Lazys 15g jungle column and 5.5 planted betta tank

[Lazyfish]

Broke down my 8g aio planted and I moved everything about 8 days ago. Thr lace plant was shading itself out in places and I had a duck.weed infestation that was shading it out and killing my water cabbages. I Got the black skirts the other day, moved the pleco got a few more plants and added more sand. This is a 15g column by aqueon running an aquatech 20 filter one of the newer quiet ones I had an older modle but it was too loud. I have a surface skimmer pulls from the top and bottom quite nicely after some minor if uggly modifications. I'm useing an ai prime hd for lighting. I'm a bit worried about oxygen levels in the lower parts of the tank but this pump puts out fairly decent flow even at the bottom (plants swaying) and has quite good movement at the top. No gasping fish. The dannios (swimming highlighters) seem to stay in the top half more or less the black skirts stay in the middle mostly and the pleco mostly on the bottom sounds right atleast. I may add a circulation pump or powerhead thinking on best placement. I want to get rid of the glowfish and get about 5 cardinals instead. Would Look better with the natural set up. So far the pleco has been fine with the plants I had it for at least 7 or 8 years it's a smaller species not a common not sure exactly what one. Tanks slightly cloudy but not bad probly the sand the substrait is fine sand coarse sand small and larger gravel mixed together same as in my 8g. Im.not useing a co2 system. I will be useing NA thrive shrimp specific formula once weekly to feed the plants I dont have shrimp but this formula has lower nitrate levels while still providing nutrients and lower level nitrates to feed plant growth. O added it to a betts tank and saw improvement within 2 days in my nutreant starved sword.
This is the original 8 g

V1

v2

V3 still a bit cloudy from messing around in the substrait today. Lace plant is recovering I see 2 new leaves growing in at the bottom and one possible leaf starting. Will be boiling some leves and cones tomorro hopefully give this tank a light tannin tint like the 8 had. Just enough to make things pop a bit. It's hard to see in the pic of the 8 but the water did have a bit of color it it.

 

[The GOB]

Impressive! That's what I was going for when I tried freshwater ten or so years back but ended up with a tank full of nasty algae.

 

[Tupes]

That's really nice. I wish my freshwater would have come out like that also. It was nice but not like yours. I'll have to see if I can find an old photo.

Please keep this updated.

 

[Cigmin]

Great looking tanks. Any advice for a noobie trying grown mangroves in an ada tank?


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[Lazyfish]

Lol I tried a mangrove on a sw tank once didnt work out well. I think mine was damaged anyway. I know they like to have the leaves misted with fresh water if they are growing in sw helps remove any salts they excrete through the leaves. You can suspend them or prop the roots with something above the substrait makes the roots reach in intresting ways. Also can bury the root deep and keep gradually removing soil from underneath to make them longer and stilt like the ones in mangrove swamps that sit way up on the roots.

I have a bunch of olive nerites for algae control. Keeps it off my lace plant very well. They seem prone to algae build up. Im realy looking forward to what kind of growth I'll have in the next 2-6 weeks. Probly take that long for everything to settle in

 

[Lazyfish]

Just throwing this in my two 2.5g planted betta tanks and my boys.
primus tank finished

Primus

Murphy tank finished

murphy hes not white hes metalic silver with a slight purple iridescence hes actualy realy pretty.

 

[Lazyfish]

Just added some tannins just a bit a slight tint to the water now not sure if you can even tell but this pic is a bit more yellowish than the last fts and in person there is certainly a little yellowish thing going on. Last time this tank was running was probly 3 years ago. It wasnt planted back then. IM LOVING THE LOOK OF THIS. didnt realise how much I missed this tank.

 

[jleblanc26]

Impressive. You making me miss my freshwater.

 

[Lazyfish]

I was having cloudiness I couldnt get rid of. But it wasnt a filtration issue. The filter is slightly oversize for the tank I run the carriages, extra carbon and that bio scrubber the new ones have and filter floss in it. I was able to clear it up after some trial and error I first tried a floculant and pristine bacterial culture to no avale. I thought it was from the sand. After comming home one night from work I noticed it was visibly green looking. When I pulled some out and looked at it against as white background it was was VERY green and VERY cloudy . Looked like swamp water surprisingly fish were fine. I used some tetra algae controll and its sparkling crystal clear in a few hrs. Oops tannins are gone too lol. No cloudiness at all. It was a cloudy green algae bloom probly from too much plant fertilizer. Im cutting back to 1/3 the dose weekly.the lace planting growing like mad and so is my water lettuce the ocelot has lots of new growth but some old leaves st the bottom are melting at the edges not uncommon for swords to have some melting when a new enviroment. All nice and clear now except for watermarks on the glass.

