# 26g rimless dutch planted



## opt-e (Jan 25, 2014)

Got tired of the fast growing plants in my very shallow 12g long so I decided to start a new tank, much to the boss' dismay. I actually started this tank a couple weeks ago but was too lazy to post anything.

Obligatory specs:

*Tank*: generic rimless 26g (30 x 12 x 16")
*Filter*: Eheim 2232 canister
*Light*: Beamswork Hilumen Pent 30" and Finnex Ray2
*Heater*: Ebo Jager 150w
*CO2*: 10lb tank + Aquatek Premium Regulator + atomic diffuser
*Substrate*: Eco-Complete

Picked up the 26g tank for $35 of a member here. Got the Eheim 2232 and 2 Ebo Jager heaters of a guy on craigslist for $50. Dropped in a couple bags of Eco-complete and transplanted all the fast growing stem plants from the 12g long (mostly from Ray), and a bunch more plants from randyhelay.

At the moment it's running low tech with Excel and limited EI dosing as I'm waiting for bits and pieces for my CO2 setup from eBay. Its actually doing way better than I expected, surprisingly so. Getting good growth from the stem plants. Almost no algae when I was running just the Beamswork. I added the Ray2 later and I started getting algae on the glass so I'm going to leave it off until I get CO2 up and running.

Full tank shot.










Detail. I'm terrible with names and I have no idea what the name is for most of my plants. [EDIT: added IDs thanks to Reckon and randylahey]

Hydrocotyle Japan









Pogostemon Stellata









Hygrophila Pinnatifida









Ranunculus Inundatus









Rotala Rotundifolia









Ludwigia Lacustris









Rotala Green









Ludwigia Repens


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## Reckon (Jul 25, 2012)

2) Hydrocotyle Japan
3) Limnophila Aromatica, been corrected - Pogostemon Stellatus!
4) Hygrophila Pinnatifida
5) Ranunculus Inundatus
6) Rotala Rotundifolia ? 
7) Ludwigia Lacustris
8) Rotala Green
9) Ludwigia Repens

Looks great! I love the varying texture. I think if you trim the Ludwigias and bunch them a little bit you can accomplish little bushes - adds more depth to your tank and exaggerates the textures even more!
If you don't mind me editing your pic to show you...


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## opt-e (Jan 25, 2014)

Hey Reckon thanks for the tips and IDs! I didn't really put too much thought into the scaping. Just basically threw all the tall plants in the back, middle ones in the middle and low ones in the front. I'm hoping that my red plants will actually be red once I get the CO2 going!

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## randylahey (Jun 25, 2013)

Oh reckon, So close! No. 3 is actually pogostemon stellata and that should be moved into the background. The stems to the left of the hydrocotyle japan is persicaria sao paulo.

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## opt-e (Jan 25, 2014)

LOL thanks guys. I will update the OP with IDs. 

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## opt-e (Jan 25, 2014)

Few more pics of the flora and fauna that I didn't capture in my first post.

Bacopa.









Oto.









German Blue Ram hiding.









And the CO2 setup.









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## opt-e (Jan 25, 2014)

Got bored and took some pics with just the actinic lights on..


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## Reckon (Jul 25, 2012)

I think that is bacopa colorata...
Yah, I have mixed feelings about actinic. It's nice to have a light on for the night but doesn't seem right for FW tanks. I was thinking perhaps it'd be a bit more appropriate if we used some sort of orange or red LED for sunset colors perhaps?


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## opt-e (Jan 25, 2014)

Yeah I don't normally use it.. Red or orange would be nice for sure.

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## opt-e (Jan 25, 2014)

Did a major rescape, water change and cleaned the filter. It's still no where close to what I would really like it to look like but its getting a bit better, I think. Debating whether to get rid of the rotala sp green, and about half of my ludwigia lacustris.










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## opt-e (Jan 25, 2014)

Did some trimming and moving stuff around yesterday. Removed quite a bit of rotala sp green from the rear right corner. Removed most of the rocks from the middle and replaced with exceeds pygmy chain sword from my other tank. I really like how the left side of the tank is looking but not happy at all with the right side. Just looks like a random smattering of plants..










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## trixy (Feb 2, 2011)

how is the finnex ray2?

i was thinking of getting that for my next setup


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## opt-e (Jan 25, 2014)

I really like it. It's brighter than my 30 Beamswork Pent with 0.2w bulbs. Only problem with the Ray2 30" is that it is the same LED unit as the 24" in a longer case, so there are no lights on the ends. Luckily the spread is actually really good, especially for LED. One other thing I don't like is that the legs are really terrible. They are very loose and made of plastic that can easily break. I ended up replacing them with bamboo skewers which fit nice and tight in the rails that the legs are supposed to fit in. The slim profile is really pretty on a rimless tank.

