# Re-planted the compressus tank..



## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

Well, this tank was so overgrown and nasty, that I had to do something before it got any worse..lol
The center of the tank has a bunch of very short stem plants.. You won't be able to see them for about a week or so.. There is a bunch of Rotala colorata there, with some Juncus repens, and H zosterifolia again..
What do you think? It will look different in a week or 2, but you get the idea..









3rd pic was of the fish while re-planting lol


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## moeplz (Feb 21, 2005)

Your a visionary.


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## Winkyee (Feb 17, 2003)

Hey,
Your tank looks great! I find it amazing how fast plants can grow in a tank,I was so used to them just dying a slow death. Great Job .


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

moeplz said:


> Your a visionary.


?? wow thanks! ~never heard that one before!!


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## RedBelly Dom (Mar 22, 2005)

That tank looks sweet.


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

Dr.Zoidberg said:


> That tank looks sweet.


Thanks!! ~ my brothers name is Dom!!


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## therizman1 (Jan 6, 2006)

Beautiful tank Dippy! Hopefully I can work out my next tank ahead of time so my plants dont die a slow death like they are now


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

therizman1 said:


> Beautiful tank Dippy! Hopefully I can work out my next tank ahead of time so my plants dont die a slow death like they are now


Thanks, man..
But.. I would like to say that there is hope for any plant before they die!! Start another thread, let us know all your water params including phosphates, and all your equipment, and how you dose, and maintain your tank.. there is a way!


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## 2PiRaNhA~2FuRrY (Nov 1, 2005)

dam! how the hell you can keep all your plant alive, as the matter of fact it growing like crazy..

that is one of the best tank with full plant i ever seen. very nice job man.


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## jaejae (Apr 16, 2005)

DiPpY eGgS said:


> Well, this tank was so overgrown and nasty, that I had to do something before it got any worse..lol
> The center of the tank has a bunch of very short stem plants.. You won't be able to see them for about a week or so.. There is a bunch of Rotala colorata there, with some Juncus repens, and H zosterifolia again..
> What do you think? It will look different in a week or 2, but you get the idea..
> 
> ...


I'd love to see more pics of that compressus...please...........???????????????

Jay


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## Ex0dus (Jun 29, 2005)

DiPpY eGgS said:


> Well, this tank was so overgrown and nasty, that I had to do something before it got any worse..lol
> The center of the tank has a bunch of very short stem plants.. You won't be able to see them for about a week or so.. There is a bunch of Rotala colorata there, with some Juncus repens, and H zosterifolia again..
> What do you think? It will look different in a week or 2, but you get the idea..
> 
> ...


Teach me your aquascaping ways oh great one


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

JDM~PiRaYa~AE86 said:


> Teach me your aquascaping ways oh great one


I can share on that too







again.. in a few hrs.. gonna have some fun for a while


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

OK, here is how I set up and run this tank..

Substrate is 80% flourite, and 20% onyx sand. If I were going to do that tank over again, I would have done some things differently. But it is working for what I want it to do, so no worries until it gets torn down..Hopefully not for a long time

For lighting the tank has a 4x55w bright kit from www.ahsupply.com for lighting.. I wired that into one of their pre-made enclosures. I have 6400k bulbs in it that I bought from ebay. The bright kit comes with reflectors, so there is tons of light.

With that much light (220w) over a 75g, there is no getting around the need for a pressurized CO2 system. So, I called all of my local welding supply shops to get a good deal on a couple of cylanders. I found a very incredible deal on 2 full 20lb cylanders...65$ ..that kind of deal doesn't come around often, so I went for it!! I got my Milwaukee CO2 regulator/pH controller on ebay for $150. If I had to do it over again, I would skip the pH controller, and just go with a bubble count, and have it on a timer to shut off with the lights.. It would have saved me some $$.

For filtration, I have a Rena XP3 and an Aquaclear30 w/ filter attachment for lower water movement, which I think does some good in a planted tank.

I use the same gregwatson.com fertilizers, and fert mix for this tank as I do for the lower light tank, minus the excell, because I have pressurized CO2 on this one. No need for it. (all dry ferts are mixed 1tbspn to 250ml distilled water) 
I dose more in this tank, because the lights are much brighter... that equates to plants taking in more food. I dose 10ml Plantex CSM+B every other day. 10ml chelated iron with the CSM. After weekly waterchanges, and once during the week, I add 15ml's potassium, and then 10 mid week, and on off days from iron and CSM, I dose nitrates and phosphates to keep @ 10-25ppm and .5-2ppm perspectively.
This tank gets a 50% water change weekly. Any questions on how I run this tank are welcome.

