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NACD 45x35x35 Low Tech (pre-setup discussion)

PM

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Joined
15 Dec 2007
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642
Location
London
Hello UKAPS.

After a few years off I’m about to get back into the hobby. My history in aquascaping could be summarised as ‘algae growing expert’. I hope that some discussion will set me off on the right path, and hugely appreciate people’s help to produce a tank I can be happy with, for once! Queries are underlined.

My goal is a low maintenance low tech scape with only shrimp and plants:

Tank
NACD Optiwhite 56 litres 45x35x35cm custom size due for delivery 12th May

Filter
Eheim Professional 4+ 350T rated 1050 LPH - all my tanks in the past had low flow issues, I’m hoping this will negate the issue. It’s been decades since I’ve set up a tank without a mature filter, which products would you recommend? I still have some ADA Green Bacter, is that useful?

Lighting
Super fish Aquacube 9watt to begin with. Considering Kessil A80 Tuna sun but I don’t know HOW dimmable the unit is? For example can I run it at 10% power if need be? Or does it come on at 50%? I did email Kessil about this and got nowhere. The last thing I want is to drive it too hard with too much light.

CO2 / Excel etc
None

Other
Twinstar M5 - Hell yes I will spend £120 on something if it stops some algae.
Surface skimmer made shrimp safe. Considering ADA Vuppa 2

Plants
Bolbitis - I have never had this not die on me. But it’s my favourite plant by a mile so I will keep on trying. Tips? I have London tap water FYI.
Java Fern
Mosses
Anubius
Crypts - recommendations?
Stems - at least initially, not fussed what
I will be buying Tropica 1 2 grow where I can. For plants unavailable in this format, how can I absolutely 100% ensure that I do not introduce pest snails into my aquarium? I have read that potassium permanganate dipping is ineffective against snail eggs. How do people ensure no snail eggs?

Substrate
Florabase - I think that’s the one I have. I’ve got loads of it unused, I know it has nutrients in it anyway.
ADA Xingu

Hardscape
Wood - where can I buy individual pieces online? The ones on thegreenmachine look pretty poor at the moment.
Rocks - got lots from previous.

Fertilisation Regime / Method
I could definitely use some advice here. I still have a bunch of dry KNO3, K2PO4? & trace elements mix from Aqua Essentials that I bought many years ago (maybe 10 years ago). Are these still any good? Still considered best option? I used to use Tom Barr’s modified EI method without water changes and skipping dosing to reset the tank every few weeks.

Please recommend the best / easiest product/s to buy and method? I don’t know what’s changed in the time I’ve been out of the hobby.

Fingers crossed this journal will show a nice scape in future rather than begging for algae solutions.

Cheers,
Paul.
 
I wouldn't worry too much about pest snails (unless you really don't want even 1 snail roaming around). I find pest snail populations only really thrive with leftovers from when you overfeed, shouldn't happen when keeping only shrimps.

There are some crypts that love London's hard water, if I recall correctly Petchii and Crispatula are some of them. I'm sure some other members on this forum will know much better!

As for the gear I can recommend this light: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Aquarium-L...25307571&sr=8-1-fkmr1&keywords=lumini+asta+20
Same looks as kessil with the gooseneck only much cheaper. Only fault is the dimmer really (kind of jumps from around 30% to 70%), but at 30% you'll grow most low light plants easily.

Best of luck and have fun!

Oh, as for fast growing stems I can recommend Hygrophila Sessiliflora, you'll have too much of it in no time :)
 
Received the NACD aquarium, very happy with the quality.

Here's a couple of quick snaps before I filled the tank to soak the wood.

nacd1.jpg


nacd2.jpg
 
Lovely looking tank, the stainless pipes look very cool!




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Twinstar M5 - Hell yes I will spend £120

Go for the Chihiros doctor of eBay does the same, or don’t bother for low tech

KNO3, K2PO4? & trace elements mix from Aqua Essentials that I bought many years ago (maybe 10 years ago)

Will be fine, salts don't go off.

how can I absolutely 100% ensure that I do not introduce pest snails into my aquarium?

Get plants form one off our sponsers as snail free plus get discount as UKAPS member.

Light
CHIHIROS RGB-SERIES AQUATIC AQUARIUM COLORFUL LED LIGHT RGB30/45/60 fully dimable out of box or get TC420/421 for better control. Well worth a look at esp for low tech and TC420 switch’s lights on off sunrise/sunset too.

Help that helps ;)
 
Beautiful glass and silicone work. The Kessils are really good at dimming quite low, although I’ve only used them with the separately available controller. Great fun playing about with it too.
 
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Fertilisation Regime / Method
I could definitely use some advice here. I still have a bunch of dry KNO3, K2PO4? & trace elements mix from Aqua Essentials that I bought many years ago (maybe 10 years ago). Are these still any good? Still considered best option? I used to use Tom Barr’s modified EI method without water changes and skipping dosing to reset the tank every few weeks.

Please recommend the best / easiest product/s to buy and method? I don’t know what’s changed in the time I’ve been out of the hobby.

Paul.

Honestly I would go with an all in one liquid solution for fertiliser. Everything is in it and you don't need to bother mixing or looking up dosing - you will have the same results as any other method and considering you have had algae problems there won't be margin for error with all in one which can lead to algae. You literally cannot go wrong with it.

I use The Aquascaper Complete Liquid Plant Food with great results:

http://www.aquariumgardens.co.uk/the-aquascaper-complete-plant-food-500ml-2370-p.asp

Tropica have two different fertilisers, one with nitrogen and phosphorus (specialised) and one without (better for low tech):

https://tropica.com/en/plant-care/liquid-fertilisers/premium-nutrition/
 
Hi UKAPS :)

I'm now ready to order plants. The wood after being soaked and cleaned for months is still growing white stuff from it, mould or whatever. I've added the very expensive but very nice ADA Vuppa 2, waiting on a Kessil A80 Tuna Sun to come through. And I'll be adding a foam sponge over the filter inlet before I add any shrimp. The hardscape isn't going to win any awards but I'm happy enough with it.

1.jpg


Going to order plants soon. The plan is to use plants that don't sit in the substrate, so I'll just attached to small rocks and drop them in, in between the hardscape. So bolbitis (which will likely die but I'm going to try), java ferns, mosses, Anubius and buce plants.

Stocking wise I'm having second thoughts on shrimp only. So any ideas are welcome. I'm not a fan of tetras, they just hide and have no personality in my opinion. Although they do look nice.
 
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All those plants should work, attached to wood will create nice shadows. Maybe some moss tied around the wood would also look good?

Are you using any CO2 or liquid carbon. Even if not, Bolbitis is pretty undemanding. Similar to Java fern. Try and get needle or trident varieties of java fern.


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Update day 9:

Tank is planted now, photo shows the tank 9 days after planting. It was difficult to fit all the plants in I ordered, as the wood creates large areas of shadow and sort of divides the tank in half in a sense. I've had a few leaves die which were in shadow but those plants are also showing new growth already which is good. I didn't know if I was supposed to trim the roots on these plants (they are all typing that attached to rock / wood, nothing planted in the substrate), so I just left them as they were.

I'm dosing Aquascaper complete daily and ADA Green Bacter liquid. Not doing any water changes at all and running the Twinstar M5 on the high setting (for 50-200l rather than 20-50, the tank is approx 50l). I'm running the Kessil A80 at 10 o'clock for 6 hours a day. My camera doesn't seem to deal with the LED light very well - massive dynamic range I guess. I may attempt to move some plants around but probably not until a big prune is due. There's loads of trident and mini java fern at the back which you can't really see.

1.jpg
 
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