# 29G Planted tank



## neven (May 15, 2010)

Be Prepared for the wall of text to come! Pictures are on its way.

I've been managing this tank off and on for a couple years now, its been through some tough tough times, rescaped, replanted, lighting changes, co2, non co2, moved homes, kid messing with it etc. pretty much i'd get into it, then get lazy and the poor tank suffered. The fish always made out fine atleast.

Thats all changed now, im putting my foot down and gettin this tank stable so 1 day a week upkeep and daily dosing regime will make it easy. My goal is to get it balanced and i figure it was the lighting making it such a pain before. Plus my 2yo is in love with the tank and i owe it to him to show some responsibility with it.

For starters *(updated dec 26th)*

*Tank:* 29 gallon
*Substrate:* Tahitian Moon Sand
*Lighting:* 2 bulb sideways Twister CFLs, 21W 6500K 2 inches above the water.
*Filtration:* Rena XP1 (biowheels/crushed coral/course,fine,micro sponges/filter floss)
*Decor:* Drift wood x4 pieces ; Pebbles and a piece of slate. I tried to make it somewhat random looking.
*Misc:* heater set at 25.5

*Plants:*
Red Tiger Lotus (background)
windelov (driftwood right side)
java fern (middle driftwood)
Anubias nanas (right foreground)
Flame moss (left driftwood)
glosso (center foreground)
Crypt willisii (center-right)
Crypt wendtii (left back corner
*Livestock:*
6 black phantoms
5 cardinals
several dwarf otoc
1 Calico BN

*Macros:* standard ei
*Micros:* CSM+B - 5ml
*Changes:* 50% on monday

*Co2:* metricide dosing

Now onto the journal
-----------------------------
Progress:
Fail is an understatement at this point. To fight the BBA's growth i've reduced the lighting and then the light period. That didn't work so i tried Micro nutrients only, That made plants more lush but more BBA growth but not as rampant. next i went back into full EI dosing, macros and micros alternating. Dosing reduced a bit to limit growth rate. BBA went even faster. Which made me believe my DiY was too inconsistent, i was using a hagen canister changed weekly. Researched and found the Jello method and a 3L jug, Co2 is definately up to pace now, i might need to airstone the tank at night, will wait and watch the fishies, could just be the burst of getting it started. Now im at the wait and see (and pick out) for my BBA battle. If growth reduces, i'll excell treat, then wait and see some more.
The plants, i've pruned well, gutted the non recoverable (3 full handfuls of java moss included) and am generally depressed at the species i have left, but i deserve it since i never balanced the water chemistry well, and that is my primary goal now. The spaces are reserved for new plants, shuffled around driftwood (added a piece too).
The fishies will be introduced asap, the current stock are enjoying the water more now, being much more active during non feeding time. The lack of water upkeep led to a KH spike to 11 dKH, in two weeks i've changed 30%, 30%, 30% and now 50%. will test kh in a couple days.

I apologize for the wall of text, but i am long winded... pics to come


----------



## neven (May 15, 2010)

(removed old tank pics)


----------



## CRS Fan (Apr 21, 2010)

Nice looking tank. The 29 will definitely give you more aquascaping oppurtunities.

Best Regards,

Stuart


----------



## eternity302 (Apr 22, 2010)

=) 3x the size... heck ya it'll be more fun! Nicely done on the 10gallon!


----------



## target (Apr 21, 2010)

Nice looking tank.


----------



## Adz1 (Apr 21, 2010)

very beautiful tanks....


----------



## Fishkeeper (Apr 21, 2010)

Way to go, nice tank...


----------



## neven (May 15, 2010)

heres updated pics!

Full shot









The largest BBA affected area









and my new 3L Jello Co2 Can









normally the shrimp are hard at work all over the tank, but for some reason they almost are non existent in all pics i took :/


----------



## tang daddy (Apr 21, 2010)

a suggestion about bba, And I have seen the results first hand... take the piece of wood out and spray the infected area with metricide at a 1 part M to 20 parts water. You can try the spray bottle method as this is most effective!

Do it every week when you do a wc, i know it can be alittle tedious but it works.

Just ask Alym.....

Other than that nice set up, and keep the pics coming.


