Rimless 48 Gallon Manzanita Scape

C

CL_

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Okay, a stocking question. I will be buying about 15 pygmy cories and a few otos. Would it be better to have ~35 rummies, or to do half rummies and half cardinal tetras? The cards would school tighter with the rummies in there, right? Or would it just look better to do all rummies?
 
C

CL_

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Here it is sans foreground. I didn't bother scraping off the remaining GDA from the back wall, so the tank looks a bit green as a result.
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I like the look of the petite with what I believe is anubias minima over it
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Green gecko
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C

CL_

Guest
Things are growing in. I have som fish and eleocharis 'belem' that should arrive in the mail tomorrow.
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C

CL_

Guest
A bit out of focus
They gave me a nice cylinder this time haha
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I;m hoping that the tank doesn't suffer too much when I'm gone to NYC next week for senior trip :)
Hopefully I can find some nice bonsai stones in Chinatown, or other places in NYC.
 

Wet

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That Anubias patch is wonderful. Already thought about using some on the wood around midheight?

Enjoy New York!
 
C

CL_

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Thanks, Tug. I think that it would look nice to add some petite to the wood. I just got back home, so I'll try to figure out how it would look in the morning. Should look pretty cool.
Thanks again.
 
C

CL_

Guest
I thought that the tank looked good tonight, so I took a few pictures to share with you guys :)
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Comments are greatly appreciated :)
 

Gerryd

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Chris,

Very nice job! I agree the tank does look good tonight:)

Is there anyway we can figure out a way to dump the koralia or hide it somehow?

You need more fish....

Looks great. Love the Blyxa growth and color. I hope mine grows in looking half that good, I would be happy..
 
C

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Gerryd;48530 said:
Chris,

Very nice job! I agree the tank does look good tonight:)

Is there anyway we can figure out a way to dump the koralia or hide it somehow?

You need more fish....

Looks great. Love the Blyxa growth and color. I hope mine grows in looking half that good, I would be happy..

I figure that I could take the k2 out for photos, haha. Just too lazy to do so.
And I agree, I do need more fish :)
Thanks!
 
C

CL_

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Water change day. I also cleaned the filter. Boy did it need it haha.
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Still trying to figure out that r. colorata..
I'm going to make some iron fert spikes to place in the substrate under the colorata and wallichi. Hopefully that will help things color up. I also ordered some chelated iron that I will dose to the water column.
I also added a k nano to the tank the other day, so I have a total of 1140 GPH in this tank. I added it because there were a couple of spots where water wasn't moving like I wanted it. Hopefully I have enough turnover in there now ;)
 
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C

CL_

Guest
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I took the wallichi and colorata out. They just stayed green, and I never could figure out why. :(
The blyxa is doing well, though.
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Sorry about the white balance being way off in the pictures...
 
C

CL_

Guest
Well, I decided to give it another try to get my red plants red. I decided to increase CO2 levels in the tank, and try dosing more iron, even though I had already tried this. I moved the diffuser to right in front of the koralia nano, and the tank turned into a snow globe full of tiny CO2 bubbles. I made some iron rich fert tabs from clay and inserted those into the substrate. I also increased light to three bulbs of 39W T5HO suspended a foot above the tank (I was previously using two bulbs). I did all of this a couple of weeks ago. Now I am starting to see BBA on the wood :( Could this be because I changed the CO2 content in the tank? Was it the light? A combination of the two? I have never missed a 50% WC on Saturday, and I've been faithfully dosing EI. Any ideas as to the cause of the BBA?
 
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Gerryd

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Hi,

I would think the increased lighting caused MORE demand than was met by the corresponding increase in c02...

I would increase your c02 slowly over the next few weeks.....

Tank looks great........
 
C

CL_

Guest
Good idea. I wound up upping CO2 and lowering the light back down to what it was originally (two bulbs). The bba stopped spreading, but hasn't really died back. I just talked to Jeff over at ADG shop, and I'll be ordering some nice stones for this tank. A rescape is in store soon. I will be doing dry start for a couple of weeks. Here's the stones that Jeff helped pick out for me
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Tom Barr

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I think choosing a different plant species light be the best option, there are plenty of nice colorful plants to chose from. L panatnal, L granulosus/perunesis, Myrio "red matogrossense" etc. These do not change color too much.

