What To Do Next ?

[karlp]

Hi Guys

This is what the tank first looked like when it was planted around Christmas time. The aim is to provide a naturalish looking tank that will offset the fish and give them a comfortable home, with some swimming space at the front.

Following a bit of an algae war (which is not over, but is definitely heading in the right direction), I took out a lot of the anubias and all the hair grass... this is what the tank looks like now:

So what to do next ? Any ideas ?

I'd love to get the red flame echinodorus to stop producing curly leaves. When it first went in, the UV was off and the temp was 30.5C because of ich and it grew beautifully with deep red speckled leaves. Now with the temp back at 26C it produces nothing but curly leaves.

I've tied an Anubias plant to the cave to encourage it to start to cover the rock work. The Anubias I took out are doing OK in a lower lit tank, so might move them back.

The E Tenellus doesn't want to grow on top of the cave, because I guess the substrate is not rich or deep enough, but the main carpet I give a hair cut every couple of weeks. The Brazilian Pennywort is doing great and I have to cut about about a foot of cuttings off a week (note anyone that wants to send me an SAE with zip bag). The Vallis needs trimming back about every 3 days as well and runners pulling out, because its' trying to invade the E Tenellus.

Tank stats are:

KH=10 degrees, CO2 = 30ppm, pressurised CO2, 120W of T8 lighting over 180 litre tank, substrate heater cable, Substrate is layer of pea gravel (covering cable), Aquaclay mixed with JBL Florapol, top layer of pea gravel to anchor the plants, coz Aquaclay is too light!

Cheers

p.s, check out the latest addition to my tank: One of a pair of L134 Leopard Frog Plecos

 

[lljdma06]

The growth is lush and I think that you have accomplished your goal for providing your fish a natural looking environment to swim in.

I could see you adding some red into the tank, but I don't know if that would compromise the look you're going for.

As for the curling leaves. I do not grow swords, but I do know that in some species, curling leaves is a sign of some type of nutrient deficiency. You might want to look carefully at your dosing regimen and test your tank to see if you are lacking something or have too much of something.

Your plecos look great. Another suggestion if I may be so bold. You have a lot of fish in the upper strata of your tank? Is your tank too heavily stocked that you wouldn't consider adding a few bottom dwellers, just for balance's sake.

Sorry, I'm not particularly helpful. Your tank is lovely. I wouldn't change much, but that's just my opinion.

 

[karlp]

Thanks for that.

Your plecos look great. Another suggestion if I may be so bold. You have a lot of fish in the upper strata of your tank? Is your tank too heavily stocked that you wouldn't consider adding a few bottom dwellers, just for balance's sake.

Actually a lot of that is because whenever I get the camera out the fish seem to dive for cover
I am a bit overstocked I think generally and will need to move some out to a Rekord 70 as the fish grow from being juveniles:

Surface: 10 common Hatchets
Medium: 9 Pentazona barbs, 3 Honey Gourami, 3 Guppies
Bottom (kind of): 2 L134s, 3 Black Whiptails, 4 Syn. Petricola, 1 Bristlenose Plec and 9 Amano Shrimp

 

[zig]

Give the Anubias some shade and they will do ok in your main tank, you had them in to open a position in direct light and this causes problems for anubias in highlight tanks, they are particularily prone to spot algae if left in high amounts of light.

Your brazilian pennyworth is called Cardamine lyrata.

Some sort of branch type driftwood would look good in the open area jutting outwards and still leave room for the fish.

You probably have some some sort of deficiency for the leaves to grow distorted, it is usually a calcuim deficiency that will cause this, but is very unlikely in your case as your KH is quite high so i presume your Gh is similar, if you post your fertiliseation regime we may be able to help you figure it out.

Your Vallis is doing quite well because it prefers harder water.

 

[karlp]

All I've been doing so far is dosing a 1/4 tsp KNO3 a couple of times a week and JBL Ferropol a couple of times per week.

I wonder if the UV could be effecting things, because I know it can break down chelated iron, so I turned it off last night and re-dosed with Ferropol and also added a 1/4 tsp of Potassium Phosphate, to see if that would make a difference.

The readings normally come out at about Phosphate: 0.25 Nitrate 10. I'm doing weekly 50% water changes now.

Yes, I think just having one piece of wood in the tank looks a bit unbalanced I guess.

 

[George Farmer]

Looks excellent Fishy Mad. Why is the second image so dark though? Did you adjust your camera settings?

