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ive always wanted to do this and since im starting a new aquarium now would be a good time to start i just hope there is enough to say to make this thread worth while. this is my second time with plants and so far its been pretty good.

tank plans are:

1 X. nigri
6 common hatchet
2 turquoise rainbow
? iranian rainbow
? bosmanni rainbow
5 albino cory
3 moonlight gourami
1 farlowella or other algae eater?

if the hatchets be come a problem i will move them

plant plans so far

http://www.thereeftank.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=5948

im going to live aquaria tommorrow so any space not filled by the plants gotten there will be ordered

any problems/suggestions?

Hello,

A few suggestions right off the bat: first, one larger school of one species of rainbow fish may be better than 3 small schools of different kinds, bosemani in particular can get quite large. Second, be forewarned that dwarf hairgrass can be a royal pain and may take a while to fill in and get it to look how you want, especially over a large area. I don't know how well the farowella will do, but I would imagine ti may be hard to keep the hairgrass planted and happy with a large catfish grazing over it. One of the members here had similar problems with a bristlenose pleco.

Finally, african knifefish are predatory and I'd be worried about combining it with young corys and rainbows.

As for the plants and layout, is the sword and hairgrass the only plants you plan on having?

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Back in the saddle!

well i didnt plan any more plants because i would rather see them in person and choose from there but if i cant find enough plants at the stores i will start planing/ordering

its going to take a little convincing but i think i can change my stocking to something like this though i may opt for something else

? angelfish?
6 common hatchet
4 turquoise rainbow
4 iranian rainbow
5 albino cory
3 moonlight gourami
1 farlowella or other algae eater?

i encounter this problem alot, id rather not have the hatchets, albinos, and turquoise but i already have those and the turquoise are already full grown

resle,

A lot of your plant options will depend on your light. Dwarf Hairgrass will not grow in the dark .

In other words, how may watts of what kind of light do you have over the tank?

Anything else you can share about the tank, like substrate, planned use of fertilizers, any form of CO2 addition?

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

2'' of black gravel 1/3 of which is that expensive hawaiin gravel. im most likely going to do diy lighting in the form of compact flourescents probably atleast 110 total watts. hopefully i will get a hold of some blueish green light

what do u mean what kind of light? if u mean in measurments of kelvin i think 6500k is the best but otherwise i dont know what u mean

not planning on co2 but definatly a consideration

resle,

Yup - pretty much what I meant, the K rating. I guess you know your stuff there, as you have the right idea about proper values (6,500 or 6,700) for best plant growth.

2" of substrate is not really high, I have to say though. I am not an expert on Anazon Swords, but from what I know they have a rather large root system and if these cannot grow down then they have to grow wide (if the plant will keep on growing healthy, that is). Do you see where I am going with this?

110W of lights is good, but not the world. I am not certain if it would be sufficient for Hair Grass as it needs probably more to propagate.

Any ideas how you plan to fertilize your plants (I guess the Hawai Gravel is some sort of fertilizer, don't know this one)?

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

well i have officially convinced my self that my new stocking is good

to be honest i dont know what the hawaii gravel is either i dont even know if it has anything to do with hawaii but i do remember it had an island with a tiki head on the bag. i bought it because it said it had some benfecial stuff in it (i assume for plants) and it was twice as expensive as the other gravel

the amazon sword and hairgrass can go if there will be problems as long as there is a substitute i.e. get really big with broad leaves, thin cylindrical leaves that stay short

resle,

Do you mean Tahitian Moonsand? It's black and it comes in a bag similar to what you described above. If so, as I understand it it is inert.

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Back in the saddle!

yeah that sounds right except its not sand

when u say inert do u mean that it neither helps nor hurts plants?

EDIT: i looked it up and that is exactly the same as the bag my gravel came in except mine had black gravel instead of sand

updated

2 angelfish
6 common hatchet
4 turquoise rainbow
4 iranian rainbow
5 albino cory
3 moonlight gourami
1 farlowella or other algae eater?

2 angelfish
6 common hatchet
4 turquoise rainbow
4 iranian rainbow
5 albino cory
3 moonlight gourami
1 farlowella or other algae eater?

Personally I would choose either the gouramis or the angels. Moonlight gouramis can get up to 6 inches, so with 3 of them and 2 angels, the tank will look pretty small. Yes they will be small to start out with, but when they all reach their full size, the tank will be crowded.

If you got rid of the gouramis, you could have 3 angels. That would also cut out some aggression you may get with 2. Most people suggest either 1 angel or a group of 3.

