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I went out today and spent some money on driftwood and plants to start the do-over of my 80 gallon tank. I'm not completely set on the current aquascape I've come up with, but mostly I just wanted to get the plants in there, as they were out of water for a little while coming back from the LFS.

I took a couple of pics even though it's still a little stirred up. Excuse the flash! I know some of the driftwood looks rather stark right now, but I've got some java moss on the way to soften it all up, also I plan to get more anubias in there in time, especially some nana to brighten up some of the nooks. The african cichlids are only in there until I get the filter for their new tank. This tank will eventually house discus and other SA fish.

Let me know what you think so far. And if you have any suggestions for improvement.

Front view:



Attached Image:


The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. - Oscar Wilde

Close-up of front:



Attached Image:


The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. - Oscar Wilde

Back view - this is a room divider tank so both sides are visible.



The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. - Oscar Wilde

The front again, because the first pic is very small.



The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. - Oscar Wilde

On congrats on starting a planted tank. I just read your thread on your new light.

What are your plans for Ferts, water changes, and such?

I like your DW. It will look really nice when its covered with plants.

55G Planted tank thread
19G Container Pond
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/Wingsdlc/Ric

I bought a bottle of Flourish Excel yesterday, and will get some root tabs for the hairgrass as well. Apart from that, I'm open to recommendations; it's been a while since I did plants at all. I'm considering a C02 unit also, not that the anubias will need it so much, but I think it might be nice to see what a difference it makes.

Water changes - will definitely have to step them up when I get the discus. Once weekly is the current plan.

I'm beginning to think I may have gone overboard on the barteri - I think it will look better with lots of nana.

The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. - Oscar Wilde

I know that I have read your thread about lighting a while back but could you remind me how much you would be running? If you are going to have 2WPG or less then I would not bother with CO2. Excel will help growth quite a bit.

I would also look into getting some regular Flourish. It contains all your Micros. Then see if you can make an order from http://www.gregwatson.com/ for your Macros (Nitrate, Phosphate, and Potassium) or use the Seachem line. In a lower light tank you are not going to need much of the Macros.

Check this out for dosing regements.
http://www.barrreport.com/articles/42-ei-light-those-less-techy-folks.html

The Barteri would probably look a little better if you place it lower on the DW and Nana higher up. Some moss would look pretty nice on the DW too!

55G Planted tank thread
19G Container Pond
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/Wingsdlc/Ric

I may have up to about 4wpg of lighting if I use the metal halides I have bought, but as was pointed out to me on my thread about the lighting, this is likely to be overkill on this tank considering it is mainly anubias and java moss. So I am still considering the actual lighting I will use day-to-day - perhaps only the two 55w t5s that are on the halide unit. I'm concerned about the hairgrass with this lighting though - the reason I wanted to buy much better lights than I had was so that I have much more choice with my foreground plants.

he Barteri would probably look a little better if you place it lower on the DW and Nana higher up. Some moss would look pretty nice on the DW too!

I agree. The barteri looks too big near the top and makes the tank look smaller, in my opinion. I'm planning to buy a heap of nana in my next big tank-spend. I've also got some java moss coming to me in the mail, so looking forward to adding it in.

I found this AGA contest entry when I was looking for examples to show my fiance of the vision I have for this tank, and it's pretty close. Main differences being that the bulk of the wood and plants will be concentrated to the centre of the tank, sort of mound-style, and I want to have a grassy lawn effect all the way around this 'mound'.

The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. - Oscar Wilde

4WPG would probably be a bit over kill for the Anubias and Java fern but the Hair grass would like it. I am not so sure that you will be able to grow the hair grass with out the 4WPG and CO2. If you only run the extra light for a couple of hours you might be able to pull it off.

Maybe do some looking around on the planted tank forum to see what some of thoughs guys are running with the plants you have.



55G Planted tank thread
19G Container Pond
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/Wingsdlc/Ric

New photos today - one thing the metal halides do is make for better photos . No flash this time.

The lights are up and look pretty fantastic, but we're going to try to hang them a bit lower. Tannins are going strong . But I've moved a couple of things and added some java moss. Hopefully it'll spread quickly!

Next thing will be the nana.

Living room view:



Kitchen view:



The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. - Oscar Wilde

Beautiful driftwood and great looking tank
I hope the cichlids are not causing problems with the hairgrass.

