Re: And then there was an empty 33G long tank!

Livebearer 2013-10-23, 01:11

Donna,
That tanks LOOKS AWSOME! Were did U get the rock from? It looks a lot like rock I've collected from the Sun lakes area?? Rocks from this area are great for aquatic use and the lakes are of hard water in that area. Watch out for the dreded algee bloom though! I would suggest a small pleco or two... you have just inspired me and all of the input here as well. I have a 33L which has been sitting empty for over a year now,, hmmmm I guess it's time to get to work...

**MRTom** 2013-10-23, 01:33

I keep being amazed by how much I love that 33. It is my favorite tank of all the ones I saw while out there!

cichlid-gal 2013-10-23, 08:50

Livebearer wrote:Donna,
That tanks LOOKS AWSOME! Were did U get the rock from? It looks a lot like rock I've collected from the Sun lakes area?? Rocks from this area are great for aquatic use and the lakes are of hard water in that area. Watch out for the dreded algee bloom though! I would suggest a small pleco or two... you have just inspired me and all of the input here as well. I have a 33L which has been sitting empty for over a year now,, hmmmm I guess it's time to get to work...

If you are looking at some of my other tanks, yes, the rock came from around here...actually from the canal bank of the big irrigation canal. There are huge piles of basalt rock along the canal bank from when they dug the canals. Tons of the stuff. It's heavy stone and really dense. And this tank, the 33G, has Seiryu stone in it. A couple of my tanks also have river rock in them from the local landscape yard.

ALGAE ... good comment and now I have questions. I've seen others comment on algae blooms but I'm not sure what to do to head that off. In my cichlid tanks I've had the diatom algae bloom in newly setup tanks. Not sure what to expect in a heavily planted tank as far an algae bloom. Do you get diatom blooms also or green blooms? I don't want to put a pleco in this tank as it will destroy the plants. Anyone have recommendations here or what I should be watching for and doing if I see something in particular?

MRTom wrote:I keep being amazed by how much I love that 33. It is my favorite tank of all the ones I saw while out there!

Tom...maybe you can set up one of those tanks you are getting from me with some more plants or even make that 55G a planted tank. And thanks for loving this tank...!

fishNAbowl 2013-10-23, 09:14

cichlid-gal wrote:

ALGAE ... good comment and now I have questions. I've seen others comment on algae blooms but I'm not sure what to do to head that off. In my cichlid tanks I've had the diatom algae bloom in newly setup tanks. Not sure what to expect in a heavily planted tank as far an algae bloom. Do you get diatom blooms also or green blooms? I don't want to put a pleco in this tank as it will destroy the plants. Anyone have recommendations here or what I should be watching for and doing if I see something in particular?

It is very possible and probably inevitable to get algae's and diatoms in this tank. It's all about balance here. Once the balance is correct the development of algae's and diatoms will be minimal if not completely absent.

This is a 30 gallon so you may get away with a bristle nosed Pleco, or rubber lipped Pleco . These two fish will not destroy your plants. A school of Otocinclus in that long tank after it's well established will help. Algae eating shrimp work well with Otocinclus.

**MRTom** 2013-10-23, 12:44

I agree with fishnabowl, once the tank is going, algae blooms should be manageable. Even the algae on the plants should be ok (though some of us have taken to appreciate the benefits of some algae in the tank. Smile

) Once you start to see growth on the glass, you can use that as a sign of too much light/fertilization, and you can crank the values down accordingly. I would just say don't worry about it, let the algae come, and deal with it when it does. Falling down is part of learning to ride a bike!

cichlid-gal wrote:
MRTom wrote:I keep being amazed by how much I love that 33. It is my favorite tank of all the ones I saw while out there!
Tom...maybe you can set up one of those tanks you are getting from me with some more plants or even make that 55G a planted tank. And thanks for loving this tank...!

