60cm Motivation

[flygja]

I call it Motivation because I hope it will bring back my motivation for aquascaping. A simple-ish rock scape to start the year with.

60 x 30 x 36 cm
Eheim 2215
70W DIY LEDs with 10x Cree XR-E 3W and 4x Cree XM-L 10W
ADA New Amazonia
CO2 at 2bps
Fertilised using the EI method

Plants:
Hemianthus Callitrichoides var Cuba
Eleocharis acicularis
Eleocharis sp Japan
Riccia (still haven't found it)
Utricularia graminifolia (still haven't found it)

Fish:
Haven't decided

This is at 2 weeks old.

HC continuing to melt.

 

[jack-rythm]

Riccia (still haven't found it)

Ill have some to send you in a week or so mate I have it covering my whole carpet of my 3ft triptych so it needs regular cuttings. I promised someone else thy could have this lot but if you still need it in a week or so then its yours just cover postage and im more than happy to pay it forward mate. I like your layout too, nice lwagumi formation. Whats that in the pot?

 

[flygja]

Thanks for the generous offer but I live in Malaysia so postage may just be a little too expensive! The pot is Staurogyne repens. I ordered it for this scape but decided that it'd grow a bit too big to fit the scape. Still have no idea what to do with it at the moment.

 

[jack-rythm]

Thanks for the generous offer but I live in Malaysia

haha yes.. a little too far

 

[flygja]

Here are two dwarf puffers I got for snail control

 

[dafil]

Looks great.
...but 70w led over tank like this size-this is sunburn!

 

[WetElbow]

Love the puffers.

 

[flygja]

Looks great.
...but 70w led over tank like this size-this is sunburn!

I've recently had to reduce it to 45W (15 x 3W LEDs) because the 10W drivers I got died. The amount of light is okay actually, don't have crazy algae problems except at the start with the usual diatoms and BGA. I vary the intensity by changing the height in which the DIY luminaire is suspended.

Love the puffers.

Me too. I call them Apache gunships because they can hover, yaw from left to right and circle around a fixed point. I did have some issues with them where instead of eating snails and live tubifex, they were nipping the dorsal fins and tails of my cories. Seem to have stopped now.

 

[flygja]

Another barely updated thread, all my own doing of course. Anyway, this is probably the last you'll see of it. It's become overrun with BGA and some sorta black algae that grows on the rocks. They both come back every single week and a 3-day long blackout didn't make a single dent in them.

If you are squeamish about algae, its time to avert your eyes!




I even tried an anti-bacterial powder, which is commonly called "yellow powder" or "goldfish powder" here. Left the lights off for 3 days (not full blackout) and the BGA still looked the same!


It does turn the tank completely yellow though...

 

[faizal]

Finally found this journal. I am really sorry for your troubles Flygja. Are you going to fight this one out or are you planning on a rescape?

 

[flygja]

I need to tear this down in order to house my fish temporarily as I work on the other tank I have. Since the other tank's rescape is currently onhold, I'm just playing around with this tank, doing things I normally won't do, like 4x Excel overdose, chemical treatments, etc.

I think some of the problems I'm having is due to soil crumbling. A lot of mud and dust on the surface of the substrate. So its best I think to just rescape.

 

[Achintya]

superb hardscape.how about adding long hairgrass or vivipera at background?

 

[flygja]

Whoah, missed your comments there Achintya. Thanks for the feedback. Funny thing about hairgrass, they're always nice and long but after a trim they won't grow back as long. I'm not sure which one I have though, whether its acicularis or parvula. Not a big fan of vivipara as well, gets unruly I supposed.

Anyway, here's the shot I took for IAPLC. I came in 423 which I didn't expect at all. Scape has already been scavenged for plants and rocks have been removed, so this is the last picture you'll see of it.

Incidentally, I have not trimmed the hairgrass in the IAPLC picture.

 

[LondonDragon]

Another little gem, final picture came out great, nice placement on IAPLC too congrats