# [Wet Thumb Forum]-My new "rain forest" aquarium



## DLevy

After much contemplation I've decided to go the natural way, it just makes more sense. 
My plans have changed several times, I wanted a medium sized open aquarium with many catfish- mostly synodontises -my favorite fish. Unfortunately the aquarium I found wouldn't fit the bill so I decided on the "rain forest" theme. Long twisted wood covered with moss fern and crypts, dark gravel and colorful schools of fish or apistos.
I've spent some time collecting the equipment and stuff needed. I collected roots of dead trees and rocks from a desert stream. Tried out a few substrates in small aquariums, spent some time shop hunting for the right gravel and it is now time to do it.
I have no camera so the pictures are taken out of a video I took of the setup. 
The substrate made by a friend has two layers, first is peat and organic matter second is red soil/ clay. The depth is between one and a half to two inches on top of which is an inch of gravel (1-2mm black quartz). 








The wood is anchored to the bottom so that it doesn't float, I didn't have a big enough pot to boil it in but it will settle with time.








The plants where planted without too much thought, I just stuck in what I could get my hands on. As time goes I will gradually replace what ever plants I have with more desirable ones. 








There are more images in this link:
http://www.freshreef.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=8647&PN=1 
Ignore the text (it says pretty much the same as said above), the pictures are chronologically ordered&#8230;

Technical details:
The aquarium is 80*40*45cm (~140 lt.) it has 2*18w lights and I'm going to add about 40-50w later on, (I'm aiming at 0.5 watts per liter), there is also sun light from a nearby window which I can control with the blinds&#8230;

Thanks for looking, C&C's are always welcome

Danny


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## flagg

Hey Danny! Welcome to AB! I think it's a great looking tank! Are the photos in your post same ones from the link? Because I can't see the photos you've posted. Otherwise, I think the tank looks great! I was surprised at just how red that clay is! Wow! I can't wait to see how the tank looks when it grows in a little more.

-ricardo

PS Ha! That's funny! You fixed the photos while I was replying!


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## DLevy

Just fixed the links, hope you can see it now...

The tank is a few days old by now and I have what is probably a bacterial bloom, I've posted a question in a separate thread regarding it's identification and what to do about it (sit and wait as always ;-) ... )

trying to get pictures, will update soon.

Danny


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## dwalstad

Dear DLevy,

I hope this tank works for you, but I'm dubious.

Mixing peat and a red clay soil gave me an iron toxicity problem than wouldn't go away (p. 132, my book). The natural, inevitable acidity of peat reacting with an iron-rich clay will release excessive iron into the root area and water. The excessive iron (which can be toxic to plants) may kill plant roots; it will also leach into the water to stimulate algae and/or bacteria (p. 167, my book).

Then you've got the deeper than recommended layer of soil (I recommend "soil beginners" start out with 1 inch of soil).

I sincerely hope that your tank works and you prove me wrong, but I would prepare myself for problems. Your substrate is a guaranteed "iron-generator" with all its related problems.









If the plants don't grow in this substrate, I wouldn't be surprised. Get some good lighting and focus on floating plants and strong emergent plants (Red Tiger Lotus) and those attached to the driftwood (here the iron won't kill them). After awhile the substrate may settle down and submerged plants may be able to grow in it, but you may be in for a long haul.


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## DLevy

Diane, thanks for replying. I read quite a lot about different substrates and soils and even conducted a few experiments in small tanks but in the end I opted for the "safe" way. Safe in the sense that I'm using this substrate made by a friend who has used it in many aquariums with good success. I'm not sure of the exact composure of this substrate but maybe if his reading this he can join in and explain (Eyal?!)
I already have a bacterial bloom, my rain forest turned into an enchanted forest all misty and spooky, I will try and get pictures up soon…
I posted another thread about this and it seems like the general advice is to just wait 'till the aquarium settles. I will check out for excess iron, though, it will be interesting to see what happens…

Danny


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## KRiley

Tank looks really cool. Love the woodwork! Some apistos are going to love it in there.