You read my mind :)my plan is to make the 125 a huge cold water nature aquarium display with tons of seiryuu, fissidens and obscene amounts of tiny fish. Cherry barbs vs white clouds are the current candidates. Cory will be happy as I buy all his seiryuu and fissidens stock! I may go with a few different plans though... cabomba is working well for me now, and fishyladdy gave me some weird looking local moss I need to id that would work even better than fissidens and grows super fast... planted tanks sure make things more interesting!

pbmax 2013-10-23, 12:47

I've found that shrimp help a lot with initial algae bloom control. I had diatom and fuzz algae outbreaks in my dry start tank and the chocolate (neocaridina) shrimp I added brought it under control pretty quickly. I imagine a few amano would do an even better job.

cichlid-gal 2013-11-08, 23:06

Week 3-4 update. It's BHA time...beautiful brown hair algae growth going on. I'm using my home made fry tank siphon to siphon the algae from the plants and wood. It does a pretty good job but doesn't get all of it. I've made some changes to the plants ... adding and subtracting some and watching some perish along the way. Basically..here's the rundown ..

Change the light from the Current LED to the Finnex LED. Still running lights 9 hours a day with a split of 4 hours, rest for 2.5 hours, the 5 hours on.

Plants I've lost:
Pennywort gone - melted
HC gone - melted
Aponogeton undulatus moved to another tank

Plants I've added:
Cryptocoryne undulata
Hygrophila pinnatifida
Pigmy Chain Sword, Echinodorus tenellus, Narrow Leaf

Other changes:
I'm also holding a wood/log with Anubias nana in the tank...it will not be staying in the tank

The ceratopteris thalictroides (water sprite) has been divided 4 times into medium sized bunches...growing like a weed

Cabomba have suffered lower leaf loss due to overgrowth of aponogeton undulatus (which was also growing like a weed) ... I moved it to my sorority tank

Ludwigia have suffered lower leaf loss.... trimmed a couple of the plants because of algae growth and that leaf loss

3x week Excel dosing daily dose
Traces have been dosed 2x
Iron has been dosed 2x
Potassium has been dosed 1x

PLANS:
Just received my dry ferts in the mail today...going to try EI dosing in this tank using the following:

20-40 Gallon Aquariums
+/- ¼ tsp KN03 3x a week
+/- 1/16 tsp KH2P04 3x a week
+/- 1/16 tsp (5ml) Trace Elements 3x a week
50% weekly water change

and here it is.....

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and the betta sorority that got the apon. undula...

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BallardFishGuy 2013-11-08, 23:36

Looking good Donna! Hope the new ferts and lights do well for you? Are you using CO2 in the tank?

cichlid-gal 2013-11-08, 23:38

Thanks Ryan!!!! No CO2...I'm hoping not to go that way for a bit yet until I get a lower need planted tank under my belt as I understand that the CO2 complicates things to some degree.

pbmax 2013-11-09, 00:50

Looks good! Smile

Be careful with "EI" dosing without CO2, especially when dosing phosphates. I turned a couple of my tanks into algae nightmares doing that. And keep an eye on your nitrates as well. Nitrate to phosphate ratio should be about 10 or 20 to 1 and phosphates should be pretty low - 0.5ppm or less.

BillHN 2013-11-09, 03:54

pbmax wrote:Looks good!

Be careful with "EI" dosing without CO2, especially when dosing phosphates. I turned a couple of my tanks into algae nightmares doing that. And keep an eye on your nitrates as well. Nitrate to phosphate ratio should be about 10 or 20 to 1 and phosphates should be pretty low - 0.5ppm or less.

cichlid-gal 2013-11-09, 07:42

pbmax wrote:Looks good!

Be careful with "EI" dosing without CO2, especially when dosing phosphates. I turned a couple of my tanks into algae nightmares doing that. And keep an eye on your nitrates as well. Nitrate to phosphate ratio should be about 10 or 20 to 1 and phosphates should be pretty low - 0.5ppm or less.

