My planted tank journal

[sarahny]

I decided to start a journal of my tank. This is my first ever tropical tank (a wee little 16L) and I'm not quite sure which is the best thread for it. I plan to get a betta once my tank is cycled, so at the moment it only has plants. I've been so amazed at some of the aquascaping I've discovered online so I've lost interest in the fish and have been more occupied with the plants!

oO SKIPPY Oo was kind enough to reply to my intro post, and along with some established filter media he also gave me some dwarf sags and twisted val and aquasoil to go underneath my gravel.

Day 3

Here they are 3 days after planting, along with a piece of driftwood I had boiled the heck out of to leech out the tannins. It's sitting on three rocks from Red Rocks.

Day 5

I wanted the substrate to be deeper so I added some more gravel. I got some lilaeopsis mauritius and zealandia sword off trademe and planted that in the mid ground. Dwarf sag and val not doing that well, they started to go transparent and yellow so I trimmed off those leaves. Added DIY Co2.

Day 7

Animates had 2 for 1 plants so I got some moneywort and blue hygrophila which I planted in the background behind the driftwood. I wasn't planning on it, but I got some hairgrass as well and planted that in the foreground and scattered a few bunches around the driftwood.

A close up of my DIY Co2 bubble capture glass. It captures 10-15 bubbles before they merge into one big bubble and rising to the surface.

I have some christmas moss and glosso arriving next week. I plan to cover some smooth round pebbles/rocks with the moss (possibly also part of the driftwood), and the glosso I want to carpet in the bottom right corner where the glass is. I have read that hairgrass and glosso looks really messy planted together and purists prefer one or the other. But I'm going for the natural look (plus this is trial and error right?) so I don't mind so much. I'm hoping the HG will thicken out, then I could use small pebbles to create a "barrier" between the glosso and HG so they don't grow into each other too much. Will this work?

I would love to know what you think of my first planted tank. Any feedback is welcome! I'm going for a pretty low tech set up so any other DIY tips would be awesome. I'm not even sure if I'm doing the bubble capture thing right (it's temporary, I have a glass diffuser arriving in a few days).

Thanks!

Sarah

[shell]

Looks great!

There are some really good aquascapes out there that merge glosso with hair grass. If you want a natural look you might not need a barrier.

[oO SKIPPY Oo]

its looking good :thup:

[sarahny]

Looks great!

There are some really good aquascapes out there that merge glosso with hair grass. If you want a natural look you might not need a barrier.

Shell, do you know of any good example pictures?

These are the ones I found (also recording here for my own reference)

http://temp2.fotop.net/albums3/justinlaw/justinlaw01/IMG_2486.jpg

http://media.photobucket.com/image/glosso%20and%20hairgrass/mattymcscoopitup/DSC_0308.jpg

http://media.photobucket.com/image/glosso%20and%20hairgrass/mattymcscoopitup/DSC_0307.jpg

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/440/pict0322zh1.jpg/sr=1

http://www.aquaticquotient.com/gallery/files/9/3/8/IMG_0550.jpg

http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47b9dc00b3127ccec63ecedcabf500000040O00GYtWbhm0ZA9vPgw/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D720/ry%3D480/

[Sophia]

very nice Sarah

I will be the one to say that a tank with Co2 is not really low tech though...

:digH:

[shell]

Not all of these use hairgrass, but the idea is the same - mixing and contrasting glosso with a grass like plant.

http://showcase.aquatic-gardeners.org/2010.cgi?&op=showcase&category=0&vol=0&id=130

http://www.amanotakashi.net/portfolio/nature_aquarium/images/019.jpg

http://www.amanotakashi.net/portfolio/nature_aquarium/images/003.jpg

http://showcase.aquatic-gardeners.org/2005.cgi?&Scale=2&op=showcase&category=0&vol=2&id=125

This layout design guide by T. Amano is great (if you ignore the product placement and the hilarious English).

It gives you an idea of how to arrange driftwood in a small tank and about planting densely in a step by step guide.

[sarahny]

very nice Sarah

Thanks Sophia.

I will be the one to say that a tank with Co2 is not really low tech though...

:digH:

Oh really? What does "low tech" technically mean? I thought because I wasn't using super fancy expensive pressurised Co2 that it would be considered low tech..

[sarahny]

Thanks Shell, those references are amazing! I am bookmarking all of them.

