ashappard

Thanks.

Besides the Limnophila 'vietnam mini' I have another foreground plant called Bacopa 'japan'. Its currently growing among the Nesaea 'triflora' in the front center area. They have similar leaf shapes but different sizes and I think they do well together. Still, I'm going to give it a more prominent position and see if I can get it to reach its potential. I've seen it used in an AGA contest entry, it appears to be very easy to shape into mounds and hills with trimming.

I've got a lot of work to do this weekend, trimming and replanting.. I'll post up the result and add some dosing notes.
Inspired by the discussion in this thread, I ordered a couple sheets of the PF4 Enkamat so I can meshmod my octopus pump.

bosmahe1

Amazing tank. I prefer the look of tanks like this compared to ones with three rocks in it


I appreciate the information about the RO units. I have often wondered about the cost of making your own RO water, how often to change filters and membranes and such. I am fortunate that my tap water in Northern Virginia is about 98 ppm total hardness but wouldn't mind experimenting with the ratio of magnesium vs. calcium ratio. The water company told me total hardness is 98 ppm and calcium hardness is 67 ppm.

As far as I can figure, that would make 31 ppm magnesium hardness and 7.56 ppm magnesium in the water. I don't fully understand the difference, maybe I"ll find a site sometime to explain it.

I hope this isn't considered a hijack, if so, sorry.

ashappard

no, not a hijack comments and discussion are welcome!

most vendors will include a TDS pen with their units, mine came with a decent one and I use it to decide when the filters need changed. 3TDS may be a bit overzealous, but it runs at zero for quite a while so it seems like a good target. I'll keep track of water usage and get cost as pennies per gallon after the next filter change. One problem with tracking usage is top off. I top off for evaporation between water changes and it adds up. So I decided to fill a couple 5G containers and top off from that, making total usage so far 10G.

I have to delay water changes and whatnot till Sunday since I'll be out of town until then.
wish I could help with the Ca/Mg question - I use a premixed GH booster and its been fine.

ashappard

what a mess

water change and a bit of trimming done sunday, and trimming continues. The tank is cloudy and there is some more cleaning to do with the mess I stir up. I used 20G of water on this tank, 40G on other tanks and with the 10G I use for top-off, I have used 70G of water since RO filter change. I'll take some time tomorrow to type up some dosing notes. I think I'll be able to cut back on traces after I thin the R.macrandra. After a big stir up, I like to run UV for a couple days just incase something nasty came up out of the substrate (like green water). You can see the blue outlet at the back of the tank.



the tricky part is what to do with the spp I trim. In some tanks I keep the same plants but in lower quantity. I'm deciding what to keep here and move.. its taking a while. you can see where I clearcut to the back and a stem of Erio setaceum type 3 is peeking. The patch of Rotala macrandra is a real mess. I think its all coming up and then a trim/replant/keep the nicest stems. There are 5 or more variants of Rotala macrandra there, mixed together, and I dont recommend planting them that way. hard to manage as they grow out.

what I found

usually when I do a big trim I find stuff I had lost sight of, this time is no exception. I found Lindernia dubia, a little stem of Syngonanthus 'rio negro', some wide leaves growing on Hygrophila 'araguaia' and plantlets growing on leaves that got caught in other plants. here are a few more pictures.


hygro 'araguaia' wide leaves at the base :





Aciotis sp. plantlet found in a tangle of R.butterfly :

davemonkey

That's a wonderful collection of some rare plants!! Thanks so much for sharing.

taz81

Wow you do a wonderful job with plants! I sure hope I don't kill the ones you are sending me *crosses fingers*

ashappard

thanks guys. My P4 Enkamat came in the mail today, but it will probably be a few days until I get around to adding it to an impeller. I've been using a dense sponge on the inlet of the needlewheel pump to soak up some suspended particles. One downside to not having filtration.

ashappard

a little more organized
I have fewer plant spp now, and those that remain are planted in patches so I can easily find them
We'll see how long this lasts. Heres a pic, sorry for the glare and extension cords / plug strips
visible through the back, etc. I guess I should have draped a dark background on it or something.



Aciotis sp.
I keep most of this one in another tank



Syngonanthus 'rio negro'
nothing like a macro shot to make you realize how dirty the lower leaves are. hmmph.
this one has started throwing flowers again. I'll work up the courage to try it
emersed and see if I can get one to open. Last time didn't go so well.

markl323

gorgeous tank and healthy looking plants.

ashappard

thanks!


finally started meshmod

Tomorrow I'll change water, today I finally added mesh to a spare impeller for my needlewheel pump.
I used 2 layers of P4 Enkamat on top of the blades. I've seen threads where the top layer of blades are
removed to make more room, but I'll see how it goes without removing them. I may need to trim a bit
more before I put this in. don't want to rub the sides.

click the thumb for a bigger image



thursday I'll swap this modified impeller for the one that is running. My power analyzer is back, and
wednesday I'll collect 24hrs of data from the OTP-1000 running both with and without gas hitting the impeller.
I'll get wattage and other bits to use as baseline data. Once the new impeller is in place, I'll collect another
24hours of data for comparison.

todays tank pic :



things are a lot easier to find now. I've added 3 stems of bihar, plucked as sideshoots from a
large plant in another tank. We'll see how long before they try to swallow everything around them. Didnt
shut off the gas or pumps, so a few distractions in the water column. The larger bubbles are
coming off the plants and are not from the CO2 mister.

the Rotala macrandra 'variegated' has turned an almost neon pink color.
you can see it directly in front of the Aciotis and with the L.inclinata patch in the front right.