An Echinodorus theme setup

[Lam_wn]

Hi all,
lately did a rescape for my 3x2x2 tank.



Flora:
Echinodorus
osiris
rubin
oriental
red flame (i think)
ozelot
tenellus
Vallisneria
Hornwort

Unknown plant I randomly bought. (wasnt meant for this tank but i only realised last minute I had no space for it in my other 2 ft tank) ...now its doing something wierd...

could someone help me id it?

I planned for this setup to be free of all small creatures. the guppies and platy are just a few that i havent removed after cycling.
Presently the only algae eaters are malayan shrimps and larger whiptail cats. Will the tank be sustainable long term without the malayans (in the event that I introduce small predators which would prey on them)?

Lastly, could anyone give some advice on how I can get the echis to colour up abit more nicely? Is increasing the light intensity the only way? Although I am reluctant to do this after reading a recent thread on lower light setups. The oriental new growths dont seem as brightly coloured as i hoped it to be, although its nice still, and the red flame doesnt exactly look very red... Presently I am using 4 x 36W, which gives about 1.8wpg.

thanks

[StanChung]

Hi Lam,
Your echis have a lot of holes in the older leaves. This is a sign of potassium deficiency or damage by the whiptail cats. I suspect it's not the catfish's fault.

Unknown plant if I'm not mistaken is an Eriocaulon sp.

Try some root tabs for your echis, that may work. Otherwise invest in higher quality lighting tubes.

[Jungle-mania]

You can change your lighting to higher candlight like 10000K if you do not want to up the wattage. Lastly, you can plant your feathergrass at the background instead of letting it float around, that might cut off the lighting effect.

As for the shrimps, I have to hold my tongue on that, as I have a thread with similar issues going on about that.

[valice]

Hi Lam,
Your echis have a lot of holes in the older leaves. This is a sign of potassium deficiency or damage by the whiptail cats. I suspect it's not the catfish's fault.

Stan, I actually think it might be the work of the cats.
I have those holes in my ex-Pleco tank.

[Lam_wn]

Hello guys,
thanks for the quick replies.
yes, regarding the holes, its the cats' fault...actually mine, I didnt realise my tank hadnt grown much algae yet, the holes appeared within 2 days of me introducing them into the tank, thereafter I started feeding algae wafers.
but if its the osiris's leaves with the yellow marks/holes that was because I cut away quite some of its roots during transplanting. The new leaves are fast regaining their size and colour of the original plant.
thanks jungle-mania for the advice on the lighting, I will heed your advice and see how it goes.
Any other comments are all welcome.
thanks

[CK Yeo]

The unknown plant looks like a cyperus sp. likely haspans. They are viviparious and stalks will grow from the head (the thing you bought). AFAIK, they can't grow submersed and will grow out of the tank.

ck

[bryan]

Couple of days ago, I spotted some brazillian micro swords at C328, thought you might be interested. Some people do advise iron supplements for sword plants for better color but I think depends if it is sufficent in your base fertilizer already.