I was up until almost 1am last night! I am tired!!! 
The final tank for a while. The 36g has been running for almost 3 years. At first, I ran it with CO2 and 1.8WPG of CF lighting. I later ditched the CO2 and things were fine as well, until I stopped doing regular water changes. You can follow its initial progress in the following thread, which I stopped updating in June, 2008.
<a href="http
/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=160962" target="_blank">http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=160962</a>
This tank suffered the same neglect that my other two did when I was working. I thought a rescape was in order but I didnt want the same lighting levels I had in the past. This would just get me into trouble again when I started work and couldn't perform regular water changes or add CO2. You can see in the above thread, I went back and forth on it quite a bit. I also wanted a substrate change.
I thought I'd have to mail order everything, but on a whim I went to the PetsMart and Petsupermarket. I found a cute little T-shirt for my dog and pretty much everything I needed to rescape this tank! Saving me a load on shipping. Sometimes you can get very lucky. Don't knock your big chain store all the time, if you know what you're looking for, you can find some amazing deals.
Using an old light fixture, I now have the following specs for this tank, which is why I decided on the new journal as this is a very different direction from it's previous setup. Granted, filtration and the basic substrate didn't change, and I didn't strip down or clean anything but hardscape and plants.
Tank: 36g corner bow, 21" deep, 24" radius
Lighting: An old 24" 2x14W T5 fixture with reflectors. Giving me .77WPG.
Substrate: Took advantage of 3 years of tank waste and capped my current substrate with a thick layer of very fine white sand from Carib sea.
CO2: None
Fertilisation: Rootabs when I remember. I also have Seachem Flourish standing by incase I need it.
Hardscape: Several pieces of Mopani interlocked together. Some of the wood is new, so I expect tannins and hopefully I won't get the yucky white stuff, but you never know.
Plants: Cryptocoryne spiralis, C. lutea, C. wendtii "bronze", Anubia species, Echinodorus species (red melon, red rubin, ozelot). I'm taking a risk with the new swords. There is conflicting information about their care. The current swords in the tank are doing great, but they are not the same species.
Livestock: Barbus titteya, Hyphessobrycon species.
Maintenance: For now waterchanges 2x a week. I got things very dirty, and I'm wary of an ammonia spike. Hopefully by Summer's end, this will calm down and I can eventually reduce it to every two weeks.
This is an experiment to see just how low light I can go. I think this will help members here regarding other planted tank options. I have some plant species that I know will do well, but I've also added some that are more "iffy" so I can see exactly what I can get away with. I'm using T5s with reflectors so that will help considerably and I'm actually surprised how bright the lighting it compared to the CF bulb I was using before. For less than half the lighting 65W vs 28W, it is only a little less visibly bright.
Growth will be slow. I'm expecting this, and I also expect some of the usual crypt melting and the swords will be transitioning from emersed to submerged growth. These transitions will take time at these lighting levels. Since the plants are from a Floridian nursery, they won't have to adapt to grossly different water conditions, so hopefully the crypts will not melt too badly. What I want is healthy growth and living plants that I can maintain with a hectic schedule.
This isn't the final plant list. Once these plants adapt and I see that all is clear, I'll be ordering some Bolbitis heudelotti and weeping moss to add to the scape.
This isn't the final livestock list either. I'll be keeping about 7-10 cherry barbs and finding new homes for the rest of the fish. Many of these fish were around from three years ago when I wasn't especially confident with mail order fish and I had to settle for the fish from LFSs. While lovely, they are your usual species and I'm not that into them anymore, especially tetras. I've a soft spot for the cherry barbs, which I raised myself and do not look like LFS fish. The new sand substrate begs for corydoras, but the tank size will also lend itself to a small loach species, which I have never tried. A larger oto school will also do well. This, of course, all hinges on whether I can find good homes for the fish. If I can't, the stocking will remain the same.
I've yet to attach my anubias, so I will post pictures when I'm finished. The water will be cloudy for a day or two. Can't wait to post pictures, I think you'll like it. If this works, you'll get a sense of how low light you can truely go with good lights. My goal is for this to be another long-term scape. I'd like to see how the plants develop over the course of years. I'm excited. Any thoughts are always appreciated.
thanks for looking.
llj
The final tank for a while. The 36g has been running for almost 3 years. At first, I ran it with CO2 and 1.8WPG of CF lighting. I later ditched the CO2 and things were fine as well, until I stopped doing regular water changes. You can follow its initial progress in the following thread, which I stopped updating in June, 2008.
