Heres are some pics of my 4 ft Tank...
I've only included pics of the left side of the tank as the right side is mainly bare with some hygrophila plants to "absorb excess nutrients / prevent algae?"
The scape consist of mainly whatever driftwood I could find locally, some ferns re-tied, 2 species of crypts (i dont know the name), some aponogen sp (dont know the name too), and bits of glosso.
Fauna
6 Rams (now 5, one mysteriously died, it literally flipped over and died in front of me)
4 SAE
3 Otos
1 Puffer
I'm pretty new to scaping.. so please advise whenever you can
Last edited by benny; 3rd Sep 2006 at 21:31. Reason: Fix gallery link
I've uploaded the pictures in your personal gallery. They now load up as bigger pictures.
I do find the tank to be a little bit too sparse. Do you have any type of aquascape in mind that you are trying to achieve?
Personally, I would add more plants in during the interim period to soak up all the excess nutrients. Keeps the algae at bay.
Cheers,
I have dwarf cichlids in my tanks! Do you?
Change background. It looks awful - no offence but black looks better
Ditto to what Benny has said. Add more plants said 10-30x more. The real competition and prevention is really the NH3 produced by the critters and not the excess inorganic nutrients that we add (they don't cause algae even in excess.). Lots of plants means all that NH3 is being uptaken quickly leaving no chance for triggering of algae.
Regards
Peter Gwee
Plant Physiology by Taiz and Zeiger
i would second ahkarboy, change background to either black or white, blue does not look good, and plant more...more and MOre..!
i'm ADDicted to this wonderful hobby
I having 4ft tank too and is not easy, which require more plants to fill in. And plant more which you probably will, are you intending for a high or low maintainence setup?
agree that the present background color doesnt seems appealing to the eyes, black be better.
Probably your setup is still young, cycle more before introducing any faunas.
Look forward to the progress.
The Happiest of people don't neccessary have the best of everything;
they just make the most of everything that comes along their way
When will there be 25 letters in the alphabets?
I would say the tank is too new to comment. Can see that even the water is still cloudy, why are you cycling the tank with the poor rams? I think the side view of your driftwood looks alot better than what you are using for the front side now. You might want to consider "switching sides".
Do you have a picture of the whole tank?
Hiya all...
Thanks for all the input... Please keep them comming...
I guess i will be switching the background to black in due time... I did regret the blue and called the LFS guy to change it a few days after placing my order... but it was too late... Now the idea of shifting a loaded tank out to paste black paper seem rather daunting... I guess i will worry about the scape first and change the paper when i have the time and energy to shift the tank...
Cycling... The initial plan was to cycle it for 2 weeks before adding fishes, but having read in some threads there that we can speed things up by adding commercial beneficial bateria in a bootle to assist cycling... After checks with the LFS uncle who confirmed that it was true, i did just that...
tank is currently 4 days old... saw the death of 1 ram... sigh... Does it mean that the instant cycler thing didnt quite work?
Cloudy water... A "helpful" family member found some loose gravel in the pail i used for washing gravel... and "assisted" to poured the entire lot into my crystal clear water.... so much for efforts to avoid disturbing substrate when filling the tank... I will be doing a WC soon...
Position of the driftwood... Looking back at the pics, you might be right... But i have tied the javas to grow behind the wood so i dont know if i should move it now.... If i do, i will shift it to the empty right side of the tank... The plants are all smallish, coz they came from my previous 1 piece of driftwood...Im not buying new plants yet coz i am still trying to figure out what kinda scape i want...
Plants... I am hoping to get more during the AQ farm visit next week... Frankly i dont know what to get...So far the only idea i have is tallish plants for background, medium plants for centre and glossos/hairgrass for lawn...
Maybe abit of narrow leafs and bolbitis for the back...
The other side is bare now, but for some sword plants randomly planted tog with hygrophilia to absorb waste? I hope to find a nice piece of driftwood that i can place there, something taller and more imposing, and i hope to tie some mosses to that...
Oh yeah, i have on co2 and a magnum 2 pl light... am thinking of adding another magnum 2... thats consider high maintenance?
I hope to keep more dwarf chilids (cacas), cigarfish, pencils, cardinals, rasboras when the tank is more stable... really regret the death of the ram... sigh...
The remaining rams are unlikely to survive the ordeal of the onset of the coming nitrogen cycle. Do you think bottled bacteria are alive or dormant? Even if you add live bacteria via dirt from an established tank/filter material, it would take some time for the bacteria count to build up to convert the NH3/NH4 to NO3. Cheapy plants on the other hand can be bought in mass and remove the NH3/NH4 and convert them into plant mass given enough CO2, light and nutrients. Don't wait, just get those cheapy aquatic plants to fill in first (you can always remove them later) if you want the rams alive.
