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I just finished a mjor planting operation on my 30 gallon tank....I wanted to post before and after pics. Don't rag on the shipwreck and the rum drinking skeleton, I had to make some compromises to keep my little boy happy, it's kind of his tank too....I just hijacked it a little

BEFORE:

crazyred attached this image:

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~~Melissa~~
"Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder."

crazyred,

Pics are kinda small, but it looks like you went from plastic to real.

My first big question is,what are your conditions for the plants (light, ferts, ph, co2, etc) for sustaining them and what kind of plants are in there?

Last edited by tetratech at 18-Nov-2005 11:20

My Scapes

Let's see If I can enlarge the pics a little

crazyred attached this image:

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~~Melissa~~
"Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder."

Yes, they were plastic, the ones in the "background" are just that the background on the back of the tank.

AFTER:

crazyred attached this image:

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~~Melissa~~
"Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder."

Here's the plant list:
crypt wendtii green (several)
crypt wendtii red (2)
crypt lucens (1)
crypt walkeri (several)
corkscrew vallisneria (7)
amazon sword (1)
java fern (1)
dwarf saggitaria (7)
anacharis (some)
sword rosette (1)
hygro giant ( more than enough)
anubias barteri (a few)
anubias frazeri (a few)
bacopa caroliniana (a bunch)
aponogeton sp. (5)
nymphaea lilly (2)

The pH stays pretty steady at 7.2. I have 1.5 wpg in lighting, I'm currently using Kent Marine's Freshwater Plant and Seachem's Flourish Excel---I also have some Leaf Zone by Aquarium Pharmaceuticals and Hagen's Plant Gro, but I've been using the Freshwater Plant mainly.

I'm not using CO2 at the moment, and if I did it would probably be DIY....those big tank set-up are not do-able for me. Am I good to go?




Last edited by crazyred at 18-Nov-2005 11:52

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~~Melissa~~
"Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder."

Depending on what your levels are, it may be a good idea to dose potassium and nitrate, most easily in the form of KNO3. You can buy it from gregwatson.com, or in the form of Greelight Stump Remover. Since you're running a non-CO2, low-medium low light tank the plants probably wont uptake all those nutrients like crazy, so you probably wont need to dose that often, maybe a little bit once a week. Also, is that Kent product a micro-nutrient solution?


Whoops, how silly of me... I forgot to add, great job on the tank, it looks much much better! Well done

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Back in the saddle!

crazyred,

I couldn’t agree more with NowherMan6, the tank really looks much better

The “little boy” is your husband, right ?

No, I understand this dilemma. After my children’s fish died (one goldfish each and me who then didn’t know anything about aquariums, about 10 months ago) I had a hard time telling them that my tank will not have a treasure chest and such. Life is full of compromises .

Some of your plants might get quite big over time, for example the Amazon Sword. Keep an eye on them so that they don’t take over the rest of the tank.

Wonderful,

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Thanks you guys!! I like the real plants a lot. My pleco might get mad if I take out "his" shipwreck, and I can't help it, I like the rum drinking skeleton, it cracks me up. The pleco is going into my 55 when I get it, but he'll need a bigger cave to hide in. The other little fish use the shipwreck when he's not in it, so I guess it will stay.

I found this info on the Kent's Fresh water plant:

Freshwater Plant Supplement

Provides iron, manganese and other necessary trace minerals for lush, freshwater plant growth. This formula contains no phosphates. It forces higher plants to utilize phosphates already existing in the system, which provides for a cleaner system. 16 oz. treats 2,700 gallons.

I suppose that is micro-nutrients. Here's the 411 on the other stuff I have in my arsenal:

Flourish Excel

Flourish Excel is a simple source of carbon for aiding growth of aquatic plants. Designed to make plant keeping easier without carbon dioxide injection. Use it alone, or if you choose, with carbon dioxide injection. Keeps iron in a reduced state that's easily utilized by plants. 1 ml. treats 10 gallons. Recommended for use on a daily to every other day basis.

Leaf Zone

Leaf Zone contains a special formula of chelated iron and potassium for lush and colorful leaves. 16 oz. bottle treats 480 gallons.

Plant Gro

Plant Gro replenishes a wide range of essential nutrients and elements necessary for rapid, well-balanced plant growth. It intensifies plant colors by enhancing their intracellular enzymatic reactions. Add 1 tsp. per 10 gallon weekly. 8 oz.

Sounds like the Leaf Zone has potassium, and I have plenty of nitrate in the tank (ranges between 10-40 ppm) It only gets to 40 right before my water change....do y'all still think I need KNO3?

Last edited by crazyred at 18-Nov-2005 13:26

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~~Melissa~~
"Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder."

