Aquatoon

[X3NiTH]

It's been a year to the day since I did a proper scape on my tank and I thought I really should show how the journey started.

Around this time last year after about 4 years running I started the journey of upgrading the fish tank from low tech having mastered the art of growing Java Ferns by doing nothing but feed feeding fish, the plan was just to upgrade to an external filter and swap out the lighting for a mini400 tile to make it look a little nicer. It kind of snowballed from there.

Here is how it looked before being properly scaped, the Bogwood had a major trim before this pic as over 4 years growth it was smothered..



Stocking up on things needed to scape it, the tank is now full of plants still in their pots waiting.



No going back now!











Hardscape done, time for planting.











It's done! Its the very small hours and I'm trying to go as quick as I can and so my iPhone looks like it's been through a mud bath, wished I'd set the big camera on a tripod but it would have slowed me down, just wanted to get it done.



Time to fill it up, slowly, very slowly, not going to destroy the scape I've just planted, it was a very steep learning curve to get it all done in one go on the first try with a substrate that resisted as much as it could to being planted.



And here it is all filled up, I felt immensely satisfied with the fruits of my labor.



And how it looks a year to the day!







The only plants from the original planting that remain in the tank today are the Java ferns and Anubia that are sandwiched between the Bogwood and Mopani. The shrimp project that grew from this was an attempt to have some colourful cleaning crew, it just all snowballed from that day a year ago!









Thanks UKAPS!

 

[rodoselada]

superb!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Rob Dahl]

Thanks for the historical run-through of tank and accessories. You really do have a jungle now.

 

[Rob Dahl]

X3NiTH, I forgot to ask. Was your moss ball floating or did you have some way to suspend it? How did you do it.

 

[X3NiTH]

It was a polystyrene ball wrapped in Moss and tied with nylon fishing line, it was held down by nylon line that is tied to a small square piece of glass used for weight, bought from LFS like that, was dismantled (what was left of it) eventually and used in the Anubia tank as part of the wall here and there, all gone now though, not enough light/ferts/co2 in there.

 

[X3NiTH]

Blowing Bubbles!







1.4 pH point drop today, Fish fine, bit too much for the Shrimp as they were hanging out on the leaf tops at the surface for the last couple of hours of the injection period, a few got munched by the fish. The Rotala I put in at the weekend has grown a couple of centimetres already, it's in the corner next to the filter inlet where the co2 low down is not so great (low growth doesn't do well here), new growth at the tops however are pearling like crazy, lower down on the reddish leaves not so much (emmersed growth?).

 

[Rob Dahl]

X3NiTH, thanks for the moss ball explanation. I have another question for you. My Ludwegia has been trimmed so much now it has all these branches off a few main stems and I as thinking of uprooting them and replanting younger shoots. What do you think? The lower levels are a maze of aerial roots off the old stems. I'll have to postpone major logging anyway until the babies get a little bigger and are easier to spot.

 

[X3NiTH]

Take off the tops and plant them, that's what I do with my stem plants, the Stauro in my tank is grown from a few survivor stems from when my co2 wasn't quite right, when they did better I lopped the heads off the better looking ones and planted them further up front and over time doing it's filled in down both sides of my tank, I've been thinking about planting some lopped Stauro heads at the front of the tank but the Buces are in the way at the moment.

 

[X3NiTH]

Yesterday @ 21:00hrs (lights off @ 21:30)



Taken today @ 17:00hrs (lights on @ 12:30)



Four and a half hours later!



At this rate it will be at the surface by the end of the weekend. Trimmings are going in the lower shrimp tank to see how it fares with lower light negligible ferts and only ambient co2, question is will the shrimp consume it before it gets a chance to find its legs.

 

[Crossocheilus]

That's fast!

Great tanks and really nice macro shots of the shrimp.

What percentage do you run the LED on? Your CO2 must be absolutely perfect for that (crazy) light level, no wonder you're seeing that much growth!

Also (sorry if this has already been mentioned) what is your diffusion method for CO2? Again, whatever it is, it must be working!

 

[X3NiTH]

How the tanks look to today under their own lighting (2700K LED room lights off).



All three of my lights run from the 8-way controller.

1500NDUltima Tile over main tank.
Channel 1 is on @ 10% (outer ring of LEDs)
Channel 2 is on @ 35% (inner ring of LEDs, use 1% for moonlight)

Mini400 Tile over lower Shrimp Tank.
Using Channel 1 so it's @ 10%

Grobeam600ND Strip over upper Shrimp Tank (only three emitters are over the tank, two over the new tank)
Using Channel 2 so it's @ 35% (no moonlight at 1% with this light)

This is the gubbins in the cupboard, the 20" water filter housing on the right is fed co2 by an inline atomiser (hiding at the back) which works it's magic so that the water is gin clear when gets to the tank.



Co2 has been near perfect in the main tank for last week or so, pearling starts on the ferns about an hour after lights on and increases until lights out where the ferns look like they are decorated for Christmas.





