• You are viewing the forum as a Guest, please login (you can use your Facebook, Twitter, Google or Microsoft account to login) or register using this link: Log in or Sign Up

Another RIO 180.

Wolfenrook

Member
Joined
30 Apr 2008
Messages
336
Location
West Midlands UK
Well, I figured that it's about time I plucked up the courage to put up a pic of my planted. I've just done a pretty major prune and pull on it though, so it's looking a little less full that it usually does (I have to pull plants out every now and then, otherwise it gets seriously overgrown with vallisneria, ludwigia and ammania).

Also I'm not a brilliant photogropher, and I am currently trying to get to grips with getting the aperture size (or whatever it's called) right on the camera as if I leave it as is the lighting just creates a total glare in pics, so these look a little dimmer than the tank actually is (been now lit by 4x39 watt T5s). The luminaire is a bit higher above the surface than I would like as well as Mrs Wolfenrook made me use the brackets not the suspension kit. ;)

Inmates:-

Fauna18 neon tetras
10 cherry barbs
8 kuhli loaches
4 powder blue dwarf gourami
6 platies (left over from before, these are going once my wife gets her aquarium for christmas. :twisted: )
4 macrobrachium assamensis shrimp
Who knows how many cherry shrimp (we have yet to see them all out as they have a LOT of hiding places, but we started with 11)

Flora

2 cyrptocoryne wendtii
2 cyrptocoryne affinis
a patch of riccia
various mosses
dwarf hairgrass (parvulus)
hygrophila difformis
ludwigia (was labled natans when I bought it years ago)
ammania senegalensis
bacopa monnieri
mexican oakleaf
nymphae stellata
echinodorus parvaflorus
echinodorus cordifolius marble queen
echinodorus 'red flame'

fullshot.jpg


plantview.jpg


Oh and the odd area with the riccia and wood is for shrimp viewing, Mrs Wolfenrook likes to have that there so she can watch the shrimp.

Ade
 
aaronnorth said:
Looks good, i think it needs a midground plant to break p the huge tall plants and the grass, or to shape the stems more.

Yeah, so do I and have for a while, but convincing my wife that it's essential is the hard part after all of the money I have spent recently is the hard part. :oops: :lol:

I also think that the wood at the right hand end throws the balance off, but again my wife likes it there for shrimp watching. :lol:

Ade
 
Nope, the settee is alongside the tank so with the wood there she can sit on the end of the settee and watch the shrimp up close. I'm considering tying a larger leaved plant such as a larger anubis or some nice java fern to it though, to try to restore the balance a bit.

We have a little more planting to do yet anyway, my wife wants some alternanthera lilacina and some shinnersia rivularis weiss grun so I might try to sneak a couple more plants in with the order, I fancy another nice red echinodorus in the middle. I like red plants, and they do well in my tank. :D

Incidentally there is actually wood already in the middle in front of the stem plants, it just doesn't show up on those pictures as I think I have the aperture set a little too low. I'll try again later perhaps.

Ade
 
Wolfenrook said:
The luminaire is a bit higher above the surface than I would like as well as Mrs Wolfenrook made me use the brackets not the suspension kit.

Tank looks good Ade :) I also have a Juwel and also use the same brand luminaire that you do, you will find that it can just sit on the tank, if it doesn't get moved about often, I have mine just sitting on the rim and never had any problem with it falling in, the middle bracket also protects it from falling inside the tank. Just try it ;)
 
Thanks bud, already done something similar. I have it stood on the 'condensation' (read anti cat, anti kid) cover, using the brackets as legs. Oh and I'm not using the splash cover on it, I already have an acrylic DIY safety cover so don't want the additional light loss from having it pass through a spash cover as well, there's no condensation or splashing getting anywhere near it anyway.

It's look much better with it like this. I think I am going to have to replace the 10,000k tube at some point though. The extra blue rendition is nice but it makes the lighting look a little 'cloudy' if you know what I mean? I might look in to perhaps using a Lumilux 880 instead, still plenty of blue but a little less cloudy looking. That can wait though.

I have taken a slightly better photo, click on it for a larger image:-



Oh and I talked Mrs Wolfenrook into letting me order some more plants. I've ordered a java fern mother plant for the right hand end on that wood (told her that it would allow her to keep her shrimp viewing area, whilst balancing better with the rest of the tank), 5 stems of alternanthera reineckii 'lilacina' (her choice, she loves purple shades) and 5 cryptocoryne cordata to go in the middle in front of the main stem area. :D I love heavy planting, and would have ordered more lilacina, but knowing my luck I would end up with too much of the stuff within a short term. So called slow growing plants tend to grow about 3 inches a week on me!!!