Ahhh...I didn't know that. Thank you so much for the heads up pbmax. Well, if I stay with the liquid ferts what is a good dosing regime for them? Is daily Excel dosing necessary? Do you just watch your plants to make that decision? I haven't started the dry ferts yet so I can hold off on that for a bit to see if the liquid ferts will work good. Someone had recommended the EI dosing as being a good way to go so I was game to try it but I don't want to have to do CO2 at this time

pbmax 2013-11-09, 11:18

Dry ferts are great - they're super cheap and they get the job done well. But you also have to know exactly how much you want to dose and what your nutrient targets are in order to use them properly. It's been a bit of trial and error for me over the last year or so, but so far I've found that less is more. Wink

Start here:

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And shoot for something slightly below "EI low light / weekly". Then if things are going well in a few weeks or you're seeing signs of deficiency and algae growth isn't going nutty, start stepping up dosage. You can use a nitrate test to make sure you're not dosing your nitrates though the roof. An API phosphate test ($8 on Amazon) can help you make sure you're not over-dosing your phosphates.

I would add less than 1ppm per week of phosphates, personally, at first. If I had it to do over again I'd buy a phosphate test kit years ago. I had a tank with 5ppm phosphates - it's no wonder my algae was off the charts! affraid

That said, you can't go wrong dosing at recommended starting points with seachem liquid ferts. But you can pay a lot more money.

I dose excel a couple of times a week. I see it more as an algicide than a "liquid carbon supplement" or whatever they say it is. Excel is a toxin - it can help in small amounts, but one has to be careful with it. I don't dose it in tanks where I have snails I care about, for one. I'm sure there are folks on here who would disagree with me, but after using it for about 3 years now the only real benefit I've seen is slightly less algae. It doesn't kill shrimp at recommended dosage levels, but my mystery snails hate the stuff. I think of it as an algae-prevention safety-net for imbalanced dosing of macro ferts.

I don't use CO2 in any of my tanks.

I'll dig up what I dose shortly and post it. Gotta do the math first. Smile

cichlid-gal 2013-11-09, 11:23

:)Thanks pbmax...as always...excellent info Smile

pbmax 2013-11-09, 11:39

For macro ferts, Currently, I dose KNO3 and KH2PO4 2x a week to add:

3 ppm NO3
2 ppm K
.68 ppm N
0.3 ppm PO4

With each dose. That's turned out to be too many phosphates in some tanks - my plants aren't consuming enough and/or I'm over-feeding to the point where phosphates in the food are becoming a problem (this isn't uncommon, from what I've read). My nitrates are also high in the tanks where the phosphates are high - this is almost certainly due to over-feeding.

You really can't overdose K, so I've switched to dosing just K2SO4 for a target of 10ppm per dose in my tanks where nitrates and phosphates are high. It's a fairly nigh dose of K, but I have some leaf holes that I'm hoping to fix.

To answer your earlier question - I keep an eye on algae growth as well as plant growth, holes in leaves, etc. as indicators of possible dosing issues. Right now I'm experiencing an unexplained die-off of plants (mostly pygmy chain sword) in one of my nicer tanks that I'm attempting to resolve - quite possibly due to high nitrate and phosphate levels that I'm actively working to reduce. This happened when I first tried "EI"-level dosing and obviously had no idea what I was doing. Wink

So - keep an eye on nitrate and phosphate levels. Don't let these get too high. And keep your nitrates at 10 - 20x your phosphates.

pbmax 2013-11-09, 11:40

cichlid-gal wrote::)Thanks pbmax...as always...excellent info

You're very welcome; hopefully you can avoid the mistakes I've made! Shocked

cichlid-gal 2013-11-09, 11:58

I'll just be happy if I can minimize things...and I have a phosphate test kit. We got that way back when we first started our tanks. It's just been sitting and waiting for a job.

cichlid-gal 2013-12-18, 23:52

Update...tank was overrun with brown stringy algae. Lost a number of plants. Stopped all dosing and put some snails in. Still had huge amounts of algae which I siphoned each day with my fry siphon. Could barely keep up. Cleaned the tank, raised the light, added some new plants and some mollies....the tank has been holding for about a week now without a huge outbreak of the brown stuff.

