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Re: Shale Combe. My 20l - 2nd attempt. NEW LED LIGHT

Eboeagles

Eboeagles

Member
Joined
20 Mar 2011
Messages
340
Location
London
This is my updated 20L Dennerle nano - "Shale Combe" The original scape "A Japanese garden of Sorts" didn't really turn out how I planned, with the stems the only real plants that thrived and it just felt like a total mess...

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I rescaped a month or so ago with slate/shale I had collected on my summer holiday in Devon. It was all picked up from Tunnels Beaches in Ilfracombe (an amazing place with more rock pools that you can imagine). The whole beach was made up of shale and slate, so I came away with a couple of my daughters buckets full of tiny pieces!
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I was originally intending it for use on another scape I hadn't yet fully visualised, but I was hoping for a new tank so I could try my hand at an Iwagumi based on the Tunnels Beaches pic, but this got put on the back burner by the war office! and then one night this seemed to come together when I'd had rather too much red wine!

The specs:

Tank: Dennerle 20L
CO2: TMC 95g Pro set - 1-2 per second
Filter: Azoo Mignon 150 HOB
Lighting: Superfish 18w - 8 hours a day
Substrate: ADA Amazonia Powder (reused from the original scape) over some Tropica plant substrate.
Hardscape: Devon slate (boiled several times) & Driftwood (reused from original scape)
Dosing: Tropica TPN + - 2ml once a week
Flora: Blyxa Japonica, Postegmon Helferi, Proserpinaca Paulustris 'cuba', Bolboltis, Needle Leaf Java fern, Hydrocotyle sp. Japan Fissidens fontanus, Flame moss and Xmas moss (I think) on the driftwood and on some slate - I had a lot of moss which got mixed up so I'm not too sure what it is now! I've also just added a couple of small bits of slate with some Coral pellia under a mesh.
Fauna: 7 Rasbora maculata, 5 pygmy corry's, 4 Cherry shrimp & a couple of assassin snails (to try & rid me of the snail explosion that arrived with some of the plants).

Practise hardscape layout
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Hardscape in
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Planted up & half filled
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Filled and in place and up and running for a month
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The Bolboltis which I received in great health from a member happily settled into my other tank, but had an outbreak of BBA within a week and after dosing with Excell for the past week or so is looking burnt and rather forlorn (as you can see) so I'm thinking I should trim right back - advice please?

This also did it for my Vallisneria nana - but from previous experience I know this doesn't take well to Excell so I've already trimmed this back and hope it will live to fight another day once I stop with the daily flourish dossing (it worked for me before).

I'm pretty sure the algae issues (I also have a bit of hair algae) have been due to too much light and inconsistent CO2 + I realised I've been over dossing on the TPN+ for the size of tank, so I have addressed all of these issues in the last week and I hope to see the benefit in the next couple of weeks.

I am aware I probably already have too many plant species in the tank, but I can't help thinking I need some stems maybe with some colour or something at the back to add contrast, but also help combat any algae going forward. I'm thinking something like Hygrophila Pinnatifida, or maybe Aponogeton crispus 'red'. Any suggestions would be happily received.

Over Christmas I invested in a TMC mini LED and i have just set this up over the last couple of days, with the light period on for 5 hours. So I'm looking for a TMC controller but also due to overcrowding around the rim I think I'm also going to change to a Dennerle eckfilter and if the tank progresses I may bite the bullet and go for an external with lily pipes etc.

I can't seem to do it justice with a camera - I will keep trying though and hopefully once I'm running with no issues the pics will do it justice.

As always comments and advice welcome please!
 
Re: Shale Combe. My 20l - 2nd attempt.

looks really good, it looks good where it's positioned as well. The TMC led's are very good looking lights aren't they.
 
Re: Shale Combe. My 20l - 2nd attempt.

Looks great, im setting up a 25L soon, what kind of moss is that?

EDIT - Nevermind saw the plant list, missed it!!
 
So as usual I've not been happy with the scape and been constantly fiddling - there is a problem with the shale as every time I do a water change it moves, so this is quite time consuming making sure there isn't too much exposed soil at the front and each week the scape looks slightly different!

I've also introduced an internal filter, so I still have my HOB running at present until the internal is ready.

Anyway to the point! I've been trying various light units including my recently sold TMC mini 400, but this was a bit big and looked slightly ridiculous over the tank. So after Neil spotting an interesting light unit in Juri's Hannover post after chatting with Juri I have one:

viewtopic.php?f=21&t=19824

Here it is:
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IMO the unit is rather reminiscent of the light you get with the Tropica Aquacube (which is my favourite nano)

My pics don't quite do it justice as I need to sort out my camera settings and to be honest his photo is far better, but hey I'm excited by the aesthetics...

