bratyboy2

North im sorry to hear that you came down with that and i was just bout to message you about getting plants from you...pm me

northtexasfossilguy

Update:


By ntfguy, shot with G'zOne Boulder at 2009-08-18

Marbled radican sword flowering:

By ntfguy, shot with G'zOne Boulder at 2009-08-18


By ntfguy, shot with G'zOne Boulder at 2009-08-18


By ntfguy, shot with G'zOne Boulder at 2009-08-18

northtexasfossilguy

Update:

Full tank shot before Saturdays extensive trim.

By ntfguy, shot with G'zOne Boulder at 2009-08-18

Marbled radican sword flowering:

By ntfguy, shot with G'zOne Boulder at 2009-08-18

Apistogramma cacatuoides and my dumb looking reflection

By ntfguy, shot with G'zOne Boulder at 2009-08-18

Apisto enjoying his new home.

By ntfguy, shot with G'zOne Boulder at 2009-08-18

So a few things have happened, the pandas spawned again, the Endlers guppies had babies, I got that apisto and Crownman Mike gave me some more cherry shrimp. The Echinodorus cordifolius "Marbled Queen Radican Sword" flowered, the other is about to. They are really beautiful.

I'm going to be adding another box filter this week to increase the current and biological filtration load. The magnum micron filter cartridge is highly effective and gets the sludge out every week.

On that note, adieu!

alta678

What a beautiful tank! I would love to make this my screen saver. It is so peaceful and relaxing to look at.

northtexasfossilguy

Thank you very much! I put a lot of effort into it, and its constantly needing a trim. It is a jungle in comparison to some of the other styles out there (the "Dutch" garden style, etc.) but I love the chaos. The endlers are not easy at all to photograph, but they really bring it to life.

There are over 100 small animals in there if I added them all up, and about oh I'd say 40-70 individual plants. I keep seeing new baby panda corys all the time, but it is impossible to see them all at once to get an accurate count.

My new apisto. cacatuoides is really cute, he is very friendly to me and always comes to the front of the tank. The farlowella is funny as heck, I named him Chris Farley after the comedian. (He always wanted to be skinny... so anyway now in his next life he is a twig catfish. Karma.)

northtexasfossilguy

Here is an update for my tank:


And my 10 gallon from the top, it looks kinda cool with emergent growth...

bettalover

Looks good.

cichlidkeeper

looks great. i wish i had an ounce of aquascaping ability compared to yall's pounds of it

StephB

Wow! Very nice! Looks like you still have that cave in the 55g. How did you build that and have you had any challenges? I love that feature!

northtexasfossilguy

Well its pretty simple, I obtained some landscaping paving stones and some lace rock to hold it up and look cave-ish on the inside.

Basically its a large flat piece of sandstone that sits on top of the lace rock which holds back the soil behind it and beside it. It is like a table. I had to take the big rock to school and use a diamond rock saw to cut a piece of it off so that it would fit, but other than that you could make it yourself.

Build the rock table first, then add soil, then fill with water. It's pretty simple.


Things I learned were:
silicone it all together as a single piece, as mine lets soil in.
BN's and plecos like rear exits, so give them one before they dig up your plants and soil
if permanent, silicone it into your tank too... you want to create a soil dam all the way around either way. any holes you have will allow soil to come in and soil will come in under the thing also.
have a way to dig it out as dirt and dead snails, etc will get in there eventually, I usually siphon everything out into a bucket and check for living organisms.
be able to reach your hand in there comfortably without disturbing things

---------------------------------------
FYI, to cut rocks linearly with a chisel:

In lieu of a rock saw, what you can do is softly score a line all the way around the rock where you want it broken, doesn't matter what type of rock it is. Use a chisel and either scrape or lightly tap it all the way around. It needs about a 1/8" depth to the line. Secure and weigh down the rock on the side you do not want broken off. You want it so that all your force goes into the crack you are creating and hammer both the top and bottom of the rock with a chisel in the scored line you drew. This will create a fracture in the rock until it breaks in the way you want it. You want to be sure the main part of the rock can't move or you will probably bust the whole thing apart with a few strikes. Even doing this you can still screw up, so have a few backup rocks or rent a rock saw.