Algae sucks, but my plant mass is now much, much greater than it used to be. Hopefully, now that I better now how to balance this tanks demands, I can get all of these plants to grow to their maximum potential.
So anyways, as far as fish go, it’s the same as before, but I added a male Bristlenose and should be adding a long fin albino female tomorrow. Possibly a Pictus too pending on its size and likelihood of becoming Bichir food. Later on in the summer, I want to add some big ol' Red Velvet Swords to this tank, but I'll probably have to grow them out a bit first to beef them up and prepare them for this madness. The Electric Blue Acara is big enough to not be bichir food now, but I'll wait to put him in here until he is a bit bigger since I know the EBJD will want to pick a fight. Or maybe the Acara will pick a fight and not realize that it can't be a little snot very successfully. He beat up the leopard ctnepoma (who is almost fully recovered now after I divided the 10 gallon using a pasta strainer).
I’ll post the list of plants I have after doing the pictures, because its probably a nuisance for those who just want to look at pics to see a wall of text right away.
Syganthus belem is a larger plant than I initially thought. I thank Joraan for talking me into grabbing this species, I feel like it will work very nicely right where I have it, since I’d be wanting to keep it shorter anyways to show off the tops of the stem.
Barthog had a special on erios….I couldn’t resist. Parkeri in the front is the small one, but man am I excited for that compressum. I had to pull it apart as it was all one mass at first, and then I trimmed off the bad leafs, but from seeing Barr’s tank, I can say I’m excited for these to grow nice and thick.
Ludwigia brevippis sneaking out the wood. Also spheracopa in front of the wood and Cuphae. I only have small stubs of Hygro araguaia in here now, but I have some I’m adding as soon as they convert to submerged for me. Might also add an Aflame sword over the summer.
Ludwigia species are an addiction. Its going to be interesting differentiating them after some time has passed, but this is why I keep really, really good records of what I plant where.
This is also going to become a very colorful area for sure.
Mermaid weed and Lace plant popping out the top of this wood will look really cool. I know lace likes getting large, so I figure this is a way to let it do its thing while also letting it be a little more reeled in.
Ulvaceus is there, died back but is sprouting again. There is also a Marble Queen as that leaf type will look cool behind the sunset Hygro. I moved the brown to the front since the sunset was blocking it, and to be honest I like the look more like this, and it makes more sense since sunset just grows faster.
Some shoreweed framed by S. repens. I’d love for this to carpet, but if not, I’ll try something else, maybe Monte Carlo. Or blood vomit if I’m feeling really crazy and wild.
Lots of Rotala here and Hygro. Also some S. Bihar in front of the corymbosa now, I want to let that grow tall as well so that it can get that orange color. Seems like a really cool plant.
Surprised that the Red Ammania is growing for me. New growth isn’t really red but that’s okay, still looks cool. Also have some narrow leaf Stellatus behind the Limno now, so that’s fun.
EBJD, listen, I just want to show a nice pic of the variegated Althernathera. You aren’t the star of the show okay?
FINEEEEEE, you can be the star right here, alright? Good.
The Lagenandra went on an adventure around the tank for a while when I was gone so, that’s why it looks so BLEH. Should stay in place now. More importantly, that variegated looks sick. Can’t wait for it to grow nice and big.
Got this from a LFS. Not sure what it is…but I like it.
All that green is Repens x Arcuata. There is also Repens hiding somewhere in this area, but whatever. It will become more apparent to others what Ludwigia is here as they grow towards the light and get their colors.
The nice thing about L144 and albino fish, are that they are pretty easy to see. The male has a nice head but good luck finding him in a spot where he sticks out
sigh
I suck at picture taking but whatever. Awesome congos are awesome regardless of my picture quality.
So blurry, ugh
Woah, throwback. I guess this says a lot about my progress, being that this picture is from when I first decided to go planted. This was like, 2.5-3 years ago.
And this, explains a lot. As in, my BBA problem. For a frame of reference, this was a week or two after Sandy had it, and it devastated my tanks. This one especially, never got a real complete overhaul, since there were always some fish still alive in this tank. Probably not best to turn an established tank into a planted tank without resetting the tank, but hey, its taken some time but I’m finally getting the hang of this craziness.
Nostalgia fest done. Here’s the plant list as it is now.
