20 gallon tear down and rebuild.11/30/06

[mr funktastic]

alright here it goes!!! what a event it was. lets start with what i came home to. i have been away since last friday. i just got home today on wednesday to green water worse than i have ever seen. no algea on the plants just really bad green water. so i didnt care all that much since i was completly tearing down the tank. i started by emptying water into a spare 5 gallon that i had. i then tried to catch as many fish as i could without tearing out plants so i didnt disturb the water. i got most of them out and then started removing plants to make it easier to catch fish. i got them all out then started removing plants into a bucket. 2 buckets later i had them all out. i then had to refine them and get out all the crap from when i got bba. i was then down to 1 bucket lol. i took the tank outside and cleaped it all out. scrubbed all the algea and scraped all the stubborn crap off. then went in the eco complete. i wanted to add more hardscaping to the tank to allow more shaping. so i added a peice of driftwood that was branch shaped and a rock to attach moss to. so i tied a bunch of moss to the driftwood and rock and placed them in the tank. i set everything up the way i wanted and then added water. i filled it up 3/4 of the way then added in my plants. i have hygro polysperma, bacopa, java moss, and a crypt i think. i forget the others right now. once it was filled i played around a little and got it to where i like it. i am looking for a ground cover right now and then i will be done. also some nice red stem plants. i will be looking around and hopefully get some. so i have talked enough and here is the tank.

so ya i think thats it for now and i will keep u updated.

 

[rich311k]

Looks good. Nice job. I love your moss.

 

[czcz]

Good luck! Will be neat to see this layout fill in and your plants look great over the black substrate. *Love* the pic of the emersed growth.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Looking good....

 

[HiFi]

I like the new layout. The branch shaped wood will look sweet when its mossy.
Which ground cover are you leaning towards?
Nice Work.

 

[mr funktastic]

i am leaning towards h.cuba but i also like the grass type plants. i love riccia but it doesnt have roots do that is out and glosso the same thing. the big problm is finding it. it is just to hard to find near me. i am waiting for members to post it for trade or free so i can get some. glen offered me some h.cuba but not untill it grows in so i may be waiting a while. i am going to big als tomorrow so i might get lucky. czcz wht do you mean by emersed growth? i still cant get over how big that one plant is. it is like 30" tall lol the moss on the pot is christmas moss and on the wood is java. on the rock is a mixture of both. the java moss grows soo fast it is unbelievable. i have never seen anything like it. it will take over that rock and wood in no time.

 

[Glenc]

You've been a busy guy! Tank looks great, like the new layout. The HC in my 10 gallon is filling in nicely, if you can't find any I will have some for you soon. I should warn you, I have a few ramshorn snails in all my tanks. My loaches get rid of most of them, but there are still a few kicking around. They like to hang out in the HC, though they don't seem to bother it. If your phobic about snails, you may not want my HC. Good luck, will be watching your tank fill in.

 

[azn_fishy55]

HC would look REALLY nice if you had it in the foreground and I'd try to have the moss cover the whole outside of the pot because the pot's color is too bright and distracting.On the rock in the right fourground try to attach the moss more firmly as when it grows out it will look more bushy(if you want it to look like that).HTH

 

[mr funktastic]

the moss on the rock is attached pretty tight and there is a mix of both christmas and java moss on it becasue i want to see the difference between them. the christmas moss is covering the pot and grows alot slower than the java so it will take a bit longer to fill in. i want to plant the whole front with h cuba then get a ;arger foreground plants for the back like star grass or a new plant i found that i really like called cryptocoryne parva. i want the moss to blend with the h.cuba on the ground to make a smooth transitions between them. i dont mind the snails glen since i have a few myself. i am going to get a few zebra loaches tomorrow. i cleared out alot of snails when i switched everything over. i also added about 10 mts to the tank. whenever u are ready to ship it just pm me. i am going away this weekend and wont be back till monday. then i am leaving thursday to go to pei and wont be back untill the following monday. my parents are watching the tank while i am gone so i hopw nothing goes terribly wrong. i will be lowering the wattage before i go away so i dont have any problems. i will leave it at 2 wpg with co2 to avoid any problems. i hope it all goes well. i have a question though. everyone that i have read about who added eco complete said it clouded there water. i didnt have any clouding at all. it was crystal clear from the moment i added water. i was very suprised by that.

