My Planted Tank "the Green Hills"
- Thread starter Aquamaniac
- Start date
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OP
OP
Aquamaniac
Fish Crazy
I did some research on it aparently is some type of duckweed. I can give some of it. No need to sell it considering how got it.
The thing is sending it to you. From my observations of plant.it grows and spreads very fast. But out of the water it dies very fast.
But as you can see my tank is full of it and my wife's too and all if came from a couple of loose leaves that came togheter with some amano shrimps.
I am in Eire, not UK but postage is just slightly higher than local UK and it takes a couple of days to arrive. Hopefully some of it will survive. Let me know what you need for the postage and plants and I can pay by paypal. If you are selling some cuttings from the rotala rotundifolia, I'll buy some of it too. Thanks.
OP
OP
Aquamaniac
Fish Crazy
Hi
Here I am for a new update on this project. Since the last update a lot has happened to this tank. Due to a family problem, my grandma unfortunately is very sick and doctors don’t expect her to last long. I had to take some unplanned holidays to Portugal to be with my family.
Because all this happened suddenly, was not planned and I had to leave in a hurry, the tank suffered with neglect.
I did manage to arrange things so that someone could come around and look after the tank . But unfortunately said person let me down, or to be fair I should have known better before I asked.
So after weeks away I came back to find a tank very different from the one I had left. It was not the best scape around but before this it was fairly stable.
1- Water lever drastically low. Only a bit more than half full and heater working half out of the water. I am lucky not to have a major problem with it shattering.
2- No co2 working
3- Plants dead or dying
4- Missing fish
5- I was using some type of duckweed as a floating plant. This plant spreads very fast and as a result of unchecked growth it basically blocked all the light into the tank. And with the water level lower a lot of it just got stuck on the glasses and equipment above the water level and dried. This plant even though It gives a beautiful effect to the tank as proved to be too troublesome and difficult to control so I will not be using it anymore.
6- My eheim 2215 was barely giving any flow when I came back.
7- Substrate had been heavily disturbed. Some holes here and there, and the hills suffered a very noticeable flattening .
8- Plants uprooted and floating, lots of stems with no leaves.
9- No fertilizers added all this time.
Since I got back:
- the water level as been topped up.
- The duckweed has all been removed and disposed of.
- The co2 cylinder was empty and I had a refill delivered.
- The eheim problem has been solved
- Holes in substrate taken care of.
- Daily fertilization resumed.
Of all the plants :
Recoverable:
-Higrophila polysperma rosanervig: A big bush occupying almost half the tank. I can see that it’s not at its best but its easily recoverable.
Echinodorus tenellus: This one is recoverable. Its weak, It looks like a lot of it just disappeared, especially on the side were the Polysperma as spreaded but in time I can work with it.
Cryptocorne wendii brown : This one has not shown much growth but it seems the least affected by this neglect.
Eliocharis parvula: it’s resilient so It can be recoverable even If I have to add a pot or two. But to be honest there’s not much left. Most of it was uprooted.
Probably not recoverable:
Rotalla rotundifolia : What can I say the only thing left are a lot of steams with no leaves in. And most of them were uprooted. Stems with a dark unhealthy color.
Staurygene reppens: Same as above except the plant was not uprooted and the stems still show a healthy green color.
Heteranthera zosterofila: Most of it melted. Some stems left with black leaves attached.
Fish:
Definitely some were lost . I just did not manage to check how many, because they keep hiding behind the Polysperma bush when I’m trying to count them.
Took days to decide if I was going to just dismantle and start fresh. Or repair the damage and rescape it.
This tank is 10 months old already but a restart is not in my plans at the moment. Even if I start planning a complete restart now I’ll take my time planning. So considering the tank is in the middle of my living room, and it looks depressing, for now I’ll try to salvage the situation.
Other considerations about this tank:
Substrate:
Well like I said above the tank is now 10 months old. My fertile soil was tropica aquacare but by now it must be depleted. My gravel is tesco’s cat litter so it’s clearly a cheap DIY solution not a high tech solution. I’ve read about root tablets, are these a good idea to help? Do they actually work?
Creating hills:
Well this project was called the green hills. But at the moment it’s more flat than hills. I only noticed now, but trough comparison with older pictures of the tank, it’s clear that it’s been flattening for quite some time. Also this slow movement of the gravel towards the middle of the tank explains this:
My parvula looked like it was not growing anything. After close inspection I discovered that I had quite a big carpet of it, about 2cm cm tall, the problem is it was mostly buried under the gravel. I measured the height of my substrate today and comparing to what I originally put in the first day I found this:
- Significantly lower at the back
- About 1,5 to 2cm higher at the front especially in the middle.
