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Round Two

So as I said, its a warts and all shot as it's a little messy in there at the moment, still got a lot of substrate coming forwards on to the sand. Two things I have learnt since this rescape:
  • Banked substrate is a pain in the posterior
  • Less is more
As you may notice when comparing to previous pictures I have already removed one small piece of bogwood that was added in at the point the large stones meet with the bogwood that comes to the front left corner. Substrate was moving forwards here anyway, so I removed that extra wood and will grow the Hydrocotyle through here in time. Continuing the less is more lesson I intend to remove the other small piece of bogwood on top of the sand at the next water change, then give the sand a good clean and replenish with some fresh sand and pea shingle as no doubt the current pea shingle will get sucked out when I syphon the substrate.

An update on some of the plants:

  • Monte Carlo - As you can see, the Monte Carlo is in, but as yet has done very little. It hasn't died though, so I'm taking that as a positive. I'm still picking bits out the skimmer every day, some get replanted, some just go in the bin. Hopefully it takes hold and starts to grow and spread soon.
  • Althernanthera - Definitely getting redder, but still quite slow to grow.
  • Ech. Quadricostatus - Annoyingly putting a lot of energy in to runners and very slow growth on the main plants. Also the new runners are very pale, so I suspect nutrient deficiencies. Not sure whether this is due to fert levels or distribution. More on this later.
  • Ceratopteris Thalictroides - I feel I have chosen the wrong plant for the back right corner. It grows very dense at the bottom and not so dense at the top. I'm still getting some leaf damage and lots of tiny bits of it floating around the tank. The smaller part planted right behind the taller piece of bogwood is growing well, but the rest to the right hand side is not. It has rotted away at the base. I feel that I need a plant that will be happy to grow in the small space at the bottom, but will spread out and get bushier higher up to fill in that space that gets larger as the bogwood leans to the left. Open to suggestion here!
  • Pogostomon Erectus - I always thought from day 1 that this would be my hardest plant. It has grown a little, but was very slow to get started. Just as I thought it was starting to get some extra growth on it, the lower leaves started to brown a little on the edges. The tops are still nice green fresh growth, but the lower leaves don't look great. Last night I suddenly had a lot of this float. Corys or shrimps could have been involved, but also not sure if some of the roots have died. Some stems that were floating had roots, others had nothing, not sure if the Amanos had eaten the roots or something. I'll keep trying with this for now.
As for flow and distribution, my order from Aqua Essentials arrived while I was out on Friday and I had to go collect from the depot on Saturday morning. I was surprised how small the box was considering there was supposed to be 6 metres of superfish hose in there. Got it home and it seems they had crammed it in to way too small a box. That hose is know to kink easily and it had been bent in so many places so tighly that there was a load of permanent creases in the hose that could never be removed. I therefore didn't get round to changing the inflow and outflow positions at the weekend. I have had to wait for a replacement hose which has just arrived in better condition today. I'm not sure whether I will have time to make the changes tomorrow or whether they will have to wait for the weekend.
 
You can see the discolouration on the lower Pogo leaves here.

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I changed water and had a clean up tonight, so things are looking better.

0c35070fce5c0b33458e2dd395fd083b.jpg


I syphoned out all the Tropica substrate that was on the sand, taking some sand and shingle with it. I ended up removing all the pebbles to give it a good clean.

I knew the river cobbles had gone a little green over time, but the change was way more obvious and bigger than I had realised when I saw the stone that had been buried in the sand. An example here:

277af650395d55f823735ea8afd27b5c.jpg


I topped up with fresh sand, pebbles back in then fresh pea shingle. I also removed the small bit of bogwood from the sand as planned.

I removed the Ceratopteris Thalictroides tonight as only one bit looked healthy and I'm sick of it shedding tiny pieces of leaf. Need to replace with something more suitable for the space.

The Hydrocotlye is looking unruly, but didn't trim today as I want to retain as much plant mass for now until I decide what's going on the gaps.

Some of the MC is looking a little brown on the leaf edges, but I can also see new growth coming through in places so hopefully it's going to settle ok.

