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Colorado - 80x45x45 Optiwhite

I really like this tank, definitely worth the wait!

I hope you do not mind me asking but what filter are you using and how do you find the Lily pipe? The reason I ask is that I am awaiting arrival of new tank (90x50x45) and trying to figure the best solution for my external filters (one is rated 1000lph (Eheim 2217) and the other 700lph (JBL e701). I am tempted to extend both spray bars the full length of the tank and face foward from the back wall however I am just worried that it would not be worth doing with the 700lph because of the reduced spray.

Thanks

Aron
 
I really like this tank, definitely worth the wait!

I hope you do not mind me asking but what filter are you using and how do you find the Lily pipe? The reason I ask is that I am awaiting arrival of new tank (90x50x45) and trying to figure the best solution for my external filters (one is rated 1000lph (Eheim 2217) and the other 700lph (JBL e701). I am tempted to extend both spray bars the full length of the tank and face foward from the back wall however I am just worried that it would not be worth doing with the 700lph because of the reduced spray.

I wouldn't use the same filtering as me. I use an Eheim 2224 which is 700lph. When this gets bushy I will probably add a 2215 I have which I have in a cupboard unused because once these plants are grown in and bushed up the circulation will get much worse. Its one of the reasons I have sparsely added the ferns as they are much more rigid plants and while the rest of the tank gets going I can do without walls of ferns blocking the circulation.

So I would suggest if you are purchasing go for the 2217. I only use Eheims. Bad experiences with other filters and never a bad experience with Eheims. I currently have a 2211, 2215, 2224 and a biopower 240 internal. All faultless :)

The Lily pipe is fine. What do you mean how do I find it ;) It circulates well IMO and it looks very pretty. I am very vain.

Hi SuperColey, Looks fantastic:thumbup:

Many thanks :) appreciate the compliments.$
 
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How time flies. It is nearly 3 months since this aquascape was flooded. Just a few cheeky pictures here. This is just after I have heavily pruned the Rotala sp Green and Hemmianthus Micranthemoides.

A few changes since the last update. The Proserpinaca Palustris was growing so slowly that I took it out and put it in another tank. I replaced it with some Rotala Rotundifolia which I had on hand.

It may mess up the look of the aquascape in the end because everything else in this aquascape is green whereas the Rotundifolia will give off a yellow to Peach to pink section to the rear right. It also has to resurrect itself from the brink too as it has spent the winter virtually continuously encased in ice in a bucket outside. When I brought it in from the cold in early February it was so weak it was falling to pieces in my hands but it is now starting to show some green shoots of recovery.

With the Greyhound moved out of the way while I worked on the aquascape my 3 year old daughter took the opportunity to get fingerprints all over the glass.

Livestock added so far are 20 Blue Jelly Shrimp and 6 normal Otocinclus. The Blue Jelly shrimp have already have fry and there are little darts flying around the tank. They aren't blue though. At this stage they are a translucent reddish hue.

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It will have more fish in there. Was originally thinking about Bororas Kubotai but with there being so much green then I think they might get a little lost. I am a little hemmed in by having shrimp in there. I might end up putting some Chilli Bororas Briggitae in there instead just to add some contrast to the green.
 
Stunning. I don't suppose you wanna share how you made those LEDs ? Have to be the best DIY job Ive ever seen !
 
Amazing! I really like your tank! Healthy plants and the arrangement of the wood is superb!
 
That looks real good! Real envious of your thick HC carpet. Have you had to trim it at all since the DSM or flooding? The midground integration also looks ace, very natural looking.
 
Stunning. I don't suppose you wanna share how you made those LEDs ? Have to be the best DIY job Ive ever seen !
already shared:
http://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/supercoleys-diy-led-luminaire-mk-iii.34753/

Amazing! I really like your tank! Healthy plants and the arrangement of the wood is superb!

Many thanks. A bit lucky with the wood really. I just tied loads of pieces together and then moved them so they would all fit in without touching the glass, then fixed them like that. lol.

That looks real good! Real envious of your thick HC carpet. Have you had to trim it at all since the DSM or flooding? The midground integration also looks ace, very natural looking.
It's not HC its Monte Carlo. I have had to trim it 4 times when it gets to an inch thick. I trim it right down to quarter of an inch. Very fast growing.

The midground is pretty high maintenance which is a pin. The Hydrocotyle is a weed and I have to keep pushing the higher growth back down and patting the rest to keep it low and also return stray growth to where is should be. It keeps smothering the Staurogyne.
 
All of the updates so far have been pictures taken after a pruning and I was asked to take some pictures before pruning showing the Rotala at the back. Not one for being bashful I took the pictures the very next day (10th April.) Not one for being very motivated it has taken me 6 weeks to publish them but here they are anyway.

You'll be glad to know that I will stop including the 'dog in picture' photos. Risking my own life I have been shifting him from his 23 hour a day slumber pad while working on the aquascape.

The aquascape is still in quite a young state here and not filled in as much as you will see in the next update. You can also see some symptoms of my laziness in terms of maintenance. I have left this scape sometimes for 3 or 4 weeks at a time without water changes. I have been lazy with the dosing too, sometimes not dosing at all for a week and the result has been some BBA directly opposite the filter outflow.

If you have sharp eyes you may also notice the middle row of the LEDs have been turned off. It was growing way too fast for me and that kind of growth is just a disaster waiting to happen when the aquascaper is as lazy as me. Those with sharp eyes may also notice that I have now routed an acrylic split lid.

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And to bring us right up to date:

This aquascape is now starting to fill out really well. The Hydrocotyle is a pain to keep stuffing down as it really is a weed. The HM also grows really fast too.

The Narrow Fern is now starting to push on and has gone from being quite thin to getting bushy around where it had been attached and now is starting to creep further along the branches. It normally happens this way for me. I attach it thinly and it takes a while for it to attach itself properly and settle in before it then speeds away.

Hopefully it will get somewhere close to where I want it to be in the next month or 2 at which point I plan to turn the CO2 off (if it hasn't run out) and then leave it under 1 row of LEDs as a 'permanent' aquascape. I'm not one for ripping aquascapes down and moving on to the next one like many aquascapers. I tend to aim for something I want to keep for a decent length of time and only pull them down when they aren't reaching the vision I had or once I feel like a change..

There are a couple of pictures here of the Blue Jelly shrimp. These are of course the European version of blue jelly the Davidii / Heteropoda. I bought 20 initially and as you can see they have reproduced like mad. The annoying thing though is that you may notice the majority of offspring don't come out purely blue. They are still blue but with red patches of varying degrees.

Not sure if I got a bad line or if they normally don't breed true but it will mean I have to separate 'true blues' into a breeding tank if I want to sell them on.

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I have no idea if they originally came from Rilis. Annoying though. Might seperate out the true blues and put them into one of my other tanks.

Yep the LEDs still working well :)
 
Just over 2 weeks since the last trim and look what we have to deal with again. These shots show before and during trimming shots of tank. The complete trim is a daytime shot I'm afraid.

It is now 8 months since the first plants went into this aquascape.

Things may go it bit off for the next week as my solenoid stopped working so I've disconnected the CO2 until a new one arrives.

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