MrWaxhead

OH also fantastic photos, you take great photos all the pictures of your fish and plants etc, have great detail and look stunning.

Isabella

Hey Mr. Waxhead, thank you And it's great to see you on Fish Lore again!

By the way, Mr. Waxhead, I think I'll be buying a pressurized CO2 system soon (maybe in 2 months or so). I don't know if I'll use it all the time, but I am very curious of how much faster my plant growth will be with the addition of CO2. That is, I don't want the plants to grow too fast, but fast enough to significantly reduce algal growth (by consuming nutrients faster, and therefore leaving less nutrients for algae). Plus, I don't think you can get a very dense carpet of foreground plants without CO2. And I'd love a very dense carpet! (With the addition of CO2, I may also upgrade my lighting to 2.2-2.5 WPG; currently, it's at 1.7 wpg.)

Lastly, Mr. Waxhead, I ordered one SAE for my tank (they didn't have it this week, maybe they'll have it next week). And later on, I'll add 4 Otos to the algae eating squad. All this, based on your advice

P.S. For those interested: Some of the Jungle Val leaves have now reached about 50" in length! Don't know whether I should trim them or just leave them like that. But I like the look of them floating on the top and creating a little shadow for my fishies

MrWaxhead

Well it really depends alot on the plant for how much faster its growth will be. Some its night and day a healthy growing plant becomes a weed in growth others is only a slight difference. Also yes sadly most carpeting plants are a c02 and light hogs, I do know people that use moss as carpets though, basically take rocks etc of different sizes and shapes and hairnet moss down to them along regions of the floor and keep the moss trimmed down nice and neat. Can be a good option for people like yourself that are quite frankly getting great results sans c02.

Finally though c02 is a funny thing, I really strongly find it can't be a use it sometimes then turn it off etc. Unstable c02 really can and does cause algae to take off. As it seems your plants kinda get used to what they are getting if that makes sense. IE if your not giving them c02 its almost like they don't really miss it, but if you start to give them some they almost seem to go into a state of shock and withdraw from its absence.

And many of your plants like your stunning swords etc are heavy root feeders, so as long as they keep getting good ferts from the soil and root tabs etc, they will most likely thrive as is.

As you mentioned though carpets are the kicker, I personally have never had any luck with carpets in tanks with no c02, some do though.

Congrats again, and I am looking forward to watching your progress with this tank, I like it alot.

agsansoo

Wow, I'm speechless ! That's a very healthy looking tank.

Isabella

Here is what my Java Moss looks like now (with a snail on it ). In truth it hasn't grown that much, but it looks much greener now, and it looks like it's beginning to really take off now. I'm actually a little surprised that my Vals, for example, grow MUCH faster than my Java Moss because Vals are supposedly harder to grow and more demanding than Java Moss. Java Moss is supposed to be an easy beginner plant. Not complaining - it DOES grow and looks nice ... only I thought it would grow very fast.

COBettaCouple

looks great! java moss is def. for me, with the luck i've had with plants.

Tayful

Oh wow, it's so beautiful. I love all the green

neverendingninja

I found java moss to be slow to take off, but now I find big clumps of it all over my tank!

Isabella

Ninja, I agree. It was very slow to take off for me too. But with time, it grows dense, and the longer you've had it, the faster it seems to grow with time, doesn't it?

MrWaxhead

Hey hey, I have not seen any update in a while on how things are going!!

Sorry I never really did get a change to help answer some of the questions you had asked me, but I see Rex and other gave you alot of great advice over on plantgeek. I am just kind of curious to see how tank is doing etc and looking forward to newer photos (you take amazing photos btw, the detail in them is stunning).

Hopefully all is going very well and everything is thriving (well minus algae, we don't need that to thrive hehe)

Isabella

Hi Mr. Waxhead ... thanks for asking and sorry for replying this late Because I'm not using CO2, plant growth isn't that fast, but ... the plants ARE growing. And to tell you the truth, the tank looks almost exactly the same as it did the day I planted it. I just keep cutting off decaying leaves and new leaves slowly grow in place of old ones. I keep trimming off Java Moss when it grows too large. I'll have occasional algae here and there, but my algae eaters take care of everything - didn't have major algae problems. Miraculously, the black beard algae that I had a problem with, went away by itself - no idea how. Maybe they were some kind of a transitional stage in a new tank? Because I've never heard of Otos eating this type of algae, and never saw my Otos eat it either. Also, what I wanted and didn't get was the "lawn" effect. I think for the plants to completely cover the substrate and to look literally like grass, you DO need CO2, otherwise the plant growth is too slow. And I still want to try CO2 one day, just don't have the time for it now.

MrWaxhead

Fantastic, I am glad all is doing well. And in many cases a slow staying healthy growth is ideal, so much less work and less stress on the fish. Glad the algae cleared up once everything balanced out. And if looks like it did back when it was planted all is good as you did a very nice job laying everything out.

Isabella

Yeah, I suppose slower growth means less work . But ... I'll never have that "lawn" effect unless I get CO2. And anyway, I do want to try CO2 one day - when the time permits .

Besides that, HOW ARE YOU DOING Mr. Waxhead? Long time no see! How is your beautiful tank doing?

EDIT: I just saw the new picture in your thread and commented on it

hockeyref88

Well I'm obviously coming into this thread real late but my gosh..........Just gorgeous!!!

Isabella

Thanks a lot for the comment Hockeyref88, much appreciated . Yes, it's quite an old thread, and I got this tank even much longer before I planted it ... lol. The whole process took me "ages" .

fish_newbie

Holy Thats Amazing !!

Fish_wise_man

WOW!!!

How do you get the plants to be SO green!!??

You have NO ALGAE, or ANY thing wrong with your tank water!! How do you do it?? Please tell me

I LOVE Your tank setup!!

Angela_96

AWESOME!
Im getting started with planted tanks, and yours is one of the prettiest I have seen!

lorabell

AWESOME!!!!!!! Absolutely beautiful!!!!!! I can only dream....lol...lol....u have a real talent!!!!!!!

Sharkitty

Thanks to whoever bumped this. Great tank! How it doing nearly two years later?

rileyrk190

stunning tank!

LarryDavid

This is still one of the best tanks I have ever seen

hernandez.j91

That is a georgous tank.. Love all the green plants against the dark background..

Lucy

I agree, this tank is gorgeous, however, this thread is really old and the member hasn't been on the forum for a over a year.

I'm going to go ahead and close this thread.