Ade
 
Yeah I replaced the tubes straight away, 4x10k are not ideal for planted tanks. I noticed you seen JamesC post already on lighting, so go for those ;) very cheap to replace.
 
Oh I already replaced 3 of them. :D . I had 2 Osram 39 watt T5 HO Lumilux 865s and an Aquamedic Planta 39watt T5HO already, so I put them in instead. I still have one of the 10,000k tubes though towards the front, which I'm not keen on. I'd bought the Osram tubes before I even knew this site existed. lol

Oh, and I posted a slightly better pic in my last post.

Ade
 
Six days later and everything growing nicely. No dullness from messing with the aperture this time, I used the flourescent white balance instead of daylight instead, and this has given a much more accurate image.

prepruneweb.jpg


I have mentioned the really good growth rates I get haven't I? :lol:

Ade

PS. I don't want the platies, they are left over from a few years ago and Mrs Wolfenrook wont let me get rid of them. Plan is to get her a tank for xmas so she can have a livebearer set up.

PPS. The glass drop checker isn't the one I use as reference, I have a plastic Dupla one hidden in one of the densely planted areas that I use for that.
 
This tank has evolved a bit since that last pic was taken, so here is a more recent one taken today. I pruned last night though, so it doesn't look the same as it will in about 4 days time. :lol: The ammania on the right will re-hide the internal filter I use to boost circulation within a month, and the mexican oakleaf will be at the surface again in a couple of days time.

tank1.JPG


Ade
 
Ooo cool, I'm at the other side near stoke-on-trent.
I haven't visited hollybush in ages? Are they still horrible in the staff department?
 
Their staff are so so, they have a few who actually seem to keep fish themselves. lol. Their plants though absolutely stink as they keep them in tanks with 1 beauty light T8 in them or something, the tanks with the fish in them are actually better lit. They are however really good for tanks, I bought 2 ClearSeal Panoptic 560 sets from them recently (tank, 24 watt power compact overtank luminaire, 700lph internal filter, 200 watt heaterstat) for £49.95 each, as opposed to the RRP of £160. :D They look like giant arc tanks with a luminaire style light fitting. One is now a shrimp and snail tank, and the other was a birthday present for our 5 year old with shrimp and platies in it. Both planted, but not really intended as planted tanks (minimal dosing, no CO2). I'll post some pics at some point.

At least they don't sell unsuitable fish to unsuspecting prospective buyers, I've seen them refuse to sell angels to somebody who has just bought neon tetras before now, and they have always asked me about tank size and how mature it is before selling me anything.

Oh, and I'm originally from Tunstall, and lived not far from Stone for most of my life. :lol:

Ade
 
[PS. I don't want the platies, they are left over from a few years ago and Mrs Wolfenrook wont let me get rid of them. Plan is to get her a tank for xmas so she can have a livebearer set up.

My wife won't allow livebearers in the house. She can't stand them breeding and then the fry being eaten.....
 
You seem to have success growing Ammania, I love it but always thought it was really difficult. Do you have any cuttings? ;)

Do you remember where you got your C. affinis from? I got mine from aquatic magic, but I'm not convinced it is. It looks different to the C.affinis my Dad had many years ago. His was a dark green with a pink underside whereas mine looks much like a ruffled brown wendtii. It does have a slightly pink underside though.
 
Good news: I will have ammania cuttings in a few months probably, it grows really easily for me, I've even grown it in very very low light!

Bad news: The affinis was bought from Greenline about 7 years ago or so. :lol:

Many of my plants have been going for years and years now, the nympae for example has been in there about 8 years now.

Beeky, my wife LOVES livebearers! She does my head in with the darn things! lol. At one point this tank was a low light livebearer community, with platies, guppies and mollies. Unfortunatley ( :lol: ) the guppies bred to the point where they wiped themselves and the mollies out. I then got to take it back to been a planted tank, upgrading it to high light. :D

She gets to chose the fish for our middle duaghters aquarium now, as platies are pretty much shrimp safe. We've also discovered that our oldest daughter's axlotl is rather partial to young and baby platies. :twisted:

Ade
 
Have the same problem with my wife. Platies weren't on my original stocking list but she saw them in the shop and wanted them. I relented thinking that no fry would survive. HOw wrong I was. I wanted to get rid of all of them (back to the lfs) when I rescaped the tank, but she wasn't having any of it. Now the tank is more heavily planted, even more fry are surviving and finally she's come round to the reality that we need to get rid of them. Might keep a couple of males though as they are striking colours.
 
Back
Top