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300L MA store tank - First trim

Great start Tony!

It always puts your mind at ease, when you see plants getting off to a great start. Especially, with a tank you cant tend to daily.

I remember the tank i did @ MA, the first few weeks made me real anxious.
 
Looks fantastic, I work at maidenhead brighton and yes we don't stock anything NPK but your best bet would be TMC, as we most definitely deal with them.

We have a small river reef running, nothing special really but it's a nice little jungle and nothing is used on it except liquid carbon.
 
Mark Evans said:
Great start Tony! It always puts your mind at ease, when you see plants getting off to a great start. Especially, with a tank you cant tend to daily. I remember the tank i did @ MA, the first few weeks made me real anxious.

Cheers Mark. You're right - its been tough for the last couple of weeks as I haven't been able to get in there as much as planned. The staff are doing a great job so far, with 50% w/c's every couple of days, and they're following my EI instructions.

Luketendo said:
Looks fantastic, I work at maidenhead brighton and yes we don't stock anything NPK but your best bet would be TMC, as we most definitely deal with them.

Thanks Luke, we've been speaking to TMC, but unfortunately their fert product is not available yet.


I got over to the store yesterady and all is going well, with runners now visible from the Acicularis, glosso and big ones from the Tennelus :D I trimmed the glosso back again, and also some of the foreground acicularis, and pruned one of the crypts which has suffered melt on most of its leaves - its right in the middle of the tank between the 2 main stones and I wonder if it doesnt get much CO2 flow in there, or whether its just stringent about the golden ratio and doesnt like its positioning :lol: Most of the riccia is looking great, except for 2 stones right in the middle which are struggling a bit -hopefully by next week they'll have recovered, and will be ready for a little scissor action too :D I've got to get those foreground plants intertwining :twisted:

Anyway, a few phone pics ...

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Its been excellent Paulo. The staff are really liking it, and always keen to talk, and be involved when I go in there. The customers are taking alot of interest too, with it being in the entrance everyone passes it and the regulars check its progress each time. i think its starting to open their eyes towards how good a planted tank can look :)

Its too early to say whether its affecting their plant sales yet, but the staff have got the plant sales tank looking great too, with good stock of very healthy plants from AquaDip and Aquafleur - they got some cracking Pinnatifida plants in this week :D .

We've started to think about livestock now, and will be adding a load of amano shrimp in a couple of weeks, and a large shoal of otos too. later on the main shoaling fish will be added - I'm edging towards a big shoal of white cloud mountain minnows at the minute ;)

Tony
 
This is a cracking tank Tony and great choice of hardscape from what I can imagine was slim pickings!

It's awesome to hear that the public are really taking an interest, great work Tony.
 
Hi Tony,i have been following this since day one,and what a cracking job you have done,love the layout and the planting,its going to look great when its grown in,

My local MA are moving to new site across worcester and David the owner has asked me if i would be interested in doing a low light setup for them :thumbup: ,so i am looking forward to having a go myself,

regards,
john.
 
Thanks guys :D

john starkey said:
My local MA are moving to new site across worcester and David the owner has asked me if i would be interested in doing a low light setup for them ,so i am looking forward to having a go myself,

Good stuff John :thumbup: I'm really enjoying doing it, and seeing the positive response it gets from people seeing it in the flesh - not something you often get when the tank is in your own home.

Aeropars said:
Can I ask what you are using to get good CO2 distribution? I didnt see a filter listed.

Hi Lee. Theres a TMC Power Diffuser ( http://www.tmc-ltd.co.uk/planted-tank/aquagro-power-diffusers.asp ) in the back right of the tank. Its a fairly new product, which is stocked by the store so we were keen to use it. So far it seems to be doing a great job, though aesthetically its not that great bring in the tank.

Tony
 
Tony Swinney said:
Theres a TMC Power Diffuser ( http://www.tmc-ltd.co.uk/planted-tank/aquagro-power-diffusers.asp ) in the back right of the tank. Its a fairly new product, which is stocked by the store so we were keen to use it. So far it seems to be doing a great job, though aesthetically its not that great bring in the tank.
Can these be used externally too, Tony?

