[lauraleellbp]

No, I don't have a fancy one like that, a pair of long tweezers with an angled tip that I think will work?

I got this really nifty planting tool kit off of Ebay a while back for about $30 shipped.

 

[lescarpentier]

That is a nice kit that you have,and I plan to get one.
What I like about mine is that I don't have to get wet every time that I do something to my aquarium.I like to keep my hands out of the water as much as possible.I also use it to place the algae tabs exactly where I want them.I could go on and on,but you get the point.It is my most useful aquarium tool.roud:

 

[lauraleellbp]

I know what you mean, I do get rather pruny these days LOL With my tank depth even those don't keep me completely out of the water, though- they just let me reach the back of the tank without needing to hold my breath and go swimming :icon_mrgr I have been procrastinating putting down the root tabs for that reason though (gotta go change and everything...)

 

[lescarpentier]

With my tank depth even those don't keep me completely out of the water, though- they just let me reach the back of the tank without needing to hold my breath and go swimming :icon_mrgr

I have the 27" model,and my tank is 24".What is the depth of yours :icon_ques

 

[lauraleellbp]

It's 24"H x 18"W and I'm 5'4" so it's a reach to the back bottom of the tank for me, can't do it without getting most of my arm wet :icon_mrgr

 

[lauraleellbp]

Mon 4/28/08

Update.

The clown loaches are definitely hard on the tank. They've finally started their digging, and the E. tenellus 'narrow' are suffering; some get uprooted and others get buried The taller ones don't get much traffic so they seem to be OK. A few of the 'vesuvius' are suffering- I think the clowns are sleeping on them at night? I will probably move them tomorrow to a different spot.

I may end up putting the loaches back into the 46gal as soon as I can get some more fish to keep up the bioload in this tank. Looks like some things are coming through that mean I really may get my pond this summer after all? I think they'd love it outside- and I bet their coloration would really brighten like crazy in the sunlight

The Didiplis diandria are definitely faring poorly. None are taking root, and they rot at the base, then float up and get stuck in the filters. At first it was just a few, but today looking carefully at them none of them are doing well. I'm most likely going to try stargrass in that spot.

The rest of the plants seem to be doing pretty well! Still haven't gotten busy with those fert tabs... I need to get on the stick soon though!

 

[lauraleellbp]

Wed. 4/30/08 update

Made my minor moving around adjustments today. Went to remove all the Didiplis and got a happy surprise- turns out there are about 3 or 4 stems that not only have rooted, but are budding little tiny branches with new leaves! So I left them where they were, removed the stems that were doing poorly, and finally put root tabs underneath all the major plants.

I put whole Wonder Gro tabs underneath all of the big swords, and half or quarter tabs underneath all the rest of the plants, except the E. tenellus 'narrow.' I also saw a few new leaves on the E. africanus, and I'm very happy about that. I haven't seen any new leaves on the 'vesuvius' so far though? Hopefully the root tabs will make a difference.

I'm surprised that the Bacopa 'pantanal' is already almost as tall as the B. caroliniana! I can't tell how much is a result of the plants stems straightening towards the light vs. real growth, however?

I'm not quite sure ATM if I'm going to sell the majority of the 'narrow' I still have left in my 10gal or go ahead and plant it in this tank to really give the carpet a head start? I probably have twice as many plants still left in the 10 as are currently in the 90gal...

 

[SeaSerpant]

Any pics of your aquarium/tank?

 

[lauraleellbp]

Ok give me a few min to upload... not much has changed though?

 

[lauraleellbp]

Ok sideshots (you can see the wood fungus in this first pic):

Around to the front:

The fish love hanging out in the "river" which I guess is kind of appropriate. I'm probably going to rearrange the river some; have the grass extend most of the way across the back of the tank and have the "river" just be in the corner...

And a FTS

It's been a week since the water change, so the tannins are out in force again as you can see. I'm going to end up switching to Prime and throw some Purigen in the XP2 before too much longer... plus get some Giesemann bulbs for the light fixture.

 

[ikuzo]

i like the grassy feel around the wood. i might make a scape like this someday.

 

[lauraleellbp]

Thanks, Ikuzo- that's a big compliment

Last update before I head to GA for a long weekend camping with my family-

I hit Petsmart today and decided to try an 18k Hagen "Power-Glo" bulb out. Has peaks in blue, green, and orange, and some red as well. I swapped out one of the actinics. It DEFINITELY made an improvement; the top of the tank doesn't look so cloudy and the oranges in the Tiger barb and clown loaches are finally coming through more.

