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Jungle Fan

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Everything posted by Jungle Fan

  1. Jungle Fan
    @Corbidorbidoodle I hate to have to advocate caution regarding possible over-optimism in regards to carpeting, but unless you specifically bought Lobelia cardinalis 'mini', which was introduced by growers in 2004, regular Lobelia cardinalis will continue to grow and can reach over 3 feet in height, however mine seem to top out at around 19" mostly because I trim them at that point. After the trimming it takes the rooted part a good long while to look respectable, which is why many of my friends remove the rooted part and just replant the cuttings, I sometimes do the same, and give the rooted part away to anyone who wants them, they usually grow multiple side shoots that will cover the blunt end. and sometimes I've had them grow a new tip. Another tidbit: Lobelia cardinalis is a bog plant that can grow both submerged, and emerged. If it is grown in bog conditions above water the leaves will be a very dark reddish green color and it has bright red flowers, while in the aquarium it stays mostly light green until it approaches the water surface, at which point the crown can display a very light reddish sheen. If you are looking for a readily available somewhat similar plant to carpet that doesn't grow to the surface I would recommend Staurogyne repens available from Aquarium Co-Op.
  2. Jungle Fan
    That's how the Red Flames have been for me to quote a phrase "like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get."
  3. Jungle Fan
    Very nice plant growth, a great selection of plants.
  4. Jungle Fan
    I've used both the Aquarium Co-Op, and Seachem root tabs on my plants and my Amano shrimp, Blue Dream shrimp, nerites, bladder snails, and unfortunately even the hitchhiker Malaysian trumpet snails and never had a problem. I can't even count anymore how many Blue Dream shrimp I have in my jungle.
  5. Jungle Fan
    As @nabokovfan87 said Easy Green All In One increased, and add root tabs for your swords, and crypts (next to them about an inch away, not directly underneath, or touching their roots so they won't get root burn). Also the floaters are fertilizer hogs. in any tank that has slight nitrate problems that aren't a result of neglected maintenance a couple of floaters that will multiply in a hurry added will take care of the problem, they are great at nitrate removal.
  6. Jungle Fan
    Looks just like the young leaves on my Red Flame, they usually lose most of the red as they age but the pattern stays as the leaves grow. It looks like a very nice and healthy plant. The young Ozelot leaves are much greener and don't change all too much in the adult plant. By the way the glare can be controlled by angling the camera lens to the glass of the aquarium.
  7. Jungle Fan
    I've always attributed the "lack" of sulfur in fertilizer combinations to the fact that that we steadily supply sulfur everyday in the form of fish, or shrimp food, and they in turn provide it back into the aquarium as metabolic waste, which then in turn gets broken down by a variety of bacteria in the substrate, at least until be come along with our siphon pump to clean out the excess. After all ammonia/ammonium is not the only waste product, there is also "number two". Not to hijack the thread but to add to the discussion; funny enough I was just about to post this, and ask if anyone had ever actually tried, or heard about this when I saw this thread: https://purechemco.com/blogs/guides/uses-of-sulfur-prills-for-fish-tanks-aquariums Anything that promises algae reduction without harming plants, fish, snails, or shrimp gets my attention at least until proven viable, or not.
  8. Jungle Fan
    Good for the fish, bad for the plants. If I have a fish that needs treatment I generally remove the fish to a quarantine tank, and then treat with salt and meds. If you decide to treat with it in the planted tank based on the safe level then I'd recommend looking at the water quality report from your local water utility first at any existing levels, also to consider if your water has been treated with any water softeners. Those are my two cents worth, but as I said I don't use salt in my planted tank, only in the set up quarantine tank.
  9. Jungle Fan
    @anewbie I have a friend in Germany who grows swordplants for a living, he actually talked to the guy who first bred the Ozelot varieties in former East Germany, and he told him that he developed the Red Flame out of his darker red Ozelot plants. Ozelot Green, Ozelot Red, and Red Flame were a progression of breeding, that's why you sometimes also end up having lighter looking individual plants because they are genetic throwbacks, the major distinction is the redness of the young leaves, and the intensity of the spotted pattern which is much more pronounced in the Red Flame. The original grower also experimented with trying to breed dwarf forms. Another thing I learnt from my friend is that just like with my shrimp you can have genetic throwbacks sometimes when buying plants, so through the years I've seen plants stay 12" that according to books should be capable of reaching lengths up to a yard, and others that were supposed to be 6" max. be a foot and a half. I use books for identifying plant leaf shape, water, temperature, light level, soil, and nutrient preferences, and for general norm of placement but height of growth I am extremely skeptical because I've seen so much variety over the years , I had one Red Flame several years ago in a discus tank that was extremely red and very beautiful but it never got past 7 inches, yet it provided a beautiful focal point surrounded and offset by some nice green medium sized swords, and much bigger Echinodorus bleheri in the back, it looked great with the exposed wood, and wild discus,
  10. Jungle Fan
    @anewbie as you can see hardly filled only to the half of the tank but at the very least to the beginning of the black trim on the top.
