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Shaun's 180L Rio - First Scape

Re: Shaun's 180L Rio - First Aquascape

Hi Bob

I've had an idea for a DIY reactor from materials at work.
I'm going to try a casing from a filter holder http://www.pump.co.uk/water-filters-c248/water-filters-c249/5-ft5-filter-holder-p5573, fit a small piece of 3/4" tubing inside to make the water flow downwards before escaping and inject the CO2 at the point of inlet as this unit has a 1/8" BSP port above the main inlet.

Will post photos when/if it comes together.

Shaun
 
Shaun's 180L Rio - First Aquascape

Would definitely recommend the up aqua diffuser - 12 quid on eBay and tiny misting bubbles look quite good plus it gets it out of your tank.

[edit - I had trouble with this having leaks because of the pressure in the line, so worth triple checking all your connections]

Hemianthus Cuba is a great ground cover plant that would look great in your setup. It's a bright green and very small leaves. Or there's glossostigma. Both require high co2 levels though to grow low. Only just beginning to get it right myself.
 
Re: Shaun's 180L Rio - First Aquascape

Weekly update

Have made a few changes in the last week.
Decided to ditch the ladder diffuser and fit an UP external Atomiser, mainly to reduce the amount of equipment in the tank. The diffuser was duly fitted and tested without too many issues.
My new Lunapet solenoid valve then arrived and was fitted along with a fluval bubble counter.

So some fairly major changes to the CO2 system.
Without some baseline bps count (due to ladder being used previously) i decided to keep the reg setting the same, turn CO2 on 2 hrs before lights on and off 1 hr before lights off.
CO2 dipped as this was nowhere near enough, i've now up the reg pressure and opened up the Dennerle factory set needle valve. Now operating at 1bps, still don't think this is enough but i'm making small adjustments each day.

ALGAE! - i think partly as a result of the CO2 changes and partly due to a quite dirt external filter, i've had the first real experience of green hair algae (my description). This came on surprisingly quickly!

50% water change and thorough filter clean followed along with removing as much algae as i could. Upped the CO2 and things seem to be ok so far.

Have also added a few more plants, namely a Crypt Bullosa, Hemianthus Callitrichoides and Eustralis Stellata.

Latest (disappointing quality) photo below

DSC_3164.jpg
DSC_3171.jpg
DSC_3165.jpg

Cheers for now
 
Re: Shaun's 180L Rio - First Aquascape

Hi Bob, i'm dreading removing those lead weights in case the wood still floats, haven't got up enough nerve yet...

Shaun
 
Re: Shaun's 180L Rio - First Aquascape

That looks very nice Shaun - I would leave the lead weights on as long as you can... a few more weeks at least anyway, wood that size takes a while to sink, as I found out!

Gary
 
Re: Shaun's 180L Rio - First Aquascape

ShaunWhite said:
.........Latest (disappointing quality) photo below

DSC_3164.jpg
Click to expand...

That's not disappointing ,....that's simply beautiful. It's coming along nicely. Nice work,.... :thumbup:

The plants are looking very healthy.
 
Re: Shaun's 180L Rio - First Aquascape

Got chance last night to take a few photos and thought i should update this Journal.

There have been a few changes and ups / downs with the tank since my last journal entry.
I replaced the ladder diffuser with an UP inline diffuser and after a week or so of adjustments got this working alright-ish. CO2 on 2hrs before and off 2hrs before colour checker green ish. The thing that annoyed me with this was the constant stream of very fine bubbles in the tank 🙁 , at a distance it looked ok but close up it just annoyed me too much so it had to go.

I replaced this with an AM1000 reactor, again after a week or so of fiddling got this set up ok. I'm much much 😀 😀 happier with the reactor 😀 .

During this time had some staghorn algae and green spot algae. Put the staghorn down to the fluctuating CO2 as i set the diffusers/reactors up. I was dosing some APF all-in-one but changed at this point to EI using Clive's article, as i'd just ran out of all-in-one. I had overdosed some AE Aquacarbon to try and control the staghorn with some success.

Had a 10 day holiday following this, so i reduced the lighting to 5hrs a day, CO2 to match and no ferts. I did reduce the CO2 rate somewhat as i didn't want to gas everything whilst i was away.

Just returned from hols and plant growth has been generally better than expected, however the (i think) staghorn algae has increased dramatically, see pictures below.

General ViewDSC_3315.jpg
Algae on mossDSC_3316.jpg
Algae on leavesDSC_3313.jpg
Riccia & HCDSC_3314.jpg
More Algae on mossDSC_3306.jpg

These were took before a good trim and water change.

I think the circulation has been a bit weak from my Eheim ECCO 300, especially through the reactor, the Hydor circulator was ok, but i never really got the distribution of flow i hoped for.

So I've bitten the bullet and bought a JBL CristalProfi 1500e, plumbed this in, alongside the ECCO 300 for the time being, and ran the JBL spraybar across the tank (need to somehow extend it now).

I've trimmed quite a bit of algae, done a 60% water change, lightings now at 6hrs a day and started EI ferts again, so we'll see what the next few weeks brings.

Cheers
 
Pebbles have gone already, when doing the trim and waterchange. Thought they may grow on me, they didn't.

I'll try and get a nice full tank shot tonight for comments!
 
Thanks for the nice comments guy's, much appreciated.
The tank's not as 'artistic' as i'd hoped it would be, mainly because i can't resist trying various plants, but i'm learning loads in the process thanks to the help on here.

As far as the sand goes, i don't usually do a huge amount to it apart from a light vacuuming over the top whilst doing a water change. I think the 7 or 8 amano shrimps help alot though.
That said, i did use a gravel cleaner on the sand last night and it's even cleaner now.

I've also learnt this week to be careful with the o-rings on the CO2 regs, it would appear i pinched mine and emptied 2kgs CO2 in a week 😡
 
Lovely scape! Is it still running?
 
I'm looking forward to it 🙂
 
Wow, this tank has turned out really nice, i have the same problem with the algae on my moss aswell.
 
Hi All

Just grabbed a quick tank shot as an update to this Journal.
DSC_3586.jpg
The image quality is not that good, i'll try to get a better one later.

As for the tank i'm battling with BBA and a small amount of green thread algae, but mainly BBA. I've had some ups and downs with both algae and plant growth in recent months, but seem to be getting good plant growth and manageable algae now.

I'm now running the lighting for 7hrs a day with CO2 on an hour before and off two hours before lights off. CO2's up to 4bps now and i still don't think that's enough quite. I'm also adding 5ml per day AE 'Aqua Carbon' per day and EI dosing (although i'm now trying the dosing at a slightly different/lower rate as per 'Aquarium Plant Food's' advice sheet).
Circulation now has a full length spray bar, Eheim Ecco 300 and JBL CristalProfi e1500 with hydor heater and AM1000 CO2 reactor.

Advice, both technical and artistic, would be most welcome.

Hopefully this shot is a bit better..
DSC_3589.jpg
 
Looking very nice :thumbup:
 
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