Adventures in aquascaping

[HeathB]

20g

I added some of the cabomba, m. quad, and micro swords to this tank to see how they do. I really want to change out the gravel to something smaller like a sand, but am waiting for the guppy fry to grow a bit.

 

[HeathB]

10g

The L. Repens may not be turning red, but it most certainly is thriving in here. I'm surprised at how well it is doing for only having 2 15 watt cfls and diy co2/excel. These are the ones that were practically half rotten in my 20g, but I let them float for about 1-2 weeks, and they had new green leaves that I then replanted in the 10g. I also added a strand of cabomba, some m. quad, and micro swords to this tank to see how they do.

 

[rusilja]

Woah, getting realy nice!!!!

 

[HeathB]

Does anyone have any suggestions as to the placement of the cabomba and h.difformis in my 29g that I put a picture of up? Whenever I see a nice pic of a well planted tank, the plants all seem crowded together, but wouldn't this create shady spots for the lower halves of the stems?

I'm really considering getting rid of the aqueon filter for something where I can control the flow better so its not pushing down on the stems I plant beneath it. I think the bubbling it does might give me a bit much aeration that could contribute to increased co2 loss.

 

[Crepe]

Does anyone have any suggestions as to the placement of the cabomba and h.difformis in my 29g that I put a picture of up? Whenever I see a nice pic of a well planted tank, the plants all seem crowded together, but wouldn't this create shady spots for the lower halves of the stems?

I'm really considering getting rid of the aqueon filter for something where I can control the flow better so its not pushing down on the stems I plant beneath it. I think the bubbling it does might give me a bit much aeration that could contribute to increased co2 loss.

Tetra HOB's have flow controls as do most canisters. you could also just silicone a wider mouth using a piece of plastic to spread out the water it puts out.

 

[HeathB]

Jiminy jillickers, Radioactive Man! The bigger of my l.repens in the 10g just hit topside today. Going to pick up some black sand tomorrow to mix w/ the rest of my eco and change out the gravel in the 20g. Then I'll put some of that repens in there.

 

[HeathB]

I was curious about the side roots on the repens so I fooled around with one, and it had dug itself into the subtrate and grabbed a hold of a big chunk. Its like this plant is pitching a tent. XD

Anyways, I cut the big one in half and replanted it. Feeling to lazy to redo my gravel in the 20g. Why do today what we can put off till tomorrow?

Anyways, picture! Pay no attention to the man in the Zelda t-shirt.

 

[Crepe]

The moss is lookin good, so is the quadrifolia. You should try Some L. Ovalis, I can send you some after mine grow out a bit more if you want. I'll show you a pic of the Ovalis. I'm growing them in 2.8wpg of T5HO in CO2. Also low nitrates helps to make ludwigia in general more red. Oh and all ludwigia grow out those funky side roots. They are kind of ugly but I don't mind them much.

 

[HeathB]

That second one isn't showing up for me.

But yeah, I don't really even dose that much in this tank. So if the nitrates are causing too much green, then it'd be the fish/shrimp/snail that are causing it, and I'm not sure what I could do about it. The only fert I really put in this tank is a bit of leaf zone once a week, and all that has is potassium and iron.

 

[HeathB]

Well, its been quite a while hasn't it? Unfortunately, I had a bit of a lazy period and most of my repens has died off, and the cabomba wasn't particularly fond of my tanks either. On the other hand, my moss is going insane, and the hygro has adapted in a way I had completely not foreseen. Instead of the vertical growth it started out as, it has almost completely taken over the bottom back side of the tank, growing low and horizontally.

Once I get things back under control and get my algae under control, and some trimming done, I'll try to update with some new pics.

 

[HeathB]

Gosh, I've turned into such a bum. Today, I will definitely be doing my wc on all tanks, busting out a razor blade for scraping algae, and doing some much needed trimming. Especially to the java moss jungles!

 

[HeathB]

Ahh, so like I said, things just kinda been slipping my mind for the past few months, and only just today started really getting my clean on. There are still a bunch of spots of algae on the glass, water spots galore, and just generally a touch of chaos in what has been happening with the plants.

29g: The 2 amazon swords grew and then started dieing off on the longer leaves. Clipped those. My small craft mesh moss tunnel still hasn't really taken off, but there is some small growth, so I'm still hopeful. Trimmed some dead from the ferns, and hacked a huge hunk from the hygro. The hygro and the anub are the 2 plants that really haven't seen any negative impact whatsoever in this tank.

20g: My moss tree and moss rock went nutso in this tank and had pretty much taken over the entire left side. I trimmed them up and moved the moss rock to the 10 gallon, much to the loaches dismay. I moved some hygro clippings to this tank a while back and they are doing good, and the ferns haven't really changed too much.

10g: The moss log in here pretty much took over just like in the 20g, I removed the log. The l.repens pretty much died off from neglect, and the ferns are as usual just kinda popping around from place to place if I don't have them tied down. The M.Quad is still doing ok, but its pretty much religated itself to the front half of the tank. I moved the moss rock from the 20 into this tank, so I will still have some nice moss, but a little more room since its not a huge log anymore.

5g: Little Alfred is still doing great. I haven't had much success with plants in this tank. The little bits of m.quad are still hanging in there, but haven't done much. I threw in a small clipping towards the back of some hygro, and recycled my diy co2 bell as a little planter for a bit of java moss. I hung it upside down, rolled a lava rock in some moss, and then tossed it in the cup.

Also, I'm sure Dkpate will be happy to know, her snails are happily running amuck. (sp?)

 

[HeathB]

Feel awful about letting things go crumby for so long in my tanks, but I'm starting to put my nose to the grindstone again. Will be doing some major scraping with a razor this week to get rid of the huge algae covering, and frequent water changes have already resumed, along with 2 hour breaks in the middle of photoperiods. I actually miss my little moss log in the one tank, and might try it again sometime.

The moss tree I made by cutting off the plastic bits and tieing moss to it however has been an astounding success, and once the tank is clean enough, I'll trim it up a tad, and try to get some pics of it.