  11. Jungle Fan
    @anewbiewhen I measure the height of the tank it comes out to just above 20" when you consider the tank sits in a frame that has it ride high, and the water level is not up to the brim either. I stated that the Kasselmann book states max. length of 11.81 inches, that however the real length of my Red Flame's leaves currently are 13 - 15 inches not considering the stem as measured with a tape measure. My substrate level is 2.5 inches and there is an increase from front to back to create the illusion of the tank being deeper than it is in an around 20" tall glass tank that isn't filled to the brim so the water level is at around 19", the leaves that aren't standing straight up but curve somewhat are still reaching the water surface now, and by next week I'll probably have to remove some again because they will protrude again over the water surface, and I use a glass top on this tank to minimize evaporation. My original point for posting this was to illustrate for you not to get hung up on book stats some, plants, fish, or shrimp will exceed what any author will have determined as norm, others will be well below their data. Many factors decide plant growth, water quality, fertilization, genetics, light. There are some really tall people, then again there are some who are shorter than the "norm". My standard for the evaluation of a plant is not how tall, or small a plant is but how healthy it is. Sure, if I buy a plant to be in the background I usually want it to be tall, but if it isn't I'm just as happy to relocate it to another place in the tank as long as it is healthy. I hope this helps you visualize what I'm talking about. For illustration I had also already attached the photo that showed the Red Flame where you can see that it is already back to being just below the surface, which is 1 inch from the top of the frame.
  12. Jungle Fan
    @anewbie So I looked up the Echinodorus Red Flame in my Kasselmann plant book today and she states max. height at about 30cm which would be 11.81 inches. I trimmed the leaves that were protruding above the surface last week, and here are some today already almost at the surface again. Took this picture just for illustration, not my best work but it serves the purpose. Actually measured the length of the leaves while I was at it, and they range from 13 - 15 inches. They love their root tabs and the extra iron and potassium.
  13. Jungle Fan
    A few very short clips of the Cardinals, and Shrimp. You'll probably have to go to settings and ratchet the resolution up to 480 to get a halfway decent picture since YouTube always defaults to the lowest and 480 is the highest they allow for free. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPimZgyp8O0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1i2Eb4QrI8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wibSC9IXCzo
  14. Jungle Fan
    @anewbie my tank is a 75 gallon with about 2.5" of substrate at the bottom due to the bottom layer of crushed lava rock underneath and the Red Flame is reaching higher than the Green Ozelot which you can see in the before side view above. I would go take a picture of it but I removed all the leaves that kept protruding past the water surface last week when I did the trimming. I've also had to give away baby plantlets several times already as it was spreading. I like the darker red pattern of Red Flame over the Green Ozelot but it continually keeps me on my toes with its growth. I use Easy Green All In One added about every three days due to my plant load, root tabs, I add liquid iron now and then, I apply Mironekuton deep sea mineral powder with every water change, and I also add Brightwell Aquatics Blackwater Clear Plant/Shrimp to add tannins without the tea color, and as you can see in my previous posts on this thread I use CO2 injection. Over the years I've noticed that sometimes you get plants that exceed what is mentioned in books, other times you get some that stay way smaller, most of the time they are right within what's listed. It's an individual thing, the same with fish, and shrimp.
  15. Jungle Fan
    @anewbie I've never had a problem with either Cardinal Tetras, Rummynose Tetras, or my Bolivian Rams attacking the Blue Dream Neocaridinas, or the Amano shrimp. Mind you I have a swarm of fairly large Rummynose Tetras in this tank as well about equal the number of my Cardinals but they really enjoy hiding in the background plants, and mostly only show up during feeding frenzy. My Blue Dreams are so prolific that I must admit I've lost track of how many there are, despite the fact I've given lots away to friends who were much appreciative of the fact they didn't have to pay the $9.00 each our local source charges. My blues are mostly a deep, almost black blue, despite the fact I don't cull because my wife and I actually enjoy the occasional albino, red and white striped, red, blue with white stripe along the back, a lot more varieties than any book on them even mentions. Also my Otocinclus are almost all still alive, I lost one. but all the others I see frequently.
  16. Jungle Fan
    @quirkylemon103 The Crypts had filled nearly half the space in the aquarium, and the Red Flame, and Ozelot Green swords were huge, even the Java fern needed trimming. Here some pics of the before, although they were not intentionally taken for comparison and not necessarily under the best day time for the light cycle of my Kessils. Before: After:
  17. Jungle Fan
    Thanks @Streetwise ! Got one more surgery coming up, hopefully after that I'll be more regular on the forum again.
