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Aqua at pet shop - layout no.3 - the end

great start looking forward to seeing fish in it :) ok posted thisw and the video appeared looks great :)
 
4 weeks
Quick and bad quality shot (sorry). With all equipment. Tennelus spreads well. Ranunculus suprises me in good sense. Usually it's slow starter in my tanks, but in this tank it has already started to grow new leaves. :)

15221209309_97348ec0a4_c.jpgIMG_1575 by bialix1, on Flickr

I think using CO2 ceramic diffuser plays bad with spray bar. I've ordered in-line reactor.
 
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5 weeks.
No photo today, sorry. Nothing really changed much, and I was busy this weekend. It was very warm and sunny weekend, I've tried to catch some warmth and inspiration in a park.

New in the tank: I've decided to install new hardware: in-line co2 reactor: Ista max mix co2 reactor. That's quite big thing, glad it went into cabinet. It's a bit noisy, although I almost can't hear it when door is closed. But I wouldn't use it at home though. The reason why I've decided to try it is its cheap price :)
So far it looks that it works good, I've checked tank this evening, looks like plants was pearling all day. I think with spray bar it's better to use inline reactor, to get better co2 distribution.

Sent via Tapatalk
 
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6 weeks.

New inline CO2 reactor installed, less equipment inside the tank, yay! It works very good, I nearly kill the fish by overdose, but fortunately it was wise to come back and check situation before the shop was closed.
Got some green thread algaes. I don't worry much, yet. Everything should be sorted with higher level of CO2, as I have now. But maybe I need to lower the light. Surprisingly, but the central wood shades the fern at right side.
Pictures time! I haven't removed inlet pipe, because it was hard, but I found spare Eheim furniture, so that will be easier in the future.

Regular light:
15527018151_7647dcd104_c.jpgDSC01417 by bialix1, on Flickr

Flash light:
15530069872_925a245bdb_c.jpgDSC01430 by bialix1, on Flickr

The light unit suspended as high as about 30 cm above the water level:
15343579698_220d5924f9_z.jpgDSC01435 by bialix1, on Flickr

Runners:
15343623228_f5d6cf5a86_c.jpgDSC01455 by bialix1, on Flickr

I like this slow progress. I slowly increase light duration and ferts dose week by week. And of course active soil is good for plants.
 
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8 weeks

I'm fighting algaes invasion last 2 weeks. Last weekend I spent several hours to remove threads algae, cut old and infected leaves of tenellus, treatment with H2O2 and liquid carbon. Mostly green thread algae on tenellus and some other plants, and BBA on wood. I'm going to adjust CO2 this weekend when I'll do filter maintenance. Also new fertilizer I'm using now is not as strong as it suggests on bottle, so I had to experiment with dosing until I found something suitable for this tank. This is local ukranian brand, and I'm not very impressed so far, want to come back to use tropica specialized again (but tropica is quite expensive here).

Anyway, you hardly can spot algae on photos, due moderate quality ;) Let's look:

15044285083_24e725aca0_c.jpg60x30x36 - 8 weeks by bialix1, on Flickr

15477767489_d741d6ac82_c.jpg60x30x36 - 8 weeks by bialix1, on Flickr

15478252488_4094d41bd6_c.jpg60x30x36 - 8 weeks by bialix1, on Flickr
And short video:



I'm happy with progress of this tank (minus algaes of course). I expect the carpet of tenellus will cover most of the foreground in 1 month. It grows very nice, although I don't really like its yellowish/red color, that's because of good light. It's going to get some purple color on leaves. I want to add more hairgrass to the carpet to add green back.
 
11 weeks / 2.5 months

The plants have grown nicely, but I still have quite large amount of green thread algaes, and some BBA on wood. Probably it does not visible much on photo, but those algaes are quite stubborn so far. I'm using H2O2 + liquid carbon for treatment.
I think the reasons for that algae invasion are: not ideal flow (esp. keeping in mind I've installed in-line CO2 reactor on output which reduced the flow), and under-fertilization (still can't get the right amount of liquid ferts, also I've changed from cheap local ferts to tropica specialized again). Also for me there are not too many plants, but they're eating 2x to 4x times more than suggest dosing on a bottle. The battle is going on.

15189320694_fb7a9843fb_c.jpg60x30x36 - 11 weeks by bialix1, on Flickr

Side view.

15189839183_b0314571e7.jpg60x30x36 - 11 weeks by bialix1, on Flickr

And, btw, have you noticed, I removed big horizontal branch at left side.
 
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2014/11/30 - 3 months / 13 weeks

Photos was taken last weekend. Still fighting algaes invasion. I'm using strategy of simply removing algaes as much as I can, water change, put fertilizers and wait next weekend. Sometimes this helps.

15768123177_6d1f965768_c.jpg60x30x36 - 13 weeks by bialix1, on Flickr

The quality of photo does not help you enjoy that alage fest, unfortunately. I'm sorry about it. A bit.

15766552900_5f21419dcf_c.jpg60x30x36 - 13 weeks by bialix1, on Flickr

15767820319_bc328c1d3b_c.jpg60x30x36 - 13 weeks by bialix1, on Flickr
 
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Update - December 2014

Two picture from december 2014. The tank matured and I did first trim to the carpet and also trimmed a bit alt.mini. But a.mini didn't like that trim, and as of today, it's mostly died off. Maybe another reason for this is deep shadow from murdania keysak which grows like a mad. My plan is to trim or completely remove murdania. I don't decide yet what I should use instead. I think red bush of a.mini should be restored, no matter what.
Anyway, 2 pictures, before and after trim.

16132061500_ee0c2f382b_c.jpg60x30x36 - 15 weeks by bialix1, on Flickr

16317788721_b362ecabd8_c.jpg60x30x36 - 17 weeks by bialix1, on Flickr

I don't have post new-year pictures yet. I only last weekend visited the shop.

The good news is: we almost win over algaes.
 
Thank you, Roy. You're too kind. I'm not quite happy with current state of the scape (no pictures till next weekend though). I hope we can stabilize and repair the red part.
 
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