The tank has: Tiger vals, Limnophila aromatica, Rotala colorata(growing out yet), Heteranthera zosterifolia, Cryptocoryne wendtii, walkeri, beckettii, parva and balansae.. Ludwigia repens-rubin, Ludwigia arcuata(still growing out), Blyxa japonica, eleocharis acicularis, Elatine triandra, Echinodorus tenellus, Echinodorus tenellus 'micro,' smaller Amazon swords, and Cabomba furcata.

Here are some requested pics of the fish


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

Ok, this is for Ex0dus: Scaping hints--working Left to right..(I dont think my way is the best or anything..but here is what I did)

Check out the pic of this as you are reading. First, I had some tiger Vals growing out in the far back left corner. I let them get too overgrown, and pulled a huge bunch out. -bad move. Now the roots are not anchored too good at all







but they are fine. 
I have the Vals boxed in with about 5 small amazon swords, so I can try to keep the Vals from growing outside the corner where I want them, by trimming all runners past the swords. I achived the messy look on the vals by trimming them to just over the waters surface, and pouring water directly over them.
background next to the vals, there seems to be an empty space. Not true







I have some H zosterifolia, baby Limnophila aromatica, cuttings of Rotala colorata, and short trimmed Ludwigia repens-rubin back there. As this grows out, I will most likely wing this as they grow out. We will see what happens back there








Midground in front of the amazon swords and into the driftwood, I have Echinoderus tenellus(pygmy chain sword). This plant in high light gets like 6-8" and to me looks killer in a grass scape midground. I used to have this stuff in the foreground.. eww.. too tall! I planted it as densely as I could.. from the very left all the way to the big rock.
The far left skinny grassy plant that sort of goes around in a semi-circle around the bright green stuff is Ehinoderus tenellus 'micro.' It gets a reddish tint if kept in direct light. I actually wanted to use that plant for the entire section there, but I ran out of it. It will grow out, tho -hehe
The low bright green plant up front is small H zosterifolia tops. This is not permanent. It will grow in no time to the point that I will have to take a chainsaw to it. it is there to fill in that area for now only. It is a super fast grower, so the fact that it is there is a very good thing..
But it will be replaced by either Eleocharis acicularis, or micro tenellus.. not sure yet..
Well, that is the left side.. hope you can understand what I wrote..lol
(keep in mind that I have been growing plants out for this scape for a long time. I had to patiently wait for this moment.. and it still isn't how I origionally wanted it..lol)

mid and right side to come shortly


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## benJii (Feb 17, 2005)

Damn dips, you are amazing. Your sanchezi kicks ass, I've never seen a better one.

I think you should write an article for the non-p section titled "how to aquascape a tank". I have trouble aquascaping sometimes.


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

Tibs said:


> Damn dips, you are amazing. Your sanchezi kicks ass, I've never seen a better one.
> I think you should write an article for the non-p section titled "how to aquascape a tank". I have trouble aquascaping sometimes.


Thanks Tibs, but that is my Compressus. I am doing a step by step on how I aquascaped this tank right now on this thread


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

Moving along to the midscape.. and hardscaping.

I wanted this tank to have a big area on the left for the fish.. I dont know if I really accomplished this yet..LOL --but as it moves right, you can start to see how I built up sort of a mound with the flourite a bit off center.
That first rock is pretty big, with most of it buried. The top of it is mostly sticking out-that is it. The driftwood is from a local state park..official driftwood.. lol I ended up shoving them into the substrate, sticking up so I could have plants growing around them like that.

There is another rock in the back, but you cant really see it anymore, because the left Blyxa japonica is hiding it.. But the other rock that you can see is buried almost completely too.. That saved me from using up another bag of substrate lol

So I was trying to create an off-center 'hill' with buried rocks, and a path down the center not quite reaching all the way back. I planted the japonica on either side, and just behind the rocks. I origionally wanted hairgrass in the center, instead of the Elatine triandra.(the super short bright green plant in between the rocks up front. I did buy some hairgrass, and it is in between the japonica plants, way on top of the 'hill'
You can barely see it, but you can. I was thinking of making a HUGE mat of hairgrass in this tank.. but that is for another day.. if it thrives in there.. and IF I still like the idea..

Moving along.. background behind the furthest right driftwood, there is short stem plants that have not grown yet.. You can see a small L repens-rubin poking out, the zosterifolia is able to be seen to the bottom left of the wood, and behind that is the red cabomba furcata. In the very back is the Limnophila aromatica.. I hope this plant does well over time in here.. It has great potential, but we will have to see.
I sort of randomly placed them back there.. taller ones in the center of the rockwork, and tapering down a bit.. this will have to be trimmed a lot, because this plant is a silly fast grower, once it gets going.


