hai guise im feeling better today so its time to get back into making some blogs!
gonna take a bunch of pictures after work tomorrow from my tank and the emerge growth, also doing a huge water change.
be prepare to see it soon.
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Friday, May 13, 2011
I have mono
didn't know this but i been sick for a couple of weeks, and believe i have mono ON finals week!
Jesus what luck i have, I am really sorry i am unable to update as many of you want to see new post but it just has to wait.
its actually worse now because i am an adult and never had the disease till now.
Jesus what luck i have, I am really sorry i am unable to update as many of you want to see new post but it just has to wait.
its actually worse now because i am an adult and never had the disease till now.
Saturday, May 7, 2011
Plants in the planted tank.
A common newbie mistake made is using aquatic plants that are not truly aquatic. In fact most aquatic plants use in planted tank are found outside the water in nature, their adaptation to living in flooded environments has allowed them to grow and thrive underwater. There are many different type of plants use in the planted tank, some of the most common are.
Stem plants: most stem plants are fast growing and reaches tall heights. Because of the fast growing nature they can be use to indicate water and nutrient quality, pay attention to how they grow and treat the problems you have.
Many stem plants are perfect background plants.
Some stem plants are low growing and make excellent carpet plants.
Rosette plants: Contains sword plants and Cryptocorynes, most are use as a mid foreground plants and make perfect center piece. Large sword plants like amazon swords, brazil swords and melon swords can reach impressive size and are not suited for smaller tanks. Their large leaves are often rather impressive and can provide good contrast. Cryptocorynes on the the other hands usualy reach around 5-6" and can be use in smaller tanks.
amazon swords, it can really get this big.
Ferns, grasses and mosses.
Ferns and mosses are interesting that they grow using a rhizome. treat rhizomes like you would treat a stem. Some plants like java fern and anubias don't like it when you buried their rhizomes, only the roots should be buried. Mosses make good attachment to wood and rocks, they also provide hiding space for baby shrimp and fishes as well as micro organism.
They make good placement as a mid background plants.
some make good carpet plants.
Fissiden are one of the coolest moss.
I hope you enjoyed this, remember, none of these pictures are mine unless stated so.
Stem plants: most stem plants are fast growing and reaches tall heights. Because of the fast growing nature they can be use to indicate water and nutrient quality, pay attention to how they grow and treat the problems you have.
Many stem plants are perfect background plants.
Some stem plants are low growing and make excellent carpet plants.
Rosette plants: Contains sword plants and Cryptocorynes, most are use as a mid foreground plants and make perfect center piece. Large sword plants like amazon swords, brazil swords and melon swords can reach impressive size and are not suited for smaller tanks. Their large leaves are often rather impressive and can provide good contrast. Cryptocorynes on the the other hands usualy reach around 5-6" and can be use in smaller tanks.
amazon swords, it can really get this big.
Ferns, grasses and mosses.
Ferns and mosses are interesting that they grow using a rhizome. treat rhizomes like you would treat a stem. Some plants like java fern and anubias don't like it when you buried their rhizomes, only the roots should be buried. Mosses make good attachment to wood and rocks, they also provide hiding space for baby shrimp and fishes as well as micro organism.
They make good placement as a mid background plants.
some make good carpet plants.
Fissiden are one of the coolest moss.
I hope you enjoyed this, remember, none of these pictures are mine unless stated so.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
setting up planted tank 101.
Fish tank: sometime having a smaller fish can be harder than keeping a big one. In larger tanks condition are much more stable due to the larger amount of water. Amonia and ph changing substance have less of an effect on your fish due to being much more diluted. Having a larger tank also allow noobies to not make the mistake of over stocking.
Water: Your water use must fit the need of the specific fish and plants living there. Some common fishes, such as neon tetra, require low ph from around 6.0. However most plants and fishes can adapt to be living at neutral ph 7.0, however behaviors and color come out best when the conditions are right.
