75 gal low-tech gravel-capped dirt tank... it's gonna be awesome!!

[ilovelucy]

I have finally seen significant plant growth! The narrow hygro between the two pieces of wood has grown visibly in the past few days. Like, overnight! That's pretty exciting for me. Not one of my plant species died out completely, and the ones that weren't doing too hot in the beginning are bouncing back. My crypts never melted and there are even babies shooting up around the original crypts already.

My water parameters tested perfectly so I picked up some neon tetras from Petsmart. I don't know how well they will do with my water hardness, but at $1/ea I couldn't resist getting some. I may go back for Bloodfin tetras since they are on sale as well.

Only one pic for now since the glare from window nearby made it difficult to get ANY decent pics. This one's just to give an idea of the growth.

[Jstu202]

Subscribed.

[ilovelucy]

A growth update..... Not too much else to report. I am very happy with the growth. This is 8 days after my last pic posted.

[odie]

Wow nice growth. I am also from your part of the world, born in Lacrosse.

I go TC/Cities often so if need help with stores. I am more a salt/reef keeper but I am getting into plants as of late.

For cool crazy fish go to Forest Lake Pets it is on the North metro but the store is huge!! Plants are hit and miss. I have seen alot but then not so much. Fish selection is mind blowing. For shrimp and other cool stuff I like Terre-quatics.

[ilovelucy]

I did some trimming of the narrrow hygro and moneywort, as it was quite overgrown. I replanted the trimmings, but the next time around, I doubt I will have any space to replant. I also trimmed the stargrass and planted the clippings a little further toward the center of the tank in an attempt to fill it in a little more.

I have really enjoyed using stargrass as a foreground plant. I received it as long plants and I just clipped them into about 3 inch lengths and planted as foreground cover. Then as it has begun to grow, it creeps along the substrate, sinking some nice stable roots down. When a plant starts to grow upward, I just clip it off and replant it.

I am really pleased with how it's all coming along... dirt has been kind to me so far! Most of the visitors to my house don't know or care much about tank keeping but my one friend says it looks "comfortable" and that if she were a fish she would want to live in my tank Not a bad compliment!

I had bought some RCS babies a few weeks ago and they immediately disappeared into my tank. I thought for sure that they had been eaten after searching for them often and seeing nothing. Then a few days ago, two red all grown up RCS showed up! They look really good... and I haven't seen them since so I'm not sure where they are hiding. I'm jut hoping for babies!

Aside from one oto death(not sure why that happened) all of the other inhabitants are doing well. Fauna include: 8 bloodfin tetras, 21 neon tetras, and 3 otos(one being much larger and quite fat compared to the others) and 20 or less RCS. I haven't put much effort into the fish and such... I happy with what I have for now. I like that my fish are low maintenance so I will probably keep it just as it is for now.

Check out these pics! I'm so proud... just ignore the glare on some of them!

[odie]

Looks good! Really filling in nice. So how did you make the light adjustable for height?

[ilovelucy]

The suspension wires run through holes drilled in the shelf. The hardware I used to hold the wires in are easy to loosen. I just make my adjustments and retighten

[low_techy]

Update please

[andrewss]

that piece of driftwood is gnarly, great snag