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Andyh's 190l Lounge tank (update 20-09-11)

Re: Andyh's 190l Lounge tank. Day 33

CeeJay said:
Congrats on the birth of your daughter Andy :thumbup: That will sure keep your hands full.
andyh said:
(found the dosing spoons in the back of the kitchen draw, they have now been stolen for fish related things, just don't tell the wife! )
I wonder how many wives/girlfriends are looking for bits and pieces in their kitchen that have been borrowed for tank related tasks :lol:
I have 'borrowed' 4 tupperware boxes with the snap on lids for my ferts, measuring spoons from the kitchen drawer (like yourself), a turkey baster for picking off pesky snails, a small bottle brush (great for cleaning hoses). The list goes on :lol:
On a serious note, the tank is looking awesome. Another winner by andyh :thumbup:

Ceejay - Far to many things have been stolen from my kitchen, wasnt me! :shh: :lol: :lol:
Thanks for your kind words!

JamesM said:
Hey, congratulations Andy! And to the missus of course ;) :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:
Cheers Dude!

john starkey said:
congratulations Andy,now you are bottom of the pile :lol: ,love the name you have chosen,regards ,
john.
Bang on John! i know my place! Get well soon dude!

George Farmer said:
Congratulations, Andy. Esme is a beautiful name!
Good luck with maintaining the tanks now!! :lol:
Thanks George, Yes Esme is a cool name! :D
Plant maintenance is already struggling! Yikes
 
Re: Andyh's 190l Lounge tank. Day 33

chump54 said:
andyh said:
Sorry Guys not been ignoring you, my pregnant wife went into labour last weekend and i now have a daughter called "Esme"
congratulations Andy, lovely name.
Chris :thumbup:

Cheers Dude! :D :thumbup:
 
Re: Andyh's 190l Lounge tank. Day 33

LondonDragon said:
Congratulations on the little one :) all the best to you and the missus.
Thanks Paulo :thumbup:

So just entering my third week of dosing EI, and so far so good. The plants look really healthy and despite the arrival of the baby i have been able to keep on top of the water changes and dosing albeit at slighlty obscure times. (didn't realise there was to 4'oclocks in the day! :crazy: )

Interestingly i have experienced "pearling" for the first time in this tank since dosing EI, despite my light level being low compared to my usual standards.

This is EI thing is looking promising! Cheers Clive if your watching! :thumbup:
 
Re: Andyh's 190l Lounge tank.

Tonser said:
Congrats on your new arrival Andy - glad to hear you're making good use of those early hours :lol:
Tony
cheers Tony


So having a new baby in the house takes it's toll's and trying to find spare time is a real challenge.
This tank has suffered a little with lack of maintenance and the algae has crept in, the Pinnatifida and the Vesuvius have been fairly badly attacked. Its a gentle reminder that lack of maintenance on things like filters, and the reduction in flow can have such an impact.

I have removed all the vesuvius as it was over run with algae and also didnt really do what i wanted. The Pinnatifida i have pruned back hard, and fingers crossed it recovers well.

I have a couple more plants arriving tomorrow, and will get them planted over the weekend and post some pictures then.

There is a rumour that my new ADA Solar Metal Halide arrives in the UK early next week, i am so excited!!! :geek: Come on TGM !!!!! :thumbup:
 
Re: Andyh's 190l Lounge tank.

So as promised spent a couple of hours on the tank this weekend and feel like i am winning the battle. The light dusting of algae will loose :twisted: I have increased my CO2 as it wasnt massively high and i have introduced more flow in the tank, via a Hydor Powerhead.

My new plants arrived :)

I opted for Tropica's Rotala Rotundifolia and Myriophyllum Mattogrossense, both fairly fast growing plants.
I have always liked the Rotala and have had it before in previous scapes and having a fast growing stem is going to help fill in the gap were the Vesuvius used to be.
I chose the Myriophyllum under recommendation from Graeme Edwards as he suggested it works well with the Pogostemon. (he is right, it looks great) Cheers Dude! Not sure how to prune it though! Got so much of it in the portion from TGM.

I also took about a dozen or so small stems of Cryptocoryne Parva, which i had been cultivating in my spare tank. I really like this as a foreground plant, albeit its a slow grower till it gets established. I hope it works well in here.

The Tank @ Approx. 15 weeks:
You will note the right hand side looks weak, due to the removal of Algae infested plants, but the Rotala will soon sort that. :geek:
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The Cryptocoryne Parva (front right) and the Rotala towards the rear:
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The Myriophyllum Mattogrossense, just above the blue Rams, Fine leaf
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The Whole tank with old undersized light (until my MH arrives!)
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For those who like their fish, my tank has a new inmate, a very special one:
L014 Scobinancistrus aureatus. He wont be in there forever but for now he is and he is one stunning fish!

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Final Question, whats the secret to keep your Hairgrass in tip top condition? i.e algae free? o_O

Thanks for looking! :thumbup:
 
Re: Andyh's 190l Lounge tank.

I agree, and shrimp are really fun to keep on there own, and need little attention! If you want to research shrimp I would suggest 'uk shrimp forum' I am really sorry if that qualifies as advertising other forum's, if so please delete this post, but I am not an admin or anything of ukshrimp, I am just recommending it! :D
 
Re: Andyh's 190l Lounge tank.

