Fluval Studio 900. Sticks and Stones.

[AndrewH]

I think your referring to the glass pipe at the right which is part if a lily pipe glassware set. The one you mean is the out pipe with the slots in the bottom which draws water to the filter and the one higher up is the filter return 'lily' pipe ( so called due to its shape). It's made of glass to be less visually intrusive.

Ahhh ok, I see it now in the new pics, looks all clean and difficult to spot.
It was this pic that threw me, wasnt sure if it was a filter pipe or hose pipe for filling or something different!...

 

[Ady34]

Lol, Is it the end of tank shot that shows up the wrong orientation on iPad/iPhones for some reason! It's the correct way on desktop. does look a bit confusing!

 

[Ady34]

a few end of tank shots:

 

[flygja]

That Lobelia cardinialis mini is looking really good. I want those for my next planned Dutch scape!

 

[Ady34]

Water change night tonight so did a little trimming and tidying.
Trimmed and replanted some lobelia, tidied up the ferns and removed some plantlets from the leaves which I've superglued to the left foremost branch top to try and balance the planting slightly.
Also added some moss (weeping) I think.....(probably due to its sorry state 🙁 lol)....to one of the rear upright branches as there are still some that need covering. Hopefully the moss will take in this tank, its never really flourished in the nano. The only moss I seem to have any level of success with is good old taxiphylum barbieri (java moss)....that has taken really well now and is looking just as I'd hoped 🙂 There is a smidging of Christmas moss on the left foremost branch top, but it too isn't doing much.
Going shopping on Saturday to try and find the elusive echinodorus I keep banging on about for the left rear.....it seems nowhere has any decent stock in my lfs so relying on maidenhead stokesley for a nice one......also have a look at some more fish too. Saw some nice rams in p@h but they were recent arrivals and had a little white spot so left them alone!
Quite fancy some marginatus pencil fish to keep the small ish theme going, however I'm getting tempted by things like head and tail lights and black phantom tetras too lately.

Things are real slow in this tank with nothing really thriving, I'm desperate to try and speed things along with a drop of the lighting unit, but don't want sulking crypts again. Maybe the clean new co2 diffuser I've just popped in tonight will help with better co2 injection which may have been slowly deteriorating as the old diffuser got dirty. I may try upping it slightly over the weekend to see if I'm at the limit regards fish happiness, then judge whether I dare up lighting intensity.....wish I could afford a new unit with split timers and dim functions!
Some plants that were doing really well (lobelia cardinalis) have slowed growth, with smaller leaves and seemingly paler colour too, so I may try dosing more heavily along with a tweaking of the co2.....most likely plant mass has increased even though it seems slow to me, so maybe I just need to adjust everything up a touch.

Only been feeding the fish in this tank once a day to try and keep waste to a minimum, it's noticeable how much more slowly they grow, but otherwise they seem happy enough.

Unfortunately another 2 shrimp succumbed to the filter inlet so only 1 left now 🙁 but in all honesty I'm not going to replace them as the tank is algae free.....touch wood, and i can still get my shrimp fix from the crshrimp tank. Going to order a new easy aqua out pipe as they have 14 slots rather than the 8 in the current one, hopefully this will reduce the draw effect surrounding the outlet and save anymore casualties.....snails often find themselves stuck fast too!

Anyway no photos as was a little bit fizzy after the water change and was a late one with all the trimming and replanting, moss tying, superglueing etc so ill try pop a couple up tomorrow night.

Cheerio,
Ady.

