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My ever-evolving tank (picture heavy)

32K views 279 replies 31 participants last post by  tomfromstlouis 
#1 · (Edited)
I am finally closer to creating just what I have been envisioning for my tank. :) (edit: The tank measures 48" x 17.75" x 24".) It's been in the works for a year! It started with a 30 gallon tank complete with dying plants and sick fish found on craigslist for $30. Of course at the time, I knew nothing about fish and had no idea they were not healthy.
Anyway, it has been quite the journey thus far, and I have learned that fish keeping is not as easy as 1-2-3. No, you can't just drop fish in the tank and throw in some food here and there, topping off the tank as the water evaporates. No, you don't just put all the fish that you liked at the fish store in the tank without running into huge complications because not all fish are compatible! No, you can't cheap out with desk lights or anything similar and expect to have living plants and there is not a species of fish you should buy to replace you cleaning your tank!

Anyway, I am the proud owner of some driftwood! YEAH! So, I have begun the process that will bring my vision to life! Here is what is happening:

I rinsed my dishwasher 4 times in a row then added the driftwood and on the highest setting, let it rinse in the dishwasher 4 times. It's been soaking in a tub since. No tannins! Just needs to sink. I've cleaned all my rocks collected locally this past summer and am now testing them to be sure they are aquarium safe. I have gotten my water chemistry stable, although it is noted the KH needs to be a little higher; working on that. I have posted in the WTB/RAOK thread a list of plants I need for my tank. I am still researching potential inhabitants to replace the Denison Barbs I have, which are currently 5" long. No rush there.

Tonight I added black Echo Complete to just under half of the tank and in 3-4 days I will be doing the same to the middle, then the other half. After that driftwood and rocks :)

Here's a couple pics.
Before:
Plant Water Light Pet supply Organism


After:
Water Plant Vertebrate Pet supply Fish supply


It is a looooong way from finished and the water is a bit cloudy from the 1/2 tank change. None of the plants and wood are in their place. It's just temporary until I get the substrate finished.

I am sooooo excited!

Update: 11/17/12 All the old substrate has been removed, some plants added as well as some Manzanita, rocks, and Mopani dw. Not finished, but close :)
 
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#50 ·
Okay. Plants are here in my house! Finally!!! They are currently soaking per directions from the sender.

Here are some pics. I grouped them by color and health...those that are melted pretty bad are in a bucket for the time being and the others are seperated by color because I only have limited buckets and thought they all need to get unpacked ASAP.

Here they are :)



and...

and...oh..the leaves to the plant above were melted at the base of them stems and fell off. At least there are two left.


and...

in the "red leaf" box, the plant on the bottom right is pretty soft and smells terrible, so I am not certain if it is okay or not.

and here's the plants that are not doing so well after the 7 days of being in a box.




 
#52 ·
Please see comments below pictures

Okay. Plants are here in my house! Finally!!! They are currently soaking per directions from the sender.

Here are some pics. I grouped them by color and health...those that are melted pretty bad are in a bucket for the time being and the others are seperated by color because I only have limited buckets and thought they all need to get unpacked ASAP.

Here they are :)



Brazilian Pennyworth (green middle left) - let them float on top of the tank. Some leaves will melt, but it should survive.
E. tenellus (my weird plant) center, 'spikey' plants: separate the plants, cut the roots with sharp scissors, leaving about 1", remove some outside leaves and plant.
Water Sprite (top with long roots): take the 2 largest ones and put the roots on substrate and put a stone on top to keep the plants down. Let the others float. Check tomorrow for branches that look translucent and pinch them off at the roots. I give them 75% chance of survival.




and...

and...oh..the leaves to the plant above were melted at the base of them stems and fell off. At least there are two left.

Hygro (palnts with larger leaves): separate the plants and plant as is: make hole in substrate, insert stem, cover with substrate.
HC (small leaved plants): plant as is: just shove the bottoms into the substrate so that they do not float up: leaves on the stems will melt, new leaves should grow from the stem's tops.




Water Sprite: roots on substrate, stone on top

and...

in the "red leaf" box, the plant on the bottom right is pretty soft and smells terrible, so I am not certain if it is okay or not.

Red tiger lotus: (large laves): pinch off the largest leaves at the roots: leave odd number of laves (3-5), cut the roots, leaving about 1.5" and plant.

