My Journal, The 'winging' It Programme

[Azaezl]

It looks like a topiary. I like it, it's cute

LOL it does doesn't it! The moss has spread a bit on the fake wood, got lots of tiny patches of moss on it I thought sticking it on the end like that would be best as it suffered a bit in the little hex and isn't as green as the 2 smaller balls, so I figured putting it as high as poss would be best because then it's defo getting enough light.

Here's a Q. are there any plants that would survive(don't have to grow alot, just not die) in a tank that has no lighting, apart from natural daylight. The tank isn't near the window but the room is very bright during the day. I've yet to have a problem with algae in the tank so bit concerned as to whether a plant would survive. This is the tank in question;

It's only 24x12x12 and has 8 corys in it, it's slightly overfiltered and I do 20% water changes twice a week.

Thanks

 

[Azaezl]

Well I must be mad I've just ordered 98 plants, have no idea what to do with them all, maybe you guys might have some suggestions. I ordered one of the value pack things from greenline as well as 20 extra plants so on their way to me are;

5 x DWARF CHAIN SWORD
2 x DWARF SAGITTARIA
10 x CARPETING SAG (5CM) - I'm planning on attatching this to my background in the hope that it will grow on it
5 x GLOSSOSTIGMA ELATINOIDES
5 x CREEPING JENNY
5 x BACOPA MONNIERA
5 x TWISTED VALLIS
1 x AMAZON SWORD
10 x MIXED CRYPTS
5 x RED SPECIES
15 x HYGRO POLYSPERMA
5 x CABOMBA CAROLINIANA
5 x EGERIA DENSA
5 x STRAIGHT VALLIS
5 x LUDWIGIA SPECIES
10 x GIANT STRAIGHT VALLIS

I have 4 tanks, 3 of which have light, one which only gets natural daylight so not sure anything will survive in it(as mentioned in my last post).

I'm going to put as many plants as poss in the little hex, prob just hygro polysperma as that's quite hardy, will probably think about getting a betta or a dwarf puffer(if I can find one!) for that once the plants have been in for a few weeks.

I might get rid of the moss balls as with them technically being algae they will prob die off as the plants hopefully take over. Would anyone want them?

That's it for now, will take some pics once I've found places for all the plants!

 

[Themuleous]

Thats a lot of plants! looking forward to the pics

Sam

 

[Azaezl]

Yep Sam lots n lots of plants, think I might have ordered too many although I'm not very keen on the cabomba & egeria so might give them away. I've just been sat here trying to sort out what to put where, I took 8 of the hygro out of my big tank and put it in the cory tank and I'm still left with loads in the big tank. I'm gonna have to take the large fake wood out of the big tank to make some space for the plants, such a shame as the moss has started to spread all over it. I think I'm gonna have alot of leftover plants, I have a little 17L plastic tank which I'm gonna have to whip out and stick some in I think. I'm gonna keep an eye out for a cheap tank on ebay so I can fill that with some.

 

[Themuleous]

Don't throw away the egera, just let it float around the tank, it's excellent at algae busting

Sam

 

[Azaezl]

Didn't know that In that case I shall keep it, I didn't mean I'd throw it away, just give it away to someone, but now I know it's a good algae buster I shall keep it!

 

[Themuleous]

It grows ultra fast, you'll soon have plenty to give away

Sam

 

[Azaezl]

Well there wasn't as many plants as I thought, 98 sounds like alot but it's not really, although I got more then 98, few extra of some plants then I ordered

Anyway here's the end result, the tank's a bit cloudy because I squeezed / broke up the moss balls in it(should have done it in a bucket!)

Front view;

Left side view;

Right side view;

Center;

I'd love some constructive critisism

 

[Azaezl]

Well the egeria, camboba & creeping jenny have grown loads, only plant I've lost so far is one of the red ones, no idea what it was called. it was leaning over the bogwood in the last set of pics I took. I've moved the moss as it was just getting covered in sand courtesy of the senegalus, I've wedged it back on the background again, hpefully it will grow well on that, it grew quite fast on my bit of fake wood that I had it on(the topiary effect LOL) I'm surprised as people say it grows slowly, I guess as a ball it does as you wouldn't really notice it.

I've had a bit of a shift around with my tanks, I've been after a larger tank for my fancy goldfish for ages, well I bought 2 4ft tanks on a double metal stand and have no space for it, so it's in storage until we move. So I bought another tank which is slightly larger then what they were in. Anyway their old tank now has my bronze / gold corys in it and I've planted it, I've also planted the little hex again and it has a betta in it again. So now for the pics;

Largest tank;

Cory tank;

I know the filter looks ghastly but I'm hoping the plants will hide it in a few months, either that or I'll change it for something more subtle! I have a nutrafin co2 kit on the way to me which I'll be using on this tank so hopefully it will make the plants grow superfast

Hex tank;

 

[Themuleous]

Looking good

 

[Azaezl]

Here are some new pics of the cory tank, I finally have a nutrafin kit setup on it, which has been a right pain as it leaked if I put more then half a teaspoon in but if I only put half in I was getting about 5 bubbles a minute. I tried 3/4 but again that started to leak into the tube but I removed it before it went into the tank, I've put a tiny bit over half in and so far it's going ok about 28 bubbles a minute, just hope it doesn't leak.
These first pics are before I cut the pink tops off the plant, when it came in the post from greenline it had lots of little purple flowers on it which have since died off which is a shame as they looked lovely! The second lot of pics are after I'd done a bit of pruning, I placed the pink tops on the left hand side to break up the green a little, what I found interesting is they closed up when I turned off the lights and now that I've turned the lights back on they seem to be opening again. You may notice some roots off the polysperma are hanging over the mopani wood, I was wondering if I tied them down would they wrap around it? Could the plant survive like this? I know not all plants can be tied to things but is it worth a try do you think?

and I thought I'd do videos of the tanks, just for something a bit different, so here's the vid of the cory tank(ignore the noise, my toddler was watching a dvd);



There are alot more plants on the right hand side because I like the corys to have a dark corner to retreat too, esp. because 2 of them are very shy. At the moment I have a routine of turning the lights on at 7am, turning off at 12 and putting an airstone on just to give the corys that little bit extra oxygen, then the lights come back on at 2, airstone goes off, then the lights go off for the night at 7pm and the airstone is on all night.

I'll be taking pics / vids of the other planted tanks later after I've cleaned them a bit, great thing about having a cory only tank is you have hardly any poo, 2 bn plecs in the big tank however = a messy tank that needs to be vac'd every other day!

 

[Azaezl]

Ok so I've taken some more pics and a couple of vids of the other tanks, enjoy;

Big tank pics

Video



Hex tank pics;

Video;



Not really much to report, everything is growing and not dying so that's good I have taken some cuttings from the egeria and put it in the cory tank to see how fast it grow sin there with the co2.

 

[Themuleous]

The crypts should look nice when they fill out in the cory tank

Sam