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now you may have noticed i posted about temperatures in the fresh water forum- if not i live in sunny australia and my tank is in the warmer part of the house away from the aircon. i was worried about over heating so posted the thread and got lots of positive feedback. i have found that with the temp being 30+ outside i have no problem keeping the tank cool as long as i keep the hood open and the lights off. in the long run i am going to raise the hood on blocks so that air can cirulate through out the hood more (cheers frank!) however untill then i am going to continue with the current method of top off lights off. i close the hood and turn the lights on for abnout 3 hours everyafternoon on my work break so that i an monitor the temp and use the air con and have had no problem so far, however am worried about the amount of light the plants recieve. is 2 or 3 hours a day enough?

i have medium light (108W on a 50G) and have alot of swords (mostly narrow leaf variety) bacopa, wyseria, java fern, a few crypts mostly wendtii, horn wart and some other bits and bobs i cant think of!

i could run the light more in the morning before i get up when outside is at its coldest before sunrise. what do you think?

so far the only damage i have noticed is a slightly yellow leaf or two on one of the mini swords growing on a runner.

heres a picture of the tank:

cheers dan

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and a couple of the inhabitants:

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Depending on your room lighting conditions and having a timing clock I would be considering turning it on about 2am and off at noon.
How high is it off the top of the water/tank with the blocks? Make sure the blocks do not get too hot as well.

Just an idea it is something I would not do all the time.

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

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Dan, I've heard of some folks only having their lights on for 6 or so hours a day & getting good growth. I'm in the same sort of temp ranges as you and all I do is have the lights on in the morning for a few hours and turn them back on in the evening .

Hope that helps

Garry

I love that pic of your tank fandan......from what I can see of it.

If you could get a large one of it posted I would love to look it over.

okey i think thats the biggest i can get it with my limited computer skills!

thanks for the advice keith and gary, i think i shall have to change my schedule a bit and run the lights earlier by the timer and then manually through out the day (when i want to see!)

had a real hot day yesterday and the temp hit 27.5 which wasnt too much of a major climb. so all seems well.

i dont know how poeple (like you gary) can manage to get such crisp photography of their tanks. hats off to your skills guys! i get one half decent photo and 400 blurry messes and thats not even trying to capture the fish!!!

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Wow, beautiful tank! I love the variety of colors of your plants!

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Thanks fandan! I knew I would love it even more if I could see it!
Great tank! Is that two pieces of driftwood in there, or is the one on the right a background pic.? It looks so good I can't tell. I love your decorating & the plants look great!

I know what you mean about pic taking. I have tried it myself.
That shot looks really good though. It helped ME to get something to set the camera on, which usually wasn't high enough so I piled pillows too. Then I held my breath.
I don't know if your water level is a little low or you were just taking a low pic of that tank, to get all that light in there, but if you stand a little higher, that should get rid of much of that light glare.

If you feel like taking more pics, like 1/3 or even 1/2 of the tank at a time closer up, that would be great! I love what you have going on with that driftwood in the middle & on the right side. Very intriguing!

I have readjusted the photo for you I hope you approve.

You can always send me your photos direct from your camera/computer if you would like to and I will process and post them for you,

I trimmed a little of of the RH end so that I could enlarge it as well


I will PM you me E/m

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

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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

wow thasks for the comments guys! i took a few more for you fiss patty!!
heres the main drift wood with my wee clown plec sucking away as always! (up the top!)

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heres the left side with the rummynoses!

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heres looking in from the left at the other bit of driftwood:

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and heres that piece of wood modeling one of the rams who are very hard to capture in a photo! unlike the 2 angels that try and swan into every other one! i used to have alot more wood in there but had trouble maintaining a desent enough cleaning schedule so i have moved them into my 20g.

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and finally heres my project part! i am planting all the small runners off the swords down the front of the tank to make a carpet. i know one day they will grow too big and form a proper jungle however i have stopped adding any ferts (except flourish every once in a blue moon!)and am relying purely on fish poop so everything is growing pretty slow (except the wisteria which i trimmed back every week!) i have two main runner but am doing all the planting under teh main front runner so it looks almost like natural growth with the runners having dropped of there own accord (and not been blown around by the filter!)

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wow thanks for the great job doing up the photo keith! i tried to do it like that myself b ut i always end up with the same shape as the original photo and lots of white stripes every where! need to practice my photoimpression skills i think! thanks mate it looks much better!

I use Adobe Elements it is a non professional version of Photo shop and also a fraction of the price. I also use MS Resizer to get the correct size for processing

The tank is looking real good just keep taking plenty of photos and practice with the adjustments it took me years to learn just the basics and that is what I stick to.

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

Thanks keith & fandan!
Well, what a great tour of that fantastic tank! Just look at all those great plants & the pretty fish! Everything just flows together very nicely & very natural looking. I just love this tank fandan! And that plant on that driftwood just looks so stunning!

Even though I know very little about planted tanks, I usually have an opinion on how I would rearrange someone else's tank, but in your case I wouldn't do anything different.

Personally, I think you've done a great job & I thank you so much for sharing all that! /:'

thanks fish patty! you've put a big smile on my face for the day !!