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A 'little' box of chocolates, licorice n allsorts - baby chocco fry

Great Work Alastair!
Cheers steve 😀
Lovely. Is that all E. tenellus around the edges? Hope it stays small for you, mine got to about 40cm long 😛
Yes mate. Its the invitro tennelus from freshwater shrimp. There was heaps of it I was shocked. Its only small at the minute mate so might double in size. There's some fully grown in their too.

bliksem. love that. wish i cpild have scaped my cube like that
Thanks ryno. Im hoping it will grow into what i envisage so looks a little untidy at present though. Much clearer today after a nice 50 percent water change which I did not enjoy ha ha.
looks great! will look brilliant when its grown in!

the fish will thinking they're going back into a lake not a tank!

Thanks nutty. This is why I miss co2 and the increased growth but im settled with the slower growth for now.
.I think the fish have been seriously punished having to stare at this lol

I'm gobsmacked it looks great now but will be stunning when it's grown in.....and that's a cracking bit of wood!!!!
Is that a maidenhair fern on it?#
Why can't we have a "love it" icon because "like" does not do this justice 😀
Wow thanks miranda. Certainly makes it very rewarding if that's the reaction it has.


It certainly is maidenhair fern. Got it from sanj on here. Some of the roots are in the water so im hoping it takes well. Should do.


Bet your chuffed to bits to have it all up and running mate....and dare I say a touch relieved!
Looks great and will be an incredible new home for your fish.
Really looking forward to following this journey now and I'm sure your patience will be rewarded.
Cheerio,
Ady.

Oh yeah definitely mate. I feel much much happier now it's here. Looks even better now its clear. The lights are getting brighter too. They never had more than 3 hours continuous use.
Thanks mate. Who'd have thought a delayed tank can depress you so much ha. Hope it continues to improve and go how I see it looking in 3 or 4 months. Im itching to put shrimp in but must resist lol

Yeah and the tank looks so huge. The sense of depth is amazing. Nice one Alastair.🙂 The emmersed growth at the centre of the tank adds an attractive touch to the whole scape too.

Hiya faizal. That's one thing I was worried about was that I'd lose the depth but its turned out quite well. The first time with the initial tank didn't look as well but ive raised the substrate slightly higher where the wood is too.
The emmersed shot has to be my favourite part at the moment.

How long is your photoperiod?
Im just running 5 hours a day at the minute, then will up it to 6 after 2 weeks then up to 7 and a half to 8 after 2 months when its taking off.

This will be yet another stunner when grown in! Well done mate.

Cheers ian. Thanks for that. Feel like a bit of pressure is on me now lol .

Stunning mate really well executed, been such a long wait for you, glad all has gone well, do you still plan to go even bigger next year ? Looking forward to livestock pics once they've settled in.

Hiya tim. A very long wait yes lol. Glad its finally here. Does it seem wrong im spending hours staring at an empty ish tank each evening???? There's no fish in it yet.
Thats going to be my favourite bit. Adding the fish and shrimp over a couple of weeks. Im tempted to slowly add shrimp around 3 weeks time.

Yes im planning or will should I say be going bigger next year. 6ft all round and 50 or 60 cm high but think it will possibly need bracing which I dont fancy.

Thanks everyone for your comments so far
 
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What temperature do you have this at Alistair,could only see one heater and just wondered how you heat something like this? 🙂

Hiya.
Its kept at a consistent 26 degrees Celsius. Your right its only got the one 300w heater but its one of the eheim jagers which are rated to heat tanks significantly bigger than other 300watts. This can heat tanks up to 1000 litres. I have a spare fluval e300 on hand in case it struggles during winter but the temp hasnt dropped since it reached its setting. Its a big heater too. 😀
 
Hiya.
Its kept at a consistent 26 degrees Celsius. Your right its only got the one 300w heater but its one of the eheim jagers which are rated to heat tanks significantly bigger than other 300watts. This can heat tanks up to 1000 litres. I have a spare fluval e300 on hand in case it struggles during winter but the temp hasnt dropped since it reached its setting. Its a big heater too. 😀
That's a big heater lol your electric company's going to be rubbing their hands 😀
 
Always like the pictures of tanks when it has its test fill and its just a expanse of blue seems like it has so many possibilities.
Looks like its going to be a great tank nows its pplanted as well though, going to be fun seeing something like this grow in.
 
That's a big heater lol your electric company's going to be rubbing their hands 😀
Lol to be honest it doesnt kick in that much really but imagine when the room temp drops it will start too.

Always like the pictures of tanks when it has its test fill and its just a expanse of blue seems like it has so many possibilities.
Looks like its going to be a great tank nows its pplanted as well though, going to be fun seeing something like this grow in.

Thanks mate. Only down side is low tech - slow growth. I need the tennelus to root in before I go adding my corys.

This is top notch! It will look fantastic as it grows in.

Hey hydro thanks mate. That's one of my favourite shots yet.
.just to add, I stained and fitted some edging to hide the double glass base and the unsightly polystyrene base yesterday. Im quite happy with how it looks. Also the tank has beem cycling really quickly.

Quick phone pic with edging on

8789791705_94a2f37419_b.jpg
 
Sorry Alastair but I remember you saying that the e. tennellus were invitro ones. Does that mean their leaves are of emmersed form? I wish you had access to a PAR meter so that you could share the substrate PAR levels in this tank. I am loving the progress. I like the edging work that you've done on it. It looks very neat. The tank also looks like it's getting a lot of the outdoor light from this picture.

How long do you think it will take before the rooting of the e. tennellus occurs?
 
Sorry Alastair but I remember you saying that the e. tennellus were invitro ones. Does that mean their leaves are of emmersed form? I wish you had access to a PAR meter so that you could share the substrate PAR levels in this tank. I am loving the progress. I like the edging work that you've done on it. It looks very neat. The tank also looks like it's getting a lot of the outdoor light from this picture.

How long do you think it will take before the rooting of the e. tennellus occurs?

Umm yes mate the leaves are emmersed and pretty small but you get such a massive amount in one pot. Ive also got some submersed tennelus which is throwing out runners but the invitro I reckon would take a couple of weeks so my corys will be last to go in. The nutra soil seems lighter than amazonia so dont want to risk plants floating uo from them scouring the substrate as I feed banana worms ane the corys dig for those

The tank is next to a south facing door so does get some light in but it only seems that bright as the back door and net curtain were open

Ive also got a seneye device which I need to set up and its the one that also measures par readings so once my desktop comes back from dell I can pop up some readings if you like

Looking awesome mate, trim sets it of a treat. Really looking forward to this in a few months time and happy you've finally got back on track 😉

Cheers mate. Its looking good now just having a problem with a little film appearing an hour or so after each water change so may invest in one of the water skimmers fron eheim which attaches to the intake.

Just got some beading for the base board too 😀

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Cheers Alastair 🙂 . It would be great to get an idea on the substrate PAR levels. But please no hurries mate. Take your own time.I am just curious about your lighting levels. I loved the growth you had in " A Chocolate Puddle". I hope you get the same thing out of this tank too.🙂 Keeping up with your tank closely,...always.🙂
 
i'm curious about the original aqua soil used as a base layer, does this work as a slow release for nutrients? i ask because you are also using a few other planted aquarium specific substrates as well and these also have nutrients in them do they not?
 
Cheers mate. Its looking good now just having a problem with a little film appearing an hour or so after each water change so may invest in one of the water skimmers fron eheim which attaches to the intake.

Sent from my GT-I9305 using Tapatalk 2

The little skimmers are great al but you do need to wrap a little stainless mesh around the intake or it will gobble up CRS 🙁
 
Top set up, top scape, all done by a top bloke. Well done mate. 🙂

Cheers george thats some pretty big encouragement their for me to try my best with this one then. Really appreciate that thanks mate

Cheers Alastair 🙂 . It would be great to get an idea on the substrate PAR levels. But please no hurries mate. Take your own time.I am just curious about your lighting levels. I loved the growth you had in " A Chocolate Puddle". I hope you get the same thing out of this tank too.🙂 Keeping up with your tank closely,...always.🙂

Not a problem faizel. As soon as i can link it up ill let you know the readings. Theyll be no where near the readings from the puddle as I used a ati sun power on that one but this self build seems pretty good from apoearance but im curious myself too esoecially with only using low energy gu10 bulbs.


i'm curious about the original aqua soil used as a base layer, does this work as a slow release for nutrients? i ask because you are also using a few other planted aquarium specific substrates as well and these also have nutrients in them do they not?

Hiya, .
Yes it works partly as a slow release for nutrients that's one of the reasons but also it goes through a process where it decomposes and produces carbon which is taken up by the roots of the plants. Also the pond soil doesnt contain the same level of nutrients as john innes etc. Its less.
The other specific plant substrate does provide nutrients whilst helping to keep ph low but is l mainly aesthetic. I prefer the small round grains compared to sand etc..

The little skimmers are great al but you do need to wrap a little stainless mesh around the intake or it will gobble up CRS 🙁

Cheers mate. I was also looking at the powered eheim skimmers too but will wait and see how it goes as it doesn't look too bad today. I've raised the lily pipe outlet a little today too to see if that helps.

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Itll be fine as long as it steers clear of filter and water change pipe. It probably hitch hiked on one of the plants. If youve got a mature filter spare stick it in to help with any ammonia. Id be much more worried if you had john ines or similar in there. I dont think aqua soil will be as bad for ammonia.
Youll have to call it something daft like 'freddy fry' of 'billy the fish'
 
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