2 feet attempt with DW

[atolylica]

Hi guys,

so.. I have been in this hobby for just over 3 months, starting up with a mini tank here - http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum.../105671-Hello!

Decided to upgrade my tank to a 60x30x36cm tank so I could have more depth and height, compared to the GEX 60 slim that I had.
The picture below is 4 days old since flooding. Water still yellowish, and I am heavily planting the tank at startup. Any suggestions would be welcome as to what plants I should get, or the positioning of my DW.

Tank size: 60cm x 30cm x 36cm
Substrate: ADA AS
Lights: Beamswork Evo 48W 7 hours a day
Filter: Ehiem 2028
Dosing: EI
CO2: Pressurized CO2 at 1.5 bps with external CO2 reactor
Temp: 29-30 degrees with fan.
Fauna: None yet (any suggestions?)
Flora:

- Tiger Amazon
- Rotala sp. "Green"
- Hydrocotyle verticillata
- Eleocharis sp.
- Blyxa Japonica
- Staurogyne repens
- Glossostigma elatinoides
- Echinodorus tenellus
- Hemianthus micranthemoides

Some of the plants here are just trial & error. Any comments & suggestions as to what plants does/does not fit the scape please let me know!
Thanks in advance!

Attachment 38050

Anyone can ID this plant? Bought it at first sight. Love it! I think it goes well against the backdrop of the wood.

Attachment 38051

Cheers!

[Urban Aquaria]

Good start and nice setup!

The plant in your 2nd photo looks like Marsilea Hirsuta, the clover-like leaves are the emersed form, while the submersed form looks abit like a larger version of glosso.

Here is some info on it: http://www.tropica.com/en/plants/pla...a-hirsuta.aspx

[atolylica]

Thanks for the ID. I bought Marsilea Hirsuta before and it was huge, and looked different. Didn't know there were different forms in submerged and emerged forms.

Any suggestions as to how I can improve my scape, or plant choices? My idea is to have a densely planted tank. As of now, I'm just planting, shifting and seeing how it can be enhanced everyday.

Cheers!

[thebaldingaquarist]

Very nice layout!

my 2 cents..
i would
remove the amazon and the hirsuta. Reason is the amazon will outgrow the tank soon... and the hirsuta will be "gone", hidden by the glosso.

the layout.. i will put more rotalas and fill the space that the amazon is on and... shift some of the plants around..

[Urban Aquaria]

Looks like you have quite a good selection of plants already... i guess as they grow you can remove and add to adjust the scape.

The only plant in your list that i see that may cause abit of hassle is the Echinodorus Tenellus, it tends to shoot long above-ground runners across the tank and sprout new bunches at random spots, so if you want them to stay in their area, have to keep watch and regularly prune any rogue runners before they establish new bunches.

[atolylica]

Hi Eric, thanks for the time taken in your detailed drawing! Much appreciated. Will take a look again how I can shift the plants around as per your recommendations.

Hi UA, noted on the Tenellus' growth pattern. Perhaps I'll take them out completely.

[atolylica]

Here's an update 2 weeks from the previous one.

Did some addition, subtraction and re-shifting of plants. This picture was taken just right after the Harlequin Rasboras were added, and plants trimmed. Current inhabitants in the tank are :

10x Harlequin Rasboras
1x Oto
1x SAE
1x Cardinal Tetra
1x Ember Tetra
1x Albino Full red Guppy

Plants are growing well and no sight of algae (yet).

The Rotala sp "Green" is not growing up straight but growing all over the place. Some would make a U-turn back down into the substrate. Read that this is due to too much light. Anyone has any experience with making them grow erect?
Attachment 38256

[cherabin]

I had the same experience with rotala green. Trimming down at the point where the stalk bends over worked for me.


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[atolylica]

here's an update after 1 month.

Attachment 38754

Plants are setting in nicely, spotted some GSA but not too big of a concern since it can scrubbed off easily. 2 Rasboras jumped out, 4 died due to some white patches (not spots) and reddish spots on their skin. Treated the entire tank with Tetra General Tonic but still did not worked. Not sure if it was my tank water parameters or the LFS that I got them from.
I'm not sure will the plants be temporary or should I change them out as I'm taking it as it comes. It is by no means professional, as I'm enjoying this hobby slow and steady. Afterall, a hobby shouldn't stress one out

Noticed a few pointers:
- I have been experiencing a thick layer of unsightly surface oil. Happened to shift a guppy from the other tank to this tank. The layer of oil completely disappeared for 3 days now! I've been doing my usual maintenance and cannot think of other factors that attribute to this. Read somewhere that surface dwellers like Guppies consume the layer of oil?

- The Beamswork Evo 24 has a yellowish tint compared to a clip-on Aquazonic lighting that I was using before. It has a mixture of 8k + 10k LED bulbs that were 'cooler', which was to my liking. I'm not fussing over it, but oh well..

