Llj's 2.5g Planted Tank Journal

Added another small java fern, and a few cryptocorynes today. The betta still has space for swimming, so don't worry.

Thought it was time for an update. The growth became quite impressive. Very jungly as you can see below.



The tank had been up and running well for over a month with very little pruning, so I thought it would be nice to begin trying to aquascape this little sucker. The results are below.



I trimmed the Christmas moss by a bit and removed the egeria densa. The egeria was replaced with some R. rotundifolia that I had in my 20g and some cuttings from my 8g. I think I need quite a bit more. It looks way to linear right now. The best thing I did was replace the standard java fern with some very nice Windelov courtesy of Madmom. Very nice stuff and a lot less bulky than the regular java fern which will do much better in my 36g. To eliminate some of the linear appearence, I think I'll switch the filter to the left side and plant more rotala there. Then, I should be able to take advantage of the gradual decrease in height produced by the java fern and crypts. The middle green crypt may also be moved to the left, or be pruned.

Can't wait, working on it now. You know it when that one leaf just bugs and bugs you until you just have to move it! Then, of course, you have to fix everything now.

Ok, I have to stop now. I need to go to bed. Did rearrange some things though and it is a little better. Needs to grow in, but it's better. At least you can't draw a straight line with it anymore. Believe it or not, the "linear" scape was done as I was sipping a nice big glass of Rioja, a heavy-bodied Spanish wine.

I like it! This tank is an optical illustion, looks more like a 10G. Weeeeirrrrrdddddd

Just wondeirng, is the moss tied down in any way? I like it but from your last photo still makes the tank look quit jungly, which might be your plan all along!

thefirethief said:

I like it! This tank is an optical illustion, looks more like a 10G. Weeeeirrrrrdddddd

Just wondeirng, is the moss tied down in any way? I like it but from your last photo still makes the tank look quit jungly, which might be your plan all along!

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The crop job was poorly done, I admit. It needs to be shorter, but I lacked the patience that day. I just did it now, and it looks quite a bit better, though it still needs a good gravel vac. Yes, it is attached to the bogwood. Christmas moss is quite a bit bushier than java or willow moss, but it is very forgiving. A good trade off.

Thanks for your complements. In IL, I did much better with structured landscapes and I am trying to put structure in most of my tanks now that they are old enough. This 2.5g is still too young for anything other than a jungly scape. I'd eventually like to replace the moss-covered wood with some smaller pieces of moss-covered wood with an anubia petite nana that I have in my 8g and add some HM cuttings to round it out. But I have to see how rotala takes to this tank first.

llj

Looking nice Llj esp the java fern.

Sam

Loving the tanks as always, and i am a bit fan of the jungle look.

mikster said:

Loving the tanks as always, and i am a bit fan of the jungle look.

Click to expand...

Thanks, I fine-tuned this tank a little today, since I was rescaping the 8g. I removed the crypts and replaced it with HM, and cleaned up the anubias, which I added a week ago.

I think it looks a bit more delicate now. Didn't know I had that many petite nana. Betta was extremely good as always. Can't wait for the rotala to fill in a bit.

Nice tank...
I like the greenish in there...

Its a nice contrast between the delicate leaves of the background and the strongly shaped leaves of the anubias.

Wow llj - this looks great! I have so much catching up to do on these threads.

It's hard to believe this is a 2.5 gallon tank. My nano is currently empty I had to take down a few of my tanks as life got too busy this summer and fall (my daughter got married!)

I will be setting up the nano again next month and may have to steal a few ideas from your tank!

Squirrelbuddies said:

Wow llj - this looks great! I have so much catching up to do on these threads.

It's hard to believe this is a 2.5 gallon tank. My nano is currently empty I had to take down a few of my tanks as life got too busy this summer and fall (my daughter got married!)

I will be setting up the nano again next month and may have to steal a few ideas from your tank!

Click to expand...

Thanks SB, it was hard to plant, my fat fingers kept getting in the way. I'm curious to see how the HM grows in this tank. It compacts well in the 8g, but grows tallish in the 20g and 36g. This is not entirely bad, as I always have cuttings of the plants available. FKNM's supply has done quite well for me. If all goes well and I can take a trip up to West Palm Beach, I may move the betta and stock this tank with a small shoal of C. pygmaeus. I think they'd love it, and it would be an interesting alternative to a small cyprinid or characin. I think a school of 5-6 would be adorable. The tank hovers at around 73-74 degrees, a perfect environment for the little catfish. They also dwell in all tank levels.

I can't wait to see your nano. Just keep in mind, the Finnex tanks tend to be low-light tanks with the amount of light they sent us. I wouldn't really add CO2. My 8g finnex has really come alive since I stopped adding it back in October. Growth is impressive and I have virtually no algae.

llj

It's been a while since I've updated this little tank, and I didn't realize how much I've changed it until I checked out my thread again. The A. reineckii is not a permanent fixture, just a temporary home for some cuttings and an experiment to see if it'll do well in this type of lighting. I'll probably replace it with more rotala as I trim the rotala from my 8g. I need to fill up the tank, but today is a scheduled water change, so that'll be fixed. I still have the one plakat betta in there. He was flaring and carrying on Yesterday, so I snapped the photo of the tank as I was snapping photos of him posing.

This is the first time I have seen this thread. I don`t know how I missed it.

I like the choice of plants. What is the foreground plant, it is starting to fill out really well?

Your Betta is spoilt.

Nice tank. Whats the busy plant with the broader leaves pretty central in the picture looks like its in the foreground? Looks fantastic and very healthy!