Sam's Now To Be High Light And Tech 20g

[Themuleous]

Well all thought i would update this as I had a bit of a change around, which basically involved swapping the sags for dwarf chain sword, in the hope that it wont be quite a tall! Not much else to say, will show you the pics. The moss on the wood is a bit perplexing, seems to be growing very much upwards, hoping it'll branch out eventually like it seems to have done a bit, anyone any experience with growing weeping moss? Suggestions?

Now to the pics

Full tank

The moss

And my anubias which decided to flower, woohoo!

Thoughts and comments welcome, not amazing but its giving me fun, so thats the main thing

Sam

 

[RadaR]

Wooooo anubias flower. Congrats, tis something every aquascaper likes to see. As for the moss i can only suggest another type of moss eg willow, christmas.

 

[Ginge]

Looks good sam. Looks like your enjoying having a tank that nice.

 

[Squirrelbuddies]

Hey Sam! It looks really good - I love the picture with the shrimp. As always, your water looks perfectly clear! It's funny -- with all the different things I've experimented with -- fish, plants, lighting, CO2, etc -- what makes me the happiest is clean, clear water!

 

[Themuleous]

Hey Sam! It looks really good - I love the picture with the shrimp. As always, your water looks perfectly clear! It's funny -- with all the different things I've experimented with -- fish, plants, lighting, CO2, etc -- what makes me the happiest is clean, clear water!

Cheers mate, it needs time to fill in bur once the chain swords get going that should help. Not really sure what i should do with the wood, thinking the moss idea might take a bit too long, who knows!

Sam

 

[lljdma06]

Yeah, your's is real slow isn't it? The moss FKNM sent me has already been split between 2 tanks and 2 betta bowls. She gave me Christmas moss and Willow moss. Glad to see anubias have made it back into the layout and congrats on the flowering! I wonder if Bolbitis would do well in your tank? That plant, a fern, would really take advantage of all the nooks and crannies in your wood. I'd be loathe to remove the wood, it's really a great piece. And we all know how hard a good piece of wood is to come by.

llj

 

[Fwapp]

Hi Sam,

How about an update? I'd love to see how the chain sword has come along. Also in the last picture you posted, whats the floaty plant?

Cheers.

 

[Gnatfish]

Hey Sam

How come the plants are still so green!!!!! and why isn't there any algae which i seem so good at growing??

Looks good though!

However i did prefer the sags to the chain swords but that's just me.

 

[Themuleous]

Well unfortunately you'll be sorely disappointed, I riped out the sags as I'm pretty sure most of them weren't dwarf but narrow leaved and just got to big. Tried to replace them with dwarf chain sword but the light level (which is below 1WPG) is just not enough in such a tall tank so they have slowly died over the last few months. And as I've not replaced them its looking very bear in the tank at the moment.

I am getting some new lighting for xmas and in the new year plan to remove the wood and try a Dutch style, but keeping the light low. Will still have the CO2, but hopefully lots of stems and will get some micro sagittaria for the foreground, just to see what its like, hopefully it'll be as vigorous as the 'normal' sagittaria species. Plans to follow when I get a chance.

Thanks for the interest sorry its not very inspiring!

Sam

 

[Gnatfish]

Out of interest, what are you water parameters?

 

[lljdma06]

That's too bad, Sam.

How many WPG are you going to upgrade too? A Dutch layout sounds promising in your 20g. Dutch layouts tend to favor larger tanks, but your's has some height and that should be pretty. I've only got 1.4WPG in my 20g and keep very red A. reineckii, a fantastic plant for Dutch layouts. There are a lot of plant choices available. Some include Limnophila sessiliflora or aquatica, rotala rotundifolia, the A. reineckii I mentioned above, Hygro difformis or polysperma, Egeria najas, H. zosterfolia (maybe), Bacopa. Just a short list to consider for stemplants that favor lower light levels and would possibly look good in a Dutch layout because of their contrasting leaf shapes. Looking forward to seeing the pictures.

llj

 

[Themuleous]

Out of interest, what are you water parameters?

KH - 5 (mostly due to the eco-complete)
GH - 6 (again due to the EC)
pH - 6.2
CO2 - 30ppm
NO3 - who knows, but its high!
PO4 - 2

That's too bad, Sam.

