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i got this pic from Ed Polak's website : http://home.comcast.net/~epollak/Viv2005/viv_construction.htm


I am planning a wall of java fern, java moss and possibly anubias "nana" on one of the sides of the aquarium. My original plan was to silicon a large corkboard but the price is beyond my budget. Then i got to browsed sir Ed Polak's website and he used the slabs as wall for his vivarium. So this got me into thinking that maybe i can use the same material to achieve the wall that i want in my aquarium. So if anyone has this kind of experience using tree fern slabs in their aquariums i would gladly want to know about it.

Forgive my english folks. Anyway, thanks for any response.

Godbless

Star of the stormy sea of my mortal life, may your light shine upon me so that I do not stray from the path that leads me to heaven.

I don't know why it wouldn't work (besides floating, which shouldn't be a problem if you silicone it in place). It may leach tannins (the same chemicals you get from bogwood that stain the water tea-colored) into the water, but that is fine with most freshwater fish (except perhaps the rift lake ones that like their alkaline water).

P.S. If I had enough money and space, I would LOVE to make a paludarium/aquaterrarium that looks like that!

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Mabuhay!

thank you superlion for the response. You're the 2nd person who gave insight about what i am eventually going into. I posted the same question to a number of websites but others just seem to pass by it. So, I thank you.

Godbless



Star of the stormy sea of my mortal life, may your light shine upon me so that I do not stray from the path that leads me to heaven.

How quickly do they break down when fully submersed? I don't think there would be a problem having them in the tank, but I'm a little concerned about their ability to hold their shape for the length of time it would take for the mosses to grow.

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

i would reccomend saving up and using cork bark because it will hold its shape for a longer period of time...

if i am correct those slabs are ade out of compresses ingridients and wil eventually disenegrate after being in teh tank... cork bark is better or you could use a plasic mesh or canvas and simply sew on the elements... this would be cheaper and more practical.

\\\\\\\"an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the cure\\\\\\\"

I use tree fern slabs a lot for growing orchids and before I can even think about that I have to season them for at least 2 years then when I am ready soak them for at least 1-2 weeks.

I can tell you they would be totally useless as they will break down when completely when under water I am also sure they could release very strong tannins into the tank plus possibly change the water parameters.

In other words an excellent product for growing plants BUT NEVER in a fish tank.

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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Mabuhay!

thanks guy for the information. I have a super duper updates of my tanks.

Sun-Fed 75g tank

please paste the whole string on your web browser. I cant post pictures yet because i am not an official member of the site.
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=1539ivfy.1faoieli&x=0&y=-719fqh&localeid=en_US

I just want to share my "works" in progress....and criticisms/suggestions/appreciations/advises will always be of utmost importance to me. Please bear with me, since i'll be posting 25 pics all in all..i want you all to see my tanks in its raw form...hehehehe. Just to remind the group, i really feel that i have very little aquascaping skills (or none at all) and as of now my goal is how to keep the plants alive.

I took a picture of the tank before i added the "river-sand" .... maybe next time i'll use pure soil as my substrate. Again, i mineralized it..according to the website i've read on how to mineralize your soil. I used river-sand because thats the only thing my money can buy right now. hehehe

I've noticed that when you soak your soil for a long period of time, the texture changes its kinda smooth and more compact in a good way. I can't help it i am a big fan of K.R. and i really love the idea of using soil as substrate because i like working with soil, i love to get my hands "dirty" actually, i really dont use gloves when i work in the garden. Since its a soil substrate, the snails seems to be just gliding from one end to another, i guess they're really loving it and seeing them doing it gives me a very good feeling especially when i see their trails.

I bought the following plants below in a place called "cartimar" here in Manila. Its really a big place full of aquariums and other pet-related stuffs. I said to myself, i'll try growing again the red bacopa and the reineckki since these plants always dies on my 25g setup. But it had a twist, i put them in caps filled with vermi-soil, mineralized soil and river-sand and it looks very promising. i've never seen the plants grow roots so fast.

another example of plants in plastic cups. As you can see in the very first picture, most of the plants are in pots, i did it because back then i was still saving money to buy river-sand. Anyway, i removed some of the plants from their pots since keeping them in it only eats up space but i left a number of plants in the pots to control their growth such as dwarf lotus, vallis, horse-tail and echis.

Unfortunately, the river-sand i bought kinda look like cement sand hehehe. since i still have some white-sand and volcanic dust left i mixed it with my river-sand.

The start of my grueling experience. I have a peace lily hanging in the aquarium many believed that its a good nitrate absorber.
my peace lily para nitrate absorber.

look ma, containersssssssssssssss!!!!
Whenever i would do a WC, i always use the water from my aquarium to water my land-based plants so as not to waste anything.

As you can see the aquarium is filled with floating plants such as najas grass, water lettuce, and many more. I did not throw away my excess plants just yet because i will need it to hasten the cycling process and establish colonies of good organisms.

The (un)finished product. hehehehe

Actually, i only have a small idea on how this aquarium should look like but for now i need to master how to grow plants first. As you can see in the (un)finished product, there are no directions where the aquascape is going..hehehehe

Again, thanks for viewing please feel free to share your views.


25g tank

Mabuhay!

Please copy the entire link below to see pictures:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=1539ivfy.6s33u2li&x=0&y=-dneard&localeid=en_US

this one is with me for more than a year now. A lot of things have happened with this aquarium, i removed some of the plants that are just too big or too long. So i just decided to make it a low light/low-tech tank. And i just love echis...

i have this long and narrow java fern, a new addition to my tank. And i recently bough a "pelia", the one in a square metal thingy, its not doing good.

I am open to any suggestions/appreciations/criticisms.

DIY-CO2 - 2 bottles
river-sand (sometimes i topped it off with soil)
1 55w PL and 1 CFL
lighting period is from 6pm-2am

inhabitants
danios
neon tetra
betta
molly
lots of shrims and snails.

Godbless everyone.



Star of the stormy sea of my mortal life, may your light shine upon me so that I do not stray from the path that leads me to heaven.