Aquascaper 900 - Comeback Lockdown Tank :)

[LondonDragon]

Hi everyone,

As some might have seen this thread "Thanks to UKAPS" I have an empty tank in my living room for quite a while

Over the last couple of years I have been obtaining all the equipment I wanted on bargain hunters (eBay), now that I have all the pieces I decided to finally make it happen. (missus was fed up with an empty tank in the living room and since I had the rocks and hardscape in there over some Akadama for a long time people that came over kept asking if I had a snake in there )

This is the Evolution Aqua Aquascaper 900 tank, a little photo shoot I did one day while I was bored with looking at the tank.

Really good quality glass and cabinet, at the time I got it was pretty new in the market but now a lot of you have it also

Also got a Twinstar 900E LED unit, again this at the time was one of the first in the UK but since its old news lol

Full Equipment List:

Aquascaper 900 Aquarium and cabinet (90x50x45cm) around 180l

Twinstar E900 LED Light + with timer/dimmer controller

Eheim Professional 3e 600T Thermofilter
Borneo Wild Metal Lily pipe set (also have glass lily's but decided to use the metal)

CO2 Dual Gauge Regular and Solenoid (with 5Kg FE)
ADA Pollen Glass Beetle 300 CO2 Diffuser (decided not to use the Aquamedic 1000 reactor or inline reactor)

GHL 4 pump auto doser, 2 litre fert container with magnetic stirrer (why not )
Will be using a formula based on the standard EI with some tweaks to dose enough K but not too much nitrite.
Mixture is calculated to dose 50ml per day which should last around 40 days.

Hardscape:
Thanks to @Piece-of-fish (His Facebook Page)

Manzanita wood
Pagoda stone
Tropica Soil back and bottom layer
Tropica Soil Powder for front and top layer

Plant List:
Thanks to @Piece-of-fish (His Facebook Page)

Rotala rotundifolia Green
Rotala rotundifolia 'Orange Juice'
Rotala species 'Yao Yai'
Ludwigia brevipes
Ludwigia ovalis
Juncus repens
Cryptocoryne beckettii
Cryptocoryne legroi
Bolbitis heudelotii
Bolbitis Rare Dwarf Species
Bucephalandra wavy green
Bucephalandra Theia
Bucephalandra sp. Red Tropica
Microsorum pteropus 'Needle Lead'
Microsorum trident
Anubias barteri var nana
Anubias barteri var nana Pangolino
Anubias barteri var nana bonzai
Anubias barteri var nana 'Paxing'
Lilaeopsis 'Novea-Zealandiae'
Eleocharis sp. 'Mini'
Taiwan Moss

In the end might have gone a little too crazy with the stems! Let see how it goes, might add some extras here and there as time goes by and see what works best, most of these plants I have also not tried before, fun and games ahead , I haven't done this in a long time and still a noob! My 7 year long planted tank journal I was using plain gravel!

 

[LondonDragon]

So last Friday decided to scape the tank!!

While I waited for the plants to arrive at 10am I started to work on the hardscape, the wood had been soaking for a couple of weeks as I wanted to get rid of the tinge and also ensure that when I filled up the tank it all didn't just float and wanted to see what the colour of the rocks looked like underwater. Also managed to set up and test all the equipment before planting.

Finally sunk!!

Did not have a lot of hardscape to play with and could not be arsed to get any more that might not use and just takes up space around the flat! lol This is what I came up with!

Just phone photos, took me long enough lol and could not be arsed to mess around with cameras and time lapses

The Final hardscape:

The plants eventually arrived at 3PM:

So the fun of planting it all began and see if I didn't get myself into more than I could handle

Planted stems at the back, did have more than I thought I would, so they are quite compact, lets see how they do, instant bush I am hoping

Then planted a row of crypts in front of the stems and the Juncus after that. Attached the ferns and Bolbitis to the hood.
Buces and anubias also went into the wood just above the rocks.

Then the painstaking job of planting the carpet, this is a mixture of Lilaeopsis and Mini hairgrass, this was the result:

Lilaeopsis is a little wild at the moment and need to wait until new leaves start growing before I start chopping off the old ones.

Then filled the tank up and to my surprise not one single plant floated up, which was a nice result I was done by 8PM!

What lies under the tank, still need to do a bit of cable management! and deciding if I am going to attach that moss to the wood or not!!

For the time being photo period of 6 hours per day, CO2 comes on 2.5 hours before lights and goes off an hour before lights off!
50% water changes for the first week, then 3 times for the second week, then will start on once a week.

Thanks for looking and hopefully I won't kill the plants in a week If I don't post again you know why! haha

Cheers
Paulo

 

[X3NiTH]

Looks like an awesome start!

It’s a really nice tank, I’m still waiting for the Marin Pro900s that I bought on lockdown day to be ordered, I can only dream about delivery at the moment.

 

[alto]

Rotala rotundifolia Green

Juncus repens

Excellent choices

Fantastic to see this going!

