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Andys 60p

Wrighty

Seedling
Joined
19 Feb 2021
Messages
16
Location
Sunderland
I'll start my journal off by telling you how how I came to getting the 60p.

In December last year I decided I was going to remove the internal filter and heater from my supafish home 60 and replace it with an external so Zarra (my fiance) bought me an oase filtrosmart thermo 100 and ea glassware for xmas.

Fast forward to january and I was extremely lucky and grateful to win Mark Goodwins (aka Geordie Scaper) 1000 subscribers competition. Is he a member here? The prize was some aquavitro tools one of his mugs and a £100 horizon aquatics voucher. I then told myself "you could buy a 60p for £60 here Andy." So the vouchers went towards that.

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3 weeks ago I went back to see James and Nicole down horizon and bought a twinstar v3 600s, power sand S, amazonia 2, a lovely piece of wood and some plants. Hygrophila pinnatifida, hygrophila aruaguia, cyperus helferi one I can never spell but it the 2nd word is pretoi and some java moss.

This is the tank the day we scaped it.
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We have attempted to scape the tank like the one Daichi Araki did for GreenAqua. Time will tell how it turns out.

Yesterday I was in horizon again and came home with a co2 art pro SE regulator, inline diffuser, co2 tube and and a drop checker. That's all going on today during a water change. A nice way to spend world aquarium day I think.
 
Hygrophila pinnatifida, hygrophila aruaguia, cyperus helferi one I can never spell but it the 2nd word is pretoi and some java moss.
I’d suggest adding in a fast growing plant - DA had the E vivipara and H tripartita as fast growers, also the H pinnatifida can be quite quick as well (depending)

I’m guessing you’ve perhaps half the plant mass (as DA) so would definitely include something such as Limnophila sessiliflora (you can leave this in the pot for easy removal) or H zosterifolia - both these plants will begin growing very quickly with almost no transition time
 
I’d suggest adding in a fast growing plant - DA had the E vivipara and H tripartita as fast growers, also the H pinnatifida can be quite quick as well (depending)

I’m guessing you’ve perhaps half the plant mass (as DA) so would definitely include something such as Limnophila sessiliflora (you can leave this in the pot for easy removal) or H zosterifolia - both these plants will begin growing very quickly with almost no transition time

Thanks Alto. I hate L. sessiflora with a passion. I want to add h tripartita but theres was none in yesterday. I have 3 pots of pinnatifida in here. And also 2 pots of cyperus helferi to go in today.
 
cyperus helferi
this often has a lag before it really begins growing (and may be a fast to slow grower depending on conditions)

Tropica’s 1-2-Grow H pinnatifida always takes off quickly in my tanks, but again see how yours gets on

Not to hassle, but I see a lightly planted tank with lots of light (Twinstar S) :)
(and really I’m lazy, so want those fast growing stem plants (& shrimp & snails) to do the work for me)
Maybe add some red root floater (it’s much prettier and less aggressive than Limnobium laevigatum) Phyllanthus fluitans - Tropica Aquarium Plants
(I’ve linked Tropica but other suppliers have good plants too)
 
this often has a lag before it really begins growing (and may be a fast to slow grower depending on conditions)

Tropica’s 1-2-Grow H pinnatifida always takes off quickly in my tanks, but again see how yours gets on

Not to hassle, but I see a lightly planted tank with lots of light (Twinstar S) :)
(and really I’m lazy, so want those fast growing stem plants (& shrimp & snails) to do the work for me)
Maybe add some red root floater (it’s much prettier and less aggressive than Limnobium laevigatum) Phyllanthus fluitans - Tropica Aquarium Plants
(I’ve linked Tropica but other suppliers have good plants too)

Cheers Alto. I'm going to add more plants this week. I spent up on a co2 kit for this tank at the weekend. I also have a dosing pump to set up with a bottle of 2hr aquarist fertiliser.
 
Hi all,
Not to hassle, but I see a lightly planted tank with lots of light (Twinstar S) :)
(and really I’m lazy, so want those fast growing stem plants (& shrimp & snails) to do the work for me)
Maybe add some red root floater (it’s much prettier and less aggressive than Limnobium laevigatum) Phyllanthus fluitans - Tropica Aquarium Plants
I'd definitely recommend some floating plants as well, they aren't CO2 limited, and they are <"adapted to bright light">, which allows them to make use of any "spare" nutrients.

Ceratopteris "thalictroides" is another good "starter plant".

cheers Darrel
 
Time for an update.

Over the last 2 weeks I've been battling with cyano bacteria, diatoms, brown dust algae on the glass, another algae that had coated most of the hardscape and plants in a dark sludge and finally a long stringy algae. Oh and the 2 cyperus helferi I planted turned to mush.