----------



## neven (May 15, 2010)

Looks like my DiY co2 batch wasn't done ramping up, exceeded 35 ppm... A couple phantoms were swimming at odd angles gasping. Redirected spray bar so its slightly upwards, agitates surface, churned the crap out of the surface, pulled the line up so the co2 just goes straight to the surface rather then inside, turned lights on so plants use whats left, when the fish start acting normal, i'll put the co2 line back down, but keep the spray bar agitating the surface to degas a bit.... hope nothing dies...


update: most seem to be bouncing back to life, a couple though im not sure about. counted the bpm going to the surface, 78 BPM.. insane.

Update #2: They all survived and are acting normal. Drop checker is light green when lights come on, and a slightly darker green near lights off, the surface agitation keeps the whitish film on top thinner and with the spray bar slightly up, im getting much less build up of co2 inside of it, so the misting is way down  Nice to know if supply ramps down a bit i can reduce the agitation a little to increase the co2


----------



## neven (May 15, 2010)

four days ago, i treated the really bad areas of Brush with h2o2, making sure i used less than 3ml per gallon. The algae turned rusty red right away, not its fading into a pinkish gray. Only issues i noticed with the treatment was the 2 shrimps who refused to vacate the treatment area despite me trying to pester them away after doing the dosing, they just wouldnt hide... 2 days later 2 dead shrimpies, other than that, everything else is fine. Just noticing a lack of a decent clean up crew to eat the dead BBA. Guess i'll have to starve the tank a bit to get the shrimpies eating it.

on a side note, DiY jello co2 goin strong still. Changed the method of delivery a bit, used an airstone partially buried under the intake, the pressure is enough to push through every few seconds with a stream of bubbles 2/3s of them being sucked in. Seems its a decent ratio since my drop checker has stayed light green steady. I keep checking the jug to make sure its not stressing under the pressure, plus the line coming out of it isn't sealed, just a smaller hole with the line forced through, i think this may act like a pressure relief if needed.

update: Parameters balancing out
PH: remains 7.0
KH is slowly balancing out, now at 8.4 dKH
Nitrates are perfect, just before dosing im sitting above 5ppm, afterwards 12 ppm


----------



## neven (May 15, 2010)

Just in case some are wondering, im posting more text than usual in a tank journal simply because i use this as my tank log aswell. Way too many times i've kept it on paper only to have it go missing or ripped/coloured all over. So heres my updates on various issues.

Brush Algae: Since last posting i've done one more h202 treatment, and it shall be my last spot treatment. The brush is nearly eliminated, theres still a couple spots where its still going, but its relatively under control compared to before, almost completely gone from visible areas, and growth rate greatly reduced where its survived. Downside was I tested out 4ml / Gallon spot treatment, and lost two cardinal tetra's.
As i've eliminated the largest growth areas now, i'll likely under dose h202 every week before water change at 2mL / gallon for 30 minutes, until i can afford metricide. This read in a few places this works once you've beaten it down enough, so i'll update the Algae post to include tank treatment.

Surface film: We got a guppy since they feed on the stuff (makes the wife happy too). I changed water flow direction which ripples the surface and reduces stagnant area's where plant waste can decompose. Using as powerhead to siphon the surface aswell as low circulation area's helped a ton. Probably the largest reduction of it is from my altered feeding regime, it really limits flake food now. When i water changed last night there was no Surface film at all after a full week, so i deem this a success! Film Defeated!

Water Hardness: It has steadily declined through the weeks with water changes being kept up to date. It finally balanced out at 4.5 dKH / 5.6 dGH, so i'll need to replace the crushed coral in the filter as it should have balanced out at 6-7 kh/gh.

Light fixture: as posted in the DiY section, i remade my fixture so it's more safe and easier to move around for maintenance. Also constructed a new tank cover thats keeping the 2 y/o out  The CFLs were replaced, and from the looks of it, they're more efficient than the last revision i bought, less power consumption and slightly brighter (still had the old revision new bulb to compare). My old bulbs were almost a year and a half old, so difference is insane.

