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Round Two

ldcgroomer said:
You could try feeding frozen lobster eggs. All of my fish love them including the liquorice gourami and betta channoides and they can be very fussy.

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Thanks Lindy, always good to get food recommendations, I like to try to vary their diet as much as possible.

Greenfinger2 said:
Hi Wisey, Looking fab Nice photos of the fish too :thumbup:
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Thanks Roy, it's coming along! Some things going better than others, but progress for sure. I still need something to fill in that back right corner, but have not got round to ordering the Ludwigia Palustris Red yet. The fish seem happy though, so thats the main thing.

If the MC does not work out I do have more in the propagator. I also have a GLUT of S. Repens in there now the sun has started to shine in Aberdeen, so could always switch out with that. I really want that Pogo to grow though. Seen a number of the Tropica tanks where they have the bright green Pogo with the contrasting red Alternanthera in front and that was the look I really wanted for that left hand side, especially if I could get the bright green MC to grow across in front of the Alternanthera as well.

My Alternanthera seems to be redder on the new leaves, but then they fade back to that green with a red hint as they get older. Not sure if thats a lights or nutrients or both issue?
 
Greenfinger2 said:
Hi Wisey, Read somewhere pog does better in soft water. I have given up trying to grow pog in my tanks. It did ok for a time then just died off London tap water is very very hard 🙁

Speak soon
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Hi Roy, Im in Aberdeen, my water is super soft, like 2 german degrees according to the water report. I guess it must be something else. I'm sure its probably light with my cover being such a diffuser, but also don't want to go too far and cause a huge algae outbreak.
 
Maybe try a few Pogo stems in different areas - it's supposedly not high light or high CO2, but I wonder about that position behind the rocks, perhaps it's more shadowed (from light & flow) than expected

If you order in some L palustris, perhaps also try some L repens 'Rubin'
 
alto said:
Maybe try a few Pogo stems in different areas - it's supposedly not high light or high CO2, but I wonder about that position behind the rocks, perhaps it's more shadowed (from light & flow) than expected

If you order in some L palustris, perhaps also try some L repens 'Rubin'
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Yeah, could be worth trying it somewhere else, but I don't really want it anywhere else, so if it won't grow in that corner I would probably be more tempted to try something different. It does seem to be growing better than it was before I improved flow, I am maybe being impatient. The tops are green, its just the rest that browns very quickly. I'm tempted to either lower the tile again, or try without the cover now I don't have the Odessa Barbs, but worried that the Rosy Tetras could also be jumpers as they are quite happy to fly up to the surface for food and make quite a splash.

I did consider the Ludwigia Repens Rubin, but I read that the Ludwigia Palustris is even easier to grow and turn red, so was going to go with that instead, what with my inability to make the Alternanthera turn red, I wanted the easiest red possible!
 
L palustris is easy ... except when it's not, I find it goes through periods where it's thriving, but then may get "melt spots" mid stem & just generally looks a but tatty until it gets it's groove back
L repens just stays steady
- different reds & leaf, both very nice

(don't forget I'm the Lazy Aquarist so it's quite likely your L palustris will be more consistent, I was just surprised at how much I liked the 'Rubin')

Trying the Pogo in different locations is just about sussing the issue, then get it going in that back corner

Difficult call on the cover - I finally dumped mine for various reasons & really like the open tops, have had surprisingly few jumpers
 
My tile is still about 20 cm from the water surface then has a good 40cm to go to reach the substrate. I think I will drop it another 10 cm this weekend and see how that goes, should give me more intensity on those plants that need it, but could also mean more drop off in to the corner where the Pogo is. To be fair, I would sacrifice the Pogo in the corner if I could make the Althernanthera go red.

I guess I could get one of those mesh covers, but in my opinion, they look a bit ****.
 
I keep forgetting tank is 60cm wide, tim is likely right in his assessment, most of these LED's give decent 45 x 45 cm coverage, anything outside that area tends to "low" light
- you just need a "shuffle" on the light rail, lights ON it's at tank left with gradual shift over to tank right by day's end 😉
 
Hmmmm, annoying, that's an expensive upgrade as I only have the two channel controller so would need both a second tile and the 8 channel controller.

Got a wedding to pay for in August, so that's just not going to fly right now. I guess I'll have to rethink plant choices.
 
Just checked, around £125 for the tile plus £220 for the 8 channel, or £55 for a second 2 channel. That's not going to happen right now.

I could always slide the tile further to the left, it's going to look weird, but the more demanding plants are at that side.

I'll try lowering a bit more over the weekend and take it from there.
 
Ok, so after about an hour of feeling a bit dejected about the light situation, I'm now looking at it as an opportunity for a rescape of the back left corner!

