Llj's 20g Journal

[lljdma06]

Ok, did a water change Yesterday and removed the egeria densa. I repositioned the Alternantera reineckii so it will eventually be the backdrop for the plant. Still need to figure out a way to rearrange my equipment and some plants need to grow a bit or be rearranged, but I like the look so far. Pretty dramatic for such a little tank. Some small pieces of wood may be removed to setup the 8g again. I got's some B-day money coming my way, so yeah!

Some photos for you. I really like the edge and color on some of these. Very interesting. A. reineckii is a great plant.

Full tank shot


Left side


This next shot is interesting. I underexposed on purpose. I really wanted the warm colors against the black and I liked the reflection. The other pictures aren't adjusted in anyway and that's how the tank looks. Very dark because of the tannins, though perhaps I should contemplate getting new bulbs.


Let me know how I can improve, besides removing the A. reineckii. That's not an option.

 

[Themuleous]

Once again, nice Llj my only suggestion is the moss? It seems a little untidy? Perhaps it needs a trim? Just a thought, like the layout thou, be nice when it fills in a bit more.

Sam

 

[lljdma06]

Once again, nice Llj my only suggestion is the moss? It seems a little untidy? Perhaps it needs a trim? Just a thought, like the layout thou, be nice when it fills in a bit more.

Sam

Now, I'm going to sound really dumb, but you can trim moss? Do you like cut it with scissors? What do you do with the leftovers, plant is somewhere else? It just never occured to me, Sam. Learn something new everyday.

llj

 

[Themuleous]

Haha I'm pretty sure you just give it a 'hair cut'! Simple as that! People who sell it much get it from somewhere I guess! The leftovers you can do anything with I would think, reattach to stuff!

Sam

 

[lljdma06]

Time for a mini-update. I removed the H. difformis as well, so now I only have a background of the A. reineckii. Not to everybody's taste, but I think it'll look pretty cool. I'm trying to get it to semi-surround the green areas of my tank. It didn't quite turn out the way I wanted it to, but I think with time, it'll get there. I want the highest point of the A. reineckii to be left of center and then gradually slope down on either side. I moved my hardware accordingly, and now you can barely see it. I have a small hair algae problem, or staghorn, or whatever it is (greyish and stringy), but spot treating wth Seachem Excel has done the trick. I think I'll need just two more treatments and I'll kill the stuff.

A picture to tide you over.



Thanks for looking, what do you think of the plan?

llj

 

[SugarQube]

The tank looks lovely, amazing colours great pics I love it

 

[Themuleous]

Still looking lovely Llj just wondering if the red is perhaps a little too much? As its detracting from the equally lovely greens?

Sam

 

[lljdma06]

Ok, a word of warning. Think really, really, really hard before you dose Excel to get rid of thread algae when there's A. reineckii in the tank. This plant does not like spot treatments with Excel. The plants were in a sad state today, and I lost a lot of leaves and had to prune quite a bit to get at healthy growth. At least there's no algae. It'll bounce back soon.

llj

 

[Themuleous]

OH know! I think HC can be quite susceptible to excel too.

Sam

 

[lljdma06]

OH know! I think HC can be quite susceptible to excel too.

Sam

Yup! Sucks doesn't it? Right now tank is quite depressed. In retrospect, I think removing the algae-ridden leaves (there weren't that many) and doing a big water change would have eliminated my problem. I dosed too much iron. That always brings this particular algae.

I should learn to leave well enough alone!

llj

 

[lljdma06]

Well, I'm happy to report that this tank has been algae free for quite some time. I almost lost my A. reineckii because of Excel dosing to treat Black beard or thread algae, I never remember. It is on the rebound, but I had to supplement with egeria and Brazilian pennywort. I removed the egeria a few days ago, but am keeping the pennwort for now, as I think it looks charming. The bolbitis in this tank has really taken off as has the clover. I also added a little bit of extra HM to see how it grows in this tank.

Time for a picture.

Thanks for looking and Happy Holidays.

llj

 

[Themuleous]

Looking absolute quality Llj really liking the layered effect the pennywort has, gives height and structure to the tank without dominating it to much And the leaf shape is something a bit different too.

