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

[mr funktastic]

lol nah i just threw that moss in there so it has some room to grow. i dont think i will be doing anything with it. i will just give away and sell the moss. some to the local fish store and some to some lucky members. thanks for offering though. oh and i finally figured out my phosphate problem. i remixed my batches and realised that the potassium was a browing colour when mixed compared tot he phosphate which was clear... then i realised that both my previous mixes were clear lol so i was dosing like 20 or 30 ppm of phosphates. over and over again. u cant overdose potassium i kept telling myself lol. well i fixed that soa bucnh more water changes without dosing "pottassium" and i should be good to go.

 

[Glenc]

Glad you got the dosing thing figured out, and your tank looks amazing! You did a ton of work in there, bet it took you a while. You are now fully infected with aquascaping sickness, welcome to the re-arranging club! Your layout is really good, lots of nice colour mix, will be stunning when it grows in a bit. Congratulations.

 

[mr funktastic]

thanks glen. for everything

 

[mr funktastic]

ok... quick update. seems like my phosphates are dropping off finally. around 2.5 now. i more water change and i should be good to go. glosso is already starting to spread. alot of it got uprooted by my loach but otherwise it seems planted. the l.repems rubin is groing great and has amazing colour. same with all the other plants except fo the limpholia aromatic. its toast. just didnt seem to want to survive in my tank. i will be replacing it later this week. and here are the pics!!

 

[Glenc]

Wow, what a shot of that L repens rubin. Beautiful colour, mine dosn't look like that. I'm gonna make that one my new desk top background. Nice work, your tank is looking great

 

[mr funktastic]

lol thanks glen. i used a photo program to fix the blurryness of the pic but besides that it is just really healthy now lol. my green water is subsiding and i can see the light at the end of the fert dosing tunnel lol. i will make my EI rutine after my phosphates are back down to 1. any suggestions on what plant i can use to fill in the back left corner? once i remove the limpholia aromatica it will be a fairly big hole to fill. oh here is a pic of my ram that i tweaked a little to make it look nicer. i only changed it to make it look like th actually fish does to me. i could have went more extream and made it look fake and really colourful but i just wanted u to see what i do. here he is. this is the backround for my computer right now. though that l.repens is mighty tempting lol.

 

[newfound77951]

Looks awesome! What lights you got on there?? I'm staring at my low-light desk tank with contempt now.....ah, the things I could do with more light....

 

[TwoHobbies]

WoW.....Funk that really is a great job. Is the color on the L.Repens from the high phosphates, or your light combo's?

 

[mr funktastic]

i think it is a combination of a few things. low nitrates - they never get above 15. i dont think it is the high phosphates because it was red before the phosphates sky rocketed. and last but not least... my water. everything turns red in my tank. i actually am getting sick of it. i have some bacopa in there that is starting to turn red. i just cant seem to keep things green lol. i have some C.parva that is turning a golden hue which i dont want lol i want green lol. even my b japonica is red lol i just cant win. my lights also playa big part. i believe that the higer k rating bulbs i have are helping the reds. i have an 18000 k powerglo bulb aswell as 1 9500k lightning rod bulb. and then 2 6500K lifeglo bulbs. but 4 WPG of t-8 light can really add up to alot over a 20 gal. my ballst is also made to support up to 48" bulbs and i am only running 24" bulbs. this is not overdriving but the ballast is really able to push the maximum amout of light from the bulbs. plus for colour the powerglo bulb does wonders. its just makes blue and reds explode. loo at the ram... that is honesltly what he looks like everyday lol.

 

[maxwell1295]

Awesome pics! Love the GBR pic.....he looks incredible. I am just getting to the point where I can grow some reds in my tank. I've always had problems in the past. Maybe not enough CO2, not enough light, or a nitrate/phosphate imbalance. Whatever it was, it looks a lot better now....not as good as yours though.

Keep up the good work!

 

[mr funktastic]

thanks maxwell!! i personally think i am lucky for the reds. there is no logical reason for why they are so red lol. my ferts are out of balance and i am sure my co2 isnt all that great. i think it is just my water in general. kinda like glenC. we live kinda close to each other so our water trates may be similiar and casue the red. the b.japonica is a great example for this. it just simply turns red. i can stop it. my phosphate were at zero and it was red then they were sky high at like 20-30 ppm and it was still red. my nitrates were at 0 and it was red then i bumped them up to 15 and still red lol. from no potassium to lots fo potassium lol nothing seems to matter. my growth isnt all that impressive though. things just dont seem to be growing fast enough. i think once i balance my ferts that will change though. the only plant i havent been able to grow yet l.aromatica. i was very dissapointed to watch it melt away. i will try it again though. if i can get ahold of travis simonson. i have been waiting forever for him to come back online here. i owe him some money from shipping but i need his adress lol. very hard man to get ahold of.

