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From scratch.. pretty much

Joined
10 Jun 2007
Messages
961
Location
Dorset, UK
Okie dokie.. after serious neglect due to lack of time, and a substrate that went totally sour on me cos I was a dork, I decided to totally start over. This has been an expensive operation! Because of that, the money to spend on plants has been limited.. I shall be propagating more plants over time, so the scape will fill up.

Im aiming for a jungle/nature finish.. Ive decided to loose all wood, and go with some nice posh rocks from AE, first time Ive used them. I also opted for some nice Aquasoil Amazon II (due to my extremely alkaline water).

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First job was a total clean out.. this wasnt pleasant as the previous substrate was extremely sulfurous. Scrape out, rinse out, and scrape out again.

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After a bit of messing about with a different scape idea which I junked due to not enough rock, I decided to do a basic layout which I could build biomass around as time goes on.

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As I'd asked Richard for smallish rocks because of my other idea, I had to make the most of what I had available.. even this lot was £30 quids worth. I like the look of it, even empty.. the rocks are very interesting alone, so hopefully provide a focal point until its grown up a bit.

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Filling time! Very careful not to blow it all about, so used a large pyrex jug.

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So.. planted up, 2 days later after another water change to cope with any NH4 leeching from the AS. Everything is settling in nicely. There are plants in the back in the gaps that you cant see yet.. these were cut right back to the substrate and are now coming back up.. so In a few weeks Ill post again and you can see how its going.

Tank:
100cm x 50cm x 18cm (c. 235lt)
160w T5 Arcadia Luminaire
EI ferts with powder based trace (AE)
Pressurised CO2
Fluval 304 (due to be upgraded end of the month!)
Initial every-other-day water changes

Flora:
Bolbitis heudelotii
Microsorum 'Narrow'
Glossostigma Elatinoides
Hygrophila Polysperma
Cabomba Piauhyensis
Lysimanchia Nummularis
Echinodorus 'Rosé'
Echinodorus cordifolius 'Tropica Marble Queen'
Common Amazon Sword (cant find the latin)
Nymphaea lotus (zenkeri)

Anyway.. doing this on a budget as we all generally have to.. so its something thats going to build over time. Ill keep this updated warts and all.
 
aaronnorth said:
i like the left hand set of rocks but not too sure on the right? Is that the glosso on the middle there or another plant? hard to tell, looks to be growing up thats all.

yes its glosso currently growing up cos its not worked out with way along is yet :) its only been in 2 days :)

lol I like the right set of rocks but not sure on the left :) its doesnt matter much though, in a short while you wont be able to see much of the hardscape anyway.

Its rare anyone does a journal on a jungly type scape from scratch, so itll be interesting to have one from bare bones to fully grown *hopefully*
 
things going well, plants settling in nicely now.

Got my FX5 today so surfs up!! man.. what a beast of a filter. Ive split the flow between one of the normal outputs and a full length horizontal spray bar.

Pics soon once its changed enough.
 
Matt Holbrook-Bull said:
things going well, plants settling in nicely now.

Got my FX5 today so surfs up!! man.. what a beast of a filter. Ive split the flow between one of the normal outputs and a full length horizontal spray bar.

Pics soon once its changed enough.

oooooh!

New toy....

Impressions of the filter?

I'd LOVE one of thse beasts, but it won't - so i'm told - fit in the base of my rio240 :bored:

Post pics anyway!!!!
 
JamieH said:
Matt Holbrook-Bull said:
things going well, plants settling in nicely now.

Got my FX5 today so surfs up!! man.. what a beast of a filter. Ive split the flow between one of the normal outputs and a full length horizontal spray bar.

Pics soon once its changed enough.

oooooh!

New toy....

Impressions of the filter?

the output is humongous.. I have it setup so one of the dual outlets flows through a spraybar, and the other is free.. Ive just drilled out the holes in the spraybar to 3mm to cope better and put a few downward facing ones in to keep the water directly under the bar moving, and its evened things up much better now.

the filter is huge, it takes 2 gallons of water just to fill it up :? and its HEAVY when full, really needs filling in situ. Good build quality though, solid fittings. Hoses are enormous diameter.. and that strainer.. my god, its 5 inches high and 2 inches wide! For £125 I dont see you can go wrong.. great value.

Although very confused to start with, the fish seem to be loving it.. theyre much more active than they were before.

Ive put a Rhinox 5000 directly under the strainer and not one bubble escapes the monsterous pull of the filter.. its silent even with gas flowing into it. Overall very happy.

Will post pics later when the tanks settled down a bit.
 
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For reference, the tank on planting up.

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ok.. here we are just 6 days on. Some new plants thanks to LondonDragon.. just gone in today so still out of shape. Had to replant the cabomba in the back as it had let go of the substrate, so it doesnt look like its grown much!

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The beast is in! just!! If this was a different type of forum Id make a comment! And yes, had a bit of a spillage at one point but its drying out now!


Anyway, so far so good.. lots of growth in only 6 days.
 
LondonDragon said:
Looking good, the new toy is great :) now lots of hours of fun fidling around with flow ;)

i think im done now.. happy with the flow, although its taken most of the day! redrilling the spraybar sorted it
 
well I guess its just over 2 weeks in? Something like that.

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A few changes..

-- took out the spraybar as it was causing too high a flow out of the free outlet.
-- Now using half the spraybar with no end on it to direct half the flow behind the H. Polysperma for less disruption.
-- Increased Co2 and PO4 to try to combat the slight Green spot Algae.
-- Got rid of the big sword in the back left as it was annoying me incredibly!
-- Shaded 1/3 of the light out to slow things down a little.
-- Added 7 Glass shrimp

Continuing to mow and replant the Glosso to increase the carpet.
 
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