Never done a tank journal before so here goes. Tank started out semi planted with fake driftwood and plants. Substrate was black aquarium gravel. Lighting consists of stainless steel 2x32w shoplight with phillips daylight deluxe bulbs(6700k).
Torn down and cleaned, new substrate (STS), real driftwood. Plants as of now are: cabomba, red myro, E. tellinus, and crypts. Lighting has been upgraded with the addition of 2 clamp lights sporting 23w 6500k CFLs. Filtering is handled with a Rena xp3 and 2 powerheads with sponges. Suggestions welcomed, want to keep it medium to low tech for now. plant ideas and donations would be gladly accepted(alot of tank to fill in)LOL.
I need to take some updated pictures today and post. The tank is looking great. All plants are growing at a steady rate. Crypts look great and are spreading but are staying low. Rotala and ludwigia are probably due for a trim. Watersrite and wisteria are starting to take off. Lillies are throwing leaves constantly, need to trim off some of the floating leaves.
I have kind of let the tank do it's thing and the results are positive for the most part. I have been battling staghorn algae, it's not bad but it is annoying. Would love to know a better way of getting rid of it, manual removal works but is lots of work.
Overall I am happy with the way it's going. The setup has worked well enough that I have changed the substrate in my 75g and replanted it also. Will most likely change over the 55g too.
Just a quickie until pics. Algae is all but gone, plants growing great, duckweed is rockin. Added a dozen cherry barbs and started some S.Repens. Will get pics up soon and thanks for looking.
Everything is going good. S.Repens growing well. Added some A.Reineckii. Tank is filling in nicely. still looking for just the right piece or pieces of wood to finish it off.
wow its looking nice!!!
No suggestions really, except keep trimming and filling in, and add more fish?? LOL I only see about 3, you ram is a beauty though
The tanks community hasn't grown much. Last added was a chocolate BN.
as of now the list looks like this:
1-GBR male
4-Bolivian (males I think)
4-Phantom tetras all males (looking to get a dozen females)
4-peppered corys
2-bronze corys
12-14- cherry barbs (2 males 12 females)
As for the stem growth, it's been a trim and replant thing. I only have basically 2 stem types in there and both are easy to work with. I wish my cabomba would have done better as it made a good contrast with leaf shapes. The S.Repens has done exceptionally well, as has the A.Reineckii. My crypta are spreading slow but steady.
I got wood!!!!!!!!! I also trimmed and replanted, added 3 pearl gouramis. In addition to the work on the 125g, I setup a new 75g in the kitchen as sort of a room divider. It's going to be a challenge to come up with a pleasing scape viewable from three sides.
looks great!! other half's wood was awesome, just maybe shifted away from center. or chop it up and stack. just throwing out ideas. or i'll take the wood! otherwise the growth and plant placement is really well done.
Still chugging along. I need to fill in the background with some more stems. Probably should start dosing some ferts, my rotala hasn't been growing as fast or as full since trimming. This tank over the summer is going to get pushed back into the wall behind it. Well at least that is the plan.
Didn't realize it's been so long since I updated this. The tank is chugging along great. Lost a couple rams to old age, added a Bristlenose. Plants are growing at a steady rate.
oh pretty! I like how the plants come across the back and around both sides tall, and the middle is nicely filled in. I can't seem to get that look right myself.
Your pleco is a beauty, I have a couple females which I love, but now I am growing out a few of their babies and really hoping to get a male.
Thanks guys, I really appreciate the support. It's been a long slow journey getting to this point. Last pic is pretty much how it stands at the moment, will be doing some maintenance today, so hopefully will get a few better pics up later. Here in a month or so I am planning on pushing this tank back into the wall behind it, making it a built in. When that happens, I am planning to change the scape and lighting. I want more wood, probably go with more of a riverbank type look, branches hanging down in the water. Lower light plants like anubias, java fern, crypts with a overall subdued light with spotlighted areas as accents. That way I can still keep some of my higher light plants like S.repens. Any thoughts or additional suggestions/ideas would be appreciated as this is going to basically set me back to square one.
There haven't been any changes on this tank lately. I'm still kicking around the idea of making it a built in. On other fronts, my kitchen tank is doing great. I also picked up a "FREE" 150g tall last week. I'm in the process of resealing it. It's going to be a challenge working with it's 30 inch height. My angels are going to love the extra height. I have an idea in my head to make a 12 foot long display setup with it flanked on each side by my 2 75g's, should be interesting if I can get it done. Also picked up a 30g long, not sure what to do with it yet, but it was another freebie.
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