Please update when u see the new leaves growing on those anubii. I just want to confirm the theory that strong lighting promotes more in number but smaller in size leaves on anubius.

I hope the cichlids are not causing problems with the hairgrass.

Oh yes, they've yanked a few up . I'm just waiting on a new filter for another tank, and they will be out and back in their rocky, hairgrass-free set-up .

The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. - Oscar Wilde

just so you know JB, halide lighting and pc lighting are not equivalent watt for watt. Halides are stronger by far, and that is why I didn't suggest you use the halides on this tank. I'd say it would be like 6-8 wpg of fluorescent light with the halides and the t5's on at the same time, 5-7 with the halides. At that point it's overkill for almost all plants, not just anubias and low light plants, but especially so for them.

I'd use just the t5's and pick a more suitable plant, like crypt wendtii green, or anubias nana or coffeeafolia for the foreground.

Otherwise, lookin' great....nice start!

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

What do you think of using the halides for just a few hours a day, to give the hairgrass a bit of a lighting boost, and using the t5s alone for the rest of the lighting period? I've heard of people being successful with this method, and not having trouble with algae.

I could use crypts I suppose, but they are very, very expensive around here. As is anubias . I'll be using anubias nana on the driftwood, so I do need something contrasting for the foreground.

A quick side question: assuming I can get the balance of lighting etc. right, how long would it take for hairgrass to spread and fill in all the foreground? What would be required to make it do so? And aquascaping-wise, would it be better to use just hairgrass or to also use a second foreground plant in part of the tank, like tenellus?

The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. - Oscar Wilde

If you use the halides at all start them off on an hour, no more. Let that go for a couple weeks to see if there's going to be a problem. Not only algae, but browning/weird growth or coloration of your low light plants. Work your way up from there in 15 min. increments every week. It's hard to predict how the plants will respond to it since it's such a large jump in light output. Most of us who turn the second lights on for a short duration are doubling the light output....but this is like 6X difference.

I'd say a second foreground plant could be used, but I would stay away from the tenellus. It will easily outgrow the hairgrass, since first it just grows faster, and second your light conditions are probably better suited for the tenellus....that is without the halides. I'd chose something slow growing, yet sturdy. I hate to suggest something a second time, but crypts would work well here IMO. Or maybe a stem plant trimmed low to look like a foreground plant. These will grow upwards quick, but usually won't sprea outwards and choke the hairgrass.

It will probably take quite a while for those few clumps of hairgrass to spread throughout the whole foreground since you have no CO2 and minimal light for most of the day. The halides for a short time will help a little I guess, but flourish excel or CO2 will be of most help for rapid growth.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Here's some new pics taken tonight, nothing has really changed though.

I'm waiting for the next local auction in Feb to get my anubias nana, and maybe some more hairgrass just to try to fill it in quicker.





The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. - Oscar Wilde

The tank is looking pretty good. This is the first time that I have picked up on the curved glass. It looks pretty nice.

In the last picture you have an Anubias right in the center. I would move that to one end or the other.

55G Planted tank thread
19G Container Pond
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/Wingsdlc/Ric

A new pic and a new update: I finally moved the African cichlids out into their own tank and have started restocking this one. The first fish are 10 danios, a mixture of zebras, long-finned zebras, and leopards. Also 2 otocinclus. I'm planning to buy another 4 or so of them soon, and a largish school of a different sort of small characin, a smaller school of a larger (maybe emporer tetras) fish, and finally, discus, probably 4 of them, not sure what kind/colour yet. The discus will be the last fish to go in and probably at least a month away.

I need a moment to express some otocinlus love here! Two otos are not much in an 80 gallon, but they are hard workers. In just two days they have almost completely cleaned all the leaves of the anubias of the algae that was creeping over them.

Okay, so now for the pic - the moss is growing very nicely, the hairgrass is starting to fill in at the front. Still no anubias nana, didn't manage to get any at the auction so I'm trying to find some affordable specimens nearby.



Wingsdlc - I tried moving the middle anubias as you suggested, but thought it looked odd at the sides - it's very large and hard to just fit in somewhere without completely drawing the focus. I'm hoping that once the nana is in and maybe some more hairgrass in the foreground it won't be so conspicuous.

The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. - Oscar Wilde

Lookin' good, JB. I think it just needs more plants and some growth.

How's the lighting situation, using the halides at all?

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients