weijie... im looking for small sized curved scissors for trimming foreground. hehe. im waiting for what u gonna have by mentioning cuved scissors.

anyway, the rotala have been taken yesterday nite by a non-LYN. hu hu hu..~ fresh from the tank.

it should works i guess since staghorn and HA if im not mistaken (just see how lucky u are to get which one) having the same growth requirement and sometimes they grow together.

any surface dwellers would help. the best yes, mollies... or better, get black mollies.

suka-suka share... since uploaded in FB. some random shots from my tank.

too much greens isnt good also. hehehe... once u can get all plants to be green and healthy, then try to mix with red plants and make both healthy. hahaha.. this is the part i failed... all my red plants will turn green as well even with extra iron supplement and light boom...damn~!

my tips: learn to grow plants before u really get serious in aquascaping designs. nice tank design is useless also if ur plants melted and unhealthy.

- HA is my worse enemy to be honest. everytime i setup tank, initial stage sure they'll come and visit and i'll face the trouble to get rid of them. i dont really know for sure how and why but i just use every methods i know until they gone... well, that's the fun in the battle

- my latest tank been 'cured' from HA after i did a semi-blackout (didnt turn on lights, just ambient lights) for 3 weeks. my plants growth DAMN slow and some creeping up but at least they didnt melt while HA melts slowly. my yamato and SAE clearing up the dead ones.... once the tank cleared, then only start dosing as usual and lights on.

- bear in mind i already did H2O2 spot treatment, increasing CO2, stop iron dosing, manual removal.. all seems failed. but dependso n tank, some tank using spot treatment also already okay. but currently as my tank already matured with the plants already solid in the tank, HA have no chance to compete with the plants. (after 13th weeks... bleh~)

- learn grow plants... it took me almost 2 years to experiment with plants growth and requirement with 7 tanks in my house with all different specs. only scape for play2 but focus on plants.

- and good to know now ur glosso start creeping. hehehe... later once they full carpetting, keep the carpet low ya... dun be lazy

I dont know about flying fox because i never keep them (for what? .. LOL). but SAE, they actually not harassing or chasing ur other fishes. SAE is territorial once they're adult...

but also, SAE is another type of fish that DOES schools (but not like rasboras or tetras). they need company in the tank with their same species at least more than 5 in a 2ft tank. if they already in a group since juvenile, they wont be so agressive or territorial when they're adult. they'll be together with their groups at night and do their cleaning stuff during the day and ignore other fishes since they have their own species to school with.

this applies to otto as well sometimes. they basically feel lonely and trying to mingle together with other fishes... not harassing them actually.

so, dont be stingy with SAE. 1-2 SAE in a tank doesnt help much plus things like above might happens. just campak 8+ more SAE and everything will be fine.. ur tank and ur fishes.

This post has been edited by usermode: Apr 23 2012, 05:34 PM

how thick is the glass? and where is "your area" ?

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Added on April 24, 2012, 2:02 am- riccia at the backside? ur jap HG will outgrown them in no time and you'll have trouble there when they mixed when riccia particles in the middle of ur jap HG. pick something that grow taller than ur jap HG or at least something that's rooted.

- ur jap HG and white sand area, how u plan to 'split' it ? small rocks as border? or just plain naturale? border them... there's a trick for them not to cross the sand. seriously.. jap HG is nasty to keep them at bay nicely without been 'overtook'. they grow from inside the soils.... that's the tricky part to trim them. the more u trim ur plants, the more they will grow. if u just cut the top part of the jap hg that trying to cross ur sand, you are actually promoting their root growth deep in the soil more widespreads which actually the mother of the root are perhaps in the middle of the place it should be. u pull them out, you might risk yourself to pull the whole carpet or messed it up terribly. you cut the top, there'll be a time when suddenly all those new shoots of jap HG sprouted everywhere in ur sand area at once!!

- the rest should be okay kua... just go on anyway.

... just my 2 cents.

p/s: im soooo looking forward to see how u gonna make the sand 'flow' from the sky in the actual scape.. like stairway to heaven. LOL!!!

This post has been edited by usermode: Apr 24 2012, 02:06 AM

- frequent waterchange.
- live plants are natural filter.
- good filteration and water flow.

do not be scared... be optimist. consider the more closer you are with nature, the more they'll be on your side.

bro...u still have assassin snails? a friend of mine is looking for it. can PM me the price as well? should i just pass to him ur contacts as in email or anything?

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Added on April 24, 2012, 10:35 pm- dont do DAILY wc. even a high tech tank having twice a week only WC 30%. my current tank is now having once a week..sometimes once in two weeks. too much WC wont help clear ur water. but when the BB and the tank matured and sufficient, the water will be clear itself.

- i never use purigen... only cheap china cannister with media of course. hahahaha!! orang miskin...

This post has been edited by usermode: Apr 24 2012, 10:35 PM

- live plants helps for those micro particles that your filter cant trap and also those nitrates and ammonia, etc. but this doesnt mean u dont need a filter at all. filter is a MUST.... it's the heart of the tank.
- different tank requires different setup and most of the time because each tank having a different layout for water circulations, different plants planted, different amount of water (due to different numbers of hardscapes).
- but fundamentals of planted tank are still the same. you can google for more info on starting a planted tanks. other hobbyist could help and give opinions on things that u dont understand or confuse, but we cant hold your hands from zero to hero....

- people usually would take out all the equipments from the tank and make sure the tank looks at its best for final photo or FTS (full-tank shot).
- i would recommend tat also, learn to grow plants and their requirements.... then only start for serious designing. great aquascape deisgn with dead/unhealthy plants would be more sux.. LOL!!!

normal fish tank with artificial plants/decor dont have co2 system or just using table lamp already enough. BUT, this doesnt mean u cant have live plants at all... just the plant choices will be limited (alot less). we call these tank usually as 'low-tech' tank which having less maintenance, less algae issue and cheaper in costing for the upside, but the downside... less plant choice and plant growth is in SUPER SLOW rate.

kah kah kah kah kah...~ the response is lot more hilarious than the news.