# Stepheus's 2 ft lowlight - Dusk



## stepheus (Jun 13, 2006)

Greetings!

I am back again with the same tank that I ve posted before but, with a few twitches here and there. After taking the pictures below, I have developed serious problems with mulm and I have taken down the tank and in process of some rescaping.

Hope you enjoy the tank! For older pictures of this tank, please follow the link in my signature and leave a comment!

Here is the tank. I have renamed it Dusk because it reminds me of transition between night and day.
From the right...









Blyxa aurberti


















Full tank view









Cheers artyman:


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## Intros (Apr 26, 2006)

Impressive green wall and nice contrast with the orange fish ! In the left background are Microsorium pteropus? I ask because they look verry well developed and healthy. I still have problem with this plant, it develops brown regions and holes after that, by contrast all my other plants are doing well. Do you have an advice for this problem?


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## stepheus (Jun 13, 2006)

In most cases, the Microsorium pteropus you bought at LFS are grown emerse. All of the leaves that are in my tank are new and grown submerse. You could snip off all the leaves that are unsightly, increase the number of fauna in your tank or add ferts to provide them with a better supplement of npk. Browning and holes might also be due to nutrient difficiency. 

Good luck and thanks for your comments!


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## John N. (Dec 11, 2005)

Wow, you packed in a bunch of plants in there. The deep, rich wall of plants looks fantastic I think a more open or cleaned up foreground in the middle area will help enhance the depth of the tank. Looks good! 

-John N.


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## cs_gardener (Apr 28, 2006)

Cool looking tank. To me its a northwest forest near a waterfall. Lush growth, a little bit dark - I can almost smell the clean air. So anyway, I like it. 

How long until we see the new setup?


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## stepheus (Jun 13, 2006)

Heh thanks for the comments. I will certainly look into having a cleaner foreground in the coming set up. Plus I would love to set up my tank again asap, so it'll it be a matter of days(?) after my econometrics finals. Man, I wish ray: I was doing a degree in aquascaping instead.  

Hehehe. Do keep those comments coming.


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## Jimbo205 (Feb 2, 2006)

Those are beautiful photos. Thank you.


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## Tankman (Feb 19, 2006)

Hi Stephen, it looks better than your older layout - more impressive 
Good luck in your exams and hope to see more updates here too.


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## Jimbo205 (Feb 2, 2006)

Stepheus, good luck with your exams. Let us know how it all goes when you get a chance to come up for air. 

:wishing good things your way:


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## Ulan (Oct 2, 2006)

That looks impressive . It looks nearly like a yard next to a house .


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## GlitcH (Aug 21, 2006)

Looks great!!
Normally I would suggest some red plants to break up all the green but I think in this case the red would just look out of place.


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## stepheus (Jun 13, 2006)

Thanks for the wishes! For both exams and tank!

After many episodes of procrastination and 1 where my computer crashed, I figured I really have to do this! Before my comp crashed I had pictures of the tank being set up and how it all came together. Needless to say, they were a goner.

However, I ll try to recreate the looks it use to have in the next post. Here in the 1st picture, I have turned off the lights in my room. Making the tank look a bit moody. I thought I liked the effect. It makes the tank look more filled in.









Here it is in another angle, where more light was captured.

As for the mirror looking foreground, it is actually the bottom of the tank.









Besides the plants I had in the previous set up, I added dwarf Papyrus on the right back. Since I did not want to add substrate directly to the bottom of the tank, the papyrus is planted in a non-biodegradable microwavable disposable lunch box  .

Here's a part where I CHEATED. Papyrus doesn't need heavy root fertilizers, I used garden soil and white gravel. As for the Alternaria and Cyprus Helferi, I added some AS into a plastic bag and then put it into the plastic lunch box. Saves me the trouble of picking the AS out grain per grain if I want to reuse it heh.

My favorite side of the tank. Behind the high angled driftwood are sprouts alternatria. Hopefully they'll show the next time I shoot photos.









Full front shot.









Do comment.


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## stepheus (Jun 13, 2006)

*Grown Out*

Hi everyone,

Some pics of how my tank looks like now. havent done a lot to it, but I ve moved cyrperus helferi to the left and removed the papyrus just to make more space in the foreground. However, I found that it is quite impossible to create even more space in front due to the size of the driftwood. Thus I have decided to revamp the tank yet again.

So here are a few of my pictures.
Ghost shrimp








Right side of the tank








Painted-looking Male betta








It's potential mate








Orange crown tail betta








One of my fiercest








Painted female








Full tank shot









Hope ya'll enjoyed this tank! Try not to be stingy on the comments cos I'd love some. Thanks for viewing!


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## Burks (May 25, 2006)

How do the many males and females do together in the tank? 

Very beautiful tank and fish. It really looks nice.


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## stepheus (Jun 13, 2006)

Thanks! I lost count of females, maybe around 7~9. I usually purchase when I chance upon good looking ones. One male in the tank. The others are just in jars. Sometimes i float them in the tank to see them strut their stuff.


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## soulmia (Apr 11, 2007)

reminds me of a rain forest - very serene. I wish you didn't have to take down this set up! It's so pretty! I wish you lived in India!!! I would pester you to help me with my set up!!!


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## Jimbo205 (Feb 2, 2006)

What a wonderful aquarium! I could never achieve that with what I have. You truly have a wonderful aquarium there. 

Are all the females peaceful? Or are some of them aggressive?


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## stepheus (Jun 13, 2006)

Too kind dude. This tank has been gone for a while. now having a totally new look. epiphyte tanks are not difficult to make cos you can move the plants around all the time, without much detriment to the plant as long as it is tied to something. if you try you can!

*

i think it works this way. if its a all female tank, the females will try to pick on each other to get their packing order. most are peaceful, since i got that male in there. i also noticed that there is difference btwn the individual males u can have inside. some males are more dominant than others. the dominant ones keep the females peaceful more effectively. however, some dominant males might also be aggressive and pecks on everyone else in the tank. some dominant males are peaceful.

i was lucky that i had a peaceful dominant male.. he's one gentlemen. i swear he ll open doors if he had to. lol. however, when i put too many females with one male, they nvr try to breed. i had the aggressive ones in jars


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