Brought home some more plants and added them today. Baby mollies born last Thursday are doing great. Also added some Congo Tetras (lost one of my rams, moved the other so we will see how it does in another tank...it didn't like the mollies at all). All water parameters have been 0 and nitrates are minimal. Haven't tested the phosphates in a while (should probably do that).

Going to do this one step at a time. Every few days (maybe every 3rd) going to do a daily dose of Excell. Putting root tabs in for the swords. No EI dosing until things stablize.

Wish me luck...here's the update

**PokeSephiroth** 2013-12-19, 00:54

Good luck, Donna! It was a pleasure seeing you two last Tuesday Smile

**Aquarium Co-Op** 2013-12-19, 02:12

Wow, where did you get those black mollies with the long pectoral fins? I want some Smile

cichlid-gal 2013-12-19, 08:54

Aquarium Co-Op wrote:Wow, where did you get those black mollies with the long pectoral fins? I want some

Petco finds...I love the white on them...stands out so. They have white mouths and white around the eyes too. These were the last two in the tank...wish they had had more.

cichlid-gal 2013-12-30, 17:26

Update...two weeks later. Still looking good. I've been dosing the dry ferts again so hoping this time I start to get some growth in the tank. The Congo tetras where trying to spawn this morning but the mollies and pleco were chasing them everywhere (I think they might have been eating the eggs right behind them...hmmm...will have to think on this a bit and see if I want to try to get a keepable spawn from the Congo's). It was fun to watch them though. I'll try to piece together a little video later. Anyway...here's the tank update.

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bronzefighter 2013-12-30, 17:50

Wow, that looks great! What is that plant spilling over the top?

cichlid-gal 2013-12-30, 20:55

Thanks bronzefighter. The plant is a mini peace lily. I water hardened it in a window after removing all the soil and putting it into some water. It's been in the tank now a couple of weeks and I've already had to trim the roots. It loves it. I have it rubberbanded to a piece of manzanita wood and try to keep the crown out of the water so that just the roots are beneath the surface. So far so good.

fishNAbowl 2013-12-30, 21:40

cichlid-gal wrote:
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.oO 33 long? I W A N T O N E . . . .

Looks good Donna.

dwarfpike 2013-12-30, 23:07

fishNAbowl wrote: .oO 33 long? I W A N T O N E . . . .

33 Gallon Longs rock. Especially for dwarf cichlids. Will always rather have one than a 55 gallon any day.

cichlid-gal - I like how it looks like two different tanks ... the bright heavy planted side and the almost blackwater dark side.

cichlid-gal 2013-12-31, 00:10

Thanks gents...and yes, I hadn't really noticed how strong the light difference was on each side...the one side has floating plants...the other side has too much flow for them. I've thinned the floaters once already...probably need to do that again...

Livebearer 2014-01-04, 04:04

cichlid_gal,
I was looking at the last pic U posted and wondered if you have the center brace still in-tact?
What is the floater plants on the top right? seems to be blocking out alot of light in that area...I should set up my 33L. as it still sitting in the carprot wrapped up in a tarp!

cichlid-gal 2014-01-04, 08:18

Livebearer wrote:cichlid_gal,
I was looking at the last pic U posted and wondered if you have the center brace still in-tact?
What is the floater plants on the top right? seems to be blocking out alot of light in that area...I should set up my 33L. as it still sitting in the carprot wrapped up in a tarp!

Yes, the tank has a center brace but the plants can pass under it for the most part. It's the higher flow on the left side of the tank that keeps the plants at bay over there as that is where the eheim spraybar exits ... from the left rear of the tank towards the front so it pushes anything in its path out of its way. I just thinned all those plants and the lighting looks better.