<a href="http
/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=160962" target="_blank">http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=160962</a>This tank suffered the same neglect that my other two did when I was working. I thought a rescape was in order but I didnt want the same lighting levels I had in the past. This would just get me into trouble again when I started work and couldn't perform regular water changes or add CO2. You can see in the above thread, I went back and forth on it quite a bit. I also wanted a substrate change.
I thought I'd have to mail order everything, but on a whim I went to the PetsMart and Petsupermarket. I found a cute little T-shirt for my dog and pretty much everything I needed to rescape this tank! Saving me a load on shipping. Sometimes you can get very lucky. Don't knock your big chain store all the time, if you know what you're looking for, you can find some amazing deals.
Using an old light fixture, I now have the following specs for this tank, which is why I decided on the new journal as this is a very different direction from it's previous setup. Granted, filtration and the basic substrate didn't change, and I didn't strip down or clean anything but hardscape and plants.
Tank: 36g corner bow, 21" deep, 24" radius
Lighting: An old 24" 2x14W T5 fixture with reflectors. Giving me .77WPG.
Substrate: Took advantage of 3 years of tank waste and capped my current substrate with a thick layer of very fine white sand from Carib sea.
CO2: None
Fertilisation: Rootabs when I remember. I also have Seachem Flourish standing by incase I need it.
Hardscape: Several pieces of Mopani interlocked together. Some of the wood is new, so I expect tannins and hopefully I won't get the yucky white stuff, but you never know.
Plants: Cryptocoryne spiralis, C. lutea, C. wendtii "bronze", Anubia species, Echinodorus species (red melon, red rubin, ozelot). I'm taking a risk with the new swords. There is conflicting information about their care. The current swords in the tank are doing great, but they are not the same species.
Livestock: Barbus titteya, Hyphessobrycon species.
Maintenance: For now waterchanges 2x a week. I got things very dirty, and I'm wary of an ammonia spike. Hopefully by Summer's end, this will calm down and I can eventually reduce it to every two weeks.
This is an experiment to see just how low light I can go. I think this will help members here regarding other planted tank options. I have some plant species that I know will do well, but I've also added some that are more "iffy" so I can see exactly what I can get away with. I'm using T5s with reflectors so that will help considerably and I'm actually surprised how bright the lighting it compared to the CF bulb I was using before. For less than half the lighting 65W vs 28W, it is only a little less visibly bright.
Growth will be slow. I'm expecting this, and I also expect some of the usual crypt melting and the swords will be transitioning from emersed to submerged growth. These transitions will take time at these lighting levels. Since the plants are from a Floridian nursery, they won't have to adapt to grossly different water conditions, so hopefully the crypts will not melt too badly. What I want is healthy growth and living plants that I can maintain with a hectic schedule.
This isn't the final plant list. Once these plants adapt and I see that all is clear, I'll be ordering some Bolbitis heudelotti and weeping moss to add to the scape.
This isn't the final livestock list either. I'll be keeping about 7-10 cherry barbs and finding new homes for the rest of the fish. Many of these fish were around from three years ago when I wasn't especially confident with mail order fish and I had to settle for the fish from LFSs. While lovely, they are your usual species and I'm not that into them anymore, especially tetras. I've a soft spot for the cherry barbs, which I raised myself and do not look like LFS fish. The new sand substrate begs for corydoras, but the tank size will also lend itself to a small loach species, which I have never tried. A larger oto school will also do well. This, of course, all hinges on whether I can find good homes for the fish. If I can't, the stocking will remain the same.
I've yet to attach my anubias, so I will post pictures when I'm finished. The water will be cloudy for a day or two. Can't wait to post pictures, I think you'll like it. If this works, you'll get a sense of how low light you can truely go with good lights. My goal is for this to be another long-term scape. I'd like to see how the plants develop over the course of years. I'm excited. Any thoughts are always appreciated.
thanks for looking.
llj
sama:
