge this week which is always a mistake . Dumb me .
The Fluval was putting out micro bubbles which was annoying me greatly .
So I pulled it apart and gave it the once over . Of course all the media was cleaned in Tank water .
I must say that the pump out function and the arrangement of the baskets made this much easier than with the Eheim on the other tank.

On the Fish front , we have 2 pairs of Angels breeding this week , none of the eggs survived for more than a day .
No fish were added and all seem very healthy .
Have not seen the BN for a week but there are plenty of places to hide .

On to the Photos , firstly the tank as of last week .

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Full Tank , this week

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The Right Side

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The Left Side

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Down the River

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On to some detail shots of the plants .
First the Annubia B.

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Amazon Baby

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The Ceratopteris Pteroides floating . The Gouramis like to hide under it .
Obviously gives them a feeling of safety from above .

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The Crypts and Unknown plants both doing well

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Giant Highgrow , some of those stems are the trimmed ones from a couple of weeks ago reaching the surface again .

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Hairgrass area showing great spread , but the centre of each plant can easily seen to be black from either Algae or die back . Its hard to tell which , only time will tell .

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EditedEdited by countryfish
Highgrow in the centre of the tank taking off again after trimming

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Ludwigia on the Left colouring up

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The Tennulus Field . I am thinking of pulling the Hairgrass out of this area as suggested by Tetra .
Its growing ok but you have to look closly to see it . Might move it to another spot .
Will be a difficult job as it has spread quite a lot in spite of the tennulus over growing it .

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The Water Sprite , growing again after trimming

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Close up of the Ludwigia Ovalis , showing good colour as well as some new growth

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EditedEdited by countryfish
Last Plant shot for this week showing the Pennywort getting squeesed between the Water Sprite and Wisteria . Will need to trim both again this week

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On to the Wildlife . First a couple of shots of the biggest group in the tank . Snails

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Another, showing a group working on Algae . I Hope!!!!!

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A few Fishies , firstly showing some facinating Angel Breeding behaviour .
First the Female Angel depositing eggs

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Another of the Female Angel at work

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The Male following up

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The Male in full flight protecting the breeding site

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One of the other Males who doesn't have a partner . Looks a little sad to me .??!!!!

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Gold Female from the other pair protecting the other end of the tank

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The SAE's showing off again

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An Otto working over the Unknown plant . Still have 10 out of 14 of these little fellas . They all have fat bellys!

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Last shot for this week of the Female Angel looking a little forlorn after lossing all of her second lot of eggs.

Next week will see some more trimming of the fast growers as well as moving of the Hairgrass .
I will probably introduce some more residents from the other tank .

Thanks again .

Garry

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As always, great pictures, Garry. What happened t othe second batch of eggs? Got eaten by the other inhabitants?
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Garry,

Looks like your plants are filling in really well. Quite fast for not doing any CO2. Though I know you are doing Excel which I have seen help the growth factor a lot myself.

Wonderful pictures too! I think you are giving LF a run for his money!

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Garry,

All seems to be ok with the tank, that is good news.

Just two quick comments:

- Your fish shots are really nice, in particular the one with the Oto seems very 3 dimensional, great. Also, having caught the Angels while laying eggs is very special (to me, at least).

- Somehow I am a little uncertain about the plant you call Pennywort. Mine for sure looks different, larger leaves and growing up towards the surface much faster. Pennywort is in the family of Hydrocotyle and I have seen it labeled as Hydrocotyle ranunculoides and Hydrocotyle leucocephyla. Your plant though seems to me more like some form of Bacopa, or am I looking at the wrong plant?

Ingo


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What happened t othe second batch of eggs? Got eaten by the other inhabitants?
Cat ,Just dissappeared overnight . Not sure that the others could get near the way both pairs were defending their areas . So it may have been the parents . Who knows ?
Wonderful pictures too! I think you are giving LF a run for his money!
Thanks Wings , not sure I'll ever be in that class.

Somehow I am a little uncertain about the plant you call Pennywort,Your plant though seems to me more like some form of Bacopa, or am I looking at the wrong plant?
Ingo , you are looking at the right plant and you could be right . It's not the plant I ordered (substituted by the plant supplier) but it came labeled as "Green Pennywort"
That was one of the reasons I asked about the plants at the back corner of your tank as your Pennywort seemed to have much bigger leaves than mine .
LFS's around here are lucky to know if they are aquatic plants let alone the name ??????
When I look on line some Pennyworts and Bacopa look very similar ,Not sure myself ????

Thanks everyone for the compliments on the photo's .
We seem to have got the white balance & exposure pretty right now .
Just going to try to improve the depth of field with some tips Cassielia gave the other night .

Enjoy
Garry
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Garry

Im in shock, that is a beautiful tank you have there. I cant believe how far it has come along. I hope that my 35 gallon will get looking like that at some point. Wow again.

Thanks for your input as always, Shane
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beautiful photos mate- especially the angels. i love the river!
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As always, enjoyed the pics. Agree with Ingo, the parents laying eggs is a special shot indeed.

Better luck next time wiht survivors.

Cheers
TW
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Thanks folks for the nice comments .
Week 8 Update
This week as per my comments last week , I trimmed the Water Sprite , Wisteria &
Hygro quite hard. I also pulled most of the hairgrass out from under the Tennulus .
This left me the problem of where to put it .
I decided to let the Ceratopteris Pteroides just exist as a floater and replaced it in
the substrate at the front left with the hairgrass .
I placed some of the trimmed Giant Hygro Stems at the rear under the equipment .
All of the other plants continue to perform as expected except for the Amazons
whose new leaves are not getting the same height as the original leaves which are
all showing signs of rotting away .
I will probably trim a lot of the taller leaves in the next week or two.

