Today I did water-changes on my aquariums, and while looking at the 54G tank, I decided to actually try trimming back the hairgrass a little bit. I had talked about trimming it down for awhile, but various folks said they liked the long-wavy-look, so I put it off. I ended up deciding to just try it once and see how it goes.

Above you can see the trimmed tank immediately after the water-change. Below is the tank, immediately prior to the trim and water change. Which do you like better? To me, I think the trimmed look brings out the hardscape a little bit more. I know that the rest of the plants are a bit of a mess right now. That’s my next problem to solve!

The good thing is that the plants are actually starting to grow quite well, and assuming I keep my dosing regimen and water-changes on schedule, I haven’t had near the issues with algae that I have had previously on this tank. The Potamogetons in this tank are doing wonderfully.

I did have a beautiful stand of Lindernia dubia in here, but I trimmed it very hard to send to a friend. I may have trimmed it too hard. Fortunately, I have more stashed away in my emersed setup. Overall, this tank is starting to come into its own. Please let me know if you like the haircut or not. Comments welcome!

It’s been a few weeks since I replanted the 50G, and as you can see the plants have been growing quite well. The tank is definitely due for a trim right now, especially the Ludwigia brevipes on the left, and the Limnophila repens var. ‘Mini’ in the back left. I do have two notable additions to this aquascape. In the back-left, I added a number of Blyxa aubertii plants which were previously in my 75G aquarium.

Also, I was fortunate to get in on a fantastic group buy that GWAPA conducted to add 15 crystal red shrimp, and 15 crystal black shrimp to this aquarium. Below is a picture of one of the red ones, which I believe is a “tiger-tooth” because the one red band looks like two teeth coming down. I don’t know very much about grading the shrimp, and really don’t care, as I just think they’re quite striking inhabitants in a planted aquarium regardless of the grade.

So, hopefully, these shrimp will start a little breeding population in my 50G! Elsewhere in the aquarium, the hairgrass is starting to spread in the corners where I transplanted a few plants, and I’m generally pleased with the direction that it’s headed. I’m waiting on the stems on the right side to grow out a bit more and multiply, so that I can really focus on trimming them into new compact bushes of plants. Comments/critiques welcome!

Last week, I finally got around to clearing out the jungle that had formed in my 75G, and completely rescaped it. Previously, the aquascape was dominated by a ton of Narrow Leaf Java Fern, but this scape doesn’t contain any fern, except for some Trident Java Fern topping off the two mounds of driftwood.

75G: 2 Days After Setup

I had a couple of goals in mind for this new scape. For one, with my farm tank overflowing with plants, I wanted to use a few more stem plants in this scape than I did in the previous one. Hence, ferns are out, and stems are in. Additionally, since I’ve had some plecos breeding in the hollowed out driftwood, I wanted to continue to use the same African bogwood as I had in here previously, but I also wanted some more open space for a foreground. Those were the goals.

75G: Hardscape Finished

Toying around with a couple of different layouts, I ultimately settled on the two mound approach, with one larger mound on the left, complemented by a smaller mound on the right, with open space in between. Yes, I know it’s been done a million times. So, I stacked up a bunch of pieces of the bogwood, trying to making them look like they fell on top of, or in the nook and crannies between, a base of rock.

75G: Foundation Plants Planted

After finishing the hardscape, I planted what I feel are foundation plants. These are the plants that are actually kind of part of hardscape itself. Plants like Cryptocoryne, Anubias, Java Fern, etc. After getting those in place, you can really start to see what other areas need to be filled in. I added an inch or two of water, and finished planting the foreground and stem plants. The foreground is Glossostigma elatinoides, and in the back I have Hygrophila sp. ‘Guinea,’ Ludwigia repens x arcuata, Ludwigia arcuata, Elatine americana, Clinopodium brownei, Hottonia palustris, Limnophila aromatica, and Limnophila sp. ‘Wavy’. Of course, you can’t see most of them now.

75G: Other Plants Planted, Filling Up Tank

After filling up the tank, this is what I had. I removed a ton of Malaysian Trumpet Snails so they wouldn’t uproot the foreground, and hundreds of cherry shrimp came out of the substrate to begin exploring their new home. It’s very difficult to catch all of the shrimp when doing a rescape, but fortunately, most survived the ordeal.

75G: Right After Scaping

So now, it’s just a matter of letting it grow in a little bit. I already see a few things I’ll probably end up tweaking. I probably ought to pull out some of the background plants between the two mounds to keep them more seperate, and have the Glosso extend all the way to the back. Additionally, the Cryptocoryne pontederiifolia behind the right mound should probably be moved to the right a little bit. I may adjust some of the hardscape on the left side, but at this point, I kind of want to see how it evolves on its’ own, and go from there. Comments and critiques welcome!

Last weekend, while I was trying to get pictures of the Apistogramma baenschi “Inka” in my 20L, I also snapped a few shots of the Nerite snails and Amano shrimp while waiting for the Apistos to come out of hiding. I wanted to share a few of those shots.

Olive Nerite Snails are by far one of the best algae eaters you can add to your aquarium, but many of them are quite pretty as well. I love the spiraling parallel lines patterned over many of their shells. I thought this guy (above) looks pretty good against the orange tones of the rock.

One of their key attributes is their willingness to slither along the glass, cleaning it of green spot, or other tough algae. You can see that this particular snail’s shell is slowly eroding away due to the lower pH and hardness of my water. This is fairly common in planted aquariums, especially when CO2 is injected as the carbonic acid is hard on their shells. I’ve known some hobbyists who used reef epoxy to fill in these holes, prolonging the life of their invert inhabitants.

Amano shrimp are the other must have invert in nearly every aquarium. They can clear a field of hair algae in a matter of days, if added in proper proportion to the size of the tank. (That, by the way, is probably roughly 1 shrimp/2 gallons.) Too many, with too little algae, and they will start eating your moss fronds, or other delicate leaved plants. To minimize that, I feed mine algae wafers. The largest Amano in the tank usually swims right to the wafer, and holds it captive until he’s eaten his fill. Then the rest of the invertibrates in the tank swarm the leftovers. A day of the life of an invert.

My 50G had turned into quite the farm tank, but I’ve finally been able to reclaim it as an aquascapable aquarium. I really like the hardscape, so I’ve decided to leave that in place, but simply replant it with some different plants. Previously, the aquascape was dominated by Blyxa japonica, where now I’ve only retained that in the middle to the right of the large piece of wood.

I’ve added a number of stem plants, and I’m hoping to trim them into bushes, kind of dutch style, behind the rocks to the right. I’m still deciding whether or not to keep the Eleocharis sp. ‘Japan’ in the foreground, or to rip it out and go with something more vintage like Glossostigma elatinoides. Comments welcome!