Jungle Fan

@Mmiller2001 my CO2 turns off an hour before lights out as well, and turns back on an hour before lights on, the exact opposite for my air pump. Running CO2 at night would be a waste and cut the time in between refills down over half. @JoeQ The 50% water changes are weekly, or at the very least bi-weekly, with all the doctors appointments I've had recently, and I do maintenance on my canister filter also at least once a month. While I do the water change I also vacuum the soil some, clean the glass with a scraper, and use a credit card to clean the glass beneath the soil, I trim any plants, that need it, or because a friend asked for some, and I have areas in the tank that get their root tabs replenished on a rotating basis so I don't have to do the whole tank at once. The surface skimmer I clean out daily, although mostly to bail my all too curious Blue Dream shrimp out of skimmer jail. I started with 6 of them and they are so prolific that I now have probably well over a hundred but everyone is happy the fish, and the inverts. This might sound like a lot of work but my lights are fully automated, as are the CO2, and the air pump, and the only time I lost fish in this current tank was when they first arrived in cold weather at the LFS, later I had one Rummynose that committed suicide by banging its head on the glass lid when it thought it was a trout, and I had one Cardinal that arrived with a curved spine birth defect that was a happy fish in spite of it until it died a few months ago, other than that the frequent water change routine has paid off for me over the years. I have kept that routine for over two decades now and it has helped me tremendously with plant growth, algae control, as well as minimizing fish losses. I would have clicked like on both your comments but I spent so much time on the forum today that I'm once again ORD. Will post some likes tomorrow with reactions replenished.

My CO2 keeps bubbling along while I do my water changes, never harmed my fish even though I do 50% water changes.

@Mmiller2001 stick with it, it takes more maintenance than the Phoenix moss but the looks are very rewarding.

-Cryptocoryne wendtii Green Gecko -Cryptocoryne willisii -Cryptocoryne parva The Cryptocoryne wendtii Green Gecko is the one that changes from bright green to what you see in the middle of the tank and I have to gove them a severe trim every three weeks, this picture was taken right after one such haircut. The parva, and willisii in the picture with the Bolivian Ram you have to plant as many as you are planning to have because they just don't spread, even after two and half years.

My shrimp love the Christmas and Phoenix moss but spend just as much time among the Anubias, Bucephalandra, Java fern, Amazon swords, and Ludwigia.. The crypts and Lobelia cardinalis they seem to be a bit indifferent to but they hang out around wherever they might suspect food can be found.

Looks like you are well on your way again to a beautiful tank, will be very interested to watch your further progress being that I'm running a 75 gallon tank myself that has now passed the two and a half year mark.

Shot from today my Java fern and Ludwigia pearling.

@anewbie @Mmiller2001 @Odd Duck I keep my tank at 78.6 F and both my Christmas moss Vesicularia montagnei, and my Phoenix moss Fissidens fontanus have no issues and thrive, as do both my Amano, and Blue Dream Shrimp, as well as my Cardinals, Rummynoses, Otocinclus, and Bolivian Rams. I too have read the articles about the lower temperatures, and those that mentioned that mosses don't like light but if you go to my 75 gallon tank journal you will see that my Phoenix moss mound on the highest part of the stump has actually reached the surface and the Christmas moss is located on a branch next to it. I chose those locations because I learnt from a friend whose tank had a similar set up, and because I had used it before in aquascapes. I actually have to trim at least some of my Christmas moss back every 4 -5 weeks, as a matter of fact I have given away so much of it that I now can no longer find takers. I have probably had to discard about 25 times the amount I originally bought so far. When you do trim moss always have the net ready otherwise you'll spend hours tracking back moss to prevent it from growing where you don't want it.

It's more than just duration and intensity of light that counts, you've also got to consider the quality of light, meaning how much red, amber, and blue is added in. With some lights you can control this. My Kessils allow me to up the red and amber which is what red plants need to display their color, while too much blue light can be a boon to algae. I got rid of my blue moonlights because of that. Also it doesn't matter if you have the greatest quality light, set at the right duration and intensity if any of the nutrients your plants need are missing you need to make sure you supply everything they need, if even one element is missing it acts as the limiting factor for your plants to be held back from using all else, and they are then out competed by the algae which they would otherwise handily beat to the punch. You also need to supply the nutrients in the manner the plants can absorb. Most stem plants, and epiphytes (Anubias, Java fern), and rheophytes (some Bucephalandra) will take up nutrients out of the water column from liquid fertilizer, while Amazon Swords, and Cryptocoryne are heavy root feeders and need added root tabs. How high above the tank your lights are placed is another factor to consider depending on how deep into the tank your plants are placed and what the PAR rating of your light is at that depth. For an easy intro here is a web site that also addresses PAR and PAS as measurements: https://aquariumsphere.com/best-light-spectrum-for-aquarium-plants/ and of course: https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/how-to-pick-the-best-planted-aquarium-light https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/which-aquatic-fertilizer-is-right-for-you https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/aquarium-co2-system https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/co2-in-planted-aquariums I hope this helps.

@A3M0N I'm impressed your tank has progressed quite a bit and with the S. repens you should have a nice carpet going in no time. It is definitely my favorite carpeting plant, a lot easier than any of the others like Dwarf Hairgrass, Lilaeopsis, Monte Carlo, Glossostigma, Helanthium, or Marsilea. I've even got a few sprinkled in between the Crypts in my Amazon jungle tank.