As far as the Algae is concerned , there has been quite a lot of green spot
which I have mostly wiped off the glass and a little black algae on some of the plants .
Nothing that I'm overly concerned about at this stage .It does not seem to be growing
at an increased rate .I'm still interested in adjusting my Fert Schedule
( I posted it last week)if anyone has any ideas on anything that I haven't got quite right .


As I said last week, I introduced some new residents this week , most transfered from
the 60g .They are 2 Rainbows , 3 Golden Barbs and 2 Sharks . I also happened on
some Dwarf Loaches at one of my LFS's and I couldn't resist . They are such cute little guys .

The only sad news is we lost another Otto and still have not seen the BN ,he maybe gone as well .

On to the photos , the Full Tank as of last week .

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Full Tank this week

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Some detail shots of the plants , Firstly the Annubia Barteri which has some new leaves and looks to be coming on nicely .
But you can see some black algae .

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One of the Annubias on at the base of the Driftwood , also showing some black algae .

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THe Chain Sword field which looks pretty disturbed , the unavoidable result of removing the Hairgrass.

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Giant Hygro Stems planted to hide the Equipment for the time being

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EditedEdited by countryfish
The Giant Hygro reaching the surface again , I swear this stuff grows in the dark

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The New Hairgrass Area

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The Trimmed Wisteria

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EditedEdited by countryfish
The Water Sprite trimmed and showing the Bacopia/ Pennywort ?? and Ovalis growing nicely

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Just realised that I didn't post the Right and left side shots .
So here they are : Right Side

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The Left Side .
Thats it for the plants this week , next a few shots of the new residents .

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A few Fishy Photo's , The New Dwarf Loaches

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One of the Golden Barbs

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The Rainbow Shark

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The Red Tail Shark

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Lastly a couple of shots of the Rainbows , First one taken with the flash .

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This shot showing their more normal colours .

Thats it for this week , Thanks to everyone for the comments and if anyone has any ideas or suggestions please don't hesitate to let me know .

Enjoy
Garry

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EditedEdited by RNJ_Punk
Garry,

Sorry I havent visited in a while. I have been busy. But I am back to admire your log and work on my panda log

Anyway, the tank seems to be doing great, not sure what your algae problem is, seems the hairgrass is being affected the worst by it?

You have some great fish shots there! The barb shot was my favorite. Congrats on the loaches too, I want some.
What kind of camera do you have?(Lol you knwo how much I ned a new one, just seeing the kinds I like)

You arent afraid the floating plants will be shading the plants below it?

Any other plans for fish other than the ones in your 60? Or do you think they will just be a suprise like the loaches?

The chain sword seems to be proving itself a nice groundcover, I have been looking for a groundcover for my tank. Hairgrass is nice too.

Congrats on the angel spawns! Great pics of them too!

Looks great! Keep up the good work./:'
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Ryan , Thanks for stopping by.

not sure what your algae problem is, seems the hairgrass is being affected the worst by it?

Yes well it appears so , not sure its a major issue as yet as that bit of Hairgrass is spreading well . We will see in time .
What kind of camera do you have?
Its a Cannon EOS 350D Digitial SLR.

You arent afraid the floating plants will be shading the plants below it?
I thought about that and did some pretty serious culling tonight actually . Will just have to keep on top of it I guess .
The Gourami's love to hide under it. So its good for them to feel safe
Any other plans for fish other than the ones in your 60?
No not at this stage . Once I get the Tigers , Big shark & George the Cockoo Cat out of the 60g I plan to redo the 60 as a small fish haven with a couple of big schools in a revised scape .
So I'll probably just let the big tank sit and settle for a few months .
We will see if I can do that though

Thanks for all your compliments , (I like the Goldy shot as well , looks like he's checking me out )

Garry
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Spectacular, Garry! Are you still running this tank w/o CO2 injection? I am amazed by the healthy growth of the plants (despite the height of the tank and the initial concerns about enough light reaching down). The fish provide colorful contrasts and I like the Rainbow shark. how did you get the tenellus to form such a nice carpet?
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EditedEdited by countryfish
Are you still running this tank w/o CO2 injection?
Cat Thats correct , I'm using Excel as my carbon source .
how did you get the tenellus to form such a nice carpet?
Well , thats what it did. All I did was plant it on the second tier on top of about 4 inches of Gravel with Florite as a middle layer and it just took off .
12 of them were planted about 4in apart .
I've had so many babies that I've started a carpet of them in the other tank .

I like my Sharks as well , even if they can be a bit crancky with each other at times , they never really hurt each other .

Thanks for dropping by

Garry
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Garry

I use a Cannon XTI Rebel, i cant get those kind of shots out of my Tank. I dont know if its the light or what. However you have some beautiful specimens in your tank. I love how much your tank has to offer. I wish i could get the same kind of difference in my tank. Having a 35 Gallon is a bit restrictive.

Shane

Thanks for your input as always, Shane
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you gotta get some snakeskin gouramis!

theyre the best looking gouramis you can get n you got enough room for them!!

otherwise your tank n fish are mad.
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Fishmonster , Well thats a pretty good camera , but once you take your shot
it comes down to the software you use to manage the Jpeg file .
You want to go for an 800x 800 pic size and you need to get it under 98kb .
The way to do that is to increase the file compression . There should be an
option to reduce the quality of the file with the save as option thru jpeg
compression in the software's options .
I've found that these things as well as the Exposure & Colour corrections
in the photo program make all the difference .

Anyway you can take good shots no matter what size the tank is ,
have a look at the shots that Tetra & Ingo take of their small tanks.
A little research and you'll be a great photographer before you know it .

