It is jungle out there....

[swanandmokashi]

Just came back from my 2.5 weeks vacation (was gone to India to meet my family) -- I had my neighbor feed the fish from food (placed in plastic bags for each day to take out any guess work from his side), so I was pretty confident my fish will survive. However I was not sure of the plants -- since I had shut off my DIY CO2 (to avoid any accidents while I was gone) and of course there was no fertilizer added in these 2 weeks, I had the light on a timer so I was pretty sure I would be welcomed back by a bunch of algae growth.

To my pleasant surprise I found no algae growth after my return. However I could hardly see any of my fish as the tank now resembles a jungle. Plants like Bacopa, water sprite have grown out of the tank

Just thought I will share the pictures of this jungle before I trim it off.

 

[An t-iasg]

Wow! That is one crowded tank! I like the picture of the growth coming out the top of the tank. Did you trim anything yet? I would be tempted to leave the Bacopa emersed growth alone for awhile, to see if it flowers. I have always wanted to see the purple flowers that it gets.

With no ferts or CO2, I would have expected some algae too. But your plants obviously out-competed any algae!

 

[Burks]

It's amazing how much plants will grow without CO2/ferts for a while.

I remember last year I went away for a week. Plants had no light (other than what got through the blinds), ferts, or CO2. Came back and the tank was completely overgrown and no algae.

Please post a picture of the tank when it's trimmed. Looks really nice in the last picture.

 

[LandGhoti]

WOW. 8O

 

[Jchillin]

That is pretty amazing, you cannot see any sign of water or fauna in that tank. You will be clipping for quite a few hours so make sure you take a few breaks as you go along. You may also need a hedge trimmer.

 

[SparKy697]

HAHA!

Those are some good looking plants. Who would have thought that they would grow right out of the tank?

You win!

 

[7Enigma]

I think the CARPET of plants at the surface is what kept the algae at bay. I had a similar case as this when I went to Arizona for a week. I did, however, have my DIY CO2 running and had separate cups with ferts so the person feeding my tank could fertilize as well (I had 14 cups set out for them!).

Like you, I had almost no algae in the tank and I attribute it to the fact that practically no light got down into the tank due to the crowding of plants at the surface! I don't want to think what would have happened had I been gone for an additional week!

Here, I dug up an old shot (not the exact one I was thinking of though, I probably waited another day for a water change!):

 

[swanandmokashi]

Some of the "after-trim" pictures are here : http://www.aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?t=100177