# [Wet Thumb Forum]-My 200 litres (53 gallon) tank



## Astrid (Sep 20, 2003)

Hi
Ive been watching this forum for a longer time and now I have decided to show you my one-month-old tank. The pictures arent very good, but I think that they will be better soon. 

















[This message was edited by Astrid on Sat September 20 2003 at 07:20 AM.]

[This message was edited by Astrid on Sat September 20 2003 at 07:23 AM.]


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## Astrid (Sep 20, 2003)

Hi
Ive been watching this forum for a longer time and now I have decided to show you my one-month-old tank. The pictures arent very good, but I think that they will be better soon. 

















[This message was edited by Astrid on Sat September 20 2003 at 07:20 AM.]

[This message was edited by Astrid on Sat September 20 2003 at 07:23 AM.]


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## Astrid (Sep 20, 2003)

Or just have a look athere

[This message was edited by Astrid on Sat September 20 2003 at 09:45 AM.]


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## perrush (Feb 24, 2003)

Hi Astrid,

First, welcome to the forum, always nice to see a fellow european amongst this bunch of ...








(nah ... just kidding)

I was interested in your tank because it's clearly something which came from the heart, no rules follewed. Mostly these tank don't turn out great, but yours has a lot of 'tension'. Different colors, different shapes, ... nice to look at. In such tank you'll often discover something new although you saw the tank already 5 times or so. Well done.

now further. Could you give some datails of the tank ? Dimensions, waterparameters, lighting, ...

I saw you have a air stone in the tank, do you still use it ?? Or is this for adding CO2 ?

Be carefull with those floating plants, they take away (too) much light.

Is that algae on the leaves of those plants in the right hand corner ?









I think you'll need to put the siccors in









I've made a little collage of 4 of your pictures. I really like some element in this (low tech ?) tank.
http://users.pandora.be/perrush/Astrid.jpg

--
English isn't my native language, but I guess you already noticed that ))
--

Perrush


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## Astrid (Sep 20, 2003)

Hi perrush
First- thanks for your answer and interest.

I have just read an article in this forum about aquascaping. I really dont follow any rules in this tank, I think I have just put the plants inside and watched them grow. Because I was happy when they really did.
Because before this tank I had two smaller ones (60 litres) with a poor light and some plants had problems with growing.
So by the time I think I will experiment with placing the plants and making different shapes.

Well, the details of the tank:
lenght: 85 cm, width: 45 cm and height is 60 cm
waterparameters: pH 6.8-7 (depends on CO2), KH-8, GH-16 (it would be better if it was lower, I know... but this flows from my tap and I dont want to buy a RO or something like that for now)
lightning: 6 x 25W (4x Sylvania Aquastar, 2x Sylvania Grolux)- home-made cover with a fan in it because of the heat from the neon tubes
filter: Eheim classic 2213
fertilizer: some of the local made ones, but I am going to use PMDD soon

Yeah, that stone is for adding CO2 (use yeast) I have also a different air stone for the air, but dont use it.

That floating plants (Pistia stratiotes)just came out of control for a while. But I have put out most of them yesterday and now there are only two of them in the tank, so it will take time to them to grow again. I dont want to get rid of all of them because I think they are beautiful.

I dont know which plant "in the right hand corner" you mean. There is some Valisneria and some time I had algae on the top leaves. But that I cut away. I have one Ottocinclus affinis (unfortunately ONLY one) and one SAE. But in next few days I am going to buy 4 more SAEs.
Dont you mean the roots of pistia as an algae?

Yes, I used the scissors on friday







But it doesnt look much different. Just the Cabomba caroliniana is shorter, because it was going to be higher than that 60 centimetres.







Like the Echinodorus subalatus which has two leaves over water. I dont know what to do with it- I just cut away the leaf and the next one is the same...

