Diary of the 75G planted tank.... New pics 6/26/06

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wow you ordered that a while ago didnt ya?

Seems like it's takin a while for that to come in.
 
I ordered it last Sat, and they are only shipped on Wednesdays and Thursdays direct from Nicon. Plus I'm having it shipped UPS Ground, the cheap way. :)

EDIT:

Looks like tomorrow is going to be pruning day, lol. Had another run of algae today. I had accidently put too much Flourish Phosphorus in last night, and then did a partial water change in hopes to get it down some. After I got home from work today, had the brown algae strings all over the place. Did a 50% PWC tonight, then took my readings again. Here they are...

ph 6.5
ammonia 0ppm
nitrite 0ppm
nitrate 5ppm on Hagen and 10ppm on AP
phosphate 1ppm

I bumped my nitrate up to between 15-20ppm, and the phosphate up to 1.5ppm. Boy has this been a learning curve, lol. But I'm really enjoying it too, watching the plants overrun my tank, lol. Another reason for pruning, to slow down the nutrient intake, lol.
 
Well, I found out why my ph wasn't being driven down. The CO2 hose slipped off the diffuser, lol. It was laying on the floor out of the tank.

Well, today I did some work in the tank, removed most of the L.repens and replanted the best looking stems. I also pulled a couple amazon swords, as it was just too thick. It still looks too thick, lol. I also put in some Flourish tabs for the amazon swords. How often should you put in the tabs?

I also pulled most of the red fox tails, and replanted 1 good looking one. The others had algae build-up on them. I also trimmed down the water sprite. It was getting pretty thick.

So for now, it will be battling the algae. I finally saw the pleco today too. He was doing his job cleaning up some of the leaves of the amazon swords. Was nice to see him out and about.

Overall, the tank doesn't look near as forested now, lol. The swords are still thick, trying to figure out the best way to handle them. Any ideas? Maybe pull all 6 and just plant 2? I had 7 back there and pulled a bad looking one today.

I also got rid of the micro swords, as they were looking real bad. Some reason the algae was really attracted to them, lol. So my foreground is going to be dwarf hair grass. It's doing much better than the micro swords were, and now sending out shoots and starting to spread. And hardly any algae on it. Will be nice when it forms a lawn up front.
 
Two swords should be more than enough for your tank. Those things get huge. My micros did the samething. Now that I have figured my algae problems out. (knock on wood) I am going to try them again. I add new tabs every two months.
 
Cool, that might be my next project for next week. I did enough damage for this week, lol.

As for fish, I got some more tetras today. I got 8 Serpae Tetras. I need to build up my bioload here soon, because my nitrates keep dropping out on me because of a large tank with too few fish and so heavily planted. The LFS has my Roseline Sharks on order too. They sell them here for 39.95 each, but since she's a good friend of mine and I've bought just about all my fish from them, she's getting them to me for 19.99 each. Getting 6 of them. Then about all that's left, other than maybe a few more tetras is my angelfish.
 
And then the angels for the centerpiece. If you didn't see in one of my other posts, here's the angels I am getting, as soon as the westher warms up a little more. I don't want to have them shipped with it being this cold here for now. Gonna wait maybe another couple weeks to see how the weather shapes up.

marbleblusher.jpg
 
hi again...

Well, here's a new pic of the right side of my tank. I took about 60 pics just to get this one. If you look at the flash reflection, see how it smears down. Also, look at the GBR that's furthest back. See where the lightest part, almost white, smears down? That's how the camera takes pics now, but the whole picture and not just small areas like in this pic. I got lucky to get 1 picture out of the whole batch...

I'll be getting my camera looks like tomorrow. I checked on the UPS and it's due to be here tomorrow. And the 300mm lens is due Wed. It was shipped separately, as it arrived the day after they shipped my order. So it's a day behind the camera. Also, I ordered another lens. It's a 600mm-2000mm. I figured if I'm going to get quality, might as well go for the telephoto as well, lol. I already have a fish-eye that will fit the camera, as well as some special effects lenses.

Here's the pic...
 

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Lookin real nice wolf..........that has certainly come together.
Thx for the pic.....I was curious.
what kind of algae is that btw?
 
GlitcH said:
Lookin real nice wolf..........that has certainly come together.
Thx for the pic.....I was curious.
what kind of algae is that btw?
Click to expand...

The algae on the driftwood? Not sure, just green algae, lol. It's what I've been battling on the plants. But I think I got it now, it's not booming anymore. In fact, it's slowly disappearing. I don't mind it on the driftwood, makes it look cool, but as for the plants, I want to get rid of it completely, lol.

Here's the lens....
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7598976362&rd=1&sspagename=STRK:MEWN:IT&rd=1

Further Update.....

I upped the lighting a bit more now, since things are going along smoothly. On the back fixture, I'm running all 65W CF's. The front one I'm running 1 set of 65W CF's and a set of actinics. The actinics is towards the middle of the tank. Going to see how things run from here, 390W. Also, the actinics are making the rams glow like you wouldn't believe, lol. Boy are they blue, lol.

Adding the 8 Serpae Tetras sure has worked wonders. The rams are now all coming out of hiding. In fast, they like to mingle with the tetras. It's quite an amazing site to watch. :)
 
looking good. I thnk the algea looks cool, gives ita real natural look lol. See I don't have algea I have snails. So if you look at your picture just take out a few plants and replace the algea with snails and thats what my 55gal looks like lol! I need to get some loaches.
 
Here's my readings. Let me know if there's anything I should change.

ammonia 0ppm
nitrite 0ppm
nitrate 20ppm
phosphate 2.5ppm (just a tad high)
ph 6.6
kh 80 / 4.5 degrees
CO2 34ppm
temp 79.9

I still have algae, but it's not near as bad. Will I ever get rid of it all? I also keep getting spot algae on the glass, mainly on the bottom next to the substrate and also where the anacharis is.

Also, for dosing, should I be dosing the macros daily and the traces every other day? If I skip a day for the nitrogen, then I get hammered with algae because the nitrogen drops out. It's easy keeping the phosphate on target every other day, but the nitrogen drops out daily.
 
what ya use for co2 testing wolf?
I love the algae on the driftwood.........I've come to realize I will never get rid of my algae.
 
I've read that Nitrogen may be needed daily - depending on your readings - so, I'd say yes to dosing nitrogen daily.
 
New update.....

As for my GBR's, I now think I got all males. Bummer. But as for my Bolivians, I think I have 2 males and a female. Which get bigger, the male or female? I have 2 bigger ones, with not too much pattern on the sides and a black spot. The 3rd one is smaller, and has more of a pattern on the side and the black spot is less noticable.

As for their actions, one of the larger ones is shooing away the other big one, and keeps following the smaller one. Any time the other big one gets close to them, the big one that follows the small one gives the other big one a love tap, shooing him away, then stays with the smaller one. Could this be a pair beginning to form?

As for the GBR's, he doesn't bother them at all. The GBR's mingle with the Bolivians just fine, no chasing or shooing at all.

Edit:

I am expecting my camera to arrive today. So hopefully will have some excellent pictures, once I learn how to use it, lol. :)

Here's a test of my new camera. First 3 pics. Will have more this weekend after I learn how to operate the camera. :)

75g62.jpg


75g63.jpg


75g64.jpg
 
looking good!
Really nice wolf..........how ya like the camera so far?
Takes a nice pic.
Hey what kinda fish are those with the red on the head?
I want some!
 
Nice shots Wolf. The fish with the red noses and striped tails are Rummy Nose Tetras. One of my favorite fish.
 
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