Gab99's First Attempt At A Planted Tank

[GAB99]

What about putting them separate and feeding them on infusoria, newly hatched brine shrimp or other livefoods for fry?

yeah i put them in the main tank in the breeder box for now, however i have no idea what to feed them as they are not at the stage of taking flake, the adults take flake but it leaves a mess my plan is to

over the next few days to pick up a 1-5 gallon kit with everything included, this will be the BS (brineshrimp) mother tank, ill try and find some cysts and start from there, ill feed the culture yeast from the large supply i have as well as raise infusoria incase the babies dont take to BS.

heres a pic of them btw they are smaller than my thumbnail stomachs look full so they should be fine for a few days

other pics

forgot to mention i lost one of the adults so down to 3 adults and 2 babies

 

[chesterscot]

Hi Gab looking good things are certainly coming together keep it up matey
regards scot

 

[GAB99]

Hi Gab looking good things are certainly coming together keep it up matey
regards scot

haha not really i worry about this tank so often i can shoot off most of the problems

GSA
dieing sword
fish eating plants too fast
fish uprooting plants
detritus on leaves of plants causing algae
very noisy filter (i really want that rena badly lol)
evaporation


and im worrying about my hatchet fish since ive never had luck with them and im stuck with 2 that i have to keep seperate because they will get eaten they are so tiny, take the size of your pinky nail and they are alittle bigger than that lol.

althugh i have to admit the otos are doing a great job cleaning they are even eating the algae on the leaves in turn knowcking down the detritus wich is a plus, just gotta get them to eat off the argentinians then ill be happy


the growth is also concerning me because like i said earlier this is the trial order and i was happy with the service so when things start to go well and if i can find a way to keep my fish from uprooting the plants till they are established THEN ill order the rest of the plants and maybe it will actually look nice , will prolly end up sticking them in the tub they came in for a week lol (with filter and heater i should have power heads on the tank so it should go well when it does happen)

 

[GAB99]

so, as christmas day for me winds down some quick updates and pics

put the hatchets in along with 3/4 of what was left of the frogbit (rest i tossed since there was too much), the remaining bit is in the QT tank.

got what i wanted for christmas, the rena XP3 filter its so quiet i worry its not working lol and overall awseome, needs a (koralia) powerhead tho lol to finish off the flow. unfortunately the scale was on back order so it will arrive on tuesday.

now i need to keep up with CO2 and hopefully things should improve

now thats outta the way, pics!

filter

tank

 

[ian]

Nice poll Gabb! lol

If this was my tank, i would bunch the far right together a bit more, i would also think about getting some hardscape in there, whether it be rock or wood. Personally i can see wood in there. Then work around the wood with the Crypts. This has some really good potential Gabb

 

[GAB99]

Nice poll Gabb! lol

If this was my tank, i would bunch the far right together a bit more, i would also think about getting some hardscape in there, whether it be rock or wood. Personally i can see wood in there. Then work around the wood with the Crypts. This has some really good potential Gabb

hahaha yeah i want wood to but i want to try to attempt a dutch and i think that requires no hardscape?

yeah im eventually going to bunch the right, for now it seems to be spreading by itself so i dont think ill have to if things go well at least all the plants have 2 shoots and 1 or 2 have 3

 

[ian]

Dutch scapes tend to concentrate on stem plants, and lot of them. Have a look here and see what llj says about 'Dutch'. I trying a dutch kind of style in my nano cube at the moment and i'm finding it a pain as some stems grow a lot quicker than others and it's a lot of pruning.

have a look here

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/328059-basics-in-aquascaping/

I still can see your scape as a jungle scape.

