55G planted South American themed planted tank journal

[cobfreak]

Here are a few pictures to show the progress. I've moved some plants around starting to make room for the big order i'll have coming in sometime or other. Also this shows the current state of the algae, which is definitely going away to some extent.

There are closeups here that show plants that used to have a ton of algae but are now showing much less.


full tank, I changed a setting on the camera so the external stuff looks orange, but I think the inside of the tank is closer to what it actually looks like this way:

some closeups:

 

[Chrisinator]

Those bleeding hearts are awesome!

 

[cobfreak]

Those bleeding hearts are awesome!

thank you, I agree. Now that there are 8 they actually school a good bit, especially when I'm not too near the tank. I'll see the whole group swimming back and forth across the tank sometimes. Then again other times, like right now, they'll all stake out completely different spots, spread all over. Think I'll get at least 2 more before I'm done.

 

[cobfreak]

no big changes, but big update nonetheless

After reading straight through (again) almost all of my favorite planted tank journal on here (75 gallon Planted Office Tank Journal), I've decided I'm not keeping enough information in this journal. That's not to say I'm going to match (or try to match) the amount of useful links and detailed information GeekPryde has going; just that I'm going to start including some more information here. For now, until I get bored/forget why I'm doing that/get interested in something else.

So this post will include a lot of pictures. One of the things I noticed in reading through his journal is that he tends to like to share the pretty pictures. I would LOVE to share the pretty pictures, too, but there are a few problems with that. For one, my tank is a bit of a mess, and for another, my camera is not ideal for this kinda thing (just a Canon point and shoot deal,) and for another nother, I'm not really good at taking pretty pictures. On the other hand, I know that seeing all of the pretty pictures everyone else takes DOES inspire me to pursue perfection in my tank, it also occasionally has the opposite effect of making me want to just stop doing the planted tank thing at all. My tank always seems to have a problem that I don't see in those pretty pictures everyone else posts. So here I'm going to show the pictures of what I've got going on, as of today.

But first, here's a list of what I've got on order from sweetaquatics.com:

1 x Java Fern (Microsorium Pteropus)
1 x Lilaeopsis Mauritiana POT
4 x Sagittaria Subulata (Dwarf)
1 x Anubias Barteri Var. Coffeefolia Pot
1 x Alternanthera Reineckii Var. Roseafolia
1 x Java Fern Narrow Leaf
2 x Cryptocoryne Retrospiralis
2 x Cryptocoryne Spiralis
1 x Isoetes Lacustris (Octopus Plant) LG
2 x Stargrass (Heteranthera Zosterfolia)
3 x Cabomba Pulcherrima (Cabomba, Purple)

I've drawn out a rough plan for where these things are going to go. I don't have it in front of me; I don't think the Octopus Plant (which I got completely on a whim, moreso even than the other stuff, as they were having a sale,) is going to go into this tank at all. I'll post a scan of the map, for what it's worth, if I get a chance. I don't know when these things are going to ship yet. I ordered them last Saturday, thinking (stupidly) that the 2-3 day shipping method I selected would mean they'd arrive on Tuesday or Wednesday. Hadn't really considered that there'd be a large delay in packing before shipping. Really no big deal; I requested information the other day and was told they'd ship either Saturday or early this coming week. Doesn't look like they shipped Saturday, so hopefully soon.

Now on to the pictures. I've not cleaned the tank today. I usually brush the algae off of the glass with my hands as it comes off easily, and I also kind of wipe the leaves of the plants. Haven't done that for at least a day, maybe two. This stuff keeps coming back. It's not as bad as it was maybe a week ago, but it still sucks. I still think it's diatoms and at least in part related to silicates from my resealing. But there are surely countless other factors.

My ground cover type plants are not doing well. The low baby tears are starting to melt, while the big clump of them is still pretty green at the top. I hadn't really intended to do ground cover with these anyway, just seeing how well I can work with them. So far, not great. The dwarf sag is not terrible, but it's not really growing yet either, as far as I can tell. The blyxa is often covered with lots of the brown algae stuff.

Also I've got hair algae in a few places. There's a shot of that in here.

full tank shot yesterday:

full tank shot today (August 1, 2010):

tank depth today:

plants:

fish:

algae on the jungle vals:

hair algae:

corkscrew vals continuing to have trouble:

ground cover baby tears, not long for this world:

detail of the glass (this stuff wipes off easily but comes back quickly) :

A couple of pieces of info in case it answers any questions anyone might have:
I'm still running my DIY CO2 from a single 2 liter soda bottle. I think I need to start using multiple bottles sooner rather than later, see if that makes a difference. I also am keeping this running at night but plan to start running a regular air pump/air stone after the lights go out soon.

I'm currently running all four of my bulbs during the entire photo period. They're T8 32 watt daylights. The photoperiod runs from around 8am to 8pm, with a short black out of maybe an hour and a half every day. I'm thinking maybe I should cut this back to total just 8 hours a day for while. Any thoughts on that? I am not sure how to balance trying to kill off the algae while not killing off the plants, especially the short stuff that's already not doing that well.

I'm not doing any kind of fertilization dosing, and I haven't put anything in the soil. Should I look into the EI stuff (I know nothing about that right now, really)? Should I get some kind of root tab stuff?

Thanks for reading.

 

[dundadundun]

i believe it's the first 2 posts in the sticky at the top of this section you'll want to look at. if not, it's the second and third. one sums up ei dosing for dummies and the other is a root tab recipe. you could surely use them if you're not dosing yet... and planning/doing co2.

 

[cobfreak]

one sums up ei dosing for dummies and the other is a root tab recipe.

