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The Full Tank This week

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I think I lightened up that full tank shot to much . Went a bit overboard thinking about the advice I gave to Claudia

The Right Side

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The Left Side

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Just a few Plant Shots , A close up of Annubia Paco and Barteri

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The soon to be added to and changed Rock Group

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One of the Bolbitis . Not sure these are doing to well as yet . Getting some black discolouring on the leaves , doesn't look like BBA . Will have to wait and see.

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The Swords in the river

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The Hygro .p that should have been gone and will be next week

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The Magenta in the jungle still doing very well

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The Jungle foreground and Cory playground

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Now a report on the R.Wallichii , all 4 bunches are now in the 60g . The original 2 from the 60g are doing much better than the 2 from this tank . However I wouldn't say either are flourishing . The shots are not great but you should get the point . They are all now sitting on the beach in the 60g right under the light .They have 2 Root tabs right under their feet , So if they don't do well there then I guess they are not for me .

First a wide shot of the 4 bunches

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A closer shot showing the 2 from the 60g doing ok I suppose .

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A close shot of 1 from this tank , its hard to see but this one looks very sick .

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Anyway time will tell for the Wallichii.
Just a couple of fishy shots to finish : a Female Tiger Barb

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That shot was courtesy of the wife without the aid of the macro lens . Last shot for this week is an Otto one a sword spike .

Next week will see the addition of the following plants :
Fontinalis , Water Rose , Banana Lilies and another Annubia Paco . All of these are intended to go in and around the reformed Rock( Mountain ) group . Should be fun .
Oh and of course the Giant Hygro will rplace the Hygro p

Garry

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Week 24 Update .

Well week 23 was a popular update ! Never mind nothing much happened I suppose .
This week however .... well ...where to start . Firstly the new plants arrived and some
new rocks .
So the first thing was to get rid of the Hygro p. and replace with Giant Hygro . Second was
to remodel the rock group into "A Mountain" . Lastly add some more small plants to the Jungle
foregroud .
That was the plan anyway . As I was pulling up the Giant Hygro hiding behind the Jungle I
also pulled up a Java Fern I'd forgotten about , so that was added to the driftwood on the
left of the river . Then I started thinking about the Driftwood over the river and its accompaning
Java's . The Javas had become completely obscured by the jungle , so I reversed the driftwood
to bring the Javas out from behind the Jungle . I then planted the Giant Hygro in place of the
Hygro p.. Tick first objective with some minor variations .

Next it was on to the Mountain . I added the new rocks to the base then tied on the Annubias
and Fontinalis to the current rocks . I also tied another A.Paco to the driftwood which already had
one A.Paco . Then I built the Mountain . This proved to be a little tricky and I can't say I'm overly
happy with it just yet which means it may change shape again sooner rather than later .
objective 2 Achieved ...sort of

The jungle foreground has continued to annoy and frustrate me , so I added 2 more Liaeopsis ,
2 Water Roses and another Crypt . In the process the Water Sprite was shown the door and
some Bacopa was moved further over into the main jungle area . I also took one of the main
Ludwigia's and moved it the left side behind the mountain, mainly because after 4 weeks it
had kept floating up
The Banana Lilies Just didn't fit so for the moment they are parked in the river untill I get some
inspiration
objective 3 Partially achieved. If I was doing an Annual Performance review on those results
I'm not sure I'd give me a pay rise
Just as well this is a hobby and I do it for the love

Onto the photo's ... The Full tank as of last week


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The Full Tank this week

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The Right Side

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The Left Side

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A River Shot

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A few detail Plant shots , Firstly the Mountain , Showing The Fontinalis , Annubias, Annubia Paco and the Ludwigia behind . BTW the caves are still there just better disguised .

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The Banana Lilies in the River

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The Crypt area in front of the Mountain coming on nicely

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A close up of the Fontinalis

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The Ludwigia and Bolbitis behind the mountain

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Next acouple of shots of the centre of the tank without the Hygro p. First a wide shot

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A Narrow shot of the old Hygro P area

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The Java ferns have all grown markedly in the 24 weeks this tank has been going .