Your tenellus lawn is most impressive. Have you thinned it out yet i.e. pulled it up and re-planted the healthiest plants. You may need to do this every few months to prevent light deficient induced overcrowding - this is the "problem" with carpeting plants and another reason I want HC as the "service maintenance intervals" are bigger.

zig - I think the right hand plant is Hydrocotyle leucocephala rather than Cardamine lyrata. Lyrata has smaller leaves and does not tolerate warmer temps.

I agree on the hardscpaing front. Some nice wood would compliment well I feel.

I beleive JBL Ferropol is mainly Fe and K so you may well be missing out on some micros. Boron def will cause leaf distortion in new growth. Trace mix should be ideal for your needs and works out cheaper than "off-the-shelf" liquid trace ferts.

I'd also consider dosing higher NO3 and PO4. With your lighting and CO2 then your plants would appreciate a higher level I would suggest i.e. NO3 20ppm, PO4 2ppm.

Anyway, good job.

 

[karlp]

Thanks George

It's a darker photo just becuase I took it during the 'sunset' period in the tank, which is also probably why quite a lot of the fish are not to be seen.. getting ready for the night ahead.

Have you thinned it out yet i.e. pulled it up and re-planted the healthiest plants. You may need to do this every few months to prevent light deficient induced overcrowding - this is the "problem" with carpeting plants and another reason I want HC as the "service maintenance intervals" are bigger.

Doh! I didn't reallise that I'd need to pull it out and replant it. What's the story with this.. what problems does the overcrowding cause ? My maintenance schedule with it at the moment is run my fingers through it a couple of times a week, just to pull out any algae that's accumulating and dislodge dead stuff and then every two weeks cut it like grass and take off any runners that are loose in the grass, that would kill the plants underneath if left unchecked.

Thanks for the tip on the trace elements, I was going to start using those when the Ferropol ran out, but I might just put an order in now.

I'll have a read of the Ei stuff again and perhaps up the NO3 and Phosphate dosing. I have been doing measurements though and found that the tank isn't consuming the NO3 at the rate I thought it would (e.g, lower). I wonder if it's because most of the plants are rooted and use the substrate ferts before they consume what's in the water column.

 

[George Farmer]

I didn't reallise that I'd need to pull it out and replant it. What's the story with this.. what problems does the overcrowding cause ?

Eventually, left unchecked, the growth will become so dense that literally the leaves will smother themselves. The light starved leaves will die, rot and pollute the water, combined with the general minimal circulation amongst a dense carpet this will contribute to algae growth. BBA amongst hairgrass is a classic example.

I have experienced similar problems with my sag before now. I got lazy, just pulled off the worst looking leaves from the root base and let the sag grow rampant. After 3 months or so I experienced exactly what I've just mentioned, except instead of algae many of my leaves just went transparent, presumably due to the lack of light.

There's few short cuts in the high-tech hobby I'm afraid. To summarise, neglect the plants and algae will prevail.

I wonder if it's because most of the plants are rooted and use the substrate ferts before they consume what's in the water column.

That is an interesting point. The plant's uptake preference method will depend on the species i.e. swords and crypts will prefer substrate, most stems prefer water column. I'm not entirely sure about vallis though, I assume water column as it uses bi-carbonates as a source of carbon, and it's root growth is relatively small when compared to classic root-feeders.

 

[karlp]

This could make for an interesting hi-tec / lo-tec experiement.

I've got a Rekord 70 bought off ebay that at the moment houses a pair of Lyretail killifish and is an overflow for plants. I was thinking of upping the lighting a bit and trying to plant the E Tenellus in there and see what it will do. The substrate has Florapol in already and is Aquaclay underneath and pea gravel on top.

If I replant the main tank, there'll be loads left over to plant in the Rekord.

 

[timmystood]

That's excellent! I wish I could get my plants to grow like that!

I must be doing something wrong!

 

[George Farmer]

This could make for an interesting hi-tec / lo-tec experiement.

I've got a Rekord 70 bought off ebay that at the moment houses a pair of Lyretail killifish and is an overflow for plants. I was thinking of upping the lighting a bit and trying to plant the E Tenellus in there and see what it will do. The substrate has Florapol in already and is Aquaclay underneath and pea gravel on top.

If I replant the main tank, there'll be loads left over to plant in the Rekord.

Sound great. Have plants - have fun!