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Well heres an update of my tank that has been setup on April 3rd this year. Comments/Suggestions on plant changes as well as other things is very much appreciated. This was a few days after a trim so the foreground plants didnt get a chance to quite grow out (the baby tears mainly)

[link]http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/llblizzardll/detail?.dir=/9b77&.dnm=7bbdscd.jpg&.src=ph [/link]
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/llblizzardll/detail?.dir=/9b77&.dnm=fb59scd.jpg&.src=ph
Plant list includes (not sure if they really are):
Bacopa Caroliana, Ludwigia repens? Ludwigia natans, Rotala Wallichi, Pearl Grass (or baby tears?), Lilaeopsis novae-zelandiae, and hygrophilia hybrid 'compact' (it branches of sideways??).

Plain gravel and kicking 28 watts with fluorish and fluorish excel daily with iron dosed weekly.

I need a better plant in the right bottom corner, and possiby a smaller leaved plant to put in the left side of the tank since the bacopa seems to detract from the tank IMO. Maybe I'll let the pearl grass grow out there?

Thanks!

Oh, its a 5.5 gallon

inkodinkomalinko,

Looks very nice

About the dosing: no macros?

About the plants: Yeah- I think that the bacopa may have too large of a leaf structure for such a small tank although it doesn't look too bad in your tank either. If the plant in the front right corner is the one you don't know if it is Pearl Grass or baby tears then I would say it is the latter. Can you get us a close-up?

Design (IMHO, not being the best designer here): Having the driftwood leaning to the right makes the section all the way to the right rather isolated and hard to integrate into the overall flow. I like the Ludwigia behind it. Do you think your light would support it if you have it more densely? A big bush of it would look awesome. Maybe it would be better to leave the left back low as well, this way you have a triangular setup, low on the left and high and full on the right.

What are these grassy groups on right front? They look somewhat unnatural to me.

Hope this helps,

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Not bad. Looks like you have pretty good plant growth, though I'd suggest moving the myrio (the stuff behind the pearlgrass) to the other side of the driftwood so that it gets more light. Perhaps switching that with the bacopa would work. Also, seperate the harigrass into smaller plantlets. It will make it look more natural and help it spread into a more even carpet.
A small anibias like coffeefolia or nana (or a bunch of petit nana if you cna find it), would look good on the piece of wood and would add a distinctly different leaf shape for added texture. Even a nice bit of java fern would soften the edges of the wood a bit and add a good mid-ground plant.

Hoping that there must be a word for everything I mean...

Sorry, no suggestions...I just wanted to say I think it's looks very nice /:'

~~~~~~~~~~~~
There is water at the bottom of the ocean

LF:

Nope, no macros. I've been doing 2 or 3 water changes a week since theres phosphates in my tap. I dose about 1/2 a cap of fluorish which would up the potassium to about 1+%. The plants do seem do be doing fine, and now that i've dosed iron the plants seem more red.

Im not sure if my light would support the ludwigia, but what happens is the filter is hidden behind it so the outflow pushes the plants close together which deprives it of light. After I proprogate it some more I'll put some behind the wallichi.

In the long run, I'll throw out the plants infront (hygro compact and lilaeopsis) and replace it with a smaller plant.

Illustrae: Umm, what plant are you referring to when you say myrio? I tried some java fern in my tank and they died from some black spot disease. Also, anubias grow algae really really fast in my tank.

Thanks Theresa and everyone else

Wow dosent look like a 5G nice job, looks excellent.

10gallon: 8neons 5gallon: 1betta
1oto
2platys

Thanks Linkin

Heres pics of some of the plants, some IDing would be nice
1. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v146/Killerhobofish/Plants/SSL13985.jpg
2. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v146/Killerhobofish/Plants/SSL13986.jpg
3. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v146/Killerhobofish/Plants/SSL13988.jpg
4. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v146/Killerhobofish/Plants/SSL13990.jpg

Thanks!

inkodinkomalinko,

Here are my "guesses" as to what these plants in your pictures are:

1) Rotala rotundifolia (aka indica)
2) Narrow Leaf Ludwigia
3) Baby Tears (I doubt it is Pearl Grass)
4) Ludwigia repens

By no means am I 100% on the identification, but I am pretty sure.

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Wow dosent look like a 5G

I missed reading the tank size in the original post: wow /:'

~~~~~~~~~~~~
There is water at the bottom of the ocean

Thanks for the id's lf and thanks for the response theresa

I just hacked up my tank by a trim job and threw away the wallichi and swapped places with the rotala indica. I trimmed the ludwigia (both) and planted it more compact, as well as the bacopa. It looks a bit weird right now, so i'm hoping to get something to fill in the left front/back and possibly new foreground plants.

I always bought potassium and nitrogen ferts I'll be dosing those 2x weekly.

BTW, is it better to dose the nutrients all at once or spread out? Like potassium one day, iron one day, etc, or everything on one day twice weekly?

Pics:
Before
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v146/Killerhobofish/SSL13993.jpg
After
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v146/Killerhobofish/SSL13994.jpg
Hopefully it wont look so janky as it grows out and the triangular shape takes better place

Your tank looks really nice, looks much bigger than a 5G. You must have a steady hand with your pruning sissors. I like the way you've shaped the plants.

Cheers
TW

Thanks . Your right, lots of pruning, since the plants need a prune everytime they grow 2" taller, which is about a week or two..

inkodinkomalinko,

Hey, don't give us two shots from different angels to compare a before and an after .

Otherwise, it looks ok, we will have to see how it develops when the plants grow back. What I find interesting in your tank is how you arrange the plants. Is it on purpose that your tank is going from green on the left over orange to red on the right?

Small tanks often look fuller if plants with small leaves are used. Maybe you should look into Pearl Grass or Baby Tears as a filler plant.

About fert dosing: It is recommended to alternate "feedings" of macros and micros on a daily basis, each 3x per week. There is supposedly a chance that elements of the micros create a chemical reaction with elements of the macros that renders them useless if added at the same time.

I hope this helps,

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Thanks LF. I tried planting the red/orange plants and green plants a different way, but being a small tank there wasnt a focal point so I decided to throw all the red plants at one side and the green ones on the other. ANd, the LFS's here arent really great with plants so they order a ton of red ones for some reason and very few green ones. I had to get that bacopa at a pet*o since the other stores only had larger plants (swords vals crypts)

Some pics of the scattered red plants
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v146/Killerhobofish/Plants/?action=view&current=Ssl13834.jpg
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v146/Killerhobofish/Plants/?action=view&current=SSL13794.jpg

Thanks!

Hi.
I suspect two reasons for the LFS's stocking mostly red
plants..
Everyone is familiar with green ones and thing the red
ones will brighten up the tank and be "different."
This is probably the season for them, longer days, brighter
sun, and warmer weather.

Frank


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