My Main Display Tank

how are the angel fry doing

 

Morning guys

Seems there is no response from PE folk. So I think I will ship the cuttings to CPT. I will pack in zip lock bags and give Henk a call. Will probably be tomorrow as I will only trim tonight. Weekend was a bit too busy. Henk, PM me your cell. But only if you promise to share with Big G and the rest of the guys...:bigsmile:

 

Cheers Laure!! Very kind of you!!! Will let you know if Henk doesn't behave!! Haha!!

G!

 

hi Laure

Tank looks very nice - can you please tell me the name of the short "grass" in the front of the tank and where to get it

Thanks
Fonkie

 

Update:

No trimming happened last night either. Sorry guys.

There was a crisis at work and I only got home after 8pm. And as you can tell by looking at the time of this post, I am back at work VERY early. I will do the trimming tonight and have Henk's courier collect tomorrow. All PE folk still interested can collect tomorrow night. PM to ask for address details.

 

Hi all

Time for an update. I started a rescape of this tank early July this year. Took everything out and replaced the substrate with PFP capped with silica sand.

Current plants:
Aponogeton Crispus (1 large, and 3 small)
Echinodorus Barthii
Echinodorus (unknown....the large plant on the right...perhaps somebody can help?)
Crypt Wendtii
Marsilea Hirsuta
Heteranthera Zosterifolia
Limnophila Aromatica

Fish:
8 x P. Scalare angelfish (18 months old)
35 x Rosyfin tetras
25 x Cardinal tetras

There is also a ramshorn snail community which grows and shrinks in size depending on amount of waste available to feed them.

Setup and maintenance:
I reduced the light to 2 x 54W T5HO 6500K Sylvania tubes.
No CO2, except Happy Carbo liquid carbon added daily at recommended levels.
Dosing is DSD at 50% strength. Occasionally when I notice the Stargrass look a little pale I add extra 3ppm KNO3 for a few days.

The tank is not anywhere near what I want yet. Due to the low light (1W per G of T5) the growth is slow, but I am patient. I have no maintenance issues. It's easy to manage. No algae problems, no constant trimming, etc. I do a good vacuum of organic waste once a week, but no deep substrate vacuuming; only on the surface. This results in about 25% WC weekly. Once a month or so I will do one large 70% to 80% WC.

Feeding is a varied diet consisting of GS granules, spirulina flakes, SV2000 discus food (yes!), frozen brine shrimp, blood worm and white worm.

So right now things are growing out, albeit slowly. Here are some pictures I took with my cellphone yesterday evening. This is a full tank shot, a side shot and a picture of the L. Aromatica, which is quite green and I'm not too sure why, except I think it is probably due to the low light.

The Marsilea will eventually carpet the entire substrate. I started off with literally a handful of Marsilea runners. I guess by the end of this year or early next year it will be a nice, lush carpet.

Regards
Lauré

 

very nice Laure..

how did u get the angels and cardinals so well acquainted ? did u add the angels after the cardinals? when i added neons, they just became very expensive snacks

 

Shihr

To date I've not lost any cards, and they were added in July only when I rescaped this tank. Neons are much smaller than cards. These guys I have are about 3-4cm now, also nice and fat. The angels pretty much ignore them, but then again, they are well fed themselves and probably too lazy to do any hunting.

Regards
Lauré

 

I have had the pleasure of seeing this tank in person and I must say that pictures really are inadequite. In fact I never liked angels until I saw the ones Laure have. Glad to see your tank is still doing so well.

regards
E

 

I don't see any updates regarding your 3 new tanks? And I have a pair of kribs looking for a home...

 

I am waiting till I am happy with all 3 tanks before I do a major "show and tell". I am fairly happy with 2 of the tanks but I got a nasty algae outbreak on my loach tank that I am struggling to sort out... Enough hijacking of your thread though

Chat soon
Eugene

 

Eugene

Have you identified the algae? Perhaps I can help?

 

Yeah it's the dreaded BBA, which is a P.I.T.A. I got hold of some Excel to help treat it but it's likely I will be re-doing the tank at some point soon anyway. Thanks for the offer though.

 

You gotta drop the light intensity. I am very pleased with maintenance levels since I've dropped the light. Unless you run high constant CO2 you will always have issues with BBA and high light.

 

Nice looking tank Laure.

 

Thanks Ashley...not anywhere near where I want it yet. Most plants still in grow out stage.

I'm looking for Rotala Walichii. Does anybody have some stems to spare? I'm prepared to pay. Ideally I'm looking for about 10 to 15 stems.

 

I've also been looking for that plant!!
I gathered it was in grow out, can see a lot of potential if those plants all grow out the way I vision them in that tank!

 

Laure where did you get the Mopane Wood/Roots from?

 

A local guy here in PE was importing them from Namibia. I can't get any more though...long story...

 

Hi all

Time for a quick update on the progress of this tank.

Marsilea Hirsuta / Crenata (not sure at this stage!) growing slowly, but steadily.



Rotala Wallichii. They arrived in less than ideal condition and lost pretty much all their leaves within 3 days, but have recovered well.



Limnophila Aromatica growing really well. Not as pink as I would like it to be, but the plants are healthy and strong



Finally, a full tank shot:



Things obviously not yet where they meant to be. I need to trim the Aromatica and plant a few trimmings in between to create a bushier effect. The Heteranthera also needs to grow out quite a bit more, and the Marsilea carpet needs to fill in.

I'm not too sure about the big sword in the foreground on the right hand side. It was there before I started this scape and uprooting it makes me a bit nervous. I'm not sure how big it's roots have grown!

I am also looking for a stem plant to go behind it in the back right corner. Not much light there...pretty much like the crypts next to the sword...they growing in virtual darkness!

If any of you have any ideas of some constructive criticism I would appreciate it.

Current tank specs:
300L of water

2 x 54W T5 Sylvania 865 tubes 9 hours per day, supplemented by a 3 hour mid-period burst of 2 more tubes of the same specs

No CO2

DSD fertilizer, except I don't add the NPK mix anymore, as I find I have enough phosphates. I do however add plenty of nitrates. I add 5ppm daily NO3 in the form of DIY KNO3 + distilled water mix. This seems a crazy amount, but if I let slip the Heteranthera and Aromatica show immediate signs of stress. Fish, including the Cardinals, are all fine with this. So it appears the consumption point in this tank is quite high...