Regal

Thought I'd share some pictures of Riccia Fluitans growing on flat rocks in my 75 gallon. I found the rocks in a river near my house. I spread the Riccia over the rocks and wrapped it with net I bought at the fabric store.

It might be Dwarf Riccia, I'm not really sure.

Attached Images

	fishlore left riccia 11-21-09.JPG (126.5 KB, 124 views)
	fishlore left riccia rummy 11-21-09.jpg (138.8 KB, 123 views)
	fishlore riccia right two 11-21-09.jpg (131.1 KB, 120 views)
	fishlore right riccia 11-21-09.jpg (112.0 KB, 121 views)
	fishlore whole tank riccia 11-21-09.jpg (117.8 KB, 120 views)

Nate McFin

It looks like dwarf and it looks FANTASTIC! I just love the look of that stuff. My new 55 will be getting a whole carpet of dwarf riccia. Thanks for sharing.

EDIT- For those interested here is alink I have been saving for the project.
http://www.projectaquarium.com/plant...arfRiccia.aspx

Lucy

I really like that! Your tank loos great!
What are the light and temp requirments?

Oops Nate, missed the link you posted. Thanks!

Regal

Thanks Nate!

The net I used has holes about the same size as the body sponge in that page. It's stiffer though. I bought a few yards of it for like 75 cents per yard and I've used that stuff for everything. I use a crumbled piece to scrubb algae off the glass in all my tanks.

The Riccia seems to really like lots of light and co2. I let it take over a ten gallon with DIY c02 and two light strips and a total of 45 watts till I had enough to cover the rocks.

I guess it doesn't really matter if it's dwarf or not. I tried to figure it out for a while but gave up lol

Thanks Lucy!

The tank it's in has two 65 watt 10,000k bulbs and two 6,700k bulbs and DIY c02. That combination probably explains the algae outbreak I had recently. I had to throw out most of my plants to get rid of the algae. I managed to keep enough of each type to get then growing again.

Nate McFin

Great tip on using the sponger to scrub your glass, thanks!

Robin4

coffeebean

that looks soooooooooooooo good

Regal

Thank You!

aquarist48

Sue your tank is amazing! So green! I love it!
Thanks for sharing.
Ken

enthusiast

the MTS like cockroaches..i have that same problem in my 75 gal planted tank!! they've took over so quickly and they're just EVERYWHERE!

buy some Assassin snails- I did! the botias wouldnt eat em cuz of their shells

Regal

Thanks Ken!

I can't believe I put them in there on purpose. I don't know what type of algae they're supposed to eat but they seem useless to me. I throw them out constantly. Sometimes 50 - 100 at a time. I don't think I'm over feeding either. It's been months since I've fed my fish more than once a day.

It's true that they do spend most of their time in the substrate but I can't feed my BN Pleco because they cover any algae wafer or shrimp pellet instantly. ewwww

In a tank with sand they can be sifted out but with other types of substrate it's impossible to get rid of them. I'll have to check out the Assassin Snail. Did that get rid of them completely?

Tony G.

Sue, you're tank looks great! I'm starting to think my riccia isn't doing that well... yours looks so green compared to mine...

beautiful little patches!

Regal

Thank you!

Maybe mines a different kind. Dwarf v. regular. I don't know. You could try making a diy co2 set-up. It's really easy and seems to help a lot. Do you have a pic of yours?

Tony G.

No i dont have any pics

Any advice on the DIY co2? Like any blueprints? LOL
mine's a regular...

Regal

I could find you some. or take some pics of mine. What do you mean regular? Do you have pressurized co2? (if so I'm super jealous lol) or the kind with the packets?

Tony G.

i dont have co2... that could be the reason..

what is your's like?

Regal

Oh, when you said yours was regular I thought you meant that you had a different type of co2 than I had.

I'll take a picture and post it for you.

Tony G.

Thanks!

Regal

Here you go Tony. I sort of wrote a book. Sorry

You will need

• either one or two 2-liter bottles
• one 20-ounce bottle
• some airline tubing
• a T connector (if using two 2-liters)
• and a straight connector with an opening on each end
• a tube of aquarium silicone

You will need to make one hole in each 2-liter bottle lid and two holes in the 20-ounce bottle lid.

(You could use a drill bit or the hot nail method to make the holes. The hot nail goes through the lid very easily but, of course, be careful or you’ll end up with a burnt finger. I used a pair of pliers to hold the nail over the stove burner and then touch it to the lid to make a hole. You don’t need it to be red hot. I used a drill on the first one I made. It doesn’t really matter.)