Remember that tap water is different around the world, where live the tap water comes out really hard (high Gh) and can be as high as 8.5 Ph! Remember that you can have high ph with with both soft and hard water, soft and hard water just means that it has a lot of calcium and magnesium ions and the Ph is actualy raise by increasing Kh (carbonate hardness).
Whatever the case, it is always best to use RO water, or mineralize RO water with around neutral Ph. This also get rid of the Chlorine and Chloramine making if safe for plants and fish. However if you have to really use tap water, you should buy a water condition like seachem prime.
Filter: Bigger is always better, for planted tank external filter are always better because they cause less surface tension which reduce the amount of c02 being lost. As always when buying filters, make sure the GPH rate is 5-6 times your tank size. For example a 30 g tank would nee about 150 GPH (gallon per hour).
go big or go home
Substrate: If you are building a regular tank, gravel or anything that is inert are fine. In planted tank however, substrate need nutrients for the plants to grow so a rich substrate are needed. Some substrate like ADA aquasoil are very good for growing plants, however they can be pretty pricey. If you don't have the cash, opt for cheaper substrate like fluorite. If you're really poor than you can grab some Walmart special kitty litter, its almost the same thing as fluorite, be careful of the chemicals in some of them and their Ph changing properties. Some people like me like to add a thin layer of organic soil and cap it off with sand or fluorite. Remember that same can get very anaerobic (due to lack of circulation) and can release harmful smelly gas.
black subtrate make the best contrast.
Lighting: The general rule is that you need 2-3 WPH to grow plants, anything with more than 3WPH can be considered high light. Remember that smaller tanks and larger tank dont really obey this rule (less and greater than 20-30g tanks), with larger thank needing less WPG and smaller needing more. However the distance of light toward your plant are also important because light intensity can be much lower even in inches. Remember that not all plants can be growing in low lighting. If you want you can build your own lights for much cheaper at home depot or walmart, fluorescent technology has allow cheaper lighting for most people.
C02: c02 are very important when growing planted tank, if your having anything more than 2WPG you probably want to start using c02. Planted tanks with c02 grow much faster and healthier. There are two type of c02 use for planted tank, diy yeast c02 and Compress c02. DIY can be cost effective in smaller tanks but start becoming useless in larger tank. Compress c02 are much better, much more consistent and more cost effective in the long run.
to learn more about c02 please go to
http://www.plantedtank.net/articles/Pressurized-CO2/19/
for diy c02
http://www.plantedtank.net/articles/DIY-Yeast-CO2/7/
Disclaimer: none of these pics are mine unless stated so.
Water: Your water use must fit the need of the specific fish and plants living there. Some common fishes, such as neon tetra, require low ph from around 6.0. However most plants and fishes can adapt to be living at neutral ph 7.0, however behaviors and color come out best when the conditions are right.
Remember that tap water is different around the world, where live the tap water comes out really hard (high Gh) and can be as high as 8.5 Ph! Remember that you can have high ph with with both soft and hard water, soft and hard water just means that it has a lot of calcium and magnesium ions and the Ph is actualy raise by increasing Kh (carbonate hardness).
Whatever the case, it is always best to use RO water, or mineralize RO water with around neutral Ph. This also get rid of the Chlorine and Chloramine making if safe for plants and fish. However if you have to really use tap water, you should buy a water condition like seachem prime.
Filter: Bigger is always better, for planted tank external filter are always better because they cause less surface tension which reduce the amount of c02 being lost. As always when buying filters, make sure the GPH rate is 5-6 times your tank size. For example a 30 g tank would nee about 150 GPH (gallon per hour).
go big or go home
Substrate: If you are building a regular tank, gravel or anything that is inert are fine. In planted tank however, substrate need nutrients for the plants to grow so a rich substrate are needed. Some substrate like ADA aquasoil are very good for growing plants, however they can be pretty pricey. If you don't have the cash, opt for cheaper substrate like fluorite. If you're really poor than you can grab some Walmart special kitty litter, its almost the same thing as fluorite, be careful of the chemicals in some of them and their Ph changing properties. Some people like me like to add a thin layer of organic soil and cap it off with sand or fluorite. Remember that same can get very anaerobic (due to lack of circulation) and can release harmful smelly gas.
black subtrate make the best contrast.
