A whole new scape!

After months of on & off taking care my tank, now it looks better. In between has problems arisen, such as lack of Ferrum(iron), Calcium and etc.  For Iron deficiency is pretty easy to spot on the young leaves turns to white with green veins, just dose with liquid iron or iron pallet push in the soil. 

And Calcium is a bit hard to tell how much to dose in a week, because plant does not need so much to grow, but for snail use it as building the shell for its protective layer. I did an experiment on stop supplying Calcium for a week or 2, then immediate all the shell of snail turns to white(shell detoriation), the following week onwards keep supplying Calcium, then the shell started build a shining and transparent healthy layer. In this small experiment tells that Calcium is important to keep snail in a healthy condition in the tank. So far each week dosing 1 teaspoon of Calcium Chloride in my 122 litres tank without any problems. Read more about Calcium Chloride at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calcium_Chloride

New idea of the layout

Top view plan

For the past few days, I have the urge to rescape my tank, but without a good idea is very hard for me to start moving the drift wood & plants. The plan above is the latest idea of how to place each plants, drift wood, and stones.

Legend:

1. SPIKY MOSS
2. HEMIANTHUS CALLITRICHOIDES
3. MICROSORUM PTEROPUS ‘NARROW’ (NARROW FERN LEAF)
4. MICROSORUM PTEROPUS 'WINDELOV'
5. ANUBIAS BARTERI var. NANA
6. CRYPTOCORYNE UNDULATA
7. VALLISNERIA ASIATICA var. BIWAENSIS
8. LOBELIA CARDINALIS
9. DRIFT WOOD
10. NEW!! GRASS TYPE PLANT
    

Some history of my 33" planted tank

These photos are my early stage 2006-2007 setup of the planted tank, without any experience in the beginning, know nothing about plants, and the worst is the aquascape skill really like a crap. Keeping a healthy planted aquarium and a good biological system isn't that easy and need to spend lots of efford & time to take care of it. Here is a place that I am sharing my experience and the stuff that I am using. May not be a good method, but it can be an idea or a study case that success to growth the plants. During setup the new aquarium, the bacteria in the filter system have not fully colonized and the water body is loaded with nutrients from withering leaves. It is best to plant densely from he start to prevent algae growth. Never start with a sparse tank as you only asking for trouble.
Of course it would be best to start with all your favorite plans provided you have the available quantity to begin with. If it is of budgetary concern, you can always start off with a combination of your intended plants along with cheaper, faster growing ones as starter plants. The strategy is to have your aquascape element arranged in accordance with your intended layout. Plant only those plants you intended for your design and leave the rest of the cheap starters plant in their plastic pots. Arrange them sparingly in the aquarium to maintain the tank's equilibrium. When the planted plants begin to acclimatize and produce vigorous growth, gradually remove the pots one at a time every 2 weeks. This way, you can maintain the balance and still have the ones you prefer. Different types of aquascape call for different strategies in cultivation of aquatic plants. For instance, if you plan to use Cryptocoryne as the focus of your layout, most of the leaves will melt away as it tries to acclimatize to its new enviroment, lending it a desloate look to the aquarium until new buds start to develop again. In this case, you will have to consider the beauty of the aquarium as well as faster growing starter stem plants that require stronger lighting. After a period of time, the stem plants growth will begin to show a decline, which is relative to the decrease in lighting intensity and other factors such as acidity and water hardness. Under such conditions, it would then be ideal and practical to introduce Cryptocoryne since they do better in mature tanks

top: the last design/layout of year 2007
bottom: new design/layout of year 2008