swapnils

update as on 25/05/2008

Update -The growth is very good. Only been able to make a jungle of Hygrophilla and anacharis. Still struggling with glosso Sad .

Tank Specs :-
Low tech
Dimension - 18x9x12
Substrate - 1.5 inch Laterite and 2 inch Golden Sand
CO2 - DIY Diffused through Powerhead
Fertilizer - Aquabloom Liquid Fertz and Power plus 20 Substate Ferts
Lighting - 1x23watts philips CFL 6500k, 1x8watts Oreva CFL 6500k

Lost the breeding pair of ramerize due to temperature issue.
Now Introduced 4 quarter size pair of black mollies to get rid of BBA.




Sorry for the unclean glass, a bit lazy sunday.

Comments please.

Shawnie

that is coming along great!!!!!!!! it looks so mysterious!

Fish Addict

If you needed a good way to keep the glass clean, go for ottos! I can barely find a speck of algae on my glass after I got them!

Lucy

I really like it, it's beautiful and looks like a fun fish home.

Isabella

Looks so lush and green - truly BEAUTIFUL

swapnils

Thanks for the comments.

COBettaCouple

Wow.. stunning!

swapnils

Any tips to improve the aquascape plz.

MrWaxhead

Looks like all is going great, very healthy looking so far. The only advice I can give and its personal really, things I like you may hate etc (basically do what catches your eye not mine or anyone else) but my 2 cents are the following.

I would switch to a plain background ( ie put plain black vinyl on the backside of the tank rather then a image) makes the plants and fish pop out more. Instead of them getting lost in the image on the back etc)

If your going to leave what looks like glosso in that packaging use some hardscape ie rocks or wood to kinda build around the container and in so doing would make a tiered or layered effect in the tank.

And keep topping the stem plant in the back left and replanted the tops you cut off to keep them thick and lush looking and occasionally pull out the bottoms you leave behind as they start to get leggy looking. Those stems are always good to keep topping and replanting to keep there growth fast, as fast growth means good nutrient soak therefore giving algae much less of a chance to take off, and also keeping toxins ammonia nitrite and nitrate down etc.

All in all very nice looking and congrats on the tank, looks great.

xsile

Driftwood ?

swapnils

ok 2morrow will mostly be getting a driftwood. Got some small Java fern and Java moss from a friend. Right now finding no space occupy them. Any suggestions in aquascaping

MissMTS

I don't have any suggestions for you, but the tank looks great

swapnils

Thanks all and MrWaxhead. I used that background as this was my 1st planted tank and was just getting a hang of planted tank. So I was ready to use whatever I had to put things up. This was just a trail tank and will soon be setting up same dimension tank. That time the flaws will be looked after.

The tips are really really valuable from you. I liked your tank very much and has put as my desktop background. Hope to learn a lot more from you in

future. The plant in the foreground is glosso and the one in the tray is HC cuba. I left it in the tray as summer is on and due to small volume of the tank the temperature is touching 32-34 degrees. Once the monsoon is up i'll plant them in the substrate.

Can you please help me out with my glosso??
It forms runners but the growth is really very slow. Its been planted for more than a month. I know its difficult growing glosso with DIY CO2.

Thanks,
Swapnil

MrWaxhead

Ahh yes HC the leaves are very tiny I didn't notice until you mentioned it. I just saw the glosso in your substrate and assumed it was a tray of it you were thickening up.

And as far as glosso goes its a high light (if your light is not strong enough it will grow towards the light instead of creepping along the substrate to give you a carpet look) , good substrate and nutrient loving plant. And as far as DIY C02 on a tank that size its fine to run DIY, I have ran DIY on tanks up to 29g, I just run two bottles on a 29g. Just make sure you mixture is always good and healthy, if it starts to slow off and your c02 level dips it can trigger algae. Personally with DIY i like running at least two bottles and change them out at opposite times so one is always nice and fresh if you get what I mean. You could also try to add some fert tabs in the substrate in random places where the glosso is not at yet, and it will encourage the roots to grow towards those areas and aid in the spread and growth of the plant.

The dimensions of the tank you gave in your post works out to be about 8.5 gallons, and your lighting is it the little spiral guys? If so you have 31 watts of CFL lighting on your tank which works out to about 26.5 watts of T12 lighting which WPG was based on which gives you about 3.3 WPG which should be enough for glosso. So you should have enough c02 if your mixture is good yeast to sugar wise ( I am a big fan of champayne yeast and brown sugar when doing diy), and your lighting should be enough. Which kinda leaves things to root tabs and ferts, do you run any ferts what so ever, as once you start into lighting and c02 you start to push the plants to want to photosynthesize at a faster rate and they will need food to complete this cycle. That again starts a hole new game, as if you add more then the plants require you feed algae, if you don't add enough they plants wont grow. You can play with individual macros and micros and try and find a balance that works for you tank, or you can go with EI or PMDD methods of dosing more then you need and doing at least a 50% water change weekly to reset the balance before algae uses them.

I personally like individual dosing of my macros, and micros. I just started with less then my tank needed while learning the needs of my plants based of growth of types of the plants and fish load. And slowly upping them until I saw some algae growth and backed off. Gave me a better understanding of my tanks needs. But for the most part EI is bullet proof works very well and gives great results, as long as you don't miss the large water change to reset the fert load.

swapnils

Yes the light is the spiral CFL bulbs from philips 6500k. Actually the vertical glosso is that i bought from the store. It forms runners, but the growth is very less. I think I need to try the alternate bottle method to maintain the CO2 level in the tank. Recently added some more plants in the tank and now its heavily planted so i need to up my fertilizer level. I wanted to know who many days or months does it take for root tab to be used completely??
Right now I am just using Liquid fertilizer Aqua Bloom which is also used by my LFS and has a compact carpet of glosso with river sand and humus as subtrate.
The only problem with my glosso not growing i think is the red soil and golden sand as the substrate.
Will try to push in some substrate capsules and observe for a month and will update then.

Ryno

What are the EI or PMDD methods?

swapnils

@ Ryno

PMDD
http://indianaquariumhobbyist.com/co...t=1896&start=0

EI method
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/f...ing-guide.html

Links rectified.

Ryno

Links aren't working for me I stopped being lazy and just

I am digging the PMDD, once I found it anyways. If you are going to make sure you use the word aquarium with PMDD, unless of course it is that time of the month, in that case it may be helpful either way.