neverendingninja

Well, not a new aquarium, but might as well be. Since the last time I posted anything about it, I've put in new bulbs(SunPaq 6700/10000k), added pressurized CO2 and started doing EI dosing. I had a little green spot algae outbreak, but I think that was due to the brief nutrient deficiency incited due to the increased growth after the addition of CO2.

Anyhow, heres a picture click for full-size.

lisamorie

i love it! i ordered the plants for my 55 gallon last week and i am dying for them to come, i hope mine looks half as good as yours!!

MissMTS

Wow! I love the plant that you have. It really looks gorgeous! Great job!

COBettaCouple

Whoa! Great job - that's a beauty!

miker

Wow! It looks awesome! Can you share us the tank's watts/gal, substrate and plants. That will help all the new planters!

My Guess is that you have 3.5 watts/gal, Eco-Complete, plants - Brown Crypt, Black Sword, Micro Sword, Cardinal plant, Ludwigia Reopens, Red Sword, Cabomba...

Jim

Wow, I am truely impressed. This looks like it came straight out of a page of one of Amano's books. I am very curious about your lighting and EI dosing... details, we need details man! lol! Seriously, check out my new project:
My new Swamp Tank
I find it ironic that our tanks in some ways are so similar and yet so very diffferent. I really would love to compare notes.

Oh, and miker, unless I'm mistaken those aren't microswords, they're pygmy chain swords.

primerowan

Your tank is gorgeous!! I'm a beginner about to start a 55gal. planted tank - and I'm totally envious of yours! What kind of lighting and plant maintenance are you doing?

finmama

Wow I love your tank. Someday....lol

neverendingninja

Its 130w of compact flourescent lights, so I'm sitting right at 2.36WPG. I'm planning on upgrading to around 3wpg pretty soon, though. I'm supplementing CO2 through a pressurized CO2 tank, blowing through a glass diffuser under a power head, which further atomizes the bubbles and blows them across the tank. According to the drop checker, I'm right around 35ppm CO2.

Plants include; Alternanthera Reineckii, Ludwigia Repens, Echinodorus Tenellus, Hygrophila Dimorphis, Nuphar Stellata, Rotala Rotundifolia, Microsorum Pteropus v. 'Windelov', Cabomba Carolinia, Hemianthus Callitrichoides, Cryptocoryne Wendtii v. 'Brown', Cryptocoryne Parva, Cryptocoryne Ponterdiifolia, Taxiphylum sp. "Peacock Moss", and some others...I've never written that list up before, quite a variety! edit; Also Anubias Heterophyla, Anubias Nana v. 'Petite' and Anubias Afzelii.

Fauna includes; Apistogramma Cacatuoides(pair), 14 Rasbora Heteromorpha, 3 SAEs(young, so they still eat algae), 7 Otocinclus sp., Keyhole Cichlid(male, ~5"), 2 Neritina Reclivata, and some odd number of ghost shrimp(the cichlids eat them). I know its over the 1"/gal rule, but that is totally void when you have a high rate of growth. Even with all those fish, if I were not to dose nitrates, they would fall to 0ppm(it happened on my 10gal...talk about algae!).

When it comes down to EI dosing, on days 1, 3 and 5, I add 1 gram of KNO3, along with 2g of K2SO4. Once I get my hands on some K2PO4, I'll be adding that also, but for now I add Flourish Phosphorus(too expensive to dose often). On days 2, 4 and 6 I add Flourish Comprehensive and Iron(will be switching to Plantex CSM+B). On every day, I double dose Flourish Excel...10mg for 50g. On the 7th day I do a 50% water change, and add ~7g of MgSO4·7H2O(Epsom Salt) to bump up the water hardness a bit, and supplement magnesium.

The substrate is 60lb Eco-Complete mixed with 25lb Estes Deep River gravel.

I really had NO plans when I started this tank. You can see what it used to look like, and I've transformed it into what it is now.


Anyhow, I have to be up at 6am, and its 12:10am now!

miker

You have chosen your plants very wisely. It is a nice surprise to see that you are growing all the colorful plants for just 2.36 w.gal

CO2 helps too!

pinky93

B-E-A-Utiful! I love both! Simply a fish haven

MagpieTear

Bravo!

Jim

Ninja, unless I'm mistaken, that's an ADA (Aqua Design Amamo) all glass drop checker on the upper right side of your tank. May I ask where you bought it, locally or on-line? I have a cheap plastic RedSea and I'm looking for a nice ADA glass one, but no-one locally carries them.

neverendingninja

Its not ADA, its a ripoff, but it is glass, looks nice and does the job well. I bought it from AquaticMagic on eBay. It cost me $15-$20, but shipping took almost a month. However, there is a fellow who bought a bunch of them and imported them, so we wouldn't have to wait like that. Unfortunately, I didn't see his ad when I was looking for mine.

I would get it here. Mine came all the way from Singapore.

Blub

neverendingninja

Yes, your dad is wrong. When we refer to light in the planted field, we're referring to fluorescent lights. If you want to do plants in your 47gal, I would suggest at least 130w, similar to what I have. Keep in mind, that all lights are different. It takes less watts of T5 lighting to equal the same output as compact fluorescents. Here is a headache for you. Read up!

Anyhow, if you go to this link you can read the brief summary of what I did to change the substrate out.

Jim

Hey hey HEY, THANK YOU!!!! I've been looking for a long time at my Bowfront tank vs. my Column tank, and the wattage over each, and it just didn't make sense. I know what the WPG's are, but looking at it, it just wasn't RIGHT. The surface area of the bowfront is much greater than the column, which is tall and skinny, so it seemed to me like the WPG rule was thrown out the window somewhere. Plus combined whith the difference in depths, it wasn't working on my head. And that headache link you posted just proved I was right! hehehe. I have to print it out and read it more carefully, because I'm just getting ready to rebuild my column tank, and this could prove very valuable information. Again... thank you!

neverendingninja

Go with metal halides for your column tank. Its the only way to go when you have limited surface area on a deeper tank.