my first ADA 120P planted tank journal

[edmlfc]

Re: my first ADA 120P planted tank journal

The best place to get them would be from someone on here. I don't know how much they run for in the houston lfs but here in beaumont lfs they were asking $4 per shrimp. Pretty expensive fish food. I put a few in my planted tank and the angels ate them. :(

[edmlfc]

Re: my first ADA 120P planted tank journal

http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=140663

This guy sells plants and shrimp. Shipping is $7 for 2nd day. RCS $1 each. I ordered some things from here before (with no problems).  :wink:

[MateFrio]

Re: my first ADA 120P planted tank journal

RCSes run about $1 each.  If your interested and live in the NW Houston give me a PM.  These are mixed from Mikes big order and some EK had.

[finfan]

Re: my first ADA 120P planted tank journal

i got a pair of spotted blue-eye rainbowfish today (Pseudomugil gertrudae), they are so cool looking, at first my angels were after them to make snack out of them, but eventually they realized they can't really catch them, even the harlequins were harassing them, but now they have all settled, their colors are still a little drab, hopefully they will settle in soon and colors will get better

[finfan]

Re: my first ADA 120P planted tank journal

quick update

my angel pair spawned again      this time on amazon leaf

mom w/ eggs



dad w/ eggs



the pair "what should we name them"



here's all my ocats having a party on the nana, i love my ocats, this is the most lively badge of ocats i have ever had

[wesleydnunder]

Re: my first ADA 120P planted tank journal

Lookin' really good, finfan. Congrats on the spawn.

Mark

[mizu-chan]

Re: my first ADA 120P planted tank journal

Hey finfan. Your tanks looks beautiful! Love what you did with the amount of space you were given. And good luck with the spawning!

[finfan]

Re: my first ADA 120P planted tank journal

month 2 update

initial setup - june 15



1 month picture - july 15



current/2 month picture - aug. 15



a few more current shots





the val nana's have really grown (is not that apparent above), there are val nana's coming out of the ground all over

also, my angels decided to do it again, a new spot again this time - left back corner



from far



over the last couple of weeks i have not been able to really put much attention to the tank, so its a little unkept at this time

[lachupacabra]

Re: my first ADA 120P planted tank journal

where'd you get your p. gertrudae?!? i've been looking all over for them! i know that HAW is getting a shipment in this friday, but ive been looking for them for a month now. super nice tank btw! im so jealous and wish mine looked like this!

[finfan]

Re: my first ADA 120P planted tank journal

thanks lachupcabra, i love the p. gertrudae's they are soooo cool to watch (the blue eyes are amazing), i got them from fish ranch II (or old fish ranch) off of 59, they had some more at the time (about a month ago!!), not sure if they still do

[JeffrD]

Re: my first ADA 120P planted tank journal

Hey Finfan could you please give an update on your stand after having it for a couple of months?  
Would you buy it again?  I am thinking of ordering this exact stand for a 120 soon.  Thanks!

And your tank is looking good!

[edmlfc]

Re: my first ADA 120P planted tank journal

How about a picture update?

[myjohnson]

Re: my first ADA 120P planted tank journal

me likes what me sees......IMHO you should get some smaller leave plants to make the tank look bigger. but that's a personal taste kind of thing so....


anyhow, good looking tank!

[finfan]

This has been a long time coming, but lots have happened over the last 6 months and I could not get to it, so here is a very condensed version of what happened

the swords and val nana’s grew like crazy (w/o any CO2), took over most of the tank, here’s a few pictures, these are from nov. of 2008 (see a few posts above for comparison)





Close up of val nana’s even taking over my little opening



Even more close up of val nana multiplying



At this point I was still doing weekly 30% plus water change (the only maintenance) and despite all this growth and no other maintenance, not one strand of algae

Around dec, I was even more busy and could not do regular water changes, the val nana’s clogged up everything and swords grew even more, I trimmed and cut one bucket of val nana every week, and it grew even more, shot all over the place and then all of a sudden the tank was taken over by algae, by mid jan, there was barely any place in the tank for fish to swim and I was getting tired of how it was looking

So I became bold this Sunday and decided enough is enough, so I just started uprooting the swords, there was soooooo much root, each plant took out a huge clump of aquasoil, the entire tank looked like thick mud by the time I was done uprooting the swords and nanas, then I had to wait 4 hours for the water to clear enough for me to do some rescaping, all this time all the fish were still there (I was paying there was no bad gas leaking from substrate)

I moved around the rocks, tried to contain the aquasoil that was now all over the tank, replanted the nanas and replanted some existing crypts and crypts from my 30gallon

My tank is still ridden with algae and nerite eggs (something new and I didn’t know about egg pest, they will be out of there very soon), so please bare in mind this is a work in progress and it will take some time for this new setup to set in, so here you go – pix from today







Below are some current residents (pix taken today)

Here’s the king of the tank – the bigdaddy



With the mrs



The blue ram male



Blue ram female



Gold ram male



The honey gourami male blowing his nest, these guys are feisty and blow water above water line



My only pleco, still don’t know what type he is, he has never grown past 3 inches and is the best algae eater ever

[J-WS6]

very nice finfan!