120 planted tank journal

[Patrick_G]

2 hours ago, Sal said:

I'm not 100% sure...  I did see one of my tetras (buenos aries tetras) pick at them the other day, but haven't seen them bother any plants before.  I had been thinking it was either the pleco or the mystery snails...

I am super bummed because I wanted to add more of the anubius.  But the 3 plants I had - 2 are completely gone and one is chewed down to stalks.  👎

 

 

Oh man, that is a bummer. I  have Anubias and mystery snails together in three different tanks with no problems so I suspect one of your other fish. 
 

[Sal]

Several Months later with an update...

Overall the tank has been doing really well!  We lost one of our angels out of the blue back in August...  No warning signs, one day he was fine, the next day, gone.  None of the other fish showed any symptoms of disease, and everything carried on normal after that, so no idea what went wrong there.   The rest of the tank is doing great.  

The plants are...  just doing OK.  I am still using the easy green line (iron, carbon, and easy green), as well as root tabs (though admittedly not often enough, most likely.)

The PSO that was growing like CRAZY and was amazing, started to take over my tank, so during a water change back in August I trimmed it a bit.  After that, it just kinda died off.  I am not sure what I did wrong, I really only trimmed off a few of the branches to thin it out a bit.  There is still one stalk that is growing a bit, so it may make a comeback, but I was pretty discouraged about that.

THe other plants (with the exception of the new crypts that someone ate) are for the most part looking ok, but nothing is really GROWING or filling in, which for impatient ol' me is frustrating...  🙂. 

 

Thanks for letting me share.

 

 

 

 

Edited November 10, 2021 by Sal

[Patrick_G]

Hmm, I wonder why the plants aren’t growing? One thing I’d check is how much you’re dosing. My EG pump dispenses about 10ml for 16 pumps, not 10 so for a while I was dosing significantly less than recommended. On a big tank if might make a difference. 

[Sal]

On 11/10/2021 at 12:38 PM, Patrick_G said:

Hmm, I wonder why the plants aren’t growing? One thing I’d check is how much you’re dosing. My EG pump dispenses about 10ml for 16 pumps, not 10 so for a while I was dosing significantly less than recommended. On a big tank if might make a difference. 

It's a really good point, Patrick!  I have noticed that as my bottles empty, each pump seems to be squirting out less material.  Maybe I will start measuring to dose rather than relying on the pumps.

[Sal]

Thought I would pop in to do a 1 year update on the DIY tank stand & tank in general...

The old tank (which I resealed last feb/march) has held up great!  No leaks or issues - I am kinda proud of that!

Tank stand (which was a DIY build from an old dresser) has held up GREAT.  No bowing, no warping, only a bit of paint chipping, and no water damage from water changes etc...  I am still super happy with it, and love having it in the entry of our home.

Changes in the tank....

I have basically killed (or my fish/snails have killed) every/any anubius, and crypt that I put into the tank.  I've mostly given up because I need the tank to be pretty and low maintenance.  I have tried a few other things as well, and have not had luck.  I wanted more variety in color - but it is what it is for now.  At some point I may have more time to spend on learning how to keep the plants happier, but for now I really only want things that will thrive with the basics (lights, squirts, and root tabs). 

Speaking of thriving though, the vallisneria is going above and beyond, and the amazon swords are doing well.  I wish they would get a bit taller, but I may add a couple more to the far ends of the tank for some balance.  

We have added a second batch of angels after a long quarantine, so now we have 7 total in there...  They are all doing well, and mostly getting along (they are angels after all).  I added more to my Cardinal Tetra school, taking it from 10 to 18.   Believe it or not they are actually hard to get at my LFS...   The cories, tetras, and snails are doing well.   And our big boi plecco seems to be done growing, and is still just a docile little scaredy cat who hides under his log and only comes out for his repashy.  🙂

For now, we feel fully (if not a little over) stocked, but our parameters have been very steady.  We have really only been doing a weekly water change, filter clean out every couple months, and a bit of mag-float scrubbing a couple times a week, this tank has been EASY BREEZY, and SO fun to watch!!

I am so glad we decided to go BIG!  (big for us, at least!)

 

 

Edited March 21, 2022 by Sal

[Hobbit]

Oh wow! Somehow I never made the jump from your old thread to this one. Your tank looks amazing! That’s so weird about the anubias. But everything looks great, and I’m so glad the tank stand is working out for you.

[Griznatch]

Looks really good, thanks for the update!

[eatyourpeas]

It looks wonderful, @Sal!

May I pull up a chair and make it my new knitting corner? 😍

[Sal]

On 4/6/2022 at 2:09 PM, eatyourpeas said:

It looks wonderful, @Sal!

May I pull up a chair and make it my new knitting corner? 😍

Absolutely!!  Always glad to have a fellow knitter around!  I was literally just catching up on the Puget Sound post.  So many cool projects on this forum!!