# Planted Tanks > Aquascaping >  my new ~1.4 ft cube tank

## ongtw

hi guys,

i've finally finished my new tank after spending 6 hours for the whole process. kinldy give me some feedback and advice. i'm planning to do a water change in two days time. anything else that i might need to do?

full frontal


left side


right side


thanks in advance! :Razz:

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## tcy81

hi, i think it will be good if you can find small rocks/stones to place along the edge of the soil to prevent it mixing will the white sand.
 :Smile:

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## ongtw

sorry guys forgot to post the specs. here goes

Tank Dimensions (LxWxH, specify units): 16 x 16 X 16 inches
Lighting Intensity(No of Watts) : 11w x 2 + 15w
Number and type of Lighting (FL/PL/MH) : PL
Age of light bulbs : 2/12/2007
No. of hours your lights are on : 5 hours light + 5 hours break + 5 hours light
CO2 Injection Rate (bps) : ~1 bps
Type of CO2 (DIY/Cylinder) : Cylinder 
Method of Injection (e.g. Diffusor/Reactor) : diffusor
Other fertilisers (Product name. E.g. Root Monster) :
ADA Power Sand Special
ADA Amazonia 2
ADA Amazonia 2 powder
clear super - 2 scoops
bacter 100 - 2 scoops
penac p - 2 scoops
tourmaline bc - 7 scoops
penac w - 2 scoops

Type of Filter (overhead/internal/canister, Product name/model if possible) : Canister - dolphine c-500

Fan: normal Cooling Fan

Age of setup (i.e. since initial setup or last major re-do ) : since 13th April 2008

Water change frequency : Every week
Amount changed : 3 inches of water

Water surface movement (None/gentle/turbulent) : Gentle
Circulation (None/gentle/turbulent) : Gentle

Tank Temperature : 29 degree celcius at this moment w/o fan turn on

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## aquanatix

Wah!!! Finally your tank is up and it looks good!
Noticed your use of 11wX2 + another 15w,i'm guess you did not find intensity strong enough? Anyway...what's the stone like item in your last picture?Looks like the stone weights used when you buy plants?

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## ongtw

hi tcy81,

sigh.. its already mixing up..  :Very Happy: . i'm planning to probably pay NA a visit next week to get some small stones to do this.

thanks!

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## ongtw

hey aquanatix,

yea finally got everything in place so decided to just give it a go. haha sorry the weight in the last pic is just to weigh the plant down. planting the jap hairgrass is really a back breaking task! yeap... added another 15w light since i plan to try growing some HC  :Very Happy: 

now i'm hoping algae won't visit me  :Very Happy:

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## tcy81

> hi tcy81,
> 
> sigh.. its already mixing up.. . i'm planning to probably pay NA a visit next week to get some small stones to do this.
> 
> thanks!


after you add the stones, siphon the particles out and top up some sand again  :Smile:

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## torque6

Ong, 
scape is abit stiff, the white sand separating the 2 parts of your tank is too artificial for your tank.

But you plants look well placed and i like them.

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## tcy81

by the way, if you can find similar stones that you are using now, will be better for the overall scape.

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## torque6

hehehe, finding similar stones will be a challenge, really envy jervis can fly to japan and get exotic paired stones  :Smile: 

Ong, 
If you want to get similar stone, make sure you buy them all at 1 place, chances are if you get 1 and try to find matching stones from other LFS, the chances are quite slim, but its possible though.

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## ongtw

hi guys,

thanks for your feedback. yes i find it artificial as well. problem is i got the stones when i went holiday in new zealand. picked it up from the river.. lol.. so i guess i'm doomed if i were to get a matching pair.

i'll try to get something small just to put it in between the white and the ada soil. sigh  :Sad:

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## tcy81

maybe you can tied the small stones you buy with some moss....
actually i like the standing stone, it will be really nice if you have more of it.

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## ongtw

oh by the way guys,

what do you suggest to make it look more natural? any ideas?

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## torque6

Remember, your scape is not confined by what you need to find but what is made available for you. I was at midori 4-5 mths back when they had a new shippment of iwagumi look/granite rocks, i was there for 1hour but couldnt pick a suitable set of 3. I came back 2 weeks later only to find them setup a very nice nano tank with those rocks.

