Some ideas needed for this tank..

[Emg]

This is my 29 tank. It has 2 neon dwarf gourami, a pair of blue rams and 3 otocinclus. I just did a major cleaning in this tank, took everything out but fish and gravel and cleaned it up good...wiped down the sides, cleaned up and pruned the plants.....vacumned the gravel good and did a 20% water change. (I usually do just 10% a couple of times a week)

I regraded the gravel so that it's deeper in back and towards the left side...which looks much better...and I rearranged the plants. That tall plant in the back left corner is silk, the rest are live, except for those on the castles.

The right back side is a bit sparse plantwise as there isn't much room around the back of that "rockthing" to put a plant or two...any ideas what I could do about that...(besides remove that thing...lol...it cost me about 20 bucks!) ?

More tank info...

Flourite substrate underneath your average aquarium type gravel

for lighting I have 2 flourescents...one of them is a 20W "sunglow" for planted tanks..the other is a basic 17W that came with the lightstrip. I plan on getting a 20W "LifeGlow" bulb to replace that with...any other suggestions? I realize that's not the 2 watts per gallon that's really required for lowlight plants, but best I can do for now. The plants I have in there now are doing ok, there is even some new growth on the wisteria and moneywort, but some of the amazon sword's leaves are looking a bit pale and thin...probably need some fertilizing.

I have a penguin bio-wheel 170 on that tank, though I may just pick up a 330 and use that 170 on a 20L I am in process of setting up. Can never have enough filtration as far as I'm concerned.

I add water conditioner/stress coat and 1/2 teasp of aquarium salt per gallon and that's it. My parameters are....PH-8.0 Nitrite-0 Ammonia-0 Nitrate-0-5.0 and I keep the temps up to 80F.

For plants I have micro sword, moneywort, wisteria, anubias, some water sprite floating around on top and amazon swords. I'm hoping the micro sword spreads out a bit, but with my pitifully inadequate lighting, I bet it could take years....lol.

Anyway, just looking for some ideas and suggestions for this tank is all....Thanks for sharing any you may have !

 

[aknif]

Wow! I think that's a perfectly beautiful tank just as it is! I'm a fan of non-symetrical though... I like the big plant on one side and castle/rock on the other. Looks great to me!

Also, just so you know EMG, the UPS man delivered my MR. LIMPET movie a couple days ago! TEE HEE HEEEEE!

:dance

 

[Emg]

AHHHAAAAAHHHAAA !!! :laugh:

So you DID go and buy that ! Good for you Aknif !! Enjoy that movie, over and over again and again ! I'll have to order one for myself...teehee...I love that movie!

Thanks for the compliments on the tank. I do like it, just feel like I need to do something with the bare spot towards the right...I don't know...maybe a tall redish silk plant with small type leaves, since putting a live plant back there would be pretty hard to do and get at for pruning and such.. I actually have a blue dragon that I had sitting on the ledge on the castle to the right, looked real cool, but I dropped it and it lost a hand so I took it out to try and fix it.

I don't like having the heater where it is either...too obvious, but I can't think of anywhere else to put it. I'm afraid if I set it up in the back right corner there isn't enough water circulation with the castle ornament there to move the heat around the tank very well...I don't know, maybe it would be O.K..

 

[cdawson]

Your swords will not need fertilizing, they need CO2. Do not fertilize your tank unless you're using high lighting and lots of CO2. Otherwise just dose with your regular dosing of plant nutrients, iron, potassium, etc. Your ph is also too high, you have to find some way of bringing it down. Try peat filtering. You just use run of the mill peat you find at your garden shop with no additives in it and you boil it, put it into a filter bag and stick that into your filter. If your water is like that out of the tap I would also think about investing in an RO unit. Otherwise you're never going to have a successful planted tank. IME it all comes down to substrate and quality of lighting not the amount. I've got 2 watts per gallon in most of my tanks and they all grow like wildfire. In smaller tanks the watts per gallon rule doesn't really apply all that much either because the light doesn't have to penetrate that much water. Bottom line you want something with a good reflector on it and the right spectrum of light. Most plants grow in shaded areas anyways in the wild too. You might also want to switch to plants that will actually work in your tank. Micro sword, moneywort, anubias, and amazon swords will not work for you as they all need pretty good lighting and lots of CO2. None will probably grow very much at all in your tank. The only plants you have that will work are the wysteria and the water sprite. You want plants with low light requirements that don't need a hell of alot of attention to detail. Those are all pretty moderately difficult plants.

