AndrewH
Member
- Joined
- 3 Jan 2013
- Messages
- 169
Hi folks,
This is my first journal on here, and also my first high-tech CO2 planted tank setup.
Id like to share it with you as just maybe it might be interesting/helpful to someone else out there, and also as a way of giving a tiny insignificant portion back to the huge amount of help and decency that Ive received on this forum in the short time Ive been a member.
Thanks everyone!
So…. the tank is a Juwel Vision 180, with internal filter removed. It’s now using a Eheim 2160 external (with built in heater).
The lights are brand new, but still just the standard Juwel unit.
i.e. T5 36W x 2 (and I have fitted Juwel reflectors on them too)
As a tiny bit of background to the tank – its been going now for about 3 years, and did once house quite a lot of plants, and I had a pretty elaborate DIY Yeast based CO2 system – but the plants started dying off, algae started to take hold and one by one it eventually became only a few crypts, some Anubias and lots of Java fern, so I pretty much let it do its thing and went back to just a completely standard tank.
In December, I took a dislike to my Java Fern which was nearly filling every corner of the tank, and ripped huge swathes of it out, plus a big bit of bogwood…
So, as of early January, here was my tank (and isn’t she a beaut….. ?!)
Recently though, the more and more I saw fantastic planted masterpieces in the mags, and online, I knew I wanted to do it again – and this time go high-tech, and no cutting corners.
I love Iwagumi, and Nature style aquariums, but I guess the Dutch style has always appealed to me more. Therefore, what Im going to try to do is firstly, something that I like and appeals to me, but secondly to try borrowing some guidelines and techniques from the Dutch style (if I can!)
So over the last two months, I have been researching and reading everything I can about all the different facets of this fascinating hobby. (you may even have seen and contributed to one or two of my threads asking for guidance!) And once I arrived at a decision, I went and purchased that product, plant, hardscape, etc.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<FRIDAY 8TH FEBRUARY> - 8:00pm
Over the last week or two, lots of brown parcels, and interesting shaped packages have been arriving at my house (much to the amusement of my Postman and the Mrs!)
And on Friday night, this is how the tank looked with various bits of hardscape, plants from LFS and online stores, and other items all clawed together and dropped into the tank awaiting the big day…
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<SATURDAY 9TH FEBRUARY> - 9:30am
So its here! "Tank Day"!!
And even before its started, just like the best laid plans of mice and men…. my 3 year old daughter comes down with a stomach bug!
But my wife being entirely awesome and sacrificial, would not see me deterred and insists that I still go ahead with the rescape. What a gal!
So my wife and daughter are now a captive audience, watching from the sofa/sick bed (and Mr.Tumble blustering and chuckling on the telly) I turn to the tank and survey the battleground...
I knew the single biggest job is going to be replacing the old pea gravel with the new ADA Africana Soil, but before that could begin in earnest, I have to rehouse the fishy occupants.
I lift out all the plants and hardscape, fill the biggest bucket I can find (30L) with tank water, and then transfer the filter over to this for the rest of the day.
One by one, the fish are gently caught and I really try to minimise stress to all of them (no swooshing the net around madly) – although I had forgot how hard large Amano shrimp are to catch. These guys are years old and about 2” in length, so they can really jet around when they want, not to mention climbing up nets quite handily too!!
Anyways, within an hour or so, almost everyone is rehomed.
Just the loaches and danios to go – surely they'll be easy, right?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<11:30am>
Using LondonDragon’s awesome water changer/hosepipe deviceclap: ), I put the pipe end onto the bottom of the tank, start the water flow, then leave it to empty.
I grab a water sprayer bottle, fill it with tank water, and start to prune and prepare all my plants for replanting. They were kept moist with the spray gun at regular periods throughout the day.
The rule was, if it had algae or leaf damage it went.
And if it didn’t fit with the tank layout or style – it went.
Here is the tub of prepared plants.
(the 3 mats of Riccia Fluitans you can see were ordered from eBay and literally just arrived as I was finishing the last plant trimming – what great timing!)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<12:15pm>
The tank is now empty(ish) so using a shovel I begin to lift all of the top layers of pea gravel.
This is the stuff that had detritus in it, bits of algae on the stones, and old JBL fert balls that I had used in the previous planted setup (was really surprised at how intact these things still were – I mean, we are talking like 3 years here!!)
