Restoration of an Attention Deprived Tank

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fishfanatic

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It has been a long time since I have been active in the aquatic hobby. I have kept my tanks running and healthy, but they are not at their full potential. I have 2 tanks. A 7.9 gallon (fluval flora) it houses 1 killifish, lots of Java moss, dwarf baby tears, and dwarf hair grass. I also have a 90 gallon tank that houses: 3 Kerri tetras, 5 neon tetras, 2 fancy rosy barbs, 1 silver hatchet fish, 5 hliquen rasboras, 3 dwarf neon rainbows, 2 upside down catfish, 2 SAE, and 1 killifish. The 90 gallon is equipped with a Fluval FX5 and a Fluval 305, a 4 bulb T5-HO Catalina fixture, pressurized co2, and auto PPS pro dosers. As you will see in the picture this tank is nothing close to its potential and I am looking for Aquarium Advice's help to male it look better. Just recently I started using the CO2 and PPS pro (again). And the tank is having a bit of a hard time adjusting, I have started to notice some green spot algae :(. I will post a picture and I would appreciate constructive criticism form you experts of AA :D
 

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How bout painting the back or a background, restock your tank with all new fish, and add some type of root system/driftwood to give it more dimension

Edit* also maybe a very natural riverstone cave/cliff on one end of the tank
 
I like the idea of some driftwood (or something to give it depth). Any suggestions as to a website to order driftwood? (My local pet stores don't have any good driftwood). Also any ideas to some kind of plants that would help liven things up?
 
Nice to hear from you fishfanatic. I just restored some of my tanks as well. Just got done cleaning the filter on my 75 gallon that was last cleaned... maybe 4 months (or more) ago. I didn't have the heart to take a picture of the tank though.

I added KNO3 for the first time in many (many) months. We will see what happens.

I am looking forward to your progress. I know I will have my own issues to deal with.
 
rkilling1 said:
Nice to hear from you fishfanatic. I just restored some of my tanks as well. Just got done cleaning the filter on my 75 gallon that was last cleaned... maybe 4 months (or more) ago. I didn't have the heart to take a picture of the tank though.

I added KNO3 for the first time in many (many) months. We will see what happens.

I am looking forward to your progress. I know I will have my own issues to deal with.

We will just have to keep motivating eachother :)

I have noticed lately that my fluval FX5 is getting a lot of air stuck in it. I am wondering if the CO2 is 'off gassing' inside the filter. Has anyone else experienced this? Is there any way to avoid it from happening?
 
Coursair said:
I go peruse The Planted Tank for inspiration also Aquascaping World :)
My club members have some awesome tanks. Tom Barr is one of my club members. I just love looking at my tanks. I'm lazy though and go for low light/low tech tanks. But here is mine, messy but I like it.
Feeding time 10g Shrimp Jungle - YouTube

Messy nothing! I think that is a very nice tank! I love the plant combinations, they compliment eachother nicely. Also thread fins are some of my favorite fish (I have never had one in my tanks but they sure are pretty). If it isn't too much to ask can i get a list of some plants in your tank? One of my big problems is I don't know what kind of plants to get...
 
I have a lot of Crypts.
C. retrospiralis
C. lucens
Bolbitis (sp.?)
Bacopa caroliniana ?
Dwarf Red Tiger Lily
C. wendtii "Mi Oya" (2) center bronze plants
Ludwigia repens
Myriophyllium mattagrossense
Java Moss
Subwassertang
Fissidens fonatanus
Chain Sword
Floaters- Amazon Frogbit, Duckweed
Ludwigia "Red"
Moss ball
plus other stuff, several kinds of Moss
 
Both are beautiful. Like the Bonsai effect of the 7.9 gl. I would pay that some special attention as it has so much potential as a showpiece.
 
The dwarf red tiger Lilly really looks nice! Would the plants you listed above do alright with higher light?

It was mentioned earlier that 'high tech' tanks are a lot of work, I consider my tank 'high tech' but it doesn't seem to be that much work. Am I doing something wrong?
 
aquaponicpaw said:
Both are beautiful. Like the Bonsai effect of the 7.9 gl. I would pay that some special attention as it has so much potential as a showpiece.

