# [Wet Thumb Forum]-30 Gal Photo Journal



## flagg (Nov 29, 2004)

Ok, so instead of just updating my other thread weekly, I thought I'd set up a specific photo journal of this tank, just to share the experience w/ others and hopefully to get others to share their tanks too! For those who don't know, it's a standard "Walstad" setup.

For plants, well, there's a bunch of vals, S. subulata (some dwarf, some tall), a sword, java fern, H. difformis and polysperma, C. wendtii, M. quadrifolia, red rubin sword, hornwort, brazilian pennywort, an anubias, R. indica, water lettuce, salivinia, water sprite, and duckweed. (Wow, there's a lot more plants in there than I thought!!)

Fauna include: 4 guppies (+ babies), 1 angel, 3 paleatus cories, 1 bristlenose, 5 rams (some of which have to go back to the store b/c they're all females and I want at least 1 pair), a recently discovered snail (about dime size), and there's supposed to be some "algae shirmp" but I haven't seen them since the day after I got them....

So, I'll post weekely pics. I'll generally try to have a pic from the front of the whole tank and closeups of the left and right sides.

Ok, here's the first pic, a few weeks after being set up...










Here's the tank 9 days later on 10-26-05. If you look closely, you can see how much the pennywort (in the middle on the driftwood) grew in those few days. Same for the floaters. You can also see in the right the new position of the powerhead w/ the hagen quick filter...










I don't have a whole tank view on 11-5-05 b/c I had a bag w/ charcoal in the tank (soaking up some iron and meds) and I thought it looked too unsightly for a pic, so here's a pic of the left side...










Ok, here's the tank on 11-13-05, viewed slightly from the left. You can see how the pennywort has reached the surface. Also, you can see the roots of the water lettuce, shortly after I first got it as well as some hornwort that I added










And today, 11-19-05, a front view... The plants are really starting to take off, especially the floaters. The salivinia I'm thinning out every day and giving to my goldfish, the water lettuce is starting to go gangbusters and the H. polysperma, though I don't think you can tell in the pic, is starting to pick up too.










Well, I know this is a long post but I hope you enjoy the photos and thanks so much for checking out my tank!

-ricardo


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## 10GALAQUATIC (Apr 18, 2005)

nice looking tank







. I have just small one(5gal). I love the root of water lettuce look cool, your baby guppies'll be happy


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## flagg (Nov 29, 2004)

Ok, it's been a while since I took some pics (almost a month) so I thought I'd take some more and show the progress of the tank. You'll notice in some of the pics, how huge the C. wendtii has gotten; it's almost to the top of the tank!

Also, the sword plant has gotten just out of control and it's kinda covering up the crypt.... any ideas on how to remove it without messing up the soil too badly. Also, what would look good there btw the crypt and the vals on the right?

Enjoy!

12-13-05

View from the left...










Front...










Right closeup...










Left closeup...


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## javalee (May 8, 2006)

Ricardo, it's gorgeous! The sword may be a beast, but it's really beautiful. The pennywort may be my favorite. Everything looks healthy, and no algae!


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## Dave P (Dec 13, 2005)

Ricardo,

I'm not sure if this helps, but I found this at the following link: http://www.aquabotanic.com/diana_walstad_gallery.htm

"Amazon swordplants have always dominated this tank making it difficult to
keep anything else in the tank except Anubias, Java fern and Cryptocoryne
wendtii. About a year ago I took a razor blade to the most dominating
Amazon swordplant and sliced off the entire top part, in essence, killing
it. I left the root system intact, because I didn't want to create a
mammoth mess in the tank (I don't mind uprooting smaller plants). Not
unexpectedly, there were consequences. Within a few months there was
significant algal growth in the tank and an opaque film on tank's surface.
I'm sure that the dying root matter released plenty of organic matter and
chelated iron.

I added an apple snail, floating water lettuce, potted plants, and just
waited. Tank is recovering nicely (as expected). Fish were fine
throughout." - Diana Walstad

If you decide to go this route, the floating and emergent plants you've mentioned earlier in the thread may be enough to mitigate the release of nutrients.

BTW, your aquarium looks fantastic; everything looks as if it has put on some very robust growth. Thank you for starting this journal, I find it to be most inspiring and informational!

Dave


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## DataGuru (Mar 11, 2005)

Looks awsome! Thanks for updating us.









What's that sword on the left side?

The amazon sword in my 125 is taking up almost a third of the tank. I wonder if you could use scissors to cut the roots about an inch or so under the plant. That should make it easy to get out and should leave less roots to cause trouble.


