My tank is growing wild!

[Oxquo]

I am not sure what is different, for 3 years My osirus has had about 2 leaves. One day I restarted My planted tank out of boredom, taking into account growth I sparsely planted some val, green and red wendtii an aponogeton or 4 and My pathetic 4 small leaved osirus. I never had much luck with swords. I went with 4" of organic soil, peat and sphagnum mix and layed on an inch and a half of gravel. being lowlight plants I went with t-8 double tube and a gallon jug CO2 disperser. The lights are 14 hours a day and they are two cheap 48" zellers plant and grow bulbs. I add only one cap of iron by seachem every weekly water change. But wholly snap batman. My osirus is growing clean out of the tank. A new leaf forming every 2-3 days and almost like a flowering aponogeton the leaf takes one day to break the 20" tank surface. Could there be nuclear waste in My water? What a beauty that plant is. Not all plants are doing as well though, I found the crypt spiralis is getting dark green fuzzballs on it. At this point there are three huge leaves laying on top, the leaves are almost twice as big as My hand as the pictures will show I have one small red leaf about 3" out of the water and a new red one coming up, I am thinking of putting a side light fixture on so it won't become light deprived as the leaves cover the surface. I would love to move this plant to My 30" tall tank but how would it fare? I would likely change over the whole bottom of the 40 gallon tall. My only fish in there is a Dovii about 5". The one thing I realise is much different is the CO2 is alot more than before, I don't regulate it except by eye and keep it steady. The tanks inhabitants are 5 bristlenose, 3 cherry barbs 2 angels and a sturisoma aureum. Anyways the substrate is pretty soft but messy, would you attempt to move it???

and the leaves are just awesome color, the red seems to inhabit up to 3 leaves at a time unlike the regular 1.

[jvision]

Nice! :drool:

With a soil substrate, moving that thing will make a mess, and likely cause an algae outbreak that you'll have to battle for a few weeks. Change the amount of time your light is on, and it'll send up a flower stalk. The flowers will turn into plantlets, which you'll be able to plant in your taller tank... won't take too long for them to get big, too.

BTW, it's probably the constant supply of CO2 that is giving this guy the energy to go gang-busters.

I wouldn't go w. soil substrate w. a dovii, it'll likely dig it all up, making a big mess! One thing that could work, tho is planting your sword(s) in clay pots - bit of sand/gravel, bit of soil, topped off w. more sand/gravel.

BTW, good to see you around! Don't know if you remember me, but you introduced me to this site 1st around the time it first started. I lost it for a bit, but am so glad to have found it again!! :thumbs:

[Oxquo]

Yeah it's been along time, I am considering a move back to Edmonton, so I may just open up a few of My empty tanks again, I had shut down 34 out of 40 due to lack of hobby here. I'll try the light deally as I said I never had luck with swords but this one is rockin. I was thinking about a clay pot in the dovii tank or just removing the dovii and planting it, he's pretty docile and pathetic I really doubt he'd dig but He may in new substrate. At the same time the tank looks great but I do have to uproot some of the val, once a tank filler now a pain in the arse. Anyways we'll give the lighting a try and see if babies happen, 8 hours is good or should I drop more, and what about temp, it's at 76F now. thanks.

[jvision]

You don't need to change it that much. Probably 10-12 hrs/day would work.

[Oxquo]

I'll try it, the leaf in the picture that just broke the surface yesterday is already the size of the one I held up in the other pic and a new one is on it's way up. I have always had CO2 on though, I changed to a formented fruit CO2 now in this mix I used feed corn and 3 apples, I find the CO2 last longer this way. I don't know if anything can really explain the growth. I think I am deciding to move the dovii and plant My spiralis and aponogetons in the tall tank with a single fixture, they always do best under the lower light conditions, although I have young aponogetons coming out now, they just don't look as strong as they should. I wonder if the fruit CO2 made the difference? could something else be going down the lines into the tank? I started using it upon buying a wine kit to make apple cider, then I remembered the good pulpy stuff we use to make at bible camp as kids, and the fizz it made. The first batch I ran strong for a month with apples and sugar only and a tablespoon of yeast. It still would have bubbled beyond that but I sent it through filtration and drank to old times. Now thats what I call clever aquarium maintenance, hahahaha. Well we'll see how it all goes, I cut the light down and maybe the shade will help the aponogetons a little, who knows. With any luck I may be a Daddy again soon lol.

[jvision]

I'll try it, the leaf in the picture that just broke the surface yesterday is already the size of the one I held up in the other pic and a new one is on it's way up. I have always had CO2 on though, I changed to a formented fruit CO2 now in this mix I used feed corn and 3 apples, I find the CO2 last longer this way. I don't know if anything can really explain the growth. I think I am deciding to move the dovii and plant My spiralis and aponogetons in the tall tank with a single fixture, they always do best under the lower light conditions, although I have young aponogetons coming out now, they just don't look as strong as they should. I wonder if the fruit CO2 made the difference? could something else be going down the lines into the tank? I started using it upon buying a wine kit to make apple cider, then I remembered the good pulpy stuff we use to make at bible camp as kids, and the fizz it made. The first batch I ran strong for a month with apples and sugar only and a tablespoon of yeast. It still would have bubbled beyond that but I sent it through filtration and drank to old times. Now thats what I call clever aquarium maintenance, hahahaha. Well we'll see how it all goes, I cut the light down and maybe the shade will help the aponogetons a little, who knows. With any luck I may be a Daddy again soon lol.

I've never used a fruit reactor... now you've got me thinkin :shifty:

When you use DIY CO2, a bit of disolved sugar (in water vapour) goes down the tube. That's why you'll often see a white film build up at the exit of the tube. Nothing serious - just a small bacterial culture that Otos love to munch on.

Keeping the light intensity the same on your main tank, and fiddling with the day length will get your Osiris to flower every time - I've flowered mine about 4 times, just by moving the tank - a complete accident!

[Oxquo]

I set it from 14 to 10 for now, hopefully it will happen soon as we are hoping to move quickly here. Speaking of moving back to Edmonton, where the heck is everyone? good to see the group growing though and and lots of new members, can't wait to get the fishroom back in full force.Especially to be able to get some plants, You seldomly see live plants around here unless they came out of this house so I'm pretty bored with mine as of late, that is until this sword began. I am in the midst of a North American planted tank as well got some cool local pond plants that are doing great, really nice stuff and some of it is even doing well in My SA tank. Anywhoos we'll see how the light change works, I mean in hours, I won't dim the lighting unless the leaves on top do it for me. Strangely the original 4 leaves are still on there and are only about 3" about a 3rd of what the new leaves are, I will likely pinch them off today, no sense feeding bad growth. see ya round and thanks again