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A New Beginning (New Pics & video 10/8/2016) - 180L

Love the scape, but as for growth issues it's tricky.

My gut feeling says still more light...for the carpet plants at least. The crypts look pretty happy and not in a brightly lit growth form now whereas in higher light (carpet plant levels) they will tend grow rather more compact and darker. As a safe test you could try positioning some of the struggling Hemianthus micranthemoides into more light nearer the surface and see if grows more strongly over a few days.

Yes light encouages algae but algae will also take hold on plants struggling with lack of light. It may not be relevant but my tanks seem to do better without Easy Carbo...
 
Love the scape, but as for growth issues it's tricky.

My gut feeling says still more light...for the carpet plants at least. The crypts look pretty happy and not in a brightly lit growth form now whereas in higher light (carpet plant levels) they will tend grow rather more compact and darker. As a safe test you could try positioning some of the struggling Hemianthus micranthemoides into more light nearer the surface and see if grows more strongly over a few days.

Yes light encouages algae but algae will also take hold on plants struggling with lack of light. It may not be relevant but my tanks seem to do better without Easy Carbo...

Hi Chris. Thanks for the comment. I am slowly upping the lighting an dam confident that the algae issues are not really light related. I have had some fluctuating CO2 to and I'm still trying to get the CO2 as high as possible without distress to the fish. As I now have more plant mass I'm seeing I can up the levels of CO2 more due to the increased O2 levels in the tank.

That's a lot of current :wideyed:
Too much do you think? Someone told me I had too much before but I cant see flow as being a bad thing for plant growth. I do have problems keeping the plants upright though! I'll do a video with and without the Koralia.
 
Hi all.

I haven't updated this since March but everything has been going OK. My growth issues of the past have gone away and the tank has filled in to the point I have removed a number of the plants because they didn't match what I had in my head. Now I'm comfortable with how things are going I'm looking to improve the scape.

I still do have a few issues. The Tripartita Sp. Japan isn't performing too well and has curled leafs after I trimmed it back heavily. I think it might be a flow issue as i can't see it moving like I can the rest of the tank. I also have what i think is diatoms on old leafs. I've upped the CO2 to try and combat this and have started using a gravel vac at each water change to get the substrate as clean as possible. CO2 is now running right on the cusp of the fish being in distress so if i put any more in then the fish will gasp at the surface.

I hope to update this more regularly than i have done but here's a pic as of tonight's water change.

28416842170_75f962493f_b.jpg
 
Amazing tank.
May I ask, what is the plant on the background(taller-behind the rocks/wood) the first from left do right? Is this a cryptocoryne? What species?
 
Great looking tank.Do U still have the Koralia in as not seen on latest photos?
I decided to remove it because it essentially kept the stems growing at diagonals which didn't look great. No doubt about it though, the flow certainly helped growth.
 
So today I'm going to be making a couple of changes in the hope I can increase flow to the Tripartita. I've ordered myself some acrylic tube so I'm going to make a full length spray bar so will be having a go at making one of them over the coming days.

Secondly, I've gotten my hands on some Anubias petite which should add some further interest to the bare areas of wood and rock. I'll be sure to take some pictures when I've finished.
 
Hi all.

I've been pretty busy on this tank over the last week after ordering some maintenance accessories. I've gotten myself a couple of different sized wire brushes so i could give the rocks a good scrub and I've also made myself a DIY acrylic spray bar. I'm quite pleased with the results!

I've actually used the Eheim software and the USB connection to the filter in order to monitor real time flow and see whether the spray bar is restricting flow. I started by taking the bar off all together then taking a reading of the LPH value. I then increased the hole size until the flow value was just under the unrestricted value. I'm hoping that this will now help some of the plants which are not doing too well. Specifically the Tripartita Sp. Japan as I understand this should be growing like a weed.

While cleaning the rocks up I've moved things around a little to try and gain a little extra height. I've also moved the Crypt wendtii brown as it was a little too tall on its previous position at the left of the wood and rocks. I've also added a good amount of Anubias petite. I'm not fully a happy with it, particularly the right hand side so if you have suggestions of what I could do, please speak up :)

Heres a few pics of the updated tank and some of the issues I am facing.

28788459262_0fe262253d_b.jpgDSC_0336.jpg

28817783911_ed68721728_b.jpgDSC_0340.jpg

28277981553_f318e8c121_b.jpgDSC_0337.jpg

28275534674_37fd5a5dba_b.jpgDSC_0338.jpg

28862083106_e0e3cd23e7_b.jpgDSC_0339.jpg
 
Hi, congrats on your progress!

I cannot help but notice that you started reporting progress after you ditched the kitty litter substrate(?).
I do have the same substrate(?). I am really looking forward to a rescape-first thing to go is that substrate. don't get me wrong, I can grow plants on it... but I feel very strongly that a decent substrate is definitely going to help to achieve a more elegant result like you did.
So, what are your thoughts? Can you attribute your success to the change in substrate? This really seemed to be the turning point in your case.

Thanks!

Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk
 
Hi, congrats on your progress!

I cannot help but notice that you started reporting progress after you ditched the kitty litter substrate(?).
I do have the same substrate(?). I am really looking forward to a rescape-first thing to go is that substrate. don't get me wrong, I can grow plants on it... but I feel very strongly that a decent substrate is definitely going to help to achieve a more elegant result like you did.
So, what are your thoughts? Can you attribute your success to the change in substrate? This really seemed to be the turning point in your case.

Thanks!

Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk
I don't think the cat litter affected growth in any way however it was so light that i found it hard to keep plants in the substrate, especially when taking into account the high flow rates I had.
 
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