Green Phantom

[daizeUK]

Lovely fish!  I'm always a fan of CPDs 

I love to see lots of small fish in a big tank too!

 

[Zikofski]

thank you everyone  
 
okay picture time i bought some more CPD's today, 10 more so i now have 16 of them i also bought 10 amano shrimp to help combat the algae situation and they are loving the algae my pleco has also kindly cleaned my glass for me over night .
 
so picture time  firstly my tank i did a little rescape last night
 

 
hope you all like the rescape i done removed the rocks and just kept the wood in there, not sure i think it looks better add a little more space not so crowded with the rocks
 
right now the BN pleco i hope its colour comes out a little more but wow love it already

 

 

 
my CPD's are hard to catch for the camera, but i managed to snap one 

 
and my amano shrimp


 
 
stay tuned for more all your comments are appreciated
-zik

 

[Zikofski]

okay another update and i worked out that my tank is now 45 days old, so after 45 days this is my tank 
 

 
how do you all think it is coming along any improvements do u think i can make??
 
okay so went to the fish shop again today bought 4 more CPD's so now my stock for them is 20, and i also bought 15 Copper Harlequin Rasboras LOVELY fish love the bright copper line on them now i am not 100% if i will keep them in this tank or transfer them into my new Iwagumi tank later on but these new CHR's are more visible and active and don't hide away like my CPD's do so i kinda not liking the CPD's at the moment
 
so pictures  

another picture of my shrimp

lone CHR


 

 
i also bought some live brine shrimp my fish LOVE IT altho again the CPD's didn't seem to love it so much.
 
pleco is looking good colours are good and so far 0 deaths so happy with that.

 

[Ninjouzata]

I think your tank looks beautiful I especially like the BN. They're too cute! The copper harlequins are gorgeous and so are the CPDs, sorry they're hiding a lot on you though

 

[daizeUK]

Shame about the CPD's hiding - that surprises me in a well planted tank with a very good sized shoal.  I know they're a timid fish but they should be happy....
 
Gorgeous rasbora.  You have good taste in fish
And a great LFS too it seems!
 
Some great pics - put one in FOTM!

 

[Zikofski]

haha thank you so much, sadly i have lost my first fish altho he had dropsy i have no idea what would have caused him to get it, maybe stress from the move or even a bit of bullying from the large group. so i am back down to 19 CPD's
 
i did a large water change today and i am getting some more algae but its green dust algae on the glass and on my wood, I'm not to concerned with this as it doesn't look to unsightly to me and makes the tank look a little more natural and i can just wipe it off the glass too.
 
now the biggest different i can notice with this tank the crypts WOW they have taken hold now they are growing very fast and soon i may be doing a few more trimmings on them, same with my amazon swords lovely reds coming through now and they are filling out the back of the tank very nicely and i am loving a plant in the middle but i still don't know the name of 100% i had another look at what Ch4rlie mentioned and it doesn't look the same now, but a quick look on AE and i think i may have found it Rotala wallichii i think it is what dose everyone else think? 
 
here is link to plant on website
http/www.aquaessentials.co.uk/rotala-wallichii-p-5880.html
 
here it is before i put it into the tank but in my last tank shot its smack in the middle with reddish tips i love those red tips but i trimmed them slightly today

 
with this plant i feel i may do some scaping with it and maybe make a round ball like plant grouping not sure what you call it but i may work some magic there.
 
one plant thats not doing to well is DHG seems to be struggling again, and my vallis seem to have slowed in growth now i noticed my lotus bulb may have been blocking the light a tad so i trimmed that back and i shall see how we go this week
 
not much in form of pictures il try and get some tomorrow for you all

 

[CoryFever]

The pleco is absolutley gorgeous!

Why not get a Green Phantom pleco to match the name?

 

[Ninjouzata]

The pleco is absolutley gorgeous!

Why not get a Green Phantom pleco to match the name?

Because the tank is only 88l. Far too small for a green phantom that can get 7-8".
I was very excited when I saw this thread the first time 'cause that is my favorite plec and then I was like aww.. But it is a great read!
 
Zik I think that most recent plant pic is Anacharis/Elodea but the one you linked also looks really similar. >.< I am no good at IDing plants.

 

[Zikofski]

thnx everyone, tanks is growing in nicely my amazon swords are starting to get to much for the tank maybe il haft to see getting very dense at the back of the tank, my 

Rotala wallichii which it is that did a little research on it and it looks identical to it its growing well and i am trying to shape it but with not much success >_<
 
​sadly i won't be getting a green phantom as my bn is already going to grow big 15cm if i was going to get another bn i would want to get the same one but opposite sex, but still don't know the sex of this one as of yet.
 
