# Sorry guys, more tank pics..



## DiPpY eGgS (Jun 3, 2005)

Well, 
I rescaped my compressus tank, and the low light tank is doing much better.. thought I would share..
If I should have posted these in the other thread, feel free to scold me! 
Comments/critique is always welcome, it is the reason for me posting this.. Get some pics up guys!! Cavan, your last tank was awesome.. I miss it.. Cant wait to see your new idea!


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## Cavan Allen (Jul 22, 2004)

Looking good Joe. I especially like the last one. Are those pictures all of one tank? Do you need more hardscape stuff?

When do we get to come over to see them?


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## DiPpY eGgS (Jun 3, 2005)

Thanks Cavan!
If you think I need more hardscape, Let me know, and I will take it!!  Maybe I will just take it, it is great to have that stuff around!!

The last pic is the tank in my bathroom.. It has 2 2x40w T12 shoplights on it. No CO2, but I use Excell.
And you can come over anytime!!! Anyone can. My door is open


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## DiPpY eGgS (Jun 3, 2005)

:tinfoil3:


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## DiPpY eGgS (Jun 3, 2005)

some more..


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## hooha (Apr 21, 2005)

hey dood, where were you at the meeting?

Nice pics btw 

how big is your low light tank? And your fert regimen?


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## Bob Vivian (Sep 10, 2004)

Ah, anyone what grows plants as good as you ought to be at the meetings to help us newbies out.

Bob


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## DiPpY eGgS (Jun 3, 2005)

I couldn't make the last 2 meetings.. I'll be around! thanks for noticing I wasn't there!!  
Thanks for the compliments!
I have 2 75g's and a 10g. The 75 with the field of Cuba has 2 2x40w shop lights over it with 5500k bulbs that need replaced lol
I dose:
10-12ml Plantex CSM+B after water change. about 5-6 in the middle of the week.
10ml Chelated Fe after water change. about 5-6 in the middle of the week.
15ml potassium nitrate after water change. 12 mid week.
4-5ml mono potassium phosphate/water change. about the same mid week.
15ml potassium sulfate after water change and about 5 or so mid week.
I also dose F Excell according to the label.

The tank has a 3/4" peat/mulm bottom capped with Soilmaster Select substrate.
That is about it. 

BOB... I AM THE n00bIE ~LOL


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## DiPpY eGgS (Jun 3, 2005)

more!


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## Bob Vivian (Sep 10, 2004)

Joe, judging from what I think I see in the cuba pic above, you're fert short. Maybe KNO3. Cavan?

Bob


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## DiPpY eGgS (Jun 3, 2005)

Thanks Bob,,

Those shots are from a 10g that is currently recovering from a low CO2 problem. 
Oh ya, thanks for noticing(good eye!).. the nitrate was very low in that tank for a while! 
that coupled with the low CO2 was a mess, but it is rebounding very nicely!


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## DiPpY eGgS (Jun 3, 2005)

any comments/critiques/suggestions on this scape? Please remember that I am still growing out most of the plants  Oh yeah, and I just scaped it, so the water is super cloudy


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## Cavan Allen (Jul 22, 2004)

Looks pretty good Joe. I think a more obvious hardscape would make it look a bit better still. Does your camera have an editing program? The picture is a little dark and that makes it hard to make out some things. 

What are all the plants you've got in there?


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## DiPpY eGgS (Jun 3, 2005)

thanks for the comment, cavan.. the reason it has only a little hardscape, is because all the other DW I have is really big.. Im no good at hardscaping as of yet..  I didn't think the rocks that I have looked good in there either..
I didn't edit the pic because ..I was simply tired last night lol
Plants in there are:

Ludwigia inclinata var verticillata 'Cuba' and 'Pantanal'
Ludwigia arcuata (very small amount right now)
Ludwigia sp 'Guinea' (2 small stems at the moment)
Eriocaulon cinereum
Eriocaulon setaceum
Limnophila sp 'mini' (1 stem in the back left)
Pogostemon helferi
Tonina sp. 'Belem'
Tonina fluviatilis
Tonina sp. 'Manaus'
Elatine triandra (hopefully soon to be Rotala sp 'Goias')


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## DiPpY eGgS (Jun 3, 2005)

Cavan, does this pic look any better? Sorry about pic quality, I have been very tired and over worked lately.. the 55 hr weeks ive been working are killing me lol


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## hooha (Apr 21, 2005)

oooh, nice collection there 

I think grouping the red-topped plants (I'm guessing a Ludwigia species?) rather than spreading them out would be more effective.

