My 20g has a new owner, so RIP journal

[Karackle]

Lauralee - thanks so much fo the encouragement! I really appreciate the positive feedback!

mybrotherdarrell - Thanks! I agree with you about the different colors, I think part of the issue is my light, i recently bought a new bulb but it's 5k and it makes everything VERY BRIGHT green. Also, the wpg is SO low in this tank, i'm not sure any of the redder plants would grow? it's only .75wpg, i'm still shocked that anything grows at all, let alone so well! I have to prune this sucker all the time! (part of the reason i haven't to change my substrate....something magical must be happening with the hot pink, and thanks for the kudos on growing in that btw ) I would be open to suggestions for LOW-light red/orange plants though. I could dose iron if that would help? I suppose i could always get more red crypt too...and yes, i think i will move the driftwood back more toward the center, at least until I get more hardscape for the other side, there are no Java Ferns in there though, so i'm not sure if you meant the small red crypt wendtii? or the small anubias? (in relation to the driftwood).

Thanks for the input, more is always welcome!

[fishbguy1]

For lowlight red plants, I always had good luck with just red/bronze crypts.

Also, rotala indica did pretty well for me, except that it wasn't very red.

[Karackle]

Thanks for the input! I was thinking more red crypts too. I could loko into the rotala, it doesn't have to be VERY any color...as long as it's a bit of a different color than all of my other very grass green plants. I think a big part of this is my bulb too...I think i'm going to have to get another one and see how it looks then too Thanks again!

[Karackle]

Got a REALLY nice, large, red crypt Wendtii from my LFS today! The ones they had in the "for sale" plant display tanks were kind eh, short, rather green, but they had some in the fish display tanks that were MUCH nicer, and the guy was really nice and gave me one of those instead He looked at the display ones and said "yeah, i can see why you'd rather have one of the other ones, let's do that" They had Crypt retrospiralis which was also cool, and reddish, but i decided i had enough tall grass-like plants. Now i'm thinking it might look cool mixed in with the Crypt spiralis.

I'll post pics again once i've decided where to put the new guy

[Karackle]

Ok, here's the updated re-rescape with some a new red crypt. Looked amazing in store, put it in my tank, took some pics....everything still looked pretty green:


Different camera setting:


Close up:


another setting/close up:

Better....not great..

And then I decided to swap the new light with the 5000 rating out for the old one that came with the tank

And Voila:


You can see the red in the red crypts:


I think it's very pretty:


I think it definitely needed the extra color provided by the plant itself, but I think the bulb made a huge difference too.

Still not sure I love the scape...i think the Tennellus is getting lost in the Crypt spiralis grove. I might move it to my 5g. And I need to move the large crypt (the new one) slightly more to the right I think.

Any comments, thoughts,questions, critiques are more than welcome! And i'm thinking I'd still maybe like a Nymphea lotus for the front right (i think they stay relatively low?) And i know....substrate color does not fit with the rest of the 'scape :-P

[chase127]

i like the spiralis jungle. and your wisteria is looking great! mines turning brown on the tips the lotus sounds like a great idea, but "low" hygro is an interesting fore/mid ground plant. and i still like your gravel, its unique

[Karackle]

Thanks! I love my spiralis jungle too, I just think the Tennellus gets lost in it (it's not only hard to distinguish the 2 in the picture). The spiralis does look better in person though....i think it's the angle...i should really try to get a tripod. But anyway.....yeah....Wisteria grows like a MADMAN in my tanks, it grows and grows....i feel like i'm trimming it back every few days! I bought 1 bunch i think of like 5 stems 6 months ago for my 5g, had an extra stem or something, threw the extra in the 20 and POW. And then when everything in my 5 died due to 72 hours constant light, i had MORE than enough in the 20 and stole some back to replant the 5. I don't know what my secret is though, so don't ask :-P I'm not familiar with "low" hygro, i'll have to look it up! thanks! and thanks for the gravel compliment too

[Karackle]

Got a few good shots of the cories (still in their QT tank, but they'll be going in the 20g so I thought i'd switch to talking about them over here....for the background and more pics see this thread )

Couple good close-ups of one little guy who was posing
First one with the wrong light-correction setting:


And with the proper light correction setting:


And a pile' o ' cories :-D:


Every time i look at these little guys i can't get over how tiny they are, i just love them!!! So far all 10 are doing well I hope it's not too much for my bio-load to add all 10, they're SO TINY right now that I think it should be ok for the moment, and by the time they get bigger (if that ever happens :-P) i should have another tank up and running so i can move half of them over to that one

[ZooTycoonMaster]

I'm not sure if this has been mentioned yet, but that bubble wall at the back of the tank will drive off the CO2 the plants need.

But otherwise, nice looking tank

[Karackle]

Hey, thanks! I need to post new pictures but it's in a bit of disarray at the moment...got a bunch of new plants from the SNS here, but haven't had time to properly scape!

Anyway, actually, because I don't inject CO2 the bubble wall actually helps increase my CO2 because of the surface turbulence it creates which allows more air to get absorbed because the CO2 concentration in the air is higher than in the water and it will try to reach equilibrium (if i remember my chem correctly) but when people inject CO2 the concentration in the tank becomes higher than that in the air so you want to minimize surface turbulence to basically try and prevent equilibrium from being met....I think I got that right :-P

But thanks!

[ZooTycoonMaster]

Originally Posted by Karackle

Anyway, actually, because I don't inject CO2 the bubble wall actually helps increase my CO2 because of the surface turbulence it creates which allows more air to get absorbed because the CO2 concentration in the air is higher than in the water and it will try to reach equilibrium (if i remember my chem correctly) but when people inject CO2 the concentration in the tank becomes higher than that in the air so you want to minimize surface turbulence to basically try and prevent equilibrium from being met....I think I got that right :-P

Run on sentence much?

What happened to the cute Pygmy Cories in the pics you posted? Are they in the tank yet?

[Karackle]

hahaha just a bit :-P

Alas, no, the cories are not in the tank. There are a few that didn't make it in their QT tank when I went away for a long weekend (the filter was not bubbling when i got home even though the air pump was working...sigh...) but those that are left are patiently waiting to go in the 30g that i will be setting up either this week or next

[Karackle]

It's been a while since I updated about this tank, it's looking a bit sparse at the moment but once I do some rearranging tonight I'll take pictures and post them. I still need to change out the substrate on this tank....but one thing at a time. I need to finish getting the 30 together (which includes more lighting), and then I need to get a new (bigger) home for my Crested Gecko, and then new substrate...unless I find some really cheap somewhere before the rest.

And I wonder why i have no $$ :-P Ah well....at least I spend it on things that I can enjoy for a long time! :-P

[Karackle]

Update 8/11/08

Well a bunch of the stuff I was trying didn't work so well in this tank, so we're back down to basics. I gave away a lot of my Crypt Spiralis but it's still pretty full. Moss is finally starting to grow out nice and green on the DW, stole a bunch of it for the DW in the new tank but it's still pretty full. I need something else in this tank....something that will do better than the Wisteria is fairing in that far dark corner. I'm thinking a large anubias or crypt wendtii green.....any thought on the 'scape in here would be GREATLY appreciated.

Sorry about the blurry pics....





As always, any and all input welcome and appreciated!

[ZooTycoonMaster]

Maybe you could grow a monster Java Fern back there