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I have to start with a big thanks to Wings, he sent me a large plant "care" package as part of an as of yet incomplete trade. He sent so much rotala that it was almost a pain to plant it . Lots of other good stuff in there too like some blyxa and stargrass. So thanks.

I took my water to the LFS today to check on the status of my cycle. I set up the tank with a few sturdy guys about 2ish plus weeks back with some seeded bio ring thingajobs from my 5.5 shrimp tank (which is currently doing great, but is a huge mess scaping-wise). Anyhow, the water tested really well so I nabbed up a few more fish. I have 4 cherry barbs, 6 tiger barbs, and 4 white clouds. I'll probably increase the schools a bit in the future. My idea for fish was sturdy and active and these guys fit nicely.

I also added about 15lbs of flourite that I had sitting around to the 50lbs of regular old gravel I already had in there. That's why the pics are going to look a little cloudy, it wasn't a bacterial bloom or anything. It seems to be an ok depth of gravel, but I might get another bag of flourite in the future.

The equipment is no hassle: AC70 for filtration, visitherm 250(i think) for heat, and I'll be using one 96w pc for a little more than medium lighting IMO. I have a dual 96w fixture, but will only run one bulb because I hope to not have to get CO2 in there. The reduced electric and bulb replacement cost should be a bonus too. I did get a big jug of excel and some dry ferts though. We'll see how that works out.

So on to the pics:

Cloudy, no background, plants in no order....work in progress


cherry!


Tiger barb:


WMM:

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Depth should be about 3+ins I dont think by what I can see yours is not that deep.

I hope you are getting some DW and rocks too.

Have a look in [link=My Profile] http://www.fishprofiles.com/forums/member.aspx?id=1935[/link] for my tank info
Look here for my
Betta 11Gal Desktop & Placidity 5ft Community Tank Photos

Keith

Near enough is not good enough, therefore good enough is not near enough, and only your best will do.
I VOTE DO YOU if not WHY NOT?
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Hi Keith!

I have some DW on order. Should have it next week!

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Matty,

I pretty much trimmed every plant grouping in my tank. Lets just say I have been saving up for you since we first talked about a trade. I am glad you like them and thanks for the kind words here too.

Good pick with your fish for your goal of active, sturdy fish. I have had good luck with each one of those. I currently have white clouds in my 55G and I am getting fry. I'm not so sure that will work out for you though with the barbs also in the tank.

I think you should be fine in terms of your equipment. F. Excel makes a huge difference in a non-CO2 tank. Right now I am dosing it everyday in my little 1.5G and it is growing like made.

Looking forward to seeing the next stages!

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

I think you should be fine in terms of your equipment. F. Excel makes a huge difference in a non-CO2 tank. Right now I am dosing it everyday in my little 1.5G and it is growing like made.

Great to hear, and I don't think it will become too expensive since I'm buying online in bulk.

My dry ferts (MG, N, P, and K) came in today. Should I dose a bit or wait for the Flourish and the f. excel to come in before I dose anything?

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Well I got my big jugs of excel and flourish. I also got my test kits and whatnot in the same order. So I did a nice big water change and some testing and ferting. I did end up losing two of the tiger barbs I got the other day. Both looked pretty weak when I got them home and the other fish seem pretty happy so I'm not too concerned since the water tested well(below). I'll get some more pics up soon.

Results:
ammonia: 0
nitrite: 0
nitrate: 5
pH: 7.6
KH: 3 degrees
GH: 71.6 ppm...4 degrees?

On a different note, I start work at the lfs, Fintastic, tomorrow.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Matty,

It looks like your water is in good shape. I was wondering what your water was like down there. It is really close to the same here. I think when I first moved here I tested my PH and it was about 7 straight out of the tap. My KH was right with yours and I have never tested the GH though I probably should sometime. That would mean I need to buy a new test kit and I really don't feel like it right now because I don't seem to use them very often.

I also wouldn't be over concerned about loosing a couple of fish. It seems that would can always end up with a couple of weak ones.

~What are your plans for fertilization? Modified EI?
~What bulb did you end up getting?

Congratulations on getting in at the LFS. It has been almost a year since I have been there. They do have a pretty nice set up overall but the planted tanks were not in really great shape. I hope they let you clean things up if they haven't already.

Let me know if they have anything super cool.

I look forward to seeing some pictures as the tank matures.

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

Thanks Wings!

I've always had my own sort of take on dosing. A lot of the old guys here used to get uptight about the way I do it....I use testing and common sense to keep the nitrates between 10-20 and the PO4 between 1-2 ppm. After I get a rhythm I only test monthly, and I'll post the amounts when that happens. I let the plants tell me how much micros to dose. I do a large dose on 50% water change day and just a little dosing throughout the week to maintain the levels. I've tried EI a couple times in the past and hard bad experiences *shrugs* probably user error, but I couldn't get the hang of it.

I ended up getting a couple bulbs (one for backup) from hellolights. They haven't arrived yet, while everything else (ferts, and an order from foster & smith) already made it. I'm currently using a really old bulb on a 65w fixture. Kinda makes me wish I spent the extra couple bucks to get bulbs at foster and smith.

Yeah, the planted tanks were a bit of a mess, I hope they let me clean them up a bit too. He does want me to take over some of the tank maintenance, so that's a good sign.

