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IMHO, you do not need lapis sand. The way you plant it, it will cover the foreground in no timeand you will lost the contrast your trying to achieve
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Just sharing some pics of my new setup!
This is an Ocean Free glass tank measuring 30 x 18 x 20cm. Substrate consists of a pack of Gex soil (800g, green packaging) and a thin layer of lapis sand (< 2cm) on top. The reason for such a combination is to create enough contrast between the substrate and the driftwood..
Equipment used in this set up includes a Dolphin H-80 (190l/hr) HOB filter, Hopar 13W PL light. Thinking of getting a small Dymax fan for this fan.Plants included in this setup are Dwarf Hairgrass, Blyxa Japonica, Taiwan Moss, Petite Nana, Hornwort..
Driftwood is actually made up of three seperate pieces, of which 2 came from one piece
Here's a shot on the substrate combination.. hope the hairgrass and blyxas will root well!
For this tank, i plan to dose Seachem Excel and Seachem Flourish regularly. I might try Tetra's liquid fert which are just sitting in a corner waiting to be opened..
Now... I think this will look much better as a shrimp tank that this tank!
The tank in this thread was originally intended to be set up for Dwarf puffers.. but now i think it will look very nice with cherry shrimps and my newly acquired Boraras brigittae which have coloured up significantly after 2 days...
IMHO, you do not need lapis sand. The way you plant it, it will cover the foreground in no time
Not too sure about that leh..
Anyway I didn't have enough soil to cover the whole tank. The area underneath the driftwood has no soil at all.. maybe i should've went with a thinner layer of soil? Too lazy to tear it apart now
planting the HG was a total PITA, not to mention back breaking also
Last edited by antitrust; 28th Sep 2008 at 23:55.
Might as well remove the hornwort. It's 'extra' and does not contribute to the aesthetics of the tank.
I would recommend you get a fan though...
Oh, when changing water, use a saucer or something to make the water change gentler or else you run the risk of dislodging your delicate planted plants....don't ask me how I know.
thanks for the heads up, don't worry, i know exactly what you're talking about. i, too, learnt the hard way...
yea for the hornwort i think likewise also... but i'm hoping to counter the algae abit since i don't have any algae eating fauna yet... think i will introduce an oto soon, and some cherrys.hmmmm....
Nice set up bro, SAEs are good cleaning crew, juzjust in case...
Last edited by Fei Miao; 16th Oct 2008 at 12:45. Reason: sms language
My interest has wandered! Do U?
SAE eat moss!Originally Posted by BuWaC
Nice set up bro, SAEs are good cleaning crew, juz in case...
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!! TIME TO LAY BACK AND RELAX!
A Journey Of A Thousand Miles Begins With A Single Step
thanks bro, but cannot ah, SAEs will grow too big and disturb my shrimps!Nice set up bro, SAEs are good cleaning crew, juz in case...
but yes i do have 2 pieces of them in my 2ft planted and they are very good algae cleaning fish.. sometimes also like to clear my fish food for me.
i already find oto a little big in my 1ft cube tank lehhaha.
so itssss trueeeeeee!they should learn to eat snails also.. that'll be great.
My interest has wandered! Do U?
Buy small SAE if you need it, once they reach about 2" or even some will nip at the moss although they are small, the moss will be left with stalk without the leaves.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!! TIME TO LAY BACK AND RELAX!
A Journey Of A Thousand Miles Begins With A Single Step
since this is a low tech tank, i don't expect much algae problems from it... the oto which i will be getting is just a preventive measure...
I will be expecting the usual GSA which i think i will counter by getting a few nerites or horned nerites.. read somewhere they require brackish conditions to reproduce! sounds like the perfect snail to have for a small tank... don't really want them taking over this tank!
14 days after...
here's the taiwan moss i tied on the driftwood. they're growing very well! guess they love the 13W of light i'm giving them. lots of light green fronds, and the fishing line is a lot less obvious now.. should be invisible in a few more weeks...
you can see my tiny Boraras briggitae which i just introduced today... have about 5 of them in my tank now plus another Oto..
the Blyxas have adapted well to the soil and water and are growing now. new leaves, some even have a reddish tint to it now.
i added the yellow sponge because one fine day, i spotted a cherry juvenile swimming amongst the coral chips and ceramic rings i put in my HOB filter! i opened it up and found another shrimp, but it was already dead. thank goodness my HOB filter was transparent, otherwise i would never have added the sponge until i had really tiny shrimplets. who knew how much more shrimps would've been killed.
hairgrass have been spreading well too, seeing lots of runners and new shoots from the lapis layer. must be the Gex soil that they're benefitting from. growing much much better than the ones in my other 1ft cube tank...
here's my Oto systematically cleaning up the tank walls. if you look closely, you should spot some diatoms... once i let the cat out of the bag
have just bought 2 more horned nerite snails to combat algae.. i might remove the Oto and let the 2 nerite snails take over its job to reduce bioload... going to introduce more cherries to the tank next week.
oh, did i mention i have about 20 juvenile cherry shrimps in my tank now? they're always hiding amongst the driftwood and hornwort...
Last edited by antitrust; 12th Oct 2008 at 00:32.
Nice and simple setup !
here's how my tank looks like now... at 1 month old.
i've used more hornwort to fill the void behind the driftwood, make it look a little bit like a canopy.. the hairgrass isn't doing so well, browning at the tips...
blyxas are slowly filling up. i've moved the filter to the middle now, hopefully the blyxas will be able to stand up and grow even fuller because previously the HOF's waterfall would be battering the leaves down and i read that blyxas grow in stagnant water.. hopefully will see a difference from now on.
mosses are maturing, and on the left side of the tank, i've added in a mesh of singapore moss which i've plucked. the submersed form is slowly growing, and it looks ENTIRELY different from the emmersed form. very interesting..
petite nana is growing more leaves also, think i've spotted about 2 - 3, but i've got some green spot algae on them. argh.
fauna wise, i've also recently added 20 odd cherry shrimps, they're still only about 1cm and they like to hide among the hornwort and everywhere that i can't see them...
Bro, may i know are you using any co2? Because your plant looks healthy..
bro i don't use any co2. i was dosing Seachem Flourish Excel daily for the first 6 weeks. have slowly tapered down to as and when i remember now. :P
Wow,... good stuff.... haha.... getting itchy and thinking to get one and try it out for my planted tank on coming weekend...! Thanks ya bro..!! Cheers..
HG starting to grow..if not can play cheat like i do...
The role of master and servant begin to cloud in the water..
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Nice tank... do you use co2?
Bro, just FYI :-)
antitrust
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Join Date: Apr 2008
Posts: 186
bro i don't use any co2. i was dosing Seachem Flourish Excel daily for the first 6 weeks. have slowly tapered down to as and when i remember now. :P
ahhaha. thinking of that leh... hmm. maybe next week go buy 1 more pot of HG... but the thought of planting HG again...HG starting to grow..if not can play cheat like i do...
no probs bro!Wow,... good stuff.... haha.... getting itchy and thinking to get one and try it out for my planted tank on coming weekend...! Thanks ya bro..!! Cheers..happy planting! do share your tank shots with us too!
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