Carlos Carvalheira
New Member
Part One - Planning and Dry Start
Equipments & stuff :
Aquarium:
-size : (L)120x(w)40x(h)35cm
-glass: Low Iron
-glass thickness : 10mm
-silicone : transparent
-gross volume: 152 liters
-My own build
Filtration:
-external filter OASE Thermo 600
- NEO Flow Lily Pipe Premium Set
Lighting:
-Twinstar 120 S-Line III 100%
-8 hours/day (during Dry Start) and 6 hours Flooded
Heating:
-Internal Heater on Filter
Gravel, sand and hardscape :
-5 kg of Lava Stone (small) inside small bags
-4 Bags of NEO Soil Plant 8L
-15 Kg Dragon stone
Flora:
-Micranthemum Tweediei – Monte carlo
-Hemianthus Callitrichoides – Cuba
-Rotala Rotundifolia H’ra
-Rotala Rotundifolia Green
-Alternanthera Reineckii Mini
-Bucephalandra sp. Red
-Hygrophila Pinnatifida
Fauna:
- 4 Clithon Corona
Fertilization:
-Estimative Index Full
Salts Used;
Macros (one single solution) - Potassium Nitrate, Magnesium Nitrate, Calcium Nitrate, Monopotassium Phosphate, Potassium Cloride, Magnesium Shulphate
Micros – Mix with - Iron (Fe) 9,8% Manganese (Mn): 2,9% Zinc (Zn): 0,5% Boron (B): 0,65% Copper (Cu): 0,19% Molybdenum (Mo): 0,1%
Targets in ppm per week – 30 NO3, 3 PO4,30 K, 10 Mg, 30 Ca, 0.5 Fe
Regime;
Mon. - 80% water change (no ferts)
Tue. Macro 60 mml
Wed. Micro 12 mml
Thu. Macro 60 mml
Fri. Micro 12 mm
Sat. Macro 60 mml
Sun. Micro 12 mm
CO2:
-3 bps, 9 hours/day (starting 3 hours before photo period)
Starting Point- 07/02/2022
Leakage test stayed at least one week like this.
In the meanwhile I’ve built a sand box to start playing around with some stones I collected at the time in a dam near south of Portugal – Alqueva .
The idea at this time was to build the hardscape similar to what I saw in that trip basically to mimify the type of landscape on that area something like this … which later on revealed itself to be quite a wish and not so easy to concretize
The landscape
And the attempts --- frustrated but attempts …
I’ve collected a few stone but either they were to big or with different color schemes. I've done some research on the terrain geology and found out that these rocks were composed by ferromagnesian silicate mineral and calcium being 50% by silica … after some reading I thought what the hell m’I doing inventing the wheel … So decided to abandon this idea and completely changed the way I was planning.
Something like this started to appear, I think I've filmed the process of glueing the Dragon stones but probably lack of patience to edit
The semi-Final result
a small film of laying out the hardscape;
Planting scheme and plan started to flow in my mind with a mix of mystery, with some plants dragging and flowing from the rocks till the ground and on the background turfs of stem plants flowing from the back towards the front to give a sense of deepness and perspective to the frame, I was willing to have contrasts between the brownish/yellowish of dragon stone, dark brown from the soil so light green and red were missing all this started to come has if I was planning a painting ... in did a living painting frame.
So after all the dramatic wake up dreaming
This was the plan most of it I’ve stayed truthful with it but changed some things and added others … no Anubias and on 2 3 and 4 it went Reneckii Mini, you can also see I divided plants in term of Light intensity due to the hardscape fairly important from a longevity stand point and flora health, bringing life even in more dark areas of the aquarium, this aquascape was planned to survive at least 2 or 3 years.
From here and has planned dry start for most of the plants.
First stage;
-Hemianthus Callitrichoides – Cuba
-Alternanthera Reineckii Mini
-Bucephalandra sp. Red
The plan was doing a 8 weeks dry start it came up to 10 weeks I struggled a bit with Monte Carlo but I will detail that a bit later on …
The recipient you see on the background is water with a “fog” diffusor to help on creating more humidity inside the tank…
I also use a colony of Springtails these type of insects are used mainly in terrariums but in the dry start method helps to keep the soil healthy and accelerate the colonization of beneficial bacterias on the soil, they will eat any death leave or fungus that could start to appear leaving only what we want healthy plants.
15th of March
The Buce
I will be happy in the cave ...
24th of March already added Pinifitida
Ooverall look
On 7th of April added Monte Carlo and Rotala's has planned;
a close up of the springtails feast 18 of April
on the 19th of April more or less the challenges started to apear ... some yellowish of Cuba carpet and dry out of Monte Carlo on top of Dragon Stone, had to cover Monte Carlo with kitchen paper to keep it moisted, at this time I didn't understood what happend if this was due to to much light (ligth burned or over ferts burns) ferts burns due to the fact that I was spraying withe the excess of water I was retreaving from the bottom of the aquarium.
Monte Carlo drying out
05 of May
to be continued ....
