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Garry,

you did a major trim! Looks nice as always but I have to say that I am still a fan of the overgrown 60G tank!

Robyn ...as always your encouragement is appreciated ...but critique is allowed as well... I'm always looking for input and ideas .

Thanks for your ongoing support .

Claudia ...Hi missed you mate ..where have you been ..never mind ..just good to have you back . been a little quiet without you . , Well the 60 g just had to change as it was chocking with plants ( never thought I'd say that ) so a total makeover after 2.5 years was not inappropriate I think . Anyway I'm happy with the result even though I'm about to add some new plants.

So when can we expect an update on your tanks ?

Garry

Hi Garry:

I expect to be able to do an update in about 3 weeks from now! It will take about two weeks to get all furniture to my new home, everything will go on a truck by Sunday, the fish will go Saturday into 'holding' with my favorite fish dealer (one of the very few things I will miss back East) who will FedEx after everything is ready again. Expect the first pictures of the new thread to show a totally empty tank. Hey, finally a chance to think about an aquascape instead of an underwater jungle

I will pop in before t osee how everybody else's tanks are doing - I missed FP but was too occupied with preparations and negotiations

Claudia

Once again, I think you did a really nice job creating depth. Most of the stem plant bunches look tighter too. I think most of that comes from repeated trimmings. I really haven't had the guts to completely hack my rotala. Maybe this weekend or next.

Overall I think things look good. Have you always had the black angles?

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

Update Week 48

Have you always had the black angles?

Wings ...Yes I had a couple for a while now and had some smaller ones in the 60g ...they are now in this tank . I have 12 Angels allup... 4 Black , 4 Gold , 4 Silver .

So the Val was added and the other plants have arrived but as yet not added to the tank no other changes .

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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River

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A shot of the Val behind the Swords ... was cut short so not really showing much yet

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Another shot of that area showing the Driftwood which has been repositioned slightly

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I picked up a bit more Stellata to bulk up that plant a bit

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I finally got around to tying down all my Annubias in one area ...looks ok I think

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My poor little Tiger Lily ... Not sure if it will survive

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Lobelia cardinalis

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Bolbitis sprouting some new leaves

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Wisteria ...doing a good job so far as a foreground plant

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Thats it for the plants this week ...Since Wings mentioned my Black Angels ...I though I'd show a few shots of my Angel school ...First a couple of Blacks

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Another Black

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A small Silver

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A better shot of a Silver

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A gold Male

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A Gold Female

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A few Other fishys to finish ...One of my remaining 2 Ottos

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Last shot for the night is a Sterbai


Next week will see the other new plants added they will be Giant Ambulia on the Left rear of the river ...Some large Crypts Balansae on the right rear of the river .

Some Hydrillia and Pink Baby Tears in the jungle as well as some more small crypts in the left foreground of the river .

That should be it for a while .


Garry

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Once again you took some really nice pictures. I seems that things are filling in pretty nice. Give the anubias some time and it will fill in. It seems to grow painfully slow unless you are pumping with light, CO2, and fertilizers. Even then it's not that fast of a grower.

It has taken almost a year for my anubias to fill in to how it is now from this.

To this...


I also think that adding more Stellata was a good move. Adding more crypts to the crypt area will look nice too.

So the black angles were in the 60G before and you just added them. In the Full Tank Shot from last week, was that one of your BN in the river area?

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

Update Week 49 , 50 & 51

Have been away again , this time playing golf on the Sunshine coast ...great weather lousy golf .. well me anyway ..being the bunny again .

So the new plants arrived before I went away and were hastely planted . Sharky objected to the placement of a few but most were still planted when we got home .

After replanting the ones that had been uprooted I ended up addding Giant Ambulia to the left rear of the River ...small Crypts to the left front of the river ... Hydrilla and Pink baby tears to the jungle next to the Stellata... and a bunch of Crypts Balansae to the right rear of the river .

Thats about it for the moment ..not much else has changed ...still not entirley happy with the rear of the river ..will see if the Ambulia and Balansae close it down a bit .. but the gap is still too wide IMO ..so I may have to rethink that area .

On to the photos ... Wings to answer your questions .. I had 2 of the Black Angels growing up from very small in the 60g and I bought 2 more large ones . The fish in the river is a CAE which also came out of the 60g ...I'd forgotten about him and George ( the Cuckoo Catfish ) they wre very good at hiding and when I did the makeover of the 60g I was amazes at how they had both grown ( probably on a diet of Cardinals so I moved them to this tank .

