Trust me I am no planted expert

[Lgtuk]

One week on and we are looking healthy. Plants have pretty much doubled in size over the week, some stems are poking out of the water and had to remove some moss as it's growing so quick.

Going to get some fish tomorrow, don't know what but small and striking would be nice. Will have to see what my local maidenhead or porton aquatics have. Might even venture down to Romsey as there is a nice aquatics down there, not been in a while though.

Any recommendations?

 

[Lgtuk]

Well cleaning day and I thought I would have a little move around to improve flow and get rid of a dead spot collecting piles of moss.

I will post some pics later.

Found a Amano shrimp in the move around which i havent seen for ages, it looked health and fat lol.

Got myself 2 fish I have never kept today. Saemes flying fox and some Otto's. What cool little fish the Otto's are happily perched on all the Argentinean sword leaves together.

Cannot believe how I have passed these by all this time.

My lfs had some cool looking twig catfish there today. I wanted to get some but don't know a lot about them?

 

[Lgtuk]

 

[Lgtuk]

Thought I would put a little update of how the tank is going.

Added 10 dwarf water lettuce last week and as you can see from the pictures they have tripled already. Loving the roots dangling down.

The I think HC is spreading nicely but I want something of similar to carpet the front edge of the tank.

Main part of the tank is still maturing but I did change the flow of the tank from right/ left to left/right which has increased the flow massively.

Comments welcome good or bad or anything you think I should try as this is all experimental for me.

 

[cookie.dou]

If your goal is to have a harmonious tank with happy fish - I think you've achieved it! If you want to go a bit deeper on the aquascaping end, what you can do is consider how to make it feel even more "full" - whether it is by adding more crypts/plants, stones and/or things you'd think you'd come across in the beginning of a river delta (what this reminds me of).

 

[Lgtuk]

Hi Doubu, I want it to grow its self now and thicken out how the plants want to go. The foreground plants are sending off runners and the rear plants are competing with each other.

I see what you are saying about putting a few more plants in to speed up the process and bulk it out.

 

[Lindy]

So are all those plants growing on the braces of the tank? It looks amazing.

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

 

[Lgtuk]

So are all those plants growing on the braces of the tank? It looks amazing.

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

Hi yes there is a shallow trough bracing around the top of the tank which i planted up with all sorts just to see what will grow. On each rear corner there is a gap for filter pipes so there is a devil's ivy in one and a peace Lily in the other roots dangling straight into the water.

 

[Lgtuk]

Just doing a bit of cleaning today and thought whilst the water was low I could show how thick the top of the tank is now getting

Just need to make the front look a bit more interesting now

 

[Lgtuk]

Bit of a picture heavy update, sorry if your on a slow connection

Had a bit of a thin out from the last update as it was starting to get a bit too thick and tangled. I am starting to think about ditching most of ths stems and going with big leaf plants instead.

Top of the tank is continuing to grow and the devils ivy is just about to go over the top of the shelves which will look nice.

Getting alot of emerged stem growth. I cannot remember the name of this stem but it is very hardy and seems to grow anywhere.

A few pictures showing how the top is now merging with the bottom growth.

Please take a look at the attached thumbnail picture. I have a patch on the top of the tank were the leaves have gone mottled and a chuck of plant has died away. Any ideas what this is?

 

[Lgtuk]

Well further into the rabbit hole we go. I have delved further into co2 addition by adding a reactor.

I have been struggling to get a nice consistant limey yellow drop checker from my diy yeast setup and simple diffuser for a while now, only really achieving it for the first 3-5 days of a fresh yeasty batch and absolutely flooding the tank with bubbles.

Whilst I was at my lfs I saw a cheapy ista max mix reactor and thought why not try it. First setup was a complete disaster as it leaked like a sieve and water went everywhere as I wasn't expecting it so I ended up kinda crudely fitting it inside my tank but I just wanted to see how it worked.

Anyway finally got it going and it was a little noisey to start with but then it settled down. I was suprised to see bubbles were going in but nothing coming out (school boy)..... The next morning i came down to all my fish frantically sucking at the surface and a bright yellow drop checker. I did unfortunately loose 2x SAE and a glow light tetra but I saved everything else by balancing my air stone pressure with the co2 output as I dont have a regulator.

I have had it running now for maybe 2 weeks and all is well and the plants have thickened up more so. Its suprising how little co2 you need compared to the diffuser.

In my last post I mentioned having a mite attack on my emersed plants. Before unleashing a Donald Trump sized biological warfare on it i was advised to try regularly wetting the plants which has so far worked well and the plants have recovered quickly so thank you to everyone who gave advice on that