I guess it's inside the tank to give it more 'views'?
 
A little update on this one....

We had an outbreak of diatoms last week, so upped the water changes to 50% daily, making sure to agitate the plants and brush the rocks before and during the water removal, so as to get rid of as much of the diatoms as possible. We also introduced 5 oto's and about 15 amano shrimp too as a cleaning crew.

I got over to the store today for a look, and it's doing pretty well. The diatoms have all but gone, and the glosso and acicularis are rooting well, and spreading too. I was pleased to see the riccia has recovered well, as it was looking a little sorry for itself last week.

We've concluded that the supposed E Tennelus that we were provided with, and had assumed was in it's emmersed form, is actually Sagittaria Natans ( thanks for the id Mark :thumbup: ) :wideyed: It's throwing out runners like mad, with plenty of new plantlets, so is obviously quite happy in there, but it just doesn't look quite right as it is paler then the E Tennelus would have been and means all the plants are the same shade. I think we'll see how it goes, and will add some other crypts initially, maybe walkerii to add some reddish tones. If the Sagittaria tries to take over it may have to come out.

Here's a couple of pics off the phone today after I trimmed things a little...

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Thanks for looking :)

Tony
 
Wey hey, that looks awesome!!!

If it were me, i'd bin the Sagittaria natans at the front and leave it at the back, it looks great back there.

Have you thought about a white background to contrast with the dark stones?
 
Thanks guys :)

Dan Crawford said:
i'd bin the Sagittaria natans at the front and leave it at the back, it looks great back there.

Have you thought about a white background to contrast with the dark stones?

I think you're right Dan - thats where I'm thinking of a few crypts ( where the foreground sag is ). Something like walkeri ? I'd like wendtii brown but in a Parva size !

I may yet go back to plan A, and introduce some Tennelus - I'm about to rip loads out of my optiwhite :)

White background might be a nice touch - I'll get one ordered and give it a go.

I'd like to do some proper pics of this in a few weeks, but its position in the shop makes that tricky. It'd have to be done out of opening hours so i could turn all the other lights off, and get the flash lights in.

Any suggestions for stocking ??? We'll be adding some cherries next week, as they'll pop put against the greens, but fish ??? A large shoal of white cloud minnows would be nice and simple ?

Tony
 
Another little update...

Things continue well :) Theres a little bit of very fine brown algae evident on the glosso and riccia, but its very minor. We're adding some more ottos today to clean that up. The water changes continue at 50% daily with remineralised RO.

I realised that the CO2 wasnt coming on early enough ( it was on at 10 am ) so we've now adjusted that to an 8am start to make better use of the photoperiod - we now have 2 tubes on from 11am to 6pm, and another 2 on from 1pm to 2pm.

I've followed Dans suggestions, and pulled out the Saggitaria that was in the foreground, and added some E.Tennelus from my optiwhite tank. Only about 20 plants for now, but hopefully I can train them towards the back of the tank, and gradually let it take over the Sag. The tank looks better for it straight away.

We've also changed to a white background - again I think its an improvement, giving a lighter, more airy feel to the display. The left hand rock is reallly annoying me, as its appearing alot lighter than the others. Its partially due to the fact that its slipped down flatter so is catching the light alot more. We're gong to try propping it up again to see if that helps.

We did lose another shrimp this week, and it looks like the deaths might be due to dosing salts straight from the back ( ie undissolved ). The guys in the shop spotted a couple of the shrimp appearing to eat the salts if they could get to them before they dissolved. This theory also ties in with me losing a load of cherry shrimp which I'd put down to poor water quality, but actually tied in with me dosing salts straight to the tank. from now on I'm only adding salts dissolved into tank water :oops:

Apparently a ukaps member has been in there to see it - who was that then :?: :?: :?: :D
Tony

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chilled84 said:
If you look closely lol The guy in the backround of one of them pics has been caught zipping his fly low up lol :lol:

I am a bit concerned about you chilly spotting that :lol: ,tank is looking super swish Tony,i see what you mean about the stone thats slipped down,easily fixed though,all in all exellent scape :thumbup: ,

john.
 
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