[sarahny]

Day 8

I decided to move a few things around. I know...probably not a good idea to uproot at this stage. But I figured that if the plants are in shock from transplanting anyway, might as well move it around now. I wasn't entirely happy with the driftwood standing up in the back corner on top of the rocks. I don't know why...it just seemed too "forced". Also, it didn't seem like there would be enough room for the plants to grow out behind it.

So I removed all the rocks and tipped the driftwood on to it's side, so it looks like it "fell" naturally. The hygro I planted yesterday were already poking out of the water so I trimmed the ends of a couple of them and replanted those stalks (hence they everything looks a lot shorter now). I want the hygro to grow bushy, rather than skinny and stalk-ey. I did the same with the moneywort.

There were some nice long bits of val behind at the back which I replanted in the midground. I also moved most of the foreground HG into the midground to make room for the glosso I plan to plant. When I did this, I accidentally pulled up some little zealandia sword and dwarf sag runners! Yay! Reassurance that they are doing ok.

Questions:

• Tonight after leaving the tank in the dark for a while, then switching the light on I saw a worm. It's about...3mm, white and really skinny. What is it? I saw a couple in the water I was using to rinse the plants in when I first got them so I'm guessing that's where it's from. Is it harmful? It gives me the heebie jeebies.

• My flat gets super hot during the day, hottest I saw it was 30º. Will this be bad for a betta? It's only going to get worse when summer rolls around.

• What do you think of the new layout?? In the pictures, the old layout looks better now, but I think the new one will grow out much nicer.

[Squirt]

Questions:

• Tonight after leaving the tank in the dark for a while, then switching the light on I saw a worm. It's about...3mm, white and really skinny. What is it? I saw a couple in the water I was using to rinse the plants in when I first got them so I'm guessing that's where it's from. Is it harmful? It gives me the heebie jeebies.

• My flat gets super hot during the day, hottest I saw it was 30º. Will this be bad for a betta? It's only going to get worse when summer rolls around.

• What do you think of the new layout?? In the pictures, the old layout looks better now, but I think the new one will grow out much nicer.

Hi

The worm is most likely planaria. A small harmless creature stays small you can do a quick google search for more info

I havent kept a betta before so wouldn't know. If you do get a betta is it possible to move the tank to shade maybe? :dunno:

I quite like the new layout :thup: once the plants grow a bit you can always change it if you want.

In conclusion looking good, should see the mess my turtle made of the plants I put in his tank :slfg:

[sarahny]

Thanks Squirt. Ew they're so wriggly and gross. I don't like the thought of sticking my hands in there with worms in my tank. I know it's so small but I'm squeemish!

My apartment practically has no shade... I live on the top floor of the building with pretty much 270º floor to ceiling windows. I placed it in the middle of the room (sort of) so it's not in direct sunlight, it's the ambient room temp that's the issue. The people at the pet store said a betta will be ok because it lives in hot countries.

Once the background plants grow higher it will create more depth. I'm going to resist the urge this time and not move anything around until it all grows in. This hobby is really teaching me to be patient!

[sarahny]

I looked up planaria, it's definitely not that. In another forum someone suggested it is a nematode...I think that's what it is. I feel a bit sick from googling nematodes now. :sick: especially this pic http://www.stanford.edu/class/humbio103/ParaSites2006/Loiasis/Index.html aaaagh!!!!! Don't click if you're squeemish.

[Squirt]

Hi it could be a nematode, I'm not sure what you're sposed to do? Maybe worm medication? :dunno: if youre squeamish don't look up how planaria replicate, they cut it I. Half and both halves move

[Sophia]

I wouldn't worry about the worm, or if you are just catch it and chuck it out, oops I mean euthanise it.

Low tech generally means low light and little or no fertilisers.

[sarahny]

Day 11

Spotted the creepy worm/nematode thing and caught it with a little cup and dumped the water outside. Yay! There's probably more of them, but I haven't seen any yet. I changed the layout of the tank yet again. This is THE LAST TIME for a while (I will try really really hard not to move it around again). A bit sad because I liked the DW on it's side. I had to stand it back up because there wasn't enough room to lay down the rocks I wanted to cover with moss. Planted glosso (omg it took so long), tied down christmas moss, and planted a couple other random stem plants I received free with the moss.

