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Fleabilly tank journal 0001

fleabilly

Member
Joined
9 Sep 2012
Messages
147
Location
London
Today I started on a new tank.

After Christmas holidays I came home, and found that my spraybar had done great job of watering the carpet. One rug doctor and dehumidifier later, room is back to normal. But I see this as an opportunity for change.

Broke down previous tank and sold it on eBay. Took the money I got for that, and bought a bigger tank from Danny. (610x510x450) My favourite larger fish died in the spraybar incident, but the tetras are still kicking, so I dumped them into the shrimp tank along with some favourite plants where they well camp til I build up the new tank. (Might I point out that in my 32l crap tank with a sponge filter and a really crap florescent bulb, I am getting amazing growth in my moss and other plants...things I could never grow with my older larger co2 injected heavy circulated and filtered tank)

I had unused lumber in the shed, so I borrowed my friends circular saw, drew up some plans, and built a cabinet today. It is a bit of a skeleton job. I plan on putting drawers and a side door for the canister, when I have some more cash, but it will do. I set out to drill the tank I bought from Danny today, but soon realised that the bottom was tempered. (Smash!) After cleaning that mess up, I bought a sheet of 6mm from around the corner, (£15) drilled that, and ordered aquarium silicone so I can glue it up. I got my plumbing from fishfurandfeathers, Splitting the intake into the corners, and will play with options of a rear spraybar... Either shooting up or straight across the substrate. I will hopefully spend some time trying out and refining the circulation before I start to plant.

ebetu6eb.jpg


SUBSTRATE:
I have two big bags of akadama double red. I plan on soaking it in some dry ferts for a week or so. The sand from below the substrate on my old tank was saved. I think I will use it to build up terrain and hopefully benefit from any bacteria still kicking around from the previous setup. I also have some tropica substrate that I thought I might layer in the tank for good measures. I read somewhere that someone had done that and had good results.

HARDSCAPE:
I have been kicking around the idea of creating a urban landscape. Not the typical Ansel Adams / ADA Green machine version we all lust over. I'm originally from Texas. Houston Texas... an area where it is mostly flat and everything is concrete, or surrounded by concrete. I got to thinking about casting miniature structural elements in the tank. Parking garage, fly over, culverts...etc etc. but then work that into the textural element of java moss, carpet plants and other types of plants that would lend themselves to this landscape. I like the idea of building something in the tank, and then let nature over run it. (Mind you I do have a sculpture degree that I have not used in a while) also the humor element of introducing cherry shrimp as the inhabitants of this world. There is a hundred ideas kicking around in my head, but for now, I just need to figure out what works and what doesn't. A friend of mine in Texas works with epoxy resins used to make fake coral and he has set me up with an amount for starts. This tank, I plan on making a culvert channel and a drain pipe. I'll see how it goes... Or at least I will make a galant effort to document these challenges.

Very raw ipad sketch using 123d design ans some drawing program...

pynamy9a.jpg


Any thoughts?

Cheers

R






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Going to be interesting to see what this turns out like, is it the picture or is the right hand side of the cabinet not sitting on the floor? Are you going to have front and rear supports too?
 
One to watch


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Going to be interesting to see what this turns out like, is it the picture or is the right hand side of the cabinet not sitting on the floor? Are you going to have front and rear supports too?


I cut the back corner so I could make a pull out drawer for the eheim 2217.
May be a while though.

R


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Built the molds and cast the two culvert elements.
Going out tonight.
Hopefully, I'll crack it open tomorrow morning.

R


ze2e7u7a.jpg



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There was a guy with usename Globali. He created somthing new. Not exactly the same, but it looked like man made structures and kind of looked like nature taking over. I believe it was called "Urban Aquascaping" or somthing close to that. Certainly interesting and a path amongst many to take aquascaping forward.
 
Yea I found that guy on practical fish keeping...
Not quite what I am thinking...
But interesting.

u3arenyd.jpg


I pulled the castings from the mould today... Has been a while since I have done any casting. Did not use enough release, so had to chip a bit of the cast in order to get it out. Thought about recasting, but the snowfall today kept that idea from materialising.
And anyway the chips and crack add to the look.

Also toying with the idea of no substrate, just concrete and moss and bladderwort.
Even controlled algae growth...

Speaking of, has any body toyed with allowing certain algae to grow. What are the plus and minuses of that? As fare as fish and or water chemistry?

R


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I ran across this image...

IMG_9835.jpg


How difficult would it be to sustain a level of algae without swinging one way or the other?

R


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I love the idea of something totally contemporary. There are only so many Iwagumis and Jungles and Golden ratio scapes you can look at before wanting to do something different. I am looking forward to seeing this one materialise. I loved the look of the tunnel from your iPAD sketch... especially if you can make it so that fish can swim into it and then out from somewhere else ;)
 
I love the idea of something totally contemporary. There are only so many Iwagumis and Jungles and Golden ratio scapes you can look at before wanting to do something different. I am looking forward to seeing this one materialise. I loved the look of the tunnel from your iPAD sketch... especially if you can make it so that fish can swim into it and then out from somewhere else ;)
Love the tunnel idea !