Plants: I noticed my lotus propogated, and it was actually the mother plant + 4 plantlets around it. 2 of them were decent sized with atleast 4 decent sized leaves each, just lacked the light to get large. i moved these to the back middle and back right so they can mature nicely. The other 2 are pitiful, minature little things, so i moved them to the foreground so they'll not be out competed for light and nutrients as i have nothing in the foreground. I jobe spiked all the lotus's so they'll root nicely. My Windelov java ferns were getting to crowded so i thinned them out, and moved a little fern onto another piece of driftwood. I figured i might aswell try to increase the plant load rather than keep the spaces clear for new plants as i wont be able to afford them for quite some time.

Jello CO2 is going strong still after 1 month, drop checker is still in the green, went a bit darker green due to the increased intensity with the bulb change. Still quite a bit of jello left, and i've not had to redo the yeast yet.

so in a couple day's i'll likely take pics to show the very minor changes, but mainly to compare the brush infested area to the old pic


----------



## neven (May 15, 2010)

finally a break from text!

first almost all my bba gone:








Tank shots:


----------



## neven (May 15, 2010)

the lotus shoots i spread out. mother plant is the closest to the glass and theres one rooted right next to it.








the two small ones








the decent size one i placed on the right side


----------



## neven (May 15, 2010)

a few macro shots.

the wife's guppy








one of many amano








Bubba the shrimp, hard as hell to take a shot of him since he's always swimming around. He's as large as a 4 yo zebra danio. Think he's one of the surviving amanos from my 10 g. No one messes with bubba, not even the danios during feeding time.









my calico BN went into hiding.... why did i scape so many driftwood hiding places....


----------



## eternity302 (Apr 22, 2010)

WOW Neven, very impressive! You can definitely tell that all fish are thriving in there, all the colors are BRIGHT as heck on them! =) Good job~


----------



## Adz1 (Apr 21, 2010)

neven said:


> a few macro shots.
> 
> the wife's guppy
> 
> ...


i assure you he will come out at feeding time every time.....lol
very nice looking setup and very clean..
do the anubia do well in the gravel?


----------



## Scholz (Apr 21, 2010)

Sorry to tell you bubba is a she...


----------



## neven (May 15, 2010)

I've spotted him a few times already, and i think he's already set on making on of the smaller driftwood pieces his home  He can hide and watch everything from there. But for now he's perched on a suction cup, like the dwarf otoc is on the opposite side of the tank.

The substrate is tahitian moon sand, a lot of the finer particles were long ago sucked out by the filter, so it left me with a coarser grain. I just need to disturb it every few changes to make sure it doesn't compact and to loosen up debris. The anubias do great in it, just a pain to plant them in the first place. the substrate is too thin though, i need probably another sack of moon sand or even black florite


----------



## neven (May 15, 2010)

Scholz said:


> Sorry to tell you bubba is a she...


doesn't matter to me


----------



## neven (May 15, 2010)

Just purchased a foam cover for my intake and i also got a stingray internal filter (5 gallon). Before i had too many dead zones in the foreground (in front of the driftwood) so it'll help distribute the nutrients when i plant glosso


----------



## neven (May 15, 2010)

So since my last update i had one death in the tank, one of my black phantoms suffered for my stupidity. I was vacuuming during water change via a powerhead when the male swam up to the hose and the pressure was too much, i tried kinking the hose quickly but the pressure from the power head was too much. he didn't die right away either, i got him out quickly, he swam around like he was drunk, all fins fully stretched out, and one of his eyes was bulging a bit. 2 days later he disappeared... Probably the shrimpies made a meal of him. In my pics later you'll see food chunks, im hesitant to suck em out now :/

The metricide has come in, and i am approaching day 3 of a 14 day treatment cycle to finally knock out this bba. Already its pink/red in most places, and my fish have stopped rushing in during feeding time (except the guppy and danios), so its a good sign. once the 14 days is up, i think i'll just keep it to a minimal dose to help suppliment the co2.

The jello co2 is still going strong, i've been on yellow for a long time, so im constantly checking my fish for signs of suffocation. Since there was no surface agitation, i connected the air pump to help the gas exchange out during off hours. Apparently that wasn't enough since i noticed almost all my shrimp huddled together in a corner near the top well after lights were on. So i took this as a sign to finally get some surface movement and quit procrastinating.

