Frosty's 10 Gallon Setup

[FrostyNYC]

Originally Posted by clwatkins10

Well, whatever it is, it looks cool. I also see some salvinia down there in your needle leaf lol. Isn't that stuff just delightful?

Haha! Good eye! And yea, I grab a handful and throw it in the garbage about once a week. I used to give it out for free, but I think everyone in Manhattan who wanted Salvinia has it now thanks to me.

[demosthenes]

oh, i know that plant! the one that looks like anacharis.. its Egeria najas, or Anacharis najas or Whatever-theyre-calling-it-these-days najas. its basically anacharis, but awesome. I actually think anacharis is a really good looking plant, idk why more people don't use it.

[FrostyNYC]

Originally Posted by demosthenes

oh, i know that plant! the one that looks like anacharis.. its Egeria najas, or Anacharis najas or Whatever-theyre-calling-it-these-days najas. its basically anacharis, but awesome. I actually think anacharis is a really good looking plant, idk why more people don't use it.

I think there's a lot of elitism when it comes to hardcore fishkeeping, gardening, and most hobbies in general. We all know that we can grow anacharis, so we try to challenge ourselves with something more difficult. I agree though. I like anacharis. The only thing I dislike about it is how messy it can look. Sort of like this mystery plant of mine. It's a space filler, and a curiosity for me. I'll see how it grows it to see if I want to keep it.

So far, the guesses for what my mystery plant is:
Lagarosiphon major
Egeria najas
Hydrilla verticillata

[fastfreddie]

Is it Tonina Belem? like in p 14 of JG's 20 Long Journal?

[fastfreddie]

oops sorry, I just saw the same suggestion in your thread over in plants.

[FrostyNYC]

Originally Posted by fastfreddie

oops sorry, I just saw the same suggestion in your thread over in plants.

Yea, it's definitely not a Tonina. I wish! And wow, that's a ridiculously attractive 20L tank.

I'm fairly sure its either Hydrilla or Egeria, and either way its a noxious weed.

[nazspeed]

frosty +1 on the killies i dont have the clown variantion but i Love my lampeyes and they stay in the mid to upper section maybe you could mix clowns and lampeyes together (plants on bottom, lampeys in mid, clowns in the upper............)that way you will always be able to see your plants!!! and what happened with your endlers?

[FrostyNYC]

Nazspeed,
My endlers are in a 5 gallon holding tank because my 10 gallon is still cycling after switching to Aquasoil. The tank cycled after 10 days or so, but then stupid me unplugged the filter during a water change and forgot to plug it back in for two days. I tested the water again after I realized what I had done, and I was back to 4 ppm of ammonia. Sigh. Im now hovering around 0.5 ppm but that's still too risky for me to put any livestock in the tank.

Updates: I pulled out the mystery noxious weed. It grew over 6 inches in a week, but the growth was sort of weedy-looking and all over the place. If I had a bigger tank, I could see using it, since it's branching like crazy, but I dunno right now. So I threw that plant in with the endlers in their holding tank.

I picked up a bunch of plants from Kotoeloncat today and put them in. I had gotten frustrated waiting for the microsword to grow in, and I stuck a bunch of blyxa in the back. Maybe TOO MUCH blyxa, but I didnt expect Koto to give me quite so much. There's also a bunch of random stems in there right now.

Plants in here right now, and my preliminary opinions:

Asian ambula - One of the fastest growers I've ever had in any of my tanks. And its pretty, to boot.
Hygro sp. 'Bold' - Super slow grower in my tank. But probably my favorite stem in here. I wish it grew faster. It's covered up by the blyxa now
Ludwigua brevipes - I have one stem of this. It's grown a little bit and it's branching heavily at nearly every node near the substrate. I like it.
Myrio Matto - Love it. What an easy plant! And the leaves are so feathery against the black background. This plant has grown about half inch a day. It's already easy doubled in size.
Rotala verticillaris - One stem. It's growing sooo slowly but its rooted now and it's branching and splitting. Looks good.
Rotala mini type 2 - Just got this one, so not quite sure what I think yet.
Rotala mini type 1 - See above.
Marsilea minuta - I'm really disappointed in this one. My entire foreground is M.minuta, and it's barely grown at all. Im going to give this a month and see what happens.
Lilaeopsis brasiliensis - Frustrating much? It melted almost completely because what I purchased what grown emersed. It's growing sooooo slowly now. I'm not sure I'm patient enough for this one.
Java fern 'needleleaf' - Great plant. I've had this since before this rescape. It tends to look a little messy when it starts getting plantlets on it though. But really significantly nicer than the normal java fern imho.
Hemigraphis traian - Got one stem as a bonus. Leaves a little too large for my tank, but WOW talk about purple!!! I know why people hunt this plant down now.

[ZooTycoonMaster]

Wow it looks great! Myrio does grow fast doesn't it?

[boltp777]

i love the manzanita its awesome it looks like something out of a japanese garden. the Hemigraphis traian accents it as well maybe if you could def grow it out wish it was like a java fern and the rhizomes grew on the wood cuz that would be so cool.but looks great =)

[FrostyNYC]

Thanks Zoo and Bolt. I do really like the Hemigraphis traian, but its a really strange plant. The stem is very rigid, unlike most aquatic plants, and the plant does not bend much at all. The leaves are also fairly large and tough, for a stem. Its almost something that I'd be growing in my garden, not my tank. (Well, I would be growing it in my tank if I had a 20 long, or a 55 gallon or something...)

I'm still suffering through an extended cycling period with the Aquasoil, which is driving me mad. I havent been able to do water changes in the last week, because the POS faucet adapter on my Python got stripped. Why oh why does Python manufacture faucet adapters made of such cheap soft plastic?? I ordered a metal adapter on ebay, it should be here in a few days.

Regarding stocking, Im thinking of going with either scarlet badis, peacock gudgeon, or maybe a dwarf gouramie (like a licorice or sparkling). Any opinions or personal experiences?

[FrostyNYC]

I love my weeds. 5 days growth. And my ambulia is turning pink at the surface. Weird.

[CL]

Nice
I miss that full tank feel haha. Slow growers are a pain.
Your tank looks great

[FrostyNYC]

Big mistake. I made an impulse buy and came home with a baby balloon ram. Normally, I think balloon rams are hideous and deformed, but they were SO CUTE! And they were begging for me to bring them home, like puppies!! So I got one. And for two days, he had black stress bars down his body, and now he has pop-eye or something. Sigh. Serves me right.

[CL]

Originally Posted by FrostyNYC

Big mistake. I made an impulse buy and came home with a baby balloon ram. Normally, I think balloon rams are hideous and deformed, but they were SO CUTE! And they were begging for me to bring them home, like puppies!! So I got one. And for two days, he had black stress bars down his body, and now he has pop-eye or something. Sigh. Serves me right.

That's sad to hear I saw a thread about pop-eye earlier today. It might be worth checking out.