400 gallon.

[Edvet]

Update: pointed one pump downwards to the middle of the tank, that made the Tonina happy, just have to cut and replant them to loose the unsightly bits. The Mayacca isn't thriving in the back, still some whitish points, and gathering some green filamentous algea, which are on on all fineleaved plants btw. Redirecting the flow, and using my own homemade CO2 diffusor seems to stop the BGA, so that is good. CO2 is at 30ml/min (inverted syringe method) and i put some lid-like structures on parts of the sump. The Myriophyllum is almost lost, no growth and some green filamentous algea (like Cladophora). You can see little tufts if these algae on the foreground too, where they are attached to a few small remnants of tenellus. There are no algea of this kind on the other plants, only on those "in trouble". Wil still have to try some other plants like Potamogeton gayi and Hydrocleis. I will take out the stones from the right back cornet this weekend to see wether there is a lot of mulm under them.

 

[Edvet]

Ordered
2 x Echinodorus latifolius
2 x Hyptis lorentziana
2 x Echinodorus magdalenensis
3 x Staurogyne repens
2 x Myriophyllum propinquum
2 x Heteranthera zosterfolia
4 x Tonina fluviatilis
1 x Echinodorus radicans/cordifolius
today. Wil take out the Syngonanthus en the Mayacca (might try to replant a bit) cause i can't get those going (lots off algae on those). Will trim the huge Eichornia and put those in the back. Magdalensis an Staurogyne wil go in the cube. Tonina are doing wel now just need to be cut and replanted (i will add to that group).

 

[Edvet]

Weekly update: rearanged a lot of plants and removed the Mayacca and what remained of the Syngonanthus.
Removed the pile of stones, but used a few tu make a higher "bank"where i put the (wat will be) largest Echinodorus (right side behind). Split the Staurogyne in smaller pieces, but double the number.
Added some more Tonina, there is quite a color difference between the old and the new, but i guess those are grown emerged. Myrophillium is an experiment, i usually dont have succes with small leafed plants. The Hyptis looks promising.

 

[Edvet]

Weekly update: hacked the Eichornia diversifolia into shape, removed the small H. tenellus (only managed to let algra grow on it), split some Staurogyne. And i see growth (added some ,still hard to see, Najas Roraima and a small Najas Guadeloupe)

 

[Edvet]

Handheld movie with obligatory cooking sounds in the background
Highlighting some of the plants, stil learning and seeing what works for the final "scape".
The eichornia diversifolia is growing very fast again, perhaps to fast. In a tank this big i don't wat to prune and replant every week, and the plant that need
the most attention have to be in easy reach. I will expand the staurogyne territory this weekend, that has the best change to become the large carpet in the middle.
The heteranthera zosterifolia is growing (too) fast too, so it will probably not stay where it is now. And i am looking to add some more reds.
"Work in progress"!


lol.having youtube "stabilize" the movie makes the tekst dance

 

[Edvet]

Update:

Moved the Heterantha zosterifolia all the way to the side (right side , just at the edge of the picture) it was getting huge fast,
Trimmed some tips of the Staurogyne and expanded the footprint with them.
Trimmed back the Eichornia diversifolia, still growing very fast, don't realy know where it will go eventually, (demands a lot of attention due to het fast growth, maybe to much)
Echinodorus horemanni is growing steadily, old leaves get some BBA. I am still struggeling to get enough CO2 in the collumn i guess.
Echinodorus latifolius is starting to send out runners, I may put them in place of the Tonina, there behind them already.
It's hard to find the right plants. Either they are to difficult for this set up (to little growth) or they try to overtake the tank. Leaning towards using Echinodorus spp more and more, growth rate is reasonable and the always seem to do well in this tank.
Probably i am going to see if i can lessen lightintensity a bit, thereby decreasing the amount of CO2 needed, and slowing down growth a bit on the "weeds". That might hurt the Tonina, but i am having problems with those anyway. I guess they need even higher lighting and CO2. Not sure what that means for the BBA.

 

[Bufo Bill]

The tank looks lovely in that last picture, well done!
All the best from Bill.

 

[Edvet]

Some added pictures:

Looking towards right hind side.

