[fishophile]

Newest update:

Tank
Standard 55 gallon tank
Flourite black sand
Marineland c-series 220
Build my LED 48" 10000k
Current LED+ 48"
10lbs tank, Milwaukee Instruments solenoid valve, and atomic inline diffuser.

Flora
Ludwigia repens
Mermaid weed
anubias nana petite
anacharis narrow leaf
crypt wendtii red
Java fern windelov
S. Repens
fissidens fontanus
A.R. mini
Pogostemon Erectus

Fauna
2 Yellow rainbow fish
20 green eye rasboras
5 black mollies
5 red wag platys
3 brick sword tails
(plan on adding ropefish when live-bearers start producing)

Here is before a large pruning. Also I still had compact florescent lighting at this time.

Tried a moss tree... that never worked.

Took out the java moss and placed the water sprite in the back corners. Upgrading to the Satellite + and am loving it so far. It's speed up plant grow and makes the fish look better. They aren't the biggest fans of the lighting feature though.

Added Lugidia rupens and dwarf sagittaria. They did well for awhile until the floating baby tears and amazon sword shaded them. Also got rid of one amazon sword.

Heres a view of both my planted tank and cichlid tank.

The amazon sword shaded killed most of the needy plants and after removing 3 more the decaying plant matter made a nitrogen problem in the substrate. Which is now under control.

 

[Guyver]

Purdy! Those are some big swords!

 

[fishophile]

Update 5/22/14
Traded the amazon swords for a good deal of crypt wentii red. I'm thinking about attaching java fern to the majority of the wood.

Any advice is appreciated.

Flora
Java fern
Ludwigia repens- one stem is still hanging in there.
anubias nana petite
Lace water sprite
Amazon Sword
Baby tears(got torn apart and now floating)
Java fern windelov
Dwarf sagittaria

Fauna
3 Yellow rainbow fish
40 green eye rasboras

 

[fishophile]

I upgraded to a pressurized co2 and it really made a huge difference. Sorry for the huge gap between updating, but here's my tank before I removed most of the dwarf sag. and changed the driftwood arrangement.

 

[fishophile]

 

[Islandgaliam]

Nice Tank. How do you like your LED? I want to get my next light there.

I too have emerald eye rasboras, I just love those eyes and the black spot on their fin. They school nice and are a great tank mate for my betta

 

[fishophile]

Nice Tank. How do you like your LED? I want to get my next light there.

I too have emerald eye rasboras, I just love those eyes and the black spot on their fin. They school nice and are a great tank mate for my betta

Thank you. I love it. The only thing I had before it was the current USA satellite plus and now I use them together. With out it the plants seems to be a little dull. I have the 10000k and was advised to get the 6500k extra bright instead. I think it would have supplied a more visually appealing light.

The rasboras are great, I just wish they wouldn't jump out of the tank as much... I think they will get phased out of the tank and replaced by sword tails and mollies.

Here's the tank update.

 

[fishophile]

added mermaid weed and dark red ludwigia.

 

[fishophile]

Still waiting for things to grow in and can't figure out what exactly I want to do on the right side.

 

[Jethro702]

Looks quite nice! May I ask where you found that cool piece of driftwood.

 

[fishophile]

Looks quite nice! May I ask where you found that cool piece of driftwood.

Thank you. I found it washed up on on a lake shore in North Carolina. It was a whole cedar tree and I cut off pieces of the roots.

 

[fishophile]

 

[BoxxerBoyDrew]

Your tank looks VERY VERY GOOD!!!!! You have scaped it to where it doesn't look like a 55g! I to have a 55g, and I haven't been able to get rid of the 55g scaping blues like you have! Your mixture of plants is very eye pleasing to me! I also really love Swordtails and Rainbows, so BRAVO!!! I have never mixed the two, but I haven't been keeping swords to long so that is the main reason!

Keep up the GREAT WORK! Subscribed!
Drew

 

[Mikeygmzmg]

Nice man, that is super clean. I actually like the open area on the right side. It looks natural next to the large wood branches and heavy growth. Going to keep following this one!

 

[fishophile]

Nice man, that is super clean. I actually like the open area on the right side. It looks natural next to the large wood branches and heavy growth. Going to keep following this one!

Thank you. I just cleaned it, but I think the poor camera quality is what really makes it look so clean. I've always like the open area as well. I do have a hard time figuring out how to arrange the stems in the back without it looking like a wall.

Your tank looks VERY VERY GOOD!!!!! You have scaped it to where it doesn't look like a 55g! I to have a 55g, and I haven't been able to get rid of the 55g scaping blues like you have! Your mixture of plants is very eye pleasing to me! I also really love Swordtails and Rainbows, so BRAVO!!! I have never mixed the two, but I haven't been keeping swords to long so that is the main reason!

Keep up the GREAT WORK! Subscribed!
Drew

Thank you! My driftwood is really thin and barely goes past 1/3 of the tank. I think it helps with depth. I also got inspiration from Tom Barr for my plant selection. At least the s. repens and Blyxa.

I think the rainbows eat the fry. Even before I had the 2 rope fish I never saw any.

 

[fishophile]

I took all of my equipment out for a picture to see how it would look compared to the more professional shots that I see a lot on here.

Before I hack off all my anubias has anyone completely cut off al the leaves of some that was attached to wood?

 

[fishophile]

Here's a video of my rope fish eating a crushed snail out of my hand.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UA-XRMNzLlo

 

[Freemananana]

I think the tank looks great. It make me laugh when you said "more professional shots" because I think about how my photos look. My photos look terrible by the way. I like the tank. Everything looks pretty. I'd like to see more growth on the plants attached to the driftwood, but that's just personal preference.

 

[fishophile]

I think the tank looks great. It make me laugh when you said "more professional shots" because I think about how my photos look. My photos look terrible by the way. I like the tank. Everything looks pretty. I'd like to see more growth on the plants attached to the driftwood, but that's just personal preference.

Thanks for the feedback. As time goes I plan on letting java fern, anubias, and fissidens take over the wood. They are starting to shade my foreground.

I replaced the ropefish with a school of neons and gold tetras. The ropefish hide in the plants almost 24/7 and I prefer to have a school.

 

[Freemananana]

Nice update! The tank looks stellar! I'm surprised you have two powerheads flowing. My tank couldn't handle the addition of one.