jewels

The fish have been inside for a week or two. I am going to compost this moss mat~ thought I would snap a photo first.

I will be the voice of treason here and say - Yes. There are some naturally inherent draw backs of excessive plant matter. Starting with the least significant - Physical pitfalls - Anyone remember the photo I posted with a P. furcatus hung up with a stem thru the gill Decreased swimming area; if the plants occupy 75% of the volume all the fish must get along with a 4X increase in population density. Some fish can manage, some cannot. Increased temperature - a solid green floating mat under direct light will elevate the temperature exponentially. Decreased circulation - water around the tank - CO2 distribution within the tank -as well as oxy xchange @ the suface. Respiration - On an exceptionally long night ( If I should neglect to turn on lights in the morning) plants have robbed enough oxyg. to make fish uncomfy. I would say the most significant and unsurmountable drawback to having overstuffed plants is the lower die off or Killer Umbrella effect. Eventually - regardless of amount of fixtures added - light at the substrate will be absent. After playing with a PAR metre for a couple years I have found light fall off to be the most alarming measurement I encounter. Once a plant has reached the waterline the value of the intensity of light below is devastated. For example I have a Twenty Gallon with 3 T5 bulbs and 2 40Watt spiral CFL above. That is over 100 Watts of light all sitting directly on the glass cover. The par reading at the substrate is 0.5 PAR. Dont get me wrong; I wont trim until I get a solid green block and the poor little fish have their faces squished up to the glass. It just takes gratuitous amount of light to do it. I grew this mess below with 430W HPS and direct sunlight.

ThePlantGuy. 100 caps $18.00 Free ship

Female Juv. Male

At any rate - Good show McTurtle !! One of the first plants I ever had ,,, and still a favorite.

I have completely covered a four foot 75G three pads deep. Still - no flowers. I started with one dry bulb and have a dozens babies over the years. No luck . I see this flower as quite an accomplishment !!

,,,and may never again ??? You Lucky Duck ! I have had the same plant for more than six years now - never have I seen a blossom. Both of your above photo's are fantastic by the way . The calm water and subtle reflections in the second one, I find very relaxing.

Jave fern, Anubias would work, as you know. I forgot to mention java moss. Carpet away !! As I mentioned, --Marsilae (clover) E. tennelus. Pelia. Guppy grass or tiny crypts - Parva, Willissi, These are all low-gro pavement huggers. They will survive under a single T-8. Considering every plant mention in this post Swords demand the most light - and they will kill the tenants in the basement suite I find fine clay and peat cloud a tank most effectively.

How much taller is the 37 ? I think with a single T8 the tank will measure firmly in the 'low light' realm. I am not certain you would enjoy my typical substrate choice. I have never used eco-complete. Although the photos make it look coarser than kitty litter. AP.com and Shultz's aquatic soil is a coarser size as well. Because the a fore mentioned 4 types are porous plants root to them as opposed to amongst them. Fluval makes similar product of smaller grain size. Shrimp/planted Stratum ? or something like that. I blame fish for uprooting. I am not certain any substrate specificly promotes horizontal growth tendencies - as such. Many plants will only carpet under higher light. Some will always hug low For low growing plants I would suggest Marsilae (clover) E. tennelus. Pelia. Guppy grass or tiny crypts - Parva, Willissi, etc Only trouble with those is they are sooooo slow. - If you are young; you may be to impatient to see them fill in.,,,and if you are too old you may not be around to see them fill in ! I have seen HOB's provide more uniform flow than canisters - perfectly appropriate for a planted tank. It is the trimming that will make or break this endeavor. Don"t grow anything tall enough to cast shade.