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## Erin (Feb 18, 2005)

Ricardo,

Very nice! I think it is filling in beautifully! I love the photo journal idea, thanks for sharing.

Regards,
Erin


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## krazy (Aug 24, 2005)

Looking great. The pennywort's my favorite too, I'll have to try it in my next tank. The rubin sword is really taking off also. Thanks for sharing.
D


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

Nice tank. The plants look so healthy!


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## flagg (Nov 29, 2004)

Thanks everybody for your kind comments!

javalee- Actually, there is a bit of algae, but it's hardly noticeable. There's some fur algae on the driftwood and I actually like the way it looks. There's also a bit of hair algae on the anubias, but nothing too bad. I've learned to live with the algae as it's not too bad, as you can see (or not!)

Dave P- Thanks for the link! I remember reading that site and I think that I'll just leave the plant alone. It's gonna get huge, but at least there's a nice big plant to soak up nutrients. I'm def. afraid that if I snip it it'll release tons of nutrients from decaying roots, etc... I'll just let it be. The crypts are growing quite well next to it and I'm sure they'll get big enough to make a nice display....

Betty- The sword on the left is a red rubin sword. It's one of my favorites! It has grown robustly since I planted it (the first month it sent out about one or two new leaves a week!) I think I'll leave the bigger sword on the right well enough alone for now. If it gets really big I'll try dividing it and selling half of it. I'm forced to remind myself of the #1 "el natural" rule (in my opinion) which is, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

javalee, krazy- I love the pennywort too! It grows like crazy! It was one small strand when I first put it in the tank. I stuck it into the driftwood and it grew to the surface, then to the left of the tank where it made a u-turn and grew half way back to the center of the tank. By this point, it was beginning to send out new stems so I trimmed 2/3 of the plant and put it in my fiance's 20g at school and now I'm letting this original grow out again. It makes a nice carpet on the surface when it's not covered by the water lettuce.

Thanks again to everyone for reading. I'll post another update in a month or so now that things are starting to settle in and growth isn't as obviously dramatic as it was....

-ricardo


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## flagg (Nov 29, 2004)

Ok, here are some new photos! I've really enjoyed seeing this tank grow, especially when I look at old photos and compare the plants. Take a look at the size of the C. wendtii and the sword on the right side of the tank in the first pic and compare it with these... absolutely amazing! I didn't know wendtii could grow that big! It's HUGE! The sword is starting to get a little too big I think and it's really starting to shade some of the plants around it. Not sure what I'm going to do about that, any suggestions would be helpful. There're some empty spaces in the left side that I plan on filling up soon. There was some wisteria I think it was in the area before that did not do well, now I need to find a replacement plant.

Some other developments with this tank. I have very hard, alkaline water (I live in Rockland county NY and the water is rock hard!) Anyway, pH from the tap is 8+ and KH is about 10 - 12 dKH. I tested the water today and noticed that the GH was at 0 - 1 and KH at 4 dKH. KH has remained steady, not so the GH (see other thread). The pH which was 8.2 - 8.6 when first set up is now down to 6.9! I haven't been testing it recently, but I plan on keeping an eye on it. Also, we're talking 6.9 in the afternoon, I wonder what it's at first thing in the morning. Nitrates, never really high, are now at 0. What can I do to increase that?

Oh, one last thing, check out the vals on the right side. They're growing like crazy!! I added some cuttlebone to the substrate and their growth has exploded! I also need a plant to put along the back wall of the tank, any suggestions? I'd do more vals, but they're getting way to big...

Frontal view...









Closeup of the right side....









Close up of the left side...










-ricardo


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

Ricardo,

Your tank looks great. I would be very pleased. You can trim off lower leaves of swordplants should they start to crowd other plants.

I would relax about the nitrates. That nice green color tells me that the plants are getting _plenty_ of nitrogen. Remember that plants like ammonia best!


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## javalee (May 8, 2006)

For all your concerns Ricardo, this tank really does look spectacular! I hope to have a 29 set up like this one day; your thread will provide a great model. I'd like vals and swords too so I'll have to remember to add cuttlebone to the soil as you did. 

I have the same mysterious GH plummet in my 10g. The KH is exactly the same, but the GH keeps dropping. I add my CaCl2 and MgSO4 to get it up and weeks later it's back down again. In the GH thread Diana and Betty mentioned precipitation as a possible cause.