 

[jack-rythm]

Wow its looking great. Love there detail of the wood grain that's clearly visible 🙂. Can we see a nice full frontal shot 😉

Cheers! Jack 🙂

 

[Ady34]

Photo barrage now
added fern plantlets to right foremost wood, tiny amounts of gel superglue needed to avoid obvious white areas. Christmas moss not thriving:



added some weeping moss to the centre of shot branch. Just to the right of this is where i want another echinodorus, possibly some more vallis nana?:



Clean new diffuser which will hopefully improve c02 injection. Bubbles are noticeably smaller and there is some 'misting'. Ill monitor over the weekend and see if i can adjust up slightly:



couple of others,
the Ludwigia repens 'Rubin' i added a few weeks ago has started to grow:



......and the echinodorus and crypts are complimenting each other nicely, just a couple more emersed leaves to chop off the echinodorus:





Also while i was faffing around taking photos tonight i did some different light position shots just for fun,

would love to see a pic of this backlit ady, think it would really pop!!

well, i got the 30w T8 flouro bulb i had from the garage out, but its not startling! Think id need a white background, and more power to make it work well...



.....but while i was on i lowered the light unit and did some comparisons of lighting positions.
The first photo is with the light unit at the front of the tank, the second photo with the unit central and the third photo with the light unit at the rear:

front:


Centre:


rear:

seems quite amazing how much sharper the rear light shot is compared to the front and middle shots, which i now imagine is the main effect of backlighting? Im sure the c02 being on didnt help the focus of the camera, but hey, i guess thats another plus from lighting at the rear of a photo....
Heres just a 'normal' fts with the light unit raised again and no co2 running:

'Flamin' snow means i might not get out over the weekend plant and fish shopping 😡

Cheerio,
Ady.

 

[LondonDragon]

Looking great Ady 🙂 rear shot looks good indeed. I won't post my photos its a mess! lol

 

[tim]

Looking really nice and healthy ady will be a stunner when the back fills in, quite a contrast in photos with the different light positions, nice one.

 

[Iain Sutherland]

lovely mate and plant health looks tops.
Back lighting really makes a difference to the crisp edge to the photo... i like 🙂
I have all this to look forward to tonight, Gunna try and take my first proper photo....😕

 

[Ady34]

Looking great Ady 🙂 rear shot looks good indeed. I won't post my photos its a mess! lol

Cheers Paulo, get some pics up!

Looking really nice and healthy ady will be a stunner when the back fills in, quite a contrast in photos with the different light positions, nice one.

Yeah the rear needs more, I havnt found an echinodorus this weekend but I'm considering trying some more stems now also to add more to the rear, maybe try some rotala green and some more ludwigia arcuata.

lovely mate and plant health looks tops.
Back lighting really makes a difference to the crisp edge to the photo... i like 🙂
I have all this to look forward to tonight, Gunna try and take my first proper photo....😕

Cheers Ian, my photography skills are very limited but its not something I want to persue, ill just make the best of what I have. I'd quite like to take some decent fish shots though....my dad has a camera I'm going to try out to see if its any better in this respect than mine. My old one was much more of an all rounder.

May not have found any decent plants over the weekend, but have some new fish additions. Finally found the marbled hatchetfish I've been hankering for and was quite taken with a small group of threadfin rainbow fish so have some of them too....

Cheerio
Ady

 

[Iain Sutherland]

Living waters have some interesting stems in at the moment Ady if you fancy something a little different.
Hachets are lovely fish and also look great in FTS when backlit.

 

[Ady34]

Do they deliver Iain?

Here's some of the new fish, the iPhone captures them better than my camera!

Hatchetfish:



Threadfin rainbows:



Cheerio,
Ady.

 

[Iain Sutherland]

Well i hope so, i was talking to them yesterday about a sack of moss for another scape and he gave me the impression it can be sorted...
I think if you ring they will organise it but dont actually offer an online shop. They are very accommodating and have access to plants away from the norm.
The hatchets and rainbows are lovely mate, rainbows will be stunning once they have settled and colour up more.

