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First time jungle

M

marthin

Member
Joined
31 Jan 2011
Messages
36
Hi Everyone,

already many thanks to all the information that everyone has been sharing on here.

Having fish since I was about 4 in South Africa, I have always had some sort of fishtank going. The early years in the uK I was way too skint to do it and when I started I got interested in Marines. My 6 foot reef was my pride and joy, but when we moved over to the East, I tried and tried but was never happy with providing a great enviroment for my corals/nems in a smaller tank.

Takashi Amano was introduced to me about 6 years ago and I always looked at his books and wondered, can anyone do that? Before the corals went my other half very politely reminded me that I love the water world and that I should maybe look again at those books I love to much.

Some of you have been in the PFK mags and I was lucky enough to have made many trips to The Green Machine Shop with the same friends that introduced me to Mr. Amano.

I dont know how to post pics, so once that is sorted I'll very much appreciate your input.

Objective is jungle.. lots of hiding places, I feeling of the unexpected and views that is truly 3 dimentional.

Tank is a my 3x2x2 (previous reef), de-sumped.

Substrate is 40 liters of Colombo florobase - brown

wood was bought locally and some I had from old fishtanks years back (I never seem to throw anything away, just in case...)

then.. LOTS OF READING, ASKING, (pondering about my mistake of playing beach volleyball rather than attend the chemistry tutorials) and DREAMING.

Fish to be.
Dwarf cichlids.. most likely apistogramma
Sparkling gourami (saw one in a fishshop and was in love!)
neons or rummy noses - a nice few
Shrimps most definitely,
some snails to help with cleaning up (still not sure about this, but I some will most likely come in on plants)

Aquascaping.. jungle to be

CO2 - TMC powerdiffuser.. I quite liked the idea rather than ceramic diffuser.
External filter with ceramic stuff, sponges and some

Lighting is my previously used ATI unit 6 x 39 Watt. I kept Magnificent anemones under these lights, so I'm sure I can handle plants too. Currently only running 4 x 3500 kelvin non-brand tubes. Skywhites and Grolux on its way.

Plan:

place substrate, place wood, drink at least 6 bottle wines over a few days of pondering while waiting for plants to arrive.

Plants arrived:
Pogostemon helferi x 5
Bolbitus heudelotii x 6
Eustralis stellate x 5
Eleocharis acicularis x 5
Lilaeopsis novea-zeelandiae x 6
Microsonium pteropus x 6
Cryptocoryne wendtii green x 8
Anubias nana bonzai x 6
Anubieas barterii?? something or other x 6

Some loose stemplants bought locally.

did spoil myself and got a Madagaskar Lace plant - has been warned it may not live or grow very slowly.

Planted, tied up and filled the tank with 24 celcius 50 RO/tapwater.

Read some more, now up to 26 celcius.
CO2 is about 1 bubble per second.
Ph varies between 6.59 and 6.85 at light out tonight. I will in time invest in a pH controller, but need to save up first.

So, it's day 4 today.
To be honest.. I'm shell shocked. Growth everywhere, but had to get some JBL fertilizer yesterday as the new growth over the last 3 days went from green to almost white.. hopefully this was a good decision.
the Laceplant, not only have produced 2 new leaves, but has got 3 more addition little sprouts of the bulb.

Please feel free to advise, I need to learn
 
Hi Marthin and welcome to UKAPS!

Always nice to hear a bit of background. Amano inspired me to get more serious about this incredible hobby too!

A few observations, if I may?

Apistos and shrimp may not mix. Apistos may peck away at them.

No need for a pH controller. 1 bubble per second seems a little low on a tank your size 3 x 2 x 2 = over 300 litres.

Invest in a CO2 drop checker - http://www.ukaps.org/drop-checker.htm

And consider your fertiliser dosing - JBL is not really good enough in a high-energy system like yours. At the moment your substrate will be supplying ample nutrients, but feed them through the leaves too, before they starve and algae takes hold - http://www.ukaps.org/EI.htm

I look forward to seeing some pics!
 
hi sounds great, would love to see some pics.

to do this ...(I'm not sure if its the only way or even the easiest but) the way i did it was by uploading the photos to a photo sharing website like photobucket or flickr.

then when you find the picture you want to put in your journal you copy the link that starts with (IMG)...... and then just past this link into your jounral.

hope this makes sense. just try the preview of the post before you submit to check the photo has loaded on the journal/post entry.

look forward to seeing some pics!
 
PICT0017.jpg


I think I've done, it.. picture wise anyway. This is tank.. day 2

hi guys. many thanks for the input.

regarding the CO2 drop checker. .i forgot to mention, I got one, just need to get some Kh 4 solution.. did not quite get that when I got it going.
yes, I think there is more CO2 needed, but with the new growth, if I understand it correctly, I do need a good balance between nutrients and CO2, otherwise the balance is disturbed.
Salts on the way.. will dose soon.

Oh NOOOOO.. no apisto's and shrimps... Ok, any suggestion to dwarf cichlid and shrimp?? I have a few young cherry shrimps that I got off a guy to get the algae prevention under control.. although, I dont suppose I'll see much of them in my tank till there are millions

regards

Mart
 
Hi Martin
I keep together amano shrimps and blue rams and everything is OK so far,they been together for about 5 months and no problems yet. As a suggestion maybe u should get some ottos and Siamese algae eaters they are doing excellent job in my tank.

