1st Shot of 3ft Tank..

[learner]

Once again, thank you guys for your advice/plants in helping me set up my tanks.. here are some shots..



don think it looks very nice.. any criticism is welcomed.. will provide some stats later..

Cheers!

[learner]

more pix..

[learner]

more pix.. last one...
lotus doing fine.... hornwart doing great!... java moss not so well... riccia turning yellow..
difformis overwhelming...
vern.something doing so-so.. newly planted actually..




oh.. btw, can tell that the tank is suffering from cloudy water... sianz 0.5

[David]

hi learner

everyone's got to start somewhere right? []

first of all you may want to remove the lead weight that is wrapped around your Nuphar.....consider moving your vals and plant it closer in triangular pattern towards your inlet pipe...as the plant gets taller, that will cover the pipe.

Is that a E.Blerheri on the extreme left i see?...remove that for now from that position. place your Nurphar in from of the vals so that there will be a color contrast between the darker val towards the lighter nuphar...consider some low light red plants wil be good just after the nuphar (i.e. Crptos wenetii) right in the forgrund you may consider tenellus......

gather the two large pieces of bogwood and try to place them on the right sid middle in a sloping manner towards the back. may be a good idea to increase your crypto count to create contrast when your moss thickens. Place your 4 color lotus somewhat in the center right ...making it just off center....if that is a hydrofilia difformis i see in the background?...consider to remove them as they will quickly overgrow your tank...if you must keep them, place your other hydrofilia..the one with the long thin blades right behind towards the right side of the tank. in front, trim your difformis about half the height and place them in front. Inbetween the two hydrofilias, place your red stemmed plant which i cannot identify on the left and just behind the 4 color lotus....trim it till you can get a good amount...place the blerheri behind...ensure that there is a good spacing as the blerheri is gonna get big and wide full of leaves.

you may want to either bury the steel mesh more till the sharp ends are out of the way or your cories are gonna get hurt......

just a suggestion ........

[learner]

wah.. david.. u are good..
will go thru what u have said and make changes...

i'm trying to give away the difformis... but nobody wants leh... they won't so big when i bought them.. hahah....

i tied the nuphar with lead coz it tends to float.. don know why too.. maybe it was melting after i brought it back.. i think it has recovered nicely..

the red stem plan on the right i also cannot ID...
they look quite nice.. and are not fast growers...

was going to move the riccia anyway.. not doing very well..

once agian, thanks for your advice..
=)

[David]

hi learner

thanks for the compliment.....but there are plenty of people here that are FAR BETTER than i am.....just glad to help.....

for the nuphar...dont bury the whole bulb into the substrate.....or else it faces a high possibility of rotting.....just ensure that half of it is out of the substrate

[Allen_1971]

Learner,

Just curious, the cloudiness in your water looks very green in the pics... or is that some effect of the photo? I'm just worried you might be having the onset of green water.

[PeterGwee]

Basics are most important...artistry comes later after you have mastered the basics (how to plant properly and getting them to grow well.) Thats my suggestion for newbies...not a must though.
[]

Here is a good website to teach you how to plant properly..http://paul.aaquaria.com/Planting/Planting.htm

[learner]

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On 1/7/2003 9:08:21 AM

Learner,

Just curious, the cloudiness in your water looks very green in the pics... or is that some effect of the photo? I'm just worried you might be having the onset of green water.
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hmm... this is not good at all... btw, my background is just plain white mahjong paper.. it looks to me like the green from the plant is reflected off the white background.. or it could really be green water..
anyway, i'll read up more on green water adn carry out more water changes

[learner]

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On 1/7/2003 9:10:47 AM

Basics are most important...artistry comes later after you have mastered the basics (how to plant properly and getting them to grow well.) Thats my suggestion for newbies...not a must though.
[]

Here is a good website to teach you how to plant properly..http://paul.aaquaria.com/Planting/Planting.htm.
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thanks peter!
nice and informative website..

[David]

hi learner

consider replacingthe mahjong paper to those plastic black backing that most LFS sells

[ACE]

[ACE]

oh...wats the temp of your tank.Moss and riccia need temp at least 28 degrees or below.I tried them with my temp at 30-31,all wasted away.

[learner]

thanks ACE.

temp is low... constant at about 26 deg.. with 2x 80mm DIY fan running..

[learner]

Some specs:
Tank Size: 3ft by 1.5ft by 1.5ft
quite a few fast growers.
Ehiem 2233
Co2 at 1-2 bps
Lights about 12 hrs (at night). Daytime house no direct lights.. quite dim..
PL lights: 2x27w + 2x36w

Water parameters:
pH about 7
kH about 0
trying to increase kH a bit day by day.. but doens't seem to increase...
my test kit got problem?

No base fert... added two horti stick.. made sure that they were buried deep in the gravel..

Temp constant at 26deg... 2x 80mm DIY fan..
(should i turn this on only when I have the lights on?)

[notebook]

hi learner.
here's a link that you might see help.
the layout planning part enlightened me a lot on the designing of a tank.
hope this helps!


http://www.vectrapoint.com/main/infocentral.html

[ACE]

Temp at 26 is great!tank set up is more than one month?12 hour lighting might be too much.I on my light for 10hours.as for the temp,if you can keep it constant at 26 with both fan blowing all day...by all means.alot of guys out there leave their fan on 24hour.as for cloudy water,i always use activated carbon for new tank set up(not recommended by most aq people though).However,i never has any problem with cloudy water so far.Phew...The carbon/charcoal should be discarded after about 2 months.When cleaning the filter media use water from the fish tank.You can also try using biozyme(bacteria).Some say it help to clear up cloudy water.Hope it will help.AS for the charcoal,i've read that Takashi Amano used it for his new tank set up too.Can check out this www.vectrapoint.com Hope this will help.

[ACE]

Noticed that you have some duck weed floating on the water surface...This might block off some lights reaching the bottm of the aquarium(just a point to note).Riccia is lights loving plant.by the way,there are quite a few topics pertaining to cloudy tank.Might provide you with a greater insight.Cheers...

[PeterGwee]

Learner, to test whether your KH test kit is still valid..get a glass of tap water and measure the KH before adding a teaspoon of baking SODA! not baking powder! Then add baking soda to the glass of water to measure again..you should get some reading off the KH test kit..if not..I think your KH test kit is spoil liao..or is it your eyes? []

[benny]

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On 1/8/2003 2:03:16 AM

Noticed that you have some duck weed floating on the water surface...This might block off some lights reaching the bottm of the aquarium(just a point to note).Riccia is lights loving plant.by the way,there are quite a few topics pertaining to cloudy tank.Might provide you with a greater insight.Cheers...
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I think the floating plants are Amazon Frogbits. Generally used to provided shade for skittish fishes and also nutrient control. Very easy to remove if it starts to shade the tank too much.