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Project: Redoing My 28gal Bowfront

5K views 42 replies 7 participants last post by  jennesque 
#1 ·
I'm excited so I thought I'd start this thread to show the progress of redoing the aquascape in my 28gal bowfront tank. So far, everything's in the mail still, lol. I am patiently awaiting.

I've got some Anubias barteri 'eyes', Vallisneria Spiralis, and Hydrocotyle leucocephala on the way, as well as some cypress knees.

Here's the most recent pic of the whole tank I had.. I don't have the angel anymore, and instead I've got a pair of blue rams.



So here's my before picture! I can't wait to see the after! :p


So far, all I've got to show are my cypress knees:



I'm hoping all the big ones are somewhat hollow, so I can fill them up with stuff to weigh them down. :)
 
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#4 ·
Oh, yeah! I had a background and it fell down and I've been too lazy to put it back up. Yhr one I had was shiny, so I was to just get some construction paper but I never seem to get around to it, lol.

But thank you. :) I should actually put up the before shot for that tank.. before I decided to read IP about fish before sticking them in the tank.
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#5 ·
By the way, a random question, but I just wanted to check.. does it really matter how big the rock is that you tie anubias to? I've got rocks already that are like the width of a dime, but round instead of flat.. are those ok? And can/ should I hide the rock in the substrate, or will it eventually be hidden by the anubias plant itself?

I usually see anubias on driftwood or large decorative rocks, but I'm trying to make a "carpet" of anubias on the substrate around the cypress knees.. I don't really think I want to use large rocks that would be visible.
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#6 · (Edited)


Ahh, here's like day one in my new tank. Right after I moved my decorations from my 20gal tank.. It's previous occupants: tiger barbs (4), 3 bala sharks, and 1 red tailed shark after Petsmart sold me three and I had to return one injured and the other that seemed more aggressive than the one I kept...

I still have my ADF from my original tank, everyone else I started over new with! :) That picture was taken in May, so I feel like I've mad a lot of progress since then, and I'm moving forward. Cypress knees may not be natural to my fish's habitat in the wild, but it's certainly closer than bubble dragons!



I got in the driftwood today. Sadly, the big double-kneed piece was 15" wide, not 15" tall (which, in wishful thinking, I assumed it was) so this thing is WAY too big for the tank at 24". Which is terribly sad because it's really a beautiful piece. I guess I'll save it for my bigger tank that I have no plans for except for the fact that I know I will always want a bigger tank...

The rest still look very nice, and I'm thinking this is how I will arrange them, unless anyone else has any other suggestions. Btw, I put up a background just for you, onefish2fish. ;)

These are the best pics I could get without some sunlight. :)







Using the giant one is, I guess, an option.. but I feel like it's way too large. It would have to stick out the top, however it is actually shaped perfectly enough that I could get it to work..

 
#7 ·
Neat stuff. If the large piece juts above the water, that's fine, so long as you can still put the tank cover on. You can bury the other end right down on the tank bottom glass.

On the Anubias, you can attach the rhizome to any of those little pebbles yo have, with black cotton thread. The rhizome will continue to grow out above the substrate, and the hair roots will grow down into the substrate.

Byron.
 
#8 ·
Well, I took pictures of two different set ups. The first one would all fit in the water (the one in the first two pictures). The second one has a piece that is several inches larger than my tank, but, the way it's shaped, I could actually get it to poke out of the back of the tank. I've got a glass lid with plastic in the back that I can cut to allow room for equipment. The only other hole I have is small and is at the top of my heater and for the air line coming in for the filter. It's definitely plausible, but the second idea takes up a lot more room in the tank.. I think it's really just too big. So, I think I'll go with the first option. I've also got to think about the fact that I've got a sponge filter in there taking up room as well.. there will probably only be like 20 gallons of water in there by the time I put in all the large driftwood! That's probably an exaggeration.. but, it'll definitely cut down on the room my corys and ADF have at the bottom of the tank.

