# 37 Gal planted journal!



## Arkerone (Mar 15, 2011)

Here's me starting a tank journal! The tank has been running for a while now but I've been taking photos along the way, here's a brief history so far!

It all started with a trip to PetSmart. They had some 37 Gallon package deals that were shipped without the heaters so they were heavily marked down. I picked one up for about $90 and brought it home where it would sit unopened in the closet for a while.

Eventually I picked up a tubular stand at BA along with some eco-complete and a rock that Hazelvine chose for me and started to fill er up!

Excuse the mess!



















After 2 bags of eco-complete I still wanted a bit more substrate so I got some tahitian moon sand to add. I brilliantly added it to the full tank without turning off the filter and some got sucked into the impeller, turns out tahitian moon sand has enough iron in it for the magnetic impeller to grab it and wonderful grinding noises ensued. After some magnet scraping and cleaning and such, I couldn't get the topfin filter to be tolerably quiet so I replaced it with an Aquaclear HOB and sent the noisy filter to the basement for a outside-of-bedroom project down the road.

Now it was time to start my fishless cycle, slowly adding ammonia and monitoring the parameters. Took forever to find household ammonia! I found the shelf label for it at one Walmart but they were out, groceries stores had ammonia with additives and perfumes. Eventually a Walmart up in Markham came through for me and I have enough to cycle a million aquariums for $2.

More in the next slide!


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## Arkerone (Mar 15, 2011)

Hazelvine and myself drew some pictures and collaborated on the design (our first such endeavor, be kind!) we took some trips to various stores for ideas, supplies and plants. Some were moved in from a too crowded 10 gallon as well.

Here's a list of what went in:

Bottom half of a hygro difformis from the 10 gal
2x Anubias Nana tied to bits of mopani wood
small cuttings of Egeris Densa
Java Moss wrapped onto a wood-root-tree thingy
potted Micro Sword with no home yet
Rock tower! 3 chunks of blue sodalite, larger flat piece solidly resting on top and to long pieces of "stonewood" on top of that.










Not too long after I moved in some of the inverts from another tank while I treat the tetras in there.

1x Large Vampire Shrimp
1x Clown Pleco L103
3x Amano Shrimp


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## Arkerone (Mar 15, 2011)

Now I have a few more picine residents and equipment upgrades!

2x Otocinclus Catfish
2x German Blue Ram!

Taiwan moss (Thanks Byronicle!)

Eheim 2213 Canister filter
Turbo CO2 Bio System
Coralife dual T5HO fixture with 6700K and Colormax 18 watt bulbs





































This morning I split up the micro sword and planted it all about, we'll see how it fills out over then next few months!


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## Arkerone (Mar 15, 2011)

My next project is to fill out the background of the aquarium a bit
The Hygro Difformis on the far left is putting on some great new growth and I'm patiently waiting for it to get nice and big.

The Egeria Densa between the rock and the tree isn't doing so well. I'm looking for ideas of nice tall plants to fill up the back wall of the aquarium on either side of the tree.

Hopefully next week I will get some Amazon Frogbit, I think the root systems dangling a bit at the top will look good, I just don't want too much blocking the light.

Questions, comments, complaints or suggestions so far?


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## Arkerone (Mar 15, 2011)

Today I shallowly buried a flat piece of rock in the front left corner, added some glossostigma in the foreground and a Cryptocoryne spiralis as well as a Torta Val in the background.

+1 Bronze Dragon Halfmoon Betta
+3 Amano Shrimp (total 6)










I'll post betta pics soon, he's a tad shy and fast so it's tough!

He looks pretty much like this one though mine's bottom fin is more in line with the tail fin and has the black outline.

Got him from BA Ottawa East, they got an awesome shipment from Thailand!









^ Not my pic!


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## Byronicle (Apr 18, 2009)

hey for the moss tree I would first separate the clump into individual "leaves" then just use some sewing thread and tie it down, but make sure you have the rhizomes going along the branch and having the moss all point outwards in the same direction but not necessary the same angle


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## Byronicle (Apr 18, 2009)

also what is your temperature at?


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## Arkerone (Mar 15, 2011)

Very good point! I'm going to do a bit of reading on it then do as you suggest, taking out that wood and it's buried slate base will make a mess so I will want to do it right the first (no wait, this would be the second) time.

78F at the moment, I'm considering going up to 80-82 though.

I also added the original T8 light fixture from the kit back on so now I'm running both lamps.


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## Arkerone (Mar 15, 2011)

Sunday night I took the Java moss off the tree and attached small amounts to it with the rhizomes running along the branches.

I moved the taiwan moss up on the rock a bit, ringing the base for now until I decide where it's going.

Added some amazon frogbit, the Betta is loving it.

One of my Otos passed away 

I'm pretty certain the Rams have paired up and they and the betta now recognize me at feeding time!


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## Arkerone (Mar 15, 2011)

Two days after the above pic some of the Amazon Frogbit roots have grown more than halfway down the tank! Guess they're happy! (pics tonight)


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## Arkerone (Mar 15, 2011)

I put together a taiwan moss wall in the back left corner to disguise the hardware, it's going to look tacky for a couple months but I'm hoping it will fill in nicely! If I don't like how it's turning out I may try to hunt down a similar black mesh to use instead.

The frogbit is all growing and spreading like mad after just a week. I may have to move my spray bar to the right side of the tank rather than being on the back wall, it's causing the frogbit to get pinned to the front in one spot.


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## Arkerone (Mar 15, 2011)

Well, after 3 days I decided I really disliked the look of the white mesh. I took an old mosquito net from my basement, cut it to size, transferred the mossed, folded, sewed and added suction cups and mounted her in the tank. still adds that "Touch of Man" feel to the tank but I like the colour a lot more.










I also cut my spraybar at the second last hole and mounted it along the top right hand side rather than on the back. Now it's not pinning the frogbit on the front of the aquarium, yay!










Having the small gap of a few inches with no holes at the start of the spraybar (elbow) causes the frogbit to circle the tank making a beautiful dance with it's jellyfish tentacle-like roots!

Here's a short video of it!


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## Arkerone (Mar 15, 2011)

Some new pics, some with my new camera!

I was trying to get a good shot of the betta with his finnage all out, almost had the perfect shot.


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## Arkerone (Mar 15, 2011)

Here's how the tank is looking today, I moved some moss around and removed a LOT of frogbit, that stuff spreads fast!

I'm considering taking out the rock on the lefts and moving the tree more in that direction, thoughts?


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## Arkerone (Mar 15, 2011)

Moved a few things around, the moss is filling in nicely and the glosso is finally starting to carpet!


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## jimmyjam (Nov 6, 2007)

moss looks great, just dont forget to trim it down when its too full, otherwise you will lose the connection to the brick


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