Coop, Never seen any Snakeskins in my area . Love to have some though .
Thanks for the compliment ( I think )

Garry
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Week 9 Update .
Not much to report this week so only a short update.
Trimmed the Giant Hygro once again as well as the Water Sprite .
Growth continues Ok .
Algae continues to be a problem , still have not made any changes .
Just trying to wait it out .

No new fish intro's .

The Full Tank as of last week .



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Full Tank this week

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Right Side

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Left Side

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Just a few Detail plant shots mostly to highlite the Black Algae which is becoming more of a problem .
Firstly the Water Sprite area. This area has great growth of all plant types.

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The Amazon leaves showing the older leaves being badly affected by algae

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The Ludwigia on the left side is getting very sparse and not growing well . It may need to be trimmed and replanted .

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The Tennulus Field getting very overgrown .

Thats it for this week , next week I will be Trimming the Tennulus field , Ludwigia and removing a lot of Amazon leaves that are degrading and being affected by algae.

I will also introduce my Tigers and the last of the Sharks .

Thanks for all the support and comments .

Garry

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Garry

You could try floating the ludwiga for a while, it worked for me, i got some nice new root structures from letting them float.

Shane

Thanks for your input as always, Shane
http://thetanklog.blogspot.com/ - [ Thanks to ScottF ]
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The Amazon leaves showing the older leaves being badly affected by algae


Garry, you have no idea how 'badly affected' can be!

Sorry, I don't want to add salt to injury with my sarcasm, just speaking from experience

I had problems in the past and by no means will I claim that my tank is 'algae free', I guess it is a never ending struggle. (You might get rid of it for a while but the danger of a new outbreak is always around the corner in a tank with several big fish.) However, I can proudly claim that without any doubt the situation in my tank improved significantly and algae is losing the battle for now. The only change I made was to apply a different lighting schedule. One might argue that it is the otos, fast growers, the usual little helpers, but I don't think so.
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Shane
Thanks for that advice , I might try that . When I pulled it up it was well rooted down
so I'm not sure thats the problem . Could be the position under the filter so I moved it
slightly , will see how it goes .

Cat , I'm sure there are lots worse off than me ,what did you do with the lights ,
I assume you cut back to fewer hours ?

Thanks for stopping by .

Garry
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Nope-

I introduced a midday break with the lights off. It is in my log and works extremely well. It is successfully used by some European aquarists, the idea is that algae unlike higher developed plants need much more prolonged periods of light for successful photosynthesis to generate energy (I remember something like that from plant physiology I had to take ages ago). By introducing a middday break you deprive the algae of their 'fuel', while plants get easily by with shorter periods for photosynthesis. Works also quite well with my schedule - I see the tank in the morning and the lights are on longer at night.

got to run
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Cat , Thanks for that,very interesting . I didn't pick up on that in your log ,
Dumb me , have to read more carefully
I think I might try that .

I emailed Seachem last night as Keith has said he's done, will see if they
have some thoughts as well.

Thanks again for the help .
Garry
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Week 10 Update.

Plants are all showing good growth, I had to trim the Water Sprite, Giant Hygro, Hygro
& Green Pennywort. I pulled up a lot of Tennulus as it was starting to get out of control.
Some of the runners have gone right around the back of the driftwood. The Ludwigia
was pulled up and cut back quite severely due to rotting of the under parts of the plant.
It was very well rooted down but did not appear to have been growing very well over
the last few weeks. I have repositioned a little to the right away from the filters to see if
it was a position problem.

Java Ferns seem to have got a bit of a kick along both on the top of the Driftwood and
behind in the substrate. Quite a lot of new growth as well as a couple of babies.
I must admit to ignoring it a bit over the last few weeks and when I had a close look I
was very surprised at how well they were doing.
All of the Annubias, Barteri and Nana's are doing well and the Crypts at the base of the
Driftwood are now powering. 2 of the Unknown plants in the river seemed to have
recovered well and are showing good leaf development, the smallest seems to be just
hanging on.

I had planned to take out a lot of the Amazon leaves that were decaying and being badly
affected by Algae. However 2 Female Angels decided to lay eggs just before and whilst
I was doing the Water Change. I got sick of being bitten so I gave up after about 5 minutes.
None of the eggs survived the night. One interesting thing that appears to have happened
is that the One male was fertilising both females eggs. The female who had partnered the
other male last time chased him away this time. Both females worked together to protect
the area, which I also found very interesting.

No new fish were added this week,time just got away.

Algae in the tank is still a problem. Phosphate levels dropped below 5ppm this week,
hard to tell from the test kit, but could have been as low as 2ppm.
I still had to take a lot of Green Algae of the Glass .

Lots of good photos this week so here we go with the shot of the tank as of last week


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The Full Tank this week .

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The Right side

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The Left Side

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The River at an angle

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A shot from the left end of the tank

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Now onto some detail shots of the plants .
Firstly the Amazons , showing the Good ( lots of babies and new leaves )
and the Bad ( Algae and rotting on older leaves)

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The Anubia Barteri also showing new growth
but Algae on the older leaves.

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Annubia Nana on the Driftwood, same issue's

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EditedEdited by countryfish
The Java Fern on the Driftwood , Notice the Tennulus on the left side a long way from where its supposed to be .
Will be cut back next week

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New Hairgrass field seems to be taking Ok . But the Wisteria is encroaching and will need to be cut away from the area this week .

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Green Pennywort doing well and had its first trim this week

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The Wisteria showing lots of different leaf shapes as it regrows from its heavy trim a couple of weeks ago .

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EditedEdited by countryfish
The Water Sprite keeps growing to fast for its position . May have to reconsider where it should be .?????

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The Ludwigia or whats left of it .

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The Unknown plants in the River doing well .