I keep some of the pea gravel to sculpt up the back left corner as I want it higher than normal, and also, I had read that keeping some of your existing substrate in helps to seed the new stuff quicker. Am dubious about that, but lets see…
I position my main piece of wood, and add a couple of little twigs to create this…
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<1:00pm>
The ADA African goes in (what a joy that stuff is to use and the colour is great)
Cant remember who it was, but someone on here recommended using a piece of plastic to refill the water onto. What an awesome idea! I use the ADA Soil bag, and it floats up as it fills, so in the end it isn’t even touching the substrate and as you can see the water stays incredibly clear!
Its at this stage that I add in enough “Tetra AquaSafe” for my 180 litres – to remove the chloramine in our water (and any copper from the hot water pipes).
So now the tank is filling, and, as if in answering echo to my own stomachs loud rumbles of emptiness, the good wife appears with lunch!
I’ll leave the tank to fill and go enjoy some sausage rolls and a western on 5 – isn’t that what Saturday afternoons are made for?!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<1:45pm>
Thankfully I remember in time that you aren’t supposed to fill the tank up before the plants go in (apparently they are easier to plant in just a bit of water?)
So the planting begins.
Taller at the back, working forwards.
As per the Dutch style, Im using 9 different types of plant (for my 90cm tank)
Large crypt sp. go in the left, hygrophilia rosanervig centre, and Mattogrossense (green) back right.
P.S. as a little aside here, I always thought those fancy “aquascaping” scissors and tweezers were just yet another way to squeeze money out of us. I mean, come on, its just a long pair of flipping scissors, just reach your damn arm down and do the same job surely, no?
Oh gosh, no! If anyone still has doubts about their usefulness please let me assure you they are very much worth the outlay. The tweezers especially made planting a doddle and I even think helped protect the plant too by allowing the roots to go into the substrate properly and not get all smashed up. A very worthwhile investment.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<3:00pm>
OK, so things are going fairly well, the fish seem happy enough in their bucket (I gave them some bits of bogwood, java fern and some floating riccia to give them some hiding places. Also, the entire bucket is well wrapped and covered so its blacked out. The temperature is absolutely spot on thanks to the Eheim)
I added more mid and foreground plants, but not all of them at this stage.
Wanted to see how it was looking first.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<4:30pm>
Not sure why, but the fish started jumping in the bucket. Temperature is still fine, filter is still running, but I guess they have had enough.
And as I really don’t want to endanger the health of my fish, I decide to stop with the planting and scaping, and just get them back in.
The filter is reconnected to the main tank, and one by one, the fish and shrimp are all introduced to their new home. The 30L of old tank water in the bucket is also poured back in.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<5:00pm>
I tie up my very first mesh/mat of riccia with fishing line – and realise very quickly that this is an art in itself, is massively frustrating and curse people with dextrous small digits that can do this.
After what seems like an age (and some chuckling from the wife!) I manage to get enough Riccia to stay on the mesh that it looks ok. As you can see from the pic, the 3 other metal riccia mesh pads actually have a very fine green net over the top. Im not sure why this is, and hope that they grow through it (perhaps Im supposed to take this net off after delivery?). I also bought my metal mesh from the same eBayer who sold me the Riccia and he sent me this green net for mine too. But I opt to go without it, as I much prefer the look. Hopefully this doesn’t come back to bite me!
The tank is totally refilled with water, plants moved around and the rest of the foreground plants put in.
This includes Alternanthera reineckii ‘Mini’ which Im hoping the Riccia will grow right up to and the Altern. provide a really vibrant red to contrast against the Riccia infront, and the lime green Mattogrossense behind.
Rotala rotundiflora is positioned at the mid right just behind a big swathe of anubias.
Small Cryptocoryne Parva positions just behind the Riccia from mid through to the left of the tank, with some bits positioned in between (Im hoping the Riccia grows all round these, and they are left poking through for contrasting textures)
My “wildcard” is Cryptocoryne Costata which is planted midground right. To be honest, I don’t know what this is going to be/look like. Ive seen pictures online, but even they seem to disagree about how red/brown/green it is and leaf shape. I’ll wait and see. Im hoping for a reddish brown.
There are LOADS of tiny bubbles in the tank and the Riccia meshes seem intent on lifting and floating out of position. I turn the filter down a bit to prevent this.
A small powerhead (450l/h) is positioned on the left and blowing LEFT (against the glass)
The idea being that the CO2 diffuser will be under this on the left, and the output from that will be blown to the right by the powerhead. Then it will arrive at the flow of the spraybar, where it will be pushed down and around over the Riccia and eventually to the back right of the tank and into the filter….. that’s the theory.