I finally got round to changing the daylight savings hour on my timers. My intention was to increase the photoperiod but after seeing how green those rocks are I'll hold fire until the weekend when I get the new hoses and powerhead fitted to hopefully improve distribution.
 
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Hi all,
Wisey said:
I finally got round to changing the daylight savings hour on my timers. My intention was to increase the photoperiod but after seeing how green those rocks are I'll hold fire until the weekend when I get the new hoses and powerhead fitted to hopefully improve distribution.
Click to expand...
The rocks will develop that lovely green patina whatever you do. If you have enough light for plant growth, green algae will grow as well.

The only way you can keep your pebbles unnaturally clean is to physically clean them every week, or have a very efficient algal browsing snail (<"Zebra Nerite"> or similar).

cheers Darrel
 
dw1305 said:
Hi all,The rocks will develop that lovely green patina whatever you do. If you have enough light for plant growth, green algae will grow as well.

The only way you can keep your pebbles unnaturally clean is to physically clean them every week, or have a very efficient algal browsing snail (<"Zebra Nerite"> or similar).

cheers Darrel
Click to expand...

Yeah, it is just the rocks, no other algae issues, so I am happy to live with that. With Anubias on the rocks, it would be really hard to clean them every week and they certainkly cant be removed from the tank. I guess it looks more natural and I am happy with that. I did notice the Amanos and Otto's grazing on the stones last night, so if it keeps them occupied that's fine.

Any ideas about the browning on the lower leaves of the Pogo Erectus please Darrel? Is this just the emmersed growth dying back seeing as the tops look fresh and green, or do I have a problem here? I am still getting the odd stem floating away and looks like it is not healthy at the bottom, but then it was planted very densely from the Tropica 1-2 Grow pot, so there were groups of stems rather than individual stems planted.
 
Hi all,
Wisey said:
Any ideas about the browning on the lower leaves of the Pogo Erectus please Darrel? Is this just the emmersed growth dying back seeing as the tops look fresh and green, or do I have a problem here?
Click to expand...
It isn't a plant I've grown, but if the new shoots look green, and are are growing, I wouldn't worry too much.

cheers Darrel
 
Since the rescape, my previously happy Anubias plants have only produced small stunted leaves compared to the frequent large leaves in the old scape.

Is this nutrient deficiencies?

b07b9b7ef49e46c7d7510b6b66b96c7a.jpg
 
Hi! Most likely;how are the other plants doing?


Envoyé de mon SM-G935F en utilisant Tapatalk
 
Wisey said:
Any ideas about the browning on the lower leaves of the Pogo Erectus please Darrel? Is this just the emmersed growth dying back seeing as the tops look fresh and green, or do I have a problem here? I am still getting the odd stem floating away and looks like it is not healthy at the bottom, but then it was planted very densely from the Tropica 1-2 Grow pot, so there were groups of stems rather than individual stems planted.
Click to expand...

This seems pretty normal, but it can also indicate low light (at any rate I did an accidental 3 day black out while away & the P erectus was very unhappy & similar appearance as you've described)
With some of the 1-2-Grow you need to plant deep like that, most stems seem to do fine ... & once growth is established you can always trim & replant the tops, discarding the ugly bits (remove or cut at substrate level)

I rather like some algae patina on stone (this is the sort of thing that Twinstar is good at I think), you can also look at the various "butterfly" loaches (try to id species & research before buying) as they are often outstanding rock cleaners - & very cute too :D
sadly they haven't been showing up in my local shops for the last year or 2 :(

Another possible factor on anubias may be they initially had good amount of energy reserves that helped produce those larger leafs (can't recall how long A A was running & when you began with these anubias :oops: ) so while you might feel not much has changed in nutrient levels in tank, the anubias sees it quite differently ;)
(also substrate change may be a bigger impact)

Overall tank seems like a happy place :thumbup:
 
alto said:
This seems pretty normal, but it can also indicate low light (at any rate I did an accidental 3 day black out while away & the P erectus was very unhappy & similar appearance as you've described)
With some of the 1-2-Grow you need to plant deep like that, most stems seem to do fine ... & once growth is established you can always trim & replant the tops, discarding the ugly bits (remove or cut at substrate level)