I figured if i placed a few small holes (needle size) above the venturi connection, i'll get surface movement without strong current throughout the tank. So i poked 3 holes in via a needle heated on my gas stove. Turn the filter on.... And i got squirted in the eye, another shot down at a rough angle at such force it aerated my whole tank. the last hole worked as i intended.... But i considered this a failure, so i melted some plastic from another old piece of aquarium equipment and sealed up the holes. This time i melted below the venturi connection, but high enough that most of the co2 gets blasted past that into my spray bar. The hole was much larger. The result. Nice ripples, no actual breaking the surface tension, and a decent movement that my guppy and danios are in heaven 
heres a pic of it, you'll notice the patch of black plastic at the water level 









I got my Glosso! YAY! planting was much easier than i thought it would be, the aquaflora pak had great rooting that made it a breeze even with sand. What i did when i got it was wash out as much of the gel as i could, and broke it into small clumps that would be easy to plant. I never realized just how many clumps i could get out of it, lol. I planted them 3/4" to 1" apart. Now not long after it's grown in a lot, and it also seems to have more height than i thought it would, not a big deal though 
heres a close up of the glosso, what you can't see is where it seems to be really high, is actually the same height as the front, it just goes about 6 inches back as the driftwood is angled there.









My two smallest lotus plants are thriving, which is also a reason i think the lighting on the glosso is fine. heres a pick of both of them now









lastly, the full tank shot  I've spread out the windelov on far right more, it makes the two pieces of driftwood seem like they are the same and i like the tiered effect. This is also the area where i've had the latest BBA outbreak (now dying ) Im planning on replacing the windelov on the left side of the tank with something like a needle leaf anubias (or somethign else broader leafed). The anubias nana on the right substrate has been cut up and spread out because i want it like a carpet. in front of them, the little green pieces are actually chunks of rhizome that had decent roots, i read you could propagate this way, and the plants grow better when the rhizome's get full light 









Next i plan on adding more shrimp, that was one of the reason's i got the sponge for my intake. Figured some cherry's would be nice


----------



## clintgv (May 6, 2010)

Me like me like . Nicely Done.
I like looking at planted tanks


----------



## halonine (Jun 7, 2010)

Tanks looking real good. Plants look nice and healthy


----------



## neven (May 15, 2010)

neven said:


> So since my last update i had one death in the tank, one of my black phantoms suffered for my stupidity. I was vacuuming during water change via a powerhead when the male swam up to the hose and the pressure was too much, i tried kinking the hose quickly but the pressure from the power head was too much. he didn't die right away either, i got him out quickly, he swam around like he was drunk, all fins fully stretched out, and one of his eyes was bulging a bit. 2 days later he disappeared... Probably the shrimpies made a meal of him. In my pics later you'll see food chunks, im hesitant to suck em out now :/


He's alive still  Did a feeding and i suddenly had 3 males again  now i can't tell which one got sucked up.


----------



## neven (May 15, 2010)

I got like 30-40 CRS today thx to ibenu  When i let them loose the tank went into chaos, seemed to be the new game of the tank for all species, chase the CRS. The amano's were the worse, the danios just were themselves chasing away. Suprised that the guppy, cardinals and black phantoms joined in though. Once i put some blood worms in it calmed down.

Ibenu threw in some flame moss to keep the shrimpies happy. It gave me the rescape fever :/ so i decided i'll use this as a culture and grow it out. It'll replace the crappy java moss i have.

Next thing i know im was pulling driftwood out, removing java moss , scrubbin it out of the cracks and then taking tweezers to remove the fine bits of java moss. I know it'll show up again, but i rather wait till the flame moss is established.

Goals in this rescape, manually remove the dead BBA outside of the tank, open more substrate for planting, and move the mother lotus plant (propogates like hell) so it'll be more in the middle (behind driftwood) and mostly take light away from the side of the tank that is filled with low light plants 

Judging by the flow of the filter i'll need to rinse out the medium and micro filtration foamies. Atleast now i know there will be less and less crap in the filter thanks to finally getting a decent gravel vac (I LOVE THE FLUVAL ONE!!)

