2x feet Aquatic planted tank setup 2009 2.0

29'th March, 2009, it's been a week and two days and here's some progress. The water-poppies, mosaic plant and water pennywoth are growing taller! Also, I notice that I've got small shoots for the pennywoth too! As for the swordplant, not much growth but i did notice pearling from the second day onwards. It's a rather satisfying feeling one gets when seeing your plants pearling and knowing all things are hopefully gonna be fine! Or so i'd wish, lol! If u squint a lil', the swordplant's actually pearling a string of bubbles to the top of the tank! Even some of the java-fern and pennywoth has lil' bubbles on their leaves. It's beautiful when the sun-rays hits the tank, n stuffs starts happening :) Unfortunately, along with everything else in the tank, even the green slimy moss would bubbles away! Jeez, stubborn algae this is, i've even tried taking a toothbrush to it with no avail! Only hope is that everything outgrows it and it'd die a natural death! :P

Two days ago, i actually trimmed off two leaves from the sword plant... and if u'd notice from the picture below, it's turning yellow from the inside out! It's happening to a few of the older pennywoth too! Some say it's a nitrogen deficiency, others potassium... but i've been fertilizing with tulip tablets! But i can't be sure at all, would have to research more though...!!

Here's the tank after a week, u'd notice the plants have stretched out... unfortunately, it's not the same for the glosso!! The glosso leaves are getting trashed and i'm not having much hope on it as my light's very much dependent on sunlight n the weather these days hasn't been the greatest. After YY's reprimand on putting in glosso prematurely, i'd say to heck with it! :P But surprise suprise, i do see one single baby leaf coming out, unblemished, pure! Will this be my one and only glosso survivor! The one n only survivor?! Lol...we'd find out overtime i guess! 

Oh yeah, and here's my diy light fixture, using a downlight box and the Philips 23W Brightlight CFL. Obviously, there's a chance of the whole entire thing short-curcuit-ing and burning my whole house down, even it being earth-ed... I'd only use it with supervision. The stand's actually a cloth-hanger, bended to clip onto the side of my tank. Thanks to MACC for this suggestion! 

Some pictures of the glosso in the tank! As you can see, they aren't the happiest of plants at the moment! Oh yeah, here are the newest edition to my tank, 3 pairs of red wag platies as per suggestion by YY to kick-start the nitrogen cycle! I'm also hoping that this guys would help eat up some of the green algae in the tank and over the days, I've also notice green crap all over the tank! Maybe is, maybe not?! :P Photos for the next update, yah!

If you look at the background, you'd notice the bottom portion of the mosaic plant! 

2x feet Aquatic planted tank setup 2009 1.0

After many of nights planning and running permutations on the golden mean rule in my head, I've decided today'd be the day we be aplanting! Over the months since SLS, I've been parts shopping and researching that I've got everything require to setup my next planted tank. Hoping for a sunlight tank ala Diana L. Walstad (not all the way though), I didn't spent too much on lights as I was planning to place this tank outside in my yard (Seeing as you can't really baby-proof a pressurized CO2 canister along with a 15Gallon aquarium filled tank!). The first time i setup this tank, I had an old 2feet aquarium from my old apartment which i was planning to use; it was temporarily hosting a 6inch tortoise my old man found from around our neighbourhood! Alas in my ambitious plan to provide it more creature comfort i cracked it placing in a ceramic pot!! Would have chunked the entire project if it wasn't for all the work and purchases made already :) And wifey being her ever-supportive self, said i could purchase a new tank (this is after hours or trying to self-repair and dragging her to 3 LFS consequtively asking if they'd repair a cracked tank...)

After our Klang Panmee session I dropped by Xian Leng to purchase 2 pieces of driftwood for my tank, spending approximately rm15 on them

Below is the first layer that went in. It's pure laterite; which i use pure for most of my water-potted plants, ie. water-pennywort, water-poppy and mosaic plants. It's supposedly virgin soil, purchase at this nursery in Dengkil. According to the nursery-owner, the soil is actually dug from uncharted hills around the area, so it's supposedly pure of any "bad stuffs"! Well, it works wonders for tulips and water-lilies which is what they're specialized at :)

The second layer is a blend of planting soil from a friend. I've left it behind in my "cabbage-patch" for a past few months to leech away the bad-stuffs :P. The recipe for the second layer comes from Jim Kelly, he wrote an article entitled "Aquarium Technology for the Very, Very Budget Minded". Thank a bunch Jim :) So the second layer is potting soil mixed with vermiculite. 

So, here are the three bags of stuffs that went into the substrate. Potting soil is RM4, Vermiculite is RM7.60 from Ace Hardware and the Laterite virgin soil is RM3. Coincidentally, i went back to the nursery in Dengkil and was told that they've stopped digging for it! Wonder if anyone out there knows of any other nursery carrying these rich-laterite type soils? 

And lastly, the third layer of holland sand purchased from SLS the last trip there! 

