Phil Posted May 10, 2007 Report Share Posted May 10, 2007 Hi Everyone. My next project is planting my 4x2x2 ft tank. The tank has curved glass front corners and i have just recieved my metal halide lighting unit that i plan to set up on the weekend hopefully. Currently there is a substrate of white washed river sand (mixed with river gravel) and 4 nice pieced of driftwood. Filtration is by 2x 1500L/H cannisterfilters, and all of this stuff is hidden in the cabinet. The tank has been set up for about 2months now, but i have had to lay off doing anything for the last 6 or so weeks due to my accident. If it were up to me the MH light would be up already but i cant lift it so have to get my Dad to do it for me. Not sure how i will go with choosing plants, i guess that will just happen as the tank goes along. Current fish are: Cardinal tetras Rummy nose tetras Rosy tetras Bleeding heart tetras Congo tetras Angelfish Panda cories Pleco catfish I plan to add some more congo tetras and mabey some rainbowfish. The pleco might have to go. He is about 15cm and is leading me to belive that he is abit destructive towards the plants, but we will see Filling it up in the beginning: Here is how the tank currently looks: To be continuted.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jess Posted May 10, 2007 Report Share Posted May 10, 2007 This is so exciting! Question time Are you planning on it being a natually heavily planted tank or Amano like Aquascaped? Have you got any themes in mind? Are you going with DIY C02 or some other system? Will the hood be left on or take off or with MH hanging over the top? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Posted May 10, 2007 Author Report Share Posted May 10, 2007 Are you planning on it being a natually heavily planted tank or Amano like Aquascaped? Well i am not sure at the moment. I am thinking of keeping the back half of the tankplanted thickly, and the front half with a low spreading groundcover type plant. I want to cover most of the wood with Java moss. Thats as far as i have gotten. Have you got any themes in mind? Nope not yet Are you going with DIY C02 or some other system? Yep DIY at first. The MH lights cost enough so will leave it a while before i work out my next big spend. Will the hood be left on or take off or with MH hanging over the top? Im loosing the black hood you can see in the first photo and leaving it open at the moment. Might make an open top hood later on but am not sure. MH's would most likely be hung from the roof with the cables that came with it. That looks pretty cool aswell i think Suggestoins are welcomed people!! :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jess Posted May 10, 2007 Report Share Posted May 10, 2007 I think leaving the hood off is a good idea. That won't let the MH heat the tank up too much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Posted May 12, 2007 Author Report Share Posted May 12, 2007 OOhh k Yesterday i put java moss over the driftwood. That took about an hour. Used fishing line to hold it on. Also got today a 'driftwood Creation' with a huge bobulis fern. Ive always wanted one of these ferns but this is the first one i have seen around in about 3 years so i was sure to buy it, luckily the shop had a 20% sale on their plants so that was even better!! Here is updated pic. Not very clear, but shows whats going on Cheers Phil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bettarazzi Posted May 12, 2007 Report Share Posted May 12, 2007 I reckon that's taking shape really nicely. Love the angels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuckie Posted May 12, 2007 Report Share Posted May 12, 2007 bring on the metal halides!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jess Posted May 13, 2007 Report Share Posted May 13, 2007 Phil, thought about putting in some Echinodorus bleheri in your tank? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Posted May 13, 2007 Author Report Share Posted May 13, 2007 Yep that is a nice Sword. I like how it has lots of narrow leaves. Lisa was saying yesterday i should do mass swords instead of a mixed lot of plants. What do you think about that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Callatya Posted May 13, 2007 Report Share Posted May 13, 2007 Love it!!! And I love the sword idea! Hell, with the halides you could get super-dooper fancy swords too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jess Posted May 13, 2007 Report Share Posted May 13, 2007 I like the idea of swords throughout this tank. A few larger feature, swords and smaller coloured ones. (P.s took out this post about MH in general as this is Phils Tank Log Try to keep too questions/answers that is relevant to Phils thread) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuckie Posted May 13, 2007 Report Share Posted May 13, 2007 I disn't mean just grow swords, but for am amazon type tank I'd stick to plants with vertical/structural habits, rather than mixing with pennywort and wisteria and other amorphous lumps of fine leaved stem plants. I'd probably avoid val, but maybe a clump of twisted val in a corner would be a good foil to the echinodorus' growth habits. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Posted May 17, 2007 Author Report Share Posted May 17, 2007 Going to hopefully do some plant shopping on saturday so it can start moving. Halides have been going since monday and the fish have adjusted. Big praise to my pleco. he does a great job stripping the algae from the glass. I watched him just the plow along the sand line riping it off Since there isnt much plant wise to update, here are 2 pics of some of the fish : Cheers Phil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bettarazzi Posted May 17, 2007 Report Share Posted May 17, 2007 Those are seriously nice pics. Those angels are really gorgeous. Such a nice even shape. The ones I've seen lately were all slightly deformed. For plants you should check out http://www.aquaticdreams.com.au/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Posted May 17, 2007 Author Report Share Posted May 17, 2007 Thankyou i love my angels. I picked 10 of them out of a tank of about 150 of them the day they cleared quarrantine. I got a few of the spotty ones like in the pic above and a few regular striped ones, i went for the ones with the best shaped fins. All of the angels we get from that exporter are amazingly beautiful quality, you wonder where all those horrible ones in the pet shops come from. I came across that website the other day actually, cant remember how tho. Nice selection and i might end up getting a few select plants from there. Will wait and see what saturday brings first :P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jess Posted May 17, 2007 Report Share Posted May 17, 2007 Those Angels are divine!! :P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuckie Posted May 19, 2007 Report Share Posted May 19, 2007 Phil, can we have a photo now that there are plants? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Posted May 20, 2007 Author Report Share Posted May 20, 2007 Yep will do that today. I want to go and see if i can find a few more today Yesterday i got a bunch of Willow Hygro, a bunch of this super fine vallis, and some wierd pink thing that cost a fortune but was half rotted (which i obviously didnt know) so hopefully the single tip i saved will continue to grow!! Fish wise, i got: 10 longfin serpae tetras - these guys are amazing! 2 Red Rhadnocentris 'Teewak' Rainbow fish - stunning and hefty price tag!! but i had to have them 8 Pencil Fish - very nice and different schooling fish 1 Pair of brilliantly coloured kribs from Lilli Pics to follow :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Posted May 20, 2007 Author Report Share Posted May 20, 2007 2 more pics of some fish: The Rainbows - much nicer in real life, always displaying to eachother: And my 2 Peruvian Altum angelfish: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jess Posted May 20, 2007 Report Share Posted May 20, 2007 Those Rhadnocentris are really vibrant looking. Looking forward to seeing a full tank shot :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuckie Posted May 20, 2007 Report Share Posted May 20, 2007 clean the glass first, though :wub: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Posted May 20, 2007 Author Report Share Posted May 20, 2007 Ok no photos happening tonight because i need to clean both sides of the glass. But here is the unknown plant i got yesterday. Most of the bunch was rotted (big bunch of 2 pieces!!) so i just ended up with one tip. Hopefully it will come good. It is a pretty amazing coloured plant, its purple!! Also added today: 1 Apogeoneton crispus 2 Banana lilies 1 Sword plant 'tropica' 1 Bunch of hornwart (not sure if this will stay tho) 1 Bunch of Hemianthus micranthemoides or Pearl Grass. I bought a phosphate pillow aswell to help prevent an algae bloom if it happens. So thats about it for today :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bettarazzi Posted May 20, 2007 Report Share Posted May 20, 2007 I'd love to get some Altum angels but they're sooooo expensive. I'd be too afraid of killing them. Are you doing anything special to the water? Is it necessary to use reverse osmosis? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Posted May 20, 2007 Author Report Share Posted May 20, 2007 Those arent proper Altums, they Are peruvian altums which are a strain of regular angels that look like altums. Eventually i would like to swich over to true Altums tho :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bettarazzi Posted May 21, 2007 Report Share Posted May 21, 2007 clean the glass first, though OMG I didn't even notice the glass! All I saw were the Altums!! LOL Those arent proper Altums, they Are peruvian altums which are a strain of regular angels that look like altums. I love it! An aquarium strain of lookalike Altums. Would they be cheaper and easier to look after? Can I ask how much you paid for them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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