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Fresh pictures

Tank is almost 2 years old now.

Two pics from above

Alto was correct, the Valisneria did start to melt away, but there appear to be new leaves coming up. Keeping my fingers crossed that it comes back. I'll take photos when the aquarium is presentable again.

Two shots from different angles

New update, after additions and a bit of rearrangement. 4 ruby tetras 4 endler guppies 2 Otocinclus affinis and a Valisneria americana var. asiatica (presently just dropped in, until I decide where to put it. - Ideas welcome!)

Apologies for the extended silence during the summer. Here is the current situation. Unfortunately there is a bit of BBA on the Bucephalandra.

Yes, the BBA seems be be more under control and after a couple of weeks the plants do seem lively in their growth. Assuming I add the fertilizers too, but do not alter lighting levels.

Hi, I have not added liquid carbon for a while prior to this past week. When I went to the store to pick up the new fish last Saturday I picked up some Seachem Excel, and I have been giving the tank 2ml each morning. Holidays are challenging, since I cannot dose every day.

Hi Alto, Photoperiod is: 1 single Giesemann 24W T5 Powerchrome Midday 6000K at 2 intervals during the day: 7am-10am, 4pm -9pm (using a 'siesta') Water changes: sometime between 1 or 2 weeks, as I have time. About a 20 litre bucket's worth of water changed, using about a 1/4 cap of Seachem...

Alex, thanks for the compliment. Why do you find it tricky? I have absolutely no problems with it, and it gets no special treatment.

Shots with my 50mm F1.8 lens hopefully the sharpness is better.

Hi all, Just a quick summer update. Tank is ticking away nicely. 2 fauna additions: 6 Forktail rainbowfish (Popondetta Furcata) 1 Stiphodon

After a bit of gardening.

As promised in the April 9 post the Ludwigia Repens needed to be cut back. Here is how that cutting evolved. On April 12-th it was chopped in half, with the top section planted on the left side. Then, 2 days later two new side shoots appeared. Now 2 weeks later the two side shoots have reached...

Thanks for the tips. I'll add some ferts during the week, and see if they have some effect.

Thanks for the comment @alto . Does it look pale considering that it is a low-light setup?

My Ludwigia Repens has grown above water level. At the same time it has started to branch off. I will cut it back, but before I do, here are some status pics: April 4th: Who can spot the red cherry in the back? Then 5 days later and just because it is pretty (Hygrophila polysperma rosanervig):

Some pictures to get the mood of the tank. Progress is visible here and there.

Hi BexHaystack, Thanks for your your kind words. Here are the answers: I am running a single 24w light now for two periods of the day: 7am-10am (This is so that I enjoy the tank in the morning), then 4pm-9pm to enjoy the afternoons and nights. I dose 1,5ml of Easycarbo, but the tank was doing...

The Limnophila hippuridoides is developing nicely

Thank you for the kind compliment.

Added a batch of Limnophila hippuridoides to the back. Also turned back the 'plant' tube in the light, that was disconnected on day 2. So running at 2x24W, as a trial. I am adding 2ml EasyCarbo daily too. If something goes bad, I will disconnect the tube again. I just wanted the new arrival to...

Hi everyone. I did a bit of tidying up and added some Rotala indica (Dennerle R40) here and there. I am sure you can spot where. And a picture taken exactly a year ago:

Sorry Konrad, I baught the entire aquarium kit second hand, so I have no clue about the lily outlet brand. It is some no-name pipe.

Thanks for the advice. I did a major cleanup this weekend and added some Tropica nutrition capsules. Is there something specific you recommend for crypts? Otherwise the lack of color might just be due to the 'low-light' setup and the shade that the bigger crypt makes from behind.

Yes. I added it last September. See this post.

Happy birthday to my tank. Here are some pictures, after a major cleanup this weekend. Enjoy.

Hi everyone, I am happy to report that my very first planted aquarium will become a 1 year old tank this weekend. I do not know if I will have time to take pictures exactly this Sunday (after a hopefully thorough cleanup), but here are some shots from tonight.

Thanks rebel for checking in an browsing the journal. Thanks Greenfinger2 for the kind compliment. Thanks Manu. I am definitely going for a high contrast high colour world in a low tech. Unfortunately some plants just melt away, or do not turn red, due to the low light levels. Keep Checking...

Well. After Christmas and into the new year I did a significant pruning this morning. The tank is not in it's best shape, but it is work in progress. It will be 1 year old in 3 weeks.

A picture from the side

Day 289 (9months 16days) Nothing special going on. Plants are growing. I cut back the moss a bit. Not a championship photo, just a work in progress status picture. It is worth checking out progress/changes since Post #70. I miss those glory days a bit, but it is evolving, and the tank will...

Many thanks Manu for the compliments. Your tank is very lovely too.

Lovely tank.

Flamingo crypto developing nicely. old picture after planting

Some fresh pics, from different angles

Here is a picture with a proper 50mm lens

Hi everyone. I am now back online. The summer was busy. But the fall season is here and it is once again time to start doing some indoor gardening. The tank has been ticking along nicely, with basic maintenance. Most of the plants have been developing nicely. Only the Ranunculus inundatus melted...

