FresH2O's 20g planted rescape

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
Autumnsky said:
That is a scary experience I think. Sorry to hear you lost the one fish, hoping for no further losses from the excess CO2 event.

As for the "if it ain't broke don't fix it" idiom, I am getting more and more nervous about just such situations, I really am pretty close to fearful of making any changes in my tanks. Seems a bad thing happens in a large percent of any changes.

You are a pico acreage farmer Fresh!!!
Click to expand...



Man I’m right there with ya! I’m still trying to stabilize my 20Long Nursery tank after changing the substrate back in May (?). It’s been one disaster after another and losing almost all of the shrimp. Then 50% snails when the filter got clogged up. GSA popped up....

It was fine last spring before I started fiddling with it.
 
You don’t need CO2 to get a beautifully planted tank (uh, now he tells me). The right amount of lighting and the appropriate plants coupled with well laid out hardscape can result in a gorgeous tank. I stumbled across this well established, well done tank and thought I’d share. Enjoy.
[youtube]
[/youtube]
 
Fresh2o said:
You don’t need CO2 to get a beautifully planted tank (uh, now he tells me). The right amount of lighting and the appropriate plants coupled with well laid out hardscape can result in a gorgeous tank. I stumbled across this well established, well done tank and thought I’d share. Enjoy.
[youtube]
[/youtube]
Click to expand...

It didn't link!?!
 
The first links work fine for me fresh. (I’m on iPhone 7 [emoji106])
 
Bert2oo1 said:
The first links work fine for me fresh. (I’m on iPhone 7 [emoji106])
Click to expand...


It’s fine on mobile. Spent some time this morning on the desktop trying to get the right link format to get it to work. Nadda.
To the Desktop Users: It was a glorious video depicting a variety of lower light demanding plants scaped over driftwood and rocks. If I can get the link to work for all platforms, I’ll post it again.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Very lovely! I think it is easy to find middle ground with medium lighting. You can have easy, low light plants. At the same time, you can have stem plants that aren’t too demanding.
 
Been a few weeks since I’ve posted updates on the tank. I wanted to get away from the 24/7 mode on the Finnex 24/7 so for about a week I set it on a timer on MAX mode and put the Planted+ in moonlight mode. The idea is to provide late evening viewing after the main light went out. I hated the moonlight mode. Too dark for any kind of viewing. So I switched it out and put the 24/7 at 10% and made the Planted+ the main light source. I LIKE this a lot more. Even at 10% the lighting is fine for viewing and the fish appear to be more adventurous. Interestingly I set the memory buttons on the 24/7 remote a few years back and it still “remembers” the settings despite changing the battery.
I think I want to continue to grow out and sell the staur repens and try something different. I never had a dwarf sag carpet. I know it is not ideal for a carpet but in the past I’ve pulled the runners and never let it take over. Eventually I want to go lower light because I think the ember Tetras would do better (and look better) in a leaf litter, tannin stained setting.
 
Those poor snails might starve without the algae. Lol

How many hours will you run the Planted+?
 
TMaier said:
Those poor snails might starve without the algae. Lol

How many hours will you run the Planted+?
Click to expand...



Nah, there is plenty of algae present. Rocks are green (again) and they pearl during the day. Getting a little BBA or some type of reddish algae along the back of of the stones as well.
Planted+ is on 7 hours. CO2 is 1 BPS.
Schedule is (times in PM):
2:00 CO2 on
3:00 Planted+ on
6:00 24/7 on (@ 10%)
9:00 CO2 off
10:00 Planted+ off
11:30 24/7 off
 
So far I have been ok with my 24/7 preprogrammed light cycle. But I have so many algae eating critters I might never know.

I wonder if there is a light with a built in timer and intensity options that doesn’t cost a fortune.
 
Fresh2o said:
Been a few weeks since I’ve posted updates on the tank. I wanted to get away from the 24/7 mode on the Finnex 24/7 so for about a week I set it on a timer on MAX mode and put the Planted+ in moonlight mode. The idea is to provide late evening viewing after the main light went out. I hated the moonlight mode. Too dark for any kind of viewing. So I switched it out and put the 24/7 at 10% and made the Planted+ the main light source. I LIKE this a lot more. Even at 10% the lighting is fine for viewing and the fish appear to be more adventurous. Interestingly I set the memory buttons on the 24/7 remote a few years back and it still “remembers” the settings despite changing the battery.
I think I want to continue to grow out and sell the staur repens and try something different. I never had a dwarf sag carpet. I know it is not ideal for a carpet but in the past I’ve pulled the runners and never let it take over. Eventually I want to go lower light because I think the ember Tetras would do better (and look better) in a leaf litter, tannin stained setting.
Click to expand...


Have you ever looked into True Dwarf Sag? It stays shorter, and it should do well in your setup. Regular Dwarf Sag should work well, though, in a low light setup. It grows rather slow for me. I have some right behind some Crypt parva, and it looks nice. In 6 months of being in the tank, I’ve only had one Dwarf Sag runner that has gotten any size to it. I like it so much that I have more on the way to add to the right side of the tank.

In terms of a tannin stained tank environment, I had trouble with some plants getting light when the manzanita leeched tannins for months earlier in the year. I will note that the Java Fern that I had still grew well in the tank, and it even thrived. I have some recommendations for smaller Java Fern varieties if you’d ever like to go down that route. As always, you can’t beat Needle/Narrow Leaf Java Fern.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

B
New plants propagating but not growing
Replies
3
Views
681
Colin_T
C
C
Back To Basics When Breeding Fish
Replies
1
Views
2K
Colin_T
C
S
"Natural" Water Chemistry Modification
Replies
2
Views
191
SwampeastMike
S
C
I think I just need a plan to get through this?
Replies
0
Views
293
ChiliRas
C
Y
Rocks raised pH
Replies
6
Views
893
Yaz
Y

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom