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GHOST TREES 1.0 "Day 55 Post Flood"

Re: GHOST TREES 1.0 "Life in the Aquatic"

7.4.12
Life In The Aquatic

Tossed a dozen Amanos in the tank that I picked up from sixth ave. These were healthy looking ones from one of the tanks that I have kept my eye on and things for the most part seem to be ok. I am always skeptical buying fish or anything living for that matter from the place due to the vast amount of dead fish you always see in the tanks etc... However you are free to high grade all you want so that is what I did with this dozen.

Grabbing another dozen tomorrow and with that population the cleaning party should be well under way. :D Happy lil Amanos. They have nice color there ones too each one I picked I tried to make sure they were all at least an inch long and colorful not white and pale colored. Here is a few shots of the first inhabitants of the Ghost Tree water world.

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Re: GHOST TREES 1.0 "Otto-Clean"

7.6.12
Otto-Clean Update

Ok so tank is on Otto & Amano clean mode mode literally, I got 13 Ottocinclus in there now along with about 15 Amanos, things are looking better each time I pass by it. I never really saw a significant impact on algae with the couple of Otto's I have kept in the past. Not till you get a group of about 8 or more do you really see there impact. Today I watched a cluster of them clean and detail the whole back corner of my tank and knock out all the algae on the glass and slime that was clinging to me Marsilea Minuta in that section.

Otto Clean in Prog Do Not Disturb:
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The Amanos en mass make a huge impact too, they are like little dentist cleaners with many many little hands picking away multiple that by like 6-8 in one area and BOOM like a micro abrasion exfoliation! :!: After a half dozen or so tag team an area for a while and leave it you look at it and the rock it's stark white in comparison to the area untouched by the shrimp. Same goes for my wood to the had some wood snot on it as well as some algae attaching to the Mini Pellia. They are both great cleaners but I find my self gazing into the tank like the "watched pot" syndrome waiting for the shrimp to magically make the algae vanish instantly. I find better satisfaction checking in every few hours, I see more noticeable results.

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Re: GHOST TREES 1.0 "Otto-Clean"

7.6.12
Otto-Clean Update

Ok so tank is on Otto & Amano clean mode mode literally, I got 13 Ottocinclus in there now along with about 15 Amanos, things are looking better each time I pass by it. I never really saw a significant impact on algae with the couple of Otto's I have kept in the past. Not till you get a group of about 8 or more do you really see there impact. Today I watched a cluster of them clean and detail the whole back corner of my tank and knock out all the algae on the glass and slime that was clinging to me Marsilea Minuta in that section.

Otto Clean in Prog Do Not Disturb:
559186_10150996935749583_415848370_n.jpg


8055_10150996934839583_840275363_n.jpg


529068_10150996939799583_218794684_n.jpg


255321_10150996939294583_176609441_n.jpg


The Amanos en mass make a huge impact too, they are like little dentist cleaners with many many little hands picking away multiple that by like 6-8 in one area and BOOM like a micro abrasion exfoliation! :!: After a half dozen or so tag team an area for a while and leave it you look at it and the rock it's stark white in comparison to the area untouched by the shrimp. Same goes for my wood to the had some wood snot on it as well as some algae attaching to the Mini Pellia. They are both great cleaners but I find my self gazing into the tank like the "watched pot" syndrome waiting for the shrimp to magically make the algae vanish instantly. I find better satisfaction checking in every few hours, I see more noticeable results.

582784_10150996938789583_1863531839_n.jpg
 
Re: GHOST TREES 1.0 "Otto-Clean"

Ok so I just tested the water perimeters in my the tank and they are as follows 8)

PH: 6.8
TDS: 100
Temp: 22.8 Celsius
 
GHOST TREES 1.0 "Otto-Clean"

No RO water yet just straight from the Tap. Here in SF we are pretty lucky with the water. I am though looking into RO/DI units for added clarity although I can manage with out it.


From the mud grows a Lotus~
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk.
 
Re: GHOST TREES 1.0 "Otto-Clean"

Algae continues to thin by the day, the Amano's continue to do their thing. They are such good detail cleaners. I don't think there is a more thorough and delicate cleaner. I would trust them to dust fine china as meticulous as they are. They do dither about a little but if they are one to one spot in the tank they will return to it and clean it to a sparkling almost sanitary like cleanliness. I have recently observed a group of them work over the course of a few days on some of the rocks one my tank and they are no showing a color and clean appearance that is totally stark white in comparison to the color it once was. Like some one took and pressure washer to it... So at the end of the Day who has earned their keep more otto' s or the amanos. I gotta say the amanos are better bang for your buck. I catch my otto's sleeping at times and or just see them laying on the substrate doing NOTHING.... slackers... I take back "Otto-Clean" I said earlier. They do clean but side by side my amanos have done the brunt of the house keeping so far.

So how are things besides algae you ask? When are the CPD's going in?
When are more shrimp being addded?

Soon. Water perimeters perfect on today's reading. The Akadama DRL is doing the job keeping the PH ideal for healthy inverts both Neos and Cardina's here are today's numbers:

Temp: 22.3
PH: 6.3/6.4
TDS:135/140

CPD's are not far off, maybe this weekend. I just need to make sure I turn off the CO2 for a day before I transfer them over from the non CO2 tank to their new digs. Probably another week or so after that till I toss in a nice Blue Rilli starter population. After that well I'll be off and rolling.
 
Re: GHOST TREES 1.0 "Otto-Clean"

Fish will be added today... I have shut down the CO2 for now, going to do one last big water change then let it settle then add my 20+ CPD's Housewarming party is about to be underway.
 
Re: GHOST TREES 1.0 "Otto-Clean"

Love your posts.
Looking forward to the new additions and pics :thumbup:
 
Re: GHOST TREES 1.0 "Growing In"

Growing in...
7.17.12
Ok so it's been a few weeks since the flood and the tank has been going through its phases and hasn't been the most photogenic lately. Well things are finally starting to come around and the algae is slowly fading away to just a memory. Plants are taking root and things are really looking like they are about to giddie-up and get growing. All the plants on the shelves are putting down roots towards the bottom of the cascade and some have even reached the waters surface and and going straight down into the the submersed hardscape. I see lots of shoots of new fresh green growth coming fro everything if I look close enough and long enough.

Here are the latest shots of some new growth and a FTS, Enjoy.

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Ok so this moss in the center of the shot below I have no ID what variety it is, not sure where it came from either.
Any help on the ID, its the spike one? I also have on the branch some flame moss some Mini Pellia and also some Riccia that attached itself.
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Re: GHOST TREES 1.0 "Growing In"

It looks similar to one of the mosses I brought back in April. I am pretty sure that's the same one. I got it originally from LondonDragon, and he got it from some trade show in Holland I believe. You will find that it grows everywhere and starts appearing in random places throughout the tank, even growing on the silicone. It's also a bit of a micro-moss, staying quite small. It kind of weeps too.
 
8.6.12

So it's been a little while since I have posted any pics and I thought I would share a handful of current pics I took this morning. Still working with a mediocre camera so I apologize for the shot quality. I tried to post edit as many of I could to look as best as possible however like anyone who has seen it in person. Pics will never do the tank justice for what its worth.

Enjoy

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loving the sundew, some very nice angles and views you have created.
 
at first i could not grasp what this tank was all about. I just did not get it , (in proper josh baskin fashion ) but now it is obviously one of the most impressive set-ups i have seen.
 
Re: GHOST TREES 1.0 "Day 55 Post Flood"

Day 72 post flood.

Happy Labor Day weekend everyone. I hope you all are enjoying the last throws of summer out there. Us here in San Francisco have barely experienced summer as we wait for OUR summer months of September and October and the Indian Summer afternoons. Ahhhhh. Soon enough lets hope. I have been sneaking away on the weekend to the North to get some warm weather and Vitamin D in the way of Sunshine 8) .

Thought I would update with a few new pics and let everyone know how things are progressing in the tank. As far as a progress report I have to report that the upper emersed stairs are becoming very grown in and green all around. I have been doing some thinning of the Riccia and Flame moss and every time a trim and weed some of it from the submersed section I just kinda pile it on the black lava rocks on the cascade and it has all kind of adapted to an emersed growing regiment and working well to fill in the cascades and look lush and green. Also I tucked in some nooks and crannys some HC that has taken well and has begun to carpet and creep nicely and naturally where ever in wants. I also have done the same with some UG I picked up from some fellow members and that also is thriving and doing wonders emersed on the cascade. The combination of emersed foreground plants including HC, UG, Riccia and the patches of flame moss will create and nice dense growing base and sea of green on the cascade soon enough.

The Fern I brought back from Hawaii continues to put out new leaves like every two weeks now and I swear the all the emersed plants that I brought back from HI are growing at an exponential rate right now. I anticipate blooms from about half the orchids this winter and that is there natural bloom season. Should be quite exciting to see what blooms.

What about subsurface you ask? What about my fish? Plants? and Shrimps?

Well the Shrimp are not there yet except for the 11 or so Amanos I have in there from the start. The CPD population is stable and there have been no jumpers or fatalities I have witnessed. I did loose 1 of the 4 Endlers Guppies and she was a jumper who I could not save she jumped twice before and I happened to be around to toss her back in however the last time she jumped I wasn't home and found her dried up on the floor. RIP :(

The carpet of Mini Pellia is doing good however I need to weed out the Riccia routinely until I completely eradicate it from the submersed section as it clings to the Mini pellia and inter twines itself within it.

Here are the latest pics. Enjoy.

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Here is a Video I took to give you all a better idea of the lush flow:

YouTube


Well never mind embedding the video I still have a Failing grade it that topic. I guess, here is the URL to the Youtube link. If any of you are good at embedding and it works on your computer feel free to embed the video below in a reply.


From the mud grows a Lotus~
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk.
 
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