# Hello and Thank you From India...



## aquinator (Oct 25, 2010)

As the title says guys this is my first post here, joined APC just for this sub-forum . I read Ms. Diana Walstad's book and i was just amazed, so immediately became a fan and wanted to try the method. I was looking for resources and found this forum and i got all my info reading 14 pages of this forum, so Thank you :yo: everyone right form the Guru to the noobs with doubts, your posts have helped and taught me a lot. :hug:
I have a few other planted tanks but all of them Mid-tech (with DIY co2 etc), so for this NPT, I bought a new tank measuring 24in(W) x 12 in(L) x 15in (T), holds about 18.7 US Gallons. The lights are 2 x 14 w T5 white lamps, giving me roughly 1.5 WPG. The tank is also near a south facing window getting Direct sunlight for a couple of hours in the afternoon and lots of indirect sunlight. I use the 6 hrs -5 hours siesta - 6 hours light schedule for all my tanks. I set it up (on 24/10/10) with 1inch red soil (unfertilized) and another inch of thoroughly washed river sand. added a few rocks that were with me (non porous  ) I had a few plants with me and I am a huge fan of tape grass (Val sp) so, i planted about 28 giant vals (Vallisneria gigantea), 10 Vallisneria spiralis, 1 Ech Amazonicus, 10 Cryptocoryne wendtii 'green, about 15 or 20 grass (Yet to identify  ) and about 5 shoots of baby tears ( Micranthemum umbrosum). The next day i found a bit of algae so i added a few shoots of Rotala rotundifolia and threw in a few Duckweeds (lemna minor ?) and added a few ram horn shell snails and a few Malaysian trumpet snails. I have lots of apple snails in the other tanks but am still waiting for the plants to pick up so that i can add them, because sometimes plants get uprooted by them. 
As of now my tank is doing great, I want to know if i still should add Bacopa monnieri and Cabomba caroliniana??? 
I am open to any suggestions, ideas and criticisms, so please share your views and comments. 
Thank you in advance. :hail:
Here is a picture of my tank.


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## davemonkey (Mar 29, 2008)

Nice rocks! I think there is ALWAYS room for more plants (well, maybe not always, but almost always). Yes, for El Natural you want to be as heavily planted as possible, and have a sufficient bio-load to support the plants.

Good job on the aquascape.

-Dave


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## aquinator (Oct 25, 2010)

Thank you Dave for the compliments and advice. Will get more plants in a couple of days... planning to have 4 dwarf neon gourami's and either 6 zebra danios or 12 red phanthom tetras... haven't decided as yet. Will update the post regularly.


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## Seattle_Aquarist (Mar 7, 2008)

Hi Sam,

Welcome to APC; I am glad you joined us!


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## aquinator (Oct 25, 2010)

Thank you Seattle_Aquarist. I am glad too


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## shikari (Aug 16, 2010)

Nice start,I would recomend some crypts and java ferns and a couple of anubias,keep us posted.


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## aquinator (Oct 25, 2010)

shikari said:


> Nice start,I would recommend some crypts and java ferns and a couple of anubias,keep us posted.


The crypts are there  since the waters got murky while i was planting their placements went wrong  There are about ten crypts, usually i keep three crypts together to get that beautiful bush effect :wacko: about java ferns and anubias i have had no experience with them, so I kind of avoided them...  will try to get em and give em a try...

Thank you for the suggestion shikari, will keep you guys posted...


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## shikari (Aug 16, 2010)

The java ferns and anubias are really easy plants and should do well in your tank.
Pawan


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## totziens (Jun 28, 2008)

I will not encourage you to have zebra danios in your tank. Zebra danios are too active. I have similar sized tank with zebra danios in the past. During breeding season, the entire tank looked like a riot - I had a big group of zebra danios chasing one female from one end of the tank to the other end. It's very stressful for the female one. Having multiple female did not help as all the male ones targeted at the most attractive female zebra danio. To keep them I would encourage you to have a bigger tank - at least 50 gallon.

Vallisneria and Crypts should do well in your tank. They love NPT 

I had actually killed Java Ferns and Anubias in NPT (actually not completely dead). They grew too slow and they were attacked by BBA and other algae. They may do better in the U.S. or other countries with colder weather - I notice they grow better in a tank with colder temperature (mid 20s in Celsius). In tropical weather, I personally prefer faster growing plants in NPT if your temperature is close to 28-30 degree Celsius). Sagittaria Subulata will grow very fast in NPT too. Cabomba will be messy if it's not growing well - it will disintegrate easily. I recommend you Egeria densa or hornwort instead.


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## Angie (Dec 4, 2005)

Looks like your off to a great start. Love the rocks. I agree you need more plants.


