5ft Disaster (1st attempt), In with the new (2nd attempt)

[Paul195]

Hi All

Thought I'd start a journal to keep track of my progress and to get some feedback. I thought I'd start by posting some pictures of my first attempt (back in beginning of 2014) which went badly from the start but I feel now I have learn't a fair bit and am hoping.... (banking on it really!) to make this time round a success.

5ft disaster

Filtration: 1x Tetratec EX1200
Lighting: 1x 58W T8 with reflector
Substrate: John Innes no3 compost capped with moler clay
Method: Dry start, hairgrass (12 pots), cling film over tank

To this...

To this...

To this...

To this...

To this...

Tank after planting...

To this...

To this...

And this...

I could go on...I think it's fair to say that the dry start didn't work and '5ft disaster' was a suitable title !

Actually no, 'Algae ridden 5ft disaster'...yep that's better. Stock levels of plants and fish slowly diminished. I was extremely disheartened and disappointed with the whole attempt, not through lack of trying but lack of experience.


In with the new....

Here is the new tank and stand. I had the tank made by AC aquatics. It's 36" L x 19" H x 20" D with 10mm glass, opti-white front and sides. The stand is DIY except the panels which a local bathroom company got made for me. With the 5ft tank, I found you couldn't focus on the whole scape at once so hopefully the 3ft tank will be better in this respect.

Specs


Tank volume: 224L
Lighting: Arcadia OT2 4x 39W T5 (intend to use 2 lamps at a time with 1 hour cross-over) 2x Osram 865 T5, 2x Sylvania Grolux
CO2: 5KG Fire extinguisher, CO2Art reg, splitter, bubble counters, UP inline diffuser x2
Filtration: 2x Tetratec EX1200 return via spray bar
Substrate: Oliver Knott Nature Soil Black, BD aquarium sand
Air Pump: Tetra APS300
Power: Energenie power management system
Ferts: EI usingTNC dry powders


Plants (on order due next week)

4x Eleocharis Acicularis 'Mini'
2x Ranunculus Inundatus
2x Gratiola Viscidula
2x Echinodorus Tenellus 'Green'
1x Alternanthera Reineckii 'Rosanervig'
1x Anubias Gracilis
1x Pogostemon Erectus
1x Limnophila Hippuridoides
1x Myriophyllum Mattogrossense
1x Hottonia Palustris
2x Heteranthera Zosterifolia
1x Hygrophila Polysperma 'Rosanervig'
1x Penthorum Sedoides

Intended Fauna

3x SAE (current)
1x Pentazona Barb (current)
2x Otto (current)
6x Odessa Barb
Various Rainbow fish

Here is the current planting plan:

Here is some pictures of my progress so far:

Current state:

Cabinet:

Overview

Next job is to place rocks and pebbles. Probably going to use unipac pebbles with the grey rocks as I think it might look more natural, although I do like the speckled rounded granite rocks. Have to have a play.

I feel more prepared this time with the benefit of experience and with all the helpful advice that I have received here after many posts and hours of reading others. Many thanks!


Will update on progress.


Paul

 

[Staticrzr]

great jurnal. Keep it up man. definetely going to follow.

 

[aaron.c]

Looking good! Love all the space you have under the tank


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[Paul195]

Cheers guys

Love all the space you have under the tank

Yeh, I decided that this time I wanted the tank to be up nice and high so you didn't have to stoop too much to see it. I figured that if I was going to go to all the effort, then I want it to be easily seen!
The benefit of this being lots of space below

BTW the tubes in the luminaire are the 14,000K marine ones that came with the light. I will swap these for the proper ones soon. I've also realised that the planting plan I posted is not the correct version, although there are not many differences on the new one. I also have some Microsorium mini java fern taken from the 5ft tank to attach to the wood.

 

[Greenfinger2]

Hi Paul, Nice set up Looking forward to your updates

 

[Aqua360]

Immaculate hardscape, looks quite precise which some people either love or hate; I'm interested to see how it goes.

Tank and cabinet look great too, hope it works out for you

 

[neonf1]

Cheers guys



Yeh, I decided that this time I wanted the tank to be up nice and high so you didn't have to stoop too much to see it. I figured that if I was going to go to all the effort, then I want it to be easily seen!
The benefit of this being lots of space below

BTW the tubes in the luminaire are the 14,000K marine ones that came with the light. I will swap these for the proper ones soon. I've also realised that the planting plan I posted is not the correct version, although there are not many differences on the new one. I also have some Microsorium mini java fern taken from the 5ft tank to attach to the wood.

Wow it's looking superb, keep up the great work. Your making wish I had planed mine more in depth. I may have to totally re do my tank. Thanks for the inspiration.

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[MossMan]

I like it! Will follow this one!

 

[Paul195]

Cheers guys. Placed the grey stones today, decided against the granite stones and the pebbles, couldn't get them to look right. I think I'll leave it there with the hardscape (unless anyone has any suggestions of how I can make it better) and let the plants do the rest of the work.

looks quite precise which some people either love or hate

Yes, I had thought that after I had filled my beach template with sand. I'm planting eleocharis along the edges and once that grows in, I'm hoping it will make it look a little more rugged. How many pots of hair grass do you reckon I might need to plant along all the edges of the path and beach ?

