Tank pic: 2.5ft

[juggler]

Hi all, just to share the progress of a new tank ...

Upgraded the tank in office from the 2ft to 2.5ft in end Jan. I laid new substrate but used some of the old tank water. Filter was also not washed. Fish transferred over by 3 ~ 4 days. Welcome any comments. Thanks.

Here's how it look now:



Some details:

Size: 30"x15"x16"
Lighting: 4 x 36W PL (AEC, 6500k), 9 hours
Filter: Eheim 2222
CO2: DIY
Substrate: Coco-peat (2") plus gravel (1")
Plants: blyxa, hair-grass, glosso, e.oriental, corkscrew, bacopa caroliniana, riccia on driftwood, anubias, salvinia, frogbit.
Fish: tetras mainly plus the usual cleaning crew.

Also want to check if anyone can ID this reddish plant that suddenly sprout in the tank:


My blyxa is not growing well and looking like melting, why?

[mivec1997]

very nice set up

[DEA]

the red plant looks like alteranthera reineckii
maybe when it grows taller it'd be easier to tell

[nizz]

Nice setup juggler!
Such pics by u fellas always make me damn 'gian'....& motivated lah.....[]

Nizz

[peterkoh]

Cool pics Koah Fong ! Somehow when I read that it is using 72W of light in a 2+ ft tank, I thought of you and scrolled back and I'm right !

[CK Yeo]

the red plant looks more like a Lugwigia sp.
How come the green plant (MU?) beside the bacopa (left) like giam cai and the green plant on the right bottom leaves all gone? one more thing: how you manage to keep the Val so short? are they newly planted? the E. oriental also huh? Lastly, where you got the cocopeat?
All in all, still a very nice tank, though it would look even better when the Blyxa grows in.

[DEA]

can't really tell
but if you look at the leaf surface, the mottled pattern reminds one of altheranthera
whereas ludwidgia has a homogenous texture

[CK Yeo]

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On 2/24/2002 2:11:59 PM
can't really tell
but if you look at the leaf surface, the mottled pattern reminds one of altheranthera
whereas ludwidgia has a homogenous texture
----------------

Leaf pattern?!? wow! you are really into details. But I am only looking at the leaf shape and arrangement. leaf colour and what-not is dependent on tank conditions. Maybe you are right, but I guess we will find out will it grows up.

[jellydot72]

Hi,

Nice picture, I have blyxa in my tank too and after replanting them it look melted. They were thriving well in my last set up and another tank last time (shut down all left one now). Wife complaint.....heh heh heh [] i think it may be lack of nutrients or lighting problem because in my recent set up i reduce the fertilisation and increased lights. Will try to increase and observed.

[jellydot72]

Hi

arr...one more comment, sorly har...
I use to have those ehiem spray bar for the water outlet to the tank but discover that it is better not to use them and just maintain a outlet without the spray bar. Why? I don't really know but it reduces water turbulance and I least the result is better (for the plants) as compared when I have the spray bar. If you wanna change it just need to removed the bar and replace it with a eheim elbow tube.
My 2 cents comments

[DEA]

another thing is new leaves for ludwigia are usually light yellow~green, not red
and we don't really have to wait for it to grow up, all we need to do is to go to kf's house to see ^ ^
can ar not, juggler? hahaha

jellydot, i've used both methods u described b4
the spray bar doesn't produce turbulence if you point it slightly down
for me, i prefer the spray bar as it means i can turn the filter on all the way instead of having to adjust the intake valve due to too strong an output flow

[jellydot72]

Hi DEA,

I do agree --True, without the spray bar the flow can be real strong. And pointing down is the correct way. I adopted the w/o spray bar thing is through observing many planted tank feature in Amano's and LFS. But of course it is important to slow down the flow of the filter. well...having said all these, if it work best for that tank why change Easy said but usually my itchy hands will want to do something heh heh heh[] this usually comes from looking at the tank too much

[juggler]

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On 2/24/2002 12:04:14 PM

the red plant looks more like a Lugwigia sp.
How come the green plant (MU?) beside the bacopa (left) like giam cai and the green plant on the right bottom leaves all gone? one more thing: how you manage to keep the Val so short? are they newly planted? the E. oriental also huh? Lastly, where you got the cocopeat?
All in all, still a very nice tank, though it would look even better when the Blyxa grows in.
----------------

Hi guys,

Thanks for the comments and feedback. Several of my colleagues are also into planted tanks and they helped me upgrade to this tank in the office.

As I said, the red plant sprouted up a few days after we set up the tank. But it looks nice so we did not pull it out.

The giam chai is MU all right. Not growing too well.
I have 2 sources of Vals. Those from Teo's are doing better than those I transplanted from the old tank. They are always this short.
The E.Oriental is from Sherwin. Still young. I hope it will grow big.
Cocopeat is from Cold Storage - $1.99 per pack. I used 3 packs.
Blyxa is not doing well, sadly. Don't know the reason. I was hoping for a nice mid-ground using them.
The only plants doing well are Riccia, Glosso, and Bacopa (the new leaves are bigger) and the floating plants.

Weekly, I added in 20ppm K and 5ppm Mg. I did not test for NO3 or P.

I dosed with Dr Mallick's Trace element daily. I am not sure if I added enough because overall I discovered that there could be some iron deficiency in the tank. The E.Oriental has new pale-looking leaves and veins. The new leaves of the Gratiola is also very thin and yellowish. So are the new leaves of the Anubias turning yellow.

[juggler]

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On 2/24/2002 4:23:48 PM

Hi

arr...one more comment, sorly har...
I use to have those ehiem spray bar for the water outlet to the tank but discover that it is better not to use them and just maintain a outlet without the spray bar. Why? I don't really know but it reduces water turbulance and I least the result is better (for the plants) as compared when I have the spray bar. If you wanna change it just need to removed the bar and replace it with a eheim elbow tube.
My 2 cents comments
----------------

Thanks. But I think using spray bar evens out the water circulation. Not much turbulence too if I don't point it up. Anyway, I have a a 3-ball CO2 Reactor connected between the outlet of my Eheim and the spray bar.

[CK Yeo]

Consider sodium toxicity for your Blyxa. Do you add salt to your tanks?
Why do you have to add trace elements everyday? i wouldn't worry about it if I were you. Trace elements are precisely what they are: TRACE! If your plants are not doing that fantastic, I dun think they will use up the trace elements that fast either. You might reach toxicity levels even before you do the plants any good.
Yup, sounds like Fe deficiency to me... Get the iron chelate if you want to dose Fe only. But consider also other factors such as the pH of your water. If too acid or alkaline, it affects the uptake of nutrients, especially Fe.

[DEA]

i would like to point out my blyxa japonica were thriving under salt levels of 3 tbsp per 20l
i think that kind of rules out sodium being the factor that causes the blyxa to melt
in the tanks i've used blyxa they have all melted horrendously
only after a month or so do they get established
once they start growing they're pretty tough plants

this is what it looks like

[lsz]

great tank juggler!!

Yimin your tank not so great look like LIm CHu Kang []

[DEA]

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On 2/24/2002 8:50:37 PM

great tank juggler!!

Yimin your tank not so great look like LIm CHu Kang []
----------------

hahahaha
what to do, i like easy plants

[juggler]

DEA: Healthy Blyxa in a nice tank. Looks great! Gives me some hope of the Blyxa recovering. I will do a water change and see how.

About the salt, I only have little amounts in the tank due to dosing with "Lo-Salt" (66% KCL, 33% NaCl)

[CK Yeo]

Get the proper KCL or K2SO4. or try skipping the lo-salt see how.