Planted Tank Update

[kagome]

I've made some changes to my planted tank and some of the plants have grown in.

This is still a low tech set up. No CO₂, only gets Seachem Flourish Comprehensive twice a week.

Here's an overall shot of the tank

fullsizeoutput_46 by Katherine Morgan, on Flickr


The Ludwigia repens (red plant in the background) now goes all the way to the top of the tank. I'm going to chop off the top half and root it in the gravel soon.

fullsizeoutput_48 by Katherine Morgan, on Flickr

I added some water wisteria (the bright green plant behind the dragon). It's one of those plants that you can see has grown each day. I'm sure I'll get sick of trimming it, but it's really reduced the amount of nitrates in the tank, so who cares.

fullsizeoutput_4a by Katherine Morgan, on Flickr

The Brazilian pennywort (coming up from behind the Buddha) has made a full recovery after I got scissor happy with it and the Java fern in the far right is growing like crazy and putting off babies.

fullsizeoutput_4c by Katherine Morgan, on Flickr

After years of being nearly impossible to photograph, Pennywise the Clown Pleco now happily sits on the dragon and lets me take pictures. No idea why, but it's cool.

fullsizeoutput_44 by Katherine Morgan, on Flickr

fullsizeoutput_42 by Katherine Morgan, on Flickr

Here are the rainbows. They are really starting to get some color. Even these shots don't do them justice. If you click on this picture, it will take you to my Flickr and you can see the short video I took. Unfortunately, ProBoards doesn't seem to play nice with a video posted on Flickr.
fullsizeoutput_4e by Katherine Morgan, on Flickr

[Carl]

Looking Good!


I followed your link to the video too

I like that you have nice plant growth WITHOUT CO2.
I know that CO2 can provide explosive growth, but I have had good growth too long before the crazy amounts of CO2 fad started a few years back.

BTW, I love the pleco on the dragon

Carl

[kagome]

Jun 24, 2019 9:24:02 GMT -5 Carl said:

I like that you have nice plant growth WITHOUT CO2.
I know that CO2 can provide explosive growth, but I have had good growth too long before the crazy amounts of CO2 fad started a few years back.

I know that folks do get some crazy growth with CO₂, but it's expensive, one more thing to keep track of and you risk overdosing and killing your livestock. I'd rather pick plants that don't need it and skip the extra hassle and expense. I drop enough money into this hobby without all of that added on!

Jun 24, 2019 9:24:02 GMT -5 Carl said:

BTW, I love the pleco on the dragon

Carl

That is his new favorite place to perch! He's there every day now. I love it, too.

It used to be so hard to even get a look at him much less a picture and now he just hangs out there all the time.

[Carl]

Jun 24, 2019 14:13:47 GMT -5 kagome said:

Jun 24, 2019 9:24:02 GMT -5 Carl said:

I like that you have nice plant growth WITHOUT CO2.
I know that CO2 can provide explosive growth, but I have had good growth too long before the crazy amounts of CO2 fad started a few years back.

I know that folks do get some crazy growth with CO₂, but it's expensive, one more thing to keep track of and you risk overdosing and killing your livestock. I'd rather pick plants that don't need it and skip the extra hassle and expense. I drop enough money into this hobby without all of that added on!

The risk of overdosing and killing your livestock is a major reason I am not a a big fan. This is also an expense when one considers the cost of livestock.
This is why when I did use CO2, I mostly used the Sanders of Germany Aerosol CO2 injection systems. At worst you would forget to inject some days and plant growth would not be all that great for some specimens. Overdosing was impossible

Carl

[devonjohnsgard]

Looks great! I've done co2 and non co2 and thing there's benefits to both. Co2 does require much more hands on.

[kagome]

Jun 25, 2019 10:59:04 GMT -5 devonjohnsgard said:

Looks great! I've done co2 and non co2 and thing there's benefits to both. Co2 does require much more hands on.

Yeah, maybe if this was my only tank I'd consider it. But with running three 40 gallon tanks currently, plus all the other craziness in my life, I just don't think it's that practical. Especially since I've been getting results I'm really happy with without it.

[Carl]

Jun 27, 2019 20:25:43 GMT -5 kagome said:

Jun 25, 2019 10:59:04 GMT -5 devonjohnsgard said:

Looks great! I've done co2 and non co2 and thing there's benefits to both. Co2 does require much more hands on.

Yeah, maybe if this was my only tank I'd consider it. But with running three 40 gallon tanks currently, plus all the other craziness in my life, I just don't think it's that practical. Especially since I've been getting results I'm really happy with without it.

This is/was my feeling too.
In my case I had 100s of aquariums under my care at any given time during my service days.
If a customer wanted to perform and take responsibility for CO2 use, then fine, but I would not take responsibility fr its use.

Carl