I'll still keep the front left corner as my lotus nursery, traded off one of the little plants and can transplant the two leaf lotus from the mother plant now  So if you are interested in a lotus some time in the future, i'll have one mature enough to get a new home soon. I'll be looking to trade for some plants down the road

Also, now i need more Tahitian moon sand. I dug a ton out under my big piece of driftwood a while back to top up the substrate around plants, now i'm about 5lbs short i'd say. I shouldn't have skimped out in the beginning :/


----------



## neven (May 15, 2010)

[email protected]
This shot makes it look more complete than it is:









side view with new flame moss tied down, lookie all that space in the corner there to plant something in the background 









and the straight on front shot which shows where i can fill in with midground plants.









I love how easy it is to change things up with flipping over and turning around driftwood pieces


----------



## Claudia (Apr 21, 2010)

Looks really nice


----------



## Morainy (Apr 21, 2010)

Your tank is beautiful, quite serene looking and well-tended. I'm glad that your black phantom survived.


----------



## SeaHorse_Fanatic (Apr 22, 2010)

Excellent work. The tank is absolutely gorgeous and the plants all look very healthy & vibrant. Good job.


----------



## SearunSimpson (Jun 11, 2010)

If your Glosso keeps growing up more than it is horizontally, I'd up your lighting. Glosso, in theory, is a high-light plant (though it does grow in lower light) and has a tendency to reach for it. If you're lighting is lower, it will naturally grow up towards the light so the leaves (mini solar panels, in theory) can absorb it and help photo synthesize. If the light is higher, it will use the energy to spread instead of just 'grow'.


----------



## jobber (May 14, 2010)

your tank looks very stunning. thanks for sharing the pictures!


----------



## neven (May 15, 2010)

thank you 

As for the glosso, its one of many plants that are incorrectly labelled 'high light' as i've done much reading into it before buying it. My problem ended up simply being the uprooted parts growing up, as i gave a quite thorough clipping to it and it remained low except for the couple loose shoots i missed. its placement is the key factor, where i have it now, theres nothing at all that can shade it. I placed the lotus plant in such a way it'll likely seek out the lamp on the right side of the tank, so the glosso gets full light from the left side and a bit of filtered light from the right. Considering i only have two 21W CFLs sideways over this tank, i'd definately say it does well in a medium light setting as its growing out and gettin bushier rather than going up


----------



## jobber (May 14, 2010)

did you plant the glosso, strand by strand? i was able to grow the glosso spreading across the floor. hope you're able to have the glosso spreadout as you want.


----------



## neven (May 15, 2010)

i split it up in into around 15 clumps and spread em out about 1/2" to 3/4". Only in a couple places has it not grown together, and thats because they were tiny clumps off to the side. The rest is nicely grown together. It needs to really grow out to the right, but i don't want much growth towards the background as that space will be where my crypts are going. For now i'll let it grow towards the back (very slowly due to mid light) and transplant to speed up the process


----------



## jobber (May 14, 2010)

I love how your placed your Nymphaea rubra. you got some really good growth with your plants and the pictures are well taken...SLR?


----------



## neven (May 15, 2010)

Crappy point and shoot, the one i used to base my thread about crappy camera's in the photo gallery.

the lotus is actually a Nymphaea zenkeri, and i made a point about using it as a background rather than a focal point most planting guides suggest. I love Deep Reds in my tank and i haven't found many plants to top this (i've had quite a few plants through my scapes). I used to have stems all along the back, and the lotus in the midground, as a focal point, but i found myself putting too much attention in keeping the background tame, with trimmings and stem replanting, it got too much, especially with all the driftwood limiting access to substrate there. This way i just need to trim 3 or 4 leaves a week to keep the background clean and not obstructing the light  I like the idea of the tank now being, Look at my tank, rather than Look at this plant! Plus the large area of cover they provide help keep the fish less stressed from my 3 year old tapping on the glass


----------



## Diztrbd1 (Apr 21, 2010)

Very nice tank , I especially like the Nymphaea zenkeri, need to add some to my tank , I love the color


----------



## neven (May 15, 2010)

This tank was put a bit on the side burner due to workin on the wife's tank, but i davej posted some free plants i couldn't pass up as they were just what i wanted to fill in my tank display.