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On to the Jungle area now . First the Magenta and Stellata both powering on

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The Bacopa Ludwigias and Amazons doing quite well with the Wisteria going wild in the background

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The Right foreground of Baby Amazons and Crypts . I'm pretty happy with this bit of the foreground .

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The Left foreground which I'm still not very happy with . This area is proving very difficult to get right perhaps for a number of reasons . The bottom dwellers love digging in this area as well as a lack of light from the over hang . Anyway will have to see how it develops .

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A close up of the Water Rose

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A close up of the Crypt that replaced the Water Sprite and one of the new Liaeopsis clumps

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Thats it for this week , a lot of changes . Couple of points . The PH went back to a more normal 7.2 this week with no ill affects on the residents .Thanks Goodness . The Water quality improved a fair bit but is still not right so I will go ahead and clean the filters again next week ( in tank Water of course) .
Algae is still a problem . So i will continue to review the fert Schedule to try to get the balance right .

Next week will be given over to maintaince as I said and maybe some changes to the Rock group and Jungle foreground if I get time.

A last shot for the night of one of my sharks looking over my shoulder while I process photos.

Garry

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Personally I would like to see the river area cleared up more.....but you know me....I like some clear areas in my tank.

I love the cute little banana lilies. Very different looking!

Patty Thanks for dropping by, I might just agree with you on that except I keep
running out of places for the plants I want
Update Week 25 : well there wasn't one as we were away and only a bit of
maintaince was done before we went.

Update Week 26 . I can't believe 6 months has gone past sooo quickly
Anyway I thought it appropriate to do a quick review of the development of the
scape and then do my normal shots .
So lets go back to the start ( well almost) . Here's the tank after 1 week .

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Week 5

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Week 9

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Week 14

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Week 18

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Week 22

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Week 24 which is effectively the last photo I posted

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The Full Tank This week ... the only real change is that I was over the Tennulus in
the left front corner near the rock group ...it was srtarting to look fairly patchy.
In the end Tetratech and LF were spot on when they said that it would be very
difficult to grow ground covers at a depth of 32 inches.
I replaced it with some clippings from the top of the Magenta , and placed the
Banana Lilies in front of them .

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The Right side

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The Left side

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The River

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A close up of the newly planted area in front of the rocks

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Just a couple of plant detail shots , I planted a couple of the Baby Swords next to their mum ... also shows the Crypts doing well in the old hairgrass area

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A shot of one of the Bolbitis ... not doing very well at all .

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The Stellata and Magenta after a trim

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A close up of the Banana Lillies

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The wisteria , Bacopa and Ludwigia still doing well in the Jungle ... also the Baby Amazons and Crypts in front of the Jungle

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Thats it for the plants this week . A couple of new inhabitants were added this week . Some Dwarf Gourami's and some BN's .
Heres a BN on the rock in the river

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A Flame Dwarf

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A Coral Blue Dwarf

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Well thats it for another week , again I don't envisage a lot of changes next week .
Remember he's always watching


Garry

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Thanks for sharing your pictures again, Garry. Also makes for great viewing.

Cheers
TW

ive been watching this log for quite a while now and havn't bothered to post until now and i must say that even though im not too deep into the planted setups i absolutly love this setup. the selection of fish are exellent and the recent additions look great. i love how the tank is arranged into different areas. 240 gallons is a great potential for any type of tank be it a planted system or a non planted system. you have truly done a wonderful job on this setup. well done garry!



hi
woot woot woot woot woot woot

Hey how many BN did you get?

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

Garry,

do you have any idea what BN you got? Are they snowflakes?

Garry,

Nice review of the first 6 months of this tank, growth during that time has been excellent which means you must be doing something right .

The one thing I am wondering about is "where does it go from here?". Your tank is full of lush plants and you are doing rather minor tweaks, for example with the non-working ground cover.

Otherwise, you must spend an enormous amount of time trimming this sucker, plus water changes and what not. How are you feeling about the work-load? I am once in a while very sick of trimming just the 125G and I am, at these moments, very tempted to convert that baby into a low tech setup with much less maintenance.

