Hello everybody.
I just wanted to take this opportunity to introduce myself and my fish tank. I want to first off thank everybody who participates on this wonderful website. I've learned so much here and I think it has helped me to get off to a good start. I took about a month to read up on planted fish tanks. My research included the following:
1) Ecology of the Planted Aquarium by Diana Walstad. One of my main goals was to try to keep maintenance simple. I also wanted to employ techniques to keep algae problems to a minimum so that I could spent my time enjoying my fish tank instead of fighting with it.
2) Nature Aquarium World vol 2 by Takashi Amano. This was more for inspiration in aquascaping.
3) The Barr Report website. I've decided to follow Tom Barr's Excel dosing method as my technique for carbon supplementation instead of injected co2.
4) This website of course.
I was lucky to find a 55 gallon fish tank and unfinished pine tank stand on Craig's list for $70. Score! I took it home, sanded the stand down and varnished it.
My equipement is as follows:
- Marineland Magnum HOT filter.
- Corallife compact flourescent light 55watts (6700 K) x 2 ( giving me 2 watts per gallon). I specifically wanted to avoid too much light which could potentially add to an algae problem.
- Maxijet 600 pump
- 4 bags of Eco complete for substrate. ( I love this stuff. Very little water cloudiness even with the first filling).
Plants:
- Amulia (Limnophila indica)
- Hornwort Ceratophyllum demersum
- Water Sprite(Ceratopteris thalictroides)
- Wisteria (Hygrophila difformis)
- Telanthera Rosefolia (Alternanthera reineckii)
- Ludwigia, Broad Leaf (Ludwigia repens)
- Vals, Jungle (Vallisneria gigantea)
- Baby Tears (Hemianthus micranthemoides)
- Regina Red (Syngonium podophyllum)
Fish:
- 14 Cardinal Tetras
- 10 Harlequin Rasboras
- 4 Otoclinus
- 2 Angelfish
- 2 Fantail Guppy Males
- 1 Pineapple Lyretail Swordtail Female
- 2 Bolivian Rams
- 1 Betta
- 4 Rummy Nosed Tetra
I dose the following:
- Excel 1/2 cap 3 x per week
- Seachem Flourish 1/2 tsp 1 x per week
- 1/4 tsp KNO3 1 x per week
- 1/16 tsp KH2PO4 1 x per week
Ok enough with the chit chat, here's the pics I promised. Please click on the individual pics for the original full sized pics.
1) Initial set up
2) 1 month of growth later.
3) First trimming and some minor rescaping work.
4)
5) Redfantail Guppy
6) Pineapple Lyretail Guppies (as of this date the male has unfortunately passed away)
7)
8) Soon afterwards, one of my male guppies moved in quickly to "comfort" the grieving widow swordtail. Frisky little fellah.
9 )
10 ) German Blue Ram
11 ) Betta
12) Harlequin Rasboras
13)
14) Zebra Angel Fish
15) Rummy Nosed Tetras
16) Cardinal Tetras
17)
18) Otoclinus hard at work.
19 )
Best regards,
- Hung
I just wanted to take this opportunity to introduce myself and my fish tank. I want to first off thank everybody who participates on this wonderful website. I've learned so much here and I think it has helped me to get off to a good start. I took about a month to read up on planted fish tanks. My research included the following:
1) Ecology of the Planted Aquarium by Diana Walstad. One of my main goals was to try to keep maintenance simple. I also wanted to employ techniques to keep algae problems to a minimum so that I could spent my time enjoying my fish tank instead of fighting with it.
2) Nature Aquarium World vol 2 by Takashi Amano. This was more for inspiration in aquascaping.
3) The Barr Report website. I've decided to follow Tom Barr's Excel dosing method as my technique for carbon supplementation instead of injected co2.
4) This website of course.
I was lucky to find a 55 gallon fish tank and unfinished pine tank stand on Craig's list for $70. Score! I took it home, sanded the stand down and varnished it.
My equipement is as follows:
- Marineland Magnum HOT filter.
- Corallife compact flourescent light 55watts (6700 K) x 2 ( giving me 2 watts per gallon). I specifically wanted to avoid too much light which could potentially add to an algae problem.
- Maxijet 600 pump
- 4 bags of Eco complete for substrate. ( I love this stuff. Very little water cloudiness even with the first filling).
Plants:
- Amulia (Limnophila indica)
- Hornwort Ceratophyllum demersum
- Water Sprite(Ceratopteris thalictroides)
- Wisteria (Hygrophila difformis)
- Telanthera Rosefolia (Alternanthera reineckii)
- Ludwigia, Broad Leaf (Ludwigia repens)
- Vals, Jungle (Vallisneria gigantea)
- Baby Tears (Hemianthus micranthemoides)
- Regina Red (Syngonium podophyllum)
Fish:
- 14 Cardinal Tetras
- 10 Harlequin Rasboras
- 4 Otoclinus
- 2 Angelfish
- 2 Fantail Guppy Males
- 1 Pineapple Lyretail Swordtail Female
- 2 Bolivian Rams
- 1 Betta
- 4 Rummy Nosed Tetra
I dose the following:
- Excel 1/2 cap 3 x per week
- Seachem Flourish 1/2 tsp 1 x per week
- 1/4 tsp KNO3 1 x per week
- 1/16 tsp KH2PO4 1 x per week
Ok enough with the chit chat, here's the pics I promised. Please click on the individual pics for the original full sized pics.
1) Initial set up
2) 1 month of growth later.
3) First trimming and some minor rescaping work.
4)
5) Redfantail Guppy
6) Pineapple Lyretail Guppies (as of this date the male has unfortunately passed away)
7)
8) Soon afterwards, one of my male guppies moved in quickly to "comfort" the grieving widow swordtail. Frisky little fellah.
9 )
10 ) German Blue Ram
11 ) Betta
12) Harlequin Rasboras
13)
14) Zebra Angel Fish
15) Rummy Nosed Tetras
16) Cardinal Tetras
17)
18) Otoclinus hard at work.
19 )
Best regards,
- Hung