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Took all Cyperus out. It did die slowly. No to very little growth. Probably not enough light because in the middle it did do best. So I'm looking for another plant in the back. Thinking about Eleocharis vivpara or Vallsneria nana. I'm scared the val will grow too fast and Eleocharis will look...

Absolutely beautiful! But so will be the new project I guess;)

Made a video after the rescape. Let me know what you think about the scape and about the video! 1200L Aquascape Plandora

You know this is a 1000L tank right? These Cyperus are 40cm high right now and barely make it over the wood. Wendtii would disappear behind the wood. But I do have balansae in between the Cyperus for a little aged look;)

Changed the background plants. Trimming a bucket full of Pogostemon every week was no longer my thing. I was looking for a bright green plant but all of them seemed to grow quite fast. Till I stumbled upon Cyperus helferi, so I bought a few dozen of those to swap the Pogostemon out. Still a...

Made a box last week which holds my Apex computer and all Powerplus and cables. I can open the front of the box and access everything if I need to. I installed a DJ switch so I don't need to pull cables out anymore and I bought a cheap 8 inch tables which I use to display my Apex measurements...

The Pogostemon quadrifolius in the back is growing so fast that I want to replace it for something that grows slower. Any suggestions?

Thanks! The moss is in almost perfect shape. The Congo tetras are taking bites now and the, but I just took most of it off. It took me 3 hours every few weeks to trim a bucket full off. Besides that I wanted to expose the wood a bit more.

A long overdue update. At the closing date for the IAPLC I thought the tank didn't look mature enough. So I enterred the contest with an iwagumi 90P which looked fine at that moment. I did enter the Dutch NBAT contest with this tank. So I received multiple housevisits from judges to see how...

Made an extreme HDR today, by making a picture during the day from the 'cabinet' and from the aquarium this night. A little photoshop (which I'm not good at) and this is the result: #iIlikeit

Most fish are quite common. Otocinclus, Trigonostigma espei, Paracheirodon simulans, Nannostomus marginatus and the little less common Alestopetersius caudalis and Hisonotus leucofrenatus. Lots of shrimp, some Panaqolus to keep the wood clean and some other L-numbers because I love them (a group...

Latest picture. I entered a Dutch competition where they pay house visits, so the judge will come to my house next week to grade my tank. Looking forward!

Do you know your GH, calcium and magnesium? I've seen GDA mostly in tanks with low magnesium. I've fixed it multiple times with raising Mg. Perhaps if this is low in your tank as well, it might be worth a try.

Thank you! I feel blessed every day!

The moss is recovering, and the algae is losing ground: I'll add some extra rocks, because right now, my L-numbers are digging holes under the stones all the way to the soil (you can see the L240 in the right front digging).

The damage to the Cardamine is less since I doubled the amount of green food. Moss is still having a tough time. Only emersed and right in front of the filter outlet with the CO2 reactor it's nice and green. I raised CO2 a little to check what will happen. And off course, a journal can't...

Some small problems with the dosing pump. The phosphate pump dumped in way more than I wanted and the nitrate pump was stuck, so was almost zero resulting in a little algae in the moss right below the light: So I bought an ARKA dosing unit, love it!! Another problem is that the algae eaters...

This size: water out, transport, water in. The scape is flat on purpose, so it won't be destroyed during transport. Verstuurd vanaf mijn E6653 met Tapatalk

It's actually a very nice size for scaping. Especially the 45cm front to back. I made this tank for the booth from our store Diebo at an exhibition in the Netherlands. It was well received, but it stands in our shop, not at my house unfortunately... The light is a Twinstar 600ES, funny thing is...

Haha, It's not so mini, It's a 60H (120L) Verstuurd vanaf mijn E6653 met Tapatalk

One piece of wood is still floating a little. It stays down when I push it between 2 other pieces. But goes up now and then, so hope it will sink or need to attach a rock to it...

I know it's the wood, but I used this type of wood before in another scape (see picture below), but this was a considerable smaller amount of wood off course. A small amount of carbon was enough to keep the water crystal clear in this tank. So I hope this will only be for a short while, we'll see.