Regards

Ivan
 
thanks Ivan,

Otto's are added to the list.. have seen then, but as I understand they do need algae to survive. Is my tank not maybe too young/unestablished for a fish with such specific needs?
I should really clarify, i like small shrimp. like cherry, crystal shrimps. amano's are huge in comparison, but maybe I'll rethink this idea.
many thanks for the input

Mart
 
marthin said:
if I understand it correctly, I do need a good balance between nutrients and CO2, otherwise the balance is disturbed.
Click to expand...
More a case of you need consistent CO2 and nutrients.

Aim for 30ppm CO2 (hence the 4dKH) and non-limiting nutrients (hence EI or similar).

If these are delivered effectively via decent circulation then you're almost there.

You can then simply use the light levels to control growth. Start of lower intensity, then build if you want more growth - 8hr photoperiod is fine. 50% water change per week minimum. More ideally in the first few weeks.

Consider splitting up the smaller plants into more seperate plants. This way you'll get more coverage and better light penetration amongst them. The same applies to the stems plants. Let these grow to near the surface before pruning. Pruning is another subject entirely.

Also consider moving the central crypts to the midground. These will grow 15cm upwards and may look a little odd as a foreground plant. Maybe swap with the hairgrass on the right. Perhaps use the opportunity to split the hairgrass up as described.

Great first attempt. Much better than mine. The wood is great and in a few weeks this will grow in a treat! :thumbup:
 
Mmm, first weeks of co2 world. You will be amazed how fast things grow.
Good luck and welcome to this wonderful world of nature. Your first scape looks very good. I agree with George about the crypts.
 
Cheers guys.

the Crypts was actually deliberate. it does not show but the wood gets very close to the front glass and the Anubis, once grown, will shade most of that area.
We all differ, so I thought I would like to see what it looks like to reverse so many tanks I have seen with a central or just off-centre space and go for almost two half tanks with the crypts not quite splitting, but have good height central.
In a few weeks i may change my mind, but it would be interesting.
Another amazing thing is to see the stem plants close up at night. Never really seen that before and the more they settle the more they change shape.. it's nature one big treat!

regards

Mart
 
If that is your first planted tank then I shall just go cry in a corner :) Looking superb!
 
Thanks Nry and Tom.

No worries Nry.. I have been keeping marines for the last few years and planted tanks are not that different, now I work with plants, rather than plants living in an animal structure. There are so many beautifull tanks available on the internet and info galore, so it's not really that difficult to copy the masters with a slight twist of your own doing.

Tom, I'm pondering another branch with a fern round about central front, to make inverted quadropod of ferns with eventual moss covered lower branches, shading the anubis slightly??? What do you think?
 
Thanks

Holding on to start EI system and to see how the stuff growns. George made a valid point that I did not seperate the stem plants and crikey.. they are bushing out nicely, will see how it goes.
Fish plans also needs sorting. Since apistogramma is out of the question, I'm not sure what the next step fishwise is.
Not sure about the amazon at the back.. think we got the wrong species and also pondering a lilly inbetween the wood.
hmmm. i can see why most guys/girls have got several tanks
 
Hi,
Nice tank and I hope the plants grow in well. I'm a beginner compared to many on here but all I'll say is start with less light than you think and add a tube every few weeks or more. Alot of the plants you have there will do very will with little light, so starting low and building up will save you the nightmares of algae that once they start they're hard to control. Preventative measures early on will save you so much frustration!
Very low light for 6 hours would be how I'd go, but other may offer varying ideas.

Don't give up on the Apisto and shrimp combination. I have not kept Apisto but have rams and a tank full of shrimp. Once a bunch of cherry shrimp are breeding well , the dwarf cichlids will eat them but not enough to see them disappear.

Good luck :)

Gavin
 
Day 10 now.
http://i1081.photobucket.com/albums/j35 ... ul/010.jpg
http://i1081.photobucket.com/albums/j35 ... ul/012.jpg

I feel growth is good, but somehow the colour is not great. Second pic shoing the pygmy chain sword growing like mad, but the new leaves are almost yellow/white/light green. Is this a sign of iron/any deficiency?
The first pic may show the strange red leaves on the Rotala I think and the yellowing, but lengthening of the leaves in the stem in front of it.
The skywhite 880 and grolux lamps did not arrive as they were out of stock at lampspecs, but they did say this week it will happen. Currently I light up with 4 x 39 watt 3400 K osram plant bulbs. Pretty sure the plants are not feeling the love from this light, so fingers cross. Any ideas?
Some algae has developed which I did expect.
Got some otocinclus and a pair of Kribensis. The female has found her favourite spot, but I dont quite think the male is happy with Valentine's Day.
 
A bit of an update. Really battling with algae, turning the CO2 up and up and up, eventually testing with phosphates above 10 and nitrate above 80 according to API test kits, I did a series of extensive waterchanges.
Despite the struggles there was some good things. My Kribs spawned, my snails spawned (then again, the only snail that does not spawn is a dead snail) and my oto's spawned. Found the young Oto's in the filter.. nifty little fellas.
Eventually removed the Krib parents as they were a bit hectic.
This is what the tank looks like today.
Comments would be great.
thanks for looking
fishtank0291.jpg
 
quick update.

cleaned the tank yesterday, turning into a mega jungle with fish, both fry and adults everywhere. Latest surprise is to find my sparkling gourami has spawned.. About 1 inch from the front window.. very convenient, will try and get some pics.
Well chuffed
 
Coming on good mate i'm liking the overall look, I'm sure you'll get on top of the algae soon. Your fish must be very happy with all that spawning! Keep up the good work.
 
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