Xianghao's Tree Of Life

[Xianghao]

Recently rescaped my 2 feet tank, still very much work in progress. Below are some specifications.

Dimensions:2x1 ft
Lighting:2x55W PL
Filtration: Eheim 2213
Substrate: GEX green pack
CO2:2 bubbles per second
Temperature: 28-30 degrees C
Fauna: Borasras Brigattae, Galaxy microrasbora, Yamato shrimp, Sakura Shrimp, Otto
Flora: Japanese Hair grass, Blyxa Japonica, US fissiden, Anubias Nana Petite, Stem plant (???), Mini Bolbitis

[Xianghao]

jap hair grass yet to carpet, fissiden on wood yet to spread nicely, blyxa japonica doesn't look very healthy to me, stem plant at the back is supposed to be red but grow more green. stone on wood is not supposed to be there, it is only a temporary weight. Any advice on how this scape can be improved? Comments are welcome!

[checkerboard]

Personally I think this scape is not too bad so do not be so critical on yourself.

I would do the following:

1) Shift all the stem plants on the left to the right and make it a triangular scape and plant more Blyxa japonica in the space vacated.

2) The color of the rock doesnt really go well. Maybe you can similarly tie some mini pellia or christmas moss on it. I would also shift the rock to the base of the tree.

3) You can try to also make a path from the front left to the rear to create some depth in the scape.

Just my immediate thoughts.

[jasonchua1982]

Looks nice to me.....may want to wait till it matures then decide on any changes....but kind of agree that the rock do not quite match like the tree....me thinks its too big

Thanks for sharing bro, happy new year

[Xianghao]

Looks nice to me.....may want to wait till it matures then decide on any changes....but kind of agree that the rock do not quite match like the tree....me thinks its too big

Thanks for sharing bro, happy new year

yup i think i will let my plants set in further before doing any changes. carving out some kind of path is under consideration too. I shall increase the population of cherry shrimps too..

[Blue Whale]

=) hmm...yamato really not a choice here. You might want to observe for a while before introducing the cherries. Make sure your yamatos don't get hungry or it will start to go out for ECA Activites. Meantime, you might want to search the forum on the topic of yamatos itself. It's really a hunter class.

[Xianghao]

=) hmm...yamato really not a choice here. You might want to observe for a while before introducing the cherries. Make sure your yamatos don't get hungry or it will start to go out for ECA Activites. Meantime, you might want to search the forum on the topic of yamatos itself. It's really a hunter class.

bro, are you saying that yamato(amano) shrimps are predatory? I know they are quite active and tend to boss around smaller dwarf shrimp during feeding, but i never heard of them attacking dwarf shrimps though. Their pincers also look more adapted for forraging algae and other small food particles instead of hunting right?

Anyway, I have a slight but unsightly algae problem. There is some kind of hair/thread/staghorn algae growing amongst my fisidens, and I am not sure how to remove them without damaging my fissidens. Also there is BBA on portions of the wood that isn,t occupied by fissidens. Apparantly, my ottos, yamatoes and cherries aren't doing a sufficiently good job. Any suggestions anyone?

[Blue Whale]

Your otto might end up becoming food for Yamatos if the algae is insufficient. If you have an old but small piece of drift wood, place it roughly near the rock. Add a bit of iron, the algae should concentrate more on the drift wood. Algae usually concentrate on old, like wanna decomposed kinda driftwood. Your current driftwood looks quite young, not much risk of algae growing. I don't know about you but I tend to let the tank co-exist with algae, so long they can grow on the driftwood, I just need to use hot water to "bathe" the driftwood, put it back to the tank to grow somemore. =)

Lights off is a method of reducing algae (3-5 days, require observation) but you don't want to deprive the shrimps of algaes. Iron is quite magic as the dosage amount can determine the growth rate of the algae. Light isn't that bright. Without knowing your specs, I would say it would be around 1+wpg region just from the picture itself.

[Xianghao]

i think iron maybe the source of my problems. I have been dosing iron once in a while because i want my stem plants to grow red (which was its original colour) I think i shall cut on the iron, add more shrimps, add nerite snails and add otto. Actually I am quite sure yamatos are not predatory. I don't see how they can attack ottos. Anyone else can testify to that? Hmmm..

[AquaObsession]

yamatos will not attack otos. Maybe at feeding time, they might push the oto a little bit to steal the algae tabs.

I spent hours looking at my yamatos/oto everyday.

