For the past month, I’ve been growing my HC, hoping it will carpet the front of my tank but for some reason it only grows taller and taller.  I also had an algae problem and asked the guys at socalaquascapers.com for some help.  They gave me some help and they also told me something shocking– that’s not HC in your tank!

The Mystery Plant

Both Ben and I were speechless.  We’ve been tricked!  All this time we thought we were doing something wrong– not enough lighting, no CO2…  but the real reason our HC wasn’t spreading horizontally is because it wasn’t HC!

The folks at the forums didn’t know what the mystery plant was.  A few people gave their guesses- bacopa monnieri, UM, UG…  Perhaps they are just Dwarf Tears and not “Baby” Dwarf Tears a.k.a HC?

The vendor that we ordered our plants from is notorious for goofing orders.  We won’t be ordering from them again.

Getting the Real HC

So I decided to take a trip to Nature Aquarium this past weekend to get the real stuff, the real HC. Toru is the owner of Nature Aquarium and he had many pots of HC. Seeing them in person made me laugh. They look so different than the mystery plant!

You can see the difference in the picture above.  In the back of my tank is the mystery plant and its leaves are far bigger than HC’s.

I’m going to keep the mystery plant in just to remember this moment and how we got tricked (or simply ordered the wrong plant).  The mystery plant looks kinda nice next to the taller stem plants that I have.

And as you can see, the algae is disappearing thanks to my new CO2 system.  I’ve been running it for a week and a half now, about 2 bubbles per second (Toru’s recommendation).  Once the HC carpets, I might get some more Amano Shrimp to keep things clean.

New Viewing Angle?

I’m also thinking about rotating my tank 90 degrees so it looks like this:

My reasoning is because in my current set up, the rock seems very “central” and kinda boring?  This tweak in perspective gave my tank a more dynamic composition by having the rock slightly to the left.  I would have to move the stem plants to the back and perhaps replant my hair grass to the back right.  I might try it out tomorrow.  Stay tuned!

Lots of new things happening in my tank.  If you notice from the picture, my rock has a nice crust of brown algae on top.  I’m not sure why the sudden outbreak of this particular yet unidentified species but I have my guesses– light directly on the rock, not enough plants to absorb nutrients, and prior to this week no CO2.  I noticed that the outbreak occured right after I trimmed the plants.  And I also theorize that I’ve been overfeeding my fish and the excess food is contributing to the high nutrient level in the water.

The algae like to form on the bottom edges of the tank next to the soil.  Even if I scrub it off, in a day or so they are back.  The shrimp have been eating the algae but there’s too much of it.  If you look on the rock, you can see a patch of “clean” rock where a shrimp was feasting.

I’m not sure how to get the algae out of my tank but I will ask the guys at socalaquascapers and see what they have to say.  They are always very friendly and helpful.

Despite my tank looking awful and nasty, I still enjoy gazing at my plants and seeing what is happening each day.  There’s always some kind of drama happening in my tank.  Like today for instance.  I saw what looked like a string of algae floating but then realized that the strand was swimming and squiggling!  It was very thin and white– some kind of worm or parasite.  It latched onto a stem of HC and I promptly snipped the stem and threw it away.  Who knows what that was or what it would do!  And where did it come from?

I forgot my camera at home today so there isn’t that many new photos to show but I do have a lot to tell you!  First thing, when I got in to work today, as always I was worried that I would see one of my creatures dead and you know what I saw?  No, nothing dead.  But close– I saw the remains of a shrimp shell floating in the HC.  When I saw it initially I thought a shrimp was dead because it was in this weird angle.  I’ll take a picture of it tomorrow.

Mowing the Lawn

I also did my first ever plant cutting/trimming.  It’s very tricky business.  I few times I uprooted the HC as I was trying to cut it.  I’m not sure how low you’re supposed to trim the plants but I cut my HC pretty low.  My tank reminds me of when people get their hair cut and it’s so short it looks weird.  It usually takes a few weeks before a haircut grows out and looks normal.  I’m sure it’s the same with an aquascape.

