My shot at a planted tank

B

beatle

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Dec 7, 2005
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Alexandria, VA
www.mdbbox.com
I have a 37 that I've been experimenting with aquascaping. I haven't tried anything difficult yet, but my fish seem to like it. I'd like to get some moss for the wood and some kind of ground cover, but they may be beyond me at this point. :)

For fish, I have:
1 angel
4 blue gouramis
4 spotted cories
2 green cories
2 otocinclus
1 CAE (refugee from a 3g, as Petsmart gave this to my girlfriend when she asked for an oto)

Light is courtesy of a 55w AH Supply bright kit with a 5000K Philips bulb, filtered by an AC70, heated by a Visi-Therm Stealth 200w.

6-19-06-newstuff.jpg
 
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It looks very nice...i hope to transition to plants eventually...right now i'm trying only 1 java fern...but my lighting sucks so that's why I can't get more right now...by the way...the quality of the pic is great...are you using a SLR?
 
I like your initial layout alot. Very clean and a nice job of contrasting colors between the layers of plants. It should look great once everything reaches full growth.
 
How old is this tank? I believe the lighting you have is too weak for a lot of the plants. You have 55W over a 37G.That is slightly under 1.5 WPG. That is a low light setup. Ideal would probably be 2.5 WPG or more. You probably want to look into CO2 also.

As far as the aquascaping goes... GORGEOUS! Freak'in Beautiful!
 
No, I didn't use an SLR. It's from my Canon S2 IS, F2.7, 1/6s. Many thanks go to PhishPhorPhun on cichlid-forum.com for the advice on photography!

The substrate is Soilmaster Select charcoal color. I found out about it on the planted tank forums. I paid $15 or so for a 50lb bag at Lesco. Since it's so lightweight I've filled my 37g, 5g and 2x 3g tanks with it. I still think I could do a 55 with a 2-3" layer with the leftovers.

I'm not a total believer in the wpg rule. I've read very good things about the AH Supply reflectors and how they make the most of every watt. In comparison, I have an Odyssea 2x65w PC fixture over my 20g SW setup and the output is actually relatively close to my 55w AH Supply retrofit. The only disappointing growth I've seen is the sword in the back left corner and the anubias on my driftwood. I had an algae problem recently which I've fixed by cutting my photoperiod to 7 hours. I was using 17 hours before! I just fertilized the substrate this weekend with some fert sticks. Hopefully they give my swords a boost.

The CAE hasn't caused any problems so far. I'd say he's 2 1/2 - 3 inches long now. Occasionally I'll see him chase a gourami, but my angel doesn't take any crap from anything in the tank. The CAE never bothers the cories. I'll pull him out if/when he becomes a problem and/or I move this setup to a 55g

My lack of CO2 has been because I often travel for work and I can't always be home to change a tank. I don't have the funds needed for a pressurized system. Plants seem to be doing well with just Flourish and Excel.

The tank itself is a little over a month and a half old (see picture of the original setup here. See the rotala on the right? I've since moved it to the left. The rotala on the right in the latest picture was bought about a week and a half ago.
 
You can get away with a longer photo period without getting the algae too excited if you break it midpoint.

I'd been getting quite a big of green algae in my tank with 12 hrs of light. When I cut it back to 10, then 8 hrs my plant growth stalled out. Read a couple articles on breaking up the photo-period, reset my lights to 5 on, 2 off, 6 on and saw plant growth start back up strongly and all but the red algae (booooo hissss!) stayed at levels where my otos can keep it pretty much invisible. In fact, I've had to start feeding the little beasts daily cause they aren't finding enough to eat.

Red algae's another story and I hope you don't have it! That I'm combating with more water changes, more gravel cleanings, less fish food, and may well try a phosphate remover in the filter cartridge.
 
I thought it was explained to you that breaking the lighting period doesn't offer any kind of benefit. I forget his name but some guy who wrote a book took the time to reply in that regard.
 
Hey are you sure that isn't Blue-green Algae/slime algae? Looks kind of like it ...
 
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