Thanks for letting me know how to plant the anubias. I've seen some tied to the rhizome and some tied to the roots.. I wasn't sure which way to go so I appreciate the clarification, and I'm glad the rocks I already have will be ok to use!

I'm excited, some of my plants should be here today or tomorrow! I bought my anubias eyes from aquaticmagic who is on AquaBid and eBay.. They've got such cheap prices, and such good feedback so I'm hoping this goes well. The items have to come from Malaysia, but I've heard the anubias is pretty hardy so I think it'll be fine. I'm not sure how quickly they'll get here, but hopefully soon! I got some pennywort and vals coming from AZ and usps says they should be here by Thursday, so that means maybe tomorrow! :D I usually get stuff earlier than expected. Now that I've said that, it'll probably be Friday or Saturday before I get anything..
 
#9 ·
Well, I got one package of plants today. To my dismay, the person who was supposed to be getting them out of the mail for some reason thought that the package was actually left at the post office, so the plants stayed in the mail box all day so they look pretty rough. I don't know if there's anything I can/should do... There's at least plenty of green leaves on both the pennywort and the vals. Here's the picture of the worst of them.. I've still got several pennywort stems that look great. I'm pretty sure I've got more than I need.



I'll be giving away my plants soon, probably for a small, small price.

I'm still waiting on some anubias to come in the mail, hopefully I'll have better luck with these. The project of the weekend will be figuring out how to weigh down the driftwood.
 
#10 ·
Ok, so I'd been soaking the driftwood for a couple days. I've got some tannins leaking out, but there's still no hope of them ever sinking anytime soon because of how buoyant cypress wood is. This weekend, as I said in my last post, will be spent getting the driftwood to sink. I'm thinking of just gluing some slate to the bottom because I'm afraid I'll ruin everything if I get out some power tools. I've read about people doing it, and I know that a lot of reefers do it when building their reefs..

With that being said, I took the wood out of the water now so they can dry off. They're outside in the sun, but I took a picture of what they look like wet - I absolutely love the color! This part was completely unplanned, but the wood (at least for now) matches the color in my living room very, very well. I snapped a picture of them after setting them outside to dry off. The very tops of the tall ones are dry, that's why there's some discoloration. I didn't have a container big enough that I am allowed to use. :p

 
#11 · (Edited)
Alright.. It's the weekend, so I'll be working on this project again, hopefully.

All my plants have come in. I've currently just got the anubias floating in the tank right now.. almost all the decorations have been removed from my tank and it's just crazy full of plants. It looks like a mess, lol. A few questions..

I'd asked before in another thread if I should take everyone out of the tank before I change everything out. So far, they've all stayed in the tank when I've removed the old decorations and planted all the plants.. Tomorrow, or maybe later next week depending on a few things, I plan on putting in the driftwood. I've (attempted to) glue the driftwood to some tile, and I've glued the tile in a way that I should have plenty of sand above the tile to help hold it down in the substrate. Since I will need to bury quite a few large pieces of the driftwood/tile - would it be better to remove the fish. I'm going to be sloshing things around quite a bit I'm thinking. I know I'll be removing all of my plants so should I just stick everyone in a bucket with the filter running? It's a sponge filter so it wouldn't be difficult..

Next question, when I got my anubias about two days ago they all looked great, but now some of the leaves are dying off of them. I was just curious, do you think they may have been grown emersed and therefore some of the leaves are falling off because the plant is now submerged. I know some plants do this, I just wasn't sure about anubias. If not.. do I just have a black thumb? They're floating right now, so I know it's got nothing to do with the rhizome being submerged obviously. Are the just recouping from the shipment?

I'm having some trouble with my vals too, but I know they will enjoy some root tabs but I wanted to save that until they were planted in their permanent location.

