Finally tearing down ugly 57g, building new 36g to replace it!

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Yah. I've heard really large tanks don't need water changes... Idk if that's true but I'm all in if so! I think it's cause it's actually hooked up to the home plumbing and you add in dechlorinator ever so often.
It definitely seems more manageable than a pool. All the weird chemicals and making sure it's drained for winter. All the cleaning... Just get me an aquarium please

lol sorry, I meant manageable as in, a more easily achieved dream than a pool and a pony, rather than literally easy to manage - although I'm sure it is also literally easier to manage!

I wouldn't imagine it would mean no water changes, depends on size of tank/stocking etc, you know! But if it's a massive 800g, yeah, you probably don't need to change 50% weekly, lol. I could be wrong though! Those guys on youtube with 800g tanks like King of DIY still do water changes mind.

 

[Essjay]

Is the nymphoides a bulb then?

This confused me at first. If you look at Tropica's website, Nymphoides hydrophylla 'Taiwan' is listed twice, once as a pot which is described as a "bulb/onion" and once as an in vitro 1-2-Grow which is described as "rhizomatous". I bought 2 pots from Horizon Aquatics and both were a group of stems emerging from one point with roots hanging down underneath. I have not dug them up to see if they've grown a bulb or rhizome.
There are always new leaves growing from the base of the leaf cluster, and one of the plants now seems to be two in close proximity. The leaves reach the surface quite quickly, that's when I trace the stem back to the substrate and cut it off.
Some of the stems develop a bulge a couple of inches below the leaf; this then grows roots followed by a tiny shoot. Once it looks big enough I remove the entire leaf stalk, trim it above and below the baby plant then plant it in the substrate. So far they've all survived and grown.

 

[Rocky998]

lol sorry, I meant manageable as in, a more easily achieved dream than a pool and a pony, rather than literally easy to manage - although I'm sure it is also literally easier to manage!

I wouldn't imagine it would mean no water changes, depends on size of tank/stocking etc, you know! But if it's a massive 800g, yeah, you probably don't need to change 50% weekly, lol. I could be wrong though! Those guys on youtube with 800g tanks like King of DIY still do water changes mind.

Lol sorry for misunderstanding

Yah I honestly don't know if I could do those water changes on that large of a tank. If I ever get a monster tank like that I'm finding a way you hook that baby up to the plumbing so it does auto-changes...

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

This confused me at first. If you look at Tropica's website, Nymphoides hydrophylla 'Taiwan' is listed twice, once as a pot which is described as a "bulb/onion" and once as an in vitro 1-2-Grow which is described as "rhizomatous". I bought 2 pots from Horizon Aquatics and both were a group of stems emerging from one point with roots hanging down underneath. I have not dug them up to see if they've grown a bulb or rhizome.
There are always new leaves growing from the base of the leaf cluster, and one of the plants now seems to be two in close proximity. The leaves reach the surface quite quickly, that's when I trace the stem back to the substrate and cut it off.
Some of the stems develop a bulge a couple of inches below the leaf; this then grows roots followed by a tiny shoot. Once it looks big enough I remove the entire leaf stalk, trim it above and below the baby plant then plant it in the substrate. So far they've all survived and grown.

Oohh, interesting! Thank you for that! I'll have a better idea of what to do with it now if it does take in my tanks at least! Sounds like burying the "rhizome", if it is a rhizome in this case, isn't a problem. Maybe that bulge is like a mini bulb? Man, plants can be fascinating in their weirdness and variety!

 

[WhistlingBadger]

I've contemplated travelling haha! I saw a great ND Aquatics on in Nottingham for £300, it looked 4 foot on photos but when I asked it was 3 foot

The best description of a sump I've heard is on MD's latest video in the shop with Fish Shop Matt. They are looking at a sump tank and it has a weir at the top - which is just a hole in the back of the tank that water falls through. And I what I took away was so long as there is always room in the sump for the water between the top of the waterline and the bottom of the weir it will never overflow because sumps dont pump the water out the tank just back in so there is a maximum amount of water than will drain should the pump ever turn off in a powercut etc. You can get an Evolution Aqua Marine for 300-400 but if you want the aquascaper of freshwater they are more in the 600-800 region and at that sort of cost I'd just go for a new tank. I got a cost from ND the other day for a regular tank 4x2x18 on a nice stand with no hood and it was coming out about £650ish.

