Hi-tech planted Conversion - UPDATES - Feb.28.2007

[dapellegrini]

Well, 712 hits and 39 replies... I guess that's a better response rate than your standard direct mail marketing campaign... at +5% instead of ~2%...

LOL

I hope I am not boring the majority of you! (I know someone out there is thinking... pheewww... doesn't this guy get it... your thread is dead man!!!)

I would love some constructive-criticism... The neighborhood kids love it!

 

[rkilling1]

Well, 712 hits and 39 replies... I guess that's a better response rate than your standard direct mail marketing campaign... at +5% instead of ~2%...

and how many of those were yours?

I would love some constructive-criticism...

I normally can't come up with anything constructive.

anyways, looks great!

 

[GlitcH]

Looks awesome dude........And congrats on the puffers, if there anything like mine you'll have no problems at all with them in that tank.

Great Pics!!

 

[Glenc]

Beautiful tank, really enjoy the thread. There is no such thing as to many posts or pics, we are all as addicted as you are!

 

[dapellegrini]

and how many of those were yours?

Well probably a lot of those were me...

anyways, looks great!

Looks awesome dude........And congrats on the puffers, if there anything like mine you'll have no problems at all with them in that tank.

Great Pics!!

Beautiful tank, really enjoy the thread. There is no such thing as to many posts or pics, we are all as addicted as you are!

Thanks guys[/quote]

 

[jamesrm]

Wow, that is a simply amazing tank. Would you care to give an estimated cost for novices of planted tanks myself?

 

[dapellegrini]

Thanks James...

I did attach a complete break down of my costs on this tank here:

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?t=89465

Before your jaw drops at the cost, consider the expense that you have or will put into your tank over time trying to avoid better lighting, CO2 injection better filtration, etc... This conversion rung up at around $2k for me, but if I added up all of the little cheap half-fixes that I had tried over the past 18 years, I think MY jaw would drop to the floor.

My recommendation is to do it right the first time... Will save you a lot of money, heart-ache and frustration in the long run. It seems like a steep learning curve at first, but it isn't so bad if you stick with it. If you don't have the cash, put it on a credit card. At 10% APR, you will STILL spend less over time and be much happier with the result...

Of course, there are a lot of variables involved, including personal taste, aptitude / willingness to learn, size and number of tanks, etc...

My advice is to take it slow, read all you can online, ask questions, and over the course of a month or two collect what you will need and start at it... IME, the more half-steps you take, avoiding the larger expenses, the more frustrated you will become...

Once you have gone all out, and fully understand the ins and outs of planted FW, then stepping back down a bit is a lot easier and your chances for success are much higher...


IMO FWIW

 

[kaz]

I read about puffers mix with other fish and the conclusion is that the south american puffers are the best and most peaceful of the puffers.

 

[czcz]

I like the blurry fish pic

I wonder if having strong moonlights in a freshwater could have any adverse effects.... These suckers are BRIGHT when I have them cranked up all the way. But I guess no brighter than being outside with a full moon... Do plant even recognize LEDs?

For what it's worth, I used cold cathode over 8gals and while super bright, didn't seem to hurt anything. I became convinced the fish knew the moonlight was on, but have no idea if it matters to them. (I doubt it does.)

LED can be used by plants; for example, some hobbyists (like Tony Gomez/Gomer) have used many ultrabright white LEDs for nanos, both FW and SW. I think blue and red LED aren't effective enough to matter.

 

[dapellegrini]

I read about puffers mix with other fish and the conclusion is that the south american puffers are the best and most peaceful of the puffers.

I used to have a couple different kinds of brackish puffers and never realized that there were any that would thrive in FW... The DP's seem to be doing ok. No other fish or shrimp problems. I can never find all 5 of them, but no bodies have washed up either... They are so tiny, I am not particularly worried and they don't seem to be causing any problems... One thing is certain, they do NOT band together / school, at least not in groups of more than 2.

I googled "S.A. Puffer" and found information on what looks like another true FW puffer that I have never heard of. Interesting... However, I would not want a 4-6 inch adult puffer in my tank... Since its mouth would grow with the rest of it, I can't imagine it would be able to resist the urge to see what it could successfully eat up.

For what it's worth, I used cold cathode over 8gals and while super bright, didn't seem to hurt anything. I became convinced the fish knew the moonlight was on, but have no idea if it matters to them. (I doubt it does.)

LED can be used by plants; for example, some hobbyists (like Tony Gomez/Gomer) have used many ultrabright white LEDs for nanos, both FW and SW. I think blue and red LED aren't effective enough to matter.

Thanks for the reply czcz... I think my fish know that the moonlights are on too, but they don't seem to mind (or maybe it's just me that doesn't mind). My bigger pondering was with the plants. For instance the BiOrb and BiUbe tanks that I am seeing around have LED only lights, which can't be full spectrum... can they? Hmmm...

--Dan

ps.. if this thread rolls over onto a 3rd page, I will post up some more pics...

 

[dapellegrini]

Well, it has been nearly a week with my new lights and the tank is looking awesome... Is it the 50th or 51st that makes a page 3? -- Well, I am going to BUMP myself and find out... Worst case I will have to wait 12 hours to put up some more pics

** EDIT **

Hey, here we are on Page 3...

Here are some pics from a few minutes ago:

I am getting a lot more red/pink in the plants now!


I have some more close-ups (inspired by Randy's plant close-ups) of some of these as of this morning, but will wait until I can make an additional post...

.

 

[dapellegrini]

**** NEW GROWTH ****

Ok, some more pics, as promised... More close-ups of the plants that are blooming under the new lights

Mermaidweed is a strong candidate for a plant favorite... These guys are getting a lot bigger and this one, which is under more light has more of a pink top:

I think this is R. Rotundifolia ? It went green and has now turned pink on top. It is also laying over / growing horizontally... Perhaps the strong light ?

