my first ADA 120P planted tank journal

[finfan]

Hey Finfan could you please give an update on your stand after having it for a couple of months? *
Would you buy it again? *I am thinking of ordering this exact stand for a 120 soon. *Thanks!

And your tank is looking good!

Jeff, i am very very pleased with the stand, it is very sturdy, my tank level is good eventhough my floor tiles can be difficult sometimes, it looks very handsome imho and looks somewhat similar to ADA style stands because of simple and clean lines

[finfan]

plant gurus, any commentary/suggestions on the rescape?

do you think it was the right decision to rescape based on where the old scape was headed?

any thoughts on this new scape (sorry the pix and tank not clear because they were taken the day after the messy rescape)?

the update is in page 15 just in case you missed it

[finfan]

bump - keeping the thread alive :)

come on people.. no suggestions on the rescape???

[HoustonFishFanatic]

Fin, the tank is looking good. You need more plants though.
Thanks
Bhushan

[finfan]

thanks HFF, that has crossed my mind, my thought was that once the crypts set in, hopefully they will fill in, but i would not mind adding some plants, just want to make sure i add the right plants, so other than the crypt and nana i have, what plants will do well in 2wpg w/o CO2?

[HoustonFishFanatic]

You could use some Java ferns. There are a few different varieties available like the narrow leaf, windelov, philippines . You could also use some Bolbitis.

[edmlfc]

Your tank still looks awsome. I can't believe how much everything grew. I like the new look also. You can see the fish again.

[schance]

well first off the pleco looks like a bushy nose i have minus the bushy so it might be that just hast fully grown the nose area or somthing like.

second if you really want a new scape you could try a bed of something wither HC or dwarf hair grass. for those you would need co2 but a bed of the stuff lookes pretty kool with a couple rock island in the sea of green

[finfan]

i know exactly what you are talking about, those vast expanse with some rockwork looks amazing, but as you said, that would require c02 and that is something i am not planning on adding now, so i will have stick with non-co2 options for now, but maybe in 6 to 8 months i will do another rescape and go that direction (assuming still have a job then)

[finfan]

had to put it in here.. since i plan to always put updates for this tank on here

best valentines gift from wify :)

[schance]

wow those look great congrats on the new additions

[finfan]

It’s been a while since my last post, so I think its about time I update this journal with what is going on with this tank. Well, I decided that this was not an ideal home for the discus, there was too much plant/bio material built up in the system and the choice was to completely gut it and re-do with perhaps just a few plants or keep it as a planted tank and I really love planted tanks and so the discuss were returned and that venture put on hold for the time being until I can really do a discuss tank from scratch.

So its not fun unless you experiment with plants/tanks. I have never worked with stem plants, so I wanted to give them a try. I was discouraged since I don’t have any CO2 and do not intend to have any CO2. So I went to the LFS and bought a few stem plants (do not know their names, later I will ask for ID from you plant gurus). I planted them at random spots around the tank, at this point my goal is not to necessarily aquascape but to see if I can actually sustain stem plants in my system. Surprisingly they took off and all but one type of plant grew like crazy, in a very short time I had to start doing cuts. Initially I was throwing the cuts away not realizing I can just replant them. When I realized that I started replanting them throughout the tank and the cuts grew just as well!! So I will post pictures below to show this progression. At this point I still have not attempted aquascaping but I did what may be somewhat planned placement since I did not want to change the “bone” structure of the tank at this point.

here are two pix when i first planted the stem plants





here's what it looks like as of last weekend after i figured out that i can replant the cuts!!!! i can't believe i threw away so many at first w/o realizing







close up of left side



close up of right side



right panaroma



left panaroma



top back from right



top back from left



following are some plant species i have, some i know and others i don't, please help me id them, also there are several other plants that i could not figure out the best way to picture them... those coming later

unknown plant from top



unknown same plant as above from front



another unknown plant



another unknown plant, i think it is called star something



unknown plant and peek-a-boo from my gold ram



unknown crypt plant



another unknown plant



cabomba carolina?



anubias nana



below are some current resident (some have been with me for a while), with all efforts i just could not take some good close-ups of my AMAZING congo tetras, so i did not post any, i also could not do so for my bleeding hearts, i got some turquise rainbow pix, but not really as nice as they look in person

turqouise rainbow



honey gourami



harlequin rasbora



bolivian ram



german ram couple... these are two gems... always spawn but lose eggs



apisto macmasteri... killed his wife... now alone... this is a wild specimen



here are my very fav. wild caught black phantoms... notice very different from the colors you see in stores for black phantoms or red phantoms... this is almost an awesome mix of both black and red



rummy's... these guys would not pose... very hard to get a shot... theres more, but i could only capture 3 in pix, one of the best schoolers i would say



very regal koi angel, he is always in front center for pix, can't picture plants because he is always blocking view :)



black neon and rainbow

[Darbex]

Looks good

[J-WS6]

Wow. Great pics. That's some progress you've made.

[cichlid1409]

talk about an update!!! nice pics , tank , fish ... really lovin that red lotus.