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Celestial Glade - 125Ltr Low Light, Low Maintenance

Thanks Tom and Sam. Taking it's time as expected but its getting there ;)

Goes to show that sometimes many differing types of plants can work together even if one 'looks' like it is dominant.

There is: P Helferi, 2 types of fern, 3 types of Anubias and (I think) 6 types of Crypt in there at present.

By looks like what I mean is that the Anubias Barteri (on the left side) is all one rhizome!!! Not several. Got this from Garuf ages ago and the Rhizome is 15 - 20 inches long in a horseshoe + Fork shape!!!

When the algae that is still left over from my recent CO2 battle disappears (Anubias always the slowest to recover,) I will be taking the front 8-10 cm of each side to sell as it is almost touching the front glass now. Has grown these 8-10cm in the 4 months it has been in there as when I first attached it I put it level with the front of the redmoor block it is on!!!

AC
 
You still have my anubias?! Good going! Going to pin point her?
I just broke up one one my petite ones and I've got a good 20 new plants from the original rhizome, they tend to get really clustered, does the original nana do that for you?
 
No need to pin point them Garuf. Every Anubias leaf in this picture is from your plant and just as many that you can't see (behind.)

My petite is now on the right hand side because this monster decided to shift it out of the way :lol:

leftfinished.jpg


AC
 
This is definitely your best looking set up to date, Andy. It has a Farmeresque feel to it.

Dave.
 
Crash.............


............I just fainted :lol:

I wish Dave, I wish. Not nearly as crisp as George's but I thank you for the compliment.

AC
 
Well I have to say it is you guys (including Ceg ;)) that I should acknowledge.

Without the knowledge gained of how to keep plants growing nicely then I would've either given up a long time ago or still be at that stage of frustrated learning.

I guess that once the plants look good and grow well then you don't mind just sitting back and watching rather than getting bored and tinkering non stop with the layout at which point the scape can develop.

So thanks to you all from the days of TFF to the present UKaps (I still use TFF :lol:)

Overwhelmed to have the 'big boys' commenting on my scape too. Makes me feel I have got something right at last ;)

AC
 
SUBSTRATE - I am trying to keep the cost right down and so I am intending to use mulm - ½" Leonardite - Previous Tropica mixed with a product called Aquagrit Underworld - topped with some 3mm Dorset gravel.

Excellent post, without having to read every single word, could you tell me if you went for the above detaled substratate or did this change??? :?:
 
London - Thanks for the credit for the staples but alas I have to own up. I bought a Java on rootwood a few months after I began early 2006 I think (which died :rolleyes:) When I took it off I noticed that it had been stapled and cursed the seller whilst no-one could hear. Then after reading a few 'there's no problem with using staples' comments on various forums and having got frustrated with trying to tie/band the vast amount onto this hardscape, all the time watching it slip etc. I lost my temper and out came the stapler. :lol:. accidental success here I'm afraid but still something to know for the future. ;)

Simon - In a word....No. I spent a bit on my road bike at the time so I skimped. I just used the previous substrate as it was which was 9 months old. Therefore extra cost was nothing :). I still have the spare tub of Leonardite in my cupboard.

The previous (and present) substrate was (and still is) mulm - leonardite - Tropica - Play sand.

Seems to be fine though.

AC
 
I ordered a Koralia1 last week and am still waiting for it to come. Reason for this is using a powerhead means that the output is so far away from the surface due to the powerhead body needing to be mostly submerged.

I am hoping to be able to get the Koralia much closer to the surface still in the right rear but pointing downward. I've then bought one of the Eheim power diffusers to put in the same area but much lower (in the dark hopefully ;)) pointing the same way. Worth seeing if they're any good seing as they're only a fiver. Hopefully the '1500lph' will blast the bubbles around the tank.

Not bothered too much about the flow from the filter The pump is 12x so anything from the filter (rated at 700lph) will be a bonus extra.

AC
 
SuperColey1 on Tue Dec 16, 2008 5:41 pm

I ordered a Koralia1 last week
I fitted a Koralia 1 to my 60 ltr community tank on Sunday (moderatley planted). The tank is only 600 x 450x 300mm (2'x 18" x 1' in real money!). The Koralia 1 turns over 1500 lph so that's 25 times volume :!: Most of the fish like it and enjoy playing in the flow, they're not stuck against the glass (suprisingly). The plants sway nicely in the flow too.

The reason I fitted it is to increase the distribution of the CO2, FE supplied, and I have it linked to the solinoid timer so as to give the fish a break when not injecting CO2.