I picked this one up at a LFS maybe a month ago. Have trimmed a replanted once so far. This latest shoot has a pink hue, where all of the rest of it is green. Maybe Myriophyllum mattogrossense? ... Myriophyllum simulans ?

In the middle there, the blurry one, is I think my R. Wallichii ? It went green and got really small. It looks like it is now just starting to find some more life...

You can see more of the R Wallichii in the mid-ground left, it's the scawny green scraggly stuff. But I was really trying to get a picture of what I think is a type of Ludwigia growing in the back, on the blue filter intake.

Here's another stem of the same stuff, but that gets more direct light. Notice the nice red color and all of the little baby off-shoots:

Tough picture to take... You can see a few tops of my massive growth of Cabomba, with the stem from the previous picture

Another bad picture, at an angle through the curved glass front... I recently trimmed this guy down and seperated into two bunches. Seems happier than before. BTW I am talking about the red plants middle and at right... I think this is another kind of Ludwigia:

This big guy in the back has not really shown any signs of growing since I got it back in Sept. Well until this last week that is. Some of the older leaves are starting to accumulate algae... Tomorrow is cleaning day. I think this is Alternanthera reineckii :

Finally my Pennywort is happier than ever... My most frequently pearling plant:

 

[rkilling1]

looking very good. BTW my R. Rotundifolia does the same thing, it just goes where ever it wants.

 

[An t-iasg]

This is an excellent thread! Amazing pictures and a good log.

I agree with what you said about the pressurized CO2 - yes, it was expensive (and even after being "warned" here it was still a surprise!) but after a few slight stumbles on set-up, I guess anticlimatic is a good way to describe it!

My Rotala rotundifolia "colorata" starts to have that sideways bend in it sometimes too. I only have medium light in that tank. It will grow sideways and send long root hairs toward the bottom of the tank. When it does this, I trim it off (trim off the sideways horizontal part), remove the root hairs, and replant.

 

[dapellegrini]

lol...

I agree with what you said about the pressurized CO2 - yes, it was expensive (and even after being "warned" here it was still a surprise!) but after a few slight stumbles on set-up, I guess anticlimatic is a good way to describe it!

For whatever reason, having pressurized CO2 seemed mysterious and dangerous. Kinda like installing a nuclear reactor under my tank, where I would have to run shifts with the kids to keep an eye on it... Now that it is all setup, my air pump (an "i-wish-it" whisper(ed) 100) seems more dangerous. lol

 

[niks93gt]

So how are the dwarf puffers doing with the other fish?

Nik

 

[dapellegrini]

So how are the dwarf puffers doing with the other fish?

They are doing awesome. A couple of the females are plumping up nicely. Another has staked his claim in the big Crypt, and another in the Pennywort. The others just seem to float around, hunting for their next meal. They have really taken to bloodworms, along with my Bumblebee Gobies.

I have not seen a single instance of fin nipping, shrimp eating (or bothering) or similar. My small MTS have been disappearing, but I am not really worried about that. They LOVE snails... It is very amusing watching them hunt one. They don't mess with my Nerites though, probably because most of those snails are 2x the size of the DPs.

To be clear, DPs are certainly more of an aggressive mindset. I think that they work out well in my tank for a few reasons: (1) they are the smallest critters in there (2) there are lots of plants / territory to claim (3) the tank is large enough to give them the necessary personal space (4) and food is plentiful -- feeding is my version of dosing phosphate

 

[dapellegrini]

*** A NEW CHAPTER? ***

Well, I just posted up another thread about finally giving up a few plant species: http://www.aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?t=90999

Seems now that I have proven that I can grow just about anything, I am starting to get a little more picky. A year ago I couldn't keep any plants alive, today I am finding some of them to be pests! Here are some shots of the tank after removing a huge portion of plant biomass today.

Pearlweed and some Glosso are starting to fill in a bit in the front. I think mu SAEs eat the tops of my Mayaca and R. Walichii...

That dark red plant on the left side is L. Peruensis. It is finally starting to show some signs of happiness after a long period of adaption from emersed growth and a lack of strong light due to insane Pennywort and Sword growth.

The 4-leaf clover (really only 1 leaf) is starting to send out runners after a long conversion from prior emersed growth:

The Pearlweed is still ratty, but the best foreground I have had to-date:

This guy was getting choked out by the Wisteria and Cabomba. A very pretty plant that should have a lot more room to grow now. I believe this is my Ludwigia Repens:

Happy fish, zipping around

My Rotala Roundifolia is now the most annoying plant in my tank in terms of rapid growth / major pruning needs. But I like it too much to get rid of it. I am going to start spreading it around the tank more.

Happy fish, pretty colors:

It seems that my SAEs are nibbling the ends of my Rotala Wallichii and Mayaca Fluviatilis... Errr. You can see the R. Wallichii is not so happy right now. Just moved her over into a higher light area.

A couple female DPs zipping around there, against the black background:

I have some Mermaidweed in each front corner and am hoping to see some better growth with more light getting to them now:

Along with the plants, the fish also seem to be doing quite well. I just discovered my Bumblebee Gobies with eggs! Very unexpected, but cool: http://www.aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?t=91005

I also think my neons are spawning, but have yet to discover any eggs from them yet. I have been through 6 pregnant RCS and am now infested with those guys as well.

I have updated my "myinfo" profile with the current list of plants, fish, equipment, etc.

 

[rkilling1]

Looks great, Dan. I have also been slowly getting rid of the weeds.

 

[Jchillin]

Sweet! That tank is simply gorgeous. Yes, that is repens in the pic you mentioned. I like the way it looks...a bit fuller leaves than I ever managed.