Reviving The 2 Footer

The two-footer on Day 1

Monday 22, 2019

With two TC cups of plants (Eleocharis Parvula and Cryptocorene Wendtii Pink Panther) and nowhere to plant them, I decided to revive my two footer today. The plants were bought yesterday from Buro. I chose the evening to do the tedious job.

First I removed the old Amazonia from the tank. I kept it in a plastic bag, meaning to use it in some other tank. Next I cleaned the tank, particularly the four glass walls - inside and outside. After this I put the substrate which was lying with me for a long time - perhaps two years - in a new, sealed bag.

Flooded the tank a few inches and then planted the grass. Eleocharis Parvula. A few clumps in the foreground. Next I planted the six crypts. Two in the Nano (read about reviving the Nano here), behind the drift wood and four in the two footer - two on either side.

I found a clump of Ludwigia Glandulosa, that I had planted in the nano yesterday, had come out while I was trying to plant the Crypts. I took this as a signal and planted in the two footer, right in the middle. (On Wednesday I transplanted one more from the Nano to the 2-footer for the same reason)

Setting up the Eheim and the Hailea was a bit scary. But it was an unfounded fear. I could quite do the job without spilling any major water. The full flow disturbed the substrate a bit towards the back. I reduced the flow a bit. The problem was solved. The chiller has been set to 26 degrees.

I will get some moss for the chilled tank.

Wednesday, 24th July, 2019

Yesterday I had gone to Buro to get the desired plants. None of them was there. I had selected the plants based on the list from Ripples. But didn't realise Buro hadn't lifted these particular plants. Instead I ended up buying a new light for the 2-footer. Buro pushed it in saying I could pay later. It's Rs 2,500. 

It's a Sunsun LED light. Model number ADS 500C. Quite a blast and ideal for high light plants. My old twin T5 light seems inadequate now. 

Fitting the light up wasn't a problem at all. You just enter the four L shaped rods in the plastic stand and attach it to the tank. 

The light's colour temperature is between 6500 too 7500K. Ideally suited for planted tanks. It consumes just 24 watts of electricity. I saved the box to keep all the technical details for posterity. I might just forget these details. Not might. I will :-)

Today I brought home three cups of plants for which I had gone yesterday. Buro procured them from Ripples for me and phoned me saying that he did. It's not for nothing that he has made it so big in life from extremely humble beginnings. My three plants are as follows - Pogostemon Erectus; a reddish cabamba like plant which has a fancy name (some code word is written on the cup and I quite forget the name right now) and a cup of Peacock moss. I will post a picture here first of the cups. And then the tank as it looks after planting them the very first night.

NB: The plant is named Myriophillium Matogrossense. It apparently originates from Mato Grosso in Amozon. Here is a link to more details on the plant.

I tied the Peacock moss to the small Fluval fake driftwood. But it was too small for the entire supply of moss. Will tie the rest of the stuff to a piece of old driftwood. I will chop down a piece from my old stock of driftwood (originally bought from Splashing Meadows).

Wednesday, 25th July, 2019

Today I chopped one of the drift woods into two to tie the moss. Had to buy a special wood cutter blade (DeWalt - Rs 180) for this. Cutting the wood was surprisingly difficult as it was very hard. It even produced some sparks. Tied the rest of the moss. But the wood wasn't staying sunk in. Tried the glue to fix a sucker on the back. Didn't work. The glue is perhaps too old to be usable.

Finally dug it into the substrate and it has stayed on so far.