I've been trying to do as much research as possible on this, and I'm pretty sure I've failed again.. but as far as gluing driftwood to tile, can this be achieved with silicone? I got the GE silicone I (not II! it's 100% silicone!), but I've heard this might not be powerful enough. Is there any hope for my cause? I tried super glue and 1) after gluing just two small pieces I was already out of glue, I don't know how I'd ever do the big one without the glue drying out first.. and 2) After only an hour or two the driftwood had already came off the tile! I haven't been able to find any of the other adhesives anyone else mentions in tank / reef building.

Last question.. just wanted to make sure.. as far as tannins, these aren't bad for my particular fish or anything? I'm trying to get nutrients to the plants, so I don't want to stick any carbon in my sponge filter (Can I even do that anyways??).. So I'm thinking it's best to just wait out the tannins if there are any, which I'm sure there will be. I'm not bothered much by it, I just don't want the fish or plants to be bothered..
 
#12 ·
I'd asked before in another thread if I should take everyone out of the tank before I change everything out. So far, they've all stayed in the tank when I've removed the old decorations and planted all the plants.. Tomorrow, or maybe later next week depending on a few things, I plan on putting in the driftwood. I've (attempted to) glue the driftwood to some tile, and I've glued the tile in a way that I should have plenty of sand above the tile to help hold it down in the substrate. Since I will need to bury quite a few large pieces of the driftwood/tile - would it be better to remove the fish. I'm going to be sloshing things around quite a bit I'm thinking. I know I'll be removing all of my plants so should I just stick everyone in a bucket with the filter running? It's a sponge filter so it wouldn't be difficult..
If it is that much of an upheaval, I would move the fish out. When I'm re-aquascaping, I worry about the fish getting trapped under something that I might not see. Plus the smaller the tank the less room for them to move to a quieter area.

Next question, when I got my Anubias about two days ago they all looked great, but now some of the leaves are dying off of them. I was just curious, do you think they may have been grown emersed and therefore some of the leaves are falling off because the plant is now submerged. I know some plants do this, I just wasn't sure about Anubias. If not.. do I just have a black thumb? They're floating right now, so I know it's got nothing to do with the rhizome being submerged obviously. Are the just recouping from the shipment?
Could be either.

Can't help on the glue, never done that.

Last question.. just wanted to make sure.. as far as tannins, these aren't bad for my particular fish or anything? I'm trying to get nutrients to the plants, so I don't want to stick any carbon in my sponge filter (Can I even do that anyways??).. So I'm thinking it's best to just wait out the tannins if there are any, which I'm sure there will be. I'm not bothered much by it, I just don't want the fish or plants to be bothered..
Correct, tannins will not harm soft water fish. Won't matter to hard water fish either provided the water is medium hard or harder. Nor plants unless the tannin is so thick it blocks the light, which is not likely.

Byron.
 
#13 ·
If it is that much of an upheaval, I would move the fish out. When I'm re-aquascaping, I worry about the fish getting trapped under something that I might not see. Plus the smaller the tank the less room for them to move to a quieter area.

Could be either.

Can't help on the glue, never done that.

Correct, tannins will not harm soft water fish. Won't matter to hard water fish either provided the water is medium hard or harder. Nor plants unless the tannin is so thick it blocks the light, which is not likely.

Byron.

Thanks for the reply, Bryon. :)

I'll be moving them out then. Or maybe half of them.. leave any little buggers I can't get out and just be careful of any that remain.

I hope I don't have a black thumb.. I thought anubias were pretty hardy, which is why I got them. I'll probably end up killing off everything in the tank lol. I meant to ask too, if my anubias have enough of a roots system to hold them in the sand substrate, do they need to be tied to a rock still? They've all got at least two inches of large roots coming out of the rhizome so I don't know that they'd have any problem staying in place.. I guess I'm unclear on how necessary the attachment to rock/driftwood actually is.. I just know you cannot bury the rhizome.

That's also good to hear on the tannins. I guess if it gets too dark I'll just do some water changes!

Hopefully the glue works.. it was fairly inexpensive, and I know it's supposed to be safe for the aquarium, I just hope it's effective too. The pieces already seem fairly stuck on the tile so far, and I know it's not 100% finished with curing.
 
