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Emerald isle

Vanish

Member
Joined
15 Feb 2013
Messages
173
Hi everyone.
Here I go, with a fresh adventure. This on has been s while in the making. I was inspired by Big tom's bullet o mud journal, and also the excellent tutorial by Tim Harrison, on low tech setups. I have in the past has high tech setups, these have been successful but I seemed to have lost a bit of interest, so a change of direction was on the agenda. My old 1200x600x450 tank was put on Gumtree, free to a good home. I'd this tank for eight years, so i didn't mind letting it go FOC. The cabinet went to as they were a pair.
The big empty gap in the front room was a strange thing, and I felt like I'd lost a member of family. I lasted nearly 24 hours before I had ordered my new tank - an evolution aqua AS900. The LFS said this would be about a week to ten days in delivery, so the next job was onto building the cabinet. I wanted a solid wood cabinet, and my woodworking skills arn't to bad. I had a load of timber in my workshop, so i set to work.
I didn't get many shots of the build, but here's one part way through.
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As you can see it's pretty solid!
Well the seven to ten days tank delivery took a month, partly due to the first delivery getting smashed in transit. After the long wait I collected the new tank today. And here it is. I'm behind the camera doing a little dance of excitement.
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I had already prepared the soil, made some sand bags(using filter media bags) to create a gradient.
Soil added.
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The membrane went in next to keep the sand and soil separate.
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Then on top went the sand. I did find some crypt roots with growing shoots, that had been hiding in the middle of a damp bag of sand for a month. These plants are amazing!
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That's about as far as I have got today, except for spending some time in the garden with a lump hammer, chisel and a large rock, trying to create some suitable sized pieces to go into the new scape. Tomorrow I'll be racing of to the LFS in search of plants. I've also got to finish off the hard-scape, which is mostly azalea root and my beat up rock.
More updates to follow.

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Thanks kodoxu and alto.
Hopefully once it's all planted up and growth takes hold, then there won't be too much sand visible. It'll be a shade darker once wet too.
Been looking at plants online this morning, pricey!


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Thanks kodoxu and alto.
Hopefully once it's all planted up and growth takes hold, then there won't be too much sand visible. It'll be a shade darker once wet too.
Been looking at plants online this morning, pricey!

Try asking for some plants you are looking for in the For Sale/Swap/Wanted area. You may get lucky and get a few bunches for free or at really low prices from other members.
 
Try asking for some plants you are looking for in the For Sale/Swap/Wanted area. You may get lucky and get a few bunches for free or at really low prices from other members.
Good advice, but when you've an itch you have to scratch it. I couldn't wait so made a trip to my LFS, certainly not the cheapest option, but it was instant. Here's what I bought.
Crypt becketi
Crypt wendti brown
Crypt petchii pink
Echinodorus rose
Echinodorus bleheri
Juncus repens
Lobelia cardinalis
Microsorum pteropus narrow leaf
Microsorum pteropus windelov
Vesicularia.
A few hours later and here's the result. Excuse the rubbish phone photos, I couldn't be bothered to get the camera out.
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I expect there will be some plant due back as they've all been grown emersed, so they've all got to get used to their new home.

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Day two, water has settled and looks clearer today.
24e65fcb4c0809ce3e74c5f7dd21b175.jpg

Keep having to resist the urge to fiddle with it

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Cabinet is awsome and the setup too. ;)

Looks great, especially with the house plants.
Thanks folks. It's nice to have a cabinet designed just the way I want.

House plants are great, they seem to be using up a lot of the ammonia, as levels are staying quite low - although the already mature filter must be helping. I've rejigged the house plant basket a bit as the fern at the front was drooping into the water and I was concerned that the leaves would rot. I've replaced it with another non droopy fern (£3 from the sale section at Dobbies) time will tell if it likes it's new environment.

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It's been about a month now since I set this tank up so thought it was time for a bit of an update. Since i last posted, I've added:-
6 ottocinclus
25 ember tetras
4 before snails
20 RCS - well 10 RCS and 10 red painted fire shrimp. I was told the RCS were all male and the red painted were all female. I've never kept shrimp before so this was all news to me.
Here's a short film showing the development, as you can see things have moved on a little. All plants have set roots, and although there were the initial acclimatisation issues, it wasn't too much of an issue. The azalea root has been growing mould like crazy, but now seems to be subsiding.
Well here's the film, excuse the dodgy camera skills!


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It's been another month, so i thought i ought to post another update. All in all things have been going really well. Not a great deal has changed, plant growth has been slow-ish, but I'm happy with that. I've added a few more Otto's since, and i did have a spell of finding dead shrimp, but since I've quit doing regular water changes things have gone OK. The eggs that i rescued from dead mum are in the basket top left of shot.
I lost the fern that was growing in the corner hanging basket, due to aphids! Since setting up there has been no sign of algae (touch wood) on the top right of the shot you can see a flow pipe - I do get some diatoms on this, but that's nothing a bit of maintenance doesn't sort out. I have gradually increased the lighting period from 6 hours a day to eight, which i will now stick at.
 

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