 

[smileyjoe]

I was having cloudiness I couldnt get rid of. But it wasnt a filtration issue. The filter is slightly oversize for the tank I run the carriages, extra carbon and that bio scrubber the new ones have and filter floss in it. I was able to clear it up after some trial and error I first tried a floculant and pristine bacterial culture to no avale. I thought it was from the sand. After comming home one night from work I noticed it was visibly green looking. When I pulled some out and looked at it against as white background it was was VERY green and VERY cloudy . Looked like swamp water surprisingly fish were fine. I used some tetra algae controll and its sparkling crystal clear in a few hrs. Oops tannins are gone too lol. No cloudiness at all. It was a cloudy green algae bloom probly from too much plant fertilizer. Im cutting back to 1/3 the dose weekly.the lace planting growing like mad and so is my water lettuce the ocelot has lots of new growth but some old leaves st the bottom are melting at the edges not uncommon for swords to have some melting when a new enviroment. All nice and clear now except for watermarks on the glass. View attachment 16420

Looking nice a clear! Makes me miss my ola ted tanks!

 

[Lazyfish]

Check out the growth from my last post just over 2 weeks. I've repeatedly thinned out the water lettuce. I only keep about 6 larger ones at a time so it wont block the light. I'm only useing 1/3 the fertalizer I was when it was cloudy and a broken up flourish root tab devided up beneath the larger plants and will do this bi monthly. Adjusting the nutreants has helped the cloudy issue. The leaves on the lace plant touch the top of the tank that thing is awesome. Lights going down for the night I'll have to do a daytime pic soon.

 

[BluewaterLa]

Tank and plant growth is looking phenomenal !
Thanks for sharing

 

[Lazyfish]

Growth is getting out of hand lol check out the size of some of this weeks prunings. I find it hard to believe a 15g tank can have plants with leaves this size they were over shadowing the lower plants badly the past 2 weeks I had to thin it out. The leaves of the lace plant that are at the surface directly under the light are turning purple I did not know this plant did this. My foot is a size 7.5 for reference.

 

[Lazyfish]

I dont see alot on these turning red some reports of it in planted tanks but not much. It looks like some other plants in the family can turn red under higher lighting. This appears to be the broad leaf variety they get the largest. but I think there may be 2 distinct variety of broad leaf. One seems to have a rounded tip those I see more and a few like mine have the indentation on the tip but it seems less common and seems to get bigger. There appear to be atleast 2 narrow leaf varieties and one other variety that I have only seen 2 people with photos of that is narrow but has large evenly placed openings near the central vein of the leaf and flesh covered areas closer to the outer margin.

 

[BluewaterLa]

That is some crazy growth your getting out of that tank, Thanks for sharing and keep up the good work !

 

[Lazyfish]

This is post pruning x3 days and I have 4 new leaves shooting up alredy that were not there three days ago.

 

[Lazyfish]

I had to remove the carpeting plants they had some kind of long tough stringy algae in them I rearranged things slightly.

 

[BluewaterLa]

I tried many years ago to have live plants in my FW tank, just couldnt get the hang of it being so young I suppose.
Anywho your tank looks amazing !

 

[Lazyfish]

Thanks very much. It's mostly on auto piolot right now except prunings and top offs. I actualy quit adding fertalizer I'll add more if I see the growth slowing down but other than that it's just chugging along. Theres no co2 in this tank some people cant believe that but I've never used it. It's a very simple set up the ai prime hd is the only fancy bit. You could do just as well with plenty if other leds I'm sure. I added a cheapo chinese led strip I had laying around. It's not that bright but it has a moonlight function. I'm sometimes up at odd hours on my off days or when decompressing from work. I can just flip it on and see the fish without messing with the prime settings. The glow fish show up very bright with it and the black skirt tetras look like phantom shadows swimming in the dim tank. It's very relaxing. I've had plants in many of my tanks but usualy mixed in with lots of fake plants and various decor that did quite well but I think this is my probly second ever fully planted tank. Oops third if I count the betta tank...that plant left front came out that tank and was swaped with the sort of leggy not to well looking tall curly one from this tank. I think it was getting shaded.

 

[Lazyfish]

I need to prune badly. Realy starting to look.like a jungle in there.