I'm considering removing the stones at the back left, them remove the tights full of shingle supporting them and fill in with spare Tropica soil to give me more planting space. I can set the tile slightly further forward to give high light to the Altenanthera and MC, then pack out the back with various Crypts which should be happy in the darker background. I'll still add the taller red stems to the back right corner at the same time to fill in over there. Removing those stones should also give me space to use some of the S. Repens I have in the propagator, which would act as a transition from the MC through to the taller darker Crypts at the back. Would just need to consider what Crypts would grow tall enough to sit back there.

A plan is forming 😀
 
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:clap:

Adventure begins 😎

C usteriana
C undulata
C crispulata
even C wendtii 'green' can grow 20+ cm at times

You might look at Murdannia keisak
 
alto said:
:clap:

Adventure begins 😎

C usteriana
C undulata
C crispulata
even C wendtii 'green' can grow 20+ cm at times

You might look at Murdannia keisak
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The Murdannia Keisak is a nice looking plant, I considered it in my previous scape. I think it would look really good in a miniature landscape setup with MC or HC around it and the Murdannia looking like a stand of trees in the landscape.

I like the look of the C. Crispulata although Aqua Essentials and Aquarium gardens don't seem to stock it. AE has a really good range of Crypts though, so I may ask them if they can order it for me. C. Balansae is one they stock which also looks tall.

My C. Wendtii Mi Oya has grown nicely in this setup after being very small in the previous scape, but I don't have the nice brown/orange colouring that I see in some pictures which is a bit disappointing. I also find it struggles to put out new leaves, I see these tiny green leaves at the base, but they don't seem to develop well, maybe too little light under the established leaves?

With my flow configuration, tall Crypts planted back left would arch in towards the middle. Could look quite nice with the wood arching in the opposite side, giving it some symmetry. I switched the skimmer off for a few days and didn't get any surface film, I think due to the night time aeration, so I'm considering removing it. If I need a flow boost in that corner across the back I will add another Koralia which is less obtrusive and does not carry the risk of sucking in shrimp and fish and also requires less cleaning.

The C. Usteriana looks nice too with the hammered leaves and interesting colours, although I think I'll need to pick one or two tops of the tall Crypts and pick something mid height to go in front to give me a gradual rise in height from front to back.
 
Dropped the tile so it's about 12cm from the water surface now. Cover still on, so will see how that goes for a few weeks. I've switched the skimmer off again so will see if that can be taken out in a few days.
 
A comment on the C usteriana ... it seems to melt upon arrival (though there were several shipments where usually "stable" crypts were also "melting" upon arrival - I suspect something is happening during shipping rather than any issue at the nursery - every shipment of usteriana seems to "melt") - it comes back fairly slowly, leafs are finally getting enough length to have a presence ... all I need to do is convince shop to order more 😉
 
There appears to be fresh growth, but also a lot of browning on the edges of older parts. Is this to be expected as the MC switches to life underwater?

d2aa2a6f1b67c91d07622df053c7c358.jpg

My Hydrocotyle looks a little brown on the edges too and that's on fairly recent growth.

4c10f0127b034d2b15f0832577da7c22.jpg
 
So I have been running without the skimmer since Saturday and no surface film visible at all, so I will definitly be removing that this week to be replaced with a second Hydor Koralia 900.

I have just been to Aqua Essentials and placed an order for the following plants:

1 x Ludwigia Palustris - with the light being dimmer in the corners due to coverage from the tile I decided to go with this rather than Ludwigia Repens Rubin.
2 x Crypt. Balansae - Usteriana was out of stock and Crispulata was not even listed, so decided to give this a try to fill in the back.
1 x Crypt. Wendtii Mi Oya - I already have this in the tank, so this is just to fill in further with the same plant when I take the Pogo and rock out.
1 x Crypt. Petchii - I wanted another smaller Crypt. to go in front of the Balansae and I liked the sound of the violet underside to the leaves, thought this would add some more variety.

Unfortunately AE were out of stock on the Hydor Koralia, so I ended up placing an order with Charterhouse Aquatics as I have a few reward points and they are a bit cheaper on the pump anyway. Had to pay for a second load of postage, but only worked out a couple of pounds worse off than getting it all on the one order from AE.

I trimmed all of the S. Repens in my propagator at the weekend, replanted 28 tops, but then had a really sunny day and with them being fresh cut they over heated and a load of them shrivelled and died. I managed to save some of them and the plants that the tops were cut from were fine, but really annoyed with myself. I would have had about 70 S. Repens plants in there, but have lost about 20 now and I am left with a lot of low cut plants just now. I was intending to plant some when I add the new plants, but will have to see if I have anything that is ready at the time. If not I will leave some gaps to plant some in a few weeks as I love the plant and would really like to include it in the scape now I am making more space.
 
ldcgroomer said:
You could try feeding frozen lobster eggs. All of my fish love them including the liquorice gourami and betta channoides and they can be very fussy.

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Lindy, where do you get the frozen lobster eggs? Thx
 
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