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eds' tanks (updated pics 020406)

7K views 30 replies 12 participants last post by  BoxxerBoyDrew 
#1 · (Edited)
Please humor me in my first efforts with a digital camera.
The least we can hope is that the photo quality will improve - if the tanks themselves don't!

First, here's my 30.






I think of this as my "mellow" tank. It sits in our main floor family room. Reasonably low light, and easy to grow plants - anubias, crypts, java fern, dwarf sag, some bacopa, wisteria, and a couple of corkscrew vals.

Inhabitants are a pair of blue rams, a few otos and glowlights, 3 julii cats, and an albino bristlenose.
 
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#2 ·
And here's my recent project - the 55 in my basement.
I'll be putting in a bunch of different plants next week, so think of these essentially as "before" pics.





My stand has two small cabinets flanking an open-shelved center section.
So I had to do a bit of planning to cram everything in there.
Note the fancy purple striping on the slightly modified Rex Grigg (TM) reactor!





Inhabitants are 5 angels, small schools of serpae and redeyes, 4 schwartzii cats, and a dwarf bristlenose.

Most of the plants are remainders from the initial planting of algae busters.
I did some major thinning out to get rid of algae and to make room for the plants I have coming in Tuesday.

I've been having problems with black fuzz algae in this tank.
Still new to these high-powered lights and pressurized CO2, and have ferts in transit from Greg.
Think that wood is at least contributing to my problems.
I found it in a lake up in Michigan, but I fear it is pine and will need to go.

I'll post more after next week's replanting.
Also, I'll haul the camera into work and get some shots of my office nano.

I guess now that I've posted photographic evidence, I'll have to quit posting in other threads like I know anything about this hobby, huh? :D
I can blame the camera for at least a little while, can't I? ;)
 
#3 ·
That tea bottle is the largest bubble counter I've ever seen!! :tongue:

The "after" shot of the 55 should be pretty nice sometime in the next few weeks! I'm still working on a little "guide" to give you. I'll probably just print some stuff out and send it to you in the package.

Three tanks!! My GF is already jealous of my main one! Not to mention she's already started bickering about the discus and how they will take time away from her!! :) I'm breaking down that 29g so she'll never know it was set up!! HAHA I'm a sneaky ba$tard!!

Here's my excuse if it still stays somewhat set up..."Ummm...its a quarantine tank...for YOUR cories!!" (she thinks they're cute??)
 
#4 ·
Nice to see the sword is doing well for you. Thanks for the post.

You should have some flowers in a couple of weeks. Plantlets soon to follow.
 
#5 ·
I was wondering what that was. Tea bottle bubble counters. You better patent that. Seriously, your tanks look great. Loved the crypts and fern and such in the "mellow" tank. Super clean and clear. Did you algae scrape before the pictures. Just kidding. Nice job! :proud:
 
#6 ·
Thanks for the comments.
I'm addicted to that stuff, and when I was hooking up my CO2 it was the only bottle I had around! The large cap made drilling a snap, tho.
I took those pics on a Sat eve, and had done my weekly maintenance that a.m., so the tanks were about as clean as they get. As I said, I've been having a bit of problem with black fuzz in the 55, so I had pulled any plants showing a hint of the stuff.
I'm trolling over at aquatic-photography for photo tips. Anyone around here have any basics to impart to a complete camera naif?
 
#7 ·
eds said:
I'm trolling over at aquatic-photography for photo tips. Anyone around here have any basics to impart to a complete camera naif?
Turn off all lights in the room (looks like you already did that). No flash. Check your white balance on the camera (may be able to adjust it to compensate for the light bulb color). Tripod. Set camera on a delay. That's what I do. My digi claims to have a decent macro function, but I haven't figured it out yet (Canon A500).
 
#8 ·
I'll pull out the tripod.
Saw references in the manual to "white balance", but haven't fiddled with that yet. I'll check that out tonight.
The other features I guess I'll have to learn about are shutter speed and aperture.
But I didn't want to just start twisting knobs and pressing buttons without a plan.
Also, will my camera (Canon 350 Rebel XT) "reset" to a certain status/mode when I turn it off?
I don't want to experiment with different settings for my tank pics, and then screw the camera up so that we can't take family shots over the holidays.
 
#9 ·
Usually an "auto" white balance works pretty well with 6500k lamps. But every camera is different, just experiment around. And for that matter every monitor is different,,, LCD, CRT... Are they set to ICC color profiles with a monitor puck and a colorimeter program? Most certainly aren't. CRTs will show resolution better than consumer grade LCDs, and LCDs colors will certainly pop more. We are in the infancy of a monitor revolution at this time. Its all over the place, just like PCs were back in the early '80s.

FWIW, your pics looked fine on my little latemodel HP notebook.
 
#10 ·
Betowess said:
Are they set to ICC color profiles with a monitor puck and a colorimeter program?
Well, if you aren't even going to speak to me in English...!

So, if I understand you correctly, my best option is to get a crappier computer, thereby I can say my pix look "as good as the technology will permit"? ;)
 
#11 ·
Well, thanks to Ed, I had my dance card filled tonight:


Here's a lousy before picture:


And here's a lousy after picture:


That ET had better come in, and them damn cories had better stop rooting around in it!