So i got a ton of crypts to finally fill in the left corner. he threw in some java fern aswell, the normal variant, allowing me to finally scrap the windelov on my middle driftwood. I ended up pullin out the piece all together, removed the windelov and thought to myself, i've never used the underside before face up, so i gave it a flip and attached the new java ferns without thread. It took up some room behind the glosso i had open, but in reality if i used that space for other plants i'd be limiting the glosso's light.

The flame moss is finally starting to grow from where i tied it and it looks really neat, i cant wait for it to grow out a bit 

Whats left now for plants is a small grouping of brown or a dull red green plant in front of the new crypts, and a couple small midground plants and i'll be out of room.

The shake up in the tank really reset the territories for the fish, and it increased flow throughout the tank, so all my black phantom males are having mock fights  Everything just seems more alive now.

Tomorrow there will be pics as i wanted to give time for the water to clear a bit more since i did some heavy planting


----------



## neven (May 15, 2010)

The Flame moss finally kicking off









Leftside, new crypts  and a lil wee red tiger lotus growing out in the front corner









Centershot, Flipped driftwood, new java fern attatched. The glosso got hedged a couple weeks back and its staying low in those places









The mostly unchanged right side, besides the new java fern, i shifted the top driftwood (its two pieces) right and more forward to increase current, and i removed a couple Anubia nana from the front right to open up the cave a bit.









and of course a tank shot


----------



## ngo911 (May 19, 2010)

Looking good Neven! It reminds me of a sitting area at a park, with the driftwood being the bench.


----------



## CRS Fan (Apr 21, 2010)

Looks very nice, Neven. Great looking small tank. The Glosso is filling in well too !

Stuart


----------



## neven (May 15, 2010)

The other day i got annoyed with the center of the glosso being so overgrown, the issue was this is where they all grew in and even grew over eachother, so i removed the original glosso leaving a huge chunk of foreground missing right in the center. Luckily it was dark and raining out so i went on an expedition to find a couple handfuls of river rocks covertly (hard for a fat man). Scattered them around the foreground trying to make it look somewhat random. In the end, i think it'll look better when the glosso over grows it, and it also makes it much easier to trim the glosso.


----------



## neven (May 15, 2010)

New Camera finally! it sucked not having a real camera for a while thx to my son throwing it again...

I picked up the samsung es73 Point and shoot camera. It costs 139 and loaded with features i'll likely not use. Reason for choosing it, great macro range for price range, high megapixels, and samsung has been releasing great quality compacts lately.

Nothing really new, just grew out a bit more in places , i didn't spend much time taking pics as i had my son running around getting into things 

The guppy with auto flash settings on:









Left side, some good growth on the flame moss









Attempting macro quickly, probably could do better if i tweaked the settings








Shrimpie hiding in the lotus leafs at the surface









Angle shot where i let the glosso grow out, most of that growth is without co2, just metricide + Ei dosing.









Full shot, you can see the extent of the glosso removal i did, it'll grow back in over some of the rocks, but it'll be much easier to trim.


----------



## effox (Apr 21, 2010)

Nice picks neven!


----------



## discuspaul (Jul 2, 2010)

*Congratulations, Neven*

You've had many plaudits already, but I'd like to add mine.
I think you're doing an absolutely stupendous job !!!
Looks fabulous - imo one of the best planted display tanks I have seen - Super tank journal !!! Keep up the good work.


----------



## Bien Lim (Apr 21, 2010)

a very healthy set up...good job


----------



## Keri (Aug 2, 2010)

Beautiful tank, love that guppy!


----------



## CRS Fan (Apr 21, 2010)

Any recent pics, Rob? I would love to see it now.

Best regards,

Stuart


----------



## neven (May 15, 2010)

Heres some new pics, minor changes for the most part, the hardscape on the right side shifted to open up more space and make room for a massive sponge i put on the intake, and the smart heater. The tank suffered from 2 weeks of lazy dosing, so some glosso was pulled out and tossed



















and a crypt that went from nothing and exploded in growth


----------



## CRS Fan (Apr 21, 2010)

Looking purdy, Rob. Is the crypt in the last pic the one I gave you?

Best Regards,

Stuart


----------



## neven (May 15, 2010)

nope, thats been in there since lisa gave me it with the cherry shrimps, just never grew much, stayed super tiny and kept melting


----------



## jobber (May 14, 2010)

tank is looking good. glosso is looking very healthy. wish i can still have mine growing.


