# [Wet Thumb Forum]-My 40 gal tank



## bharada (Apr 17, 2004)

My 2 1/2 week old 40 gal tank. The tetras were after two weeks of cycling with some corys and guppies. I know I should've waited longer before adding the Cardinals, but I couldn't help myself (the LFS had had them for three weeks so I took a chance). I'm happy to say that all are doing great...even the one Rummynose I discovered that had no tail. But it's eating well and schooling with the others so I decided to let it be rather than return it to the LFS.

I've been out of aquarium keeping for almost ten years, and this is my first planted tank, so I hope I don't botch it up.

All the plants are doing fine except for the Rotala macrandra which has lost most of their lower leaves and a lot of the upper stems as well. There are still a few stems hanging on so I'll hope for the best.

The presence of this tank has definitely made my home office a more enjoyable place to be.

Bill


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## bharada (Apr 17, 2004)

My 2 1/2 week old 40 gal tank. The tetras were after two weeks of cycling with some corys and guppies. I know I should've waited longer before adding the Cardinals, but I couldn't help myself (the LFS had had them for three weeks so I took a chance). I'm happy to say that all are doing great...even the one Rummynose I discovered that had no tail. But it's eating well and schooling with the others so I decided to let it be rather than return it to the LFS.

I've been out of aquarium keeping for almost ten years, and this is my first planted tank, so I hope I don't botch it up.

All the plants are doing fine except for the Rotala macrandra which has lost most of their lower leaves and a lot of the upper stems as well. There are still a few stems hanging on so I'll hope for the best.

The presence of this tank has definitely made my home office a more enjoyable place to be.

Bill


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## JamesHoftiezer (Feb 2, 2003)

You're off to a great start, but don't feel too bad. Welcome to the worls of planted tanks where cycling has almost no meaning. The plants will take care of any nasty nitrates and ammonia.

If you want you can disperse the lilli.b. It will fill in nicely in a short time. You'll also notice the emersed leaf growth changing leaf shape soon. You may want o rethink some of the larger plants. If this is 2 1/2 weeks imagine them at 2 1/2 months









*James Hoftiezer
Hoftiezer.Net - Journals and Libraries
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## bharada (Apr 17, 2004)

> quote:
> 
> If you want you can disperse the lilli.b. It will fill in nicely in a short time. You'll also notice the emersed leaf growth changing leaf shape soon. You may want o rethink some of the larger plants. If this is 2 1/2 weeks imagine them at 2 1/2 months


The lilli.b. caught me off guard since everything I read says that it's a 3" tall plant and what I got from AZGardens was closer to 5". That and the fact that they sent way more than I ordered. I originally had it more spread out, but it created too many "pockets", so I clumped them back together and will let -them spread to the left while the chain swords fill in the right side of the landscape. Should be a challenge keeping each in check once they start spreading.

In fact I over ordered in general as I ordered an SA collection for a 50-60 gal tank since the next smaller set was for a 25-30 gal. Me, being the impatient type, figured I'd over plant in the beginning and prune back as needed. The ruffled sword in the back really would've worked well if I had gotten the taller 46 gal bow front tank.

Besides, I've just started a 29 gal tank for my kids so at least I'll have some place to move the clippings.









Thanks.

Bill


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## JamesHoftiezer (Feb 2, 2003)

The challenge is then weeding out the plants that don't work well for you or suit the design you want. I've discard half of the species I'vereceived over time by ordering or getting clippings from friends.

*James Hoftiezer
Hoftiezer.Net - Journals and Libraries
Rate My Tank!!

Tank Journal - Aquascape ( Latest / Archive(No Longer Active))
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## bharada (Apr 17, 2004)

Well, as far as the Rotala goes, it's self-weeding itself out of existance in my tank







. On a more positive note my swords started pearling this afternoon.

My two Hagen CO2 bottles aren't cutting it with the amount of plants and light I've got (I can't get my pH below 7.3 running two of them). So I'm adding Flourish Excel daily and have a regulator on orders for pressurized CO2. Picked up the parts to build me one of your PVC reactors yesterday. I'm still searching for a cheap source of CO2. The extinguisher companies are really expensive around here ($80-$200 for a 5lb tank







).

AirGas has a steel tank for $65. Then it's $22 to do a refill/bottle swap. Still need to go through the phone book to look for a liquor store that rents tanks for kegs.


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## countrymouse (Jul 6, 2003)

> quote:
> 
> I'm still searching for a cheap source of CO2. The extinguisher companies are really expensive around here ($80-$200 for a 5lb tank
> 
> ...


Is there a welding supply store in your area? I think I paid $60-70 for my 5lb bottle, and it only costs $6 to swap when empty.

Nice tank! The rotala macranda needs CO2 gas (as far as I know), so that may be the reason it didn't do well.


