Planted Group Effort

[TanVincent]

On 13th March, which is on a Saturday, I decided to tear down my 4 feet tank and redo it as it is filled with numerous species of algae due to lack of time to maintain it. I invited a few of the forummers namely Vic (Victri), Andrew (Sleepy_Lanc), Kenneth (Knoogy) and Nick (Wackytpt). David (Davidd) made a surprise visit as well.

We decide to make a 2 way tank which can be viewed from the front and back and we drew inspirations from Vic's Idol.

Kenneth worked on my equipments, re-wiring my sockets and timers, which i must admit was also a mess, and fitted his new DIYed external reactor to my tank.

Vic showed us how to bleach plants, usage of hydrogen peroxide and Andrew helped with plants sorting. Nick and hisgirlfriend helped to catch the lifestock in the tank.

The evening was fun and hilarious while each laboured through plants and tank and pizzas and beers.

They did not manage to stay till I planted in everything and asked for pics of the tank setup. So guys, here are the pics and its only the 2nd day of setup. A bit dull but will see how it goes...


FRONT OF TANK


BACK OF TANK


CLOSE UP OF JAVA FERN


Finally, wanted to thank the guys for helping out no matter how the tank might turn out

Cheers
Vincent

[TanVincent]

Plant List of the setup includes

Echinodorus Parviflorus "Tropica"
Echinodorus Amazonicus
Echinodorus Oriental
Echinodorus Aflame
Echinodorus Tennellus

Cryptocoryne Wendtii "Green"
Cryptocoryne Wendtii "Brown"
Cryptocoryne Wendtii "Mi Oya"
Cryptocoryne Undulata
Cryptocoryne Tokinesis
Cryptocoryne Becketti
Cryptocoryne Lingua
Cryptocoryne Parva
(2 un-recognized crypts)

Monosolenium Tenerum

Microsorum Pteropus
Microsorum "Narrow"

Anubias Barteri ''Coffeefolia''
Anubias Barteri var. Nana "Petite"
Anubias Barteri var. Nana

Cheers
Vincent

[victri]

Hey! Looking good! I think we made quite a bit of a mess as well. I remember "someone" left the hose on the floor... The pizza and beer was my favorite part. (Edit: chicken wings too)

Here's a few "before" & "during" pics I took that night.

Before scrubdown:


Clean plants and equipment:


Let the planting begin!

[TanVincent]

...And I thought it was the chicken wings

Cheers
Vincent

[MdmBudak]

Where did you get your Cryptocoryne from?

[TanVincent]

Here, there and everywhere.....but most of it from Teos.

Cheers
Vincent

[bclee]

Great work!

I have one cocern though... most of them slow growing plants. What is your light level? If your light is moderate to high, you have to be careful when you start a tank with slow growing plants, algae likes to attack those plants when they are settling in.

Adding more fast plants will help stabilise the tank when plants grow in. Gradually replace them with the plants you desire.

BC

[TanVincent]

i am switching on only half of those lights on top of the tank which means its only 144W.

I will add in some fast growers for the time being.

Thanks

Cheers
Vincent

[byronshoh]

Hi TanVincent

Whats the size of the tank? Looks like an episode of "Extreme Makeovers"......

[budak]

Just throw in some hornwort and you should be fine. And you should be starting a regular NPK plus traces regime after 2-3 weeks.

Just an idea (simply because i like it): I personally would like it very much if the large java moss mass is on a roughly arched-shaped wood, so that the tips of the ferns just reach the surface, while leaving a hollow beneath the wood/ferns for growing masses of crypts and placing other pieces of wood with their ends jutting out (with mosses/ferns attached). Only thing is catching fish will be tough.

[TanVincent]

[quote:6f45bb8cdb="byronshoh"]Hi TanVincent

Whats the size of the tank? Looks like an episode of "Extreme Makeovers"...... [/quote:6f45bb8cdb]

Tank size is 4 x 1.5 x 2. Sick and tired of trimming and maintaining heavily planted tank. That's why wanted to make-over the tank

Cheers
Vincent

[mandz]

wow vincent! what a make over! looks very neat and nice. plus low maintenance like the way you want it...

too bad i missed all the fun. next time, you know when to schedule this kind of project right?

crypts foreground?

[Fei Miao]

Looks like a nice layout once the plants grows in... keep us posted...

[TanVincent]

thanks..

Cheers
Vincent

[Sleepy_lancs]

No more next time.. lol... its gonna a long long while before he would change anything *fingers crossed*

[TanVincent]

how about this time we go dismantle your tank huh sleepy??

Cheers
Vincent

[budak]

i have personally torn down and resetup my tank (gravel and all) within 24 hours (without mrs budak, who went shopping/sleeping/playing instead). maybe one day folks here could organise a tankathon for speed-setting up of tanks (with judging points for aquascaping design as well).

[TanVincent]

Probably work in teams of 4, more fun that way. Then find sponsors for beers, pizzas and chicken wings...

Cheers
Vincent

[victri]

Budak's right, maybe we can enlarge and raise the bunch of java fern another 2-3 inches and let it grow from there... and it'll look nice once the crypts around it start to fill in. I still have a bunch of java fern i'm not really using which i can contribute.

[TanVincent]

Yo Vic, bring the java fern on friday. I will go source for a flat piece of driftwood to raise the thing. In that case, I will have to get more nanas to fill the gap.

Cheers
Vincent