[lartist]

A few month ago, I started a topic about a green water problem. With all the good advices found here, especially from Ray-The-Pilot, I can present you my aquarium. It is my first attempt at a real aquascaping. As you will see, the planting are quite basics but I am please with the results. As soon as I will found others species, I will do some changes...

Specs:

Tank: 65 gal. hagen Osaka 260 (not a ADA but I like the look...)
Filtration: Fluval 350
C02: 5lbs. tank with Wilwaukee regulator
lighting: 2 X39 watts T5 ho (quit short on light but it's ok for me)
UV: coralife 9 watts (can't live without it...)
substate: florite covered with pea gravel
drifwoods and rocks: from a lake near my town

I do not consider this set as high tech compared to many others found on this forum. I quite like it this way because it is easier to maintain. Beside the green water episode, I had no major algea problems.

Fauna:

6 young angelfish (I have a passion for those fishes...)
2 orange molly
2 sae
2 flying fox

Planting:

Echinodorus bleheri
Echinodorus Oselot
echidorus tellenus 'Micro'
ludwigia repens
hygrophila polysperma
cyperus helferi (not sure of this one...)
bacopa carolina
java moss

view of the tank just after the gree water episode 2 months ago...
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/aquarium-pictures/displayimage.php?imageid=5707

front view
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/aquarium-pictures/displayimage.php?imageid=5708
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/aquarium-pictures/displayimage.php?imageid=5710

diagonal view
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/aquarium-pictures/displayimage.php?imageid=5709

left view
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/aquarium-pictures/displayimage.php?imageid=5711

right view
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/aquarium-pictures/displayimage.php?imageid=5712

In the future' I wood like to add a another (bigger) piece of drifwood on the left side and maybe replace the big rock in the center with more plants, probably blyxa japonica or cryptocorne blassii, if I can find some

Hope you like it.

 

[derekp]

I really like the rocksacape you have poking out under the plants. It gives it real character. How many angels do you have in there, you said 6 but I count 7. Did you lose one?

 

[gravy9]

Beautiful tank. I love the greens and the very natural look. Looks like you've incorporated a lot of your ideas from landscaping experience.

Have you given some thought to adding some reds to the tank? Also, think about adding some invertebrates to the tank as part of the cleaning crew.

Keep up your excellent work. BTW, I love the angels too. Are they Marble Angels?

regards,
Ravi

 

[lartist]

Thank you for the comments Gravy9! Yes, my landscape experience help me a lot. I'm use to play with foliages, textures and color contrast. But, compare to an exterior landscaping, the scale of an aquarium is quite smaller...

I would like to add cryptocornes, the reddish kind, in center of the tank to add contrast. The problem is that I cannot find plants... I can't believe how it is hard to find plants here in Québec!

Is my love for angelfish who brought me (accidently) to aquascaping... I have 2 others tanks who are devoted to breeding. I'm quite new at this I have a lot to learn. My 65 gallons contain 1 veil marble, 2superveil marble, 1 veil green leopard and 3 zebras.

Is this the famous house of Frank Loyd Wright on your avatar?

 

[lartist]

You're right derekp! there are 7... I miss one

 

[derekp]

Haha, I knew it. I passed the 3rd grade...barely. lol

 

[lartist]

I've skipped to many math classes in my college years prefering art classes ...

 

[gravy9]

As for buying the plants, you should be able to find some in our forum here. I also bought some plants at Mike's Wet Pets and am quite happy with it. There are a lot of places to buy online. Why don't you post for the plants wanted in the For Sale/Trade section for the plants you need? You may be able to find them for very reasonable prices from our fellow hobbyists.

You're right. It is the famous FLW's Falling Water in Pennsylvania. I'm a big fan of his architectural style.

regards,
Ravi

 

[lartist]

The problem of buying plants from business that we found here on this forum is the contry. I'm from Canada, and to buy live plants from others contries like United States, you need phytosanitary permit from agriculture Canada. Quite complicated... But I shold try the trade/for sale topic or I shold start a internet business of my own There must be enought frustated aquascapers in Canada to have good busnisess...:canada:

BTW, I'm also a big fan of Frank Loyd Wright and architecture in general.

