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Barb Island. its all over.

cheers jack, in that picture it looks like just trident but the middle is filled with rotala rotundifolia red which is now really struggling as the plant mass is too dense and i cant get co2 into the lower stems in the middle of the island. I cant be bothered to restart all the stems again. If i was keeping it then i would thin everything out by 50%.

Gave it a good clean up and shake down yesterday before i go away and saw about 40+ full grown scarlet cherries which i never see out in the open, will be really interesting to see how many there are when i break it down.
So question... do all cherries, no matter the grade, go fully red when they hit maturity? Ive never seen a 2cm RCS with poor colouration?
 
Well things went fairly while i was away considering that for 3 weeks my housemate whos never even had a tank was looking after it. I had reduced the light intensity dramatically so there was very little change when i got back aside from BBA coming back a bit and the stems got crowded out so dropped all lower leaves in the middle of the island.
So as it was in worse shape than before i left i have began the task of breaking this down ready for the new one and will have to use one of the pre holiday photos for IAPLC. I'm not too sure there are any that show the tank as it looked in the flesh and doubt it will rank too well but i got what i wanted from it as ive enjoyed (nearly) every minute of it.

Again, big love to all who have commented, advised, looked and generally contributed during this tanks life. No doubt ill been needing all your help again soon for the next project.... hopefully not too much though :thumbup:
 
I think you'll be very supprised! It's a great scape IMO.

And remember its not all about ranking, you enjoyed the tank and leant from it.
 
Thanks a lot guys.
On to better things mate. And don't be too negative about the ranking I think it's a fantastic tank. You might be surprised
certainly am mate or at least bigger :) I dont have the photography skills of the top boys sadly... not to mention growing skills!

I think you'll be very supprised! It's a great scape IMO.
And remember its not all about ranking, you enjoyed the tank and leant from it.

absolutely right Ian, Ive learnt loads from this tank and will miss it as already had a new scape in mind to suit the dimensions but heyho. Something about the journey not the destination blah blah... :)

If this doesn't place top 200 something wrong with the judges IMO, this is a top scape mate inspiring to say the least, looking forward to you future journals Iain
very nice of you to say tim, great to know it may inspire others. Hopefully you wont have to wait too long for some new journals, im keen to get my arms wet.
 
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agree with what has already been said........a great tank and a great journal :clap:

looking forward the the NA set up mate :thumbup:

Cheerio,
Ady.
 
Its all over :( this tank was running for the best part of a year and today was breakdown day.
All went well aside from catching around 200 cherry shrimp in merky water, i didnt even attempt to catch all the babies.

Also found that the diy reactor must have had a leak as hiding round the back of it there was pretty heavy scale deposit, if it was leaking water its safe to say it was leaking co2 also which no doubt contributed to the endless battle with BBA.

bolbitus madness
IMG_3958_zps69174913.jpg


holding tank after sending out some plants
IMG_3965_zps25b847b0.jpg


ready for delivery to danny on sunday
IMG_3966_zps4fe27fc0.jpg


Its been a journey.
 
There was one more thing.... whats the life expectancy on Manzanita? It was all pretty soft when removing to the point that some would disintegrate between my fingers.
Plenty of people using it so just wondering if this is 'normal'? Its 2 years old and has been used most of that time.
 
There was one more thing.... whats the life expectancy on Manzanita? It was all pretty soft when removing to the point that some would disintegrate between my fingers.
Plenty of people using it so just wondering if this is 'normal'? Its 2 years old and has been used most of that time.
Its normal for this to happen to manzi, unfortunately!
 
Iain Sutherland said: ↑ There was one more thing.... whats the life expectancy on Manzanita? It was all pretty soft when removing to the point that some would disintegrate between my fingers. Plenty of people using it so just wondering if this is 'normal'? Its 2 years old and has been used most of that time. Its normal for this to happen to manzi, unfortunately! Cheers, Paulo
I experienced the same and found the 'insides' of the older manzita branches were still hard. I scrubbed off the soft parts and keep using the rest of the wood but do wonder whether this is now 'rotting wood' polluting the water???
 
Hey paulo, so does that mean it is time to bin this lot of manzi?
Well if its still usable then I don't see why not, I have noticed some pieces crumble quicker than others and considering how much this stuff costs its a little off putting ;)

but do wonder whether this is now 'rotting wood' polluting the water???
I don't think its anything to worry about, the only thing you might get is a little tanning of the water if any!
 
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