Also, I would up the cories to 8 or 10. You could easily have up to 12 in a 55g, since they are your only bottom feeders (besides the algae eater).

*Kristin*

well i just came back from foster and smiths store and let me tell ya theyve got some healthy stock there though there wernt any plants so i will start planning tommorrow. i did however get 3 bosmanni rainbows because they looked so good and were only 7$ so heres an updated list. they also had the most beatiful yoyo loaches i have ever seen in fact i wish i had gotten some

? angelfish/moonlight gourami
6 common hatchet
2 turquoise rainbow
4 iranian rainbow
4 bosmanni rainbow
5 albino cory
3 yoyo loach
1 farlowella or other algae eater?


the reason the turquoise are back down at 2 is because thats how many i currently have and they are reaching their end so i see no point in getting more since i dont want more

id rather get a different species of cory if i do get any more

resle,

Help me out here, as I am getting a little confused.

You say in your first entry in this thread that you are setting up a new tank, but I read that you are buying fish for it already. Where do they go right now?

Then you totally switch topics and all you talk about is a full stocking theme. Isn't that rather irrelevant at this point in time? I would say you should focus your efforts on getting the tank planted and a "starter fish" (or group) as even in a planted tank I would strongly suggest to stock slowly. And you may change your opinions many times until it would be time to purchase the next species for the tank. One reason may be that you see clearer what fish would match your plants.

I know that going through fish options is an exciting task (tell me all about it) but I would like to make sure that you don't forget the immediate tasks over all the excitement.

Hope this helps,

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

oh no i wouldnt do that this tank has been running for years but i just recently sold the fish that were preventing me from getting this going again. u have made some good points though, my focus is now on plants

resle,

Excellent

So - what is new on the Planting Frontier?

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

ok did some research and came up with this

eleocharis acicularis (dawf hairgrass)
echindorus amazonicus (amazon sword)
alternanthera reineckii "roseafolia"
bacopa monieri (moneywort)
hygrophila difformis (wisteria)
vallisneria (?)
rotala nanjenshen
heteranthera zosterfolia (stargrass)
vesiculara dubyana (java moss)?
monosolenium tenerum?
Sagittaria subulata


how many watts would i need?

IMHO:

eleocharis acicularis (dawf hairgrass) - high light, at least 2.5wpg
echindorus amazonicus (amazon sword) - medium light, one for the tank, not more, and even that will grow rather big over time.
alternanthera reineckii "roseafolia" - nice, I personally like the plain alternanthera reineckii better, both high light
bacopa monieri (moneywort) - nice, nothing special, will grow in medium light easily
hygrophila difformis (wisteria) - good to get the tank started, medium is sufficient for even fast growth, alternative can be Wisteria
vallisneria (?) - which one, spiralis, retrospiralis? Is ok, but will take a little longer to take hold but after that spread like mad
rotala nanjenshen - Nanjenshan, very nice - high light
heteranthera zosterfolia (stargrass) - can be grown in medium light, will look better and grow faster in high light (see my 125G log for picture of it as center plant)
vesiculara dubyana (java moss)? - grows in any light
monosolenium tenerum? - Monosolenium tenerum is nice, but not an easy plant to get going, you will need to attach it to wood/rock so it doesn't roll around in your tank. Is a little larger then Riccia, but supposedly (never had it) can handle lower light than Riccia (which is high light)

suggestions for foreground? - the hair grass and/or echinodorus tenellus

Hope this helps a little,

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

what kind of lighting would u suggst? i was originally going to just DIY some compact flourescents but maybe there is something better?

CF is probably the best way to go - pretty affordable and durable, very straightforward with lots of options.

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Back in the saddle!

ok heres the final draft

4-40watt compact flourescents

FLORA
1.eleocharis acicularis (dawf hairgrass)
2.echindorus amazonicus (amazon sword)
3.alternanthera reineckii "roseafolia"
4.bacopa monieri (moneywort)
5.hygrophila difformis (wisteria)
7.rotala nanjenshen
8.heteranthera zosterfolia (stargrass)
9.cryptocoryne wendtii
10.echindorus tenellus
11.vesiculara dubyana (java moss)?
12.monosolenium tenerum?

http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/994/55galplanted3ar.jpg

FAUNA
3 angelfish
6 common hatchet
2 turquoise rainbow
4 iranian rainbow
4 bosmanni rainbow
5 albino cory
3 yoyo loach?
1 farlowella or other algae eater?

problems?