Nano DSM HC

[Julian]

This will be my second attempt at a nano 'aquascape', my first attempt started off quite well but suffered when I moved house, it's still recovering at the moment. Here's what it looked like before I moved:

I was just going to grow some HC in a flat bed of Aquasoil to replace the HC that died when I moved, but I had some rocks laying around and thought I might as well use them.

Bored out of my brain at work, I started looking through some pictures of other aquascapes trying to find a bit of inspiration. I started drawing some ideas down and settled on this one:

Got everything ordered, took me about 15 minutes to get it how I imagined it:

Added the HC, could possibly use another pot or 2, will get some more in a few days.

This tank has a separate compartment for a filter system at the back, I took all the media out and filled it with water and added a heater to help with the humidity. Also added water to main part of the tank, just below the substrate and gave it a few mists to get things going:

Seems to be working quite well, temp inside the tank is around 30C, don't have a Hygrometer yet but humidity should be sufficient:

All done! Will post back in a week!

 

[aliclarke86]

That hc should fill in no problem mate use another 2 pots and you will already have a full carpet

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

[Julian]

That hc should fill in no problem mate use another 2 pots and you will already have a full carpet

Yeah fair point. I'll wait it out

 

[Deano3]

Love the layout, totally different with the cliffs on the side and path through the middle and the hc should fill in nicely will be watching this one

Dean

 

[Julian]

Love the layout, totally different with the cliffs on the side and path through the middle and the hc should fill in nicely will be watching this one

Dean

Thanks I was a bit unsure about it to be honest, I don't have the money to be able to afford some Seiryu stone at the moment but I like to think I've made the most out of what I've got!

 

[Eboeagles]

Great layout looking forward to seeing this one grown in

 

[Julian]

So a week and a bit on, I had some troubles getting the humidity up. The heater in the back of the tank filled with water wasn't enough to keep it humid in there so I bought a 14w heating mat from ebay which has done the job nicely. My Hygrometer has arrived, I installed it yesterday and I'm sitting at about 90% humidity with temperature around 28 C. Not sure if these conditions are the most optimal but I don't have much control over it as the heating mat doesn't have a thermostat.

Before the heating mat, I noticed that the soil would dry out, especially in the 'higher up' parts, it would be a much lighter colour and look very dry. I used to keep misting it every couple of days to keep it moist, but now that the heating mat is underneath, the extra humidity is keeping everything damp so I don't need to worry about misting so much.

Some of the clumps are showing a bit of browning, but I think this is down to the humidity not being high enough to begin with. There's still enough of the plant alive so I'm hoping they'll grow back. I've also thrown in a few cuttings from the tank on the left to help replace the parts that died.

More pictures next week!

 

[Julian]

I've been neglecting this post lately as I've been having some trouble with this tank! The plants had been growing fine, however, so has some yellow mould!

I tried removing it by taking out as much of the effected substrate as I could. It took a while but it still came back, this time it had spread everywhere.

I figured I must have been doing something differently as I've never seen this with other dry starts, the only thing I could think of was the heating mat which has now been removed. The yellow stuff as definitely slowed down in growth and is no where near as bright as it is in that picture above. I'm hoping it will gradually disappear when I flood the tank. For now, I'm just going to live with it and see what happens!

It's a very strange mould, almost like a fuzz that only grows on the top of the soil. If you look at the tank from the front, you can't really see it until you look from directly above.

Because I had to remove lots of the substrate, I had to move things around to fill in the hole. I think I like this set up better.

Side by side shot with my other tank which seems to have had a bit of a growth spurt! The Hydrocotyle has gone crazy and the HC has formed a very thick carpet. I gave it a trim yesterday and was surprised how dense it was, literally like carpet!

You can also see the DIY luminaire I've made for my LED's.

All it took was a £5 shelf from Ikea, spent about £20 in B&Q on the metal pole and some screws and another £7 for the TMC MMS Rail that the LEDs clip onto. Height can be adjusted, as can the position of the LED's - I plan on upgrading to a larger tank that will be the same width as the unit later on.

Here's the 'main' tank after a trim. I'm going to get rid of most of the Hydrocotyle after I've got some money for some Sumatran driftwood.

 

[Lindy]

I love the diy light fitting, the tmc stuff is pretty ugly or a silly price. I hung mine using stuff used for making jewelry! I'd like to buy some of that hydrocotyle when you get rid as my shrimp love the stuff.