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900AS Natural

Zebra3

New Member
Joined
1 Jan 2020
Messages
6
Location
Guildford, Surrey UK
In the days running up to Christmas 2019 I finally got around getting the 900 Aquascaper setup I promised myself as a 2018 Christmas present.

But first off I had to be sure that the tank size was right and that the light wouldn't sit at a height that would cause glare to be a distraction. To do that I bought a few thin lengths of wood and created a dummy tank to test out the tank size and also popped on the light I'd ordered to test out the levels of glare.

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That quick wooden sketchup turned out to be £5 well spent and now happy that the glare would not be an issue and chuffed with the size of the setup, especially with lucky alignment to the desk next to it, I ordered the rest of the kit I needed.

Tank - Aquascaper 900
Stand - AquaFrame 900, that the newly released version with an aluminium internal framework
Filter - Oase Biomaster 600 Themo
Pipework - Evo aqua 16mm glass
Light - Twinstar 900s

IMG_0929a.jpg


Looking to put together a natural style tank I also picked up the following:

2 x good sized Wine Wood pieces
14kg Millennium Stone
27l ProdiBio soil
9l Tropica soil powder

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With the tank intended to be viewable from three sides I've gone for an island arrangement with strong structural elements on the left and right side and a more empty center space ready to fill some bulk planting.

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I'm a couple of weeks past this point now and hope to fill in the progress from the above state to current situation over the coming days/weeks.

Finally many thanks to all at Aquarium Gardens for helping me get what I needed together on my visit over to see them just before Christmas and also for engaging in the tetris puzzle that was fitting it all into my car.
 
Looking forward to watching this one as i like the aquascaper range so will be following keep the pichures and updates coming.

Dean

Sent from my SM-G970F using Tapatalk
 
I had been quite set on the Island layout since I decided to get the tank but have hummed and hawed over the foreground, carpet vs gravel. Having never kept a carpet type plant before I decided to go for that and see how it goes.

While I kept fish for years back in the 80's I am an eager newcomer to planted tanks so please forgive the easy care plant selection I've gone for here. Likely very little exotic content to anyone that has been around the scene for a while in the below but I really wanted to try and ensure a high likelihood of a successful start.


Foreground
  • Micranthemum “Monte Carlo”
  • Staurogyne Repens
  • Alternanthera reineckii “mini”
Foreground 1.jpg Foreground 2.jpg Foreground 3.jpg

Midground
  • Rotala Vietnam H’Ra
  • Microsorum pteropus “Trident”
  • Cryptocoryne beckettii
  • Cryptocoryne petchii (smaller beckettii)
  • Cryptocoryne bullosa
  • Cryptocoryne wendtii (green)
  • Anubias Petit
  • Anubias Nana Bonzai
  • Bucesphendra Theia
Midground 1.jpg

Background
  • Murdannia keisak
  • Limnophila Aromatica
  • Bolbitus heudelotii

Background 1.jpg Background 2.jpg Background 3.jpg




All in.jpg

Time to fill her up!

Annotated.png


The Murdannia Keisak, planted back left, is a likely a temporary addition and has been popped in for it's fast growing and nutrient draining properties. Once the tank has balanced out I am looking to move the couple of Bolbitus heudelotii's both over to that site. I'd welcome any advice on if they mind being moved post setup, thx :)

24hr later sm.jpg

Above shot was taken the the day after filling the tank up to allow the microbubbles on the glass to dissipate.


I'm pretty happy with it bar a few bits:
- the Limnophila Aromatica ended up a little further in the right corner than I wanted so it may get brought in towards the centre to reaffirm the island look of the main section
- thought I'd picked up five different Crypts but it turns out I doubled up on two pots of Beckettii, along with one of the slightly smaller petchii variant
Nothing major to sweat over there though.


Quite intrigued to see how the Limnophila Aromatica turns out though...
Does anyone have any recipes to recommend for this water herb?
 
I knew it was coming...
you knew it was coming...
yes the tank enters the dark days...

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Images from different days thru first couple of weeks. I was doing 50% water change every other day and syphoning off the majority of this biobloom each time. Didn't get the picture of the cleaned up wood post change but the first two pics are two days apart and the removed bloom was back at full strength and then some just two days later. Note bloom is only happening on the Wine Wood all other surfaces are clear.


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Interesting shot of some that was tucked away and I missed for three/four water changes, 6-8 days. As it grew and grew it look has turned almost cellular in appearance.


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Four weeks in now, and on 50% water changes every three days and this shot, on that third day pre water change, is hopefully starting to show the tank is coming through it with this side of things. Water is still clouding up a little but while this wood bloom is on going I am presuming that the bacterial balance still hasn't been reached so I'm tapping my fingers and waiting it out.


Other issue is some melt on a couple of species of plants.

IMG_1077a.jpg

The Micranthemum melt has only happened badly in two areas of the tank, with some light occurrences elsewhere. Even where bad it didn't wipe out all the leaves and new growth has started to come back in since then.


IMG_1071a.jpg IMG_1072a.jpg

Then I had one tub of Anubias Petit that almost fully melted at the two week mark. I didn't even know Anubias melted, maybe it doesn't and this is something else please do feel free to educate me if you know better. Two other tubs of Anubias are doing fine in the tank, all planted on the same wood as this one was so I not thinking that the bacterial bio bloom is a culprit. I've removed the detirus and one of the decimated clumps is showing a few small leaves so we'll see how that goes...


So frankly it's not THAT darker days for the tank, especially as I was expecting it.

First in habitent was a good sized shrimp from my little 20l tank that is full of them, he's done fine and has since been joined by a handful more. These started off as Red Cherry Shrimp but half the population are this solid orange colour now... can't decide if I want to split them up or just let them get on with it...
Non RCS.jpg

And finally a full tank shot from day 19, you can see the cloudiness in this shot a little better, again nothing I'm too worried about this early on in.

19 days.jpg
 
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