55G planted South American themed planted tank journal

fishycat said:
Nice load of plants! That Moneywort is not, looks like Rotala Indica... Moneywort/bacopa monnieri is more like a single stem with leaves growing across from each other versus spiral. And it stays a bright green, no red.
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So I did a little research through the thread. That stuff was DEFINITELY there before the package came from Jerzguy. So maybe Fishycat is right here, and it's Rotala Indica? If so I don't understand. The stuff in my 20 gallon still doesn't look like that stuff. But it (the stuff still in my 20 gallon) also doesn't really look like it looked when I bought it. So I can't really figure out what happened. The plant fairy must've visited me in the middle of the night at some point.

And that same fairy maybe brought the 14 different kinds of snails I have no (I thought I just had MTS, but I've also got pond snails, and some kind of ramshorn, I think, maybe red ramshorn, and possibly some other kinds.)
 
cobfreak said:
So I think it's Rotala rotundifolia, from jerzguy. If so it's the same stuff that's on the left side of the tank. And that's what it looks like. I might be able to just go through this thread and see if those two things were planted at the same time.
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I think you may be right on it being rotala rotundifolia. Well when it starts growing in for ya, we can trade stems for something in my tank if you would like. That plant looks to be an amazing background plant when grown in.
 
JAY973 said:
It looks good but I'm not sold on the driftwood. Maybe as the moss grows over it, it will look more natural it seems to stick out right now.
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It's more far forward than maybe it should be, and it definitely stands out in part due to the coloration. I think that'll darken over time but I guess we'll see. I agree with you, I'm not sold either. However, I can only find one Amano shrimp this morning, and he seems to be of a different opinion:
amanoshrimp.jpg


I wish I had a way of knowing if my fish are eating all the shrimp or not. I don't see any in the floating water sprite, and if they're hiding they're doing a really good job of it. Which would seem odd considering that this one here has been just hanging out on top of that piece of wood all morning, not really hidden at all.

My new 3 bottle CO2 with glass diffuser is making bubbles now. It's hard to tell how much diffusion is going on, it really looks like the way an airstone works. I plan on at least moving the diffuser so it's below the spray bar, as right now a lot of bubbles are making it to the surface:
newCO2.jpg
 
I would bet your amano shrimp are fine. I never see mine. If they do die, they turn pink and you will have no doubt, as far as your fish eating them, dont think you have any fish that would eat them? I have gbr's in my tank and they try and eat my red cherry shrimp all the time....they never win and I still have all my rcs lol
 
If it is small enough to fit in their mouth then I wouldn't rule out they could become food. Black skirt tetra's have surprisingly big mouths and I'd see RCS whiskers hanging out of their mouths on occasion. That said Amanos are excellent at hiding I rarely see mine at all if they are a descent size you should be good they are most sensitive or at risk when molting.

Introducing shrimp to a tank.
The excitement when putting them in may have stirred the tank up a bit thinking they were food. I usually but the shrimp in a net maneuver the net in the tank to the plants where I'm letting them go. The fish scatter at the net knowing it's not food and go into the every fish for themselves bit leaving the shrimp to less risky exit....LOL

It didn't do my RCS any good once the Angels got big enough they wiped out all RCS and the chasing got all the fish in a scurry. An expensive observation of instincts in my community tank I managed to save a few.
 
Update time

Time for an update. I have an addiction to plant buying now, and I'm getting to have too many. Following this post will be a few images.

First things, I started doing an EI dry dosing routine. I sort of wanted to start at about half the standard EI dose, but the trouble with that is I don't have right right measuring stuff. I think I will modify this downward as time goes on, but for now I've started every other day doing this:

1/2 tsp KNO3 (potassium nitrate)
1/8 tsp KH2PO4 (mono potassium phosphate)
1/8 tsp K2SO4 (potassium sulfate)
1/8 tsp CSM+B (traces)

Admittedly I know only enough about thiss EI thing to be dangerous. I haven't taken the time to really study things. I know at this level I should change the water around 50 percent weekly, and I'll start that way but I really want to cut that down.

Today my bleeding heart tetras have been acting nuts. There's a thread about that here. At least two of the fish have at least one cloudy eye. That seems to be causing some of them to swim like crazyfish through the tank, which scares all of the other bleeding hearts.

At last check the biggest, which has a cloudy eye, was missing. The other 7 were hovering around the middle of the tank but that one was nowhere to be seen. I'm sure he's somewhere behind or beneath something, but I sure couldn't find him.

My CO2 has my pH down to possibly 6.8, though I don't trust that reading and it my have been a little higher. That's down from somewhere above 8.

The latest plants I received were two kinds of crypts: Crypt. moehlmannii and Crypt. balensae. They're big plants, and I got myself too many.
I re-arranged the right side of the tank a little more, and placed two of the moehlmannii and one of the balansae in the back and on the right side. I also cleared a little room for some red plants I've (hopefully) got coming.

I am really not liking the big tree piece of driftwood. I think I will remove it soon. I think I need some kind of wood in that area, but that piece is just too massive and up front. The depth of the tank make it difficult to move it back much further.

fulltank20100818.jpg rightside20100818.jpg apongeton20100818.jpg
 
wet sleeves

I couldn't stand the tree thing anymore, the tank was just too busy. I spent a while trimming, planting a few small crypts that I got the other day, and replanting pieces of the stargrass. I am not sure if I'll eventually settle down with this thing or if I'll keep messing with it.

The growth on stuff is really pretty nice to see; that apongeton crispus is giving me a new full leaf about every 3 days I think, the jungle vals are trying to go everywhere, and the corkscrew vals aren't doing too bad either. I think I'm getting some growth out of the microsword, but that stuff is still very hard to keep rooted. Anytime I get in there I find some floating at the top around the expanding hunk of water sprite, and I replant it, but by the time I get the hood back on I notice another big piece floating. The thing I'm having the most trouble with is the Alternanthera reineckii, which seems to be sort of in stasis, but due to that the leaves are attracting some algae. And the swords weren't doing well; one of them I moved yesterday, the other is still there. It grows new leaves but none of them look terribly healthy. Maybe more root ferts?

The fish seem to be doing better today, all of the bleeding hearts are back out in the open, though they're still jumpy. I've also notice some new type of invert that I can't really figure out. It basically looks like very slow moving bird crap. It's a whitish mound with a black spot in the middle, and it moves along the glass, and sometimes on the leaves. There are more than one of whatever it is in there. Some type of snail in its infancy? The first time I saw one on a leaf I thought it was a fungus or something. It's too small for me to really get any pictures of.

So my current thought with the scape is that I'm trying to grow the hair grass as a mid-ground bush, stretching from where I originally planted it on the middle left side, possibly eventually all the way to the right side. My cutting and replanting went pretty well, we'll see how the stuff handles it. It's hard for me to get good pictures of right now, probably something I could figure out if I mess with the settings on my camera a little; it's just so bright in the images that it lacks definition. It seems pretty healthy, anyway, so that's a good thing.

Here are a few images. I'd welcome any additional criticism about the scape/lack of scape, and anything else that jumps out at ya, for that matter. :)

fulltank20100819_sm.jpg rightside20100819.jpg center20100819.jpg
 
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