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## bratyboy2 (Feb 5, 2008)

Great start! Looks like a river steam bed. Maybe you could try some thread fun rainbows and have a good algae team instead of all the other fish.just me.your tank could use some more plants and I would say go with the bacopa. When I had cabomba in mine it always collected ask the junk in my tank.grew well but ugh.


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## aquinator (Oct 25, 2010)

totziens said:


> I will not encourage you to have zebra danios in your tank. Zebra danios are too active. I have similar sized tank with zebra danios in the past. During breeding season, the entire tank looked like a riot - I had a big group of zebra danios chasing one female from one end of the tank to the other end. It's very stressful for the female one. Having multiple female did not help as all the male ones targeted at the most attractive female zebra danio. To keep them I would encourage you to have a bigger tank - at least 50 gallon.
> 
> Vallisneria and Crypts should do well in your tank. They love NPT
> 
> I had actually killed Java Ferns and Anubias in NPT (actually not completely dead). They grew too slow and they were attacked by BBA and other algae. They may do better in the U.S. or other countries with colder weather - I notice they grow better in a tank with colder temperature (mid 20s in Celsius). In tropical weather, I personally prefer faster growing plants in NPT if your temperature is close to 28-30 degree Celsius). Sagittaria Subulata will grow very fast in NPT too. Cabomba will be messy if it's not growing well - it will disintegrate easily. I recommend you Egeria densa or hornwort instead.


Thank you totziens, esp for the heads up on Danios... will go with my current stock of 4 male neon dwarf gouramis and red phantom tetras (got twelve  )

Regarding the Plants, the temperature is always 30+ here so, i guess i should go with your recommendations  thinking of getting lots of bacopa.... Sagittaria Subulata was on my mind too, will keep a look out for egeria densa or hornwort as well...  
Got to go plant hunting this weekend.

Thanks again for the advice...


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## aquinator (Oct 25, 2010)

Angie said:


> Looks like your off to a great start. Love the rocks. I agree you need more plants.


Thank you Angie. Seeing all the pictures here of other members, I have to agree mine is sparsely planted, but i did so thinking my val's would pickup and take over the tank  Now planning to go with some extra plants


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## aquinator (Oct 25, 2010)

bratyboy2 said:


> Great start! Looks like a river steam bed. Maybe you could try some thread fun rainbows and have a good algae team instead of all the other fish.just me.your tank could use some more plants and I would say go with the bacopa. When I had cabomba in mine it always collected ask the junk in my tank.grew well but ugh.


Thank you bratyboy2. I have thread fin rainbow's in my other planted tank, so i might just try it out. Bacopa is a good choice for me too as its easily available in the fish farm near my place, so i don't have to go hunting all over lol....


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## aquinator (Oct 25, 2010)

Update Nov 1, 2010...

Thank you for all your suggestion people. Tank was doing great untill one of the snails I got harboured some leeches.  I had a deadly encounter with leeches last time in another tank of mine, they killed a few of my serpae tetras, so i had to use the medicine (snail remover from oceanfree) (think its got formaline, smells like it, but not sure) I followed their instructions (just added 5 ml, changed 50% of the water after 48 hours) no more leeches spotted, plants are doing quite well except duckweeds (i think it was the medicine ) Yet to get hold of some bacopa....  No algae as of now... Haven't added any fishes. 
I have just added a powerhead... just leaving it fishless for another week. 

I have got a Ech Amazon growing well in another tank, it has given up a shoot / branch (??) and there are tiny amazons growing from it, now if i want to take those smaller amazons and re-plant them how do i do it??? (just cut off the plant only, entire branch ????) any ideas, experiences, please let me know... Thanks in advance... 
here is a picture...


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## totziens (Jun 28, 2008)

I can see that you have very nice Crypts growing in your tank. I wish mine can grow as well as yours.

Yes, Vallisneria will grow fast and cover the entire tank as long as you allow them to do so. It believe the rest of our friends are suggesting more plants because they will help to prevent algae in NPT during initial set up by absorbing all the extra nutrients. Sometimes, we use disposable plants for this purpose. What I mean by disposable are those plants that we have no intention to keep them permanently in the tank - usually they're fast growing cheap plants such as Egeria densa, hornwort, duckweed, Salvinia, water lettuce, etc. These plants you can keep them afloat and can easily remove them eventually. Not necessary that you have to throw them away - you can always keep them handy in a separate container/pot/tank. You'll never know when you may need them again 

You may want to look out for some tiny foreground plants as well. Maybe glosso, hair grass, Marsilea, etc. There are a few varieties of Marsilea - one of them that I have grows out of the tank (too tall and growing too fast) but the short version one grows too slow.


