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Blue Garden

Jimmy Dale

Jimmy Dale

Member
Joined
13 Feb 2011
Messages
72
Location
Chester
Alright - it's not very blue, more purpley but I always seem to be listening to 'Blue Garden' by Masters of Reality whenever I do any maintenance so it seemed apt. This is a more grown in incarnation of my little under water garden. It is my first high tech scape and I have recently replaced the LED street light I was growing under (!?) for an ADA solar II which has made such an unbelievable difference. With the new light I am considering adding some red plants soon so I may change it again to 'Red Garden' or 'Pinky Maroon Garden'. Any feedback welcome.

WQlhVRP.jpg
 
Gary Nelson said:
That's really nice and you have some great contrasts with plants, how do you find that skimmer that's built into the inlet... Is it acrylic?
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Thanks Gary. I'm really happy with the skimmer. I got it from ebay - NAG 12/16 Glass inflow Surface skimmer | eBay it's quite reasonably priced and good quality for 'fake' glassware. The skimming part is an acrylic float but the rest is good quality thick glass. It takes some balancing in terms on maintaining tank level and sometimes if it is not set properly it can suck air into the filter but this is easily avoided. Otherwise It's a good bit of kit and the pros definitely outweigh the cons.

I still use my Eheim skim 350 after maintenance to catch any floaters and the glass skimmer keeps the film / dust off the surface.
 
MARKCOUSINS said:
Good job!Any chance of a plant list?Is that Limnophila aromatica in the back/centre?Cheers Mark
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Thanks Mark, the plants are as follows:
Riccia fluitans
Eleocharis parvula
Fissidens fontanus (not really grown much yet!)
Pogostemon helferi
Pogostemon stellata
Pogostemon erectus
Hemianthus callitrichoides
Limnophila aromatica 'hippuroides'
 
I don't seem to be having much luck with P. helferi in this tank. It keeps on melting. Everything else seems to be doing nicely. Does anybody have any suggestions?
 
Jimmy Dale said:
A little update - added Marselia crenata and Alternanthera reinickii mini a couple of days ago. I'm also toying with the idea of a little bit of delicate branch work coming through the hippuroides and stellata which might let me bring them a bit taller.

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Jimmy, what is your maintenance routine? Any chance of a fresh picture?
 

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TallDragon said:
Jimmy, what is your maintenance routine? Any chance of a fresh picture?
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53EPzSI.jpg

Here's a 'warts and all' shot of how it looks this very minute. The glass is a bit dirty so the photo looks a bit hazy. I'll get a cleaner one up soon. I have a small change to make - I think I am going to pull out the Riccia and replace with fissidens. The riccia has gone rampant and needs hacking back every week now.

My maintenance is weekly every monday night.
50% water change with tap water.
Add 10 pumps of tropica specialised fertiliser
Add 30 drops ADA ECA
Add 5ml Easylife algexit.
Trim / replant and necessary
Replace cosmetic 'la plata' sand as necessary

Monthly (ish) open filter, rinse media in tank water. Replace filter floss.

Currently I only clean the glass weekly but by Friday the tank usually has a biofilm on the glass. I think I should get myself a decent magnet.
 

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Puts my tank to shame. This is a gorgeous planted tank!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Jimmy Dale said:
Currently I only clean the glass weekly but by Friday the tank usually has a biofilm on the glass. I think I should get myself a decent magnet.
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It's a pain isn't it? I do maintenance every Sunday AM and find the glass a bit acky by Friday, typical when guests etc are most likely to appear at the weekend :D lol. Tried a magnet but they're pretty crap, if it really bothers me I just get my hands in for 5 minutes with a scourer pad but I don't usually bother until Sunday...
 
Jimmy Dale said:
53EPzSI.jpg

Here's a 'warts and all' shot of how it looks this very minute. The glass is a bit dirty so the photo looks a bit hazy. I'll get a cleaner one up soon. I have a small change to make - I think I am going to pull out the Riccia and replace with fissidens. The riccia has gone rampant and needs hacking back every week now.

My maintenance is weekly every monday night.
50% water change with tap water.
Add 10 pumps of tropica specialised fertiliser
Add 30 drops ADA ECA
Add 5ml Easylife algexit.
Trim / replant and necessary
Replace cosmetic 'la plata' sand as necessary

Monthly (ish) open filter, rinse media in tank water. Replace filter floss.

Currently I only clean the glass weekly but by Friday the tank usually has a biofilm on the glass. I think I should get myself a decent magnet.
Click to expand...


Looks superb with the extra height at the back jimmy. Very nice.
I think the fissedens will blend more between the rocks and sand
 

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Thanks all :)

Alastair said:
I think the fissedens will blend more between the rocks and sand
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I love the texture of fissidens. I have a big clump awaiting me from a friend's tank. The riccia was only really meant to serve as a barrier to stop the aquasoil from spilling through the gaps which it did, but now it's turned into a monster!


Rob P said:
It's a pain isn't it? I do maintenance every Sunday AM and find the glass a bit acky by Friday, typical when guests etc are most likely to appear at the weekend lol. Tried a magnet but they're pretty crap, if it really bothers me I just get my hands in for 5 minutes with a scourer pad but I don't usually bother until Sunday...
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Ha ha I have the exact same timing issue. I've even considered changing my maintenance day to a wednesday or thursday night to ensure it's still looking nice at the weekend.
 
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