Ludwidgia repens x acurata (long and short plants on top): starting from the bottom find part of the stem that feels firm, cut the stem above that right under the leaves, remove 2-4 sets of leaves above that and plant. This plant will drop a lot of leaves, just give it time.

Limnophilia aromatica (bottom right): please take a separate picture, they might be ok.


Trash everything else below this picture.

There should be more plants that I do not see on the pictures.

There are 2 melted plants in the pictures below: Rotala roundifolia and Limnophila sessiliflora

and here's the plants that are not doing so well after the 7 days of being in a box.




 
#55 ·
Couple of more:

The plant in the last 2 pictures (Limnophila sessiliflora): find 2-3 plants whose tops look the best, cut the stems leaving 2-3 set of leaves, let them float.

Important: Increase your water surface aeration by either turning filters' outlets more toward the surface or by adding an air stone/wand/power head. Plants consume o2 at night, the process of decay uses up even more o2. The last thing I want is to suffocate your fish.
 
#56 ·
Couple of more:

The plant in the last 2 pictures (Limnophila sessiliflora): find 2-3 plants whose tops look the best, cut the stems leaving 2-3 set of leaves, let them float.

Important: Increase your water surface aeration by either turning filters' outlets more toward the surface or by adding an air stone/wand/power head. Plants consume o2 at night, the process of decay uses up even more o2. The last thing I want is to suffocate your fish.
Thanks! I did not know that! :icon_eek: I ran over to the LFS and grabbed a pump and some tubing with a large airstone. Will take some of the water out to allow for the HOB's to waterfall ontop the surface. Also, I will aline the penguin powerhead at the water line.

Still working! Took better pictures of the individual species grouped together.
Will be sharing them momentarily :)
 
#66 ·
These guys all look ok for now. Remember, I put the same plants in multiple separate bags just in case this happens.

Do plant lotus as soon as you can.

The guys in the 1st and 3rd pictures are S. repens - your foreground plants. The tops look healthy and green enough. Remove the bottom damaged leaves. If you look at each plant, you will see that most of the roots are growing on one side - that's the side you want to plant, a bit at a diagonal angle. Some of them will keep floating up, you can put a little bit of substrate on the leaves to keep them down.

Looks like the plant rescue is well underway :) GJ, Amanda.

Am I the only one crazy enough to ship plants to Alaska in the middle of November? :icon_eek: They all come from pretty healthy stock and I fed them extra humburgers before I sen them to you. So, the'd better recover...or...else...:icon_evil
 
#69 ·


I was referring to the plants on top of this picture - they seem ok, at least from what I can see.

A week in a sub-zero - still pretty amazing anything lived.

I did give them an edge. Here is a little 'trick' that might be useful to others in the future: I layer a larger biomass around the more 'important' plants, sort of like a sandwich, with the biomass closest to the outside of the box. (all plants in separate sealed bags). If the outside plants begin to rot in transit, they produce a tiny bit of heat that just might shield the plants that are closer to the middle of the box. If you have ever seen a bale of hay in the winter you should have seen the heat raising up as vapor. At least, that's the idea.
 
#74 ·


I was referring to the plants on top of this picture - they seem ok, at least from what I can see.

A week in a sub-zero - still pretty amazing anything lived.

I did give them an edge. Here is a little 'trick' that might be useful to others in the future: I layer a larger biomass around the more 'important' plants, sort of like a sandwich, with the biomass closest to the outside of the box. (all plants in separate sealed bags). If the outside plants begin to rot in transit, they produce a tiny bit of heat that just might shield the plants that are closer to the middle of the box. If you have ever seen a bale of hay in the winter you should have seen the heat raising up as vapor. At least, that's the idea.
Oh okay. These look okay in the water from a distance. They are the same as the picture I asked for help with, except it's close up and out of the water. They are floating. Tomorrow I will plant them. How tall do these get? So I can decide on location :)
 
#70 ·
The tank looks like a huge mess because it is!!! But, here are some pics anyway showing where I've gotten with the plants tonight.

Before adding my OVT plants!


Where I've gotten so far tonight addng OVT plants:


Don't mind the soup ladel...I needed something to spoon up the substrate to transfer to the area for the ste plants ;)

A side view:


and the extra oxygen!

