Re-starting 15 gallon, 1st time with sand

Ch4rlie said:

Oh my gosh! Will you look at that!!

Really like the contrast of your red shrimps and the lovely blue guppies against the lush green plants!

I love these sort of before and after pictures!

Beautiful job

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Aaawww, thank you!
I love seeing people's journal threads and seeing how their tanks mature and evolve as well, so thought I'd keep logging mine here. Reminds me to be patient, that the first tank didn't look mature and established in a few weeks either!

Plant growth comparison pics!

August 25th, first planted;


September 2nd, day 9. No ferts added yet.


I changed the hardscape a bit of course, which also meant some plants got moved - *bad planted tank keeper!*
The Limnophila sessiliflora is the star at the moment, growing really well I picked it because I wanted something fast growing, I'd never had it before, and I really like the texture it gives.
When a big bushy clump of it reaches the surface, it's stunning. I'll be trimming and replanting cuttings to form a dense bushy area in that back right corner I think. If anyone is interested in having this plant too, have a look at this video by Tropica - the growth rate is amazing, and I love how it looks when it's bushy and reaches the surface!

The Rotala 'bonsai' is a slow grower, but it's still alive and looks healthy, so I'm happy enough with that!

The hydrocotyle tripartitia 'Japan' I'm a little disappointed with. When it arrived, the pot had a puddle of dark brown liquid in it, I don't think that's normal? And the plants were a little limp and densely twined together without obvious root area, so I had a hard time figuring out how to plant it, and I don't think I've done it right. It's still alive so I haven't given up on it, but I don't know whether it'll make it. I'd like to try again later though, once I've sorted the planting out more, but I'll try to find some that's potted like it is in the Tropica tutorial video, so I know how to plant it properly.

Sword still looks good, and the Amazon frogbit is developing some longer roots and has multiplied a bit. I switched the light bars on my tanks so this tank now has the better light which will hopefully help, and I'll add root tabs and ferts either tonight or tomorrow. But overall, I feel like growth is pretty good for nine days in!
@mbsqw1d @Ch4rlie ?

Yep, growing real nice, coming along and in a months time, we won't recognise this tank for all the lush plants that will grow out and fill in the spaces

I did make a mistake though by dotting bits of each plant everywhere. With in-vitro being expensive and a tight budget, I could only really afford to get the four types of plants (and the frogbit), and I desperately wanted a well planted tank. But it's going to look weird to have random stems of sessiliflora and rotala dotted all over the place rather than planted together, so I think I need to move most of them so they're all planted close together (but still spaced out enough from each other of course). Just accept that the tank is going to look pretty bare for a while until I can afford more in-vitro plants.

it's bad that I'm moving them around when they're trying to establish isn't it I just think maybe better to do it now than later? Any thoughts?
What do you guys think I should do? @Byron @Ch4rlie @mbsqw1d

Well, moving plants is never really the ideal thing to do no matter if its established or not.

In fact, if you really want to move them, then I'd do it now before the roots REALLY get established into the substrate as roots can get really long and its at that point you may lose some roots, so sooner better than later imho.

But think its worth doing to get these nice little densely planted areas which I think looks more natural.

Ch4rlie said:

Well, moving plants is never really the ideal thing to do no matter if its established or not.

In fact, if you really want to move them, then I'd do it now before the roots REALLY get established into the substrate as roots can get really long and its at that point you may lose some roots, so sooner better than later imho.

But think its worth doing to get these nice little densely planted areas which I think looks more natural.

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Awesome, thank you! Yep, that makes sense to do it now before they've rooted too deeply. I do think it looks much better hen they're grouped together too, has more impact, and a little bushy patch of rotala looks much nicer than a couple of random stems being blocked out by some other random stems of sessiliflora. I'll move them then add tabs and ferts, tell them that I'm sorry, I love them and won't move them again, so please live and grow like mad!

You must have great water for plants, they've always seemed really healthy looking. I need some of that l.sessiliflora in my tank. Pretty sure it was on my list but they were out of stock. Will have another look.
Any of the wood hardscape come from what you've found out and about?

mbsqw1d said:

You must have great water for plants, they've always seemed really healthy looking. I need some of that l.sessiliflora in my tank. Pretty sure it was on my list but they were out of stock. Will have another look.
Any of the wood hardscape come from what you've found out and about?

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Don't buy any sessiliflora, it's doing so well I'll be able to send you some soon Spend the cash on something different that neither of us have already

Sadly no, none of the wood came from free collecting, all of the small pieces I had already, bought from LFS at random visits because I could never resist picking up some cheap pieces. He was selling off tubs full for £3-4 each since he had a job lot from a closed down store. The big spiderwood(?) piece in this tank I got from there the other day, but it was more than £4...

The large lighter piece in the oto tank is new too, fuzzy with biofilm today. Wonder whether the otos will eat that? Haven't seen them on it yet.

mbsqw1d said:

You must have great water for plants, they've always seemed really healthy looking.

