Hey there folks! Been lurking for a bit, but now re-emerging from the darkness to rescape my tank! I set this tank up back in December and it hasn't quite panned out how I wanted. It's been a bit of a mess lately. I've had massive algae problems, I pulled out A LOT of algae the other day, it was in some incredibly thick mats. I had a hydra outbreak I fought off and I think I have fish tuberculosis slowly killing my fish. Unfortunately when a fish dies it's polished off by my shrimp before I can see it. But oh well! Rescape time! By the way guys I am open to any and all ideas with this so have at it!
The tank is going high tech! I've been hardcore struggling with low CO2 levels since the tank started and haven't been able to fix it. Combined with the fact that I want a carpet and some other plants that need CO2, it's a no brainer. I actually intended to go high tech months ago and bought pretty much everything, but then I went out of town and by the time I came back it was lockdown and I couldn't go out to get a CO2 tank. But now since stores are reopening around me I'm going to venture out and pick one up real quick. If anybody has any advice on suctioning stuff to your tank please let me know. I've been trying to get my drop checker on but it keeps popping off within an hour. Cannot get it to stick to save my life, I've even cleaned and dried the stop to stick on and nothing. Or just another way to test CO2.
Onto the rescape itself!
The action plan
On the sides I've got 10 mesh for a moss wall. Originally I found some Fissidens Nobilis at a really good price, but it never grew at all and I believe it all got choked out by algae. So I need a new moss for it. I'm thinking of going for taiwan moss, but still looking, there's so many cool mosses out there.
In the middle of the tank right now is some monte carlo. It's been growing vertically and doesn't look much like monte carlo both due to my low CO2. However, I am considering just getting rid of it and going for Dwarf Baby Tears instead. Can't make up my mind on that so would love to hear what people think.
The rocks all look a bit bland to me. I love them, but they're lacking something. I thought about putting an anubias nana petite on one or two of them, but I already have an anubias on one rock in the background and don't want something so in your face in the midground. So I'm thinking of maybe gluing some christmas moss to the 3 rocks that don't have a plant. I'm also thinking about putting some stargrass just behind the left most rock, that might look nice. The crypt on the right might get moved to my other tank, that will be decided after the rest of the rescape is done to see how it looks.
The background plants! I love vals. But man they're annoying. If I trim them they send runners forwards and it's a mess and if I don't they grow out and look like a mess. And I really don't want to have to deal with runners from them in a carpet. Plus having the background all vals is really bland and boring. So I'm going to tear it out and replace it with 4 different background plants. I want it to be thick and have a nice variety, preferably some different colors. I'm not very well versed with background plants and my LFS is closed for the foreseeable future so I'm not really able to window shop and look at a bunch of different plants. One I was thinking was mermaid weed. I got some a while ago, didn't realize it needed CO2 to really thrive. It grew a bit, but when I went to trim it the entire thing just straight up died after. Also you can't really see it but there is a Vesuvius sword behind the bronze crypt on the right. But there's so much jungle val behind it that it really mutes it and blends together. So something else has got to go behind that of different texture, maybe something red.
Still in the preliminary stages! But hopefully I'll have CO2 running early next week and some new plants for it either later in the week or the week after. Any feedback or ideas greatly appreciated. Hopefully this will be interesting and end up in a much better looking tank. Fingers crossed I don't screw anything up and can get a nice carpet and moss wall going! Sorry I type a lot I'm really bad at being concise
The tank is going high tech! I've been hardcore struggling with low CO2 levels since the tank started and haven't been able to fix it. Combined with the fact that I want a carpet and some other plants that need CO2, it's a no brainer. I actually intended to go high tech months ago and bought pretty much everything, but then I went out of town and by the time I came back it was lockdown and I couldn't go out to get a CO2 tank. But now since stores are reopening around me I'm going to venture out and pick one up real quick. If anybody has any advice on suctioning stuff to your tank please let me know. I've been trying to get my drop checker on but it keeps popping off within an hour. Cannot get it to stick to save my life, I've even cleaned and dried the stop to stick on and nothing. Or just another way to test CO2.
Onto the rescape itself!
The action plan
On the sides I've got 10 mesh for a moss wall. Originally I found some Fissidens Nobilis at a really good price, but it never grew at all and I believe it all got choked out by algae. So I need a new moss for it. I'm thinking of going for taiwan moss, but still looking, there's so many cool mosses out there.
In the middle of the tank right now is some monte carlo. It's been growing vertically and doesn't look much like monte carlo both due to my low CO2. However, I am considering just getting rid of it and going for Dwarf Baby Tears instead. Can't make up my mind on that so would love to hear what people think.
The rocks all look a bit bland to me. I love them, but they're lacking something. I thought about putting an anubias nana petite on one or two of them, but I already have an anubias on one rock in the background and don't want something so in your face in the midground. So I'm thinking of maybe gluing some christmas moss to the 3 rocks that don't have a plant. I'm also thinking about putting some stargrass just behind the left most rock, that might look nice. The crypt on the right might get moved to my other tank, that will be decided after the rest of the rescape is done to see how it looks.
The background plants! I love vals. But man they're annoying. If I trim them they send runners forwards and it's a mess and if I don't they grow out and look like a mess. And I really don't want to have to deal with runners from them in a carpet. Plus having the background all vals is really bland and boring. So I'm going to tear it out and replace it with 4 different background plants. I want it to be thick and have a nice variety, preferably some different colors. I'm not very well versed with background plants and my LFS is closed for the foreseeable future so I'm not really able to window shop and look at a bunch of different plants. One I was thinking was mermaid weed. I got some a while ago, didn't realize it needed CO2 to really thrive. It grew a bit, but when I went to trim it the entire thing just straight up died after. Also you can't really see it but there is a Vesuvius sword behind the bronze crypt on the right. But there's so much jungle val behind it that it really mutes it and blends together. So something else has got to go behind that of different texture, maybe something red.
Still in the preliminary stages! But hopefully I'll have CO2 running early next week and some new plants for it either later in the week or the week after. Any feedback or ideas greatly appreciated. Hopefully this will be interesting and end up in a much better looking tank. Fingers crossed I don't screw anything up and can get a nice carpet and moss wall going! Sorry I type a lot I'm really bad at being concise
