hydrophyte

I already started a journal thread for this tank, but here is a quick shot of my 55-gallon from the other night...



This tank has various crypts in the underwater area and as emersed background plants. The midground has two rafts with Bolbitis and Microsorum ferns, and several Anubias too. I also used a couple of Spathiphyllum peace lilies (not really emersed aquatics) to fill in the background.

I like this tank. Admittedly, it lacks depth and looks rather flat due to the shape of the enclosure, but it is a nice collection of plants and the fish are active and fun to watch. I want to set up something like this in a 90-gallon (better depth) someday.

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Hydrophyte

AquaZilla

It looks great Hydro.. Do you a supply of hydroponically grown plants ready to go on a huge Ebb "N" Flow table?

hydrophyte

Thanks very much. This tank is looking pretty good right now, but I need to work on my photo editing a lot more. I have been trying to work with RAW files to reduce excessive glare and shadow, but I always end up with an unappealing orange or green wash over everything, as you can see above. I don't know how I can better adjust white balance in post-processing.

What do you mean with plants? I have been working with growing on plants in planters in a rustic hydroponic setup, but I don't have great results yet. I am guessing that with the smaller water volume of just a few gallons in the basins that I am using it is more difficult to maintain consistent nutrient levels. I might need to get a conductivity meter. Anyway I hope to figure out a good way to produce like that because it would be a good way to get plants out to people and also add value to the whole thing.

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Hydrophyte

AquaZilla

Im sure you have seen Tropicas farm and FAN, both use Ebb N Flow type tables. Im planning on building a med/lrg flow table for anubias,ferns and whatever else I can get to grow in it. I plan to use pvc tubes arched across the table and then cover the table with white tarps to keep humidity levels up.

I have all the equipment, I just need to do it

AquaZilla

Oh! How do keep the humidity levels up? Is that tank covered?

hydrophyte

I have seen shots of Tropica's setup, but I did not know that FAN used the same kind of thing. That would be easy enough to set up. You probably wouldn't even need to button it up so tight. I have found with aquariums that so long as they are 90% or so covered the air space stays quite moist. That is right I maintain humidity in this tank by covering almost all of the top with a canopy. A disadvantage of this approach is that whenever the aquarium heater is running and the tank is warmer than the room the glass becomes quite foggy on the inside. Right now we are having warm fall weather, so I turned off the heater and the glass is clear again.

Of course there are certain plants also that do best with drier air. If kept in very moist air Echinodorus swords and some stem plants will respond as if underwater, developing very soft and flimsy immersed-form foliage that doesn't grow right. These are better kept with more air circulation.

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Hydrophyte

CL

Wow, it's grown since I last saw it! Great job on this guy!

hydrophyte

Thanks a bunch. It helped a lot to get more underwater crypts in there too.

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Hydrophyte

hydrophyte

This tank has gotten to be overgrown. Here is a shot form tonight:



The emersed plants look great, but they are shading the whole underwater area. I now wish that this were a 75 or 90, because a shape like that would have had plenty of space along the front pane of glass. The 12" front-to-back depth in this 55 just isn't enough.

It looks pretty cool though if I crop away the underwater portion.

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Hydrophyte

AquaZilla

Wowww!!!!

I would love to have something like this some day How cool is that!

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