Monkey's tank-rescape-updated 9/12/09

[monkeyruler90]

Hey, so ive been a member for a while and I love reading other peoples' journals. I love keeping up with different scapes and all types of plants and fishes. So i decided to start a journal in order to keep track of how my tank grows out.

Ive had the tank for a while but i just recently upped it to high light with CO2 and ferts.
so here are the specs.

Equipment
29g tank
305 Fluval filter
Pressurized Co2 via JBJ regulator and then a GLA 3000 glass diffuser
2x65W CF fixture with moonlights. running a 65000k and a 10000K bulb
drop checker
the substrate is 60lb of Eco complete but i accidentally mixed it with some 60lb of ordinary gravel. in some places it looks goods but in others it looks bad. some day i'll seperate the gravels completely.

Plants
Rotala Wallichi (not much though)
hygro sp "porto Vehlo"
crypt spiralis
rotala colorata
myriophyllum tuberculatum
limpnophila sp Mini (i love this plant)
nymphaea micantha
blyxa japonica
ludwigia repens
bacopa monnieri
Dwarf Hair grass (very small)
Needle Leaf Java Fern
Windelov Java fern
Christmas Moss
Val Spiralis
Echinodorus Vesuvius
anubias nana petitie
Banana Plant

Fish
6 3 Opaline Gouramies (5 females 1 male)
9 6Neon tetras (im gonna try and breed them so hopefully there will be more)
5 Otos
18 Amanos

im running pressurized CO2 and 130W of light for 8 hours a day. Im dosing via the EI method as well as 5ml of Flourish on Sundays after the water change.

so the tank has been running for 3 weeks so far and ive changed my mind a lot. at first i was gonna go for a natural scape but i realized that it'd be better if i wne through a Dutch Scape. so thats what Im gonna try and do now. Considering im poor i started out with a few plants, so its gonna be a while before its fully grown out.

top view

my favorite plant. ever since i started dosing and injecting CO2 the tops have gotten really red and its sending out side shoots like crazy



e. vesuvius. i got a runner and so far i've gotten 3 new plantlets growing out of the end. you can see the 4th one coming out



the porto vehlo, hopefully it'll fill this side of the tank

some petite i just got, hopefully the otos can clean it up. and yay. my moss is pearling


and now you can laugh. these are my sad attempts to grow some plants. but right now they're growing a bit, hopefully theyll fill in.

my sad wallichii. it melted when i had to float my plants for 2 weeks for winter break. but its making a comeback




my few pieces of hairgrass. its sending out runners already.


and my myrio. it got too close to the light and ever since its been getting algae. hopefully once i get my amanos they'll eat through it.


my vals that melted completely but are now making a come back. sending out new shoots and runners. oh and my otos are lining up for a photo. these are the smallest otos i've seen but so far they've been pretty hardy. hopefully they'll make it


and now for a FTS. i tried to follow the golden ratio and my the red myro my center piece. but i think im just gonna get some glandulosa and make that my centerpiece once the tank grows to its full dutch glory.


my gouramies are always hiding, theres 4 in there, once i add the other 2 girls and the neons they'll feel comfortable and come out more.


this is my bigges oto. i got a batch from petsmart and so far none of them have died. i feel so happy. 0 deaths so far.


The thing that sucks though is that I live in the dorms and in 4 months I have to move out, so this tank is gonna have to be scrapped and taken apart. So until then, lets try and make this work out. here are the pics.
imagine it fully grown. it helps

[creAtive]

I like it :] that slope on the left is intense ... I like it too

[monkeyruler90]

aw, thanks. yeah theres like a 3 inch difference between the back left corner and the front right corner.

[chase127]

i really like the layout! replace that gravel with some aquidirt!!! good luck bringing back the plants, keep em well fed and they'll be back in no time

[monkeyruler90]

so last night i bleached my diffuser because it was starting to grow some algae on it and today when i turned it on it was working like crazy. before i only got bubbles out of like 3 places but now im getting bubbles out of the whole plate. sweet!

also i added the 9 neon tetras in here and their color is popping out under the good lighting.


things to do
get more opalines
paint the background black
get more neons
get some amanos
wait till plants grow out

[cah925]

Tank looks good. I just got some otos from Petsmart on Friday also. Mine have been eating like crazy in my 75 gal tank. I had some algae issues in the front before I put them in and this morning the algae was gone.
It sucks you have to tear this down in 4 months. Those plants will have filled in by then and the tank will have a jungle look to it.