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## DLevy

Riley- thanks, I do hope to put in apistos but it still looks far away. So far bacteria is what I'm growing








Got a few pics of my "enchanted forest" aquarium, I uploaded them for my thread about the bacteria but I'll put them here too.

a general look









The film at the top









Around plant leaves









The mollies feasting









I opened the window to get enough light for the pictures, the direct sun light makes it look a little worse then it really is&#8230;

Thanks

Danny


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## Matt S.

> ....Originally posted by Diana Walstad:
> Mixing peat and a red clay soil gave me an iron toxicity problem than wouldn't go away (p. 132, my book). The natural, inevitable acidity of peat reacting with an iron-rich clay will release excessive iron into the root area and water. The excessive iron (which can be toxic to plants) may kill plant roots; it will also leach into the water to stimulate algae and/or bacteria (p. 167, my book)....
> QUOTE]
> Hi
> 
> Is the only way to tell if a soil will have this problem to waiting to see if the plants die? Or is there a simple way to test for this iron solubility problem? For instance would there be iron levels in the water that would indicate this is occuring? Is there a rule of thumb / threshold in terms of ppm that would indicate dangerous iron levels?
> 
> Thanks


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## dwalstad

I believe I measured lots of iron in the water of my "disaster tank" containing potting soil mixed with laterite clay. Normally, I measure zero iron in tank water.

Remember you don't need much water iron to stimulate algae (or bacteria).

Thanks for posting the pictures. It should provide pause to those that want to mix soils.


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## DLevy

UPDATE

The water has cleared from the bacteria but after reading a few posts suggesting that an algae bloom could follow I decided at the first hint of green to cover the tank for a few days. I will update soon on the results...

Danny


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## dwalstad

If the water has cleared, there's hope. I admire your patience for just letting things develop. 

The nutrient leaching may be subsiding and/or a protozoa colony has developed and started eating the bacteria. And if that Rubin sword plant gets going, it may quickly turn things around. 

Thanks for update.


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## DLevy

> Originally posted by Diana Walstad:
> If the water has cleared, there's hope. I admire your patience for just letting things develop.


It's not really patience as much as curiosity. I'm not terribly afraid of things going wrong and I'm very interested in observing what happens. I only hope that I'll be able to make sense of what I see and truly learn from it. 
I appreciate your comments and those of others trying to explain what I describe, your learned guesses and speculations help me increase my knowledge and better understand this fascinating world.
Danny


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## DLevy

UPDATE: Catastrophe and Rebirth

Well, leaving my aquarium in darkness I decided the aquarium's flora should get some help. I head to travel last Tuesday and decided to stop on the way at a nursery that has two huge hothouses full of water plants







. Bought some anubias, java moss, Indian fern and a few others. When I got home I opened the tank and the water was green







(this is after 6 days of complete darkness). Even worth there was this horrible, swage like, smell. I started draining the water and everything was covered with black.







The rocks and wood where black the filter looked like it was submerged in charcoal. I took out the plants and tried to clean the leaves but they fell apart. 
At first I was disheartened later on I was even more depressed and then when I tried to clean the wood I was devastated. The black stuff wouldn't come off, I had to throw away two of the pieces but the other two I cleaned up with hydrogen peroxide. 
Anyway, back to stage one I cleaned it all up then re-set the aquarium on Friday with new plants and added used media from a working tank in a small internal filter.
The aquarium looks good so far, the water is clear with no coloring. Will post pictures soon&#8230;

Danny


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## Matt S.

Wow. Thanks for sharing that catastrophe. These experiences are often educational. Would love to see a picture of your aquarium Apocalypse if you got one. Your 6 day "nuclear winter" to wipe out the algae is one of the longest I've read of. I think in this instance evidently too long. It was still very early on in the life cycle of this tank and with its rich substrate it was still leaching tons of nutrients into the water colomn. I imagine that without light, both the algae and the plants ceded the ground to bacteria who could make use of this rich soup, use up all the 02 and cause havock by releasing -among other things - tons of H2S - the rotten egg / sewage smell. Without photosynthesis the plants also wouldn't pump o2 into the roots and this would have made anaerobic conditions in the soil even worse.

I've seen something like this in a bucket of water with some organic matter and a red tropical soil that I left sitting for about a week in the heat. Had the rotten egg smell and I also saw the black stuff. Not sure what that is but it's presumably some kind of precipitate.

