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My journey so far :)

Martin cape

Member
Joined
21 Dec 2012
Messages
611
Location
Workington
Here's some pics of my tank so far. EI dosing, injecting CO2, lights on for 6 hours :)

This was the tank after a week of dosing and injecting:

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Here it is today after 5 weeks of dosing and injecting :):

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So far I'm running two filters side by side before I can take out the internal.

External is a JBL e1501. Got the Koralia 900 running too.

Pleased with progress so far. Just changed to external Hydor heater and Sera reactor 1000 for CO2:

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Really good growth from first planting, and your plants look nice and healthy too - are you planning on removing the internal filter while its all planted and full?
 
Yep. Gonna have to do it really carefully. Should be fine. All water movement will be off. Just getting the sealant off might be difficult.
 
Wow, what a transformation in those few weeks, growth now looks really healthy!

Best way to take the internal filter out I found is with a wallpaper scraper, gently ease it down the back and sides, it will cut the silicon to a certain extent, then use a sharp Stanley blade to remove the rest. I'd do it while you have a water change. Remove all the filter material before you pull it out the water or all the gunk will run back into the tank.
 
Wow, what a transformation in those few weeks, growth now looks really healthy!

Best way to take the internal filter out I found is with a wallpaper scraper, gently ease it down the back and sides, it will cut the silicon to a certain extent, then use a sharp Stanley blade to remove the rest. I'd do it while you have a water change. Remove all the filter material before you pull it out the water or all the gunk will run back into the tank.

Cool, cheers ill try that. Doing it this Saturday when its water change day. They will have been running side by side or 2 weeks then and I rinsed the seeded filters into the new one so should be ok. Plus Clive said a lot of the bacteria will be in the substrate too.

Just ordered some Hemianthus callitrichoides, going to make a little bit of a carpet around the bases of the wood.
 
Haha. Forgot about them little guys. They better not. To be fair they don't do much digging really.
 
Looks good, great start.:thumbup:

I do thing the Cory's will disrupt the HC, if any food gets in it they will dig into it and lift it.

If it was already established you might get away with it.
 
It'll be fine. Only have 2 corys and the current drags the food to the opposite side. How long does it take for it to bed in?
 
Here's another update:

Tank is now totally sorted. Internal is out. Running 2 Koralia Nano's either side of the spray bar.

Dosing EI and injecting CO2 for 8 weeks now. The stems plants at either side of the tank had a good trim back last week to get some side shoots going.

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Hi Martin,
You need to get rid of at least some of the swords. They are dominating the tank at the expense of the other plants. Their size blocks flow and distribution. Now, validate your technique by growing something more challenging and less hooligan.

Cheers,
 
less hooligan,

Haha I like that. Yea they do get a bit big. I have 3. I think the one at the back is ok. Think its more the one at the front that may need to go. Would you get rid of them all?

What would be a good alternative?
 
Well, I like swords for tank startup because they are fast growing and their root structure helps to build bacterial populations in the sediment tremendously, but if you notice, swords don't appear very often in the better scapes. Once they have done their job, just trade them away for smaller leafed varieties. These swords look particularly obtuse in your size tank. You know, if it were a 1000L tank or something like that then that would be different. What happened to your Althenathera? Can you grow those as large?

As in Xbox gaming, you need to "level up" with some other types, Rotala, Limnophilia, Blyxa. How about mosses on hardscape? Even try Staurogyne as a carpet or on hardscape. Goodness, even the various types of ferns, such as needle leaf are easier to look at and don't have that kind of urban sprawl. The idea is to learn how certain plants grow and what their special needs are, if any, and then you will have a better idea how to combine them in a scape.

Cheers,
 
Hi Clive,

I still have the Althenathera, its towards the back in the middle ish. It's a very slow growing plant. Much thicker stem than the other stem plants I have. It's growing well though. Think ill google some of those plants you suggested as I'm not familiar with them.

I have some flame moss and java moss on some of the wood, just taking a while for it to grow and spread. Don't want to take the wood out to tie it on. So basically jamming bits into cracks where it eventually grows.
 
wow that is a lot of power heads!! how is this tank not being used as a washing machine :p

plants look lush though, how long has it been set up like this?
 
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