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Metamorphosis from unstructured jungle.

papa_c

Member
Joined
22 Jan 2013
Messages
368
Here’s my first journal with a view to sharing the learning journey!


Tank ND aquariums 100*60*40

Filters 2 x Aquamanta efx 400, 2 x 1400l/h, each has a spray bar half the length of the tank

Lights 4 x 39w T5HO iQuatics

Dosing EI via home made Raspberry PI doser,

Macros Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday

Micros Monday, Wednesday, Friday

CO2 via CO2 art set up, inline diffuser in the return of each filter, approx. 2 x 3bps

Plants from Aquarium Gardens, except Bucephalandra’s which have been collected from various sources including some quality plants from our own EdwinK.

After my initial struggles to grow anything at the start, the original tank went through much trial and error and finally developed into a bit of a jungle success, simply experimenting with various plants to see if I could grow them. It is now time to rescape and try and produce something more pleasing to my eye.

Reusing some of the plants especially the eleocharis sp mini lawn the following pictures shown the transformation over the weekend, would welcome you comments, I still have a couple of spaces that I want to fill, and in particular not sure If I will keep the pogostemon helferi and the lobelia cardinals mini in the front right hand corner.

I’ll post a full list of the plants linking their positions shortly.

Welcome any feedback or suggestions.

Old jungle

Old Jungle 1.jpg


Hardscape

Hardscape 1.jpg


Final

Final 1.jpg
 
do you find your spray bars give you enough water movement

Currently have 1400 lph through each 40cm spray bar. They easily push CO2 bubbles to the substrate with no problem, when plants are peeling O2 bubbles are also forced down to substrate level.

Perhaps possibly too much water movement as I have had issues growing on delicate in vitro plants. To the extent that I use a 30cm cube as a nursery for these.
 
Brief update, replaced the Lobelia cardinalis mini with Gratiola vascidula, also took out some eleocharis mini in the mid foreground and planted reineckii mini, added a little more eleocharis mini to the centre mid and back as it was a little thin from the original rescape .

Hygrophilla compacta is transitioning nicely to submerged growth. Bucephalandra are starting to show new leaves and flow buds. No major issues with algae or melt. Added a few Fire red shrimp to add additional interest.
 
Updated picture and plant list, Eleocharis mini is thickening up nicely, Reineckii mini is really starting to bush out but it still does not have the lovely deep purple colour on the new leaves, would welcome comments on how to improve the coloration.

Really happy now the Gratiola has taken, just need to understand at what point and how harshly to trim back so it really start to bush up, hoping that Mick.dk may be able to give input on this:)

Rotala Nanjenshen is struggling it was an In-vitro freebie I received will possibly move this out and replace with the same but bunched stock rather than in-vitro.
Plant list.jpg
 
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Very nice.
In my limited experiance i have found high light and dosing extra iron improves the colour in red plants. Think tropica do a iron rich substrate that they claim improves red colours too.
 
Here's an updated shot of the tank, filling out nicely. Suffered with the usual outbreak of diatoms, and a little bit of BBA after upping the rate of feeding the fish, currently spot treating with glute.

As predicted in the back right corner the Rotala Nanjenshen melted to nothing it was replaced with new stock only to suffer the same, also the Trident suffered the same so has been replaced with Ludwigia Palustris which has taken nicely and is colouring up, almost time for the first trim.

Hygrophila Araguaia is struggling I don't think it is CO2 issue as the drop checker in this position is showing yellow.

Added additional Bucephalandra's on the main root and additional azalea root on the right with moss and Buce's.

Not sure on how to trim the Gratiola, is it a case of out with scissors and trim horizontally and it will grow back? Comments welcome on this.

AR mini still not coloured up so have increased trace dosing to see if this helps. Definitely can not be light related as PAR is measured at 90 at substrate.

Feel free make comments or suggestions......

WP_20170312_20_40_51_Rich.jpg
 
Thanks SeanOB, will be interesting to see what it looks like when the moss grows in, based on the growth on the left I reckon 2 weeks will see it start to fill out...
 
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