 

[Ady34]

Hi,
I received a nice packet through the post today, thanks John.
To reduce the localised suction effects from my current filter inlet I've been looking at a new out pipe with more slots to spread the draw. I had considered the easy aqua range, but decided to splash a little more cash and went for the Gush brand instead. It has 15 slots in the pipe which is almost double the existing one, and it also has the added design benefit of a rounded bottom which should facilitate easier cleaning. Simple things like the design of the exterior aquarium glass suction cup seem more refined so I'm very pleased with my choice 🙂





.....now I just need to install it without braking it!!
Cheerio,
Ady.

 

[Ady34]

Well a little surprise tonight!
A couple of weeks ago during a water change on the CRShrimp tank, a stray tiny shrimplet was left in the drips at the bottom of the bucket so I thought I'd just stick him into this tank. I dropped him straight in and he made it past the fish and to the underside of a moss branch. Never saw him again, needle in a haystack, but guessed he'd been scoffed up or sucked into the filter..........
But no, spotted the little fella tonight, he's grown heaps so this instills me with confidence to add more safely from the nano.....maybe only when I've got my new out pipe fitted though.
Makes me think these CRS are tougher than we think as this tank is co2 enriched, laced with ferts and is also a much higher temperature than the nano ( probably explains his rapid growth)....this little Crustacea's Rock Solid! 😀





Cheerio
Ady

 

[Ady34]

Well, managed to fit the new filter inlet glassware over the weekend without breakages 🙂
The new pipe is doing as expected and the draw is much more spread so fingers crossed no more fatalities 🙁 The added benefit is that it also draws water from a greater width of the water column, and in doing so is sucking in more micro bubbles from the diffuser which should help in diffusion. I dont place the diffuser directly under the filter inlet as i have found in the past that the G6 tends to 'burp' frequently with high injection, and this may have contributed to the filters flow rate issues i suffered towards the end of the 'Coastal Erosion' journal.

New Gush inlet pipe:



I also got some christmas moss from Westy, cheers, it is top quality....hope i can keep it that way, i dont have a great amount of success with moss. Ive added it to some more of the branches, if it doesnt work out ill replace it with some java moss. I also added some Hydrocotle sp. Japan from Vinh (logi-cat). Its in the cente and amongst the lobelia to the left of the tank but its almost invisible at the minute. Ive failed in the past with this too, and it may well fail again as that in the middle is in an area of poor flow....we shall see.
I have moved a small piece of wood at the left hand side and added moss to this. The area at the left where the branches met with the ferns looked a little unnatural and needed something to tie it in more with the right hand side....its not perfect, i could do with a longer manzy branch, but i think it is a small improvement.





Whilst doing the water change over the weekend, which was prolonged due to swapping glassware etc, i made an error. I switched my lighting on early so i could see what i was doing. Because c02 wasnt up to levels, and i was blasting them with light, the very next day i noticed some crypt melt ....just goes to show how sensitive they are and how important good levels of co2 are to them once theyve become accustomed to it. They are a good tester plant for fluctuating co2, although i dont like it happening, at least their response is a rapid warning of something amiss.
Anyway, ive been doing some trimming and replanting of tenellus plantlets....its starting to get a bit wild popping up in amongst the ferns and all sorts 😱 Trimmed the longest ludwigia stem too and will attempt to get a decent bush of this growing in the centre....could take a while though, its a slow burner this tank. Still need something for height at the left rear. I added a small vallis runner there, but need something thicker too. At least the vallis nana is starting to grow now though 🙂

Few more pics to finish



and slowly the foreground plants are starting to merge...



Cheerio,
Ady.

 

[Jason Greenslade]

and slowly the foreground plants are starting to merge... Cheerio, Ady.

This merged look of plants, esp in the foreground is so much more natural than the traditional block of plants here and block of plants there. I really like it Ady. Super scape.

 

[jack-rythm]

coming together very nicely indeed Ady, your positioning of the photos of the equipment was great, right in front of the tank those hatch fish are awesome!!

 

[Alastair]

looks great mate and that lobelia looks lush. I agree with jack too the hatchets are fantastic. wish I could keep those but it will never happen.
great work as always Mate.