dekstr's 55g - April 11

**dekstr** · 02-15-2008, 06:12 PM

Here's another update. I added more driftwood, pretty happy w/ the effect is made. The entire tank looks a lot cooler IMO. Slowly building the hardscape from right to left..!

And you can see my reflection on the left lol..

Sorry about the glare!

K gotta go to school now.

**dekstr** · 02-24-2008, 12:51 PM

Update! I did a complete tank tear down a week or so ago. Too much BBA and staghorn, decided to clean out everything.

After reading up on lots on Tom Barr's site, decided to do a couple of things:
With no co2 cylinder yet, I couldn't crank up the co2. So for now I will have to compromise with reduced lighting at 2wpg. Bought a 500mL bottle of Excel and started double dosing. So far day 7, no ill effects on shrimp, but only some BBA is turning red. Prune affected parts like crazy. Increased waterflow! Fish seems to like it, particularly cories and loaches. Dose as per EI but w/o KNO3 for now.

The filter was super dirty...clogged the laundry sink with mulm.
Got a new powerhead, the maxijet 400 and I really like it! First brand new equipment I have gotten in a while.

Here are some pre-tank teardown pictures of my old scape:

Wow no wonder I had algae problems! The plants were so densely grown in after not pruning or replanting for months! I got like 20 stems of blyxa japonica out of the original 3-4 stems. 1 small pot of pygmy chain sword and dwarf saggitaria took over half the tank! Other plants suffered with less light and tons of mulm build up wasn't good. Cleared up lots of debris and now the tank looks much better. Less densely planted but each plant has more room.

Viettxboii · 02-24-2008, 06:48 PM

Someone is certainly an early bird...
So want to share some of that pygmy chain sword? : P
Tank looks great now, keep up the work.

topfrog007 · 02-24-2008, 09:12 PM

I like the new scape. May I suggest painting the filter intake/outake black, or moving them behind the plants? Also, you could move the heater down horizontal close to the bottom. Some of the plants might hid it a bit better.

Great looking tank and nice rescape!

**dekstr** · 02-25-2008, 05:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Viettxboii

Someone is certainly an early bird...
So want to share some of that pygmy chain sword? : P
Tank looks great now, keep up the work.

Yeah my sleeping schedule is messed up sometimes.

I can send some pygmy chain sword to Alberta in the Summer/Spring time.

Thanks, I will keep working on it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by topfrog007

I like the new scape. May I suggest painting the filter intake/outake black, or moving them behind the plants? Also, you could move the heater down horizontal close to the bottom. Some of the plants might hid it a bit better.

Great looking tank and nice rescape!

What kind of paint is safe for aquarium use? I used to have them concealed behind the plants but I got poor water flow. Right now it's more functional than aesthetic. I get good filtration and it's easy to do maintenance. lol lazy me.

I can move the heater too.

**dekstr** · 03-01-2008, 12:32 AM

Oops double post!

**dekstr** · 03-01-2008, 12:33 AM

Hello,

I did some minor touches as topfrog007 suggested by trying to hiding the heater and any filter pipes. What do you think?

This tank had not been getting the attention it deserved so BBA + staghorn ensued. Recently I have been spending a bit of time each week pruning aggressively while continuing with 2x excel treatment. The vals and blyxa aubertii are said to die-off or not fare well under excel treatment, but it's been 1 week so far and they're doing fine as before. However, I shouldn't have spot dosed excel on my java moss--the spot-treated areas have died off along with the algae.

On the whole, even though the excel hasn't killed anything algae, it has definitely made it stop growing.

This time I used more focus on pictures (literally). They're not as blurry and I tried to take closer macro-shots of some fish and plants. My photography and plant-growing skills are slowly improving with strong positive correlation!

Note: I removed the Aquaclear 20 powerhead on the right, but in its place I added... DUN DUN DUN...another Eheim 2215 canister filter! It's run on half full thin filter floss as the media. I'm using filter batting for the long run. I might balance the amount of ehfi_mech from the other 2215 to this one to get more efficient filtration (but that's another time). Each spray bar is positioned vertically aimed towards the glass on either side. This reduces the current to just the right amount.

Here are the pictures, enjoy! Feel free to comment honestly!:

**lauraleellbp** · 03-01-2008, 12:44 AM

Very, Very nice!

Looks very natural.

**dekstr** · 03-01-2008, 12:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lauraleellbp

Very, Very nice!

Looks very natural.

Thanks! The natural look is thanks to lazy aquascaping--just stick them where they fit!

**lauraleellbp** · 03-01-2008, 01:02 AM

Well IMHO I think it's working for you!

**dekstr** · 03-05-2008, 08:30 AM

Hate to say it, but I tore down the tank again! I didn't like the look of it and wanted to maximize the limited width for more plants.

I was half-efforting the algae pruning before. All the algae stopped growing, so the overdosing excel 2x was working. Even more aggressive this time. It took me 2 days, 3 hours a day each non-stop to prune everything and replant.

Now I have more of a U-shaped layout with tall plants along the back corners and shorter plants toward the center. Then there's a nifty driftwood arrangement on the left.

