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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.

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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.

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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