[Chizpa305]

I recently planted the staurogyne repens and some pogostemon helfery. But it is still not very settled in.

Here you can see a close up on my most loyal plants so far.

I am trying to grow HC here on the rock. I don't know if I am going to be successful at this. I want it to look sort of like hanging gardens of Babylon lol.

Another image on the Staurogyne's progress.

Update: Very soon I will finally replace those green tubes with clear glass ones. I already ordered them and should be on the way from China or something like that.

Since now I have installed the co2 system I will probably be able to get some really red plants in there too. But for now I'll see how it develops with the new additions.

Share any opinions that you might have.

 

[Chizpa305]

CO2 doing its thing...

The hanging gardens are not looking so good. The leafs are turning dark.

Baby Pogostemon Helferi growing up

HC Cuba doing a nice carpet

Update:
I got one of the glass pieces for the filter, (the outflow), but I'm a little disappointed since I did not receive the inflow part which was supposed to be included. Also the piece is longer than I thought, still I can install it. I'm showing some pics next time.

 

[Chizpa305]

Update: 10-13-2013
Plants filling in. I would still want the pearl weed to get a little more bushy, add some red plant there (maybe replace it with the Didiplis diandra), and see the HC on top of the rock to grow more, but everything else looks pretty much as I wanted.

Let me know what are your opinions.

 

[QFire000]

You've just inspired me to try my own planted nano. Awesome thread, tank, and pictures. Thank you! Keep us updated

 

[Chizpa305]

You've just inspired me to try my own planted nano. Awesome thread, tank, and pictures. Thank you! Keep us updated

Thanks for that. I'm happy that I can give you inspiration:icon_smil. To be honest, when I look at the first pictures in this post I realize that the tank has improved a little. It has not always been a success. I have had all kinds of problems like ammonia spikes that made the fish want to jump out of the tank, different types of algae taking over every inch, yellow water, plant diseases that ended up killing some plants, etc... just to name a few... But well, that is what it's all about: the challenge, the journey. I have learned many things along the way and there are many more to learn still. Wish you good luck in your nano and looking forward to check it out.

 

[Chizpa305]

Update: October 24th, 2014

Hello everybody. I return after a long time during which I left this aquarium under very little maintenance due to some issues that I ran into. The aquarium is still running, however it has undergone through a lot of deterioration. Green algae took over every inch of glass. Stem plants grew too large and shaded all of the plants under them. The HC carpet completely came off due to this poor lighting getting to them with the exception of only tiny pieces. In summary.. complete disaster.

But I am now back and willing to get it back to pretty again.

First, I completely removed the Didiplis diandra and the Hemianthus micranthemoides because they simply grow too fast and this aquarium is too small for them. I am leaving all of the other plants that have a slower growth rate.

I then tried to scrape off the algae, but at some parts I couldn't completely eliminate it as it is very hard stuck to the glass... I hope that it will start to go away by itself once I get the tank healthy again.

I replanted some healthy stem tops and added an otocinclus to help with the algae.

As for the HC carpet, I could just buy more and plant it, but I am going to take on the challenge of making a full carpet out of the very little pieces that I have left. It will take time, but it will be fun seeing the progress through time if everything goes ok.

Here are some pictures

Removed fast growing stem plants at the back

King of the castle

Only remains of HC left. I will try to make a carpet out of that.


I will keep you posted.

 

[hryder77]

Updated Picture and Data: 10/13/2013​

View attachment 221433​

Lightning: 26 watts with 3 U-shaped bulbs (one blue and two white)
Filter: Eheim 2211. with Purigen bag added to media
CO2: DIY with Hagen Nutrafin Bubble counter / diffuser.
Substrate: Aquasoil Amazonia I.

Flora:
Marsilea crenata (Dwarf four leaf clover) (On shaded areas; under taller plants)
Hemianthus Callithrichoides (Dwarf baby tears) (Front right)
Lysimachia nummularia 'aurea' (Golden Lloydiella) (Middle left)
Didiplis diandra (Blood Stargrass) (background left)
Staurogyne repens (back right and front left)
Pogostemon helferi (Front/middle, scattered)
Hemianthis micranthemoides (Back right)
Fauna:
6 Neon Tetras.
2 GloFish
40+ Adult Fire red Shrimps
1 Nerite snail

WOW! that's a gorgeous little tank! Very bright and healthy. I saw your icon from the lovely comment you made on my post and had to check it out.

 

[Chizpa305]

Update 11/22/2014

^^Barren land - still a long way to go to cover all that area^^

^^I'm planning on letting the background grow slowly with a combination of only two stem^^
plants (Lysimachia nummularia 'aurea' and ammania bonsai)

^^The Red Baron^^

 

[second]

Wow
I like what you've done with that tank!

 

[Chizpa305]

Update: 1/7/2015

Ok so, not much going on here, just boring slow progress. Plants are growing in really slowly, specially the HC. That's ok because I am not into high maintenance. It's just that it is taking for ever for that carpet to spread out although it is looking healthy and bright green, which is good. I did start with very little HC this time, so it is normal that it takes long at the beginning. It will surely increase in growth speed exponentially as time goes by, so I am being patient.

I have been adding a normal amount of fertilizers, but I am thinking about adding an extra bottle of yeast produced CO2 to see if I get a red coloration out of the Ammania bonsai. I have always struggled with getting out the red colors in plants... If anybody has some insight into this please help me out.