I'll let you know if they get something nice, what are you looking for?

I also hope to update the 5.5 log tonight after I can get some darkness for a fts. Maybe get some activity back in the planted forums.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Well I got a few more plants in the mail today and finally got my lights. They were packaged VERY well for what it's worth.


The plants all seem to be doing ok, though I haven't seen significant growth yet. I'm currently dosing about 10pp of nitrate throughout the week (5ppm after the water change and about .75ppm every day thereafter), 1ppm of PO4 throughout the week, and dosing half the directed amounts of flourish(1ml/day) and excel(2.5ml/day).

So I took new pic, still no organization or a background. There's even a bunch of floating plant stuff stuck to the filter. Yuck. I took the pic with both 96w bulbs on, so it might look brighter than it really is. I'm still only using one for now. Here 'tis:

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Well I did a water change today. I've also received my driftwood. It's nice, but won't sink at all. It's been floating in the tank for five days. I just went down to the stream to collect a rock to tie it to, and it is currently in the oven to kill off any nasties.

I did some testing cause I lost one more fish, these were the results before the water change:

KH-2
GH-4
pH-7.6
NH4-0
NO2-0
NO3-0

Everything looked good except the nitrate, which bottomed out. Apparently the plants are growing . So I'm going to increase the dosing amounts to 7ppm on water change day and 1ppm all other days. I'll probably increase the amount of PO4 I dose with it.

Anyhow, here's a pic, you can see first off how little I've done, but also that I've gotten a few more plants, and the driftwood floating:



I'll be replanting the stems once I affix my driftwood and get it in a good spot.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Planting is a very slow job and it can take ages to settle in besides there is always the odd change here and there as it is not the effect you wanted.

If they are rooted plants you can give the roots a boost by using Seachem fert tabs.

Have you considered fixing the DW to a piece of slate?

Have a look in [link=My Profile] http://www.fishprofiles.com/forums/member.aspx?id=1935[/link] for my tank info
Look here for my
Betta 11Gal Desktop & Placidity 5ft Community Tank Photos

Keith

Near enough is not good enough, therefore good enough is not near enough, and only your best will do.
I VOTE DO YOU if not WHY NOT?
VOTE NOW VOTE NOW

hi keith. I've gotten a rock to attach it to. I could've gone with slate I suppose, but just decided to go with a cheaper method .

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Well here's a shot with the DW anchored down, and I added another 25 lbs of gravel, for keith .



and just the driftwood:


Some things are about where I want them, others are definitely out of place. More work is needed.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Aquscaping is never ending as planed and unexplained things always happen.

Here is one of my concerns the DW looks to central as if to divide the tank into two sections. and the lower roots are directing my eyes to the LH short end

This can be changed very easily turn the DW 360 degrees and that the upright piece is about 1/3rd from the LH end and at least 1/2 plus 2/3rds would be perfect towards the back.

The reasons behind this alteration is now you will have a focal point in a better location and the low thin root pieces will direct your eyes to else where in the the tank thus creating a natural flow of left to right.

Please try it out and take a photo and compare it to the photo you have just posted the reason for this is there are too many distractions and movement when looking at the tank and it is here you should be able to a big difference in the tank and the way you look at the total aquascape.

Have a look in [link=My Profile] http://www.fishprofiles.com/forums/member.aspx?id=1935[/link] for my tank info
Look here for my
Betta 11Gal Desktop & Placidity 5ft Community Tank Photos

Keith

Near enough is not good enough, therefore good enough is not near enough, and only your best will do.
I VOTE DO YOU if not WHY NOT?
VOTE NOW VOTE NOW

Nice chunk of wood there Matty. I personally don't see a problem with the placement of it if you go with a mound or island type scape.

Oh, nice anubias on the DW too! I wonder where that came from?

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

Oh, nice anubias on the DW too! I wonder where that came from?

I hoped you might notice it up there.

In all honesty I tried to offset the wood a bit. Most of it is on the left side of the tank after all. I guess the main body of the wood is dead center though, and that's hard to ignore. I don't think I'll switch the arms in the other direction as you suggest keith, the other side of the wood isn't nearly as interesting looking. I"ll just move the wood to the right a few inches. I think that will do the trick. Thanks for the critique!

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

I always try to look and see how people use the plants I send them! It looks good there. In fact the anubias in my tank might start spending some more time on DW too. hint hint wink wink.... It might happen this weekend but I wont have a camera to show it off for a little while.



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

Matty ... Looking good ...love the driftwood and the Annubias I will be interested to see how you develop the scape around such a dominant piece of hardscape ...should be fun

Garry

I had some spare time to do some aquascaping, here's a pic:




I moved the DW to the right, don't know if I like it better there or not. I've bunched the plants with a little more organization this time. Still don't know if everything is permanent though. I thought I had a ton of plants in there but after I rescaped the tank it looks like half disappeared.

I've had to up the amount of N ad P I dose daily again because I bottomed out on the N again. I noticed I was getting a little cyano on the dw and some plant tips. After I increased the dosing it went away. I've increased the dosing to 2ppm of NO3 and .5ppm of PO4 daily with .5ml of flourish and 4ml of excel.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Hi, this latest shot is taking shape well. All is looking quite nice.

BTW, how is your little froggie? Do you still have your viv?

Cheers
TW