This is my tank with the plants using EI:

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The pic below, I could play with photoshop and enhance the red coloration a good deal and still retain the greens, but there's a certain unnatural color to it and I know what photo software does as well as flash and lighting for photography. Many alter their color, particularly for contest.


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My color on the Wallichii is much better than the photo suggest. It is a really pretty plant.
At the surface, the plant develops a nice color, less so 1/2 way up in the water column.

So let the plants grow, then hit the surface for awhile.
Trim R wallichii by uprooting and replanting the tops only. It does poorly if you top it and wait for new shoots to regrow.

Polygonum, Alternathera etc are nice colorful plants as well or Ammannia, but it's too big for your tank.

The hardscape is well done, belem hairgrass is an excellent choice.
What about mossy wood, say Fissidens to add contrast from the hairgrass, instead of bright green weedy Bylxa? Behind this dark moss, then a wider leaf bright green plant (Starougyne, Downoi, a Crypt, Hygro kompact, red plant of choice etc), then in the rear, the light fine leave wallichii?

Most of the plants I list sell well also, look nice, are slower growing and easy to care for.

All good attributes.

Regards,
Tom Barr
 
C

CL_

Guest
Thanks, Tom. I wound up removing the blyxa from this tank- it was very suffocating, IMO. I love the look of fissidens. I had it a long time ago and it was great, however, recently I have gotten a fear of adding moss to my high tech tanks haha. I'm always afraid that I will get algae in it (though there is no algae anywhere else except for the bits of bba on the wood).
Your plants are incredibly red, Tom. Maybe you're right, and it is the plants that I'm trying to get red. I have no idea why colorata just won't work for me. Recently I've been trying non- limiting ferts, and my CO2 level is pretty high (I would say). I have mist going all over the tank, but the stems of colorata that I have in there are still as green as can be. I have no idea what my problem is. Maybe longer photoperiod? right now it is a bit short at six hours. Actually that is really short- I have no idea why it has been left at 6 hours for so long. Do you think that could be it?

Thanks for sharing those awesome pics. What was that red plant that you had in the back of your 180? The one in the second from last photo.
 

Wet

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Try hacking back the Rotalas. Trimming and stress (this can also apply to limiting nutrients) do good things for me. You're sure it's really 'Colorata', yeah?

I like Tom's idea of just using redder plants, of course. Ludwigia senegalensis (aka 'Guinea') has an awesome red and character. A difficult plant (I agree with this) except for patient folks (can take a minute to recover from hacking back or changing tanks), but I think your Anubias 'petite' suggests you are patient, and your tank suggests you'll feed the plant well, and that you'll grow it fine.
 
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C

CL_

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Yeah. I'm sure it's colorata. I tried just about everything in the book to get it to redden up. Maybe it is the softness of the water. Who knows.

Well, you know how 18 year olds are, always wanting to change things up, restless, etc.
Changed the scape up today. Upon ripping the crypts out, I realized how great the wood was underneath. (I had forgotten since the plants had grown over the wood so long ago.) The wood will be going into the tank it was originally going to go in (the 40 breeder). This time I will be sure not to put any plants to cover up the wood.
So anyway, I got some rocks in the mail today from Jeff Senske over at ADG. Great communication to find some rocks that I would like. The tank will be growing emersed for a few weeks. I'll have some colorata and wallichi behind the main stone. Hydrocotyle verticalla, lawnmarsh pennywort (maybe, it is really weedy), eleocharis belem, staurogyne repens (I may have to buy some more of this, I only have a couple of stems), and maybe some hc around the rocks. LMK what you guys think

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The only thing that bothers me a little bit is the far left. It's not perfect, but it's okay.
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C

CL_

Guest
Much better, IMO
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Hard to believe it's only 38 pounds of rocks.
 
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Wet

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Looks like hands and fingers reaching the front of the tank -- I like it!