Planted Tank Evloving

[digimac]

Tank is ever evolving, with too many trips to my local LFS biggrin.gif
Added another 4 amano shrimps today, which brings the total up to 10.
Also got a couple of really big amazon swords to fill in the back left hand side of the tank.
Aswell as this I got a potted plant.....Bacopa Australis which ive planted in a small carpet....hopefully it will grow in well.
Here are a couple of pics.
I apologize for the bad camera work.

 

[Themuleous]

Looking good Am I right in thinking I've seen this tank on here before a few weeks back? You should start a journal, keep everything in one place

Forgive me if these are questions you've already answered

You going for a high-tech of low-tech with this?

I really like the long, thin pieces of bogwood, they are cool, and a little bit difference from the normal 'log of bogwood' that I've got in all my tanks!

By the size of that silver shark I reckon this is about 30 gallons? poss a bit more?

One piece of advice, the Bacopa Australis, you hoping to get it to carpet? I see from the Tropica website that it'll probably need quite a bit of light to get it to do that. Otherwise, looks like a really nice little plant that one, where did you get it?

Keep up the good work.

Sam

PS I have mountains of trouble getting decent pics with the camera I use so you are by no means alone on that front!

 

[digimac]

Cheers mate, doing a journal might be pretty cool.
I got the plant from my local LFS.
Im running two 38 watt T8's with refelectors (one triplus and one daylight plus)
The tank is about 40uk gallons.
Think im just staying pretty low tech to be honest, im only running one Nutrafin DIY co2 kit just now.
Another one maybe added shortly though.
Even if the Bacopa Australis doesn't create a carpet I can always replant it in a different location depending on how big it gets

 

[Puffer punk]

:lol you on here as well then brian

lovly tank will be better when plants grow in a bit

 

[digimac]

Yeah I get everwhere wee man lol
Aye will be cool once i get some more growth

 

[digimac]

Just finished working on the tank.....sunday water change and clean out.
Got rid of the plant that was going mad on the right handside of the tank (can't remember its name). Was making that entire corner too dark for my liking.
Bought four new tropica potted plants today which are now in.
I bought a Echinodorus subalatus, a Hygrophila corymbosa "Stricta", an Anubias barteri var. nana and an Alternanthera reineckii "roseafolia"(hopefully keep its great red/pink colouration).
Pretty pleased with how that end of the tank is looking now.
Also gave the mad valis a trim as some leaves were over 4 foot long.

 

[big mick]

Thaqt looks fantastic, really really good. So well balanced.

Good work Fella

 

[digimac]

cheers mate

 

[Luke_e]

Stunning setup, you've used your space well and that spiraling wood is put to great use, well done mate!

 

[digimac]

Just won a second nutrafin co2 kit on ebay for £8.50 delivered (only used once).
So more co2 on its way for my plants. Hopefully running two of these kits in my tank using a DIY yeast mix in both will give me a nice stable Co2 output. Been good with just one so looking forward to adding a second one.

 

[Themuleous]

Looking good, think the trim and reshape has helped pull the whole scape together nicely.

Sam

 

[lljdma06]

Looking good, think the trim and reshape has helped pull the whole scape together nicely.

Sam

I agree, congratulations on the second Nutra-fin kit, you'll put it to good use. You'll like A. reineckii a lot, it's a great plant. I enjoy it in my tank. It needs iron, Nitrogen, and Phosphorus, however.

 

[digimac]

I dose the tank weekly with API Leaf zone liquid fertilzer and have laterite in the gravel.
I am going to mess around with the dosing of leaf zone a bit, put in a few drops a day rather than more once a week.

 

[digimac]

Just a couple of new pics.
Not much been happening, i'm waiting on a second nutrafin co2 kit to be delivered
that i won on ebay. Hoping that this will give me a better CO2 output for the size of my tank.

 

[digimac]

A wee update on my tank.
A couple of benefical changes to the tank this week.
Finally got the second nutrafin co2 kit that I won on ebay delivered.
However the small bit that directs the co2 bubbles up the bubble ladder was missing and a bit of plastic on the ladder itself was broken.
Lucky the broken bit of the ladder doesn't affect the performance and the two ladders i now have are sitting right beside each other in the tank anyway. (so broken bit of new one sits against original ladder ). I managed to fabricate a plastic piece to direct the co2 bubbles from part of an old airstone. The unit has been cleaned yesterday and installed today......now bubbling away happily. Hopefully I should now be producing the correct amount of co2 for the size of my aquarium.
Second change was with my internal filter. When I ditched the UGF filter last year i purchased an Interpet PF4 internal filter as it was on sale. In general it wasnt bad although fiddly to take apart and clean. However having cleaned it the other day it was making a very irritating buzzing noise although correctly assembled. This happened once before but somehow i managed to get rid of the buzzing noise.....not this time though.
Lucky my local fish shop (The Aquatic Rooms on Leith Walk, Edinburgh) who i purchased the IPF4 from said they would take it back and swap it with a Fluval 3 Plus..Great service as always. This filter seems far better put together and is virtually silent...Just what I was looking for. Wish id spent the extra and bought a fluval in the 1st place. The fluval 3 is a smaller filter than the IPF4 but as i am running an Eheim 2224 professional external filter the internal is really just used as a back up and for some over filtration, so the smaller size isnt really and issue. Probably a benefit in my planted tank as I now have less surface agitation of the water along with more co2 induction.