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Another day in paradise. The final picture.

Aquadream

Aquadream

Member
Joined
5 Apr 2010
Messages
393
Hi everyone. :D
I have started my new scape that I want to share with you.
Tank size is 120x60x50 cm. 330 litres of total internal volume.
It took about 100 kilograms of rocks to get the volume of the hills and 8x9 litres bags of Amazonia Aquasoil.
Illumination by 2 T5 HO 6500 Kelvins.
Plants;
Hemianthus Cuba, Pogostemon Helferi, Lilaeopsis Brazilensis, Saurogine Repens, Blyxa Japonica. I grew all plants apart from the Blyxa in my hydroponics boxes and stock aquariums.
Filtration by one Eheim 2326 and for the first few weeks one Eheim 2224 filled with activated carbon only.

Critics and comments are welcome.

The picture bellow is from day 9, because the first few days were total mud and no chance to see anything.
Day_9.jpg
 
Re: My new scape.

Hi,

I like it too but I think that your rocks may be a bit small and once the plant fill in they will be hidden? Maybe not...

cheers,

GM
 
Re: My new scape.

gmartins said:
Hi,

I like it too but I think that your rocks may be a bit small and once the plant fill in they will be hidden? Maybe not...

cheers,

GM
Click to expand...

Thank you guys.
I just decided for this one not to have mountians , big trees or roads, but mostly open spaces. That is why I did not erected high rocks. I want the rocks to pop up here and there when the plants are developed. For now my issue is if the HC will develop well. This plant has been pain in the neck for me.
I will take any advice on HC growth in Amazonia.
 
Re: My new scape.

Hi Aquadream,

Victor Lantos is our current HC guru :thumbup: He was kind enough to list his findings in one of his journals:

GA in-store display 120P Iwagumi - Fly above the giant cliff

The specific part you might be interested in is:

viktorlantos said:
...here is what i think helped:

- cool water 21/23 celsius, with frequent water change at the beginning. every 2 days in the first 2 weeks. still keeping the HC around 21/24.
- 4x54w light for 8 hours a day from the start.
- Pure RO water. So super soft water. Of course the Seiryu stones hardened this up a bit. But the plants looks more healthier then in our tap water tanks. Leaf are larger bushier and more vivid green.
- CO2 reactor injection. The best CO2 injection in my oppinion.
- great condition plants. Around 45/50 pots at start
- we used Aqua Soil Amazonia, but the thin layer Amazonia Powder (1-1.5cm) is a must have for all HC tanks. With this the carpet will be super strong and dense.
- 50/100 Amano shrimps. They removed the diatom algae which cover the carpet at the start and cause slow growth or death in HC if this takes too long. They also eat hair algae, so the tank was algae free from the first 3-4 weeks.

Some others what helped probably, but we will never know:
- ADA Additives, Penac P, Penac W
- ADA Fertilizers
- Trimming at every 2-3 weeks.

The most important ones are the cool temp, powder soil (so hc grows more dense) and the best CO2 injection you can have.
Click to expand...

It's well worth a read through if you have the time though, Victor's shop is churning out some wonderful scapes at the minute :D
 
Re: My new scape.

J Butler said:
Hi Aquadream,

Victor Lantos is our current HC guru :thumbup: He was kind enough to list his findings in one of his journals:

GA in-store display 120P Iwagumi - Fly above the giant cliff

The specific part you might be interested in is:

viktorlantos said:
...here is what i think helped:

- cool water 21/23 celsius, with frequent water change at the beginning. every 2 days in the first 2 weeks. still keeping the HC around 21/24.
- 4x54w light for 8 hours a day from the start.
- Pure RO water. So super soft water. Of course the Seiryu stones hardened this up a bit. But the plants looks more healthier then in our tap water tanks. Leaf are larger bushier and more vivid green.
- CO2 reactor injection. The best CO2 injection in my oppinion.
- great condition plants. Around 45/50 pots at start
- we used Aqua Soil Amazonia, but the thin layer Amazonia Powder (1-1.5cm) is a must have for all HC tanks. With this the carpet will be super strong and dense.
- 50/100 Amano shrimps. They removed the diatom algae which cover the carpet at the start and cause slow growth or death in HC if this takes too long. They also eat hair algae, so the tank was algae free from the first 3-4 weeks.

Some others what helped probably, but we will never know:
- ADA Additives, Penac P, Penac W
- ADA Fertilizers
- Trimming at every 2-3 weeks.