Full tank 3 weeks ago

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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

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A shot of the Jungle from an angle showing the new Balansae at the rear of the river

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Wisteria doing nicely as a foreground plant

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Jungle foreground

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Annubias

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Giant Ambulia

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Small Crypts

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Driftwood , Swords ,Java Fern & Giant Val

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Hydrilla ...the Pink Baby tears are too small too see as yet ...hopefully they will grow to form a part of the second layer of the jungle along with the Hydrilla and stellata

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A few Fishy photos to finish ..A Golden Barb

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A BN

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The CAE which was about a 15ml when I got him 3 years ago and now measures 150ml .

Thats it for this week ... next week is the tanks birthday ...1 year old Probably be a very dull week however Can't see much happening this week .


Garry

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Garry,

Tank is looking good as always.

Is that Buenos Aires Tetras I see in some of those shots?

I got 6 of them for my tank not long ago (impulse buy) and while they seem to leave most of the established plants alone they do have a bit of a taste for tender new leaves.

I assume that they are not causing too much plant carnage in your tank or they would have been hastily removed

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.

Countryfish,

I must say your plant groupings are looking much tighter and organized. I think once your slower growers (cryps and anubias) fill in it will look really nice. A little color would be a nice touch if you can get your hands on something you like.

Now it is my understanding that you are not using any Co2 other than the fish and excel. Is that true? If so it looks like your plants are doing very well.

Look forward to seeing more. Be on the look out for a photo update of my tank sometime this weekend.

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

i have a nit-picky ocrrection for you:
The barb in your tanks is not a "Golden Barb,"
but is actually another species called the
"Gold Barb." If you look int he profiles you
will see the distinct difference.

Golden Barb:
http://www.fishprofiles.com/files/profiles/481.htm
Gold Barb:
http://www.fishprofiles.com/files/profiles/300.htm

As you can see there are very distinct
differences. On a Positive note, your
tank is growing and becoming more beautiful
every day (well at least every update ).
And I agree that once the crpts and anubias
fill in the tank will look completly
stunning.

Keep up the great work!
-Brandon

(PS this is a common misconception for
even some mebers on FP, so it will be
forgiven . Even many other forum
confuse the two due to their ever so
similar common naming. I discovered
the difference when searching and
apprising my self of their nature prior
to purchasing them. You have a GOLD BARB,
and golden barbs are less common and rarely
seen thus many LFS and etc mismark the names
to either spur buyers based on rarity, or
they themselves are mistaken on the names.)

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

Troppo

Is that Buenos Aires Tetras I see in some of those shots?

Yep thats them ...the worst they have done so far is eat wisteria ...ambulia and a bit of Hygro ...nothing the tank can't stand . I knew they had a reputation as plant eaters before I got them ..but so far my experience is ok .
Thanks for the compliment .

Wings ...Thanks for that ...I'm trying to get the groupings tighter ... Red plants are the bane of my life ...I still have magenta in the tank ...but its not doing very well . Any suggestions on easy to grow red plants ?
As to C02 ..you are spot on I use Excel ...I think that may be why the red plants don't do well ...the other reason is I find it very hard to get my Iron levels past 1ppm ..even though I dose Iron every day .

brandeeno... I've been doing this for 30 years and always had Golden Barbs in my tanks ..always been this Fish . If you have a look at the other photos in the profile you will see that one of the photos is mine ..which was approved by the powers here at FP .
Having said that I agree that the fish I have is C. sachsi or C. Schuberti or perhaps even C. semifasciolatus there seems to be a fair bit of disagreement in the scientific community about the different varieties of this group or even that they are different varieties . The opinion of one of the text books I have says that C. semifasciolatus and C. sachsi could be the parent species of C. Schuberti that was bred by Tom Schubert in the 1950's but all agree that these are called Golden Barbs and that the Gold Barb is something else.

So in conclusion there seems to be a lot of confusion about this even amongst the experts ...so I think I'll stick to what my text books tell me ... C. sachsi or C. Schuberti are Golden Barbs and thats waht I have .

Thanks for dropping by and for the compliment .


Garry

Beautiful & not a spot of algae to be seen. Job well done. Thanks, once again, for sharing.