I'd like to see when the scape fills in!


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## DiPpY eGgS (Jun 3, 2005)

hooha said:


> oooh, nice collection there
> 
> I think grouping the red-topped plants (I'm guessing a Ludwigia species?) rather than spreading them out would be more effective.
> 
> I'd like to see when the scape fills in!


I agree, my origional plan was to have them spread across the whole back of the tank.. I just got them not too long ago, and I plan on growing them out. Does that sound good? I also am thinking of having the fluviatilis grouped in the center rather than 1 here and there across the front.. 
I need to grow that plant out for that as well. hmmm...


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## Bob Vivian (Sep 10, 2004)

Nice plant growth, Buddy. I'm not at all jealous.

Your hardscape is fine, I think. Your focal point lies somewhere in the driftwood arrangement. 

However, my eye keeps keeps getting drawn way up to the top of the tank toward the bright reds. And, if you eventually have a solid wave of it, my eye may never leave it. I'll be missing the good stuff everywhere else. That will detract from the viewing and isn't it the point to enhance the viewer's satisfaction?

So, for that reason, I'm not crazy about using bright colors as the tank horizon. I'd use a neutral green and place the reds in a solid field, repeated once or twice, at various levels below.

To create visual depth I would add mid ht plants at various distances from the viewer. This will draw the eye into the tank and will hide/soften the too strong vertical lines of the background stem plants.

Consider using what I call a negative or empty space as your focal point. The negative space can be very powerful at drawing the eye to it. I'd put it about 2/3 the tank width from the right, just where the driftwood seems to cross. Put either your shortest plant or no plant at all right there and graduate the heights of the rest of your planting away from it to the left and right and toward the back.

You've got a nice vee shape to your horizon. I'd strengthen that but put the, ahem, crotch of the vee a little off center over your focal point.

I hope this helps. Keep up the good work, Buddy. You're making PAPAS proud.

Bob


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## DiPpY eGgS (Jun 3, 2005)

Thanks for that very insightful reply Bob!!

I had to read that like 3x to get all what you have said!~nice!

It will take some time for it to sink in my head.. lol ..I trimmed the plants already in there, they are reproducing like rabbits in there.. stunningly fast growth.
Here is another pic of it.. MIND YOU--I did not read this post before replanting after the trim..lol
and the stem plant in the ugly place up front is temporary.. (it is R goias, thanks to PAPAS, but it hasnt bent over yet lol) in fact, the whole thing is temporary I guess. I messed up the drift wood up front too.. im a sloppy planter sometimes lol ..I still have to replant, Eh, Bob? _more pointers will help_.. I am sort of weak in the scaping department.. you should see my 75g foreground.. it is a total disaster rats nest, waiting for the hairgrass to take off..lol
the way things are going in there, i will have to replant again in a few weeks anyways lol so fire away!


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## hooha (Apr 21, 2005)

Nice growth as always Joe. What is the green foreground plant? Elatine? If you can get that goias to grow horizontally let me know the trick. I personally don't think I have enough light hitting my foreground to make it grow that way.

I think Bob is probably the resident expert on aquascaping, so I'd wait for his advice. You certainly have the "growing" part down pat though. If anything I would try to offset and group the panatal in the back to one side or the other, instead of having them evenly across the middle back.


