Chris' 40 Uk Gallon Journal

[Themuleous]

Dont start doing the EI until you get the lighting level up, no point. 6 pots will probably take a few hours. Im not saying you cant plant it in clumps, just that in my experience of doing that I ended up having to throw it all away and start again.

This is how it ended up the first time

Them when I redid it, it did this in around 4-5 weeks.

Sam

PS - cheers completely different now

 

[chr15_8]

i hope its not the easiest growing plants and helps to stop algea as i have some (as in post no. 6) and its also starting to look browish

IME Elodia is easy to grow but will go brown in even tanks with good conditions fro growing plants in and it wont stop algae completely, nothing stops algae completely.


It takes a long time planting HC properly, in the end I planted them in small clumps which was much quicker, they also have a tendancy to float.

hopefully it will start tp pick up once its in the substrate and dosing ei (3 days) if not it was only £5 for 3 pots (about 8 stems in each)

nope i know nothing will completly stop algea but it helps

thanks

 

[chr15_8]

Dont start doing the EI until you get the lighting level up, no point. 6 pots will probably take a few hours. Im not saying you cant plant it in clumps, just that in my experience of doing that I ended up having to throw it all away and start again.
Sam

PS - cheers completely different now

yep have to admit it looks more even (better) in the 2nd pic
think i will take my time on this one and do it right and take my time
is that tank 24x8x8 as thats my next project

 

[Biulu]

Great background! How did you do it? Is it DIY or bought?

 

[Themuleous]

Yeh 24x8x8

 

[Castellop123]

Any Pics...

 

[lljdma06]

i hope its not the easiest growing plants and helps to stop algea as i have some (as in post no. 6) and its also starting to look browish

IME Elodia is easy to grow but will go brown in even tanks with good conditions fro growing plants in and it wont stop algae completely, nothing stops algae completely.


It takes a long time planting HC properly, in the end I planted them in small clumps which was much quicker, they also have a tendancy to float.

hopefully it will start tp pick up once its in the substrate and dosing ei (3 days) if not it was only £5 for 3 pots (about 8 stems in each)

nope i know nothing will completly stop algea but it helps

thanks

What's the temperature of your tank? Egeria densa (elodea) is essentially a colder water plant. Ideal for golfish setups, if it's not eaten . It will brown in too warm a temp. It'll also brown if planted too densly. Separate the clumps. A better option for you is Egeria najas. A similar species but far more tolerant of warmer temperatures and does better in a tropical setup. It should bounce back though, it is probably just reacting to the temperature change. If your elodea does bounce back, the growth will be conserably different. It becomes a lighter green and more delicate looking.

Good luck with your system, can't wait to see pictures.

llj

 

[chr15_8]

Great background! How did you do it? Is it DIY or bought?

thanks

i got it of ebay for £26 its from back to nature http/www.backtonature.se

i want to get rid of it to be honest as it takes up to much room and algea loves it

i hope its not the easiest growing plants and helps to stop algea as i have some (as in post no. 6) and its also starting to look browish

IME Elodia is easy to grow but will go brown in even tanks with good conditions fro growing plants in and it wont stop algae completely, nothing stops algae completely.


It takes a long time planting HC properly, in the end I planted them in small clumps which was much quicker, they also have a tendancy to float.

hopefully it will start tp pick up once its in the substrate and dosing ei (3 days) if not it was only £5 for 3 pots (about 8 stems in each)

nope i know nothing will completly stop algea but it helps

thanks

What's the temperature of your tank? Egeria densa (elodea) is essentially a colder water plant. Ideal for golfish setups, if it's not eaten . It will brown in too warm a temp. It'll also brown if planted too densly. Separate the clumps. A better option for you is Egeria najas. A similar species but far more tolerant of warmer temperatures and does better in a tropical setup. It should bounce back though, it is probably just reacting to the temperature change. If your elodea does bounce back, the growth will be conserably different. It becomes a lighter green and more delicate looking.

Good luck with your system, can't wait to see pictures.

llj

i think its 23 degrees

thanks

Any Pics...

of the new plants?

nope lights not very good for the plants and carnt get a decent pic of them i will on friday though

Yeh 24x8x8

cheers same as the one i going to do after

 

[chr15_8]

can i prepere the hc cuba as in splitting it into little bits ready for tommorow

thanks
chris

 

[chr15_8]

im all planted up now

the hc cuba took about 20 mins to split up and aabout an hour and half to plants so not as bad as i first though (glaed i didnt buy much more)

dont look as nice as i first thought it might but i surpose i have to wait untill it grows out abit

i almost killed my yo yo loach a few time (kept digging up my hc up trying to hide) the only reason i put the yoyo loach kuhli (sp) loach and corys in were because i had to empty my 14g tank to put some galaxy in and didnt want to move them much

will post pictures when it gets darker

oh and my plants are pearling a very little (to small to photo) i thinks its to do with me adding the extra 2wpg

chris

 

[mlawson]

Cool, looking forward to pics!

 

[chr15_8]

1st off either i need a new camera or im not doing something right with the camera (by the way the pics arnt very good and needs to fill out alot with EI it shouldnt be long!)

any tips on how to get a good photo? as i cant get good close ups of pearling etc

camera is a kodak dx4530

2nd the plants look healthy and are pearling really well now big bubbles and a fair few also

now the pictures

the hc

all comment/suggestions welcome also any tips on how to photograph

thanks
chris

 

[mlawson]

Looking good, are there any other plants, I'm also looking for tips to photograph but know a few things:

Keep all light other than the tanks light off, including sunlight.
Use a tri-pod
Use no flash
Have the camera on its highest qualit setting
Make sure the tank glass is very clean
And obviously a better camera means a better picture.

Cheers,
Mike

 

[chr15_8]

nope no more plants at the moment but im looking for some/suggestions to plants (they looked alot bigger in there pots

i done everything in your list except the glass is a little dirty on the inside i even played around with lighting levels inside the tank also to get a better contrast

thanks

 

[Dave Spencer]

It`s looking good with some nice, quality plants, but I would fill it out with fast growing stems right now if I were you, rather than let EI fill it out for you.

Algae is easier to prevent than to remove and you are currently way underplanted IME.

Dave.