The water does turn a little yellow despite the active carbon and purigen. So I replaced the carbon, perhaps It's already saturated. Also some diatoms at the sand, but notering to worry about. And the Otocinclus are eating the Cardamina, so I hope it will grow a little faster, so it grows...

Thank you! I don't know how full I want the plants, I do want to try out letting all the background plants grow to the surface and trim them in a curve to emphasise the path in the middle. If I don't like it, I can always trim them back to this height.

Scissors? You think It's already overgrown? Verstuurd vanaf mijn E6653 met Tapatalk

The wood has sunken, plants and moss is growing, so far I'm happy:

The wood on the right side doesn't float anymore so I removed the stones. So here a closer photo from the right side:

This rescape was not that expensive, I reused most of the soil and the stones. In Euro's, 80 for soil, 20 for sand, 30 for Moss Cotton, about 600 for the wood and the plants got sponsored by Aquaflora which was about 600-700 retail. The entire tank could have been a small brand new car, haha!

Probably not, the Proserpinaca might be the only one, but all plants grow better, more bushy, with CO2, and I like that compact look. I do add less than with me previous scape though. Verstuurd vanaf mijn E6653 met Tapatalk

Haha, thank you! Budget from this rescape or including the aquarium and all? Verstuurd vanaf mijn E6653 met Tapatalk

Photos from this morning, only two plants floating, too bad the big rocks on the wood take up so much attention...

There are fast growing plants (Pogostemon, Cardamine, Proserpinaca) inside, read my last post. But if you ever maintained a large tank, you know you don't want fast growing plants [emoji14] Verstuurd vanaf mijn E6653 met Tapatalk

Unwrapping the wood after some final adjustments: Adding new soil and sand: Although I'm no small guy with 1.87m, you can clearly see this is no small tank: Add some water to make planting easier: Plants for between the stones and just behind them: Behind that some cryptos...

Can't say that tank (or to be more precise, the original that stood in the ADA gallery) wasn't one of my favorite tanks of mr. Amano and was part of the inspiration to make this scape;) Verstuurd vanaf mijn E6653 met Tapatalk

Will update with photos later, but I can already say that I've never been so satisfied with an aquascape as I'm with this one. And I haven't even started planting yet:)

500m ADA Moss Cotton later (they should sell sixpacks or something) I finished the last piece of wood. Neglected tank before emptying: Plants and spiderwood out: Filling up again and emptying to rinse the soil: Rescaped the soil: The stones: See whether the wood fits...

The benefit is me not having to buy 10 new bags and the old one is still fine. I didn´t want to risk my fish adding ADA soil although I think it´s the best soil for plants as stated in my previous message: Will add some photo's later tonight!

A quick photo before I start. This (and the soil, stones and some plants already in the tank) all need to be in the tank in 2 days. Wish me luck!! All plants are powered by AquaFlora. For the soil I picked Tropica soil this time, because I was scared ADA would leach too much ammonia, because...

400 meter ADA Moss Cotton and 500 gram Taxiphyllum later, I only need to do one more piece of wood (the biggest). Tomorrow is D-Day, or maybe better: Scape-Day. Will finish the last piece of wood and after that start emptying the tank and hope to do some hardscaping. I guess you guys all know...

The preparations started... I brushed the wood and started wrapping Taxiphyllum sp. from Aquaflora around the branches with moss cotton. Here some teaser photo's: Cling foil to keep the moss wet till monday:

PM send!

I work in an lfs in the Netherlands which sells this wood. Not cheap indeed (about €600,- [emoji21]) but I like it very much! Thank you!

Made a new thread about the rescape: https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/my-road-to-iaplc-2017.48029/

My 1000L tank is running for over 1,5 year now, and everything is working the way I would like to. This combined with the fact that I finally got some time to maintain the tank, did made me think of rescaping the tank for IAPLC (or another contest). I will try to update this journal as often as...

Here a better quality photo: And the last photo from this scape: I'll rescape it in the next few weeks. I got a global idea of the hardscape, only need to think about plants. Will need a lot of moss, that is for sure, Anubias, Cryptocoryne and trident fern I'm quite sure of. Some grass...

Thank you! I'm still a big fan of open tanks, but after 4 years of an open tank and the misses complaining about the 'hospital light' (she prefers low kelvin light) in the living room in the evening, this was not really an option anymore. I really like the fact that I can have some Aphyosemion...

