# Kimchi24's 46 Dutch/Nature Bowfront Journal



## Kimchi24 (Mar 22, 2013)

This tank took A LOT of planning. Needless to say, it is still incomplete. I got everything together in a matter of a few months and all the plants are from my previous 33 gallon tank. I have grown tired of boxy tanks and i have always admired every bowfront tank I came across. Here's the issue though... HOW TO SCAPE IT??? I researched what I can do with the plants that I have. It all came down to a dutch or a jungle aquascape. The unfortunate thing is... I wanted a nice iwagumi or nature style tank as well. I figured the best thing to do would be to have some sort of hybrid! I planned to separate the two by a different coloured gravel to make a king of path or road.

Equipment:
46 Gallon Bowfront with a stand
AC70
Fluval 205 Canister
Paintball CO2
2x T5HO 30" Oddysea light fixture
Driftwood
Rocks

Plants:
Carpet of DHG (hopefully)
Blyxa
Hygrophilia Sunset
Rotala indica or rotunifolia. I dont know xD
Ludwigia
Vals
Cabomba
Ambulia
Dwarf Sag
Rosefolia
Crypt Parva
Crypt Wendtii brown
Anubias
Giant baby tears

I had to wash out the old tank. Didn't want any dust or contaminants. I soaked it in a 20% vinegar, 80% water solution overnight and let it soak in decholrinated water after to that for about the time it took to tear down my 33 gallons (4 hours?)


I tore this 33 gallon down, the old thread for it is here:http://gtaaquaria.com/forum/showthread.php?t=47321


I laid down flourite black sand down on both sides and split it down with some gravel I got at my work. Also placed down my sexy driftwood. I have one more piece that has all the plants on it. Maybe ill cover these in moss some day.


I did the initial planting of dwarf sag and giant baby tears at the front. I didn't realize it was so hard to plant in sand. It took me forever to get the giant baby tears to stay under water. Got the rocks on the nature side done and the second piece of driftwood with anubias done as well.


I put some crypts in at the side and got a garbage bag to being filling with water! I was scared the giant baby tears would freaking go everywhere. Luckily only half of them did and i had to replant them later haha.




I filled in the other stem plants to make a dutch or jungle thingy and finally...



Got my livestock in again with all the gear set in place!


This tank had started from this...

and went to this....

and now it is finally at it's last step...


----------



## TorontoPlantMan (Aug 16, 2013)

Looks really nice, great job with everything so far. I gotta say though, the right side's looking a bit empty compared to the left


----------



## Kimchi24 (Mar 22, 2013)

TorontoPlantMan said:


> Looks really nice, great job with everything so far. I gotta say though, the right side's looking a bit empty compared to the left


Well, I'm going to fill it in with some dwarf hair grass to mimic a nature/iwagumi style thing. I'll probably have to get some sort of supplementary lighting for it to work out. its a big tank


----------



## default (May 28, 2011)

Oh did you get that fixture from me? If so that fixture is a 36" 
Looking good man, did you fill it full on the yard?! You gotta be careful with that, I've heard people shattering their tanks filling it like that because of the uneven lawn.
And you got quite a long plant list there


----------



## Kimchi24 (Mar 22, 2013)

default said:


> Oh did you get that fixture from me? If so that fixture is a 36"
> Looking good man, did you fill it full on the yard?! You gotta be careful with that, I've heard people shattering their tanks filling it like that because of the uneven lawn.
> And you got quite a long plant list there


Oh! right! they are 36 lol. No i didnt fill it up on the year. I rinsed it up on the yard and brought it inside to fill. Didnt want bugs going in my rinse haha. I learned my lesson there. i found worms and all kidns of critters after i left ti over one night. That was only a ten gallon though.


----------



## TorontoPlantMan (Aug 16, 2013)

Kimchi24 said:


> Well, I'm going to fill it in with some dwarf hair grass to mimic a nature/iwagumi style thing. I'll probably have to get some sort of supplementary lighting for it to work out. its a big tank


Ahh okay that sounds sweet, at least you have it all planned out. Goodluck with it, I'll be watching !


----------



## housebatbetta (Sep 19, 2013)

The split design is a really neat idea! Looking forward to seeing how it looks when everything's grown in some. ^_^


----------



## Tahuboy (Sep 20, 2013)

Looks good! Can't wait to see the progress on it.


----------



## Kimchi24 (Mar 22, 2013)

*Update*

I haven't updated in a while. Not much has changed since today. Also I noticed that I did not put a livestock list on so I'll do that considering I got new fish recently!

