The sails

[AnhBui]

Been thinking for a while to see if it is necessary to start a new journal for my new planted tank. As this one is so special, it worths to start a new one

Idea
I wanted nothing but just a classic layout that you can see in any NA tank. It's a convex or island scape. As it was the last quarter of the year, I did not think I had enough time to start and take care of it alone. I talked with Manh, founder of Aqua Minh Long, and asked for his help. Luckily he agreed and started building a 1250x600x600mm tank

Hardscape
As we have many types of rock available at the local market, Manh offered me few different types such as dragon stone, elephant skin... But I told him I need him to use big rocks with different shapes and sizes for this layout instead. So the final 'chosen' one was Sedimentary rock
Choosing wood was not easy at all. In the mock layout Manh used Spider-wood with big branches and it was a disaster. The layout lost its balance and gave no impression. I told Manh I'm not happy with it and asked him to look for spider-wood with smaller and thin branches. I had to wait for one month to get what I wanted

Reused left over material
I had lots of material from my 350mm cube and from 1250x450x550mm tank. So I decided to reuse the ADA Colorado sand and ADA Powersand and ADA Amazonia

Plants
I'd been thinking very carefully about the plant lists. I am living in a subtropical humid area of Vietnam. In this area we experience different type of climate throughout the year. What concerns me most is the summer. During summer temperature can reach to 40oC mid-day. Therefore the plants must be able to cope with such extreme heat. And plants are

Anubias nana petite
Anubias nana
Rotala super red
Microsorum pteropus v. 'needle leaf'
Trident java fern
Mini taiwan moss

Manh also added
Juncus repens
Hygrophila pinnatifida
Crinum calamistratum
And after short discussion Manh's brother successfully convince me to used Bolbitis heudelotii

Result
Before planting

1st planting

Final planting

Next post: Lots of algae and how we removed them

 

[Ryan Thang To]

Oh yeah that second last pictures is amazing. please keep up the good work and i hope you get the algae sorted. Just like me when i came back from vietnam my tank was a algae farm

 

[AnhBui]

Algae outbreak
Things went well before Rotala super red was planted. Tank was clean and we didn't need cleaning crew

Manh is very famous for his technic of optimal plant growth and colour. What he does is to keep very long and strong photo period (>12 hours/day) and mix ADA soils with his secret and rich iron soils. See example below

Manh planted Rotala super red, and applied the same technic. Things went bad few weeks later. One of the reasons was the little time he spent for the tank due to tight working schedules. Algae started out breaking. Brown diatom was the first problem, then next were green hair, staghorn, greendust. Hygrophila pinnatifida stopped growing and died. Some portion of anubias nana melted, and eventually died

We discussed and started with Otto to clean brown diatom and Cory to clean greendust at the sand. We wanted to fix the issue as soon as possible. So 100 of Otto and Cory were released to the tank. And again another problem just occurred. Fish death! But despite that troubles tank was getting better. Brown diatom and greendust algae were gone. Next was to fix staghorn and green hair on plants and wood. I used around 50 Amano shrimps for cleaning, however process was too slow. Manh released Siamese algae and golden algae eater for speeding cleaning process up

EWWW!

Tank's getting better and I asked Manh to moved the tank to my house. He moved it at the very end of first week of 2017. Moving was smooth and not really a pain thanks to Manh and his team

Next post: How I do water change

 

[AnhBui]

Oh yeah that second last pictures is amazing. please keep up the good work and i hope you get the algae sorted. Just like me when i came back from vietnam my tank was a algae farm

Thanks buddy. I sorted it out. Tank is clean now

 

[David Shanahan]

That woods great. I wish I could find some like that!

 

[Tim Harrison]

Very nice island scape, great natural looking hardscape and the red plant really sets it off.

 

[Shane Puthuparambil]

Really like it! I haven't seen rotala super red here in the US before.


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[AnhBui]

That woods great. I wish I could find some like that!

Thanks. It's Redmoor wood

Very nice island scape, great natural looking hardscape and the red plant really sets it off.

Thanks Tim

 

[AnhBui]

Really like it! I haven't seen rotala super red here in the US before.
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Thanks Shane

 

[AnhBui]

How I do water change
I do water change every week and one of the facts I do not really care much about the %. What I do care is the efficiency of my water change. Does it help to keep my tank clean, my fish healthy, put algae under control... So how?

