I haven’t posted a picture on my 75G tank in about 2 months, so I decided that it was time, despite still being a work in progress. I suppose that my tanks have suffered a little bit from the nice weather outside, as I’ve been more focused on preparing the garden outdoors, than working on the aquariums inside.

The Eleocharis sp. ‘Japan’ is starting to fill in the foreground. The right side of the tank has some Ludwigia inclinata var. verticillata ‘Cuba’ beginning to grow, as well as, some Rotala verticillaris that I’m hoping will provide a nice vibrant green in the back corner. There’s still something about this scape that I’m not entirely pleased with, something about the right side, but I haven’t taken the time to really move things around — largely because the Nannochromis nudiceps have dug out a cave on that side that I don’t want to disturb. If anyone has any comments, critiques, or suggestions, I’d love to hear them!

Yesterday, GWAPA conducted its March 2008 meeting at Don’s house in Catonsville, MD. In what is becoming a great trend, we had a couple of new members show up, and a record number of current members attend. Don has a 125G aquarium, with a really nice looking fake-rock background built inside. Normally, I don’t care for these kinds of backgrounds much, but this one was one of the most realistic-looking ones I’ve seen.

Ghazanfar gave a fantastic, in depth, presentation about the things to consider when setting up an aquascape. He described three types of layouts: concave, mounded, and sloped, with the one below being an example of a sloped layout. Ghazanfar really does have a wealth of knowledge about aquascaping, and I definitely learned a few things from his presentation.

Afterwards, we brought a few 2.5G aquariums and allowed anyone who wanted to, to try their hand at using Ghazanfar’s aquascaping principles to design a hardscape, and get immediate feedback. It’s fun watching others use similar materials, and come out with hardscape designs that I wouldn’t have thought of myself.

We finished the meeting with a huge auction, containing over 150 items for sale. I came away with another pair of Goo Obo Gudgeons, Cryptocoryne usteriana, Ludwigia peploides, and  Rotala verticillaris. Another fantastic meeting!

Here’s an updated picture (click picture for larger view) of my 40G aquarium. If you remember what it previously looked like, you’ll notice a profound change in the plants present. For starters, I removed most of the Micranthemum umbrosum, replacing it with the Limnophila aquatica, and just a hint of red with some stems of Ludwigia arculata.

Additionally, the Didiplis diandra and Rotala rotundifolia in the back-right are much more pronounced, while I’ve significantly hacked back the Eriocaulon sp. ‘Type 2’ in the right midground to better transition from the grassy foreground to the plants in the back. I’ve also cured most of an algae outbreak that I had in this tank, after finally putting into practice some of the tips I mentioned in my algae presentiation.

Once I did that, the Blyxa aubertii lost many of the hair-algae strands attached to its leaves. One of my favorite things about the various Blyxa plants is the cellular pattern on each leaf, as you can see above. Overall, I’m pretty happy with how the 40G aquascape is coming along, but I’d love to hear any of your comments or suggestions.

Yesterday, GWAPA held their February meeting down in Vienna, VA at Rick & Mary’s home. I had been preparing for this meeting for the last couple weeks because I gave the meeting’s presentation on Algae in the Planted Aquarium. I thought the presentation was pretty well received, and I hope the members in attendance felt the same way.

Rick and Mary had two tanks on display, a 75G and an ADA cube, both which were planted very nicely. In my haste, I forgot to get pictures of their tanks, but the 75G is a nice jungle-style, open-top tank with Bacopa monnieri and Ludwigia repens growing emersed out of the top of the tank. This tank was also outfitted with a neat pH/temperature monitor, and automatic water changing system. Mary’s ADA tank was recently planted in the Amano style, with white sand creating a path from front to back, and was well on its way to becoming a fantastic scape.

The meeting set a GWAPA record for attendance with 39 people showing up. With many of them bringing items for auction, the auction was huge with over 130 items for sale, including many plants that are very rare in the hobby. I managed to come away with Ludwigia arculata, Goo obo gudgeons, Lagenandra thwaitsii, Eleocharis parvula, and Limnophila aquatica. The gudgeons are F1’s, bred by a club member, and will go in my 54G with my other rainbowfish. I’m still figuring out where all the plants should go.

More pictures/info about the meeting available on GWAPA’s website.

It’s been about a month since my last update on this tank. I recently pulled out a large number of plants for the GWAPA auction, harvesting plenty of Utricularia graminfolia in particular. I’m pleased that the tank is growing well, despite measuring 0ppm nitrates yesterday (prior to dosing more), but some parts are growing out of my favor. Largely, the Anubias heterophylla on the right side is getting a bit unwieldy.

Also, the Pogostemon stellatus in the back right has gone in and out of looking great to looking like crap. So, I got some Ludwigia inclinata var. verticillata ‘Cuba’ and Eriocaulon sp. ‘Type 3’ at the last GWAPA auction that will hopefully replace the P. stellatus in the back right. My problem is that I haven’t found the best transition plant for the right mid ground. On the left, I have the Utricularia graminfolia in front, with Hygrophila sp. ‘Low Grow’ and Crypt. affinis behind that, stepping up to Blyxa aubertii. That’s a nice transition. On the right, it’s the Utricularia to Crypt. willisii to the stems. Unfortunately, the stems usually look like crap after a trim, messing up the transition. I’ve thought about moving some Eriocaulon sp. ‘Type 2’ over there, but that plant may then be repeated too closely together.