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The last plant shot for this week is Ctertopis Pteroides acting as a haven floating above the Gourami's . They love it . Had to remove a fair bit this week .

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On to some shots of the Fishies .
Firstly a couple of the New Dwarf Laoches . Love these guys they are so active racing up and down the tank . They wear the Otto's out trying to keep up .

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Another Dwarf Loach at rest .

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EditedEdited by countryfish
A couple of Golden Barbs as usual checking me out as I take the Photos .

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The Red Tail Shark

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The Rainbow Shark

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One of the Aussie Rainbows, these guys have really coloured up since they have been in this tank

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One of the Angels , my wife calls this one Stumpy because of his short fins . Bit of a loner this guy .

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EditedEdited by countryfish
A female Angel coming over to see if I've got any food .

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EditedEdited by countryfish
And now begging

Thats it for this week .

Next week will see some more trimming of the fast growers , maybe a move for the Water Sprite. Also some new residents if I get time .

Hope you enjoyed the update and thanks to everyone for contributing .

Enjoy

Garry

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Lovely shots as always, Garry!

I really enjoy pictures of your fish. Now to the plants. Is it possible that you have some nutrient defiency going on? You have a lot of fast growers there and the plants that show the worst algae problem are anuias and amazons which take a little bit more time. Some the leaves look also a bit pale, but that might be just the photo and misleading. These are my $0.02 and I am by no means an expert, rather a rookie...
I would not worry about the green algae on the glass (your little algae menchers need something to eat), it is the black algae that is worrisome, especially if it is spreading. Hope you get a handle on this soon. Did you get a response from Seachem?

P.S. Stumpy ... poor fish!
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Garry

I agree with CD, lovely shots of the plants and especially the fish. Love Stumpy btw hes the best out of the lot..hehehe

Anyways I was wondering if there might be deficiencies in the water colum. Anyways we would love to hear back on that.

Shane

Thanks for your input as always, Shane
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your fish pictures are excellent!
and your plants algae or not are filling in very nicely.


-Vincent
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Cat , I changed my lighting schedule as I mentioned in your log .
I was a bit old school just leaving my lights on for 10 to 12 hours a day .
So now I'm going to try the following
9am-11am 384w (2hrs)
11am-2pm 576w (3hrs)
2pm -5pm No Lights (3hrs)
5pm -7pm 384w (2hrs)
7pm-11pm 576w (4hrs)
A total of 11 hours all up .

Seachem has not replied as yet , been about 4 days .
I don't want to give the impression that I'm overly worried about Algae
or that its terrible or invasive . Its not that bad , you have to look pretty
hard to see it. I just want to stay on top of it and keep learning

Shane , Yes we love Stumpy as well , he's one of our favorites and
always comes running when we are near the tank.

Vincent , hello . Long time . Thanks for the nice comments ,
great to hear from you .

Thanks Again everyone for the nice comments

Garry
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Hi Garry:

I think there is nothing wrong with being worried about algae. IMHO this pest is better dealt with right away. I am (again) impressed by the lighting, the sheer number of watts made me swallow, but your 240 G tank certainly needs it. I hope you see a positive effect due to the new lighting schedule soon! I certainly did rather quick but impatience made it still appear a long time

Let me know what Sachem suggests as well - finally I had to start with fertilizing applying the majority of their products (another splendid opportunity to make mistakes).

Good luck and keep posting!!
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EditedEdited by countryfish
Week 11 Update
This week I pretty much left the plants alone. Only trimmed the Wisteria & Water Sprite
where it had started to shade the new Hairgrass field. Pulled out some more Amazon
leaves that were decaying. Lots of Amazon babys now getting quite big and sending
down roots from high up in the water column, so I intend to leave them alone to see
if they will pull down into the substrate. Also plenty of new leaves at the base of all the
Amazons. All other plants continue to grow well.

This week I introduced my Black Shark and the Tiger Barb crew (9).

Algae seems to have lessened this week (could be wishful thinking) but I seem to have
wiped less of the glass. Black Algae on the plants appears to be no worse. Hopefully
the new lighting schedule and phosphates being down to 1ppm are having an effect.
Time will tell. Seachem have not replied to my email as yet.
So onto the photo's, firstly the tank last week.


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Full Tank This week

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The Right Side

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The Left Side

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EditedEdited by countryfish
River Shot , Also showing part of the Tiger Barb herd in their favorite hang out .

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A few Plant detail shots now , Firstly a couple of shots of the Crypts which were very small at the start and nearly melted away in the first couple of weeks . Its very hard to get good shots of this area so apologies for the quality of the shots . I'm really very happy about how well these are doing .
This one contains a good shot of an SAE .

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A wider shot of the area around the crypts also showing the unknown plants in the river continuing to do well.

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Another plant that was nearly dead in my other tank was rescued and put in this tank to see if would recover . I think the name was Stellata ????? or something similar . It appears to be making a recovery . Can anyone can identify it properly?

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A shot of the biggest of the Amazon Babys

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EditedEdited by countryfish
The Old Hairgrass Area , showing it is still spreading well . You can clearly see the Algae affected clumps which is the site of the original plants .

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Last plant shot , a close up of the Green Pennywort new growth ?

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Now a few Fish shots , Firstly the big boy himself , The Black Shark . Had to put him straight in as he was too big for my plastic bags . He's about 7 to 8 inches. I've never seen him swim about so much since he's been in this tank .He'd gotten to big for the 60g . He's has become very responsive to his adoring public .

Another interesting insight is that all 4 sharks seem to be much happier in this tank and so far there is very little trouble between them . Only the Redtail seems to get cranky now and again . But he does little but chase the Redfin and Albino occasionaly.

