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Crystal Mountain

greedy said:
Looks superb as always.Do you fertilise from the beginning?Maybe use half dose from early start?You dont believe that ADA paradigm to fertilise only with K in the begining?
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Hi there greedy,

Thank you for your words

As for fertilization on this tank I've dosed nothing on the first week, as the plants are adapting and the fresh Aquasoil will give them plenty, on the second week a started with EI-Daily half dosing, as the tank started to kick off I upped the dose to full EI dosing.
I've never used ADA full range fertilization products (liquid fertilizers) and routines, i'm most certain that this will work for the most, using ADA Aquasoil along with PowerSand and all the extra powders...

The principal ADA representative/re-seller here in Portugal is Aquaeden's Rui Alves, one of a kind person and a dear friend, he has the most astonishing planted tank gallery here in Portugal after Mr. AMANO ''Florestas Submersas'' and he uses for the most of them the full ADA system and fertilization routine,
and I have to say that this are always beautiful and healthy tanks, So I believe this methods work in full, not so much for my pocket :)

Personally I think it's quite pricey 500ml bottle here in Portugal is like 30€, we need at least 3 of this bottles to start a tank that in my case will last 41days using the recommended dosing, 90€ gives me powders to fertilize my tank for more than 2 years ;)

For me using EI fertilization along with ADA Aquasoil is a killer combo :)

Here are my ferts input based on Ceg4048 article from UKAPS

NO3 - 2,86ppm Daily/20ppm Weekly
PO4 - 0,6ppm Daily/4.2ppm Weekly here I was aiming for 3ppm Weekly following Ceg's article, but GSA started to appear and by testing I saw it going to 0 so upped the dosing in the new bottles matching WET's dosing from RotalaButterfly
K - 4,29ppm Daily/30ppm Weekly

Fe - 0,07ppm Daily/0,5ppm Weekly
Mg - 1,43ppm Daily/10ppm Weekly

Greenfinger2 said:
Hi Nuno, Wonderful scape and planting :clap::clap:
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Thank you for your words Greenfinger2 :)

parotet said:
Awesome tank, congrats!

Jordi
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Thank you Jordi :)
 
Because tomorrow is Water Change day I grabbed the test kit to do some water parameter check and with the new bottles of of Macro and Micro i'm getting at this end of the week:

NO3 - 10ppm
PO4 - 0,4ppm

Fe - 0,2ppm

Really good parameters in my opinion :)
 
I agree, ADA ferts are not for my pocket too.So i use Aqua Rebell like you.You are using tap water or Ro water?What about gh and kh parameters?
 
greedy said:
I agree, ADA ferts are not for my pocket too.So i use Aqua Rebell like you.You are using tap water or Ro water?What about gh and kh parameters?
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I'm not using Aquarebell at the moment, but have in the past and this are really good fertilizers, but comparing to dry powders are expensive also :D

As you are asking i went to the test box and done them also by your request ;)

dKH - 3º
GH - 120ppm x 0,056 = dGH - 6,72º

My pH probe is now marking 6,28 witch means I have 44ppm CO2 at this given time :)
 
Yes i know, all can make yourself and cheap :)Only i buy Spezial N and micro.To make Spezial N difficult to find some components in my country.
 
One more week, rocks really in need of a toothbrush cleaning, filter needs maintenance along with the lilypipes, snails everywhere, but plants are super healthy really thick growth, and ready for a new trim :)

10mm lense
29509383474_64b6976755_k.jpgIMG_2510 by Nuno Matos, on Flickr
 
Wow! Great looking tank as are all the other ones in your signature block; you clearly have a nack for aqua scaping.
 
jns said:
Wow! Great looking tank as are all the other ones in your signature block; you clearly have a nack for aqua scaping.
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Thank for your words and taking the time to see them all :)

tmiravent said:
Not bad Nuno...;)
Kidding, it's very good layout, well done!
Time to put some swimming stuff over there, maybe some fish...
Love the color of that pipes! :rolleyes:
cheers
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Thank you for your words Tiago, really appreciate it coming from you :)

At this time I don't feel the need for having fish swimming around, and still haven't decided witch school to go for this time o_O

As for the pipes they are really nasty, but it's something that doesn't bother me,
I will do an effort for having them clean when I post new photos of this tank :D
 
Rusty pipes!:cool:

Had the same algae on rocks with my chihiros led so I dimmed it and half dosed NPK to avoid weekly manual cleaning of the stones.

Would love to see a schoal of black neon tetra in there ;)

Keep up the good work!
 
CooKieS said:
Rusty pipes!:cool:

Had the same algae on rocks with my chihiros led so I dimmed it and half dosed NPK to avoid weekly manual cleaning of the stones.

Would love to see a schoal of black neon tetra in there ;)

Keep up the good work!
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Maybe I'm using to much Iron on my dosing, will have to check that :wacky:

I'm using them on full power to spice up the color on the stems ;)

As for the school they are really awesome looking fish Tiago ''tmiravent'', had them in his last scape and I had the pleasure to see them schooling live several times, really top notch, but they tend to be quite aggressive towards shrimps,
and I'm planning on getting a colony of Pure Red Line Caridina Logemanni Silane Line, so the choice has to be made with that in mind ...