Krish's Bettas said:
Trimming could help and the tank looks great and nice pleco.
I have given it a trim once, but its probably dude another, the Plec is very cool.
oliverar said:
Yep, I can't wait for it to grow a little and for you to fill in that side!
neither can i!
samc said:
looking good andy.
i would say the best way to keep it clean would be to get a big group of amano shrimp :D
I have just added another 3 big ones more, i only had 3 and its a lot of tank to keep clean, albeit i do have a dozen Ottos!
oliverar said:
I agree, and shrimp are really fun to keep on there own, and need little attention! If you want to research shrimp I would suggest 'uk shrimp forum' I am really sorry if that qualifies as advertising other forum's, if so please delete this post, but I am not an admin or anything of ukshrimp, I am just recommending it! :D
Thanks Oliver, i am familiar with The Uk shrimp forum, i keep and breed shrimps in my other tanks, the Rams and the Denison Barbs in this tank would make short work of any of the Neocaridina sp, hence why i have none in here. Apart from big Amano's ;) The tend to scare the fish! :woot:
 
Re: Andyh's 190l Lounge tank.

andyh said:
Final Question, whats the secret to keep your Hairgrass in tip top condition? i.e algae free?
Trimming and good filtration IMO. Keeping the particles in suspension long enough to be picked up by the filter prevents them for settling in the grass.
 
Re: Andyh's 190l Lounge tank.

Hi Andy,
I really like the look of your tank, making great combination of the stone and wood. I have some of this stone and it makes me want to incorporate it more in my next design rather than hide it in the corners.
Great plec! I saw three of these in lfs recently. They grow quite large, but I imagine you'll have plenty time to enjoy him/her in there before it needs rehoming. Was there a reason you chose this fish? And has it chomped the greens yet?
Cheers
Gavin
 
Re: Andyh's 190l Lounge tank.

Dan Crawford said:
andyh said:
Final Question, whats the secret to keep your Hairgrass in tip top condition? i.e algae free?
Trimming and good filtration IMO. Keeping the particles in suspension long enough to be picked up by the filter prevents them for settling in the grass.

Dan - Glad you said that as i have just ordered over the weekend a bigger hydor, to be specific the Hydor Koralia 4000 Evolution (4000lph) plus my two filters 1250lph and 750lph should be more than enough :geek: :lol:
I will give the grass a good hard trim too. Cheers dude!

Gfish said:
Hi Andy,
I really like the look of your tank, making great combination of the stone and wood. I have some of this stone and it makes me want to incorporate it more in my next design rather than hide it in the corners.
Great plec! I saw three of these in lfs recently. They grow quite large, but I imagine you'll have plenty time to enjoy him/her in there before it needs rehoming. Was there a reason you chose this fish? And has it chomped the greens yet?
Cheers
Gavin

Cheers Gavin, i really like this stone, just looks very natural.

Typically a plec wouldnt have been my first choice and it was more the fact he was such a special one plus he came from my brothers tank. He is cool but has taken to digging, which is a problem in a planted tank!
As for diet its common misconcpetion that all they eat is plants/algae etc. Like all members of the genus Scobinancistrus, the Sunshine Pleco is predominantly carnivorous: a quick glance at the impressive set of teeth will remove any last trace of doubt. He/she will take a vast array of different meaty foods, and will eventually take alage tablets.
 
Re: Andyh's 190l Lounge tank.

got a bit of time and read your thread Andy, and it was a great read!

The tank looks aswesome in the lounge, nice lounge as well. The tank really suits it.
 
Andyh's 190l Lounge tank.

I love plecs and have considered 'the scooby' for my tank one day down the line. I hear you on misconceptions of plant eating fish, where there's a will there's a way :)

If the fish ever comes up for grabs, I'd possibly be interested. He can dig all he likes in my tank, as all the plants apart from 3 onion plants are mounted on wood.

Cheers

Gavin
 
Re: Andyh's 190l Lounge tank.

ianho said:
got a bit of time and read your thread Andy, and it was a great read!
The tank looks aswesome in the lounge, nice lounge as well. The tank really suits it.
Cheers ianho, i am pleased with it!
Gfish said:
I love plecs and have considered 'the scooby' for my tank one day down the line. I hear you on misconceptions of plant eating fish, where there's a will there's a way :)
If the fish ever comes up for grabs, I'd possibly be interested. He can dig all he likes in my tank, as all the plants apart from 3 onion plants are mounted on wood.
Cheers
Gavin
:thumbup:
 
Re: Andyh's 190l Lounge tank.

Hello, :wave:

So managed to find a couple of hours to give the tank a massive sort. I completed a 75% water change after a big prune of all the plants.

Before:
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After
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I have also installed a Hydor Korialla Evoloution 4000lph power head and this has made a huge difference to flow around the tank! Can you see it in the pic above, thankfully it is not that obvious thanks to the black background. That combined with my two external filters is giving a combined flow of 6000lph. Which should be enough! That works out a turnover of x33. :geek:
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I hit the staurgoyne hard to get it to grow back thicker i have pruned it as per some instructions from Tom Barr. I also took all the stems at the back nice and low and pruned out all the older leaves from the Java Fern. The Hair grass has been trimmed down to less than a 1cm in most places.
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I had developed staghorn due to lack of flow and co2 (plus tank needed a good clean :shh: )
Here it is:
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Nuked it using Easy Carbo and a paint brush when the water was low, should get eaten now by the amano shrimp. The increased flow and increased bubble rate on the co2 should help keep it at bay.

I also cleaned all my glassware and filters, I noticed that it was very difficult to remove the glassware due to the cabinet location and the length of the hoses so added Eheim taps to allow me to disconnect them easily for cleaning. I only fitted these on the intakes as the returns can be done in situ.
Eheim Taps:
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I have also added a further 9 Amano shrimp to help keep things tidy and nibble on the algae :thumbup:

The crypts are doing well!
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And finally one of my Chocolate Gouramis, i think these are seriously underrated fish:
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thanks for looking :wave:
andyh
 
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