From reef to planted: musings and build thread

[Anonymous]

"You're implying that a group composed entirely of male animals will... breed?"


"No, I'm simply saying that life, uh... finds a way."

 

[Anonymous]

"You're implying that a group composed entirely of male animals will... breed?"


"No, I'm simply saying that life, uh... finds a way."

Well, in this case, the way it finds is me buying 10 p. gertrudaes to breed, rather than trying to get five male threadfins to do so.

I never did like Jeff Goldblum

 

[Anonymous]

I'm now the proud owner of 10 pseudomogil gertrudae, who were just delivered this morning. Gorgeous little fish, and I'm happy to report that I ended up with five girls and five males. I'll try to get some photos of'em in the next day or two.

And on a related note, I can definitely recommend Fish2U.com as a great online resource for freshwater fish. Fish arrived healthy and on time, packaging for shipment was handled quite well, and the shipping costs were actually considerably less then I'm used to paying from places like Liveaquaria and others.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks guys. You have anything planned yet, Jim?

Nothing specific yet. I'm going to do a very large freshwater tank when I own a house again, in the 500 gallon range. This may or may not be the planted tank. If not, I'll do a smaller planted one.

My only concern with a large planted tank is power consumption, I don't want to be in that boat again.

I'm going back to freshwater, sick of the marine stuff.
Back to my roots!

 

[Anonymous]

My only concern with a large planted tank is power consumption, I don't want to be in that boat again.

Yeah, even at only 1-2 watts per gallon over a 500 the lighting alone would end up as a significant wattage.

(And if nothing else, I have to admit the thought of pruning 500 gallons worth of plants is enough to give me the screaming heebiejeebies. That's one hell of a time committment.)

I'm going back to freshwater, sick of the marine stuff.
Back to my roots!

No argument there. The thing that keeps getting me is how easy this stuff is. Sometimes I just stare at the tank and shake my head, and the girlfriend asks me what's wrong. What's wrong is that nothing is wrong, nothing at all has gone wrong. I'm so used to there being -something- that isn't perfect in a reef tank I just can't get used to how relaxing, tranquil and pleasant this tank is by comparison.

 

[Anonymous]

 

[Anonymous]

(And if nothing else, I have to admit the thought of pruning 500 gallons worth of plants is enough to give me the screaming heebiejeebies. That's one hell of a time committment.)

Ahh...food for thought there, yes.
May just stick with some huge tree roots, and a bunch of Severums and other larger cichlids for that big tank.

 

[Anonymous]

I have to confess, day by day I'm becoming less pleased with the look of the new driftwood+attached plants. The idea looked better in my head than it manifested as reality. I may end up removing the whole thing and replacing it. Kicking around the idea of planting that spot with tall grass like plants (vals, cyperus) or biting the bullet and putting stem plants back, maybe something "soft" like cabomba or myrio.

I'm just not sure at this point.

 

[Anonymous]

You thinking of removing the driftwood too?

 

[Anonymous]

The new piece, yeah. I dunno, I'm just not thrilled with the end result. My girlfriend thinks it looks perfect as it is, but I can't help thinking it's lacking.

 

[Anonymous]

Lacking vertical texture you mean?

 

[Anonymous]

It's a combination of factors:
1. The dimensions of the driftwood are such that the long branchy bit extends only about as far as the driftwood piece that's set in the substrate, so it adds a bit more symmetry to the tank layout than I'd like.
2. It's large enough to largely obscure the bit of blyxa that's planted behind it, but not full enough to really give an impression of filling in that back corner. It feels too 'open' behind it, between the new driftwood and the edge of the in-the-substrate-driftwood in particular.
3. Overall, it just doesn't quite "fit" with the rest of the layout. If I had been designing around the new wood from the get-go, I'd not have used the piece of driftwood in the substrate at all, and would have put the new wood about 4" to the right of where it now is, and an inch or two more forward. Maybe kept the blyxa right in ring around it, and have the HC run right up to that. And I wouldn't have used the hairgrass at all, most likely.

I dunno, I'm just not thrilled with the way it turned out. Just stumping around trying to think of a better alternative.

