65 gallon rebuild

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dougall

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Mar 29, 2005
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They don't do well with their rhizome buried, the roots are fair game.

And no clue about the wood, unfortunately.
 

fishorama

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Yeah, wood is hard to tell what it might be. Most is safe but softwoods like pine never sink & need to be attached to slate etc. Yew is bad as are a couple others I don't remember (eucalyptus?). There was a site I saved about aquarium woods when I found a nice piece in a local reservoir but I can't find it years later. The log I found had some soft areas I removed. It smelled sweet like a fruitwood (mostly safe AFAIR). After I cut off all the rotten wood there wasn't a nice big log left, just 2 ~10-12 inch pieces. I was too nervous to use them...

I tried cork wood as a background once & some had lichens, a nice patina I thought. It spiked my ammonia level for quite a few months. I asked here & on other sites & it seems lichens can do that. I scubbed them off, ammonia went away...but eventually it was a failed experiment. The cork broke down enough to detach from the caulking & slate...sniff, it looked so cool!

Can you soak the wood in a big plastic tub & test, say, once a week or 2? But that only shows the "easy" parameters, nothing that may be fish toxins...A sacrificial test fish in the tub? I'm not sure I'm comfortable with that method. When in doubt, leave it out is kind of my motto...but it is a nice piece...
 

Lalo J.

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Thanks for your opinions guys, unfortunately I don't have a container big enough to put the wood in, but I have been boiling it in parts these days, it,'s releasing the same amount of tannins as my mangrove logs when I prepare them for the tank, like well you say fishorama, it's a quite beautiful piece and it will look quite good with plants around it. I'm going to keep Anubias, Cryptocorynes and so far I have Hygrophila polysperma rosanervig planned, I would like to try Nymphaea green Lotus, but will it meet the low requirements of the other plants? Do any of you have experience with this plant?
 

dougall

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Mar 29, 2005
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Is the Nymphaea a lotus or a lily? Sort of sounds like an ambiguous trade name to me.

No experience, especially not if it's a lotus. But if a lily, it should be fine as long as you are not trying to get a flower... Personally I would cut off any pad stalks and leave the submerged leaves alone and it should be fine.. if a lotus I have no clue.
 
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Lalo J.

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Is the Nymphaea a lotus or a lily? Sort of sounds like an ambiguous trade name to me.

No experience, especially not if it's a lotus. But if a lily, it should be fine as long as you are not trying to get a flower... Personally I would cut off any pad stalks and leave the submerged leaves alone and it should be fine.. if a lotus I have no clue.
Here you go:
https://www.floridaaquatic.com/nymphaea-lotus-green
What is your opinion?
 

dougall

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Mar 29, 2005
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FAN are normally pretty good with their info.. so I would pretty much follow along with it.

Don't think it needs terribly much root feeding if you don't want a flower.

And personally for an aquarium I wouldn't want the flower not the pads because of other plants. They grow well, but honestly not my thing in an aquarium.. but the submerged leaves are an interesting shape and color.

It will be fine, if it's what you want... Your tank and all.
 
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fishorama

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I've tried a couple nymphaea & I agree with dougall. If the leaves try to go to the surface cut them off. Some people get them to flower at the surface...meanwhile blocking almost all of the light. Pretty flowers! But tucked up close to lights...you might not see them very well...

I was given a tropical "green lily" & outdoors the leaves grow great!! But no flowers...I'll try better ferts this year & see. Way too vigorous for a tank I have or it's outside big pot...It won't move indoors...

I've had better luck with "red" & "tiger" lilies (not the same genus I think) in tanks, but still removing any leaves going to the surface to keep them pretty & under control.
 
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Lalo J.

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Thanks a lot guys, well I'm interested in that particular plant, getting it's another story here, I just got a couple of Anubias and Hygrophilas, I'm close to installing. Also, I'm going to fertilize with Seachem Flourish and Seachem Potassium, I want to have Cryptocorynes, mine have had a very limited growth, talking to local aquarists who keep planted tanks told me that this combination is good, and it's possible that it's what is lacking to my plants.
 

Lalo J.

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On a separate note, my fish are doing quite well, but I'm a little concerned that they have stopped eating the tetra flakes, the reason is that they prefer seafood porridge, my female Colisa chuna is incredibly fat, she eats everything but the other fish prefer the porridge, it's magnificent because it's a very complete food, but the little that is wasted causes problems on the quality of the water, I have this bottle of flakes and it is in the middle, and I have it since August of the year past:
P1030595~2.JPG
 

dougall

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Mar 29, 2005
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My experience with crypts is that they are generally heavy root feeders, not caring too much for nutrition in the water column, generally speaking they prefer acidic or tannic waters, but try to look up the specific species if you can.

As for fertilizers, as always, what will work best for you will depend a lot on your water, fish load, source water and water change frequency. Crypts are heavy root feeders, so will depend on what is in your substrate or anything done there to supplement.

For specific species, I would suggest Kasselman's book, or maybe the online crypt pages at https://crypts.home.xs4all.nl/Cryptocoryne/index.html


Wish I could help you with getting plants down there...but pretty sure there's a group or two (at least) of scapers that might be able to help you out.
 
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