So, in short, what's your vision for the next 6 months?

Ingo

---

Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Hello folks , Haven't done much with the tank over the Xmas break . Just dropped in for the first time in over a week .
Will update and answer questions in a day or so . Especially your question Ingo , a real poser ?????!!!!!




Garry

lovely set up!!!

can we see a FTS?

and a list off everything in there?

i know it is alotto ask as there must be enormous amounts of stocking in a tank so large!

looks great and thanks for sharing!

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

Happy New Year to everyone at FP .

Thanks BB , appreciate the comments .

Wings , I got 4. I think they are 2 different types however , I bought them from different places . They have slightly different markings especially on the fins . I will eventually try to get photos of them to try to pick the types .
Claudia , I think at least one pair are that but I'm not sure . Will find out in time .

Otherwise, you must spend an enormous amount of time trimming this sucker, plus water changes and what not. How are you feeling about the work-load? I am once in a while very sick of trimming just the 125G and I am, at these moments, very tempted to convert that baby into a low tech setup with much less maintenance.

Ingo , Interesting .... While I've been busy over christmas with family and other things those thoughts have occured to me . I've even tried a couple of different things like backing off ferts and water changes and these have lead to disasters. It is a lot of work and I've had a few things happen that have discouraged me a bit .

So in the end I suppose with a large undertaking like this you go thru motivation issues from time to time and I've just gone thru a biggy ! Hopefully when life returns to normal I'll get my desire back to full steam ahead .

My vision for the next 6 months is another interesting subject obviously affected by the above . So to say that its a little vague at the minute is probably and understatement .... But here goes
1. I'm not happy with the overall design of the river ,I think it should go straight back and that the driftwood over the river should be higher and have thinner branches .
2. The Amazon Swords on the right have been a dissapointment and I think the whole jungle area will need to be need to be redesigned .
3. Having said that , I'm also less than happy with the left rear as well .
4. Where does that leave me ... I hear you ask ... well all of the above will mean a pretty large redesign and replanting .

So thanks for your very astute questions Ingo . The above things might even get my motivation back on track .

brandeeno. Update Following this post. As for the stocking , I haven't done a count for a while .... I was planning to do one soon so I'll post it know when I do .


Garry

Update week 29 ( None for week 27 or 28 )

Well the only real difference in the tank over the last time is the addition of some crypts that got too big for the 60g and the removal of the Wisteria for the moment due to the base getting rotten from lack of light . Will be replanting it next week .Also the addition of a couple of new Angels and some new Gourami's.

On to the Photo's , the Full Tank from week 26

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Full Tank this week

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The Right Side

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The Left Side

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The River

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The Left from the end of the tank

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A shot of the Rock group on the left showing the cuttings of the Magenta growing well .

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Crypts and baby swords doing very well

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Banana Lily's are also going quite well

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Stellata and Magenta on the right of the river have grown back very well after being trimmed

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The Jungle foreground just to the right of the river is filling in finally !

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So thats it for the plants , a few fishy photos . My new Male Angel . Very fiesty lad this one !

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He's hooked up with Stumpy ( female) who was always an outcast of the Angel group ...Ahhhhhh...ain't love grand

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And he has the dominant male bluffed so far ..... here they are facing off while the females look on

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I got a new morph of the Opaline Gourami ( wife loved them ) they are a very pale yellow which looks very white under bright light , Here's a couple of shots .

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Another shot , a Male I think?

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A couple of shots of the Dwarf Coral Blues , This ones a female

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Another shot of the female

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A Male Coral Blue

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Last shot for this week is a Flame Dwarf male

Next week will still be a little busy with life so no major changes are planned other than the Wisteria going back in .


Garry

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Happy New Year Garry!

I really love the shot showing the left end of the tank. Very interesting and nicely done layout! the new angel is absolutely gorgeous and I hope that it will settle in well (also with respect to 'stumpy').