For floaters I have water lettuce, salvinia natans, and showing up with a force .... the dreaded duckweed. I think it came in on the salvinia as I never had it with my water lettuce alone in my other tanks.

And yes...get the 33G set up. I really like this size tank.

cichlid-gal 2014-01-27, 16:45

Update....3 weeks later.

Still using dry ferts, added CO2 (Fluval 88g canister setup ... I had looked at the CO2 in December but decided to wait and in January took the plunge). I don't even know all the terminology for CO2 but the bubble counter is doing 11-15 bubbles per 10 seconds most days. Fish seem to do ok with this. I do have to turn the unit on in the mornings and off at night (don't like this but didn't feel ready for a DIY co2 setup or purchasing something fancier as this is my 1st attempt using it). So plants are growing lots. I have to clean out the floaters regularly. I still have that algae moss stuff but its not spreading in the tank...its just growing. The congo tetras love to spawn over it (i'll have to get a morning video of them...its beautiful).

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I've had to prune the lily as I had stems almost to the surface (pruned off 3 of them the other day...trying to keep it lower in the tank)

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and this one plant has this happening to it...I'm not sure what is causing this (I found some info that seemed to point to possible potassium problems? I also dose macros every other day along with the dry ferts...I wonder if I need to up the dosage on something?

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fishNAbowl 2014-01-28, 00:14

Tiger lotus, pretty Smile

my fav! I like the even lighting throughout the tank, we can see the while tank now Smile

The plant you are enquiring about with the holes, do you know the name of it?

And that crazy terrarium fern, 4th picture down on the right- Have you gotten that to grow any?

cichlid-gal 2014-01-28, 00:31

fishNAbowl wrote:Tiger lotus, pretty :)my fav! I like the even lighting throughout the tank, we can see the while tank now

The plant you are enquiring about with the holes, do you know the name of it?

And that crazy terrarium fern, 4th picture down on the right- Have you gotten that to grow any?

Thanks fishNA bowl but the lighting is still a bit brighter on the left side of the tank as the floaters seem to congregate on the right side. I actually have the light raised a little higher on the left side.

I think the plant with the holes is Temple (Narrow Leaf), Hygrophila corymbosa? When you look at the full tank shot it is the tall plant on the left hand side kinda forward ... tall. It is reaching the surface.

hmmm... the fern. I do think it has grown in size recently, not much, but some. Although I could be imagining that Smile

fishNAbowl 2014-01-28, 00:43

I am not sure what could be causing the holes. They look as if they are older leaves though(?). If they are older leaves, lowest on the stem it maybe normal. I have a couple plants where the very 1st couple leaves are kind of crusty, brown, and have holes. The rest of the plant especially the new leaves seems healthy and vibrant.

cichlid-gal 2014-01-29, 21:27

fishNAbowl wrote:I am not sure what could be causing the holes. They look as if they are older leaves though(?). If they are older leaves, lowest on the stem it maybe normal. I have a couple plants where the very 1st couple leaves are kind of crusty, brown, and have holes. The rest of the plant especially the new leaves seems healthy and vibrant.

I moved things around a bit today Chad...cleaned up the bad leaves and trimmed some plants and replanted. Also got rid of more floaters as I seem to be overrun with them...they just keep filling up the tank. So I'll see how the leaves on those plants do now. Thanks for the input.

fishNAbowl 2014-01-29, 22:04

While manicuring my 140 I have a tendency to clip off old , yellowing, leaves with holes in them. There is a plant deficiency forum here. It is a STICKY at the top of the plants and inverts section. However, I would still wait to see if its epidemic. If you see more then perhaps contemplate adding ferts.