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Another shot with his top fin up .

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And being a good boy saying hello to me .

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Now a couple of shots of the Tigers, First a group shot . A bit out of focus , they never stay still long enough to get them all in focus This is about the best shot of a big group of them out of about 200 I've taken so far .

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Heres a couple in close up .

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And one by it's self

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Now a few shots of some of the other fish . An SAE with an interesting resting place

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An Otto working on the Tennulus

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Our Hitchhiking Molly getting bigger every week

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The Albino Redfin Shark looking as colourfull as I've ever seen him .

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Lastly , an interesting close up of one of the Angels .

Next week will probably see me having to do some more trimming . Both ludwigia's seem not to be doing very well and may get the flick for some other red plants . Have to see whats available .
Only 2 fish left to transfer over. The Cuckoo Catfish and a CAE . Not sure I want the CAE in this tank , he's got a bit crancky and unpredictable . I might give him away to the LFS .
Once that has been done that will clear the way for a makeover of the 60g and another log

Garry

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Garry

This tank is getting better and better everyweek. Wish ya were in the US so you could send me some cuttings LOL...Anyways So can you tell me more about your Co2 Setup and your lighting setup?

Also I would like to know about some of the fish like the albino shark and red tail shark..

Shane





Thanks for your input as always, Shane
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Hi Garry!

The tiger barbs look remarkably well nourished . Are the other fish getting enough food? What about the algae issue, did you introduce a 'siesta'? I am getting concerned about my otos, not enough to eat...
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Countryfish,

Your tank is growing in extremely well. I am quite impressed. You have really proven that you are able to grow many plants well.

Do you plan on messing with the scape much?

55G Planted tank thread
19G Container Pond
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/Wingsdlc/Ric
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Here's a random "from the grave" post. Sorry I haven't been around much, work has been kicking my butt!

Just wanted to comment on one pic - your tiger barb by itself - looks like you've got at least one female in the tank! So if you'd like to try breeding them, you've got a chance!

And all in all, tank looks great!

Listen! Do you smell that?
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Hey folks , sorry I've taken so long to reply . We've been away in a very cold Melbourne for a week . Had a family wedding to attend .

Firstly Ly , welcome back , sorry to hear your working so hard . I sympathise . Used to work lots of long hours before I retired . You are right I think, got a few of females , my problem has always been keeping the males alive as the harem like to pick on the boys . As I've mentioned before I plan to build a breeding room next year so I will definately be trying to breed them .

Great to hear from you again mate .

Shane , I'm not doing C02 . I've tried to show thru this log that what you can grow without it .I am however using Seachem ferts ( only ones readily available in my neck of the woods ). So far I've learned a couple of things: like if you want to grow red plants ( at least the 2 I've tried so far ) you will probably need C02 . I'm going to try some other red plants as I think the scape needs some more focus .

Your other question regarding the sharks is a little harder to answer . I'm a big fan , but they do come with some problems . All of mine are now over 5 inches and they are a somewhat aggressive fish . The Albino and Normal Redfins I have are the least aggressive and don't bother anyone else . The Redtail is a pain , he will chase most of the smaller fish and bother the other sharks a fair bit .
Its a bit of pot luck with sharks ,some individuals are worse than others .Mine are ok but I wouldn't keep them with small or sensitive fish . Hope that helps .

Cat yes I did introduce a siesta , and a blackout this week simply because I've been away . I think it was working a little before I went away . However there is a lot less Algae after 2 days of no light followed by an hour a day of light for 3 days while my son was home for lunch. Will see how it goes now I'm back on the new lighting schedule that I started a couple of weeks ago . Oh and I feed Algae wafers to make sure the algae eaters are getting enough food .

Wings , Yes its getting close to the time when the scape must change . Its not what I planned at the start and thats mainly because I took alot of advice from all of you about getting enough fast growers in there . Having done that and now the tank has been going for 3 months , I feel its about time to make some changes in the coming weeks .

Thanks to everone for your interest , I'm just editing some photos now for a quick update . Will post shortly .

Garry
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EditedEdited by countryfish
Week 12 Update .

Just a short update this week ( a little over due) . As I mentioned above I've been away for 6 days .
Very little light , no ferts ,2 days of no feeding and no water change . So what happened thru all this .
Well suprisingly a lot of growth ( interesting I hear you say) .But before we jump to too many
conclusions , I should say that I gave the tank a good dose of ferts before I went away . The tank
gets very little natural light so I'm still suprised at the growth. Algae seems to have receded quite
a bit , which of course is great and was in my mind when I decided to leave the lights off whilst
away rather than use timers .

Anyway is was an interesting experiment which seems to back up others experiences, that
blackouts are bad for algae but do not damage plants , in fact I seemed to get about as much
growth as a normal week .

One interesting thing to note . The Crypts all stood up during this period . Up untill now they had
recovered and were growing well , but were fairly flat on the substrate . You will notice in the
river shot that they are all standing to attention .

Thats it for this week , I will be doing a water change tomorrow and another update on the weekend .

Just a few photos this week , Firstly the tank as of last week .

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Full Tank this week.

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Right Side

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Left Side

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EditedEdited by countryfish
River Shot , showing the Crypts in the bottom left .

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Just a couple of detail shots this week . Firstly the Hairgrass showing a lot less Black Algae .

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The Stellata ??? grew amazingly considering very little light .

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Lastly just 1 fishy shot this week . The Tigers doing the Tiger Barb Dance


Garry

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Just catching up on your thread. You've come a long way from that big empty tank! Beautiful tank now! Cute shot of that SAE on the thermometer. What ever happened to your other tank? Did I miss it in your pages back?
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Hello Patty, Thanks for the compliment . The other Tank is still there and running .
It has my small fish , Tetras mainly . I'm doing a bit of a running redo at the
moment , just trying different ideas and plants . Its been going for 2 years
this Dec and I'm going to do a major revamp when I decide on the look I want .
Probably do a log when I do that . At this stage will be a Tetra/ Rasbora only tank with
a couple of big schools .

