Sticks & Stones - Journal

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

I like your 3rd RCS close up, it just reminds me of the classic shrimp standing up on log picture. Love it.

I was thinking about putting some RCS in my 5G but i'm scared that will get eaten up by my Rasboras. I keep adding smallish snails and they go at them when I drop them in but they quit since they got shells. I think they would just rip my shrimp to pieces.

 

[elwaine]

I'm not familiar with the habits of Rasboras, but yours sound like they are too aggressive for RCS. Do a search on this forum and you will come across a lot of info regarding which fish you can have with RCS. Just be aware that while the adult female reaches about 3/4" in size, the newly hatched babies are only about 1/16th" and will be eaten by almost any fish.

If you plan on keeping RCS in a fish tank, and you want to rear the babies, you'll need to do three things:
1. research which fish are compatible with RCS;
2. keep the tank heavily planted with plants that offer good hiding places for the baby shrimp; and
3. cover the filter intake either with a fine mesh screen (I use polyester window screening) or with filter foam material (which comes in black so that it is not an eye sore). Otherwise the baby shrimp and the juveniles will be sucked into the filter.

 

[KentCurtis]

Your tank looks amazing! Im especially interested in your Rotalla Wallichii, it is looking so much better than mine. Mine is mostly green with the only red being the top 2cm. I have a 55 PC with AHSupply reflecto over my 20 gallon high and I cant even come close to having mine look that good, any suggestions as to what my deal is?

 

[elwaine]

Your tank looks amazing! Im especially interested in your Rotalla Wallichii, it is looking so much better than mine. Mine is mostly green with the only red being the top 2cm. I have a 55 PC with AHSupply reflecto over my 20 gallon high and I cant even come close to having mine look that good, any suggestions as to what my deal is?

Thank you... but I can't take any credit for the red color in the Rotalla... that's the sun's doing most likely. They were that color when I received them in the mail. Now that they are in my tank for a couple or three days, the new growth is green.

Now that raises an interesting issue: I added a little too much KNO3 and when I measure the NO3/over the past 2 days it was a bit in excess of 20 ppm. Today it is closer to 10 ppm. I remember reading somehting that Tom Barr wrote about it being possible to "force" red color by keeping the nitrates low... so, maybe the red will re-appear when the nitrates drop down to 5 ppm or so. Any experienced plant folk care to comment on this?

As for your (and my) tank lighting:
A 20 gal high is approx. 24" long and 16" high. My 18 gal. is 24" long and 14" inches high. So let's subtract 3" for substarte. The height of the water column is 13" in your aquarium and 11" in mine. You have 55 Watt PC I have 65 Watts PC. Using czcz's Excel spread sheet on equivalent watts per gallon, I have ~ 4.8 watts/gal (19.5 lumens/sq. inch), and you have 4.4 watts/gal (16.5 lumens/sq. inch). And that means... er... well... ummm... I really don't know what that means - except that the lighting in our aquariums is pretty much the same.

I'll keep ya'll posted as to how my plants grow in.

 

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

Thanks Larry, yeah my rasboras seem aggresive to themselves, so I don't think I would be able to put any in there with them since it isn't heavy enough planted. Might have to get more plants everywhere ha.

I'm honestly not worried about the babies, since I planned on adding some of my males to the tank, not females. I save my more colorful males and all my females in my 10G breeder so that I can sell the shrimp, just thought it would be nice. I would say the dwarf hairgrass would be a good hiding spot but it's during brown and I think it's going to die back since it is new to the tank, but it is spitting out new green runners.

I wouldn't mind just winging it and throwing some in there, only problem is that they are worth 1.25$ a piece, don't feel like winging it at that price, just for a snack for my rasboras haha.

 

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

Also just read up a profile on plantgeek for RCS and the person said in their experience, they have kept my raboras I have in with rcs, so once they get bigger then 1/4, I will attempt to put them in there and see what happens.

 

[KentCurtis]

Thanks Larry, let me know how if it greens up (hopefully not!) after being in the tank for a little while. Ill post up a picture of mine a little bit later after I grab some dinner. Also, on keeping nitrates low....that sounds like an interesting idea and would be cool if it worked.

 

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

Just to add in since you guys are talking about your Rotalla's colors. Mine is still growing in red, the stuff I got from you Larry. I'm liking it, adds a differen't color to the aquarium

 

[KentCurtis]

Do you have any pictures of yours Ben? I have been procrastinating on getting a picture of mine up.

