First Planted Tank; 46 Gallon Bow-Front

[Channti]

I think swords would look good in your tank. You could replace the Ophiopogon japonicus with Isoetes lacustris. They are similar.

Thanks, but the japonicus is coming out.... I'm going to try to keep as simple as possible with my plants. When I find some, I'm going to get some Java Fern and some Anubias in the tank....

I looked at swords, but they grow too large for my tank.... I don't want something quite that large.

I'd like some corkscrew vals as well.... planning to group the hygrophilia all together instead of spread out across the back like it is now, and grouping more of the plants tighter together. For now, it's spread out just to fill the tank and allow me to see what is growing and what isn't.

 

[DAlmond123]

I know that the Ophiopogon japonicus is coming out. You might also like Java Moss. Some swords don't grow large.

 

[Channti]

I think, variety wise, I've got about all I need.

What I am interested in though is some foreground plants. I don't really have anything that is small.....

Any ideas?

 

[DAlmond123]

Dwarf Sag?

 

[Biulu]

cryptocoryne species like wendtti or moehlmanni. You can als think about anubia nana. All these species are not very demanding. I have them in my 46 gallon too.

 

[lljdma06]

Plant B is the emersed (grown outside the water) form of H. difformis (wisteria). Give it time and it will look like the wisteria that you already have, which is the submerged form. Yes, tanks with plants look much, much better.

llj

 

[Channti]

Plant B is the emersed (grown outside the water) form of H. difformis (wisteria). Give it time and it will look like the wisteria that you already have, which is the submerged form. Yes, tanks with plants look much, much better.

llj

AWESOME! Thanks!. No one else has been able to ID that one for me.

The fish are definitely loving the extra space they've got in the tank. I'm excited to get some more fish in the tank though....

I'm keeping my eyes open for some Anubias and Java Fern... Might order it online if I can't find it anywhere....

Gotta rearrange the plants some mroe. I'm not happy with it.... But thats for a day when I'm not exhausted.

 

[lljdma06]

AWESOME! Thanks!. No one else has been able to ID that one for me.

You're welcome.

 

[Channti]

So; The plants had been in the tank for 7 days and 10 days respectively. There was quite a bit of growth:

Most of the plants adapted well to the tank, with the exception of my giant hygro... Anyone know what happened to it? I cut off the dead parts of the plants when I rescaped everything, and in the case of the Giant Hygro, cut off all of the holey-leaves.

As stated, I uprooted all of the plants, removed the non-aquatic, trimmed off any dead parts, pulled any dead leaves, spread out the frill (to hopefully encourage some more growth. The amount I started with has close to doubled. I'm hoping it'll continue at this rate so I can toss some in my betta tank. I siphoned out most of the debris and took out about 40% of the water, redosed the tank with aquaplus and plantgro, and topped it back up with fresh water. Rearranged everything... Here's how it is now:

I've got some Cryptocoryne wendtii tropica, java fern, anubias barteri "eyes" and anubias nana barteri coming in the mail this week/next week. If they're alive, they'll be taking the place of the extra frill and the giant hygro in the front of the tank, filling in that massive hole, with the crypts going in between the cabomba and the wisteria to help hide the heater. If they're dead, I'm going to travel for some... but it's cheaper to order online (believe it or not...).

 

[Channti]

YOU'VE GOTTA BE KIDDING ME!.
Looks like my neons have ick....
and I JUST drained tacky-tank and don't have a smaller tank I can use to treat them... I have no idea what I'm going to do... probably have to set the tacky-tank back up to treat them.... ugh.

 

[lljdma06]

You can dose ich medication in a planted tank. Raise the temp to 80 degrees, use the ich medication at 1/2 strength, and do a 25% waterchange everyday. Also, when you no longer see spots on the fish, continue dosing for 3 more days afterwords. People often forget that, the parasite is still present eventhough the visible cysts are gone.

If you catch it early, it is easy to get rid of.

llj

 

[Channti]

I'm going to hit a pet store on Sunday to pick up a massive bottle of ick meds and some carbon., probably start treatments sunday night as I won't be home tomorow....

This is just a major pain as I wanted to add new fish, and I can't while they have ick.!

 

[Channti]

Update:
So, my hygrophila in the back left has really taken to the tank. It's doing really well.
The Cabomba is doing really well too.
The Wisteria is on-and-off, the emersed stuff seems to be doing better than the other stuff. I'm hoping it'll take. From what I can se though, I think I'm going to have to toss it all and get something else.
The Frill has taken off (it'll grow anywhere!) and it's spread out right now to encourage as much growth as possible as most of it will be moving yo my betta tank very soon.

I went to the pet store and fell in love with this piece of driftwood. It's on the right side of the tank for now. I'm thinking it's going to be my centerpiece for a 15 gallon long, but I'm not certain. It only weighed 3 lbs, so I got it at a steal of a price.

Here's an updated pic of the tank:

The green is the ick medication.

You might also notice new fish additions, A friend of mine called me, and told me she was closing down a tank and had 7 serpae tetras. Either I took them or she flushed them. I hate adding new fish when I'm treating for Ick, but I had no where else to put them, I wasn't going to let her flush them.

I'm debating between a blue and black background right now, and have got a guy in a fish store an hour away looking for some juvenille "koi" angelfish for me (the white, orange and black ones). I'm still waiting on my Java Fern, Crypts and Anubias. Hopefully they're in decent condition, because the store I got the driftwood from today wanted THREE TIMES what I paid online for the same plant.

Sorry for the crummy pix... my camera is MIA so these are cell pix.

 

[Biulu]

Sorry, but I can't see the pixs. Is that my problem, or a general one?

 

[Channti]

I can see them fine, so I think it could be your problem, as they're still in my photobucket account.
Maybe someone else could stop in and see if they have the same issue?