 

[GAB99]

Dutch scapes tend to concentrate on stem plants, and lot of them. Have a look here and see what llj says about 'Dutch'. I trying a dutch kind of style in my nano cube at the moment and i'm finding it a pain as some stems grow a lot quicker than others and it's a lot of pruning.

have a look here

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/328059-basics-in-aquascaping/

I still can see your scape as a jungle scape.

hahaha actually i think i should focus more on trying to not screw up my first tank other then worry about where it will ft in the styles lol

id love this tank to go dutch eventually tho

 

[lljdma06]

I'm the only one who said save money... That being said, tank could use more plants. But I'll always be for more plants. Glad you got what you wanted for Xmas.

 

[GAB99]

well apparently i forgot another point of grandpaents visiting in that they also hand out a good bit of cash before they go, so, despite plants won the poll ill have enough money to do the other 2 anyway lol

heres what im planning to order soon from sweet aquatics:

Foreground -

Anubias nana

Chain swords

C. lucens

C. undulata

C. wendtii

C. Parva

Sagittaria Subulata

Midground –

Moneywort

Ludwigia Repens

Backround –

Red melon sword / E. Osiris



and its just my luck they just happen to not have C.lucens in stock *sigh*

also here is a sorta color coded of how im going to arrange this

and it prolly happen in the coming month at the soonest, depending on how current plants do. which are doing well other than that the tank was covered in gsp on new years eve lol

 

[Biulu]

Gab, I like your choice of plants. It looks though that you are planting 100% or is it just the schematic pattern that you made of your tank? If that is not the case, I would try to vary the size of the blocks a bit more and leave a space open at some point to be able to focus on that.

 

[GAB99]

Gab, I like your choice of plants. It looks though that you are planting 100% or is it just the schematic pattern that you made of your tank? If that is not the case, I would try to vary the size of the blocks a bit more and leave a space open at some point to be able to focus on that.

ok ill try, i was thinking of using the plants themselves to make it so the drakr, greener ones are farther back and have the lighter ones up front which lead into the red/reddish plants which make the 'path' idk if it was a good idea ill take any advice tho lol

do you mean like to leave a patch of sand up front?

 

[lljdma06]

100% substrate coverage is not unusual in Dutch scapes. Mine have been very close to 100% GAB, I don't understand the schematic, though. How is the tank going to be oriented based on the schematic? Is the lowest edge the front of the tank?

A basic rule, though, red plants or plants that contain red are not put in the background. Background plants are usually unobtrusive and typically a darker green shade. Often also corkbark will be attached to the back wall for a background or moss walls will be put up.

llj

 

[GAB99]

100% substrate coverage is not unusual in Dutch scapes. Mine have been very close to 100% GAB, I don't understand the schematic, though. How is the tank going to be oriented based on the schematic? Is the lowest edge the front of the tank?

A basic rule, though, red plants or plants that contain red are not put in the background. Background plants are usually unobtrusive and typically a darker green shade. Often also corkbark will be attached to the back wall for a background or moss walls will be put up.

llj

yes the tank is situated from the lowest edge being the front and the first edge being the back


also, for the moss wall, can i use any moss i want so long it is dark/sticks to the wall?

 

[GAB99]

well, tank is doing ok still dealing with GSA popping up here and there, fish are fine down to 3 hatchets one died while i was away


today i got 2 5lb bags of plain white sand and placed it in the QT tank, and added some crypts (ive got the species down to balanse, becketii, pygmea, undulata , walkeri 'lutea', and wedtii) which did not come with a scientific or common name but it had many leaf variations so i guess we will see over time after the initial melt im expecting. also split and placed a melon sword i also got (both are from petco =/ ) and i moved the sword in the main tank that wasnt doing well to this one along with some spare argetntinians.


ive started DIY co2 and ive been dumb and added a half pinch of all the dry ferts into a small mixture except for the plantex (to avoid any precipitate or whatevr its calle) which i will add tomorrow.


other than that im slowly aquiring the the funds to get the injected equipment, the sand to cover up the horrible mess of the current substrate, and the rest of the plants, hopefully ill have enough to get everything in the coming month or so. (marine is at a standstill due to a large money problem my parents are dealing with, nothing serious i think just gotta be a little money wise till end of march or april)