Here’s what it looks like:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<SUNDAY 10TH FEBRUARY> - 3:00pm
So today here is how its looking.
All the bubbles have gone away and the Riccia is now staying put. Quite a number of plants had been uprooted (fish or flow Im not sure) but easy enough to replant.
Only thing changed today was to shorten the filter inlet pipe to raise the “cage” off the substrate by about 2 inches; and I raised the spray bar so its only about 1” under the water surface.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<8:30pm>
Logged into the wonderful UKAPS.ORG to start this journal!
I had hoped to get the FE CO2 system hooked up today, but just didn’t have the time, and didn’t want to rush it and make mistakes. Maybe tomorrow night for that?
Here’s the final plant list:
Microsorum pteropus
Anubias sp.
Riccia fluitans
Rotala rotundiflora
Myriophyllum mattogrossense (green)
Hygrophilia polysperma ‘rosanervig’
Alternanthera reineckii ‘Mini’
Cryptocoryne Costata
Cryptocoryne Parva
Cryptocoryne (unknown – from my old tank)
(Yes, I know that’s 10 plants and I wanted to use 9, but the Parva was a last minute idea to break up the carpet of Riccia! )
Im going to start the CO2 at 2 bubbles per second, and I will be dosing Ei as per standard micro/macro dosing 6 days per week.
What Im hoping to achieve:
Im really hoping the back is a thick growth of greens and textures, and the front has a semi-circle carpet of pearling Riccia (interspersed with the delicate, small Crypt. Parva leaves). The bright red Alternanthera will border the Riccia on the right and over hang it slightly, with the Cry.Costata continuing this strong focal point to the delicate, lime green Mattogrossense at the back.
I already don’t like some parts (like the left hand side) but not sure what to do or maybe when to do it?
All advice, criticism, tuition and opinion greatly appreciated and accepted.
Feel free to say anything to me, even if its negative! I want to learn and to get it right this time so here we go.
Will keep you posted periodically if anyone is interested
Thanks guys.
This is my first journal on here, and also my first high-tech CO2 planted tank setup.
Id like to share it with you as just maybe it might be interesting/helpful to someone else out there, and also as a way of giving a tiny insignificant portion back to the huge amount of help and decency that Ive received on this forum in the short time Ive been a member.
Thanks everyone!
So…. the tank is a Juwel Vision 180, with internal filter removed. It’s now using a Eheim 2160 external (with built in heater).
The lights are brand new, but still just the standard Juwel unit.
i.e. T5 36W x 2 (and I have fitted Juwel reflectors on them too)
As a tiny bit of background to the tank – its been going now for about 3 years, and did once house quite a lot of plants, and I had a pretty elaborate DIY Yeast based CO2 system – but the plants started dying off, algae started to take hold and one by one it eventually became only a few crypts, some Anubias and lots of Java fern, so I pretty much let it do its thing and went back to just a completely standard tank.
In December, I took a dislike to my Java Fern which was nearly filling every corner of the tank, and ripped huge swathes of it out, plus a big bit of bogwood…
So, as of early January, here was my tank (and isn’t she a beaut….. ?!)
Recently though, the more and more I saw fantastic planted masterpieces in the mags, and online, I knew I wanted to do it again – and this time go high-tech, and no cutting corners.
I love Iwagumi, and Nature style aquariums, but I guess the Dutch style has always appealed to me more. Therefore, what Im going to try to do is firstly, something that I like and appeals to me, but secondly to try borrowing some guidelines and techniques from the Dutch style (if I can!)
So over the last two months, I have been researching and reading everything I can about all the different facets of this fascinating hobby. (you may even have seen and contributed to one or two of my threads asking for guidance!) And once I arrived at a decision, I went and purchased that product, plant, hardscape, etc.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<FRIDAY 8TH FEBRUARY> - 8:00pm
Over the last week or two, lots of brown parcels, and interesting shaped packages have been arriving at my house (much to the amusement of my Postman and the Mrs!)
And on Friday night, this is how the tank looked with various bits of hardscape, plants from LFS and online stores, and other items all clawed together and dropped into the tank awaiting the big day…
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<SATURDAY 9TH FEBRUARY> - 9:30am
So its here! "Tank Day"!!
And even before its started, just like the best laid plans of mice and men…. my 3 year old daughter comes down with a stomach bug!
