My planted tank

[ASF07003]

29 gal
Light: finnex planted +
Substrate: eco complete with black sand cap
Filters: HOB-AC 30, internal- shark 400

Hard scape: some stones, driftwood.

Fauna: guppies, 5 zebra danios, 3 amano shrimp, pair of otos, nerite snails, assasin snail, random ramshorn snails all from a 20 gal that I tore down.

Flora: ludwigia repens, rotala indica, bacopa, water wisteria, hygro corybosa, banana lily plant.

Low tech regimen: daily excel dosing, Seachem liquid ferts 3times/week

Tank started a fish less cycling on 2/20. Cycled using ammonia and some biomax from a 20 gal that I tore down to give to my sister. Cycled in 3 wk.

Tank in March (the banana plant) hadn't arrived yet, so I had some anubias that I was planning to give to a coworker while she was cycling a 55 gal African cichlid tank)




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[ASF07003]

As of last month, before a major trimming.




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[Mattfinn]

Woah that's crazy growth you got there. Good job. Noticed the little dinosaurs too

 

[ASF07003]

Yeah. When I was setting it up, I asked my daughters (ages 5 and 4) what they thought of the set up. Their response: Dino forest! So I took some of their old dinosaurs and had them place them around the front of the tank.
My wife's reaction: it needs a UFO a la Land of the Lost, lol!


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[Mattfinn]

No I think it's awesome. If there was like this giant trex head poking out from behind the "forest" down on the other dinosaurs it would be pretty cool. Haha

 

[ASF07003]

Thanks for the kind words. We have a good time looking at the tank and what they're up to, even caught both the snails & Amanos knock down the dinos!


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[ASF07003]

Trimmed a mess of ludwigia and water wisteria. Rotala seems to be doing well, and the water lettuce has doubled in # since I put them in ~1 month ago. I think I'm paying for lack of root tabs near my bacopa as they grow taller but lose their bottom leaves; either that or it's a plant that does better with co2 rather than glut. (My wife likes to smell yeast for bread not aquaria)
Anyway, FTS below:



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[fishenthusiast]

Yeah. When I was setting it up, I asked my daughters (ages 5 and 4) what they thought of the set up. Their response: Dino forest! So I took some of their old dinosaurs and had them place them around the front of the tank.
My wife's reaction: it needs a UFO a la Land of the Lost, lol!


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It's always good to try to get children into the the hobby. The plants are looking nice. Good job!


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[ASF07003]

Thanks fishenthusiast!

I figured that they're getting old enough for chores and such, there's plenty to do to keep our fish happy and thriving.
Also testing the water is very cool segue for some basic bio, chem and physics.



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[ASF07003]

Started noticing that the banana plant was producing two types of leaves: completely submersed ones and those lily pad looking ones.
I researched a bit here in AA and noted that when this occurred to other lily plants (nymphaea) one simply trimmed the shoots headed to the surface near the base of the plant.
Same trimming works so far on my banana plant. FYI


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[ASF07003]

happy oto

FTS


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[ASF07003]

Major trimming of red ludwigia (3 dozen stems!), removed some whole stems of water wisteria (8 large stems !) & 2 dozen bits of water lettuce. Some headed to feed rather voracious goldfish (pair of comets in a 40 gal, thanks AA when he asked for advice!) and some to some African ciclids in a 50 gal tank.
Also grouped the hydro on the right as the banana plant is making some rather large leaves. The rotala seems to really brighten and redden at least 4 inches from this light. Trimmed it and planted it in the rear right in hopes of getting some nice red in that area. Threw in some root tabs near the bacopa and rotala (finally, kept forgetting about them).

FTS




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[ASF07003]

Seeing some new buds in the rotala. For a stem plant, it's quite slow growing.


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[Magic mike]

That banana plant is sweet. Gotta see if I can find one for my tank.

 

[ASF07003]

That banana plant is sweet. Gotta see if I can find one for my tank.

Thanks man. Interesting plant. I seem to get a new leaf every 2 wk with this set up.


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[ASF07003]

The fam went away for a week and dues to lack of fertilizers, got lots of holes in my hydro, water wisteria, rotala and banana plant. My ludwigia and bacopa were covered in green spot algae. Bonehead move on my part: forgot to turn off the timer for lights. Oh well, at least my fauna are accounted for. On a plus, my packages from GLA (dry ferts!) and Amazon (more glut!) were at my doorstep.
Spent the weekend making solutions for ferts: 4 bottles on hand from the last of the liquid ferts. 1 bottle for iron, one for kno3, one for trace, and last for po4. New schedule for this batch of ferts will be 3 times a wk, with daily addition of glut. No change in photoperiod just yet as I spent the past week spot treating the entire tank, trimming back A LOT of stems and planting some smaller plants in the front. Found some clover fern and glosso for the front and some nice looking purple cobamba for the back. Hopefully the banana plant springs back.
Interesting observation: one of my hydro stems is looking like a palm tree. Has anyone seen the before? Plant is other wise getting taller and replaced its old leaves fairly quickly over the weekend. My other stems have more of that bushy mini pineapple tree look to them.
Anyway, here is the FTS. We'll see how the plants spring back from a massive cleanup.



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[ASF07003]

Been a month on dry ferts, EI dosing. Growth has been slow but steady. Found some Alternanthera reineckii at the LFS along with a very basic co2 setup. Looks like I'm getting into gas along with ferts!! I'll probably have to dose via pps. Pics probably over the weekend.


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