# My grassy Zen Geryi tank...



## therizman1

So here is the tank that I look at as I sit at my computer...

Some specs:
- 75g tank
- Soilmaster Select Charcoal Substrate
- One large piece of driftwood screwed to lexan
- Occupied by 9 neon tetras, 2 columbian tetras and one Serrasalmus Geryi
- Plants - blyxa japonica in the front, blyxa aubertii in the back (including the one huge one in the center that has gone crazy) and a few cyperus helferi that arent doing so hot but I am really trying to get them to grow
- Filtration is a Rena XP3 with a Coralife Turbotwist 6x UV Sterilizer
- Dosed with Iron, Excel, Comprehensive, Phosphorous, and Potassium
- Water change every 1 to 2 weeks depending on how hectic my life is
- The blyxa aubertii in the back has been growing for about 2 months, the blyxa japonica for about a month


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## TFMBIGDOG99

f*cking dream setup man.....so much props to you


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## AKSkirmish

Very nice man-Thanks for taking the time to share with us-Maybe one-just maybe-I can have something even remotely close to that!!!!


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## HOLLYWOOD

THERIZMAN1 - p-Fury's own "*Takashi Amano*".

Awesome Aquascaping!


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## big shoal

Love the tank you need to yake pics of the rest of your collection and share them with us but the tank is awesome...


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## therizman1

TFMBIGDOG99 said:


> Love the tank you need to yake pics of the rest of your collection and share them with us but the tank is awesome...


Yea, I will get around to the rest of my setups, I like to wait till they have grown in a bit, my 125 still has a bit of work to be done as does my 40g... I will try to get pics of my cherry shrimp tank up in the next week or so though, it is pretty much grown in.


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## benJii

Very nice tank, looks quite filled in. You should fill out the front of the tank with some more Blyxa japonica.


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## therizman1

Tibs said:


> Very nice tank, looks quite filled in. You should fill out the front of the tank with some more Blyxa japonica.


It looks like a lot mroe space than it really is... not more than like 4" at any given point and I kind of like leaving the front a little bare and gives my Geryi a little more room to swim in... I was thinking about maybe glosso or HC once I get some CO2 hooked up on the tank.


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## therizman1

Just realized I forgot to mention that there are about 2 dozen ghost shrimp in there as well to keep it clean and keep the algae away.


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## thebluyak

WOW if you ever got some of that plant to spare please let me know. Ive got other stuff if you ever wanted to trade some plants.

Ryan


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## BlackSunshine

Lookin real good. At first I was thinking it could something up front. But at second look I think the open forground looks good.


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## DiPpY eGgS

nice therizman!

Glad those extra japonica you bought went to good use! Looking great man!
Love the aubertii too--it will look even better once it has a chance to propogate


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## therizman1

thebluyak said:


> nice therizman!
> 
> Glad those extra japonica you bought went to good use! Looking great man!
> Love the aubertii too--it will look even better once it has a chance to propogate


Thanks Dippy! The blyxa definitely went to good use, they are growing great! The aubertii is getting huge... do you know how tall it gets?


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## Judazzz

Holy shyte, that has to be one of the coolest set-ups I have ever laid my eyes on















Fantastic work, T - and Hollywood is right: when you can create and maintain a tank like this, you have to be PFury's very own Amano









btw: personally, I think one taller piece of drift wood in the center would really be the icing on the cake for this masterpiece - but that's just me (who can't even keep Sword Plants alive







)


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## traumatic

Nice Mike, I've been waiting for your pics, which are nice btw. I'm glad you kept that big Geryi he's as much a work of art as the tank is!!

Keep em comin!


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## cueball

um just tryin to gather some fert tips here,, i am using the same ferts as u how many times a week u dose and what kinda lights u running???


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## Dr Exum

looks nice... does the Geryi go into the grass ?


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## nswhite

Sweet tank man. I just planted my 75gal it dosen't look like yours but it is my first try at aquatic plants. Eventually I will get it where I want it.


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## therizman1

Judazzz said:


> Sweet tank man. I just planted my 75gal it dosen't look like yours but it is my first try at aquatic plants. Eventually I will get it where I want it.


It all just takes time, patience is the key and just read as much as you can... www.aquaticplantcenteral.com  and www.plantedtank.net  are both very good resources.


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## nemo the piranha

wow,nice tank many,im going to do mine like it,how do you keep the grass so nice looking and is it easy to take care of,i mean i wanna get some if its not expensive


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## 2PiRaNhA~2FuRrY

awsome tank, just awsome man...