Lighting: The general rule is that you need 2-3 WPH to grow plants, anything with more than 3WPH can be considered high light. Remember that smaller tanks and larger tank dont really obey this rule (less and greater than 20-30g tanks), with larger thank needing less WPG and smaller needing more. However the distance of light toward your plant are also important because light intensity can be much lower even in inches. Remember that not all plants can be growing in low lighting. If you want you can build your own lights for much cheaper at home depot or walmart, fluorescent technology has allow cheaper lighting for most people.
C02: c02 are very important when growing planted tank, if your having anything more than 2WPG you probably want to start using c02. Planted tanks with c02 grow much faster and healthier. There are two type of c02 use for planted tank, diy yeast c02 and Compress c02. DIY can be cost effective in smaller tanks but start becoming useless in larger tank. Compress c02 are much better, much more consistent and more cost effective in the long run.
to learn more about c02 please go to
http://www.plantedtank.net/articles/Pressurized-CO2/19/
for diy c02
http://www.plantedtank.net/articles/DIY-Yeast-CO2/7/
Disclaimer: none of these pics are mine unless stated so.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
check this out
this is what happen when you have good amount of c02 in your tank, you get lots and lots of bubbles!
and a time lapse for fun
talk about alot of Crystal Red shrimp!
disclaimer : none of these are mine and the credit goes to their respectable owners.
and a time lapse for fun
talk about alot of Crystal Red shrimp!
disclaimer : none of these are mine and the credit goes to their respectable owners.
Monday, May 2, 2011
New planted tank pics and Emerse growth!
Here is what my tank looks like right now, all taken by my shitty phone camera. The long stem you see growing across my tank is actually the flowering stalk of one of my sword plants.
Close up of the Melon Sword
Right bellow it is Cryptocoryne Parva
here is the close up of the carpet plant.. can you spot the cherry shrimp? If you are curious, the carpet plant i use is marsilea minuta and Marsilea hirsuta, with hirsuta being twice as big as minuta.
Cryptocoryne Parva growing emersed outside, curious to see if they would look different growing out of the water, I also have marsilea minuta and hirsuta growing outside emersed also but that surprise is for later. (for some reason google thinks the word emerse is wrong.. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/emersed)
here is the tank outside my ghetto yard, its completely covered and in the shade to block direct sunlight which can quickly bring the temperature inside the tank to 100+ degrees.
Close up of the Melon Sword
Right bellow it is Cryptocoryne Parva
here is the close up of the carpet plant.. can you spot the cherry shrimp? If you are curious, the carpet plant i use is marsilea minuta and Marsilea hirsuta, with hirsuta being twice as big as minuta.
Cryptocoryne Parva growing emersed outside, curious to see if they would look different growing out of the water, I also have marsilea minuta and hirsuta growing outside emersed also but that surprise is for later. (for some reason google thinks the word emerse is wrong.. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/emersed)
here is the tank outside my ghetto yard, its completely covered and in the shade to block direct sunlight which can quickly bring the temperature inside the tank to 100+ degrees.
The amature planted tank hobbyish
With the increase interest in planted tank I decide to set up this blog to showcase my experiments and progress of my planted tank growth.
Progress of my main planted tank I have in the kitchen, its been up since February.
This picture is about a month old, the tank look much better now. I have a immersed growth project outside, and will have pictures of its progress in a few days.
Progress of my main planted tank I have in the kitchen, its been up since February.
This picture is about a month old, the tank look much better now. I have a immersed growth project outside, and will have pictures of its progress in a few days.
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