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## ongtw

hi torque6,

good point and point noted  :Very Happy: 

i'll try to get something today and see how things goes. i'll be posting an updated pic for more comments.

thanks!

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## aquanatix

How long did you spend just planting the foreground?
Looks so damn neat!Like torque,i like it very much!I'm even impressed that you had so much patience planting them in! Mine usually starts out like yours and always end up in huge clumps after 15mins!  :Laughing:  I'm guessing if the division of sand is a little stiff,you could always *A)*Add in more black gravel to even out the straight borders thats causing the unnatural look or *B)*Do what most people do by hunting for odd pieces of rocks to insert in between hence "breaking" the border. For me personally i try not to cover the rocks with moss,they usually overgrow and become distractions themselves!

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## ongtw

hi aquanatix,

i've since change the position of some plants. just a little bit. still trying to hunt for stones to insert in between the sand and gravel.

talking about the foreground. man i think it took me at least 2 hours seperating and planting them row by row. something like what they do when they plant padi in the padi fields.. lol!

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## torque6

From the looks of it, seems like you have about 4-6 pots of HG, i should have started with this much plants in my first setup  :Smile:

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## ongtw

torque6,

i only bought 2 pots of jap hg for that. anyway time for a quick update. gonna need some expert advice from the pros here.

this is the tank after adding some stones into the tank seperating the white and brown soil. went almost all lfs but only manage to get these stones from NA today. let me know what you guys think



japanese HG are looking good. at least to me. 



also, below is the picture of the tiger lily from thailand which i got from colourful. you'll notice a cherry shrimp there. i just put in a few to test water. fortunately they survived  :Very Happy: 



also, my HC are melting. could it be my lighting problem? currently i'm using 11+11+15 watts and my tank is probably about 15 plus gallons.



one last thing guys. i notice the red plant that i have is turning green. i've read and it seems that either my light is not enough or my ferts are not enough. i'm currently dosing wondergro macro and micro following EI dosing.

please advice.

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## Jervis

> one last thing guys. i notice the red plant that i have is turning green. i've read and it seems that either my light is not enough or my ferts are not enough. i'm currently dosing wondergro macro and micro following EI dosing.
> please advice.


Your lighting power seems adequate to me... does the back gets as much light as the front portion?

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## ongtw

hi jervis, it should be. my 11+11 watts light is the light with standard casing where i rest it on top of the tank where as the 15 watts light is actually a sort of like the clip on by the side type of light. i used this for my 1 gallon tank previously and i think it has got a cheapo reflector. could that be the case?

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## torque6

Agree with jervis, the back of the aquarium seems abit dark.

Btw, I like the way you place the stones around the white sand, not too bad  :Smile:

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## ongtw

hi guys,

this is how i place my lights. should i be getting another lightset and forget about the clip on? i saw one from NA going for about 25. its a 1.5ft 24watts pl light

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## ongtw

oh btw guys,

not sure if my dosing is correct. i've calculated and my tank is about 50L of water. wondergro micro i think needs about 10ml pee 50L of water. so what i did was to divide this 10ml into 3 and dose them on seperate days.

so on a daily basis its like micro,macro,mirco,macro,micro,macro followed by water change the next day

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## Jervis

Yeah I think you'll get a better coverage with a new lightset... not to mention neater looking on the outside  :Smile:

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## torque6

1PL with 24w should suffice, since your tank can accomodate 1.5FT lights, might as well use it. Most of us having smaller tanks dont have this type of luxury  :Sad:

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## ongtw

hi guys,

i'm convinced the clip on light is not working as expected. the pic above is a new arrangement which i did this morning. only one day and when i came back, i noticed my stem plants all slanted towards the front. i suppose they're growing towards brighter light and since my 11+11 watts light is placed at the front thus the result.

i think i'll have to pay NA a visit and get the lightset. with 11+11 and another 24 watts do u think i can plant HC? sigh its still melting.

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## ongtw

oh missed out one point. is my dosing regime correct?

