Interesting thing tonight... With going so heavy with my live plants I have been intentionally over feeding to add plant food to the substrate. I mean I have been heavily over feeding.
I just did about a 30% water change using a siphon to get to as much of the substrate as I could between plants. What was interesting is that the water I removed was just VERY slightly brownish, almost clear. It seems that the plants are sucking up as much over feeding as I can give.
I will admit that this is my first fully planted tank but it seems that the plants make a BIG difference. When I say heavily planted I mean just that. It is a 20 gallon cube with the following...
2X Broad leaf chain swords
2X SagittariaDwarfs in 'bunches'.
1X driftwood with an Anubias mounted.
1X Spider wood driftwood.
1X Myrio Green.
1X Golden Melon Sword.
1X Sag dwarf.
1X Limno Hippo.
1X Red Tiger Lotus.
2X Radican Variegated Sword.2X Hornwort Bunches.
2X Amazon Sword.
5-10 other plants that I really have no clue.
LOL! I would think that qualifies as heavily planted and they are all thriving. The fact that they are thriving REALLY surprises me as I have a very black thumb.
I'm really happy to hear that they're doing so well! And the fish and plants are working out, and that you're having success after the awful experience you went through with it! You've put a lot of thought, love and money into setting it up again, and it shows.
But you worry me a bit when you say you've over-feeding the fish, to give the plant more food... Danger, Will Robinson, Danger!
While some excess fish food will be broken down by snails, microcritters, bacteria etc and go into the mulm that plants will feed from, as you've seen since, too much excess food is going to result in high nitrates! Even if the water looks clear. Lots of the plants you've listed, namely, the swords, really need root tablet fertilisers. They're greedy feeders, and fish food isn't formulated to feed plants. There are minerals and nutrients that plants need that will be in the root tabs, and in liquid ferts for any non-root feeders. When used in sparing amounts, following the directions on the packet, they won't spike your water parameters the way excess fish food does. Since you have a large fish that eats a lot of live food, while that's great for him, more food in means more waste out - and it's not a big tank, so nitrates can get high pretty fast.
Panda Garras were fine through all this and remain as active as ever. I swear these things are aquatic hummingbirds, they just don't stop. I didn't initially intend to get Panda Garras but I am SO glad that I did! I really like plecos and corys but my gravel substrate is not the best for either. Since the Pandas seem to not bother a lot with the substrate yet devour algae they seem to be a good compromise.
Yay! Glad you're happy with them
How many are there?
With a rope fish and panda garrass in there, aren't you pretty much fully stocked now? Wondering if adding cichlid is wise.
Sigh, now if I could only find a source for the dwarf Cichlids I want I would be a totally happy camper.
I will say that I love wetplants.com for what I've gotten as to plants and wood but there have been a few critters hitching rides. From some plants I have some bladder snails but they have not been an issue. I think My rope fish may be eating some. With my latest addition from wetplants.com a worm seems to have hitched a ride. I've only seen one and I think it is a type that begins with a 'D' but I'm not to search the actual name. It was a little 1/4-3/8 inch white critter wiggling vertically while floating through the tank's current.
We're making little ecosystems, so micro-critters like detritus worms are inevitable. Most are harmess, and even beneficial!
I'm sorry for all the rambling in this post but I'm just totally thrilled with how things are going with my tank after forgetting about all the new stuff and just going with what I know from old times. Ya, I AM using the tank's built in sponge filtration but the main system is under gravel.
I'm so happy that you're so happy with it!
Live plants are definitely wonderful, I think I remember you were wary about adding them? Because you say you have a black thumb? I might be mis-remembering though! But I'm similar, tend to be rubbish with house plants, but my aquatic and outdoor plants usually do pretty well.
But remember that aquatic plants tend to take up a lot of the ammonia produced by the fish, before the filter bacteria can get to it. But most of them won't take up nitrAte, so you still need to do water changes to bring that down.
I wish I could figure out an effective way to feed earth worms to my rope. When he sees the things he gobbles them up like crazy but they usually quickly burrow into the substrate before he knows they are there. I wonder if I could build a sort of open cage out of sterile nylon mesh with weights that I could just pit a couple of earth worms on the mesh and lower to his favorite part of the tank. The mesh would prevent the earth worms from getting to the substrate... Something for me to think about. Use the mesh as a sort of open net with a split shot sinker clamped in the middle would make it sink but I'd need to come up with a way to make the mesh stay open instead of folding on itself.
Hmmm, possible solution... Make a shallow frame that is ridged with the mesh over the bottom and sides. Make it square with a weight in each corner. I would just have to lower the food tray slowly from an attached line to keep the worms from floating out. As to weights I still have some plant weights that are not in use. Hmmm, this could actually be viable but I'd have to figure out what material to use for the frame. I have a fair amount of coaxial cable and the core would be ideal but it is copper and I'd rather not use copper. I'm sure that I could come up with something... Shoot, cut up a wire clothes hanger to use as the frame. Probably would not even need weights.
Sorry, just thinking and rambling.
Target train him to tweezers. Get a pair of long aquascaping tweezers, or an aquascaping kit that includes the long scissors too, since you have live plants you'll likely need them anyway! Can hold the worm with the tweezers and gently wiggle it. Since the tweezers are long, fish is more likely to take the food from them rather than your hand.
Could also use something like a shrimp dish to put the worm in:
Or can get something like these dishes below, or even those little planting bowls that suction to the side of the tank that people are using now. Saw someone use one of those to feed a fish.
I'm probably hitting the grocery store tomorrow. As to apples is there a preference as to type. If I were doing a pie I'd do Granny Smith but, if just eating I'd do Golden Delicious.