Thank you for the collage of the four pictures. 
And- Of course, English isnt my native language too. First I was a little worried to write in english because of making mistakes. But then I read some posts from other members and I see that my english isnt so bad (I hope







)


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## Astrid (Sep 20, 2003)

Photo, how it looks like today








Really not a big change, I know. But for now I like how it is. Maybe sometimes later...

I am also waiting for glossostigma and henianthus. One friend promised me to give some of them, when it will grow a little more in his tank.


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## MarcinB (Apr 16, 2004)

Hi Astrid! It's good to see someone from central/eastern europe among this bunch of capitalistic...







(just kidding of course). Your tank is really nice, especially for a beginner (?) I like the beach effect a lot. The only thing I would change is that Echinodorus in the center. It's just too big IMO, otherwise it's a great tank.

Ps. I like the earlier photo better.

150L (40G) planted tank
click here for photo
Rate my tank!


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## Astrid (Sep 20, 2003)

Thanks Marcin

Ive had aquariums for 2 years, but I was focused on fishes. 6 months ago I saw a beautiful planted tank and so I wanted something like that too. First I tried to grow plants in my smaller tanks, but only with a little success. I learnt a lot about growing plants on the internet, so when I later got the big tank as a present for my birthday, I started growing plants with everything what it needs. I was fascinated by the large place I have, so Ive probably put too much different plant spieces inside.
And about the big echinodor- I wrote about it above- it is the only echinodor that was growing also in worse conditions. So I dont want to put it out. But if it grows as much as till now also in the future, Im afraid I will really have to do something with it.


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## Cody (Jun 26, 2004)

Hi Astrid,

Beautiful! You've done a great job at arranging the wide variety of plants without making it look cluttered or busy.

Just my opinion, but I was thinking that 5 SAEs might be too many for the size of your tank.

Also, you have nothing to worry about regarding your English. Which I have to say is better than a lot people here, including the native speakers!


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## Regturb (Sep 4, 2003)

what's that pinkish plant on the left hand side?


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## Astrid (Sep 20, 2003)

Thank you, Ridley.
Its nice to read a praiseful post again - both about my tank and also my English.










About the SAEs: The one SAE I had is quite big- app. 5 cm (2 in). The four I have just bought are very small- app. 2 cm (0.8 in). So I think it will take time to them to grow up. And when my tank is too small for all of them, I think it will be possible to sell some of them to aquarists here. Because these fishes are found in our shops just rarely.

Regturb: That pink plant on the left is simple Hygrophyla polysperma. it is so pink because of the intensity of light there.

And the latest pic of my tank:


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## Astrid (Sep 20, 2003)

Regturb:
Or did you mean the thin plant on the left- next to the Hygrophyla? It is not very visible in the former pictures. So I have moved it to the righ. This plant is called Rotala walichii.

And, of course, I know that the leaf stems of the big echinodor dont look well. I am seriously thinking of putting it out of the tank.


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## Astrid (Sep 20, 2003)

Ive been hesitating if to reopen this discussion. Time has passed and my tank has changed a little. But after seeing AGA 2003, but not only that, also seeing some really beuatiful tanks here on this forum made me ask myself a question: 'What am I doing here?'

So, this is the picture









Do you have any ideas, how can I improve it? Apart from getting rid of the ancistrus, which is succesfully damaging the echinodorus on the right.

[This message was edited by Astrid on Sun December 28 2003 at 10:19 AM.]


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## 2la (Feb 3, 2003)

Astrid, with the understanding that all this is totally dependent on your own preferences, I will say that there's probably not much more to be done. The main things are pruning the plants more aggressively to keep them compact and not growing 'out of bounds,' and the way the plants are packed in there makes it seem a little bit congested. If you can figure out a way to open things up a little--either by removing or repositioning some of the plants--I think it would give the tank a more airy feel. As it is, though, I still like it a lot.

_____


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## Astrid (Sep 20, 2003)

2la:
Thank you very much.
There is still a lot that I have to learn.


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## Astrid (Sep 20, 2003)

(20/12/2003)


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