Maazo's 45cm odyssey

**Maazo** · 10th Sep 2007, 18:57

Here's a tank I started up recently. It was orginally going to be a contest tank (and still might be depending on how it turns out) but for now it'll be a bit of an experiment, especially with a couple of different Utiricularia species.

There's a bit of riccia and duckweed soaking up the ammonia at the moment. Still waiting on my utricularia. There also a few very small Blyxa japonica stems up the back behind the rocks - refugees from another tank that were in meltdown.

**Jungle-mania** · 11th Sep 2007, 00:40

Your blyxa will spread out very quickly under the right conditions, but they will not grow very much taller after a certain time. I also think you need a black oyama paper at the back. By the way, are you on www.aquariumlife.com.au?

**Maazo** · 11th Sep 2007, 07:16

The blyxa are tiny little sprouts - about a centimetre, but they're coming back strong. My anubias are melting unfurtunately, but if they don't survive then I'm not too worries. Maybe it doesn't like the richness of the ADA Aquasoil. My philosophy is if it takes too much trouble to keep a plant alive it's not worth it!

Not terribly worried about a background at the moment. The white thing if anyone's wondering is a tube leading to a plenum. Not sure if I'll need it but good to have just in case.

And yes, AquariumLife is the forum I'm on most - I've only found this place relatively recently.

**riccia** · 11th Sep 2007, 09:44

Hi Maazo

I can see that you are mixing ADA Aquasoil with lapis sand.

**Maazo** · 11th Sep 2007, 10:09

Hey riccia. It's actually just a plain quartz sand used for old swimming pool filter. Didn't see much point forking out money for expensive decorative sand.

**Maazo** · 8th Oct 2007, 19:20

Here's an update. Have had some headaches with this tank. Tha anubias started to melt so they came out. In between moving and re-moving some riccia around the two substrates became mixed. But I could see that coming a mile off.

Anyway here's the tank as it stands now.

**StanChung** · 8th Oct 2007, 19:58

Hi Maazo, the rocks would be covered by the plants soon. Try to bury the netting of the riccia to make it invisible. If you can, get more smaller similar pebbles to create a border btween the soil and sand to prevent it from mixing.

**Maazo** · 24th Oct 2007, 13:41

Not much to report, other than I've given up on worrying too much about the mixing between the two types of substrate. The blyxa melted off a bit but is coming back.

**doppelbanddwarf** · 24th Oct 2007, 16:14

The brown tinge on the rocks looks very natural. Any faunas?

**shrimp999** · 24th Oct 2007, 17:05

Seems you just performed water changed before taking photo

Riccia already blocking the rocks behind. Is time to trim?

**Maazo** · 24th Oct 2007, 19:19

Originally Posted by shrimp999

Seems you just performed water changed before taking photo

Riccia already blocking the rocks behind. Is time to trim?

Just about time for a trim. And yes did a water change the same day. But I'm not really worried about photos or the tank appearance too much at the moment. I'll probably replace the rocks at the back for something a little bigger.

I'm really waiting for the HC to fill in the foreground and the blyxa to fill in the right side of the tank

Originally Posted by limchongyu

The brown tinge on the rocks looks very natural. Any faunas?

Diatoms!

. No fauna as yet, but it won't be long. Some Caradina longistrostris (Australia native) and probably a few Ember Tetras and maybe some Sparkling Gouramis.