rearranged tank slightly again

[houndour]

Basically, I removed the rock on the left. Moved some plants round a bit and my heater to try and hide the heater more. I've also tried to have a bit more open space at the front. I'm going to get some bogwood for the space in the left, or maybe some plastic tubing and create some kind of adventure playground hidey hole for my botias and then cover it with slate or bogwood.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

and my guppies :

 

[cometcattle]

I like your tank better with the rock removed, but it looks great in both pics.

The tubes are an interesting idea, I'm sure your loaches will love it. I like to make caves out of bogwood or petrified wood, and then attatch a plant to it.

BTW, how do your striatas and metaes get along?

 

[One_Trick_Pony]

it looks great much tidier after, and i have guppies like tose too, although i cant get good photos like that

otp

 

[houndour]

The tubes are an interesting idea, I'm sure your loaches will love it. I like to make caves out of bogwood or petrified wood, and then attatch a plant to it.

I'd like to make caves, but I don't have a lot of floor space in my tank to create lots of little ones, so I came up with the idea of tubes. But I still want my tank to look natural.

My boyfriend suggested a submarine he saw...he said it had loads of hidey holes, but there's no way I'm having a submarine in my tank!!

The botia and corys are fine so far. Actually the corys are bigger than the botia at the moment. I've not seen the botia chase the corys, infact I have seen them shoal together sometimes (when the corys swim up and down the glass).

I really hope the botia stay friendly as I love both the botia and corys. The corys don't seem to be bothered with hiding in caves, so I think as long as I have plenty for the botia to explore they might stay occupied.

Plus the botia are doing a fantastic job with my snails

 

[jimbooo]

much better. it look like you couls do with more vallis at the back left. are you replanting the new shoots? you can see the bubble ladder thats all.

apart from that it just needs to grow out a bit but looking much better.

 

[houndour]

Yeah I am trying to grow the vallis. How do I help it spread? I'm not replanting anything. What should I be looking for in the way of shoots?

Yeah I keep thinning it down by removing plants!! It's just going to take some time for the plants to spread out and fill the gaps in.

 

[jimbooo]

okay here goes.

runners look like green horizontal stems growing from the base of one vallis plant about 6 inches long with a new baby plant on the end. you can cut the baby one away when it's a few inches tall and replant it anywhere you like.

i have vallis in my 40G the first picture was taken about 6 months ago when the vallis was about a month old. (i mean in the tank for a month it's on the far right)

i have never replanted the vallis just weekly pruning. these leaves grow at least 2 foot in a week.

after a while of pruning every week i got fed up and cut the whole lot down to about 8 inches. (then looked at the mess i'd made and wasn't too happy)

all i can say is i must have triggered a growth spurt because after a week or so it went mad with runners everywhere.

heres a pic taken a couple of weeks ago to give you an idea. bear in mind i haven't replanted any of the runners and removed at least 20 or so since the big chop. any new runners that just happened to grow in the right place have been left.

if i were you i'd chop it in half but your call as it's a bit drastic.

 

[Annastasia]

I like they way you've rearranged it! Very nice job.
It looks much more open, so I'm sure the fish like it too. And you have some pretty guppies!

 

[guppygirl]

yes it looks very good!
The water could be clearer, but that's it.
What co2 recipe do you use?

 

[houndour]

jimboo
What an improvement in 6 months. It's a gamble. I may cut some of my vallis. See what happens. I shall also have a closer look and see if I have any runners now I know what I'm looking for.

guppy girl
I'm using the sachets that came with the hagen thing first. Have just used my second and have 1 left. Then I will go DIY mixture by which time I might be asking you what CO2 mixture you use!

The water is a pain. It was crystal clear for a month, then after a couple of plant rearrangements it's seem to gradually got worse. That photo is particularly bad because I couldnt wait for the sand to settle after moving the plants and I'd also done some sand prodding

But it's not clearing 100%. Maybe my filter needs cleaning. I'm reluctant to clean my filter too much as its a newly set up tank. I just dipped my sponge in the tank water at the weekend.

 

[guppygirl]

What filter do you have?
Also, why don't you try adding some Stress Zyme. It might help, and if it doesn't, it's not going to do any harm.

 

[Shark_Lover]

wow looks nice!!