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cichlid-gal 2014-02-21, 18:27

Update time....the tank has been doing well. I found that my nitrates were through the roof on it so have been doing water changes and no dry ferts to get it down again. Today it was down below 20 again. Water change done so tomorrow I will start the fert dosing again at 1/4 strength...and monitor to see how that works. If its not enough...I'll bump to 1/2 strength and so on till I get the right balance and right amounts.

I did make some plant changes so I'm not sure how much they contributed to the changes. I also have Eco-complete substrate and maybe the dry ferts are just too much given what is already in the substrate. I had pulled out a big Echinodoris major plant as I had two behind the rock on the left. I also removed a very large cryptocoryne from the center of the tank. I did add 2 new swords...an Echinordorus Kleiner Bar and an Echinodorus Frans Stoffels. The Kleiner Bar is already coloring up nicely and the Frans Stoffels is also putting on some color. I also added a small bunch of Rotala macrandra. I have it directly under the light in the center of tank behind what I thought was a ludwigia I had previously. I'll just have to see how the R. macrandra turns out. And last but not least...I threw in a couple of moss balls...Woot! Maybe stirring up the substrate with the new plantings and removed plants caused the nitrate to spike also. Still not sure ... so will be watching for now.

My Hygrophila corymbosa I pruned the longest stems from it and putting it into some H. corymbosa that that was shorter bushier clumps and now I have some beautiful pink showing in the topmost leaves on these. They seem to be remaining very compact (the bushes)...which I like as my tank is rather short.

I have a nice melon sword that is kinda hiding in the back of the tank that is looking pretty good too.

OK...so that's about it for now...so here it is

Full tank shot
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H. corymbosa
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E. Kleiner Bar
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Close up selected plants
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Enjoy!

pbmax 2014-02-21, 20:39

Looks great! I don't see any algae; nicely done so far. Plus One

fishNAbowl 2014-02-21, 21:27

HEY, is that Ammnnia praetermissa AKA Nesaea sp. "red" on the far left?!

Everything looks great Donna. Planted tanks brings a whole new element into aquatics, and can be addicting.

cichlid-gal 2014-02-21, 21:41

Thanks pbmax...and I do have algae...that strange hairy kind...in the same family as the moss ball. It had to have come into the tank from some of the plants or a plant I put in. I have no idea but it is managable so far. And those E. major's get a little algae on the top tips near the surface and lights. My dwarf sag which have multiplied 10 fold have a little algae too but I'm not complaining.

fishNAbowl wrote:HEY, is that Ammnnia praetermissa AKA Nesaea sp. "red" on the far left?!

Everything looks great Donna. Planted tanks brings a whole new element into aquatics, and can be addicting.

Chad thank you so much...and I think so about the N. sp. "red" and don't ask me where that lonely stem came from...probably a big bag of plants I got from Cory's a while back...either there or from The Fish Store or Dennys as those are the only places I have bought plants at and I know it wasn't a auction buy and I really don't think I bought it at all as I only have that one stem. I stuck it in the corner because it looked pretty...LOL...it's hanging in there...not thriving but not wilting or losing leaves either.

If I can get it growing I'd be happy to share Hug

pbmax 2014-02-21, 22:46

cichlid-gal wrote:Thanks pbmax...and I do have algae...that strange hairy kind...in the same family as the moss ball. It had to have come into the tank from some of the plants or a plant I put in. I have no idea but it is managable so far. And those E. major's get a little algae on the top tips near the surface and lights. My dwarf sag which have multiplied 10 fold have a little algae too but I'm not complaining.

Oh good.

I always feel like a doof with all the time I've put in on planted tanks and all the algae I have. cyclops

And yeah, I'm fighting the clado too. It's nasty stuff.... not unattractive in some settings, but mostly just a pain. Good luck to you! You're doing a great job so far.

cichlid-gal 2014-02-21, 23:03

pbmax wrote:
cichlid-gal wrote:Thanks pbmax...and I do have algae...that strange hairy kind...in the same family as the moss ball. It had to have come into the tank from some of the plants or a plant I put in. I have no idea but it is managable so far. And those E. major's get a little algae on the top tips near the surface and lights. My dwarf sag which have multiplied 10 fold have a little algae too but I'm not complaining.