I suggest research the appropriate plants on this website

http://www.plantgeek.net/

PS don't worry about the heater, once you get your plants growing move it to the back and the plants will do the rest.

 

[Emg]

Thank you CD !

I have read some about CO2 injecting and decided that wasn't something I wanted to do at this time...another contraption to moniter and keep an eye on...lol...

The info I had read about the plants I chose said they were all easy and low light plants...hmm....actually, they aren't doing too awfully bad, except for the amazon swords...they just look a little anemic...and of course the moneywort is quite sparse....I'll check out that site you listed and try to find something a bit more appropriate for the conditions in this tank.

I had considered the PH range as far as my fish were concerned...especially the rams since they like it quite a bit lower...but the silly fish keep breeding on me and thier colors are fantastic....so I guess they aren't too unhappy with it. But I suppose the plants may not be pleased. I could try the peat in the filter...but doesn't that cause all sorts of other problems when you start messing around with PH ? My fish are pretty healthy and happy now, I'd hate to do something to blow that...

 

[aknif]

Yea, my tap water comes out at 8.0 - 8.2 as well. I was concerned about it when I first found out it was that high, but everyone here assured me that my fish would acclimate and they have. I've heard that it's much worse to try to haggle with your ph and risk it rollercoastering rather than just let it be and get fish that will acclimate to it.

Do you prefer live plants? I have all fake plants... because I have a black aquatic thumb.... :thud: Maybe a nice big silk plant on the other side to help hide your heater and balance out the tank more, if that's what you like...

BTW: The Incredible Mr. Limpet, on Amazon.com for about $12.... Had to have it.

 

[cdawson]

Your fish will not "acclimate" if they're softwater fish. They may last awhile, but overall their health and lifespan will be shortened in the long run. Rams are pretty undemanding these days as for the most part they're all aquarium strains and have adapted to living in varying water conditions, but overall they will live longer, produce more fry and show alot more colour if you deal with the ph problem. Even though they've adapted to varying ph levels and hardness levels they will not live as long or stand up to disease as well in that high of a ph.
What is your hardness? That is more important overall than your ph.

A CO2 setup is quite the opposite, once you've set it up you won't have to re-fill the tank for an entire year!! Second you don't want any of those crappy hagen CO2 setups, you want the real thing. The others will run out in two weeks and stop having any real effects to the tank.

 

[suby7272]

I am far too ignorant and naive in this subject - so kindly correct me if I am wrong.
Emg, I feel your tank would look much better without the castle (thankfully not with a blue dragon upon it any more ). I would love to set my tank as real as it would be in the real - that was the two pence/cents from me - hope that made sense at all

 

[cdawson]

I am far too ignorant and naive in this subject - so kindly correct me if I am wrong.
Emg, I feel your tank would look much better without the castle (thankfully not with a blue dragon upon it any more ). I would love to set my tank as real as it would be in the real - that was the two pence/cents from me - hope that made sense at all

No you're right, people are so dependant on decorations within their households they feel the need to use them in their fish tanks as well. Except that the animals they keep are less secure and happy with their un-natural environment. Studies like this are proven time after time with zoos and aquariums. Animals are less healthy and happy in un-natural evironments.

Natural tanks looks ALOT nicer than a tank with a fake castle, etc as well. Every person I've convinced to switch to natural has whole-heartedly agreed.

 

[Emg]

LOL Suby and Dawson...my feelings exactly on the castle thing. The more I get into this hobby the more I prefer the realistic setup as opposed to the "little trinkets in water" approach. However, I bought the thing and set it ups so I'll keep it for now. Besides, I am working on setting up a 20L and I'll be sure to feed my desire for the "real world" scenerio with that.....driftwood and lots of live plants. I'll have 2 watts per gallon with that tank at least and be sure to get the appropriate type of flourescent too. I'm going with Echo-Complete substrate in that tank. I like the dark look. Besides, I'll get all kinds of experience with that tank so that when I am ready to redue this 29, I'll be sure to do a right job of it.

But for now.....the deco in the 29 stays....maybe I could just hide it all behind a bunch of plants...lol.....actually, the one on the left doesn't look too awful bad...with more plants around it it would do ok......it has a nice space underneath for the fish to hide in. Perhaps if I feel adventurous, I'll list the things on ebay someday...haha..