Equipments & stuff :
Aquarium:
-size : (L)120x(w)40x(h)35cm
-glass: Low Iron
-glass thickness : 10mm
-silicone : transparent
-gross volume: 152 liters
-My own build
Filtration:
-external filter OASE Thermo 600
- NEO Flow Lily Pipe Premium Set
Lighting:
-Twinstar 120 S-Line III 100%
-8 hours/day (during Dry Start) and 6 hours Flooded
Heating:
-Internal Heater on Filter
Gravel, sand and hardscape :
-5 kg of Lava Stone (small) inside small bags
-4 Bags of NEO Soil Plant 8L
-15 Kg Dragon stone
Flora:
-Micranthemum Tweediei – Monte carlo
-Hemianthus Callitrichoides – Cuba
-Rotala Rotundifolia H’ra
-Rotala Rotundifolia Green
-Alternanthera Reineckii Mini
-Bucephalandra sp. Red
-Hygrophila Pinnatifida
Fauna:
- 4 Clithon Corona
- 11 Otocinclus affinis
- 8 Caridina multidentata
- 4 Endlers (used to begin cycle after flooding)
- Shoal fish still in definition
Fertilization:
-Estimative Index Full
Salts Used;
Macros (one single solution) - Potassium Nitrate, Magnesium Nitrate, Calcium Nitrate, Monopotassium Phosphate, Potassium Cloride, Magnesium Shulphate
Micros – Mix with - Iron (Fe) 9,8% Manganese (Mn): 2,9% Zinc (Zn): 0,5% Boron (B): 0,65% Copper (Cu): 0,19% Molybdenum (Mo): 0,1%
Targets in ppm per week – 30 NO3, 3 PO4,30 K, 10 Mg, 30 Ca, 0.5 Fe
Regime;
Mon. - 80% water change (no ferts)
Tue. Macro 60 mml
Wed. Micro 12 mml
Thu. Macro 60 mml
Fri. Micro 12 mm
Sat. Macro 60 mml
Sun. Micro 12 mm
CO2:
-3 bps, 9 hours/day (starting 3 hours before photo period)
Starting Point- 07/02/2022
Leakage test stayed at least one week like this.
In the meanwhile I’ve built a sand box to start playing around with some stones I collected at the time in a dam near south of Portugal – Alqueva .
The idea at this time was to build the hardscape similar to what I saw in that trip basically to mimify the type of landscape on that area something like this … which later on revealed itself to be quite a wish and not so easy to concretize
The landscape
And the attempts --- frustrated but attempts …
I’ve collected a few stone but either they were to big or with different color schemes. I've done some research on the terrain geology and found out that these rocks were composed by ferromagnesian silicate mineral and calcium being 50% by silica … after some reading I thought what the hell m’I doing inventing the wheel … So decided to abandon this idea and completely changed the way I was planning.
Something like this started to appear, I think I've filmed the process of glueing the Dragon stones but probably lack of patience to edit
The semi-Final result
a small film of laying out the hardscape;
Planting scheme and plan started to flow in my mind with a mix of mystery, with some plants dragging and flowing from the rocks till the ground and on the background turfs of stem plants flowing from the back towards the front to give a sense of deepness and perspective to the frame, I was willing to have contrasts between the brownish/yellowish of dragon stone, dark brown from the soil so light green and red were missing all this started to come has if I was planning a painting ... in did a living painting frame.
So after all the dramatic wake up dreaming
This was the plan most of it I’ve stayed truthful with it but changed some things and added others … no Anubias and on 2 3 and 4 it went Reneckii Mini, you can also see I divided plants in term of Light intensity due to the hardscape fairly important from a longevity stand point and flora health, bringing life even in more dark areas of the aquarium, this aquascape was planned to survive at least 2 or 3 years.
From here and has planned dry start for most of the plants.
First stage;
-Hemianthus Callitrichoides – Cuba
-Alternanthera Reineckii Mini
-Bucephalandra sp. Red
The plan was doing a 8 weeks dry start it came up to 10 weeks I struggled a bit with Monte Carlo but I will detail that a bit later on …
The recipient you see on the background is water with a “fog” diffusor to help on creating more humidity inside the tank…
I also use a colony of Springtails these type of insects are used mainly in terrariums but in the dry start method helps to keep the soil healthy and accelerate the colonization of beneficial bacterias on the soil, they will eat any death leave or fungus that could start to appear leaving only what we want healthy plants.
15th of March
The Buce
I will be happy in the cave ...
24th of March already added Pinifitida
Ooverall look
On 7th of April added Monte Carlo and Rotala's has planned;
a close up of the springtails feast
18 of Aprilon the 19th of April more or less the challenges started to apear ... some yellowish of Cuba carpet and dry out of Monte Carlo on top of Dragon Stone, had to cover Monte Carlo with kitchen paper to keep it moisted, at this time I didn't understood what happend if this was due to to much light (ligth burned or over ferts burns) ferts burns due to the fact that I was spraying withe the excess of water I was retreaving from the bottom of the aquarium.
Monte Carlo drying out
05 of May
to be continued ....
