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ohh gee.. lucky i have some hey :P

Ok well they arent really that exciting, so thats why i didnt bother posting pics.

Here is a plant with 2 buds:

blxyabuds.jpg

and here is one of the flowers that opened. They are so small i can barely see them, let alone take a photo!!:

blxyafloer.jpg

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  • 4 weeks later...

Ok so this tank is still going, although i havnt really done much with it except replace the fish i lost.

When i treated the tank a few weeks back my ottellia's all died and alot of the plants were set back but everything seems to be looking better again. Just a quick random shot that looks on when i was getting the panda photos for Ned:

tankjuly207.jpg

Cheers Phil

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Alright. Ive decided to give the MH lights a rest and see if fluros do a better job of helping the plants grow, since i have always had good growth with fluros, i bought 2 double units so have 4 tubes above the tank.

When i look at comparison pics, the plants have filled in. Today i also bought 2 big amazon swords and put in 5 siamese algae eaters to see what they will do :thumbs:

Cheers Phil

6July07.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

No.. no disposable income!! just extra money that i *have* to do something with, actually it is a chore!! :wub:

Ok so some updated pics. Plants are much happier under the 4 fluros and i am much happier keeping the lighting simple. Halides are still hanging from the roof till i decide what i will do with them.

Here is the tank today:

15july07.jpg

And one of my favorite plants, red tiger lotus group:

redtigerlotus.jpg

Cheers Phil

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It's looking pretty good but I'd love to see some driftwood or something to give the layout a bit more structure. I know you had trouble with the original piece of driftwood you selected. Is it still out in the pond? Maybe you could fish it out and see if it's improved any. Or how about some rocks? Petrified wood could look nice.

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  • 2 weeks later...

No ive just set up another DIY yesterday, but for the last 4 weeks no co2 and no fertilisers. The bylxa is looking much nicer under fluros especally. I took some pics today, will check soon of what i got ^_^

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Ok so i dont have any full tank shots yet, but here is one of the banana lilies.

The small coloured leaves are from when they were under the halide lights, and the huge ones are from being under fluros the last month. The big ones are about 14cm across!!

bananalily.jpg

The other is a random crypt i bought in one of those terracotta pots. Not sure what it is, any ideas??

crypt.jpg

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Thanks Daniel, i think it is a type of wendtii.

I really like the micranthemoides, its so fine and bushy and a very nice green colour. Have you tried it before?

Yep the correct spectrum works wonders, 2 tubes are 6500k and the other 2 are just general aquarium tubes. Its nice with the heat gone, even tho its winter, having 500L of heated water in your bedroom helps keep u warm ^_^

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  • 3 months later...

Hey everyone,

So this tank progressed into what i think was my best planted tank ever. Then, unfortunatly i was attacked by this horrible, horrible black algae, different to what i have seen before.

So.... i plan to this weekend pull the entire tank apart and chuck all the plants and sand, scrub it out and get new sand (hoping to get black) and then replant.

I got an order of plants from Aquagreen.com.au the other day, which i hope will make the basis for the new setup. Fertilisers also. New plants are:

1 Otellea ulvafolia as a centre plant

1 Bunch of Pogostemon stellatus (Edwin Creek)

1 Bunch of Maidenia rubra

1 Bunch of Roala mexicana

1 Bunch of Limnophila australis (Moyla River)

and a nice sized patch of HC which i am looking forward to trying to grow.

Will update with photos as it comes along :)

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

The tank is basically a bare tank, with black sand and fish. All plants i have put in so far have just wasted away and died :dontknow: But fish are looking very healthy so theres got to be something i have to fix up. Will get some pics soon <_<

Bren, the algae i got was like this sooty powdery black type thing that just spread out over everything. Actually there was 3 algaes, that one, the black tufty one that looks like pom poms and then another one that was fully branched. It was just too much for me to take and i didnt seem to be able to control it, not that i really tried that hard i guess.

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I think the black tufty one is red algae (which comes in three colours), impossible to get rid of without dunking plants in bleach and risk losing the plants. I've just attempted that and am hoping I did it long enough to kill the algae and not kill the plants. Now the plants are looking healthy, I'm worried that the algae will come back. Snails can clean it up once it's dead but there's a few patches that could look a bit deader than they do and put my mind at rest.

3 kinds of algae was a bit of a blow, and with SAE's too?

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Here is a quick photo that shows the black sand in the tank, it really is nice. Ive done a few water changes since trying with the last lot of plants so hopefully these new ones wont seem stunned and just die. I asked my LFS to get me some blxya japonica, and they got it in so i put some into this tank and some into my shrimp tank just incase the plants dont do so well. Fish are very happy at the moment, my jumbo male congo tetras are the main fish in the tank right now :thumbs:

tanksand.jpg

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