Close up on Staurogyne " Porto Velho"

Close up of Najas guadeloupensis

Najas Roraima

Echinodorus latofolius.

 

[Edvet]

Been replanting again, took out the Tonina, i think i am finding the right spot for the plants more and more.
.

Carpets ( both the Echinodorus and the Staurogyne) have to get bigger obviously, gonna let the zosterifolia get tall again, just at the front left corner now.

Wider shot:

 

[Edvet]

In an attempt to combat BBA (on the old laves) I raised the lights a bit, thus decreasing the ammount of CO2 consumed and by that keeping the levels a bit higher and more consistent. Added 5 ancistrus claro, they eat BBA it seems.

I don't want them to go to big, else they make a mess of the tank. These stay quite small (7-8 cm). I will have to take out the old algaegrown leaves, will do that next weekend probably.
Ooh and the tank was a bit cold, so i added some heaters (was only 23 Celcius, want it to be app 25 usualy)

Added a video ( handheld and obligatory cooking sounds!)( Ps i forgot to pick up the pair of tweezers i dropped, did pick it up afterwards )

 

[Edvet]

Fiddled with some of the uruguayensis, removed some old leaves and replanted two of the large variety towards the back. I only want the smaller variety in front but they are not easy to distinguish.
Pics wil follow later

 

[James D]

Looks really good... I particularly like the tallest plant (middle left). It must be nice having a big tank with a variety of fish to watch, I sometimes forget the fish are the reason I got into aquariums, I mostly seem to think about algae these days!

 

[sanj]

Love the E. uruguayensis, it is my favourate echinodorus.

 

[Edvet]

I particularly like the tallest plant (middle left

Small red leaves, bushy plant: is the Persicaria "Sao Paulo" (there is some confusion wether that is the correct one), it's getting a huge bush, just some BBA on old leaves so i might need to tidy it up, just waiting what effect the changes in lght will have before i attack it
Longer stem plant, with red leaved tips": Hyptis lorentziana. At the moment it is breaching the waterlevel, so it is 70 cm high already.ganna let it grow and see what happens

It must be nice having a big tank with a variety of fish to watch, I sometimes forget the fish are the reason I got into aquariums, I mostly seem to think about algae these days!

Tha'ts kinda my poblem with the "scaped" tanks. They seem to be more about plants then fish, fish seem to be added as an afterthought. I always think about a fish species or some biotope first, then i start to work from there. But that''s just my personal take on things. Seeing i have always been fascinated by South american tropical species, wheter it where my snakes, my orchids or my tanks, it always revolved around the natural biotopes. Hard thing is that it's not easy to Always recreate it in a pleasant way. Now if someone would scape a tank with biotope correct plants and fish, trying to recreate( or even stylize) a piece of nature, wether it is South America or Asia or anywhere, i am always atracted to that.

 

[Edvet]

Love the E. uruguayensis, it is my favourate echinodorus.

Yeah mine too. There have been a lot of namechanging in the Echinodorus family lately. I have very tall ones ( over 75 cm high leaves) which i used to think where "horemanni"
and smalle ones (app 30-40 cm leaflength, more reddish tips when emerging, and somewhat more pronounced veins on the leaves) wich i used to think where "uruguayensis".
Nowadays they are all varieties of uruguayensis i believe. And then there are the hybrids and most LFS have the wrong or no names on their swords.

Old pic when tank had mostly uruguayensis: (made with tablet )

 

[Edvet]

Update: added some reds (alternanthera cardinalis and rosaefolia) and two new swords (E. harbich and E.x Regine Hildebrandt) to try out.
Enlarged footprint of Staurogyne.

Stil BBA rearing it's head, trying to get more CO2 in.

 

[Edvet]

New inhabitants (2

 

[Edvet]

Large pic :

 

[Ady34]

Looking really nice now Edvet.
Bet it is challenging to get enough co2 in!

 

[Edvet]

Yeah i tried 2 huge DIY reactors but can't get therm to work realy well. I think it might have to do with size/flow relationsship, so i will probably shorten one to see if it works better.
(last one i made was a big one with a homemade venturi part (30 mm out the tank, 22 mm venturi , 50 mm diffusorpipe (app 100 cm long)) but there is some false air or so).