Cheers, Christophe

[Blue Whale]

Yamatos are famous for being scanvanger. Once I was very very good with clearing off the algae. After that, the yamatos, help to clear off the otos....left the skin -.- happens a few times. Eventually another fish known as groupa decided to clear off the yamatos...I didn't know that was one until it start to clear off the community fishes. Eventually I decided my pet arrowanna should clear the groupa off before it grows too big.

[Xianghao]

Yamatos are famous for being scanvanger. Once I was very very good with clearing off the algae. After that, the yamatos, help to clear off the otos....left the skin -.- happens a few times. Eventually another fish known as groupa decided to clear off the yamatos...I didn't know that was one until it start to clear off the community fishes. Eventually I decided my pet arrowanna should clear the groupa off before it grows too big.

Haha. sounds like u got a mini ecosystem with a food cycle going on there. Are you sure that the otto did not die first before the yamatoes scavenge them though?

[genes]

Great question Xinghao. You have the answer there already too. AquaObsession's comments are accurate.

[myfishid]

For the Hair grass, you should trim off approx 2/3 from the top before planting it into the substrate. Looks like you are using bogwood, just like mine. It takes mine approx 2-3 weeks to sink. Be prepare for white slimy substance appearing --- some kind of unharmful but disgusting fugus. Think your lighting is too strong which may be the cause for the algae, try keeping to 1x 55W, 8hrs per day and gradually incease it. Try using a cooling fan to bring down the temperature.

[Blue Whale]

Haha. sounds like u got a mini ecosystem with a food cycle going on there. Are you sure that the otto did not die first before the yamatoes scavenge them though?

-.-Y Yoh, you are looking at the eye witness. Thank you. Now I know I should not get Yamatos in the first place. Still my bad. Early years lessons learnt the hard way. Oh yes, btw, that was the last yamato king. It cleared off the rest of yamatos and wood shrimps (2-3x bigger than yamatos) as well.

When I just joined AQ, not enough knowledge, a lot of fishes just die off without me knowing why. After 1-2 years, then start to stablise. I itchy finger, always buy new fish and mix. So sorta learnt from there. Into the 3rd-4th year, I learnt not to anyhow add anymore. If yhbae have come out with the calculator earlier. I don't think we will have such a difficult learning path. =) For people like me that is, no chemistry background. Even though was in gardening club, but feels like a total different domain. What is with the soil does not apply. What is with hydroponics does not apply either. Learnt via bang head.

[Xianghao]

For the Hair grass, you should trim off approx 2/3 from the top before planting it into the substrate. Looks like you are using bogwood, just like mine. It takes mine approx 2-3 weeks to sink. Be prepare for white slimy substance appearing --- some kind of unharmful but disgusting fugus. Think your lighting is too strong which may be the cause for the algae, try keeping to 1x 55W, 8hrs per day and gradually incease it. Try using a cooling fan to bring down the temperature.

Yep, my bogwood has been through that stage of sinking and excreting that slime thing already. Anyway I have taken your advice to reduce the lighting to 1x55w, and also i have moved in one SAE from my pond to get rid of bba, and also i just beefed up the cleaning squad by adding a packet of 50 malayan shrimps (picked them over yamatoes due to blue whale's advice, i definitely don't think i will see malayans hunting on my otto haha) Any idea what should i use to get rid of the green spot algae on my glass?

[Xianghao]

Updated as of today:

[zoothefreak]

the stem plant should be some kind of elodea species... nice scape 2 Blue Rams or a lone Notho type Killi would or Betta would really pop in this background...

[Blue Whale]

Good choice so far. I like the driftwood and the moss(correct me if I am wrong) tied to it. It's a good approach as the moss are near to the light.

Left side might need a bit of maintenance, as in picking up the dead leaves by hand at times. Fish food would most likely be the main factor for water pollution but I see you have a good filter in place.

If you want betta, put 1 female. If you put a pair, you might see the male one bullying the female one most of the time. It's a sexual kinda event, can't be help. Female one tends to be on the smart side...helps you to pick out snails and tekan it.

[Xianghao]

Good choice so far. I like the driftwood and the moss(correct me if I am wrong) tied to it. It's a good approach as the moss are near to the light.

Left side might need a bit of maintenance, as in picking up the dead leaves by hand at times. Fish food would most likely be the main factor for water pollution but I see you have a good filter in place.

If you want betta, put 1 female. If you put a pair, you might see the male one bullying the female one most of the time. It's a sexual kinda event, can't be help. Female one tends to be on the smart side...helps you to pick out snails and tekan it.

Yup thanks its a very nice bogwood. When I wanted to rescape, i wasn't even thinking of using bogwood for the scape, but when I saw it I knew I just had to buy it. Anyway the moss tied to the wood is US fissidens aka fountain moss.