Hi zozo, thanks for the comments. I only put moss on 3 branches of the wood, where it will be hopefully easy to maintain. As this is my very first scape, I took my time in deciding on getting the moss on it. I consider it an evolution / experiment of what I had over the past months. Mine is a...

Thanks Jaydip for stopping by and for the positive words.

Thanks Alexander. I decided to take more photos from above -- this the viewpoint from which I enjoy my aquarium most of the time. Less so from a straight facing 'aquascape' view. It is a planted 3D tank after all! It is a low-tech tank, so it does take a while for it to fill in.

Day 164 (app. 5.5 months) A bit of cleanup: Cutting back, rearranging, tidying

I have put on some Christmas Moss (Vesicularia montagnei) - there is no turning back now! I hope it improves the scape.

Fresh pictures from this evening. I removed the stones for a thorough cleaning. Two weeks ago I added Seachem Purigen to the filter.

Day 131 update Not much going on. Tank is cranking away nicely. Still BBA troubles, as usual, on the fringes of leaves. During last week's water change I cut things back a bit. Exciting news is that the Bucephalandra appears to like it in the tank, as it now has 3 flowers, almost a mere 5 weeks...

Yeah. I know.

Thanks for the compliments.

Amazing pictures. What filter media do you use to keep the water so crystal clear? Do you use purigen?

Just a quick photo update - nothing major to report, except that there are visibly many many Red Cherries coming out and 2 of the Amanos are carrying many little berries.

Thanks Chris for stopping by. Hope you enjoy the pictures since.

The female ram, felt like chomping on a red cherry. Circle of life.

Flowering - Day 3

The flowering - day 2

Thanks Ryan. Check out today's pictures.

Day 92 - flowering Today I played around with the white balance on my camera, to get the colors more accurate under the 6000K tube. Also took some more pics of the Bucephalandra cf. motleyana "Melawi" in flower, playing with my 55mm fixed lens.

A few photos taken today. One of the ciclids died. Appears to have choked on a baby Red Cherry shrimp. I also donated 9 of the neons to a friend, to decrease the load. Around 1,5 weeks ago, I totally cut the lighting before the siesta for 2 reasons, we went away for 4 days, so I could not add...

Hi Greenfinger, thanks for stopping by. Here is an update. The loach has been replaced by 2 ram cichlids, (Mikrogeophagus ramirezi) who turned out to be both males. They were chasing each other all the time and all the other tank inhabitants were feeling stressed. All my Amano shrimp and Red...

1. Not an option, as I am at work during the day, so I would not be able to add the second dose. 2. Not an option, as I cannot control the T5 tubes separately - not worth the investment of 1 hour. 3. I was also thinking about that. I do plan to experiment with adding some more fertilizers...

A few more pictures

Hi alto, Thank for stopping by. Yep, Still running with same setup: every morning adding 1.5 ml of Easy Carbo, single Giesemann 1x24W, split lighting schedule - with 'siesta' 7:30am-10am then 3pm to 9pm. Night time oxygen is raised with air pump running also with a 'siesta' from 10pm-midnight...

Day 49 Our beloved pakistani loach (Botia Almorhae) decided to look around in the world outside the aquarium, and jumped out one evening. We loved his quirky demeanour and will miss him. We welcomed 2 new additions today: Ram Cichlids: Mikrogeophagus ramirezi - 1 male, 1 female (pictured on...

Day 36: Additions this weekend: Eleocharis parvula - to fill in some gaps on left Echinodorus tenellus - also on the left Staurogyne repens - on the left side of the wood, at the base Blyxa japonica - to the right of the wood and behind the rocks Other tending: - Cut back the ludwigia...

Just a plain mid-week photo update. What you may be able to spot, is that I trimmed the Hygrophila polysperma rosanervig in the back, and started to replant the cuttings to make the back/left a bit more dense. The nice red ludwigia palustris has reached the water level. I am considering some...

Alto, I do have 10 amanos. I guess they have too much cleaning to do. Adding the inline filter was good to keep temp at 24C, and keep equipment out of tank, but my motivation to keep tubing clean is at rock bottom.

Day 28 Water change with the assistance of 3 kids. Fun saturday morning. I cut back some of the plants that had BBA. I am considering getting a siamese algea eater. Outflow is getting dirty, but did not have time for it before breakfast. The green filter tubes seem to have a lot of tiny algea...

From the side:

Well that would start a new trend... after all the fancy rocks and fancy woods, aquascapers would start hunting for massive snail shells.

I counted 5 wee shrimp during the evening and they do a good job of hanging on the Ceratopteris. The one in the Eleocharis is a loner, while the other 4 were hanging out on the plants. The neon horde is pretty well fed though.

More baby shrimp pictures. Just me playing with my camera -without a decent macro lens- on manual focus. This was pretty cool. Photo taken from 'under the water level'. Shrimp was 'walking on water' upside down. The real shrimp is the one upside down, and the reflection is right side up.

