New World 90gal Low Tech- a Pictoral Journey!! 11/13 Replanting Begins

[ikuzo]

i kept marsilea in my 10 gallon with 42 watts of lighting. they grow pretty fast with no significant algae problems. no worries there.

[dewalltheway]

Tank is looking very nice Laura! A side note on the lighting. I had 6700K CF bulbs and when I bought new ones this past spring, I replaced them with the 10,000K bulbs and some with a 6700/10,000K. Ever since then I have been battling GSA & BBA. You may want to give your 6700K bulbs a try for a month or two and see how things go with your algae. Just a thought!

[lauraleellbp]

Originally Posted by ikuzo

i kept marsilea in my 10 gallon with 42 watts of lighting. they grow pretty fast with no significant algae problems. no worries there.

I'm sure you were running CO2 on the tank, though, correct? IDK, time will tell...

DWW- knowing me, I won't get around to swapping out the bulbs till after I get back from Bolivia, anyways, so they'll have a good 4 weeks to see if they grow on me.

[bsmith]

That is a pretty pleco, it almost looks like a baby clown. Im not sure what the lighting you have on the tank is but if there is no co2 then you can usually expect bba to grow on the marselia. I have ALLOT of light in my mini-m and when my co2 gets even low bba pops up in the more intensely lighted areas.

[JakeJ]

WOW!!! Amazing!!

[lauraleellbp]

Thanks, Jake, it looked a lot better before I completely neglected it for 4 months, though

bsmith, I'm running 2x54 watts of T5HO, no CO2. The BBA sprang up when I removed all the floaters (they'd completely taken over and choked the surface, so that's another reason my E. tenellus suffered...)

And yes, I'm really taken with the Calico BN plecos, I really think they're lovely. I don't have any plans to deliberately try and breed them, but I wouldnt be upset if they did once they grow up.

[lauraleellbp]

Worked on the tank yesterday for the first time in months.

About 12-15x P. weitzmani, my albino long fin bushy-nosed pleco (ALFBNPl rofl), and 20x or so Amano shrimp (previously housed in my 29gal) are now all in the tank. Surprisingly, I see the P. weitzmani in this tank more often than I did in the 29gal. I think the Pristella tetras are serving as dither fish for them.

I cleaned the XP4 for the first time in... probably 6 months? It was really mucky. (I did clean the XP3 a few months ago, but the XP4 I haven't touched in eons.) The Purigen bag was the brownest I've ever seen Purigen. Got it bleaching now, and I put a new bag in the filter. I'll clean the XP3 in a week or two, too.

Also pulled over a gallon (literally) of Clado out of the tank. Manually. Stripping it from leaves by hand. I now have long prunes attached to my palms. They used to be fingers.

Still need to do some more work on the Clado, replant the E. tenellus that has gotten pulled up in the process, and scrape the GSA off the tank walls, and then I'll do a nice water change (prolly 30-50%). Hoping to finish all this work today.

Since the 29gal is going to work, my 46gal will be used to QT 50 or so Cardinal Tetras and also a half dozen new Cories, as soon as either Invertz Factor or RMC Aquatics have them in stock again. These will round out the stocking on the tank. Though I have been tempted a few times to get more GBRs so my one remaining female won't be lonely...

I also pulled all my DW, as it needs a good Clado-cleaning and also I'm going to move it over some. I was surprised at how fragile the big pieces have become; all the BN plecos in the tank have really been giving it a go-over. I'm debating putting my "big honking" piece of Malaysian DW in this tank, since I'm not using it anywhere else ATM... I may just run all my DW through the dishwasher today and play with it all to come up with a good arrangement.

I'm debating when will be the best time to place a plant order. We'll be leaving for Arizona for a few days next week, and spend Thanksgiving in Georgia, so I want to be sure to not only be home when the plants arrive but also have time to plant them all.

I think I'm going to place the order today so that they arrive this week, though.

So this tank hopefully will be looking nice again soon.

[Church]

Just thinking about a gallon's worth of clado trips my gag reflexes. YUCK!!!

(glad your tank is that much more clado-free now! )

[lauraleellbp]

It actually looked cool as a carpet... looked like moss. If it hadn't been overgrowing and choking out all my other plants I probably would have left it. But the stuff is just too crazy invasive. It was also choking my filter intakes. I have to clean the intakes at least once an hour now, I've stirred so much of the stuff up!

[jaidexl]

Maybe you can ball it up and sell it as marimo balls.

[lauraleellbp]

OK so here's a progress shot. I think I like the Malasian driftwood mixed in with thos larger pieces of Manzanita. I think it helps create more perspective. I was able to arrange the Manzanita pieces boardering the areas where the E. tenellus has grown up naturally.

I'll be filling in the back right corner with the Italian Val once it arrives, and planting the narrower version of E. tenellus 'micro' (you can see it all floating ATM lol) along the inside of the bend in the Manzanita.

What do ya'll think?

[eyebeatbadgers]

Originally Posted by lauraleellbp

What do ya'll think?

It looks bare again. For such a mature tank it looks like it's lacking plants to me.

Have you ever thought about moving the intake pipe from the center of the tank to the far right side? It would really look better in the corner.

Plant choices are a very personal thing, but with a tank as tall and huge as yours, I would be looking for a very tall thick group of plants for the back, which your new vals may provide.

Good luck with the progress!

[lauraleellbp]

I should have taken a "before" pic of all that Clado. You would have been impressed with that carpet! LOL

I feel like I'm almost starting over, actually. And I am relying on the Vals to bring in some plant height.

I'm still debating about the left back corner; those E. africanus never have grown like I know they're capable of.

[CL]

I'm with EBB. More plants, IMO The E. Tenellus looks really good, though. IMO, add some large plants such as swords, tall stems and maybe some large anubias to the wood.

[lauraleellbp]

LOL the plants are already on order. Can't add Anubias, since it's an African plant.

What do you think of the new hardscape, compared to the old one? Better, worse?