Hey, who you callin' a dummy???!

Thanks I'll read those things. I already started looking at the root tab recipe; not sure if I'll start with that or just order some root tabs. The EI thing though I definitely need to read because I have no idea.

 

[dundadundun]

if you can get some root tabs recommended that would be good... like a hobbyist or online source that makes them. i find what's readily available in the stores is far from as effective as the recipe in the sticky. also... tom barr has brought up osmocote icicles lately. apparently it's old school style but works great. you might want to search at least here and apc for osmocote or osmocoat (people spell it wrong all the time).

 

[cobfreak]

I've actually read about those osmocote ice cube things. My main problem with a lot of stuff is that I have trouble finding ingredients locally. So I am perfectly willing to do DIY stuff if it's not a huge hassle to get the materials, but sometimes I'd just as soon spend the extra money for something if I can get it easily. So your point about making sure any that buy are at least as effective as the DIY things is a good one, and would make the extra effort worth it. Assuming I have time, of course.

So basically I looked for Osmocote at Lowe's once, but couldn't find it there, and don't know of any other local sources. Maybe I'll revisit that. Thanks.

 

[JAY973]

Do you have a drop checker of some sort or something to measure Co2 levels? If you are not dosing ferts or have required Co2 levels a long photo period is doing less for the plants and more the algae. I've never had any luck with commercial plant root tabs from fish stores.

I recently made another attempt at using the Seachem root tabs since I had them laying around. On my 45 gallon long but it didn't seem to have much of an affect that I can tell. I've been experiementing with a low tech tank because I just couldn't keep what was considered easy grow plants for the life of me. I can't speak to ferts on this tank because I rarely do any maintenance on this tank at all just top it off. The trade off is that the growth is really, really slow and I've and several species of plants just die off which is expected. The ones that do well just haven't died. =)

fixture is 1x54 T5 Glo, No Co2, no ferts, occasional maintenace, 3 box filters it's not going to win any awards but it's a planted tank for Corys and Plecos no algae to note

Point was I think why it works is there is some balance there I have no way of measuring to explain it, but the right plants, fish stock including the algae controlling ones can work, don't get discouraged.

What do you have for algae control? Pleco's, Ottos, SAE, Shirmp, etc...,

I think the plant on the back left would benefit from separating it to a few groupings of stems.

Sorry for the lengthy reply.

 

[cobfreak]

Do you have a drop checker of some sort or something to measure Co2 levels? If you are not dosing ferts or have required Co2 levels a long photo period is doing less for the plants and more the algae. I've never had any luck with commercial plant root tabs from fish stores.

I recently made another attempt at using the Seachem root tabs since I had them laying around. On my 45 gallon long but it didn't seem to have much of an affect that I can tell. I've been experiementing with a low tech tank because I just couldn't keep what was considered easy grow plants for the life of me. I can't speak to ferts on this tank because I rarely do any maintenance on this tank at all just top it off. The trade off is that the growth is really, really slow and I've and several species of plants just die off which is expected. The ones that do well just haven't died. =)

fixture is 1x54 T5 Glo, No Co2, no ferts, occasional maintenace, 3 box filters it's not going to win any awards but it's a planted tank for Corys and Plecos no algae to note

Point was I think why it works is there is some balance there I have no way of measuring to explain it, but the right plants, fish stock including the algae controlling ones can work, don't get discouraged.

What do you have for algae control? Pleco's, Ottos, SAE, Shirmp, etc...,

I think the plant on the back left would benefit from separating it to a few groupings of stems.

Sorry for the lengthy reply.

I love your low light tank! That's very nice and looks great. What's the substrate?

I have a 20 long that works the same way. Just gravel substrate, no root tabs, no CO2, some goofy light configuration. I've got some liquid fertilizer stuff I use once a week if I think about it that I bought at a pet store. The irony is I was planning on tearing it down when I set up this 55, but since then I've been enjoying it more and more. It's got a nice amazon sword (the mother plant for the two in the 55,) and other stuff like stem plants, overflow from recent orders, etc. There's definitely a balance thing that happens, at least in that case. There's algae but nothing very bad anymore.

So anyway you bring up a good point about the "algae control" crew. I've got nothing like that. I am still learning, and still trying to figure out who to listen to on that. There are a lot of people who tend to sort of scoff at that idea, and say that if there's an algae problem you need to solve it at the source, not just have something eating it for you. And there are very valid points made by that camp. Then there are other sources that say that there is no tank that doesn't get algae, and having something in there that'll eat it just makes sense; or at least doesn't hurt anything. I am leaning toward getting SOMETHING to eat the algae. My cories mess around on the algae coated things all the time, and I can't tell if they're getting any of it or not; haven't heard of them as an algae eating species. Then I've also added 2 or 3 very small malaysion trumpet snails, which hopefully will help at some point. I've got a bunch of those in the 20 Long, all descended from just a single MTS that came on the root of a plant I put in there one time. I will continue to add those randomly and eventually I'm sure I'll have quite a population.

Beyond that, however, I'm not sure what to get. GeekPryde's thread has me thinking about amano shrimp - I want some kind of shrimp in there anyway. I haven't looked into whether or not a specific algae eating shrimp would fit the south american theme or not.

The bunch of plants in the back left is a rotala species. I forget which. I think it needs trimmed and separated, too, but the thing is I really like how it looks all bunched like that. Of course I think a lot of it will die off if I leave it that way. So there is definitely work to be done in that area, and I thank you for mentioning it.

And no problem about the length of your post, I really appreciate any contributions. Thanks!