I'm exhausted - heading to bed.
I'll let you know what I planted where - and take some better pics - tomorrow.
 
#12 ·
I'll post some better pics soon, but wanted to get your opinions on my planting scheme.



First I'll try to explain what I was trying to accomplish, and then I'll identify the various plants.
Since the wood is on the left and kinda "flows" to the right, I thought I would mirror that with a tall, dense left side flowing to a shorter and more open right.
On the right, however, I'm toying with the idea of featuring a triangle of 3 "specimens" - 2 swords and a lotus. But I imagine the 3 of these may get too large for my tank.

The left rear corner is Limnophlia aromatica, with stargrass in front of it and closer to the wood.
A couple of pogostemon stellata in front of the stargrass and just behind the horizontal branch of the wood, with corkscrew vals to the left of that and in front of the L. aromatica.
Just behind the left tip of the wood is a nympoides 'taiwan.'

In front of the wood is a small bed of elatine trianda, from the front left corner across to a ludwiga brevipes.



This pic shows the bed of elatine trianda (ET) resuming to the right of the l. brevipes; it continues, getting broader and flowing into the open area on the right.
Tucked into the corner between this bed of ET and the wood are 3 stems of polygonum.
Immediately behind the ET and in front of the right horizontal branch, is a line of lobelia cardinalis.

Along the rear of the tank, immediately to the right of the wood is a good sized clump of rotala indica.
In front of the rotala are several stems of bacopa 'araguaia.'
Continuing across the back to the right are parrot's feather, ludwiga repens, cabomba, with watersprite in the right rear corner.

Placed in a triangle on the right side are an Amazon sword (back center point of the triangle), red ozelot sword (left front corner - behind wood), and a red tiger lotus (far front right corner of tank).

On the right side of the tank, between the watersprite and tiger lotus, is some pennywort.
And a strand of green ludwiga repens is between the two rocks on the right.

Oh yeah - can't forget the floating frogbit.

I know this scape is a mite "busy" (14 species I believe) - I fully expect I will reduce the number of species as the plants mature.
I'd love to hear any thoughts any of you might have about my planting scheme, as well as how I might best care for these plants.

While the plants get acclimated, I cut the lighting down to 10 hours, and only 1 pair of 65w bulbs.
I didn't fertilize yesterday, as I stirred up the substrate a bit (including at least 1 Jobes stick). Figured tonight I would test NO3 and PO4, and most likely do a 20% water change and dose macros.

Any other thoughts?
 
#13 ·
hehe looks like you finally got everything crammed in there :)

Its a good plan...I'd say let everything grow out...see what the individual species' growth rates are, how they color up for you, etc and then decide what to keep, what to trade/chunk.

For my purposes, I always try to put my relatively fast growing stems toward the back since they'll provide a nice background..even with trimming neglect. Lobelia, Ludwigia (borderline background plants), and Polygonum I try to keep pruned for the midground...then the E. trianda in the foreground.
 
#14 ·
Lookin good eds...
Like GD said, let it grow in a bit and it will start to look all different and then you can make your decisions. I will guarantee that you will find that one plant will become a favorite and one plant will become hated ! :wink:
Quite the plant assortment , theres a couple of tuffies in that list, well for me anyways. I love the look of triandra but cant grow it to save my life. They say it grows like a weed...well, not for me in two attempts.

This tank should fill in nice..I like it so far ! :proud:
 
#15 ·
A couple of shots of the 55 1 week post-replant, and 1 week slightly less ignorant @ my camera! ;)



A couple of closeups of the left:


and the right:


The plant that took the biggest hit was the stargrass - and the limnophlia a. isn't exactly growing by leaps and bounds.


This end shot is actually in focus enough to see a cory, and a new leaf on the nymp. 'taiwan':


Increased lighting to give 2 hours of 260w.
Nitrates are coming down, so I'm dosing normal EI.
As of measurement tonight, CO2 is down to 21 ppm, so I'll crank that baby up a bit.
 
#16 ·
Its still shaping up...patience will be the key...One trick I've learned with side shoot stems...let the side shoots grow out a bit then replant the shoots themselves by removing them from the mother stem. That may help the L. aromatica.

It looks good so far...in time all of it will grow out.
 
#17 ·
eds' tanks - new pics 123005

Approx. 3 weeks post replant.


The biggest change is that I pulled the wood. I really loved the look, but I think it was just destined to be trouble. I got it from a lake in Michigan. I suspect it was a white pine stump. Never would sink, and various slimey algae grew on it, despite repeated bleachings and soakings. The one problem I'm having in this tank is with some black brush algae on the lower leaves of some plants and some individual bits of flourite. So I didn't need the suspect wood contributng to the problem.
Temporarily replaced it with some rocks I had lying around. Would appreciate any thoughts on the rock placement, or plant placement, now that they wood is gone.
Will seek out some new wood when things warm/dry up a bit around here.

