I’ve been fairly busy lately, so besides some regular tank maintenance, I haven’t made any significant changes to my tanks. So, with that in mind, I just wanted to share a few photos I got of my Rummy-nose Tetras. These guys are usually pretty skittish in my tank, such that when I walk into the room, they all scatter into the far corners of the tank. I imagine this might have something to do with the fact that I’ve had my hands in their tank more often recently.

Rummy-nose Tetra – front angled shot at 100mm f/11.

Rummy-nose Tetra – side shot at 100mm f/11.

Take a look at these two photos, one taken today, the other was taken exactly one week ago. There’s no denying how spectacular this ADA Amazonia substrate is. Since I rescaped the tank about a week and a half ago, I have only dosed SeaChem Potassium once. So, the aquasoil, itself, has enough muster to make the Pogostemon stelleta, Rotala macrandra var. ‘green,’ and Limnophilia aromatica all shoot up like crazy, and all are in need of trimming. The baby tears in the lower left-hand corner has shown excellent growth, but it hasn’t started growing horizontally yet, like I’m hoping it will. It is soon time for me to replace some of the bulbs over this tank, so that may assist in that regard. Even though it’s not easy to see hear, the Utricularia graminfolia has started sending out new growth in the foreground, so it’s just a matter of time before it really kicks it into gear and takes off.

All in all, I have no qualms about my decision to soon rescaped my 20G with more fresh Aquasoil…

Taken 03/29/2007

Taken 03/22/2007

I wanted to provide a better picture of the rescaped 40G tank that I redid this past weekend. The specs are below…

Equipment:

Filter: Eheim 2213

CO2: Pressurized, approx. 2-3 bubbles/sec

Substrate: ADA Powersand, Amazonia Aquasoil, with Tourlamine BC additives.

Dosing: None currently, will start dosing SeaChem’s line as needed.

Hardscape: California Pourous Mossy Rock.

Flora:

Front: Utricularia graminfolia, HC, baby tears, Ranalisma rostrata (I’ll decide later which of these to make permanent)

Back: Limnophilia aromatica, Rotala macrandra var. ‘green’, Blyxa japonica, Pogostemon stellatus, Blyxa aubertii

Fauna:

Melanotaenia praecox, Apistogramma panduro, Rummy-nose tetras, Olive Nerite Snails

GWAPA’s order of ADA goods came in this week, so after a long trip through traffic to pick it up, I’m finally ready to redo a few of my tanks. The first tank that I have redone is my 40G breeder tank that’s been quite the jungle of plants for more time that I care to state. This tank already had aquasoil in it, but I was never satisfied with the depth of the Amazonia I had previously added, so I’m basically just going to add another couple inches on top of the old stuff. So, like any new tank project, I move all of my buckets, hardscape materials, and tools into the room. I try to bring in more rocks than I could possibly use so that I’ll be able to choose the best rocks for the particular aquascape.

So, from here on out, I’m going to describe how to setup a basic tank using the ADA system, as I understand it. The ADA substrate system is composed of minerals, powersand, and then aquasoil. So, I scraped out the existing substrate to add more Tourmaline BC to the bottom of the tank. Only a tiny bit of this is needed. Then, I added the powersand (left), finally topping it off with aquasoil. These picture show a soupy mixture because I didn’t fully drain my tank, but this didn’t seem to be a problem. One thing to note at this point is that I reserved about 1/2 to 1 bag of Amazonia to add after I’ve established my hardscape.

So, now that the substrate is intact, it’s time for my personal favorite part of aquascaping — the hardscape. In this particular scape, I wanted to try to accomplish a sort of mound aquascape, with aquasoil in-between some of the rocks so that I can actually plant on the “mound.” The first step is to build up the mound with the rocks. Try to envision what the tank will look like with more aquasoil and plants filling in the gaps.

Then, after the rocks are in place, I add the remaining 1/2 bag of Amazonia on top of the rocks to soften some of the gaps in-between them. At this point, I also try to correct of the slope of the substrate to gradually ascend up the mound, and to the back of the tank.

Finally, fill the tank up about 1/3 way, and begin planting. It’s helpful to have a spray bottle handy, so that none of your plants dry out while you’re still busy working. When you’re done, fill up the tank with water, and hopefully you’re happy with what you’ve accomplished. In this scape, I ran out of plants that I wanted to use, so I still have a little bit of work to do, but when isn’t that the case?

Previously, I’ve posted pictures of my Blyxa aubertii flower. Now, I’ve noticed that some of the Blyxa Japonica, that has been floating toward the top of the surface for some time, has also flowered! From my untrained eye, it’s quite difficult to tell any difference from the two flowers, but I suppose that why the two plants are so closely related.

In any case, it’s always nice to open up your aquarium hood, and see a pretty little flower waiting there for you.

What may be even more incredible is that this is flowering under 1.5 year old normal output flourescents that are being overdriven. I have a mix of 6500k and 10000k temperature bulbs. I’ve noticed in other tanks that 10000k bulbs have caused flowering, so I’m guessing that these bulbs are holding up okay, even though they’re being overpowered.