mistergreen

nice.. but watch out leaving you pictures next to the lights. It'll fade with time.

I'm going to start a 75NPT soon but will cheat by adding CO2.

mommyeireanne

MrG, bet you'll have out of this world growth, hope you'll share your results.
My husband didn't want to take them down. He's a prof. photographer so for him, it's just an excuse to put up more pictures
we have pics on the wall of every room, even the bathrooms!

mommyeireanne

***UPDATE***

Hello fellow NPT-ers. I wanted to update this tank journal as I reset the thing last night. This tank did very well until spring (October to April 2009) when I got some BBA. I was worried about it because I once had BBA take over an entire tank- covering every plant in my old 10 g. So when this tank faced that problem, I cut the plants back a lot and then dosed it with glutaraldehyde. If that's all I did I think it would have been fine, but this was on top of a previous trim. Then I did another drastic trip a month later before a plant swap. Of course I came home from the swap with new plants, so then I proceeded to yank out lots of foreground dwarf sag so I could put in new plants. Now I know this was just too much, but keep in mind that NPTs have always been resilient for me. Now I see the limit... The tank never fully recovered. I got anaerobic pockets where I pulled out dwarf sag, and it spread. The plants weren't old plants weren't able to come back in fast enough and the new plants never did root. Since all the fish, shrimp and snails were fine (still breeding in fact), I watched and waited. Recently my older established plants roots burned out and started floating. All the creatures were still ok, but I didn't want my house to smell like a swamp. I could see bubbling now and the aerobic areas were continuing to get bigger.

I ripped it out yesterday and spent the day resetting it. (I never want to do that again!) Today all the inhabitants are back in and happy. As I pulled out plants I was afraid I wouldn't have enough to replant it, because more than half my stock had their roots burned black. But I did. The fact that the tank limped along for so long and I didn't loose the fauna is a testament to the NPT setup. I still believe. But I will be more careful going forward. So back to the basics!

I cut my chunk of driftwood in half with my mitre saw so each piece would sit flat to the glass, but didn't use any other rocks this time. I can't see them anyway after about a month. But I knew my Bushy-nose cats would need it with the glass spotlessly free of algae. Next I used about 3/4-1 inch of plain topsoil, same batch as last year, so I didn't bother airing it out this time, just broke it up enough to spread around. Over that I used plain black aquarium gravel, but just enough to cover the dirt. It's a bit bigger than recommended, but it's worked for me before when spread thin like this. Then I planted back in the:
Sagtaria subulata
Hygro Compacta
Rotalla
big Amazon Sword cut back
baby sword-lets
one Sagitaria platyphila (sp?)
Marimo 'moss' ball
Java Moss
Water Sprite, floating

I used 30 gallons of rainwater this time, instead of buying distilled. I have extremely hard alkaline water. (19 gallons of distilled water added the first time didn't put a dent in the pH or hardness. ) I only used about 10-12 gallons of old tank water, which went in last, with the fish. The rest was dechlorinated tap water. I do add conditioner. It was pretty clear even though I didn't rinse the gravel, but I still waited overnight to put the fish back. Now they all seem happy. Lots of spawning activity. The shrimp are doing their usual; now I can see them more clearly because there is space between the plants and more light reaching the bottom.

My Animals are:
'Western' Rainbow girls
'Turquoise' Rainbow male
about 30 Mollies, silver, dalamtion, black and marbled three generations of them
a couple of Swordtails
a male Beta
2 albino Ancistrus
a brown Ancistrus
2 Amano shrimp males
many cherry shrimp
many Malasian Trumpet (Livebearing, burrowing) snails

I'm sure I lost some shrimp fry and small MTS, maybe even fish fry in the move. I'm pretty sure I got all the adults though. It took forever. I'll take some pictures tonight. It sits opposite a large window and the glare is too much right now. I do plan on getting some more fish when the soil settles in, as well as some blackworms. I can't find them in the store and will have to order them. I hope they will be added protection.

mommyeireanne

Here are the pics for my reset. I forgot to mention the red mangrove pods I suspended. I always wanted to try them so I'm giving it a shot.

Attached Thumbnails

   

Dustymac

Wow, your tank looks a lot clearer than mine at one day old. What's your secret? Are you using a filter?

davemonkey

It looks good. I just did the same thing last night due to other algae problems (and a broken regulator), except I made the jump from high-tech to El Natural. Tanks like yours have inspired me to give nature a try.

-Dave

mommyeireanne

Thanks davemonkey.

Dustymac, I don't have a filter per se, I am running the new/reengineered 14w Submariner UV sterilizer which has a thin (1-2mm) "prefilter" sponge with big spaces. It's only to keep big chunks from ruining the sterilizer. It gets cleaned every month so it doesn't turn into a bio filter. I turned it on as soon as I filled the tank to help clean the rainwater which sat for a week or so.

We have supersized mosquitoes right now and even though the water was covered, I was worried about the possibility of mosquito larva eating my few fry, thought the rainbows and Beta wouldn't mind them.

The gravel went from bag to tank without rinsing. The UV sterilizer doesn't seem to effect tinting from tannins, and eventually my water will be lightly tinted green again, because I rarely change it. I like not changing water but I wish it would stay this clear without it. Can't have it all, I guess.

davemonkey

My daughter's NPT was cloudy, then completely GREEN for what seemed like a year (I think it was 2 months). Then, it just cleared up. I've done a sinlge 50% water change in the past month and her tank is crystal clear. I wonder if it just depends on the substrate used. Hers was actually loamy-clay soil topped with gravel, probably much less Organic Matter than the topsoil you are using?

mommyeireanne

I used a bag sold as Topsoil from either Lowe's or Home Depot which sat in my garage for a year. I didn't pick out the stick bits unless I noticed them (didn't screen the soil). It seemed pretty sandy to me, like they mixed sand and mulch together. I probably should have aired it out though, because I got a nitrite and ammonia read and have already had to change water. I'm aerating at night and may put a charcoal filter on for a while.

dwalstad

Mommyeireanne,

Your tank setup looks like a winner! You've got plenty of plants and a nice fat Amazon Swordplant. Because the plants came from your old tank, they are already adapted to the submerged condition. So you're way ahead of the game.

I predict that your new setup has an excellent chance of progressing smoothly.