​again my DHG still spreading slowly, is there any way of making this stuff grow quicker haha I'm going away for a few days now so il post an update when i get back including a picture

 

[Zikofski]

okay not much has changed since i left for camping, my crypts have stopped melting and some hair algae has started to grow again, i went out and bought 10 more amano's this is not due to the algae increase but i changed my mind over getting cory's and now my bottom dwellers are going to be the amano's so i have 16 of these.
 
i did the other day do a huge WC 100% again in line with my EI plan but i did a little rescape took out the old Nomapgila Stricta trimmed the extra growth that occurred from my last cut back and threw away the roots so now i have a few more stems, i also noticed some did die away from trimming and probably have caused some of the algae issues i have, i decided to regroup this plant together on the back right of the tank, i felt grouping various plants together rather than spacing them out may look nicer
 
Rotala wallichii did die back slightly from my last trim and seems to be growing well but i can see this plant being more of a nuisance even tho it looks nice i did see it in a larger aquarium and this plant looks so nice but it was over 1m tall so i may end up getting rid of this plant in the near future
 
i left my crypts, sword and vali in there place but i did trim some old leafs from the swords.
 
the anubias in my tank has also been growing well as u can see from previous pictures it started to flower i did cut the flower off as it was covered in algae and stopped growing i also noticed new leafs growing so i cut a few older leafs off to allow more light to the lower new growth maybe they will grow quicker and also i noticed the anubias has actually attached itself to my wood so i removed the fishing line and removed some of the roots that where not needed anymore hopefully this cut back won't hurt it to much
 
but the biggest change in my tank was the DHG it was growing but growing slowly and so i removed it all clean it up and remove all the dead pieces and instead of clumping it together like i had done before, i did what i did in my new iwagumi tank (yet to create journal) and plant the DHG individually and i have spaced it out across the whole front of the tank and i shall see if we get better growth from this as the cuba in my new tank has grown well by doing this
 
okay enough chat and more pictures
 
Before the WC and Clean

 
After the first initial clean sorry for the fogginess the substrate leaves a mess when disturbed

 
and finally with the DHG spread out

 
i just noticed this is the first picture with the new Spray bar i made its not ideal as i had to tweak it once it was inside the tank but it works very well with my co2 and allows better flow around the tank i feel. 
 
okay some close ups of the DHG and anubias



 
any comments criticism or even tips for me are always welcome let me know how you think my tank looks I'm off again camping for a week on wednesday again so il dose the required ferts and then hope for the best, il take a picture tonight and a picture a soon as i get back to see if anything has changed
 
thank again for reading and looking
ziko 

 

[Zikofski]

not much has changed since my last update all my plants still continue to grow well my crypts continue to spread runners and new crypts are popping up, my DHG still continues to grow slowly if growing at all i am seriously thinking removing all substrate and changing over to ADA substrate that i used in my Iwagumi setup maybe the DHG will grow better with loser substrate than the hard dense sand
 
okay pictures
 

 

 
i removed the middle piece of the wood to remove algae and added back the right hand side pice of wood as the algae is now gone from it, my Valli is growing but growing slowly, i don't understand why my valli is growing slowly and its not growing very all either staying no more than 4" tall why is this does anyone else know?

 

[Zikofski]

Sorry not posted a reply for a while but I have had a few problems with my Iwagumi tank so I have not done much to this setup other than let the plants flourish, which they have done the crypts have almost covered the whole floor and all plants are growing well except the DHG and the valli still not 100% sure why.

Okay I am thinking of getting a few more mid ground plants seems to me I only have high background and foreground plants so need some change there I did get two new plants last week tho but they where not intended for this tank but they may stay, on another not I am thinking of rescaping the tsnk completely added a new substrate ADA style substrate as my current sand I got with the intention of Corry's but I won't be getting any now and my substrate is to low so most of the roots are popping up rather thsn heading down this may also be caused by the sand brig heavy maybe and a lighter substrate be better? But I also would like to try and make a cave from all the rocks I have lying around for my BN pleco's I feel this might look nice similar to what I did in my old 330L tank but with more natural rocks than with a plastic sand covered cave.

On the fish and shrimp front no problems there the CPD's are becoming ever
More active and less shy I wonder if this has anything to do with me raising the temp from 23 to 26c no losses on any front and almost all my amano shrimp are female and all berried shame I don't have a brackish tank to breed them but I'm not fussed for them.

Algae what algae I have 0 well almost 0 still a slight hint of staghorn but it's slwoly disappearing have I finally got my c02 levels correct and are
My amanos and ottos doing a good job the only time I see the algae on plants is when that leaf is starting to die off so good sign for me and I trim accordingly so picture time

Full tank shot followed by 3 closer shots








All comments are welcome let me know what you think and let me know if the cave and substrate idea is good?

 

[Ch4rlie]

Have noticed you DHG and vallis are still in the pots and wool which they came wrapped in for delivery.
 
That may be why they not flourishing as much, restricting the roots and growth perhaps.
 
Also are these vallis plants in bottom left of tank? 
Be sure the crown is not buried into substrate, do much better when lightly planted in substrate with crown showing a bit.
 
Otherwise tank looks pretty good and growing well

 

[Zikofski]

thnx ch4, yes i left them in the pots as i wasnt 100% on where to put them and may not stay in the tank but they are growing well, and runners are pushing out of the pots so i may plant them in the positions they are currently in as they look very good there, but i still need some mid ground plants anyone got any suggestions?
 
the vallis on the bottom left are planted and most of them the crown is not berried and the roots are all thats holding the plant in at the moment but they still grow slowly altho the other valli i placed not the tank are growing much better, i think at the moment altho they are still in a melting process crypts are still continuing to fill out and its looking so amazing  still debating to rescape the tank in a months time il buy some better substrate when i do

 

[Zikofski]

so i have ordered my new Substrate and my new Inflow and Outflow pipework, will make them asap once they arrive, i shall have a play around with the stones to try and make a cave and design my new scape, i am in the hunt for some new mid ground plants trying to get more and more plants squeezed not this tank.
 
i have also got a video to upload of my fish shrimp and pleco feeding few fights between shrimps,fish and pleco's i think is funny to watch not to long only a couple of minutes il post as soon as its uploaded thnx again for reading