Regards
Peter Gwee
Plant Physiology by Taiz and Zeiger
Oh no...
Okie as of this moment i have added some over 10 stalks of hygrophila difformis, some small pieces of hydrilias, some over 10 stalks of cabomba like plants and other miscellaneous fast growing stalk plants from my shrimp tank....
Hope this is sufficient
It will be at least a day or two before i can venture down to the LFS...
I ditto that....Originally Posted by PeterGwee
On top of that, you should seriously consider reworking on your drift wood and turning it around.
Relooking at your tank again.... did I see those pea size gravel????
PS: do not see your tank as it is now, you need to visualise how it will look when the plants are at full growth. Else you will just keep on rescaping without understanding why the tank just don't looked the way you wanted. From my pass experience, tying java ferns on a "inverted cone" drift wood looks pretty aweful at full growth (at least to me).
I think i will have to rework the whole thing.... definately will have to redo the driftwood too... sigh.. all seems wrong... this is definately not easy...
For now, my main concern is to ensure that the fishes survive...so will the fast growing plants now floating about in the tank help?
As for rescaping, there are various practical constraints... My new plan is to do the other side of the tank first, maybe get a nice driftwood at the AQ visit to the farms, and other plants to tie to it... There are practical constraints too, i got into this hobby some 2 months ago... have been spending quite abit since then... Ganna nag at by parents and gf for overspending liao...
The "pea sized gravel" I use is mainly ocean free gravel with ocean free base fert... But they seem quite light and seem to drift about even when theres the slightest bit of water current... so i added mixed for the top layer a bag of stone type gravel (yeah they are pea sized) to weight it down. these are quite evenly mixed but for the top layer. (erm to clarify, bottom layer 3 pails of ocean free base fert, mid leyer 6 bags of ocean free gravel, top layer 2 bags pea sized stone type gravel with 4 bags of ocean free gravel).I hope thats okay?
Technically, I think it is OK as I think the plants will be able to choose where to root. However, I feel that its too distracting for my liking. I do believe floating plants like duck weeds or riccia will help, but they wil cause other problems like the bottom plants not getting enough lights. If budget is a constraint, you should consider just stick to what you have currently and just tweak to beautify it abit here and there.
Probably you can consider getting some blyxa japonica and E. Tennulus to fill the gabs and foreground as they are pretty cheap, low requirement and look pretty sweet.
Sorry, to clarify... Do you mean the gravel is okay? or the plants floating around... i guess the tanks a mess now with the plants floating about... but if this can secure the lives of my rams, i dont mind it at all..
My last visit to the farms found that driftwoods with java ferns tied to it can cost up to 30-40 dollars... I am still bearing high hopes of getting something during the AQ trip to scape my right side before dismantling the left and re organising the pieces, maybe via introducing some additional pieces...
Another problem - I have crypts, i hear that once u move them they will melt and rot..... I planted my crypts near the driftwood... was hoping to shft them only when they are stronger and dont melt anymore...
Let me reconstruct my reply
Gravels
Duckweeds
Driftwood
Hope this helps
I did abit of rescaping after the AQ outing...
the rams died...
Last edited by Memnoch; 10th Jun 2007 at 20:26.
looks much better now.
background slightly empty though
may want to fill it in abit
if not wait till the plants hrow out abit then see how it looks
I should be working not posting
Sorry to hear that. Maybe better to let cycling complete next time. Let the water clear, then a few days later only put in some fishes. This delay is to let the theoretical nitrite spike drop.
You can if you dare to fail - Stan Chung
Update....
Tested for Ammonia, nil.
Remaining fishes swimming happily, no more heavy breathing... last 10 Yamatos died... i hear its the CO2...
Now tank inhabited by 18 Rummy Noses, 3 Emperor black tetras, 5 Black tetras (its a different variety from the usual one from Ben's), 2 L183, 6 common bristlenoses, 6 ("bandit" corys - dunno the scientific or common name), 6 unsexed Kribensis (pelvischromis pulcher), 3 female Rams (all the males died, plan to get a sole male when i find a nice one), 3 Apisto Borelli Opal "C328" males + 1 wild "Biotope" female, 3 Camaroon fan shrimps, 4 SAEs, 4 Otos... ( i took out the puffer after i witnessed it lift my cory up and dragging it across the tank!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
Plan to add another pair of apisto... and am thinking of helicopters... 30 or so small cardinals, maybe a couple of headstanders? when the plants grow out with sufficient hiding places, to add some cheap cherry shrimps...
Am i overcrowding for a 4 ft?
Yes. BTW where did you get the cameroon fan shrimp from? I think it is time to set up another 4 footer, given the bioload. If you need info on getting really big and cheap second hand tanks, PM me.
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