Your plants look gorgeous and happy, but if you do find that your 0ppm nitrate becomes a problem (for me it initiated a BGA explosion) just add a ton of food, and if you have MTS in addition to your ramshorns, it won't sit around and grow fungus. I'd say add guppies since it worked well for me, but I see that you have some pretty ones already! Ghost shrimp are good food processors too, and may survive your cichlids afterall with all those plants. I've yet to harm any fish by overfeeding. I find that after a few weeks, they just eat less and leave more to the snails to finish off.

Looks wonderful though!!


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## flagg (Nov 29, 2004)

Hi All! Well, I just got back from a week's vacation in Puerto Rico (god, being a teacher is freaking awesome!) and I'm surprised at how much has gone on around here! Well, I thought I'd post another pic of my tank, after a minor re-aquascaping. I moved the driftood to the left and stood it up on its end. You'll also notice that I wrapped the quickly-getting-really-big pennywort around the front right side of the driftwood which I think gives the tank a better look. I like the contraast of the bright green round leaves. I'm going to try to get my hands on some E. tenellus for a ground cover and maybe maybe some other kind of stem plant to put btw. the pennywort and the crypt. Any suggestions as to what you think would look good there?










I've done nothing about the low gh and nitrogen. Except that I did remove A LOT of floating plants. I figure that with the tank pretty well established now (going on five months) I'll let some more light for the rooted plants. I thought this might also increase the available nutrients that hopefully can be taken up by the rooted plants. I've noticed that in the week and a half that I've been gone, with the more available light (and nutrients?) the vals have taken off and the anubia's slow-growing new growth has quickly accelerated. I may decide to up the GH later, but again, only if the plants do start to show problems.

One last question, when is too many snails TOO MANY snails? My ramshorn are reproducing like rabbits.... Anybody want any? Just send me a PM.

Thanks for following along!

-ricardo


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

Great tank that just keeps getting better!


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## DLevy (Dec 20, 2005)

Looks very nice, so green and healthy...
What fish do you have in there now?

Danny


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## flagg (Nov 29, 2004)

Thanks Diana and DLevy! As for fish, well, right now there is an angelfish, male dwarf gourami, breeding trio of paleatus cories (if I could just get the fry to live longer than two weeks...), pair of guppies and a bristlenose pleco. There also used to be a pair of rams and a black angelfish, but I think they starved to death b/c the gourami would not let them eat (ie, he would chase them away from food whenever I fed.) My fiance is experiencing the same prob. w/ her gourami and ram in her tank at school. I love the gourami as he is a beautiful specimen! His coloration is magnificent and only has a slight flaw on his dorsal fin which makes it kind of curve at the end instead of being straight and pointed. Anyway, I think that I'm going to return him to my LFS and pick up some other fish. Any suggestions folks? I was thinking tetras or maybe rasboras?? I don't know... So many fish, so few tanks!

-ricardo


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## flagg (Nov 29, 2004)

Here are some new pics of my 30 gal...

First, a couple of shots of the sides of the tank. You can see here how long the vals have gotten. They've started to form these clumps of twisted leaves...



















In these two photos, I'm letting one of the strands of vals hang over the tank (18" tall) so you can get an idea of how long these vals are...



















These are pics are of the pennywort. It has gotten really big and I'll be taking some clippings to my LFS soon (unless someone here wants some, just send me a PM) along w/ many of the vals... Anyway, I really like the way these are growing out of the water...










This anubias is getting BIG! Is that a flower stalk coming out the middle?










Here's a closeup of the C. wendtii. The older leaves you can see are dying and melting so these will be trimmed next week w/ the minor rescaping.










The Red Rubin Sword...










Amazon sword and my angelfish










Other shots....





































Thanks for looking!

-ricardo


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## DataGuru (Mar 11, 2005)

It's looking good.









What are you going to do about that amazon sword? It's going to overwhelm the tank at some point.

The vals have enough of a root system to make a mess when you pull them up. Took my 20 NPT around a day to clear.

and you have me wondering... I've been trimming my vals every couple of weeks to keep them from blocking too much light. Wonder what would happen if they were allowed to grow emergent as in that one pic of yours.

I just picked up some pennywort at a local garden center that's potted in soil. Does it grow by throwing out runners? At each node it appears to have roots and one leaf?

Gotta get a pic of your anubias bloom.


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## Miss Fishy (May 13, 2006)

I was looking at the start of this thread, and I noticed just how much everything has grown since then. You can't even see that nice blue background anymore! How many Angelfish do you have in there now? Are those black round things on the gravel at the front of the tank snails, or bits of dark gravel?

