40 Gallon Breeder

[Aheartlessfish]

I didnt want to flood any of the other postings and get off topic :P

So im moving my thread over here to the PA section since i check this every day.

40 gallon breeder tank

175w 6500k metal halide 8 hr photo p.
Flourite black gravel
Pressurized co2: 4-6bps
Index method Dry ferts: KNO3, K2so4, Kh2po4, Mgso4, Cacl2, Csm+b, Flourish Iron
Temp: 80F

Fish: 3 Ottos, 1 SAE, Assassin snail

Decor: 3 crosses, 2 covered in javamoss

Plants: (ill list what i know)
Staurogyne repens
Limnophilia aromatica
Limno sp. ‘Guinea’
Heteranthera zosterfolia
Ludwigia repens arcuata
Ludwigia sp. red
Glossotigma
Elatine Triandra
Pogostemon yatabeanus
Rotala colorata
Hemianthus micranthemoides
Limnophila sp. "vietnam"
Myriophyllum matogrossense
Najas sp. Roraima
Hygrophilia Angustifolia
Myrophyllum Simulans
Dwarf hair Grass
Dwarf Chain Swords
HC



40 Breeder on top, 20 gallon CRS/CBS tank on the bottom

[Aheartlessfish]

06.07.12



Trying to start a carpet of rotalas, i like this plant great mid ground fillter/carpets, grows fast and bushy.


Najas Roraima, awesome plant, wish it would get more red tho


Stargrass, flowered for me!!


Staurogyne Repens carpet, courtesy to Bill (also bought a chunk from someone else, but bills still the best looking ^^)


Heres what i did with the extras he gave me

[Fishies_in_Philly]

that looks great Tony! i wanna see what kind of maintenance you're gonna have to keep the rotala carpet at a certain height. i gotta get some flame moss to you for that bare cross, that would look so cool trim that glosso up front and it'll grow flat, unless that is the look you are going for, in which case, i'll shut up/....lol what's the "grass" plant at the base of the crosses?

[Aheartlessfish]

haha trimming rotala is pretty easy ill only keep a certain amount of it in the tank so after i get enough to do what i want it to do ill prob sell/trade/roak it away ^^

Flame moss sounds cool hahaha, i was looking more for christmas moss tho for some reason christmas moss looks cool to me. Javamoss is nice but it grows randomly but still makes a nice carpet in my 20 shrimp tank.

Glosso has been doing bad for me, i had it grow nice under 4wpg but in this tank its just growing straight, and when i prune the prune pieces die off !!! but lately its making a recovery, i want it to carpet but that plant isnt priority right now. Just have it in there to be in there. Might convert it over to emersed if i can get the s. repens to take over ^^ ill go s. repens carpet over any carpet any day. (that was alot of any's)

the grass plant was a ROAK from asitff (i just got it like 2 days ago). I believe he labeled them as dwarf chain grass or something. It looks like dwarf sag to me but i could be wrong. (im pretty sure its dwarf sag i use to grow this sucker lol) regardless beautiful plants he grew

[Fishies_in_Philly]

if you want mosses, i have java, christmas, spiky, flame, stringy (locally collected), peacock, and what i believe is taiwan. i got it in a shrimp order as a small little piece and grew it out. oh, and ii also have fiss. fontanus. oh, that might be dwarf chain sword. i do like the look of the s. repens carpet, i just wish i could have grown it without algae....lol oh well, some plants we can grow, others we can't i also like that new carpet plant out. hydopiper or something like that. very few people have it and only a few pf those have been able to grow it. what i really want is some ug. i would love to have a huge carpet of it in my 125 when i set that back up. but i know a place where i can get it anytime i like, so i'm not too concerned. i'm gonna pm you my plant list in a few, i gotta get it together first.....lol

[Aheartlessfish]

haha awesome, hydropiper aka dwarf glosso? too expensive for my taste ^^

the way i see it is, buy cheap plants, grow nice carpets of it, make tank look nice, pick a few colorful plants and make it pop ^^

[Aheartlessfish]

06.20.12.

Its been awhile since i updated this tank...went through a whole month of difficiencies and death...too embarrassed to show it off haha.
things are better now. Lowered light...getting algae on glass tho...maybe dosing too much ferts...will tone it down next week.

*edit: pictures were accidently deleted on photobucket*

[Aheartlessfish]

07.15.12.

Updates on the tank. Finally got a balance going...no algae except below the gravel bed in the front of the glass and some gsa that i dont know how to combat except to scrub it off every now and then. i have some left over fish in there from the big tank (they didnt school well so i decided to move them)


Elatine carpet taking off. Plan to trim sometime this week and place in another tank without co2 and see how it does.


Pantanal growing to the top. The only healthy growing stem (others seem to have slight deficiencies?). It hasnt colored on the tips like i want it too but im not sure if thats just because of the halide.


Got my hands on two t5ho units that have 2 bulbs each. Gona move the halide fixture up front a little and slap a t-5 unit on the back (back tall plants seem to suffer the most since no light reaches in the back corners)

I must say t-5 bulbs seem alot brighter than metal halide...although halide gives the shimmering effect, t-5 seems to brighten up the plants more...maybe its just me.

(also sorry about the pictures in the last post, i deleted them without moving them to the proper folder)

[chomper149]

could be that the halide is more focused compared to the t5 which probably has a broader light pattern

[KingPlakat]

Awesome tank...just picked up my second 40 breeder from the petco sale. Won't be planting it though unfortunately.

[Aheartlessfish]

i think the more focused is correct. Still i definitely prefer t-5's over halide...thinking in economic gains...i see nothing beneficial from Halides over T-5's for plants (except the fact that you only need one bulb). T-5's consume less energy and get less hot

ill also be getting another 40 breeder soon, will lay right below this tank. atleast one of the t'5 units are going on the bottom and the 2nd one prob on top along with this one. Gota attach my splitter soon need to buy bubble counter

[Fishies_in_Philly]

man, you're elatine carpet makes me jealous!! mine is growing vertically instead of horizontally. go figure. and don't feel bad about the pantanal. i can't get mine to color up either. nor my aromatica. but i have the greenest panatanal and aromatica around

[Aheartlessfish]

haha my L aro's are dying at the bottom stem. The leaves are falling off...maybe i need to increase in Kno3 o.o...

[ThinkTank]

That looks great! love the carpet!

Put an easy red plant in there and it'll really pop. I'm a big fan of anything red

[Aheartlessfish]

i have reds, not many tho, the photo doesnt show it but the center has a red lily and some red ludwigas