As I was doing the trimmings, I noticed that a lot of the HC that were low on the stems were brown.  Is this because it wasn’t getting enough light?  My guess is because the HC were growing so tall, the leaves that were lower to the ground weren’t getting enough light as the ones on top.  So now that ALL the leaves are short, I’m curious to see if that will make a difference in the health of the HC.

A Present At My Doorstep

When I got home to my surprise was a box from beveragefactory.com.  It was my CO2 tank!  They told me it was going to take a week and lied!  It got delivered in two days.  So awesome.  I’m so excited because now I can install the CO2 and that should help my plants grow a lot.  I also can put in my new diffuser that’s been sitting on my desk for the last two weeks.

Tomorrow should be a very exciting day!

I got into work this morning, turned on the lights for my tank and saw that one of the tetras was already swimming around.  The other four were still in sleep mode, floating near the ground and relaxed.  Once I turned on the lights the four awoke and begun swimming around, well, except for that one yesterday that I was worried about.  But with a little bit of food he perked up and joined the rest.

Amano Shrimp

Steve ordered some amano shrimp and they arrived today.  He and Ben ordered a bunch of them and Steve gave me two.  Once in my tank they scurried around running up and down the glass and I was afraid they would leap out (Steve also warned me about this).  But everything is good now– they’re just walking around doing their thing. 

Amano shrimp are great for eating algae and cleaning up your tank.  I’ve got some algae forming on the top of my rock.  I like the look of the algae though, at least for now. 

There’s some good news to report and a lot happening with my tank.  First, about a week ago I noticed something really cool– a little bubble on the top of one of the HC stems!  I hear this is a good sign; plants are healthy and producing oxygen.  There’s about 3 stems in my tank that do this.  If only there were more!

The HC seem to be doing well, growing vertically mostly, not so much horizontally.  Ben says it’s because we aren’t using CO2 yet.  But have no fear plants because today I just ordered a snazzy new tank from beveragefactory.com.  The CO2 tank should arrive in a week and I can’t wait to install it with my diffuser.

Tetras in the house

During our lunch break, Ben and I took a trip to Fong’s Tropical Fish in Fountain Valley.  This is THE shop for fish and aquariums in Orange County.  Tanks, supplies, freshwater fish, saltwater fish, coral– You name it they have it!  And, you get a discount if you are from SoCal Aquascapers so that is really cool.  We bought some tetras.  I got five.

(Above) Here they are just chillin’, checking out their new home before they dive in.  I’m placing the bag in the tank so the temperature of the water in the bag will match the temperature in the tank.  We let the bag sit for about two hours.  Then we put the fish in!

Now I’m not sure if we did the right thing because Toru says you have to make sure the tank is safe for the fish BEFORE you put the fish in.  Usually that means measuring the PH levels and if they’re bad, “all fish die.”  That’s pretty intense!  But for now, I’m sure it’ll be okay because we took out the chlorine from the water and there isn’t any CO2 added yet.

Time to go to sleep

At the end of my work day, I decided to keep the LED light on instead of turning the lights completely off.  The LED casts this really cool blue light in the middle of the tank that reminds me of moonlight.  I really wanted to take a picture when the fish swam right in the shaft of light but no luck, maybe next time.

With the lights off, one of the tetras decended to the ground and began to rest and fish sleep amonst the HC.  I thought he was dying!  So I used my tool to wake him up and see if he was still alive.  He scurried around for a little bit.  Later, in the moonlit tank I counted 4 tetras and was wondering where the sleepy one was.  I looked all over until I found him– flapping on my desk!!  He somehow jumped out and was now gasping for air! I quickly threw him back in and once again, the little tetra found a nice patch of HC and nestled in for the night.

I hope my fish will be alive when I check them tomorrow and I hope I don’t find any dead fish on my desk.  Stay tuned!

