pitt420dude
Aquarium Advice Addict
How do you do gravel vacs, you just don't right? Plants eat up all the stuff you'd get rid of in a grav vac right?
Work in progress (long) , updated 09/10/07
- Thread starter rkilling1
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You can still gravel vac a planted aquarium. It's just limited to unplanted areas and under hardscape. While the plants do consume the mulm, the excess in unplanted areas (where the plants are much less likely to be able to use it) should still be vac'd.
Dang, wherever there is a question Joy is there. (No sarcasm intended)
She nailed that one. I sometimes have to uproot plants inorder to vacuum spots that are just to loaded with mulm for my liking.
I like to overfeed my fish and that leads to a buildup of organics in certain spots.
If you have the time, look up substrate clogging. Having too much mulm is not always benefical. Not only do you have clogging and decaying organics, you have to worry about the lack of O2 in the deeper areas coupled with the decay of the mulm. H2S is not very nice to have in an aquarium. That's not even taking into account the amount of O2 required to decay said mulm.
Well it's been a long while and my tanks have suffered tremedously. I now have learned what it's like when you have to much organics in your tank. I didn't clean my filter for 6 months and kept the same routine for the ferts but extended the water changes to every 2 to 3 weeks. What a difference a clean filter makes.
I plan on returning this tank back to the way it was. It shouldn't take too long, I hope.
Here is were I am starting from:
Notice the stems on these plants. You can see when I cleaned out the filter. I didn't change anything else.
http://home.neo.rr.com/rkilling1/images/IMG_0342.JPG
I plan on returning this tank back to the way it was. It shouldn't take too long, I hope.
Here is were I am starting from:
Notice the stems on these plants. You can see when I cleaned out the filter. I didn't change anything else.
Just a couple of pics of the progress. (As it never ends)
I purchased my wife a new camera (LOL) for her birthday and now I get to play with it. I don't quite have it figured out just yet, but these are much better (IMO) then my other ones.
A look at some Hydrocotyle verticillata:
Some Bacopa sp. 'Colorata':
Some Pogostemon stellatus 'Broad Leaf' and to the right is the only stem of Ludwigia inclinata var. verticillata 'Cuba' I have left. Oh and one of my newer rainbows:
A nicer look at the Pogostemon stellatus 'Broad Leaf':
My Echinodorus bleheri 'compacta' showing off:
I tried to get this as close as I could. Glossostigma elatinoides:
And not so much about the plants (Well, they have plants in the pics aswell):
My blind peacock cichlid:
I purchased my wife a new camera (LOL) for her birthday and now I get to play with it. I don't quite have it figured out just yet, but these are much better (IMO) then my other ones.
A look at some Hydrocotyle verticillata:
Some Bacopa sp. 'Colorata':
Some Pogostemon stellatus 'Broad Leaf' and to the right is the only stem of Ludwigia inclinata var. verticillata 'Cuba' I have left. Oh and one of my newer rainbows:
A nicer look at the Pogostemon stellatus 'Broad Leaf':
My Echinodorus bleheri 'compacta' showing off:
I tried to get this as close as I could. Glossostigma elatinoides:
And not so much about the plants (Well, they have plants in the pics aswell):
My blind peacock cichlid:
spilzer
Aquarium Advice Activist
That picture of the glosso with the pearl reflecting the other plants is SO awesome!
Ziggy953
Aquarium Advice Addict
Wow! I've not looked through your thread before what an amazing tank! I'm a salty so most of that makes little to no sense to me but you have done an incredible job with your tank! BEAUTIFUL!
An t-iasg
Aquarium Advice Addict
Randy, your tank is absolutely beautiful, as always! I love that little upside-down bubble picture. You know you're making me jealous with that gorgeous Pogostemon stellatus "Broad Leaf" pic 
sherry
Aquarium Advice FINatic
looking great. I've gone through the bit of not enough filter changes/water changes too, tho I stopped adding ferts... Just had some bba.