This is a photo of how it looks today.

Thanks for dropping by .


Garry

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Thats a beautiful tank too Gary!
I actually like the way the (in the picture) the background
blends into the foreground plants and rocks.
IMO, just a bit of pruning to expose the lava rock a little
more, would do the charm for the "look" that you have now.
From the angle of the picture, it looks like you have
two rocks on the left and another either in the back of
the tank against the glass, or its a part of the
background.

Frank


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I agree with Frank Country.....everything he said! But if you don't like the look & are going for something different, well, then have at it. What is that long brownish plant in the middle & off to the left also?

Thanks for the pic.! I love that smaller tank of yours!
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What is that long brownish plant in the middle & off to the left also?
Look like crypts to me.

55G Planted tank thread
19G Container Pond
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/Wingsdlc/Ric
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Hello Frank , Thanks for the compliment . I've been changing the scape quite a lot ,
ditching plants and introducing lots of babys from the big tank . The rocks you refer
to is a group of about 7 rocks which used to be more prominent untill I wacked in a
Java Fern from the back of the big tank . Just stuck it in the middle of the rocks .
Not sure that is where it will finish up .But I like the darker colour of the leaves for
the contrast .
I think I'm happy with both ends of the tank and I just need to sort out
the position and prominence of the rocks and see if I can get some of the other
plants in the centre into some order .

Long answer , but thanks for the interest and the suggestion .

Patty Thanks for that, I'm still playing as per the above , hopefully in the next couple
of months it will look very different again .

Wings is right they are both Crypts that were very small untill I increased the light
and started fertilising . Now they have taken off . They were labelled Wendti
( one brown , one green ) in the LFS . I have my doubts as I got Brown Wendti
direct from a Plant supplier for the big tank and they look very different .
Oh well I still like them a lot .

Thanks for dropping by .

Garry
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Wings is right they are both Crypts that were very small untill I increased the light
and started fertilising . Now they have taken off . They were labelled Wendti
( one brown , one green ) in the LFS . I have my doubts as I got Brown Wendti
direct from a Plant supplier for the big tank and they look very different .
Oh well I still like them a lot .
I have had crypts in one tank, then moved them to another tank and they grew in completely different.

This is the same plant in my old 55G set up with >1wpg
http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/Wingsdlc/40%20gallon%20part%20XVI/?action=view&current=cryptflower-1.jpg
This is the plant with 3+ wpg.
http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/Wingsdlc/40%20gallon%20part%20%20XIV/?action=view&current=Whole1.jpg

the funny thing is, it flowered in the 55G.

55G Planted tank thread
19G Container Pond
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/Wingsdlc/Ric
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Wings , Interesting . Crypts IME are very queer plants and your experience seems to back
that up .

Week 13 Update .

As I said at the last update the Water change was late this week and then Wings asked
me if I was going to make any changes to the scape . Which of course got me
thinking and you know what that means ..

So lots of changes this week , some intentional , some instinctive and some accidential
Accidential I hear you say ????? . Will get to that shortly .

The Water Sprite had been bothering me for some time as it was closing down the river
,blocking the light for the hairgrass and covering up the rocks on the right . So I started
trimming and just decided it had to go ( instinctive ). I left one small piece .
I will probably regret that later .

Next the Ovalis had been doing poorly and I had planned to move it out into an area where
it would get full light and the benefit of the Flourite layer ( intentional ) . So it was moved
( probably temporarily) to the middle of the Tennulus field . Will see how it goes there .
As both of my Red plants are not doing well I also decided to up my Iron from 3 to 5 times
a week to see if that improves them . Probably too many changes at once but what the
heck .

I pulled up the Pennywort in the process of removing the Water Sprite and that had to be
regrouped and replanted ( accidential ).
The Wisteria was trimmed lightly at the front around the Hairgrass , but the plant in the
middle was getting in the road of the Amazons and so was cut back very hard .
While all this was happening I knocked the Driftwood and it fell over . I tried
several times to reposition it without success. Then I took a break and decided I
liked the fact that the Javas and Annubias had been forced forward and the Driftwood
had formed a bridge over the river . . So the biggest accident of the day had
worked out quite well .
In the end all the changes have opened up the river , exposed the rock group and made
a feature out of the plants on the Driftwood. A good result . I think ???

What do you folks think

All other plants except the Ludwigia on the left are doing well.

Algae seems about the same with some signs of the Black Algae browning off but green
spots on the glass still appearing .

On to the Photos : the tank last week ( sort of )

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The Full tank this week . Let me know what you think

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The Right side , where most of the changes happened .

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EditedEdited by countryfish
The Left side , pretty much unchanged

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EditedEdited by countryfish
A different shot taken by accident . The tank at an angle looking down the river .

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A few Detail shots , firstly a couple of shots of the Driftwood area . The Driftwood front on .

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The Driftwood from above

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The Main Java Fern Group

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Whats left of the Water Sprite and Pennywort

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The Rock Group exposed

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The Amazons now visable with multiple babies . The lower parts of the main plants are very healthy and very thick with new leaves .

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The Ovalis in its new position

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The Stelatta ??? growing even more and getting a pink tip on one branch.

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Close up of the Crypts at the base of the Driftwood

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A shot of the Annubia B. showing an old leaf covered in BBA which is browned off . Also showing a new leaf with no algae . Fingers crossed this continues ..