50% daily water change is the “minimum”, Amano often mentioned 80-90% water changes, and continuing daily water changes well past that first week, especially if you observe any plant melt or visible algae

George Farmer has also been recently doing daily water changes on his established 1200

(I’m assuming you’re not limited to a bucket)

 

[CooKieS]

You wouldn’t need to do daily water change with tropica soil IM, just do 2x times a week 50% wc...for example.

ada soil is full of ammonia hence why the daily wc recommendations, the tropica soil is much more easy to start with.

nice start anyway!

 

[Jayefc1]

Really nice tank and scape

 

[LondonDragon]

Looks like an awesome start!

It’s a really nice tank, I’m still waiting for the Marin Pro900s that I bought on lockdown day to be ordered, I can only dream about delivery at the moment.

Many thanks, hopefully not as long wait as I had it empty

Excellent choices

Fantastic to see this going!

50% daily water change is the “minimum”, Amano often mentioned 80-90% water changes, and continuing daily water changes well past that first week, especially if you observe any plant melt or visible algae

George Farmer has also been recently doing daily water changes on his established 1200

(I’m assuming you’re not limited to a bucket)

Many thanks, after looking at various Nature style aquascapes that I liked I picked the plants that I liked the look off and mostly never tried before, might not be a good idea off the bat, but we shall see

As @CooKieS says with Tropica there should be no need for daily, but I will keep an eye on it and see if that is a requirement and indeed I don't use a bucket LOL

You wouldn’t need to do daily water change with tropica soil IM, just do 2x times a week 50% wc...for example.
ada soil is full of ammonia hence why the daily wc recommendations, the tropica soil is much more easy to start with.
nice start anyway!

Many thanks, pretty happy with the result so far and most importantly that its planted and full of water haha

Really nice tank and scape

Many thanks

 

[lazybones51]

Looking good

 

[mlgt]

Fantastic. Looking forward seeing this one grow in. Its been too long of a wait

 

[Deano3]

Looks excellent, great nature scape.

I am very interested as starting my AS900 next few months.

I am also doing EI and would love a auto doser so will be asking about that on a different post at some point.

Looking forward to seeing it grown in.
Dean

Sent from my SM-G970F using Tapatalk

 

[LondonDragon]

Looking good

Many thanks

Fantastic. Looking forward seeing this one grow in. Its been too long of a wait

Many thanks , yeah was thinking it would never kick off lol got there in the end
P.S. that signature is out of date

Looks excellent, great nature scape.
I am very interested as starting my AS900 next few months.
I am also doing EI and would love a auto doser so will be asking about that on a different post at some point.
Looking forward to seeing it grown in.

Limited hardscape only option was more a Nature style which has always been my fav, tried a gumi before and got bored with it very quickly. For me Nature you can always adapt the scape by just swapping out some plants!
Was lucky enough to get my GHL for 20 quid on eBay! Still, can't believe it!
There is a good thread on them here: https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/37255/
Many thanks

 

[Tim Harrison]

Sheer class...great to see this up and running and you scaping again

 

[LondonDragon]

Sheer class...great to see this up and running and you scaping again

Many thanks Tim let's see how I get on, bit rusty haha

 

[FishKeeper55]

I like what you done with this 👍

 

[LondonDragon]

I like what you done with this 👍

Many thanks

 

[alto]

As @CooKieS says with Tropica there should be no need for daily, but I will keep an eye on it and see if that is a requirement and indeed I don't use a bucket LOL

Well I’ve definitely proved that you can set up a scape with Tropica Soil and not change the water for a month (or more)
but it really depends on how well plants adapt (which tends to reflect their health before you became part of the equation) and water parameters etc etc

In general it’s much easier to change water and limit algae that way, than to subdue the algae horde running rampant
(I’m just lazy)

 

[CooKieS]

Well I’ve definitely proved that you can set up a scape with Tropica Soil and not change the water for a month (or more)
but it really depends on how well plants adapt (which tends to reflect their health before you became part of the equation) and water parameters etc etc

In general it’s much easier to change water and limit algae that way, than to subdue the algae horde running rampant
(I’m just lazy)

I’m lazy too

and not fond of all that wasted water

 

[LondonDragon]

One week later and the first maintenance, cleaned all the filter pipes were a little dirty from when soaking the wood and only got my cleaning brush this week.
Also gave a trim to the carpet and moved some plants around a little, had some Fissidens on my low tech looking a little brown so moved it to this tank to see if it recovers, going to use some of it to plant in certain areas around the rocks and wood, also have some Taiwan moss to place on some pieces of wood, trying to think where it would be best placed.

Here some snaps using my phone, after first week maintenance:

Also managed to get hold of a TP-Link Kasa power strip which I will be swapping out tomorrow with the power adapters, see how that works!

Thanks for looking!

 

[Ryan Thang To]

hello mate

tank looking good. once the stem getting very busy it going to look awesome nature style

add some moss on the rocks. give it extra colours

cheers

 

[LondonDragon]

hello mate
tank looking good. once the stem getting very busy it going to look awesome nature style
add some moss on the rocks. give it extra colours
cheers

Many thanks Ryan, rocks I am thinking Fissidens, moss top bits of the wood, maybe the larger pieces in the middle, also want to add some more Buces to the layer of wood/rocks, loving these Buces