Llj's 20g Journal

[lljdma06]

amazing looking tank! such growth in there. What is your CO2 injection...pressurised or yeast?

Yeast. I don't have enough money for pressurised.

 

[rsands]

whats the wpg? if i read correct its 2.14? how many yeast systems are you running?

 

[lljdma06]

whats the wpg? if i read correct its 2.14? how many yeast systems are you running?

I was at 1.4WPG, but now I'm running things at 2.1WPG and things are growing better. It's been that way for a while now while I gradually change out 2 year old bulbs. I run 2 Nutrafin systems (one mix changed on Monday, the other Friday). The mix is 1/2 tsp of yeast to 1/2 cup of sugar and lasts about a week in my climate.

llj

 

[Biulu]

I love it! Can you explain a bit more about the wood arrangement? I believe you have the anubias on a pieve of wood in the front, and behind it you have another piece of wood, which is partly covered by the anubias? Do you have a picture of the wood by itself?

 

[Dave Pauls]

LLJ, you tank is amazing. I love the new wood. it really finishes it off.
DAVE

 

[lljdma06]

I love it! Can you explain a bit more about the wood arrangement? I believe you have the anubias on a pieve of wood in the front, and behind it you have another piece of wood, which is partly covered by the anubias? Do you have a picture of the wood by itself?

Unfortunately, I do not have a picture of the wood arrangement. It is comprised of four pieces of Mopani wood. the largest piece is positioned flat on the gravel bed and the anubias are primarily anchored to that piece. The second piece is to the left of the anubias. It was initially laid on top of the first piece to prevent it from floating, but it remained in the tank. The 3rd and 4th pieces are later additions, and are arranged to frame the anubias. They are anchored by some strategically placed slate rock and a very small piece of driftwood to make them look like one piece, which are tucked away in the back corner, hidden by bolbitis and bacopa. The first two pieces were very pricey and from a LPS, but the other two were a bargain at PetsMart, a large chain store.

LLJ, you tank is amazing. I love the new wood. it really finishes it off.
DAVE

Thanks, Dave. Just need to trim the Marsilea and the stemplants a wee bit to keep the shape the same.

llj

 

[ICEEGRL]

I really wish that I could find some wood like that! It looks so cool! I love that you can see it better.

 

[Biulu]

Thanks for the explanation! I think it is a great idea to put the plants on a simple piece of wood, and save the most decorative wood as decoration. You have given me a great tip! I have just acquired some anubia, and wasn't sure to put it on a 'nice' piece of wood. Now I am thinking of just buying a piece, and place it behind the decorative piece so it will remain visible.

 

[lljdma06]

Thanks for the explanation! I think it is a great idea to put the plants on a simple piece of wood, and save the most decorative wood as decoration. You have given me a great tip! I have just acquired some anubia, and wasn't sure to put it on a 'nice' piece of wood. Now I am thinking of just buying a piece, and place it behind the decorative piece so it will remain visible.

The piece is by no means simple, it's just a larger, flatter piece of Mopani. But I like your train of thought. I do think that it is a good idea that most of the plants be restricted to one piece of wood with the other pieces arranged about it. If for whatever reason, I need to remove wood, I do not run the risk of uprooting several plants and damaging the scape in the process.

llj

 

[Biulu]

The piece is by no means simple, it's just a larger, flatter piece of Mopani. But I like your train of thought. I do think that it is a good idea that most of the plants be restricted to one piece of wood with the other pieces arranged about it. If for whatever reason, I need to remove wood, I do not run the risk of uprooting several plants and damaging the scape in the process.

llj

Exactly! This would save a lot of trouble arranging and re-arranging plants on the wood, damage the plants, and also damage some beautiful pieces of wood.

