My Aquarium

[jacquetlc]

Hi! Somethings amiss from my tank... Some advice for improvement?

Currently no CO2, no Fert.

Lights ON and Fans ON during 0630 - 0730, 1900 - 0000.

Fauna:

Glowlights (10x)
Rams (4x)
Glass Catfish (2x)
Honey Gouramis (2x)
Mollies (2x)
OTOs (4x)
Wood Shrimp (1x)

Flora:
Hairgrass
(I'm sorry but still can't learnt the rest of the 3 kinds of plants)

Front View:



Top 3/4 Down:



Right View:



Left View:



Thank you!

[valice]

Well, standard advice... Split up your hairgrass into 3-4 strands and plant individually and not into clumps... You will see lotsa dying HG after awhile if planted your way...

[taz_boy]

yup, agree wif vincent, split ur hairgrass into smaller portion, frm the qty u have, should be able to fill up ur entire foreground and create a lawn effect in time to come.

[michael lai]

Hi jacquetic,
I think the deformis is getting out of hand, maybe replace with nanas or narrowleave java fern would be better. As you are on low-tech, things tend to be very slow. Enjoy and have fun.

[Cacatuoides]

simple and neat setup...i kinda like the piece of wood

[Ssur]

Hi,

nice setup!

I notice there are some fat belly Otos, do u feed them any special food? algae wafers?

Just my opinon, i feel that the HG is alittle too tall for the foreground, or the DW is make it look too tall.

[jacquetlc]

thanks all for the tips/suggestions and compliments!

same sentiments! I think my HG is too tall... Que: Can I trim it as in put in my pair of scissors and just cut off... like a barber?

I think the one that you see in the pic is my pot-bellied mollie... I've got a pair of them.

I feed only floating pellets to my fish... nothing special... a huge bag for only a few bucks.

by the way, what's deformis?

[|squee|]

Yes you can cut it off literally like hair.

[Ssur]

I am refering to the 2 white bellies of the Oto on the glass, they look huge!

Pregnant or overfeed, mine dont seem to be so fulled.

The plant Hygrophila difformis is the tallest plant you have, touching the water surface.

[StanChung]

thanks all for the tips/suggestions and compliments!

same sentiments! I think my HG is too tall... Que: Can I trim it as in put in my pair of scissors and just cut off... like a barber?


by the way, what's deformis?

Yes you can cut till it's 1 inch height. It will grow back tall though. Beware of the mess of floating needles. Hygrophila difformis is the big stem plant you have in the corner.

[kemp]

by the way, how big is this tank?

[michael lai]

Hi Jac, deformis=Wisteria Deformis aka watersprite. The tall plant you have on your right almost touching surface.

[Sweet Angel]

Hi Jacquetlc,

How long your setup been?
In my experience, HG can't grow without CO2, they already make a nice lawn in my DIY CO2 tank before, but after algae attack & remove the DIY CO2, now all HG gone
Also if trim the HG the old needle won't grow again, they'll die, but maybe many new shoots will come out from below.

The difformis you have, still growing very fast in my non CO2 tank, kind a beautiful plant, but still need constant trimming even in a non CO2 tank

[jacquetlc]

[/QUOTE=Ssur]I am refering to the 2 white bellies of the Oto on the glass, they look huge!

Pregnant or overfeed, mine dont seem to be so fulled.

The plant Hygrophila difformis is the tallest plant you have, touching the water surface.[/QUOTE]

I hope they are pregnant... they seem to be perpetually eating all the time...

[jacquetlc]

by the way, how big is this tank?

it is a 1 ft 'cube' with more depth than length ... all fully 'automated' with in built filter, lights and fan.

[jacquetlc]

Hi Jacquetlc,

How long your setup been?
In my experience, HG can't grow without CO2, they already make a nice lawn in my DIY CO2 tank before, but after algae attack & remove the DIY CO2, now all HG gone
Also if trim the HG the old needle won't grow again, they'll die, but maybe many new shoots will come out from below.

The difformis you have, still growing very fast in my non CO2 tank, kind a beautiful plant, but still need constant trimming even in a non CO2 tank

Hi! My newly formed landscape with HG is only about a month old. So far so good and just over this weekend, I've spotted new HG growing from my lapis.

If i trim my HG, they'll die? ... but according to another post, it says they'll grow back... so should I trim? ...

I don't like the difformis plant... think it will be more beautiful in a large tank... not in my cube...

[mikhail]

Nice scape and DW placement!

You can replace h. defformis with Bolbitis heudelotii tied to your driftwood. The foliage of the bolbitis has similarity to h. defformis (if u don't want to loose the distinct leaf pattern effect of deformis in your scape). Bolbitis does not grow very quickly and it has finer emerald green translucent leaves. Otherwise, u can replace with anubias nana or java fern... also blends well with your scape as you already have similarly lance-shaped leaves (crypts, echinodorus).

[Sweet Angel]

Hi! My newly formed landscape with HG is only about a month old. So far so good and just over this weekend, I've spotted new HG growing from my lapis.

If i trim my HG, they'll die? ... but according to another post, it says they'll grow back... so should I trim? ...

I don't like the difformis plant... think it will be more beautiful in a large tank... not in my cube...

IME, the needle you cut will not grow back taller, they tend to die, but "maybe" new needles will come out faster after trimming, because overall HG still grow.
Yeah, maybe difformis will look awful in small tank..

[Fei Miao]

Hi! My newly formed landscape with HG is only about a month old. So far so good and just over this weekend, I've spotted new HG growing from my lapis.

If i trim my HG, they'll die? ... but according to another post, it says they'll grow back... so should I trim? ...

I don't like the difformis plant... think it will be more beautiful in a large tank... not in my cube...

If you find the hair grass already growing fine, trimming them would encourage new growth, difformis is good in the sense they takes up excess nutrient and keeps algae in check, yes the leaves are too big for this cube. Hygrophila Polysperma is another easy plant but with smaller leaves which I use to absorb excess nutrients; other plants you may try are floating plants like frog-bits, Salvinia natans.

Once you find the tank is more establish, you can replace them with other plants; Bolbitis heudelotii, Anubias nana and java fern as suggested by others are low maintenance plants will be easy once the tank is established, they will do better if you have CO2 and lower temp., what's the temp with fan on?

Leaves size plays a bigger part in scaping a small tank, choose plants with small leaves, big leaves plants makes the tank looks cluttered.