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MMantelli

Aquarium Advice Addict
Joined
Sep 14, 2012
Messages
2,259
Location
Central Florida
My wife's 20 round one of plants. Well here it is what do you all think. I would like to know the good the bad and the ugly. Does it look like I'm doing anything wrong? I'm a big boy I can handle constructive criticism.



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The setup


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Baby tears. Dwarf or not I'm not sure what do you think?

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Marsilia sp. "Water Clover or Water Shamrock"

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Amazon Sword.

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Unknown there's been a small debate weather its an anubias or a water lily. Hopefully someone can clarify. I have more pics of it if needed.

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The light and its info.according to current USA it has a par rating of ~70@24" and ~250@6" or so they say.

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Diy co2. Seems to work great. In a few months I might switch to pressurized when I add more plants.

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The fertilizers for now. Once I have more plants I'm going to do the pps-pro method.

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Filtration is a Fillstar XpM just mechanical and biological untill I find out weather or not the API bio-chem zorb is plant friendly.



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The stock is just a single 3" Male? Gold Labidochromis.

Hope yall enjoy and I really would like to know what yall think.
 
One thing for sure......you're certainly gonna have to rehome the yellow lab as your plants will become tasty snacks...the baby tears will probably be first on the menu...also think I wouldn't bother with the bio-chem zorb,just not a necessity. outside of that the tank looks great...nice job
 
One thing for sure......you're certainly gonna have to rehome the yellow lab as your plants will become tasty snacks...the baby tears will probably be first on the menu...also think I wouldn't bother with the bio-chem zorb,just not a necessity. outside of that the tank looks great...nice job

Thank you. And yes I know he has been eyeballing them. I keep him well fed but I'm sure sooner or later MUNCH haha he will be going into my 55 when he is big enough to survive with my other cichlids then I'm gonna do a community tank.
 
Oh and any advice on the care of some of the plants would be appreciated mainly the water shamrock and the baby tears. Thanks.
 
The water clover is in it's emmersed form. You need to cut it back almost down to the substrate and within a week usually it will already be growing back in it's immersed (underwater) form.
 
The water clover is in it's emmersed form. You need to cut it back almost down to the substrate and within a week usually it will already be growing back in it's immersed (underwater) form.

Oh wow I just pm'd you about that plant haha. The lfs I got it from had it immersed. And I don't know how long they had it like that so cut it like what 1/4" from the roots there just barley buried and thank you. Any ideas on the baby tears I belive there dwarf is that correct?
 
Oh wow I just pm'd you about that plant haha. The lfs I got it from had it immersed. And I don't know how long they had it like that so cut it like what 1/4" from the roots there just barley buried and thank you. Any ideas on the baby tears I belive there dwarf is that correct?


If the roots are very shallow and the store had them immersed just let them be for now and give them a few weeks to establish well.

As for the HC/Dwarf baby tears they need high light, good ferts, and either CO2 or liquid carbon.
 
If the roots are very shallow and the store had them immersed just let them be for now and give them a few weeks to establish well.

As for the HC/Dwarf baby tears they need high light, good ferts, and either CO2 or liquid carbon.

I belive I have all 3 I dosed the flourish and leaf zone as directed. I put a root tab in the substrate under all the plants. The par rating I got for the light in the OP are the numbers the manufacturer gave me the light is 2.5" from the water and the substrate is 13 inches below the surface of the water do I have enough light or should I get something with a concentrated beam directly above them.
 
They don't require higher light so I wouldn't move them it's just they can grow more compact and slightly faster in higher light. Mind you they are slow growers so you have to have alot of patience with them.
 
They don't require higher light so I wouldn't move them it's just they can grow more compact and slightly faster in higher light. Mind you they are slow growers so you have to have alot of patience with them.

Yes I have heard that they grow slow my lfs gets them regularly so I'm gonna get one each next two rounds of planting how tall do they get? I have my light set from 130-530 turn off for an hour then on again from 630-1030 to total 8 hours with a 1 hr midday break and for the co2 I plug the powerhead (used as a diffuser works great btw) in 30 min before the lights come on and unplug it as soon as the lights go off at night I'm getting a steady 1bps. Should I adjust any of it?

Oh and to add to the OP
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Hybrid Hardy Aponogenton Bulbs been in there for 3 days now and already have a couple sprouting. There in screen untill they are ready to either be weighted down or tied to something. Only problem is I'm getting conflicting ways to care for them some say they will grow and die and to toss them at that point some say to trim them some say to let them flower then pollinate them does anyone have any experiance in keeping theese long term.
 
They will grow according to the light, the higher the light the more compact the growth. So can't say how tall they will get in your tank. As for CO2, I don't use it so you might want to start a thread asking if you need need to increase your bps.
 
They will grow according to the light, the higher the light the more compact the growth. So can't say how tall they will get in your tank. As for CO2, I don't use it so you might want to start a thread asking if you need need to increase your bps.

Your 220 doesn't have co2? But its so beautiful. I'm guessing you dose some sort of co2 substitute. And from what my co2 indicator reads the usual 1bps everyone mentions seems to be doing the job nicely. And thanks for all the advice and congrats on the TOTM (y) I seen the badge under it abated when I was on my computer earlier.
 
Thanks! No CO2 only liquid carbon!

No problem have you ever done pps-pro? And do you know of a website to learn about plant deficiencies when I am fully planted I'm going to start dosing that way but I would like to leard about all that stuff beforehand so I can adjust what I would need to. Also when I run out of root take I'm going to switch to osmocote and make diy tabs I think I heard you can take 5-7 pellets per ice tray and freeze them in ro or distilled water and just stick them in the substrate that way unless I can grind them to a powder and figure a way to bind them into tabs. I think ill start a thread on that.
 
Woooooo!!!! Did my first water change since the addition of the plants and there all pearling. I even swished water passed them to see if it was just air bubbles sticking to them and the dwarf baby tears put out more bubbles. :dance:



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