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## DiPpY eGgS (Jun 3, 2005)

Thanks Efren!
Ya, the foreground is Elatine.. I want it gone. LOL You want some? Anyone? 
I just stuck the R. 'Goias' that you gave me in the gravel as is, and it is turning a great shade of pink, and it wants to bend over now. In a few more days, I will cut the branches, and try to sort of lay them down to see what they will do. It needs lots o light for it to want to do that, ya.. 
Right, Bob is the expert on aquascaping.. I sort of can't wait to hear some more critique for this tank.
I need his advice on my 75g too.. the foreground is incomplete, and looks like a rats nest right now.. 
*Bob, do you think a hairgrass foreground would work in my 75g with some micro tenellus through it, nearing the japonica midground ??


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## hooha (Apr 21, 2005)

Joe you should do the AHAP program with GPASI, I'm having fun with it. And it gives me a reason for my collectoritis!


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## BillW (Apr 23, 2005)

hooha said:


> Joe you should do the AHAP program with GPASI, I'm having fun with it. And it gives me a reason for my collectoritis!


Yes, you can earn certificates for the propagation of each species, a special certificate for flowering a species, earn rank and status and, of course, earn points  When you achieve the rank of Grand Master Aquatic Horticulturist you get a free membership in GPASI :clap2:

Bill


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## DiPpY eGgS (Jun 3, 2005)

I don't think I can make it to many of those meetings, thanks for the idea though..
Here is a pic of the lagenandra meeboldii in my tank. Thanks Cavan.. The thing is even bigger than it seems in the tank, there is another side to it lol








here is a shot of my fish.. yet another lol


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## madmax (Sep 29, 2004)

WOW!! the meeboldii looks awesome! Tank looks good as always Joe. Nice pic. of the piranha.


Tim


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## Bob Vivian (Sep 10, 2004)

Hey Joe,
I was just looking at your pic of the 75 gal you posted on 4/5/06 and trying to figure out a way to improve the impact of the stone layout.

I think, in any arrangement of stone, each piece should have a visual relationship with the others. All the pieces should be similar in color and character, "cragginess", veining, etc.

Then I try to think how Mother Nature, over the eons, distributes her stone. (Don't laugh. I'm serious). There is always some logic to the way stones end up where they are. There was a course of events that put them "there".

Were the stones split off of a mountain face? tumbled by fast moving water? strewn about by volcanic action? exposed by soil erosion? 

If you aspire to the "nature aquarium" then, I think, there has to be an element of this logic in your approach.

Other thoughts:
Keep in mind that large rocks are almost always accompanied by increasingly smaller rocks (pebbles) at their base.
If the stones are veined, the veining should run, reasonably, in the same direction. Nothing scatters the viewer's eye more than visual lines leading in all directions.
There should be some logic to the color of the stone to the color of the substrate. How, in nature, did that gray stone end up on that brown substrate?
The placement of all the stones, everyone of them, should be designed to lead the viewer's eye back to the focal point.
A stone should look anchored in it's spot. Place the stone so that it appears that at least 2/3rds of it are below the substrate. This is an old Zen gardening technique. This will give the stone a look of permanence and age which is more soothing to the viewer.

I firmly believe that stone and other hardscape give a tank "importance". Hardscape should be a fore thought not an after thought to the plantings. The more fore thought you give to the hardscape the more aesthetically logical your planting will be.

Bob


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## hooha (Apr 21, 2005)

you got the webbed green thumb bud, nice tanks

is that really a piranha in that tank? The Endler's like to pick at my arm when I'm doing maintenance, I'd hate to see that thing picking at my limbs, even if it's not a true piranha!


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## DiPpY eGgS (Jun 3, 2005)

madmax said:


> WOW!! the meeboldii looks awesome! Tank looks good as always Joe. Nice pic. of the piranha.
> Tim


Thanks Tim! I appreciate the kind words!

Bob, thanks so much for all your help! ~I have not rescaped this tank since I set it up. It has 3 big rocks, and 2 pieces of driftwood.
I simply don't have enough hardscape at my disposal to try any of your well thought out ideas..
I need a few more trips to Ohiopile.  Hardscape is very hard to find.. I'm not doing too good with it.

Hoo-HAH! 
Thank you, and yes, that is a true, wild caught, Peruvian Serrasalmus compressus. There are many spiecies of Piranha, but that one is quite rare. Not found in lfs's practically ever.
He leaped at my wife one time, but that is it lol :axe:


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