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Any pics of the existing tank, it will be easier for the bros to see the tank and give suggestions from there.
Hi,
I have been having my 4footer for about 4 years. Mostly hairgrass in foreground and a big amazon sword on the left, vansila and crypts on left. With java fern on background.
Now, I am thinking of a even lower maintenance tank. Any suggestion on re-scapping a 4 footer? I already have fertilizer on the bottom covered with about 2-3inches of gravel. What do I need to do?
Can someone help by listing step-by-step how to go about re-scapping?
Thanks.
MS
Any pics of the existing tank, it will be easier for the bros to see the tank and give suggestions from there.
Last edited by Fei Miao; 8th Feb 2006 at 14:08.
It's not that the plants are "not nice" or what, just that I am feeling abit itchy and want a change and something to do.......
Will take some pictures when I go home later.
MS
IMHO, there are two choices.
Choice 1
Little work done over many weeks. Very weekend, cover 1/2 feet of your tank (total = 8 weeks).
i) Totally uproot 1/2 feet of the plants (starting from the left side of the tank the 1st week)
ii) After that, use a gravel cleaner to wash that 1/2 feet of sand. You can even suck up all the based fertilizer this way.
iii) Do not plant anything immediately.
iv) 2nd week uproot another 1/2 feet of the plants totally and clean this 1/2 feet of sand using the gravel cleaner to clean away all sluge.
v) Total 1 feet of the tank is empty in the 2nd week. You can now plant 1/2 a feet of the tank, leaving the other feet empty.
Vi) this carries on until your beautiful tank is completed.
Choice 2
i)get a two feet tank, matured the sand, plant, water, bateria cycle,...
ii) ensure water parameters are the same with the 4 feet tank
iii) net the fish (no lights on when netting the fish) and immediately transfer them into the 2 feet tank.
iv) once the 4 feet tank is empty, do watever you need to have a new set up. (careful not to throw away some shrimps is still left in your 4 feet tank).
Best regards
Here's the pictures.
All comments are Welcome!
MS
Last edited by benny; 11th Feb 2006 at 03:36. Reason: update gallery links
Actually, I think just a change of plants will be quite refreshing already. From the pictures, you don't have a lot of stem plants, so maintenance is already not as tedious as a stem plant tank.
Perhaps a selection of Echinodorus or Cryptocoryne?
Cheers,
I have dwarf cichlids in my tanks! Do you?
WOW ms, nice looking tank, layout of the plants n hairgrass very well placed, have u got intention of selling the whole setup, so i dont need to crack my head to rescape my tank again n again.
Cracking our heads again and again for the tank layout is the whole fun of this hobby afterall, Bravo.
By the way, ms, in my humble opinion, I feel that those crypts you have on the right of the tank look good but have you tried gathering them and plant them closely near the pieces of wood you have? Just feel that the crypts look quite spaced out, and too 'leggy' when its grows too close to the front of the tank.
~Chyrl~
向来如此便是对吗？
Live each moment like its the last
Thanks for the compliments!
Hi Bravo,
Thanks for the patronage, even if I sell the tank (which will make my other half very happy), there will be problem with transport.
CS,
All the crypts were bought from Teo's in Lim Chu Kang. There were some small crypts in front of the right side DW, but they 'melted'. I knew that the others were sparsly placed, but I do not have a proper pair of tweezers to plant them in the beginning.
Hoping that they will propagate. I inserted some "panadol" look alike booster fertilizer, but there seemed to be no change.
I enjoy my tank as I can see many bubbles coming from all the plants, including the hairgrass.
Thanks.
MS
I believe your panadol lookalike fertilizer is JBL's Ferrotab...Originally Posted by ms
For that, it merely provides the micro nutrients and iron... Are you dosing the macro nutrients?
That's a nice tank you have there, itchy for something to do?... start another tank
Hi Fei Meow,
Yes I am dosing liquid fertilizer about 3x per week. I think it's ferka or something. I brought it from Petmart and was told that it is from Germany. I think it is doing the plants some good.
I have already started a 1.5ft low maintenace tank. I just brought a Dolphin 500L/Hr hanging filter and fine sand gravel yesterday. I used the water from my 4ft. Currently letting the water cycle. I would need some ideas here.
Thinking of using Low light, no CO2, Low bio-load. Just 2 angle fish and a golden algae eater.
Ideas?
MS
Ferka from Germany? I thought it's from Thailand
Personally, on the Fauna , I not too keen on angles and SAE for a 1.5ft, I perfer smaller fish like tetras and rasboras or even wild bettas. Show us the tank
I was mistaken, the liquid fertilizer I used is Amtra.
The low maintenance tank that I hope to have is one which require few water changes....maybe once every 4 weeks? Can anyone tell me can I achieve this with very low bio-load?
If possible, maybe I can add in some shrimps?
MS
If you want a non-CO2 low maintainence, it's easy. Don't do water changes, dose fertiliser in small amounts once a week, feed fish on alternate days or daily but in small amounts. Shrimps should be alright too.
The main thing is to have no water changes, alot of plant mass(double your current plant mass shown in the pictures), low temperature and good water circulation and moderate lighting and you should be fine.
You could just get rid of the stemmed plants and do some pruning (your hairgrass lawn especially), group those crypts together, get more plants(more crypts, Echinodorus?) and do some scaping and then sit back and enjoy the slow steady growth.
Read Tom Barr's Non-CO2 method for more details at the Beginner's Corner.
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