----------



## neven (May 15, 2010)

last pics weren't great quality, so i took another since i was taking pics of my other tank
The windelov was almost completely removed, it'll grow back but im unsure of where i want its placement, another plant species will be moving into the tank soon


----------



## euroamg (Dec 14, 2010)

Nice planted tank.. Plants are growing well..


----------



## neven (May 15, 2010)

So as i was prepping this tank down for the move i decided to rid myself of the stellatus as it didn't fit the look of the tank. Also due to where the tank was being placed the left side driftwood was removed aswell

This really opened up the left side of the tank and once again showed off the crypts. Also moved a plant from the right side of the tank to where the driftwood was, forget what its called though x.x The glosso started to move in right away, especially after i reworked the plastic board "hood" to allow the light to be more centered.

I tried to get some shots to show just how much the lotus's shade the ferns and anubias (helps prevent BBA)


----------



## jobber (May 14, 2010)

tank and plants looking good.
good luck on the move.


----------



## globali (May 1, 2011)

Very interesting and even surprising layout,
harmonic game between plants, wood & space.

Aa I understood, U dose with Metricide
so what is that "new 3L Jello Co2 Can".


----------



## effox (Apr 21, 2010)

globali said:


> Very interesting and even surprising layout,
> harmonic game between plants, wood & space.
> 
> Aa I understood, U dose with Metricide
> so what is that "new 3L Jello Co2 Can".


It's a CO2 Yeast and sugar solution in a gelatin form. It lasts longer than a typical yeast and sugar formula (month instead of weeks I believe).


----------



## discuspaul (Jul 2, 2010)

Very nice looking tank !


----------



## neven (May 15, 2010)

thank you all for your compliments 

I normally have had my tanks on jello based yeast co2. I can get a batch to last 3-4 months consistent output, with the plants starting to pearl for the last 3 hours of my photo period where the current isn't too strong. Surface agitation is quite substantial aswell.

For a long time i stopped the co2 as a test to see the difference, what i found was a reduced growth rate without a loss in plant quality. Two issues came up with the experiment.
1) lotus stopped propogating, not a biggy
2) as my lighting is on the low side, my glosso still grew, but the issue was when i removed the deep rooted old growth to give it room to grow back in, it stopped gaining ground.

overall i'd call metricide only non co2 a success, but for foreground plants i'd strongly recommend running co2 for a month or two to get your plants firmly rooted, then cut back. When i run co2, i reduce metricide dosing to twice a week.

overall the tank is mostly the same, bit of tweaking, couple plant changes, the glosso is much less for reasons stated above, but growing steadily thanks to the jello being back.

For people new to planted tanks i may be able to make a nice plant package for someone to start a tank out (stems, crypts, ferns, anubias). I dont want it going to someone who's already into the planted tank scene or someone who hasn't looked into their lighting.


----------



## globali (May 1, 2011)

> It's a CO2 Yeast and sugar solution in a gelatin form.


Thank U,

So, the aquarium is supported by x2 manual co2.

a. Metricide is a Carbon source.
b. The Yeast is a Carbon source as well.

1. Why on earth use them both, what are the advantages.

2. If one choose to use x2 co2 manual substitutes, why not use
just one full automated pressurized co2 system and be happy.


----------



## CRS Fan (Apr 21, 2010)

globali said:


> Thank U,
> 
> So, the aquarium is supported by x2 manual co2.
> 
> ...


I'm one of those people that has used both pressurized CO2 and Metricide (at times). The Excel/Metricide can also be used as an algicidal agent (although some plant do not like it). Pressurized CO2 can also be cost prohibitive (a large initial investment).

JMHO.

Stuart


----------



## globali (May 1, 2011)

> I'm one of those people that ...


Thank U, CRS Fan.


----------



## neven (May 15, 2010)

just to clarify a bit, yeast based co2 is not technically a substitute like metricide/excel is. You make your own gas, rather than buy the gas already made. Lack of knowledge on yeast though can make it a real pain to get decent production, vs the pressurized set it and forget it


----------



## gary007 (Apr 3, 2011)

hey man u sure thats 29g? u see that looks massive and long height wise, its just it looks bigger than my 30g by looking at pics lol


----------