Here is the tank now. It looks like a messy jungle, but it looks less messy in real life. Can see the cotton I used to tie moss. Didn't have enough dark coloured thread...oh well. I used my dslr which saturated the colours (can't be bothered colour grading pics) so it looks like the plants are jumbled into one green blob. Must play around more with WB settings next time.

The freshly planted (yesterday) glosso...please grow across and not upwards!

Photo of the back of the tank, blue hygros.

Glass diffuser.. it fascinates me. I love watching the tiny bubbles stream out. It's so soothing...anyone else think so too?

Christmas moss meshed onto rocks.

Questions:

• A bit of yeasty water got in my diffuser..is that bad? I can't get it out.

• Tiny snails were in the moss I got, I was expecting this and don't mind it. Will they grow big or will they stay tiny? They are about the size of 2 grains of sand.

• The pH of my water keeps fluctuating from 7.4 to 6.5 to 7.0 etc... I assumed this was because of WC's but it changed even when I didn't change the water. Is this normal?

• What is that hairy stem plant on the right of the DW?

[oO SKIPPY Oo]

The co2 will change the PH of the water

[amtiskaw]

What's your KH? If it's low then you will get more swings in pH.

[Joe]

Wow I am really loving this little tank!

To get the yeasty water out of your diffuser, disconnect it and shake the water round the glass tube and shake it out.

What you could do to prevent this happening is to make a couple of holes in a coke bottle lid (attach this to a mini pump bottle) and stick a bit of tube in each hole so if any yeast foam or water escapes it will go into the pump bottle so it won't get into your diffuser and tank at all.

[sarahny]

amtiskaw, I'm not sure. I don't have anything to test it.

Joe, thanks wow that is such a simple solution but I never even thought of doing that. I have a 2-way valve but that didn't stop the liquid going through after I decided to shake the bottle to see what would happen. It's a big learning curve and a bit of trial and error for me which is all part of the fun I guess! I tried jiggling the diffuser and shaking the water out but it's impossible to get it all out of the tiny hole. It will just have to stay there I think, doesn't seem to be doing any harm. It's so annoying not being able to get it all out tho!

[sarahny]

Plants have been growing! I've done a trim on half of the hair grass hoping to get a nice lawn to grow out. Only cut half just in case the cut part all died and I had none left. But they are all alive and starting to grow again already. The un-cut half has grown so tall, almost water level now!

Also had to trim the glosso. It started growing upwards so I snipped these and replanted, hoping to force it to grow horizontally. Looks promising so far, but may have to wait another week to see if it's actually going to cooperate.

Zealandia micro sword has pretty much all melted bar a few stalks here and there. Twisted val is still going surprisingly but not very green and parts of it are breaking off. The rest (hygro, moneywort & rotala) are all growing like crazy – pretty much water level now.

Xmas moss has got furry chocolate brown algae growing on it (on both DW and rocks). I'm guessing from too much light? I've set a timer to switch off the lighting for an hour at midday to see if that makes a difference.

Have pics to upload once I get round to it. In other news, I just ordered a betta fish this morning! Hopefully he will arrive this Friday :happy1: Oh and won a tank off trademe yesterday. I have properly been bit by the aquarium bug.. I plan to make this one planted tank only at first. Keeping it really simple..maybe only rocks and hair grass (I love the look of HG) iwagumi inspired perhaps? Maybe...we'll save that for another post for when I actually get it!

[sarahny]

Also, went for a drive up kapiti ways in the weekend. Collected a couple bagfuls of rocks and driftwood. Is the driftwood from the beach useable? I didn't pick the soft ones, mostly the darker brown harder pieces. Anyone collected from there?

[oO SKIPPY Oo]

the brown algae is from the tank being so new - normally too much light results in green algae. i have collected driftwood from kapiti before - most if not all of the pieces in my 4ft tank are from there

[sarahny]

Oh ok, will it go away by itself?

Cool, how long did you have to soak it for? Had to hunt around for some interesting pieces, most were boring straight ones despite the beach being covered in DW.

[si_sphinx]

You would be better to reduce the hour at the end of the day than in the middle.

I find it easier to cut any algae ridden leaves off my plants than try remove the algae itself.

[sarahny]

I did cut the light at the end for a while but it didn't do much so I thought I'd try cutting at midday when there was a lot of light from the sun as well. If all else fails I will cut them off (I've done that with a few other plants) but it's not so bad at the moment so I'll see how it goes.