#14 ·
Well, the good news is so far, the cypress seem to be sticking to the tile wonderfully and staying in place in the tank. The bad news is, I broke my heater. Hopefully I don't lose any fish, I've got a small 50watt heater in there until I can get a new one.

I took a pic, but the water still has to settle down. I haven't decided if I want to actually plant my pennywort, or just leave it as floating. I plan on getting a few more anubias to fill in the right side, but so far I'm pretty happy. Hopefully the fish are too.

The tank is a bit low on water because of the small heater in the tank. I figured it'd work a bit better with the least amount of water in there, so I've got it filled up to just above the top of my sponge filter.

I'll take some more pictures tomorrow or Tuesday... hopefully the water has calmed down by then, although I'm not going to be surprised if there are tannins.



Any suggestions? I think I'll probably try to move the piece that's in the front on the right side to the left a little more, although it's placement looks better in real life than in the picture...
 
#15 ·
I would not move the piece on the right. I find the current placement gives length to the aquascape. The arrangement is in my view very good. I can't see any changes.

I would leave the Pennywort floating. Separate the stems though, they do get tangled floating I know. Once apart, and after a few days, the leaves will all grow facing the light which makes a lovely effect with the roots dangling down. The fish will appreciate the shade too.

That looks very nice.:-D

Byron.
 
#17 · (Edited)
Alright, I will leave the driftwood as is. I'm glad you guys both think it looks fine, cause they're actually somewhat of a pain to move lol. I tried to straighten out the pennywort, but now the stems are on the move, floating around the tank and I think they're getting scrambled again. The leaves are starting to point upward already though. :)

The water in my tank looks awful right now.. I'm thinking it's a bacterial bloom + tannins? I can see a bit of the coloring from the tannins in the water, but it's also pretty cloudy. There's also a clear fuzzy slime on my driftwood, but from what I've been reading that's pretty normal. It looks exactly what other people are describing when they say new driftwood gets a slime on it, and my ghost shrimp seem to enjoy it. I will need to pick up a few more.. I know I lost some during the transition, poor things.. but they're so hard to see!

I lost a rasbora this morning and I'm not entirely sure why, maybe the stress of the move? Everyone else seems fine and they're behaving normally to the best I can tell. I immediately checked my params and I'm at about 6.6 for ph (normal), the temp has been steady at 77 (which should be fine for everyone but the GBRs), 0 amm, 0 nitrites, and the one thing that worrys me.. 0 nitrates. I hope my changes aren't going to start a mini cycle, but I still have the same substrate and same sponge filter, and the plants had all been in the fish tank for about a week before I made the change, so I didn't think I'd killed off much of the bacteria in my tank.. Hopefully it's just the addition of more plants and the large water change that caused the nitrates to disappear.



Should I get rid of the marimo balls? My shrimp like them, and I heard that they're very helpful in cleaning up the water.. My ADF also likes to "hide" under them. And does anyone have any suggestions for what I should add? I guess some better pictures would help, but the tank water looks so nasty right now lol
 
#18 ·
I would keep an eye out on that "slime" it could be fungus. Some kinds are okay and I read that some fish/shrimp like it as you discovered. Then there is some kinds that can be deathly to fish. Watch your fish if they are breathing really fast. I would remove the wood. Talk to Byron about this I believe he has been through this once before with mopani wood.
 
#19 ·
White slime/fungus can be various species, some of which are toxic and some are not. I've no knowledge about this wood, cypress knees, so I just did a quick search. Apparently this comes from a species of cypress, which is a conifer (like pine, spruce, cedar, hemlock, etc). I would keep a very close eye on it; conifer trees have a lot of sticky sap.

If this slime is anything like what I had from Mopani wood, the symptoms were cloudy water (whitish) and increased respiration from the fish, i.e., breathing much faster than normal. The corys just sat around, breathing heavily. If you see any of these symptoms, I would be inclined to do a major water change and remove any wood with the slime.