Betty, Pennyworts do grow on runners. Some of them, like the one in Ricardo's tank, can grow floating as well as rooted in the substrate, and all of them can grow emergent. Here is a page about Pennyworts.

From Alex.


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## flagg (Nov 29, 2004)

Betty: Yeah, that sword has already started to overwhelm the tank! I was asking about that before on this or another thread and the consesus ended up being to leave it and trim it when necessary. Every couple of weeks or so I cut off the older outside leaves and it seems none the worse for it.

My vals won't grow emergent (I just took that one out for the picture). If they did, you'd see this tank draped in green "grass"! Vals dry out really quickly I've found and then just die. Well, the leaves die out, not the whole plant. How do you trim yours? Do you just pull out whole plants or actually trim the leaves?

As for the pennywort, I love it! It took a while to get established though. It always grew, but quite slowly at first. Now it's a maniac! If I took out the whole plant it would probably measure five feet across! I'm thinking of taking out all the floating plants except for it and some water lettuce. Problem is, have you ever tried to get rid of duckweed?! Although, for you and your goldfish tanks the better question is probably, have you ever tried to GROW duckweed?! It does grow on runners as Alex said, but I've never had any luck getting it to grow as a ground cover, though I've read it can be done. I think it grows rooted in shallow streams where it can get a lot of light. As it is, on mine, the leaves that don't receive much light (lower on the plant or in the shade) do not do as well as plants near the surface.

Lastly, really? My anubias will bloom? Nice! My first aquatic flower!

Alex- I love looking at the progression of photos for this tank! It's just grown in so much. It's at the point now where I can't blame the not being able to see the background on just aquascaping. It's almost all completely covered! Its awesome! I never expected this much success w/ this method (sorry Diana, but I've been programmed w/ a healthy bit of skepticism!)

For ease of comparison, here's a picture on 10.17.05 (about a week or two afte setup)...










And here we are a mere six months after setup....










As for angelfish, including the adult, there are seven. Too many I know, but I'm just hoping that two will pair off and then I'll get rid of the other five. I also had to get rid of the cories. Whenever they tried breeding, one of the angelfish would peck the female cory on her underside, right where she holds the eggs.... So I put them into the 10g and two days later they were laying eggs (another testament to the "el natural" method).

And yes, those dark brown spots are snails. Ramshorns. They do a nice job of cleaning up the tank! Altough, I think they're also eating my Ancistrus' food at night. Since I had to take out the cories I'm thinking of adding a couple of clown loaches. They should help keep the snail population in check (perhaps a little too well?) While they get big, what I'm thinking is to buy them small and once they get four or five inches, trade them in for smaller ones....

Anybody else have any suggestions for a bottom dweller that will get along w/ my angels?

-ricardo


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## DataGuru (Mar 11, 2005)

I usually just trim the vals around an inch below the surface. Here while back I did thin them out cuz they were trying to take over the tank. They've taken over the entire back of the 20 tall now and it looks ok, but they block so much light. Sitting next to my bowfront in front of a south window, even tho it has 40 watts of light over it, the 20 tall looks dark because not much of the sunlight is making it to the front of the tank.

The pennywort I got was growing emergent. I have the pot sitting to where the plant tops are above water. I got it and some potted water celery for emergent plants in the sump.

It's difficult to get rid of duckweed if you don't have something that eats it. I grow duckweed in my other tanks to feed my goldfish cuz there's no way to grow it in the goldie tank. it may be a pain but it's great at sucking up nutrients, so every bit you remove is removing nitrate from your tank.

Yea, the bloom on anubias isn't spectacular, bnt it's cool regardless.


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

Ricardo,

Love your tank! Thanks for the photo of good emergent growth. 

You've done things the right way.


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## flagg (Nov 29, 2004)

Ok, here's the tank after a bit of a makeover. I added some new plants I got (thanks, Whiskey!) and took out that large sword plant. Removing it wasn't as bad as I thought. It just required a lot of patience... Some roots managed to break off in the soil, but even most of those I managed to pull out so hopefully there won't be too much decaying root matter to pollute the tank. Anyway, here's two pics, one of the tank the other of a closeup of where the sword was. I like the tank a lot better now. It's brighter and there's some more open space for the fish.



















Pics were taken during the day so they're not so great due to the glare from the sunlight, I'll post better pics later.

