nwaas.com

I have been looking at pictures of other people's tanks, so I decided to post a pic of my own. All of my tanks try to be planted, but this is the only one that has ever looked halfway decent. I am fighting a battle with algae right now, but I think the tank still looks okay. This tank has 4 Xystochromis sp " Blue Fire Fin", 6 Odessa barbs, 2 calico ancistrus, 3 otos, and a random guppy. It is overstocked, but the fish all get along and the water parameters are fine. I would like to eventually move the fish over to a 40 breeder, and add a few more Odessa barbs.

That is a cool looking tank, thanks for showing it to us. Odessa barbs are one of my favorites. One of the local shops had some and I was sorely tempted to buy the whole tank of them, until I saw the prices tag of nearly $7 a fish. They were colored up adults in the defense of the shop.

"The water parameters are fine" is a little bit of trick. Plants and algae will often absorb nutrients so that there are none in the water for our test kits to detect. The fact that you are fighting a battle with algae tells me that something is not right in your water parameters. You already know what that is though, because you stated your that the tank is a little over stocked. I would guess that your battle with the algae would go away if you lightened the load a little bit. Of course, you mentioned that you have plans to do that, so why I am writing all of this?

Kevin

Great tank and thanks for sharing the photo. I would try some micro swords or dwarf sag. to give you a grown cover effect in the front if you like that sort of look. Planted tanks are fun and nicely nature way to enjoy the hobby. I have seen some of the odessa barbs here in KC for around 3 to 4 dollars each if you buy at least 4. My first ones were kind of expensive but I love them.

I had a big issue with green water for a while in my tank. I cut back on the fertilizers, picked up a filter with a UV sterilizer and some phosguard from seachem. With the combination of all the above my water is crystal clear!! I can actually see daily where my otos are cleaning the back glass lol.

I didn't have a lot of problems with algae until I upgraded my light a couple of months ago. I went from a 2 bulb T5NO fixture to a 2 bulb T5HO fixture. I had put some plants in that were a little more demanding, so I thought the higher light was needed. The blue fire fins didn't like the new plants though, and pulled them all up every time they would chase each other. I got tired of replanting them, so I took almost all of them out and put them in another tank. The algae wasn't too bad when I the light was first changed, but then I stopped dosing the tank with Excel, and the algae sprung up. I started dosing Seacham Excel and Seachem Nitrogen lately. Hopefully this will get rid of the algae and help the plants.

I recently did a rescape on this tank. I removed the smaller piece of driftwood. I turned the larger driftwood around the other way (I like the big hollow that you can see when it faces this way) and moved it to the left side of the tank. I moved the existing stem plants and put them behind the driftwood. I then took some plants out of my 29 gallon plant only tank and filled in the right side (the green frilly plant, the red needle leaf plant, and the plant in the front right corner). I took out one of the swords, and moved the small one that was in the back right and put it next to the driftwood. I still need to tie/glue some moss to the wood and I need to let the plants in the background fill out.

Tell me what you think. Do you like it better, or was it better before?

**Hmm.... It won't let me add the picture right now. It just keeps saying Internal Service Error when I try to upload it. I will try again later.**
In the mean time, here is a link to a thread with the picture on plantedtank.net
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/aquascaping/145128-opinions-my-25g-9-18-rescape.html

I think after filling in some, the new look could be good. Some personal touches I would move the driftwood to either the right or left a little bit (put it on a third instead of the center) and plant something in front of one of the edges of the driftwood to give it a more blended look. Those are just opinions.