29 Gallon Journal

[qwikimpss]

Well, I've been meaning to take some pictures. I will on saturday after I go through and clean it up and get it looking secent again. Both of my species of hygro are really starting to come around now that I have a stable 36 ppm of CO2 since I've been running only one bottle up my ladder as opposed to the two I ran with the HOB filter. My vallisernia is doing famously, it's spreading quickly and I should have some to pass on to others in a month or two. I've never had good luck with Amazon Swords before with a flourite substrate but since the switch to the eco-complete my one is doing good and it seems to be doing even better since I've started to dose my NPKs (still working on getting my levels up to recommended EI levels however.

I have thought about some nerite snails before but snails aren't really my thing. I do want some Amano Shrimp however, I think I should be able to fit some in there.

 

[nry]

Snails aren't my thing but they clean algae up much better than my algae shrimp have ever managed.

 

[qwikimpss]

That's what I've been hearing, I may see if I can order some online since, around here anyway, no one stocks snails. Hell, I can't even get shrimp at any LFS around here, the only time I saw one was one ghost shrimp that was sent on accident.

 

[qwikimpss]

Last night I did a moderate revamp of the tank. I bought some rotala, creeping jenny, a red tiger lotus, micro sword and what was sold to me as "red temple". I have pics I will post tomorrow to try and get a positive ID on this plant (or bunch of plants would be the correct way to say it)

I removed the rest of the anubias and java ferns and put them in the 55 gallon, they should do fine in there as they are low light plants and that is a low light tank (.6 wpg).

I also put a very nice piece of driftwood on hold. This piece grabbed my attention the moment I saw it and instantly I had an aquascape formed in my head around this piece of wood....I can't wait to get it now!

Forgot to post my stats from my testing last night.

PH: 6.4
Ammonia: 0
Nirite: 0
Nitrate: 20 ppm
Phosphate: 1ppm
CO2: according to my chart, 36 ppm

All look pretty good to me!

 

[qwikimpss]

AS PROMISED!!! PICTURES!!

Full Tank Shot

Right Side

Left Side

Lotus pearling 20 minutes after being introduced

This plant with the reddish stems was sold to me as Red Temple. Can anyone get a positive ID for me? I've been looking but have turned up bupkis.

Creeping Jenny

Hope you guys (and gals) like. I will be picking up my piece of driftwood on Saturday. My g/f thought I was crazy because I sat in front of my tank last night for an hour and a half mentally laying out my plants and driftwood, trying to get an idea of what to do!

 

[qwikimpss]

I forgot to post this one, a pic of it before.

I'm sorry if these pics come out dark....they look like it on my monitor, I don't know how they will be for the rest of you.

 

[qwikimpss]

I haven't updated in SO long!

Took some new pics last night along with my nightly water testing which showed nothing out of what is normal for my tank.

PH: 6.4
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 20 ppm
Phosphate: 1 ppm

My water seems to be happy right here and the plants look pretty good. I refilled one soda bottle the night before last and it took until last night to start kicking which seems like a long time. I didn't deviate from my normal fill which is a cup of sugar, 2 teaspoons of baking soda and a teaspoon of yeast.

First off, right side of the tank:

Left side:

This is not my set aquascape. The plants are in there right now to grow out a bit while my driftwood soaks. Hopefully I'll have a good idea of what should go where in a few weeks when I'm ready to go full-on with wood and all.

Speaking of wood, here it is, not a great picture, the tall one on the left I plan on taking off of the slate base and laying down on the substrate and the smaller one on the right I'm not 100% sure of what I'm going to do with it, I will probably mock them up in my empty 29 gallon, in which they are soaking in right now, to get and idea of what I want to do with them.

My creeping jenny, which seems to be growing faster than I thought it was going to. Again, does anyone know what the plant(s) behind it is, the one with the red stems?:

A shot of one of my clumps of, I believe, microsword, I will soon be thinning these out and spreading them out across the substrate a little:

I absolutely LOVE this thing! It's reddish colors really stick out (altho you can't tell in ANY of these photos!):

A close shot of my Hygro polysperma and rotala on the right, my H. Polysperma has really taken off!

Anyone know what kind of algae this is and how do I get rid of it? I try to remove it manually and just end up taking out grains of eco-complete with it:

Thanks for looking!