55 gallon makeover day! Full tank shot, 11/11/07

[Zezmo]

The aquariumplants.com subsrate will strip all the Kh out of your water. I have a tank that has been using it for a year, and it still takes the water to 0kh within a week of water changes.

[majolo]

And of course after I post about how nice the Nymphoides is doing, I get home and...

The loaches decided to have a snack. Well, we'll see if they decide to leave it alone. Oh well...

On a brighter note, my Anubias package finally got here, later than expected but in fine shape:

That's A. congensis in the top left, and the rest are a bunch of different varieties of A. barteri.

The aquariumplants.com subsrate will strip all the Kh out of your water. I have a tank that has been using it for a year, and it still takes the water to 0kh within a week of water changes.

Thanks for the heads up. I'm going to test a batch of the substrate in some tank water. I'll try to post the results when I see any effect.

[majolo]

Just a little update. The makeover hasn't happened yet, but the Hygro is out, so here is the tank without it:

The floating mass is Rotala rotundifolia, which I may or may not keep.

The plant order is in, here's the list:
25x Crypt. crispatula 'balansae'
10x Hydrocotyle leucocephala
3x Crypt. wendtii v. 'Tropica'
1x Crypt. lutea
1x Nymphaea zenkeri (red)
1x Aponogeton boivianus

And preliminary results on the KH experiment:
A small container of tank water last Thursday tested at 16 degrees KH. After adding the substrate, 5 days later KH is at 7.5 degrees. So there is definitely an effect. The container has about an inch of substrate in less than 4 inches of water, so presumably the effect may be less in the actual tank where the ratio by volume will be less.

[majolo]

And the plants have arrived:


Sorry the picture quality isn't that good. Top row is Crypt wendtii 'Tropica' x3, Apon. boivianus, and Nymphaea zenkeri 'red'.
Bottom row is Crypt lutea, Hydrocotyle leucocephala x10 bunches, and Crypt crispatula 'balansae' x25. They're all sitting in the tank, won't bother planting until the big tank move (this weekend, I hope!)

I love the crinkled leaves on the balansae and the Apon. I really hope the balansae grows well, I think this could be a great backdrop. The Hydrocotyle is sort of disappointing... On the one hand, I ordered 10 units, and that turns out to be 10 bunches, so I've got like 100 stems here. On the other hand, each stem has maybe 1 or 2 leaves, and no hint of roots... On the third hand some of the leaves are surprisingly huge, like 3 inches across. Didn't expect that. Anyway, I'll clearly have to let them grow out a while before it starts looking good. I may take a bunch and put them in my Endler's/RCS tank too.

[majolo]

Okay, so today was the day of the makeover. The room change didn't happen as it was too hard to level in the living room. But the substrate swap and planting happened, and here are some pics!

Here's the holding tanks for the fish and plants during the draining:

(Don't know why I had the intake in there... The filter media was kept wet in a separate container.)

Here's the substrate and hardscape in:


Here it is planted and filled:

The right side has balansae planted as the background, not very tall yet. There are a couple swords in the middle, a Nymphoides Taiwan in middle front, a Nymphaea zenkeri Red in front left, and many Anubias scattered around.

Here's the right side after I put a bunch of floating Hydrocotyle in:


And here's the left side:


I'll post a full tank shot once the water clears up and stuff. Here's a side shot showing some cloudiness:

[majolo]

Here's an update now that things have settled in. I ended up trading in my BN pleco since he was way too fond of throwing the new substrate around with his tail (I kind of thought it might happen, this stuff is pretty light). He was uprooting half the stuff and burying the other half...

Here's a full tank shot:


I have to pick a new exposure adjustment now that I've got a shady half of the tank. Anyway, it doesn't look like too much, especially as the crypts are melting a bit, but I think it accomplishes what I wanted. The bottom third is nice and dense, and it's fun to see the loaches come popping out of odd places in the driftwood.

[Atl300zx]

i really like your choice of plants, looks good.

[Zezmo]

The tank is looking really nice. Nice selection of driftwood.

I'll be interested to hear what your experience is over time using the the aquariumplants.com substrate.