You mention that you reset the aquarium? Have you changed the subtrate or are you carrying on with the red clay experiment? 

Could I also please clarify something about the original set up - the peat and organic matter layer is on top of the red clay soil - not visa versa right?



.


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## DLevy

Matt
The way I'm going we'll all be very educated by the end of this








I'm afraid I don't have any pictures, I really didn't feel up to it at the time. From what I could see the black stuff looked like the white fungus gone black, maybe with the lack of light or oxygen it just died?! The darkness could have been too long, I've never tried it before though I did ask a few people about it&#8230;
Would an air stone help? The smell could have been from H2S, it kind of stuck to all the wood and gravel even after a few rinses. 
I haven't changed the substrate, I've discussed the point with this friend of mine who gave it to me. He said the red soil isn't exactly clay and that it is not so rich in Iron. He thinks it could have been something in the wood that started everything (fungus?!), anyway to his credit are more then 10 working aquariums based on the same substrate so I'm going to keep with it&#8230;
Regarding the way it is set up:
First is a layer of peat and organic stuff, I put in 9 liters so that should give 3cm but after soaking it was more like 2cm on average then I put some active carbon (200gr) and _above_ it the layer of red soil which was about a centimeter high. (The pictures can be seen in the link on my first post)
Is it better or worth this way (peat on the bottom, red soil on top)?! I think the idea is for the nutrients released from the peat to be stored in the soil that has high CEC so it is available for the plants but not released into the water column.

Danny


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## DLevy

PICTURE UPDATE

This is how it looks now









not as good as in the first round but once things start to grow it will be much better


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## Matt S.

> Originally posted by DLevy:
> The way I'm going we'll all be very educated by the end of this
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Danny


I like your approach. You have to break a few eggs to make an omlette.

An airstone might have helped because it could have prevented the tank from becoming anaerobic. Firstly, the plants need 02 to respire and what 02 there was in the tank evidently got used up by the plants and bacteria. This alone may have killed the plants. The anaerobic conditions then lead to the production of H2S by bacteria. H2S is also toxic to plants.

The red stuff in your tank looks like iron rich clay at a glance. Most natural soils are not pure clay but contain a mixture of sand,silt, clay and organic matter. Apart from separating the mineral fraction, one way you can tell if it's mostly clay is if you roll a pinch of it between your fingers - does it form a wire? If it does then its mostly clay. The red color in soil is almost always due to Iron oxides (rust). When this red stuff is acidified by peat and decaying organic matter the iron becomes solubalized in quantitities that can be toxic to plants as well as causing algae blooms. See Diana's book.

I have read of approaches where a mineral soil is combined in layers with an organic soil -

see this link:How to grow beautiful aquarium plants cheap!
(there are other interesting articles on the home page)

But this is the first time I'm reading of an approach where you put the organic layer underneath the clay layer. This is not a situation that would generally occur in nature. Dig a hole in your garden and you will see the dark rich organic matter is towards the top and gives way to the mineral subsoil underneath.

I would think that there are good reasons to be concerned about putting the organic matter underneath the clay. The clay will effectively block 02 from getting to the organic matter and as a result you will get anaerobic bacteria producing toxic nasties down their. Evidently your mileage may vary - your friend has had some success with this so there may be some circumstancs where this can work. I see that the clay layer is very thin and I speculate that if you punch enough holes in it with the plant roots you maybe prevent the stuff underneath from becoming anaerobic.

Anyway the tank is looking nice and clear at the moment. Please let us know how it progresses.


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## DLevy

Just discovered something interesting. The main piece of wood that was suspended in mid water in the first layout had one part that was above water, now in the new setup it is all submersed. This morning I had a look and I noticed that around that part (and only there) a small layer of white stuff appeared. It looks like fungus and very similar to what I had in the first round all over the wood. I guess that gives us some insight on what happened before.
Danny


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## Matt S.

Cool. Speculation is that it's fungus on the wood. See this recent thread in El Natural for another recent encounter with the mysterious white stuff.

