[MamaJu]

Ua Hua,

Am I trimming my tank too often? I might get a little carried away with the scissors

The moss wall is a hot mess I tried several different kinds of moss and two techniques to attach the moss to the foam walls.

The taiwan moss on the right wall looks good but grows very slowly. I attached it using the fishing wire so it's very patchy.

The christmas moss on the left wall was attached by itself since I used the plastic grid thing. It is growing in very slowly but looks the best IMO. It's crawling on the wall nicely but there are a lot of bare spots.

The back wall is all Java moss and it's growing like crazy. Unfortunately it's not growing in very evenly and some of it's not even attached to the wall, it's hanging on to the wall by the fishing wire. I've had to pin the moss down.

I'm debating if I should try to trim the wall. The thing that is annoying about the moss is that it gets everywhere. I find moss growing in between the stems of all the plants and makes the tank look messy. I try to pull and pick up as much as I can but sometimes I end up pulling up plants instead. Not worth the trouble.

AND I have an infestation of pond snails. They are crawling all over the moss wall. I'm not sure what to do. I got rid of the pea puffer fish I had because it was nipping at all the other fish. But now my tank is being over run. I normally don't mind the snails but there are so many it's distracting.

 

[ua hua]

In a Dutch tank I don't think there is such a thing as trimming too often. I would actually trim your plants that are at the surface. It's hard to tell in the picture but the ones that look to be Rotala rotundifoila. I would trim them about halfway down and replant the tops next to them and with a couple more trimmings they will become bushier rather than just a tall stand of plants. I know what your saying about the moss getting intermixed within all your other plants. I have fissidens in my tank which is a little easier to maintain but I also have peacock moss which is a pain in my butt as it ends up floating around and getting in places I don't want it. Here's a decent video on trimming and maintenance on a Dutch style tank.

 

[burr740]

Guy in the video sure is handy with those tweezers. I'd say he's done that a time or two..

 

[MamaJu]

I started a new job!!! Yeah. So I've been too busy to keep up with my journal. I'll try my best to post the pictures in order and hopefully I can remember every thing correctly.

I decided that the amazon sword was getting too big and shading out too much underneath. My husband added a powerhead to the right of the tank and added a spray bar to the middle bottom of the tank. I purchased some downoi, cherry shrimp, thread fin rainbows, serpae tetras, and dwarf cory catfish from Mot. Everything was doing great... only lost 1 cory.

Everything grew inches daily and the moss wall was overgrowing. But I was still have trouble getting plants to grow red. We changed the light bulbs on the zoo med to see if it would help.

The luscious green downoi that I got from mot was slowly dying. My lace leaf wisteria was also dying. I only had a sprig left. The only thing that I could figure out was that it wasn't getting enough light. The tank was getting enough CO2 and EI dosed the tank every other day. Still everything except the downoi and wisteria grew.

So I decided to cut everything back and do some rearranging. I pulled up and removed the Rotala macrandra (Butterfly) and moved the Rotala rotundifolia in it's place since I had more success growing the Rotala rotundifolia. I also removed the Cabomba purple because it kinda blended into the moss wall.

My husband finally let me get the BML. I think it's the Dutch one. Well after we replaced the zoo med T5HO, the plants in my tank started to turn red and the color on the fish look amazing.

I can't believe the transformation happening in my tank. It's so exciting to see how my tank has changed since the beginning. The moss wall is awesome and there hasn't been any problems with the paver backboard. However the pins that I used to hold the moss onto the wall rusted. I'm not sure if there will be any issues with the iron rust. Maybe it would continue to add iron to the tank for the red plants to use. So far, there have not been any adverse reaction for the fish and the shrimp and snails continue to multiply.

Now I'm just waiting for everything to grow back in. I still need to work on getting every plant to grow better. I continue to struggle growing downoi and wisteria. Everything else looks pretty good.

I'm open to any suggestions

 

[Phil Edwards]

That's looking great!! Keep it up! :thumbsup:

 

[MamaJu]

Too good to last

It's been a few months since I posted pictures... so much has changed. I was so busy with work and the kids that my tank got a little overgrown.

The plants were lush and green. I loved it! The fish were happy because of all the hiding places and the shrimp were multiplying. I was going to do some trimming the next morning.

Tragedy struck... everything was lost.

What happened???

Kids decided to feed the fish

By the end of the 2nd day, all but 2 rainbow fish died. Luckily the threadfins and cory cats from Mott made it...

The end of the 75 gallon Dutch Challenge

FIN.

 

[DillZPickleZ]

Aww that's too bad. And right when i started following the journal

 

[ROYWS3]

That's really too bad.

So have you decided what comes next?

 

[tylergvolk]

Wait, what happened? Your kids fed the fish and everything died? Doesn't make sense...

I'm curious about what you did to irradiate the fish diseases in your tank(first round). I read you got a uv sterilizer. Which one?

I'm having similar problems in my 125. Didn't quarantine, and now got parasites/disease of some kind...

 

[MamaJu]

My kids were on a sugar high or something. They were fighting over who was going to feed the fish. As usual it was always a contest. They both took handfuls of fish food and threw them in all the tanks. Fish pellets covered the floor... You couldn't even tell that I had black flourite substrate anymore.

So they did they while I was sasleep in bed. My husband discovered it when he woke up in the morning. Fish were bloated and floating.... Dead dead dead. I was devistated. So while pulling out all the dead fish I had to pull up the plants vacuum up the food. I was so upset that I couldn't think straight. I should have left the plants floating in the tank but instead I left it in a bucket. Of course everything turned into soup.

 

[MamaJu]

I'm still upset. This actually happened a couple of months ago. I just wasn't ready to talk about it it still hurts

 

[mot]

That really sucks. Next time reach out for help! You are not alone as Im sure everyone on these forums has had bad experiences. Ive had plenty of them myself. When your ready to restart just drop me a message as often I have cuttings or other stuff that I don't have the time to sell or raok.

 

[du3ce]

sorry to hear i know how it feels, i lost all 8 discus ive growned out to adults in one day, youll take a break then get back into it again.

 

[tylergvolk]

Oh my God. I'm sorry to hear about that. I completely understand, I would be upset as well.

Maybe you could help me save my fish by sharing some details about your experience. I'm curious about what you did to irradiate the fish diseases in your tank(first round). I read you got a uv sterilizer. Which one?

 

[Riceman]

This bummed ME out...
It will be easier the second time,you have the knowledge now
and the equipment......start again!

 

[chazde3]

This made me feel sick. Time to rebuild and put a lock on the aquarium.

 

[MamaJu]

End of 2014 Dutch Challenge; Beginning new Dutch Challenge

I decided to start again and try out some new things.

I'll be starting a 2015 Dutch Challenge: 75 gallon journal soon.