The Planted Tank Forum banner

Fedge's tanks

2K views 9 replies 4 participants last post by  fedge 
#1 · (Edited)
Im just going to start with my 20L...
Here is where the tank was at about Dec 25th...


Here is a detail of the anubis problem!!!

It has gone through a lot of changes in the past 2 years I have had it.. the plants are similar to what i started with and similar layout but density and location of plants has changed...some I tossed cuase just too had to get to work with my conditions and some were just not suitable for the tank..(anubis always had way too much algae growing on it and lately most of the nanas started to die slowly from rysome rot!!).

So I pulled out everything..much to the dismay of the 3 zebra loaches and platies in the tank. who only had a small pile of rocks to hide around as i plucked pulled and gathered all the remaining "live" hiding spots. The plants were all suffering..well the whole tank was suffering..from algae problems and there was just way too much MUCK and mess from rotting leavings in and on the substrate... I gravel vacumed the whole thing and now am starting with a new layout


As you can see the plants have a lot of "fuzzy" algae problems... all the dust settled on them and accentuate the problem. I took some of the fast growers and spread them out to a managable aquascape. This set up is very hard to maintain since the plants genetically like to grow taller than the tank will support so constant maitanence is needed. I purposefully took my rotala and broke the huge bunch right in half and the "stubbs" are planted in teh rear of the tank so that I can tripple my good stock in about a month or so when those plants develope I eliminated all but one anubias (those went to a cherry shrimp only tank where the schrimps had the plants naked of algea in about 2 days!) I instead filled the anubis area with good nutrient soaking crypts from my daughters tanks. ( I had bought a very small potted green and red crypt from a pet store last summer and now have about 10 times the amount I started with!!)

________________________________________________________________

Here is a four day update.. three images photoshop'd together.



Everything is comming along.. I will have to trim the front cluster of rotala but other than that the algea is slowly dying back again.. I just have some other problems that should work themselves out as time progresses.. I have backed off the ferts for the time being.. just some K and Phosphate and N once in a great while and a dab of PPDD two days ago...
 
See less See more
4
#2 ·
Looks good. Just wondering, what kind of equipment do you have on that tank? Especially lights. As a fellow 20L owner, I know that they are a great size, but can also be quite a PITA on somethings. Once things take off, you may find youself getting sick of all the stem plants.

Great start :thumbsup:
 
#3 ·
I have had the same or simlar plants in that tank for a LONG time.. those rotala and ludwiga are orginal plant series... I love the color.. just hard to trim and keep the look !!

Equipment is..
2 bads flourite with 10lbs of stream colored gravel
1 Penguin 120(i think its the step up from mini) w/o the biowheel and I make my own filter cart for it.. I use a clamshell cartridge that I custom cut blue bonded pads and 50micron felt for it. very cheep
1 DIY Hagen CO2 system w/ ladder

The Light is a 55watt 9325k ge bulb (i just replaced about 2 months ago...) In actuality I would pry not go over 70 watts on a tank this size and hieght. If anything a 20 or 15 watt flourecent in the front might be good for addiitonal light whent he stem plants get too tall... but I have the tank near a window and I just started experimenting with 2 hours or sunlight a day, as of a week ago (before I had NO additional light except for the room light--the window was shaded).
 
#4 ·
This is my 29 masterpiece.. ok it may have dopy blue neon gravel BUT the tank remains algea free and all i Have to do is trim and toss.. I even trim and toss perfectly good leaves off of the huge amazon sword on the left hand side to get more light

It has a DIY co2 system..
55 watt 6500k CF bulb
2 penguin 170 (actually one is the walmart version that came with the tank and it runs at a lower gph than the penguin neither have bio wheels.)

I dose this one heavily though... about 1/4 oz of liquid pmdd once a week and 2 tablespoons of my K mix (as much KCL that will disolve in di-h20) about 20 drops of phosphate once a week.. offset every other week.. if I see that the sunset hygro is still pinking up nicely) I also dump 1/2oz liquid dose of Nitrate fert about 2 times a week.. maybe less. The tank has huge snails and one sae that has grown fat and lazy...too lazy to eat algae anymore. He just parks himself on a leaf and wags his fins waiting for the next days feeding hoping that day will be the day I alternate with algea flakes (spirilina). The tank has 3 yo-yo loaches, 5 neon blue rainbow fish, and one SAE (i forget the latin names.)

It was hard to get this tank stable but now I cant do anything wrong lol... very low matainence.. then loaches stire the grave and with all the root feeders and the huge sword plant I never have to gravel vacum the tank at all....once in a while I will put on the diatom filter and let it stire up the bottom of the tank and suck up any thing that comes into the ungaurded hose(fish are big enogh that i dont use a screen on the inlet tube on the diatom filter).
 
#6 ·
Dont throw away the algae infested anubias. Just dip the leaves part to a 1:20 bleach solution for 1-2 minutes, then give each leaf gentle rub. Rinse it clean on running water and back to the tank. Anubias will be clean within days after the treatment, should it not clean enough, you can re-do the steps. The plant is quite hardy and resist multiple bleaching every moth. Just make sure you dont dip too long into concentrated solution. Try to re locate them into less lighted area of the tank. They are slow growers, so it is a great loss to toss them out into the garbage (at least where I live anubias cost more than 20x the price of a bunch of stem plants like cabomba, hygrophylla or a pot of cryptocoryne)

Btw that anubias on the picture looks as bad as mine some time ago.
 
#7 ·
I HAD to throw some of them out ... some were so rotten that the risome fell apart and was mushy and black inside!!! IT was sad. But I never cleaned any of them I threw them all into my shrimp only tank and the shrimp cleaned the plants for me.... they are free of algea now! At least teh ones that survived. Trust me I have been keeping a planted tank for over two years I know the expense that this anubis takes in time to grow to a sizeable plant All the anubis in my 29 gallon are trimmed off of other plants! I never bought any of those.
 
#8 ·
Heres an update..
Fighting algea again in this tank... Im adding more plants in an attempt to get a handle on nutrient control... I think that it is not a question of dosage, since dosing more often is causing this problem!!

A closeup detail of the problem...
 
#9 ·
I know that the exposure is not perfect, but im just trying to show my problem.. these leaves all have a green slime on them(not cynobacteria though) cause fish and snails will eat the stuff. And I have that stupid stringy algea that is next to impossible to get rid of. I really am not going to add more fauna to control it, I have snail and cherry shrimp population to do that. ALSO I am starting to think that the bioload is maybe a problem since there are a crap load of those corkscrew shell-shaped snail. I think they are called indonisean snails...maybe. There are about 50 of them or more. I know that a couple is healthy but too many can maybe be a problem?? Suggestions? I think that maybe just a slight dose of micros every three days (about 8 drops or less) and then a dose of K might help
 
#10 ·
I almost have a handle on the string algea.. now i just have some "sheet" algea that grows on some leaves.. it is readily eaten by snails and shrimp so it should come under control sooner or later... Just pruned today....
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top