Byron.
 
#20 ·
Ok.. I'll keep an eye. The cories are swimming around the tank actively.. Everyone seems to be fine. Would they be at the surface of the water if they're having problems breathing, because no one's been at the top, or hanging out at the bottom of the tank either.. The shrimp are seemingly eating it too..

The cypress knees are actually the roots of the cypress tree, would they have a lot of sap in them? I didn't think sap was in the roots of trees..
 
#21 ·
Ok.. I'll keep an eye. The cories are swimming around the tank actively.. Everyone seems to be fine. Would they be at the surface of the water if they're having problems breathing, because no one's been at the top, or hanging out at the bottom of the tank either.. The shrimp are seemingly eating it too..

The cypress knees are actually the roots of the cypress tree, would they have a lot of sap in them? I didn't think sap was in the roots of trees..
I would watch the respiration. If it is laboured (heavy, faster than normal), might be trouble. Gasping at the surface would follow. Lethargy would likely accompany these.
 
#24 ·
Ok, I thought so.. I'd never done much research on the behaviour other than making sure it was normal for them to breathe at the surface. I'm just trying to look at everything I can think of that might indicate something is wrong with them.

Everyone's still looking great so far.. breathing's been the same and they're all still brightly colored and active. I was worried about the female GBR because it looked like she was breathing heavily, but upon further observation I realized she's actually eating some of the fuzz in the water column that came off the driftwood when I finished a partial water change. I can actually see her chasing pieces around.. so.. hopefully it's not harmful!

I've heard that mollys love this stuff, but I don't want molly nor is my water in any way appropriate for them, soft and acidic? That'll be a no-no. I've also heard plecos and otos like it too.. now I wish I had got some otos previously, but the only place I've ever seen them is at Walmart, and although I think they look fairly healthy, their tanks are not well kept so I'd rather not buy any fish from them. Especially such a fragile species..


I'd read plenty of places that cypress is fine to use in the tanks, it just sometimes releases oil at first which you'll see at the top of the tank and I don't see that as of yet. I also know that fresh cypress wood isn't the best to use and needs to be boiled several times before being used in a fish tank. Cypress knees are often boiled and have the bark removed once they're harvested before any of it's uses. This wood then spent several years in an attic in storage and was boiled again before I bought it. I boiled it some myself and also soaked it before putting it in my tank.
 
#25 ·
Well, an update. I'm a bit confused.. my GBRs look to me like they're starting to spawn, so I'm assuming they must be happy.. but I lost another rasbora yesterday - so two total loses. This one though had a previous injury so I think that may have been another factor in it's death. When I came home today the tank was a terrible 77 degrees - but I came home with a heater! I've just finished acclimating the heater. I had the tank previously at a low water level so that the undersized heater wouldn't have as much volume to heat, so I added for water for the new heater which was 78 degrees. The heater is now heating the tank to 78 degrees and I'll slowly increase that.

There's still some of the fuzz, which all of the fish are constantly eating so if it is poisonous then my fish are pretty stupid IMO.. haha. The fuzz amount has gone down though and a lot of it is falling off the driftwood but then hanging around on the substrate. I've bee sucking it up when I do my partial water changes. Tonight, I hooked up my old Aqueon Quietflow filter to the tank to see if it'll help clear out some of the fuzz from the water. My water looks clear until I do anything to stir up what's on the substrate, then it'll all start floating in the water column and the fish go crazy (they eat it on the substrate and off the driftwood too).

My neons were the ones who actually looked the worst when I came home, although everyone didn't look to happy about the cold. My GBRs were just hanging out by the undersized heater. :( Poor things. But, the water is slowly heating up and they're perking back up. I guess we'll see how the weekend goes.. I hope I don't lose anyone else.

Parameters are still steady at zero amm and zero nitrite. I haven't bothered testing nitrate since I last posted my params because I'm doing so many PWC I don't think it could be very high.

