An Iwagumi called; Seiryu Meadow

[Timon Vogelaar]

Hi all,
Weekly update here with just some random shots. I am very happy with the progress so far. The Eleocharis is spreading fast :]
- I tried to photograph the fish but i cant get sharp images with my Panasonic/Lumix DMC-FZ18
- I am dosing K2SO4 with 4ppm each day with great succes since i started dosing. Green even gets greener ;]
- I added Limnobium laevigatum
- Still some diatoms remain; mainly on the glas and rocks. Some advice how to reduce it could be helpful!

Enjoy!

 

[tadabis]

Very nice! Keep going forward!

 

[Greenfinger2]

Hi Timon Love the Scape

 

[Manisha]

Very close to a full meadow now ☺

 

[AndreiD]

Add otos and amanos for diatoms , they will clear diatoms in 1-2 days

 

[Timon Vogelaar]

Add otos and amanos for diatoms , they will clear diatoms in 1-2 days

True! I am waiting for the meadow to fill up though

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[castle]

Hello,

Scape does look nice

I'm a little concerned with the CPDs, once they're mature enough to breed (Edit: which I think they are), females don't have many places to hide, neither do the weaker males. Now this could be traits unique to my experience, but in heavily planted tanks they're something else, and show more confidence. With that said, your male to female ratio looks good, but tricky to tell.

Are you going to let the Limnobium laevigatum put out lots of roots/plants? I think that will help them somewhat.

 

[Timon Vogelaar]

Hello,

Scape does look nice

I'm a little concerned with the CPDs, once they're mature enough to breed (Edit: which I think they are), females don't have many places to hide, neither do the weaker males. Now this could be traits unique to my experience, but in heavily planted tanks they're something else, and show more confidence. With that said, your male to female ratio looks good, but tricky to tell.

Are you going to let the Limnobium laevigatum put out lots of roots/plants? I think that will help them somewhat.

Your right about that! At first they were a bit afraid but now they are swimming freely and they look gorgeus. They arent even scared when you pass by.

I was thinking about Blyxa Japonica behind the rocks. For now i will keep the limnobium but for esthetic reason i think i will ditch them. Thnx for noticing!

 

[Timon Vogelaar]

Hi,
As some maybe noticed weekly updates have been off.
I've been busy and it seems that i wont be doing weekly updates. Though i'll try to update as much as i can.

In the previous updates you can see the soil assimilating. Of course it is not the soil but algae. At some point i think i did something wrong because it is BGA (blue green algae - cyanobacteria). I think because of low nitrates.
Since i started this scape everything went just perfect. Good growth and no algae. You may find it strange but i love a challenge and none was given. So now i started to see spots of BGA and the challenge started.

I've read about the "one two punch" before and was very eager to give it a try. So after some H202 spot treatment and more research i gave it a try. More info here;
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/23-algae/203684-one-two-punch-whole-tank-algae-treatment.html
It was succesfull but it didnt kill the BGA completely. For those against this method - I've tried it without fish in my aquarium.

Second up was a blackout. Like the "one two" i was very curious how this would work out. I did a 4 day blackout and uncovered my aquarium today with stunning results. BGA gone, Eleocharis a little palish and other green algae also gone.

Next week i will try to upload some pictures of Seiryu Meadow. For now, as promised, i will share my Daphnia culture with you;
Setup Date: 06-2016
Tank: 60x30x30 (no brand)
Light: 2x 15w T8. Selfmade fixture inspired by ADA
Extra: Cooling fan from pc to cool in when summer. (I have to say that this works very good!)
Filtration: Moving K1 filter
Heating: None, I will do that when winter comes.
Plants: Elodea and Lemna (Duckweed)
Fish: Daphnia and pond snails

Feeding time!
I feed them a mixture of dry yeast and milk. I do the when the water is clear and just enough to make it cloudy. They love it!

Enjoy

 

[Manisha]

You attempted & managed an extremely challenging scape so should be very proud! Your daphnia culture is certainly more reliable & cheaper than my lfs source ☺

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

If any-one is using the <"Duckweed Index">, that is what really healthy Amazon Frogbit (Limnobium laevigatum) looks like. Mine never looks that good, even after I've added fertiliser.

I feed them a mixture of dry yeast and milk

Your Daphnia culture looks good, when you feed them on yeast you need to sub-culture them fairly regularly because the cultures are very prone to <"boom and bust">.

If you add some <"dried grass (hay or straw)"> to the culture it will last a bit longer without sub-culturing. You could also try using <"Gram (Chickpea) flour and paprika"> as an alternative food source.

cheers Darrel