# 30Gallon NPT - Redo Complete (3 Pics)



## onemyndseye (May 12, 2006)

HI Guys,

I jumped in head-long and did it. I got a new plant order in on wednesday with afew mix & match plants and it just so happened that I found Onyx Sand at PetsMart for $9.99 a bag that morning on the way home from work (I work nights). So I broke down my tank and got it ready to setup again.

I Hope this dont come back to haunt me but this time I cut my backyard topsoil with 1 good handfull of a Generic organic topsoil. I figured alittle richening up wouldnt hurt since my soil around here is almost nothing but sand. *crosses-fingers* I put down about 2 inches, maybe a little more where I planned to plant the various sword plants. Then I layered about 1.5 inches of onyx sand on top of that.

Plants:
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Ruben Sword
Ruffle Sword
Amazon Sword
Red Marble Val
E. Tennilus
Dwarf Sag.
Wisteria
C. Wendti
C. Sparalis
Red Temple
Java Lace
Money Wort
Anacharis
Cambomba
Luwigia Repens
Hygrophillia Costata
Rotalla Indica
Anubias Nana

See this post This Post for more details on my tank:

Pics:




























My hand slipped abit when filling it so the substrate got mucked up abit... I think it will clear up ok though... You can see the dip in the front of the tank where the stream of water drilled a hole into the subtrate *sigh*. In the 2nd picture you can just make out a "White Arrowhead" sticking up just above the driftwood. Nice looking lilly type plant that I bought on impulse at petsmart. I left it potted because after I bought it I realized that its probably not a submersive plant (correct?). Anyways, I'll post an update in the next day or 2 when the water clears and I have chemistry readings.

Thanks for looking,
-Justin
One Mynds Eye


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

Bravo! 

The key will be seeing whether the plants take off.


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## DataGuru (Mar 11, 2005)

Wow. nice. 
lots of plant mass. Still might be good to add some fast growing floaters.


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## onemyndseye (May 12, 2006)

Yeah. some floaters definitely wouldnt hurt. But I really just dont have 
any... well, besides a small amount of hornwort thats in another tank. A AB forum member was nice enough to send me a portion of water lettuce but it didnt make it... I really dont have the lighting for it I guess. The red Ramshorn snails found it quite tasty too 

(Wish i would have thought about that before ordering plants  )

The water is clearing, slowly, but clearing. Water chem. still looks about
the same as tap - 

Nitrates 15ppm 
Ammonia/Nitrite 0
GH 5
KH 5

(is it just me or is my taps KH abit high for how soft my water is?)

Ill post some more pics when the water clears up 

Take care,
-Justin
One Mynds Eye


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## javalee (May 8, 2006)

Justin, Wow, it looks great packed with plants like that! I'd like to hear how the onyx sand works for you. I really like the looks of it, but I always fear mixing substrates. 

(Didn't you and I have a conversation in the past about collecting wild plants in Louisiana? Am I confused? If we did, indeed, then I wanted to remind you that there should be lots of duckweed and salvinia to be found around your parts right now that you can use to fight algae now. Also, I've been reading about freshwater plants in Louisiana and found that there are MANY used in the hobby that have become invasive here so bad for the environment, but good for you if you can poke around lakes and ponds and rivers in your area. Hornwort, chara, lillies, and others all grow around here.)

I'd love to continue watching the tank fill in and grow-up. Keep sending pictures!


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## Miss Fishy (May 13, 2006)

I can't wait to see it all grow in! That is a very nice piece of driftwood you have there. By the way, your other tanks in your other thread are really lovely! 

From Alex.


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## onemyndseye (May 12, 2006)

*30Gallon NPT - New Pics Posted (13 pics total)*

Thanks to everyone for their kind words 

Water chemistry still looks about the same. Nitrates are riding abit high so I changed about 20 gallons of water today to bring them down.

Here is the latest pics:










The Red Temple has put on some color since planting. Not that the pics show it all that well.
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Here is that White Arrow
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Can someone ID this Plant and explain how to plant it?
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Pic showing my disturbed subtrate - Hopefully Therapy will not be necessary
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javalee-

yes, that was me you spoke with. We talked about collecting native plants for that Sunfish tank of mine (which I still have). I really just have not had the "daywalker time" to go out and collect now that the right weather is here. Do you know of a reference of native plant life that would make candidates for collection? ... I most certainly need to go out collecting (for fish as well) sometime soon.

Take care everyone!,
-Justin
One Mynds Eye


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## fishdude1984 (Feb 17, 2005)

that will be nice once its all grown in


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## Urkevitz (Oct 26, 2004)

The tank looks great, pull the white arrow out its non aquatic. The other plants are java ferns, they grow best when attached to wood or rocks.


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## javalee (May 8, 2006)

Justin, I just did some searches for species names with louisiana and started pulling up info about waterplants and waterfowl here. In these studies I found that hornwort, najas grass, chara, salvinia, duckweed (I already got me some local salvinia and duckweed, now someone is searching for chara and najas), water lillies, and others are common in our ponds and lakes and especially in the Atchafalaya Basin (what a treasure to explore on its own merits). You could use the Tropica website's illustrated page of plants to figure out what they look like. Good luck, and yes, wait and go by day! LOL


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## Catastrophi (May 23, 2006)

wow tank looks fantastic. makes me want to start a low-tech tank.


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## onemyndseye (May 12, 2006)

Urkevitz - Thanks for the info

javalee - Great... youve given me the bug... I going to go collecting this
weekend assuming the weather holds.  If I find some chara and najas I will share if you like 

Miss Fishy - Thanks, its actually 2 peices stacked. If you PM me ill send you
a sources for cheap driftwood and plants (i think wood was 3$ea) I would post it here but I dont want to step on anyones toes.... And I'm not sure what the rules are about such a thing. (If a Moderator wants to comment and say its OK Ill post it)


Take care guys 
-Justin
One Mynds Eye


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