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

[mr funktastic]

thankyou everyone. i will be adding some stem plants later this week hopefully. if i do it should look much nicer. the huge hygro is an amazing plant. it grows spectacularily under any conditions and the colour and shape of it is really unique. i havent seen many other plants with that larger of a laef that grows upward not out. as for the moss... the stuff just wont stop lol. waterpond - i have plenty of extra but i am a little short on cash right now. when i scrape up some extra cash i will ship some out to you no problem. it will only be a few buck for delivery. where exactly are u in ontario? thanks for all the compliments

 

[ryan]

if you are still looking for h cuba i can get for you but itll be 3 weeks since thats when my big als gets it in im picking some up for my new 10g and 0ld one.just tell me your adress and ill ship it.

 

[mr funktastic]

actually i just got word from another member about sending me some. but thankyou alot for the offer. i will have updated pics on either thursday night or friday morning of the tank with the cuba in it and some more stem plants. i am super excited!!!

 

[ryan]

cant wait too see it

 

[Glenc]

Looking good mr funktastic!

 

[mr funktastic]

alright my green water has subsided for now. it is still a little murkey as u can see in the pictures. but i got some new plants in there so i thought i would update. i got HC and glosso. crypt parva and a few other crypts. some l.repens rubin i believe. and some other plant that looks kinda like combomba. i will be getting alot more this week aswell. here it is!

pearling christmas moss

with the flash. never done a pic like this before lol

pearling glosso

i love this plant. i think it is just l.repens... i am not sure.

 

[Glenc]

Hey mr funk, looks amazing! The cambomba like plant I gave you is Limphola sessiflora, looks like Cambomba but is way easier to grow. You'll have a ton of it soon. Very pretty green plant. That other pretty little plant is the same as the other stuff I gave you, it is Ludwigia repens. The brownish crypt is undulata. The huge one is crypt becketti. Your glosso is pearling more than mine! Great job!

 

[mr funktastic]

i just redid the co2 caps with the fitting u gave me glen and it seems to be working better. i must have had a small leak somewhere. i will hopefully ge getting plants from travis either tomorrow or thursday. will update again then

 

[travis simonson]

The plants are on their way via Global Priority I'm not sure how long it will take but you will hopefully get them soon.

 

[mr funktastic]

i will be checking the mail evryday with the hopes they will be there!! i think i have some major rearranging to do once i get your plants. the long peice of wood across the tank is really dividing the tank and i dont like the layout of the plants behind it. just gotta figure out what i can do with it.

 

[Glenc]

Hey mr funktatic, lets see some pics of all those new plants!

 

[mr funktastic]

sorry glen but still have an annoying cloud in my water. its not even really green but like just a haze. u can actually see tiny particles floating around in the tank. i thought it was ick for a minute but the tank is healthy. i have been doing water changes to see if i can get rid of it. if not i will black out and then reset all my levels. i think since i have been dosing flourish trace it is raing my macros to high. i think like your water mine is also very hard and has all the macros in it so it casued the algea outbreak. but unfortunatly untill i get those test kits i wont know for sure. this tank is confusing lol. i will work on getting a pictures for everyone though as soon as possible.

 

[Glenc]

It will be confusing for a while, keep at it. You will get to know your tank and your water the deeper you get into this planted tank thing. Hard water gives you good levels of micros, not macros, mostly Calcium and Magnesium. You may still have to dose iron, though I don't. Good luck getting your water clear, keep at it!

 

[mr funktastic]

i think i am going to black out this weeknd and stay away from the trace dosing. i am also going to keep my nitrates lower at around 10 in hopes i have decent phosphate levels. thats the one u need to balance with nitrates right? its like a 10:1 ratio? i will post pics on monday hopefully if the black out goes good.

 

[Glenc]

10:1 N03 to P04 is great for keeping red plants red, though in high light with lots of plants it's harder to maintain your N03 at this level. It can slip down on you pretty quick. If it slips to far, algea will rear it's ugly head. I mix my KN03 with 250ml water, I just prefer it that way. I add about 2ml of Gregs KNO3 every other day, which is aprox. 4ppm. in a 20 gallon. Keeps me at a constant 10ppm N03. I figured that amount out by tirelessly monitoring and testing my tank, but then, I am a bit fanatical about these things! It is easier to dose in higher amounts as you won't bottom out on anything to quick. To start, I would dose maybe 20:1:20 or 20:1.5:20 NO304:K. Do this till you get the feel for your tank, then fine tune it to get your specific plants to do what you want them to, like in my case, turn red! Your plants will tell you how your doing. Also, I am using the EI method of dosing though I do moniter things with more testing than I probably need to!

 

[mr funktastic]

alrighty people here the pictures are!!!!
a really good shot of my ghost shrimp.

crypt... willisi or parva i am not sure

a beautiful plant that travis gave me called Limnophila aromatica. it is actually a beautiful red and purple colour but it just came out of a black out.

christmas moss growing thick as usual

Blyxa japonica thanks to travis also

java and christmas looking all purty lol

crypt.... wendetti i think thanks to glenc

crypt willisi(i cant spell lol)

another one from travis i believe it is a Hydrocotyle species

and finally a whole tank shot. the l.repins rubin and the combomba look a like(i am soory glen u have told me what this plant is a 100 times lol) are thanks to glenC. aswell as the beautiful HC carpet forming.

i think that will keep u picture happy for a while lol. i cant wait for it to filling in a little more.

 

[travis simonson]

Looking good man I like the placement of the plants. I can't wait to see it start to fill in either.

 

[rich311k]

Nice job Mr. Funk. Looks great.

 

[JustOneMore20]

Looks beautiful Mr. Funk! I'm jealous of the L. aromatica! I have one little stem that Newfound gave me and it hasn't grown too much. The tank really looks good!

 

[mr funktastic]

the l aromatica is growing suprisingly well for me. there are atleast 5 new stems growing out the side of the shoots that i already have. once they are a few more inches i will cut them off and replat so it grows thick. i am going to do the same with the combomba look a like one. i want the cyrpts to fill in alot infront of the stem plants so there isnt that empty spot at the back behine the long peice of wood covered in moss. i also want to try some different stem plants to get the right effect but i will wait to se what i can do with the ones that i have.