Something a bit different

[George Farmer]

Here's some photos from the surface area of my tank. You can see the oxygen bubbles formed on the surface after a few hours of lighting. They swirl around real slow (I minimise surface agitation to prevent CO2 loss), quite hypnotic actually! You can see the floating plant, Riccia fluitans gives off the most oxygen, the Rotala indica (the red one) does well too. I find my plants pearl most just after changing the mixture in my CO2 units and after adding fertilisers, for obvious reasons.

 

[George Farmer]

another

 

[hixy]

beautiful tank mate

 

[Joel]

Absolutely Beatiful!

 

[George Farmer]

Gold Ram caught at full speed!

 

[Joby]

Great tank and Ram

 

[Yenko]

I love that floating red plant. Do you think it would grow in a ten gallon tank with 28 watts of light and a good reflector?

 

[lucky62]

Gold Ram caught at full speed!

looks like the tetra is in is mouth

Nice pictures !!

 

[fufanu360]

nice pics!

jsut dont drop the cam in the tank

 

[wuvmybetta]

stunning as always Your plants always look so amazing!

 

[cometcattle]

Your Riccia fluitans looks incredible!

 

[Puffer_freak]

nice pics!

jsut dont drop the cam in the tank

If he did that all the plants would stop it hitting the bottom! Or the bubbles...

Great tank! In fact, great tanks I love them all, they are so great!

BTW, how much do those CO2 thingies that I hear all the good planty people talk about cost to buy?My plants never do well, so I was thinking of getting one. Also, is it worth it? Sorry for all the questions but I am desperate to get my plants to do well (although my puffers don't seem to want the same thing, I have perfect round holes in all my pants but my puffers just go when I give them evil looks...)

 

[George Farmer]

I love that floating red plant. Do you think it would grow in a ten gallon tank with 28 watts of light and a good reflector?

The red plant you mention is actually Rotala indica (known as rotundfolia too I think). It's a stem plant and it looks like it's floating becuase I've let it grow to the surface. It should do ok in your tank but will only go (intense) red with good lighting, more then you have I would guess. The plant starts off green but will get redder with more light. It's a fast-grower and needs regular pruning (in my setup anyway!!)
I believe it's not fussy about water chemistry and is quite undemanding although mine does better just after iron fertilisation. CO2 would obviously help too. HTH

 

[George Farmer]

nice pics!

jsut dont drop the cam in the tank

If he did that all the plants would stop it hitting the bottom! Or the bubbles...

Great tank! In fact, great tanks I love them all, they are so great!

BTW, how much do those CO2 thingies that I hear all the good planty people talk about cost to buy?My plants never do well, so I was thinking of getting one. Also, is it worth it? Sorry for all the questions but I am desperate to get my plants to do well (although my puffers don't seem to want the same thing, I have perfect round holes in all my pants but my puffers just go when I give them evil looks...)

CO2 addition is quite a controversial topic. Some believe it's only necessary if you have lots of light (over 2 Watts per Gallon) and are showing good signs of growth already. It will however help plants in all cases, BUT will not solve underlying problems caused by other limiting growth factors i.e. poor lighting, sterile substrate, unsuitable water chemistry, over-filtration/aeration etc.

In short CO2 will benefit plants but it may only be justified if you create an ideal suitable for growth without it. Hope that makes sense.

A side point is that if you keep Puffers that prefer alkaline conditions CO2 addition will make the pH drop.

 

[Puffer_freak]

Oh damn. I didn't realise that CO2 would cause the ph to drop.

OK, I guess I won't get it then.

Thanks for the info anyway!