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Dutch/ plant farm 75 gallon (and other projects)


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On 7/23/2022 at 7:21 PM, Patrick_G said:

I think it’s newish. Most of the decent pics are from aquarium co-op competitors and they’re watermarked.  It’s worth googling. 

And the top two links that came up when I searched for it were different sellers using the exact same photos. 😂 

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  • 2 weeks later...

We had a heatwave in the PNW over the past week so fish colors were popping off.PXL_20220729_050607355.TS_exported_11701.jpg.215be99f25655fda2c2f5d81b6a4bacf.jpg

The pond started blooming as well

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Unfortunately growth in the 75 also took off. I don't like letting it get this overgrown, it means trimming goes from an hour long affair to a multi-hour ordeal. In terms of plant selection I got a barclaya longifolia like @Mmiller2001 suggested. I still don't know what's going to go behind/around it. Maybe the pogo erectus, but that's a pretty similar color to the hygrophila difformis so I don't know I it would work too well. The heatwave also killed off a bunch of the moss wall 😞PXL_20220730_020943751.jpg.986b318f39596cfc1bbc03d4b46ea7bd.jpg

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On 8/5/2022 at 7:56 AM, Minanora said:

How warm did your tank get? My 75 has been hanging out at 83-84 with our heat this week. My ground water is way warm out of the tap as well. 75-76. My ro is closer to 82.

Your pond looks great! So does the 75!

My thermometer conked out but I would guess upper 80's. I ended up turning off the CO2 for a few days because dissolved oxygen was clearly low.

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PXL_20220812_044420720.jpg.86e86dd07cf9086f0877f0c324c51278.jpg

Updates! I've been doing some rearranging to try and work in some more color. I moved the myriophyllum back to the left hand side as it was just a little too dark for they corner on the right. I really like the contrast with the hygrophila difformis. The val got moved behind the water wisteria to fill in that blank wall section. The Barclaya longifolia is starting to put out some really nice red leaves. I moved the pogo erectus behind it for contrast.

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On the other side of the tank, I found some unique plants at the lfs that I'm trying out. The first is Myriophyllum mattogrossense "Golden" and the second is Ludwigia "pantanal." I've grown Pantanal before and it's a stunner, but it grows almost as fast as myrio roraima and is prone to stunting. We'll see if I can keep it happy! Between that, the lily, and the barclaya there may be too much red but I won't know until it grows out more.

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Almost forgot, I got an aponogeton on the right hand side. I can't recall the species now, but I think it's crispus.

The entire tank has been suffering from neglect. I have been doing a bootcamp-style coding program that has kept me busy and average of 70 hrs/week since the start of July, and I've been missing water changes and feet dosing. I just made up some mineralized topsoil and osmocote root tabs to hopefully keep the plants happy in future periods of neglect. I almost completely lost the moss wall as well, after taking a closer look 90% of it is dead. At least the fish seem happy!

It's looking more and more doubtful that I'll have anything ready to submit to the AGA contest this year. Having a really nice Dutch-style tank is easier than most people think but it still requires 3-4 hours of work a week which is more than I have to give right now. I'm going to continue with the goal though, since I like the path the tank is on right now!

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm going to try to have something presentable by September 12 for the AGA Aquascaping Contest deadline which means I will have to make some changes. Mainly, I need much more plant mass and I need it ASAP so it has a couple weeks to adjust to my tank conditions. I love the Pantanal, but I can't get more of it and I'm not going to be able to grow it out in time. It will have to go into a pond for storage for a while. 

I'm breaking out the Echinodorus bleheri that has been living outside with my Rainbow Shiners. It has a hefty portion of algae on it, but I'm hitting it with the ol' reverse respiration technique to clean it off.PXL_20220822_033508417.jpg.b1c6fb66f6357f5dbb4ed7b43af64612.jpg

This thing is huge, I had to curl it up to get it to fit into this pitcher.

I don't think the barclaya longifolia is big enough, or is going to get big enough in the next three weeks. I'll have to move that as well and probably get something easy like Ludwigia palustris to add some red in there.

I really like that gold myrio, but it is also not growing super fast. So I think that will have to be a midground bush where the pearlweed currently is, and then I'll have to get something big and bushy for the background. Maybe heteranthera zosterifolia if I can find it. 

The blyxa is not really adding anything, so I'm probably just going to axe it and have a section of bare substrate. 

The good news is now all of the nymphaea are popping off at once, so that focal point is at least looking good. I'm happy with the rest of the plants as well.

I may just forego the moss wall this time around since it is not recovering well. Forgive the glare in this shot, I took it midday: PXL_20220821_205757251.jpg.90a9dd7bb94d28bc50a2afd7e8178eaa.jpg

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On 8/21/2022 at 10:58 PM, Mmiller2001 said:

I was wondering if you were going to bust out the the 20 gallon and cram a bunch of 75 plants in there! But I really want to see what you will do with the 75. Are you sure it's the 12th? The 3rd keeps popping up in my head.

I sold the 20 gallon unfortunately, so all the plants I want to keep have been going in the outdoor ponds. I do have a 7 gallon cube I'm going to have to set up soon to grow out all my rhadinocentrus ornatus fry.

Good thing you mentioned the date. I just checked and the submission deadline is the 10th.

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The Amazon Sword is back! I'm also trying some rotala h'ra in the back right. I did a trim today so everything needs time to settle in. 

Everywhere I've been has been out of Ludwigia Super Red which is pretty frustrating. If I can't find any this weekend I'll have to use the Pantanal between the pogo erectus and the hygrophila difformis, which unfortunately is the same leaf shape as the pogo erectus. 

Still not feeling confident in this one, but I'm going to do my best to get it done.PXL_20220826_053821560.jpg.adff3736b96d8c3360e5467c01a67454.jpg

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