Happy 1st Birth 240G Tank /:'

Cheers
TW

hmmmm i have the same ones in my tank too, and i have been told differently about them being "golden barbs." I appologize for the chastizing tone that may have been in the last post, but I honestly have been told differently. and as i see it, some of the gold barbs photos and some of the golden barbs photos have the same exact markings, yet they have different profile pictures and i think this to be a bit odd, also they have different physical attributes according the profiles (which the golden barb most closely matches my fish which are nearly identical to yours according to your pictures). I also noticed that there were pictures of the different species in each others profiles. thats when i realized that there must be debate about their relationship/genetic differences. again sorry for that...

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

garry.... happy 1 yr bday to your incredible tank, what a gorgeous setup...

I can only hope to one day aspire to that level of tankkeeping, wow!

Happy 1st Garry, the tank has come a long way in a year

---

Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

TW , Scott , Matty , Brandeeno...Thanks for that. Doesn't feel like a year since I started this tank . Time flies and all that .

I'll do a review of the tank over the next week or so .

Brandeeno ...don't worry I didn't take offense ...lots of grey areas in this hobby . All info is good .


Garry

Happy birthday, Garry!


It is so nice to see this tank after several weeks of being fish- as well as tankless. I finally moved in and this weekend I will start redoing the 72G tank. Starting from total scratch! This will give me the chance to think about an aquascape. I will be waiting for your critical input!

Claudia

Is that big black shark still in the tank?
I can't wait until my planted tanks grow in, trouble is I am always pinching cuttings to start new tanks.

Hi Garry,

It's been a while and I don't normally comment on your posts although I make sure I keep up to date with all your changes!! The tank looks great as always.
I have a few quick questions....
Are you still only using the flourish, excel and phosphorous? Do you add them daily / weekly? As you know I was using them too the only problem was my tank really suffered while I did. I tried every few days, more per week, less per week I tried everything. Probably tried too many different things for the first few months or so, I just couldn't keep anything looking healthy. For the last few months I have used absolutely nothing in my tank, it is looking as good as it ever has right now. I am still having trouble keeping some plants going but to this point most plants seem to grow quite well, I knew I would have a battle on my hands not using CO2 but I am still enjoying the challenge of avoiding it at all costs.
Obviously the water quality is very good as my firemouth cichlids continually attempt to spawn.

I look forward to your response.

James

Mabuhay!

Hi gary! your tanks are awesome especially the big one. you're the only one so far i've read about using wisteria as a foreground plant....its simply brilliant...
thanks for the tip i'll definitely use it as i assemble my sun fed 75g planted aquarium.

i'll keep an eye on your thread.

thanks

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.

Garry,

Where are you at!? Haha its been over two months! Just wondering when we are gonna get an update form our favorite tank?I know I dont comment much anymore, but I still do "tune in" to every update. Keep the updates coming! Thanks!

Hi folks ... Well its been a while . I decided to get my computer upgraded ... Oh boy what a nightmare ...its been 8 weeks and I've only just got it back .... What can I say ... Nothing I can type here anyway . The ?*&% thing is still not right . So I will update this log shortly ...thats if the machine keeps working . !!!!!!


Garry

Good to have you back, can't wait for an update!

---

Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Well its actually been 12 weeks since I updated this log ... I'm even more angry with the computer parts manufacturers now

So whats happened ... Firstly I think I mentioned that my UV filters broke ..so I hunted around and found a canister with a built in UV ...Aquael Unimax 700 is the brand ..and what a fantastic piece of gear it is ..very quiet and very efficent .

As far as the scape is concerned nothing much has changed other than a fair bit of growth as you will see from the photos .
On the Fish front just a few new small Angels which you will notice from the photos as well and in the 60g I have finally got my hands on some Chocolate Gouramis .

I haven't taken a lot of photos this week so just the main shots . I will do more detail next week .

First the full tank 12 weeks ago .

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Full Tank this week

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Left Side

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Right Side

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River

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For those who are interested here is a shot of the 60g just after the make over and then today . Needs a trim I think !!!!!

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Now

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Last shot this week ...Chocolate Gourami

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Countryfish,

Really nice photos as always. I have really been missing all the action around here. You sure have a ton of fish! It almost makes my tank look empty! I guess we are doing things a little different though and you have more wiggle room than I.

It looks like your plants are growing well. Some of them are starting to out grow their placement. I guess that tends to happen sometimes. Do you have any plans in terms of the scape? One thing I would really like to see is more hard scape. Your 60G started out with some really nice rock work but its well and covered by the plants now.

Glad to have you back around and I am sorry about all the computer issues.