Maybe I’m thinking too much?

Here’s an updated picture of my 75G tank. As you can see, it has really started to fill in, and besides needing a trim, I’m pretty happy with how it’s looking. The Utricularia graminfolia in the foreground has started growing over and on top of itself, and the Ludwigia and Limnophilia aromatica on the left/middle have started to layer themselves and bush out quite nicely.

I’ve still got a little bit of black-brush-algae on some of the rocks and wood, but it’s being kept in check by my algae crew, and actually gives the tank a bit of a natural flare. (Or that’s the story I’m going with for now.) The Blyxa japonica looks as good as it ever has since I’ve been growing it, and the Blyxa aubertii is actually starting to look a tad nicer as well, since I moved it from my 40G. All-in-all, I’m looking forward to shaping this scape slightly with some trimming, and fine tuning, but the initial work is done. I’d love to hear your comments/critiques!

I finally did it! I removed all of the Soilmaster Select from my 75G, and went with Aquasoil/powersand using the manzanita I ordered months ago. This is really the first aquascape I’ve down with manzanita wood. Well, I suppose that’s not entirely true since Jeff and I aquascaped the AquaFest demonstration tank with it about 4 hours before I setup this tank, but I don’t think that counts.

A few goals for this tank are to actually get a good Utricularia graminfolia foreground growing well, have better circulation (and less algae), and perhaps fewer stems than I had before. So far, I’ve got quite a few crypts in the tank with C. affinis, C. wendtii ‘Dewitt,’ C. wendtii ‘Green Gecko,’ C. willisii x lucens ‘green,’ and C. moehlmannii. I’ve also got my share of anubias with A. sp. ‘garbon,’ A. heterophylla, A. lanceolata, A. barteri var. ‘nana,’ A. sp. ‘Eyes’ and A. sp. ‘Gasser.’ I do still have some stems in here consisting of Pogostemon stellata ‘broad-leaf’, ‘needle leaf’, and regular. Plus, P. yatabeanus, Ludwigia arculata x repens, and Rotala macrandra.

I’m still figuring out what species of fish I want in this tank. So, far, the three bags of fish I got at Aquafest are in here, so some Nannochromis nudiceps, Ancistrus sp. L279 “Huaco Mayo,” and Corydoras Paleatus. I’m thinking about getting some other West African dwarf cichlids, but I haven’t decided on the exact species or color morph yet.

It still has a lot of growing in to do, but I’d love to hear some initial feedback.

Last weekend I finally decided to rescape my 40G tank. It had once again become a mishmash of plants from various local collecting sites, and exotics from GWAPA meetings. Some Vallisneria americana that was a mere 4-6″ in the wild had sent out runners throughout the tank, and coiled its 2-4 foot long leaves across the surface. Plus, there were a bunch of fish in this tank that I wanted to pull out to their own tank in order to more easily get rid of them to another club member or local store.

I wanted the new scape to be dominated by rock. The Apistogramma sp. ‘Rotpunkt’ need the extra caves to spawn and hide in, and in general, I just like rock scapes. This time, I tried to be conscious of how tall some of my foreground plants will become so that my rocks would be large enough to still stay visible with thick undergrowth. I moved my huge Blyxa aubertii from the right to the left back, with Micranthemum umbrosum next to that, some Ludwigia sp. ‘Guinea’ in the middle, a Potamegeton species from Florida, and then Hygrophila sp. ‘Sarawak’ in the back right. Various crypts line the left side, with anubias, Blyxa japonica, and Eriocaulaceae sp. ‘Type 2? making up the midground. Ranalisma rostrata makes up the entire foreground.

It has a long way to go to fill in, and I have a feeling that some of the background plants will come and go, but I’d love to hear what everyone’s first impressions are.

Along with the Ludwigia that’s flowering, my Limnophila aromatica has been flowering for almost a month now outside in my pond. Each stem sends out a number of flower buds at each node. Then, the buds open to reveal these pretty little purple flowers. The flowers themselves are only about 3/4″ long and about 1/3″ from petal to petal, with the tiny little hairs that you can see in the picture. I often see some of the smaller bees visiting these flowers.

While in Peru, the pond foliage has absolutely exploded in quantity. The frog bite has claimed 100% of the water surface, while what I think is Ludwigia brevipes is creeping along the edge of the pond. Much to my delight, it is also flowering with these pretty little yellow flowers.

The flowers themselves seem quite delicate and don’t last more than a day or two, especially with the rain we’ve been having the past couple of days. To give you an idea, these flowers are probably smaller than a U.S. dime in size. I’ve never had a Ludwigia flower underwater, so I’m quite pleased to be able to see it emersed. I hope you enjoy the photos.