5ft tank update

[juggler]

My 5ft tank... comments/ suggestions welcome.



Earlier photos/ threads:
http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...ead.php?t=3933

[gregorsamsa]

nice lush growth and great school of fish.

but i think you need some wood to give some definition between the back and the hairgrass lawn. other than that its remarkable how you find space at home for so many big tanks and still keep them algae free.

[|squee|]

Yes I agree with Greg. Also, I feel that the hairgrass needs to be trimmed to make it "wilder", right now it's too cultured/manicured for my taste But it's just me

[vinz]

Nice, but the sudden change from tall hairgrass to some other sparsely planted plant on the right side is jarring.

What's the midground plant? Lobelia or Anubias?

[arclaveus]

Love the Hair Grass!! Great job!! Maybe shld jus use HG for the entire foreground

[juggler]

I am very very bad at using wood or rocks. So I rarely use it in my tanks. At most tie some plants to hide the wood! I find it waste of precious planting space to put a wood.

The right side was actually last minute attempt to put in more hair grass, so looking a bit bald there. It was occupied with Sag.platyphyla which I moved back a little. For midground, I tried to use Crypts and Lobelia but are not growing too well and blocked by the tall hair grass. Other than that it's the Anubias on the driftwood. The background are mostly B.aubertii and gives good shade for the Anubias.

Actually I also like to find out why the same batch of hair grass can grow differently in my home tank and office tank? At home they grow 3~4 times taller. In the office 3.5ft tank, they stayed short. No trimming even after 1.5 yrs. Does temperature make the difference?

[Fei Miao]

I am very very bad at using wood or rocks. So I rarely use it in my tanks. At most tie some plants to hide the wood! I find it waste of precious planting space to put a wood.

The right side was actually last minute attempt to put in more hair grass, so looking a bit bald there. It was occupied with Sag.platyphyla which I moved back a little. For midground, I tried to use Crypts and Lobelia but are not growing too well and blocked by the tall hair grass. Other than that it's the Anubias on the driftwood. The background are mostly B.aubertii and gives good shade for the Anubias.

Actually I also like to find out why the same batch of hair grass can grow differently in my home tank and office tank? At home they grow 3~4 times taller. In the office 3.5ft tank, they stayed short. No trimming even after 1.5 yrs. Does temperature make the difference?

I like the wild look and open space for the fish , have you decided to replace the rainbows with the congo tertas yet?

Let me know if you found the reason for the growth differs for the Hairgrass in the 2 tanks.

[benny]

I like this one too.

One suggestion for the sake of suggestion. You should use Tank A instead of Tank 1. For a moment, when I was looking at the picture, I was thinking that this is a very long 1.5 ft set up.

Cheers,

[juggler]

Hi Benny, how's your 5ft tank? I haven't seen any updates...

[FC]

I like the healthy looking plants which by itself is beautiful. As for the aquascape, I am not good at this but I feel it lacks depth that caused it to look plain. Forgive my frank opinion.

[juggler]

Freddy: Thanks. All opinions are welcome! We are here to learn from each other. For me, I try to strike a balance between aesthetics and maintainability.

The right one-third background is always a problem for me. Should I cover the blue background by placing more B.aubertii there? Any other suggestions?

It's seems easier to keep the plants healthy than to create a nice aquascape!

[juggler]

Update for 2006.



Update for 2007. Thanks to lwm999 and PC for some of the beautiful Rainbowfish.

[ranmasatome]

WAh.. KF... its been a while since i saw your tanks...
Thanks for sharing man.. it brings back memories..haha..

[zenscape]

Good to see enduring nice tanks

The rainbows are definitely happy in there.

[FishFan]

Your scape has gotten more wild but it remains a fine piece of beauty. The fishes look really happy!

[David Moses Heng]

nice!! so brother, when are you coming over to help me? i need help leh...

[stmoo]

wow....
VERY nice tank. like it very much

[ericchua]

very very nice tank....

[juggler]

Thanks for kind comments and inspiring me to keep it going.

As I have to divide my time with family, the setup has come to a point where it is still manageable with infrequent maintenance. Hope can improve it in future.

Those interested can see how it has evolved since 2002. Refer http://www.ntu.edu.sg/home/kfloh/mytank.htm#tank1a

[juggler]

Since Nov-2002, the tank has evolved from:



to this:



and this:



and finally this:



At this stage, I probably have not done any water change for about a year, I guess; only top up. But I still dose lesser nutrients weekly. The plant mass was getting so big that fish don't have enough space to swim. And BBA is constantly there. So I decided to do a revamp last week. Took me the whole day to strip off almost all the plants to re-tie and replant. I left the substrate as it is.



This was just after the day of setup. I planted with more Echinodorus varieties and Crypts. Foreground has some E.tenellus. Hopefully the tank remain low maintenance.



And 5 days later. Wanted to cover the back with Cyperus helferi but Teo Farm don't have stock.

Comments welcome.