Fish were moving towards the surface today, one Glowlight took a few gulps of air and went back down, lots of shrimp congregating near the surface so I dialled the gas down a little, so maybe not so perfect tomorrow for pearling soon after lights on but the shrimp might not be so sleepy and have a better chance of surviving a dashing attack from the tanks top predator.

 

[X3NiTH]

24hrs later and another Rotala pic.



It was planted below the level of the bell opening of the Drop checker 5 days earlier.

 

[LondonDragon]

Stop moving the drop checker down!!!

Great setup, love the tanks

This is the gubbins in the cupboard, the 20" water filter housing on the right is fed co2 by an inline atomiser (hiding at the back) which works it's magic so that the water is gin clear when gets to the tank.

Can you provide mode details on this? All the pieces and how it works?

 

[X3NiTH]

Thanks Paulo!

Rotala now at the surface!





The water line is as high as I can go without it spilling onto the lid support step (when it had a lid), given a couple of days of Evap it's going to be well above the surface. WC tonight is gonna be interesting, wonder how robust those stems are.

At some point I'll put my setup into a diagram and also detail the reactor build.

 

[pepedopolous]

Amazing photos. There must be something special about your reactor as the pearling is intense and yet the drop checker is 'only' green?!

Do you set your temp at 22 degrees on purpose? I guess this helps with CO2 dissolution, I have the same filter so could try it myself...

P

 

[X3NiTH]

Thanks!

Yes the 22c temperature is intentional, less evap and better at holding in co2, in summer the ambient took it up to 28c at some points when it was set at 24c so I dropped it down a couple of degrees and the tank seems better for it.

Today the pearling wasn't as pronounced as yesterday, possibly because of being a no fert day and the plants are running out of something. I think with my water being near zero KH the reactor makes it easy dissolving the co2 into the water even with a good throughput where I'm doing more than 10x turnover per hour from a crook. I don't have a lot of surface movement, there's enough to show that there is flow in the tank but there are no large ripples, any increased movement in the surface is only due to air bubbles flowing into a sponge above my outlet, a few tiny bubbles escape the side and pop at the surface providing a little movement. I run the Airstone 24/7 but at very low output, max output only happens if the UP pH controller triggers and turns on another air pump feeding through the same line, lots of surface agitation in the corner generating some ripples when this happens. If I don't run the Airstone the surface becomes too still and co2 gets trapped and the fish feel it very quickly and head to the surface. How contributory this is for pearling I am not sure, availability of nutrients certainly slowed it down today as the DC was same colour as yesterday. pH last few days has climbed about 0.05 points to 5.16 at lights on this meant the controller never came on at any point today. WC has happened tonight so tomorrow the pH should be a little lower as it usually is on a Monday after WC, hopefully the controller reads what I expect it to read or near enough to it, fingers crossed.

I'm thinking the Rotala might be a little too leggy, it would be much nicer with shorter spacing between the nodes, not sure what to do to keep it shorter, Glosso did this also, I tried trimming and it grew the same and then I trimmed it again and it grew the same some more, I then trimmed once more and then when it grew it didn't look like it was doing so well so it came out. I'll leave it alone for the moment and see what being at the surface does to it.

 

[pepedopolous]

Maybe with the Rotala you could re-plant the tops only when the stems start to have too much space between the nodes. Never achieved the real bushy look but one day will give it another try. I actually found Rotala macrandra easier than the 'green' or rotundifolia.

This guy gives trimming masterclasses: -
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaG3z-5Jwd9o_mHiMBrWhaQ

I thought electronic pH meters were unreliable with low KH... I've increased mine with a KH boosting product plus coral sand in the filter for that reason (from 0 to 4). However, even at KH 4 I have to really clean the evaporation line each week with vinegar and elbow grease!

At the minute I'm getting a pH drop of about 1.3 (with plenty of surface agitation). Amano shrimp OK but some of the smallest fish (WCMMs) make the surface their home.

P

 

[X3NiTH]

Yeah I was going to to top them and plant between to bush it out a bit, it would be nice if it went red like the lower growth, early days yet it's only been a week with this plant so plenty time to find out what it likes or not. Ive found the super low KH is not a total impediment to the controllers if you nanny them a little, don't need to really know the actual pH but at least read a drop that corresponds to a green DC colour, it definitely has issues with the Weipro but the UP appears more stable (UP is slower to read but more stable over time, Weipro reads much faster but can mismatch the output from the UP by about 0.1pH higher at the top and bottom of the injection period), I still get readings that make a lot of sense, I'm using two, both influenced by each other and both influenced by the stray voltage the filters impeller is generating, co2 never gets controlled anymore, just an Airspump to increase the rate co2 off gasses. I want to do the co2 pH probe mod so that I can separate one of them away from the tank and just read the pH shift in the sample due to co2, need to get some membrane first (fish transport breather bags).

 

[tmiravent]

nice cabinet!
looks like car inside, very nice.
good plants colors btw,
cheers

 

[parotet]

This guy gives trimming masterclasses: -
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaG3z-5Jwd9o_mHiMBrWhaQ
P

Is it just me, or the link is broken?

Jordi