AquAgora - CAPA 2009
Wow.just .wow. The planted tank winners are in for 2009 and there are some very deserving tanks. For me, the best part about contests is seeing so many inspiring ideas. I've gotten many an inspiration of my own by looking at the many things others have been able to accomplish. It's very hard to pick a favorite, and which one that is seems to change from moment to moment as I look at them. For this moment the one below is my favorite.
Kribensis and the defeat of the three rock style
I own three Kribensis (Pelvicachromis pulcher) which are a type of African cichlid. Unlike many other types of cichlid Kribensis are mild mannered river fish and perfectly at home in a community tank. In the video below you will see two Kribensis in a minor territorial squabble. At its root this squabble was caused by the recent change in the tank's aquascape.
Halimeda (cactus aglae): magic macro-algae
The green stuff in this picture is called halimeda and is a type of macro-algae. It's commonly called a cactus algae because of its resemblance to certain types of cactus. I'm not going to get into the deep details, if you are interested then you can read more elsewhere. The point of this article is to talk about the benefits to your tank.
ADA gallery video on YouTube
I wish they'd linger a bit on some of the tanks, but I can always pause or do a screen shot. A couple of the tanks made my mouth drop open they were so awesome.
Sanzon Iwagumi: three humble rocks
I am not going to get deep into the history surrounding this style of design, for that visit Aquatic Eden on the web. I will give a brief explanation of it though. Iwagumi means "rock formation" in Japanese. That's simple enough. Sanzon means "three pillars". Put the two together and it is easy enough to figure out the style.
Fake or Real Aquarium Decorations? Crap Kills!
My daughter and I worked really hard today getting ready to convert the 20 gallon tank over to marine. We managed to get all of the fish moved over to their respective tanks and all the plants as well. I trimmed up all the plants and got rid of the excess.
Algae versus plants
I suppose it has become one of my pet peeves that I keep running into information in books and on the Internet that refer to various species of macro algae as "plants", which they most certainly are not.
The green stuff in this picture is called halimeda and is a type of macro-algae. It's commonly called a cactus algae because of its resemblance to certain types of cactus. I'm not going to get into the deep details, if you are interested then you can read more elsewhere. The point of this article is to talk about the benefits to your tank.
I am not going to get deep into the history surrounding this style of design, for that visit Aquatic Eden on the web. I will give a brief explanation of it though. Iwagumi means "rock formation" in Japanese. That's simple enough. Sanzon means "three pillars". Put the two together and it is easy enough to figure out the style. 
My daughter and I worked really hard today getting ready to convert the 20 gallon tank over to marine. We managed to get all of the fish moved over to their respective tanks and all the plants as well. I trimmed up all the plants and got rid of the excess.
I suppose it has become one of my pet peeves that I keep running into information in books and on the Internet that refer to various species of macro algae as "plants", which they most certainly are not.