Plant species are kept closer together. I have a nice pygmy chian sword / blyxa / glosso carpet now.

However, my java moss has withered a lot. Oh well, I was getting tired of java moss. I think I just tie crypts, java fern and anubia to the driftwood with less java moss.

No pictures yet. I'll let it grow out before I do.

Anyway to compensate here's a video of feeding time a while back when I felt like being geeky: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z610uZinRR0

topfrog007 · 03-05-2008, 10:00 AM

Are you every happy with your tank? =)

Haha, keep up the good work man.

**dekstr** · 03-06-2008, 04:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by topfrog007

Are you every happy with your tank? =)

Haha, keep up the good work man.

Haha I'm trying to get to the point I'm happy with it.

Once I get there, the look will probably never change as far as hardscape. Plants will be changed until I get it once I get there.

But I'm pretty happy with how it looks now. Just need to get plants to grow and get a handle on algae.

Thanks, I'll try not to devote too much time to it! At least that's the plan...

**dekstr** · 03-19-2008, 03:44 AM

Tank-tear down pictures on March 1:

I drained the tank water into the water bucket. The tank went to a little more than 1/2 the water level, so I guess that's about 30 gallons of water pumped out.

It took me about an hour, but I should've taken some pictures of the all 80+ fish in the giant blue water bucket. Unfortunately I couldn't catch the last pygmy cory after about 10 minutes of effort. So I gave up to save stress for the fish and myself. However, I definitely improved my netting skills. I put the fish back in after planting on the first day of planting.

Then it took me 2 days, 4-5 hours each day to finish planting. Most of the time was spent pruning off all the BBA infested leaves. It was back-breaking work, but I got pretty quick at stripping leaves off with just my hands.

All the removed leaves have grown back now.

The bucket had the canister and heater running it, with pieces of driftwood. The fish were swimming in circles!

Here are some 'preview' pictures!

**dekstr** · 04-11-2008, 11:21 PM

Here' are some pictures of my new aquascape! Enjoy!

Suggestions / comments / advice always welcome!

03-01-2008, 12:44 AM	#23 (permalink)
lauraleellbp Fresh Fish Freak (View User Tanks) PTrader: (39) Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Naples, Florida Posts: 9,077	Very, Very nice! Looks very natural. __________________ 10 gal Shrimpy Jungle http://forums.tfhmagazine.com/viewto...p?f=82&t=24524 29 gal Asian themed tank for Betta simplex (in progress) http://forums.tfhmagazine.com/viewto...p?f=82&t=24513 46 gal of Sword Addiction (in progress) http://forums.tfhmagazine.com/viewto...p?f=82&t=24542 90 gal New World Community http://forums.tfhmagazine.com/viewto...p?f=82&t=23207

03-01-2008, 01:02 AM	#25 (permalink)
lauraleellbp Fresh Fish Freak (View User Tanks) PTrader: (39) Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Naples, Florida Posts: 9,077	Well IMHO I think it's working for you! __________________ 10 gal Shrimpy Jungle http://forums.tfhmagazine.com/viewto...p?f=82&t=24524 29 gal Asian themed tank for Betta simplex (in progress) http://forums.tfhmagazine.com/viewto...p?f=82&t=24513 46 gal of Sword Addiction (in progress) http://forums.tfhmagazine.com/viewto...p?f=82&t=24542 90 gal New World Community http://forums.tfhmagazine.com/viewto...p?f=82&t=23207

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02-15-2008, 06:12 PM	#16 (permalink)
dekstr I am on temporary hiatus! (View User Tanks) PTrader: (2) Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Ontario, Canada Posts: 1,136	Here's another update. I added more driftwood, pretty happy w/ the effect is made. The entire tank looks a lot cooler IMO. Slowly building the hardscape from right to left..! And you can see my reflection on the left lol.. Sorry about the glare! K gotta go to school now.

02-24-2008, 12:51 PM	#17 (permalink)
dekstr I am on temporary hiatus! (View User Tanks) PTrader: (2) Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Ontario, Canada Posts: 1,136	Update! I did a complete tank tear down a week or so ago. Too much BBA and staghorn, decided to clean out everything. After reading up on lots on Tom Barr's site, decided to do a couple of things: With no co2 cylinder yet, I couldn't crank up the co2. So for now I will have to compromise with reduced lighting at 2wpg. Bought a 500mL bottle of Excel and started double dosing. So far day 7, no ill effects on shrimp, but only some BBA is turning red. Prune affected parts like crazy. Increased waterflow! Fish seems to like it, particularly cories and loaches. Dose as per EI but w/o KNO3 for now. The filter was super dirty...clogged the laundry sink with mulm. Got a new powerhead, the maxijet 400 and I really like it! First brand new equipment I have gotten in a while. Here are some pre-tank teardown pictures of my old scape: Wow no wonder I had algae problems! The plants were so densely grown in after not pruning or replanting for months! I got like 20 stems of blyxa japonica out of the original 3-4 stems. 1 small pot of pygmy chain sword and dwarf saggitaria took over half the tank! Other plants suffered with less light and tons of mulm build up wasn't good. Cleared up lots of debris and now the tank looks much better. Less densely planted but each plant has more room.