-ricardo


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## javalee (May 8, 2006)

Ricardo, this tank is wonderful, and I've loved watching it grow here! I wanted to suggest a bottom-dweller if you're still interested: khuli loaches are so entertaining and mine do fine in my 29g with a large angel and fiesty rams. In fact, I think they're so strange-looking that the aggressive fish don't even regard them as other fish. The khulis are the only ones that don't get picked on. They will scour every inch of the substrate for food particles and they adore thickly planted tanks. 

BTW, I love the "new look" too. I think you'll love the cabomba (isn't that cabomba on the right?); it does very well in my 10g natural. Also, your tank is doing so well---what amount of lighting are you using? I looked on the first page; sorry, if I missed it.


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## flagg (Nov 29, 2004)

Hey Lee! Thanks for the compliments! I love kuhli loaches. I added a couple of clown loaches mostly for snail control, but I think I'll also pick up half a dozen or so kuhlis next time I see them. They don't often turn up around here for some reason...

I believe that is cabomba, though I'm not 100% positive. As for lighting, I have a 2x flo. fixture so that's 60W for 2 wpg.... Room gets pretty bright though the tank doesn't get much direct sunlight...

-ricardo


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## flagg (Nov 29, 2004)

Ok, so this tank's been set up since October of 2005. I started having algae problems shortly after I removed a large amazon sword that I've since added back into the tank. The tank went through a period when I had a lot of hair algae growing in the tank. The hair algae seems to have been taken care of since I started doing a little more maintenance and vacuuming out some mulm that had accumulated on top of the gravel. I also started feeding less. Now however, there appears to be some brown algae and the water lettuce gets some BGA that I can't seem to get rid of. Anybody have any suggestion on how to get rid of these. I'm gonna find my filter media bag and add carbon to the filter see if that helps. If anybody has any other ideas, they'd be appreciated.

Also, a bunch of the plants, mostly crypts died. There was a pH crash, but since I started doing water changes that seems to have gotten better. Water parameters are: pH: 7.2, ammonia, nitrite: 0, nitrate: 10ppm, GH: 10, KH: 5. I'm only guessing at the ammo. and nitrite but they must be 0 since the angelfish breed every couple of weeks (though always eat the eggs) and the rasboras are doing quite well. There's also a clown loach and a bristlenose pleco.

Here are some updated pictures...




























We're moving in a couple of weeks and when I do, I'm gonna take my plants out of the 20 gal and put them in here, tank's looking a little bare....

Thanks for checking out my tank!

-ricardo


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## flagg (Nov 29, 2004)

Inspired by Ian's 50 Gal. 2 year aniv. post I decided to post some updates on my tank that was set up just over a year and a half ago (October 2005). It's undergone many changes, most recently (and lastly) being moved and re-setup in my new house. The plants are still pretty much the same as is the equipment except that I replaced the 2 x 30 watt fixture w/ an AH Supply 96W kit w/ a 6500K bulb; so now it gets just over 3 wpg instead of 2. Plus it now sits in the space between two northwest-facing windows. You can see in the pic that the tank sits partly in front of each window. I've pulled back the background to allow the sunlight to hit the tank. (I put it up in a couple of pics to get a better shot of the plants, but it highlighted the yellowing of some anubias). The tank was neglected since setup (a month ago) and I just cleared a whole bagful of water lettuce. Some of the plants seemed to be struggling with no light really reaching them b/c of the water lettuce and I think that's why not all the plants are doing 100%. (Gotta remember to stay on top of that, my water lettuce grows like crazy and it all started with one plant! If anybody needs any please drop me a PM and next time I thin out I'll send ya some. I hate to throw away all these plants.) Anyway, the fish seem to be doing well especially, as you can see in some pics, the angelfish have spawned again only a month after they were moved!

This tank will be taken down in a few weeks when I set up my 125 gal. The plants and some of the fish (angels, bristlnose, rasboras and cories) will be transferred to the new tank along with the plants.

Anyway, here' the pics. Enjoy!




























There was a pretty bad fur algae and bga problem before we moved. Now the problem is minimal. There's minimal algae on the small sword in the middle. I did however, remove some fur algae that had started to grow on the older leaves of the melon sword.










Here's the pair of angles that keep breeding on me, but constantly eating the eggs (haven't had a chance to remove the eggs and raise them right... yet).



















-ricardo


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## plantblr (Feb 27, 2007)

Hey Ricardo

I'am just flattened by your tank,no comments.........everything is just awsome.Please let me know how you set it up,your maintenence of the tank in detail.Daily,weekly,monthly.

Awaiting your quick reply.

Thanks in advance,
Ravi


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