Albirdy's 40g Long Planted: Critique, please

[albirdy]

Tank has been running since June/July 2010

Lighting
fishneedit: 39watt x2 t5ho
7 hours: 8am-3pm

Filtration
Eheim 2234

Equipment
#5 tank/clippard needle valve burkett solenoid/uniweld single stage, dual guage regulator/glass diffusor: <1bps
Drop checker
Jager heater (Man, I want a hydor inline

Substrate
Eco complete/black flourite

Ferts
Rootmedic complete root tabs
Rexgriggs ferts:
3x kno3 1/4 tsp
3x k2so4 1/2 tsp
3x plantex csm+b 5ml
2-3x kh2po4 pinch to 1/4tsp
excel 3-5x week: 7.5 ml

Flora
dbosman microsword, java fern, stargrass, green lotus (name?), hygrophila, dewall: blyxa aubertii, jg: japan dwarf hairgrass.
wysteria, crypts, anubias, taiwan moss, java moss, amazon sword, unknown plant in the back (also from jg)

Fauna
2-3 SAEs. 1 GBR, 20 green neons, 5 cardinals, 4-5 otos.
Plan: solitary discus.

Open to feedback!

[albirdy]

More pics

[dewalltheway]

Wow....that is some nice looking Blyxa Aubertii. Where did you get it???

I think once things start to grow in and the moss gets established on the wood it will look pretty good. The right side though looks....well....messy and the ricca floating on the top gives it a sort of unappealing feel of...well....messyness but that is just my opinion. I have never liked floating plants except for a riparium theme. The left side looks good though. Through time, it will fill in nicely.

[justahobby]

I agree that it looks a little messy. But a little trimming and perhaps spacing of the plants and it would be amazing

[dewalltheway]

After a second look at it, a black background would help as well.

[malaybiswas]

Couple of suggestions
1. Putting all the blyxa japonica on one side (in front of the aubertii) will let you more space for the crypts and eleocharis sp. 'japan' more space to grow
2. the microsword being bigger than the HG will quickly overshadow them and since they are similar in height to the blyxa will make it look flatter. I would take them out totally and just use HG as my ground cover.

and yes, black background will be nice. Good start.

[albirdy]

I really appreciate the feed back. My ideas for the tank have become so complacent, and this is just what I needed to boost my enthusiasm to perfect my tank.

I think right now I just have to wait for some of my plants to explode, especially my crypts as I just added some root tabs a little over a week ago.

Also, I always wanted to use the hairgrass as a foreground cover, but they just haven't taken off for me as I'd like. Any suggestions on this?

[albirdy]

I added the black background, and I must say the appearance has already improved dramatically. Thank you again for the input, wally.

[Sharkfood]

Less than 1 bps doesn't seem like very much CO2, but your tank really looks nice, so apparently it's enough. Grats on the clean, and very green tank.

[albirdy]

Yeah, 1bps doesn't seem like much, but my drop checker still reads that I'm on the high side of dissolved o2 in my tank. also, i am dosing 2.2~x the amount of recommended excel @ 7.5ml so that may be helping it out. Before I was at around 2bps, but I noticed that my fish were catching breaths at the top of the tank and realized i needed to abate the amt of co2.

[albirdy]

I just picked up a monster package of plants from blackwidow. I got some plants that definitely require high lighting, not sure if my bulbs will cut it. We'll see how it goes. Just received, just planted. Will post pictures soon!

[albirdy]

So here's an update on my tank.
I just ordered my aquaflora/midday geiss bulbs.
Pretty excited for that to come in.
I should be getting in some lily pipes, co2 reactor, and swag needle valve.
Also need to set up my hydor inline heater.

Otherwise, here's my tank! Oh, and I remeasured it, and it's 40g =X my mistake.

[albirdy]

btw: driftwood has yet to sink.
and those plants are very new still must wait to thicken.

[PinoyBoy]

Nice. Where are you going to put the wood once it sinks?

[Nate McFin]

Looks great! You are going to love that inline heater.