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## bharada (Apr 17, 2004)

Here's the tank at almost three months.

Well, as James predicted, my tank has been evolving...partly by necessity (the swords all overgrew the tank) and partly by making new discoveries in what's available. With some of the clippings I started a second, 29 gal tank for my kids.

Next I'm thinking about lowering that gravel depth (which was high to accomodate the original swords) in the front left corner and removing some of the chain swords/lilli.b. (which have gotten a tangle of hair algae caught in them) and letting the pearlweed spread in it place.

To think that I re-landscaped my front and back yards to eliminate the high-maintenance lawn (replaced with more Japanese-style gravel gardens), only to spend an even greater amount of time tending to this aquarium


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## bharada (Apr 17, 2004)

The evolution continues as I did manage to syphon out the gravel from the front left. In the process I got rid of all the remaining E. tenellus as it had become scraggly and prone to hair algae. In its place I added some dwarf lobelia as well as pulled some of the micranthemoides down front. I also added a few stems of myriophyllum (don't remember which sp) where the overgrown patch of pennywort used to be.


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## Robert Hudson (Feb 5, 2004)

Looks a lot neater now Bill, I like it. I particularly like the sloping micranthemoides in the left front.


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## bharada (Apr 17, 2004)

Thanks Robert. The micranthemoides is getting a bit out of control...the complete opposite of the didiplis. Since I took that picture it has nearly doubled in volume while the didiplis slowly fades away.

Until I added the myriophyllum I had no concern over the number of snails in the tank. But now that I've caught then defoliating the lowe fronds it's forced me to take a bit more control over their population.

I'll need to do some pruning this weekend to get things back in order.


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## Ben C (Apr 16, 2006)

hey Bill, 

Looks beautiful. I like the BIG wood to the side.. it looks very natural indeed. i really MUST get a bigger tank!

On a different note.. your family name's not Japanese by any chance is it?


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## bharada (Apr 17, 2004)

Ben,
Thanks.

Yep, indeed it is. Born and grew up in Hawaii, though.

What I'd really like to get would be a tank that's 36Lx36Wx24H. Having 3' of front-to-back depth to play with would be awesome for aquascaping...but a pain to do maintenance on unless you had full access from the back. No room for such a beast anyway.


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## JamesHoftiezer (Feb 2, 2003)

Iwent 24w and it is pretty much the limit without another side to work from.


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## Robert Hudson (Feb 5, 2004)

I like the wood as well with the vals behind them. Looks like the twin peaks! Compare that picture to the first one and its like night and day! Looks entirely different!


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## bharada (Apr 17, 2004)

The vals would be a lot better if they would stop putting out so many darned runners!


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## Robert Hudson (Feb 5, 2004)

What I would do is let the micranthemoides grow as the foreground clear across the whole front right up to the twin peaks. That would tie it all together nicely.


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## bharada (Apr 17, 2004)

Ha! At the rate it's growing I may not have any choice.


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## Josh Simonson (Feb 4, 2004)

Is that some form of stellata in the mid left in front of the macrandra?


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## bharada (Apr 17, 2004)

That's actually Limnophilia, either aromatica or gratiola (Albany Aquarium listed it as the latter). I was thinking of ordering some stellata, but instead I picked up some Ludwigia 'Cuba' at Albany last weekend. So the stellata will have to wait since I think I have enough of the "bottle brush" type plants for now...at least the larger diameter ones. 

And the macrandra is actually Ludwigia repens narrow leaf. The only Rotala I've had (magenta) dissolved in a matter of weeks when I first started the tank.


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## Josh Simonson (Feb 4, 2004)

I saw the 'cuba' too, but I don't have room for more stem plants. I did trade in about 40-60 stems of rotalla rotundifolia and stargrass for 4 crypt balansae. They weren't very thrilled about the rotalla, though there wasn't any in stock, so maybe I should phase it out for plants that are easier to trade and less invasive. Stuff like stellata fits that bill so I was curious how it does in local water since everything else grows great unless it's under 30 rotalla stems...


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## bharada (Apr 17, 2004)

I just ordered some stellata and Blyxa japonica from Florida Driftwood so hopefully I'll see it next week. I'm in the process of converting the "kid's" 29 gal into another planted tank (bye-bye plastic castle!) so I'm starting to look for things that I don't already have in the 40.

BTW, the 'cuba' I added the other weekend is growing out some rather large leaves (see my post about it). Not terrible looking, but definitely not what I bought it for.


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## bharada (Apr 17, 2004)

Well, the stellata is out of stock until the end of the month. I'll let you know how it does when it gets here.


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## bharada (Apr 17, 2004)

Just an updated photo taken yesterday with actual in-camera white balance correction (woo hoo!). As you can see the L. aromatica (or whatever it is) is growing like a weed and needs to have some stems clipped.


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