Most of my old plants are doing okay to great. With respect to my new plants, I'm assigning the following preliminary grades:

Head of the class:
limno. a. - really taking off ecently. Snipped and replanted a couple.
pogostemon stellata - 2 stems looking strong, starting to color up
nympoides "taiwan" - tremendous success from couple of tiny leaves
lobelia cardinalis - growing well, tho a bit of algae.

Here are a couple of closeups of the left side of the tank, containing the limno, pogo, nymp, as well as some ET and corkscrew vals
From the end:

From the front:


Passing grades - elatine t. - enough flourished that I snipped and replanted some today. Will be solid in future.
Stargrass - took an early hit but coming back strong
bacopa araguaia - hanging in there, slow but steady

MIA:
polygonum - gone without a trace, I fear for good
red tiger lotus - leaves died one-by-one. Will it return?

Just wanted to get these shots done to document. With the holidays nearly gone, I'll try to learn to take better pics soon.

Would appreciate any input you guys might have.
 
#18 ·
Hey Eds,
Love your angels!

I too had a recent scuffle with pirate algae (black beard) and I discovered a solution by accident: I started dosing flourish excel, and I looked in my tank today and noticed a significant decrease in furriness. I know, I know, people have been talking about excel as a cure for pirate algae for a while, but I didn't put two and two together until just now!

The nymphae should come back. Sometimes they can be finicky about changes in their environment.
 
#19 ·
Pirate algae, aargh! We need a patched-eye smiley!
Thanks for the tip - less than a week after I gave my barely used bottle of excel to my buddy! :(
I think I'm having some success by maniacally trimming infested leaves, and even pulling individual particles of flourite with algae. At times like that you really wonder for your sanity.
And the increased plant growth seems to be putting the hurt on the swashbucklers.

I'm trying to grow out a forest for those angels to soar around in.
Been chatting up the good folk over at the angelfish forum, cause my track record with angels hasn't been too great in the past.
 
#21 ·
Looks great! I do like the rockscape and all the plants look like they are flourishing. I wish my Limnophila aromatica would grow upright like yours. I have a more purple variety which likes to grow sideways. I had a red tiger lotus die from a fungus in some old substrate. I left it and replanted when I re-started this tank and it sprang back. But they grow too big IMO. I'm going to give it and its baby away soon, I imagine. I think I like some of the other varieties better. Good start Eds. Arrgh, "Black Beard, Eh?". Never heard that one Sarah. LOL
 
#22 ·
Hey buddy, things are starting to shape up nicely! I see some good growth too. As far as the algae..stay on top of it...bump that co2 up just a tad bit more and also complement that with a bit more micros (don't go overboard :)). Keep on snipping and pruning. One thing you may want to do is add a bit more "junk" plants in there...say behind the rock cave and along the background to fill that space up...and to soak up excess nutrients. A large stand of Anacharis would do nice for a temporary filler...then maybe consider some vals or something (also relatively fast growing nutrient hogs).

The Lotus should bounce back. I actually did the 'ol stick-the-bulb-in-the-fridge trick for a week and it sprouted new leaves after dropping them back into the tank. I suppose it was a change going from my cesspool water into your tank! :) Try it if you have a bulb (hard black/brown round thing). If its just the root clump and no definite bulb, give it some more time...probably just going through a minor transition.

The Bacopa should also recover...its a relatively slow grower--again any algae, don't hesitate to snip leaves off at the petiole.

The Nymphoides looks great!!

The Lobelia should end up being fine...keep trimming infected leaves. I know it can be cumbersome, but get the co2 up and even try the excel treatment everyone has been raving about.
 
#23 ·
Too bad about the wood eds...it was a nice looking piece. The stone pieces you are using actually look like petrified wood, I have a piece or two of that somewhere too and its nice stuff, great for growing mosses. I stuffed some in a cranny once and it grabbed into it good and it looked nice. It's hard like stone, but moss loves it for some reason.

Hey the tank is looking good and the growth is healthy.

I would say... so far so great ! :proud:
 
#24 · (Edited)
Some shots taken 1/18, approx 6 weeks post 12/6 replant.
First, here's a shot 1 week after the replant.


And here is the tank a month or so later.


Left side:


Right side:


Man, I miss that wood! But I don't miss the fact that the pirate algae is - if not gone - at least manageable for the nonce.

Not sure exactly where this scape is going. Right now I'm pretty happy that I seem to have some healthy plants and fish (I've had trouble keeping angels alive in the past).
The limno and pogo are growing into a nice back left corner, tho the stargrass is lagging somewhat. Just swapped the pogo and the stargrass immediately before these pics.
The ET is really forming a nice lawn up front with the lobelia behind.
My cabomba and ludiga repens seem to finally be thriving, and the rotala indica is going wild. I'm just not sure how any of those are really going to fit into a more final scape.
The tiger lotus has vanished w/o a trace.
The nympoides 'taiwan' is growing well, but when the leaves hit the surface, they quickly get holes. As a result, I'm trimming a leaf or 2 every couple of days, just about as quickly as it throws out new ones. Haven't seen anything munching on it, and no similar symptoms on any other plants. Any thoughts?
 
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