02-24-2008, 06:48 PM	#18 (permalink)
Viettxboii Planted Member (View User Tanks) PTrader: (0) Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Alberta, Canada Posts: 228	Someone is certainly an early bird... So want to share some of that pygmy chain sword? : P Tank looks great now, keep up the work.

02-24-2008, 09:12 PM	#19 (permalink)
topfrog007 Algae Grower (View User Tanks) PTrader: (1) Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Albuquerque, NM Posts: 95	I like the new scape. May I suggest painting the filter intake/outake black, or moving them behind the plants? Also, you could move the heater down horizontal close to the bottom. Some of the plants might hid it a bit better. Great looking tank and nice rescape!

03-01-2008, 12:32 AM	#21 (permalink)
dekstr I am on temporary hiatus! (View User Tanks) PTrader: (2) Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Ontario, Canada Posts: 1,136	Oops double post!

03-01-2008, 12:33 AM	#22 (permalink)
dekstr I am on temporary hiatus! (View User Tanks) PTrader: (2) Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Ontario, Canada Posts: 1,136	Hello, I did some minor touches as topfrog007 suggested by trying to hiding the heater and any filter pipes. What do you think? This tank had not been getting the attention it deserved so BBA + staghorn ensued. Recently I have been spending a bit of time each week pruning aggressively while continuing with 2x excel treatment. The vals and blyxa aubertii are said to die-off or not fare well under excel treatment, but it's been 1 week so far and they're doing fine as before. However, I shouldn't have spot dosed excel on my java moss--the spot-treated areas have died off along with the algae. On the whole, even though the excel hasn't killed anything algae, it has definitely made it stop growing. This time I used more focus on pictures (literally). They're not as blurry and I tried to take closer macro-shots of some fish and plants. My photography and plant-growing skills are slowly improving with strong positive correlation! Note: I removed the Aquaclear 20 powerhead on the right, but in its place I added... DUN DUN DUN...another Eheim 2215 canister filter! It's run on half full thin filter floss as the media. I'm using filter batting for the long run. I might balance the amount of ehfi_mech from the other 2215 to this one to get more efficient filtration (but that's another time). Each spray bar is positioned vertically aimed towards the glass on either side. This reduces the current to just the right amount. Here are the pictures, enjoy! Feel free to comment honestly!:

03-05-2008, 08:30 AM	#26 (permalink)
dekstr I am on temporary hiatus! (View User Tanks) PTrader: (2) Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Ontario, Canada Posts: 1,136	Hate to say it, but I tore down the tank again! I didn't like the look of it and wanted to maximize the limited width for more plants. I was half-efforting the algae pruning before. All the algae stopped growing, so the overdosing excel 2x was working. Even more aggressive this time. It took me 2 days, 3 hours a day each non-stop to prune everything and replant. Now I have more of a U-shaped layout with tall plants along the back corners and shorter plants toward the center. Then there's a nifty driftwood arrangement on the left. Plant species are kept closer together. I have a nice pygmy chian sword / blyxa / glosso carpet now. However, my java moss has withered a lot. Oh well, I was getting tired of java moss. I think I just tie crypts, java fern and anubia to the driftwood with less java moss. No pictures yet. I'll let it grow out before I do. Anyway to compensate here's a video of feeding time a while back when I felt like being geeky: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z610uZinRR0

03-05-2008, 10:00 AM	#27 (permalink)
topfrog007 Algae Grower (View User Tanks) PTrader: (1) Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Albuquerque, NM Posts: 95	Are you every happy with your tank? =) Haha, keep up the good work man.

03-19-2008, 03:44 AM	#29 (permalink)
dekstr I am on temporary hiatus! (View User Tanks) PTrader: (2) Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Ontario, Canada Posts: 1,136	Tank-tear down pictures on March 1: I drained the tank water into the water bucket. The tank went to a little more than 1/2 the water level, so I guess that's about 30 gallons of water pumped out. It took me about an hour, but I should've taken some pictures of the all 80+ fish in the giant blue water bucket. Unfortunately I couldn't catch the last pygmy cory after about 10 minutes of effort. So I gave up to save stress for the fish and myself. However, I definitely improved my netting skills. I put the fish back in after planting on the first day of planting. Then it took me 2 days, 4-5 hours each day to finish planting. Most of the time was spent pruning off all the BBA infested leaves. It was back-breaking work, but I got pretty quick at stripping leaves off with just my hands. All the removed leaves have grown back now. The bucket had the canister and heater running it, with pieces of driftwood. The fish were swimming in circles! Here are some 'preview' pictures!

04-11-2008, 11:21 PM	#30 (permalink)
dekstr I am on temporary hiatus! (View User Tanks) PTrader: (2) Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Ontario, Canada Posts: 1,136	Here' are some pictures of my new aquascape! Enjoy! Suggestions / comments / advice always welcome!

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