George's 120cm - Nature's Reflection v2

[tel]

I've used two seperate CO2 systems so I can have better CO2 distribution and so the CO2 lasts longer between me having to change bottles (4Kg should last a few months, especially with solenoids).

i used 2 co2 systems on my last 120cm for the same reason.
the next tank shall be 1 x inline and 1 x diffuser.

Well that all makes sense, it was just something I didn't recall reading before.

I figured that one system on each filter (using the filter as a giant CO2 reactor) would work well, especially the way I've set up the inlets and outlets to promote a nice circular flow pattern around the tank.

I did notice the inlets/outlets, wondering though George, whether you think there would be any merit in extending the outlet so it goes further down into the tank finishing about the same height as your diffuser. My thinking being C02 dispersion/ contact with water longer

Yes - just the two tubes for 8 hrs. The 'tester' plant is glosso. If that remains low then there's no need for more light. I like to use as little light as possible really. Less energy consumption, less algae, less nutrient and CO2 requirement, slower growth and less maintenance. It's a no-brainer for me.

Got it, if it starts heading up add more light, ta

Each time I look at the pics I marvel how gin clear that water is, brilliant

 

[George Farmer]

I did notice the inlets/outlets, wondering though George, whether you think there would be any merit in extending the outlet so it goes further down into the tank finishing about the same height as your diffuser. My thinking being C02 dispersion/ contact with water longer

Hi Tel,

You could have the outlets further down into the water column but I like to keep them high enough to give a decent amount of surface agitation. This ensures good O2, especially at night, and prevents any surface scum (a pet hate of mine).

However, even though the outlets are relatively high, the lowest plants are still physically moving in the flow, albeit gently. This tells me that the CO2-enriched water from the filters is providing ample circulation right down there.

Time will tell if it's an effective method, and some re-adjustments may need to be made accordingly. Hopefully my moderate lighting will ensure that the nutrient demands are met sufficiently using the current methods of CO2 injection and circulation technique.

 

[Dave Spencer]

It`s interesting for me to see how your Glosso is behaving at an early stage, George. I thought mine was getting a bit leggy, but seems to look like yours at the moment. Does a trim after a settling in stage lower it, or will stay at the height yours is now, but just fill out? I always got the impression Glosso sticks to the substrate, rather than fill out upwards like HC.

I have a few scraggy bits that were a freebie from TGM under 2 x 54W T5 HO compacts with pressurised CO2 in a 120l Juwel Lido. Fingers crossed mine works, or it is a case of using Marsilea sp in its place, which won`t quite be the look I am after.

Your pics are starting to kick some Gluteus maximus, too.

Dave.

 

[George Farmer]

Lovely setup George, and I like your 2 CO2 tank method too. I'll be interested to see how it works out, as I've just changed my inlet and outlets to the same positions you have yours, for that circular flow around the tank.

Great pics as always 😀

Tony

Thanks mate! I try my best! 😀

My eldest daughter phoned me last night because the angels have spawned. Happy days, although the eggs will likely be eaten before anything can happen. Angels make rubbish parents!

 

[George Farmer]

I always got the impression Glosso sticks to the substrate, rather than fill out upwards like HC.

Your pics are starting to kick some Gluteus maximus, too.

Thanks mate! 😀

My experience has been the same with glosso, but previously I have always planted it stem-by-stem (small part of stem with a pair of leaves either side) which helps with the immediate horizontal growth.

This time I was much lazier... I just ripped portions from the pots and planted quite brutally with tweezers.

Any new leggy growth I will prune off and re-plant, that will hopefull encourage a tight and low carpet. I do this with HC and it works very well.

I'm away from the tank midweek so I'm filled with anticipation to how the plants have developed in my absence!

 

[rawr]

I actually don't mind the Angelfish too much, if anything I think they look a bit too big for the aquascape and it takes away from the scale o things.