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

Wings ... Interesting comment on the 60g ...I was only going to do a trim today ..but your comment on the hardscape got me thinking ..so after a very heavy trim I decided to move a couple of things .

Let me know what you think.


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Hi Gary!

So glad to see you back in action. I have to agree with Wings re the hard ware. Some driftwood would be great as well - maybe creating a little hill partially covered by sbstrate with plants growing on top of it? Just an idea that I would not be able of creating myself. I saw something like this in a contribution to an aquascape contest and you are capable of doing it. The plants look lush as always and this is one of the nicest shots of a chocolate gourami that I have ever seen.

Claudia

Claudia ... Thanks it nice to be back .. Hardscape is really hard to come by here ...Big stuff anyway ...I've had rock piles with annubias on them before but I went away from that look and the difficulty of keeping the plants attached .
In the end I'm a plant person and I want to sculpture the plants into the shapes I want . In the 60g it works well ( I think ) but the depth of this tank is proving a challenge . I'm starting to get plants with the size that will allow me to do it ( Crypts Balansae, Large Swords , Giant Val, Giant Ambullia etc ) ...will see how it develops in time I suppose .



Garry

Countryfish,

I am liking the look much better after the trim. Nice work!

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

Very nice Garry. Is the low plant in the 60G wisteria, that you keep trimmed very low & dense? Or is it wisteria grown in a creeping along substrate fashion.

Cheers
TW

Robyn ...Its Wisteria all right ... I read some where that it can be used as a foreground plant and being so robust doesn't have the problems of most small foreground plants .This has proven to be true ...grows and bushes up very well . The only problem is that it needs to be trimmed every 2 weeks as being a fast grower it grows very fast ( funny about that ). I just use my sissors like a hedge trimmer and then a net to clean up the mess

I like the look and because the growth is always very new it has a lovely light green colour which contrasts well with all the other colours in the tanks . The only time it looks a bit ordinary is after a trim ...but again this only lasts a couple of days because it grows so fast .

Its not a bad solution ... BTW it doesn't creep and spread ..just stays where you plant it and grows .

Might work in you Discuss tank ... When I did it I just took the very new bits from the tops of each stem ..took a while to kick in but when it did ...well you can see the results.


Garry

BTW it doesn't creep and spread ..just stays where you plant it and grows .

Maybe it doesn't creep and spread down under but it sure did up here in the states.

I wouldn't call it a true spreading plant but if you plant it at an angle it will often grow across the gravel. I think it needs very bright light and CO2 to do so. Or maybe it just needs to be in the northern hemisphere.

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

Hmmmm ...Welll ...depends what you mean by creep ...It spreads out by branching but not like HC or glosso which creeps along the substrate .

Garry

I too really like the rocks out front. Nice work on the trim!


I got wisteria to grow horizontally in my display tank at my old store. It was a 75g tank with about 280w of light and CO2. I didn't plant it horizontally, I just kept hacking it's top off until it bent over.

---

Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Mabuhay!

you are the MMMMMMMMAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNN!!! some people are just purely gifted.

thanks for sharing you setup.

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.

Week 65 Update .

Not much to relate this week ... Had to pull up the Bacopa and Hygro and replant ..so a bit of a gap has appeared in the back centre . Trimmed the wisteria in the foreground . Planted a few baby swords from their spikes into the river until they get bigger ( no clear room anywhere else!)

New growth on the swords is showing little sign of algae infestation that has been a plague in this tank ..so I think the new Cannister and its UV are working ..certainly all the sponges have been green with dead algae for a couple of weeks now .
Still not very happy with the scape in this tank and there are going to have to be some changes . Java fern is a pain ...driftwood and rocks have dissapeared ..Giant Hygro is not performing . The layered look I was going for in the jungle is just not working . I also want to get more red into the scape but that continues to elude me .

Sooooo lots of things to think about ...will have to see where these thoughts lead me in the next couple of weeks .

On to the photos .
Last weeks full tank

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Full Tank This week

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This week I though I would just do a few close ups of a couple of areas.

First the Annubia group .

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Small Crypts

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Wisteria from above after trim

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New growth on swords also showing the Buenos Aires Tetras schooling

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A few Shots of my Angels to finish .First one of the originals from the 60 g we've had this guy for going on 4 years now .

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One of a new Baby White Angel we bought in a group recently

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Another of the new group A Leopard Veil Tail Angel

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Last shot for this week is a shot of a part of the group feeding in the small crypts .