Sorry to hear that you are dissappointed in your layout but there is always a different or 'better' solution imaginable. I hope that you overcome it quickly, I don't want to miss your contributions on FP. An alternative idea: I am not happy with my scape and plannted a major change but my fish took care of that! Here is an option for the bored enthusiast to get more of a thrill: get a few delicate species of fish and your interests in the hobby will change rapidly from the aesthetics of aquascaping to side effects of medication, treatment duration and treatment strategies in fish as compared to humans, etc

Happy New Year to you to Claudia , Thanks for your words of support , I really appreciate it .
It's not that I'm bored exactly , probably "Frustrated" is more the word . Don't worry I've had my
share of those experiences . I haven't made comment in my log but I've recently lost 5 cories,
a Gold tiger , and a bunch of Lemons in this tank and even more fish in the 60g for no apparent
reason . All the tests were fine, no visable disease, only 1 water change missed .
Maybe with all the rain were getting here ATM its affecting water quality but I can't see it in the
tests .
I never worry if I loose new fish as that is just part of the risk you take , but when I loose long
term residents (6months or more) I get worried and a bit depressed . Add to that being a bit
frustrated with the scape and the development of the plants and you can see why my mood
hasn't been the greatest .
So sorry about the long rant but I think a major redo will lift me back to where I was before the
setbacks .
Thanks again for your support

Garry

You are very welcome, Garry!

I had no idea that frustration is the problem and not boredom with the aquascape (which you can easily change, you have the talent!). I can certainly relate to frustration as I am sitting here typing and watching my poor little discus girl in her hospital tank v

At least I know the cause of the disease although it is no consolation at all. Unexpected deaths are probably even more frustrating (I better refer to my frame of mind as depressed). Rain after a draught could affect the water, maybe you got some nasty bugs?

I wish you and your tank a speedy recovery - your aquaria are beautiful and the collection of fish fantastic. I forgot to compliment you on the nice shot of the blue dwarf gourami next to the Sterba cory! That being said I don't think that you have to do a major redo but if it's that what you want - I am on pins and needles waiting to see the result


Claudia

Thanks Again Claudia , you are always upbeat and I think I'm back

Ok A stocking list was requested here we go

Number / Fish / Size(Total inches)
Sharks
1 Albino Shark 5.0
1 Black Shark 10.0
1 Red Tail Shark 5.0
1 Red Fin Shark 5.0
Catfish
5 SAE's 20.0
12 Sterbai Cory's 18.0
4 Bristle Noses 8.0
5 Otto's 5.0
Loaches
6 Dwarf Loaches 6.0
Angels
1 Grey Angel 3.0
4 Gold Angels 16.0
Barb's
10 Tiger Barb's 15.0
1 Gold Tiger 1.5
7 Golden Barb's 10.5
Tetra's
10 Lemon Tetras 5.0
Gourami's
2 Blue Gourami's 8.0
4 Kissers 20.0
4 Pale Gourami's 8.0
7 Dwarf Gourami's 14
Others
4 Blue Rainbows 6.0

Plants
Giant Hygro
Wisteria
Bacopa
Narrow Leaf Ludwigia
Ludwigia Ovalis
Aponotegon Crispus (Green & Red)
Annubia Barteri/Paco/Nana
Java Fern
Pogostemon Stellata
Rotala Macrandra - Magenta
Banana Lilies
Amazon Swords -3 varieties
Pennywort
Crypts- Balansae
Crypt -Wendti Brown / Green
Crypts - Various
Tennulus - Pigmy Chain sword ( Not much left)
Bolbitus Fern

Thats it I think , Hope thats what you wanted

Garry

Upbeat, me? Well, I try to be though it is tough right now (my little discus ...)

Thanks for the list but your C. sterbai is 18 inches long? I am a bit confused as I had assumed that you would give me the size per fish (gourami with 5 inches and a shark with 10 makes sense to me) but a cory with 18??? Hey, AUS is also using inches instead of the metric system?