Fish List:
1x Angelfish
2x Red Eye Tetra
5x Neon Tetra
1x Galaxy Rasbora
1x SAE
4x Cherry Barbs
2x Sailfin Mollies (orange)
2x Ottos
1x Bushynose Pleco
1x Upside down catfish *NEW
6x Neon Dwarf Rainbowfish *NEW
1x Yellow Rainbowfish *NEW
3x Boesmani Rainbowfish *NEW
2x Madagascar Rainbowfish *NEW

Plants:
Blyxa
Hygrophilia Sunset
Rotala something
Ludwigia
Vals
Cabomba
Ambulia
Dwarf Sag
Rosefolia
Crypt Parva
Crypt Wendtii brown
Anubias
Giant baby tears
Echinodorus Parviflorus 'Tropica'*NEW
Rotala wellechi *NEW
Crypt Wendtii Red *NEW

Ok so to the update...



I felt like the dual T5HO light wasn't cutting it so I put in an extra T8 strip light I had laying around. This is been there for 2 weeks now? All of a sudden, a couple of days ago, my dwarf sag starts melting. :O. I have no idea why. i did not change anything for two weeks and it randomly melts. It's the only thing in the tank that is melting. I have changed nothing, dosing, lights, nothing.




Got some new plants in. Rotala Wellechi, Parviflorus, and Crypt Wendtii Red.




Here are some of my new rainbows I got in. Also, I got something called an upside down cat. This looks like a corydora but swims upside down. i saw a whole tank of these. I saw the tank and thought all the corydoras went belly up. Anyone have any info on this guy? Awesome fish. Couldn't nab a photo though... he hid as soon as saw me coming.




And here's my centrepiece fish... MY ANGEL!


----------



## Beedans (Jun 20, 2013)

Looks great! Can't wait to see it with carpet!


----------



## Kimchi24 (Mar 22, 2013)

*Update*

It has been just over a month since my last update. Mainly because everything in my tank was dying due to camallanus worms. I think i beat it though. With that in mind, i did change up a few thing. I decided im not going o go hybrid but full dutch. I did a lot of research on how to aquascape bowfront tanks and it seems likes dutch is really the only way to go due to the height. So, that's what i aspired to do. I got rid of those rocks and put in some nice drift wood to replace it. I added some plants but they still need to grow in. I decided on a dwarf sag carpet and a narrow leaf microsword carpet as well. I hope it turns out ok. DO i have to trim the microsword to help it spread like DHG??? should i make the background black?


----------



## Kimchi24 (Mar 22, 2013)

I forgot to add in updated lists and new tech.

Tech: 46 gallon bowfront with glass lid, Coralife Dual T5HO, 6700k Current T5HO, 10,000k T5HO, Paintball CO2, AC70, Driftwood
Plants: Cabomba, Ludwidgia, Amazon swords, Rotala Indica, Rotala Rotunidolia, Rotala Wallichi, Cryptocoryne Wendtii Brown, Cryptocoryne Wendtii Red, Cryptocoryne Parva, Cryptocoryne Spiralis, Jungle Val, Dwarf Sag, Alternanthera Reineckii Rosifolia, Narrow-leaf Micro Sword, Java Fern, Anubias Nana, Hygrophilia Sunset
Fish: Angelfish, Boesmani Rainbowfish, Dwarf Neon Rainbowfish, Cherry Barbs, Neon Tetra, Otto Cats, Bristle-nosed Plecos, Orange Sailfin Mollies, Red eye Tetra, galaxy rasbora


----------



## charlie1 (Dec 1, 2011)

Looking good, should be more interesting when the plants fill out.
My vote is black background, my preference is Black vinyl film
http://www.deserres.ca/en-ca/search/avery-a4-opaque-vinyl/AVA4/
Regards


----------



## Kimchi24 (Mar 22, 2013)

I just added the black background today. It was a pain t get on because the tank is close to the wall lol.


----------



## Kimchi24 (Mar 22, 2013)

*Aquascape changes and carpet questions???*

Ok, so Here is a recent pic of my 46 gallon bow FTS. There is some tannin leach still but other than that every fish is fine and all the plants are doign good. well, most of the plants. I moved all the stems to one side, took out the cabomba, too the wood from the right side and moved it to the left to make it have the aquascape triangle. I still havent replaced the hygrophilia sunset because i dont even know what to switch it for.



The dwarf sag carpet is filling in SUPER nicely and is growing like crazy. I love it. This dwarf sag also is not growing very large and is staying a lot smaller than when i got them. It makes for a better looking carpet. the problem is some BBA. If i dose excel on it though, the leaves just wither away. so i cant really do that. Any suggestions?

Also this is my microsword carpet. As you can clearly see, its been about 20 days with NO improvement. I'm probably going to get DHG instead of this plant. UGH. It hasn't spread at all. Am I planting it wrong? does it really take over a month to send a few runners? pain in the arse lol


----------

