Fishumentaryâ„¢

I got another shipment of goodies from Big Al’s Online today including the CO2 Pro System by Red Sea. I bought this setup for the recently restructured 10 gallon tank. I know this system is probably overkill for such a small tank but I wanted something that gave me more control than the Natural Plant System I was using. I picked up a 20oz CO2 cylinder from a local paintball shop to use with this new setup. I needed something small enough to hide behind the tank and this ended up working perfectly.

Installation was quick and painless. I opted not to install the diffuser for the time being because I don’t have another open outlet to plug it into. Instead I just hooked it to a micro bubbler.

According to the CO2 monitor that was included in the kit, the natural system was not providing anywhere near the desired 10-15ppm of CO2. Within an hour of setup the tank reached the optimum CO2 level running at about 1 bubble per second.

I purchased 3 Otos from Wet Pets to help get the algae under control. Now that the Pleco is no longer in this tank there was no one to keep up algae duty.

The pleco that was living in the 10 gallon was causing a little trouble with the recently planted Rotala Indica so I decided to move him to the 40 gallon (Swamp) tank. He’ll have a lot more room in the 40 gallon plus there’s driftwood to rasp on and a lot more shady areas for him to hide. There’s also no plants in the 40 gallon that will uproot if he decides to go thrashing around the tank.

I had to remove both the Cabomba furcata and Hygrophila lacustris from the 10 gallon tank this morning because they had almost completely melted. The condition of the plants made removal a bit messy. They weren’t in great condition when they arrived but the stems still felt firm and a few of the leaves were in descent shape so I though they might come around. The plants were free so it’s not a huge loss. The Ludwigia narrow leaf has new growth already so I’m happy about that.

I removed the Jungle Val. and Sag. Subulata from the 40 gallon (Swamp) tank today. All of the plants that I removed were in perfect condition they had just grown too big for the tank and their long leaves were affecting the growth of some of the other plants. The longest of the Jungle Val. leaves was 5 feet and 1 inch wide. Unfortunately I did not have another tank with sufficient room for the plants so they had to be thrown away.

I moved the Ozelot Amazon Sword over a few inches to fill in the void left by the plants that were removed. This should give both the Ozelot and the Cryp. Wendtii “Bronze” a little breathing room.

The second half of my plant order from Hydropolis arrived today so I spent the better part of the afternoon elbow deep in aquariums.

Two of the plants I had ordered were not available and their cost was refunded a few days ago.

I ended up with the following:

• Rotala Magenta
• Ludwigia narrow leaf
• Limnophila aromatica
• Myriophyllum tuberculatum
• Cabomba furcata
• Hygrophila lacustris

All of the plants arrived in good shape, especially the Limnophila aromatica. I’ve been looking for Limnophila aromatica for quite a while now so I was very excited to get it.

I planted most of the Rotala Mangenta and Ludwigia narrow leaf in the 55 gallon tank as well as the Myriophyllum tuberculatum and Limnophila aromatica. The remaining Ludwigia narrow leaf and the Hygrophila lacustris went in to the recently renovated 10 gallon tank.

I’ve had mixed results with Rotala Mangenta so far and I’m not sure if this time around will be any different. I’ve planted around a dozen bunches of it in the 55 gallon tank in the last two months and have only ended up with about 10 stems that took root and are actually growing. Luckily the plant is very inexpensive so it’s not too disappointing when they start floating to the surface.

I timed the trimming of the 55 gallon tank with the rebuild of a 10 gallon tank I have setup. This tank has been overgrown with Sagittaria subulata for the year or so. It is the only tank that was left in tact when we moved and has basically been ignored aside from routine maintenance.

So, with literally 100s of plant “tops” from the 55 gallon tank I figured this would be a good time to replant the tank and not have to buy any new plants. I purchased a 20″ Coralife AquaLight with a 28 watt 50/50 bulb from Big Al’s Online to replace the standard 15 watt florescent light that originally came with the tank. I kept the existing Visi-Therm Stealth Heater and Whisper Power Filter. I’m using a CO2 Natural Plant System for the time being but I may upgrade to small pressurized setup like Red Sea’s Pro System. I’m a little restricted as to how much equipment I can add to the tank because it’s located on a dresser and everything is visible.

I removed all of the gravel and sand that had made up the original substrate and added a fresh bag of Eco Complete. I busted up some petrified wood pieces that I had laying around and positioned them near the center of the layout. The two Brown Wendtii in the from left came from the 55 gallon. I planted cuttings of Rotala Indica, Didiplis diandra and the remaining Nesaea Pedicellata that was left over from yesterday. The plants are very short at the moment but I don’t think it will take too long for them to take hold. My main concern at the moment is whether or not they are getting enough CO2. I’m going to add some Glosso over the next few days to fill in the front area.