Okay, I will be the first to scoff. -05- Most of the fish varieties mentioned in this section are much larger than the killi fish; although in their own microcosm, no other label would apply. :flex: I was passing by my 20G killi tank ,and I had to look twice. I spied a killi motionless down on the substrate. The closer I looked its head looked worse and worse. For some reason I have found dead fish tend to decompose from the lips and onward. His face looked fuzzy and I was slightly discouraged, as I haven't lost any adults before. The viewing angle was disadvantageous and it took me some time to figure out what I was looking at. That gluttonous hunter had swallowed a cherry shrimp! Tail first. Lips to eyeballs. :ph43r: That shrimp was wearing a killi costume,,,, and it didn't fit. I 'm not saying they were equal in size - I was just skeptical of the sheer ambition. I was confused at first at the sight. I soon realized it was the mess of legs,feet and whatever all those numerous other frontal appendages are named that I was seeing. I don't know how it turned out. I peeked in a few times afterwards but did not see them again. The tank is stuff full of plants( even by my standards) and very dimly lit. It got me thinking and poking around with a flashlight. I tossed in a dozen juv. killis a few months ago into the shrimp only tank. I should have been paying closer attention. :chair: the tiny killis that wouldn't seem to grow are now huge! And the hundreds of shrimp seem to be few and far between. Those stinkers cleaned me out. More of story time then a specific question,, so I'll query 'ya this. I am quite certain the shrimp perished. It was to in to become out. Does the fish survive this? :well: Near infinite generations have gotten them along this far. The digestion process alone baffles me. Can a fish choke/suffocate ?

I think you can add that stuff immediately. ( theoretically ) It will cycle as well. That will give you a chance to rearrange everything 6 times whilst you patiently wait for fish !!

Any formula would contain more magic than math. Every aquarium is different. Start with as many stems as you can muster. A day (photo-period) consisting of 6-8 hours with one strip, with a two hour "bump" from the other strip. In my experience time (overduration) grows more algae than intensity (overbright).

Hard to find ( harder to read )

Whatch'ya got under the hood? What does Gramma put in those cookies? How to make a mud pie ? I don't think the fish only folk have half the fun setting up a tank. Substrate mixes have become a popular subject. What do you put in yours ? Any regrets ? I have tried a few. Most have been good to me . I do from time to time have issues with unsettling (colloidal) haze. I believe may be clay. I was curious enough to try zeolite and have also used hydroton. Both with apparent success . Past or present. Good or not so good. What have you tried ? I dug this peat from the side of a coulee on the Milk River. Finished mix

Just off the cuff - If your EI regime includes weekly half water replacement you wont see a deficiency.

How established is this tank? How long were the plants doing well for ? You mentioned two specific recent events - lower bioload changed fixture Any other significant changes ?

Is this a case of algae in the tubing ? Fluval is opague = no algae Eheim is translucent = algae ? ? Never had an Eheim. Have had algae :poo:

Ahh ha. Gotcha. Thanks, Blink

Am I reading this correctly ? This is published for the 48 "dual 7k ( does that mean you get two units ? ) http://finnex.ca/shop/led-aquarium-lighting/finnex-ray-ii-ds-dual-7000k/ @ 18 inches the PAR value is 73. Moving to the right, along the X axis - it shows 9 inch @ 56 PAR Is this telling us that 18 inches below the fixture and nine inches off centre the value is 56 ? I am curious.

It is tough to quantify. How long does the grass grow ? There is much that could play in. Quality, quantity and frequency of feeding may be the foremost factor. Temp. may figure in there as well. I think it is something you will develop " a feel for " I can usually tell if a shrimp was born within the last 48 hours, any longer and they start to darken. That photo I previously commented on shows a young shrimp around three times the size of the day olds, yet he is barely a week old. When you look at it that way, it happens pretty fast.

link is finicky/hit miss http://www.adana-usa.com/images/large/food%20glass.jpg

http://www.adana-usa.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=65_102&products_id=738#prettyPhoto[add]/0/ There is a Lorax rolling in his grave,,, :poo:

; ;Then I would humbly suggest you discover if the heater you have works.

Something is pushing that hardness up - fast. I have no tanks that rise more than 20 ppm a week. I recall topping up a outdoor unfiltered shrimp tank all summer- it took months (more than five) to achieve that hardness.