From Set Up To Today

I found some old pictures of my setup, and am quite happy with how my plants have grown in the last 12 months:

Original setup


At three months


And this was taken yesterday


Sorry about the crappy qulaity of the shots - still trying to work out the best way to take tank photos.

The large amazon sword is the original, as well as the crypts and 2 of the 3 anubias plants.

I currently have in their:
5 amazon swords - 3 of which are were grown in the tank from of the sword on the far right.
12+ crypts - these are currently multiplying
4-5 clumps of val - 1 of them the thick leaved variety, others are thin
3 Anubias - 1 on a rock, one of a piece of wood and on in the gravel - all growing well
Java moss - growing over the largest piece of wood i the tank.

The Pongol ithat is in the second pic has been removed, as well as the hair grass.

I am only fertilising with liquid fertiliser once a month and the gravel is just a standard pea gravel.

There is actually a lot more room than it looks for the fish as there is open space on the front left and also the back right for the fish to use.

I'm running the in-hood filter, as well as a fluval 4+ internal filter.

So what do you all think? Any suggestions on what I can do differently?

What a big difference and very impressive too. I bet you're really happy with it!

I'm pretty happy - it gets a lot of attention from visitors, as you can see it from the hallway before you enter the living room. It's definitely a conversation piece.

I can well believe it!

very nice looking tank very jealous here

very nice! how many gallons is it?

215L/57Gal

And thanks to all for the complementary comments

I love your tank. Very impressive. How much light do you have in there, and how tall is the tank?

Can you tell me exactly what type of sword that is? I'd like to find one, but I don't think I've seen one just like it in my LFS. Do you have a closer picture of it?

Fab!

Great looking tank and i like the before and after shots showing the look of the tank through a twelve month period.

Well done Moeldner.

Exactly what I would like to know what type of sword it is.lol Great tank looks amazing. Especially for not much ferts and I'm assuming no co2. Ever get algae problems?

how do you get the plants looking so green. what do you use?

Sorry for not replying earlier - my brother got married yesterday and I've been very busy as his best man.

The liquid fertiliser I'm currently using is called TetraPlant FloraPride from a company called Tetra.

I ahve used others in the past, but I can't remember what they are called.
The swords are Amazon swords - well that is what they wee sold to me as.

Here are some photos of the plants. You can see the algae that I generally have all the time. It is the hard green flat variety. I also very occasianlly get hair algae, but I remove that when I see it by hand, and it is generally a result of over feeding.

Photo of large sword with flash: (algae on leaves at top right - bolivian butterfly hiding at base of plant)


Photo of next largest sword - no flash - gravel is not actually green - just got a lot of reflected colour in the photo from the plants.


My crypts - originally started with 6 very small plants


One of my Anubias - again, this is the most common algae in my tank - it also forms on the glass, but I clean that off ones a month or so - it is not rapid forming by any stretch of the imagination.



My apologies for the reflections in the photos.

TammyLiz said:

I love your tank. Very impressive. How much light do you have in there, and how tall is the tank?

Can you tell me exactly what type of sword that is? I'd like to find one, but I don't think I've seen one just like it in my LFS. Do you have a closer picture of it?

Click to expand...

THey are Amazon Swords - the lighting is the standard lighting for the AquaOne AR980 tanks. 2X30W 10000K tubes and 1x25W 15000K tube.

There is no CO2 injection either.

Tank dimensions are: (tank has a gently bowed front) 99W x 47D x 60H cm

More tank info can be seen here from the manufacturer: http/www.aquaone.co.uk/prod_details.php?id_no=52017sv

Great tank, its great to see the progression and growth of a tank over several months, its harder to notice i guess if you see it every day.