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## nemo the piranha

yeah man just awsome man,yeah man,,,,yeah cool man yeah, yeah 2 piranha 2 fury yeah man awsome cool its just awsome man yeah

im takin the p**s by the way


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## therizman1

nemo the piranha said:


> awsome tank, just awsome man...


Thanks!


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## 2PiRaNhA~2FuRrY

Therizman1 i thougt you have 3 Geryi? what happen to 2 other? did you sold it...


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## therizman1

2PiRaNhA~2FuRrY said:


> Therizman1 i thougt you have 3 Geryi? what happen to 2 other? did you sold it...


Actually, I had four, I sold three of them and just kept my favorite.

I am trying to get a group of small baby geryi 4" or under, or a group of irritans.

Might also get some poison dart frogs... they are pretty sweet looking.


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## nemo the piranha

ok thanks


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## 2PiRaNhA~2FuRrY

therizman1 said:


> Therizman1 i thougt you have 3 Geryi? what happen to 2 other? did you sold it...


Actually, I had four, I sold three of them and just kept my favorite.

I am trying to get a group of small baby geryi 4" or under, or a group of irritans.

Might also get some poison dart frogs... they are pretty sweet looking.
[/quote]

i was searching around for 4" and under Geryi aswell...i only seen 5" or bigger.no one have a small one around. it really hard to get.


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## nemo the piranha

ok then.


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## capmikejohnson

How do you clean the bottom of the tank or do the shrimp take care of that ??


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## nemo the piranha

yeah i would like to know that.


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## thebluyak

gravel vac, once plants get rooted good they are semi hard to uproot.


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## therizman1

2PiRaNhA~2FuRrY said:


> gravel vac, once plants get rooted good they are semi hard to uproot.


This is true with most plants, some do not root as well as others... blyxa takes a good month to become well rooted in from my experience... and even then, Soilmaster Select is very light compared to other substrates so I have to be very careful not to uproot the plants.


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## Playboydontcurr

ridiculous setup, really looks amazing........id love a setup like that i just know for some reason or another it wouldnt work out for me


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## nswhite

therizman1 said:


> Sweet tank man. I just planted my 75gal it dosen't look like yours but it is my first try at aquatic plants. Eventually I will get it where I want it.


It all just takes time, patience is the key and just read as much as you can... www.aquaticplantcenteral.com  and www.plantedtank.net  are both very good resources.
[/quote]

Hey thanks for the links that should help out a bunch when questions arise. With the combination of this forum and the links I got I should have a nice tank in no time. I'm still working on the dosing schedule I haven't got it where I want it yet. The past month has been a great learning experiance. But still have some brown on the leaves I need to get some chelated Iron for that. I'm dosing csm+b but it dosent seem to be enough iron I don't have a test kit for iron yet so I'm not sure but phosphates and nitrates are good so the only thing I can think off is iron but If I dose double the csm+b than I get a whole lot of algea I think this is because the tank is still very imature. But like I said I learn more everyday. I think that aquatic plants and the whole set-up is very interesting.


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## therizman1

Playboydontcurr said:


> Sweet tank man. I just planted my 75gal it dosen't look like yours but it is my first try at aquatic plants. Eventually I will get it where I want it.


It all just takes time, patience is the key and just read as much as you can... www.aquaticplantcenteral.com  and www.plantedtank.net  are both very good resources.
[/quote]

Hey thanks for the links that should help out a bunch when questions arise. With the combination of this forum and the links I got I should have a nice tank in no time. I'm still working on the dosing schedule I haven't got it where I want it yet. The past month has been a great learning experiance. But still have some brown on the leaves I need to get some chelated Iron for that. I'm dosing csm+b but it dosent seem to be enough iron I don't have a test kit for iron yet so I'm not sure but phosphates and nitrates are good so the only thing I can think off is iron but If I dose double the csm+b than I get a whole lot of algea I think this is because the tank is still very imature. But like I said I learn more everyday. I think that aquatic plants and the whole set-up is very interesting.
[/quote]

My advice is to read as much as you can, before I moved to my new house and setup four planted tanks, I spent about 2 straight months reading as much as I could and trying different things on the one tank I did have setup.

The dosing is hard to get established, but once you find something that works, stick with it and dont mess with it, IMO too many people try to mess with their dosing when they shouldnt... I find what works and I just leave it alone and keep repeating and have no issues which makes my life a little bit easier.