But my wife being entirely awesome and sacrificial, would not see me deterred and insists that I still go ahead with the rescape. What a gal!
So my wife and daughter are now a captive audience, watching from the sofa/sick bed (and Mr.Tumble blustering and chuckling on the telly) I turn to the tank and survey the battleground...
I knew the single biggest job is going to be replacing the old pea gravel with the new ADA Africana Soil, but before that could begin in earnest, I have to rehouse the fishy occupants.
I lift out all the plants and hardscape, fill the biggest bucket I can find (30L) with tank water, and then transfer the filter over to this for the rest of the day.
One by one, the fish are gently caught and I really try to minimise stress to all of them (no swooshing the net around madly) – although I had forgot how hard large Amano shrimp are to catch. These guys are years old and about 2” in length, so they can really jet around when they want, not to mention climbing up nets quite handily too!!
Anyways, within an hour or so, almost everyone is rehomed.
Just the loaches and danios to go – surely they'll be easy, right?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<11:30am>
Using LondonDragon’s awesome water changer/hosepipe device
clap: ), I put the pipe end onto the bottom of the tank, start the water flow, then leave it to empty.I grab a water sprayer bottle, fill it with tank water, and start to prune and prepare all my plants for replanting. They were kept moist with the spray gun at regular periods throughout the day.
The rule was, if it had algae or leaf damage it went.
And if it didn’t fit with the tank layout or style – it went.
Here is the tub of prepared plants.
(the 3 mats of Riccia Fluitans you can see were ordered from eBay and literally just arrived as I was finishing the last plant trimming – what great timing!)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<12:15pm>
The tank is now empty(ish) so using a shovel I begin to lift all of the top layers of pea gravel.
This is the stuff that had detritus in it, bits of algae on the stones, and old JBL fert balls that I had used in the previous planted setup (was really surprised at how intact these things still were – I mean, we are talking like 3 years here!!)
I keep some of the pea gravel to sculpt up the back left corner as I want it higher than normal, and also, I had read that keeping some of your existing substrate in helps to seed the new stuff quicker. Am dubious about that, but lets see…
I position my main piece of wood, and add a couple of little twigs to create this…
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<1:00pm>
The ADA African goes in (what a joy that stuff is to use and the colour is great)
Cant remember who it was, but someone on here recommended using a piece of plastic to refill the water onto. What an awesome idea! I use the ADA Soil bag, and it floats up as it fills, so in the end it isn’t even touching the substrate and as you can see the water stays incredibly clear!
Its at this stage that I add in enough “Tetra AquaSafe” for my 180 litres – to remove the chloramine in our water (and any copper from the hot water pipes).
So now the tank is filling, and, as if in answering echo to my own stomachs loud rumbles of emptiness, the good wife appears with lunch!
I’ll leave the tank to fill and go enjoy some sausage rolls and a western on 5 – isn’t that what Saturday afternoons are made for?!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<1:45pm>
Thankfully I remember in time that you aren’t supposed to fill the tank up before the plants go in (apparently they are easier to plant in just a bit of water?)
So the planting begins.
Taller at the back, working forwards.
As per the Dutch style, Im using 9 different types of plant (for my 90cm tank)
Large crypt sp. go in the left, hygrophilia rosanervig centre, and Mattogrossense (green) back right.
P.S. as a little aside here, I always thought those fancy “aquascaping” scissors and tweezers were just yet another way to squeeze money out of us. I mean, come on, its just a long pair of flipping scissors, just reach your damn arm down and do the same job surely, no?
Oh gosh, no! If anyone still has doubts about their usefulness please let me assure you they are very much worth the outlay. The tweezers especially made planting a doddle and I even think helped protect the plant too by allowing the roots to go into the substrate properly and not get all smashed up. A very worthwhile investment.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<3:00pm>
OK, so things are going fairly well, the fish seem happy enough in their bucket (I gave them some bits of bogwood, java fern and some floating riccia to give them some hiding places. Also, the entire bucket is well wrapped and covered so its blacked out. The temperature is absolutely spot on thanks to the Eheim)
I added more mid and foreground plants, but not all of them at this stage.
Wanted to see how it was looking first.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<4:30pm>
Not sure why, but the fish started jumping in the bucket. Temperature is still fine, filter is still running, but I guess they have had enough.
And as I really don’t want to endanger the health of my fish, I decide to stop with the planting and scaping, and just get them back in.
