My 200L Journal

[Jamepsss]

Looks like it's the end for this scape (for now). We're moving house at the end of May so it's got to be torn down.

I'm moving the fish to a large plastic container in my parents garage next week where they will stay until I can get the tank set up in the new place. I don't know what kind of state my plants will be in after all this.

Hopefully it will all go smoothly and I'll be able to resume this journal once things are back up and running.

 

[lljdma06]

Awwww, what a shame! Your difformis was ace. Some of the best I've seen here. Looking forward to the new journal.

 

[Jamepsss]

Awwww, what a shame! Your difformis was ace. Some of the best I've seen here. Looking forward to the new journal.

Thanks very much!

Finally back up and running after the move and it went 'quite' well although there has been some losses. Fish wise I lost 1 Congo Tetra (my own stupid fault), 1 rummy nose and my angel died too. About three days before the move my Bolivian Ram died.

Plant wise I had to bin everything apart from the moss and the java fern.

I've set it up again with the exact same hardscape as before (one trick pony) and I've changed the substrate to Eco Complete 18kg and Caribsea black sand (9kg). I've trimmed the moss and tied some to my other bits of wood in this tank and the other. I've added some Ludwigia front left.

Here's a pic as it currently stands, will get some better pics when I can

 

[SchottayB]

Can I just ask the name of the plant thats bushy on the left? Looks very nice

That's Hygro Difformis (Water Wisteria), very quick and easy grower.

Cant find any, and I want some lol. Shame you lost some fish, tanks looking good

 

[Jamepsss]

Can I just ask the name of the plant thats bushy on the left? Looks very nice

That's Hygro Difformis (Water Wisteria), very quick and easy grower.

Cant find any, and I want some lol. Shame you lost some fish, tanks looking good

Cheers! That's weird, it really is available in almost every LFS I go to.

Quick update, things aren't going too well. I've encountered a problem I've never had before - my wisteria is dying. The lower parts of the plant are melting away and the upper parts are turning brown on the edges. The Ludwigia isn't growing and the Java Fern is not looking its best. I'm really scratching my head, can't understand it at all. I'm wondering if it's because my tank is quite understocked at the moment after the deaths, yet I am getting a 20ish nitrate reading.

 

[Jamepsss]

Time I updated this, here's where I'm up to with this tank...

Full Tank Shot...

The water wisteria is no more. After the last batch kind of withered away I decided on a change and have gone with Mayaca Fluviatilis as I've had success with this in the past. I'm hoping it will reach the surface and look good. The Java fern on the right is perhaps too big now as you really can't see the redmoor wood behind it anymore. The hygro either side of the java is starting to take off after shedding all it's emersed leaves. There's a lot more Xmas moss in this tank than there used to be and it's doing very well. I still need to decide on some foreground plants for the right side. Will probably go with a few crypts eventually.

Left side

That's Ludwigia on the left of the wood, can't remember which type but after planting it a few weeks ago it basically disintegrated. There's not much of it left but there is a tiny bit of new growth so going to leave it and see what happens.

Right side

Needs foreground plants.

And while I had the camera out I took what I could of the fish...

And this is my latest addition... a Melanotaenia Trifasciata (Goyder River). Rescued from a disgusting tank at a large well known shop that will remain nameless. His fins are pretty ragged and his appetite isn't there yet but I'm hoping he'll be OK...

Thanks for looking. Comments, suggestions etc appreciated.

 

[ian]

love that mate, good quality pics as well!

 

[Tetra-Chris]

Looking good mate - I like it. Lovely pictures too. Agree you may want some foreground plants in there, you got any thoughts as to what you may put in?

 

[Jamepsss]

love that mate, good quality pics as well!

Cheers Ian, it's getting there.

Looking good mate - I like it. Lovely pictures too. Agree you may want some foreground plants in there, you got any thoughts as to what you may put in?

Thanks Chris. Not 100% sure yet but probably Crypts.

 

[bumbleweasle]

Your plants look so healthy!

 

[Ps3Steveo]

Looking good dude, shame about the Wisteria, I liked that but still looking very nice and healthy.

 

[aqua786]

I suppose it's time I got round to doing my own journal since I've enjoyed and appreciated countless others on here.

Bought this tank in January 2010 and for the first 8 or 9 months the tank looked pretty terrible. For this first post I'll add some pictures from the 'early days' so you can see what I mean. I'll go in to more detail about my set-up on a later post.

January 2010

The night I set it up.

February 2010

A month later it looked like this

March 2010

Things were growing.

April 2010

Vallis all bunched together

May 2010

I bought a large Bristlenose Plec which wreaked havoc in my tank.

May 2010

Once the plec was rehomed I decided on a simple new layout using Vallis and Amazon Swords only.

June 2010

A month later and everything was growing as planned. By the end of July the Vallis and Swords were ridiculously big but you'll have to trust me on that as I don't have a pic.

August 2010

Got fed up with Vallis and the layout in general and had a big plant clearout/trim and threw some new pieces of wood in there. Looked awful I know.

September 2010

Redmoor wood looking bright green, even the Egeria Densa was dying slowly. This phase was more about experimenting with a few different plants to see what worked and what didn't in preparation for a new layout which I started in October.

That's it for now, thanks for reading.

Hi,your tank is amazing,the rainbows look awsome!!! can you please give me some advice on the co2 systems,and what is yours?

 

[kyleb2003]

Stumbled across this, just wanted to say the Java fern is awesome, hope you didn't trim it back!

 

[Jamepsss]

Your plants look so healthy!

Thanks very much!

Looking good dude, shame about the Wisteria, I liked that but still looking very nice and healthy.

Thanks, I'm trying wisteria again in my other tank now.

Hi,your tank is amazing,the rainbows look awsome!!! can you please give me some advice on the co2 systems,and what is yours?

Thanks! Rainbows are great, I've got a couple more since the last update.

Stumbled across this, just wanted to say the Java fern is awesome, hope you didn't trim it back!

Thanks a lot! I don't trim the java fern very often. Sometimes pluck the odd leaf but that's about it.

Hoping to update with pics this weekend, need to borrow a camera though after mine broke.

 

[lljdma06]

Yay! Updates.