I've only got an Eheim 2210 internal filter (rated at upto 550 lph, ooohh 30 x turnover). I'd like to get an external that would give me 10 - 15 x turnover but can't find one small enough to fit in my cabinet hence the koralia. So far very pleased but too early to tell if the plants are benefitting (although I'm sure they are even without visable evidence yet).

I've got some cabomba that is stuggling (browning at the bottom half and the top halves are great), overall growing at a rate of an inch a day! I am using cuttings off these and replanting, and will see if the Koralia approach helps with the lower leaflets, better circulation of CO2 and ferts (EI dosing!) might just help.

Lighting is about 2wpg ( 2x15w T8s)

I'd be interested to hear what you think of the Koralia and if it helps you. I't a bit of an eyesore and not easy to hide as it just blows away any planted cover
 
Cut a couple of handfuls of the longer needle leaves out yesterday along with the P Helferi (which I wasn't really liking.) Going to put some more Parva in this corner. I would go for Glosso but I don't want the whole of the front to get taken over.

Then tonight I removed the front 10cm of the Anubias on the left as it was starting to push against the glass. Got a little carried away here and some of the wood is now exposed but it will grow back :lol:. I took another handful of the longer needle leaves out as well.

So the needle leaf is thinned out quite a lot, The left front is a little lighter but there is now a little space which looks a little odd and will do for a month or 2 until something grows into the space.

Will take some pics tomorrow as I will be water changing tonight and therefore bubbles galore everywhere. tomorrow's picture will be much better.

Other changes is I have extended my photoperiod to 9 hours as its quite boring at home and waiting for 4pm is too long. It is now 3-3-3 in that the 0.9WPG comes on at 3pm The other .5WPG comes on at 6pm then back to 0.9WPG from 9pm to midnight. I have also lengthened the CO2 so it now runs 1pm to 11pm.

I now have 3 drop checkers in there. 1 Chameleon on the left, one Chameleon on the right and the Teardrop at the back. All at lime green before the 'noon burst'. Very happy :)

Waiting on a Koralia1 to arrive and also an Eheim power diffuser and new CO2 hose (My CO2 is all in 1ft or less sections these days from all the tampering I have done over the past few years. lol. The Eheim can be hidden low and at £5 is worth a try.

The Koralia1 will be in the top left rear corner pointing along the back down towards the centre right rear, The Eheim will go from the bottom left rear to the centre right rear so any 'rising CO2 should be pushed back down and when it all hits the glass on the right side be pushed toward the front where the Lily should push it along the front again. I may have to rethink once the Koralia arrives. Have to see how it all works out.

Added 5 Otos a couple of weeks ago. Saintly arranged to come round for some Cherry Shrimp and after seeing in one of his many journals him mentioning he was off to get some Otos the next day I cheekily asked him if he could get me some.

As per usual for me 5 quickly reduced. First day I noticed one with it's back stuck against the slit in the filter intake. Turned off the filter and it swam away but then next morning noticed what was left of a fish carcass with shrimp loving the feed. Then a few days I found the weakest of the 5 arrivals had his nose stuck in the slit. I don't think it had been trying to feed there, just it was too weak to fight the flow when it got too near. The other 3 are doing a great job and fattening up nicely. I always find this with Otos that you buy a few and a couple don't make it.

One thing I do like about Otos is that they can make even the poorest of cameramen (thinking me) look good as they stay perfectly still. In this one's case even more so than usual as this was the weakest one during its second day in the tank:
Oto1-1.jpg


AC
 
SuperColey1 said:
Cut a couple of handfuls of the longer needle leaves out yesterday

is it usable? poor ottos. :(

hey the shrimp you gave me?....looking ace mate. real red.

i added another 5 ottos so now theres 10....there nutteres! swimming around chasing each other :lol:

anyone want to see nice crypts?...andys ya man!
 
Mark - Pruning needles never produces anything useable unless you remove the whole section of rhizome. I tend to follow the leaf I want to take out down to the rhizome and then pinch it between my finger nails to snap it off. Just means leaves left over.

Ottos can be a bit of a problem in the first few days for me. No idea why but I know others do have similar problems. the ones that survive never have problems unless my son intervenes or needle valves break ;)

Thanks for the comments on my Crypts. They are looking even better over the last few days as I started to leave my CO2 alone once happy with it.

Those shrimps always look spectacular especially pregnant females. Did I manage to find you a pregnant one?

AC
 
SuperColey1 said:
I thought I would do an update as there have been some developments this week.

Firstly some bad news in that on Wednesday I noticed 1 of the Cory Schultzei floating at the top!! From people’s suggestions on planetcatfish it seems it could be a internal bacterial infection. The others seemed OK so I did a 10% water change and then left the tank as it was.