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## aquinator (Oct 25, 2010)

totziens said:


> I can see that you have very nice Crypts growing in your tank. I wish mine can grow as well as yours.
> 
> Yes, Vallisneria will grow fast and cover the entire tank as long as you allow them to do so. It believe the rest of our friends are suggesting more plants because they will help to prevent algae in NPT during initial set up by absorbing all the extra nutrients. Sometimes, we use disposable plants for this purpose. What I mean by disposable are those plants that we have no intention to keep them permanently in the tank - usually they're fast growing cheap plants such as Egeria densa, hornwort, duckweed, Salvinia, water lettuce, etc. These plants you can keep them afloat and can easily remove them eventually. Not necessary that you have to throw them away - you can always keep them handy in a separate container/pot/tank. You'll never know when you may need them again
> 
> You may want to look out for some tiny foreground plants as well. Maybe glosso, hair grass, Marsilea, etc. There are a few varieties of Marsilea - one of them that I have grows out of the tank (too tall and growing too fast) but the short version one grows too slow.


Thank you totziens for the update (am sorry for the delay in reply) still I haven't got the time to get hold of some plants 
Regarding the foreground plants, i haven't used the soil in the front as i thought i will give the fishes some swimming space...


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## aquinator (Oct 25, 2010)

Update. 08/11/10

The tank is doing well now, I trimmed all the Vallisneria and Ech.Amazonicus leaves as they were decaying, they are still slowly picking up. I have this strange problem ONLY malaysian trumpet snails seem to survive in the tank, my apple snails, that usually do well in all my other setups and ram horn shells just die ( could it be the snail poison???? but i did change 50% of water after 48 hours....or is it H2S release??? substrate is 1inch in a few places and a little more here and there...)....  
any ideas as to why??? 

The fishes in there are...
3 Neon Dwarf Gouramis (Now 2, lost one this morning  )
1 German red eye guppy (male)
1 Cobra tail guppy (male)
12 Black Phantom Tetras

Here is a pic ( sorry for the quality)










NOTE: I moved the pics in my photobucket to a new album, so the links got broken and i couldn't find the EDIT button on those posts to update the links 
Here is the album link http://s809.photobucket.com/albums/zz20/curvedflint/Aquarium - NPT/


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## totziens (Jun 28, 2008)

Usually I find it hard to determine the cause of snails' death. I used to have nerite snails that die one after another after a few months. I'm more concern about the fishes since you have mentioned that one od them died. Look out for any symptom or odd behaviour of your fishes.


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## aquinator (Oct 25, 2010)

totziens said:


> Usually I find it hard to determine the cause of snails' death. I used to have nerite snails that die one after another after a few months. I'm more concern about the fishes since you have mentioned that one od them died. Look out for any symptom or odd behaviour of your fishes.


Thank you for the quick reply. I think the cause of death was less O2(????) because i found a tetra gasping in the surface... So i have removed the powerhead and added a Internal filter with (little)aeration, let us see how things go... Just wanted to know how long should i put it in aeration and if its dangerous for plants????


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## totziens (Jun 28, 2008)

It may be pH issue too. My friend mentioned that his tank had pH swing and fishes gasping for air when he introduced CO2 into it. My tank encountered the same issue but my fishes breathe on the water surface when CO2 was NOT injected (opposite of my friend's case). I did not do anything because none of the fishes died but some of my plants died. Last week, I started cleaning my filter because the water flow rate was very poor. Upon fixing the flow rate issue, the fish gasping for air problem was resolved too.

I am not sure whether it's somehow related to your problem. Just providing you some idea if it helps.


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## totziens (Jun 28, 2008)

It may be pH issue too. My friend mentioned that his tank had pH swing and fishes gasping for air when he introduced CO2 into it. My tank encountered the same issue but my fishes breathe on the water surface when CO2 was NOT injected (opposite of my friend's case). I did not do anything because none of the fishes died but some of my plants died. Last week, I started cleaning my filter because the water flow rate was very poor. Upon fixing the flow rate issue, the fish gasping for air problem was resolved too.

I am not sure whether it's somehow related to your problem. Just providing you some idea if it helps.


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## aquinator (Oct 25, 2010)

totziens said:


> It may be pH issue too. My friend mentioned that his tank had pH swing and fishes gasping for air when he introduced CO2 into it. My tank encountered the same issue but my fishes breathe on the water surface when CO2 was NOT injected (opposite of my friend's case). I did not do anything because none of the fishes died but some of my plants died. Last week, I started cleaning my filter because the water flow rate was very poor. Upon fixing the flow rate issue, the fish gasping for air problem was resolved too.
> 
> I am not sure whether it's somehow related to your problem. Just providing you some idea if it helps.


OK now that i have installed a filter, let's see if any changes are gonna be there... will keep you updated. Thank you for your prompt suggestions...


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