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Hunters Realm

Gill

Gill

Member
Joined
17 Mar 2008
Messages
3,916
Location
Coventry
Right so back from a Nightmare of a journey from India, That took nearly 30 hours in total. Was stuck in Munich for most of the day yesterday due to the snow, and managed to fly out just before the airport was closed and left 15000 people stranded.

Did not get a chance to travel round any of the LFS' in Samrala, Doraha, Nuwana Sher, Patiala, Ludhiana,Chandigarh, Jalandhar etc due to the severe weather and freezing fog conditions. And also due to the chaotic wedding plans, ended up going to 4 weddings.

Steves Shrimp and otto's have survived and look to be doing well. have not had a good look in the tank yet. Could not see the female Betta, but she could be hiding.
Not sure how to vac the tank, as don't want to lose any of the shrimplets in the mulm, as there is a heavy layer of it on the substrate.

I am def going to have and open top tank, using the acrylic planting baskets people on here have been using. Will be using alot of bog plants, as they are cheap and always available on ebay all year round. And these give bushier growth for the money. Will use a few ferns and some flowering marginals.
Tank will be heavily planted with just anubias(fave), crypts, hair grass(fave) and Hydrocoytle(in baskets aswell).

Fish wise, I am going to stay in the nano/pico range so can have lots. And will be buying shrimp in bulk as had good results with the quality of them in the past. Fish will be ordered from malaysia/singapore when ready, and I have the BBS hatchery up and running again.
Hardscape will be using just a Single Slate Monolith, as like how it look when used before.
Substrate will keep as playsand, and pound shop pebbles, might try and see if I can find that fine mettalic gravel I used once.

Will give the External a Clean and Mod it with new Taps, as managed to break the other(to heavy handed). Will get the taps from the plumbing supplies, as they work just fine. Flow will be reduced and will used small powerheads to direct flow within the tank.

The K1 Moving bed filter is doing well and is now nice and mature. Now most of you know I do not test the water or do any stats. The water smells nice and earthy and mature so will not do a massive water change, So not to throw it out of kilter.

Will put on LED Bulbs this time, using the pooja frame as a hanging frame, and refit the refit the underwater lighting.

That is all for now, as still need to unpack all the suitcases.
 
sanj said:
Welcome back, I thought you had been absent for quite a long while.
Click to expand...

Yeah had so many weddings to go to, glad to be back and get back into scaping.
Done a water change on the Pico Bowl, and that is thriving with lots of shrimp and micro crabs wandering around. Not bad for 10 weeks with no Food or water added.
 
Cheers mate,glad to be back.
Thanks for the link, some interesting reads on there.
 
Made a Few plant purchases this morning. Just some Hairgrass', going to pop into PAH later to see what they have in plant wise (anubias).
Also bought a couple of LED tubes for lighting the back of the tank from the substrate up. And a Few Nano Powerheads for circulation.
 
Cheers Ian, Glad to be back. Really Going for it this year with the main tank. Got alot of ideas to try out with planting and going to buy some Osmocote to try out this time under the substrate and in the planting baskets.
Pico is doing very well, Mum forgot to feed them, and water had dropped by 3 inches. Only casualty was a rasbora, so nothing to bad.
 
Been out in the snow, Got the planting Baskets I wanted. Thinking about what to use as planting liners, thinking hairnets might be ok ???
PAH was useless, lovely plants but teaming with all sorts of algaes. Going to order some of the plants I need from a few trusted sellers who I have used in the past.
Going to make a start on the tank later today as already bored after a day of being home. There is only so much I can watch online, Have already watched the Hobbitt, Django, Branded etc.
Going to take my time and syphon out the substrate and sift thru for all the snails and shrimp. I still have 1/2 a bag of fluval shrimp substrate to use, so will get to washing that in the sink later today.

Don't think that the hairgrass i left in the dpahnia tub will have survived the snow this last week or so.

Noticed just now that since topping up the pico bowl, have lost 1 of the CRS, so may have upset the levels in it.
 
Finished Tearing down the tank, added the fluval shrimp substrate but not enough. So will pick up another bag of substrate from the range in the week.
Scaped up the wood I had, Did not want to go dig the monolith out of the snow. Used what Anubias I had in there already and it is not bad. Will wait for the rest of the plants to arrive before filling the tank.
When I went to clean out the external the smell was intolerable and had to open the windows in the kitchen, and wifey fuming about the smell. And turing all the ambi pur's on to get rid of the smell. Suppose I should have cleaned it out before going away and not leaving it full of water. Changed over the media and added scrubbers to one of the baskets, and using microfibre cloths as a polisher in the final basket. Have used them before for this and they work really well.

Have decided to add the shrimp and crabs from the pico bowl to boost the numbers of shrimp in this.
Have added one of the LED lights at the substrate level angled upwards, will see how it looks when filled. Got the others on order for the different levels of the tank.
 
Been looking into some different LED Lighting and found this Light Box.
What do you guys think
225 LED Hydroponic Plant Grow Lighting Panel Board Blue & Red Lamp | eBay
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sanj said:
Hmm... grew those plants under that 15w light? I would say not likely.

It could probably grow somthing, I think the picture is misleading looks way out of scale.
Click to expand...

Yeah your right, did look good though. will stick to the LED Tubes and Bulbs.
 
have lost 2 more shrimp from the pico, have placed it into the tank. And will allow the inhabitants to slowly climb out when filling this tank. then remove the bowl to continue the scape.
 
Got some more gravel this afternoon, I chose a brownish coloration, so it should look good.
Got supplies to feed the baskets with a continuous supply of water. Will use a Pico Filter with Airline connected to the Outlet. Then Got a few T-Peices to make a few spouts to direct the water into the baskets.
Fish List is coming in the morning as well as the plant lists, So I can browse what I Like. Will see what is going to be available for the next month, will be a good read.
 
Tank has been filled and external filter switched on. Installed the LED tube, and ordered some lighting. going to try the led box, as just curious as to what it will look like and how marginal plants will do.
 
Just took delivery of 2 Hydor Pico Powerheads. Will Have them in the back corner and 1 pointed out into the tank and 1 pointed along the back to make the background plants sway.
Also some New Alder Cones.
Received the plants from a member on here, and have placed them into one of the shelves untill I am ready tt o plant them.
Also fitted the Small Pump to circulate water to all the planted baskets. Just hooked up airline to the outlet and split the flow using T peices to shoot water into the baskets. Will Attach the others once I buy some Marginals to Plant up.
Also Changed the current lighting, Changed the position on the T8 Tube. Used Heater Clips with Suction to attach to the glass on the front inside panel of the tank. And then Fitted the reflector to it. Will remove this lighting once the LED Box arrives, If the new lighting provides sufficient lighting. I have a Few Clip On Lights ready for extra lighting if needed.
 
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