Scape Pics

[lljdma06]

Beautiful tank,,, I like it,,,

I like it too. Yay! HC grows. And grows well.

You know it's funny how we both have scaped corner bowfronts. Not an easy tank to do.

Liz

 

[ian]

cheers! It must be a planted mod thing llj! lol

 

[Carlovel1]

wow
I feel it could do with some dark leaved plants in there, or some nice flame moss

 

[c-dub]

I wish I could scape like that.

 

[Baccus]

Beautiful

. If I could EVER erradicate the snails in my tanks 100% I would love to have such a planted tank.

 

[c-dub]

How do you control algae?
I can't seem to slow it down. Do you reduce the amount of time you have your lights on through the day or?
Also, what species of fish do you stock in such a tank??

 

[ian]

thanks again guys!

How do you control algae?

As long as you have healthy plants growing in a planted tank, the plants should out grow any algae, thus starving the algae. At present i'm dosing nitrate and phosphate quite heavily, i am doing 3x %30 water changers a week, dosing trace with extra Fe and K every other day. I also run pressurised C02, and using something called Floranaxis, which is a product that helps the C02 in the tank. But the main thing that goes along with all of this is good flow, flow is one of the most important things...I remember you Discus tank C-dub and was very impressed with it. I know discus aren't supposed to like flow, but i have seen many discus tanks with good flow.

Do you reduce the amount of time you have your lights on through the day or?

The lights are on timers and come on at 1400hrs and go off at 2230hrs, the C02 is also on a timer to come on at 12MD and go off at 2100hrs

what species of fish do you stock in such a tank??

There are at present, 20 ish Cardinals, 6 Cherry barbs, 10 Amamnos, Cherry shrimp, Ghost shrimp, CBS shrimp, and 3 Otos. I am looking for a pair of something though...

 

[c-dub]

thanks again guys!

How do you control algae?

As long as you have healthy plants growing in a planted tank, the plants should out grow any algae, thus starving the algae. At present i'm dosing nitrate and phosphate quite heavily, i am doing 3x %30 water changers a week, dosing trace with extra Fe and K every other day. I also run pressurised C02, and using something called Floranaxis, which is a product that helps the C02 in the tank. But the main thing that goes along with all of this is good flow, flow is one of the most important things...I remember you Discus tank C-dub and was very impressed with it. I know discus aren't supposed to like flow, but i have seen many discus tanks with good flow.

Do you reduce the amount of time you have your lights on through the day or?

The lights are on timers and come on at 1400hrs and go off at 2230hrs, the C02 is also on a timer to come on at 12MD and go off at 2100hrs

what species of fish do you stock in such a tank??

There are at present, 20 ish Cardinals, 6 Cherry barbs, 10 Amamnos, Cherry shrimp, Ghost shrimp, CBS shrimp, and 3 Otos. I am looking for a pair of something though...

Thank you very much for your response. This is very informative and has added to my confidence or setting up a fully planted tank.
I am guessing that you keep smaller species of fish so the scape isn't interrupted and there isn't a lot of waste to clean?
With water changes I'm assuming it makes it hard to clean the gravel especially if you have planted substrate?

 

[ian]

I am guessing that you keep smaller species of fish so the scape isn't interrupted and there isn't a lot of waste to clean?

I do prefer smaller species, a lot of the bigger fish are plant munchers. The tank is only 190 ltrs so a bigger school looks better IMO. If i had a big enough tank i would have a planted Discus tank. As for cleaning waste, i don't and never have vacced my planted tanks. I just scoop off with a bucket or just syphon out the water. As you can see there are plants nearly covering the whole substrate, so a vac would uproot most of them. Fish waste is a plants friend.

 

[c-dub]

I am guessing that you keep smaller species of fish so the scape isn't interrupted and there isn't a lot of waste to clean?

I do prefer smaller species, a lot of the bigger fish are plant munchers. The tank is only 190 ltrs so a bigger school looks better IMO. If i had a big enough tank i would have a planted Discus tank. As for cleaning waste, i don't and never have vacced my planted tanks. I just scoop off with a bucket or just syphon out the water. As you can see there are plants nearly covering the whole substrate, so a vac would uproot most of them. Fish waste is a plants friend.

Very good. I have 4 discus in a tank which I am hopefully going to turn to fully planted... Problem is I have to offload a couple of other fish first.

 

[ian]

a bit of an update... some new pics, a few more plants added and some removed after not being dosed with fert whilst away.

 

[markandhisfish]

not checked teh progress of this for a while now . its really growing in nicely .

 

[m4tt_STiProdrive]

I've followed your posts in the planted section,yours is a lovely tank indeed!! absolutely love it

 

[ian]

thanks guys!

the obligatory in room shot! lol

 

[Ps3Steveo]

thanks guys!

the obligatory in room shot! lol

Ian you show off lol, if my planted attempts look half as good I'll be happy, what you planning on doing with the bit of substrate showing front left and right? Or you leaving it, shame the HC doesn't grow over there.