 
#73 ·
Thanks! I can't believe it's actually happening! It's been about 2 years of wishing I could get some plants in my tank!

:proud:

The 3rd picture looks especially good to me, including the plants. And once they fill out .. watch out :)

Thank you! It's easier to see the progress if you take pictures once in a while. Then you can look back and say WOW, did I started with THAT!?!
It will be great fun to look back and see the changes. I am thoroughly enjoying this! I love the side view (third picture) and imagine it to be pretty cool once filled in :) There's a Kuhli loach in the stems already!
 
#72 ·
:proud:

The 3rd picture looks especially good to me, including the plants. And once they fill out .. watch out :)

It's easier to see the progress if you take pictures once in a while. Then you can look back and say WOW, did I started with THAT!?!
 
#76 ·
Dwarf Lily (Nymphaea stellata)

Dwarf Baby Tears (HM) can grow to the top of your tank and more. Most people use it as a foreground plant and that requires some rigorous pruning. You can also trim it into a nice, dense bush of any height you like.
 
#78 ·
Dwarf Lily (Nymphaea stellata)

Dwarf Baby Tears (HM) can grow to the top of your tank and more. Most people use it as a foreground plant and that requires some rigorous pruning. You can also trim it into a nice, dense bush of any height you like.
Thank you for ID'ing my plant. I love this thing. It grows and splits really fast! It's awesome :)

Hmmm....that would be fun to be able to trim the HM into a nice dense bush. I would love that!
 
#95 ·
Idk how you do your maintenance, but when I do a bunch of moving around and stir up a lot of fine particles or I get a new plant that sheds a bunch of leaves, I usually try to do a 50% water change the next day, trying to suck up as many of the dead/dying leaves that have detached. I also will clean the filter pads in my canister if it's been a couple weeks since they were rinsed, that way it cleans things up a bit and you don't have as many of those decaying leaves fouling up your water :) But I would take OVT's advice over mine if he suggests anything different, as he seems to have quite a bit more experience than I do. :)
 
#99 ·
Today I finally got those Puntius Denisonii out of the tank! Those suckers are fast and intelligent! They learn fast and act accordingly to avoid being netted. Good grief I was frustrated after 15 minutes! They are gone :)

I brought home 4 tiny Kuhli Loach. That's all they had. I want a total of 8, possibly 10. The kids were beaming from ear to ear. They love these fish!

I also picked up a huge piece of Mopani DW and rinsed it several times in the dishwasher and now it's soaking in a bucket. Will repeat the dishwasher and soaking until the leaching is minimal. This method really speeds the process up 10 fold ;) My husband would kill me if he knew his sweet wife put the wood in the dishwasher LOL! Tomorrow he's off and will have to see it done :flick:

I replaced a T5 Actinicbulb with a T5 HO 6500k bulb. My Angel is still blue! Yeaha!!!

I did some shifting of the manzanita and planted the rest of the stems and other plants. Tank looks horrendous right now because I have all the Anubias floating waiting for their place on the mopani dw.

Unfortunately at lights on this morning, I found the Tiger Lotus melted at the base of the stems where the main stem connects :( The leaves were floating. I left as is by some chance it will spring new growth up from the roots. Fingers crossed everyone! Most the E.T. plants have melted overnight too.

Here's some pics showing the tank as is tonight, and the plants, Kuhlis and Mopani :)

The Manzanitas re-arranged


Terrible pic, but shows the "slope" for some stem plants at the base of the Manzanita


Some melting...


A lot of melting :(


He's still blue without Actinics! Also have some algae beginning on the wall; noticed bottom above the substrate on the right side.


The whole disaster scene LOL! The airstone kicked up a couple plants I had planted..oh well :) Re-plant tomorrow.


The Kuhli's :)


The Mopani! This is an awesome piece IMO. Can't wait to get it in the tank!
 
#100 ·
Water changes are almost never a bad idea (well, there are some exceptions, bacterial bloom being one example). If the plants shed leaves, most of them will be floating on the surface - I just scoop them up. I do try to avoid large water changes and cleaning the filter at the same time (trying to preserve the bacterial colony) but I don't think that really matters that much, especially in a well established, planted tank. Having more then one filter on the tank takes that concern away :)
 
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