Garry the man with the giant cories ... the biggest sterbai I see here are 2.5 inches and round in the middle. Please clarify but I guess that your individual cory is 1.5 inches, correct? Anyway, I really envy you the C. sterbai, they are quite pricey here (at least for cories) and I am always tempted to get a little school but the worry regarding the water temperature scares me, although these cories are recommended for discus tanks. You are apparently a fan of gouramis and I have to admit the more I see these fish the more I get tempted to try some myself, especially the dwarfs are so beautiful (maybe for another tank )

Have you ever tried C. spiralis? Absolutely gorgeous, those slender slightly bronze colored leaves! After unpacking my new C. balansae i realized that I have C. sprialis in the tank and quite franky, would have prefered more of these plants. Another plant for you to try (should you be in the mood for it) is Limnophila aromatica, absolutely gorgeous and not difficult to grow if you have some nice substrate and decent light (and Excel). Or Crinum calamistratum or any other crinum except thaeanum. Hey, I try to cheer you up, there are so many exciting plants!

I hope you are back to your cheerful mood - you should be with a tank this beautiful.

Thanks again for the list!

Claudia (one of these days I will update my log as well)

Hi,
I think Country is giving the inches of fish so that
one could total them all and see how many inches of fish
he is housing in a 240 gallon tank (the idea of x number
of inches of fish per gallon).

12 Sterbai Cory's 18.0 would mean that the total number
of inches of Sterbai Cory cat fish in the 240G tank is
18 inches. Now some could be an inch or some could be
three inches but all together that species takes up 18
inches.

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

Good thing you aren't charging for this entertainment Country as we'd all be broke.
You scored a female dw gourami, well done. I think every single one of mine are male.
That red flame is very nicely marked. Mine don't have the yellow dots at the base of the tail.
I have managed not to kill my magenta and it may at last be actually growing. Don't hold your breath tho.

I think Country is giving the inches of fish so that
one could total them all and see how many inches of fish
he is housing in a 240 gallon tank (the idea of x number
of inches of fish per gallon).

I didn't double check my work but I to 189 in. It sure seems like a lot of fish but when added up it fits. Are all the fish measurements set at potential size or current size?



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

Oh boy, I apologize for adding a bit of humor ...

Apologies Claudia for not being clearer . I think I said at the start of this log that I kept fish
30 years ago ....so while I might not have the experience of Keith and Frank .....I've been
around long enough that my thinking is a bit old fashioned . Hence in think in inches
rather than ml .... Gals rather than litres....even though Miles is a long distant memory .

I also always have the inches per gal rule in the back of my head so Frank is spot on .
When I first started BTW I was told that you could keep 3 inches per Gal if you aerated .
and that was after taking off the head and tail . My how things have changed .

I copied that list from my Excel Spreadsheet that I use for my Maintaince log . So Wings is
exactly right( as you would expect from a teacher) 90 Fish at 189 inches is the stocking
level and I also divide them up into Top , Mid and Bottom ...trying to make sure I don't
overstock any level . So 12 Corys @ 1.5inches = 18inches total .

As far as the measurements are concerned Wings ...they are current with a bit of possible
future growth built in where I think its likely . I revise it every couple of months ....
Too much time on my hands

So happy we all got a giggle out of my archaic thinking .

Thanks everyone for brightening my day .


Garry

Ok now I've read the posts properly I'll answer the other bits .
Claudia , I haven't tried any of those I think . I have quite a few Crypts in both tanks which
I'm not sure of the exact name . I saw one at The LFS the other day which I liked that had
short crinkled leaves , trouble with the LFS's around here is they don't know the names of
the plants ... so unless I buy online I'm guessing .

I am a Gourami Fan on and off . I bought some Bronze and Gold Honey Gourami's for
the 60g . They are very small and the colours are stunning . If I can ever get them to stand
still I'll post a pick or 2 .

Bren thanks for your thoughts and I hope your Magenta starts growing for you .


Garry

Garry,

I was teasing you and joking (which others took serious) about the size of the cory! On the other hand, a C.sterbai of 18 inches would be too cute. Here I am serious, I love cories.