Different hoses for different types of tank
I have five tanks with different sizes, from nano to medium and large. So in general I have five hoses from phi 8mm to phi 20mm
With the sails I use a phi 16mm hose for water in and phi 20mm for water out

Use filter wool and razor scraper for cleaning
I have tried several cleaning cloths but filter wool is the best tool I've been using so far. With razor scraper it is only for cleaning algae on glass

Use surface skimmer for extra cleaning

Use DIY holder for hose
You can easily find holder everywhere and buy it. But I made several holders from suction cups and cable tie. Cheap and easy to use

You may wonder where is the efficiency I mentioned at the very beginning. Let's start

At any water change I often start with positioning my hoses, first with water-in hose and next with water-out hose

When they are firmly in their position, then I do my cleaning with glass without turning my filter off. That helps to remove the dust or dirt, scum... from glass. Once I finish cleaning all glasses, I start siphoning. How? See picture below. I place the input of water-out hose to the filter outlet. With this I don't have to use my mouth to start the siphon

The next step I believe you all are aware and do it many times. Suck out all dirt, fish poop, extra food... I start the water in when water level is lower to 70%, and keep siphoning and cleaning until I feel it's okay fill up my tank again. At this point I start the surface skimmer to clean the all the left over scum/oil... and gradually check and clean its sponge for better result

 

[AnhBui]

Fauna
I had about 40 fire red shrimps and 30 orange shrimps for cleaning my 125x45x55. At the first two months tank was good. It only turned into disaster when I added a pair of Melanotaenia australis and 15 Melatotaenia boesemani. I did not know shrimps are their prey. 70 shrimps were gone after several days and from then algae started out breaking. Otto and Albino longfin pleco could not get rid of BBA

Lesson I learned from my failure with large tank is that if you don't carefully select your fishes. It would eventually turn into disaster for your tank.

With the sails I use different types of cleaning crew to work on different type of algae

Otto for brown diatom

Golden longfin pleco for algae that appears on wood and rock

Amano shrimp for stag-horn and green-hair algae

Red cherry shrimp for cleaning plant leaves in areas where otto and longfin cannot reach

Corydoras aeneus for cleaning tank bottom

Since I love rainbow fish, I choose folktail blue eye and spotted blue eye. These fishes are small, schooling and not aggressive

Below is a before and after photo comparison of the Sails
Before

After

 

[AnhBui]

Here is photo update. Just want to show you how effective the cleaning crew is

Full tank shot. I really love warm colour that light and sand bring, however stem plant redness looks pretty pale

Hidden path

 

[AnhBui]

New plants in
Cyperus involucratus

Myriophyllum mattogrossense?

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Myriophyllum mattogrossense

I think the Myriophyllum is M. aquaticum.

cheers Darrel

 

[zozo]

Cyperus involucratus

Looks good, but that's not a small one.. I wonder where this will go onces it takes off. They root massively i have a cyperus in my ponds filter basket on inert fritted glass and took it inside for the winter, was impressed by the roots it grew. It grows as much roots as it has height above the substrate and this without getting additional ferts.

Maybe C. Helferi would do better size, stays a lot smaller..

 

[AnhBui]

Maybe C. Helferi would do better size, stays a lot smaller..

Thanks for suggestion. I will take a look around to see if I can get it here

 

[zozo]

Thanks for suggestion. I will take a look around to see if I can get it here

Good luck.. That C. involucratus has a mature size of 4 to 6 feet.. An Eleocharis could possibly do as well is also a Cyperaceae. Lately there was a new one launched a bit more sturdy and also forming those decorative umbrellas. If i remember correctly Greenfinger2 had it emersed in his latest shallow scape. I forgotten its full name..

Ah p.s. Eleocharis vivipara (Umbrella hairgrass) +/- 30 cm.

 

[micheljq]

Sorry just a quick question, is there injected co2 or not?

Thanks for sharing.

 

[AnhBui]

Sorry just a quick question, is there injected co2 or not?

Thanks for sharing.

Yes, there's Co2 and it's 24/7

Happy New Year everyone

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[AnhBui]

M. Aquaticum is growing very fast, but the interesting part is on its roots. They are white long thin and down like a curtain

I attached one piece of H. Helix on top of one wood branch, And cut off one piece of M. aquaticum. Then I tied it on the wood by using one thin black hair

And here is tank view from a ~45 degree angle

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