A key is to pack as many plants in as you can so that algae wont grow... algae only grows becasue their is an excess of nutrients that the plants arent using.

As for the iron, I dose quite a bit to my tanks, usually 1.5x the recommended at each dosing and I have no issues with it.


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## nick007x

holy crap man...well done. that looks incredible--and there is something very zen garden about it. couldn't agree more about the more plants, the less algae, as well as a bit extra iron when dosing (in addition to the other ferts), although i've found that some laterite mixed into the substrate does a lot warding off iron difficiency. does the blyxa propagate out on underground runners (like micro swords)? and how quickly?


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## therizman1

nick007x said:


> holy crap man...well done. that looks incredible--and there is something very zen garden about it. couldn't agree more about the more plants, the less algae, as well as a bit extra iron when dosing (in addition to the other ferts), although i've found that some laterite mixed into the substrate does a lot warding off iron difficiency. does the blyxa propagate out on underground runners (like micro swords)? and how quickly?


Blyxa is considered to be a stem plant, so it just grows new shoots more of less from the crown of the plant and off the sides of the main stem.

As for how quickly... the more excel the better







I would say it probably doubles to triples in size every month as long as you take good care... even more if you pump the tank with CO2 like my big tank... in two months, the number of blyxa plants just about quadrupled in my 125 that has CO2 and lots of light.

On a side note, I see you are in Ann Arbor.. I will be down there Saturday and will have to waste some time, any good recommendations for LFS's? Shoot me a PM!


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## nemo the piranha

nice setup,yes we have heard it about a thousand times now.


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## nswhite

therizman1 said:


> It all just takes time, patience is the key and just read as much as you can... www.aquaticplantcenteral.com  and www.plantedtank.net  are both very good resources.


My advice is to read as much as you can, before I moved to my new house and setup four planted tanks, I spent about 2 straight months reading as much as I could and trying different things on the one tank I did have setup.

The dosing is hard to get established, but once you find something that works, stick with it and dont mess with it, IMO too many people try to mess with their dosing when they shouldnt... I find what works and I just leave it alone and keep repeating and have no issues which makes my life a little bit easier.

A key is to pack as many plants in as you can so that algae wont grow... algae only grows becasue their is an excess of nutrients that the plants arent using.

As for the iron, I dose quite a bit to my tanks, usually 1.5x the recommended at each dosing and I have no issues with it.
[/quote]

Well thanks for the tip. I've been reading tons and I filled the tank up with plants but the plants are still small.


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## therizman1

nswhite said:


> It all just takes time, patience is the key and just read as much as you can... www.aquaticplantcenteral.com  and www.plantedtank.net  are both very good resources.


My advice is to read as much as you can, before I moved to my new house and setup four planted tanks, I spent about 2 straight months reading as much as I could and trying different things on the one tank I did have setup.

The dosing is hard to get established, but once you find something that works, stick with it and dont mess with it, IMO too many people try to mess with their dosing when they shouldnt... I find what works and I just leave it alone and keep repeating and have no issues which makes my life a little bit easier.

A key is to pack as many plants in as you can so that algae wont grow... algae only grows becasue their is an excess of nutrients that the plants arent using.

As for the iron, I dose quite a bit to my tanks, usually 1.5x the recommended at each dosing and I have no issues with it.
[/quote]

Well thanks for the tip. I've been reading tons and I filled the tank up with plants but the plants are still small.
[/quote]

We could probably help you some, just make a topic with your tank and what you all have in it and such and I am sure we could give you some suggestions on how to get it going better.

A lot of this just seems to be stuff that you learn as you go and from others' mistakes.


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## DiPpY eGgS

> Thanks Dippy! The blyxa definitely went to good use, they are growing great! The aubertii is getting huge... do you know how tall it gets?


It can get at least 18", my friend has it in a 40 breeder, and it is touching the top


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## therizman1

DiPpY eGgS said:


> Thanks Dippy! The blyxa definitely went to good use, they are growing great! The aubertii is getting huge... do you know how tall it gets?
> 
> 
> 
> It can get at least 18", my friend has it in a 40 breeder, and it is touching the top
Click to expand...

Sounds good... my largest one is at the top of my 75g right now... though it has some weird looking things that almost look like flower buds... Ill have to try to get some pics to post.


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## Doddridge

SUGOI!