@Odd Duck You can buy Raw Regular Natural Unrefined Cotton Filter Tips, 8mm in bags of 200EA for a little less than $5.00, make sure you don't use the gel type super glue for this though, it won't soak as easily into the cotton as the regular more liquid type and would dry before the cotton is soaked, after you attach the rocks, or wood to each other spray them with water to set and right after apply some sand to cover up what would turn white, When I used to do Amano style aquascapes I used to do this all the time, sometimes, on larger pieces I would also hold them together with zip strips until I was sure the pieces had set and were correctly cemented together, then I would just cut the zip strips off. For larger pieces I would sometimes soak 3, or 4 filters.

If you are looking into artificial plants because of Oscars, I would save my money because they'll rearrange your artificial plants just as much as they shred your Java fern. One easy way to have plants and Oscars at the same time: Red Root Floaters, with the added benefit that they are nitrate vacuum cleaners . Hardscape with a few nice big river rocks some nice driftwood stumps and branches, and red root floaters, and your tank will turn heads.

I probably could but I had to let go of 15 other tanks at the time to get my Amazon jungle set up with the Kessils. I think my wife would have me enroll in Nerms Anonymous 12 Step Program if I started as much as a jar sized Wabi Kusa these days Multi tank syndrome is a serious addiction and my better half would stage an intervention.😄

Yes it is! Thank goodness I own a 600mm lens, that bad boy was huge.

If I hadn't promised my wife that I'll stick to my jungle, and the one blackwater tank for our now 19 year old bristlenose pleco and his little clown pleco compadre I'd be really tempted to add another tank seeing all this but I'm happy to see the progress you'll be making with these awesome looking fish. @Patrick_G about your dry food question, have you tried the Aquarium Co-Op Easy Fry and Small Fish Food? My tetras go nuts over that stuff.

Indeed it does, look what I found in the duckweed!

@BETTA999 My wife would be concerned, and insist I'd see a doctor.

Aqadvisor is sort of like tell me how tall you are, how much you weigh, the size of your family including extended family, your budget and I'll tell you what vehicle you need to drive. You're always going to end up with a refurbished surplus yellow school bus. No accounting for invertebrates, water change frequency, water quality, plant mass, substrate biomass filtration, and mechanical/bio filtration via the filter, be it HOB, Sponge, Canister, undergravel, etc. ... Overstocked, and understocked, are some of the most abused terms in this hobby. Bottom line, if your water perimeters are fine, your fish seem happy and aren't sick, your tank doesn't look crowded with fish like a Pink Floyd concert with fans, or is overrun by unintended algae, and your plants are healthy and doing fine you are doing something right here. Any app that tells you how many fish to have is sort of like the games kids play to figure out how old they'll get, who they'll marry by name, where they'll live,... a diversion at best.

Have you ever seen Bael tree pods, or Monkey pot pods? The first time I saw them I thought they were acorn husks, but they are much larger. A lot of blackwater aquarists are using them in their hardscapes now, especially for large tanks between 120 gallon to 250 gallons. There are pictures of each on the Tannin Aquatics site, however let me know what you find out, it's been a good long while since I completed my combined 8 years at college. The nice thing about keeping fish and plants is you never stop learning.

Oak leaves are o.k. but I'm not sure about acorn husks. I know acorns are extremely high in tannins, and with whole acorns there would be a chance of them rotting. I know acorns are toxic to dogs, horses, and cattle, so I'm not sure I'd want them in my tank, then again I'm not a toxicologist, or botanist but in over fifty years of keeping fish I've never heard, or seen them being used.

From what I know all Alder wood and cones are aquarium safe, Black Alder cones just happen to be the ones most often found for sale in the trade. Shrimp love them! Here's an article I had bookmarked for a friend in Virginia a while back: https://fishtankadvisor.com/alder-cones/

@Patrick_G Awesome fish, and very nice tank, stunning combo! P.S.: Kudos to @Fish Folk!

Actual pine cones, cedar, spruce, fir, and conifer cones contain resins that are toxic to fish and which would leak into the water with the tannins, so unfortunately the answer to that is no they aren't safe. Black Alder trees are actually deciduous, leafed trees. Aquarium Co Op carries Catappa leaves (Indian Almond leaves) which are excellent for the aquarium: https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/indian-almond-leaves https://www.aquariumcoop.com/collections/breeding-supplies/products/10-catappa-leaves A friend of mine who runs some huge blackwater discus tanks with 3D root backgrounds, and big Amazon swords got himself all kinds of different leaves, seed pods, among them hand sized monkey pot pods, stem, and bark pieces from Tannin Aquatics after reading their blog for a while. While my Amazon jungle would minimally qualify as blackwater, I use Brightwell Aquatics Blackwater Clear at the same time I add liquid fertilizer, I actually pre-soaked my wood stumps for anywhere from three to six months to avoid the heavy tea color, especially so because I had two larger pieces of Mopani wood among my driftwood.

Alternatively you can also collect black alder cones if you have any growing in your area (they are indigenous to Europe but have been introduced to Canada and the U.S.), the boiling them first applies here too with the added benefit that it makes the cones sink faster, and remember they are quite potent so one per 5 gallons gives plenty of blackwater. If you collect either oak leaves, or alder cones it's also a good idea to pick them up from locations that aren't too close to busy roads. Alder cones also are very beneficial for shrimp because of their natural antibacterial and antifungal properties, and the shrimp love to eat them once biofilm grows on them and they begin to break down.

Thought I'd post an above view of my moss covered wood, unfortunately the Kessils won't allow for a picture without reflection on that one. Both the Phoenix moss and the Christmas moss have taken over their respective branches and are each a huge mound of solidly attached moss, the Blue dream shrimp and my Amanos love it.