Bottom
Rotala mexicana var. 'Goias'
· Behind
S. repens
Staurogyne repens
· Partial carpet
Littorella uniflora
· Partial carpet in front of
S. repens
Hygrophila sp. ‘Araguaia’
· Partial carpet to the right of S. repens
Foreground
Cryptocoryne sp. ‘Green Gecko’
· Crypt ring
Cryptocoryne nurii
· Crypt ring
Cryptocoryne becketii petchii
· Crypt ring
Cryptocoryne x
willisii
· Edge of crypt ring
Ammania pedicellata – “Yellow Nesaea”
· In front of N. aquatic
Eriocaulon cinereum/compressum
· Back of Erio grouping
Eriocaulon parkeri
· In front of Erio grouping
Syngonanthus sp. “Belem”
· In front of Wood #1
Mid-Ground
Ammania praetermissa
· Directly behind crypt ring
Echinodorus sp. ‘Rose’
· Middle of crypt ring
Cryptocoryne wendtii ‘Florida Sunset’
· Crypt ring
Cryptocoryne wendtii - “Red/Brown Crypt”
· Crypt ring
Limnophila aromatica
· Right next to crypt ring
Rotala macrandra var. “Mini Butterfly”
· Behind
Limnophilia rugosa
Limnophilia rugosa
· Next to Wood #5
Rotala sp. ‘Vietnam’
· In front of Wood #4
Rotala mexicana var. ‘Araguaia’
· Left of
R. sp. ‘Vietnam’
Rotala wallichii
· Left of
R. mexicana var. ‘Araguaia’
Nymphaea micrantha
· In front of
R. sp. ‘Vietnam’
Nymphoides aquatic – “Banana Plant”
· In front of right side of Wood #4
Hygrophila polysperma var. ‘Sunset’
· Back of left Hygro group
Hygrophila pinnatifida
· Between H. Brown and H. Sunset
Hygrophila sp. ‘Brown’
· Front of left Hygro group
Murdannia sp. 'Red'
· Left of
H. sp. ‘Brown’
Persecaria kawagoeanum
· In front of Wood #3
Cuphea anagallidea
· In front of Wood #2
Aponogeton madagascariensis – “Lace Leaf”
· In the gap of Wood #2
Proserpinaca palustris – “Mermaid Weed”
· In the gap of Wood #2
Ludwigia palustris
· In the gap of Wood #2
Ludwigia sphaerocarpa
·
In-between Wood #1 and Wood #2
Ludwigia sp. ‘Red’
· Behind
L. arcuata and
L. senegalensis
Ludwigia brevipes
· In front of
L. sp. ‘Red’
Ludwigia inclinata var. ‘Pantanal’
· Behind
L. arcuata and
L. senegalensis
Ludwigia arcuata
· Behind
L. inclinata var. ‘Pantanal’
Ludwigia senegalensis
· Front of genus
Background
Vallisneria sp. ‘Leopard’
· Behind Wood #6
Alternanthera reineckii var. “Variegated”
· Back right corner
Cryptocoryne sp. Wendtii Hybrid
· If so, use to frame crypt sp. group
Nymphaea stellata – “Dwarf Lilly”
· Next to
H. corymbosa
Pogostemon stellatus var. 'Needle Leaf'
· Behind
L. aromatica
Hygrophila corymbosa – “Giant Temple”
· Bordering back right of Wood #4
Staurogyne sp. ‘Bihar’
· In front of
H. corymbosa
Cabomba furcata – “Red Cabomba”
· Behind Wood #4
Echinodorus cordifolius var. “Tropica Marble Queen”
· Behind
H. polysperma var. ‘Sunset’
Aponogeton ulvaceus
· Behind
Hygrophila polysperma var. ‘Sunset’
Myriophyllum mattogrossense var. ‘Red’
· In front of
E. sp. “Marble Queen”
Persecaria praetermissa 'Ruby'
· Behind Wood #2
Myriophyllum tuberculatum – “Red Myrio”
· To the right of Ludwigia forest
Crinum calamistratum
· Behind Wood #2 and in front of Wood #4
Ludwigia sp. ‘Unknown’
· Request ID (maybe repens x arcuata?)
· Back of right of genus
Ludwigia sp. ‘Rubin’
·
Back left of genus
Ludwigia sp. ‘Atlantis’
· In front of
L. sp. ‘Unknown’
Ludwigia repens x arcuata
· In front of
L. sp. ‘Unknown’
Ludwigia repens
· In front of
L. sp. ‘Atlantis’
Ludwigia sp. ‘Pink Ovalis’
· In front of
L. sp. ‘Rubin’
Ludwigia inclinata var. 'Tornado'
· In front of
L. sp. ‘Pink Ovalis’
Hardscape
Wood #1
·
Fissidens fontanus – Fissidens
o Allow to carpet wood
·
Anubias barteri var. ‘Petite’
o Allow to carpet wood
Wood #2
·
Fissidens fontanus – Fissidens
o Allow to carpet wood
·
Riccardia chamedryfolia – “Mini Pellia”
o Allow to look like coral
·
Microsorum pteropus var. ‘Windelov’
o Allow to carpet top of wood
Wood #3
·
Microsorum pteropus var. ‘Trident’
o Allow to carpet bottom of wood
Wood #4
·
Anubias barteri var. ‘Nana’
o On wood
·
Anubias barteri var. ‘Broad-Leaf’
o On wood
·
Anubias barteri var. ‘Coffeefolia’
o On wood
·
Anubias hastifolia
o On wood
Wood #5
·
Bucephalandra sp. “Brownie Red”
o On wood
·
Bolbitis heudelotii var. 'Mini'
o On wood
·
Taxiphyllum sp. “Flame”
o On wood
Wood #6
·
Lagenandra meeboldii ‘Pink’
o Let it grow large
lol
