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180L Jungle Thingymajig? - First Attempt

AshRolls

AshRolls

Member
Joined
4 Sep 2012
Messages
126
Location
Cornwall, UK
Tank : Juwel Rio180L
Lighting : 2x45W T5 (one with reflector blocking and shielding tank). 4 hour photo period
Substrate : 22kg eco-complete with Osmocote
Filter 1 : Fluval 306 External Filter (16W, 1150lph, 6.38x turnover) (Fluval bio-foam, Fluval bio max, Superfish Crystalmax)
Filter 2 : Eheim Ecco Pro 300 External Filter (8W, pump output - 750 lph, 4.16x turnover) (Eheim MECHpro, Eheim bioMech, Eheim Ehfisubstratpro)
Heater : Juwel 200W (24C)

Hardscape : Locally collected and weathered Beech, locally collected Red & Green Serpentine rocks (Lizardite), Catappa leaves, Easy Aqua Black Six Shrimp Tubes

Flora :
Lilaeopsis novae-zelandiae
Sagittaria subulata (Dwarf sagittaria)
Microsorum Pteropus (Narrow Leaf Java Fern)
Echinodorus amazonicus (Amazon Sword)
Ludwigia repens (red)
Vesicularia ferriei (Weeping Moss)
Cryptocoryne balansae
Limnobium Laevigatum (Amazon Frogbit)

Fauna :
Sunset Honey Gourami (not in yet)
Cardinal Tetra
Amano Shrimp
Red Cherry Shrimp
Pond Snails

Ferts :
Liquid Carbon (no injection) - Neutro CO2
'Duckweed Index' dry salts (KNO3, KH2PO4, MGSO4, Chelated Trace)
Seachem Equiliberium (raise hardness as very soft water area)
40% water change per week

rio180.jpg
 
At the moment the tank is 5 weeks old and everything is still establishing. I'm happy with some aspects of it and unhappy with others, but it has already been a steep learning curve to get it where it is!

I'm hoping that a lot of the wood will be covered with moss eventually, and that the tank will be quite thick with plants so that the hardscape is barely visible. The Gourami will love that and I do like that 'overgrown' style.

I would like to get an Anubias Nana cluster going on the left bottom piece of driftwood. The java fern at the top on the left looks out of place firing out sideways as it does, so that could do with some work. I need to hide the fact that I have sawn through the branch.

The rock(s) at the right front looks a little plain and boring. I'm not sure what to do with that other than remove them.

The amazon sword is just in whilst it's establishing, I will remove this and replace it with the crypts that are currently in the middle once everything is ticking over better.

Tonight's fun and games is that I have a Tetratec EX1200 spray bar which I'll fit to the Fluval 306, and reposition the inlet on the left as it's currently at an angle forward due to a broken U-bend.

The Ludwigia is looking a bit sorry for itself at the moment, I'm leaving it alone for a bit hoping it will come around.

My overall impression is that the 'heavy/thick' piece of driftwood and large rocks with large leafy plants are a bit too dominating? I'm particularly looking for potential mid-ground plants that can ease the transition between the grasses at the front.

I will quite possibly pull that piece of wood out, along with most of the rocks, and start afresh. I like the plants I have (thanks to Sanj mostly, and also Darrel) but not the hardscape.

Any criticism, aquascaping tips or planting suggestions will be welcomed. Don't pull your punches! Thanks for all the help so far UKAPS!
 
The spray bar is fitted now, flow is much more consistent around the tank.

I took the opportunity to rearrange the cupboard under the tank and fit sound proofing inside it so that the cabinet doesn't act as a big bass box for the filters! I used old carpet offcuts which I cut down to size and used to pad the walls and floor for sound absorption.

I'm thinking more and more that I want to start again with the hardscape on the tank so it's quite likely that I'll actually pull out the wood and (most of) the rocks and start afresh. After reviewing my tank now that the initial stages are over I can see that in a quest to save money and my first tank enthusiasm I've ended up with sub-standard tank contents that don't really sit well together aesthetically.

My first mission now is to find a better piece of 'centrepiece' wood. I stopped and checked an old stag head oak last night, but there was no suitable windfall that I could use. Eyes are peeled! Another enticing option is to use the very fine heather that grows on the cliffs down here in Cornwall. This would look great in nano's so I'm not sure how well it would 'scale up' for use in a larger tank.
 
It's the first of the month so time for an update.

The tank is ticking over but big changes are coming in the future. I am taking this tank low-tech and will be removing the top rim, adding new braces, new DIY LED lighting, soil base substrate and new hardscape. So... pretty much a new tank. I just need to wait for my finances to catch up with my bill of materials.