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It will need to settle on the tank for a few weeks before I can see the plant growth as I've been chopping and changing the lighting since the end of January. But so far I'm loving it!
 
Emyr said:
That light looks great. What make is it and where did you buy it from?
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They aren't on sale as yet - you need to contact Juri above!
 
Very nice led dude! Looks much brighter than the tmcs. What optics are on it?
 
Where was the aquasys led from? Can't find it on google or is that not the brand?
 
They aren't in production yet. you need to contact Juri - Jur4ik he's in this thread
 
Eboeagles said:
They aren't in production yet. you need to contact Juri - Jur4ik he's in this thread
Click to expand...

Ive pm'd him. How hot does the light get?
 
Well it started when I had the mini led400 on there - the top looked very unsightly & crowded + now with my new light it spoils the aesthetics!

Saying that though currently I have both running as I'm waiting for the new filter to mature.

I have no carpet plants but the flow on that HOB seemed good enough to me
 
Some new photos this week.
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I finally feel like I'm more in control and I have more of an idea what I'm doing, after a year on a steep learning cure.

I've stopped fiddling so much and tried to keep everything constant - far easier since hooking up a proper FE (thanks Matt).

The plants look pretty healthy to my eye's - although I probably have too ay different kinds! I'm still not happy with the back as I don't think the Rotala works in there. I did envisage a curtain of Juncus repens - but this hasn't really grown much (you can't really see it in the pics - its back left). I'm thinking of trimming it hard as I just planted it and didn't trim as I loved the look of it. Any advice for this?

Current regime:
Custom light from Juri - the best light I've owned and well worth the money - 6 hours per day
Dennerle nano filter
CO2 - 2 bubbles per second (an hour before lights on)
EI dosing & weekly water change.

Flora:
Blyxa Japonica, Postegmon Helferi, Bolboltis, Needle Leaf Java fern, Rotla Rotundifolio Hydrocotyle sp. Japan, Fissidens fontanus, Juncus repens, Ranunculus inundatus, Flame moss and Xmas moss (I think) on the driftwood and on some slate

The slate has been a total pain and constantly shifts, so another lesson, but I quite like the way the rock hardscpae is slightly different after every water change.
 
Fantastic little setup. I very much like the Shale substrate.
How easy was it to plant the Blyxa? Where youve placed them in the slate, is there any substrate or are they just feeding from the water column?

Any updates on this mate? :)
 
Ha thanks but I've recently rescaped. I loved the shale too but the up-keep became very tiresome.

Basically it was a hill of amazonia held back with plastic strips and then some thin slate acting as a wall with piles of the shale leading into congo sand so most of the plants were planted into amazonia with some shale arranged round them and then the moss was tied onto the slate.

The problem was the hill kept slipping so at every water change I was re arranging the shale + towards the end there was a lot of the amazonia down the front and the hill was smaller! So every week the quick water change became a mad mission and the tank was (and still is) at shoulder level so it wasn't exactly in the easiest position for maintenance.

Also I was never really happy with the planting - this is the bit I find hardest - choosing the correct plants and giving them the time to bed is very challenging for an impatient amateur like me.

I think cubes are a massive challenge to make interesting as most are pretty boring unless you use a lot of hard scape and the planting gets more difficult the more hard scape you use.

New scape pics coming soon - just tweaking...

On another note I have a bag full of free shale if anyone wants! Mainly very small pieces though so only useful for a very small nano...
 
Eboeagles said:
Ha thanks but I've recently rescaped. I loved the shale too but the up-keep became very tiresome.

Basically it was a hill of amazonia held back with plastic strips and then some thin slate acting as a wall with piles of the shale leading into congo sand so most of the plants were planted into amazonia with some shale arranged round them and then the moss was tied onto the slate.

The problem was the hill kept slipping so at every water change I was re arranging the shale + towards the end there was a lot of the amazonia down the front and the hill was smaller! So every week the quick water change became a mad mission and the tank was (and still is) at shoulder level so it wasn't exactly in the easiest position for maintenance.

Also I was never really happy with the planting - this is the bit I find hardest - choosing the correct plants and giving them the time to bed is very challenging for an impatient amateur like me.

I think cubes are a massive challenge to make interesting as most are pretty boring unless you use a lot of hard scape and the planting gets more difficult the more hard scape you use.

New scape pics coming soon - just tweaking...

On another note I have a bag full of free shale if anyone wants! Mainly very small pieces though so only useful for a very small nano...
Click to expand...

Yeah mate, I understand! My fluval Ebi is similar to this shape.
I think tanks look a lot better and are easier to work with, with a long horizontal margin rather than a vertical one.
Looking forward to see what you've done with her. If I don't sell my Ebi, I think Im going to have manzi stood vertically like roots with blackwater setup. :)
 
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