^^Before (11/22/2014)^^

^^Now (1/7/2015)^^

 

[MoreyFan]

the repens still looks fantastic. How did it do during the "dark times"?

 

[Chizpa305]

the repens still looks fantastic. How did it do during the "dark times"?

The repens did pretty good. It was just growing upward due to poor lighting, but it was ok for the most part. The one that took the heavy hit was the HC Cuba as you can see... But it is doing a nice come back. Here are some pics of the progress so far on a 2.5 month interval. As you can see the progress has been somewhat slow but it will surely speed up now since the HC has broken the growth inertia already.

^11/30/14^

^1/4/15^

^2/16/15

I will be adding some Alternanthera reineckii 'mini' pretty soon. to see if I can add some color contrast in there.

 

[Chizpa305]

The Red Baron keeps getting bigger. He is the size of a Neon Tetra now. He easily stands out in the crowd of shrimps because the second biggest one is only 2/3 it's size. This is a completely isolated population of currently ~50 shrimps. All of those shrimps are the descendants of the previous 4 shrimps I got back in 2012. And this is the biggest RCS that I have ever seen. Does anybody know what is the maximum size that these shrimps can reach?

 

[Chizpa305]

Update: 3/1/2015

Here is a small update. Background plants getting bushier, but I am not too happy with the left background contrast. There are two different species but the colors are so similar that they cannot be distinguished very well and don't give the contrast that I was looking for... On the bottom picture the two species can be better seen from the side view, but the front view is not that clear. I'll let them grow more for now and see how they turn out in the future.

Getting somewhere. Probably next week I will trim a little and replant to speed up the spread.

Side view.

 

[Chizpa305]

Today I discovered something interesting. For the past couple of days I was noticing that bubbles were appearing on the surface of the water. I cleaned them every day only to find them again the next day. I thought it was caused by proteins and organic matter on the surface of the water, but by looking at something else I accidentally realized what was causing it.

Here are the bubbles I saw.

And here is what was causing the bubbles...
http://youtu.be/HbJQ4bwZB1k

Turns out those are CO2 bubbles

 

[Chizpa305]

Update 3/11/2015

HC carpet spreading out little by little. I trimmed it a bit and replanted very small portions to speed up spread. Cutting tops and replanting stems at the back left to make thicker bush of A. bonsai and L. nummularia 'aurea'. S. repens also growing dense and with less damaged leaves. Algae retreating slowly but surely. New plants coming in a couple of days. Bought new glass inflow/outflow for the filter (CalAquaLabs Efflux F1 and Influx X1, both 13mm in diameter). I will install them once I buy the clear tubing.

 

[Chizpa305]

Update: 3/15/2015

I installed the new inflow outflow and replaced the green tubes with clear ones. That was something that I was wanting to do for sometime and I finally did it. It helps in making all that equipment a bit less conspicuous. Still waiting on the new plants (supposedly will arrive this Monday). I will post some pictures once I get them in the tank.

^Lateral view^

^Glass inflow/outflow from CalAquaLabs^

^My DIY Co2 setup. I want to place some kind of dark curtain there to cover all that stuff up.

 

[Chizpa305]

Update: 3/18/2015

I got new plants in this past Monday. I wanted to add some color contrast in my tank and I am trying my luck with some Alternanthera reineckii 'mini', Ludwigia repens red, and Fissidens fontanus. The plants are still settling in so the current color might change over time, but hopefully I can maintain a good red coloration on the A. reineckii, and the L. repens. I had L. repens in the tank before and I didn't have great success with it, but back then I didn't have any CO2 system installed (you can see in page 4 of this thread). Now, with the DIY CO2 I hope to get better colors out of it. I anchored the F. fontanus on top of the ornament using a rock in hopes that it will start to attach to the ornament, so that I can remove the anchor rock in the future. This is my second attempt with the "hanging gardens" idea. I don't know if this is going to work but I am going to give it a try.

^Right now I am just farming the red plants. I will change the position configuration once they grow some more.

 

[Chizpa305]

Update: 3/21/2015

Just adding some cool pics. Not much going on. I will trim it a little tomorrow, but first had to take these shots. Red plants still adapting. That Ludwigia really grows fast. I don't like fast growing plants since they mean high maintenance, but I might give this one a try just because of the color contrast it gives. I have been thinking about placing the Ludwigia in the left background and the Lysimachia numularia with the lime green in front of the Ludwigia to enhance each other's colors, and then put the R. bonsai to the right background by itself. I noticed that there was also some small pieces of dwarf hairgrass mixed with the new plant shipment (small as in only two leafs lol). I planted them in the front together with the HC and if it grows I will leave it as part of the front carpet. I welcome any ideas. Enjoy.

^ Side view^

^The cube^

^Fissidens fontanus... Let's see how it developes

 

[Chizpa305]

Update: 3/29/2015

Still farming the new plants to make enough stems for the background scaping changes. I probably need one or two more weeks to do this. Everything keeps growing steadily.

^This week the Alternanthera reineckii 'mini' is looking paler, since it is adjusting to my not-so-high CO2 levels. I think it will stay with this color (which is acceptable for me).

^This downoi looks like a mini palm tree, but I am leaving it like that on purpose... for now.

HC carpet growing more each week, but slower than I expected.