My Planted Tank Adventures

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Another planted tank.

It's been a while since I posted anything so it's time to post a little update with pictures :) I also finally got my 55g tank set up which is not easy being 8 months pregnant. The tank is cycling at the moment but hopefully it will be ready for fish soon, I also can't wait to see some growth.

Here is a little info on my 55g

The tank: 55g

Lights: Coralife 48" 2x65w
Substrate: Mineralized Top Soil toped with Ceramaquarts T-Grade, about 50-60lb of it.
Filter: AquaClear 110 (will be adding another one soon)

Flora:

Anubias 'nana'
Java fern
Dwarf Sag.
Cryptocorine Wendtii
Blyxa
Ludwigia Repens

Fauna:

not decided yet

And now the pictures

12/05/2010

12/06/2010

Got more plants :D

12/07/2010

Still a little cloudy but with a water change it should be crystal clear.

And here is a little update on my 10g.

The tank is doing good but I need to get some root tabs because the plants need it. I moved a lot of plants into 55g, but added a bit of blyxa. So the plants currently in a 10g are: Dwarf Sag., Blyxa, Anubias 'nana', Cryptocorine wendtii. The Celestial Pearl Danios (CPD) are doing great. and apparently they breeding because I found a couple juvies that are around 2 months old or so. I will move most of the school into 55g and leave a couple of pairs in 10g. I hope to see more breeding so my school can become even bigger :)

12/07/2010

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

How to make a moss wall.

A moss wall is a great addition to any planted tank. It makes a beautiful background or ground cover. You can also attach some moss to rocks or driftwood. I will make a tutorial on how to make those a bit later. For this project I'm using Taiwan moss, but you can use any moss you like. Other great moss to use is Christmas moss. Once I can get my hands on some I will be making another wall with it and I also want to try Fissidens Fontanus moss, but until them Taiwan moss will have to do =)

Step 1

What you need:

-Some kind of mesh. I use a plastic knitting mesh that is available in craft stores, it comes in different colors but I like the clear white. There are other meshes available that you can use. Aluminum ones are used often and they are great for ground cover. You can also find some at hardware stores but make sure it's made out of safe materials that you can use in the tank, and that is why I prefer the plastic ones.

This is what it looks like

Cut it to the size you need.

You also need some suction cups. Also available in craft stores.

Some scissors, fishing wire, sewing needle (not in the picture). I use soft illusion cord that you can find in a craft store in beading section.

Step 2

-Take the back part of your moss wall and cut out holes for the suction cups. I found that cutting them first is easier that doing it after you completed the wall. Make sure that the suction cup fits tightly in the cut hole, so make it a bit smaller. You can always can make it bigger if you need but making it smaller is much harder.

Make holes in the 4 corners and in the middle of the net, you want the wall to fit as tightly as possible against the back. I was making a wall for 2.5 gallon tank so I used only 5 suction cups, if you making a moss wall for the bigger tank you might want to use bigger suction cups and maybe add a couple more.

This is what it should look like after you are done.

Turn it with suction cups down.

Step 3

-Start putting moss on top of the mesh. Cover all of the wall with moss as much as possible. You want it to grow thick so you won't be able to see the mesh in the end.

It might take some time so be patient. I didn't have much moss so I couldn't fill it in as thickly as I would like. But once it grows I can trim and make a better one =)

Step 4

-After you are done take the other piece of mess and put it on top of the moss. Take a needle and thread it with fishing wire and start sewing the 2 pieces of mesh together all the way around and the middle to keep the 2 pieces of mesh tightly together. Sorry I don't have the picture of the finished wall, batteries in my camera run out so I couldn't take any more pictures. I will post some pictures of what the wall looks like in my tank a bit later.

If you have any questions feel free to ask =)

My tank journey in pictures.

Here is my tanks journey in pictures. A lot has changed since I started this tank a year ago. My flora is a bit diffrent but fauna is still pretty much the same.

Flora as it stands now is:

Anubias 'nana'

Java Fern

Taiwan Moss

Ludwigia Repens broad leaf and narrow leaf

Dwarf Sagittaria

Cryptocoryne Wendtii

Fauna:

Celestial Pear Danios (CPD) which I was able to breed successfully. I will post about my breeding experiment later.

Cherry Shrimp

Ramshorn Snails

Malaysian trumpet snails