 

[mr funktastic]

well here is a update. water has finally cleared after like 3 weeks. i didnt want to do a black out casue the last black out caused my b.japonica to melt. everything seems to have balanced out now and growth is improving. i pulled out the l.aromatica casue it refused to grow. i trimmed the l.repens and now i am just waiting for some growth. here it is. the pictures are bad. my camera hasnt been co-operating with me lol.

and my ram...

 

[WaterPond]

wow, the rtank looks amazing, and so do the rams! wow, the whole tank looks simply amazing!

 

[mr funktastic]

lol thankyou waterpond. i am waiting for the l.repens rubin to grow a bit more then i am moving it to the back left corner to hide the powerhead a little and fill in the emptyness. then i am going to let the palustrius(i thinks thats the name of it... glen gave it to me) fill in in the middle. i am getting some sessiflora aswell to add some green to the tank since it the the first plant i have had so far that doesnt turn red on me. i am hoping the little stums of my b.japonica will come back casue i really like the way it looked there. and i cant wait for the glosso to fill in. its really starting to spread out now.

 

[WaterPond]

i rescape my tank so much that my glosso doesnt get a chance to spread! lol. I finnaly found a scape i like so i will just see how it grows. All the plants look like they are doing well. How is the stuff i sent you growing? Mine tured into a carpeting plant instead of a tall one :? weird, it hasnt grown much taller but the roots that come out of the stems grip into the gravel and make it spread kinda like a midgroun carpeting plant. Anyways, again the tank looks amazing

 

[Glenc]

Tank is looking great, nice to see that your water is clear again. I might be moving. If I do and have to tear my tanks down, I'll be sending you a boat load of plants! Better get that other tank happening just in case lol! Not sure about the move, our house is up for sale, no takers yet. If we do make the move I'll still be in Milton, just need a bit bigger place, kids are growing fast! Of course, I will have a separate room for tanks, plan on doing multiple smaller tanks instead of one big one. That way I can experiment with different types of scapes without having to tear existing good ones down, 20 or 30 gallons max. I have enough spare lights and filters to do a couple of each. Should be interesting if it goes down.

 

[mr funktastic]

lol wow thanks glen. i dont know how much i can handle. i am sure i can offload any extras onto waterpond. he always takes the plants i offer lol. i am more than likely going to get my new tank up and going just after christmas. i really really want the 46 gal bowfront. i love the dimentions of it. i was pricing it all out to and i can get an XP3 for $115 and a 300 watt hydor inline heater for $45. then i can get the eco for 22 bucks a bag. its the co2 system that is going to kill me. 125 for the regulator(rexgrigg) and i dont know about a bottle yet. i can get a 5 pound off of aquariumplants.com for about 95 bucks shipped. are u going to completly break down and redo your tanks glen? new plants and all? or are u just going to trim evything back alot and set it back up in the new house? i have a 10 gal project that nobody has has really seen yet. its been growing for a while but i havent made a post on it. maybe i will do that tonight. and glen i suggest u go with a few breeder tanks. the 33 gal breeder has an awesome shape for planting. its like 36X18X12 or something. this gives u lots of room for scaping and a decent hight for growing in.

 

[Glenc]

Hey Mr. funk, I'm not sure what I'm going to do with my tanks if I end up moving. I will keep the 20 intact and attempt to move it with some water in it, fish and all. The other 4 I will drain and tear down. 3 of the 4 are planted. Either I'll send you a whack of stuff, or if it gets to cold I'll be up your way around Christmas, give em to you in person. Use what you can. Good news is my water is similar to yours, so if a plant does well for me, it should do well for you. No trial and error. Those breeder tanks do sound cool, gonna look into it.
Pressurized is a good chunk of cash but if you plan on doing this planted tank thing for a while, it is worth every dime. So much easier. Consistent C02 at the turn of a needle valve, gotta love it. There are places in Milton you can rent a 20lb bottle for 30 bucks a year. You pay another 30 to fill it up. 60 bucks and your happening. I was going to go that route but got a bottle from an old plumber friend. Not cost effective long term, but will get you going on pressurized faster if funds are tight, and that 20lb bottle will go a long time. Your 20 really does look great, I'm no judge of anybodys aquascaping, but your tank has improved in leaps and bounds. It looks like a old pro's tank, you should be proud. Post some pics of that 10, would love to see it.

 

[Gplayerz]

oh man that tank looks good, in less than 2 months it covreed that pot up and looks great.

 

[mr funktastic]

lol that pot was covered in like 3 weeks. the christmas moss just seems to go nuts in my tank. i am still having some slight difficulty with the algea but i thinks its casue i got lazy with my water change and didnt do as much as i normally do. i will put up new pictures next week after i get some good growth.