I will most probably go for some kind of Boraras or Trigonostigma species ;)
 
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Nuno M. I saw your tank on Instagram, posted by Green Art Moscow, hope they didnt hijack your photo?
 
doylecolmdoyle said:
Nuno M. I saw your tank on Instagram, posted by Green Art Moscow, hope they didnt hijack your photo?
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Hijacked for sure, I don't even got an Instagram account , but no worries the tank is in the same place let them do what they want with the photos ...

When we submit our tanks on public networks it's a risk we take, and I don't mind people sharing it, it's a sign that they liked my work, none of you will see me personally sharing my tank on Facebook, Twitters or other kind of social networks,
I like sharing them on forums, here in UKAPS, in my Portuguese forum Aquaforum.pt, also in Barr Report, this way a can keep track of my posts, and share experiences with all of you, I also like to keep track on the tanks of people that follow my works,
and this way we all learn from each other, it's a win win situation, on social networks I think it's more like a vanity fair (post photos and waiting on the likes) of course I like seeing my tank posted for example on UKAPS Facebook and getting like 300 likes
but I prefer coming to UKAPS or other forum, and have real opinions, suggestions, questions, this kind of relations it's what made me learn and reach the level I'm now, but still much to learn from you all ;)

I'm all in for the BACK TO FORUNS initiative :D
 
Following the conversation with EdwinK at his thread I will share here my 2 recipes for fertilizing With or Without UREA ;)

Following Clive's article about EI fertilization here at UKAPS he recommends a weekly nutrient intake of :

20ppm NO3
3ppm PO4 As I seem to always get this value to 0 by testing I'm going for a 4.2ppm weekly intake on my recipe as I stated before 1.2ppm increase from Clive's reference values following the Daily recomendation on WET's Rotalla Butterfly (http://rotalabutterfly.com/index.php)
30ppm K
0,5ppm Fe
10ppm Mg

I take this values and divided them by 7 as I do daily fertilization with a peristaltic pump (JEBAO DP4) :) and I always use 500ml DI Water Bottles and dose this recipes 1ml for 10L aquarium water ;)

N source KNO3 only

1st Bottle MACRO 500ml DI water
2,86ppm NO3 - We will need 23,32gr of KNO3 wich gives us also 1,8ppm K
0,6ppm PO4 - We will need 4,3gr of KH2PO4 wich also gives us 0,25ppm K
4,29ppm K - We take the KH2PO4 and KNO3 K values and subtract them to the total amount of K we get (4,29 - 1,8 - 0,25 = 2,24ppm) we will need 24,96gr of K2SO4 We can also mix half this dose in the Micros Bottle for better solubility 12,48gr in Macro Bottle and 12,48gr in Micro Bottle

2nd Bottle MICRO 500ml DI Water
0,07ppm Fe - Here I'm using MicroMix Plus from (http://aquarium-fertilizer.eu/) it's a 6% total Iron Mix so we will need 5,83gr of this powder
1,43ppm Mg - We will need 72,51gr of MgSO4

N source KNO3 + UREA

I've reached this formula by adjusting Tobias Coring Spezial N recipe available also here at UKAPS (http://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/for-dan-spezial-n-nitrogen-fertilizer.14594/)

1st Bottle MACRO 500ml DI water
2,86ppm NO3 - 2,5gr of Urea will give us 1.03ppm as NO3 and 0,5ppm Urea so we subtract this value from the NO3 amount (2,86 - 1.03 = 1,83ppm) we will need 14,92gr KNO3 wich also gives us 1.15ppm K
0,6ppm PO4 - We will need 4,3gr of KH2PO4 wich also gives us 0,25ppm K
4,29ppm K - We take the KH2PO4 and KNO3 K values and subtract them to the total amount of K we get (4,29 - 1,15 - 0,25 = 2,89ppm) we will need 32.2gr of K2SO4 We can also mix half this dose in the Micros Bottle for better solubility 16.1gr in Macro Bottle and 16.1gr in Micro Bottle

2nd Bottle MICRO 500ml DI Water
Exactly the same as in the first mix ;)

Hope this can be of use for you all :)
 
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Nuno I very much agree it's impossible to stop people stealing your photos and claiming them as there own, they are really cheating them self, ur image has been watermarked with " chihiros aquatic studio iberica"

I like your attitude towards sharing your scapes and knowledge with the forum / community! Keep up ththe great work
 
doylecolmdoyle said:
Nuno I very much agree it's impossible to stop people stealing your photos and claiming them as there own, they are really cheating them self, ur image has been watermarked with " chihiros aquatic studio iberica"

I like your attitude towards sharing your scapes and knowledge with the forum / community! Keep up ththe great work
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Actually Chihiros Aquatic Studio Iberia has been sponsoring this Aquascape and they have full authorization to use my photos in social networks, they are marked also with my name, as you can see I'm using some of their products ;)

The more we share the more we learn :)

tim said:
Lovely scape so far nuno, great detail in the journal of your methods and regime, keep the updates coming :)
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Thank you for your words tim,

I will do my best to have the tread updated and with all the details ;)
 
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