First Planted Tank hand holding required...!

well, better late than never! Apologies for the 'not so great' piccies, but this was a bit of a rushed job tonight...we're taking baby dino down to the beach for a couple of days and should have been busy packing...not taking photos

Anyway, yet again it's only when I compare 'then' and 'now' pictures that I actually realise quite how much is going on in the tank!

The Vallis is beginning to do really well, and I'm so glad I didn't pull it out a couple of weeks ago. It's darkened in colour and is sending out runners, so I'm getting a much more dense effect than before. The removal of some plants has resulted in much more light hitting the bottom of the tank, and the baby tears is loving it...it's chucking out roots all over the place, so I will start to try and get a few more plants out of it soon.

The Glosso is now settling in and I'm seeing low level runners which is encouraging, but it is the clover I am most amazed at...it's gone loopy!

Glosso...then and now:

and heres the clover...!



I'll try and get some better pictures when I get back

Great to the the Glosso is becoming established mate - you must be chuffed to bits!

wow. I must do before and after pics like that. When you see it everyday I don't think you appreciate how much things have grown. (my 5 gallon is in a blackout at the mo, but bags come off tonight...will find out if my glosso made it through).

I've got to say I am very impressed. I read this when you first started, and haven't seen it since. You really have taken to it quite quickly. It helps so much to have all the help and support from everyone here. I don't know where I would be today with out George's assistance.

Glad to see you are getting everything underway. How have you been findig the EI? I have been meaning to read through your 'guide'. I'm a little nervous to get into that - it seems complicated.

thanks for the great comments everyone! I spent a few days by the beach with mrs and baby dino, and was a bit concerned to see what I would come back to...! I shouldn't have worried...! The tank is really beginning to 'mature' and I think it's looking better now than it ever has. Theres still some work to do, but it's slowly coming together!

The Glosso and clover continue to take hold, and I don't think it will be many weeks before the front is properly carpeted! The Vallis that SO nearly got pulled is really nice and providing quite a dense curtain at the back. I will try and get a couple of full tank shots tonight...

canoechiq, don't be put off by the intital complexity of the EI method...Zigs article is great and really sums it all up in one nicely manageable chunk! A few weeks in, and I can see the pattern of useage in the tank. It won't be long before I can wing it and forget all that testing!!! I'm sure everyone will help to coach you along if you decide to go this route! Once the testing phase is over, It will only take 2 minutes a day to dose the tank, and then the 50% weekly water change and prune...and I'm even getting into a routine with this too, so it doesn't take anywhere near as long as it did at the start!!!

Technically, I'm ready to start today. I did a 50% w/c yesterday, and I have all the ferts. I just don't know if I should start, when I'm going away for the last 2 weeks of september and I don't want to leave the testing and dosing to my mom. Zig said that it would be ok to do, and by then I should have a grasp of what my tank uses by then, but I just don't want to do anything that will harm my fish.

took a little longer to get the pictures but, here we go!

These pictures were taken after another fairly heavy prune. The Hygra really is prolific, but I guess this is half it's charm...I seem to be able to let it go where it wants for a couple of weeks, during which time it explores the far reaches of the tank, before I bring it back down to size with a hard prune...a couple of these and then I do a complete re-plant of the cuttings and start all over again! Instead of growing straight up, it is pushing stems out virtually horizontally, so I get a nice rounded looking display.



The Heteranthera zosterifolia (star grass) that I planted a couple of weeks ago is really starting to take hold...and bushing out nicely. I love the leaf shape, and the colour is nice against the Valis behind it too!



I will hopefully propogate this and plant a second section just in front of where it is currently...Houndour, this one might be worth thinking about after your recent remodel...?

The Glosso, clover and dwarf sag and coming along nicely...and after the intial shock at the speed of growth the clover displayed, the Glosso seems to be catching up! The dwarf sag also seems to be filling out quite nicely too...the plan was always that the three plants would slowly run into each other and this seems to be working out quite well.

Glosso


Clover runners

Dwarf Sag



As most of you will have read, my pressurised CO2 arrived a few days ago, and I finally managed to get some time to plumb it all in. I'm really impressed with the quality of the Dennerle system, everything feels very solid and well engineered. I will be monitoring the levels over the next couple of days to hit optimum...but it's really reassuring to know that I can now (within reason) sit back and forget about that aspect of maintenance!

The remaining swords on the right hand side of the tank will proably soon be replaced ...with what I'm not sure! But I'm not overly keen on them. The baby tears - furthest right - are coming along really well since removing some other plants increased the amount of light they got...I may even divide these and put them in the swords place...

Anyway...thats probably enough of an update for now...I have just noticed that this thread has made a new page...this latest update starts on the previous one (theres a few more photo's to look at as a reward if you go back ).

Well you certainly know how to grow plants ND, they all look fine and very healthy, i really like the new addition, the Stargrass, its one i will have to look out for. The only thing i would say is that you may need a couple of midground plants to break up the the line going from the foreground and then suddenly its a line of tall plants in the background, anyway just something to think about, it just struck me as i looked at the whole tank shot, it might also give the tank a bit more depth and bring the eye more gently from front to back, but those sort of changes are easy now that you have the tank up and running very sucessfully, you can tweak around with the aquascape aspect rather than worry will everything be ok (algae etc) just a minor point, otherwise your looking good.

I was thinking EXACTLY the same thing tonight as I looked at the tank...it was more noticeable after the heavy prune (the hygra has been filling in that region quite nicely).

I may use the star grass some more, and see if I can propogate the baby tears to help fill that middle section...I must admit, that as the plants grow, it makes it so much easier to see what needs to be moved/removed/replaced...probably the best single bit of advice I got from you good people at the very start was to plant everything and wait...It's only been over the past couple of weeks that it's become obvious where things need to be changed!

Talking of algae, I noticed a small amount of what looks like hair algae today. I have removed some, and wonder if it managed to sneak in after my few days away and the subsequent missed doses of ferts. I have upped the nitrate to 15ppm (phosphate sitting at 1.5ppm after todays reset so that also sits nicely with the 10:1 ratio) and will up the CO2 slightly and monitor the situation!

The best advice i could give you on the hair algae is be ruthless, dont take any prisioners, nip it in the bud, remove the plants if you have to, chop away until you see no more, if you see it on the glass as well, clean it off as best you can and do a big water change (50-80%) to remove as many filiments as you can that may be floating around, and very importantly clean your filter, get the co2 above 30ppm, 35-40ppm shouldnt harm your fish, im fighting hair algae myself at the moment (im losing unfortunatly, but i dont have pressurised co2 to help me, although this alone wont cure hair algae) anyway once it gets a grip it will take over and you may have to start again, so be ruthless with it now in the early stages and you should be ok, but keep a very close eye on it.

Excellent pictures, ND. Your tank looks amazing, noone would believe you were a beginner. I do like the star grass...and in fact I just lookd up all the plants you guys listed and I do like some of them..also had another nose at the AGA entries and have seen the plants you recommended. I think a plants can look so different when in a proper set up as opposed to in a picture on it's own. Seeing the pictures of your tank has revived my passion to pretty much start over!! A while ago I was going to do it and go for smaller leaved plants, but never had the heart to chuck them away, so now, finally I'm going to do it and gradually get rid of all the vallis/swords and probably the lily

Your glosso and clover are doing really well, it won't be long before you have a full carpet at the rate they are growing.

Keep up the good work.

Great work mate - not bad at all in 6 weeks from scratch, you'll go far!