Tips, Tricks and Questions

The growth of this white stuff on the wood in your tank corresponds to my experience as well. I have a couple of pieces of mangrove wood in my 100 galon tank. When I first set it up and the wood quickly (<1 week) got covered in it and then it spread out over the substrate a little. Whatever it was, it certainly wasn't toxic. When I introduced Otos and SAEs into the tank they ate it all. It disappeared quickly under relentless grazing and never reapeared after the tank settled in.

No way to be 100% sure that your white stuff is even in the same Kingdom as my white stuff, but assuming it is I doubt this white stuff was the origin of your melt down - other than the fact that if it is fungus it also respired and helped use up 02 in the water.


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## DLevy

FISH UPDATE:

Well, first residents have arrived. Got a few angelfish ( _Pterophyllum scalare_ ), natural color ones. They seem to be very happy








Also got two synos and am looking now for bushy nose placos

Danny


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## MOR B.

Good luck danny, your tank looks great. as diana said - i hope for you that it will last that way (at least) 
i would add some caridina japonica's to clean the wood and the moss


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## DLevy

> Originally posted by MOR B.:
> Good luck danny, your tank looks great. as diana said - i hope for you that it will last that way (at least)


Thanks, I hope so too.


> Originally posted by MOR B.:
> i would add some caridina japonica's to clean the wood and the moss


I'm afraid to put in japonicas before there is enough growth for them to hide in. They are too expensive a meal for angelfish and synos.


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## DLevy

PICTURE UPDATE

Day 6 since remake. Added some more plants...









I think it's time to leave the tank alone and see what happens...

Danny


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## Matt S.

It's looking realy good. Nice aquascaping and the Angels look great in there. 

Hopefully your persistence has seen you through the wildest part of the ride with your soil mix.


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## flagg

DLevy: I think the tank looks great! Def. keep us posted and good luck!

-ricardo


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## DLevy

UPDATE: 2 WEEKS










Two weeks (and then some&#8230 have past and things are going well. The growth is now visible, there are new leaves on most anubia plants the java moss is growing well and the plants in the back are starting to show. The rotala and sunset hygro came from a high-tech tank and they had a reddish color so it's easy to see how they are growing since all the new leaves are bright green. I have some cabomba at the back, the redish one was first to grow but now the green one is taking over; they get lots of light from the window behind. I hardly use the lights in the tank anymore. The lighting is mostly from the window with a screen I keep over the tank so as not to get too much sunlight.
The past week I noticed the white stuff on the wood (fungus?) was spreading but the new gibby is eating it very happily. 
The stem plants (some kind of short valisneria?) in the front on the right side where added last week. I got them from a friend and added them without looking too carefully, it is now very obvious they have fuzz algae on them. If the bristlenose don't clean it I might just pull them out. They are growing well and have new shoots coming out but I don't really like the looks of it. I hope to replace them with something more suitable for that part, any suggestions?

Danny


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## dwalstad

Hi Danny,

What an improvement! Tank looks great.

I'd consider keeping the short Vals. It sounds like they're adjusting. The algae is probably growing on dead, decomposing leaves that will eventually be "shed". Once the Vals adjust, they will be more attractive.

I'm so glad you had the patience to wait this tank out. It's an inspiration for all of us!


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## littleguy

Tank is looking awesome! I especially like the wood.

Those "short vallisneria" might be sagittaria subulata - maybe?


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## DLevy

Diana and Littleguy- Thanks for the compliments. 
I don't think the plant is sagittaria since MOR B. who saw the pictures recommended I put some instead of the vals. I trust his opinion as to the identity of the plants but I'm not going to touch them in the next week or two so as to see what happens to them. Nevertheless, I'd prefer something that doesn't look like grass in the front. Something like glosso or Hemianthus would look better but I'm not sure they could thrive under these conditions… 

Danny


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## GuppiesRfun

Go get um! with that tank. I had great luck doing nothing with val. in a ten ga. tank of val. with a pr. of gold sailfin red-eyed mollies (hard to keep!). Plants did well tho! It was a delightful JUNGLE. YAY! I love forests in fish tanks (freshwater of course). I just had good old gravel and fish dukey in my ignorance. The water turned green and I put non-iodized salt in it and something from the store which got rid of the algae and helped the fish and didn't hurt the plants to the best of my knowledge. (I'm old)