The filter is reconnected to the main tank, and one by one, the fish and shrimp are all introduced to their new home. The 30L of old tank water in the bucket is also poured back in.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<5:00pm>
I tie up my very first mesh/mat of riccia with fishing line – and realise very quickly that this is an art in itself, is massively frustrating and curse people with dextrous small digits that can do this.
After what seems like an age (and some chuckling from the wife!) I manage to get enough Riccia to stay on the mesh that it looks ok. As you can see from the pic, the 3 other metal riccia mesh pads actually have a very fine green net over the top. Im not sure why this is, and hope that they grow through it (perhaps Im supposed to take this net off after delivery?). I also bought my metal mesh from the same eBayer who sold me the Riccia and he sent me this green net for mine too. But I opt to go without it, as I much prefer the look. Hopefully this doesn’t come back to bite me!
The tank is totally refilled with water, plants moved around and the rest of the foreground plants put in.
This includes Alternanthera reineckii ‘Mini’ which Im hoping the Riccia will grow right up to and the Altern. provide a really vibrant red to contrast against the Riccia infront, and the lime green Mattogrossense behind.
Rotala rotundiflora is positioned at the mid right just behind a big swathe of anubias.
Small Cryptocoryne Parva positions just behind the Riccia from mid through to the left of the tank, with some bits positioned in between (Im hoping the Riccia grows all round these, and they are left poking through for contrasting textures)
My “wildcard” is Cryptocoryne Costata which is planted midground right. To be honest, I don’t know what this is going to be/look like. Ive seen pictures online, but even they seem to disagree about how red/brown/green it is and leaf shape. I’ll wait and see. Im hoping for a reddish brown.
There are LOADS of tiny bubbles in the tank and the Riccia meshes seem intent on lifting and floating out of position. I turn the filter down a bit to prevent this.
A small powerhead (450l/h) is positioned on the left and blowing LEFT (against the glass)
The idea being that the CO2 diffuser will be under this on the left, and the output from that will be blown to the right by the powerhead. Then it will arrive at the flow of the spraybar, where it will be pushed down and around over the Riccia and eventually to the back right of the tank and into the filter….. that’s the theory.
Here’s what it looks like:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<SUNDAY 10TH FEBRUARY> - 3:00pm
So today here is how its looking.
All the bubbles have gone away and the Riccia is now staying put. Quite a number of plants had been uprooted (fish or flow Im not sure) but easy enough to replant.
Only thing changed today was to shorten the filter inlet pipe to raise the “cage” off the substrate by about 2 inches; and I raised the spray bar so its only about 1” under the water surface.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<8:30pm>
Logged into the wonderful UKAPS.ORG to start this journal!
I had hoped to get the FE CO2 system hooked up today, but just didn’t have the time, and didn’t want to rush it and make mistakes. Maybe tomorrow night for that?
Here’s the final plant list:
Microsorum pteropus
Anubias sp.
Riccia fluitans
Rotala rotundiflora
Myriophyllum mattogrossense (green)
Hygrophilia polysperma ‘rosanervig’
Alternanthera reineckii ‘Mini’
Cryptocoryne Costata
Cryptocoryne Parva
Cryptocoryne (unknown – from my old tank)
(Yes, I know that’s 10 plants and I wanted to use 9, but the Parva was a last minute idea to break up the carpet of Riccia!
)Im going to start the CO2 at 2 bubbles per second, and I will be dosing Ei as per standard micro/macro dosing 6 days per week.
What Im hoping to achieve:
Im really hoping the back is a thick growth of greens and textures, and the front has a semi-circle carpet of pearling Riccia (interspersed with the delicate, small Crypt. Parva leaves). The bright red Alternanthera will border the Riccia on the right and over hang it slightly, with the Cry.Costata continuing this strong focal point to the delicate, lime green Mattogrossense at the back.
I already don’t like some parts (like the left hand side) but not sure what to do or maybe when to do it?
All advice, criticism, tuition and opinion greatly appreciated and accepted.
Feel free to say anything to me, even if its negative! I want to learn and to get it right this time so here we go.
Will keep you posted periodically if anyone is interested
Thanks guys.
As for the netting on those discs. They are supposed to hold the moss/riccia to the disc and the plant should grow through it. It's not 100% necessary but it helps keep the plant steady until it fastens to the discs. I have found that tying moss to a object will let it fasten in some places only as the string touches the plant and presses it to the object you tie it to. With the net a bigger surface of the moss gets pressed for it to fasten. But you shouldn't have problems with it. 