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The Dragon Passage

Keybo

Member
Joined
24 Jul 2015
Messages
38
So being a newly qualified Marine Biologist and having had a fairly busy final year at uni, I was ready to fall into a more relaxed lifestyle but still continuing to work with my passion. So I got myself a job at the Fishkeeper Inverness store - a brilliant start to my Journal!

Keeping my lifestyle impacts minimized is very important to me so in order to justify the extra power consumption, I switched our energy provider over to a company which supplies 100% renewable energy! :D. I also like to restore/repair things and am not so keen on the old MDF cabinets which come with aquariums so I picked up a pine cabinet from a local charity shop that needed a bit of TLC. Moral obligations met ;).

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I began the l....o....n....g.... process of hand sanding the unit down......

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I really enjoyed working with the wood and during a period where I was waking up at stupid o'clock in the morning, I would put on some tunes and start my day with some sanding :cool:. I was in no rush to get my aquarium set up, I had research to do and was waiting for my OptiWhite tank to be built. However, if I was to do it again, I might just rent a belt sander for a day and blitz through it :p.

Finally I was finished sanding and varnishing my cabinet.

Before... (out of focus o_O)

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After..... with new tank.

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Last night i finished my first play around with the hard scape. I really liked Stu Worrell's tunnel idea and I spotted some nice pieces of azalea root at work so I decided to make a passage of my own.

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The idea is to green out most of the back and leave the black at the end of the tunnel leading to a dark mystery. My desktop is to the left of my aquarium so it I wanted to make a bit of sand for corys (potentially) to rummage around (I might extend this). I am going to pick up the plants I got ordered and play around with positioning soon but I'm in no rush. What do you guys think so far? I keep playing around with different configurations on the left hand side so any suggestions will be appreciated.
 
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Tech specs:

Tank - 900mm x 415 x 450, 4 sides opti white
Lights - twin TMC Aquago grobeams with controller and mountaray system
Filter - JBL Greenline Profi 901
CO2 - JBL ProFlora U401
Substrate - JBL Sansibar orange and Manado with Aquabasis plus
Hardscape - Dragon stone + Azalea root
 
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Really like this setup with the Dragon Stone .
Can i ask where did you get it from ? , cant find any fish shop in Portsmouth that stock it or can get it :(
 
I bought mine off ebay mate. An amazing shop called TM AQUATIX. I have never been looked after by an online merchant like that before. After my initial purchase I contacted them and told them I was after some small pieces for my foreground. Over the course of a few days we exchanged lots of emails where they sent multiple pics and I would reply approving or disapproving of certain pieces. In the end they did me a brilliant bargain with loads of free bits. If you get in touch with the store the retailer is called Magda, tell her that Kieran sent you and she may give you some extra bits ;).

Then even after my two decent purchases from them I had to buy 2 big chunks from one of the sumps at work (fishkeeper Inverness)...... and I still feel like the left hand side of my scape could do with more height o_O.
 
the lefthand side of the tank is fine keybo, In my opinion I would add a larger stone to the back right hand side. Looking forward to seeing more posts, great start.
Jim
 
the lefthand side of the tank is fine keybo, In my opinion I would add a larger stone to the back right hand side. Looking forward to seeing more posts, great start.
Jim

Thanks for the feedback Jim. The right hand side is in the corner of a room so I will be putting my external filter here along with my heater then I will be greening it out but yes I think you are right it could use some more bulk infront of it ;).
 
As you said you could use plants to give height to the back right corner. IMO the tank is well balanced :thumbup: keep the updates coming along with pics of developments or changes.
Jim
 
Photos don't work for me on tap talk

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk
 
Yeah I have the aquaray controller. My mate had a similar set up and told me that his grobeams caused his plants to "melt" from the brightness. I will have a play around with the brightness and see what my plants appreciate.

At the moment I am thinking I would like:

Heteranthera zosterfolia
Rotala Rontundifolia
Pogostemon helferi
Pogostemon stellatus
Anubias nana


I would like a few different mosses on the tunnels. At the moment I have a large box of Vesicularia dubyana growing on my windowsill and I would also like some some Taxiphylum mosses - Taiwan or flame moss but I cannot get them at the moment. The idea is to get different layers of light shinning on the pathway with shadows that will hopefully dance in the current.

These are ideas that are changing as I see the available stock each week but I think I will start planting next Saturday after our plant delivery.
 
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Fantastic beginning :)

& I can finally see the photos!!!

You may need to play with filter intake/outtake to optimize flow around rock/through "tunnel" especially as tall plants grow in.

My cories are equally happy sifting through (aqua) soil as sand ;)
 
I keep changing things over, and over.... and over. I will get some pics up soon :).
Take your time mate with hard scape once its filled its no easy job changing the layout after. Im currently finding this out.

Looking forward to the pics

Jonny
 
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