I rather like some algae patina on stone (this is the sort of thing that Twinstar is good at I think), you can also look at the various "butterfly" loaches (try to id species & research before buying) as they are often outstanding rock cleaners - & very cute too :D
sadly they haven't been showing up in my local shops for the last year or 2 :(

Another possible factor on anubias may be they initially had good amount of energy reserves that helped produce those larger leafs (can't recall how long A A was running & when you began with these anubias :oops: ) so while you might feel not much has changed in nutrient levels in tank, the anubias sees it quite differently ;)
(also substrate change may be a bigger impact)

Overall tank seems like a happy place :thumbup:
Click to expand...

It could well be that my light levels are still relatively low. Considering most people seem to get at least some algae and all I have is that slight greening on the stones, but zero algae elsewhere, I'm of the opinion my light levels need to be a bit higher. My Alternanthera is growing, and is reddish, but not a deep red, so that is probably another indicator of the low light level. The light is already running at 100%, so my only options are to lower it even more, or increase the photoperiod. I'm only running at 6 hours just now and was already planning on increasing to 7, so will go ahead and do that this week. I didn't get round to working on flow and distribution at the weekend. I was at the Brewdog AGM on Saturday and Sunday was therefore a write off! I'll replace the hoses with longer ones and re-arrange the inflow and outflow when I do my weekly water change mid week.

The Anubias was quite happy in the old scape for around 8 months, regularly producing new leaves that got nice and big. I think the problem could be that my light levels are higher in this scape and they are currently in a lower flow area, so I am probably pushing them with too much light and they don't have everything else in balance to cope with it. My hope was that the Ech. Quadricostatus would grow quickly to shade them, it is certainly growing, but still a little glassy on a lot of leaves, so hopefully improvements to flow and distribution this week will help with that. I'm also going to test the calibration of my dosing pumps this week to ensure that they are still delivering what I think they are.
 
Well, last night did not pan out to be a great evening. I got home and decided that I really ought to get the flow sorted out ASAP to give the plants the best chance. I switched out the hoses, moved the outflow violet pipe right to the front, the inflow further back and then put in the powerhead next to the violet to boost flow. The superfish hose is really flexible and although that made it a pain to get the hoses on the glassware, it did mean that I could get the curves I needed without putting too much pressure on things. Once it was set up, the hose just put a slight lean on the violet, so rather than point straight across the tank, it kinda points slightly forward at the front left corner. The other benefit of the new violet location is that my cover fits properly again.

I decided to try it like that and it seemed to work well. No substrate disturbance, so I notched the speed up on the filter a couple higher and then switched on the powerhead too. The powerhead is pointed the same direction as the Violet, but slightly higher, the theory being that the flow from that will contribute to the circular motion, but hopefully keep the CO2 down low where that plants are on that side. With the CO2 on I could see that the water hits that front corner, then most of it turns towards the back, flowing over the MC and up to the Pogo. The Pogo was now gently swaying as was the Alternanthera and MC. I could also see some gentle movement in the Ech. Quadricostatus right at the other side which was not moving at all before. I then switched the skimmer back on to boost the circular flow around the back. Things were looking really good, a few bits of detritus got pushed in a circle right around the tank and then sucked straight through the inflow pipe and out the tank. I moved the fert dosing tubes to just behind the powerhead and tested with a little extra macro, it gets pulled straight in to the powerhead so I should now be sure to have good fert distribution.

I then reset my timers to add an hour to the lights and bring the CO2 on an hour earlier, but I had made no changes to the quantity of CO2 being injected, just to the distribution. Later in the evening, things took a turn for the worse. I noticed that one of the Otto's was right up at the water line, practically lying upside down with his mouth on the surface. I immediately turned off the CO2 and switched on the airstone. I looked at the DC, it had a green tinge to it still, but when I lifted it out and put it against a white background it was yellow with only a slight tinge of green.