Know what? I never ever considered the G/fish rule, it is BS for a whole lot of reasons that would turn this posting in a lecture, which I do not give in private life. However, I have seen tanks that made me think about stocking guidelines for people without a scientific background (heck, what am I writing here, a colleague of mine has an awfully overstocked tank).

I am relieved to hear that AUS uses the metric system, it drives me nuts having to convert metric to whatever unit is in use and F to Celsius ...

APC has a quite nice listing of plants that can asist in determination of the species growing in your tank in case you are interested. Hopefully, tomorrows shipment will complete my plant order and than I will update my discus tank log again.

Have a great weekend and enjoy your tanks!

Claudia

Wow, Garry... I havent come by to check on your tank in awhile. I must say that you've surely got an incredible set up going there. And those blue gouramis, wow!

Anyhow, thanks for sharing your tank with us, you're an inspiration to those of us who are new to the hobby!

Keep up the awesome work!

Hi Gary,

I haven't checked in here for a while... the tank is looking great, although it sounds like you are in the mood for some pretty drastic changes in the near future. Look forward to seeing what you do to get your enthusiasm back.

The new pale gouramis you have are sold in LFS here under the name "Platinum Gourami" - the title seems to fit them pretty well IMO, especially once you've seen them under the right light. I have one of them in my 180g atm.

I seem to recall that you were having some issues a while back with some Rotala wallichii. Did you end up getting it growing properly?

Great pics as usual. Looking forward to the next installment...

G_T

Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark. A large group of professionals built the Titanic.

Hi folks , thanks for all the comments , the update is a little late this week . I replanted
the Wisteria at the right hand rear of the tank and I've been having a running battle
with Blackie as he doesn't seem to like where I've put them . He keeps digging them up .

So the last week has been.. I plant it in the morning ...turn the lights out for the afternoon
siesta ....turn lights back on in the evening ...all floating this has gone on for
4days .I usually only plant at water change due to the depth of the tank ...but this
week my glasses have become goggles trying to bury these darned plants as deep
as possible at the back .
I haven't been able to take any photos so far due too this little battle of wills .
Hopefully tonight

I seem to recall that you were having some issues a while back with some Rotala wallichii. Did you end up getting it growing properly?

GT yep you are right , its still alive ...barely.. I'll take some photos tonight .

Scott thanks for those very unexpected compliments , much appreciated .

Know what? I never ever considered the G/fish rule, it is BS for a whole lot of reasons that would turn this posting in a lecture, which I do not give in private life. However, I have seen tanks that made me think about stocking guidelines for people without a scientific background

Claudia ... Ahh the ever vigilant scientific mind ... actually you would probably do the
hobby a favour if you came up with a rule that was a proven fact instead of just folklore

Update tonight ...I hope... Blackie you orny little


Garry

Week 30 Update

Only a few new things in the tank this week . I've discussed the replanting of the Wisteria
in the post above .
I cant' believe I forgot to mention that the central group of Crypts Wendti (brown ) in the
60g had got to big for that tank ...so the group ( about 6 plants ) has been replanted into
this tank . No other changes to the plants .

On the Fish front I've added 3 new Angels to the herd ...another Silver and 2 blacks .

Growth in the tank is still solid ... the Jungle foreground is now looking very lush ...
just need the Wisteria and the Amazons too fill in the background .

The Magenta and Stellata have been trimmed again ..so that area is starting to fill out .
The Crypts and swords on the left of the river continue to grow well .
I've planted 2 more Sword babys in the river on the right .

Thats about it so on to the photos ...the Tank last week ..

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Full Tank This week

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The Right Side ...you can see my Friend the shark has started to dig up some of the Wisteria again ( floating in the centre ) ....as I sit here typing he's knocked up another piece ... He's trying my patience.

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The Left Side

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The Rock Group

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The Annubias from the end of the Tank

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The Crypts Wendti from the 60g... you can just see one of the Bolbitis Ferns rotting away ...They have been a big disappointment so far.

