The Old Hill

[wackystarfish]

Ok, since the creation of my 125l puffer planted aquascape thread, the idea has had to evolve and develop to suit my surroundings in the fact that puffers are not suitable due to the puffer drought around here! However, the plans for the tank will be carrying on!!! For those that havent seen the thread, here are all the specs

Juwel Rio 125l Tropical Tank

Lighting
2 X 20 watt Sunglo bulbs giving me roughly 1.5 WPG

Substrate
For planting and for forming 'the hill' where most of the plants shall be, i bought a 20lbs bag of eco complete from ebay for abour £30 incl P&P
For filling the rest of the tank i used standard pea gravel as it was what i have handy! (Have Tonnes of the stuff!)

Dosing
I will be dosing the tank with EasyCarbo and Tropica Plant nutrition as to the instructions on the box, hopefully this will give the tank a little boost!

Plants
I ordered all my plants from www.java-plants.co.uk. They should have been here, however the first lot got lost in the post and never turned up - phoned java and all is sorted out as they have resent the order (arriving Tuesday-Wednesday) and included 10 free plants for the trouble!
Here is the plant list:
5 x Java Fern £6.75
5 x Elodea Densa £4.50
5 x Dwarf Hairgrass £5.75
2 x Blyxa Japonica (potted)
- : £7.00
5 x Pygmy Chain Sword £7.25
5 x Java Moss £6.40
5 x Crassula Helmsii £11.25
5 x Amazon Sword £7.50
1 x Water Lettuce £0.95
10 x Crypt Becketii £29.00
7 x Crypt Balansae £36.75
5 x Giant Japanese Rush £11.75
1 x Moss Ball (Chladophora Aegagrophila) £3.95
It is going to be a bit of an experiment as to whether the plants work or not but lets hope for the best eh?! Also, i am looking into possibly trying ricia in the tank as a carpeter, however i need peoples views as to whether this would work or not...

Hardscape
As you can tell, i have been desperatley trying to keep this as inexpensive as possible so i had to be 'resourcefull' when obtaining my hardscape!!!
I 'beach borrowed' some pebbly rocks which were boiled and scrubbed and checked with vinegar
I obtained all my wood free also (its a long story! )

Picture of the tanks hardscape will be up soon - need to find the camera
Im afraid my aquascaping is really quite bad however, with your advice hopefully i can make this work!!!
Comments welcome

 

[lljdma06]

You are cheating if you dose Easycarbo. But you do have more light than I do.

 

[wackystarfish]

lol haha! i guess so! After dosing my tank just to try it out all algae vanished, and im talking the seriously stuborn small green spots!! Woop!
Pics coming now!!!

 

[wackystarfish]

For some reason the images seem extremley dark, il try and take more. I does look better in real life however i still think its pretty rubbish The plan is to have the plants shooting out of 'the hill' some how - suggestions appreciated
Finlay

*EDIT got a better one

 

[lljdma06]

Bolbitis, an aquatic African fern. Should give you that "plant throwing up from the middle" look you're going for.

Profile is here.

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=188999

 

[wackystarfish]

Thanks for the advice - i shall look into that!

 

[wackystarfish]

Please, ANY ideas as to how and where i should plant the plants i have ordered allready would be fantastic, i am a complete noob when it comes to this sort of thing!

 

[wackystarfish]

Ok UPDATE!
Today i was very pleasantly suprised!!! popped in to pets at home Blackpool and was extremley suprised with the level of knowlege and care in the aquatic department, which has recently been done up. Siamese fighters were seperated into decent heated spaces - tanks were clean and fish were healthy - about oine casualty in the whole shop! In each tank, huge sticks of bogwood with xmas moss, java moss, all sorts were added providin a haven for the fish and fry to hide in. They had a huge Cichlid tank which was heavliy planted and the fish looked brill, also they had keywholes, rams and beautifull dwarf gouramis all in tip top condition. Also, the little plant section was fantastically maintained, clean clear tanks were well lit and the plants were very healthy!
Needless to say i had to buy some stuff! xD
I purchased 3 beautifull Dwarf Gouramis and four little guppies to add some diversity and colour. Also i grabbed a few plants on my way out which need ID'ing. Further more, the member of staff who was helping me both checked that the tank was cycled and was big enough for the fish. She also gave me some free livebearer fry which had been hiding in the moss, so that they wouldnt go to their almost certain grave lol. pictures coming up soon, and maybe there IS hope yet for pets at home!

 

[wackystarfish]

FTS


One of the blues

All together now xD

 

[wackystarfish]

*****UPDATE!!!*****

Plants have arrived from java!! all settling in very nicely!!! Still need some twigs to tie the java moss to, at the moment, it is in with the fry in a floating breeding trap. is this the right way to propagate it and get more??? Also, i bought some HC off a member here just to try out in my tank, and its doing really well!!! Its grown and started to spread allready! Dead Chuffed especially as it was a source of great fun for the fish initially who loved tearing it apart and moving it! XD Here are some pictures Comments and critiques always welcome - sadly this thread hasnt been that active though...

 

[lljdma06]

Comments and critiques always welcome - sadly this thread hasnt been that active though...

I'm sorry, poor baby! I'm the moderator and my threads are even less active than yours.

I will comment.

In your previous post you had a varigated plant. The one in the middle with the light and dark leaves. Can you take a close up shot of it so I can ID it. It looks potentially non-aquatic to me.

The rest of the plants you purchased from Pets at Home look like variations on the Amazon sword theme and they are a-okay for your tank. Might get pretty big.

Needless to say, but your tank looks worlds better than it did in your first photo.

llj

 

[wackystarfish]

Haha! XD i will check yours out too! Thanks for the comment I am definetly a lot more happy with it! Regarding the non aquatic, i have a feeling it is some sort of lilly... my initial reaction was the same as yours, but as time goes by, its been doing fine, even growing new shoots and leaves...
Il take a picture for you shortly I had trouble tying the java fern to the wood - how long until it becomes fixed? I used cotton sewing thread, so hopefully it will fix by the time it has disintegrated. Also, there is one problem with my tank - and thats my plec ¬.¬ i think im going to have to rehome him, he has been making mincemeat of the amazon swords.
Il hurry off to your threads now and take that picture Thanks!