Hi kirk. One of my friends said the same thing about the photo from Day 14 (post #17). I too see it, like it, and will stop turning the yellow stone. Keep checking back :)

Update on Day 21. All is going OK. I even have a 3-4 mm small Red Cherry baby alive. The inlet is getting a bit dirty.

Photo update on Day 14

Added 10 amano shrimp today. They are quite small, and hiding. Also bought an external Hydor 200W heater. Plan to install during the weekend, to crank up the heat from the current 22C to ~24C.

New photo, after additions

This evening, I stopped by a fellow planted tank enthusiast, who is a few weeks away from tearing down his tank, and got my hands on some plants. He has a high-tech tank with lots of light, so the plants are coming over to my low-tech tank in their full red colored glory. Very curious to see how...

Thanks alto for the recommendation. Red... And only needs low light and low CO2! Adding it to my shopping cart ASAP. What other stems do you think would look good? Also, this Cryptocoryne beckettii 'Petchii' looks good.

Primary reason for siesta: so tank is lit, when I am about. Secondary: I read it allows CO2 to recover during midday. Also, no harm, probably. Reason for EasyCarbo: to keep BBA under control in high flow, but low biomass tank.

Thanks Chris for stopping by.

Hi alto, My new tank has been ticking away nicely in the past week. I am using a brand new single T5 Giesemann 24W Midday 6500K tube. Very nice and pleasant white light. 7:30-10am then 2:30pm-9pm. I am adding 1.2 ml of EasyCarbo every morning. All is nice and clear: No BBA as in first day, but a...

Hi Chris, a lot has happened in the past 2-3 weeks. I got a chance to get my hands on a full kit. A 1 year old aquarium, with cabinet. So 1 week ago I started my journey. I invite you to follow my first journal (a.k.a. amateaur mistakes) here. I am not using heating cables, cause I got the...

Hi John, In the end, I had the opportunity to buy a used kit. So got an external canister with a cabinet in the end. And started a journal (see link below) a week ago. You are welcome to visit, and check it out. Cheers TD.

Here were are, exactly a week after day 1. This being a weekend, I had time for a more involved maintenance: - Cleaned all glassware that came with tank. Now both inflow and outflow are crystal clean - Also changed the filter tubing totally. I regret not bying transparent tubes. (Is there a...

Hi ryan, added a small portion of Cryptocoryne axelrodi today. I am really an amateur at planting.

Thanks Ryan for stopping by. I do plan to add more plants, just need to find a bit of time to figure out what I want :-)

Day 5. I managed to get a glass tube cleaner scrub, so now my inflow is near sparkling clean. No more black gunk, just the green algae deposits. Did a water change, added some ferts, and turned the yellow stone a bit. Things seem to be running OK.

Chris, how are you liking the co2art skimmer? Does it nicely adjust to water level changes automatically?

Well, I will move my personal stuff to my new Journal, that you are invited to follow. Thanks to everyone for the advice. http://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/two-rocks-balanced-64l-low-tech.36129/ I have chosen to run it with a siesta :)

I've opened a Journal for my tank. Thanks for the many useful advice. http://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/two-rocks-balanced-64l-low-tech.36129/

This will be my very first planted aquarium. I have been reading UKAPS for a long long time. Now, I finally have the chance to start a tank. I did not start from scratch, I bought a complete 1 year old aquarium, took it apart, moved it, then rebuilt it in my own style. (read more here) Start...

Hi Troi. Over the weekend I got the tank set up. It is a tank that was running before, and now I bought it all used, and set it up. (see thread on the moving topic) The tank, with much more biomass, than it has today, was running at 7,5hours every day with 2 x 24 w T5s Taking your advice, I...

Hi alto, and all others, here are pics of the move. My day started at 6am, and ran till midnight. I was armed with plastic boxes, and buckets, plus a near perfect paper box + wife's yoga mat. While I was rebuilding tank, fish were in 'bin' with filter running, for nearly 5-6 hours, before I...

Completed move yesterday. Thanks for all the useful advice. I took many many boxes and brought back everything. While I took my time rebuilding the tank, the fish were in another temporary tank, with the running filter. It was a long long day. Conclusion: Marsilea hirsuta - with all its...

Well, I do now have a 30L closable little plastic water barrel (in addition to boxes with lids for the rest of the kit). As the water will be moving around in the car I have been advised by the local store to put the fish into bags, separately, so the fish do not get injured if the water...

Right... With an optiwhite tank with 6mm thick glass I am not as daring [emoji1]

Thanks for all the good advice. I'll be doing the move this Saturday, so keep your fingers crossed.

I am getting a used kit. I too am starting to feel that 2x24w is too much. Especially without Co2. I am not surprised prior kit owner did not have luck. Troi, with this tank and a single T5, how many hours would you run the lights for? (filter will be an Eheim 2071, that I will probably need to...

Hi Troi I am glad you are enjoying the open discussion. What is your personal experience trying the midday break?

Darrel, how big is your tank? And how many watts / lumens are you using! I fear that with a 64l tank and a 2x24w T5 lumiere I will not use 12 hours like you. Thanks for the link.

Thanks for the post. Very interesting reading. As I do not plan to use CO2, this is relevant for me.