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Grassy Cafe - First Scape

J Art

Member
Joined
10 Apr 2016
Messages
97
Location
USA
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2 months after planting. This project started after finding this old beat up 38l tank in the basement. Searched online some ideas and stumbled on Amano's works and was hooked. I have about a month to go or so before fully carpeted, but happy with my rookie results so far.

Keeping with the low budget theme, I created the stand from scrap wood and lights from two 10 watt LED floods (which is more than enough - had to back them off a bit). Went with a HOB filter for lower cost, but also just because I like them better than canister filters (I must be weird).

My original setup was DIY citric acid CO2 method....but ended up investing in a pressurized CO2 system from GLA, which I love.

Lots of things I'd do differently next time, but tons of fun nursing this thing into existence.

About 20 shrimp, 2 Ottos, and some spawning Zebra Danios.

1/3 EI dosing
CO2 on an hour before lights on and hour before lights out
Lighting period is 6.5 hours

Will post some progression pics from the beginning in a future post, but wanted to start with this one from yesterday afternoon.
 
Good wild-looking Iwagumi you got there. I like the thickness of the background grass and the red shrimp is a nice contrast to all the green shades. Maybe you could add some tiny red fish aswell to make it even more striking?

/Ludvig
 
Well it's been a while since my last post, and honestly I've let things sort of go crazy and grow out a bit. I stopped chasing that low cut manicured look and have just enjoyed the plant for what it is lately. I'm at the point in my aquascaping journey where I feel the hardscape plays the minor role and the greenery is where the heart and soul lies. This scape is creeping up on its final weeks so I figured I should at least post a couple of photos.

The Eleocharis Acicularis in this tank will be transferred into a larger aquascape and incorporated in with other plants.

It's been a fun journey and will have fond memories of this little guy.

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Hey buddy, how did you find the LED's for plant growth? Are LED's as good as t5's? I like the odea of lower wattage and less heat etc just concerned anout health growth especially for red plants?

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I can't speak for plant color or other plants than what I'm growing, but all I did was look for LEDs (flood lights) in the color temp range of plant growth (about 6500k) and estimated the wattage and used two 10 watt LEDs for my 10 gallon (38 liter) which I've found to be a bit too much. I get excellent growth with this setup however. At a fraction of the cost of commercial planted tank light setups, I have no complaints whatsoever.


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Cool, so around the range of 6500k will see growth?

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Yea. If I remember correctly you can be anywhere between 6000k-9000k or so. 6500 being ideal I believe. Along with EI frets and pressurized CO2, I'm getting about an inch of growth per week.


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Very nice indeed! On my screen the photos look one stop under. Perhaps I need to calibrated screen!!?
 
Very nice indeed! On my screen the photos look one stop under. Perhaps I need to calibrated screen!!?
There's definitely a lot of contrast and dark areas, but by the numbers the highlights are definitely where they should be. I'm on an iMac though and things tend to look very vivid and bright. What are you viewing on? Just curious.
 
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