OK, this kind of makes sense...I've always wondered how a sump doesn't syphon your tank water all over the floor if the pump fails. But if the "weir" (outlet from the main tank) is just below the waterline, and the sump itself has plenty of room to spare, then it would only syphon a little bit before the waterline falls below the main tank outlet, stopping the syphon before things get slippery in the living room.

Something like that?

 

[Essjay]

Reading the info on Nymphoides rather than just the list, Tropica describes it as a "rosette plant" just to confuse things even more. They also say it grows 15 to 25 cm tall - they need to have a word with mine, then. It's 35 cm from the top of the substrate to the lid, then 2 or 3 more cm water hidden by the lid. If I don't trim the leaf stems which almost reach the water surface, by the next water change there's stem lying across the surface with a leaf at the end. If the stem could support the weight of the leaf it would be a couple of inches above the water.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Yah. I've heard really large tanks don't need water changes... Idk if that's true but I'm all in if so! I think it's cause it's actually hooked up to the home plumbing and you add in dechlorinator ever so often.

It depends on your stocking level. If you have a large tank, with stable biology and chemistry, and it's thinly stocked and thickly planted? Yeah, you can skimp on the water changes a bit. I used to do a 50% water change on my old 150g rainbowfish tank about every two or three months, whenever nitrates started getting above about 20 ppm, and it was one of the healthiest, most stable tanks I've ever had. The current incarnation of the 150g, a South American flooded rainforest, needs water changes pretty much every week, because the water gets very tannic, and because I'm still fighting cyanobacteria (at least I think that's what it is).

Get a big tank, say 100 gallons or more, plant it like crazy, and stock it at something like natural levels, say 20% or less on Aqadvisor, and you could probably be fine with very infrequent or very small water changes.

 

[Wills]

OK, this kind of makes sense...I've always wondered how a sump doesn't syphon your tank water all over the floor if the pump fails. But if the "weir" (outlet from the main tank) is just below the waterline, and the sump itself has plenty of room to spare, then it would only syphon a little bit before the waterline falls below the main tank outlet, stopping the syphon before things get slippery in the living room.

Something like that?

Yeah pretty sure that is right lol - the wier is your outlet and is just gravity of the water pouring out and the pump returns the water to the tank still a bit too scared to try it!

 

[Wills]

This is the video that helped me work it out - whole video is interesting but this is the bit.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Plant update! So I wound up buying a lot of plants for this tank, and some for my other tank. Thought I'd do an update on their progress.
Since I've decided to upgrade pygmy cory tank, and later the 36g, I've ended up keeping a bunch of these in their pots, since they seem to be doing fine in those, and I don't want to plant them, get them established, only to uproot them again soon.
Ones still in pots in other tank are:
Lobelia cardinalis
Weeping moss
Anubius barteri coffeefolia
cryptocoryne nevelli
A crypt surprise for £2.99 - Labelled only "mixed crpt, Brown"
and a lucky dip aquarium plant (get a surprise for £1) - Turned out to Echinodus 'Rose'
*Limnophila heterophylla

These are all looking good, no problems!
Murdannia keisak
*Limnophila hippuridoides
*Hygrophila polysperma Rosenervig These three arrived looking a little worse for wear, due to the heat I'm sure. The murdannia doesn't look too bad at all, the other two look a bit worse, but that they could easily recover.

The ones in the 36g tank:
------------------
Hyrophilia pinnatifida
Really liking this one, attached it to the top of the cave like piece. The largest leaf actually broke off after a few weeks, but I left it floating and it remained green, despite just being a stem and leaf. So I ended up gluing it to a different piece of wood and moving it to another tank, and it's actually putting out more small leaves on the nodes, so yay! The leaves remaining in the 36g on the big cave piece are still slowly growing.
Myriophyllum mattogrossense
This one was doing pretty well for a while, but is struggling more lately. Possibly from corydora disturbance.
Lilaaeopsis novea-zealandia
Definitely struggled due to cories uprooting it all the time, although the leaves didn't seem to mind too much and remained green, but kept getting uprooted and floating to the top, even though I'd tried gluing it to a mesh buried in the substrate. Still have some I'm going to try glued to mesh in a different tank.
Bolbitis heudelotii
Glued to dragonstone, still looking good! A slow grower so haven't seen much in the way of new growth yet, but it looks healthy and I really like it!
Echinodorus horemanii Green
This one arrived in emersed form, seems to having a hard time getting established and switching to submerged form. We'll see.
----------
Plants from my own tank I transferred;
Smallish unknown species of amazon sword
Having a hard time adjusting as well. Not out for the count yet, but had a lot of rotting roots I had to remove!
Hygophila siamensis 53B
Hanging in there, it's a batch of small-ish trimmings which the cories knock the odd one loose. So hasn't established and really started growing yet.
Cryptocoryne, species unknown but prolific and grows large, tall leaves.
Settling in and growing well, right now I have two patches, one in each back corner, but tempted to remove/move the one on the right hand side to make room for other plants.
Heteranthera Zosterifolia (stargrass)
This is at the back behind the cave wood, and it's settling and growing well! Yay, at least one plant is! lol. Have had to trim the tops and replant them already.
--------------------
Crinum calamistratum
Lost nearly all it's roots, but hasn't died back yet, so we shall see.
Alternanthera sessilis
Did pretty much as I expected, not looking brilliant, colour faded so it's reddish/brown and while some stems are still there, I don't think I'll be keeping it. Never had luck with alternantheras. Think they really need CO2 to look good and grow well.
Lagenandra meeboldii Red
Man, this one was the worst! So beautiful when it arrived, a deep red load of leaves. Died back pretty quickly, losing leaves and colour fast, stems curling up like a dying spider... it went from looking like this:

To looking like this;

Only now has ever less leaves... I ended up moving it since it was failing fast where it was, and it's related to crypts, so not going to give up on it yet!

Microsorum pteropus sp. Windlov.
It's a java fern, so no issues at all.
--------

Hottonia palustris - Water Violet
Can't even find this one, so I assume it failed.
Aponogeton henkelianus (madagascar lace bulb)
This one is planted behind the cave wood and actually looking pretty good! Fingers crossed.
Hornwort
Moved into tank from another tank when I had an ammonia spike, now have it planted so it doesn't block the light from other plants.
Amazon frogbit is doing well, I might remove a big chunk of it since maybe the other plants would appreciate some more light.
---------------
* Water sprite
Arrived today, surprisingly large and tall amount of plant!
*Elodea densa
Looks good, also arrived today, leaving it in the ceramic ring to keep it down.
*Nymphoides hydrophylla Taiwan
Arrived today, in-vitro cup so have removed, rinsed and planted in the sand. I put it in the front for now so I can keep an eye on it/it can get more light.

Whew! That's a lot. Sorry to anyone who read through all that, it's so I can keep track of the planting!

 

[Rocky998]

Nice choice on the anubias! That's my favorite species to! I just wish you could buy the coffeefolia sp. larger... But that would be a lot of $$$

Could we see a pic of the entire tank?
I bet it looks really good with all the new plants!

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Nice choice on the anubias! That's my favorite species to! I just wish you could buy the coffeefolia sp. larger... But that would be a lot of $$$

Could we see a pic of the entire tank?
I bet it looks really good with all the new plants!

The anubius coffeefolia I got was a pretty decent size, to be fair! Will show you in the photos
I've been cleaning with bleach and chemicals today so don't want to mess around with the tanks to take photos until after I've showered, and still have more cleaning to do and it's late (I've been doing the tougher jobs at night when it's cooler, adapting to the heatwave!) so will try to get some pics tomorrow! Glad that you want to see them though

 

[Rocky998]

The anubius coffeefolia I got was a pretty decent size, to be fair! Will show you in the photos
I've been cleaning with bleach and chemicals today so don't want to mess around with the tanks to take photos until after I've showered, and still have more cleaning to do and it's late (I've been doing the tougher jobs at night when it's cooler, adapting to the heatwave!) so will try to get some pics tomorrow! Glad that you want to see them though

Sounds great!
And that's perfectly fine! Take all the time you need!
Stay hydrated!

 

[itiwhetu]

The anubius coffeefolia I got was a pretty decent size, to be fair! Will show you in the photos
I've been cleaning with bleach and chemicals today so don't want to mess around with the tanks to take photos until after I've showered, and still have more cleaning to do and it's late (I've been doing the tougher jobs at night when it's cooler, adapting to the heatwave!) so will try to get some pics tomorrow! Glad that you want to see them though

Take care

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Urgh. Pro-shrimp agreed to send me another cup of the red root floaters for free with my last order, since the previous two batches I bought melted back to nothing within days. This time, again, I put them in a breeder box away from any other plants and any surface disturbance, the opposite side of the tank from the filter. But despite my being hopeful for a day or two, they've again mostly all melted away to nothing. I officially give up on red root floaters! Sucks, I really wanted a different floating plant in this tank, but can't find anything I'm doing wrong, or a more suitable source with larger plants that's shrimp safe.