FishProfiles.com Message Forums

This is my 35 Gallon Tall I got from my sister in law. I have added some plants today so i thought i would place my log in planted aquaria. The current configuration is a 35 Gallon Tank with a AQ 110 filter, Natural substrate mixture of pebbles & small substrate. Some rocks & Driftwood in place. Lighting is a 6700k 30Watt LifeGlo 2 Bulb. I know im low on light but its the best i can afford right now.

I have the fish in there with the hardscape for over a week now. Cycling was instacycled as i used the old filter, water & driftwood & rocks from old tank.

General Image of tank as it is.




Side Shot


Pics of my otts hanging out


Two of my four Bolivian Rams showing off their color


My Other Bolivians



What else would you suggest for this tank?

Thanks for your input as always, Shane
http://thetanklog.blogspot.com/ - [ Thanks to ScottF ]
http://www.natureaquariumclubofutah.com/main.html

Fishmonster , Lots more plants and those big pebbles you have at the back might make a nice feature at the front leading to a heavily planted area .

Anyway just a couple of thoughts . You have good hardscape in there , just need to arrange to get the best effect .

Good luck & enjoy .

Garry

I agree with Garry, lots more plants.
Did you put some plants in from the ones you ordered for the 10g? What is the lighting? How about a full stocking list.

Nice bolivians, they are so cute and young.

first of all removal of the plant weight that is so apparent in the picture and planting of the stems in the substrate. If I am not totally mistaken they also contain lead which will gradually released into the water.

As far as i know those weights are made of a different material than lead and that wouldnt be a problem. Thanks for the worry. Also these plants did come from my delivery for my 10 gallon but they were way too big to fit in my 10 gal so i put them in here. The lighting right now is a 30 watt Life Glo2 bulb 6700k. so its just under a watt per gallon but thats the best i can do right now until i can afford to change out the lighting rig.

The tanks full stock is as follows

4 Bolivian Rams
4 Ottocincus
3 Black Skirt Tetras
2 Gold Barbs
5 Cherry Barbs
2 Hyphessobrycon roseus
1 BN Pleco
3 Pandas
2 Swordtail Platies

Im thinking of adding 3 more pandas. They are schooling really nicely in their new home.

The big pebbles at the back are acutally all pebbles down to the glass bottom, i did it as a filler . I might removed them and add more gravel. Right now i dont have pics but i put the plants pretty much where they are but i put the Difformis in the back right corner in the big pebbles. Once i have some roots on those I will remove the weights. Same with the hornwort ill remove the weights when i get some decent roots or shoots off the stems. Hopefully they will live. Both the hornwort and the vals have leaves floating and are getting direct light. The difformis is quite high but not at the top. But they have not light being blocked as the hornwort in the center is arching to the left.

I hope that helps answer some questions. Anymore comments are really appreciated.


Thanks for your input as always, Shane
http://thetanklog.blogspot.com/ - [ Thanks to ScottF ]
http://www.natureaquariumclubofutah.com/main.html

just a quick update, I have got less that 1 watt per gallon and i see new shoots comming off the difformis.. YAY!!!. My hornwort and my vals are also doing great.

Thanks for your input as always, Shane
http://thetanklog.blogspot.com/ - [ Thanks to ScottF ]
http://www.natureaquariumclubofutah.com/main.html

Glad to hear your plants are doing good fishmonster under such low light. Hope they keep it up for you.

Well my 35 is still going strong. I purchased some more gravel this weekend to put in the back right corner instead of the pebbles I am going to put the difformis in that. Also my hornwort seems to be growing across the tank so im thinking of cutting the hornwort and planting some more to make is bushy. Any ideas on this? The vals are doing great. Im thinking of purchasing some Anubias Nana to put on the rock above the cave. that is located towards the center of the tank. I also thinking of adding some more rock for caving on the right side and then putting plants on top of that. Im hoping that the hornwort, vals and difformis will fill in the back to cover the cabling.

Thanks for your input as always, Shane
http://thetanklog.blogspot.com/ - [ Thanks to ScottF ]
http://www.natureaquariumclubofutah.com/main.html

fishmonster, Yep you can do that with the Hornwort , I do it all the time . Eventually you will have too much, trust me !!!!
All you plans sound spot on , more plants and more hardscape are always good .

Well done
Enjoy
Garry

Hmm... That hygro looks more like corymbosa than difformis to me. I didn't like it in my tank, hope you have better luck with it. The hornwort will grow in anything. Cut it to pieces if you like and it will still keep growing. Also, don't expect it to root as it is stricting a floating plants. Pushing the stems into the gravel to make it stay is fine. It is a pretty plant but I have had trouble with all of the lower leaves yellowing and dieing when I have had it planted. That makes a big mess. Maybe it would stay healthier if you just used the weights permanently instead of burying it? Anubias nana is a beautiful plant and should do fine with your lighting.

Put a black background on the tank. That will disguise the cabling and filter pretty well. If you aren't ready to spend out for one yet just cut a black trash bag open. It looks better than nothing.

Keep us posted!

Well i thought it was finally time to update my 35 Gallon log with some pics. My Difformis is really taking shape now. You can really see the changes in the leaves.



The plant is sending out lots of new roots from up the stems. Any ideas why this is happening?