Removed the large rocks, repositioned some plants.
I lost a couple of cherries after the tank got up to 29C during the heatwave.
I have fissidens fontanus and peacock moss growing in pots on the windowsill.

Apologies for the crappy phone shots, next time I'll dig the SLR out!

rio180_aug.jpg
 
Another crappy phone pic from new phone (sorry!) but it helps me to gauge how the tank growth has come on. The main addition has been peacock moss on top of the central rock.

The main problem is that after 3 months of perfect fine and fast growth the weeping moss at the top has suddenly in the last three days decided to go brown.... I think it's temperature related as the tank has been around 25/26C , either that or it has finally succumbed and used it last reserves fighting the klingon neutron bombardment (too much intensity) from the T5 bulb directly above it. I don't fully understand why it would be perfectly happy for 3 months and then suddenly go brown though.

Also tonight I spotted my first berried cherry shrimp which was a nice relief as I was getting worried they had bacterial infections where in fact it was just the female saddle developing. My problem now is that I'm not sure out of the 8 shrimp I own if I have a male!

I now have virtually all the parts for my DIY LED build (minus some acrylic and a heatsink). I have programmed the Arduino controller and it's working perfectly, ready to be installed. So pretty soon (next 8 weeks or so) I'll be moving all stock over to a temporary tank and starting this tank afresh. This may be a bit dependent on the shrimps though hah!

rio180_sep.jpg
 
Looking really nice Ash.
Do you keep you moss clean? Detritus build up or even tight growth can effect distribution within. Maybe even a slight reduction in flow from your filter due to clogging could be the cause especially in the high light zone.
Cheerio,
Ady
 
Hi Ady thanks for the feedback. It does look lovely but when I look at the other tanks on the forum it inspires me to try and do better as at the moment I just see the many flaws! (at the moment I'm daydreaming about a 150x30x30 tank???)

Now that you mention flow you have jogged my memory... During this recent hot spell I changed the angle of the spray bar so that it was firing 'up' a little bit towards the surface of the tank to get more surface agitation and O2 going. This probably, inadvertently, had the effect of reducing the flow at the moss. I didn't think this would be an issue as it's still a high flow area of the tank, but it's about the only factor that's really changed. I guess the moss was right on the edge in this high light area and this was enough to push it over! Thanks for the tip off, I have realigned the spray bar so it shoots back parallel with the surface now, as it was before, so hopefully the moss will come back to life.

I do clean the moss by giving it a good run through with my hand and the siphon at water change so I don't think it was a build up of detritus.
 
squid102 said:
Did you accidentally squirt the moss with liquid carbon?
Click to expand...


That's a possibility as I use a syringe to measure and dose the liquid carbon, generally in that area. I would think the flow would dissipate it pretty quickly though and I never squirt directly onto the moss... perhaps the flow caused the liquid carbon to stay on that area in a 'vortex' at concentrations high enough and long enough to damage the moss? Seems unlikely though I'll dose to another part of the tank as a precaution in future just in case :thumbup:
 
An interesting month in learn-how-to-planted-tank world... Things I have learned :-
  • Planaria are freaky things. I had a kind of physical revulsion when I first spotted one, not helped when I then watched a youtube video of a planaria killing a full grown shrimp through it's eye socket! I didn't want to put my hand in the tank after that. I usually take a very naturalistic approach and avoid chemicals where possible, but in this case. KILL IT. KILL IT WITH FIRE. (Panacur worked a treat).
  • Whilst researching planaria I also discovered that the tiny pretty wavy things on the glass that I thought were some form of algae were, in fact, hydra. I watched a planaria cruising along the gravel/glass line getting repeatedly stung by the hydra. Luckily Panacur also clears them up.
  • One of my Cardinal tetra has a jaw which is permanently open. The poor thing now looks gormless. It looks like a dislocated jaw, not really sure what to do about it.
  • I have malaysian trumpet snails. This brings my unintended hitchhiker count to the following... ramshorns, pond snails, mts, planaria, hydra, java moss, riccia, and duck weed.
  • The lilaeopsis novae-zelandiae has finally started growing. It is now growing just very very slowly instead of imperceptibly slowly. I'm hoping this will start happening for the dwarf sag as well.
  • The weeping moss hasn't completely died and seems to have stabilised a little, though it is still far from happy. The peacock moss is loving its spot on the rock, but given that the weeping moss also loved its spot for the first few months I am quite wary!
My phone camera gives way too much bias to the reds...
rio180_oct.jpg
 
its a very good start, you'll find that there is always something you're not happy with- its normal and helps improve.
 
Your tank reminds me a lot of pictures in older planted aquarium books. I like that! With the preponderance of publications showing really fancy and sophisticated systems/aquascapes I'm finding myself wanting to keep and see simpler styles of tanks more and more. I'm thinking of a tank that's full of healthy plants and fish but doesn't adhere to any school of aquascaping other than the aquarists' whims.
 
