[SnBMeg]

Change of plans! 2007.05.27 - was formerly 38G, now changing to 20G

Hello all. This is my first journal and my second planted tank ever. It's also the first time I've planned the layout so thoroughly, so I welcome any tips and suggestions you might have.

Tank specs:
38 gallons (US)
36" x 18" x 12"
temp: 75-78F
specific gravity: ~1.002
lights: 2x 96 watt 6500/10,000K compact fluorescents

Fish: a little over 2 dozen Balloon Molly fry

On to the scaping:

The black outlines inside the tank are the filter exhaust (upper left), filter intake (upper right), and heater (lower right.) The lines along the sides of the front view are 1" increments. The dotted line in the top view marks the golden ratio.

I didn't go all ocd and make this layout 100% accurate to dimensions and sizes, but I tried to keep it fairly close. I was also focusing mostly on area and color/texture contrast, so I didn't put a lot of effort into making things overlap and intermingle exactly as they will (i.e.: the wood won't be quite so covered up in actuality.)

The plants cover up the hardscape pretty completely in the original previs, so here it is with all of the plants removed:

The mound on the left won't be quite so high; maybe an inch or two lower. Those are the pieces of wood (Grapevine, fyi) that I’m planning on using. They've already been soaked and de-fungused.

I'm also planning on CO2, although I didn't mark any of the elements in the tank diagrams.

I do have some concerns about how the blyxa and wisteria will hold up in brackish conditions, even with such a low sg. Does anybody know their tolerances? I'm making backup plans for if they don't work out (right now I'm thinking rocks covered with moss to replace the blyxa.) Any other suggestions are very welcome.

Thanks for looking!

 

[Jessica]

Neat!! You have a lot of light, I hope the Co2 gets there quick

Can we see a full tank shot?

 

[macclellan]

Neat idea.

I don't think he has it set up yet, which is why there is no full shot pic.

If I understand your diagram right, you have the blyxa behind the java fern? Not gonna be able to see much of that...I'd suggest the driftwood and ferns go behind the blyxa.

 

[SnBMeg]

Right now the tank looks like this:

(Sorry for all of the reflections! I took this yesterday afternoon and the room faces west/south.)

The piece of grapevine farthest to the right is one of the ones I'm going to be using; the other two are just staying soaked in there until I move them elsewhere. As you can see, I haven't even switched the filter intake/exhaust or the heater to their planned positions.

Jessica, I've got (I think) all of the CO2 stuff I need, but I haven't set any of it up yet, and I was lazy and didn't include it in the layouts. I actually just finished beating out an algae bloom. The fry have been doing quite a nice job of keeping the wood and plants clean, though, so for the most part I've only needed to do a bit of wall scrubbing each week.

macclellan, I'd still like to have the blyxa filling out that area behind the wood and java. However, your comment got me thinking and I tried adding some in front of the wood. I definitely like it a bit better now; it looks more balanced:

Thanks for the suggestion! :icon_bigg

 

[dufus]

ooooooooo!
Grapevine will rot underwater, sorry.
TRy manzanita, it looks somewhat similar.

 

[SnBMeg]

Grapevine will rot underwater, sorry.

Not necessarily. I've got a piece in my other planted tank that's been there the better part of a year, and the only change it's had is that now the upper branches are coated in brown algae and a pretty little bush of hair algae. It hasn't even softened since I soaked it.

At this rate, I figure that if it does begin to rot, by that time I'll be ready to do a re-scape anyway.

 

[dufus]

Huh, all the other people i've seen use it say that within at least afew months it starts to mold over.

 

[SnBMeg]

That is something. *crosses fingers* Hopefully mine will continue to stay ripe.

 

[SnBMeg]

Change of plans!

I've decided to give the 38G over to two of my goldfish, in order to finally un-overstock my current goldy tank.

So the balloon mollies will be downgrading to a 20G; I was already planning to find other homes for most of the fry, once they're large enough, so stocking should be okay.

I'm pretty much planning to keep more-or-less the same layout, except that of course it will be modified for the smaller space. Hopefully I'll have some time this week to work on the new layout, and I'll post it up as soon as I get it done.

I'll also be starting a thread for the 38G back-planted, front-barebottom goldfish tank.