finsrite

When I upgrade - I UPGRADE. The 12 gallon Eclipse was just not satisfying enough.....

finsrite

Thanks to those of you who have commented or sent me emails on this tank. I appreciate your interest in my experiment. Being as new to fish tanks as I am, I am learning alot from this forum, and I hope my learning experience may help someone else as well...

This is kind of turning into a journal on my experience.

My notes at 3 weeks in on this tank -

Alot (?) of brownish powdery-like algae on the leaves and glass. Seems to be the only type of algae seen so far. Wipes off fairly easily. So as part of cleaning the glass - decided to also rearrange the tank somewhat.

removed Hemagraphis - not a true aquatic so I don't want to waste any time with it - plus the large and textured leaves seemed to collect alot of brown algae that I am always wiping off. Have since studied and become very familiar with the lists of non-aquatic plants sold alongside the true aquatic plants.
Added what I believe is water wisteria - emergent growth form is what I think I found
Added valisneria - not labeled, so again, I think it is valisneria americana....
Added anubias caldifolia - not labeled - but much larger leaves than coffeefolia I have that was labeled.
Added Rotala Indica - put it on the sunnier side of the tank to see if I can keep that pinkish color
Added 10 young Oto's to keep those leaves cleaner than I could
Added 2 bamboo shrimp
Added 2 small female platy's to keep the lone male platy company - Mr. and Mrs. and Mrs. Platy are now expecting....
Added 1 blue snail - not sure what it is called - but my 5 year old son loved it....
still need to find some "prettier" floating plants - seem to be non-existent at LFS... maybe a garden center that sells pond equipment...
have noted 5 or 6 small, hitchhiker snails - have not removed them because I do not see any damage from them- and my 5 year old likes to watch them. They actually seem to clean the plants too. Have developed a wait and see attitude about them.

Pretty much reorganized the whole tank - took out all of the amazon swords, trimmed their roots some and removed all of the baby's/runners and some of the larger leaves to keep the plants from floating out of the substrate - which was really annoying me. Pinched off the tops of the bacopa monneri, which had grown a little, and replanted cuttings. Discovered the wonderful usefulness of tweezers for planting these stem plants. I probably have way too many different types of plants in this tank. But right now, I am just trying to see what grows and what I like better. At some point in the future, I am sure I will need to rearrange and eliminate more. I am approaching this similarly to the way I did my perennial garden.

a stupid thing I did - midweek I added plant/pond fertilizer tabs into the substrate near some of the larger plants. Maybe added 3 or 4 to the tank. Then, forgot about them and started moving plants around - woops. Clouds of dissolved whitish fertilizer tabs released into the water column, of course. The next day the ammonia level was reading .5. Was 0 the day before. I performed a small water change at the time it clouded up. But the filter cleared the look of the water very quickly. Wonder if the higher reading was the result of adding fish, or the fertilizer tabs... PH has remained stable at 7.8 this week. Measured at different times of day - because of reading about how photosynthesis can affect ph..... results always similar...

Notes on cycling this tank -

I have read conflicting opinions on whether or not a "heavily" planted tank would ever read high ammonia/nitrite. So for the past 2 weeks I have been monitoring daily. As I stated in an earlier post, after adding 2 fish and my friends bio-wheel and some of her gravel - my ammonia, which was already registering low (.25) at 2 weeks in, fell to 0. Nitrite and Nitrate also 0. After the fertilizer tab mishap and adding the platys and otos my ammonia started to climb again and I started registering some Nitrites. Added aquarium salt at this point. That was 3 days ago. Today, nitrites are now declining and nitrates are starting to register for the first time in this tank. Wish I had not added the fertilizer tabs because I don't know for sure how they affected these readings. All of the inhabitants still seem very happy. Fed them blood worms as a treat this evening and everyone came hungrily for their share. I think I have read Walstad write that she has never read high ammonia in her tanks but sometimes she has had problems with Nitrites. Seems similar to my experience so far. I had higher ammonia readings on my 12 gallon and for longer before reading Nitrites. It has plants, but only a couple and slow-moderate growers.

The otos have been in the tank 3 days and what a fantastic job they have done cleaning the leaves of the plants. Much better than I could do.

I love sitting and watching the sun rise on this tank in the early morning. It seems to excite the fish when the sun first starts to hit the tank. I need to record the actual number of hours the tank gets direct light but it is only til early afternoon or noonish for sure. Direct light may end sooner than that. May need to add more fluorescent light come fall/winter. Also wonder if I should have put the tank on the East window and go for bold on the natural sunlight. So many people strongly cautioned me against using sunlight at all that I slightly wimped out and put it on the north window wall. Where it is, the sun comes in through the east side of the tank in the morning so I have one side of the tank that is "sunnier" than another. Which is often true of outdoor gardens too though, so I considered this fact in my recent rearrangement.

