finally have the new 125 "potscaped" the way I like it...

[judy]

See what you think. Dexter, btw, is dark again, but is getting MB baths 2cw daily and that seems to be perking him up. I wonder if he has some oxygenation issues thanks to a damaged gill...

http://s1235.photobucket.com/albums/ff438/waytiuk/?action=view&current=fishvid002.mp4

[walt3]

nice tank. i really like the reef too. i hada 90 gallon reef with the pulseing zenias as well. they spread like a weed over my tank. i really liked them. i cut then down with sissors and watched them regrow from the stump left on the live rock. very cool. nice tanks. well done. :)

[x2h]

very nice Judy. Did you paint the bottom of the tank?

[judy]

nope. doesn't seem to bother the fish, though.

[Second Hand Pat]

Judy, I am not much for the potted look but it really works in this tank. Look the effect of the DW. So Dexter is not giving you any breaks. Bad Dexter...attention hound.

[judy]

The driftwood's huge. I had to saw a bit of one branch off to get it in the tank! And am waiting patiently for the Java moss and fern to fill in, along with the fine green algae that's beginning to cover part of it. I'm thinking the mossy look will be nice, if I can keep it controlled.

Yeah-- Dex may not make it... off his feed some, too, the last couple of days. Odd, because that's one sparkly clean tank... but I figure he's got all the medical care I could possibly give and if he doesn't make it, at least he has spent the last month or two of his life the way a discus should-- in a nice big tank with clean water, good food, and lots of other discus to hang with. He will have been loved properly, however briefly.

[MikeF]

Nice tank Judy. Quick question. Does "crap" get stuck under the pots? I have a piece of driftwood in my bb tank, and as soon as I move it to vac under it, all the stuff goes everywhere. It seems like I can never fully get it all out, unless I vac several times a day. I like your setup, and would like to try it myself. Thanks for the vids.
MikeF

[judy]

It stays clean underneath the pots (they each have a marble blocking the little drain hole you always get in those pots)), but yeah, crap does collect around the edges of the driftwood. I resorted to using just the long hose that came with the siphon tube. It disturbs less of the little piles of crud and seems to have better suction-- I can get out bits of fine gravel that sometimes spill off the pots if the clown loach has been vaccing the pots for leftovers, and the siphon tube doesn't pull that up.. Still, there is always visible drift in the water even after a thorough cleaning, and I just hope the 50% WC done right away gets most of it out. Sometimes I keep vaccing for awhile, while the pump is pulling out disturbed water.

[Harry Marsh]

I love the potted look

Simple, effective and clean


What species plants are you finding work well? Are you putting dirt in the pots?

[judy]

I fill the pots about 25% full with potting soil, then the rest up, to 2/3rds full, with fine gravel-- the kind they sell you for hermit crab tanks, and top it off with pebbles or marbles. Somewhere in there, insert a fert tab and replace every 6 months, while continuing to supplement the water column with Excel and occasional iron for the swords. Stem plants-- limnophilia, hygrophilia, hornwort, etc. don't do well this way. More important than the potting, though, is the lighting. I am not using high lighting so I am restricting myself to Amazon swords, Ozelot swords, cryptcoryne, a red tiger lily, and an aponogeton. So far, so good. That huge piece of driftwood is still giving off plenty of tannins, however, and I think that contributes a bit of "fertilizer" to the water column. Though I could be wrong on that; it's just a guess.