After getting a bottle of ADA Phyton git from horizon aquatics I treat the cyano by spot dosing it and it was gone in 2 days. The day after that (sunday) the clean up began. I cleaned the glass first then siphoned up what I could while draining 90% of the water. Next I cleaned the filter sponges whilst our lass cleaned the pipes and glassware. I put the inlet and outlet on the same side when I re fitted them to increase flow around the tank. After all that I realised my co2 regulator was reading zero on both gauges. Turns out dum dum here closed the bottle off for some reason. After all of that I added 2 tropica 1-2 grow pots. One blixa japonica and phyllis fluitans.

Last night after work was time for round 2 of the clean up. I cut a length of air tube and used it to syphon all of the black algae out of the tank. It took me about 1.5 hours, my hands were wrinkly as hell. Lastly i drained it right down, the glass was cleaned inside and out then refilled.

This is the tank now.

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It's my birthday this weekend so I may go and get some more plants.
 
I haven't posted for quite a while, I have been very busy.

Alot has happened with my 60p since I was last here. 1st up, basically the tank went to s#&t. It was positioned in a south facing window getting far too much light, then I got side tracked setting up my own business and quiting my 7-7 job. The tank ended up needing a full restart.

I ended up stripping the tank, cleaning the rocks, wood and attached moss then the plants I wanted to keep plus the tank, filter, pipes and all. It is now out the way of the sun.

At some point during the neglect I followed @alto Advice and bought some phyllis fluitans. It went berserk so I rinsed and kept that too. Here is a pic of the tank when I put it all back together.

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When I restarted the tank i bought more plants from @Horizon Aquatics. 2 pots of blyxa japonica, 1 pot of alternanthera reinekki mini, 1 pot of helanthium bolivianus vesuvius and 1 rotala rotindifolia h'ra. After a week I trimmed the moss right back and removed the red root floaters because they began to turn green and drop to bits or sink and rot. This pic is after the trim and swapping the inlet and outlet around. The flow is so much better.

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I'm happy with the 60p now, most of the plants are showing new growth now so yesterday I drove to horizon and bought a co2 drop checker and some fish for the tank.

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The above pics are the cal aqua labs nano co2 drop checker. Its very nice, I love the balance point, the bulb containing the solution is outside the tank and it has a white background so it's easy to read.

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The last pic is the tank as it stands. Over the last week I have added 61 cheery shrimp and yesterday I bought 12 black neons. I love how smart they look against the scape.
 
I've finally got my 60p somewhere near how I want it looking. The tank is now on my coffee table, out of any direct sunlight. The tank was starting to suffer with staghorn algae. Getting it out of sunlight seems to have countered that though. Yesterday I began dosing with 2hr aquarist APT zero. I'm looking forward to seeing how the plants grow with it.

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Yesterday I began dosing with 2hr aquarist APT zero.

The tank is looking good!

The B Japonica is looking a bit pale though, so I would increase fert dosing, also be aware the APT Zero contains no nitrate or phosphate so you’ll need to find a way to add those separately.
 
The tank is looking good!

The B Japonica is looking a bit pale though, so I would increase fert dosing, also be aware the APT Zero contains no nitrate or phosphate so you’ll need to find a way to add those separately.
Thanks Wookii. Nitrates come out of my tap at 50ppm. That's why I use the zero bottle. I need to get a phosphate test kit because that also may be in my tap water. I'm trying to avoid bba in here.
 
Looks lovely! How long have you been using APT zero? And have you had to supplement potassium and phosphate? I have very high nitrates so that would be great for teasing out colours.
Hello Courtney. I have only started adding apt zero to this tank for 2 days. I have been using it in my big tank (420l) for about 5 month now and noticed the greens of my plants got brighter compared to tropica premium ferts. I don't supplement my tanks with anything else.
 
Thanks Wookii. Nitrates come out of my tap at 50ppm. That's why I use the zero bottle. I need to get a phosphate test kit because that also may be in my tap water. I'm trying to avoid bba in here.

Wow, surprising that the Nitrates are that high, that is literally the maximum legal limit for drinking water in the UK. Is that value from your water report?

Also, just to clarify, phosphate and nitrates have absolutely no bearing on BBA. We don’t know the true causes but high levels of organics in the water column often seem to occur at the same time - it’s often why a filter clean, a good vacuum, and increased water changes often seem to help get rid of it.
 
Wow, surprising that the Nitrates are that high, that is literally the maximum legal limit for drinking water in the UK. Is that value from your water report?

Also, just to clarify, phosphate and nitrates have absolutely no bearing on BBA. We don’t know the true causes but high levels of organics in the water column often seem to occur at the same time - it’s often why a filter clean, a good vacuum, and increased water changes often seem to help get rid of it.
Thanks for that mate. Yes my nitrate level is from northumbria waters website. I've tested it as well to confirm it.

My 60p is stocked with 12 black neon tetra, a betta and over 140 cherry shrimp. I usually do 70-80% weekly water changes.
 
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