my 250l journal

Hi guys and girls.

Some of you have seen pics of what this tank looks like but i had to move it to my stand so i decided to redo the tank a bit...

It is stil in progress but i'm getting there.

Its a 1.2m tank with a 400l per hour external canister filter. The tank is at 27-28 degrees and the lights are 2x sylvania growlux and one aqua glo(90w all in all). I'm dosing with prof Dirk's ferts and using the pfp method caped with silica sand.

So its a real low tech system but the plants are going realy well and they are going to need some triming every two or so weeks.

I dont know all the plants but here are some of them:
-some anubias
-java fern
-java mos(Thanx Prof!)
-alternanthera reinikii
-amazon swords
-and lots more

If some of you can help me with plant id's I can put together a decent list.

The fish are as follows:
-3x A. Agazzisi red gold,2f and 1m(tanx prof!)
-1x German blue ram
-8x Head & Tail lights
-6x Black neons
-4x neons
-3x Harlequins
-6x Black widdow's

 

Looking good Schalk.
You have an unfair advantage, being so close to Prof! :blink1:

 

Tank looks good....

 

+1

How about some full tank shots

 

Nice tank Schalk.

Only suggestion I have for you is consider upping your filter. 400l/p/h on a 250l tank is a bit low. My 250litre is running on a 1100l/p/h canister, and I still run a seperate filter inside the tank for more circulation.

 

thanx, i will keep the pics coming and update on the progress... Zoom i'm looking into a bigger canister like yours but there is so much that i stil want to do with the tank over the next month or two. I want to build a custom canopy and then upgrade to t5 lighting. Do any of you perhaps know if u get sylvania growlux in t5?

 

Schalkv Tank looks good and has great potential

 

ok so here are some more pics of the tank and so on...

The quality of the pics are not the best(taken with my phone).

The second pic is just me trying out the panoramic func. The Amason Swords has leaves of about 40cm long and the plant in the last pic( top view) Grows about 7cm a week!!! No co2, this just happend after the profs firts kicked in! That stuff works!

Can some one please id the plant in the last pic? You can see it on the full tank shot aswell (the talest plant in the tank on the right)

I will keep the pics coming!

Schalk

 

Hi Schalk,
The tank looks good.
Pant I.D.:looks like Hygrophila polysperma.In bright light the "veins" on the leaves gets a more red/pinkish color.

 

Thanx Rudi, went to look it up and i think you are correct on that id! Thanx a million!

 

I have wriglers!

When i got home after work i found my female Apisto with about 50 little wriglers! I will post some pics when they get big enough for my crappy camera to get a pic( and if they make it) Lets hope for the best!

Schalk

 

Congrat's Schalk. It's always rewarding when you have fry. Well done!

 

Congratulations Schalk! We will hold our "wriggler-thumbs"

 

OK so it has been more than 24 hours and my female Agizzissi is Stil patroling the tank and fending of any fish that dares to even look at her! The little wriglers are alot more active than last nite when i first saw them. When the mother leaves their side to go and chase away something they keep completly stil on the gravel and with her return they start moving towards her again. As soon as one wonders of she goes and colects him in her mouth and bring him back.

Just an question, my leaves are turning blue? Algea? Here are some pics... I do about 8%(20l) water change every second day with water that i pre treat with dechlor and earate with an ear stone.

Thanx

Schalk

 

ok update time! I got some new plants from a friend and lets hope they do well. I have not yet done any scaping but i will do in the near future when all the new plants start growing like i want them to!

 

Looking pretty impressive there!

 

tank looks really impressive!! How are the fry doing??

 

The fry did not make it as i have a german blue ram in with them that did not like her spawning in his teretory. He is being moved to another 3ft witch i have some plans with... Both the females have egs again sure of it! Both are very yellow and the black stripe changed into a black spot, they are chasing away everything that comes close to there spawning sites. I could only get a pc of the male for now...



He is stil very young and small But keeping both his females happy!

 

Ok guys it has been a while since my last update!

Things have changed a lot! I struggled a lot with some type of algae that looks like BBA but apparently its not, saw some of it in another thread and the prof said it prefers our soft water here in the Western Cape, but can't remember what its called! So i got myself some flourish excel and got a nasty surprise....

The excel killed all of the algae and the other plants loved it except my vallis and some other grass plant that i still don't know what it is, so any help with the id of that plant will be very much appreciated! It looks exactly like vallis just alot shorter! the leaves get about 15cm max. with the exception of 1 or 2 leaves growing taller! It spreads by means of runners and have been shooting out 4-6 new runners each day! I have had this plant for about six months now, and no its not vallis! lol! Anyway enjoy the eye candy!

The first pic is what the tank looked after i pulled every thing out except for two sword plants. this was yesterday.

The next pic is what it looks like today after re planting.

The last pic is of the unidentified plant, maybe some sort of dwarf vallis?

There is still a lot of work to be done but now I must first fill the whole right side with the polysperma.

The internal filter will come out eventually after the the tank is fully planted and i wil only replace it with a small pump for some circulation. the plants will then do most of the filtration as i will then only have the 400lph external canister, but this is only when its fully planted! I have been wanting to try the more natural approach!

Till later then!

Schalk

 

Schalk,most true aquatic plants,plants that cannot survive out of water,'hates' excel.These plants includes Vallis,Cabomba sp. and so on.
The mystery plant could be Sagittarias.It's difficult to see from the picture but you could i.d. the plant yourself by looking at the veins on the leaves.
Looking at Vallis:the longitudinal veins,veins running up and down the leave,reaches the tip of the leave.Transversal veins,veins running across the leave,runs at angles and are only a few.
Looking at Sagittarias:longitudinal veins does not reach the tip and the transversal veins are more perpendicular and numerous.

Rudi