Anyway, I had a fine crop of val. to the bitter end. The fish were another story. I'm sure Ms. Walstad will tell you the mollies deserved a pond since I'm in a desert. The pond I had had black lyre-tail mollies in it and they were very successful in trading locally. Here comes a message again and I'm the computer idiot-Guppies


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## GuppiesRfun

p


> Originally posted by GuppiesRfun:
> Go get um! with that tank. I had great luck doing nothing with val. in a ten ga. tank of val. with a pr. of gold sailfin red-eyed mollies (hard to keep!). Plants did well tho! It was a delightful JUNGLE. YAY! I love forests in fish tanks (freshwater of course). I just had good old gravel and fish dukey in my ignorance. The water turned green and I put non-iodized salt in it and something from the store which got rid of the algae and helped the fish and didn't hurt the plants to the best of my knowledge. (I'm old)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Anyway, I had a fine crop of val. to the bitter end. The fish were another story. I'm sure Ms. Walstad will tell you the mollies deserved a pond since I'm in a desert. The pond I had had black lyre-tail mollies in it and they were very successful in trading locally. Here comes a message again and I'm the computer idiot-Guppies


 PS. I like your angelfish Mr. Rain Forest


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## Inquisitive

i like it, it is making me wanna do more to my tank.








+++++++++++


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## GuppiesRfun

What do you do with your tank? What kind of fish, rocks, gravel, plants, soil whatever? I just joined the forums in 2005? I see you've been around since 2003. Peace and prosperity-PaulaI don't know how to answer messages!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!PAX


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## Inquisitive

what do i do with my tanks???....hmmmm...too much, lol
Seriously, I do wat i can to make the tanks environment appealing to both me and the inhabitants. I have all sorts of fish, at the moment i am into SA cichlids (apisto's, acara's), SA tetra, and livebearers. various rocks collected myself alond with driftwood (boiled first of course). plants.....too many to mention at the moment. as for soil i use potting soil mixed with gravel and sand, but i am in the process of using my own compost, inspired by this forum.

hope that answers the questions








Tim


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## DLevy

UPDATE: FIRST MONTH









Well, after 30 days I'm pleasantly surprised, I didn't think that the plants will grow so quickly. I think the main reason is the lighting- lots of sunlight, but the downside is that the algae is thriving too.








I'm going to construct proper lighting then cover the back and sides of the aquarium and try practicing some more control with the lighting. I'll see how that works for a month or so and then decide how to combine the two- sun light and artificial lighting- to best suit this aquarium. I've done a little pruning and replanting 4 days ago








and now it's time to sit back and watch the new leaves come out









The swimming part of the aquarium is getting there to. I got a school of neon tetras, the price was too good to resist and even so they are a little small they seem to be doing well. I was worried that they will be hunted by the bigger angelfish but none where eaten so far. At first they where all huddled together in a very tight group, I then decided to move the bigger and more aggressive angelfish to a different aquarium. Once that was done the tetras seem to feel safer, they still swim together but more freely and openly, a splendid sight indeed.
The other fish who seem to be happy with this change are the bristlenoses.








I now see them very often and they don't hide as much as they used to. They spend most of there time "cleaning" the wood and they hardly ever touch the algae on the plants or glass, not so sure why but that's the way it is&#8230;

Danny


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## DLevy

Tim, very nice tanks you have. At first I planned on having apistos in this tank but things developed differently. I still hope to have a couple, they aren't so easy to come about- I saw a few at the LFS but they where a little pricy. Eventually I will turn this tank into more of a SA environment, its going that way anyhow


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## GuppiesRfun

Isn't that a plecostomus in the picture, not an anglefish? in the last picture and no threat to anyone? Did I miss something?-Old lady.Paula


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## DLevy

> Originally posted by GuppiesRfun:
> Isn't that a plecostomus in the picture, not an anglefish? in the last picture and no threat to anyone? Did I miss something?-Old lady.Paula


The last picture is of a bristlenose catfish ( _Ancistrus sp._), they are indeed harmless to fish and plants. There are also 6 angelfish ( _Pterophyllum scalare _ ) in my tank, here is a picture of one of them

