This blog is a little like a journal but I was thinking of keeping a little notebook next to my tank to keep track of the things I do.  Stuff like– “Changed water today…”  That’s basically what I did today.  It’s nice to have a small tank because changing the water is very quick and easy.  Plants still look healthy and haven’t melted yet.  Still gotta look into some CO2.

Took a trip to work today to do some work on my tank.  The HC was already done so all that was left was to plant the Hair Grass.  We ordered our plants online so they arrived in little pots with the roots surrounded by what appears to be cotton.  So the first thing you need to do is pull out the plants from the pot and remove the cotton.  Then you get everything ready for planting.

Hair Grass ready for planting

I broke up the grass in each pot into smaller groups.  I’m hoping that this will make the planting easier and prevent the grass from floating up– It just seems that if the grass is in a big clump, it’ll be a little tricky for the soil to grab onto it.

In the corner behind the Rock

the repositioned rock

Before planting I repositioned the rock so it looks more upright instead of sinking into the soil.  I like this a whole lot better.  If you compare this picture with the one in my first post you can see the difference.

All around the rock in the front is HC.  Yesterday when I planted it the HC was limp but to my surprise, when I saw them today they were all upright– good signs of a healthy plant.  So now hopefully the HC will continue to grow and spread so that it covers the rest of the soil.  I’m also hoping that the hair grass will grow tall enough so that you can see it behind the rock.

HC after planting

my current tank with all plants

Water changes everyday for the next two weeks and more updates!

Today Ben and I added the plants to our tanks.  We both are using Hemianthus Callitrichoides, commonly known as “HC” in the aquascaping community.  From my research, I hear it’s good for ground cover, to get that carpet look and is fairly easy to grow.  The other alternative was Glossostigma Elatinoides, or simply “Glosso”, but I hear that can get out of control if you don’t know what you are doing.  Another reason that I chose to go with HC is because the leaves are smaller than Glosso and will look better in my small tank.

Tonight I also repositioned the rock so it’s not sunken in the soil.  Now it looks taller and more grand!

I’ll have more pictures to show in the morning.  Brought my camera to work but sadly it was out of power!  So I used Ben’s iphone to take pics.

The plan for the weekend is to finish adding plants to my tank.  I’ve already done the HC.  Tomorrow I will add Hair Grass behind my rock and I also have to look into getting some CO2.

Hope my plants don’t die!  I’ve heard stories of HC “melting” after a few days.  How is that possible?  Will it happen to my tank?

My First Aquascaping Rock

Aquascaping– it’s like landscaping but underwater!  How awesome is that?  Two weeks ago I had no idea what this hobby was and now I have the beginnings of my very first tank.  Above is the rock I chose, bought at Nature Aquarium in Santa Monica.  Toru, the shop owner, was very friendly and helpful.

Unboxed and Ready to Go

The tank I bought is from Aqua Design Amano, from their budget line called Do!aqua.  It isn’t as expensive as the premium ADA tanks but in my opinion still looks good and is well built.  At Nature Aquarium, I got to see some of these tanks side by side and both look amazing.

So today I began work on my tank.  The first task was to add the substrate and soil.  The substrate is Amazonia II (from ADA) and the soil is…. can’t remember but I will double check tomorrow.

One thing I’m curious about is how much substrate and soil I’m supposed to add.  Toru said to add an inch and a half of substrate followed by half an inch of soil.  I didn’t have a ruler on hand so I had to eyeball it but to me it looks like there is too much substrate.  What do you think?

Another thing is the hill– it makes the rock look a little small.  It doesn’t look quite as grand as it does in my first picture above.  So tomorrow i will take a long look at it and decide if I should lower the ground level a little bit.

Too much Substrate? (soil?)

After my tank was setup I looked at what I had and pictured the grass growing and shrimp climbing through the little cracks in the rock.  It’s all very peaceful and relaxing.

(Toru also said to add the water and the plants at the same time.  whoooops)