xmamx Posted June 23, 2009 Author Report Share Posted June 23, 2009 Wow this thread has lasted a while. Updates on my moss walls. Just did a search through my hard drive and found some old pics of the tank after it grew out a bit. The first pic is probably the best that tank ever was, and the second shows the wall off better but is murky ( i pulled out lots of the plants). It is now a lovely tank overgrown with algae and my new baby neon rainbows. Will strip and start again once i have grown them out. Also the suction cups were from the $2 shop, the ones you use for christmas lights or something like that. There is no medium as the moss doesn't need any medium to grow in. Like lmsmith said crud and fish can get stuck behind. I lost a fish due in this tank due to it getting stuck. So you really need to make sure the sides are tight and there are no openings for the fish to find there way in. As for the crud, the only option is to pull it forward and clean behind with a syphon and then take out and wash in a bucket to clean off the rest of the crud etc. Also SAE's love eating moss walls, they ate most of the wall in my main tank before i removed it. The date on the photos was 15/12/2007, so it was about 2 and a half months after i setup the tank. Here are the pics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
si_sphinx Posted June 23, 2009 Report Share Posted June 23, 2009 Wow that looks awesome, i love the look of a well propergated and grown in planted aquarium. esp. yours but i prefer to look at other peoples tanks as ive never really had much luck with growing them so i jus stick to plain rocky biotypes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romeo Posted June 23, 2009 Report Share Posted June 23, 2009 Hey XMAMX, is that Glosso in the foreground? If so, how'd you get it to grow so well? Did you use ferts/CO2 & what lighting did you use? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xmamx Posted June 23, 2009 Author Report Share Posted June 23, 2009 Thanks for the responses guys, yeah that is glosso in the foreground. It grew really well until the stem plants shadowed it, hence why i trimmed it back. The main thing with this tank was diy co2 (yeast and sugar) and lots of light. Here are the specs of the tank at the time: 40 litre tank Substrate: daltons aquatic mix and daltons sand with gravel on top Lighting: 3 x 18watt flouro tubes (54 watts in total which is heaps for a 40 litre tank) CO2: diy I probably did use flourish ferts once or twice but never really needed to fertilize it as it seemed to grow fine with just the light and co2. Its possible the aquatic mix may have leeched into the water enough anyway and is the main reason the tank is full of algae now as i pulled out a couple of rooted plants and made a mess of things. I also had ricca in the tank as well on some rocks but it never really held very well and floated around most of the time. Another thing to watch for is thread algae as it gets into the java moss and is nearly impossible to remove without destroying the moss wall. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiwipete Posted June 23, 2009 Report Share Posted June 23, 2009 Lighting: 3 x 18watt flouro tubes (54 watts in total which is heaps for a 40 litre tank) CO2: diy What type of lights were they, std fluorescents or a specific type? How did you make your CO2 dispenser? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xmamx Posted June 23, 2009 Author Report Share Posted June 23, 2009 The lights were standard 2 foot aquaone lights T8's with 865 bulbs from bunnings (cheaper option - the cool daylight ones). The co2 was running into the inlet on the filter which smashed the bubbles up enough to get it into the water properly. Also ran an airstone at night to stop suffacating the tank of oxygen. Cheers, Xmamx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiwipete Posted June 24, 2009 Report Share Posted June 24, 2009 Thanks for that, I'd be interested in hearing how you made the CO2 dispenser though and how you operated it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xmamx Posted June 24, 2009 Author Report Share Posted June 24, 2009 If you do a search for DIY CO2 in google you will find lots of different examples. I just used a 2.25 litre bottle (coke bottle) and 1 cup of sugar dissolved in boiling water and then add cold water to bring down the temp to around 30 degrees or so and then added 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of yeast and 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda (stops it frothing). The liquid should go as high as the top of the label on the bottle (dont go higher as it can froth into your tank). Drilled a small hole in the lid and pulled airhose through it a couple of cm's. I also had a one way valve on the airtube to stop any water syphoning from the tank into the bottle. Another good option is to use a little chi (herbal water) bottle filled with water in line with the main bottle to filter the air before it goes into your tank as well. Put the final end of the airhose onto your inlet or diffusor and wait for the bubbles. Hope this helps, there are lots on picture on google to help you figure it out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiwipete Posted June 24, 2009 Report Share Posted June 24, 2009 Thanks, I will put one together over the weekend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.