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Thats it for the plants this week . Just a couple of fishy shots to finish . An SAE having a rest .

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The Big Black Shark .

Thats it for this week . Probably be very little done in the tank next week .
Have done enough for the moment .

Garry

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Enjoyed all your pics, and like everyone else, also liked being able to sneak a peak at your smaller tank. Very nice tank, that. My fav shot this week is the one I think you said was an accidental shot, being the tank at an angle looking down the river.

Good that you seem to have beaten the algae - fingers crossed that continues.

There is nothing to complain about in any of your tanks & you've shown that you can grow plants so well. If I was going to wish for anything to change, it would be if you could find some way to hide the equipment that stands out so strongly on the left side of the tank.

Otherwise, everything is beautiful.

Cheers
TW
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Garry,

beautiful pics, as always. I particularly like the accidental shot of the tank! Your plants look gorgeous. Please be patient with the algae issue - the lighting regimen works. I hardly noticed until one day I looked at the filter intake and saw that it was completely clean. That was when I realized that almost all algae had vanished. I would not worry about little green spos, otos need something to eat as well algae are part of our hobby

BTW, your black shark looks close up a bit frightening, if I might say so. Beautiful animal, nevertheless

Claudia
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Hi,
Cut off and discard that anubis leaf with the black
spot. I'd remove every leaf that has that stuff growing
on it as well as any that are yellowing.
Frank


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Hi,
Cut off and discard that anubis leaf with the black
spot. I'd remove every leaf that has that stuff growing
on it as well as any that are yellowing.
Frank
I second this.

For the green spot I would up for phosphates. That seems to do the trick for me and others here at FP. I think I had my phosphates up to about 3.something ppm 3x a week.

As for the scape. I would try and trim the back plants on the right to make them a bit more bushy. Other than that I don't know what else to say.

55G Planted tank thread
19G Container Pond
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/Wingsdlc/Ric
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love the big bushy polysperma.still say you need snakeskin gouramis. i actually saw some festivus cichlids in the lfs. they where beutiful. im pretty sure they wll get along with most of your fish. they where in a 55g with angels and gouramis at the lfs.
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If I was going to wish for anything to change, it would be if you could find some way to hide the equipment that stands out so strongly on the left side of the tank.

Robyn , Yes I've been a bit slack about coming up with a better solution for the UV .
The Fluval FX5 doesn't lend itself to adding a UV to the output unfortunately.
I've been looking at Resun Cannisters with internal UV . Not sure if they are ok or not .
But I must do something as that stuff bothers me as well .
Thanks for the compliments BTW.

Cut off and discard that anubis leaf with the black
spot.

Thanks for that Frank , I've been a bit reluctant to trim these guys untill they establish
themselves . I do trim that sort of stuff off in my other tank . Do you think its ok to do
that now? , they are only now just starting to send out new leaves . I don't want to
knock them about too much . Anyway appreciate your thoughts .

I think I had my phosphates up to about 3.something ppm 3x a week

Wings , Another thing I've been avoiding doing is adding to much Phosphate . I had
readings of over 10ppm because I used Neutral 7 . It's now down to 1 or 2 ppm .
SO if I understand you right you think I should up the Phosphate to get it to 3ppm .
I currently dosing twice a week btw. Interested in your thoughts ?

Coop Thanks for dropping by , Don't get many unusual fish up here unfortunately .
But thanks for the suggestions & compliments .


Garry
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Claudi , Thanks for that , I'm not that worried about algae. Just trying to be patient
Not easy .

The Black Shark is a pussycat . He's gone back to hiding again . It's really funny to watch
the Redtail chase him , Its like I'm the Boss opps your a bit big .
Blackie hardly seems to notice .

Thanks for helping with the lights thing , I'm sure it will work

Garry
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EditedEdited by TW
I've been a bit slack about coming up with a better solution for the UV.
So is that equipment an internal UV, or is it a pump running the UV? If the later, why not get yourself one of the Eheim external pumps. I'm going to set up the UV in my African tank that way (the filter will have too high flow rate to attach UV to it). I have a spare Eheim in-flow & out-flow (the grey coloured version - not green)that I'll use to draw water from the tank, to the pump, to the UV & then back into the tank again.

If you have a black background in the tank, you don't even notices the filter pipes at all.

Just a thought.

Cheers
TW
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I like the tank better after the trim. And I think I agree with you, that I like the driftwood better over the river.

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EditedEdited by wingsdlc

Wings , Another thing I've been avoiding doing is adding to much Phosphate . I had
readings of over 10ppm because I used Neutral 7 . It's now down to 1 or 2 ppm .
SO if I understand you right you think I should up the Phosphate to get it to 3ppm .
I currently dosing twice a week btw. Interested in your thoughts ?


This is what I was dosing in my 40G with 5WPG and high CO2 (around 70ppm)

40-60 Gallons (152-227 litres)
30ml solution or 1/2 tsp KNO3(11.37 ppm Nitrate) (7.69 ppm ppm Potassium) 3x a week
18ml solution or 1/8 tsp KH2PO4 (2.87 ppm Phosphates) 3x a week
8ml solution or 1/8 tsp K2SO4 (1.84 ppm Potassium) 3x a week
10ml or 1/8 tsp traces 3x a week (in the form of Flourish) + Iron

The only thing I ever did test was the Nitrates. I ended up with about 10ppm at the end of the week before the water change. I really don't know what my Phosphates ended up being. I am guessing you can dose a bit more though.

This link might give you some more insight to what I was doing.