I have cut down the Hornwort so its not as high. Its more busy now. im hoping though it will grow back up.



The Vals are still going strong in the left corner


I cant really tell but it may have a runner coming off of it.


Also guys i think i got a stray. Any ideas what this might be. Looks like it has a Rhyzome and roots too.



I think im gonna let it grow a little and see what comes of it. I think this tank is doing much better than my 10 gallon for some reason tho.

Thanks for your input as always, Shane
http://thetanklog.blogspot.com/ - [ Thanks to ScottF ]
http://www.natureaquariumclubofutah.com/main.html

Looks great monster,

Your difformis looks wonderful.

It looks like that is a little peice of duckweed stuck in there. I would need a better pic though. Take it out and see if it floats.

fishmonster, The roots thing is a sign of good health I hope . Got lots of that happening in my tank .
Be interesting to get the opinions of others on that ?

I see you have Golden Barbs , I love those fellas have 3 myself . How many do you have ?

Other plants are looking very healthy .
Just a thought can you give us a before and after of the full tank so that its easier to see the changes and growth.
That would be great .

Enjoy
Garry

RNJ, thanks for the input. Yeah its comming along nicely. Garry, i have a pair of gold barbs in my tank. They are going on strong. As soon as i can get some shots I will do a before and after shot of the whole tank like yours. I really like the tank right now.

Thanks for your input as always, Shane
http://thetanklog.blogspot.com/ - [ Thanks to ScottF ]
http://www.natureaquariumclubofutah.com/main.html

Im hoping this is what garry was after. the hornwort is already growing back



Thanks for your input as always, Shane
http://thetanklog.blogspot.com/ - [ Thanks to ScottF ]
http://www.natureaquariumclubofutah.com/main.html

fishmonster, yep thats what I wanted to see .
I would think a lot of something like Water Sprite or Wisteria ( fast growers ) at the back left would be good and some smaller midgrounds in front also on the left.

Just a couple of suggestions , up to your preferences .

Look forward to you next update
Garry

Well Garry,

Im not sure what im gonna do with this tank at the moment, its about 30 miles from me so I dont get down there all that often. However Im thinking of moving the Apongeton down to that tank and putting in the back left. What you think? Also I have runners comming from my Jungle Vals hehehe. I will look up wysteria and Water sprite to see what it looks like. Thanks for the advice.

Thanks for your input as always, Shane
http://thetanklog.blogspot.com/ - [ Thanks to ScottF ]
http://www.natureaquariumclubofutah.com/main.html

fishmonster , Apongeton thats a sword looking plant right ?
It would look fine at the back left mixed in with some other fast growers as I said .
I'm not a fan of Vals btw .
But as always its up to you .

Garry

Well the plants in this are doing awesome. The Difformis which i found out was called wysteria is doing awesome, im seeing new shoots on the Wysteria which is awesome. The Hornwort is growing back to its tall self and the vals are chillin with the new shoot doing well. I will get some pictures later of the new shoots. This is looking good.

Thanks for your input as always, Shane
http://thetanklog.blogspot.com/ - [ Thanks to ScottF ]
http://www.natureaquariumclubofutah.com/main.html

So okay its been a few weeks since my last posting. Im sorry i havent been able to keep up with my log but i havent had a decent connection to do so. So this is going to be a long catchup post.

So here goes. About 3 weeks ago we had to move to our inlaws at which the 35 gallon was at. My 10 gallon had to be moved so i made the decision to add the plants and fish to the tank.

The tank ended up looking like a jungle. Below is the tanks at that point.

Before


After



After seeing that for a few days i decided i needed to tidy up the tank so I went in and i overhauled the tank completely. i removed all plants and hardscape and redid the whole tank. I had the tilder media in the bucket with the fish and i had the plants in another bucket.

Here are some closer shots of some of the sections that i changed.

Left side of the tank, I have all my vals there. I have jungle and corkscrew vals growing. Plus my Crypts have settled in now and are doing well. Also you can see my difformis is going nuts even after some of the heads were cut and added at the base.



Arnt my ottos kewl? They are schooling hehe


This show shows the vals off really well. I also added a longer tube for my main HOB so that the tube is getting water from the bottom and now affecting my plants as much as it was.



Middle section taken at an angle, i had a hard time getting close to the tank that day. I wanted to try and show that i have left the middle kinda open and got the hornwort at the back behind a piece of slate then the water sprite infront of it.





This shot really isnt about the plants mainly to show i moved the heater to the side and added the extra internal filter. I added the filter mainly to get some current in the tank for the bolbitis. But im not sure if thats working or not at this time.



Im showing off my nanas here, they are comming along in leaps and bounds in this tank and im really happy about those.



My java ferns are comming along slowly. I have one that is shooting up off my DW but these are growing slowly. I have them all on the same piece of DW so that i can remove them when they are bigger and move them to other peices of the tank Oh i forgot to tell you that my Apons are at the rear of the DW on the right. They are growing back nicely after almost loosing them because they were floating.



Then Finally my finished tank after all the changes. I have had alot of good comments about this. Plus i have some constructive critisium about the water sprite. Please tell me what you guys think



Thanks for your input as always, Shane
http://thetanklog.blogspot.com/ - [ Thanks to ScottF ]
http://www.natureaquariumclubofutah.com/main.html