Matty thanks for your thoughts and compliments , unlike this tank I'm very happy with the scape in the 60g ..hope I can get this one to that stage at least once in the next few months .
mujacko2002 ...your too kind ..thanks .

Garry

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Lots of lush growth, always look at the positives I say !

As for the scape, I think super huge tanks like that would just be difficult overall. My thoughts would be to simplify things, maybe use less plant types and find some larger pieces of rock or DW.

---

Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Thanks Matty ... you are right ...I'm just a perfectionist I guess . Still it keeps me on my toes ..so look for changes in the next couple of weeks .

Garry

Sometimes things just don't work out the way we intend them too. As long as you learn from it then it was worth while. I know that I have been there a time or two.

I think the first thing we really need to do as planted tank guys or gals is to find out what plants we can grow well. I think that is why we end up with so many types of plants. Once we get that figured out we then have to work on making it look good. I think that simplifying is the way to go. Less types of plants but bigger groups.

I also thing you have quite the challenge being your tank is so large.

I can't wait to see what happens!!

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

Wings ... Less is more ..yep I definitely am there. But what do you do when that is just not right yet . Keep experimenting I suppose .

Anyway thanks for your thoughts mate .. Yourself and Matty ...I appreciate the support .

Garry

Robyn ...Its Wisteria all right ... I read some where that it can be used as a foreground plant and being so robust doesn't have the problems of most small foreground plants .This has proven to be true ...grows and bushes up very well.

Hahaha, I think I can remember telling you that somewhere. I copied tetratech with this method of planting wisteria, both in the 43G (now shut down) & the 74G divided tank. I remember once singing it's praises to you as a low maintenance foreground plant. Wisteria grows too fast for me as stem (too much work in cutting tops off & replanting every 2 weeks). The hardest part I found with this method, was getting it started off in growing in the creeping way. Until it sprouted roots, I weight it down with 2 fishing weights joined by fishing line.

How did you do it?


Cheers
TW

Robyn ... I bow to you what can I say... you are my Guru.. now that Tetra and Ingo have moved on . You have my abject apologoies that I did not remember that it was you that pointed me in this direction .

Funny ...all I did was cut the tops of a bunch off plants and plant them .. It worked .

So more power to you ...you should try it as well !!!!


Garry

Week 68 Update

3 weeks since the last update ...nothing much happened in the tank untill this week . Took most of that time to order some new plants . I thought when I ordered some Large Annubias , Apontagens , Macandra Magenta and Blyxia that I was in for a rather large makeover ...but it didn't turn out that way .
Heres what I did ....
The Giant Hygro went and was replaced by 2 Apontagen Crispus Green and 5 Aponatgen Crispus Red .
Half of the wisteria in the foreground was removed and replaced with Blyxia .
The Annubias at the front left were moved and jumbled up to give them a more unstructured look.
The Magenta and some Baby Tears were placed where the Annubias used to be in between the wisteria and large crypts and stellata , again trying for a better layered look and also some added colour.
In the centre of the tank I removed the Bacopa and some of the Ambulia and added three very Large Annubias , 1 Barteri, I Jenny and I Coffeefloria. The Barteri is what the plant shop calls a mother plant ...its huge .

So onto the photos firstly the Tank as at 3 weeks ago .

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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

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New Jungle Foreground

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Blyxia

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Baby Tears

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Magenta

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Apontagens behind Crypts ...Can't see most of the Red ones yet ..too small

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Annubias ...or as I'm calling it now " Mother "

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Last shot for this week ...Small White Angel .

Not sure this worked out the way I wanted ..so may have to do some more thinking
The other pain is keeping the Blyxia planted The Kissers and Sharky have uprooted it again as I sit here tying this ...thats the main reason I didn't replace all of the wisteria .

Oh well will see what develops .


Garry

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Country,

I really like the makeover. It seems you are on the right track. My favorite part is the placement of "Mother". Larger leaves toward the front of the tank really brings out some depth to the scape.

Your stems also seem to be in much tighter groups.

Well done!

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

Mabuhay!


you have one F-R-E-A-K-Y AWESOME TANK!!! my hats off to you. its so doable, its so practical..its very inspriring.

thank you for sharing

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.

wow dude where did the black shark go i really liked that dude i might have to get one now!

Once again, great shots of a beautiful tank

Cheers
TW

erm... has countryfish's computer broken again?

hi
woot woot woot woot woot woot