The strange thing is I had not changed the CO2, it's possible the needle valve had been knocked when I moved the FE to change the hoses over though. I then thought it was a bit strange that only one of the Ottos was bothered, so started to look for the rest, bearing in mind that there were 8 of them in here a few weeks back. They spend a lot of time stuck to the back glass behind the bogwood, so it's not unusual to not seem them around very much when lights are on and I had seen one out and about occasionally in recent days. My DC was in the low flow part of the tank before, so its possible that I was injecting a lot of CO2 before, but it was not getting distributed to the area of the tank where the DC was. I was now worried how long I had been over injecting CO2.

I started looking around the tank, but could not see any more Otto's anywhere, you can usually see them stuck on the glass at the back, but nothing, not one more Otto visible anywhere in the tank! I therefore searched around the cabinet and found two Otto's down the back on the floor. They had definitely been there longer than last night though, very dried out. As upsetting as that was, that still leaves me with a very big question, two down the back, one still in the tank (and alive and well this morning), so where on earth are the other five! I guess its possible that they have slowly died off due to excessive CO2 and maybe the Amanos have eaten the evidence, but what I don't understand is why before last night I did not see any behaviour from the fish that indicated that they were unhappy with the CO2 levels. It's possible that the needle valve got knocked some time back, but the CO2 rate did not look unusual last night, so I think I have been overdosing CO2 for a long time and its not shown up due to poor distribution near the DC. I reduced the CO2 level last night and will check it when I get home this evening. It looks like I am down 7 Otto's though and no sign where 5 have gone, so a bit of a mystery :(
 
I can't offer much but commiserations on this discovery :(

Add in a highly rated snack & hope for hidden oto's
 
I'll try that tonight alto, but I am not confident of finding any more. With the Ceratopteris Thalictroides removed, I have quite a good view in to the back corner. I did notice last night that a runner has made it's way about 6-8 inches under the wood, all the way from the Ech. Quadricostatus, under the wood and in to the back right corner. This does suggest some gaps under the wood, but not confident that the Otto's are all hiding there all night. I could also only see one Amano last night, now they are often hiding anyway, but hoping that the other three did not deicide to go on a trek if they were not happy with the CO2.
 
I have come home to a blue DC tonight, so too far the other way now. Tweaked it up and will check again later, got to pop out. Got one very lonely looking Otto attached to the front glass, will go to the LFS tomorrow and try to get him some buddies.

Interestingly the new flow pattern has made most of the fish hang out at the front rather than the back of the tank, it's probably the lowest flow area at front right. Nice to have my Corys chilling in view rather then hidden. The Embers seem more active in the flow now too.
 
Good news! Switched off the filter, powerheadand skimmer, dropped in some food and over time, suddenly three Ottos, then four, then five! Technically still missing be with the two jumpers, but five is better than one!
 
Great news! I thought I'd lost a load years ago, wasn't until I was doing some serious moving around that I saw more than one at a time. I could have been seeing the same one for weeks, or a different one each day


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I'm totally stumped as to where they are all hiding. They used to like sitting behind the wood on the back glass, but since my work on flow and distribution, I suspect the flow there is significantly higher now. The Corys have moved from hanging out on the substrate behind the wood to sitting at the front right corner, which will now be the lower flow area. I need to sit and watch and try to work out where on earth they are hiding now as its totally out of sight.

I'm looking in to plants to replace the Ceratopteris in that back corner. As well as it being the wrong shape, it was also a very vibrant green, but the Ech. Quadricostatus in front if it is a similar colour, so looking to create a contrast, either a dark green or a red. I'm considering Ludwigia Palustris as it seems like quite an easy plant to grow and from the Tropica video looks like the right size and shape to fill in that corner.

I'm still planning an LFS trip on the way home, see what they have. Amanos are rare, but I would like to add a few more as I increase my light further. I also need to find a fish that is not too worried out in the open, everything I have including the Ember Tetras likes to hide in the plants most of the time. I could really do with a confident fish that will happily swim mid level out in the open in a fairly well lit tank. Any ideas?
 
you might try some black phantom tetras (be sure to get mix of male & female)

Great news on the no longer MIA otos :thumbup:
 
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