 

[lljdma06]

The piece is by no means simple, it's just a larger, flatter piece of Mopani. But I like your train of thought. I do think that it is a good idea that most of the plants be restricted to one piece of wood with the other pieces arranged about it. If for whatever reason, I need to remove wood, I do not run the risk of uprooting several plants and damaging the scape in the process.

llj

Exactly! This would save a lot of trouble arranging and re-arranging plants on the wood, damage the plants, and also damage some beautiful pieces of wood.

It's great to see this principle at work! I pruned the giant anubia in this tank the other day and removed the Bacopa. I was able to rearrange the wood without hurting the scape much. It looks rather precarious, but pretty cool. It actually has a lot of support, but you can't tell. I also planted some of the anubia cuttings and moss onto the re-arranged wood. I have to remove some moss from some of the wood, as I only want it growing in certain places. The bacopa is in a small pond/fountain I have in my front yard and is doing well. It will probably produce flowers outside and that should complement the egeria densa I already have in there.

I loved the scape I had before and it is better than this one, IMO, but the plan for this tank is to convert it to a low-light, low-CO2 setup and have no stemplants, which would cut maitenance by a huge margin. I refreshed the rotala (cut the stem bottoms and replanted) and will keep it until I find the perfect piece of Mopani to complement the left side. Afterwards, the rotala will either be swapped to friends or planted in my 36g. The rotala is gorgeous and has a beautiful salmon-colored blushing to the top third of the stems. Pretty intense and the Tea-colored water emphasizes it. I'll try and take some pictures this week and will experiment with some different backgrounds and lighting effects.

llj

 

[lljdma06]

I found some really nice wood. At Petsupermarket of all places, very inexpensive too! Mopani again. I also removed the rotala (Planted it in the 36g which has more light), so now the tank is comprised of slow-growing, rhizome or rhizoid type plants, which is kind of funny that it worked out that way. To balance this, I reduced the lighting to 1.4WPG and decreased the photo period. Eventually, I'd like to reduce CO2, or perhaps even remove it entirely. Any thoughts on this? Right now, I've got two canisters with a DIY mixed changed on alternate days. Should I reduce the CO2 gradually or all at once, or should I keep one canister? The water has a very nice tea-color.

Hopefully, some Scleromystax barbatus will be available soon, as the tank has been changed around to house a pair.

I took a few photos with some differences in lighting. My shoulder hurt quite a bit, though, so the photo quality has gone down a bit and I couldn't do any macroshots. I think the flash photo is interesting as it shows how dark the water is.

This tank is on its way to becoming very low-maintenance. Let me know what you think. I still like the layout I posted in the Member's section better, but I really got sick of pruning stemplants every week and I was running out of places to put them. I hate binning.

llj

 

[ICEEGRL]

You can always send them to me!

As always... very nice tank!

 

[lljdma06]

Well, the wood that I put in got mold, so out it went. It was boiled for a few hours and then soaked for a week. I took the liberty today of dividing my giant center anubia for this tank. Needless to say, I've got like a million anubias now and I have no clue what to do with them. There is a lot less wood in this tank too. Just kept a few smaller, skinnier pieces.

I'm going to carefully redo the scape a bit in the 36g tomorrow, and see what I have left. I may be posting in the plant swap soon, as I really no longer want my tanks to be anything but low-maintenance setups. I really do not like pruning anymore. I don't like CO2 much either. Most of my Bolbitis may go in favor of keeping anubias, which grow slower and require a lot less maintenance. The root system is also less messy. I've had a great run with Bolbitis, but may be time to move on. It just grows way too fast in my tanks and I really don't feel up to keeping up. Java fern may be available in large quantities as well, and perhaps crypts, A. reineckii, R. rotundifolia, and Marsilea hirsuta. A large piece of driftwood may also be exchanged for a smaller, more versatile piece.

Stay tuned for an update in both threads, possibly with pics once the water and mulm settle.

llj

 

[Themuleous]

Like the new pics I get the feeling you dont like pruning! I would happily swap for plants I could prune as that would actually mean they were growing! Dam HC!

I always like wood with things attached to it and there is a surprising variety of anubia.

Sam