yinyangpete
Mostly New Member
I didn't like the one and only rock I had placed in the aquarium. Actually, I liked the rock, it was more that I really couldn't see how to make it work. I took it out of the tank and put it in the rock garden.
I went down to the creek this morning (finally remembered to bring my pruners to rid my path of a branch that was persistently in my way) to work out some new ideas. My eye kept drawing toward rocks that were much too big. I like 55g's, but let's face it, the dimensions aren't always the most accommodating when it comes to aquascaping. I finally found some rocks that I thought might work together. I played around with arrangements on the picnic table, finally made my decisions, and after a good scrub gave them a soak in bleach solution, and set them in a rinse.
Knowing I'd have to remove all the hoods and lights to get the rocks placed, I decided it was time to make some lighting adjustments. I have a little work area up in the loft and that's where I put the shop light I had on my last tank. I took down the shop light, put some clamp-on aluminum reflectors in its place, cleaned off the dust and bird poop, and headed inside. I like this little shop light because it's really low profile, takes two t8's and it only cost $5--at Lowes, regular price. I've never seen them there or anywhere else again. It's going on its fourth year and has worked flawlessly since it was purchased.
At any rate, right now it has a generic 6500 daylight and a Reef Sun 50/50. The tank I bought it for held mbuna (Melanochromis cyaneorhabdos and Labidochromis caeruleus), and two daylight bulbs were just too white and washed out too much color. The bulbs are way past calendar replacement, but they have been used so infrequently, I'm not in a rush to the lighting aisle at home supply.
Plants....
I tried to get pics of plants in the pond, but everything was overexposed. I took what I've had soaking since the other day and zhooshed them around in hydrogen peroxide, and then dropped them in a bucket of the tank water I drained to make room for the new rocks.
I have multiple concerns about the plants.
A) New tank, low nutrients. I only used gravel, no specialized substrate.
B) Not enough light.
C) With one exception, I feel confident that all of them are emergent plants and not strictly submerged.
I've spent some time trying to identify the plants I collected. I feel pretty confident one of them is a sedge. Beyond that, either I have plants otherwise unknown to man, or I have the worst research skills ever. (Going to try and get some pics to the plant section later, but will post what I have right now on here as well.)
For now, the plants are experimental. I'd like some of them to work out because I really like the way they look. Before I forget, the one plant I most positively identified in the lake was hornwort. I really like the structure of hornwort. But I will never put it in my tank unless someone can convince me I won't simply end up with a tank full of "leaves." Cleaning up countless needles off the substrate is not my idea of fun. (Comes in a close second to killing ants one by one.) Irks me to no end that now it floats in my lake for free and I used to pay to have it ruin my tank when I was a kid.
Here is a horrible pic of the tank as it is now. Between the new lights and the new rocks, I am having a real doozy of a time getting a decent pic of the tank. Is there a sticky thread on here somewhere about how to take decent pics? I keep getting this ugly combination of underexposure and overexposure. Sux, cause I want to be able to give you some idea of how nice it looks (IMHO) without a camera blasting it apart.
If you look in the upper right hand corner, you can see two bright spots. That's where the HOB adjusts against the back glass. It presses the fabric against the glass and creates an angle in the background. I'm learning to live with it. But if it would make you crazy, I'd suggest hanging it from the glass instead of the rim, or using another idea.
Here's a pic of one of the plants I can't identify. I really like the look of them.
I went down to the creek this morning (finally remembered to bring my pruners to rid my path of a branch that was persistently in my way) to work out some new ideas. My eye kept drawing toward rocks that were much too big. I like 55g's, but let's face it, the dimensions aren't always the most accommodating when it comes to aquascaping. I finally found some rocks that I thought might work together. I played around with arrangements on the picnic table, finally made my decisions, and after a good scrub gave them a soak in bleach solution, and set them in a rinse.
Knowing I'd have to remove all the hoods and lights to get the rocks placed, I decided it was time to make some lighting adjustments. I have a little work area up in the loft and that's where I put the shop light I had on my last tank. I took down the shop light, put some clamp-on aluminum reflectors in its place, cleaned off the dust and bird poop, and headed inside. I like this little shop light because it's really low profile, takes two t8's and it only cost $5--at Lowes, regular price. I've never seen them there or anywhere else again. It's going on its fourth year and has worked flawlessly since it was purchased.
At any rate, right now it has a generic 6500 daylight and a Reef Sun 50/50. The tank I bought it for held mbuna (Melanochromis cyaneorhabdos and Labidochromis caeruleus), and two daylight bulbs were just too white and washed out too much color. The bulbs are way past calendar replacement, but they have been used so infrequently, I'm not in a rush to the lighting aisle at home supply.
Plants....
I tried to get pics of plants in the pond, but everything was overexposed. I took what I've had soaking since the other day and zhooshed them around in hydrogen peroxide, and then dropped them in a bucket of the tank water I drained to make room for the new rocks.
I have multiple concerns about the plants.
A) New tank, low nutrients. I only used gravel, no specialized substrate.
B) Not enough light.
C) With one exception, I feel confident that all of them are emergent plants and not strictly submerged.
I've spent some time trying to identify the plants I collected. I feel pretty confident one of them is a sedge. Beyond that, either I have plants otherwise unknown to man, or I have the worst research skills ever. (Going to try and get some pics to the plant section later, but will post what I have right now on here as well.)
For now, the plants are experimental. I'd like some of them to work out because I really like the way they look. Before I forget, the one plant I most positively identified in the lake was hornwort. I really like the structure of hornwort. But I will never put it in my tank unless someone can convince me I won't simply end up with a tank full of "leaves." Cleaning up countless needles off the substrate is not my idea of fun. (Comes in a close second to killing ants one by one.) Irks me to no end that now it floats in my lake for free and I used to pay to have it ruin my tank when I was a kid.
Here is a horrible pic of the tank as it is now. Between the new lights and the new rocks, I am having a real doozy of a time getting a decent pic of the tank. Is there a sticky thread on here somewhere about how to take decent pics? I keep getting this ugly combination of underexposure and overexposure. Sux, cause I want to be able to give you some idea of how nice it looks (IMHO) without a camera blasting it apart.
If you look in the upper right hand corner, you can see two bright spots. That's where the HOB adjusts against the back glass. It presses the fabric against the glass and creates an angle in the background. I'm learning to live with it. But if it would make you crazy, I'd suggest hanging it from the glass instead of the rim, or using another idea.
Here's a pic of one of the plants I can't identify. I really like the look of them.
Yay! Glad you were able to get it and enjoying the quiet.
