Gab99's First Attempt At A Planted Tank

[GAB99]

1. need another top dweeling fish besides halfbeaks and hatchets?

is this for the large tank? If so, what about Panchax?

2. tahitian moon sand or eco complete?

Personally, i'd go with the eco complete. Moon sand is completely inert.

yeah its for the large tank, the 5 gallon is grow out for small plants and recovery for damaged ones as well as QT for fish.

and oook eco complete it is, now what to do with my current sand since puting that on top would be useless haha.

btw i was looking at the panchax killis off on Aquabid and liveaquaria its just that they are soooo expensive lol

 

[GAB99]

ummmmm i cant get the lid off the flourish excel.... despite my use of a plethora of tools and techniques that lid will not come off, im getting a empty shampoo bottle from walmart and stabbing the excel bottle to transfer it.

also i dont have topsoil anymore i had to use my bags to finish planting some stuff out back, but its no biggy its like 1.50 for 1 cubic foot


taking some good searching to find the dolomite and muriate of potash, the clay imgonna get from joanns if it isnt overpriced like everyhtng else at that store

 

[GAB99]

things are going ok some stuff to say real quick

. my tank actually doesnt look like like crap anymore! well, half of it

. left side has the hygrophila corymbosa and its growing very well i think,same with the sword on that side

. right side has the trimmed wisteria which is growing slowly but surely, doesnt look nice but it will get there

. 5 G qt tank is doing good crypts are coming back which is also a plus

. one of the hatchets flew RIP



if i had a few extra twenties the tank would be done and i can start collecting the rest of the stock (and fashion some sort of anti-aerial escape cover) grumble grumble

 

[ian]

Panchax are really cheap over here, you can get one for £2, so that works out about $3. Get some pics up Gabb!

 

[JoshuaA]

ummmmm i cant get the lid off the flourish excel.... despite my use of a plethora of tools and techniques that lid will not come off, im getting a empty shampoo bottle from walmart and stabbing the excel bottle to transfer it.

also i dont have topsoil anymore i had to use my bags to finish planting some stuff out back, but its no biggy its like 1.50 for 1 cubic foot


taking some good searching to find the dolomite and muriate of potash, the clay imgonna get from joanns if it isnt overpriced like everyhtng else at that store

Yeh I'm glad I'm not the only one to have suffered this. To add insult to injury my Excel had actually leaked a good 20% out in the parcel when it arrived the first time I ever bought any. Then amazingly the lid refused to be moved, it is like a poor quality child protection cap than permanently locks if over tightened. I've had many a times where I have wrestled with it. Fortunately I had a few empty treatment bottles which had a lid that fitted perfectly.

 

[GAB99]

Ok some more stuff to mention

1. My fish are acting like the end of the world is upoun them, they are very erratic and seem to be afraid of any outside movement, they dont come to me for food, only run. they all, except ironically the hatchets have tried to jump out of the tank with minimal success, this is really scaring me since this has never happened before and that ive had them since they were little. stats are fine despite i let the water level get low (to avoid more successful jumps). they are also in such a crazed state they regularly smash into the glass, i fear that one will eventually hit too hard.

2. plants are doing awseome the sword on the left is ginourmous, and the hygrophila corymbosa is a miniature forest. the wisteria is taking forever to grow though. the QT is doing great and lastly i have to get rid of more duckweed

like i said my plan for my entertainment during srping break will be to get this tank to the done with the basics (rest would be a powerhead, stock, and injection CO2) so tomorrow i will get my topsoil and tonight i will order the muriate of potash and dolomite and possibly the clay and eco complete off amazon. then i will spend roughly 30$ on a bulk of the actual plants. when everything is ready to go ill drain the tank store the fish make it how i want it and refill. also when i get the topsoil ill be sure to pick up some soft meshing to put over the tank, a crude but effective way to ease my worries.

ianho - id love to but my camera is full of pictures and my computer will not take the memory.

 

[GAB99]

everything is ticking along which is greeat but im going to have to stretch this on for a bit because

1. soil is taking forever to dry

2. eco complete is harder to find than an alien civilization (i want to avoid paying 20$ worth of shipping)

so unless someone can stop time so i have time to blow dry the soil and if anyone can either poop eco complete or suggest an alternative ill be stuck for a bit


btw got 3 free angelicus loaches (+) in QT

 

[GAB99]

mineralizing taking forever
still on stage 2/4 of the wetting drying process

otherwise everything else is here so i just need that and the eco complete, and the plants

 

[GAB99]

while i was waiting for everything to slowly finish up i got bored an moved one of the crypt plants (i think might be ) to the 55 and after getting established has started growing some massive leaves.

the tanks needs to be trimmed as the siamensis is getting abit of dieback on the lower leaves and the swords are getting huge, but im going to wait till the mass planting to do that


also concluded that i needed to replant the tops and not the bottom of the wisteria because im still not getting any growth fromthe plants, tossing those out and ordering a new batch with the rest.

the last remaining angelicus loach is going the way of the others cuz they are/were too smallto compete with the other fish, moving her back to the QT tank for her to eat and some RR and then probably going to end up leaving her there to get biggerand then get some larger ones next time.