Sam

 

[Graeme Edwards]

Looking much better llj. Glad you halfed the amount of red in there. You should try and use red plants as a focal point, so a whole backdrop was IMO too much. Less is more as they. You have more shape than before, I can see an essence of a U shaped composition. Looking back at some of your other tanks, you tend to go JUNGLE man!!! But this is a little more defined for you, but you still have your Tarzan approach to it.

Nice one llj.

 

[lljdma06]

Looking absolute quality Llj really liking the layered effect the pennywort has, gives height and structure to the tank without dominating it to much And the leaf shape is something a bit different too.

Sam

Thanks Sam. I'm gradually training the pennywort in this tank to grow smaller leaves. Larger leaves are removed, and I'm only keeping stems with smaller leaf shapes. The rest of the stems either go in the 36g or into a small fountain/pond I have in my front yard. It's actually doing quite well outside, as is leftover egeria.

Looking much better llj. Glad you halfed the amount of red in there. You should try and use red plants as a focal point, so a whole backdrop was IMO too much. Less is more as they. You have more shape than before, I can see an essence of a U shaped composition. Looking back at some of your other tanks, you tend to go JUNGLE man!!! But this is a little more defined for you, but you still have your Tarzan approach to it.

Nice one llj.

I just had so much A. reineckii, Moody, I didn't know what to do with it and no one wants to bin that plant, so I made a background with it. I was getting tired of it too, , way too much red. I couldn't even see the serpaes anymore. It was halfed when I used Excel to eliminate algae. I lost a lot of A. reineckii then, it doesn't like the treatment at all. I like the look much better now. Eventually, I'd like to develope this U-shape more, which will involve training the pennywort. Yes, I tend to jungle scape quite hard, but I really think that going Jungle for the first 3-6 months is the key to less algae. When you plant densly and let the tank just run, you're much better off. I never care about scaping in the beginning, just short plants up front, tall plants towards the back, and make sure everybody gets light. But now that all my tanks are stable, I can experiment with scapes. Of course, I'm very limited with finances, so I do the best with what I have. I don't think I'll ever be as defined as I was with my 15g in IL. That tank was pretty sharply defined, as you can see below. That was a high-tech tank and I had a lot more money then. It still looked terrible for the first 3-4 months. A lot of wisteria and egeria najas. Very ugly.

Loving that dense growth, LLJ! I like how the clover grew at different heights as well, very interesting... Definitely considering them for my next scape (when I get to that point again, that is )

Clover has two types of growth, submerged, which is usually a single leaf, and emergent, which is the typical four-leafed shape. My clover is gradually transitioning between the two right now, so it looks "interesting", as you put it. I may cut the longer stems. It's also spreading along behind the wood, which is really good.

Thanks for the responses. I'm glad you like the tank.

llj

 

[lljdma06]

Well, Sam updated his, I'll update mine. Mine runs on 1.4WPG, CO2 at 1-2bbs (can never remember), and is basically a trash bin for all my trimmings from other tanks. I experiment with plants that typically require higher lighting (A. reineckii, HM, H. zosterfolia) and gradually adapt them to lower lighting levels. It's quite messy right now, but I'm getting ready for a long trip and still have a major trim to do. The floating stems are Bacopa that I trimmed from the 36g, which I have to plant behind the bolbitis on the right, opposite the reineckii. Isn't the Bolbitis just mad!? They were such tiny things when I first got them. I can't even see that there's two large pieces of wood in that tank anymore. The fish still have room to swim. I only have tetras, cories, and otos. Would really like another corydoras species, I think they'll fit in there. They don't produce much waste, and the tank is certainly getting older. I think all the species have spawned, especially the cories and the blue tetras, but no fry survive.

From a month ago. The A. reineckii is just a wee bit tall.

After a trim with floating Bacopa

Bobitis and A. reineckii grouping. I think they look nice together.

Thanks for looking, the tank is 8 months old now and has been running pretty much algae-free since my Hair algae/Dosing excel/Alternantera melting incident way back when.

llj