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## PygoFanatic

MesmeRIZing...

I could look at that tank all day. Does the extra lighting that you need for the plants stress your fish out? I was disappointed to hear that he doesnt swim through the grassy area unless he is retreating, but hell, having a tank that looks like that is probably worth it.


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## therizman1

PygoFanatic said:


> MesmeRIZing...
> 
> I could look at that tank all day. Does the extra lighting that you need for the plants stress your fish out? I was disappointed to hear that he doesnt swim through the grassy area unless he is retreating, but hell, having a tank that looks like that is probably worth it.


I dont think the light stresses him out, he still swims when he feels like it, the rest of the time he chills over in the dead spot in the tank near his powerhead.

The grass is so thick it is hard to even put my hand in it to pull it out to thin it out and move it around. He never swam in the plants before when he could either in his other tank so I dont worry too much, he seems as happy as could be and is eating better than ever before so something has to be making him feel good.

I do really love this tank though, Ill have to post more pics soon, I just picked up a new light fixture and CO2 setup from Exodus this morning down in OH that I am in the process of setting back up right now.


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## thebluyak

just an added note, if you have a high light planted tank just try to make places for the piranha to take cover and sheild themselves from the light, like in mine the driftwood is propped up with plants grown in and it makes it darker than the rest of the tank.


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## therizman1

thebluyak said:


> just an added note, if you have a high light planted tank just try to make places for the piranha to take cover and sheild themselves from the light, like in mine the driftwood is propped up with plants grown in and it makes it darker than the rest of the tank.


IMO they get used to the light... my big rhom has close to 3wpg on his tank and he swims all day... my Geryi swims about as much as he ever has which isnt much, but at the same time, he could easily hide in the plants as he did when I first moved him and he no longer chooses to do that.

You have to remember too that these fish are most of the time coming from the wild if they are Serras and even many pygos, they have to adapt to many conditions in the wild, there is no reason in my mind that they cant adapt to conditions in the home aquarium as well.

Not to mention, many people pay a fair bit of money for their fish, and I for one enjoy being able to see them... again, I think they adapt and get used to it, my fish can definitely tell the difference between me and other people as amazing as that seems.


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## mass aggression

jesus im sry i missed this thread that tanks elite!!

i know you will do the irri's right , you gonna plant that tank to?


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## awfraser

beast


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## therizman1

maxinout13 said:


> jesus im sry i missed this thread that tanks elite!!
> 
> i know you will do the irri's right , you gonna plant that tank to?


Yes, all my tanks have plants in them, it makes them a lot more enjoyable and a lot more appealing in my mind. Their tank will be more focused on lower light plants and a lot more hardscape for areas for them to hide when smaller... I have it planned in my head... now I just need some irritans...


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## Winkyee

Dman that loooks terrific.


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## therizman1

Winkyee said:


> Dman that loooks terrific.


Thanks Pete... with any luck you should be posting some pics in a month or so of your tank when its back up and running!


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## thebluyak

therizman1 said:


> just an added note, if you have a high light planted tank just try to make places for the piranha to take cover and sheild themselves from the light, like in mine the driftwood is propped up with plants grown in and it makes it darker than the rest of the tank.


IMO they get used to the light... my big rhom has close to 3wpg on his tank and he swims all day... my Geryi swims about as much as he ever has which isnt much, but at the same time, he could easily hide in the plants as he did when I first moved him and he no longer chooses to do that.

You have to remember too that these fish are most of the time coming from the wild if they are Serras and even many pygos, they have to adapt to many conditions in the wild, there is no reason in my mind that they cant adapt to conditions in the home aquarium as well.

Not to mention, many people pay a fair bit of money for their fish, and I for one enjoy being able to see them... again, I think they adapt and get used to it, my fish can definitely tell the difference between me and other people as amazing as that seems.
[/quote]

dude u are totally right, they can adopt to anything even bad water conditions. But ive always been a fan of giving the p a spot to retreat and just be on her own. Like my plants have grown in to the point I can barely see her when she goes to her spot.


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## Hater

Mike your tank is outstanding man. You gave me a few ideas for when I have to set up my 120 gl.

Hater


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## therizman1

Hater said:


> Mike your tank is outstanding man. You gave me a few ideas for when I have to set up my 120 gl.
> 
> Hater


Glad to have given you some ideas!

How did you like that Taiwan Moss? arrive ok?

Let me know if you have any questions about my setup.


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