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## torque6

11w x2 should suffice, but a single 18w or higher will be brighter than having 2 lower wattage lights. I am not familiar with wondergro, i use the sechem range with N+P on 3x , K 2x trace 2x per week.

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## Jervis

I will say 11+11+24 is definitely sufficient for growing HC  :Smile:

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## tcy81

maybe it will be better if you get 2x18W instead.

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## ongtw

tcy81,

where can i get 2 *18? i need it to be about 1.5ft in length. pls advice. also, i'm doomed  :Sad:  the fan is taking too much space. if i'm going to get another light, the fan won't fit. should i be getting another different fan which takes up a smaller space? if yes which brand should i get? then i can sell off this set. lol

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## tcy81

i have pm you already.
i thinks its better to get a single high wattage light bulb than to a few of low wattage light bulb to get the desired wattage.
The light penpetration will be better.

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## torque6

> i have pm you already.
> i thinks its better to get a single high wattage light bulb than to a few of low wattage light bulb to get the desired wattage.
> The light penpetration will be better.


yes, its helps with space constraints as well if you only went for 1x 24w, there is a guy in the aq merchants that sells some hooks to position fans, might want to look him up.

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## ongtw

hi guys,

thanks for the pointer. i think i'm going to either get the 24 watt from NA or the 36 watts from mizu world.

thanks!

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## ongtw

hi guys,

can anyone help me id these plants? i just got them cos i like their looks. lol.

thanks in advance.

moss that i got from c328

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## CK Yeo

1) Moss
2) Mayaca fluviatilis
3) Rotala indica (reddish one)
4) Hydrocotyle verticillata?
5) Myriophyllum hippuroides?

ck

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## ongtw

hi guys,

time for a quick update of the tank. everything seems to be growing ok except for one or two of them including jap hairgrass which are growing pretty slowly. anyway i've just trimmed the tip of the hairgrass and will continue to monitor its growth rate. the tiger lotus (thailand breed) that i've planted is growing like crazy and there's so many shoots coming out!

how to i trim it? do i just trim the leaves? Btw can anyone help me id and see if its really tiger lotus or something else?

comments welcome  :Very Happy: 







thanks!

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## torque6

Looks every nice ong. Jap hg is usually slow, might want to trim them to encourage runners, however becareful as you may uproot them. I noticed a small cave on the right side, do you intend to keep apisto to showcase your tank ?

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## ongtw

hi torque,

yes! in fact i've already got a pair of viejita. just that they went hiding when i took the pics.  :Very Happy: 

now trying to see what's wrong with my female viejita  :Sad:

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## ongtw

hi all,

time again for a quick update and would also like to seek your professional advice. i'm not sure if algae is visiting me already. just fitted with a 36 watts light so now i'm running 36watts and 11+11 watts pl light.

anyway i notice that my lotus has a holes on their leaves and weird thing is, on one leaf, bubbles are being produced from this holes. below is a pic i've taken to show the hole. any idea what's that?


also the following picture is taken from top view. i noticed that this plant is sort of like turning yellow slowly and there's dirt on its leaves. is something wrong with my setup maybe?


below is the top view from the left side


below is the overall view of the aquarium at week 3


also, just purchased my female viejita from y618. was forced to isolate her for now as the male is too horny. kept swimming around her and chasing her around the tank.


please advice!

Thanks a lot in advance  :Very Happy:

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## Panut

Your female viejita has super nice colouring!  :Well done: 
Im worried the Blyxa would "destroy the scape" as it will float higher and higher as time pass by.

