Fred's 5.5 Gallon Cube Journal

[lljdma06]

The tank looks great Fred. Very lush. No, not the best HC planting I've seen, but it's kind of hard to stick all those stems individually.

You can try for even more height variation in your Rotala, if I'm correct with the species. Right now, you've got a bit of a wall effect on the left side. If you cut the front stems shorter, not the same height though, and gradually increase the height from front to back, I think you'll get a nicer effect and you'll see more plant tips, which looks good, IMO, especially if they blush pink.

llj

 

[RadaR]

Great comments llj.
Planting HC stem by stem is tedious.
I hear what your saying about the rotala. I'll try that over the weekend. Maybe a slight nitrate starve will bring on the red tinge.
Thanks again.

 

[mcdanielnc89]

lookin' great... keep it up!

 

[RadaR]

The HC carpet wasn't planted well the first time around. Not only that, the shrimp kept digging it up. So it's been replanted, however the shrimp are at it again, pulling it up
So I've upped the dosing and CO2 just to make sure it rootens quicker. The shrimp are happy though, best colours I've seen on them and the females are regularly carrying eggs.
I've also purchased some liquid iron, and so I'm dosing small quantities of that too. As a result I'm getting a more red colour from the rotala, which is no longer a wall but a gradual slope. Pics to follow tonight.

 

[RadaR]

Here's the pic I promised. I still need to tidy up the right hand side a bit.

A few macro shots too.

 

[RadaR]

No one like the macros then?
Ah well, here are some more pics.

 

[Dave Spencer]

Those nice Amano pics slipped by without me noticing. I never managed to get a decent pic of mine when I had them.

I think the Rotala may well be ready for a bit of shaping. Is the Eleocharis `parvula`(?) doing OK? It looks a tad brown at the moment.

Your pics are coming along, helped by the nicely lit background. Taking photos with ripples on the surface of the water help to make things look even more interesting.

Dave.

 

[RadaR]

Those nice Amano pics slipped by without me noticing. I never managed to get a decent pic of mine when I had them.

I think the Rotala may well be ready for a bit of shaping. Is the Eleocharis `parvula`(?) doing OK? It looks a tad brown at the moment.

Your pics are coming along, helped by the nicely lit background. Taking photos with ripples on the surface of the water help to make things look even more interesting.

Dave.

Cheers Dave.
The rotala is hard to work with IMO. Maybe just because it's in a small tank, I'm not sure. I may change the scape, I'm a bit bored of it now. It's Eleocharis acicularis, it's had brown tips for a while now. Can't figure it out. 46W of light, Tropica Nutrition + 0.5ml a day, 2.3ml of Flourish Excel a day.
Ah yes, it's paid of then. Thanks for the tip, I'll give that a go next time.

 

[three-fingers]

Missed the macros, they are really good, I really love your nerite snail (got to get me some more of them). Those shrimp pics must have taken some skill too.

I actually quite like the way the rotala has grown, looks more like a real underwater scape (even though not usually what people are aiming for) to me and makes the tank look pretty big.

My hair grass did that too, though due to a lack of light more than anything else. Strange yours is doing it .

Still, whole tank looks great!

 

[RadaR]

Cheers for the comments mate. They've reasured me. We must find out the cause of the Hairgrass.
As for the pics, it's all the camera to be honest. Only a bit of knowledge to make them look their best. The camera does the rest.

 

[Themuleous]

Looking good Fred I think you need to work on getting more shape from the rotala, try to aim for a gradual increase in height from front to back, it looks a bit stark at the moment, being so 'upright', but that a minor thing, it does look good The HC is looking great BTW I still cant right mine right!

Sam

 

[RadaR]

Completely agreed there, Sam. I have to admit that I'm not liking stems too much. Ive also been quite busy recently. Thanks for the guidance
Haha, cheers, it's a great little plant, not too much of a problem.

 

[Themuleous]

No probs I found the HM in my first nano a tricky one as it always needed trimming back which just left it looks battered and crap, I think it takes a lot of care and attention to get stems right, I much prefer rosette plants in terms of maintenance.

Sam

 

[Castellop123]

...

 

[RadaR]

Hi Corin, thanks for the interest.
I've been letting this tank grow. Everyday, I'm adding 0.5ml of Tropica Nutrition+ and 2ml of Excel. Then doing 2 water changes every week. The results have been great, pearling everyday and nice growth. No algae aswell
Out of chance, some Riccia has anchored onto the HC and growing out of it, I like it, and so do the shrimps
I'm still not keen on trimming stems, can't seem to get my head around it.
Here are some pics.