'under The Forest Canopy' Journal

[SuperColey1]

The Rams will colour up a lot more than they are at the minute. The dominant as male as you can see is quite coloured up already but they will both get a lot brigter once settled in and the more still once the females are added reaching their peak colour if they are guarding fry.

They won't colour like blue rams, no neon or anything like that but the reds, yellows and black will get much more intense.

the hood is really very simple (5 pieces of wood, 3 hinges, 13 screws, yacht varnish and wood dye) 1 hour to put together then 4 says of waiting for varnishes and dyes to dry.

Andy

 

[Themuleous]

Good start think you need some more plants, but I guess you know that!

BTW whats the black thing stuck on the right side of the tank?

Sam

 

[SuperColey1]

I'm living with whats there Sam. There are plenty of plants starting to grow up and IME once the Lotus' reach the nutritious Substrate they will zoom upward.

Also a few changes in routines that I will detail next week.

The black thing in the corner is 2 portions of Christmas moss cable tied in mesh. This was the christmas moss that got a 21 day blackout instead of a 5 day blackout when I went on hols. It was a bit brown but is starting to go green now (as is the moss on the bogwood)

One of the portions is for the competition winner (I thought he'd prefer it to be green rather than brown. lol and have informed him)

The other I haven't decided what to do with yet but will probs go in the 35Ltr next year.

Andy

 

[garuf]

Update?
I'm really interested to see how this is coming along.

 

[SuperColey1]

There will be an interesting update later this week.

Unfortunately the competition winner will also be waiting a little but the moss has turned the corner and is starting to turn green rapidly so 2-3 weeks and I wil be posting

Andy

 

[SuperColey1]

An update better late than never I suppose. lol

This setup is now 7 weeks old and 1 reason I haven't been posting updates is because there was so much green on the glass that you couldn't see anything. I have left it to 'cycle' and there is still some remaining but not too much.

I have come to the conclusion that the HO T5s absolutely smash the WPG rule because I have had some major algae build ups with 'just' 1.8WPG.

The current routine is now based on lean dosing which I dose daily (see first post for the ingredients for my dosing as I have altered it there)

I have also changed my lighting to 4-2-4 (30W,60W,30W) WPG Who knows.

My water changes are no 10-15% twice a week.

This is how the tank is looking at the moment (after a heavy prune)

And this is the view I have from my chair whilst using the PC

Guess what this 'little' Otos been feeding on!!

And this is a view through the left side of the tank

Finally this piece of bogwood has had a huge trimming fest as all the Anubias and Needle Ferns were covered in staghorn.

So after 7 weeks we have had lots of growth both in algae and in plantmass.

The Nuphar Japonica is huge now and starting to 'command' the tank so I may still have to prune this back a little.

The low light plants suffered a little during the time when the Lilys gre their leaves to block the light and they have had to be pruned heavily due to this. Switching dosing routines and lights will not have helped but hopefully the tank is balanced again now.

Thanks for reading and will update again in a month or so

Andy

 

[ICEEGRL]

I was looking for the new pics. I am bumping this to remind you.
cool tank.

 

[lljdma06]

Guess what this 'little' Otos been feeding on!!

That is one fat oto. She looks like she's got eggs too.

 

[SuperColey1]

She either has eaten too much or has intestinal parasites because shes been like this for a couple of months. lol

Andy

 

[SuperColey1]

An update on the scape so far. Week 12 of ?

So people please remember we are talking a slow growing tank here with Ferns, Moss, Crypts and Anubias and growth of these is not rampant.

The Giant Bacopa and Nympeae are rampant however and require pruning every week.

The Nuphar is out of control and I have to cut 2-3 leaves off every week or so (so much for the dennerle guidelines which say 2-3 leaves growth per month. lol) This plant pre pruning spans the tank at 80cm (30 inches.) It is a monster.

The lighting is 0.9WPG of T5HO for 10 hours with another 0.9WPG T5HO for the central 2 hours so this is basically a low light tank with a noon burst and is now being lean dosed.

I do have some pics at this stage.

The Crypts are growing quite well and ridiculously tall some of them. Me thinks they are not what they were meant to be but they look great anyway.

The Java Fern is now down to new growth only as all the pre-scape leaves have been cut away. I must say it is looking as lush as ****

The Anubias are battling on and are now producing quite a few leaves.

The Christmas moss has battled the algae and is now winning as it is feeding on any dead relatives it is sitting on and there are huge frongs of green coming from it (and in the mesh portions on the right which I intend to tie to another piece of wood I am preparing)

This is the front of tank shot

This is an arty Jimboo stylee shot from the left of the tank

And this is a view through the left hand side of the tank

Sorry the pics look a little green but the Nuphar Japonica leaves are acting like green slides over the bulbs. lol

I am moving house yet again in January and therefore I will be having to probs remove most of the plants to get the fish out. They will go back as close as possible to where they came from but you never get it right.

One thing I will be doing. If anyone fancies the Nuphar Japonica I will be cutting the 'core' in half before replanting it so if someone fancies the other half they are welcome to it. (This is how I first received it as a quarter of the previous plant and it had about 5 6 inch long leaves/stems. Now 1 leaf is bigger than the plant was when I got it. lol)

Please please please some comments...even abusive.


Andy

 

[Liam]

It looks really good, I like the greens and reds with the cardinals.

 

[SuperColey1]

Thanks Liam. You always give me such good compliments. lol

Cheques in the post. he he

Andy

 

[Themuleous]

I agree, looks good, the plants are certainly healthy. If I had one comment it would be to get some mid height plants in there, the plants are either short or tall, a few mid height plants would help fill the mid water. You also need to order things a bit more, I.e tall at the back, and group stem plants so they look bushy

I would certainly take the Nuphar Japonica off your hands, not grown that before.

Sam

 

[SuperColey1]

Oh Sam

You haven't read. The scape was supposed to have nothing in the mid water as it has the forest floor and forest canopy. However some of these crypts are developing into the mid height range and so it may end up 'layered' as per everyone elses idea of an aquascape without me trying. lol

The stems are only in there waiting for the crypts to catch up and then they'll be out.

Im moving house mid Jan and am thinking about quartering the core of the Nuphar.

The plant I received was like the heart of a cabbage and had been cut into a square (I assume the mother of this beast was divided into many many parts) So you a peice of 'heart' with some leaves. The roots come from this heart and then the stems come out of the top.

Hope you have a big tank. As I say sometimes before I chop a few leaves off this plant spans my 80cm tank and I have no doubt that it can grow even larger than that!!!!

Give me your address and I'll stick it in the post the day I chop it up. I will only send you one quarter. Believe me it will look pretty small when you get it but once its a month or 2 old you will be fighting it back to let some light below. lol

Andy

 

[Themuleous]

Sorry, Andy, I hadn't picked up on that point, but I should have realised given the title! Its not the first time I'm not been concentrating when reading a thread!

The Nuphar would go in my 20g but its tall so should be ok, be nice to get a different leaf shape into the tank.

I'll PM you my address

Thanks, Andy

Sam