 

[mr funktastic]

well i didnt manage to get to big als today. i was a little frusturated by that but i will be going next week for sure at some point. i moved my hagen ladder under my AC so once they travel up the ladder they pop out the top and get sucked up by the filter. it is definatly getting dissolved now. i also replace the hagen bottle with a 2 litre juice bottle so i get more co2 production. i will be gone untill monday so i hope everything goes good while i am away. hoping for lots of growth. i will post pics on monday so u can see like a 5 day update. have a good weekend everyone!! its gonna be a party for me its my stepdads b-day and canada day all in one.

 

[czcz]

Have a good time. Emersed or emergent means the plant is growing out of water, so that great Hygro has emersed growth. I may be wrong, but I believe yours shedding leaves from the submerged stem is common, because the plant focusses all its energy on the emergent growth. So cool. I'm trying hard to get growth like that and am not even close.

 

[mr funktastic]

lol the funny thing about that plant is that i wasnt trying. i had planted it a while ago and it grew to the top and i thought it would stop. i looked beind the light a few days ago, i have a custom hood that sticks up like 5 or so inches then i had something sitting on it that was fairly tall so i didnt realize it had grown out of the aquarium. the stem on it is thicker than a pencil and it actually has like 15 plants growing out of it. i dont want it anymore it is far to large for me and grows way to quickly. anyone interested? lol all the plants in my 55 i am getting rid of. the last pic is all the plants that are going.

 

[mr funktastic]

alright so here is a 9 day update. not to much happend and i didnt really expect it to. the moss filled in a little and my plants are starting to catch. the hygro in the back by the hagen ladder is growing all red leaves now not the green like before. i moved the laddder under my filter so all the escaping bubbles are sucked up and diffused completly. i still havent been able to check for co2 levels since i havent gotten the right kit yet. so here are some pictures

 

[mr funktastic]

alright i am back from vacation!!! i came home to 3 sparkling cleen tanks. i have complete faith in my parents now. not only didi my mom keep all my fish alive she actually called someone to ask why my water went cloudy and got the right information to cover the tank and do a black out for a few days. and she didi a water change!!! i was completly floored by it all lol. so anyway i am back and i thought i would update. the tank looks healthy and everything seems to be growing nice. 2 stems of cabomba and 1 small stem of... i forget but they didnt make the transition from the change. other than that the moss seems to have really grabbed hold and is growing well, they reached out and grabbed the peice i didnt attach any to so i just tied it all down so it didint look to wild. it is covering just the way i had hoped it would. i am still looking for some nice stem plants to add to the backround to fill things ion a little and am just waiting to hear back from someone who might be sending me some. anyway without further waiting here it is. not as much changed as i had hoped.

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j141/rustyshackleferd/eco%20complete/complete2.jp[IMG]
here is my newest additon to the tank to take care of the few last remaining ramshorns. he was only 2 bucks!!! what a beauty.
[img]https://www.aquariumadvice.com/attachments/photobucket/img_671509_3_e2ed8917919792a891a004e863527aee.jpg

 

[mr funktastic]

well i havent updated this ina while but thats becasue i havent done anything!!! i still didnt get any stem plants casue i am dirt poor at the moment lol. i am waiting ona shipment from some really nice members though so i will be flooded in no time. the moss went nuts in this tank and i have been pulling it off like crazy and throwing it in other tank. i think the xmas moss took steriods casue it went nuts. the branch peice of driftwood is completly covered now. i moved the big plant that was infront of the driftwood behind the rock in the front right. and i moved the giant hygro to the back left becasue it sprouted 2 new shoots and was getting huge. so here it is without further waiting...

lots of moss

l.repens i think. it all died when i put the stems in originally casue i think they were grown emersed

super thick Xmas moss

huge and getting huger giant hygro lol

amazing colour on the top of the hygro

there it is i hope u all like it. compare the moss to the earlier pictures to see the difference.

 

[Mosaic]

I LOVE it! It looks so natural. I particularly love the moss everywhere. My attempts to hide a flower pot that way weren't so spectacular.

 

[czcz]

Man, that Hygro and moss look great.

 

[WaterPond]

Great job, i love the moss. I can never find moss of any kind at any of my LFS's. I love the look of the chrismas moss. I am going to keep my eye out for some.

 

[rich311k]

Looking good. Mr. Funk. I love the look.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Looking very good.....