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## opt-e (Jan 25, 2014)

New inhabitants! Thanks Charles @ Canadian Aquatics.

Marble Hatchetfish









Pencilfish









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## trixy (Feb 2, 2011)

i was looking at the par figures and i am still not sold on it...r you having any success with the reds in the plant and the foreground plants?



opt-e said:


> I really like it. It's brighter than my 30 Beamswork Pent with 0.2w bulbs. Only problem with the Ray2 30" is that it is the same LED unit as the 24" in a longer case, so there are no lights on the ends. Luckily the spread is actually really good, especially for LED. One other thing I don't like is that the legs are really terrible. They are very loose and made of plastic that can easily break. I ended up replacing them with bamboo skewers which fit nice and tight in the rails that the legs are supposed to fit in. The slim profile is really pretty on a rimless tank.
> 
> Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk


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## opt-e (Jan 25, 2014)

I would say on my tank it's about medium light. If you want high light you'd probably want 2 units. I've got glosso in this tank and its growing pretty slow. I have a Beamswork tri 6500k on my 12g long and its growing way faster. 

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## waynestractor (Nov 9, 2011)

We used to have some hatchet fish but they all jumped out! Our tank is about 70% covered and they still managed to find an escape...you may want to cover the top somehow.


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## opt-e (Jan 25, 2014)

waynestractor said:


> We used to have some hatchet fish but they all jumped out! Our tank is about 70% covered and they still managed to find an escape...you may want to cover the top somehow.


Thanks for the tip. Charles told me the same thing when I bought them. At night I cover the top with a towel until I find a better solution. I've been leaving the top open during the day and so far I haven't lost any thankfully.. Might have something to do with keeping the water level low for this very reason. Right now the water is about 3" from the top.

I used to have harlequin rasbora and blue king tetra in my 12g long tank and I lost probably 8 fish due to jumpers...

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## Reckon (Jul 25, 2012)

Hey where did you get the finnex?


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## opt-e (Jan 25, 2014)

Reckon said:


> Hey where did you get the finnex?


Amazon.com and shipped to Point Roberts.

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## opt-e (Jan 25, 2014)

FTS










I love how rotala rotundifolia colors up on the tips, almost like a flower, when it reaches the surface.. Don't mind the hair algae 










And these hatchet fish sure are adorable.. The school really nicely and always hang out under cover of my red root floater. I had 5 but one already died. Not sure what happened, but all my other inhabitants seem healthy.










Hygrophila polysperma 'Sunset'










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## Reckon (Jul 25, 2012)

Really digging the fts


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## opt-e (Jan 25, 2014)

Thanks Reckon!

Moved stuff around again... Still a bit messy and schizophrenic, I admit, but its coming together slowly but surely, I think.










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## Reckon (Jul 25, 2012)

Hm how about moving the persicaria over to the right as a midground plant and pick up algaebeater's cryptocoryne Florida sunset as the middle replacement?


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## opt-e (Jan 25, 2014)

Sorry for the slow reply. I'm trying to see what I can do with the plants I have now rather than buying new ones.

Lots of changes since last post.. Got rid of a lot of old growth rotala rotundifolia which wasn't too healthy and attracting algae. This also seems to have fixed my hair algae problem.. At least it isn't nearly so bad now.

Added rotala sp green and rotala wallichi that I had in my low tech tank and isn't doing so great but seems to be coming back to life slowly but surely. Also added some baby tears.

The bacopa colorata, pogostemon stellata, and hydrocotyl sp japan, all of which I got from randyheyla, are doing really well. In fact I removed about half of the hydrocotyl as it was taking over my foreground.

Scape is kind of a mess still but I'm trying to grow out the new plants so that I can use them to scape more effectively.










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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

You're able to keep the hatchets from "flying" out with an open top with that high a water level? I lost my hatchets one by one even with a glass top through the tiny slit in the back where the filter outlet was (HOB filter).


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## opt-e (Jan 25, 2014)

2wheelsx2 said:


> You're able to keep the hatchets from "flying" out with an open top with that high a water level? I lost my hatchets one by one even with a glass top through the tiny slit in the back where the filter outlet was (HOB filter).


Similar story here.. I didn't bother adding a glasstop as I know they find even the smallest slit to jump through. I started with 5 perhaps 6 weeks ago and only have 1 left now. The first one that died I think wasn't healthy to start with and died after about a week. The second one I lost ended up getting sucked into and through the Koralia and spit back out with a broken back. Then a couple more found the carpet..