I had this weird idea in my head to make the Java moss in the 7.9 look like a sea anemone, but it has turned out to look more like a tree. When you say "special attention" do you mean to trim it or what? (I love others opinions)
 
The dwarf red tiger Lilly really looks nice! Would the plants you listed above do alright with higher light?

It was mentioned earlier that 'high tech' tanks are a lot of work, I consider my tank 'high tech' but it doesn't seem to be that much work. Am I doing something wrong?

High Tech just means usually that plants grow a lot faster, so you have to really keep up on the maintenance and water changes and ferts.

My plants should do fine with higher light. The Ludwigias would get more red and the Tiger Lily would have more color. You can always plant low light plants "under" (next) to a fast growing plant so they get some shade.

I do PWCs and dose liquid ferts 1x weekly. I thin/trim my plants that day also. I can do 4 tanks in about an hour or two. But my tanks are all under 10g.
 
I hardly ever trim my plants in my 90 gallon. I will occasionally trim off dead or dieing leaves. My 7.9 (not really high tech) I have to trim about once every 2 weeks or so. Would my plants in the 90 gallon benefit from weekly trimming?
 
I hardly ever trim my plants in my 90 gallon. I will occasionally trim off dead or dieing leaves. My 7.9 (not really high tech) I have to trim about once every 2 weeks or so. Would my plants in the 90 gallon benefit from weekly trimming?

Trimming plants can make stem plants esp. get bushier, plus you can plant the tops and have twice the plants faster. I have to trim my stems weekly as my Ludwigias hit the top every week and my Duckweed has to be thinned out or it shades out my tanks. I don't trim Crypts of course.

You don't have to whack the whole tank the same day. You can do a section at a time.

Here is a video that I found kinda cool:
http://youtu.be/5b0NGJkPGfY
 
All I can say Fishfanatic is I wish my tank looked like that. lol I guess for my taste maybe you could fill in that 90 with some more plants but then again I would be extatic just to have one that looked like that!! I'll follow along and eagerly wait to see what you end up doing. Good luck!!
 
Neat video!
My plants don't grow near as fast as yours, but then again I only have Java ferns and a few amazon swards. I used to have an orchid Lilly but it died when I turned my lights down and the co2 off. I will post a picture of my tank when it was in its "glory days". (Not really that glorious, but I was happy with it). The orchid Lilly grew really fast, it would sprout several new leaves every week. Is there any chance of it coming back? I left the bulbs of it in the tank and they are just sitting right were they were when they died...
 

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misterc007 said:
All I can say Fishfanatic is I wish my tank looked like that. lol I guess for my taste maybe you could fill in that 90 with some more plants but then again I would be extatic just to have one that looked like that!! I'll follow along and eagerly wait to see what you end up doing. Good luck!!

Thanks! But trust me it looks way better in the picture than in real life. The picture doesn't show the algae all over the plants leaves. I am also exited to see what I decide to do ;)
 
I had this weird idea in my head to make the Java moss in the 7.9 look like a sea anemone, but it has turned out to look more like a tree. When you say "special attention" do you mean to trim it or what? (I love others opinions)

Not necessarily trim it, But sculpt it. It Screams for an interesting Rock and maybe a piece of DW. I don't know what you do for your JM but I'd say it's show quality.
 
aquaponicpaw said:
Not necessarily trim it, But sculpt it. It Screams for an interesting Rock and maybe a piece of DW. I don't know what you do for your JM but I'd say it's show quality.

I would like a little more info. How to sculpt it and what not. As far as my care for the tank it is not taken care of very well. For like 2-3 months there was no fish in the tank just some snails. I left the tank running but I didn't do any pwc or anything I just replaced evaporated water (shame on me!) But then the moss and DHG started to grow. I didn't/don't add any furts. I do have some co2 in the tank though I used to run my pressurized co2 on it but then recently I started using the Fluval 20 co2 system (came with the fluval flora) it seems to work well.
 
I have started to notice some weird looking snails in my tank. Their shells lay flat against the surface they are on. I have never seen anything like them. Could they possibly be baby nerite snails? My nerites have been laying lots of eggs. (sorry bout the terrible pictures)
 

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