Tank gone wild... Kind of...

[dapellegrini]

It has been a while since I posted here, thought it might be worth an update... I have been serious neglecting my 72 gallon for the past several months, except for a couple bouts of collectoritis where I needed to find more room to add plants... I have mostly been working on my new SW nano - another big learning curve for me:

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=132143

At some point I added some Taiwan Moss and Riccia and then just kind of let it all go wild. Interesting how little pieces of riccia have wedged into areas of moss, growing on top of clover with Ranunculus , HM and other plants all kind of growing in a big mess of plants. I do regularly remove leaves from the lace plant (maybe 50 leaves a week) and have started to trim the two stem plants that remain in the tank. Anyways, here are a ton of photos from a few minutes ago. I kinda like the "mounds" idea, and find it interesting how this kind of happened by itself. Not super clean, but hey, super low maintenance has to count for something!

Is this a yellow shrimp? I don't remember ever adding any ???

Here is one of my newest additions hangin out in the mess of plants. I think there is some needle-leaf java fern in there too...

All of my otos hang out together in the corner. You can see some of there here:

and the glass cat's like to hover around in the shadows:

The Sidthimunki's think it is time to eat:

One of my latest plant additions (you can see that I have had to resort to planting things on top of other things ;D )

And a bunch more shots to make the thread that much more interesting...

I forgot to mention the Blyxa has also gone out of control... not very attractive from the side .. I have a male and female dario dario couple that really like it though

Here are some picks of the Dario Dario's in and around their house of wild blyxa:

 

[theotheragentm]

Awesome. Thanks for sharing. When that gets cleaned up, we will be expecting plants for shipping in the barter/trade forum.

Where did you get the tank?

 

[Atl300zx]

that looks awesome, despite it being overgrown.

where did you find these plants?

I really like them.

 

[ingg]

pogostemon helferi - downoi.

Not real rare to find.


Awesome looking tank! I like the grown in look, personally, and think this looks fantastic.

 

[saltybob]

I Freaking love that tank! I never really was attracted by fresh water but latly i am wanting one. more and more. the green is looking good!

 

[rich311k]

Awesome tank as always.

 

[Purrbox]

Simply and utterly beautiful. I wish my tanks would look that nice after being neglected!!

 

[Taelen]

Gorgeous tank, but being a planted tank newbie I do have one question.

How does one clean the substrate/gravel vac a tank like this?

 

[rich311k]

You don't. I suck out a clump if I see it, but I pretty much just change water and wipe down the glass.

 

[dapellegrini]

Thanks ...

Downio has been on my list for a while and I couldn't resist getting some when I ran into it. Even though it had to be planted on top of the clover... Kinda like when I added some Crinum C. and it quickly ended up buried in moss and blyxa

I don't ever clean the gravel, just change the water each week. No need really. The clean-up critter, shrimp, snails, etc keep things stirred up and help with breakdown. The plants then absorb most of the waste... water changes take care of the rest.

 

[newfound77951]

Looks amazing! I have a similar jungle of Java Moss, Subwassertang and Hemianthus micranthemoides going on in my tank but it doesn't look nearly as good as yours does.

 

[dapellegrini]

I picked up that ADA tank in the other thread (link in my first post about my SW setup) from a LFS for about $100. I really like those tanks now and will be replacing this 72 bowfront with a 120-P ADA tank (65ish gallons) in the not too distant future. Thus some of the neglect.

 

[Atl300zx]

can i hire your services to fix my tank?

 

[norcalg]

Beautiful. I really like the overgrown, lushness of it.

~g

 

[Zezmo]

<salute>
That tank looks great!!!
Very nice pics too. The little Dario Dario are a favorite of my wifes. She really likes your tank too

 

[majolo]

WOW. The pics weren't loading for me yesterday, but I could tell from the comments this was worth coming back to, and how! Spectacular plants, and great fish too!

One question, what species is the lily(?) sticking up left of center? (The one where the hillstream loach is chilling out on the leaf in one of the closeups.)

 

[dapellegrini]

That is actually Hydrocotyle verticillata. When I got it I thought it would be a rather small plant but it has proven the opposite. I see heads pop-up in different places throughout the tank on a regular basis. When I added it, it was all of the left side, kinda in the shady area.

Thanks Zezmo! I used to have a little red Dario H. which was awesome. Picked up this male just a couple of weeks ago and he wasn't looking really good. His tail is growing back in and he has coupled off with the female in the tank. They are really cool little fish. You can get an idea of size in that picture where they are next to a Neon Tetra.

 

[crazyderik]

That looks sweet!
It dosnt look overgrown at all to me... I need to work a little on adding plants to my dank, I pretty much have all plastic right now.

 

[travis simonson]

Beautiful work Dan. That is some vicious pearling you've got going on there