I love the fish but I think they're impossible to keep from jumping unless you have a completely sealed top. Doubt I will be buying them again.


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

I see. Too bad, I was hoping you had some secret trick. I was told that if I lowered the water level by 2 inches then no problem, but then the tank would look terrible.


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## opt-e (Jan 25, 2014)

2wheelsx2 said:


> I see. Too bad, I was hoping you had some secret trick. I was told that if I lowered the water level by 2 inches then no problem, but then the tank would look terrible.


Yeah, when I first got them I had the water level quite low and didn't have any problem with jumpers. But as you said, it looks terrible and eventually I got tired of the low water level. I was thinking of some sort of solution using a very fine mesh stretched on a thin metal frame might look okay but not sure how to nicely implement such a thing.


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## Steve (Mar 27, 2013)

You can put a mesh lid over the "slits" that aren't fully covered to keep the hatchets in.


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

opt-e said:


> Yeah, when I first got them I had the water level quite low and didn't have any problem with jumpers. But as you said, it looks terrible and eventually I got tired of the low water level. I was thinking of some sort of solution using a very fine mesh stretched on a thin metal frame might look okay but not sure how to nicely implement such a thing.


I was going to make essentially a window bug screen to put on top but I just don't like having a top on my planted tanks. Ruins the look for me. One of the cool things with open top planted tanks and LED's is the shimmer of the light on the ripples and with a top I lose that perspective.


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## Fish rookie (May 21, 2012)

I just sealed the opening with plastic wrap and it was working well for me.


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## opt-e (Jan 25, 2014)

Yeah there are many good solutions if you don't care so much what it looks like but if you want to maintain the nice clean look of a rimless its more tricky. The problem with glass tops is that the condensation collects on it..

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## opt-e (Jan 25, 2014)

Can anyone help me ID this plant? I grew this guy from a hitch hiker trimming of 1 leaf (I think from Ray). My guess is ludwigia repens but I ain't no expert.


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

Looks like your ID is correct to me.


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## opt-e (Jan 25, 2014)

Latest cleanup and rescape.


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## Reckon (Jul 25, 2012)

Looking good! I've got a feeling once the repens takes over you may not keep the glosso 
Or perhaps move the repens to 'mid' foreground and the glosso all the way up to the front of the glass.


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## Reckon (Jul 25, 2012)

opt-e said:


> Can anyone help me ID this plant? I grew this guy from a hitch hiker trimming of 1 leaf (I think from Ray). My guess is ludwigia repens but I ain't no expert.


Let it grow out a bit? If it's leaves develop to be wavy in shape, might be Staurogyne Bihar. A very rare plant


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## randylahey (Jun 25, 2013)

It very well could be staurogyne bihar or maybe hygro brown/thai? I cant remember what trimmings you got from me. Usually, my bihar looks more like h. Pinnatifida from a very small trimming. The h. Brown stays fairly green in my lowlight tank and is a chocolate brown in my highlight tank.

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## opt-e (Jan 25, 2014)

Pretty sure I got this plant as a stray from Ray. It grew out from one leaf..

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## opt-e (Jan 25, 2014)

Today I came back from 10 days in Maui. Tank was a mess of hair algae. Made the mistake of adjusting the CO2 setup right before I left for vacation and it ended up with almost no CO2 the entire time I was gone. Surprised it didn't end up worse.

In my haste I adjusted the CO2 up and forgot about the tank for a few hours. Came back to all my fish upside down, sideways, and some gasping for air others just floating tangled up in the plants. Thought they were all goners for sure but I did 50% water change to get some oxygen back in the tank and adjusted my filter output to increase surface ripple. Then I spent about 3 hours manually removing the algae and general maintenance. Looked surprisingly good after all that.

To my surprise all the fish except my lone blue king tetra seem to have recovered. Will see how they look tomorrow.


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## Reckon (Jul 25, 2012)

Yup. This has happened almost every time I've gone away over the last 3 years. Wish I can automate it a bit better.


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## opt-e (Jan 25, 2014)

Reckon said:


> Yup. This has happened almost every time I've gone away over the last 3 years. Wish I can automate it a bit better.


It's comforting to know I'm not the only one.. Haha.


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## opt-e (Jan 25, 2014)

Here's a FTS post-vacation. Right now it's basically in farm mode waiting to move over to my 48g, so it ain't pretty. But at least its fairly algae free for the time being. I put my new Oddyssea CFS500 on it and the flow is great.










Forgot to mention my hygrophilia pinnatifidia completely melted while I was on vacation. Not sure why.


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