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The Crypts and Swords to the left of the river

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The Replanted WIsteria at the right rear ....Java ferns in front of them

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The Magenta ans Stellata to the right of the river

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The Jungle Foreground

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Thats it for the plants ...I apoligise for the quality of the pics .... I'm still having trouble getting used to the wifes new wizz bang lens and I think I over processed them .

Now on to the new residents ... The Angels ..First the 2 Blacks together

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The Bigger Black

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The Smaller Black

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The Grey I got a few weeks ago

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The New Grey

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Ok ...now onto the Wallichi issue ... for those who don't remember I purchased some Rotala Wallichi just to give it a go . I put some in both tanks but in this tank it did very poorly so I moved it to the 60g to see if I could save it . Well the bunch I moved from this tank did not recover and had to be thrown away .
The Bunch that was already in the 60 g has gone down hill after doing ok in the first month or so .

So first here is a full tank shot of the 60g

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The Wallichi as it was after a few weeks in the 60g

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As it is today ...not so good . Not sure why ... it sits right under the light .. and has root tabs right under its feet .. ... Its growing but only just .. Oh well we'll see what happens .

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Last shot for the night is of the Bronze Honey Gourami in the 60g ..a better shot than the one I posted in Photo booth .

Will be very little happening in the tank this week , just maintaince .


Garry

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wow......you & your plants.....so many! Great looking tanks though! I especially like your rocks.
Congrats on the new fish, they're beautiful!
Sorry for your problems. Yeah, it's frustrating to loose established fish.
I wish you luck in the new year! Looks like you're staying on top of things though, despite it all.

Thanks Patty ..appreciate the thoughts !

Week 31 Update

This week went exactly as predicted ...maintaince only . At least the WIsteria stayed down ...well most of it

So I won't bore you with a long entry ...not much to tell

Last weeks Fulltank shot

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Full Tank this week

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Right Side

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Left Side

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River /Centre...No plans for any changes next week ...should be dull again .


Garry

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Garry- I am just blown away at your artistry and scape design... You really have a knack for this stuff... How long have you been doing this? I have a hornwort question I will post in a different topic.

Awesome!

Thanks for the update on the R.wallichii Garry.

I have some in my nano atm and thought it was doing OK, but over the last few weeks it seems to be looking less full and pink.

Could it be that it doesn't like the Excel? I'm pretty sure that mine started it's downward slide within about a week of starting to use the excel on that tank, prior to that it had been there for a bit over a month and seemed to be doing well receiving only a general purpose liquid fert and no carbon supplement.

It could also just be that it doesn't like being trimmed too... the lower portions of the stems I have trimmed are definitely the worse looking of the lot; the new growth from the old stems isn't too bad and the re-planted tops are ok, but the the older parts of the plants are just bleh!

Whatever it is I'm glad I'm not alone with this frustrating plant. It seems such a shame ... when it's doing well it's a really gorgeous addition, but when its not it can really bring down the look of the whole tank. I'd love to get mine growing well again, just need to work out for sure what causes it to decline and rectify that.

As always I'm loving your tank and great pics.

G_T

Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark. A large group of professionals built the Titanic.

Scott...Actually I had planted tanks 30years ago ...but had no idea about scaping
as there was no FP back then
So ....really I've only learned the principles from this site and other fantastic info
sites in the last 2 years .

Thanks for the compliment BTW ...but I still think I have a long way to go ..both
in scaping and getting the right plants in the right spot so that when the tank
grows in it actually looks the same as I planned .The plant growth thing is
probably the biggest challenge ...just because the book says that a plant
grows to a certain height does not mean it will in your conditions .
Just look at the Amazons on the right side of this tank..they should dominate the
jungle with huge waving fronds ...but they have degenerated into very small
plants ...probably because they were emerse grown .

Anyway enough rambling...Thanks for stopping by

Could it be that it doesn't like the Excel? I'm pretty sure that mine started it's downward slide within about a week of starting to use the excel on that tank, prior to that it had been there for a bit over a month and seemed to be doing well receiving only a general purpose liquid fert and no carbon supplement.

