Very first tank (planted, low tech)

[JeffK]

Hi all,


They are really nice, elegant fish <"Splash tetra - Copella arnoldi"> .

<"I kept them for a while"> (in the lab. at work). It all started well, but there were some issues with both keeping them in the tank and <"with aggression">.

I've kept a <"few different Copella sp."> now and they all need fairly large tanks to persist long term, even though they are small fish.

cheers Darrel

I didn't experience aggression between males, but I did keep them in a slightly bigger footprint. It's always better to stay on the safe side of things to prevent disappointment.

 

[hydrophyte]

Hi all, not much to update on other than everything is growing well. I've been dosing with small amounts of chelated iron + solufeed 2:1:4.

Aquatic plants are growing well, bladder snails, daphnea and asellus are flourishing, moulding on the moss wall is dying down a little. I think I'm just going to wait for the terrestrial moss to slowly spread I think I will drain the tank a little at some point to spread java moss across the aquatic moss wall section. You can't really see the capillary fabric in person what with the floaters and tannins, but I know it's there and would definitely like to hide it.

The asparagus fern experiment failed (welp) but I'm not really surprised- I'm terrible with them. The cyperus is growing out of the top of the tank which is quite excellent - I think I'll keep it for as long as possible before it outgrows my living room! I also really like that the syngonium roots are rooting into the bark.

I've also added some airtube circles to let light in, as the floaters have been growing like crazy.

I'm thinking about adding fish next month after my travels! Have been reminded of how much I like sparkling gouramis, but I know it's difficult to find females... We'll see.
View attachment 218574

Happy plants in there! You know what might look really nice would be a Lagenandra meeboldii positioned at the waterline along the back with foliage up in the air. This plant would normally prefer to be rooted in a soil substrate, but so long as you maintain fertilization it will root OK on the background. Various rheophytic Aroids would be other nice companions planted like that and so would Microsorum and Bolbitis. With the tank mostly enclosed as it is there should be adequate humidity for these.