How many WPG are you going to upgrade too? A Dutch layout sounds promising in your 20g. Dutch layouts tend to favor larger tanks, but your's has some height and that should be pretty. I've only got 1.4WPG in my 20g and keep very red A. reineckii, a fantastic plant for Dutch layouts. There are a lot of plant choices available. Some include Limnophila sessiliflora or aquatica, rotala rotundifolia, the A. reineckii I mentioned above, Hygro difformis or polysperma, Egeria najas, H. zosterfolia (maybe), Bacopa. Just a short list to consider for stemplants that favor lower light levels and would possibly look good in a Dutch layout because of their contrasting leaf shapes. Looking forward to seeing the pictures.

llj

Thanks so much for the words of encouragement Llj and especially the plant list . I keep trying to make a note of plants that I see that look nice, that list certainly gives me a good starting point. And you're right about the tank shape, hopefully the added height will lend itself to a tall Dutch layout.

I'm going from 26w to 56w, so slightly over 2WPG, but I know this will be ok, I used to run the tank on this much lighting and never had any problems even before I found out about CO2 and the supposed 'need' at over 2WPG, guess the height helps quite a bit there.

Will be sure to let you know once I've got something planed might even do a funky picture in paint! is about as advanced as my drawing goes on my computer

Thanks again

Sam

 

[Liam]

Just on the moss Sam, I got the same type from Greenline, I am not convinced it is a true aquatic, when I got it had not been grown under water, it had lots of pine needles in it. I planted it anyway and it grew much as yours has, much the same as the terrestrial moss I had grown before underwater. Mine looked ugly so I have dumped it. I looked on many websites and didn't find anything that resembles it. I usually use greenline for plants and this is my only complaint about them.

Looking forward to the new scape.

 

[Themuleous]

Right time for the long awaited update.

Unfortunately (or fortunately for those with a weak stomach ) I dont have an pics of how the last scape turned out, but put it this way, the wood is it being socked in complete darkness in order to remove the staghorn and GSA. I had every type of algae in there, and it looked horrid

So I got some new plants and upped the lighting to 2x18 Arcadia freshwater and 1x20w power glo, and spent a weekend a few weeks ago redoing it. I got a plant collection so dont know what the plants are but I think I've pinned them down to the following, please feel free to advise if I've made a mistake.

Bacopa monnerii - centre although the new leaves are quite long so could be something else

Cryptocoryne Wendtii - several in there if you can stop them

Nymphea Zenkeri - not very big at the mo, think it took a battering in the low light of the last scape, I hope it recovers.

Sagittaria Lileopteris - all along the front, just wanted to try this one more than anything, hopefully it'll carpet with nice small leaves, if its anything like the other sagittaria species I've had it'll grow like mad!

Ludwigia Repens - Back left, the tips are getting quite red now, and the leaves have a lovely green pattern on them due to the veins.

Mayaca Fluviatilis - centre left, didn't think I was going to like this one, but now its settled its looking quite nice, might try and make more of a feature of it.

Java fern - on the wood, hoping it'll create a nice ball shape on the wood to give a feature on the right of the tank, with the wood emerging out from behind it, well that's the plan! Even after only a few weeks i can see it attaching to the wood.

I've just left the plants be since the rescape to give them a chance to adapt, will probably do a prune and shape next weekend. Not overly sure about the Bacopa in the centre its kinda taking over a bit, going out rather than up, didn't realise it was a carpet plant! What to try a Dutch style for a change, try my hand at getting very dense growth, will see how it goes.

Anyho, time for the pics

Full tank

Rotala - sorry about the blur!

If anyone knows what this plant is let me know!

Comments/suggestions always welcome, only algae so far is on the glass, hope it stays that way!

The only other thing I have to report is that I lost one of my 2.5 year old clowns doing this, just couldn't handle the change, not sure why, but found it floating when I got home, rather sad as although I dont seem them very much its a fish I've had since nearly the beginning of my fishkeeping and you cant help but get attached to them.

Sam

 

[zig]

Are you using CO2 on the tank? seems like a lot of light without it.