Re-scaping my 120g

[strawberryblonde]

Welp, today was the day. I could put it off no longer because my plants were slowly withering away in a 20 gallon tank without proper lighting, ferts, etc. But at least all the pond snails are dead - woot!!!

The new beige/white sand has been in the tank for a month, so it's no longer as white and pristine, but it will still do just fine for at least another 9 months.

I added 2 huge sponge filters for some much needed extra air and a bit of filtration. Sadly, my poret foam in my HOB filters is finally starting to lose its luster and will need to be replaced before Christmas. Hence the need for a bit more filtration from other sources.

Adding the plants back into the tank required some little glass jars and ceramic plant pots, along with some nicely boiled river stones from my garden. Yuppers, if I'm going to do plants again it will NOT be a fully planted tank - ever - ever again!!! I proved to myself that I could grow out nice big discus in a fully planted tank and now that it's done I'm ready for easy peasy again. LOL

I've never used Flourish plant tabs, so that was something new today. The planters are mostly river stones with a wee bit of sand just to stabilize the rocks since they're much larger than gravel.

I only put about half of my plants back into the tank and I'm really pleased with the anubias plants, they managed to green up and grow well even in the stagnant 20g tank. The amazon swords took a real beating, so I trimmed off all the lower leaves on one of them, leaving only the baby plants at the top. The other still had a few nice lower leaves, but the babies were sad, so I lopped them off.

Only a few crypts left!! They do NOT like being ignored and let me know it by dying... slowly... it was ugly. LOL

I tossed in just one small piece of driftwood and decided to leave the 2 large stumps out for now. Might add in my HUGE piece later on, not sure.

For now my discus are ignoring their afternoon snack in favor of inspecting all the new decor. My snakeskin pigeon pair is guarding one branch of the driftwood and acting all excited, so I'll probably need to stuff one of Barb's awesome breeding cones in there tonight in order to keep my "real" pair happy. The female Red Cover gets really nippy if she doesn't have her own space so I can see a lot of bruises in the near future for that snakeskin pair if I don't do something fast.

And that's it. I can't wait to grab some new pics tonight when the sun goes down. On the downside, my eruption leopards promptly stationed themselves behind one of the sword plants and turned a nice dark blue in order to blend in. Blast those 2, they are the world's best cameleons!!! LOL

[Second Hand Pat]

Darn lady no pictures until tonight.
Pat

[strawberryblonde]

Ok, these are the first pics. Still WAY too sunny outside, but at least it'll keep Pat from teasing me. And wouldn't you know it, the battery died, so I'm recharging and will be ready to go at 10pm when it actually gets dark around here. =)

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[rickztahone]

The white really makes their colors POP.

[jmf3460]

a rescape and no full tank shot??? come on now

[strawberryblonde]

LOL, the first shot IS a full tank shot Jacklyn!! Well, except for the 2 sponge filters on the sides. I have a 48" x 32" tall 120 tank. If I take a full tank shot the only thing extra that you'll see is about 1 more foot of plain black background and then the rim of the tank.

I'll get some better photo's tonight, I promise. Last night just wasn't meant to be. Too many interruptions. <sigh>

[pitdogg2]

Only a few crypts left!! They do NOT like being ignored and let me know it by dying... slowly... it was ugly. LOL

Thats funny right there. Many years ago the wife wanted a tank to call her own. I gave her a 30g that had 6 angels with one being pure black non veil angel. after 1 year he was the only thing left in the tank besides the 6 bronze crypts that completely spread across the bottom so much that you could not see gravel anymore. She maybe did WC once maybe twice per year fed maybe once or twice per month. that angel grew to be the size of a saucer one of the biggest I ever seen besides a pair of wilds at our LFS that were as big as some discus I've seen. Those plants relied on a worn out 30watt warm white tube that may of been 7yrs old. I had to take out many plants over those two years not from death by any means.

Although she never seen this I would feed that Angel wood lice and wood cockroaches many days in my fish room. Those plants NEVER seen any fertilizer except fish poop.

So from my experience I have found my crypts always did better being ignored.

very nice tank BTW

[strawberryblonde]

LOL, so your crypts were happy being neglected??? Mine took great offense at the no oxygen, no fresh water, no ferts, no soil, no poop state in my 20g tank. Each day I'd find another one laying listlessly on the bottom of the tank.

The few that survived look VERY energized and happy today though. ALL of the plants managed to color up nicely in just 24 hours in the big tank. Now it's a mater of letting them fill out again, so the tank should look pretty in another month or so.

In the meantime, I added the breeding cones last night and now have 3 "pairs" cleaning stuff and my corydora elegans has decided that he/she kinda likes one of my huge sterbai's. It's a hoot to watch him/her doing the mating dance - like mutt and jeff since the elegans isn't even half the size of the sterbai's. (the elegans actually swims with the cardinals - same size, same shape so he has identity issues)