I do like to have a tank with hills and I plan to do it again in the future. After a research I realized the obvious without something to keep it together it will get flat in time.
I found various ways, from various people to keep hills together.
- Using rocks and wood.
- Using barriers of wood, slate or glass glued with silicone to the bottom of the tank.
- Putting cheap aquarium gravel inside nylon stocking and use it to make a hard base .Then cover it with the substrate. This idea can also be used apparently to save money on expensive substrates using less of it. This will still allow for a good water flow but will stop the substrate from flattening with time.
Anyone used any of these ? I’m very interested for future projects.
And that’s it for the update.
Unfortunately that tank is not doing so good. But I’ll start fixing it right away. I’ll post updates.
Here I am for a new update on this project. Since the last update a lot has happened to this tank. Due to a family problem, my grandma unfortunately is very sick and doctors don’t expect her to last long. I had to take some unplanned holidays to Portugal to be with my family.
Because all this happened suddenly, was not planned and I had to leave in a hurry, the tank suffered with neglect.
I did manage to arrange things so that someone could come around and look after the tank . But unfortunately said person let me down, or to be fair I should have known better before I asked.
So after weeks away I came back to find a tank very different from the one I had left. It was not the best scape around but before this it was fairly stable.
1- Water lever drastically low. Only a bit more than half full and heater working half out of the water. I am lucky not to have a major problem with it shattering.
2- No co2 working
3- Plants dead or dying
4- Missing fish
5- I was using some type of duckweed as a floating plant. This plant spreads very fast and as a result of unchecked growth it basically blocked all the light into the tank. And with the water level lower a lot of it just got stuck on the glasses and equipment above the water level and dried. This plant even though It gives a beautiful effect to the tank as proved to be too troublesome and difficult to control so I will not be using it anymore.
6- My eheim 2215 was barely giving any flow when I came back.
7- Substrate had been heavily disturbed. Some holes here and there, and the hills suffered a very noticeable flattening .
8- Plants uprooted and floating, lots of stems with no leaves.
9- No fertilizers added all this time.
Since I got back:
- the water level as been topped up.
- The duckweed has all been removed and disposed of.
- The co2 cylinder was empty and I had a refill delivered.
- The eheim problem has been solved
- Holes in substrate taken care of.
- Daily fertilization resumed.
Of all the plants :
Recoverable:
-Higrophila polysperma rosanervig: A big bush occupying almost half the tank. I can see that it’s not at its best but its easily recoverable.
Echinodorus tenellus: This one is recoverable. Its weak, It looks like a lot of it just disappeared, especially on the side were the Polysperma as spreaded but in time I can work with it.
Cryptocorne wendii brown : This one has not shown much growth but it seems the least affected by this neglect.
Eliocharis parvula: it’s resilient so It can be recoverable even If I have to add a pot or two. But to be honest there’s not much left. Most of it was uprooted.
Probably not recoverable:
Rotalla rotundifolia : What can I say the only thing left are a lot of steams with no leaves in. And most of them were uprooted. Stems with a dark unhealthy color.
Staurygene reppens: Same as above except the plant was not uprooted and the stems still show a healthy green color.
Heteranthera zosterofila: Most of it melted. Some stems left with black leaves attached.
Fish:
Definitely some were lost . I just did not manage to check how many, because they keep hiding behind the Polysperma bush when I’m trying to count them.
Took days to decide if I was going to just dismantle and start fresh. Or repair the damage and rescape it.
This tank is 10 months old already but a restart is not in my plans at the moment. Even if I start planning a complete restart now I’ll take my time planning. So considering the tank is in the middle of my living room, and it looks depressing, for now I’ll try to salvage the situation.
Other considerations about this tank:
Substrate:
Well like I said above the tank is now 10 months old. My fertile soil was tropica aquacare but by now it must be depleted. My gravel is tesco’s cat litter so it’s clearly a cheap DIY solution not a high tech solution. I’ve read about root tablets, are these a good idea to help? Do they actually work?
Creating hills:
Well this project was called the green hills. But at the moment it’s more flat than hills. I only noticed now, but trough comparison with older pictures of the tank, it’s clear that it’s been flattening for quite some time. Also this slow movement of the gravel towards the middle of the tank explains this:
My parvula looked like it was not growing anything. After close inspection I discovered that I had quite a big carpet of it, about 2cm cm tall, the problem is it was mostly buried under the gravel. I measured the height of my substrate today and comparing to what I originally put in the first day I found this:
- Significantly lower at the back
- About 1,5 to 2cm higher at the front especially in the middle.