 

[Manisha]

Very nice layout - too much hair grass is never enough, I'd overestimate - I wish I'd ordered more for mine! What happened to the 5th tank?

 

[Manisha]

"5ft"

 

[Paul195]

I've ordered 4 pots. Not sure it's going to be enough but we'll soon find out! The 5ft tank is still running in the lounge, the only plants that have survived are the crypts, echinodorus and java fern, and my only remaining fish are my 3 SAE's, 2 otto's and 1 Pentazona Barb. Once the new tank is running and fauna is transferred, the tank is going up for sale and the plants will probably be going free or to the bin.

 

[Aqua360]

Cheers guys. Placed the grey stones today, decided against the granite stones and the pebbles, couldn't get them to look right. I think I'll leave it there with the hardscape (unless anyone has any suggestions of how I can make it better) and let the plants do the rest of the work.

Yes, I had thought that after I had filled my beach template with sand. I'm planting eleocharis along the edges and once that grows in, I'm hoping it will make it look a little more rugged. How many pots of hair grass do you reckon I might need to plant along all the edges of the path and beach ?

Probably comes down to how confident you are with planting small quantities, George Farmer had a recent project up where he used a single pot of carpet plant, and covered the entire aquarium from single stems...

For me, I'm clumsy as get out; and inexperienced, I'd probably need a dozen pots lol. Be interesting to see what the more experienced members say though

 

[alto]

. It's 36" L x 19" H x 20" D

this sounds great dimensions for scaping
Well done on the cabinet

The stones (as placed) will disappear in the planting but I agree these are the best choice from those shown (note that substrate may slowly shift with filter flow & gravity)

Wood looks good but be careful of "floatability"

Your path shape is very ambitious - shrimp & cory's & any other substrate curious fish will be intent upon Chaotic Mixing
Eleocharis Acicularis 'Mini' is not the fastest dense-bordering plant so you might want to double your pot # - even just to get a thin edging of all the "beach" & path
Embrace the habit of picking out the dirt from sand whenever you feed etc & that will go a long ways to helping maintain the separation.

Rainbow fish in a 3 foot tank - works well with the smaller species ... bigger rainbows behave differently in longer tanks than what you'll see in a 3ft length

 

[Paul195]

Just been spending some time moving some of the soil away from the edges of the sand section to hopefully avoid mixing down the track. Once the grass grows in, I don't think it'll notice.

After your post above alto, I do worry about the two smaller pieces of wood as they are mounted in styrofoam, and hadn't considered if this would float. I was thinking the weight of the substrate would hold them in place but now doubt it will.
I might use some silicone tonight to secure them to the base.

Another issue is I'm not sure if the edges will receive enough flow based on where the first hole starts on my spraybar. Do you think it might be worth drilling a hole in the black angled section on each side to direct a jet in to the edge areas?

 

[Paul195]

Double post
EDIT: Deleted

 

[alto]

the two smaller pieces of wood as they are mounted in styrofoam,

I'd vouch a definite FLOAT on this - perhaps if you have loads of dense sand as substrate it might hold - but aquarium soils are quite light by design, there's no tight packing of particles.

I'd remove the Styrofoam completely, glue/tie/screw wood onto rock etc instead ... if you look on Tropica page, they have some wood that has strong suction cups which will allow placement of wood to glass (I've done this with Eheim suction cups as they rate best "hold" in my experience)

I'd wait on the drilling - easy enough to do this later

 

[AnhBui]

Another issue is I'm not sure if the edges will receive enough flow based on where the first hole starts on my spraybar. Do you think it might be worth drilling a hole in the black angled section on each side to direct a jet in to the edge areas?

I would not do it. Water flow is strong enough to reach the edges. You have two EX 1200 and each is built for 250 to 500l

 

[Paul195]

Hi all

My plants arrived today. I ordered them through Pets @ Home who made an order with Tropica for me. After a bit of confusion in the store, I managed to come away with 90% of the plants that I ordered and paid a good price so not too bad. Plants all look healthy, only problem being that I forgot to state on my order that I wanted potted plants , so I've ended up with 14 pots of 1-2 grow and 8 potted plants.

I had a planting plan which I think I'm going to stick to, but it looks like I'm going to have to wait a fair amount of time for the 1-2 grow to grow in and catch up with the potted plants.

Plan to start planting in the morning. Any tips on how to stop 1-2 grow floating from nature soil when I fill ? obviously fill v.e..r.....y s..l...o.....w.......l......y

Any benefit to be had by running CO2 24/7 for the first week ?

Also removed the styrofoam and replaced with rocks

Cheers all

Paul

 

[AnhBui]

Hi all

Any benefit to be had by running CO2 24/7 for the first week ?

Cheers all

Paul

Can't see any image Can't really tell any specific benefit. However it may help to control algae and promote plant growth. Anyway I am a fan of 24/7 year round not just first week