Ugly aquarium grass, and what fish to put in a small aquarium

On 2005-01-14, robin wrote:
Several little 'grass' clumps. These are the ones that are bothering
me. I'm not sure what species they are, but they look pretty much like
ordinary yard grass. Little clumps of long, thin, green (well, see
below...) leaves, with no 'texture', or anything. The problem I'm
having with this stuff is that while a couple of the clumps are mostly
green, most of them are an ugly translucent gray. A few leaves of the
grass fall off from time to time and get sucked up the filter, or float
on the surface until I fish them out. I'm wondering if I should yank
the poor performers out, just let them sit, prune them, or what. I'd
like to have some grassy-like stuff on the bottom of the tank to
complement the bigger and taller plants, but I also don't want to be
fooling around with rearranging plants too much, since it uproots the
plants (most of which seem to be throwing out roots despite the lack of
real soil) and puts 'junk' in the water from the gravel which will
annoy the fishes.


Pull some of the bad looking ones out and see if the roots are rotting.
Healthy roots are white. Decaying roots start turning translucent.

I haven't had any algea problems to speak of, except for perhaps an
occasional spot of what might be algea on the tank wall, that I scrub
off with a sponge intended for this purpose.

Another question: Do I need to vacuum the gravel? As I mentioned
above, the gravel is fairly large, so most of the 'junk' seems to be
settling to the bottom. I've also got these snails and shrimp in there
which seem quite happy scooting along the bottom and I assume eating as
they go. Most of the vacuum setups I've seen require a running tap,
which means I would have to move the aquarium to do it. I'm a bit
afraid of doing that without making a mess, or at least stirring up the
tank pretty thoroughly. Also, since I've got these plants covering a
fair portion of the bottom, there aren't too many places I *could*
vacuum around and between them.


You don't have to vacuum the gravel of the planted tank. If your pond
snails get out of control, crush the shells and let the fish feed on
them. Just don't crush them with your bare hands.

Just siphon the water out. For a three gallon tank with plants, you
probably only have to change out a gallon every three weeks or so. You
can use the fishy water for the office plants.

I also put in the recommended amount of 'Plant Gro' once a week - it is
a liquid with trace elements and chelated iron. I've been doing a 20
oz water change once a week, using dechorinated tap water one week, and
bottled water the next (on the theory that the bottled water might be
*too* pure, and lack random nutrients the fish might need). (Yes, 20
oz is the size of the bottled water bottles. :-))


The fauna will provide nitrates and phosphates. You may want to
consider adding potassium if the plants start struggling.

Should I consider working out a CO2 injection system? Since I've
already sunk about as much money as I can get away with into this
thing, I'd probably have to go with the 'yeast' method I've seen
online, and a mess or smell would be a very bad thing in the office.
Thanks for reading all that, and for any advice you can give!


You don't have enough light for CO2, and the plants you have won't
require it.

BTW, here's a good site on plants: http://www.plantgeek.net/

--
"I have to decide between two equally frightening options.
If I wanted to do that, I'd vote." --Duckman

My bet for the grass is that it's "mondo grass".
Does not do to well if you have used aquarium salt.

--


Dr5000

| ø¤°`°¤ø,¸¸¸,ø¤°`°¤ø,¸¸¸,ø¤°`°¤ø,¸¸,ø¤°`°¤ø,¸¸¸,ø¤° `°¤ø,¸¸,ø¤°`°¤ø
| ((((º`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸.·´¯`·.¸. ((((º ·´¯`·. , .·´¯`·.. ((((º

Remember dont tap the glass,
....or your fish will think you're an idiot !


_______________________
"js1" wrote in message
...
On 2005-01-14, robin wrote:
Several little 'grass' clumps. These are the ones that are bothering
me. I'm not sure what species they are, but they look pretty much like
ordinary yard grass. Little clumps of long, thin, green (well, see
below...) leaves, with no 'texture', or anything. The problem I'm
having with this stuff is that while a couple of the clumps are mostly
green, most of them are an ugly translucent gray. A few leaves of the
grass fall off from time to time and get sucked up the filter, or float
on the surface until I fish them out. I'm wondering if I should yank
the poor performers out, just let them sit, prune them, or what. I'd
like to have some grassy-like stuff on the bottom of the tank to
complement the bigger and taller plants, but I also don't want to be
fooling around with rearranging plants too much, since it uproots the
plants (most of which seem to be throwing out roots despite the lack of
real soil) and puts 'junk' in the water from the gravel which will
annoy the fishes.


Pull some of the bad looking ones out and see if the roots are rotting.
Healthy roots are white. Decaying roots start turning translucent.

I haven't had any algea problems to speak of, except for perhaps an
occasional spot of what might be algea on the tank wall, that I scrub
off with a sponge intended for this purpose.

Another question: Do I need to vacuum the gravel? As I mentioned
above, the gravel is fairly large, so most of the 'junk' seems to be
settling to the bottom. I've also got these snails and shrimp in there
which seem quite happy scooting along the bottom and I assume eating as
they go. Most of the vacuum setups I've seen require a running tap,
which means I would have to move the aquarium to do it. I'm a bit
afraid of doing that without making a mess, or at least stirring up the
tank pretty thoroughly. Also, since I've got these plants covering a
fair portion of the bottom, there aren't too many places I *could*
vacuum around and between them.


You don't have to vacuum the gravel of the planted tank. If your pond
snails get out of control, crush the shells and let the fish feed on
them. Just don't crush them with your bare hands.

Just siphon the water out. For a three gallon tank with plants, you
probably only have to change out a gallon every three weeks or so. You
can use the fishy water for the office plants.

I also put in the recommended amount of 'Plant Gro' once a week - it is
a liquid with trace elements and chelated iron. I've been doing a 20
oz water change once a week, using dechorinated tap water one week, and
bottled water the next (on the theory that the bottled water might be
*too* pure, and lack random nutrients the fish might need). (Yes, 20
oz is the size of the bottled water bottles. :-))


The fauna will provide nitrates and phosphates. You may want to
consider adding potassium if the plants start struggling.

Should I consider working out a CO2 injection system? Since I've
already sunk about as much money as I can get away with into this
thing, I'd probably have to go with the 'yeast' method I've seen
online, and a mess or smell would be a very bad thing in the office.
Thanks for reading all that, and for any advice you can give!


You don't have enough light for CO2, and the plants you have won't
require it.

BTW, here's a good site on plants: http://www.plantgeek.net/

--
"I have to decide between two equally frightening options.
If I wanted to do that, I'd vote." --Duckman

"surewest" wrote in message
...
My bet for the grass is that it's "mondo grass".
Does not do to well if you have used aquarium salt.

Mondo is a terristrial plant too.

Oz

--
My Aquatic web Blog is at http://members.optusnet.com.au/ivan.smith