  18. Jungle Fan
    After several months of dealing with renewed cancer and having my hands full with doctor's appointments and just being able to keep up with basic maintenance I finally got some time to take a few new pics now that the jungle is slowly approaching the two year mark. Had to give the Crypts a long needed haircut. The Rummynoses still love to hide in the Ludwigia, Swords, and Lobelia, and my Blue Dream shrimp are in love with their Phoenix, and Christmas moss meadows.
  19. Jungle Fan
    @Cory Aquarium Co-Op has always been the fastest shipper in the aquarium business in my experience and I've always appreciated that fact, when others took weeks to even get the package on the way, and there's never been a mix up either where you order one size and you might get the next size down. I've been keeping fish for over five decades and Aquarium Co-Op is hands down the nicest, fastest, and most accurate aquarium supply store there is, not to mention that they have a great forum, YouTube channel and club, and are the most knowledgeable in the trade who I have had the pleasure to deal with.
  20. Jungle Fan
    Wow, already here, and that with all the extra Christmas shipping traffic; Cory must have a special phone line direct to Santa's Reindeer Dispatch! Got my second Murphy sticker, for my CO2 bottles' safety base, a big container of Professional Formula Xtreme Aquatic Foods Krill Flakes (my Tetras are about to go nuts at the next feeding), Aquarium Co-Op towel and medium fish net, a bottle of Fritz Complete Water Conditioner, and a very timely 500 ml bottle of Aquarium Co-Op Easy Green All-In-One fertilizer. Thank you so much to @Zenzo, @Cory, and all the staff at Aquarium Co-Op, as well as our forum admin, especially @Streetwise who has been so much help to me in figuring out how to do forum size formatting, and always has been very encouraging, as well as to all our forum members who make this forum the coolest place for fish fiends, and nerms to hang out.🙂 (sorry, no dance, doc said - no)
  21. Jungle Fan
    @EVoyager31 If it's just temporary I would simply stick it in between your stem plants, that way you don't have the rhizome buried, and it still won't float around, or get in the intake. You can also just temporarily tie it to a small rock as I've done when I split huge rhizomes up into small pieces to create multiple smaller plants with sometimes just one leaf to each piece of rhizome. Once the plant had developed multiple leaves I would then untie them from the rock and place them permanently on either driftwood, or rock where I wanted them.
  22. Jungle Fan
    From what I see you have an Anubias on the right side of the tank, just to the right of the driftwood planted in the substrate. It would be better to either attach it to rocks, or driftwood by either using superglue gel, tying it, or stuffing it in a crevice if one is available, burying the rhizome as it appears to be case will eventually cause Anubias to rot. If you don't want to attach it you can also just bury the tip of the roots (the white shoots coming out of the green rhizome) in the substrate as long as the rhizome is above the substrate but if you have catfish that like to root around it will likely end up floating around. I second Cory's Easy Green all in one recommendation, and if you're going to add either Cryptocoryne, or Amazon sword plants which are root feeders you should also consider adding root tabs.
  23. Jungle Fan
    Wow, totally did not expect that. I've been kind of distracted lately with doctor's appointments and an assortment of tests they were running as I've had a bit of a health setback lately; so between all that and taking care of the tank I haven't had much time to spend on the forum. I truly enjoy the forum, and as was said I learn as much as I get to help others as well, and I enjoy seeing the beautiful tanks that result out of all that collaboration, as well as being able to pick up some gardening, and even beekeeping tips (just in case).🙂
  24. Jungle Fan
    The only part I did not understand was why you didn't run the filter? I ran everything but the lights for four weeks, then did a 100% water change, planted turned on the light and everything ran smooth ever since. As long as there is flow the bacteria in the filter survive. If I expect a longer process then taking the filter media out and placing it in tank water in a few 5 gallon buckets during planting is an option. The water change and planting did not take long enough to do harm, plus by that time the bacteria colony in the substrate and on the inside surfaces of the tank were well established. Anyway, looks like it will be a great tank, and 75s are great, not too big, not too small, with enough depth from font to back to have your fish feel more secure, and big enough to provide plenty of caves for fish that like those. A rewarding, and fun project.
  25. Jungle Fan
    @Patrick_G that's a super sweet deal, with the gooseneck they are more of a close to $500 light but if you don't have a spectral X controller, or the dongle the programmability feature is closed off, those run around a $100. The shimmer is not dependent on brightness but on water movement, especially close to the surface, and will be especially dominant with surface agitation. If you get too much "disco" you can turn down the volume if you can down regulate flow a bit.
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