I am going back to the once a week water change, once a week filter maintenance regime now.. not sure if I'll add more than potassium and micros tho.I know that tom swears by adding dry phosphate and dry nitrate, but I am ovrestocked and hate to take the risk. he also says don't overstock
I am going back to the once a week water change, once a week filter maintenance regime now.. not sure if I'll add more than potassium and micros tho.I know that tom swears by adding dry phosphate and dry nitrate, but I am ovrestocked and hate to take the risk. he also says don't overstock
FishCrazyBenBOMB
Aquarium Advice Addict
Your most recently pics look great, get more recent ones posted? Lol
I have/am learned/learning the fine points of a planted tank. Heck, the setup and go is soo easy. Now maintaining a 4+ WPG heavy planted tank is not so easy.
It gets tiring after years of weekly/daily maintenance. If I could do it all again (If I knew then what I know now), I would have went for a medium light tank like my 28 gallon that can grow any and everything and I don't have to do much to it.
Cause and effect are so much more apparent in a high light tank. Go a week without messing with it and all hope is lost.
But, then again, I do really enjoy seeing the soda pop looking tank in the evenings. And then when people are over, I get the "where are all those bubbles coming from?". They all have the same shocking look when I tell them it's just O2 from the plants. ("Oh!, those are real?") LOL
So, how are you CZ? I have been wondering where you have been.
Heh, I hear you. I noticed Purrbox and Glenc both went with heavily dominated Crypt/rhizome tanks, I'm guessing because they got tired of the collectoritis and trimming and maint. I've been all about work, working, then when I can resting a little before the phone or alarm rings for more work I ended up moving to a startup and accepting that ~5year commitment a couple years ago. ******, now I'm typing about work.... In my case the break has been good: its nice and a good reset to get my hands dirty and wet again.
Are you just going to continue to find this tank's and your rare/demanding plants' balance, or throttling it back to medium light with CO2/etc for a nice slower growth lush tank? Been good?
I ended up moving to a startup and accepting that ~5year commitment a couple years ago. ******, now I'm typing about work.... In my case the break has been good: its nice and a good reset to get my hands dirty and wet again. Are you just going to continue to find this tank's and your rare/demanding plants' balance, or throttling it back to medium light with CO2/etc for a nice slower growth lush tank? Been good?
Don't know. Ask me again tomorrow and I'll give you a different anwser.
I currently have 3 tanks. The 75 that's full throttle, a 28 med-high same setup as the 75 in reguards to the CO2/ferts, and a 46 medium no CO2 weekly fert and no PWC's. Just trying different things out.
I enjoy the laziness of the 46, but I can only grow a select few plants in it. Mainly floaters, ferns, and anubias.
The 28 contains a slew of different types of plants. Mainly Pogostemon's, mosses, and Rotala's. This tank grows the more delicate plants, like R. macrandra, very easily. I just let it go and I don't have to worry if I miss a PWC or ferts. Heck, I have the entire rear glass covered in Taiwan moss due to my non trimming/lazy mindset for this tank. It's looks quite impressive.
Now the 75 is a different story. This is the tank that I get to hear, "all you ever do around here is mess with your fish tanks", from the wife.
If I don't trim it every week, then the carpet starts to grow up and the lower portions get ratty due to the background plants taking over the tank. CO2 goes out for some reason, algae lets me know ASAP. Miss a fert, algae to the rescue. But..., this is the tank that everyone goes to when they walk into the house. It's not that they don't see the others, it's this one that draws their attention. Once they see it, the other tanks are just, well, tanks.
So, I really don't know what I want to do with it. In the future I want to go back to PFS and get rid of the Eco complete. Once I put in the Eco I lost all of my soft water species and I haven't tried any again. They all melted within a week. My KH ski rocketed and still remains too high. I also want to get rid of my 4 x 65 CF fixture and move onto HO T-5's, but I haven't seen anything that impresses me as of yet.
Get a TEK. You'll be impressed. Catalina fixtures are pretty good for the money, but TEK's are just insane in output.
I'm sort of in the same boat as you - my methods don't allow me to keep some softwater and very nutrient hungry plants (Tonina Belem and the like, I've melted Belem 3 times now, melted Erio type 2, melted Ludwigia Pantanal - but so does almost everyone on the Pantanal...) but I can blast my tanks with light and they do well and I don't have to dose. Sort of an interesting mid-ground of all out high tech and NPT-style.
FishCrazyBenBOMB
Aquarium Advice Addict
update pics?
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