 

[gravy9]

One's problem is another one's opportunity. You're on the right path of starting to start your own business.

BTW, I saw this eBay seller in Quebec:
http://shop.ebay.ca/merchant/matante21

You may want to check this site also as all their plants are cleared to ship to Canada. http://www.aquariumplants.com/
This is what I saw in their page: Canadian (live plant) shipments: Now that we have a distribution center in Canada, NO Phytosanitary Certificate is needed for your orders. (this saves Canadian customers $85 per plant order)

This site may be of help to you also: The Aquatic Plant Page of Canada

Another link I saw in a search (Alberta) : http://lethbridge.kijiji.ca/c-pets-other-Live-aquarium-plant-cuttings-W0QQAdIdZ84597106

Hope this helps.

Good Luck.

 

[lartist]

Than you for all those infos Ravi! I will take a good look at it!

 

[freydo]

lartist,

gravy9 had pointed me to this thread and asked if i had any other ideas of how to help a fellow canadian in acquiring plants. you can try Aquariumplants.com as they opened their canadian outlet here in winnipeg, however my experiences with them were not very good, so i've personally stopped dealing with them. but that's just my experience, others have had better dealings with them. so that is one option, and from their website, they do have a good selection of plants.

another option is a fairly new one. a person here in the city, who is part of the local aquarium society, started up a wholesale business in importing fish for local hobbiests. he also ships nationally and to the US.

he is just starting to offer plants, so his selection is limited, however the selection will eventually increase as i am very good friends with a person who is on the board of the same aquarium society, and he's asked me what types of plants that should be ordered. it benefits the club and us

anyways... here is a list of plants he has so far:

Anubias sp.
Anubias afzelli - LARGE
Anubias barteri var. barteri
Anubias barteri var. coffeefolia
Anubias congensis
Anubias frazeri
Anubias lanceolata

Cryptocoryne
Cryptocoryne sp.
Cryptocoryne lucens
Cryptocoryne lucens - LARGE
Cryptocoryne wendtii DeWitt (Red)

Echinodorus (Swords)
Echinodorus sp. - Amazon Sword
Echinodorus sp. - Variegated Sword
Echinodorus 'Rosé' - Rosé Sword
Echinodorus 'Red Rubin' - Red Rubin Sword
Echinodorus barthii - Ruby Red Melon Sword
Echinodorus martii - Ruffled Sword

Bunched Plants
Cabomba caroliniana - Fanwort
Rotala rotundifolia - Rotala

Miscellaneous

Bolbitis heudelotii - African Water Fern
Hydrocotyle leucocephalia - Pennywort
Lilaeopsis carolinensis - Giant Micro Sword
Lobelia cardinalis - Lobelia/Cardinal Plant
Marsilea quadrifolia - Four Leaf Clover
Trichomanes javanicum - Borneo Fern (note: not truly aquatic)
Zephyranthes candida - Dwarf Water Onion

it is very limited, but he ships anywhere in canada where westjet and air canada flies. of course his main interests are in fish, and he knows his fish, since he normally refers to them by their latin names. you can check out his website: http://www.cichlaholic.com/

hope this helps!

 

[Bert H]

Lartist, great looking tank! This is a great example to show folks that you don't need high lighting to grow plants. More is NOT always better. Do you add any fertilizers? What kind of maintenance schedule do you have?

 

[lartist]

The maintenance is quite simple. First, I put fertilisers 2 times a week right after a 10% water change. I use Seachem products. 5ml. of flourish, 8 ml. of iron, 30 ml. of Excel (even if I have Co2...) For potassium, I use 5 ml. of a permaganate de potassium solution. For phosporus, the tap water here have a certain amont and it's seem to be enough.

2 times a month, I have to trim de hygrophila polysperma and the ludwigia repens. They grows like weeds!! One a month, I clip the moss on the drifwood pieces. BTW, how do you do clean all the clippings of java moss? The first time I did that, I didn't care too much about thoses clippings. Result:All of de clippings starts to grow between my tellenus... What a mess to clean...