Fluval Ebi! Updates 6/26

[dragonsong93]

6/26/2012
Current FTS:


Livestock:
Loads of CRS & CBS







Plants:
Mini marimo moss balls
Dwarf baby tears
Anubias nana mini
Saggitaria Chilensis
Frogbit
Duckweed
Some moss,
And a couple other odd plants that made their way in here


--------------------------

12/1/2011
After lots of tanks with just rocks & driftwood I'm going to try and attempt to actually have a planted tank (hornwort randomly floating around a tank doesn't count xD) and my fluval ebi came on Tuesday and I spent the rest of the day filling it with water....JEEZ! Is that stratum really DUSTY or is it just me?! Took forever to clear up and then I went and planted and messed it up again!

It's horribly bare atm, all I have is some frogbit, HC and 4 little moss balls, but I have some anubias coming in the mail and hopefully there's a trip to the store this weekend for some more plants! Plus I have a bucket of driftwood soaking for later.

Planned inhabitants are lots of CRS and some CBS mixed in. Is it safe to ship these guys to PA in December? No pet stores around here have them so I have to order online.

But....here are the pix. I can't wait to get more green and turn it into an underwater forest






The plan so far is to have the HC completely carpet the front and then the anubias in between the two rocks, with a background of some seaweed-like plant, any suggestions? One or two pieces of driftwood might also end up in here, they're pretty small too.

[fusiongt]

Are you injecting co2? I think it's difficult to carpet the tank without it.

[dragonsong93]

Originally Posted by fusiongt

Are you injecting co2? I think it's difficult to carpet the tank without it.

Nope, I really don't want to use co2, I've heard of people having luck with HC using excel so that's what I'm going to do, but if it doesn't work out I'll just swap it for something easier.

[diwu13]

Originally Posted by fusiongt

Are you injecting co2? I think it's difficult to carpet the tank without it.

Excel should work better than CO2 in such a small tank. Excel provides organic carbon which is exactly what CO2 will provide.

Hm... but even if the plants grow out won't the middle of your tank still be bare? Hope the anubias you're getting is nice and tall then :P

[dragonsong93]

Originally Posted by diwu13

Excel should work better than CO2 in such a small tank. Excel provides organic carbon which is exactly what CO2 will provide.

Hm... but even if the plants grow out won't the middle of your tank still be bare? Hope the anubias you're getting is nice and tall then :P

Kewl, so my carpet idea might work after all!

Hoping to fill the middle area with some medium sized plants, not sure what species (open for suggestions ), but ones that will make the transition from short to tall plants less drastic.

[damenblankenship]

I've grown HC using excel. it should work fine. IMO C02 in small tanks is a bit of a pain anyway. good luck!

[diwu13]

Originally Posted by dragonsong93

Planned inhabitants are lots of CRS and some CBS mixed in. Is it safe to ship these guys to PA in December? No pet stores around here have them so I have to order online.

Yes it is safe to have them shipped as long as the person you're buying them from knows what they are doing. Make sure they insulate the box and provide a 72 hour heat pack. Make sure to ask questions from the seller, if they aren't answering them I would suggest switching to someone on here.

Excel will work much better on the HC if you inject it directly into the substrate instead of dumping it into the water column. I recently ordered a 9" needle and syringe combo to do the trick. I'll be uploading some photos tomorrow if you'd like to see what they look like!

Originally Posted by dragonsong93

Hoping to fill the middle area with some medium sized plants, not sure what species (open for suggestions ), but ones that will make the transition from short to tall plants less drastic.

When the DW is done soaking you should lay that out first. Generally it will provide a good transition from your carpet plant to taller plants (unless you just stick the DW straight into the tank vertically haha). But if you can arrange the DW first it might be easier to help you with plant ideas. I would recommend not making a trip to the LFS for plants until you plan the scape with the DW. But you seem to be a little sick of DW :P

[dragonsong93]

Originally Posted by diwu13

Yes it is safe to have them shipped as long as the person you're buying them from knows what they are doing. Make sure they insulate the box and provide a 72 hour heat pack. Make sure to ask questions from the seller, if they aren't answering them I would suggest switching to someone on here.