Check out my 1000+ journal, It's almost the same but without the discus.

Thanks guys!

A short update: I finally finished the exterior of my aquarium. The inside runs very well fortunately, because I do skip some water changes and and only clean the glass once a month at the moment. After my holiday, I'll rescape the tank to make a IAPLC tank that should be able to rank high...

Great work, especially with that amount of light. Mind sharing your maintenance regime?

It's not an open tank, so it has glass strips over the entire length and from front to back. So I don't expect any problems;)

Thank you! The tank is 195x80x80 (65cm water) 12 mm glass.

No, I don't use UV, but you can connect it 24/7 if you like, no problem!

I don't know what you mean by 30%. But all I do is make sure my plants grow fine. Not too much light, stable nutrient levels in the water. A rich substrate, stable CO2 and enough flow. Combine this with a large filter so you've loads of bacteria to break down fish food/feces and almost no algae...

UV kills only free floating bacteria. Most good bacteria are attached to filter media and the substrate. So the benefits would definitely outweigh the bad IMO. I don't use one though... About the media, I use some purigen, but nothing special to reduce algae. Just as much bio rio as I could...

I make sure plants are thriving and oxygen is always high. This in combination with sump loaded with filter medium gives me clean water and algae very little change. On the glass is very little light, so this needs to be cleaned very little. When algae start growing, it's usually on the rocks...

Thank you for that honour!

Made some new pictures. Removed the outflows and dropchecker:

I think it's a little too small to scuba dive in there. Too many wood, unless you're a very small guy perhaps. But you're welcome to try as long as you clean the back glass while you're in there[emoji14]

Thanks all! It is a lot of work, but at the same time an easy tank. As long as everything goes well, all I need to do are (massive) water changes, cleaning the sand and trimming the plants from time to time. When algae start to grow, this tank is a lot of work. Right now I clean the windows once...

Growth seemed to slow down a little with the LED, but that has recovered!

PS. don't my simulans 'pop' under my new light!!:cool:

In one of my first aquaria I used to own an Aponogeton madagascariensis. Which was the best algae magnet I've ever had! Now a little more experienced I think I can keep it alive. So I bought 3 different Aponogetons: A. boivinianus: A. crispus? (bought longiplumilosus, any thoughts?): A...

Bought as bullosa, but most likely a very dark wendtii or an affinis.

Algae on the stones is dying off more and more each week. I must say, I'm very pleased. Did a big trim and cleaned the sand for the photo. I changed some plants, but the biggest improvement visually is that it looks like two islands again. Both forms of Bolbitis are growing like mad, and I'm...

Small update from the tank while I'm finally finishing the cabinet.

Whichever one you´ve chosen... The tank was setup 1,5 years ago:p

Somehow when I use those huge Pistia plants in an aquarium I get the same plants as you do in the end. So I agree with Edvet, they look more like Pistia to me.

Umzz... Not a bad idea. I got two LED spots in the side of the T5 richt now and I love it when only running the LED. Thanks!

I feel I got the tank under control right now. Algae on the stones get less and less and is no longer growing. Plants grow like crazy! Next thing is to trim/rearrange some plants, because I feel like the focus points are gone:

Papagei, at least the male. The female is a little unclear. Even Mike at apistogramma.com doesn't know: http://www.apistogramma.com/forum/threads/apistogramma-papagei-pebas.18584/

Hongsloi? Male and female borelli

A small update, tank is recovering from the low CO2 during my holiday. Stones are getting cleaner and cleaner. Could be better but I'm not unhappy! The A. ortegai couple I took out and placed in a breeder tank. Blurry photo but check the colors! I replaced them with 20 A. borelli...

Looks really really good, you created a lot of depth! Only thing I would change if it was my tank would be the spraybar on the back. My eyes keep getting drawn towards it...

The 15lb bottle is now, 3,5 month later, empty. I did turned the amount up a while ago so I expect the next to last 2,5-3 months. This is with degassing all the CO2 at night. When I don't turn on the airpump at night, the pH rises only about 0,4. With airpump 1,2, which leads me to believe that...

