antwan

That's a good link, thanks Jude. I'll try adding some ferts to the tank and see how things progress.

The plant is in with just a very small sword plant, but the lighting on top is pretty mediocre; two "daylight" bulbs which are pretty yellowish (that'll teach me for buying cheap bulbs). Any idea where to get "white" bulbs in Tauranga for cheap (opposed to $30 ones from the fish shop).? Cheers.

Hey there. I have never been able to keep java fern for some reason. This is a picture of what always happens to it. I have tried keeping it in my planted tank, with strong lighting, CO2 and ferts, but this happened. So now I've tried putting it in my discus tank with moderate lighting and no CO2 and ferts. pH is 6.4. Any ideas? After very generously being given this plant I would hate to see it die...

sure will

cool, did you just leave it to grow by itself i.e. not cut any of the leaves off?

can I pop by tomorrow?

he's a beaut, what size tank is he in?

Go with Shane, definitely apistos or rams, they really add some excitement and stunning colour to the tank. Otocinclus are excellent clean up crew as they only eat algae, so you don't have to worry about them munching on eggs, plus they'll be a good dither fish too.

The lotus is well known for the large number of runners it produces. I had a large one, and in my experience with the plant I have found they only produce a maximum of three runners at a time, each time a runner is cut from the mother plant, a new one grows. Anywho, as the mother plant sends out its runners, it only grows leaves to the surface and the ones that were down the bottom soon die off (replaced by the runners' leaves). My theory with this plant is that you keep cutting off the leaves that go to the surface it forms a dense bushy plant with leaves close to the ground, along with its runners' leaves. That's what happened with my one anyway...as for 'training' the plant to grow at a certain height..what height do you want them?

I'm with Seth on this one. :lol:

http://www.forum.apistogramma.com/showthread.php?t=5084 I thought this tank was quite cool, but i think the top needs to be a little bit higher.

At one stage I had three fully grown males in my 165L that got on just cherry, no squabbling whatsoever. They will only fight for territory if there's a female involved.

switched on gardener also has the ingrediants.

Quite a lot of the fish shop stem plants are grown emersed too so will change their appearance when grown under water.

18W over a 100L tank really isn't that much for growing plants. Also, a photoperiod of just 4 hours a day really isn't that much, try for 8-12 hours and if you can, try adding an extra light or two over the tank, your plants will thank you for it.

How often did you do water changes? The discus look quite big for that tank..

Hey there, I made a post about wanting a couple of species of Rotala in PT&E but had no luck. Im not even sure if we have this plant in NZ but would love some. The two species are: R. occultiflora and R. nanjenshan. Please if anybody has some I am willing to pay. Thanks.

My guess is that the algae is out-competing for it and winning. Perhaps you could see how they go after the algae is gone? Then, if they remain yellow try and work on your fert dosage. Your photo period sounds fine..I don't think that would be the problem.

I will second the use of Algaefix on green thread algae, works a treat.

I had mine grow from about 1 leaf to 15cmX15cm in a few weeks just from a metal halide, no CO2 or ferts. Metal halide = excellent growth.

Hey there, all you need to have a successful planted tank is balance; plants require the right lighting, CO2 concentration and macro/micro nutrients to thrive. If all these are successful, you will be successful. Personally, I never gravel vac, but that's only because I have pretty much no gravel open to vacuum.

Personally, I prefer having the stem plants grow right up to the waters surface, I think it looks cool. I took out all the hairgrass last night and re-planted a very small amount of it so it can slowly fill-out the area again (hence the reason for me selling some). Last night whilst doing that I also decided the tennellus and the hairgrass needed to swap sides, my reason for this is that the hairgrass grows too high for where it is and doesn't allow much vision of the lotus, and on the left there needs to be a little more height so the level of plants doesn't just 'drop' from the barclaya to tennellus. This is another thing I love about planted tanks....nothing is ever right with them, which means I can always get my hands wet and fiddle around with things. Thanks for everyones kind words.

Aponogeton crispus. Cool plant, and produces very pretty white flowers!

Thanks, the reason for the brown leaves I am positive is it's too condensed. I haven't dosed with ferts in ages so can't be that. I got the micranthemoides free from Freshwest ages ago.. haven't seen it in any of the stores since. Evil, the plant in the middle is a sword plant, and the one to the left of that is barclaya (the one I got extra cheap at the Waikato auction), and sorry..no tennellus to spare at the moment, it needs to spread a bit more first.

Seems the MH was definitely the way to go. I find the results are beautiful with the new light in the four and a half months it's been on. The little DIY CO2 unit is cool too, plants enjoy it when I remember to put the new mix in. I've found that Im going to have to thin-out the hairgrass a lot because it's starting to bring up brown leaves in a few places. Anywho, here's the growth and development: The micranthemoides will be expanded to the gap between the stargrass and macrandra so it fills the background behind the lotus, but I couldn't be bothered waiting for that to grow before I took photo's.