Here are the plants i've purchased! A bunch of java-ferns going for RM10, there were nearly 5 saplings making the entire group here. Hopefully they'd all survive :)

I can't seem to figure out what plant this is! Anyone's got any ideas? Cousin's of hornworth maybe? Going for RM2 per bunch

Glossostigma at RM5Sword plants for RM2! My mistake on this guy, YY :P I totally forgotten my plant dictionary. Someone should come out with a definitive guide of 'em plants :) lol! Three more plants which I already had were thrown into the mix, water pennywort (Hydrocotyle spp.) some mosaic plant (Ludwigia sediode) and water poppy(hydrocleys nymphoides) . I may have the genus wrong, so guys if u spot the right plant, do tell me! 

Sideview of the tank

Frontview shot...

Glosso on the substrates... I was told later to have waited a while, to cycle the tank before putting glossos in (Thnk YY!), and am paying the price now, as i'm seeing them getting covered by algaes! Aiyak...lesson to learn i guess :P

Here's the tank filling up with water. Tips from Siang to place a piece of plastic so that the water pressure doesn't end up stirring up all your hardwork! 

Oh yeah, by the way... I run a china brand canister filter with a CO2 tank plus diffuser purchased from Galaxy Pet Links in Damansara Uptown, total approx RM400! As for lights fixture i DIY-ed a down-light fixture with Philip's latest BrightLight 23W CPL (6500K, 1600lumens with 82CRI, good measurements for photosynthesis i hope). Forgot to take a picture of it, will post in part 2! Oh as for the frame, it's a 2feet tank frame, purchase from Irene's nearly 6 years back!! It's so old that i don't even remember how much i paid for it :P lol! 

So here's how the tank looks on the first night! Eveything's in a dis-array! Last but not least is the budget spent thus far running a bill of RM175 on new stuff! I convince myself that most of these things are recyclable... i hope! Oh and those who have an idea of where i went wrong, please help!! Last update, the plants seems to be dieing... !! Shall cover that in the next update

1 . Light fixture RM 16 2 . Philips 23W 6500K CFL RM 18 
3 . 2xfeet tank RM 20  
4 . 2xSilicone sticks RM 16  
5 . Vermiculite RM 7.1  
6 . Trio Potting soil RM 4  
7 . Laterite virgin soil RM 3  
8 . Plant purchased RM 23  
9 . Tarp RM 6 
10. 2xdriftwood RM15 
11. Holland Sand RM 18  
12. 2xtank rm25
13 . Old CO2 tank RM 140  
14 . Old Canister filter RM 130  
15 . Old CO2 diffuser RM 20  
16 . Old bubble counter RM 8  
17 . Old check valves RM 3 

4.5x2x2 Aquarium tank setup in 2005

This was my first tank when we shifted into our apartment nearly 4 years back! It's always great to be able to marry someone who appreciates your hobbies and allows u the breathing space to wallow in the mud once in a while! :) With much faith, wifey gave me the go-ahead to cut a hole in the wall to stick an aquarium in! lol... man, and was it a fun project or what! :) The tank was purchase in Irene's PJ. As it was a custom size tank, they had to fabricate it in IPOH, where all tanks are born :P at 4.5 feet in lenght, 2 by 2 feet width and height, it was priced at RM350! Plus a separate filter tank and filter medium and pump... I spent approx RM600 here. Mind you, the workmanship to cut a hole in the wall plus building a solid concrete table to take the weight of the tank comes to be another RM500. All in all, it wasn't too bad a deal except for the headache of not getting the tank size proper; hey delivered it the first time at 2.2 feet... an extra 2inches over. As they say, you can't negotiate with a brick wall and the tank couldn't fit in at all! Back in went to Irene's where they actually cut the top 2 inches off!! @#$@#$@!!! Well, that's the cost of DIY-ing it yourself...I did shop around in other places like Pet Safari and most shops will charge u around RM600 plus just for the display tank! Ah well, give and take i guess...Pictures are taken with a Canon IXUS compact, so they aren't the greatest, sorry!

As you can see, the tank has no top and if it really overflows (which has happened a few times over) it'd end up wetting your entire place!

Here you can see me potting plants into medical gauze, thick enough to prevent the potting soil from chalking your water, thin enough also for the roots to breathe!

some water wisteria and pennyworts that was purchased from Pet Family Taman Megah! RM2-3 per bunch... Resonably priced plants that should not require too much light and more inportantly not burn a hole in one's pockets!

The substrate are riverstones, purchased at Sg. Buloh, RM12 for a 10KG bag if i'm not mistaken. Even the driftwood was purchased there. RM5-6 per piece, quite resonably priced for aesthetically pleasing "wood" :)

Filling up the tank at this stage. No CO2 induction, normal fluorescent tubes for lights... this was a simple low-tech aquarium which i had hope would survive! :P

Alas... it didn't last long :P lol, i had to redo the entire setup, install a canister filter, plug in a CO2 tank and the works. After a year of tinkering, i had an overgrown indoor garden instead :P

In the end, even that did not survive with insufficient substate, bad lighting...Messy affair!

I did manage to breed some swordtails though... :) Which was the highlight of this tank! None survived, unfortunately... As they're either born deformed and dies after awhile... weak gene pool, i'd guess.Anyone tried planting ngah-koo or arrowheads? This was during CNY 2006. It's rather nice, but lots of work as the leaves dies a messy death! :P