Ideas and advice on aquascaping...please

CinBos

Also as for hardness, i believe it read 30 when I tested it sunday.
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Geomancer

I assume you mean 30 ppm? That would be very soft water like mine. In fact, so low you might want to consider using Equalibrium. It raises GH without touching KH or pH.

I haven't tried vals myself, because everyone has said they do poorly in soft water.

CinBos

Correcy 30ppm. Never tried any other chemical other than Prime, and Flourish. Have you had good success with equalibrium? Is that too soft for my aquarium or something?

Geomancer

Flourish only has minimal amounts of minerals in it, because the majority of people have more than enough in their tap water. This is stuff like Calcium, Magnesium, and Potassium.

Some plants can struggle if there is too little of those. Byron has mentioned he had problems of spots forming on his Swords and the leaves dying off. I'm using it currently in my 125g, but not in my 10g or 20g.

It's something to keep in mind though if your plants start showing nutrient deficiencies despite using Flourish. I will say though, that oddly enough, spawning has increased in my 125g when I started using Equilibrium on a more regular basis. That could be either to hardness, or just timing.

CinBos

Now, I also use fertilizer tabs by seachem as well. Would that make up for equalibrium?

Byron

No. There is minimal calcium and magnesium in the tabs too. I was using these next to the larger swords, and dosing Flourish weekly, and the swords just slowly deterioriated. Diana Walstad convinced me it was caused by iron deposits in the leaves that slowly spread until the leaf was killed, and this was the direct result of insufficient calcium, and the GH should be no less than 4 dGH [= 71 ppm]. I started using Equilibrium and got the GH to 5 or 6 dGH, and the swords absolutely took off. Nothing else changed. I have sinced gone to twice weekly with Flourish Comp and this has resulted in a further improvement, not quite as dramatic with the larger swords, but still obvious. Last week I went to three times weekly, to see if this works. This was not just a whim; I am having another problem with leaves falling apart, and potassium alone did not help. Those of us with very soft water have to add nutrients more than others might.

On the wood, I suggested moving it to the left, and then rotating it a bit counter-clockwise (when looking down from above) so the larger end which is now facing to the left would be facing to the right. In my mind's eye I am seeing this as more natural, but you have to try it and find out.

Byron.

CinBos

Ok so I changed it up a but. I moved the driftwood over to the left a bit more. I also bunched up most of the vals to the right. I placed all the dwarf hairgrass together and to where they can received constant light with out the floating plants distorting the light. I scattered some of the swords, but not as much as last time. The lutea is randomly placed, just as before. The branch driftwood is placed on boths sides of the aquarium this time. I also trimmed the intake a bit shorter. I recently got ahold of some cool Blue Angels from my LFS. let me know what you think, and still if you have any advice, please tell me, nothing is set in stone just yet.

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Also sorry for the blur in some of the pictures, thats due to the shop light having direct light with the camera on my phone. The last pic is the more accurate pic.

jeaninel

It's looking good. I think the intake is still too close to the sand. I have the same filter in my 55 with sand and I just took out the middle section of the intake tube.
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CinBos

I will work on trimming that tube down a little more then.

Byron

You know, that wood might actually look good as a tree stump, with the large end on the substrate. At least, from the appearance of the chunk in the photos, I think this would be worth exploring. And the large end might sit on the sand such that there were some openings under it? Just a thought.