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Post by barbara on May 23, 2009 11:54:04 GMT -5
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Post by murdock6701 on May 23, 2009 12:06:20 GMT -5
beautiful job! hope your plecos don't uproot everything like mine do! you guys did great! it looks so well manicured, like a garden!
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Post by barbara on May 23, 2009 12:08:30 GMT -5
Thanks John. The plecos in this tank will stay about 3 inches, and if they are well fed, they won't mess with the plants.
The reason for the manicured look is that the plants are new and young. We know we'll have some die-off, but we're hoping that the spiral Val at the back and the microsword at the front will sort of take over.
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Post by eve on May 23, 2009 13:09:37 GMT -5
that's beautiful barbara
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Post by babygeige on May 23, 2009 13:42:10 GMT -5
Looks great! I was thinking about trying a sword like that. What sort of light are you using? Are you doing CO2? The Vals will die off quite bit at first, but once they get going, you'll be trimming out baby plants like crazy.
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Post by barbara on May 23, 2009 13:54:27 GMT -5
Umm...this is all low light stuff, with no CO2. This is a low tech tank, as low as you can get. The light is 40 watts, and it's a "plant bulb" if that makes a difference.
I expect some die off, and for the Vals to grow crazily, eventually. That will be excellent, I will take extras and use in other tanks. My Madagascar cichlids love plants....to eat them, I mean, so having a good souce for that is part of my goal.
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Post by brenda on May 23, 2009 16:06:18 GMT -5
This is going to be awesome Barbara!!!!. You'll have to keep posting pictures so we can watch the progress!!!
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Post by barbara on May 23, 2009 16:18:16 GMT -5
This is going to be awesome Barbara!!!!. You'll have to keep posting pictures so we can watch the progress!!! Or the possible die off of all of the plants...LOL That is always a possibility. The next project is going to be a fairly high light, CO2 added tank. That is going to be Walt's baby, and he's going to be using a 75 gallon for this tank. Maybe we'll get him to do a thread on the build of that one, since I'll have very little to do with it.
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Post by Carl on May 23, 2009 19:29:08 GMT -5
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Post by goldenpuon on May 23, 2009 19:47:07 GMT -5
Nice setup Barbara. The plants look very healthy at the moment (though I know you said there would be a die-off period). The rock arrangement is also very nice. I bet your plecos will love it!
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Post by barbara on May 24, 2009 10:34:16 GMT -5
Thanks Carl, I'll definitely look into it if we decide to go higher light on this tank. I'm not sure what his plans are for the higher tech tank, that's going to be up to Walt.
Thanks Renee. I really like it, and can't wait to see where it is in a month. The plecos hide all of the time....drives me crazy. I'd like a sighting at least once a day.
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Post by murdock6701 on May 24, 2009 19:46:33 GMT -5
turn the light off, they'll come out.....
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Post by barbara on May 24, 2009 20:27:44 GMT -5
I've tried that, John, but they are skittish little things. Hopefully one day they'll settle down.
I made the final additions today to the tank. I got 13 Dwarf Praecox Rainbows, and an Elephant nose. The Elephant Nose may end up in a larger tank at some point, but he's only about 2 1/2 to 3 inches right now.
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Post by Carl on May 25, 2009 10:37:57 GMT -5
I really think Elephant Nose (& their SA cousins the Ghost knives) are cool fish. This should be a great addition to a planted tank.
Carl
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Post by barbara on May 25, 2009 10:42:48 GMT -5
They are one of my favorites, Carl.
Walt and I went to a LFS a while back. There was a long nosed Elephant Nose in a tank with about 100 Neon Tetras. This poor thing, had no hides, and its sonar was so messed up by all of the little fish swimming around it. It was banging into the glass, just had totally lost it. Walt and I couldn't stand it, so we paid the $30 for this fish, and took it home.
We think that the conditions it was housed in, had really caused some sort of trama. This was a fairly aggressive fish, defending its territory. Never hid, would hand feed...begged for food. I loved this fish. One day it disappeared. We hunted for it...and found it, beat up, in the cannister filter intake. Seems we had somehow gotten a crayfish in our tank, and it killed a bunch of our favorite fish. I almost gave up fish keeping at that point.
I know I'll never have another one like the one we lost, but I'll do my best by this little guy.
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Post by Carl on May 25, 2009 10:51:30 GMT -5
Well good luck with this guy, I think a planted tank is a good place for elephant nose.
I had a client with a 300 gallon planted tank that included one elephant nose along with Discus and other Amazon River fish (although the elephant nose is from West Africa, it has much in common with Amazon River fish in habitat requirements IMO).
This elephant nose thrived in this heavily planted tank.
Carl
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