Troppo ...Actually during the first month that mine went well in the 60g I used
Excel ..so I don't think its that . I've noticed the trimming thing as well ..your
right ...you might want to throw the bottoms away . But I've noticed recently
that there is new growth coming from the trimmed bottoms ...its very slow
but its there ...its green as well ???? maybe this plant just goes through stages ...
or it uses up its stored energy when you get it and then takes along time to settle ?
Don't know ???

But I'm going to let it alone and see what happens ...I have a feeling that this
might be one of those plants that reacts badly to being moved around .
We will see .

Thanks for the compliment and for dropping by .


Garry

Garry, you made me laugh:

Claudia ... Ahh the ever vigilant scientific mind ... actually you would probably do the
hobby a favour if you came up with a rule that was a proven fact instead of just folklore

I wish I'd have the time to do so but the result would be complicated involving many parameters. This calls for a detailed study by people with lots of tanks! Where are they? Sorry, scientific 'snobbiness' is a side effect of being many years in the trade (invasive thinking permeating private life).
Now, onto your tank: I think I have already mentioned how much I like the two grey (zebra) angelfish. They are awesome!
R. wallichii turned inot a disappointment in my tank as well. After seeing your initial success with high dose Excel and ferts I increased mine as well - everything else but the target plant improved.
Later I came across a reference which mentioned that the plant requires soft and acidic water for long term success. I know that my water is NOT acidic and blamed the demise of the plant on the pH. What is your pH?

Claudia

Sorry to learn of your fish losses. Always sad to lose friends that have been with you a while

I'm sure you'll get your motivation back soon. A planted tank the size of yours must surely be a lot of work. Though you may not be entirely happy with the scape, your delighted viewers/readers think it's just great But of course, it has to be you that's happy with the look. As for me, I'm a bit over stem plants that grow fast & require constant removing / trimming / replanting. More & more, my tanks will be dominated by slow & lower growers. There are stems, but they are in the minority. I've even trained my wisteria to be a low plant that doesn't require the removal & replanting cycle. I keep it low & reguarly trimmed & it's growing thicker, with leaves on the bottom of the stems again. Needs trimming every week or two, but I've not pulled one wisteria stem out & replanted it since setup of the divided tank. Much easier. Maybe if you looked for plants that make your tank less work, but still beatiful, that may work better for you. Just my two cents.

Your new black angels are very pretty. I see you are partial to angels, as you have quite a few.

Look forward to your next round of photos.

Cheers
TW

Claudia ...The PH in the 60g is on average around 6.9 ...GH is 7d to 8d (100-200ppm)...
so slightly hard ...slightly acidic ..may not be the right conditions for this plant .

Robyn , thanks for your nice thoughts and compliments ...as always its really appreciated .
I also appreciate the advice...some interesting ideas ...I've already decided that Wisteria
is now a background plant ...will see how it goes there .
I'm also searching around for bigger plants to fill the height of this tank better ...thats
proving to be a major challenge .

Any way I'll keep trying to improve as time goes on .

Thanks for your help ..both of you .


Garry

Update Week 32

Once again not a lot happened in the tank this week . A little trimming of the Magenta ...
cut back one of the Bolbitus ferns to the rizome to see if I can get it to respond ...
trimmed a lot of algae affected Annubia leaves .

Finally found some very large Swords for this tank ...I bought 3 ..One is submerse grown ..
2 are emerse grown ..will be interesting to see how they develop.
They are all soaking ATM ..will plant them next week .

Bought some new Flame Dwarf Gourami's to make up for the losses ..
now have 6 Flame Males, 2 Blue Coral Males and 2 Blue Coral females .

On a sad note I lost my last Gold Tiger Barb this week ..no obvious reason ..probably a
victim of the Tiger Barb wars . Also lost one of the Large Female Tigers ..she blew up
like a balloon ..didn't look like dropsy ..maybe she was egg bound ..only lasted 48hours
after she blew up .

On to the Photos ...The Full Tank Last week ...

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Full Tank this week

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Right Side

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Left Side

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Angle Shot

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Rock Group

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