Then on Thursday I noticed one of the microrasboras at the filter outpipe. Must have been dead a couple of days as it was already half eaten. Maybe this was the cause of the cory dying?

Anyway have been doing a 10% water change each night and everyone else seems OK. Will keep on the daily water changes for another week and see how they go.

On the planted front I have made several changes to the equipment.

I have been having a few problems with BBA in the centre of the tank on the needle ferns.

Due to the increase of plantmass in this tank and a large quantity of it being ‘substrate free’ I have now doubled the original dosing. This is not because the original quantity was wrong as the tank was going along very well with that quantity for quite a while. Its just that as the plants have grown in so well they are now using the original amount very quickly and is probably the reason for the small algae outbreaks.

Firstly I decided to try out the Boyu inline diffuser that Zig has used in his mountainscape V2 scape. Its not because I’m not happy with the Rhinox. More a case of not having to clean it as often which was a bit troublesome because of the new position I had had to put it in as the plants have grown. I bought 2 as they are really cheap and that way I can swap them every couple of weeks.

Here is a pic of the diffuser in Situ:
diffuser.jpg


The initial observations were good. Very small bubbles, however this led me onto another debate.

I have been using glass in and out pipes for a long time and I started a discussion on wether these tubes due to their smaller intake capacity (the intake on stock tubes is a large strainer, whereas on glass tubes are small slits) and also that as they are quite thick they reduce a 12/13mm to 8mm. The screw on connector for hoses of course reduces the diameter but not as much. I decided to put the pipes that came with the filter in to see. This is the spray bar and intake strainer:
spraybar.jpg

strainer.jpg


There is a noticeable difference between the flow. Therefore I have decided to return to the spraybar and inlet originally supplied with the filter. The microbubbles are now blasting all over the place. I still have the powerhead in there but I may ‘trial’ not using it and just having the 6 x volume filter running.

Here is a front shot of the tank (picture in the daytime I’m afraid and with only the 0.9WPG on so the colour is a little pink.) I haven’t reduced the size of this picture as much as usual so that if you want you can take a much closer look and try and find the algae. Lol
fullfront-3.jpg


So a week where I lost 2 fish and took 3 pieces of glass out of the tank. Heartbreaking but the fish seem OK and the circulation is much improved!!!

AC

Hi Andy,

Just picking up on this thread. Some reall nice photos, especially in the early stages. The only thing I am not keen on is the amount of snails you have got in there. Are you a big fan of them? I am not particularly keen on them myself, especially the sort you have in the close ups. They burrow deep into the substrate, breed like mad and are hard to get rid of. I just wondered if there was any truth in the rumour that snails harbour certain forms of parasite which could be leading to intestinal infections leading to the death of some of the fish? Just a thought.

I put two Pygmy Pufferfish in my tank over a year ago and I have not seen a snail since. The puffer fish stay about one and a quarter centimtres long and keep the tank snail free. I bought them from a place called OASIS in Salford. Ask for Trevor or Eddie and they will sort you out. That is assuming that you would want to get rid of the snails. If not live and let live and all that.

Cheers.

Steve
 
Do you mind. I paid 99p for the first 10 of these snails :lol:

I don't think it was parasites that killed the fish. I'm leaning towards the scum that can settle underneath the hardscape as that is where most of the rasboras tend to hide. There is a huge amount of non substrate planting in this tank and therefore not as many roots as normal. However I have planted a fair few Crypts right around the hardscape items to try and get some roots into the possible anaerobic areas now. Haven't had a death for a month so fingers crossed.

Not a fan of puffers I'm afraid. These snails are good. They keep the sand turning over and are also part of the algae crew. Key to keeping low numbers is not overfeeding the fish which as the snails are quite slow isn't a huge problem because the shrimp are producing faster than the snails and they are also much faster moving and remove nearly all left overs before returning to algae.

AC
 
REDSTEVEO said:
ust picking up on this thread. Some reall nice photos, especially in the early stages. The only thing I am not keen on is the amount of snails you have got in there. Are you a big fan of them?

for the amount he's got (ive seen the tank for real) you wouldn't know that there's that many. very inconspicuous little things.

hey andy, the cherries are looking fab, not sure if there's any babies yet though ;) (you did give me a preggers female (obviously female) :lol:
 
The good thing I find with the snails is that they tend to be either out of view or 'asleep' for the majority of the photoperiod and only come out towards the end of it. When they wake up they are all over the glass before coming back down to the substrate.

This however is when I often take my photos. lol

There must be thousands in there in reality!!!
 
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