Reply With Quotei dont know much about apistos..but as a tank scape.. i think it needs more plants..
This is my new low tech 1ft cube meant for an incoming pair of apistos. Tank specs are as follows:
Tank: 1 ft cube
Lighting: 13W PL (~2 WPG)
Substrate: ADA Aquasoil Africana
CO2: None
Fertilization: None
Filtration: Atman HOB (600li/hr) filled with lava rocks, sponge and activated carbon
Hardscape: 1 pc of driftwood, 2x flowerpot as caves
Fauna: 2x Apisto (1 pair), 2x oto, 6-8x boraras (still deciding between maculatus or brigittae)
Flora: E. Tenellus, US Fissiden, 1x frogbit floating on top
What does everyone think? i'm planning for the tenellus to act as a mid-back ground with the driftwood as a middle divider sort of thing. I have a plastic divider inserted below the driftwood to stop the tenellus from spreading to the front, then leaving 1-2inch bare gravel at the cave area and in front so i can see my fish and finally 2inch foreground fissiden tied to mesh.
i am thinking of possibly adding a tall rock at the back right hand corner (behind the flowerpots) with flame or spiky moss tied onto it, do you guys think it will make the tank too cluttered? is my tank fine as it is? =) i'm trying to keep it as low maintenance as possible.
Yippie!! Reptiles and Fishies!
i dont know much about apistos..but as a tank scape.. i think it needs more plants..
Justin,
Apisto only need acidic water, some driftwood and clay pot and maybe a clump of java moss.
Yi Xiang,
You need more plants.. and the wood look a bit flat..
Nicholas
Newbie en el cichlid enano
Raise your water level to break the water falling from your filter.
I am worried that you might start to see BBA due to the "air circulation"...
Yippie!! Reptiles and Fishies!
Nick... i know..
but ....you need to learn how to read... and then realise which part of the forum this post is in...back..
Illumnae
perhaps some taller plants on the left side of the tank... and a little more grassy plants in the middle? i see that the foreground is fissidens..but your mid ground is totally bare....perhaps you could plant more plants in this area? For low techs.. perhaps you can try the longer crypts behind and the pymgae ones in the middle? hairgrass could work also here..hmmmm..
i do like how that wood makes that natural kinda cave-y wave over the substrate though..
Last edited by ranmasatome; 22nd Jun 2007 at 00:44.
Maybe some Echinodorus quadricostatus?
Thanks for all the replies and suggestions =)
I guess the general consensus is that I need more plants haha! My original intention was to have the E. Tenellus spread and grow behind the driftwood for an "uncut lawn" effect but i guess that will take me a year due to my low tech setup
The left side I'm trying to keep clear as I have 2 places I view my tank from, the left and the front (it's on my desk with the computer on the left, so when I'm at my desk I view from the left and when I'm on the bed relaxing I view from the front)
At the moment, I am thinking of getting some form of Echinodorus to put at the back right hand corner...what do you guys think of that? =) Polyart carrying something they call E. sp "Tropica" that's cheap and looks pretty vibrant...or maybe I could get one of the free plantlets CK Yeo is giving away FOC?I could also probably purchase a pot of E tenellus and try to plant the background more dense so that I don't have to wait too long for my "uncut lawn" to appear. I was told E tenellus grows tall with low light and low tech setups, which is what gave me the background lawn idea.
The low wavy wood with caves was intentional. I tend to choose my driftwoods based on whether or not they can form natural "caves" with their shape, and that's why I got this piece. I probably made a mistake by tying fissiden on the whole wood instead of just doing 2 clumps like I originally intended. Otherwise I could have tied a nana in the middle and made a good centrepiece. But what's done is done and I don't want to remove stuff from the existing setup so I'll work with what I got haha...
The bare patch in the middle was intentional too as I wanted to leave a "viewing area" for my fauna. I figured that if I left the part in front of the caves bare, my fish could hide in the darkened areas created by the caves, and yet I could still see/appreciate them from afar, giving me and them the best of both worlds.