Well I didn't measure yet but 2x6000l/u minus head pressure does the job. Overflow is a bean animal style overflow which minimizes turbulance. Overall I'm quite happy. Although the CO2 reactor is a little on the small side and can barely handle it and is almost entirely filled with CO2 by the...

Without a sump on my 400L a 15lb lasted 5 months. I guess I use a little more[emoji5]

I don't know yet, still the first bottle, but I don't think I loose that much more due to the sump. I think you spill more with a glass diffusor and no sump compared to a reactor and a sump.

You can use plants like Epipremnum or Scindapsus, also known as Pothos. These do very well with their roots in the water. In fact, Amano uses something like this on his private tank.

Thanks NC10! I've been playing with the flow quite a lot Ed, and right now one outflow is aimed straight at the left glad and one straight at the front. This way 90% of the water goes down on the left, flows along the substrate and goes up on the right. I tested with liquid filter medium and it...

Came home after my holiday and my tank looked quite good. I reduced the amount of light and some plants suffered from too little light it seems. Algaewise the stones got covered in a short form of BBA but the wood and plants look quite good so here is the latest picture:

Utricularia is doing great in one place, 10 cm tot the left dying completely, 10cm more to the left doing great. Not sure whether the bad patches came from one cup or what, but I've had troubles getting UG started before, once it grows it does great! Diatoms have kicked in big time, but ammonia...

Checked it, but not what I'm looking for

Haha, must be the Brighty K! But if it keeps growing in this speed, I need to find another solution:confused: No, the reason is that with the 32mm outflow I couldn't increase flow anymore or the Utricularia left the substrate. So I bought 32 to 50mm elbows to reduce the velocity and now I can...

I finally put all the pipework together but I made some serious design flaws and had some leak problems. For one, I couldn't stop 1 bulkhead from dripping, so I used silicon in between the glass and rubber. Fortunately, this worked! Next was the main drain pipe. It leaked on two points. It was...

What do you want to see? I got a video, perhaps I can upload that here...

I finally found some nice pieces of spiderwood. Was a 500km drive to Germany, but worth it! (and a nice opportunity to test whether my old car is still able to drive fast (no speeding limit in Germany:P )). I also got my sump finished and filled with water. It's now pumping water from the end...

Will receive the frame today and the tank within 2 weeks. Only thing I'm not excited about is the fact it needs to be where my 400L tank is standing now. Looks like I need to move that one and that feels like an awful lot of work for only a few weeks...

Umzz... Maybe, but in front of the stones there will only be sand (or maybe in the beginning HC), so I don't think they will be covered very fast.

Haha, that's what my girlfriend saw. I saw a gorilla face. Either way, it's definitely a face!

The frame is being build. I already started to make some layouts with the stones I bought: Front and left side will be sand, the rest will be aquasoil. Some large pièces of wood with ferns in the middle and various stems in the back. #gettingreallyexcited I love the big stone, who sees the...

Well, I ordered the tank and frame and am glueing baffles in the sump. It's really going to happen!!:) Been thinking about the scape for months now. Here is an idea: But another one is to go for a way more biotope style scape. Something like the lower photo in this picture: Either way...

Any updates?

Yes, it usually happens when I fill the tank to high, but too much CO2 triggers shrimps to set a mass migration in motion too, even 3-4 cm below the edge is no problem!

The evaporation I don't really care about, good ventilation helps a lot. But I do mind the occasional dead shrimp or pencil fish on my floor (although I minimized it to once every 2 months or so). Guess my paludarium 'in-the-make' needs to fill up that gap;)

Makes you wonder to go for an open top tank again...[emoji5]

Here is what I was thinking so far: The two main questions I've are about the spacing of the baffles. And is it possible to calculate the amount of water coming from the main tank when the return pumps stop? Because I do need to make sure it fits in the sump as well!

Today I picked up a sump. It's a Juwel Rio 400. I was designing the exact measurements of the compartments. I was thinking about spacing the baffles 5cm apart. Any idea whether that would be enough on a 50cm width sump with max 10.000 L/h flow? Or can I space them closer to each other? And how...

Not really;)

I know the Kryptopterus are very tight schoolers. But was looking for a little less well known fish, something special:P