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

Far right side..

well I forgot to tell you about some of the crypts that I have in there.. probably because they are hard to see now.. but won't be as soon as they start to grow. There is one or 2 by the driftwood, and some parva in the foreground here and there..

the right corner foreground is all E tenellus 'micro' again.. You can't really see yet, but there is a couple of crypt balansae behind the japonica on the right, and the other wendtii crypts are attemptin to separate the micro tenellus from the regular tenellus(chain sword) that goes all the way to the back of the tank, as you can see in the 2nd pic. There is a stem or 2 of the L repens rubin to break it up, and for the fish to hide behind once it grows out a bit.. it will be like 2 days..lol

Well, Ex0dus, I hope this helps, and answers any question you might have about this aquascape. It is quite simple, really, but you have to have the mass of plants grown out to do this. There is a LOT of plants in there.. but I got rid of a bit over half of the plants that were in there lol.. It took a long time to grow these out, and it took even longer to get my butt up and do it..LOL


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## Wussola (Jan 25, 2006)

Love the pic with him showing his teeth. Beautiful tank!


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## Gumby (Aug 13, 2004)

Looking great, Dippy.

I see you have some C. frucata. Is that new or have you kept it before? Is it really ad difficult as everyone says it is? Does it grow leggy like other Cabomba do in high light(4wpg+)?


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

Gumby said:


> Love the pic with him showing his teeth. Beautiful tank!


Thanks very much!! I wish I had a good camera that could have captured that one better!!


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## divine (Jan 3, 2005)

Great pictures and nice tank.

You mentioned about the substrate flourite 80/20 onyx. You would do things differently if you did it again. How so


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

divine said:


> Great pictures and nice tank.
> 
> You mentioned about the substrate flourite 80/20 onyx. You would do things differently if you did it again. How so


I would have gotten organic sphagnum peat, soaked it for 4 days, and lightly sprinkled it across the bottom so I could still see some glass.. Then I would have poured in the onyx sand, and a little flourite (if I needed it to get to about 3/4" or 1"..then I would have poured in about 2 quarts of dirty filter water, put the rocks in where I wanted them..and capped that with about 2-2.5" of flourite on top.
Then I would have poured the water in very slowly so I didnt bother the mulm/peat bottom..


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## Gumby (Aug 13, 2004)

My tank is still a constant battle of figuring out when and how much I need to dose of each nutrient. Just when I think my macros are too high, they're too low, so I dose them and then all the micros get sucked up and the plants lose all their reds. It's an endless cycle.

I'm thinking about turning off some lights so the consumption rate slows down. I can't keep up with dosing. And we know what that means... ALGAE... lots of it.

I can post pics of what's happening(It's not too pretty), but I'm at least going to scrub the damned green dust algae off the front first









I also need to thin the tank out in terms of species because at last count I had 47 species.


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

Gumby said:


> My tank is still a constant battle of figuring out when and how much I need to dose of each nutrient. Just when I think my macros are too high, they're too low, so I dose them and then all the micros get sucked up and the plants lose all their reds. It's an endless cycle.
> 
> I'm thinking about turning off some lights so the consumption rate slows down. I can't keep up with dosing. And we know what that means... ALGAE... lots of it.
> 
> ...


Gumby, we planted tank geeks have all been there! And I now stagger my lights on this tank, because I don't have an algea crew. The compressus ate them all!! All the SAE's, all the otto's, but there is a small pleco in there, but he will be meat too i think. I never see him.

LOL He is quite a brute.. While I was rescaping, an otto squirted out of the Vals and situated himself near the top, on the glass.. I was working away, when *whack* --he got munched..







poor guy, all he wanted was some algea lol

I tried keeping low nitrates for the red plants.. never again.. it is a balancing act I do not wish to try anymore.. I dont have the time for that. Here is what most guys do. ~They keep nitrates normal, until everything is going really well in the tank.. then they begin to starve the tank of nitrates for some pictures. As the nitrates go down, the plants get more red for the shots.
That is how they keep from getting a headache all the time with algea..







You most likely knew that.. oh well..
Get a thread going on your tank!! its a beaut!


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## C0Rey (Jan 7, 2006)

i wish i was your fish








thats one of the nicest tanks ive ever seen!!


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## moeplz (Feb 21, 2005)

That is soo cool.


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

> i wish i was your fish
> thats one of the nicest tanks ive ever seen!!





> That is soo cool.


Thanks a ton you guys.. and everyone! I deeply appreciate that


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