jungle crypt

hi there guys so im finally ready to show the 50L, its been neglected and ignored and then a lil while ago i decided to redo it and have abit of fun. the previous inhabitants where 5 khuli loaches and a very agro plakat betta known as Samurai but i had a good long think about it and decided it was ludicrous that he have that much space to himself. so i released him into my 1.2m vallis jungle and he seems rather content in there and decided to stock the 50L in my room with nano fish, lots and lots of nano fish :love:. fortunately around this time Petstop had got in some, mosquito rasboras, exclamtion point rasboras and the phoenix rasboras and a lil later the threadfin rainbows. this tank was also previously set up using the pfp method and since it was nearing 3 years since the initial setup i figured it was due for a redo anyway so i removed all the plants, lifted all the stone not stuck down and cut myself on the glass piece resting on the bottom that held the biggest set of rocks. i gave everything a scrub down since the glass was abit grungy where the pfp had been and fiddled until i had a new design with the rock. i then used my left over ADA and filled it up. i had quite a few crypts in here before and i had some lotus bulbs lying around and decided to use them as the core planting making sure the general planting tended toword low light plants for when the lotus started sending out surface leaves. i also included 2 types of java fern in the rock crevices and some anubias which is growing like crazy, happily enough.

i stocked this initially with 7 threadfin rainbows, 9 exclamation rasboras and 7 phoenix rasboras. the phoenix rasboras didnt do too well and i only have about 3 left but everyone else thrived. the threadfins are my favourite the way they display and chase each other around. i went to petstop the other day for food and they still had so i couldnt help myself and got another 5 to bring my school up to 12. they are definately the most noticable thing in this tank.

what i would like now is to find something grassy, maybe corkscrew vallis if it doesnt get too tall for the back right corner and then i think the planting will be done. i fiddled lastnight again and planted a few more crypt wendetii and some micro sword that i had taken out of the nano. theres also a lil bit of hm growing in the back directly under one of the lights so it should grow.

im running a cascade 300 with the spray bar but im finding it very noisy so am thinking of changing it to something else but at this stage im not sure what. the rocks on the left help hide all the hard ware and im dosing excel and flourish in here. not sure if i should dose iron but it should have a nice effect on the lotus foliage if i do.


ok so the pic is abit crappy, i used my fone but you can see the general layout. better ones should follow when things have grown a lil. feel free to comment as always

B

 

The scape and planting looks nice. Cool selection of fish.

 

Threadfin rainbows are also my favorite fish.:smile1:

 

i quite like this as a possible grass like background plant. it gets between 8 - 20cm high and is called Isoetes lacustris. i dont even know if we get it here.

thanks Razor im hoping for an overgrown wild look and i think it'll work in time.

or maybe a hydrocotyl sp would work.

 

oh by the way was checking out a site on rainbow fish and saw this one, and really think it'll look good in this tank lol its a Rhadinocentrus ornatus. very very pretty!!!!!!!:nuts: