Round Two

[Wisey]

I first set-up my TMC aquarium last year and journalled my few highs and many lows, but learnt a hell of a lot through my old journal titled "Aurora Aquatica". I still class myself as a bit of a noob when it comes to planted aquariums, but I hope that "Round Two" will be more successful than my first attempt.

Aquarium

• TMC Signature 60x45x45
• TMC Grey Cabinet

Filtration

• Eheim Pro 3e 600T Thermo-Filter
• Glass inflow and glass 'Violet' outflow

Lighting

• TMC AquaRay GroBeam 1500 Ultima LED Tile
• iQuatics Universal Hanging System 600mm
• Lights on day of setup are 100% intensity for 6 hours, tile suspended 30cm from water surface

CO2

• CO2Art Dual Stage Regulator (at this time this model is not yet on the market, it is the new top range model soon to be released that I was offered as replacement due to issues with my previous reg)
• UP Inline Atomiser on the return hose

Substrate

• Tropica Aquarium Soil
• Unipac Fiji Fine Sand
• Pea shingle for detailing

Hardscape

• Granite river cobbles (at least I think its Granite)
• Bogwood

Ferts & delivery system

• Self mixed EI quantities
• TMC Easi-Dose 2 pump auto doser
• Due to system constraints, weekly macro and micro volumes divided by 7, dosed daily, Macro at 17:00, Micro at 05:00

Flora

• Ceratopteris thalictroides
• Limnophila sessiliflora
• Hydrocotyle tripartita
• Pogostemon erectus Tropica 1-2-Grow
• Alternanthera reineckii 'Mini' Tropica 1-2-Grow
• Echinodorus quadricostatus
• Cryptocoryne wendtii 'Mi Oya' (Moved over from previous scape)
• Anubias Barteri var. Nana (Moved over from previous scape)
• Microsorum Trident (Moved over from previous scape)
• Echinodorus Rose (Moved over from previous scape, but removed already, not enough space)

Fauna

• 7 Corydorus Sterbai
• 8 Ottocinclus
• 14 Ember Tetra
• 4 Amano Shrimp

Set-up details and pictures to follow soon, but not sure I will have time to get the pics sorted tonight. I'll try, but could be tomorrow. Thanks for reading!

 

[alto]

Did you completely redo the substrate?
- I know you weren't pleased about the cloud factor you were experiencing with the 'Growth Substrate'

 

[Wisey]

Hey Alto, yup, total clean out. Not only was the cloudiness an issue, but I just felt I wanted a substrate with more nutrients like an aquatic soil, even though I am dosing EI, some plants I had were supposedly big root feeders so I figured I would try something new, it was as much to experiment as anything else.

 

[Wisey]

Ok, well here goes with some set-up info. Don't think I will get it all in tonight, but I will make a start. The rescape had been planned for some time, I knew I needed a free weekend to get on with it, so when my fiancé said that she was going to London for a weekend to meet up with her sister who had flown in from the US so they could go find her a wedding dress, BINGO! Free weekend where I could make as much mess as I liked and have it all clean before she got home on Sunday night!

The prep work started on Friday night, some essentials to sustain me for the task ahead.

 

[alto]

waiting for pictures

😀

 

[alto]

great timing 😎

 

[Wisey]

The original plan was to have a rock only hardscape, I had spent weeks tinkering with different ideas and even bought all my plants based around the idea that I had. On the Thursday night I then changed my mind and decided I needed to get more height in to the scape, so got out the bogwood I had recently bought on eBay and started making new plans. I came up with a scape, so on the Friday night I had this wood, which had arrived wet and sealed in bags, but as I was not planning on using it, I had left it wrapped in plastic but not sealed. The panic was on, could I get it soaked and usable in time for Saturday!

I had bought a huge stock pot for this purpose a few weeks back, so in it went, got it boiling, but it was floating! Being a sailor (and a boy scout many years ago), I got out some string, tied a few knots, and ended up with this!



Lid went on, 2 hours of boiling with top ups for evaporation every now and then, plus top ups for me of Brew Dog Punk IPA and after the 2 hours, I flipped over the big bits so the other ends were submerged and boiled for another 2 hours. When I went to bed I transferred it to the large container I was intending to use to temporarily house the fish and left it soaking overnight. The following morning I needed that container for the fish, so figured it might as well go back in the pan. It ended up with a further 4 hours of boiling on Saturday morning but amazingly all stopped floating. Lucky!

 

[Wisey]

On Saturday morning as the wood was floating it was time to set up the temporary fish house. A large flexible builders bucket, selected as it was cheap, tough and also dark so as not to stress the fish too much. I actually had to get two loads of washing done first thing as they were going to be living in the kitchen all day and I didn't want the noise and vibration from the washing machine going while they were in there! Real life gets in the way of aquascaping sometimes! This was filled with 75% tank water and 25% tap water. I had done a 50% water change on the tank on Tuesday and then a 25% change on Friday night, so I was hopefully bringing them closer and closer to tap conditions.



I now started to try and move fish over, but it was not easy. I ended up removing the bogwood that was in the old scape and putting that in the holding tank for hiding places. I then removed all the plants from the tank to make it easier to catch the fish. After the fish were all moved over, I covered the holding tank as best I could, closed the blinds and switched off the lights to try and make it as dark as possible. Here the fish are all over...

 

[Wisey]

The next task was the worst task of the entire day, even worse than trying to get Hydrocotyle Tripartita to stay planted in the soil, it was time to clean out the soggy sand and Tropica plant growth substrate mixture. Nightmare! This photo at the start was timed at 12:11.



And this photo all removed and cleaned and cleaned again and cleaned again, then flipped round, old backing removed and outside cleaned too, this pic is timed at 13:21. It was a crappy job.

 

[Wisey]

Next task was the background, I got rid of the old aquarium backing and used a window tinting 100% blackout film, more designed for building windows. Much better, lets hope it does not come away at the edges like the other over time.

 

[Wisey]

I was now in good shape to crack on with the more interesting part of the days work, the new scape! Poly tile trimmed to the right size...


then I added egg crate as my rocks are REALLY heavy for their size and I wanted a good substantial base down to protect the glass.



Sorry to do this to you, but I am going to have to leave it there for tonight! I'll do my best to get the rest up tomorrow!

 

[JPT1974]

Wow! Wisey sounds like a great set up. Can't wait for the photos and to see how you get on. I've been building and gathering for my first planted tank for a year now (sad I know, but I've actually enjoyed not rushing) I've bought an easi dose peri pump. There didn't seem to be many reviews out there and virtually nothing on YouTube. How have you got on with yours?

 

[JPT1974]

You photos up loaded as I submitted my reply . Cool photos!! Look forward to the rest.

 

[Wisey]

Wow! Wisey sounds like a great set up. Can't wait for the photos and to see how you get on. I've been building and gathering for my first planted tank for a year now (sad I know, but I've actually enjoyed not rushing) I've bought an easi dose peri pump. There didn't seem to be many reviews out there and virtually nothing on YouTube. How have you got on with yours?

I bought the TMC pump as it said it was capable of up to 24 doses per day. I thought that would give me really granular control, but its actually a pain because it just means it either doses on the hour or it does not dose on the hour and you can't skip days, if you turn on an hour, then it doses on that hour 7 days a week. This obviously did not fit with the EI method, so I have resorted to dividing my EI dose by 7, dosing that every day, Macro at 17:00 and Micro at 05:00 to separate them as much as possible. It's not ideal and its annoying as I could have bought a cheaper dosing system that would have allowed me to get closer to the EI dosing method.

 

[Wisey]

Ok, so to continue the rescape, it was time for the hardscape and substrate to go in. River cobbles and bogwood went in, I also added some lawn edging to try and plug gaps. In the end the edging behind the cobbles was redundant and removed, but I did keep edging behind the bogwood as its uneven shape means it does not sit down flush with the base.

The river cobbles are really interesting, I believe they are granite and have some nice patterns in the strata. When they are dry they look grey, but with a bit of a brown sheen to them, almost like they have a thin coating of dust/mud on them. I washed them and that brown is not mud, it does not come off and when wet the stones actually look more brown than grey. This was unexpected, but in fact actually makes them match the sand colour more, so I was not disappointed.



The next task was to make some supports for the back to raise hardscape without using lots of expensive substrate and to try and give more stability than pure soil. I had bought a couple of small bags of cheap pea shingle, then pinched some new tights from my other half! The gravel had been pre-washed earlier in the week, so was divided in to the tights but with a little bit retained for doing some detailing on the sand. Once I made these up, I actually doubled up with another tight leg over the top to give me two layers for a bit more strength, then they were rinsed through again.



Then in to the tank with them. You can see that I also added smaller stones and then the pea shingle detailing on the sand at the front along with a small piece of bogwood for more detail.

 

[Wisey]

Next up my main height in the hardscape was added with a large piece of bogwood on the right hand side and I also added another river cobble on the left. With hindsight I should have made my pea shingle supports less firm, so that the items would sit down in to the shingle, rather than just sit on top. The one on the left was only big enough for the main stone and the one on the right left the wood a bit wobbly. I didn't have any more tights without going out shopping, so just decided to go with it and hope that once the soil was in it would all come together.



A side shot here shows what I mean about the wood just sitting on it, rather than really being supported by the shingle below.



This shot just has a different piece of bogwood that I switched out in the sand.

 

[parotet]

I love Brewdog beers, and especially the Punk IPA!
(Just for mad homebrewers, they have recently shared all their recipes in their website)

Jordi

 

[Wisey]

And then here we are with a front shot with the soil added and an extra river cobble at the back left. That cobble has turned out to be a pain as its not supported by the pea shingle and although small, its heavy stone, so it keeps sinking. I'll probably have to do something to build it up again in time.

You will notice that there are some tiny spots of algae on the front glass (also on the right side). These are still there from the previous scape, I had barely noticed them. I did try removal with some vinegar during the clean up but it was really stubborn. I still need to remove these, maybe a blade is the only way, but I am scared to use a blade on the front glass! Any suggestions?



Another piece of bogwood was added in the centre now it could be pushed in to the soil and the Anubias and Microsorum Trident was moved over. I think the Trident is going to be removed, it hardly had any leaves on from the CO2 issues in the last scape, it had just started to bounce back, but the leaves are all in different directions and the rhizome is all over the place, it does not fit well in the space it is in. My initial thought was plant it and see if it sorts itself out, but for the sake of a few pounds I might just order up a replacement that is nice and compact in a pot and fits in the gap well.



So a bit of a jump forward here, I was so busy planting that I didn't take any shots during this stage, so here we are now at the initial fill up.



The Hydrocotyle did not really have a place in the scape as it was ordered with the previous rock only hardscape in mind. I did plant a piece on the right and some more on the left as you can see above. As you see below I removed the bit on the right. The stuff on the left is not looking good but its keeping it going until I decide what I want to put there.

The FTS below is just after the fish are back in the tank.



And finally, after 12 long hours, my reward!

 

[Wisey]

This has been one of the most pleasing things about the new scape, the behaviour of my fish. In the previous scape the Embers would be all over the place, now they sit together in a tight school most of the time, often over the sand at the front where there is more gentle flow. With the old spraybar set-up I think they got blasted at the front so all my fish just sat behind the bogwood all day unless they were being fed or the filter was off. Spraybars may be the most efficient way to get flow to the whole tank, but my fish are much happier in this set-up, so I hope that I can get good CO2 distribution with the violet pipe. More on my flow config in a later post...



My Ottos also used to hide at the back, now they seem much happier chilling at the front. They are also far more active during lights on. In the previous scape they hid at the back during lights on and just attached to the back glass, now they are hang on the front glass which is nice as I get to see them.

 

[Wisey]

A shot of some of the planting. As you can see my DC is lime green and thats just above my Pogostomon which I guess is probably going to be my most difficult plant. It gets good light there too.



And feeding time last night!