[amberrie]

I decided to finally start a tank journal. & I have questions, since this is my first real attempt at an aquascape tank, let alone a high-tech one. I tried a few easy plants in a ten gallon a few years ago. But I didn't get really serious about it until I got my Edge a few months ago.

A few weeks ago I tore down the tank because it was full of algae & I felt like the dwarf baby tears were uprooting too much. I decided to try a dirted tank instead of the Eco complete. Well, all it did was muddy the water & make the plants float even more. So, back to Eco complete and buying new plants. So, on my second time around, I tied the HC down to some rocks and buried the rocks under the substrate.

Set up:
6 gallon (21L) Fluval Edge
Stock filter (Aqueon 20?)
Hydro 100 watt heater
2 Trulumen 10'' white LEDs
Aquatek Paintball regulator w/solenoid
24oz CO2 paintball can
Fluval ceramic diffuser
Chinese knock off drop checker
Chinese knock off bubble counter
Chinese knock off check valve
CO2 resistant tubing

Specs:
Temperature: 77
Photo period: 12pm-9pm
CO2 runs from 10am-11am, 1pm-2pm, 4pm-5pm, & 7pm-8pm
Hardscape:
Eco Complete capped with black aquarium sand
Two pieces of grape wood
A piece of spider wood
A white rock from LFS

Flora:
Hemianthus callitrichoides (dwarf baby tears) (tied to buried rocks with fishing line)
Riccia Fluitans (crystalwort) (tied to grape wood with fishing line)
Christmas moss (tied to spider wood with fishing line)
Java moss (made into a miss wall with plastic mesh)
Eleocharis Sp. (dwarf hair grass) (in substrate)
Anubias Berteri var. Nana (in substrate)
Alternanthra Reineckii (mini) (in substrate)

Fauna:
Halfmoon betta
2 horned nerite snails
4 Amano shrimp
8 Strawberry rasbora

I know it may be a little overstocked. I ordered 6 strawberry rasbora. 9 showed up. 1 disappeared the next day. I know 6 was already pushing it, but I read you shouldn't have less than 6 & I really wanted a nano schooling fish. I do the water changes & test my water. Everyone is happy.

So now pictures!

January 28th; First day of second attempt. (Please excuse the panty hose full of substrate. I was trying to make sure I hadn't crashed my cycle during the redo. Also, some plants look rough because of the do over, but they are recovering.)

February 4th; added half of the moss wall. Waiting to cultivate some more moss to add on to my wall.

February 15th

February 21st; excuse the filter sock. This was the first day I added the strawberry rasbora. They are small enough to get sucked into the filter intake.

& some citizens

Future plans:
Eheim 2211 or 2213
Lily pipes with spin outflow
Inline heater
Inline CO2

Questions:
1.) Are my HC on track? Or does it seem like they are growing slowly? Should I try planting them a different way? How do I encourage a carpet? I'm getting a bit frustrated with them. Everyone else seems to be able to grow them, but I just feel like mine are not rooting into the substrate. Help! Should I just start over by moving my fish to another tank & doing the DSM?

2.) Do I have enough light? I was having trouble with adding light without taking away from the sleekness of the aquarium. I was going to try to make something more sophisticated, but nothing I found was water resistant and I did not want to take the chance of shorting anything.

3.) What size Eheim filter would you suggest? The 2211 or the 2213? & what size lily pipes do I need for them? I spent forever trying to figure it out & I don't think I quite understand how the lily pipes fit on the tubes that come out of the filter. Could someone post a picture of the connections for me?

5.) Will the alterthena reneckii grow taller? I wanted it to fill in the backgrond a little, but it doesn't seem to want to get much taller than the driftwood with the crystalwort on it.

6.) I'm sure I'll have more questions. That is why I have started this journal. Thanks for reading.

P.S. I meant to post this in the Tank Journals forum, so if someone could move it, that would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[AquaAurora]

Just a side note, your hc is on those green coated metal mesh mats? the metal breaks down quickly in the aquarium (disintegrated in my tank in a year, honestly surprised it didn't kill fish.). Not shrimp safe (tried in a shrimp tank and it killed half the colony in 2 days had to remove it-no more deaths after a water change and mesh removal.).
To encourage carpeting strong lighting and trimming the hc low will make it grow horizontally not vertically.
Its good to trim aggressively as hc has such short roots it will break loose and float up if allowed to grow to long (happened to me >.<).
I've used eheim 2211 on a 7g cube. used spray bar on the outflow and aimed the flow against the wall its suction cupped to to reduce flow for my betta.

 

[amberrie]

Just a side note, your hc is on those green coated metal mesh mats? the metal breaks down quickly in the aquarium (disintegrated in my tank in a year, honestly surprised it didn't kill fish.). Not shrimp safe (tried in a shrimp tank and it killed half the colony in 2 days had to remove it-no more deaths after a water change and mesh removal.).
To encourage carpeting strong lighting and trimming the hc low will make it grow horizontally not vertically.
Its good to trim aggressively as hc has such short roots it will break loose and float up if allowed to grow to long (happened to me >.<).
I've used eheim 2211 on a 7g cube. used spray bar on the outflow and aimed the flow against the wall its suction cupped to to reduce flow for my betta.

Oh, no. The HC are tied to rocks. They were tissue cultured ones. & the moss is on plastic mesh from the craft store, so no worries on that. Thanks for the heads up though.

So, do you think it's time for a trim on my HC? Is it too high?

 

[AquaAurora]

Ah good.
I'd trim it, better t be a little short than too long and break free to make a big mess.