Your photography definately has it's own style, I could probably chose your photo out of a line up. It should look good once grown in a bit more, nice one! I look forward to seeing it progress. 🙂

 

[FishBeast]

I look forward to seeing what you do with the moss. I have never liked Java moss ever since I bought 1 square cm of "phoenix moss" just to find that I recieved 1 square cm of java moss for $20 US

 

[George Farmer]

I actually don't mind the Angelfish too much, if anything I think they look a bit too big for the aquascape and it takes away from the scale o things.

Your photography definately has it's own style, I could probably chose your photo out of a line up. It should look good once grown in a bit more, nice one! I look forward to seeing it progress. 🙂

Thanks, Thomas. 🙂

I see what you mean about the scale of the large fish. I'm looking forward to adding a shoal of smaller fish to help balance it out.

Everyone says it about their own tanks, but this does look better in the flesh and the fish are very graceful, if a little gawdy for some tastes.

My photography 'style' has been mentioned a few times. Not sure if that's a good thing or not!

I look forward to seeing what you do with the moss. I have never liked Java moss ever since I bought 1 square cm of "phoenix moss" just to find that I recieved 1 square cm of java moss for $20 US

Sorry to hear about your experience with Java moss.

I've never really succeeded with a decent qty. of moss before, so I'm going to give this a really good shot, and not give up on it so easily...

I've still three large portions in the original packing from Tropica - it's over 5 weeks old now but still looks incredibly healthy. I intend to attach a lot of it over some of the bare branches in the center of the layout, so hopefully that will soften the look and add to a further sense of naturalistic maturity.

Java moss is still one of favourite mosses. Amano uses it to great effect in particular, of course!

One thing this tank has made me realise; out of all the aquariums and aquascapes I've set up and created, from fancy goldfish, to cichlid, to reef; my undeniable passion still lies with planted aquaria, and Nature Aquarium style aquascaping.

It's been worth setting up such a wide variety of aquascapes to truly realise this. An epiphany. :idea:

 

[John Starkey]

Hi George,loving it mate ,I've always liked the simplicity in your aquascaping style,you say your self it's nothing but I find your scapes alwYs start simple and turn out really nice with the plants taking centre stage,I personally am not sure about your angel choice (I do like angels) but we have to keep the wife happy hey,you always seemto get nice fish pics, I struggle with this area of photography, do have any sort of setup for it?
Thanks for the phone call today it meant alot,
regards john.

 

[George Farmer]

Thanks, John. Nice to hear from you mate.

Clean and simple - just like me eh?!

Nothing special with the photography. I'm too lazy to get the studio lights out!

Tank lights, fairly wide apertures to get fast enough shutter speed to avoid camera shake and to capture the fish nice and sharp. ISO typically around 800 to get decent shutter speeds too. Auto white balance, and I shoot jpeg... 😳

Canon 100mm f2.8 macro for close-ups. Sigma 17-70mm for general shots. Canon 50mm f1.8 for full-tank shots. No fancy L-series like you mate!!

Minor post-processing in CS3; Exposure, Curves and maybe some Unsharp Mask, if required. Then re-size to around 800 pixels along the longest edge for publishing on the web.

I try to keep the workflow simple, just like my style! 😉

 

[TBRO]

I like the angels and my wife has taken a look and says why don't I get such nice fish! Don't think my cardinals would like the company of the angels having said that Amano and TGM keep cardinals with their altum angels. Looking foreward to the update, wish I could get glosso to behave - T

 

[Arte Et Labore 1875]

Thanks for answering my previous question George. I love the tank by the way and the opti-white and quality photography make such a massive difference!!

Did your in-line heater fit straight into the JBL filter tubes or did you have to replace them with vinyl tubing? I'm wondering if you know of any filters that require no hose changes to be able to use these heaters - i'm not even going to attemp to use them on my fluvals, the abcense of a in-tank heater makes a huge difference in my opinion.

