24 Jun 2006 - Week 1 |
Arrival of my new tank on 24 Jun 2006 |
| I bought this driftwood. Problem 1: it looks much too big for my tank Problem 2: no matter how I place it, just could not find a natural angle with it  |
Did something really drastic and decided to cut it up. Really not recommended move as it took me 4 hours of drilling and sawing to cut up the root. My Advice ... buy something that fits!! Then again, often really tough to estimate and we do not have infinite resources like Amano to search through hundreds of pieces to find the PERFECT one.   |
2 Jul 2006 - Week 2 |
| My initial scaping ... cyperus helferi, Eusteralis stellata
(Pogostemon stellata), Hygrophila difformis (starter plant), Pogostemon
helferi (downoi), Rotala wallichii, Bolbitis heudelotii and HC Water looks cloudy due to a whole bunch of things that I did wrong in the initial setup - Firstly, my substrate got stirred up as my driftwood started to float when I filled up the tank after the initial scaping. Even though I soak the wood for 2 weeks and was sure that it sinks, I guess it was due to the fact that I left it out in the empty tank for 2 days while trying to "dry-scape". Being ADA aquasoil, it is known to cause cloudy water when stirred up and worse of all algae growth on the plants - Secondly , I did not rinse the Ehiem filter media (substrate and bio-rings) enough. Could see it producing white chalky particles in the water. Took me another hour or so to rinse it till it was literally clear  |
9 Jul 2006 - Week 3 |
| Tank got hit by brown algae. Hand removed most of them but
still cannot control the growth. Got a bunch of water lettuce from a
friend, rotala and H. difformis started to grow and the algae growth
seems to have slowed down Added cherry shrimps and 2 octo from my old
tank, got 5 new yamato and 3 more octo to help in the clean up job |
16 Jul 2006 - Week 4 |
| At last, a CLEAR tank. Almost all the HC melted, except for a
very small bunch. Hope they start to grow soon. Bolbitis was quite affected by the algae, but looks a lot greener and recovering. 2 very slow growing plants 22 Jul 2006 - Added 10 Boraras Maculatus. Added a pair of Rineloricaria Sp (whiptail catfish 7cm)  |
30 Jul 2006 - Week 6 |
Added Utricularia graminifolia ... a carnivorous foreground
plant.  So much have grown in 1 month. This is what it looks like after trimming the Hygrophila difformis and Rotala Wallichii  |
06 Aug 2006 - Week 7 |
| Added Echinodorus 'Red Diamond' plantlet. Let's hope this
little fellow grows up fast. Had to trim away most of the Pogostemon stellata to make way for it. Added 7 pygmy sparkling gouramis (Trichopsis pumila)  Lost 3 boraras this week :< Still trying to figure out what is wrong. |
13 Aug 2006 - Week 8 |
| Added 2 wood shrimps. Added 2 juvenile albino bristlenose (3cm).  |
20 Aug 2006 - Week 9 |
| Had to trim the stem plants again. Looking to replace the
stem plants for lower maintenance. Waiting for my Echinodorus 'Red Diamond' to grow up. Not visible yet, behind the left side drift wood. HC are recovering from the melt down and starting to spread. Need a lot of patience with HC  |