 

[ian]

any pics Gab?

 

[Verminator89]

My sentiments exactly Pictures?

 

[GAB99]

actually i wasable to get some pretty awseome pictures playing around with the functions on my phone camera, but i have to upload them to facebook, then copy paste into my desktop then upload them to photobucket cant waste that kind of time until friday haha

 

[GAB99]

fastforward about 3 million years.....


plant wise nothing has really happened, plants nearly reaching the top im debating whether to trim it all down or to wait and let them break the surface.

another hatchet has jumped ship after adding 5 glass catfish, poo guy must have gotten spooked, blueprints are in the making for a hatchet fence....

one of my favorite fish died, one of the male boesemanis that i so dearly cherished, and the deformed he/she one is on the way out too, im suspecting genetic problems and old age. ill reveal my plans for further fish stocking further down.

bought a pair of zebra wildtype angels, probably from same parents and proabably the same gender but what can you do, i was going to get soe phillipine blues but too much money on shipping (always the shipping grrr) plus id have to get 6 to actually get a pair or two and im pretty sure the 55 wont handle that many potential 8" tall fish...unless someone can tell me otherwise

the angelicus loach died...again....in the 55.....#129###... no more bottom dwellers, from now on its clams and that one catfish.

last but not least, updating the stocking since i will be going away to college and after going to a tennis camp and staying overnight in the dorms i have concluded that i cannot fit my 55 in a dorm unless i murdered my roomate and put the tank on their bed or got an apartment. so since i have to leave the tank at "home" im just going to leave the stock at the species i have now and just bump the schools up to 6 and if its already at 5 ill leave it.

1 hatchet, forever alone, lol jk ill get friends
4 praecox, may just get another female and another male for breeding
4 boesemani rainbows, if deformo dies ill be left with 1 male and 2 fems, so proabably going to get another male and 2 more females
4 gold barbs, not gonna replenish these guys when they go they go, but would buy 8 more in a heartbeat if i had a bigger tank
1 stripped rapahel catfish, only need one lol
2 angels, again debating whether or not to get the phillipines, but since i only need 1 pair idk what to do with the other 6, also dont know how big they have to be to form a pair so... some help!
1 oto, forever alone, only oto to have survived for some wierd reason
5 glass catfish,not gonna bump em up

so potentially 31 fish at the least, currently have 24, maximum of 37 if i get the angels

dam thats alot of fish


also, i may have run into 750$ + 14/15 years of intrest so if thats true there will be a large fish splurge and i can finally get the tank to look half as good as everyone elses.






one last note, due to my new addiction to sparklign water (thanks alot belgium) i placed two empty glass bottles in the tank on the side where the wisteria was supposed to be, looks good tbh ill let your guys judge if i ever get pictures on here.

 

[GAB99]

while getting pictures for my marine tank to upload i also turned on the lights for 5 minutes in the planted tank to take some pics, so yeah the fish are gonna look pale and freaked out.

one of the angels, again washed out do to surprise illumination

my boy, love this fish to pieces, had him when he was only a month or two old

one of the glass cats

FTS you can see the bottles on the right

 

[GAB99]

ok not much happening

that one hygro siamensis reached the top of the tank

almost all my boesemanis died, for what reason i dont know but now im left with one, im debating whether to just leave him alone or get more, if i wasnt going to get more i would say maybe get more praecox or gold barbs...

to be honest i would be terribly upset if i lost him or my male praecox (along with my barbs and the oto and the catfish..)


reduced flow from the external so im cleaning it tommorrow hoepfully, also getting a 750gph powerhead (is this powerful enough? and i point it up right?)

one of the angels died and i got a white non-veil with some (not alot just the tips and then some) pink/red on it so i got it. really nice fish was cvered with ich for a few days then a few wcs and shes fine now.

the microsword from the QT was doing really well so i put some over which is now also doing well (and by well meaning im getting growth, however slow it may be)

also thinking of getting a rubber lip pleco to deal with algae, but my concern is he might out compete the oto, though to be fair he is doing a rubbish job and is so fat it looks impregnated.

1 hatchet 5
2 angels
4 barbs ??
1 boesemani ??
4 praecox ??
1 stripped raphael cat
1 oto
5 glass cats
1 rubber lip pleco?

19 ttl, 24 min, 31 max


thats all....