The most important ones are the cool temp, powder soil (so hc grows more dense) and the best CO2 injection you can have.
Click to expand...

It's well worth a read through if you have the time though, Victor's shop is churning out some wonderful scapes at the minute :D
Click to expand...
Thank you so much.
Now i always manage to grow HC in pots to absolute perfection, but in the aquarium is different issue.
Problem is that I can not keep for now temperature bellow 25 Celsius. No chillier.
For now I do everything else as Victor say’s, except for the powder Amazonia. I do not have that.

The strange thing here is that two years ago I had the most magnificent HC carpet grown on a quartz gravel around 3 mm size and no nutrient rich layer under.
After that every attempt to grow HC in aquarium with nutrient rich what ever was a failure. Weird :?

Later the one thing I figured was that the light was a bit too much. By my experiments two T5 54Watts on 200 litres of water volume are good enough. more than that gets me into trouble.
In the hydroponics boxes is just the same. HC does not develop well in strong light.

Well. The HC is the only plant that is ripping my head off, but eventually I will get on the top of things I hope.
 
Re: My new scape.

Well, I think part of the reason HC likes the cooler water so much is that the amount of CO2 able to dissolve within is greater compared to warmer water. If you have no livestock in there, I would ramp up the CO2 concentrations as much as possible.

Hopefully the HC will settle quickly, you could then gradually reduce the amount of gas you're pumping in there so that you can safely add a clean up crew to deal with any diatoms or such that might crop up.
 
Re: My new scape.

It is a great scape, reminds me of open fields from when I was a kid and use to chase rabbits and birds. The fact that the tank is really big just adds to the wonder.

Great layout, one to follow for sure.
 
Re: My new scape.

J Butler said:
Well, I think part of the reason HC likes the cooler water so much is that the amount of CO2 able to dissolve within is greater compared to warmer water. If you have no livestock in there, I would ramp up the CO2 concentrations as much as possible.

Hopefully the HC will settle quickly, you could then gradually reduce the amount of gas you're pumping in there so that you can safely add a clean up crew to deal with any diatoms or such that might crop up.
Click to expand...

So far no algae what so ever. I am sure that it will come, but likely only on the rocks this time, because I am using fully matured filters and 75% of the substrate is from the previous aquascape loaded with goodies. I always get some greenies on the rocks, lucky me.
I already put two Ottos and some shrimps to chew on what ever pops out.

The set up from two years ago where I had the HC in quartz gravel was with CO2 controlled by JBL PH controller. The amount injected was 25 ppm or so the controller said. The light was 2 x 15Watts T8 (6500K and 5000K) on 60 litres of water.
The fertilizer was Nutrafin plant Gro. After I changed everything it all went to hell. Nice. :D
That aquarium also did not have any fish. I kept only cherries in it and some snails.
I can never explain how did the HC managed there so well, but also on the wood that was there all algae species managed just as well Full list of them. :D
 
Re: My new scape.

ghostsword said:
It is a great scape, reminds me of open fields from when I was a kid and use to chase rabbits and birds. The fact that the tank is really big just adds to the wonder.

Great layout, one to follow for sure.
Click to expand...
Thank you Luis.
I actually took your advice from ASW and decided to please my self with this scape instead of impress some high end guys.
So no more ratios, or roads, or trees, or forest look a likes, mountains and so on.
Only green piece and joy. :D
 
Re: My new scape.

There is some update of the progress. Some of the low rocks were covered or so it seems, but they are going to be used as basins for other small rocks that will be on the top of them later.

Day65.jpg
 
Re: My new scape.

Thank you guys. Long way to go before it is complete.
 
Re: My new scape.

foxfish said:
Beautifully clean, everything looks perfect from your pictures.
Click to expand...
It looks even better in real. But I am not much of a photographer.
 
Re: My new scape.

foxfish said:
I bet is does too!

How are you introducing the C02 & for how long do you supply the gas & lights?
Click to expand...
Lights work for 10 hours per day. CO2 is supplied for 12 hours per day. 3 hours before the lights come on and it is turned off 1 hour before the lights.
I use Sera CO2 reactor model 1000. That one is connected to Eheim 2224 that have the only purpose to turn the water trough the reactor. There is no filter media in the 2224.
The PH varies from 6.2 in day time to 6.8 at night.
The bps rate is impossible to count. The bubbles are going way too fast.
 
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