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Sorry for the absence. Tax time left me a bit skint, and with lots of time to rethink things. Initially I had a landscape planned. Built something with an experiment using styrofoam as a filler.
uqe2eqy7.jpg


I Siliconed the styro together, carved a landscape, then siliconed it to the floor of the tank. Hopefully with substrate on top it would have been fine. But I was having trouble with the plaster. And decided to go another route.

Given the lack of funds I figured I would just model something on the computer and work out the set up and what have you. I have been very keen to recreate one of london's brutalist concrete buildings. I live right down the street from the Alexandra Road Estate and would love to build that in a tank full of shrimp and tetras. I figure either make elements from marine resin or just fired clay, or maybe possibly glass or acrylic...
Here is some images from a 3D render...
ypy2y5y4.jpg

yqumuzun.jpg


I have a moss tree waiting in the shrimp tank. I thought it would be nice to uses mostly moss in the new tank. I have done really nothing to the moss in the shrimp tank... No co2, no fert, just regular water change, a sponge filter, and a really crap light. Simplicity. Funny there was bits of plants that have grown that I could never get going in the hitech tank...
tymejy5u.jpg

rapygy4y.jpg


This morning I took a couple of bags of akadama and placed them in a mixture of ferts based on JamesC's directions. I'll leave that a week then lay the soil in next week. What ever structure, I put in the tank, does not really require any specific terrain, plus it might take more time to get a carpet going and finding the time and money to build the structures... Plus the fish are fighting for space in the smaller tank, and really need to be moved into a larger one.

Suns out, spring is here soon, so things will pick up, hopefully.

Cheers

R

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Today I managed to get the filter up and running, and tested out the circulation...
Looks good. Now I just need to sort out the substrate.


 
Two months later, and I finally have gotten back to this tank. It seemed every day another procrastic idea kept me busy. I have toyed with building a sump... building architectural elements for placement in the tank... Or selling the tank altogether.

But it dawned on me today that I have everything to set up the tank. I had bought akadama and it has been stewing in fertz for a month now. i have tropica substrate, and some oscote. No money needs to be spent. might a well take advantage of the weather and do something constructive.

I mentioned in another post about constructing trees out if wire and hot glue. I have a very small 3ltr nano tank that I built a small bonsai over rock. I have glued moss to the branch ends and some riccia around the roots. It has been set up for a month ,and the moss is just starting to grow...

gy5ysejy.jpg


Curious of what the moss will look like when it grows in.

After finishing the nano tank, I had high ambitions for a larger hot glue bonsai for the big tank, so I began mocking one up, but this one looks more like a Tim burton prop than a stilted japanese tree. Might just be a bit over the top, but what the hell. I built a small hill out of styrofoam, then propped the tree on top around some driveway slate that I had nicked from my neighbour across the street. I figure he won't miss it. Just felt silly asking him.
as soon as i was happy with the placement, lay a bit of sand inside the rock formation, and about a half inch of tropica substrate with a light sprinkle of oscote, topped with about 2 inches of akadama sloping to the rear.

Starting to realise that it might be a bit of overkill, because most of my plants initially will be moss and bladderwort. But down the line when money becomes familiar, I will invest in plants. But for now I have an abundance of Java moss and riccia.

Tomorrow I will add water and plants. I toyed with DSM, but figured I would rather shoot for a fish less cycle. The only reason a kill plants I have found, is because I am too quick to add hungry critters that lay waste to them. I would be fine with a month or two of fish less growth period. About co2... I have a FE system. Should I blast the plants with co2? (Given the fish less cycle) if so, what is the best rate?

Cheers

R

y2a9ype5.jpg

aqerujas.jpg

ymuhyha2.jpg

asadegym.jpg




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Yesterday I pulled the plants from the smaller tank and placed them in the new tank. I also took the java moss that was attached to a dead bonsai trunk, and anchored it on the ground of the new tank. Some riccia has established itself in the java moss, so it makes a nice ground covering for the new tank. There was a very large moss ball that was breaking up, I pulled it apart and took small sections of that and stuffed it into cracks in my rock formation. I was curious if anyone has ever used this as ground covering, or if it will continue to grow? I know the moss ball exist because of a tumbling behaviour in current, but not sure how it will fare attached (or wedged) into hard scape. Also chopped up both riccia and java moss and superglued it to the hot glue bonsai tree i made, and the riccia in cracks in the stone. I found at maplin's they sell a thick brush on superglue. This worked quite well when attaching plants to hard scape.

Once everything was planted I filled the tank. The akadama was still a bit dusty, so it may be a day or so before I can see anything in the tank. But I have a few images.

yvutanyp.jpg

Brush on superglue then attached chopped up java moss.
usejytu6.jpg


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Water cleared and here are some images of the tank...

5u5u8ebe.jpg

edemabed.jpg

jehaga3u.jpg


I would like to add these...

Pogostemon erectus
Eleocharis sp
Alternanthera reineckii . Roseafolia
Rotala macrandra
Ludwigia repens 'Rubin'
Monosolenium tenerum

Hopefully it will look like this...

ypy2ury6.jpg


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