EI Explained

55G Planted tank thread
19G Container Pond
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/Wingsdlc/Ric
Post InfoPosted 13-Sep-2007 02:51Profile AIM PM Edit Delete Report 
Countryfish
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EditedEdited by countryfish
or is it a pump running the UV? If the later, why not get yourself one of the Eheim external pumps
Robyn , Yep thats what its for , and was a temp solution running off the powerhead filter.
I like your idea , but shouldn't you have a filter on the intake of the UV? , thats what
everone advised me to do. As if the water is dirty the Uv isn't as effective . Which is one
of the reasons I was looking at the Resun Cannisters . Might be over kill but it would
also allow me to get rid of the Powerhead filter as well .

Anyway given me more to think about , thanks for the idea .

Patty Thanks for that nice to have our opinion backed up .
appreciate it
40-60 Gallons (152-227 litres)
30ml solution or 1/2 tsp KNO3(11.37 ppm Nitrate) (7.69 ppm ppm Potassium) 3x a week
18ml solution or 1/8 tsp KH2PO4 (2.87 ppm Phosphates) 3x a week
8ml solution or 1/8 tsp K2SO4 (1.84 ppm Potassium) 3x a week
10ml or 1/8 tsp traces 3x a week (in the form of Flourish) + Iron
Wings , I've read the EI stuff and seen lots of references in Ingo's and Jeffs logs about it .
The problem for me is we don get dry ferts around here and the only stuff I can get my
hands on that resembles it in any way is the Seachem liquid .So I've been following
( almost) their recomendations.
Ok I'll give you my 60g dosing,to keep it relative . I dose the same proportionally for the big tank .
5ml Nitrogen 2x week
5ml Phosphate 2x week
10ml Pottasium 2x week
5ml Iron 6x week
5ml Flourish 2x week
15ml Traces 1x week
Now based on what you're doing I should probably increase the Macros to 3 times a week,
and maybe up the dosages of the Phosphate and Nitrogen.
The tank tests at 10ppm for Phosphate ( neutral 7 again which I'm not using any more )
and 20ppm Nitrate .The big tank tests at 1-2ppm Phosphate & 5ppm Nitrate.

So what are your thoughts ???? I appreciate any input on this subject as its all a major
learning curve for me . I can't say that I've been unsuccesful in growing plants , but
there are plants that are not growing as well as I think they should .So any help and
suggestions would be greatly appreciated .
Oh and for those who asked Seachem did not reply to my email , I will try again .

Garry

PS i've just gone to 3.7wpg on the 60g and plan to do something similar on the big tank . And of course I use Excel instead of C02.
Garry
Post InfoPosted 13-Sep-2007 13:12Profile PM Edit Delete Report 
tetratech
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PS i've just gone to 3.7wpg on the 60g and plan to do something similar on the big tank . And of course I use Excel instead of C02.
Garry


Garry,

I would be careful increasing to that kind of wattage especially on the big tank. I haven't seen that really work without pressurized co2. The co2 will be the limiting factor for the plants and you have issues and issues in a 260g are big issues. Excel just can't fill the void. You might want to find out for yourself, but I would be surprised if it worked.





My Scapes
Post InfoPosted 13-Sep-2007 13:51Profile PM Edit Delete Report 
TW
 
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EditedEdited by TW
I like your idea , but shouldn't you have a filter on the intake of the UV?
That's probably best, but my filter runs far too fast for this particular UV. The pump I'm going to use is the next best thing. It sits outside the tank & has a sponge filter inside of it. Hope these pics show you what I mean.

Eheim Universal Pump Model 1046


Pump opened up, showing the internal blue filter sponge


These pumps are a little pricey. If you buy one, make sure you buy them on-line, as they will be a bit cheaper that way. They come in various flow rate sizes. I got one with a fairly low flow rate, to suit my UV's max flow rate. I use a more powerful version of the same pump for my water changes.

The problem for me is we don't get dry ferts around here
Garry, I'm fairly certain this place will ship to you, if you're interested. http://www.simplegrow.com.au/ In fact, it was FP forum member from QLD that gave me the name in the 1st place. I spent less than $5 per fert, more than 18 months ago. You can see by the pic I have heaps left. Of course, I don't know what shipping would cost, as I drove to pick it up. You are sure to have a hydroponics place somewhere in QLD, if shipping from this place is too costly.



Hope this helps.

Cheers
TW
Post InfoPosted 13-Sep-2007 14:26Profile PM Edit Delete Report 
Countryfish
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If I had your two tanks this is what I would do. And again it's just my opinion and you of course will do what makes you happy and everyone here I'm sure will help you just the same. I would switch tanks. What I mean by that is put your existing plants and fish in the 240g and use medium lighting. Maybe increase your schools some, etc.

In the 60g I would convert this one to your high light tank with all the bells and whistles.

Jeff
Thanks for that note of caution , I'm actually following your advice from some time ago ,
which was to experiment with the small tank rather than the big one . Up till now both
tanks have been on the same fert& light plan . So now that the small tank has very few
fish and I'm planning on redoing the scape , I'm going to have a go at a few changes
and see how it goes .

There will be no change to this tank untill I'm happy with whats going on in the other tank .

Thanks again for you advice , very much appreciated and remember you still have the
right to say I told you so when and if I decide to do C02 .

Garry
Post InfoPosted 14-Sep-2007 02:07Profile PM Edit Delete Report 
Countryfish
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Robyn
Thanks for both of those things . I have a fair bit of Seachem stuff at the minute ,
but I've saved the website and if I decide to go all the way with C02 and EI then
it will come in handy . Certainly very cheap !

You use a pump for your Water change , what a good idea never thought of that !!!!!.
Do you do a gravel vac at the same time ? I suppose you wouldn't bother with the filter
material if you did?
I look into these at the online shops .

Thanks again for the help .

Garry
Post InfoPosted 14-Sep-2007 02:18Profile PM Edit Delete Report 
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