sup42 Posted October 5, 2012 Report Share Posted October 5, 2012 I got home from work at midnight about a month ago and someone had left a tank sitting on the footpath with stones in it.....a wee eheim box filter, a broken Heater and gold fish flakes. The eheim was still working. I filled it with water and found a small leak in one of the sump holes the previous owner had siliconed. So I re sealed it roughly and put together more of the twelve dollar clip in desk lamps from Bunnings and rigged up three with 24wt CFL tubes. Here's a diary of progress to date : The three headed monster Up and running , testing high light on Experiment on the cheap with DIY CO2 Using baby tears as the subject Two weeks of Bunnings Lights , tied down baby tears getting more compact. Cuttings thickening up into a carpet steadily too. Thanks to the random neighbor who got rid of their tank. Daltons aqua mix seems to go very good all in all...gotta say i'm thrilled with it for the price and results. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Godly3vil Posted October 5, 2012 Report Share Posted October 5, 2012 Nice one dude, what a cool shaped tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheepsnana Posted October 5, 2012 Report Share Posted October 5, 2012 score :thup: keep up the pix Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bikerbabe Posted October 5, 2012 Report Share Posted October 5, 2012 Two weeks of Bunnings Lights , tied down baby tears getting more compact. Cuttings thickening up into a carpet steadily too. I have a couple of bunches of baby tears growing tall, still all bunched together.. but I notice lots of long threads growing down from them.. should I trim the top half off & replant it, & it will grow into another wee separate plant? & keep deviding them till they are much smaller to increase that carpet type effect I see the ones in the photos are weighted down.. my stones are small gravel, but I dont think a fine wee stem would stay lodged in there for very long, so would I better using a wee bit of the plant weight & wrap around the stalk till roots & it can get properly develpoed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sup42 Posted October 5, 2012 Author Report Share Posted October 5, 2012 I have a couple of bunches of baby tears growing tall, still all bunched together.. but I notice lots of long threads growing down from them.. should I trim the top half off & replant it, & it will grow into another wee separate plant? & keep deviding them till they are much smaller to increase that carpet type effect I see the ones in the photos are weighted down.. my stones are small gravel, but I dont think a fine wee stem would stay lodged in there for very long, so would I better using a wee bit of the plant weight & wrap around the stalk till roots & it can get properly develpoed. It's early days still very much a work in progress and A learning curve for me but what I've found so far supports both your ideas. I started with ten tall plants , cut most of them into sections just long enough to get a good inch or so stem to bury in the sand. Some grew taller within a matter of days / first week. Absolutely you will get new separate plants. Some of those first cuttings when they floated up accidentally had good new root growth starting. It has been pain staking , at the start everything just grew upward , that was a bit disapointing. I re cut them quite agresively when they were tall enough to make two plants , I read that the more you cut them and the closer you plant them together the more they compact and stay low ( see the plants on the left of that photo , the new growth when planted close has smaller more compact leaves and they have much closer inter nodes too ). So maybe it is working. The idea of the thread is to test the lights with that plant specifically instead of assumung the PAR values of a $12 Lamp and $3.50 bulb are very high just because the theory says it should be.... So I will keep taking pics every couple of weeks. As for the tied down one , I read a lot of people just take those mother plants and bury the heads, seems to work so far. I envisage that the first month or two will involve lots of cutting and replanting to force the plants to carpet. If I had my time over I Would plant the first batch as closely together as physically possible and not worry about spread initially, Just have a 'bush' that I add onto over time / let the plant grow out too. In a perfect world the shop ones would be super compact when sold. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flosty Posted October 5, 2012 Report Share Posted October 5, 2012 Way to go, tank looks great and see the hobby can be done on a budget :thup: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
disgustipated Posted October 5, 2012 Report Share Posted October 5, 2012 what a cool shape tank! i like how you can look down on the tank through the top panel! three of my best fish tanks i found on the side of the road lol when people get frustrated with this hobby, they really do throw in the towel with gusto! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A-town... Posted October 6, 2012 Report Share Posted October 6, 2012 lol I think that is my old tank! I had it in a breeding set up that I sold. same shape same stick on thermometer. do you live in the auckland region? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sup42 Posted October 6, 2012 Author Report Share Posted October 6, 2012 lol I think that is my old tank! I had it in a breeding set up that I sold. same shape same stick on thermometer. do you live in the auckland region? Certainly Do , I'm in central Auckland. It must be the old tank hey. I like that shape. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A-town... Posted October 6, 2012 Report Share Posted October 6, 2012 Yea its pretty unusual. I bred so many fish in it it! The tank was part of a display rack from pet corner that I got when it closed down. had it for about 3-5 years then sold it on trademe to a guy about one or two years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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