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## ongtw

hi magic,

thanks... she's nice eh? i'm not really sure cos very new.. heheh still waiting and see if she's ready to breed. also not sure what shades of yellow will she be in when she's ready. keeping my fingers crossed.

as for the blyxa, it was a poor design on my side. didnt know it will grow upwards... i'll see what i can do when that happens  :Very Happy:

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## torque6

Ong, the apisto cave not sinking properly, you have this lava rock on top of it  :Sad:

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## Panut

Instead of blyxa, maybe.. u can try eriocaulon sp. I have some myself and all i can say they look ->  :Well done:

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## ongtw

torque,

actually the cave is sinking nicely. just that i got no place to put the lava rock with riccia. so i just put it there for the time being.

so anyone has got any idea what's wrong with my plants?

magic, i'll go google and check to see how the plant look like. thanks  :Very Happy:

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## Jervis

Looking good! Love the deep deep cave  :Grin:

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## ongtw

thanks jervis for the kind words,

mine is no where near yours  :Very Happy: ... i'm still xperimenting with a lot of stuffs. ferts regiment and all. just hoping algae will stay away...

anyway does anyone know if a viejita male can breed with some other females (interbreeding)? i wanted to get another female for him but looks like its pretty hard these days to get viejita.

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## ongtw

hi guys,

a quick update of my tank at week 5. did a little adjustments





comments welcome. btw the riccia that you see in the picture is there temporarily.

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## juggler

The pot makes it look like a train tunnel.  :Smile: 
Eye-catching. But can you take one picture without the pot and the thermometer? It would look more natural for submission for ADA.

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## ongtw

hi juggler,

ADA is way out of my league... lol.. this is only my first attempt at planted setup. i'll be removing the pot in a day or two. got a clay cave for them. gonna collect it tomorrow.

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## tcy81

quite impressive setup. I also think you can remove the thermometer & pot and take a photo to submit to ADA contest.
No harm trying, since its free also. :Grin:

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## mobile2007

Very impressive planted tank. Just beware that the apisto might dig up a crater for you  :Grin: 

Saw the male hiding behind the lotus stem on the left hand side. looks good

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## ct13

Nice setup, and is that dwarf japanese hair glass?? Or just Japanese hair glass we can get from any LFS? Curl so nicely, mine like growing straight upward???

Thanks in advance

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## ranmasatome

wah.. growth explosion... good good.. :Smile:

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## ongtw

hi ct13,

i think its the japanese hairgrass. i got it from colourful.

ranmasatome,
yeah.. everything is growing nicely and rapidly and i'm liking it. gonna see what adjustments i can do :d

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## fireblade

very nice tank for a "beginner" !!
plants are growing very nicely too!! 
if can transform the pot to looks more natural like a cave, I think the effect will be very good!!

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## ongtw

hi fireblade,

thank you for your kind words, i've just got a cave from illumnae. i'm gonna probably tie some moss over it and put it into the tank. i'll be removing the unsightly pot tonight.

hehe..

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## torque6

I agree with most bros here, pot looks abit foreign in your natural setup. Looking forward to see your tank with one of illumnae's exclusive cave collections.  :Smile:

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## ongtw

hi guys,

finally removed the crappy pot and took another picture of the tank minus the thermometer. illumnae's cave is at the front right side of the picture (front left side of the tank) covered with moss..  :Very Happy:

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## Jervis

Your tank is looking real good... the background plants grow so naturally... have you been trimming them? I strongly suggest you submit for ADA 08... definitely stand a good chance in getting good ranking  :Smile:

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## Jervis

Another thing... for some strange reasons... I find your temporary Riccia looks good in the layout... serious!

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## Cpark188

I think you should leave the riccia there, is true as what jervis said, so lushing and so much difference compare with the previous picture. Good work as first timer with so good result. :Smile:

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## Panut

Very nice setup.  :Smile:

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## torque6

see, illumnae has got good taste, at first glance didnt even see the cave as it blended and camoflage well into the aquascape.  :Smile:  Nice placement there Ong !

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## stmoo

wow... that is a very nice set up.. can see you had put in a lot of effort.. keep it up..  :Well done:

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## ongtw

> Your tank is looking real good... the background plants grow so naturally... have you been trimming them? I strongly suggest you submit for ADA 08... definitely stand a good chance in getting good ranking


wow jervis you serious? i personally don't find it that good you know. anyway so far i've trimmed it only once. i'll probably going to do another trimming real soon. too bad that i played the blyxa japonica in front of the rock. now its blocking most of it.  :Sad: 




> Another thing... for some strange reasons... I find your temporary Riccia looks good in the layout... serious!


oh the riccia looks good? lol! i had to place it there as i have run out of space and my gf insisted we should get riccia. that's why i placed it there. but then again the riccia really multiplied! i only got a small handful of them and now it multiplied like 3 times more.