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Thank you! I do have some plants die. GH here is 253ppm. Not so great for fish options, but seems to be pretty good for plants

AdoraBelle Dearheart said:

The large lighter piece in the oto tank is new too, fuzzy with biofilm today. Wonder whether the otos will eat that? Haven't seen them on it yet.

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Maybe they've decided thats for pudding!

I can see myself with a few more tanks setup before the end of the year at this rate looking at everyone else's

Should I switch the filters?

A friend very kindly sent me some vallisnera from their tank, and I'm looking at the tank now and where to plant it, plus that I need to move and re-plant the stems that I randomly dotted around, so thinking this through carefully rather than just throwing the vallis in only to move it again later.

What with it being vallis it obviously needs to go at the back, but the back right corner already has stems of the sessiliflora flourishing there, and the back left is hogged by the double sponge filter.

I've kept the sponge filter because the shrimp like it, but I do hate how much room it takes up. I'm tempted to switch the sponge filter to the oto tank, and move the canister filter (small all ponds solution canister) from there to this one since it takes up a lot less internal space, and the additional filtration of a canister filter is overkill for five otos anyway.

Also I'm thinking I might move the sessiliflora to the left corner, put the vallis in the right. Where I sit to watch the tanks is more to the left, and if the vallis takes off and turns into a huge curtain, it would probably block my view after a while. Any thoughts?

I do like the double sponge filter for the job it does and the fact that shrimp are usually found on it, but it certainly does hog a lot of planting real estate. @mbsqw1d ? @Ch4rlie ?

AdoraBelle Dearheart said:

Should I switch the filters?

A friend very kindly sent me some vallisnera from their tank, and I'm looking at the tank now and where to plant it, plus that I need to move and re-plant the stems that I randomly dotted around, so thinking this through carefully rather than just throwing the vallis in only to move it again later.

What with it being vallis it obviously needs to go at the back, but the back right corner already has stems of the sessiliflora flourishing there, and the back left is hogged by the double sponge filter.
View attachment 115240
I've kept the sponge filter because the shrimp like it, but I do hate how much room it takes up. I'm tempted to switch the sponge filter to the oto tank, and move the canister filter (small all ponds solution canister) from there to this one since it takes up a lot less internal space, and the additional filtration of a canister filter is overkill for five otos anyway.

Also I'm thinking I might move the sessiliflora to the left corner, put the vallis in the right. Where I sit to watch the tanks is more to the left, and if the vallis takes off and turns into a huge curtain, it would probably block my view after a while. Any thoughts?

I do like the double sponge filter for the job it does and the fact that shrimp are usually found on it, but it certainly does hog a lot of planting real estate. @mbsqw1d ? @Ch4rlie ?

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Can the sponge filter go on the side wall? That way you're looking at less of it, just the side. Could you move the filter to the right side wall so no need to move the sessiliflora. And perhaps the vallis curtain could go along a side wall, on the left?
Youd just need to remove any emerging shoots you find that fall out of line

mbsqw1d said:

Can the sponge filter go on the side wall? That way you're looking at less of it, just the side. Could you move the filter to the right side wall so no need to move the sessiliflora. And perhaps the vallis curtain could go along a side wall, on the left?
Youd just need to remove any emerging shoots you find that fall out of line

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Thing is, if I plant the vallis on the left side wall, it'll block my view of the rest of the tank. That's why I'm leaning towards putting it on the right

Hhmm, maybe the hydrocotyle tripartita 'Japan' is doing better than I thought. It hasn't grown much yet, but it is only nine/ten days in, and it still looks pretty healthy. The sessiliflora might just be setting my expectations too high since it grows so fast! At least these little delicate guys are at the front so I won't have to move them.


First MTS added Hard to tell from the blurry pic, but it's an adult and four little baby ones;


Rare-ish sighting of my one remaining blue diamond shrimp (think it's a female, and she looks a lighter blue than she does in this pic)



Red cherry shrimp are doing a good job cleaning the biofilm from the frogbit



And they like the sword


Really pleased I went with dragonstone, I love the colours and texture of it, especially with green plants around it. The shrimp and fry also seem to like hiding in the little holes.

A HOB filter sounds good to me at this point!!

Only kidding, well, the sponge filter tbh is the best filter for shrimps and snail tank set ups. But they'll be fine with whichever filter you decide to use for that tank.

A case of trying things out and moving the filters in different positions to see which outcome you like the best, you wont know until you try.

The shrimps will be fine with you moving things around in the tank, in fact they'll probably like it because you'll be stirring up new foods for them to munch on

The plants are starting to look good. Too early I think to know for certain if they'll do well or not but looks like a good start anyhow.

Dragonstones look cool, and shrimps DO like them due to the hidey holes and a sort of adventure ground for them to climb around on.