that sux.Originally Posted by Johnenrui
I guess if you had been aware of the species being potentially confusing you would have looked it up before buying yourself. once you know what to look out for, they're pretty easy to differentiate, as you would have noticed by now.
what I found to work for me is to do a lot a lot of my own research, be it plants or fish. even if I see smth nice at the LFS, I make sure to google it abit before buying. makes your purchase more meaningful as well.
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Haha that's true and I agree man... I am quite impulsive and that's how I ended up with a 4ft tank! Will learn how to make calculated risks and do my research/homework! Thanks for the advice! I have much to learn from all of you!(:
But oh well I'm not too concerned that it is CAE and not SAE because I guess the function is the same?:/ unless there is something I do not know? Haha
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Main difference is SAE can help eat the dreaded black beard algae (BBA), while CAE don't. I guess if your tank doesn't have BBA, then not much difference.
Wow okk! Thank you!(: you should write a book or something! Haha...
What do you think of the red/purple lotus plant? I've no idea what's the specific name but I see it a lot in some aquascapes!
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I guess you are referring to Nymphaea Zenkeri? Those do have the potential to grow quite large, so they are more suitable for larger planted tanks.
Your tank has large enough dimensions for it, so it could be a good plant to try out In your aquascape.
you can get it from c328 quite readily, in the small plastic cups she places on the shelf. labelled as "zenkeri red". not sure how well the plant would do without co2. you look it up yourself (my educator voice talking here) heh
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I got a bunch of zenkeri for $8 from c328! Actually I've looked around in the shop and neighboring shops for this plant for a while but the condition of the plants sold has not always been satisfactory... I've finally settled with the one with minimal torn leaves and with the most reddish leaves I can find. Planted in and will take a closer shot to show you guys.
Some updates:
1. Got another mid size same type discus! Was tempted to get 2... But ended up with just one more because I could not find a second one which I like.
2. Bought a bloodworm feeder... So it will not be so messy while feeding! Good investment haha..
I am planning to do a "timeline" of how the tank has progressed since I started!(: stay tuned!
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BTW, one of the two tubes of the 4ft light went bonk.so now the tank is just surviving on 1 T5 light. Is it urgent for me to hurry replace it? Will the plants suffer badly? haha...
Should I invest in an LED? haha...
So I decided to do a mini timeline of how my tank progressed when I first set it up!
7 May 2015
9 May
14 May
18 May
21 May
Probably one of the final updates of this tank... I've tinkered with the placement of some of the plants, trimmed replanted and removed some too. I didn't quite like how messy the scape is looking when the plants grow out... Or maybe I just don't know how to progress it any more.
Snap a few quick photos this morning... And I am seriously considering rescaping it soon..
I googled 4ft Aquascape and came across an old thread in this forum by one of the bros ("xter") here many years ago... I was looking to do a hairgrass carpet to the front of the tank and create more space for more discus to swim around...
I found this and also this...
What do you guys think?
I know it's abit plain on one side.. Maybe I could add some rocks or taller plants?
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If you have time, scroll the video list to get some inspiration https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zxg0...sxKsq7PxyNyilA
Sure I will thank you!!!
I saw the video of the biggest scape thing Mr Amano did before! Hahah but I didn't come across any scapes where he did carpeting...
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my two cents,
someone else's scape will always be nicer than yours. sometimes its just a issue of "different types of scapes", and subconsciously we all admire different aspects of different types of scapes.
personally i really like the layout of your hardscape and substrate. maybe the only thing i would change are some of the plants, like what you said, the messier growing plants like the sprite, cabomba (i've had very bad experience with this guy too). That said, planting a 4 ft carpet is going to be quite a pain. and waiting for it to carpet without co2, is even more painful.
if you choose to stick with non-co2, you could consider narrow leaf fern scapes. personally think they're beautiful. and easy to maintain. just slow growing (of course, even slower in non-co2)
oh ya, should officially welcome you to Itchy Fingers Club
just noticed you said "plant carpet to make more room for discus to swim around"
that's an erroneous understanding. fish arent horses (might not even be the best example, but for easy illustration, yeah). often, they dont need alot of "open space" to swim around. at least, not all fish are. timid fish/shelter loving fish definitely wont appreciate living in an iwagumi tank
if you're really serious about health and happiness of your fish, i suggest you do more research into what kind of habitat they come from, water conditions, biotype, plant density etc
Wouldn't discus uproot the carpet plants? Happened to mine when they constantly peck on the ground looking for food.
You are right.. After doing some research and the better plants and scape to use for a discus setup I figured that it wouldn't be good to do an iwagumi setup for them.. Esp discus being sensitive to CO2 and all the dosing for the carpeting plants... And yes it would take a long time to carpet a 4ft tank...
In fact the 2ft tank I started about 2months back with glossos and hairgrass only completed about 3/4 carpet with daily dosing of excel.
(I didn't quite like the idea of using a co2 system.. Which means one more bulky equipment to conceal and more stuff sticking into my tank.)
Where would you suggest I could get narrow fern from? Didn't really see them in c328 haha..
Also do you think it's possible to grow hairgrass or glossos without co2 or just occasion dosing? I'm thinking instead of a full carpet.. I could do something around the bottom of the driftwood.. The plants im using now either grows too tall too fast, or look messy.. Just don't cut it. Or moss?
Btw thank you for all your input! Really been very helpful! Haha yeah itchy finger... But now I'm tight on budget haha...
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Hahaha I read about it somewhere online too... I'm thinking instead of doing a full carpet maybe just selected portions... Leaving portions of empty bare sand/substrate for them to peck food from.
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Spiced things up abit and rearranged somemore of the plants positioning and i decided to create a "path" effect in the middle with stones...
Neatened and tidied up the look of the water sprite.
Tank looks much cleaner with some order now...
Backview:
Close shot of "path"
Front side view:
Front view:
For completion sake I grabbed a bunch of loose moss mixed with a couple of other small loose plants and stuff them into the cracks in between the stones of the "path".
I have no idea if that would work but I decided no harm trying haha.
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tie like that will just grow into a messy bush. think you might prefer tying it around the rocks aggressively, trimming them down, to form those nice moss rocks. not sure if you know what I'm referring to.
buying narrow leaf fern, wait for good deal on AQ
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