Full-On Overhaul Journal

[FishFanatic04]

It was an accident. I had my 46g all set up and cycling...silk plants, fake wood, river rock....and somehow between then and now {only 6 weeks later} this same tank is starting to completely transform. Somehow it has become a more high-tech planted tank, opps. I thought I would start a journal because the changes are so dramatic, I thought it would be fun to share! I blame this forum and my husband equally. He keeps saying "just buy it then" Good thing we all like peanut butter...it's cheap. Please don't mind some of the awful photos, I'll get better at photgraphing bowfronts, I hope.

I'll start from the beginning with pics to show how dramatically things have already changed.
First set-up

Decided on sand for the bottom feeders

Added T-5 lighting and bought some plants.

Took out some silks and planted.

Kleiner Bar Sword, and I don't remember what the stem plant is...moneywort maybe???

That's where I am at for now. I want to remove all of the silk plants, but my hubby made a good point. One of my platies is about to pop and we wanted to pull out all the fry we can this time, so I'm leaving the rest of the silks in and will remove them later.

 

[FishFanatic04]

Woot!!! My husband is the best ever. I can't imagine anyone being so supportive of a new hobby. haha Got more plants today and we took out all the fake ones!!! All real from now on! Sorry the water is so cloudy, I stirred up a lot of sand.

 

[ainsy]

Good work!

I think your tank is looking much better now you have gone 'natural'.

 

[FishFanatic04]

Thanks I added the last of the plants today and want to let it sit for awhile and settle in. I have been twitching with everything in the tank so much, I think my arm has gills. Here's an some pictures of what it looks like today. Sorry for the quality again. I used my phone AND its daytime. I'm dosing liquid co2 and ferts. Finally figured out the right combination I hope, we will see...all the plants look terrible right now, hoping they will perk up and brighten soon enough.

Any suggestions are welcome! I've just been tossing in the plants with no rhyme or reason.

 

[FishFanatic04]

Because I'm posting these pics everywhere else, might as well add them here too. I have gone back to the original lighting and stopped the excel. Just a weekly fertilizer dose now to keep things perky.

The ludwiga lost it's red coloring, but I don't actually mind. It's a lovely plant and doing really well with lower lighting, I was worried it wouldn't. My swords look better now then they did before as well, though the kleiner bar isn't as red either.

I need to do something with the java fern, it is growing spikes and looks nasty, I think I would like to just place a tall sword over there....you can't see in the pics but in front of the filter intake there is a small baby sword that grew from the left corner sword. I need something pretty and tall to grow instead of the fern. If it was lush and green I would probably like it.

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

Looks great, what kind of sand are you using? I'm in the market for a nice black sand.

 

[FishFanatic04]

Caribsea Tahitian moon black sand. It has a great texture/grain size.

 

[richpowell1989]

are the spikes on ur fern brown? if so it means its growing baby plantlets on the tips of the other plants the 1st time mine did that i wondered what was goin on lol

 

[FishFanatic04]

Yeah there were some baby leaves. It was my fault..I got carried away with the super glue and I think it was suffocating the rhizome. I never really liked it much, It was covered in black spots when it was sent to me. It just didn't look as "clean" as I would like. No new leaves in a month either. I took it out today and put a nice sword there instead.

If I hadn't coated the rhizome in glue I would have saved it and sent it to someone. I was much more careful with my anubias plants.

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

Caribsea Tahitian moon black sand. It has a great texture/grain size.

Thanks!!!

 

[Biulu]

I had not seen this thread before... Very nice! What did you do with the original wood? I loved that split it had

 

[FishFanatic04]

The original was fake wood with little plastic plants glued on. lol Fake wood, fake plants, and big ugly river rock gravel then.

 

[FishFanatic04]

Well...my fish are sick and not getting better, but I always like to take a moment to find a bright side. Here's are some pics of my plant growth, I have to say that the health of these plants in this low tech setup is starting to impress me. Here's proof that injecting co2 is not necessary for lovely growth. Don't mind the messy substrate or fry everywhere.

Whenever I feed the cories a wafer they crumble it all over the tank for a few hours until they {and the fry who eat everything} vacuum it up.


The growth is pretty good for only two weeks. I want to think it is because my tank is starting to stabilize, it is only a few months old. Just wish I could get the fish healthy and it would even better.



I would like a tall plant in front of the Rena intake on the right, I thought about water sprite but the flow is a little high now until I can remove the Biowheel filter. Suggestions on that, and anything else I can do to improve the scape. ??? Give me something! lol

I almost forgot...I think I have an anubias flower coming up, not sure as I have never seen one in person. BRB with a pic

 

[FishFanatic04]

The holes in the anubias leaves aren't nutrient deficiencies. I got too violent when I took out the wood to remove about 100 snails and eggs from it.

Flower? Oh please say yes!

Any suggestions to improve this tank are very welcome, like I said before.

 

[Biulu]

Yep, is a flower! I think I would move the Egeria (?) in front of the filter intake as the plant on its lefthand side looks very similar. And then in between you could have more bacopa or what about a tiger lotus or an echinodorus ozelot to give a different colour to your scape?