> I think you should leave the riccia there, is true as what jervis said, so lushing and so much difference compare with the previous picture. Good work as first timer with so good result.


thanks. i suppose i was lucky. i didn't really do a lot to check the water parameters. just plant heavily and let it run like that.




> see, illumnae has got good taste, at first glance didnt even see the cave as it blended and camoflage well into the aquascape.  Nice placement there Ong !


yeap.. i liked the cave too. haha.. ripped off some spiky moss elsewhere and tie it on top of the cave.. hehe

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## chinhl

Dear Ongtw,

Heard that white sand with ADA sand togather is very hard to maintant the white sand, you have any idea on maintant the white sand?

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## ongtw

> Dear Ongtw,
> 
> Heard that white sand with ADA sand togather is very hard to maintant the white sand, you have any idea on maintant the white sand?


hi chin,

it's really tough and impossible to seperate them nicely. if you'd notice in my picture, the white sand is still mixed with some ada powersand. what i did was to insert small stones between the white sand and the ADA substrate as suggested by fellow forumners here.

if you really want to keep it white and nice, i suggest that you do not keep fishes like apisto or cory. these guys will ruin everything for you. in my case, my pair of apisto is giving me headache  :Sad:

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## ongtw

hi guys,

did some trimming, removed some plants and riccia is growing like crazy. so ended up tying them in wire mesh and simply throwing them into the tank... dont know where to put them anymore.

anyway after a few days, found that they start to bubble like crazy.

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## blue33

Well done, you have a nice scape shape. You can trim the blyxa to make it look nicer.  :Smile:

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## ongtw

hi blue,

can i just cut them short? i read somewhere that i can't do that. that's why i don't dare to cut them yet and its blocking my stone already.. lol

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## blue33

> hi blue,
> 
> can i just cut them short? i read somewhere that i can't do that. that's why i don't dare to cut them yet and its blocking my stone already.. lol


I did trim my blyxa, now it starts to grow more bushy, you can try trimming one of them first, start with light trim. It works for me.  :Grin:

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## ongtw

oh you can? i read somewhere that you need to actually cut them from the root or something. if you cut the leaves i read thta these guys will eventually die

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## blue33

> oh you can? i read somewhere that you need to actually cut them from the root or something. if you cut the leaves i read thta these guys will eventually die


I've tried few times cutting it, some even quite short and they survive.  :Grin:

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## torque6

Nice going ! Is your lights still 11wx 2 + 15w ? No algae at all in your tank ??

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## ongtw

hi torque,

i use 11w X 2 and a 36 watts lightset (total 2 lightset). so far i've not seen any algae in the tank. lucky?

but noticed the hairgrass are light green in colour. is this normal?

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## Panut

58watt! and no algae!

hi ongtw, will you teach us your secret  :Smile:

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## ongtw

magic,

i guess probably i got very lucky with the plant choice and dosing of ferts? what i did was just to read this forum for about a few months before buying and starting my tank. i did very little now after the initial setup.

so far i've only been dosing wondergro macro and micro plus 3 times a week each and do about 40 &#37; water change on saturdays or sundays. lighting wise i'm breaking it up into two sessions. 5 hours morning, 4 to 5 hours break in the afternoon and 5 hours at night.

that's it.

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## Cpark188

The plants very lush and healthy growth, thanks for giving us the secret and we will take note of it. Well done. :Well done:

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## Jervis

I think you can have a Riccia foreground... looks incredible!!! Maybe it's time I attempt similar concept  :Smile:

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## blue33

How is your Blyxa respond after you trimmed it?

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## ongtw

hi,

so far it didn't show any signs of dying yet. but bad news guys... i guess i feed the viejita fry too much. i'm strting to see hair algae creeping up here and there. what should i do? gonna change water and cut down on feeding from twice a day to once a day

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## blue33

You can try holland balloon ram, they eat everything, mine eat hair algae, heard Malayan shrimp like it too, better than Amano shrimp.  :Smug:

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