So in a nutshell, would getting more E tenellus to speed up the lawn effect and a taller Echi. like say ozelot, oriental, rubin or the "tropica" (no idea what it is) in the back right corner help to correct my tank? Also, I intend probably to put in root monster to help the back plants grow. Is this advisable? Would I need to start dosing Seachem Excel as well to compensate for the increase in nutrients supplied?
Last edited by illumnae; 22nd Jun 2007 at 09:45. Reason: grammar
No root monster. No Excel. Nothing. Your soil can handle for now.
The E.sp "Tropica" could be E.parviflorus. But when you say it is vibrant, you meant colourful? Or greenish?
it's really bright green
Small dainty plant of at most 3inches? Then should be E.parviflorus. Yup. Beautiful plant indeed. They stay small for an Echinodorus species.
from what i can recall it isn't really dainty per se...leaves (at the moment) are about 3 inches, but width at its widest point is maybe 3/4 inch to 1 inch? it looks somewhat like the picture shown on the Tropica website but without the runners and baby plants, and with longer leaves maybe 2x the length in relation to the diameter of the whole plant?
P.S. is the recommendation for more plants purely from a scaping point of view, or to avoid problems like algae?
Last edited by illumnae; 22nd Jun 2007 at 12:16.
would a tall rock tied with flame/spiky moss provide the additional plant mass i need on top of the additional e tenellus i'm going to add, or should i still stick with a bigger plant (crypt or echi.) at the corner? thank's quite crowded at the back now if i get my full lawn, so there's not much more i can do
A tall driftwood rather than rock would make the look more 'cohesive'. Also some of the crypts and echis have very nice colours and leaf shape. For echinodorus i would go for the smaller specimens.Originally Posted by illumnae
I just went to do a quick readup of Tropica over lunch, and given the small size of my tank, it seems that width wise the only plants suitable for my back corner would be Crypt. Wendtii or Valis. nana...but valis nana grows really tall (up to 80cm) which would be unsuitable for the 1ft dimensions. all the echi. sp except echi. "aquartica" seems to require too much floor space for my requirements =\
Yippie!! Reptiles and Fishies!
Both... but since its in the aquascaping area... i said what i said because of aquascaping as i was mentioning to Nicolas... but it also kind of applies to the other reason you mentioned.
As for your Echin... i have parviflorus and gabrelli and one other dwarf species in my outside 2ft..... all are rather small ... the latter 2 being the smaller ones.. these should fit in your 1ft... if its parviflorus.. then i suggest background.
The bare middle patch for viewing.. well.. to be honest.. i hope you realised you planted your foreground... which means the cave is still going to be blocked anyway when the fissidens grows out well. You can still plant the side of the caves leaving a bare empty "porch" for the fishes.. anyway.. when the fish is in the cave.. you wont be able to view it from the side.
Last edited by ranmasatome; 22nd Jun 2007 at 18:01.
Echinodorus quadricostatus and parviflorus would both do quite well but not overgrow a 1ft. Personally i think the tall trailing leaves of the valis nana are nice too.
would the echin parvilorus or quadricostatus mix well with the e tenellus i've already planted in the back? i kept the back to e tenellus only as i was afraid of it growing out to one big mess of plants...if they mix well i'd try to obtain a parvilorus to add to the back.
as for the foreground and the "blank strip"...i guess it's a personal preference =) i'd like to keep it that way and just thin out the fissiden when it grows out if it obstructs my view =)
What do you mean by mix well with? Quadricostatus propagates the same way as tenellus ,i.e. by runners. Not so sure about parviflorus.
As with all echinodorus they are easy to grow and maintain. Leaves can be easily trimmed or plucked off.If you do not want more plants you can cut out the runners and plant them in another tank.
Crypt. Wendtii is good choice as it not demanding. I just bought a Wendtii 'Red' yesterday. Currently, mine is about 2in tall.
what i meant was since i'll be planting them both in the same area, wouldn't they overrun each other and mix up and i'll end up with a messy jungle of plants? =)
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