Boo 20g Journal

[rockerBOO]

Decided to make a journal of my attempt from noob to intermediate fish care. This is my first tank. I was told by the lfs >_> that 2 days was all that the tank needed to cycle. I did the 2 days, and then added fish. Big mistake. One fish got ich. Some died in the process. Not a good story. But I have been reading up on fish care on this site as well as some others and getting the hang of it.

Current water stats:

Ammonia: 0
Nitrates: 20ppm
Nitrites: 0
KH: 3
PH: 6.7

Also really a noob about these plants. Learning about all the scientific names has been difficult and do not know all the plant's growing patterns or things like that. So a learning process in that. Looking to get some nice small driftwood in there, to attach the large javafern I currently have in there.

I also have gotten some of Greg Watson's ferts, and doing the EI system. Also added the Nutrafin co2 system with the pinned ingredients. I have had a lot of problems keeping any type of steady flow of co2 out of the tank, also testing the co2 with kh and ph. The KH I am not sure if I can get an accurate reading. It always seems like it is 1KH, but could be up to 3KH. So confusing and fustrating.

After 3 weeks, and still in cycle. /

After adding some plants 5 weeks.

Adding more plants..

New growth. Algae grows..

Current Tank Layout - 01-17-07
Took out a lot of the glosso, because I found out about how to properly plant them. Took the rest and replanted in the 45G.

Also a video of the tank. http/youtube.com/watch?v=OhoSqe48bq0

Thanks for reading .

01-21-07

01-22-07

01-24-07

01-25-07

01-27-07

 

[Themuleous]

Looks nice, certainly look to have some healthy plants in there, which is half the battle

Sam

 

[qwikimpss]

It looks great!

Always a bit frustrating to me when we a self-proclaimed "noob" grow luscious, healthy plants and my JAVA FERN is dying!! lol!!!!

 

[rockerBOO]

Thanks for the reply's. Seems the red plant (Alternathera reineckii) has gotten a nice amount of growth and is bushing pretty well.

Added a new picture from today.

 

[rockerBOO]

Seems that after even 2 days when I finally got my co2 a little more stable to where i have 25-35ppm in my tank, the plants are exploding. A look at the last post and today you can see a decent difference. I have not been able to keep a EI schedule since I have been really busy with brain work, at work.

Had to add some baking soda to the co2 to make it work better. (I need to start measuring these things lol).

 

[wei0204]

Nice to see the progressment. The water is a bit blury though.

 

[rockerBOO]

With my new stable co2 I am getting really fast growth with my wisteria and Alternathera reineckii have been growing like crazy. My java fern has been very slow to grow it seems. One leaf has been getting yellow even though the others seem to be stable. Moneywort has been growing well, hoping it will pop out the top and give me some nice flowers . The Rotala rotundifolia has not been growing as well, going sideways and what not. Planning on moving it so it can start to have normal upward growth.

Sorry about the image, wanted to show the bottom, so added it on there.