amanda's 29g jungle

[amanda huggenkiss]

Originally Posted by justincgdick

Nice tank... However... alot of those plants look very familiar. Lol.

Hee! You just made me spew my coffee (you owe me a new keyboard)! They should look familiar , plus you pretty much cleared out the contents of my 6g when I switched over to ferns & crypts.

[jcgd]

Hehe. I love the plants. I upgraded my lights to 80 watts. So that 4watts per gallon. But I it a high tank and I have no reflectors so I'm losing alot of light. The feathery red plant and the water wisteria are starting to take off. My project for the weekend is to switch over my substrate.

[amanda huggenkiss]

This is what's been going on in my 29g.

First, my SAEs have been snacking on my rotala wallichii...



They're gonna be going on a little trip this weekend.

Second, I've got some serious BBA happening. If you check the tank pic on the 1st page, take a look at the driftwood on the right side. Looks ok, right? That was just in May. Here's close-up pic from March...



Nice, huh? Here it is today...



I've also got chunks of it here and there on the substrate, on some of my sag, and on the edges of some of my slower growers. I was getting lax about checking my nitrates and phosphates. Phosphates were ok, but my nitrates had dropped down to 0. I've been dosing daily and checking several times a week to keep them up -- we'll see if that solves things. Wish me luck...

[Glow500]

i dunno it looks pretty interesting.

[jbarone]

looks like you've got a giant hairy caterpillar in your aquarium.

So that's BBA, huh? I'd suggest getting a wire brush and scrubbing that
caterpillar til' it's bald. Then I'd boil it for a few minutes and leave it out
to dry in the hot sun. I'm sure that'll kill anything that's creeping around
in your tank.

Hope it all goes better for yeh!

[bharada]

Great looking tank, Amanda! I feel you pain over the shredded wallichii. My fish (don't know specifically which one) have been feasting on the new tips of the L. hippuroides in my 29. Funny thing is that they're eating only the new growth that comes out purple. All the green tips they've left alone.

[amanda huggenkiss]

Originally Posted by jbarone

I'd suggest getting a wire brush and scrubbing that
caterpillar til' it's bald. Then I'd boil it for a few minutes and leave it out
to dry in the hot sun. I'm sure that'll kill anything that's creeping around
in your tank.

I've tried the scrubbing & bleaching method before, but unfortunately, the BBAs not just on the driftwood, so as soon as that nice clean wood goes back in the tank, the BBA comes back.

Getting my nitrates in balance seems to be working. Maybe it's my imagination, but I think it looks better. I'll post a new pic later.

And bharada, someone's also been eating the new growth on my rotala indica, and I'm pretty sure it's my SAEs (yeah, I know I said they were going away last weekend, but I decided to put up with them until the BBA is more under control). It could be my clown loaches too. They've been punching holes in my rotala macranda and h.polysperma lately. I think maybe they're going to have to go for a ride too. If I can ever catch them... That would be the downside of having a heavily planted tank -- too many hiding spots!

[Mori]

That algae is fabulous! Too bad it'll be hard to restrict to that log.

(The other plants look lovelt too of course ! )

[uncskainch]

Just a quick note to say how much I like your 29 gallon. I have a 29 gallon that is my first planted tank and I was considering 65w lights and two of the Hagen CO2 setups, so it was really helpful to see what one can do with that setup! Gorgeous! Thanks for the inspiration.

[jayrug]

Gotta love a woman who's not afraid to show us her fuzzy black log.

[Crs2fr]

lol@jayrug.. i second that...

keep em natural ~ *wink

chris

[rubenstein]

wow that log is amazing! yeah I can't even grow some fricken Anacharis! But I am all for the controlled jungle look as long as it is uniform. That picture you had of the uncut plant life would be cooler if the large plants were on the back corners and thus creating a framing effect.