I do like to have a tank with hills and I plan to do it again in the future. After a research I realized the obvious without something to keep it together it will get flat in time.
I found various ways, from various people to keep hills together.
- Using rocks and wood.
- Using barriers of wood, slate or glass glued with silicone to the bottom of the tank.
- Putting cheap aquarium gravel inside nylon stocking and use it to make a hard base .Then cover it with the substrate. This idea can also be used apparently to save money on expensive substrates using less of it. This will still allow for a good water flow but will stop the substrate from flattening with time.
Anyone used any of these ? I’m very interested for future projects.
And that’s it for the update.
Unfortunately that tank is not doing so good. But I’ll start fixing it right away. I’ll post updates.
OP
OP
Aquamaniac
Fish Crazy
Thanks, Now that the decision to rescape it is made, I'll definitely make some worth out of it.
And also have to think on how to prevent this from happening again if something happens and i have to go away.
OP
OP
Aquamaniac
Fish Crazy
I guess you right lower light means less chances drastic changes.
As for getting someone,i did have someone. But i definitely need someone i can really depend on to keep me updated on how the tank is doing.
I think feeding, fertilizing, and top up evaporating water. These are normal things to expect from this person.
As for getting someone,i did have someone. But i definitely need someone i can really depend on to keep me updated on how the tank is doing.
I think feeding, fertilizing, and top up evaporating water. These are normal things to expect from this person.
OP
OP
Aquamaniac
Fish Crazy
Hello again
So this weekend , i finally got the courage to take a look at the tank and see what i was going do with it.
My idea was, rescape using the same rocks and plants, replace the plants that were destroyed with new ones.
So sunday after helping my kid assembling the Xmas three I decided to put my hands to work. So I moved all my fish to my 200 litre and my 75 litre tank. I removed the water from the tank.
I have in mind a clear picture of the type of rescaping I want to do. And after some hours working on it I stepped back and realized that my new idea had nothing to do with the original concept of the green hills.
Besides It was clear that for my ambitious new scape the hardscape I had was not enough, and the plants I had were not adequate to my vision.
This is some pictures of my rescaping try outs.
The green hills is 10 months now, could have lasted longer if not for my holiday problem. But at the same time I feel that there was not much more to learn from it. I am learning, with every new project so I feel it’s time to try something different.
My scape from last year My desired return, was me returning to this hobby after 4 years away. Most of all because it was my first tank with pressurized co2 and very high light I had a lot of algae problems. In the end I managed to make a decent scape out of it, but the entire process was a battle to keep the algae in check and stabilize the tank.
”The green hills” was an idea to get some more experience and to try to achieve a more stable environment for my plants and fish.
I think this was a success.
Specially after the rescape in july. Despite some algae in the start, it stabilized and i did not get much problems with it.
So I’m going empty the tank, clean it and start a new project . In the next couple of months I’ll put some updates on how it’s going.
Thanks for everyone that followed the development of this project.
I will still post some more pictures of the evolution of the tank trough its lifetime.
So this weekend , i finally got the courage to take a look at the tank and see what i was going do with it.
My idea was, rescape using the same rocks and plants, replace the plants that were destroyed with new ones.
So sunday after helping my kid assembling the Xmas three I decided to put my hands to work. So I moved all my fish to my 200 litre and my 75 litre tank. I removed the water from the tank.
I have in mind a clear picture of the type of rescaping I want to do. And after some hours working on it I stepped back and realized that my new idea had nothing to do with the original concept of the green hills.
Besides It was clear that for my ambitious new scape the hardscape I had was not enough, and the plants I had were not adequate to my vision.
This is some pictures of my rescaping try outs.
The green hills is 10 months now, could have lasted longer if not for my holiday problem. But at the same time I feel that there was not much more to learn from it. I am learning, with every new project so I feel it’s time to try something different.
My scape from last year My desired return, was me returning to this hobby after 4 years away. Most of all because it was my first tank with pressurized co2 and very high light I had a lot of algae problems. In the end I managed to make a decent scape out of it, but the entire process was a battle to keep the algae in check and stabilize the tank.
”The green hills” was an idea to get some more experience and to try to achieve a more stable environment for my plants and fish.
I think this was a success.
Specially after the rescape in july. Despite some algae in the start, it stabilized and i did not get much problems with it.
So I’m going empty the tank, clean it and start a new project . In the next couple of months I’ll put some updates on how it’s going.
Thanks for everyone that followed the development of this project.
I will still post some more pictures of the evolution of the tank trough its lifetime.
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