Substrate:
MGOCPM 1"-1.5" Black Diamond Cap 1" Used a bamboo spear and marked inch and half inch marks on it to measure depth. Worked out great as you can feel the transition when poking the sub.
Lighting:
Finnex 24/7 SE 30"
I plan to keep it topless.
Flora:
Dwarf baby tears in the foreground.
Pogostemon erectus in the rear left or a simular looking plant
A red plant just behind the driftwood. I found some Ludwigia Palustris which I think will work.
Wisteria in the rear right
S. Repens where appropriate underneath the driftwood.
Flame moss on the wood itself.
Water Spangle, Water lettuce
I debated the moss for a while and I think I want flame as opposed to something like Christmas to maximize space so that the moss shadow doesn't affect plants below it as much. and an up and down profile seemed appropriate.
Equipment:
Eheim 250
CO2 injection. DIY at first, may upgrade.
one powerhead for internal flow.
Deadwood soaked it for a month, baked it for 60 min on 200 and it came out delicious. I restructured it with hot glue. It has since dried out but it sunk fast when I was soaking it before.
Starting a DSM in the next week or 2 with the Dwarf Baby Tears. Never worked with it before but I want to give it time to grow out and root well. If it does not go as I plan I will switch to Monte Carlo.
1st round of plants received. HC, anubias nana, and some flame moss. HC and Anubias looked great. Flame moss stank and looked crappy. I assume it fell off the stank gel while being shipped. Looks decent underwater though. I have those 2 in my 5 gallon while I DSM the HC.
I open all 4 corners and let the tank breath every evening before lights out. I do this until the condensation on the inside mostly goes away. Usually half an hour. I have had no mold and no issues at all really. One snail appeared which I dispatched.
I started with the water line about an inch under the HC. The sand cap is still damp and that is what I wanted. I misted heavily once a day every day for the first few days and now I don't mist at all unless the inside walls are not covered in condensation in the afternoon. I added a small amount of excel and api leaf zone to distilled water for my sprayer but not much.
I expect no noticeable growth for the first 2 weeks as the plants acclimate, repair from my pinch and ripping from the coconut husk, and grow new roots. There really wasn't any planting going on with HC Cuba. It was mostly me forming a shallow depression into the sand and mushing them in.
Flame moss. I have Anubias nana Ill stick somewhere and there is a plant in a jar in there now Im going to tie somewhere at the top of the wood. It is a rhizome plant but I have no idea what it is aside from that it really likes water. Found it in my creek at the high water mark. .
Too late. I read on one of my research searches that somebody did it to control algae. I didn't add much at all and have not had any issues from doing it.
Update. No issues. I am now seeing growth. I also have a few random yellow leaves. Growth far surpasses yellow leaves so I can't explain it. Damage from transfer? Opinions? No idea but there is definite growth. My goal was to have a solid rood system, not full carpet. No floating HC. Secondary goal is a cycled filter. My ehiem has been cycling a 5 gallon bucket for a month. When the nitrite leaves, Im ready to flood as soon as I buy plants and pick an F-Day.
I cycled a 5 gal tank with plants in it recently. My nitrate of course was off the scale. Plant heaven When the cycle was over and I did a water change and added livestock half my plants melted in protest. I am not excited to recreate that.
Almost 6 weeks in. Everything is on track. I had some random yellowing of some leaves. I decided I was giving too much light. I was putting in 14-15 hours of full light my 24/7 SE would provide. I changed it to the 24/7 mode and the plants stopped freaking out. I noticed I have snails but they are not being bad so I won't start a war with them.
I very rarely ad water, perhaps once a week. The one plant in the lower left is just below all the other plants. If I have too much water in there, that is the first one to experience flooding. An odd observation was that my water level appeared to raise in the day and lower at night. I think the condensation was staying near the top of the substrate line by constantly condensing and then dripping down the sides. When I air the tank out at night, it would lower it just below the substrate line. I took this to mean my water line was just below the substrate level. A few days of extra airing out fixed this. The water looks disgusting when it is just visible.
I'm ready to flood now but my schedule is hectic the next couple weeks so that is the only thing holding me back. I just wanted the HC to root well which if it hasn't by now it isn't going to. I'd hate to wait for a full carpet only to have it die on me after flooding.
My next step is to buy all the rest of the plants I'm going to put in and then flood it. I think I will be able to do that later this month. Fingers crossed!
Soft flooded the tank tonight with 5 gallons to correct any leveling issues and suck out any of the love that has been stewing in the substrate. I used paper towels to remove the oily mess that floated.
I'll drain it before bed and run some tests for the amm nitrite nitrate out of curiosity. Flood day is tomorrow or Saturday.
Sad to say I murdered a lot of spring-tails by flooding. Happy to say I now have a colony of spring-tails sitting in a bottle of aquarium charcoal jar I had from 15 years ago I was never going to use. Perhaps Ill start a terrarium.
Planted and flooded. S Repens Bacopa caroliniana, a banana plant, some ludwigia and fissidens I wild harvested, water sprite, flame moss, anubas nana and java fern.
Going to pump CO2 like mad and go from there. Filter still cycling in the garage anyway.
3 weeks+ in and no real issues. Plants are all doing great. I am was blasting CO2 via baking soda and citric acid but just set up a 10 gallon CO2 tank with a GLA regulator. 2 BPS via ceramic diffuser underneath a powerhead throwing soda across the tank and I am yellow green on my drop checker and some plants are pearling. No algae yet. I was kind of expecting brown algae by now.
The HC is really taking off which I am pleased about. I was not sure how it would fair post flood but it looks like it is doing better than when I was DSMing it!
There are come cyclops, ghost shrimp, and a couple tadpoles in the tank and miscellaneous snails. I did have hydra but took care of those with some paragaurd.
My filter has been having issues cycling. Nitrite to nitrate cycled 2 months ago but my ammonia fixing bacteria died and are having issues coming back. I'm hoping moving the filter to my fishtank from a 5 gallon bucket in my garage will give it the dependable conditions it needs to finish cycling. Full saga here Help huge random ammonia spike
My main irritation is the flame moss that likes to get embedded into my HC. I just pull up what I see when I am trimming and doing a water change. I started trimming the roots of my floating plants. They are unruly but grow back quick enough. I developed spot algae on my anubias which worried me but I bought 2 nerite snails which solved that problem.
I have 8 neons, 4 julie cories(store only had 4 to buy) a mystery snail, 4 ghost shrimp, and a bunch of pond and maylaisian trumpets along with a mystery and 2 nerite snails. I was going to try to stay snail free but I embraced them. I take a few out and smash them for my cherry shrimp tank which they go gaga over. I bought 5 endlers 3 months ago and now I feel like I have 50 including their fry. They just don't eat their fry. I bought a gourami hoping he would eat the fry and he doesn't. I'm going to have to do something about these endlers. I tried craiglist and got no bites. Perhaps I should have gone with a pack of female bettas instead of the gourami.
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