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300L pseudo-Dutch style Planted Tank

Jose,

I agree, it's very beautiful but a little crowded. I had that same issue with my first attempt at Dutch design back in 2009 and am fighting the urge to keep too many species in my current 60 gallon tank. Perhaps taking out some that are just a couple stems and are intergrowing with other species will do the trick? I've been having trouble keeping space between plant groups in my 120 cm tank too. Some species just grow too fast and too lushly to keep separated from their neighbors. Yet another technique to improve on. :(
 
Robert H. Tavera said:
Realy nice tank.. I see that you have a lot of platy fish, it's true that they eat black algae or any kind of algae? I'm thinking in adding a few of them because I can't find sae anywhere !
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Hi Robert,

I love platies, and my favourite is the "Sunset" variety you can see in the pictures. To date I have been very lucky and I have never seen algae in the tank, perhaps it is because the platies are eating them :) Well, people say they do. I can say that they like veggies a lot, I feed them everyday with a lot of blanched spinaches together with some frozen food (daphnia, red and black mosquito larvae, tubifex, artemia, etc). I can say that they are happy in the tank, and when you have a lot of well fed fishes they dose Urea to the water, making bacteria, plants and myself also happy :)

sae are great, but if you can get some Otocinclus.

Just in case you are interested this is my DIY platy feeding cage. Using something like this spinaches will not spread into the tank and fishes, shrimps and snails can pick them as they like.

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Cheers,

Jose
 

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Phil Edwards said:
Jose,

I agree, it's very beautiful but a little crowded. I had that same issue with my first attempt at Dutch design back in 2009 and am fighting the urge to keep too many species in my current 60 gallon tank. Perhaps taking out some that are just a couple stems and are intergrowing with other species will do the trick? I've been having trouble keeping space between plant groups in my 120 cm tank too. Some species just grow too fast and too lushly to keep separated from their neighbors. Yet another technique to improve on. :(
Click to expand...

I agree with you Phil, is not that easy to keep the gap between plant groups. This is one of the trickiest parts of the Dutch style, you have to plan everything like a gardener :) But it is an attractive challenge as well. I think that a nice strategy would be to start with few plant species, increasing their number as you feel that the set up is not crowded and under control.

I still have many things to learn ...

Cheers
 
I already have ottos, and they are really nice, they almost keep my tank algae free but they don't eat black algae and sometimes I need to take it out manually.

You're so lucky, not algae.... that tank is a true paradise, nice plants, nice fish !

Really ingeniously cage, I use to feed my discus with homemade food, but I ended changing the discus for a nice school of bleeding heart tetras and some glowlights... and this ones only eat flakes.... poor of them, eating the same thing everyday, of every week, of every month.... lol
 
jose_j said:
Hi Sacha,

CO2 is working when lights are on. I'm using a pressurized bottle (one of these that are used for beer in the pubs and restaurants) and an inline atomizer that split the gas into very tiny bubbles. I think that it is a nice system as you save money in CO2. The bad side is that the water looks a little bit misty, loosing the attractiveness of a fully transparent water.

Cheers,

Jose
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Hi Jose, may I ask how do you define misty? Reason being is that I am also using an inline diffuser, Intense brand, but the bubbles that come out are quite big and not 'misty'. What is the bubble per second you are applying?

I have uploaded a youtube on my tank.

 
Robert H. Tavera said:
I already have ottos, and they are really nice, they almost keep my tank algae free but they don't eat black algae and sometimes I need to take it out manually.

You're so lucky, not algae.... that tank is a true paradise, nice plants, nice fish !

Really ingeniously cage, I use to feed my discus with homemade food, but I ended changing the discus for a nice school of bleeding heart tetras and some glowlights... and this ones only eat flakes.... poor of them, eating the same thing everyday, of every week, of every month.... lol
Click to expand...

Thanks Robert for your kind comments. I have four glowlight tetras in this tank and they also love frozen food, particularly frozen daphnia. Perhaps you could try to do the same with yours. Your are right, having only flakes as food should be horrible :woot:

All the best,

Jose
 
FerdinandPorsche said:
Hi Jose, may I ask how do you define misty? Reason being is that I am also using an inline diffuser, Intense brand, but the bubbles that come out are quite big and not 'misty'. What is the bubble per second you are applying?

I have uploaded a youtube on my tank.

Click to expand...


Hi Ferdinand! I cannot access your youtube video, I'm getting "this video is private" message.

The bubbles coming out from my inline diffuser are really tiny, they travel together with the water current through the tank creating the famous mist. Mine is working at 2 bars pressure, but I don't have info regarding the bubbles per second. I try to minimize the number of devices in the CO2 tubing system in order to reduce the possibility of suffering gas leaks, sorry!

Will try to access your video later.

Cheers,

Jose
 
jose_j said:
Hi Ferdinand! I cannot access your youtube video, I'm getting "this video is private" message.

The bubbles coming out from my inline diffuser are really tiny, they travel together with the water current through the tank creating the famous mist. Mine is working at 2 bars pressure, but I don't have info regarding the bubbles per second. I try to minimize the number of devices in the CO2 tubing system in order to reduce the possibility of suffering gas leaks, sorry!

Will try to access your video later.

Cheers,

Jose
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Hi Jose, please try again as I have removed the privacy setting.

I totally understand your concern on the leakage. Thankfully I have no leakages so far. I saw at the local fish shop, their same model & brand diffuser are incredible so I suspect mine could be faulty.
 
FerdinandPorsche said:
Hi Jose, please try again as I have removed the privacy setting.

I totally understand your concern on the leakage. Thankfully I have no leakages so far. I saw at the local fish shop, their same model & brand diffuser are incredible so I suspect mine could be faulty.
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Hi Ferdinand, I like your tank, congratulations. You are right, the bubbles are too big, but this happens to me when I feed the diffuser with more CO2 than the right flow. Try to adjust this, perhaps what is not working properly is your needle valve. Also try to soak the diffuser in water+bleach and then rinse properly. If after cleaning it and setting an optimal CO2 flow rate it still producing big bubbles I would conclude that it is faulty. Another test would be to set another one from a friend keeping your CO2 flow rate and test if this is the problem.

Perhaps I'm not helping you too much ...

good luck!!

Jose
 
Thanks Jose. I will try to get it bleached and see if it is clogged or I was unlucky to get a faulty unit. I guess getting this fixed could save me lots of co2 efficiency.
 
Hi,

just some pictures to keep the journal alive. The tank is very healthy and growing fine. I'm re-escaping it in order to participate in AGA 2014 contest under the new Dutch category. I have to say that I'm working hard on it, but enjoying a lot at the same time.

Sorry for low quality images.

Cheers,

Jose

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Nice to hear from you again José. Excellent pictures and awesome healthy plants. Looking forward to seeing again a full tank shot.

Jordi
 
Hi!

as I told you I have been working on the tank trying to fit the Dutch style rules. The result has been really good, and the tank has been awarded with the first place in the 2014 AGA Aquascaping Contest (Dutch Category).

Here you have the link to the entry

http://showcase.aquatic-gardeners.org/2014/show394.html

Thanks to all of you for your comments in this thread, I much appreciate them as they have been an important source of motivation.

Hope you like the tank, of course it can be improved, and this is my aim for the next edition.

Cheers,

Jose
 
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