Current build status of my heavy driftwood tank

[castle]

Where did you get the wood from?

A great chunk I’ve collected over time, but a couple of deliveries from kilda11 on eBay helped plug the gaps. One of the core pieces came from her store, wood can be very cheap. I have a lot of this wood now, but it’s not as easy to work with and you can see the sacrifices I’ve made with shading due to large clumps!


Thanks for the kind words all, planting is to be challenging.

I’m planning to plant quite sparsely at the start, frogbit, Echinodorus, hydrocoytle vert, and yes @Iain Sutherland your crystal ball is almost correct, the will be a nympaea 😅👍

 

[Cazza]

Thanks for the link-prices look very reasonable. Since getting back into the hobby, I've been flabbergasted at the price of wood and stone at the local aquarium stores. Almost £1 per cm for wood and £5.99 per kilo for rock. I ended up recycling some old wood I had left from before and buying around 20kg of rock from the rockery section at a garden centre for £9.

 

[castle]

Thanks for the link-prices look very reasonable. Since getting back into the hobby, I've been flabbergasted at the price of wood and stone at the local aquarium stores. Almost £1 per cm for wood and £5.99 per kilo for rock. I ended up recycling some old wood I had left from before and buying around 20kg of rock from the rockery section at a garden centre for £9.

No problem, keep an eye on her listing as sometimes things go for 99p!

Wood has gotten very expensive imo - especially as most of it is just an algae disaster waiting to happen 😬

 

[castle]

I plan to fill tonight! 😬

Cable ties will remain in place until the wood has absorbed water. I did dowel a few pieces so should be OK.

I have some planting to do too, but really just relying on floaters to start with.

 

[DioramaDieHard]

Looking super nice!

 

[castle]

Thats a nice looking plant - I've not come across that before:

View attachment 215388

Might have to steal that idea from you, as I'm looking for a new background plant for the right side of my tank!!

I have three plants left if you’d like them? Just pay postage (inc that 80p for RM to collect from my door 😅)

 

[Wookii]

I have three plants left if you’d like them? Just pay postage (inc that 80p for RM to collect from my door 😅)

Dammit - thanks very much for the kind offer - would have definitely taken you up on that mate, if not for the fact I got some delivered from Aqua Essentials on Friday!

I ordered three pots - probably two pots too many given they were decent sized plants, and at least two in each pot! I've put them at the back of my tank, and can't actually see them yet from the front 😂 hopefully they'll reach their full 50cm potential in due course!

 

[castle]

Ahh! I was really impressed with the plants too btw, really healthy looking so will see how they get on as light is limited in this tank.

Will offer them on the sales forum 👍 (auction tho)

 

[Wookii]

I was really impressed with the plants too btw, really healthy looking so will see how they get on as light is limited in this tank.

Yeah I was really impressed with them too - really fresh and healthy. Mine won't get a great deal of light at the back of the tank also, but hopefully that'll push them to reach for the light a bit!

 

[castle]

About 8 days after I filled green thread algae has emerged.

I am 99% sure the wood was seeded with it so beware when walking loch shores and picking wood that the wood may be seeded with some nasties 👍

 

[Bradders]

So what do you do with that @castle ? A case of leave or will you intervene?

 

[castle]

So what do you do with that @castle ? A case of leave or will you intervene?

Unsure, effectively forces me to go to RO/rainwater. Add in botanicals, try and starve it off. Reduce lighting a touch. Fairly common in new setups so 🤷‍♂️🙏

 

[castle]

How it’s going…

Algae looks bad, but it’s really starting to clear up. The green thread algae may be a problem tho. Every tank I’ve had here has become overrun with it eventually. Need to remove the floating mass, eventually.

There is a pair of apistos in here now, and about 16 amanos. And 12 amazing Bloody Mary shrimp.

Everything is growing so well, vallis nana has gone bonkers, echindorous is looking great. I added h.vert and m.crenata to the foreground - because why not? And Bolbitis went in about a week ago. An Anubias in the corner too.

I admit this isn’t the vision I had for the tank, but 🤷‍♂️ two babies and no time. I’m using this tank as a bit of a playground, just to get used to the water and the troubles with it. Later in the year I hope to remove a lot of the plants and replant with more epiphytes. I’ll update then 👍

 

[Bradders]

I’m using this tank as a bit of a playground, just to get used to the water and the troubles with it

So, what water do you have?

 

[castle]

So, what water do you have?

Approximately dGH around 1.5 or ~<50tds (depends on the rain) with a variable ph of around 7.8 - 8

Working out quite nicely so far tho.

 

[Bradders]

Approximately dGH around 1.5 or ~<50tds (depends on the rain) with a variable ph of around 7.8 - 8 Working out quite nicely so far tho.

So, just so I undertstand, is that a challenging dGH and TDS then?

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

So, just so I undertstand, is that a challenging dGH and TDS then?

No, it is a good starting point.

Basically it is a lot easier to add things to water than take them away, so starting with a ~ blank slate is usually an advantage.

For me I can make our rainwater harder and more alkaline easily (by adding hard tap water, Epsom Salts etc.) but I could only make it softer and less alkaline by adding RO water.

Cheers Darrel

 

[castle]

Yup, @dw1305 is correct, but the higher ph with soft water is unusual and really, I’ve seen ph of 8.4 out of the tank. .

Truth be told, I don’t really think my water I is challenging, just variable. I give very little thought to ph these days 👍

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

but the higher ph with soft water is unusual and really, I’ve seen ph of 8.4 out of the tank. .

That is why I'm not too bothered about pH in soft water, it is a moveable feast and doesn't necessarily give you a complete picture. @_Maq_ 's acid neutralising capacity is more useful as a concept <"Some handy facts about water">.

In fact, alkalinity or acid neutralizing capacity (ANC) refers to the amount of strong acid needed to change pH from current value to a different (lower) value.
ANC4.5 is used regularly in water processing plants’ reports, and it denotes ANC to reach pH value of 4.5 – which is a point where no bicarbonate ions (HCO3-) remain in water. ANC is not often used in the UK, but is a very useful concept.

A lot of people now have soft water with a high pH , purely because of sodium hydroxide (NaOH) injection. This is designed to <"raise the pH and protects against heavy metal solubilisation">.

Because sodium hydroxide is a <"strong base"> it disassociates fully into Na+ and OH- ions, meaning you only need a small addition of NaOH to raise pH, but there is <"no reserve of buffering"> (to maintain pH) as acids (protons (H+ ions)) are added.

You may also get some pH rise in low tech. purely as <"CO2 is depleted by photosynthesis">.

cheers Darrel

 

[castle]

Hi, green hair algae has almost gone. Not sure what I did to do this… a few scrubs, plants obviously growing well, oh, and 20 amano shrimp…

Going to order some moss and epiphytes soon. Maybe another carpeting plant, see if I can make this tank a bit more “jungley”. Thinning the floaters out weekly.