My planted tank

jessonthenet

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Oct 16, 2010
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no I don't add anything other than water top ups or changes. I will change 25% of the water every couple of months at the latest and only change 50% if I think it is an emergency like I have had once but huge losses. I always do top ups and now use seachem prime instead of tetra aqua safe(expensive but easy to measure). I am not sure how using seachem prime will affect the plants since it neutralizes ammonia but I have never found out whether the water company uses chlorine or chloramine, maybe I should.

I did use king british basic plant food if my plants looked a little yellow but haven't used it for months. I don't add CO2 the airline on the left is just an airpump, I don't leave it on at night but there if I ever find my fish gasping at the surface in the morning again. Might take it out.

Have been thinking about getting some better fertilizers for the tank.

What do you use?
 

IanB

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Jul 21, 2011
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I don't.. was thinking abut dosing with some ferts now I have lights on.

I change about 100L over the course of a week which is about 14%, done in 2 stages (because I only have 2 x 25L containers)

My Nymphae has grown well (largely due to poor light, I think) but now there's light I'm hoping that will slow and the Vallis will pick up.
 

jessonthenet

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Oct 16, 2010
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I don't.. was thinking abut dosing with some ferts now I have lights on.

I change about 100L over the course of a week which is about 14%, done in 2 stages (because I only have 2 x 25L containers)

My Nymphae has grown well (largely due to poor light, I think) but now there's light I'm hoping that will slow and the Vallis will pick up.
Do you have latest pics of the tank?

I reckon you should try and give the plants a chance without ferts to start with. I would be interested to see what benefit something like tropica + could give the plants, I have already been advised on homemade fertilisers on a separate thread on PP. I hate to mess too much in case it all collapses.

I could do more water changes but plants outweigh fish a lot at the moment so I think I am alright for now.

Fish love the vallis, mine was slow to get going at first but once I added I think it is a power glo tube and the other an aqua glo both T8 on 10 hours along with regular water top ups it has went a bit crazy. Tetras come up to the top more often with the cover and the hatchet fish don't try and commit suicide so much. First place any baby plecs go for cover but I think the angels have worked this out. They are always hunting along the top.
 

jessonthenet

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Oct 16, 2010
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Had a look at the link.

Are the knife fish the ones that look like they swim upside down and in circles, very strange looking. Those and glass catfish have always been something that I have never known what to think looking at them.
 

jessonthenet

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Oct 16, 2010
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knife fish hand feeding would make an interesting vid.

When I first saw one of those I thought it wasn't very well but most of the fish in that particular shop were swimming that way when they weren't supposed to.

Female bristlenose like to sit on my hand or eat my arm when I clean and some will eat veg while you are holding it. Angels are just stupid and chase anything I move around with my hand. Taught the black widows to jump out the surface to grab fish flakes but a hatchet jumped out one day onto the floor so I packed that in after that.
 

jessonthenet

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Oct 16, 2010
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No pics , just a brief update.

I sometimes like to mess up my tank , just not too much. I find that creating some current and loosening the gravel around the plants a little and separate the plants out a bit encourages newer better growth after all the mess has cleared . I do water changes and syphon the water out when it is full of floating debris and the new water seems to make the plants green again with a few days. If I remove plants I snap nearly all the roots off and replant in a new position and combined with water changes will grow new roots and settle pretty quickly. If my plants seem to halt in growth sometimes just pulling a few leaves off encourages them to grow again, stronger.

I am just careful not to disturb too much in case of anaerobic pockets and now I have the water flowing in above the water surface the fish never stay out of it and the tank is thriving. This has solved the problem I had when my fish were suffocating especially in th e morning first thing which must be just to do with the plants as I use no CO2 system.

I think the main problem I had been having was the vallis in my tank which restricts the water surface and fast growing nutrient soaking. Rather than cutting it down and running an airstone I now have my water level slightly lower and the water falling in rather than pathetically disturbing the top. I get much more circulation around the tank, happier fish and the vallis is free to do as it pleases. Having the light restricted by the vallis seems to have no effect on the amazon swords and are looking to be growing taller with lack of light and the crypts have gone crazy with the lower light too.

Bringing the light down with the vallis has brought the shy psueda out and other plecs and overall the whole tank is doing well.

I will be purchasing quite a few cardinals after xmas as I don't think it needs anything else apart from the plecs.
 

jessonthenet

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Oct 16, 2010
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adding angels means trouble if u got neons
Yes I know Angels have a bad reputation and can grow quite large and inevitably will eat anything small enough. Strangely though and I have had the angels in the tank for quite some months now, they don't touch the fish by trying to eat them and very rarely chase them.

If anything out of all my fish the neons are the fish they tend to ignore. The neons occupy the space slightly lower in the tank and normally don't run into the angels.

The tank is heavily planted and easily split naturally into territories and provides cover. The naturally shoaling fish are kept in large enough numbers so that they feel secure in an adequate size group as they would in the wild and angels would be present.

The 4 angels are in 2 breeding pairs and spawn consecutively or sometimes even at the same time and each guard their own end of the tank. There is fighting at times but only between the 2 pairs of angels, the other fish are usually ignored. They are far too fixed on their rival breeding pair to even be bothered about other smaller tank mates.

It has luckily worked out pretty well for me but may not for everyone.


During feeding time both pairs will happily feed side by side and forget their differences until all the food is gone. Neither pair has any serious damage at all if any as both pairs are a good enough match for each other and dance around like people do , handbags and all but eventually both pairs back down away to opposite ends of the tank slowly and any fighting stops.