Danny


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## GuppiesRfun

Hi, Danny you are great with those pictures. I'm going to have to pin my teen down on sending pics thru this computer. Still havent' mastered that! Thanks for the name of the fish and the close-up of the angel. My mother loved angels! They laid eggs for her, but I know she never raised any to adulthood in Ky. I hand- delivered 1984? a beautiful long-finned young marble angel from Yuma, AZ. to Roswell, N.M. in Feb. by Greyhound to my sister (now deceased from cancer







). but it died. She knew well how to care for it. No telling why it died. It was a long and probably a cold trip. We went thru El Paso. I probably opened bag several times to give fresh air to poor fish. I'm sure I wasn't stupid enough to feed it.







hello messanger, that's my title-Paula Guppies


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## DLevy

2nd MONTH UPDATE:

Three weeks ago I just finished setting up the lighting (66W) and covering the back and sides of the tank to lower the amount of sun light coming in. This was all done hoping to better control the fuzz algae growing everywhere. I also started adding Glutoreldehyde in increasing dosages for a week. Plant growth was good and the algae's color started turning white but then I had to leave it as is because I was flying away for two weeks. I came back yesterday to find this:









The tank turned into a jungle, the growth is amazing. There is also less algae but still quite a lot so I will keep on with my experiment. The only plant not affected by this is the rotala, I wonder why...

Danny


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## dwalstad

You are adding gluteraldehyde, the fixative used by histologists? Gluteraldehyde (like formaldehyde) works by permanently and indiscriminantly inactivating proteins. 

I shudder to think what the gluteraldehyde is doing to the sensitive gill tissues of your fish.

Instead of chemicals, I would add floating plants to this tank.


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## DLevy

Diana

Glutaraldehyde is used for fixing in concentrations of 2%, in the aquarium it is used at 0.000001. I checked it in several places and consulted a few researches working with it, In such small concentrations it wouldn't even kill the bacteria.
But the idea isn't new, Flourish Excel contains Polycycloglutaracetal which is an isomer of Glutaraldehyde. Several people have reported that using an over dose of excel in their tanks had a strong effect on the algae. What I like about this is the fact that this substance helps the plants grow instead of just damaging the algae like with H2O2 for example.

Danny


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## Miss Fishy

Danny, your tank is filling in very nicely! What is that tall plant in the middle? A _Lobelia_, perhaps?

From Alex.


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## DLevy

Alex, thanks. I hope to do some rearranging next week, it's getting a little too wild. My aim is to have denser more compact growth leaving more space for the fish.
The plant in the middle is a cut off something I thought was Indian fern, but now it doesn't look like it at all so I'm not sure what it is







.

Danny


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## DLevy

UPDATE: THREE MONTH+ PICS
Haven't updated in so long, I just don't have time for anything...








The tank has been left alone for the last couple of weeks so it's a bit of a jungle. Don't know when I'll have time to do anything with it but it's nice to see how it takes care of itself 

Danny


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## dwalstad

Great tank! A pleasure to look at.  Thanks for showing it.


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## DLevy

Thanks, natural tanks really are fascinating and I'm enjoying this very much.


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## Miss Fishy

Your tank has really evolved! It looks beautiful! 

How is the algae problem these days?

From Alex.


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## DLevy

Hi Alex, and thanks. The algae is almost gone, there are still a few places with fuzz but the more the plants grow the less of it I see 
Actually, the wood is starting to get green spot algae in some places , I think it will look very nice once it's completely covered.

Danny


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## DLevy

Something I've noticed: different plants in my aquarium grow at different times. Last week I was impressed that the cabomba was growing so nicely and this week it stayed almost the same. The vals on the other hand suddenly doubled their size after two or more weeks of staying the same. This might not be very accurate as big changes are easier to notice then small ones but looking through pictures of the past few weeks there really is something to it. Perhaps the plants have some kind of a cycle they go through or maybe it is the growth of one suppressing the other until things shift the other way. I know my rotala has good and bad weeks but I never tried to see if it's correlated to the growth of other plants. Anyone else noticed such things?

