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Any suggestions?

1055 Views 11 Replies 4 Participants Last post by  Lymore, 
Lymore
3
This is my tank:




Its kinda lame... I know, lol.

2 bolivian rams
2 gold gouramis
1 angel fish
6 neon tetras
5 oto cats
4 cory cats

and my bf's little sister's guppies that got out of control... I'm getting rid of them, somehow...

Plants:


1 Amazon Sword
2 Wisteria
3 Cryptocoryne wendtii
4 Anubias nana

besides controlling the guppy population, any suggestions?


That big piece of drift wood, I got for $9.97, it was marked wrong, and I asked if it really was the right price, and the owner of the store said "No way... but you can have it for that price anyways."
sweeeeeet :D

also, how do you guys get such clear, crisp shots? My tank looks clear, but once I take a picture, its all cloudy and blurry... I have a nice camera, well, I borrow a nice a camera, its a Nikon Coolpix P80. What settings should I use? I think my issue might be I just use "auto"
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urbguy
looks pretty good. what are you tryin to go for? are you leaning towards getting more fish or getting more plants? cause i think that it'd look really good if you added something on the bottom like a carpet of green?
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Lymore
I would like to add some more fish once the guppies are gone. Some say its alright, some say no way, and someone said I could add an angel fish :) I have a 33 gal with a filter for a 40 gal.

I do want to add a carpet of green. I tried some micro sword grass, but it never took... someone told me it was probably due to the fact that the fluorite gravel isn't fine enough. What would a good carpet for gravel be? Moss maybe? but all I can find are these freaky moss ball things at petco, what would I do with that?

Also, I want to get some good, taller background plants... maybe a few more mid ground plants. But I want to mix up the colors and textures.

Also, I have no idea about lighting... my fixture on my tank only holds one 30" fluorescent...
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Lymore
oh, and that little pale rock in front of the driftwood. That is my "zucchini rock" lol, it has a little hole in it that I wedge zucchini in to keep it down for my oto cats :)

In case anyone was wondering what that weird little doodad was.
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Ariel301
I like the driftwood in there. You definitely should look into getting some stem plants of some kind to fill the tank in. Your swordplant looks very healthy; you must be doing something right! I think you have the start of a nice looking tank.
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Lymore
2 of the leaves have died on the sword plant :( but it gave me 2 baby plants since I got it :D I got it for my birthday back in mid-june. Hehe... I'm surprised I'm doing anything right :p

I have a sword plant at my dad's house, he took it out of my 10 gallon over a year ago and stuck it in the 55 gall RES tank he has. I kinda want it, lol.

the wisteria I just added today

the anubias, I've had since December, but once I attached it to the drift wood, it grew 3 new leaves pretty quickly.

and the crypt has recovered from 2 moves, it all melted, but it seems alright now...

I don't know how much lighting I have, the bulb came with the fixture, lid, tank, and stand (all for $50) I got it used.
but the fertilizer I use is Tetra FloraPride... I use it once a month, is that enough? Or too much? is it even a good fert?
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Lymore
Also, should I add CO2?
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urbguy
my cousin has a bed of dwarf baby tears that took root in his tank. he said that they are pretty hardy and can grow in his tank and he has gravel. and they spawn runners really quickly, according to him he said that if you have a strong light, the baby tears will grown short and thick making that lawn carpet appearance but if your light is not strong enough it'll just grow long and thin.
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FrostyNYC
Lighting the critical factor in determining what you can grow. You need to find out what the wattage and kelvin rating is on your bulb, and what type of bulb it is (CF, T7, T5, etc). Do you have a reflector?

Im assuming your lighting is very low. Marsilea minuta is often referred to as a low light carpeting plant, although Ive had trouble growing it in my very very soft and acidic water. Dwarf baby tears (HC) probably requires more light than you have. I wouldnt bother with CO2 if your lighting is less than 2wpg.
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Lymore
How could I fit more lights on such odd shaped tank, the lid only has space for one light.
It is only 20 watts, no other info on the bulb except for " RADIONIC F20T10AQ"

I have these two compact fluorescent bulbs in the hood to my old 10 gal, they were the kinds you screw in, and they were Marineland 5100K 10W I rather liked them on my 10 gal... but I have no fixture to put them in on my new larger tank... are they even good bulbs? I just liked them because my fish looked prettier, and the plants looks greener.
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urbguy
buddy of mine uses these arch supports for shelving and screws it into the stud in the wall, heres a pic of those shelf supports http://www.prestosupply.net/store/images/h50491.jpeg. he then takes some chains and attaches it onto the light and it holds up the lights you can adjust it to any height you want. just a suggestion.
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Lymore
Yea, I know those kinds of supports! That is a good idea... I would have to check to see if I can drill holes though, I rent... maybe if I assured my landlord I would patch up the holes...

How high from the top of the tank would I hang the lights? What would be a good distance?
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