[Kiang]

here's an update after 1 month.

Attachment 38754

Plants are setting in nicely, spotted some GSA but not too big of a concern since it can scrubbed off easily. 2 Rasboras jumped out, 4 died due to some white patches (not spots) and reddish spots on their skin. Treated the entire tank with Tetra General Tonic but still did not worked. Not sure if it was my tank water parameters or the LFS that I got them from.
I'm not sure will the plants be temporary or should I change them out as I'm taking it as it comes. It is by no means professional, as I'm enjoying this hobby slow and steady. Afterall, a hobby shouldn't stress one out

Noticed a few pointers:
- I have been experiencing a thick layer of unsightly surface oil. Happened to shift a guppy from the other tank to this tank. The layer of oil completely disappeared for 3 days now! I've been doing my usual maintenance and cannot think of other factors that attribute to this. Read somewhere that surface dwellers like Guppies consume the layer of oil?

- The Beamswork Evo 24 has a yellowish tint compared to a clip-on Aquazonic lighting that I was using before. It has a mixture of 8k + 10k LED bulbs that were 'cooler', which was to my liking. I'm not fussing over it, but oh well..

👍👍

Certainly a lot better than my first 2ft experience.

Lost the battle to BBA and have nightmare till now.

Haha


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[atolylica]

Hi all, I just gotten 2 Blue Rams in my community tank with 6 Cardinals, 4 Ember Tetra and 1 Harlequin.

I feed my fishes those floating mini pellets for tetras. But my rams just stay at the bottom, chilling out. I've read that tetras can act as dither fishes to be housed with rams to encourage them to appear from hiding.

My question is - what food can I get for my ram without my tetras stealing the food?
Also, I have frozen worms that I used to feed, but heard they pollute the water really quickly. Are there any recommendation of live food or those that do not pollute the water?

Thanks in advance for the reply.

[furyprix]

you can try sinking pellets, i personally feed my corydoras and rams with the same sinking pellets from hikari and they love it

[atolylica]

Been awhile since I updated.

Tank is still doing well. Took out the Rotalas at the back left and planted some immature HM, hoping to get a nice sloping HM background.

I'm going on a 2 weeks holiday next month, and I intend to trim to half my current lights from 48W to 24W, and half the photoperiod duration from 6 hours to 3 hours. Intend to do a 50% water change the day I'm leaving, and do a dose as per EI.

Thing I'm worried about is
- Will the inhabitants be okay without water change for 2 weeks?
- To prevent evaporation (currently losing 1.5 liters a day with a cooling fan), I'll switch off my fan. Day time temperature will hit 30 degrees celsius without a fan.

Anyone has any advice?

Attachment 39934

[hann]

Like the lust look of ur thick plant setup. Very good job there.

[atolylica]

Thanks for the compliment! Still learning along the way.

Anyone has advice regarding my questions above?

[Urban Aquaria]

I'm going on a 2 weeks holiday next month, and I intend to trim to half my current lights from 48W to 24W, and half the photoperiod duration from 6 hours to 3 hours. Intend to do a 50% water change the day I'm leaving, and do a dose as per EI.

Thing I'm worried about is
- Will the inhabitants be okay without water change for 2 weeks?
- To prevent evaporation (currently losing 1.5 liters a day with a cooling fan), I'll switch off my fan. Day time temperature will hit 30 degrees celsius without a fan.

Anyone has any advice?

I've had some experience with leaving my tanks alone while i'm overseas too...

If you are reducing the light period and intensity, remember to also reduce your Co2 injection as the plant's intake will be lower so the Co2 levels may accumulate much higher over the 2 weeks. In addition, also reduce the EI fertilizer dosing accordingly for the same reasons.

No water changes for 2 weeks should be okay, as long as your tank has a stable cycle and you reduced the EI fertilizer dosing accordingly.

Evaporation may still be an issue even without the fan (once the water level drops below the lily pipe and there is more surface agitation, evaporation increases too), so perhaps run the tank without a fan for the next 1 week while you are still in Singapore and record how much water evaporates, then fill the tank water level higher before you leave for overseas to compensate for the loss in evaporation.

I noticed you are using a surface skimmer, therefore also make sure that the water level doesn't decrease until its way below the floating skimmer head or else the skimmer's motor will end up running dry.

You can also DIY an auto top-up system too, here is an effective yet simple design by mikisol:

http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...Cost-effective

I tried that method with Daiso rectangular tubs (easier to prop up on the corners of braceless tanks) and it works well too.

[atolylica]

Thanks for the valuable advice. I'm not so worried now. Hope I don't get a bad surprise when I return!

[thebaldingaquarist]

what i would do is to DIY the auto top up from the link given by UA.
not do any changes.

Be prepared to come back to algae situation.

to be honest, if algae strikes (touch wood), it will not be dramatic in a week... and whatever measures you take now, it does not guarantee that algae will not strike.