Considering ways to get soil under this substrate without tearing down. Read about someone wrapping soil in wax paper and placing it under gravel near plant roots. Also thought of trying a turkey baster/syringe and injecting wet soil deep under some of the plants. Definitely try it in another container first. Definitely not til I am ready to stop moving plants around. And I don't think that time has come yet. Still reading Walstad's book - lots of stuff to take in. I find myself re-reading sections over and over and thinking about how it applies to my situation. Very useful book.

Really don't want to get into pressurized Co2. Wondering though, if I will have to eventually to see much growth without real soil. Researching Seachem's Flourish Excel product as an alternative... Meanwhile just giving the tank, and me, more time.

wiste

There is a suggested method of adding frozen soil beneath plants.
This topic is discussed in the thread below:

finsrite

thx, wiste - that sounds very doable...

finsrite

Pictures of My tank

At 7 weeks now. I think it is doing quite well, actually. Albeit, a little wild looking. I will probably reduce the number of varieties of plants eventually - keeping only those that do well - and don't take over. But right now, I am letting the plants fight it out.

No algae problems since the first 2 weeks. Have pruned plants in the tank several times - especially the ludwigia repens and the hornwort. Also scoop out lots of duckweed weekly and compost it for vegetable garden.


Have done 2 10-20% water changes. The second one yesterday. Using RO water mostly, with Flourish added to re-mineralize. I already had the RO system for our drinking water anyway.

Lighting is still 1.6 wpg fluorescent + natural sunlight. Tank gets about 4 hours of direct sun in the morning, bright indirect the rest of the day.

Dosing every 3 days or so with a capful of Flourish Excel - which I read is a C02 alternative. I often forget to add it. Once a week or so with a capful of Flourish (micro-nutrients). I have already had to prune more often than I thought I would - so I can't imagine what this tank would be like with C02 injection. I would rather just stick with plants that do well without it in my environment - and there appears to be many that will.

Added alot of new varieties of plants obtained from a fellow local hobbyist who read my posts here. The cuttings he gave me have done better than almost anything I bought at the stores, btw.

Plants doing the worst: sagitaria, valisneria, crinum, java fern - all just sort of sitting there - not growing.
Plants doing the best: hygrophilia, a green variety and sunset, ludwigia repens, asian ambulia, hornwort,water wisteria, najas/guppy grass.

Inhabitants: (many of the fish came from a friend who is getting out of fishkeeping - and they needed a home. don't think I would have chosen some of them, but, oh well. The angels and kribs are my favorites. The kribs stick to the bottom - and only seem to bother each other.)
7 Angel fish - varying sizes
3 Kribensis
2 cory cats
2 chinese algae eaters
10 oto's
2 bamboo shrimp
1 ghost shrimp
3 platys
4 red serpae tetras
4 zebra danios
1 buenos aires tetra
1 gold mystery snail
lots of miscellaneous snails who came in on the plants - they do not appear to damage the plants so I leave them alone.

Overall, I think the tank has been a success. Once I am more certain that the plants are in their final positions - (not yet) -- I will try adding soil under the gravel via the freezing method suggested.

mistergreen

looks cool. You have eco-complete?

You might want to do a DIY CO2 system.
My java ferns isn't doing that great either.. They're slow growers so don't expect them to grow like the h. polysperma (weed).. You're lucky your ludwigia is doing great. Mine is half dead.

finsrite

Yes, eco-complete. Want to put soil underneath eventually. Was worried about my tendency to move plants around alot. That is the only reason I didn't do it at first.

Slow growth, in my case - no-growth. Java fern is one of those plants everyone says is easy but it really has not done well for me. Disappointed in sagitaria and valisneria too. Others that are supposedly easy. I have seen pictures of really nice java ferns, mine just sit there, old leaves getting rattier by the day. And I bought a fairly good sized one - for my 12 gal, so I have had it since January. I recently moved it from my 3 wpg 12 gallon tank to the 75 to see if it does better in there. I am starting to hate that plant.

Weed or not, I really like that hygro polysperma. At least for now. I know from perennial gardening that you get excited about quick growth at first, only to be ripping those out later when they start taking over. But so far, only the asian ambulia seems to grow that fast. And I still love that plant.

I wondered about the DIY C02 - but it seemed impractical for a tank this large. Thats why I bought the Flourish Excel though. And it does seem to have a positive effect. I have been most pleased about accomplishing a tank in sunlight without algae. But I haven't seen it through a whole year yet, seasonal changes and all. Curious to see if I'll need to add more flourescent light come fall. We get alot of cloudy days year-round in Indiana though - so in some ways, the lighting is already being tested.