Make the holes smaller than the width of the airline tubing so you get a good seal. The hole should be small enough so that it’s difficult to pull the tubing through. Make the hole from the outside of the cap towards the inside so you don’t tear or melt the little liner in the cap.

Just push the tube through about ½ inch into the cap, you don’t want it going into the liquid. For the 20-ounce, you want the “in” tube to extend to near the bottom and the “out” tube to extend only about ½ inch into the cap. This smaller bottle is used as a trap to catch any liquid from the bigger bottles before it gets into your tank. Any liquid would come out the long tube and end up on the bottom and the co2 gas goes out the shorter “out” tube. (I’ve never had any liquid end up in the smaller bottle) The smaller bottle can also be used as a bubble counter. If you put a little water in the small bottle you can see the bubbles as they come in to the small bottle.

The “out” tube on the 20-ounce will have the straight connector on it so you can disconnect the whole thing easily to refill your yeast mix. Connect another piece of tubing to the straight connector and run that into the aquarium with an air stone. Somewhere along the tube going into the aquarium you need to add a check valve (usually a free one packaged with air pumps) to keep tank water from siphoning back into the bottles. The tank water would mix with the yeast and the yeast would end up in your tank.
If you are using two 2-liter bottles then connect them to the T connector and run a short line to the “in” on the 20-ounce.

Use silicone to seal the tubes to the caps. I just goop it on kind of thick. The kind I have says it needs to dry 24 hours. Don’t fill the bottles till the silicone is completely dry or the pressure of the co2 gas will blow little holes in your silicone. You can check for leaks before filling the bottles by holding the whole thing under water and squeezing the 2-liters. You should only see bubbles coming from the tube going into the aquarium.

As far as the recipe for the yeast mix, there are lots of ideas on the internet. Basically, it’s sugar, yeast and you can add a pinch of baking soda. What I do is fill the bottom narrow part of the bottle with sugar, add a ½ teaspoon of yeast and fill the bottle to the part where the top gets narrow with warm water. This last about 3 weeks for me. You should see bubbles in a few hours. If you don’t see bubbles by the next day then you probably have a leak. I just replace the mixture when the bubbles stop.

The yeast will make more bubbles if it is in a warm place but make sure it’s not sitting where it could get knocked over. If that happens the yeast mixture will all go into your aquarium and will kill your fish.

Attached Images

	fishlore co2 whole.jpg (132.6 KB, 56 views)
	fishlore up close.jpg (99.9 KB, 47 views)
	fishlore c02 tools.jpg (98.1 KB, 45 views)

Tony G.

wow thanks!!! this is really helpful!!! i will make my own! do the bottles go inside the tank or outside...? LOL i have no clue

Regal

Outside. Just the one tube with the airstone goes inside the tank. The idea is that the yeast eats the sugar and gives off co2 and just the co2 gas goes in the water. Something like that

You should google "diy co2" to get a better understanding of it. I don't know all the details on why it works I just know I see see results.

Another thing to keep in mind is that it will lower your pH so you need to keep an eye on that. I put crushed coral in a filter bag in my filters and it seems to balance the ph out. I just tested the tank in this thread today and it's 6.6.

DIY co2 before and after pics

Steve420

[quote=suemvb;704676]
You should google "diy co2" to get a better understanding of it. I don't know all the details on why it works I just know I see see results.
QUOTE]

You coulda fooled me! It seems like you know more about this than you are giving yourself credit for!!

You might want to try a diffuser (sp?) instead of an airstone. Although I don't run any CO2, its very tempting to me and I've read a up on it a little bit. But my understanding is that a diffuser will give off "finer" co2 bubbles making them easier to absorb into the water. If the bubbles are too big and got to the top and pop...I think you are losing most of the co2.

And on a side note, those rocks look sweet!

Regal

Thanks Steve!

On this tank I have a little electric diffuser (if thats what it's called) that came with the Hydor yeast co2 I bought. It's the kind that uses the little packets. I just replaced their little bottle with the two 2-liters. It churns the bubbles to a really small size. I have the diffuser in my sump with the bubbles getting sucked up by the pump and churned up a little more. On the other tanks I just have the air stone. I'm sure a diffuser would be a lot better. Maybe some day...

BTW all of my plants are doing well

Do any of them look familiar to you?

Steve420

I didn't want to say it, but yes...there are a couple of plants in there that look oddly familiar. Hmmmm......

and I can't get over how cool those rocks look. I'm not gonna lie...I think i'm going to steal your idea

Regal

It's not my idea lol. I just got it to grow after several attempts

Nate McFin

Awesome before and after pics and very nice tutorial.