Xiaoxiy's Planted Tank (56K Warning)

[xiaoxiy]

Yeah. I think I like it better this way. It's a much simpler hardscape. As Steve Job's believed, simple is better.

[xiaoxiy]

Pictures of tank as it is today (Most of the plants were just planted today):





With hood on:


The driftwood still hasn't sunk yet, so I've been using rocks to weigh it down.

[xiaoxiy]

Update on this tank:

After battling algae for the longest time (this brown fuzzy algae and them diatoms, followed by BBA), I finally introduced amano shrimp and ramshorn snails to my tank. Within 2 weeks, my algae problem was severely curbed.

So far, with the rescaped tank, I haven't had an algae problem at all. But then again, the scape is less than a week old.

Updated Fauana:
8 Neon Green Tetras
7 Rummynose Tetras
5 Otos (added 7 yesterday, found 2 dead this morning, the others are exploring the glass and eating, yay!)
26ish Amano Shrimp
30ish Ramshorn Snails
4 Nerite Snails


Last weekend, I decided to rescape the entire thing. Got tissue culture Rotala R and Waichii from Frank, and DHG too. The rotalas seem to be growing, and the DHG is doing pretty well. In addition, I re-used a lot of plants from my old scape, dipping them in H2O2 first to kill off any excess algae.

Updated Flora:
Lots and lots of Rotala R and Rotala R. Green (over 100, a lot of them are still small b/c of Tissue culture)
About 30-100 stems of Rotala Waichii
4 stems of Ludwiga
Many plugs of DHG (Parvula)
10ish Anubias Nana
A few NL Java Fern
Dwarf Sag

Here are some pictures of the new scape. I need to get some moss to cover the wood joints (the old moss I got way too algae covered, and I discarded it a while back).




Rotala seems to be doing better in this scape than the old one. The tips are starting to turn a bit red!


Neons hiding and exploring the back of the tank. They usually stay at the front of the tank when my dimmer lights are on. The moment my T5's come on, they freak out and hide in the rotala.

[xiaoxiy]

Here are some more pictures I took today.


Man these green neon tetras are fast. I was having a lot of trouble getting a good photo of one.


Trimmed my DHG today. Here's an Amano searching through the blades of grass for food


Good ol' rotala. The blackening leaves from the algae I battled for 1 month.


Yay. Rummies. Gorgeous fish


Coming through! I love how my amanos push everything aside for food.


Oto taking a nap. Unfortunately, I lost one more over the night. The remaining otos are all active and searching for food though, which I'm taking as a good sign.


Dummy shrimp. Trying to find algae from the Co2 diffuser.


Hey, it's an algae eater get-together.


Green neons schooling w/ Rummies. I was having trouble getting the camera to focus and get a good shot them them all schooling.




Wowee. Some of the amanos are huge!


More rotala


Oto searching for food


Arr. Mr Amano shrimp.

[limz_777]

any link for the bent scissor ?

[xiaoxiy]

Originally Posted by limz_777

any link for the bent scissor ?

I got them from nilocg: http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/sh...810&highlight=

They're the double-bend stainless steel ones.

[xiaoxiy]

Unfortunately, I am down to 3 otos. Fortunately, the 3 otos left are fairly active and fat, which I'm taking to be a good sign.

[xiaoxiy]

The Rotala is really beginning to turn pink, yay!

I have to move my tank back home in 2 weeks, boy oh boy, and I plan on doing a quick rescape with the move. I've ordered staurogyne repens to go around the driftwood and fissiden to be tied onto the base of the driftwood and some of the branches. In addition, I plan on moving all of the rotala to the left side of the tank, and making the right side a field of DHG.

I also have a Eheim 2217 coming in sometime within the next two weeks. I'll keep you guys posted.