Sounds like you've got your traces down.

regarding the nitrate: keep in mind that was BEFORE (i assume) you planted the tank. With giant hygro and anacharis, in addition to the other plants, there's no way your nitrates should increase over time. it may be a good idea to monitor them over the next week or so. if you see them going down you may need to supplement with KNO3.

If you do go this route, you can probably cut off that one fert. you're adding - I forget the name, but its the one that provides iron and K... if you dose KNO3 you wont need the extra K, and you're already getting iron from the trace solution.

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Back in the saddle!

Wait a minute,

The “little boy” is a fish?



Silly me, why haven't I thought of this.

Ingo (shame on me)

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Thanks Nowhereman, i'll keep an eye on the 'trates. I did have a couple of plants in there before, but nothing like I have now.....they might suck it all up leaving me 'trateless (is that a word?? )

Ingo, you goofy thing......okay, it's two "little boys" that might get mad if I get rid of the shipwreck, my 9 year-old son and 'Lips' the pleco!! My hubby likes it too. They're (hubby and son) old school....when aquariums were small with 15 goldfish and treasure chests, skeletons, and shipwrecks. Kind of like what you mentioned in an earlier post.



Last edited by crazyred at 18-Nov-2005 14:39

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~~Melissa~~
"Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder."

I hate to break up the party, cause the tank does look nice, but I don't think some of your plants will grow with your current light. Most notably:

corkscrew vallisneria (7)
amazon sword (1)
dwarf saggitaria (7)
sword rosette (1)
bacopa caroliniana (a bunch)
nymphaea lilly (2)

You could provide all the excel and other ferts, but without enough light the plants can't photosynthesis enough. If possible put another striplight on top.



Last edited by tetratech at 18-Nov-2005 14:45

My Scapes

'trateless (is that a word??

if it wasn't, it is now...

And as for your "little boy" - it's true, plecos have a face only a mother could love

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Back in the saddle!

"but I don't think some of your plants will grow with your current light. Most notably:
corkscrew vallisneria (7)
amazon sword (1)
dwarf saggitaria (7)
sword rosette (1)
bacopa caroliniana (a bunch)
nymphaea lilly (2)"


Well, the nymphaea lilly has been in the tank for months and it is growing SO big I've had to trim it back several times, and that was beforeI upgraded my lights to the current 1.5 wpg set-up. I only had .5 wpg before and one of the nyphaea plants grew almost to the top of the water. They started out as bulbs from Wal-Mart, and now one is medium and one is HUGE (it's a reddish brown and can be seen on right side of tank in 'after' pic) The amazon sword, corkscrew vallisneria, and dwarf saggitaria have only been in there for two weeks and are putting on tons of new leaves. I'm not sure about the sword rosette or the bacopa, but they seem to be okay so far....time will tell.

Last edited by crazyred at 18-Nov-2005 15:23

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~~Melissa~~
"Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder."

nymphaea lilly (2)"
Oops sorry, didn't mean to include the lilly, too much cut and paste. I do think your under for the other ones, but good luck.



My Scapes

IMO the dwarf sagg should do fine - it'll grow, albeit slowly.

The sword I'm not positive of... it should put out leaves steadily enough, the question is they may come in pale and thin from lack of light or nutrients around its roots. Also, if it does grow the root system will be HUGE. I posted a pic of the root system of an ozelot sword I removed from my 46 in my tank log. Check it out if you'd like - and notice that all my crypts wound up tangled up in the root system... i still think it kind of choked them off and prevented them from growing larger.

The corkscrews and bacopa, I have very little experience with them as i just started growing them myself. Italian vals would've given you no problem, you can turn to them if the corkscrews dont work out.

I had trouble growing rosette swords in 2.5 WPG with CO2 injected. It all depends on the situation of course, but maybe you'll have better luck than I...



Last edited by NowherMan6 at 18-Nov-2005 16:34

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Back in the saddle!

Crazyred how big is your light and what kind of bulb are you using. That would usually dictate whether your tank could be considered medium light. And if you dare you could read this thread started by Little_Fish but I don't know if you want to go there.

http://www.fishprofiles.com/files/forums/Planted%20Aquaria/66108.html?200511180247

All your plants might be fine, I'm just going by general guidelines and in most cases they are correct.

My Scapes

It's nice she can enjoy your tanks....I have my 29 on top of our entertainment center where it can't be missed and hubby didn't notice that I added a whole jungle of plants until I asked him what he thought. Oh well, it wasn't a nekkid woman or a Harley, so I guess it wasn't that noticable to him!!

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~~Melissa~~
"Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder."

crazyred,

Maybe you should use a picture of the before mentioned entities as your tanks backgroud, that would for sure increase your hubbie's interest in the tank.



About the Anachris, it shows how much I still have to learn as I didn't even know that it is Egeria Najas. I can only second upikabo's findings as my Egeria Densa completely withered away and it was upikabu who pointed out the Excel issue in my tank (Thanks Again).

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club