Sorry for the lack of updates it's been a bit disheartening in aquarium world. Unfortunately my shoal of cardinal all died from fin rot. A couple of weeks after killing the planaria I noticed on a Thursday evening that some of the tetra were beginning to show slightly ragged fins. I couldn't get to a fish shop until Saturday when I bought some fin rot anti-fungal meds, but by then the fins were looking terrible. I dosed the tank but all of the tetra died over the next week.

I can't think really what caused it other than the dead planaria causing water quality problems, though I was doing regular weekly 50% changes and it's massively over-filtered. Also I have been running the tank at about 21C which is a little low for cardinals so maybe they were stressed from the temperature making them weak.

I'm going to wait until the cherries have a nice breeding colony going (all females at the moment!) before introducing a new shoal.

The willow moss up top finally gave up the ghost, I relocated some of the healthier bits lower down in various spots to see if it can re-establish itself somewhere with less light bombardment!

The Ludwigia is growing really nicely at the back, very happy with that! The Lilaeopsis novae-zelandiae also seems to be having a growth spurt.

The dwarf sag showed some strange behaviour. I thought it was going to die because all of the plants suddenly seemed to lose loads of leaf blades and were generally looking quite rough... however now those leaves are gone the new central growth on each plant seems much healthier and it seems to be putting out runners. I think it may have taken 5 months to adjust to the tank?

Samuran said:
Any updates? I'm very interested in the Arduino controller... and also the DIY led build... might have to drive to falmouth and stalk you :p
Click to expand...


I've run out of funds a bit at the moment (damn car!) but just need to get the perspex to mount it in, the lenses and some wire. The heat-sink arrived, it's an absolute bad boy, it's going to look great! It's 1m long black anodised aluminium and should serve to keep my led's nice and cool with no need for noisy fans.

1x Fischer Elektronik SK180-1000-SA Heatsink, 1000 mm long, black anodised.
SK 180, Standard extruded heatsinks, Heatsinks f.cool, Fischer Elektronik

darren636 said:
its a very good start, you'll find that there is always something you're not happy with- its normal and helps improve.
Click to expand...

Thanks! I have actually sourced (I.e. got covered in mud/mould/spiders eggs/slugs) some lovely big pieces of bog wood from the local reservoir which are soaking in a container in the garden. I've scrubbed the mud and the really soft wood off, but need to get a pressure washer on them for a final treatment. When I fit the LED lights I will re-scape the tank using those as they are more natural looking than the awkwardly sawed piece of beech in there at the moment!

Phil Edwards said:
Your tank reminds me a lot of pictures in older planted aquarium books. I like that! With the preponderance of publications showing really fancy and sophisticated systems/aquascapes I'm finding myself wanting to keep and see simpler styles of tanks more and more. I'm thinking of a tank that's full of healthy plants and fish but doesn't adhere to any school of aquascaping other than the aquarists' whims.
Click to expand...

I'd love a beautiful nature tank (and the ability / eye to create one!) but at the moment I'll settle for a healthy tank with lots of plants. I only see the imperfections and compare it with the amazing tanks you see on this forum, but it's quite heartening when we have visitors in the house and they see the aquarium as everyone is very complimentary. I think it's easy to forget that even an imperfect tank is still a stunning thing to have!
 
Bad luck with the cardinals, they are one of the fish that I don't seem able to keep for any length of time which annoys me a little.

What are you going to control with the arduino? and do you have any other info on the LED build?
 
Keep up the good work! Every tank i do, i learn something or see an improved way of doing things. So use each scape as a learning platform.

With regards to loosing fish, unfortunately its very hard to guarantee the quality of what we buy. I now only buy my livestock from a small group of fish shops as i have learnt the hard way that some LFS don't keep the fish to the highest standards.
 
Samuran said:
What are you going to control with the arduino? and do you have any other info on the LED build?
Click to expand...

The Arduino (uno) is all coded up and ready to go. It's used for LED timing with sunrise / sunset. It controls the LED driver via PWM.
 
One year update.

The tank has a shoal of 11 celestial pearl danio and now also 2 sunset honey gourami.

The Amazon swords died, the new leaves were pale and translucent so I suspect that there wasn't enough co2 considering the light levels. The dwarf sag is basically in stasis, perhaps my water is too soft for it's tastes? On the plus side the peacock moss is rampant, I need to trim it and tie it back down to the rock (it doesn't root so it's a pain!). The java fern and ludiwgia is growing nicely, the crypts slowly but surely.

Once again sorry for the crappy phone pic, but you get the idea :)

rio180_jun14.jpg
 
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