Also is there any filters i should avoid feeding the co2 through like you'v done with your JBL's, I've heard some can cause airlock?

 

[jfravn]

Thank you for commenting on my flickr-photo.

Your aquascape here is absolutely magnificent. Lean and simple, not unlike an earlier scape of yours (a small british pond scape). The clarity of your water is enviable. How do you do that only 7 days into the scape.

I'm still struggling with greenish water after one month (maybe due to a combination of ADA aquasoil amazonia and alkaline water (GH 19, ph 7,3 (tap)). I added Seachem Purigen 3 days ago, and it helps, but its not there yet.

 

[Mark Evans]

It's great to see George posting a journal. This can only help but give more knowledge to the forum members.

It's apparent to me, that even in a short space of time, it's already ignited the 'journal' section of the forum.

good to see you back George

 

[George Farmer]

Thanks for answering my previous question George. I love the tank by the way and the opti-white and quality photography make such a massive difference!!

Did your in-line heater fit straight into the JBL filter tubes or did you have to replace them with vinyl tubing? I'm wondering if you know of any filters that require no hose changes to be able to use these heaters - i'm not even going to attemp to use them on my fluvals, the abcense of a in-tank heater makes a huge difference in my opinion.

Also is there any filters i should avoid feeding the co2 through like you'v done with your JBL's, I've heard some can cause airlock?

Thank you, Arte...

I honestly cannot remember the hose that was supplied with the JBL filters, but think they would be fine with the Hydor 300w in-line heater.

In my experience all filters are ok with CO2 injection. "Airlock" may occur if the CO2 injection rate exceeds the filter capacity. By using two decent size filters I have minimised this.

Thank you for commenting on my flickr-photo.

Your aquascape here is absolutely magnificent. Lean and simple, not unlike an earlier scape of yours (a small british pond scape). The clarity of your water is enviable. How do you do that only 7 days into the scape.

I'm still struggling with greenish water after one month (maybe due to a combination of ADA aquasoil amazonia and alkaline water (GH 19, ph 7,3 (tap)). I added Seachem Purigen 3 days ago, and it helps, but its not there yet.

You are welcome, and thank you!

I have no idea about water clarity. My water is medium hard; KH 7, GH 14. When the lights are out I do notice a brown/green tinge when looking end-on through the water column.

It's great to see George posting a journal. This can only help but give more knowledge to the forum members.

It's apparent to me, that even in a short space of time, it's already ignited the 'journal' section of the forum.

good to see you back George

Thanks, Mark.

Sharing the journey is just as rewarding as experiencing it first-hand. 😀

As for how this tank is progressing...

1. Glosso going leggy - so I boosted lighting to a 4 hour midday burst of 4 x T5 54w and increased CO2/nutrients accordingly.

2. Vallis slowly recovering. Old plants dying off but sending out new runners.

3. Crypts doing well. No 'melt' and lots of new leaves.

4. Moss is still a challenge! Some new growth but it's very slow. Some algae amongst moss remedied via 30x Amano shrimp.

5. Some soft brown algae amongst the rock and crypt leaves. Remedied via 6 Otocinclus sp.

Photos to follow once I get back to work and access my iMac/card reader.

 

[Dave Spencer]

4. Moss is still a challenge! Some new growth but it's very slow. Some algae amongst moss remedied via 30x Amano shrimp.

Moss is a real crud magnet in my experience, resulting in algae. I always use a pasting brush to constantly fluff it up and keep it pristine. I find it a high maintenance plant, especially after cutting it back and trying to retrieve all the off cuts that sink.

How have done yours, George? I prefer the look it gives when attached to more vertical branches. It seems to align itself much more neatly. Put a vertical branch with moss next to a horizontal one and it looks like two different types of moss to my eye, just due to the way it behaves when taken from the horizontal.

Another look I like is to attach the moss behind the wood, out of eye sight. As it grows it pokes out from the sides of the wood, giving it a nice, fringed look.

