My first planted tank - don't laugh!

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I love that 1st picture

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Love the pics, although you and I have similar taste in fish!

That shrimp could be a low grade RCS, low grade red rili, or some other combo :rolleyes:
 
The layout looks great, plants healthy and shrimp everywhere. The new additions should add nice movement to the tank.
What fish (including the new ones) are in there now?
I think there is a group of us with the same plants. Just different interpretations of the layout.


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Looks great!! Nice mix of fishies and Shrimpies:)

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Fresh- my stock is now:
3 of the 5 rasboras
2 of the 6 pygmies
6 Habrosus
4 otos
A bajillion shrimp
The pond snail population is hugely reduced, I think the shrimp are sucking up all the extra food

I like the tank but I'm not totally happy with the layout, that ammania Mauritania is a little too big to be in the front, the back is empty, and the java fern is squished, there are some bacopa cuttings in the back of the wood I'm just waiting for them to fill in a bit. It'll get better.
 
Eggheadfish said:
Fresh- my stock is now:
3 of the 5 rasboras
2 of the 6 pygmies
6 Habrosus
4 otos
A bajillion shrimp
The pond snail population is hugely reduced, I think the shrimp are sucking up all the extra food

I like the tank but I'm not totally happy with the layout, that ammania Mauritania is a little too big to be in the front, the back is empty, and the java fern is squished, there are some bacopa cuttings in the back of the wood I'm just waiting for them to fill in a bit. It'll get better.
Click to expand...


I'm thinking about moving the CPDs to the shrimp tank, thus the stocking question.
What you could do is remove the Java Fern. In its full glory it may be too large for this tank. You could put more Bacopa species (Caroliniana, monnieri) along the back. Take the moss on the left side and put it on the DW. Move the ammannia m in the mosses' former place. That will get it away from the front.


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Good call. WC tomorrow so I'll do some shuffling. All the fern I took out got h2o2 and blackout and when they recovered from the algae I stuck them in the 35 so I'll likely do the same with the two plants left in here. I'll bump the rocks back and spread out the Mauritania. That stuff has to be spread out a bit the stems and lower leaves really suffer when it's compacted. I don't have access to much in the way of additional plants, so I can't really fill anything in until the cuttings grow. Unless, you know, I pay for some packages from my pals ;)
I think I may skip the CPDs ultimately for this tank and maybe do that in the empty 15 I have. I would like to get the numbers of rasboras and pygmies back up. I have a promising lead but need to make an hour trip and cross my fingers there's still some left. Finally found a local breeder.
 
Just a quick update since I haven't been on here much. The API CO2 booster doesn't seem to be helping, nor cutting light back. Found out my clamp lights have a defect so I'm not running them at all when I'm not home. Going about five hours a day at most and I'm still getting BBA and tons of staghorn. I'm getting no ammonia readings.
Hope to pick up some more Habrosus this week.
Also a magical fishy godfather hooked me up with a diy co2 system :) I think I'm gonna save it for another tank.
 
Which plants are getting the BBA and Staghorn? H2O2 might work on Staghorn (treat it while treating the BBA).
Are you looking for a replacement light? Low light? Medium light? This magically delicious fixture should produce for medium lighting: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00LI...1&keywords=finnex+clip+light&pi=AC_SX200_QL40 The only complaint I've read about it was the adjustment for the clamp.


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5w? I'm going to get replacement clamps, they made them with a plastic piece instead of ceramic somewhere in there so I can get new ones for free. I'll keep that in mind though...I have an empty ten and fifteen on my to do list :)
The weird thing about the staghorn is that it's not on the plants, just the wood, glass, and filter tube. The BBA was mostly on the java fern which is out of the tank now, and a couple of leaves of each plant. It's nothing crazy just still present in small quantities. The h2o2 helped the ferns but I pretty much annihilated the sword with a dip. Oops. One of the other affected plants I had in there was completely falling apart so I took it out. Don't remember what that one was called.
I finally did a little rescape and cutting today. I've been so ridiculously busy.
 
Eggheadfish said:
5w? I'm going to get replacement clamps, they made them with a plastic piece instead of ceramic somewhere in there so I can get new ones for free. I'll keep that in mind though...I have an empty ten and fifteen on my to do list :)
The weird thing about the staghorn is that it's not on the plants, just the wood, glass, and filter tube. The BBA was mostly on the java fern which is out of the tank now, and a couple of leaves of each plant. It's nothing crazy just still present in small quantities. The h2o2 helped the ferns but I pretty much annihilated the sword with a dip. Oops. One of the other affected plants I had in there was completely falling apart so I took it out. Don't remember what that one was called.
I finally did a little rescape and cutting today. I've been so ridiculously busy.
Click to expand...


LEDs don't use a lot of juice. I think the 30" Finnex FugeRay uses about 13w and the 30" Planted+ about 17w. So a 10" fixture using 5w sounds about right.
Nice that you can get a replacement. I had some plastic "rings" in a bathroom light fixture and they were subject to heat from the incandescent bulbs and began to off-gas. Smelled like sardines and dog food. Took a very long time to figure that out.
Here's a link for treating Staghorn algae. Primary cause appears to be high light and low CO2: http://www.aquascapingworld.com/algaepedia/full_view_algae.php?item_id=80


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Looks like fish/shrimp heaven in there. Tank, layout is balanced. ?? Keep up the good work.


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Looks like a happy place!!

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Some pics of the tank.
Also, added some at the end, new plants in another 15 gal courtesy of Fresh and Brooks. I don't think the downoi is going to make it :( It's all melty except for one leaf. And a couple pics from the 5g since I don't have a thread on that either.









 
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