My anubias also look miserable.. I had asked previously but I think my death and fuzz attacks warrented more of a response.. Do they NEED to be attached to something, or can I just bury the roots in the substrate and leave the rhizome above the sand? These plants have a good 2"+ of roots so they're anchored well in the substrate.. Could this be the problem? The rhizomes look healthy to me, but they're shedding leaves fairly quickly.
 
#26 ·
On the Anubias, they are shade plants so plant them under cover, say floating plants. I have always attached them to wood or rock. Just m,ake sure the rhizome is not buried, it can rot. The true roots will grow down into the substrate.
 
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#27 ·
Well, I've got the pennywort floating around.. should I try to spread it around the whole top of the tank or something? My light is just a normal t8 bulb.. :\

I guess tomorrow I'll go ahead and pull them out and tie rocks to the rhizomes after I clean them up a bit and replant them. I'll probably post a picture update too, even though my tank will look sad, haha.

So, once my tank has settled down, I'll probably be adding some more fish to round out my shoals again. Just wanted people's opinions..

I've only got four corys as of right now. Would it be better to get 3 more false julii or could I get 3 of another species? Looking through the profiles, I know I'd be limited since I keep my tank at 80 degrees.. I'd originally hoped to get some panda corys but I don't think that's an option but could I perhaps get three bronze or albino? Or sterbai?

I don't think I'll increase the rasboras or neons yet because I've got a bad feeling about the tetras now.. Not because of the tank itself, but because of the temp and how sensitive they are. If they don't make it I'll probably get some rummys, or maybe some cardinal tetras. I fell in love with rummys the moment I saw them though, so (not that I want the tetras to die) hopefully I can add some rummys sometime eventually. I love checkers! :) I know to get 9+ rummys, so this is why I wouldn't want to add any more rasboras to the tank.
 
#29 ·
Thanks chevy, I haven't seen mine out of the water yet, but I'll keep an eye out for that! Sounds cute.


So, no more fish losses today. I'm actually in the middle of tidying up the tank. I took out all the anubias, and I did notice that some of them have rotting roots. There's still plenty of healthy roots left over, so I have hope for them still. I removed the black parts on the roots, but now here's my worry.. I read that black/rotting roots is a substrate problem. I just have sand in my tank, which it does get stirred up. I obviously stirred up the substrate QUITE a bit when I buried the tile attached to the driftwood so I don't really know what to do.

Reading online, it says that I either need to loosen the substrate because it's too compact or replace the substrate. I'm hoping I don't have to replace it. I've got root tabs for the vals, and I know anubias don't need them.. So I guess I won't be buying the roots this time around, but now I'm worried about this happening to my vals. Is this something that a MTS population might be able to resolve for me? Otherwise, what other options do I have other than changing the substrate?
 
#30 ·
Your MTS population will help with this so will plants that have heavy root systems like Vals and swords. I do have a question on the anubias was it the actual roots rotting or was it the rhizome? I know if you bury the rhizome it will rot but I haven't heard of the roots themselves rotting because of the being buried? Just curious on that one am still learning the plant world.
 
#31 ·
The rhizomes, to my knowledge, look fine.. they're still green and firm. I took care not to bury the rhizomes and only the roots. It's only the roots that were pretty deep that rotted. These are brand new plants so many of them had fairly short roots so, Luke I said, there are still plenty of healthy roots on all of the rhizomes.

Hopefully that's what the cause was. I replanted most of them so far and hardly buried the roots, if I did at all. I'm currently on my phone at the lfs waiting for it to open (forgot they don't open until noon.. silly me) . I'm going to see if they have any mts. I've seen them here in the past, but I think they might have treated the tank before they got in plants from their new supplier. Hopefully they've got some in a show tank or something. :/
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#32 ·
Do you have any MTS in the your tank now? If so it wouldn't take long to build up your supply. I found out if you throw some algae waffers in the tank every night they will find it. As long as they have a steady food supply they will continue to multiple.
 
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