I'm still getting a Geisemann 6k to replace one of the 10k bulbs though. This will leave me with a 10k, and actinic, one 18k and a 6k- I think I'm going to like that balance! Somewhere between 108-162 watts of individually reflected T5HO for the plants...

I'm thinking I may need to do my first trim when I get back? The Bacopa caroliniana has grown 2-3" since it was planted, and the B. 'pantanal' is already taller than I want it to stay. Time to start trying to make these plants into "bushes" :thumbsup:

I also added a good quantity of Salvinia that came in today from Python; I think the hatchets-to-be will love it!

 

[@[email protected]]

nice wood (why is everyones wood so much better then mine!?), its full of knots and its nice an long. my only suggestion is to put some moss or something where the wood connect on the top to make it look less like a campfire in a flood (sorry its just what jumped into my head and i couldnt think of a nicer way to put it).

 

[Jace]

I'd also like to see more elevation changes in the substrate. Thats my :twocents:

 

[fshfanatic]

Looking good!

 

[lauraleellbp]

Marko- yes, Willow moss is going to go on the driftwood one of these days...

Jace- the substrate actually is very sloped; it's about 5" deep on the right side of the tank and 2" on the left side. The pics don't show it very well, however. There's also a slight front-to-back slope.

Thanks fsh

Mon. 5/5/08 Update

Well something went awry with my light timer settings while I was gone (according to my hubby they were on too much) and I came home to lots of brown algae. Also the fish seem to have uprooted most of the Bacopa 'pantanal' and several of the E. africanus as well *sigh*

So tomorrow I'll do a good PWC, clean some algae, and replanting. On the bright side, there are some new leaves finally coming out of a few of the E. tenellus 'narrow'.

Found an Amano molt. I never can see most of my Amanos, so I really hope the fish aren't finding and eating them after molting?

 

[TheCryptKeeper]

I like the tank setup. I can't wait to see how it grows in. good job

 

[lauraleellbp]

Tues. 5/13/08

Got my specimen E. 'Kleiner bar' from god91234- it's huge and looks awesome!

Was a major ordeal planting it though... in the process I lost both of my clown loaches and the tiger barb :icon_cry: :icon_cry: :icon_cry:

I'm still not sure why it happened but it's got to be related to the 50% PWC.

I tested my parameters and everything still looks great (0ppm ammonia and nitrIte, 5ppm nitrAte, 7.0 - 7.2 pH, I still need to get hardness test kits but that really shouldn't be an issue b/c I'm still using the same water I started with and I've maintained regular PWC 25 - 50% since the tank startup.)

Temperature is a slight possibility, since I don't have a thermometer on this tank yet (keep forgetting to buy one), but I did the old "hand test" and the waters felt good. The tank is at room temp and the water came from our well on a sunny day...

All the rest of the livestock look great- it was just those three, which is also odd. I'm wondering if I disturbed some hydrogen sulfide when planting the sword (I did have to move around a ton of substrate b/c the thing is so big), but would that really have had time to build up this quickly?

Would having well water high in sulfur content promote the formation of hydrogen sulfide pockets??

I'm really leaning towards it's got something to do with my green water.

Up till now I've been thinking the green water is tannins from the driftwood and peat. However, I put the leftover Manzanita wood in my 46gal and that tank is staying crystal clear... which leaves the peat, but I only used a very small amount... so IDK what's going on?

The plan I've come up with so far is to keep doing PWC, 25% every other day now, and I'm going to switch this tank to Prime and add some Purigen to the XP2. There's AC in the AquaClear but it doesn't seem to be doing anything. I may also buy a media bag and replace that carbon with new... I think I can use all the toxin absorbtion I can get ATM...

I had to do some moving around to make room for the sword, and I didn't get to finish replanting last night, so that's on the agenda for tonight. I'll also try to take and upload some pics afterwards.

 

[rasetsu]

Tues. 5/13/08

Got my specimen E. 'Kleiner bar' from god91234- it's huge and looks awesome!

Was a major ordeal planting it though... in the process I lost both of my clown loaches and the tiger barb :icon_cry: :icon_cry: :icon_cry:

I'm still not sure why it happened but it's got to be related to the 50% PWC.

Awww....I'm sorry to hear that Those are hardy fish too and clown loaches are lots of fun. Could be something in the new water that the fish did not adjust to.

 

[lescarpentier]

The plan I've come up with so far is to keep doing PWC, 25% every other day now, and I'm going to switch this tank to Prime and add some Purigen to the XP2. There's AC in the AquaClear but it doesn't seem to be doing anything. I may also buy a media bag and replace that carbon with new... I think I can use all the toxin absorbtion I can get ATM..

Are these the only filters that you have?