 

[elwaine]

Just to add in since you guys are talking about your Rotalla's colors. Mine is still growing in red, the stuff I got from you Larry. I'm liking it, adds a differen't color to the aquarium

Ben, I sent you Ludwigia, needle leaf variety - not Rotalla.

 

[KentCurtis]

Yours still staying fairly red Larry? Im a few days from getting my co2 cylinder and finalizing my dosing regimen...Im hoping getting these things squared away makes mine thrive.

 

[elwaine]

Most of it is still red... just some (but not all) of the new growth is green. I way over-planted it too. I should really thin it out... same with the Potamogeton gayi... which is also coming in a mixed red and green. But as they are both growing, I'll leave them be for a while. - As for their eventual color... only time will tell.

When I first planted Ludwigia it was green and had round leaves. After a while the new leaves that grew were thin and red... so I'm hoping that the Rotalla will redden as it establishes itself. I sure hope so, otherwise it will look like a long-needle version of the Mayaca (Mayaca fluviatilis) that is on the other side of the tank.

BTW, my CO2 is approx. 30 ppm and I'm still working on my dosing regimen.

 

[elwaine]

Rotalla Wallichii - follow up

Kent - the new growth on the Rotalla Wallichii is now coming in a bright red color. Guess it just takes time to adapt to new conditions.

 

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

Ben, I sent you Ludwigia, needle leaf variety - not Rotalla.

Oops my bad lol.

 

[czcz]

I'm dumb and posted thoughts on R. wallichii in elwaine's other slick tank thread, so I hope you do not mind the paste here.

Its pretty hard to keep R. wallichii looking like that long term -- once established it goes fast and to get the long leaves it seems to want space around it. Then again, its a plant that changes so much from tank to tank that I'm not sure it could do anything that would surprise me. People who get it to look good long term get automatic props for maintaning a tank, imo. I only get nice periods then hide it behind other stuff until it looks nice again.

Its really a great measurement plant. For a long while Travis called it the hardest plant, which I think is a bit of a over statement (I think its P. stellatus "narrow-leaf", easily), but agree its top 5 hardest I've tried long term. I'm surprised when people mark it as moderately easy, though am more impressed when its grown nice. I think if you can grow R. wallichii nice you can probably grow anything.

I also think the way R. wallichii changes color is maybe the coolest thing about it Are you guys also able to keep it dense, as in with a short distance between the whorls/nodes, so it almost looks like pipecleaner? I cannot consistently.

Do you still have pics in another thread, Kent?

 

[Glenc]

After looking through this post I am at a loss for words. I have been away a long time. Some scapers I know from a while back have developed some serious skills, and some seriously talented new people have joined AA.
elwaine, you are surely one of them.
Bravo! Very inspiring. What a cool, beautiful tank. Awesome!

 

[elwaine]

Well thank you Glen.

I've learned a lot from reading old posts (including many of yours). One of these days I might even learn enough to actually know what I am doing.

 

[czcz]

Just to ditto Glen, you and JustOneMore20 really raised the bar around here for the old timers who wandered back

 

[fort384]

Larry, I agree with the folks above - your tank looks great! Fantastic scape. I hope to have a tank that looks that unique some day.

 

[elwaine]

Nitrate measurements - Learn from my mistake

So when the instructions in the nitrate test kit made by Aquarium Pharmaceuticals says to shake bottle #2 for 30 seconds before adding reagent to the tube containing test solution # 1 and your water sample, they mean shake bottle #2 for 30 seconds.

But cleaver me just shakes it a few times now and then.

So recently I decided to up my light from my 10 hr 3.5 WPG photoperiod to include a 3 hr stint of 7 WPG mid day. The plants pearl so much you'd think I dumped a seltzer bottle into the tank.

I measured my Nitrates and found that they were low, even though I just added my usual dose of KNO3 to the tank following a 40% PWC. So I added a second dose, thinking that my plants are really pumping iron and are using up the NO3.

I remeasured the nitrates. Man, says I, to no one in particular, I can't keep up with the nitrate demand under the bright lights. So cleaver me adds yet a 3rd dose.

Recheck: nitrates are still low. THEN it dawns on me that my reagents might be messed up. So I opened a new set of Nitrate test solutions and found that mu Nitrates were around 60 ppm.

What a genius! Learn from my mistake!!!