[hilikus16]

That's a good looking tank. Those rotalas are gunna look nice in there

[monkeyruler90]

Originally Posted by cah925

Tank looks good. I just got some otos from Petsmart on Friday also. Mine have been eating like crazy in my 75 gal tank. I had some algae issues in the front before I put them in and this morning the algae was gone.
It sucks you have to tear this down in 4 months. Those plants will have filled in by then and the tank will have a jungle look to it.

how many did you take? when i went today they were all gone. i needed some for my other tank.

allright. painted the back of the tank. it looks nice, ill take pics tomorow. hopefully it came out even. I also moved the tank, i turned it 90 degrees clockwise. i thought it was gonna be easy but it wasnt. its like trying to shift around 400 or 450 pounds of stuff. my arms are sore now.

[cah925]

I took 10 otos, just about all they had. Was the blue background painted or just a stick on? I personally like black better. Let's see some new pics. Can we get a shot of the placement in your room?

[monkeyruler90]

allright, i painted the background and added the neon tetras. the tank is starting to look pretty nice. im happy with the overall growth. the only thing thats making me mad is all the hair algae. its not like thick its the really thin type, i can't pick it off the myrio.

allright. heres a placement of the study side of my room. im technically only supposed to have 1 fish tank, but i've befriended my RA and he doesn't really care much. he even let me have like 3 power bars. hes awesome!!

i moved the tanks so now im surrounded by them. its cool but im not gonna get ANY work done.
theres the 29, the 10g QT and the new 20 long that i bought. i love the dimensions. iwagumi anybody?

heres the tank after the 4th final coat. it was really easy, only took about an hour.



the rotala rotundifula is turning this awesome red color, yay. and so is the hygro porto vehlo. it has beautiful veins running through the new leaves. the old leaves im gonna trim away.



i was messing around with the white balancing and i love this new setting i found. oh and that string of bubbles looks really cool. the only thing i dont like about the black background is that it really pops out the co2 bubbles from the diffuser, next time i'll turn that off.



ugg and yesterday i was feeding my other neons that i bought from this shady place and i noticed something weird. the gill cover one of the feisty one is missing. you can see right through it. im gonna call him Gilly. hopefully he makes it. hes the most aggressive out of all the new ones. do you think it'll grow back?

[Pinto]

Awesome tank, i like the way you put those rotala there, it pops out that you.
For the neon, i doubt it will grow back, but it just probably heal (if it even make it), and be deform like that?
i may be wrong though.

[monkeyruler90]

Originally Posted by Pinto

Awesome tank, i like the way you put those rotala there, it pops out that you.
For the neon, i doubt it will grow back, but it just probably heal (if it even make it), and be deform like that?
i may be wrong though.

yeah, either way its good. as long as he lives.

i kinda like that he's deform. it makes him special among the school of neons. its like finding nemo, because of that special fin they made a whole movie about him.

[monkeyruler90]

one of my neons is going belly up. i dont know why. it wasn't gilly it was some one else. i haven't lost a fish in 2 years. i feel sad now.

[monkeyruler90]

allright so i was feeding my neons in QT today and i see little white dots. ARGGG, im so mad now. they have ich. the gouramies seem to be fine its just the neons for now. Im soooo mad. im never buying fish from aquatropics ever again!!! EVER AGAIN!!! EVER AGAIN!! that explains why my other fish died last night. oh well. im glad i caught it early. and that it was in my QT not my main tank. my original neons are about to reach 2 years old. wow. i love those fish.

im gonna go get a heater and raise that up to 84 degrees. I hope they heal

[itstony]

thats an awesome tank but sucks how you have it in a dorm and its temporary