Danny


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## flagg

DLevy said:


> UPDATE: THREE MONTH+ PICS
> Haven't updated in so long, I just don't have time for anything...
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> The tank has been left alone for the last couple of weeks so it's a bit of a jungle. Don't know when I'll have time to do anything with it but it's nice to see how it takes care of itself
> 
> Danny


Wow Danny! This tank has truly evolved into something spectacular. Great job! If this is what you get when you leave it alone, well then, you need to leave it alone more often. I think this is one of the key things about the NPT... just leave it alone unless things start dying. Great job!

-ricardo


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## DLevy

SIX MONTH UPDATE:

Along time has past without any updates or pictures, mostly because I hadn't a moment to spare. The tank has been standing unattended for some time, the plants grew wild and filled up everything&#8230;
Three weeks ago, following some problem with the fish, I rescaped the whole tank. I ended up pulling everything out and replanting. 








This picture was taken about a week after, the plants you see in it are twice the size they where when I replanted them. The growth is much better than when I setup the tank showing how the plants have adapted to their environment and the aquariums parameters. Today the cabomba has reached the waters surface and the sunset hygro is almost there too. 
Another interesting thing is the lack of algae. Although I drastically cut down the mass of the plants the tank remains clean. The green spots on the wood have took over covering it within a week with a beautiful velvety green surface but all the fuzz algae I had on the plants when I started the tank hasn't reappeared.

The tank will now stand untouched for sometime and I will see how it grows and hopefully I'll have the time to update too.

Danny


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## Minipol

The tank looks good. What plants did you put back in?


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## DLevy

Minipol said:


> The tank looks good. What plants did you put back in?


Well, I'm not very good with names but lets try... at the back are the Cabomba green and red, Ludwigia and Vals. On the right side there's Sunset Hygro and Rotala rotundifolia. The plant growing in the front I believe is Sagiteria but I could be completely wrong about it.
The moss in the tank was in bad shape but I didn't replace it since I have to move the tank in a month time and then I'll put new mosses and crypts etc..

Danny


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## cs_gardener

Beautiful aquarium. Its really changed a lot since your first setup. Its a shame you have to move it now that you have it so nice.


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## Minipol

I like your plant selection. Sagiteria & ludwigia are 2 of my favourite plants. They can handle a lot of abuse


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## DLevy

cs_gardener said:


> Beautiful aquarium. Its really changed a lot since your first setup. Its a shame you have to move it now that you have it so nice.


Well, yes and no...I'm very exited about moving, we bought a new house and I'm looking forward to moving into it. It will be a shame to disturb the aquarium but I'm hoping to make a bigger and nicer display tank in the new house. El-Natural of course... 


Minipol said:


> I like your plant selection. Sagiteria & ludwigia are 2 of my favourite plants. They can handle a lot of abuse


Thanks, but I didn't really choose them. I got many cuttings from friends and what I have now are those that survived  . They are very strong, they grow well in all parts of the aquarium and out of it too. I took a few stems that where floating around and planted them out of the water and they grew wonderfully, adapting quickly to the new environment. I then put some of them back in the water and again they thrived.


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## DLevy

THE END

Well, we've moved to our new house and the aquarium was dismantled. It was a terrific experience and In my eyes a successful one too so the new aquarium I'm planning for our living room will definitely be an el-natural.


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## mujacko2002

*Re: [Wet Thumb Forum]-My new "rain forest" aquarium*

Mabuhay!

any updates on the new tank? .

TIA for any response.


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## eplommer

*Re: [Wet Thumb Forum]-My new "rain forest" aquarium*

The main thing that I draw from this thread is to be patient and not not to give up too quickly, particularly on the advice of onlookers.


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## Tex Gal

*Re: [Wet Thumb Forum]-My new "rain forest" aquarium*

This was a great tank. I hope he gets it set-up and running at his new place.


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## eplommer

*Re: [Wet Thumb Forum]-My new "rain forest" aquarium*

but the downside is that the algae is thriving too.

It will be very old news to many, but nerite snails do an amazing job of removing algae; even cherry shrimp help a lot. I'd keep the light coming.


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## poly-sperm-ahhh

*Re: [Wet Thumb Forum]-My new "rain forest" aquarium*

beautiful!


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