Posting pics of my attempt at a planted tank

[valerie]

Here are some pics of my 15g. THis tank has gone through many changes and right now its a planted tank. Very low tech. 2 watt/gal I have tried DIY co2 but found it anoying to fiddle with each week so now the tank is left alone.I add flourish Iron, FLourish and floushish excel (but only once/week so i dont' know if they are doing anythign)

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b4df38b3127cce868a8fdc8cd30000001610
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b4df38b3127cce868a8fe88ce70000001610

And here is a pic I took of my Amano shrimp
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b3ce26b3127cce8fe57d55b9f90000002610

Any comments?

[Tempest]

Really looks nice... :) What fish do you have in it?

[kveeti]

Really nice combination of redish and green plants! That's a great closeup of the shrimp.

[valerie]

1 ram
6 cardinals
1 clown pleco,
6 amano shrimp,
3 cherry shrimp(but haven't seen them since adding them)
and 2 baby Bristlenose plecos growing out a bit

[Captain Hook]

I think it's really nice. Looks very natural to me and the pots make good caves.

[yhbae]

Interesting, so it grows ok without any additional CO2? What plants do you have in that tank?

[valerie]

It grows pretty good without any Co2(besides adding one dose of excel each week). I am contantly trimming the java ferna nd crpts due to BBA and they always seem full afterwards. I have even completely removed the crypts and jsut replanted the babies and it was back to bushy looking in no time.

I only have lowlight plants in there, I have tried stem plants in the past but hated the weekly maintance of clipping them and replanting.So now in all my tnaks i jsut stick these:

-Java fern(on the left attached to a rock).
-Crypt. wendtii "tropica" in the middle
-some sort of anubia on the driftwood
-Crypt.undulata on both the right infront of the drift wood and left sides.
-some sort of vals in teh back,behind the dirftwood

[Godslayer]

I like your huge clump of crypts. As mentioned the contrast of the java ferns and crypts is strong and looks great. Keep up the good work.

[valerie]

Crypts and java ferns are my favorite plants. I have them in all my tanks.

[125gJoe]

Looks great! I also like the buried pots. The shrimp pic was excellent, wish I could get some of those shrimp...

[yhbae]

No kidding - this is a good looking planted tank considering you are not adding CO2... Hmmm, may be I don't have to do it either for my near-future planted tank... :D

[Godslayer]

I have always been a fan of huge clumps of crypts. It's a good thing they pretty much grow that way without any help too. A huge clump of red or brown crypt wendtii surrounded by a low growing bright green ground cover.... A+.

[valerie]

125gJoe- The pots aren't buried,they are cut in half. I find them to make the best caves. I tried just burying them but the didn't like the look,it looks much better when they are cut.

[djlen]

NEVER mess with success. That is a beautiful, well developed tank and quite remarkable for one not CO2 injected. Don't change a thing!!
I don't know how you'd feel about it, but an SAE would take care of your BBA, but they get to be close to 4"(but very peaceful) and don't know how one would 'fit' in a 15.

Nice job.

Len

[TomFromStLouis]

I like this tank very much too. I usually don't care for the clay pot thing, but with plecos and your design, somehow it seems just right.

Are you sure you need to dose that much ferts? Maybe that is why you are getting BBA, but with low light and no CO2 I kinda doubt the plants are that hungry, leaving something for algae to use. Just my guess though...

[fishfrenze]

I LOVE the giant crypts! :) Crypts are one of my favorites too. I was leary about adding them b/c of the dreaded "crypt melt", but I've never had a problem with them. No matter which species I add, they are always the first to establish and take off! Except my Royal Pleco has taken to eating my newest Crypt lucens (sp?)...he has eaten all the leaves except the newest one or two. He doesn't eat any of the other plants though...not even the crypt wendtii (knock on wood). Strange :rolleyes:

great tank!

Melanie

[NatakuTseng]

Awesome looking tank, keep up the good work!

[valerie]

Thanks so much for all the compliments:o

I Keep the BBA problem under control but a bit of pruning and if it starts growing too much on the driftwood and anubia and java ferns i jsut take them out and give thema quick bleach bath.Works like a charm :)

So you think me adding 1 dose of flourish Iron, 1 dose of flourish, and 1 dose of flourish excel is too much? on the bottle it says i should be adding 1 dose of excel everyday, and more of the iron and flourish then i am using right now. I dont' think it is causing the BBA as i had it before i started with the ferts. I think it came from me transfering some plants from my 58g to this tank which had some algae on them.

[125gJoe]

Originally posted by valerie
125gJoe- The pots aren't buried,they are cut in half. .... Oh WOW! What an illusion!! It really looks nice...! Looking again, I can tell the pot would be too big to fit like that.

Excellent idea!! :D ;)

[NJ Devils Fan]

Looking great val. Thats not an attempt at a planted tank, thats a success at a planted tank.

[djlen]

BBA is spore borne and cleanliness/pruning is the cure, coupled with well growing plants. And the easiest way is to clean up the old stuff and throw in an SAE.
IME, dosing Fe in small amounts every day is the way to go. I used to dose 14mls after water change, then 7mls., twice a week, but noticed a HUGE difference especially in my Crypts since I started dosing 2mls. every day. Keep in mind that those dosages were for MY tanks and you have to experiment to see wha't optimum for yours. My point was, daily for me is better.
As far as what you are dosing......I will revert to my first post......if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Valerie, it ain't broke!

Len

[Toro Driver]

That is were I seem to find the best success. If I dose my liquids daily, the plants thrive. I am just finishing a three day black out to finish off the algae. I lost my SAE's, they kept nibbling my Angles fins.

[valerie]

I will try to dose daily but i have said that in the past and can't remember :p

The algae is never really a problem unless i leave it(not prune out the infected leaves) for too long.Other wise its not too bad. IN my 58g it got really bad so i took out all teh plants and replaced them with new ones and tons of driftwood. I"ll try to take pics of it but since thw driftwood is new the water is very dark and doesn't take pics well. PLus the plants are still small and not fully grown in.