davemonkey

What ever happened to that conversation we had about not trying to rescape an NPT?

At least now you know what to expect, and your plants will still continue to grow in the green water, so, once it clears, you'll have a nice lush tank to admire.

mudboots

Hah!!! That was before I got those REALLY COOL plants in the mail and couldn't help but make sure they were in the right places. I'll unofficially share the blame on this with kwc1974. But hey, this just gives me an opportunity to run some H2O2 tests, right? Kev's already started his with 3.5 ml/gal...

mudboots

Well, the pea soup is gone. I still have some cloudiness issues, but they are relatively minor and are clearing up slowly, so no worries.

I had a bit of a set back. I experimented with H2O2 and decided to push the limits. On one day I tried about 3ml/gal, and the following day I tried 4ml/gal, which resulted in lots of dead algae (except on the driftwood, which I guess was like a buffer for it), 99% reduction in the snail population (they are slowly coming back by the way), and the loss of most, yes, MOST, of the leaves of my plants, including my beautiful Red Lotuses.

This was all a few weeks ago (maybe less - don't really remember to be honest) and since then the plants have grown back so vigorously that I've already done a pretty good trimming.

Here is an updated Full Tank Shot and then a shot of the extreme left side, just for reference. I'll take better pics once the tank finished clearing up.





Baby steps...baby steps.

mudboots

Against my original intentions of having only lights and nothing else, I added a Hydor Koralia last night to give some water movement, and the fish absolutely LOVE it

There is some negative side though. With lots of plants in the background, and not wanting to disturb the water surface, I had to place the pump in the viewing area in the front of the tank. Otherwise it was sucking in the leaves of the plants that are around it unless I was willing to put it at the very top of the tank, which broke the surface of the water (pretty powerful intake on this baby). Another minus is that all of the loose mulm accumulation started blowing around everywhere, but I imagine biological activities will take care of this within the week, so no problem.

Bottom line - these pumps generate a lot of water movement for their size, and my fish are happy (especially the cories), so I'm okay with the sore thumb effect.

davemonkey

So what size Koralia dod you go with? The #2, or #3? Does it get water movement all teh way across? I'm thinking about getting one for my 4' tank.

I can tell your angelfish have grown!

mudboots

I went with the #2. Since I've got it positioned NOT to suck up the plants and the water surface, it blows a nice stream throughout the tank. I was surprised at the Trig.espei's. I figured they'd stay out of the main flow and glide around the back and sides, but they are just as goofy as the cories in darting in and out of the jet.

I almost wish I had gone with the #3, but for where I have it, it would have been a little much for El Natural. Every plant in the tank sways right now, so I have to assume the movement is good enough.

Too bad you can't see the angel's colors via the pics. They have awesome red eyes and their pectoral and dorsals are streaked with blue highlights...pretty to look at up close, but doesn't really show up on pics (I'm a Wetland Specialist, not a Photographer...).

bratyboy2

what is your foreground plant?

mudboots

Mostly Marsilea. I have both the ones everyone calls "minuta" and "quadrifolia", though I have not yet keyed them out. I've got a couple pieces of each in the "Wetland" tank but not identifying characteristics yet.

In the center of the tank I am starting a patch of Stauro. porto vehlo with a back-drop of Stauro. low grow, which is in front of a couple of amazon swords. In the far left corner I am starting a patch of dwarf Lileopsis. That's about it for the groundcovers.

Tex Gal

Really looking nice!! I like what you've done with the place!

One suggestion... push the soil away from the glass and drop your topping gravel down in front so you don't see the different layers.

mudboots

Ahhhhhhh, so NOW you tell me. Hah! I had thought about it but now I'm too scared to mess with it any more since I'm 0-3 on the Pea Soup war.

However, I might try using a ruler or something to help me gently drizzle some sand or something in between the glass and the substrate; we'll see.

In the meantime, I FINALLY got some pics of the new tank inhabitants. They rock! I was not sure about going with Apistgramma, but I'm very glad I did. Everything I've always liked about cichlids, plus they don't terrorize or eat the other fish. The ones I've got happen to be wild-caught A.macmasteri; I'll post some pics after I get back from vacation.