Viewing post #422959 by daylily

You are viewing a single post made by daylily in the thread called Planted aquariums.
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Jun 8, 2013 10:57 PM CST
Name: Juli
Ohio (Zone 6a)
Region: United States of America Charter ATP Member Cottage Gardener Daylilies Garden Photography Enjoys or suffers cold winters
Birds Hummingbirder Butterflies Dog Lover Cat Lover Garden Ideas: Master Level
Welcome! I didn't see the "new ATP member" below your name. I did look at your profile just now, and see you just signed up though... so Welcome!

I also used peroxide for some algae, and it worked well. First, I drained about 1/3 of the water from the tank. Then, I turned off the filtration so the water was still. I used a hypodermic needle I got at a craft store to put the peroxide in and that let me put it directly on the algae - mine was hair algae. By using the hypodermic needle, I was able to make a little "puddle" of peroxide over the algae without flooding the tank or even the plant with the peroxide. I left it "sit" for about 20 minutes, then did my normal water change and turned the filters back on. I've done it a few times, and it seemed to work well each time. It takes a few days for the algae to start to turn brown. Now that I have the Otocinculus I have not had to treat for algae. I don't think you have enough plants in your tank to have Otos though. And, a betta would probably harrass them to much, since you have very few plants in your tank for cover. In my 15 gallon, where the Otos are, it's pretty heavily planted, and the Otos hide all during the daylight hours, and only come out at night. Still, they are doing a good job of keeping the algae cleaned up in the tank.

I have a terrible time taking photos of my tanks. I have two Fluval Spec V's that are planted (5.5 gal.). Each one has a nerite snail and a male betta. Then I have a 15 gallon that has a LOT of plants, a few cherry red shrimp, 16 chili rasbora, 8 celestial pearl danios, 3 otocinculus, 4 dwarf cory cats. That seems like a lot of fish, but the chili rasbora are really tiny. And, that tank has a LOT of plants, and has two filters that are both rated at twice the amount needed for the tank. Everybody seems really happy, so Shrug! When I go to the large city near me again, and go to the big aquarium specialty store, I want to get a few more pygmy cory, to bring my numbers up to 7. They like to be in groups. The Celstial Pearl Danios have done a number on my cherry shrimp population. The shrimp were the clean up crew. So, adding in a few more cory cats should be "a good thing"

A local fish club "plant guy" has really helped me set my tanks up. Even so, it really is a balancing act between the type of lights you have and the number of hours you have the lights on, the type of plants you have, the type of substrate and the type and quantity of fertilizer.

I can't tell just what type of plants you have from your photos. Do you have fast growing "stem" plants? Those will add the most quality to your water. Even floating plants like water lettuce, pennywort etc. will help a lot with that. Do you use a fertilizer such as Seachem Flourish?

Have you been to the website " The Planted Tank" - lots of great info there. http://www.plantedtank.net/for...

Looks like you have a plakat betta? Is that an elephant ear one? His tail looks a bit like a crowntail. My first betta is a plain old pet store one, a "veil tail" but about a month ago, I got a dragon scale male plakat from that fancy fish specialty store. He must be a cull from a show breeder. You can see he is quality compared to Victor. He's such a charmer and has SO much personality.

Here is "Victor" the veil tail in his tank. It's the first tank I set up. I just switched from the stock light that came with the tank, which was rather dull LED to a Marineland Double Bright and have started seeing some algae, so I am cutting back the hours it is on trying to find that sweet spot where the plants are getting enough light, without the algae growing. The plants are really responding to the increased light that the new fixture gives off. I moved some floating water lettuce and Red Root Floaters into this tank to try to cut the lighting a bit. Poor Victor is always tearing his fins up on the "betta log" but he really loves hiding and sleeping in it.
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This is my 15 gallon tank, taken a couple weeks ago. I got a new camera and was trying it out. I see one cherry shrimp on the big piece of driftwood, but none of the fish show up in this shot. The fish are all pretty small, at 1/2" and 3/4". There are about 20 types of plants in this tank. Not really by design. The "plant guy" gave me a bunch of things to try and almost all grew. I have very, very hard water, with high PH. So we were not sure what would make it and what would not. I actually use half "RO" or reverse osmosis water that I buy at the grocery store with my well water to "cut" the hardness and PH. It still measures "very hard" and PH of 8.0 Crying
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Here is "new guy" who does not have a name yet. This does not do him justice - he looks like he has aluminum foil all over his body - it is very shiny silver.
I have not taken any photos of his tank yet. I started it 2-3 months ago. It's cycled and all that, especially with all the plants, but the plants are not settled in yet. And it has a new Marineland Double Bright also. Has some Diatom since it's a new tank. So, no photos of the entire tank yet.
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