125 L. / 33 Gal. Low Light, Low Maintenance

[Themuleous]

Man sometimes I do hate you George, you make it seem to bloody effortless! Only joking tis a lovely tank mate and its not as if you've not been doing this for years. Excellent work on continuing to promote aquascaping through PFK, sterling job.

Sam

 

[nry]

This tank will be featured in a forthcoming issue of PFK magazine, with professional photo shoot. I will describe step-by-step how I created it.

Which issue was this featured in guys? I'm considering a back issue purchase Might finally sort a subscription out too

The keyword was 'forthcoming' Not been published yet!

 

[SuperColey1]

George - I think you should remove the Balansae and then you can give it to me as per previous request. lol

On a serious note I think it looks great. Wouldn't Helferi just do the same over time?

Hope my Balansae grows this well eventually. It has started to pick up a little but still small compared to yours (These were from a cheapo ebay collection I bought in February, about 6 crowns) They're about 6 inches long now and I think are the crispulata variety.

Hopefully the ones that are coming from Aquatic Magic fare better but I would still love yours if they do become available.

Andy

 

[DevUK]

I bought a tropica potted balansae back in June and its doing pretty well. Its got about 4 long stems and then about 8 shorter ones. Its odd though, the ones that started short don't seem to be growing as quickly.

Got another from Greenline which is growing OK, and I have about 6 crowns comming from AquaticMagic (Couldn't resist the free shipping!)

George, what sort of Java Ferns are the long broad leaves in the left/middle of the tank? Is that Philiappine var. ?

 

[George Farmer]

Thanks for all the feedback. I'll post an interesting update soon, with pic.

DevUK - It's regular M. pteropus. There's two plants in there, both over 12 months old now.

 

[DevUK]

Thanks for all the feedback. I'll post an interesting update soon, with pic.

DevUK - It's regular M. pteropus. There's two plants in there, both over 12 months old now.

Oooh, I hate you... So much My ferns seem to just grow and produce plantlets and look a complete mess. Mind, I need to re-scape and just get everything planted properly, and then keep ontop of the pruning.

Do you prune off the plantlets and stuff George?

 

[George Farmer]

Do you prune off the plantlets and stuff George?

I regularly pull-off any leaves that look bad. I simply follow the leaf to the rhizome and pull it off. It's take a fair bit of force sometimes.

I don't see many plantlets to be honest. If I do I remove them right away. My thinking is that the plantlets are using nutrients over the mother plant.

I've read that plantlets are produced as a 'survival mechanism' when the fern is stressed. Not sure how much truth there is in that though. Sounds feasable.

 

[nry]

Do you prune off the plantlets and stuff George?

I regularly pull-off any leaves that look bad. I simply follow the leaf to the rhizome and pull it off. It's take a fair bit of force sometimes.

I don't see many plantlets to be honest. If I do I remove them right away. My thinking is that the plantlets are using nutrients over the mother plant.

I've read that plantlets are produced as a 'survival mechanism' when the fern is stressed. Not sure how much truth there is in that though. Sounds feasable.

Interesting - the non-Tropica windelov fern from my 15-gallon started producing loads of plantlets but the Tropica one in my 5-gallon never did even though they both had CO2, decent light and EI dosing and were in my tanks for a similar length of time. The Tropica plant also looks much much healthier but this is maybe due to it being from decent stock.

 

[afroturf]

George the tank has progressed really well, as with many others I’m very jealous of your balansae. I agree with your plans to replace the C. balansae with the Cyperus helferi, although it will be a shame to remove such impressive specimins the C. helferi is likely to look better.

Just a little tip for those thinking of buying crypts balansae types from Aquatic magic, from experience i'd always choose the one labelled C. spiralis than C. crispulata, i brought 6 rhizomes of each along with 4 pots of C. balansea from Tropica. These have been in my tank for around 5 months, although allround growth has been slow C. spiralis has grown the best.

The size of the plants rhizome IME seems to be the main factor in the speed of growth, the C. spiralis all had rhizomes of 2-3" C. crispulata a little smaller and the C. balansae from tropica if you are lucky are just over a couple of cms.

 

[juwelfan]

Is there a reason the black Juwel filter box is on the left hand side? Just everytime i've seen the Rio 125 (which i guess this one is) its on the right.
Did you move it and if so, why?

Cheers,
Juwelfan

 

[George Farmer]

Is there a reason the black Juwel filter box is on the left hand side? Just everytime i've seen the Rio 125 (which i guess this one is) its on the right.
Did you move it and if so, why?

Cheers,
Juwelfan

Yes, I moved it.

I took it out completely a while ago to run an external. Then put it back in. I just fancied it on the left. No other reason really. Maybe I like left to right flow, like writing...

BTW the Dec issue (out 31st Oct) of PFK magazine features this tank and explains its details on setting up and maintaining. It looks better in there, as the PFK photographer took the photos...

 

[Kevstir]

Looking good m8

I see you used tropica plant substrate, i will be moving my tank shortly (wifes orders lol) and will take the opportunity to change the substrate, my plan was tropica topped with play sand, i wasn't sure if that would be good enough but if its good enough for you and thats the results it can help to achieve then my minds made up

Kev