Celebrating Five Years Of Planted Tanks...

[lljdma06]

I've been in this forum for 5 years, and I thought it would be nice to offer a gallery of my Planted tanks over the years for your viewing pleasure...

My first Planted tank - 15g high with CO2 and EI

Another early planted tank from that first year - A 10g jungle scape with CO2 and EI

A Barclaya blossom from that tank

Moved back to Miami, played with stemplants at first, abandoned CO2 and ferts. Scapes from 2006-2008.

8g Dutch style - No CO2 no ferts...

20g - CO2 and stems...

Played with pico tanks 2.5g

Played with larger tanks too... 36g - with CO2 injection

Scapes from 2008-2009 - Water quality changes, cannot grow stems as well, gradual switch to rosettes and rhizomes.

Discovered Corydoras & sand... 10g - No CO2 no ferts, kind of high light kind of not.

Discovered Small cyprinids... 20g - No CO2, low-light

Rediscover CO2, discover TPN+, and discover MOSS... 8g - 2009 scape CO2 injection, fert dosing...

One must always play with opposites... 2010's "Tales of the Crypts" or "Endor" - 36g's final scape, .77WPG, no CO2, TPN+ Last scape that's up...

Let's see what the next five years bring with regard to scaping. I've learned so much from members here and I've enjoyed spreading what I've learned and working to make this aspect of the hobby more accessible.

Come visit where the grass is always greener...

 

[Euston]

Truly amazing looking tanks

 

[FreedomFighter]

Some very very nice setups there.

I prefer the more wild looking tanks.

 

[Carlovel1]

All I can say is

 

[ian]

Great tanks llj! Each and every one of them looks unique.

The ditch tank and Endor are my faves.

 

[simonas]

Wow loving the tanks Llj!!!

I think I;m growing green fingers starting to like these plants!!

 

[Biulu]

Great tanks! I remember the ones with the wood and the anubias and I still love those tanks. I wonder though, how did your stemplants grow in the no CO2 no ferts tanks? Did you have a rich substrate, or where they thriving purely on fish waste?

 

[lljdma06]

Great tanks! I remember the ones with the wood and the anubias and I still love those tanks. I wonder though, how did your stemplants grow in the no CO2 no ferts tanks? Did you have a rich substrate, or where they thriving purely on fish waste?

It's funny, depends on the location. In Illinois, the stemplants thrived with CO2 injection, EI dosing and High light. In Miami, they did much better in No CO2 setups with no dosing, just fish waste. Then my water changed at around '08 or '09 and now I can't grow them. The stemplant health in that 8g Dutch is, I think was due to the shallowness of the tank. For substrates, I've used plain gravel (Illinois tanks) or laterite with a fine gravel or sand cap (early Miami scapes). Now, since I dose primarily through the water column, I'll stick with an inert substrate.

Except my new one, from the AGA convention, uses ADA Amazonia, I think. I have to do some work on that tank. It's been sorely neglected because of work, and I'll be dismantling "Endor" soon. Some plants from "Endor" will go to the new tank and the rest I'll offer for swap. I think it'll look interesting once I've changed things around. Will put a moss wall and increase the plant mass. I have some amazing submerged crypts from "Endor". It's actually doing better since I stopped adding CO2. I can never adopt a set method for any of my scapes. Things are always changing. Probably explains why each scape looks so unique

"Endor" will have his last hurrah, though, as I am thinking about entering him in the ASW competition. The "anti-scape" scape.

 

[creg]

amazing and beautiful

 

[Gill]

Always loved your tanks, and your moss wall was great

 

[blodhi74]

Very nice.

 

[SuperColey1]

That moss wall looks great. I also like the 'tried pico tanks' section. Some ideas for what to do with a tiny 2USG tank I've acquired.

Keep it coming Llj. Keep learning and keep tring new things

Look forward to the 'anti-scape' being entered

AC

 

[lljdma06]

That moss wall looks great. I also like the 'tried pico tanks' section. Some ideas for what to do with a tiny 2USG tank I've acquired.

Keep it coming Llj. Keep learning and keep tring new things

Look forward to the 'anti-scape' being entered

AC

I enjoyed the pico tanks and I'm glad you got some ideas. For me, they were easy to manage and fun to play with. But I've never had really huge tanks. "Endor" is my largest current tank. I had a really dreadful 45g hexagon tank a while back before I joined TFF, but I sold it. Now, if anyone thought that a corner bow was hard to work with, that tank was a disaster to do anything with, but I did manage to get some plants growing. With stock lighting, had anubias, crypts, and swords and cardinal tetras. Told you, been at this a while, but I never considered those early tanks planted tanks, just fish tanks with plants in them. I've been adding plants since the early 1990's.

I'm very curious to see what the judges will make of "Endor". I showed pictures to my sister during dinner yesterday, and she thought it was a very cool tank. She liked that there was so much to look at and study in every picture. I think the judges may think it overwhelming and find it lacking in focus, but I think the "Endor" is a tank in motion. I don't even have organized photo-shoots, just took pix at night. Even left the hardware and stuff running. I do remember to wipe the glass. The pictures capture a moment. Nothing is posed, everything does exactly what they want to do, which is unusual in scape photography. I will miss the tank when I dismantle it, but it's time to do new things with the 36g and I'm entering a stage in my life right now where I don't quite know where I'll be, so having only one tank will make things easier. I'll post a couple of pictures in the 36g thread to determine which photos I'll enter for the competition. I can submit 5, which is great, as I like macros of fish in the tank. The oto amongst the crypt leaves is a cool picture.

llj

 

[TigerJack]

Wow is all I can really say! Amazing looking tanks

 

[dirtydogg]

Great tanks, thank you for sharing!