Oh good. I always feel like a doof with all the time I've put in on planted tanks and all the algae I have.

And yeah, I'm fighting the clado too. It's nasty stuff.... not unattractive in some settings, but mostly just a pain. Good luck to you! You're doing a great job so far.

That algae seems to love the seiryu stones...it is growing in the cracks and crevices...the fish love to spawn over it...I just pinch it out when it gets bigger. I'm hoping it doesn't spread.

**Betty** 2014-02-21, 23:44

It's looking very nice! I love the dimensions of the tank. I don't think I've ever seen one of those.

fishNAbowl 2014-02-22, 01:23

cichlid-gal wrote: wrote:Chad thank you so much...and I think so about the N. sp. "red" and don't ask me where that lonely stem came from...probably a big bag of plants I got from Cory's a while back...either there or from The Fish Store or Dennys as those are the only places I have bought plants at and I know it wasn't a auction buy and I really don't think I bought it at all as I only have that one stem. I stuck it in the corner because it looked pretty...LOL...it's hanging in there...not thriving but not wilting or losing leaves either.

If I can get it growing I'd be happy to share

I like to share too, and appreciate the thought. Smile

cichlid-gal 2014-02-22, 09:16

Betty wrote:It's looking very nice! I love the dimensions of the tank. I don't think I've ever seen one of those.

Thanks Betty...the 33G long tanks are getting to be some of my favorite tanks. You get the floorspace which most fish love and not a lot of wasted top space. I'm waiting for one of John's next stand project...a double stack for 2 of these.

cichlid-gal 2014-03-21, 12:06

Another update...one month out from last...everything is getting a lot fuller and in such a short tank I think I am going to have some problems. My sword in the back left corner is bending over the surface and probably covering half the tank. My crypts are about 1/2 the height of the tank now. My microswords are taking over the front of left of the tank and getting a lot taller. Any recommendations? The right side of the tank is much more shaded than the left and alot more sparsely planted. I could possibly move some of the micro swords over there but not sure what else to do other than maybe pull some of the bigger plants?

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Guest 2014-03-21, 17:38

Wow. Beautiful tank!

pbmax 2014-03-21, 17:56

cichlid-gal wrote:Another update...one month out from last...everything is getting a lot fuller and in such a short tank I think I am going to have some problems. My sword in the back left corner is bending over the surface and probably covering half the tank. My crypts are about 1/2 the height of the tank now. My microswords are taking over the front of left of the tank and getting a lot taller. Any recommendations? The right side of the tank is much more shaded than the left and alot more sparsely planted. I could possibly move some of the micro swords over there but not sure what else to do other than maybe pull some of the bigger plants?

Indeed; your tank looks fantastic!

Yes: yank the larger plants (like the sword). It's either that or cut them back constantly, which is doable, but doesn't fit with my laissez-faire approach to aquarium gardening. Wink

cichlid-gal 2014-03-21, 18:16

SiRWesDragon wrote:Wow. Beautiful tank!

Thanks SirWes...and pbmax...I have trimmed that sword...maybe I'll do it one more time to see how it fairs. Do you guys recommend less floaters so I don't have so much shade on that other side of the tank. The fish seem to like the shadier side and hanging out under the floaters so I've been hesitant to pull too many of them. Thinking I want to move some of the micro swords over there and possible add another nice focal plant on that side...not sure what right now though.

pbmax 2014-03-21, 18:19

Fish hate bright light, I think - bright light means dead in nature. That's the balance we have to find with our planted tanks - make them beautiful and fish-friendly at the same time. I have a floating plant area in all of my tanks, but mine aren't as attractive as yours. Wink

cichlid-gal 2014-03-21, 21:26

My floaters Smile

Same plants just different locations in the tank...colors vary ... so beautiful

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