Mosses become more maintenance as they fill in, and almost feel like a fast growing plant, but they are mostly worth the effort.

Sorry to ramble on, but once your Glosso kicks in it will have taken over the substrate before the moss has barely started. Do you periodically strip out major clumps of the Glosso, letting it back fill the gaps again? I ask because I have Glosso in a tank with moss, too, and I am not too sure on how to pace the whole set up with such a fast growing carpetting plant. Having said that, it is the Eleocharis parvula that is out growing everything at the moment.

Dave.

 

[Mark Evans]

Sorry to ramble on, but once your Glosso kicks in it will have taken over the substrate before the moss has barely started. Do you periodically strip out major clumps of the Glosso, letting it back fill the gaps again? I ask because I have Glosso in a tank with moss, too, and I am not too sure on how to pace the whole set up with such a fast growing carpetting plant. Having said that, it is the Eleocharis parvula that is out growing everything at the moment.

Amano also suffered this in 1 particular tank (aquajournal interview) he had to replace the glosso for acicularis, as the glosso run him ragged before the tank could mature.

George is the man for glosso, so it's not out his reach i reckon 😀

As you know George, trim moss damn hard, waft it, like Dave says and you'll be fine. Once established on the wood, it becomes easier to handle, and more 'natural' looking. i've got some that's grown 3 inches up the wood and out the water. looks so nice.

 

[George Farmer]

Thanks, guys.

Dave - Please feel to ramble on anytime. It's what journals are for!

As for the glosso, once it's established fully, I will simply prune it back with curved scissors every 2 weeks or so, to keep a constant layer. At the moment I am seeing better compact growth towards the centre of the tank, where light intensity is highest. Longer-term I may end up removing the glosso from the ends of the tank and replacing with another species.

The hairgrass is already starting to creep forward into the glosso. I anticipate the mixed effect will look good for up to 10 weeks, before the hairgrass takes over completely. Then it will be time to re-consider planting; either 100% hairgrass (I quite like this after seeing an awesome lawn at the Tropica nurseries). Here's a pic. Note the lush hairgrass (E. parvula) lawn that's around 18 months old -



Thanks for the tips on the moss, Dave and Mark.

I'm just about to do my weekly Saturday morning maintenance routine. I enjoy this part almost as much as looking at the tank when relaxing in the evening.

1. Prop up light unit to access tank.
2. Remove CO2 diffusers and soak in bleach solution.
3. Drop water level by 5cm to ensure water doesn't spill over sided whilst working in there. Turn filters' flow rate right down.
4. Prune any unhealthy leaves, moss, leggy glosso etc. Net off floates and use fingers to prevent moss from sinking when pruning. Remove any debris from bottom of tank. Gently disturb all plants to remove any trapped debris.
5. Wipe all glass thoroughly with algae magnet, scraper and tooth brush (near substrate line).
6. Clean one external filter and hosing if required.
7. 50% water change syphoning debris from bottom of tank by waving hand just above substrate.
8. Re-fit CO2 diffusers after de-chlorinating and syringing out liquid from underneath ceramic plate.
9. Re-install filter.
10. Wipe down glass exterior with window cleaner and cabinet with damp cloth.

Whole process typically takes 2 hours per week. Will take longer as it matures, as the plants grow and I add more fish.

I'm looking forward to being able to update with some photos soon in a few days! 😀

Happy Easter, all! 😀

 

[Mark Evans]

Wipe down glass exterior with window cleaner and cabinet with damp cloth.

mothers recipe...vinegar and washing up liquid, a tad water, no smear, clean glass.

some good info there George.

That tropica tank is a beauty!

 

[MarcoB]

Gee, it's always the brits who are able to keep their lawn straight, even and green!
Amazing growth.
Still looking for 90 degrees scissors to mowe my lawn and bacopa. How curved is your scissor?