 

[Anonymous]

then take it out and rethink.

 

[Anonymous]

then take it out and rethink.

Been rethinking. And think I may have come up with the next plan. I'll remove the new wood, the anubias and the fern (the anubias and fern can likely go live in my girlfriend's 2 gallon betta tank). In it's place, in the back and sides I'll plant either bacopa carolinia or myrio. In front of that I'll plant just a couple of stems of ludwigia arcuata...

That should provide a little splash of color and texture to give the tank a bit of a contrast. I won't use too much of it, just a few stems.

Not sure which to chose between the bacopa and the myrio. Any thoughts?

 

[Anonymous]

The splash of color will look very nice.

IMHO both are good growers.

Balcopa in my tanks grew out of the water. It actually got inside one of the spot clip on fixtures housing the pig tail type lights. Then grew around the bottom in a circle. It has formed about 3 complete "rounds" now. :lol:

For about 3' air growth.
my .02

 

[Anonymous]

bacopa is a bog plant that prefers cooler temps, and always gets 'leggy' and soft when grown submerged-it's far better suited to terrariums

 

[Anonymous]

Been rethinking. And think I may have come up with the next plan. I'll remove the new wood, the anubias and the fern (the anubias and fern can likely go live in my girlfriend's 2 gallon betta tank). In it's place, in the back and sides I'll plant either ...

That should provide a little splash of color and texture to give the tank a bit of a contrast. I won't use too much of it, just a few stems.

Not sure which to chose between the bacopa and the myrio. Any thoughts?

Heh, told ya you needed a reddish plant . As far as the other, I'd chose neither as I have fallen in love with the shape of these:

http://www.aquabotanicstore.com/Crinum_ ... /plg18.htm

I know, I know. It doesn't fit but I really like the shape. Okay, I'd go with the myrio.

 

[Anonymous]

alterantheras (sp) have lots of nice reds and pink/purple tones in the leaves, and rotala will also show red and purple if you stay on top of the Fe levels

 

[Anonymous]

Heh, told ya you needed a reddish plant .

Yup, you called it.

I know, I know. It doesn't fit but I really like the shape. Okay, I'd go with the myrio.

I've seen that new crinum, it's interesting. I could see it making a really impressive display, but it would take a tank planned around it to show it off I think. Something tall, with lots of driftwood reaching up towards the surface and a lot of empty foreground...

alterantheras (sp) have lots of nice reds and pink/purple tones in the leaves, and rotala will also show red and purple if you stay on top of the Fe levels

Yeah, I thought about both. In particular I was looking at alteranthera reinecki and rotala macrandra. I think I like the ludwigia arcuata more, though - the very fine, thin leaves and the color I think are quite attractive. And it turns out my regular dealer is out of stock on the r. macrandra anyways.

I'd actually like to use rotala rotundifolia "green" rather than the bacopa or myrio....

... but the only place I can find that has any is in Singapore, and while they do ship to the US it's a bit more of a pain in the ass than I want to deal with.

 

[Anonymous]

Bout time for a smallish update. Spent some time travelling around the holidays, but after I got back I put in an order with AquaBotanic for some myrio and some needleleaf ludwigia. Unfortunately, I think it suffered a bit in shipping. Out of around 20 stems of ludwigia arcuata, only about two were in good enough shape to put in the tank. The myrio fared better, but quite a bit of it had to be tossed as well.

Planted what I could of both and even though it's a bit thinner than I'd like I really like the overall change. I've got some more needleleaf coming from another hobbyist sometime next week, once I've got that I'll snap some updated photos.

The tank had a bit of a rough time while I was in Seattle. The appliance timer controlling the lights and the solenoid valve failed sometime while I was gone, so the tank was without light or CO2 for however long until I got back. Plants weathered it pretty much okay, but I lost a couple fish. I'm down one of the featherfins and two of the pseudomugils.

And, unfortunately, I'm now starting to see thread algae amongst the hairgrass. Luckily it's easy to keep it in check my running a moustache comb through the grass, but I'm going to have to try to find a more long term solution