Dragon's Grove

[Greenfinger2]

Hi Crossocheilus, Great Little temporary tank Looking forward to seeing the high tech come together now

 

[Crossocheilus]

2 Asda redbush (rooibos) tea bags in a small internal filter have done well in just 3 hours, not bad. No negative signs from the fish. I forgot to do a before/ after ph test I'm afraid. However I may add another bag in a day or two, but I do need to check ph.

I was gonna add a pic but the camera just can't pick up the tannins, I assure you it looks good, very natural.

 

[Richard Dowling]

So today I've hung the light and the glassware from Apfuk arrived, I'm very happy with it.

Sorry no plants yet
Things left to do:
Get acrylic pipe for diy spray bars
Find somewhere to get CO2

Then...PLANT IT!

Can I ask where you got your ceiling hooks and whether they are just screwed into plaster or whether they screw into timbers inside the ceiling?

 

[Crossocheilus]

They are were bought at (I think) homebase, they go into the plaster and have sprung plates that open on the other side of the plaster to increase the surface area it is hung on. They hold the weight fine but I wouldn't lean on the light or put to much force on it just in case.

The wedge shape parts are the bits with a spring that fan out and thus give improved support and strength. To fir it you just drill a large enough hole to slot it through when closed. The fins spring open and hold it in place, you then just tighten it and you are done.

 

[ADA]

Good old butterfly fixings

 

[Crossocheilus]

So update on the Rooibos teabags:
I have just made some concentrate and here is how the tank now looks. I'm afraid my phone camera can't really see the tannins (?) But this is what I got:

Pic number 1 actually shows the tannins the best, it looks very similar to what I am seeing.

 

[Crossocheilus]

Plants ordered and due Thursday

Just enough time to connect up CO2.

Acrylic has arrived for spray bars, however I can't access a pillar drill any more so while have to construct a sort of frame thing to keep everything aligned when drilling with a hand power drill. Is a drill bit for metal the best (that's what wikihow said)?

 

[ADA]

Use a very small 1mm metal bit, they norm come in packs of 5 from somewhere decent, then grab a couple of 1.5mm and 2mm I wouldn't go any bigger as will lose flow. Best thing I've found to hold it with is clamping down with soft edged g clamps.

 

[Crossocheilus]

So you suggest I work up from 1 - 1.5 - 2mm? I was hoping I could go straight for 2mm. Btw I will do 27 2mm holes as it is on three sections of jbl spraybar.

 

[ADA]

I'm just saying acrylic can split and shatter so I'd start small just in case

 

[Lindy]

I've never had acrylic tubing shatter and I've gone straight for the size of hole needed. I don't have any fancy equipment for holding tubing but have found a bit of decking board is perfect to sit the tube on and then i use my foot to hold the tube in place. The decking stops the tube from scooting away under your foot.

 

[Crossocheilus]

Nearly 6 hours of planting and filling later:

Plants are:
Rotala rotundifola sp. Green
Micranthemum Monte Carlo
Eleocharis sp. Mini
Java fern Trident
Hypgrophila pinnatifida
Hydroctyle tripartita

Will be adding:
Ludwigia (unknown exactly what type)
Pogostemon helferi
And maybe some more colourful stems amongst the rotala.

There were various floaters and a bit of substrate collapse due to the hose slipping and blasting the substrate. Still need to pick all the soil off the sand.

I still need to:

Sort out a white background (the blue is the wall)
Set up the FE CO2
At some point do acrylic spraybars
Buy some pogostemon helferi for the middle background
Add my ludwigia from my emersed grower
Remove soil from sand

All in all I am very happy, can't wait to finish setting up and start enjoying (and maintaining) it.

I won't be adding fish for at least 2 or 3 weeks.

Thanks for all the help and advice ukaps, couldn't have done it without you guys!

I hope you like it and please do criticize and advise.

 

[Crossocheilus]

Co2 up and running at approx 4bps however the drop checker is yet to turn yellow. As there are no livestock I plan to run co2 quite high.

Currently runnning:
4bps, starting 2 hours before lights on, off 1 hour before lights
Ei dosing
2 39w tubes on 6 hours a day

 

[Crossocheilus]

This is the colour of my drop checker 15 minutes after co2 turned off. The solution is CO2Art drop checker solution, it was green out of the bottle, not blue like in the tutorial vids. The CO2 came on 7 hours ago. I have checked for leaks with soapy water and found nothing, is it fine or do I need to go to 5 or 6bps (bearing in mind that people use different bubble counters so not very accurate or general).

 

[foxfish]

You can occasionally come across someone on the forum who quotes using 2-3BPS on a 180l tank but generally speaking you need to pump in the gas to get a yellow DC.
On my 200l - 2kg last about 10 weeks but the bc is impossible to read.

 

[Crossocheilus]

Hmm I guess I just have to go beyond what I can count, no fish, so no harm in increasing co2.

 

[Crossocheilus]

Update time!

Everything (except hairgrass) is showing signs of growth and overall progress has been very good after nearly 2 weeks, no algae in sight

Also bought a few extra plants from Aquarium Gardens:

More hydrocotyle tripartita
More flame moss
More microsorum trident
Pogostemon helferi (a bit dissapointed because it was very squashed and a minimal quantity for 2 portions.
Ludwigia mini super red
Rotala rotunifolia

I need to buy some pog. Helferi in my lfs MA.

Here are some more pics showing good growth and the lime green dc:

The hairgrass really suffered from an accidental 2 day blackout when I went away- set up timers but forgot to turn on the power...

Thanks for looking!

The above was written with my cat happily purring while sinking her claws into my knees

 

[Crossocheilus]

Beginning to wonder if it would look better without the sand and just with the carpet plants continued? I will of course wait until the tank is well established before I make a decision but would like to know what you think.

 

[tim]

Lovely scape, re the pathway maybe some moss stones along the edge of the path would soften it a little, it seems to detract from the scape a little, saying that it would look good completely carpeted IMO, good job so far.

 

[ADA]

Lovely scape, re the pathway maybe some moss stones along the edge of the path would soften it a little, it seems to detract from the scape a little, saying that it would look good completely carpeted IMO, good job so far.

Good idea, will keep it much cleaner too.