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George's 29g tank New pics from 12/20/06

22K views 121 replies 32 participants last post by  George Willms 
#1 · (Edited)
Just for reference, here is a pic of my tank from may 13 of 2003. So you can see where I started . Hard to believe it was not that long ago!




Here is the last pic of my tank, taken on Nov. 14 of 2003. I plan on taking another shortly. I have since gotten rid of the Tonina as it just was not growing well for me. Guess it didn't like my water too much.

 
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#5 ·
Thanks everyone. If anybody has some constructive criticism I will gladly take it. Although I think I'm probably my own harshest critic. :) Here are the specs and all:

Tank size: 29 gallons

CO2: pressurized

Reactor: mini-vortex

Lighting: Coralife Aqualight, 130 watts (6500k, 10,000k)

photoperiod: 1 hr@ 65watts, 11 hrs @ 130 watts, 1 hr @ 65 watts

Substrate: plain and coated gravels, laterite, volcanit mixture

Fauna: neon tetras, cardinal tetras, featherfin rainbows, celebese rainbows, brass tetras, endler's livebearers, SAE's, otos, C. pygmaeus, red cherry shrimp, japonica shrimp, snails

flora: A. nana, H. micranthemoides, C. lutea, C. wendtii, H. leucocephala, L. arcuata, L. repens, Sagitarria Subulata, E. stellata, R. indica, A. reinickii, L. aromatica, H. corymbosa, and D. Diandra (I think that's it.... :lol: )

ferts: flourish 3-4x a week, flourish iron 3-4x a week, potassium nitrate weekly at water change if needed, potassium sulfate twice a week, monopotassium phosphate twice a week

water parameters: pH: 7.0, KH 4-5, nitrates: >5 ppm, phosphate about 1.0ppm

Water changes: 50% weekly

Heater: 150 Watt Ti with external LCD

And I think that about covers it all. :lol:

Filtration: Eheim pro II 2026
 
#8 ·
Mike and George,

How far are you guys from NJAS meeting spot ? Maybe we should meet up an hour or so before and check both of your tanks. I will bring the camera and take some pictures.

BTW. I was appointed to be GAP (Growers Award Program) Chairman for NJAS society. I'm looking forward seeing some movement especially from both of you guys.

Are you familiar with below link ?

http://www.njas.net/
 
#19 ·
Ok....I've never been completely happy with the right hand side of the tank. The L. aromatica needs to fill in a bit more for my liking. The Ludwigias I would actually like to replace with something that doesn't grow as fast but looks similar. Their coloring goes very nicely where they are and I would like something of a similar color to place there. I have to trim them every 3-4 days to keep that area looking nice or else it becomes quite a jungle. Any suggestions? My foreground is not evenly filled in either. I plan on taking some new pics tonight or tomorrow and have them posted by the weekend, it has obviously grown in more and been trimmed more than once since then. Plus in this picture the Ludwigia is a mess, and I have that empty spot where one stem of E. stellata would have filled it in nicely and the empty area on the right, now occupied by L. aromatica and D. diandra in place of the Tonina. Whew! So what do you think of that hubbahubba for improvements to make? ;)
 
#20 ·
George Willms said:
I just joined this forum, and it is a relatively new (used) camera. I'm my own harshest critic, I always see something to improve. lol
OK, this made me go back and search threads on AB, where I found your tank shots there. I usually make a point of reading your posts, but this slipped by me. You've done one bang up job developing this tank. If I could get that kind of growth out of A. reineckii I would be a happy aquarist.
 
#21 ·
Why can't you get it to grow? What does it do for you? I found that it didn't like high iron levels. When I started out I was dosing approx 2 ml flourish iron daily, and the A. reineckii did nothing, NOTHING. I lowered dosing to 1 ml every other day to combat thread algae and BAM, it took off! Now I dose it at water change and pretty much just rely on the flourish dosing to provide the iron needed.
 
#23 ·
hi George, in my humble opinion, your tank isn't "green" enough, you've got nice reds, but it will look even better framed by green all over.

Also, I like the ludwigia repens. Actually I think that it could be a little bushier..

One more thing, I feel that you can see too much of the stems of the background plants. A great midground solution is pearlweed .....and it's green so you'll be adding more green...

i agree that the right side is a lil weak.... again i'm going to suggest more green plants...so perhaps asian ambulia, or stargrass, or you could balance both sides and add more pennywort to the right....

i've got a lot of other ideas but i wanted to bounce these over to you first and see what you think.
 
#24 ·
Hm, iron, eh? My A. reineckii is doing just what you described- nothing. Fortunately, I've dodged the algae bullet so far with it- most of the stuff that sits too long gets algae. Also, about the only algae in this tank is thread algae. I am currently only dosing Flourish about once a week, but was doing it more often, and supplementing with Flourish iron occasionally. Everything else in the tank is growing like gangbusters. I took a large wad of glosso out to seed another tank this week, and have to trim radically about once a week. Currently, I'm making a point of keeping everything else away from the A. reineckii to give it the best conditions I can. It's such an outstandingly beautiful red plant.
 
#25 ·
Hubbahubba:

See! You think I can improve too! lol I already have pearlweed, it's my foreground plant. :) I would like to leave the reds in the middle and the greens on the edges. I like the subdued look I get with more reds than greens. My H. corymbosa is a lot more prominent on the right side now than it was. My problem with the Ludwigia is just that: I get it to look nice and bushy and then some stems grow so much faster than others and it doesn't look as nice. Right after I trim and replant them, it actually looks like a little hedge! I wish it could stay like that all the time, but I'd have to redo the stand everyday to keep it that way! That's why I asked about something a little slower growing. I'm not doing ambulia again either. That plant requires way too much maintenance in this tank. I had it in there before and literally had to trim it back every other day it grew so fast. And it starts looking leggy after a while. I took some new pics last night, I will have them up over the weekend at the latest, so you can see what it looks like now. I am interested in hearing your other suggestions also. :) I'm am getting some Ludwigia ovali and may use that in place of the other Ludwigias, we'll see how it goes.

Aquaverde:

It doesn't seem like too much iron to me, what is your substrate in that tank? Also, it is still one of my slowest growers. I'm glad it's slow though! I'd hate to have another plant that I had to trim a few times a week. This I usually trim every 2 weeks or so. I've only had thread algae when I was using too much iron. If I get it now my shrimp take care of it before I see it!
 
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