Excel will work much better on the HC if you inject it directly into the substrate instead of dumping it into the water column. I recently ordered a 9" needle and syringe combo to do the trick. I'll be uploading some photos tomorrow if you'd like to see what they look like!

When the DW is done soaking you should lay that out first. Generally it will provide a good transition from your carpet plant to taller plants (unless you just stick the DW straight into the tank vertically haha). But if you can arrange the DW first it might be easier to help you with plant ideas. I would recommend not making a trip to the LFS for plants until you plan the scape with the DW. But you seem to be a little sick of DW :P

K, will CRS be ok with the excel? Should I turn down the dosage to like 1/2 or so?

Yea the driftwood's been soaking for about a week and none of the pieces are sinking yet! And they're pretty small too!

[diwu13]

Originally Posted by dragonsong93

K, will CRS be ok with the excel? Should I turn down the dosage to like 1/2 or so?

Yea the driftwood's been soaking for about a week and none of the pieces are sinking yet! And they're pretty small too!

The moss balls are very cute :]!

CRS definitely be ok with excel. Just avoid overdosing and dumping the fertilizer on top of the shrimp! If you do inject straight into the soil you'll have no problems!

Pictures of the DW ?

[dragonsong93]

Originally Posted by diwu13

The moss balls are very cute :]!

CRS definitely be ok with excel. Just avoid overdosing and dumping the fertilizer on top of the shrimp! If you do inject straight into the soil you'll have no problems!

Pictures of the DW ?

Came up with a possible planting arrangement, maybe saggitaria chilensis in the very back, or anacharis, with dwarf saggitaria around the corners before the rocks. The anubias I ordered is a dwarf so I might stick that on the driftwood or in between the rocks. Kinda want a bit of red color but don't know where or which plant to get, also would be nice to have some small more textured leaves to mix things up a bit.

And pix of the driftwood:



My favorite one:


And a fts, because the frogbit has really taken off and is sending roots everywhere. There's also a heater in there now and a couple random plant bulbs.

[MsNemoShrimp]

In the last picture, are those mini marimo balls? They look so cute!

[dragonsong93]

Originally Posted by NeoShrimp

In the last picture, are those mini marimo balls? They look so cute!

Yup! There's four of them and none are bigger than 1/2"

[MsNemoShrimp]

Originally Posted by dragonsong93

Yup! There's four of them and none are bigger than 1/2"

Wow. How did you get them that way. I have a huge Marimo ball mat, so should I pinch some off and roll it into a ball or something? : )

[dragonsong93]

The shrimp have left Cali! I hope they get here ok, we just had a flash snow storm last night, the trees were really pretty this morning.

Originally Posted by diwu13

If you do decide to set up another tank make sure to start a journal for it! You could always just make lots of tibees ! AND MY TIGERS ARE BERRIED!!!! Two of them are so far. Hoping those breed out!! Snapped a few pics in my journal haha.

At least that isn't as nerve wracking as having the shrimp shipment sitting in the warehouse. Then I'd be tempted to drive and pick those up lol. But congrats on the shrimps arriving soon! After they arrive you'd wanna keep the tank renovations to a minimum if you want lots of breeding. When you start getting babies you can renovate all you want afterwards!

The filter change is really up to you. My shrimp tanks work fine with a HOB. But then again I'm not willing the shell out more money for sponge filters. You could actually keep both the sponge and internal filter inside your tanks and have two sources of beneficial bacteria for when you have to clean one out. But it's all up to you :]!!

Congrats on the berries!! Renovations are done for a while now, saggitaria came and I'll snap a few pictures after the water clears. I have room for maybe one plant, I'm thinking of just adding some java moss to the driftwood and then everything's got to grow in.

Originally Posted by NeoShrimp

Wow. How did you get them that way. I have a huge Marimo ball mat, so should I pinch some off and roll it into a ball or something? : )

Yea basically that's what you do!

I bought 3 small ones but one was kinda lop-sided so I broke it and half and rolled it into two balls to make the really tiny ones.

[dragonsong93]

Shrimp arrived today!! All five alive & well, better pix soon when I get back home.
iPods have issues with tiny shrimp pictures....