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Japanese Bonsai Garden - Learning Curve

He's not much of of poser lol. In both pics with the betta they look like different kinds, the first looks like a crowntail and the new one, it looks more a half moon rosetail. That's mental you've shot me through a bit, there's some crazy, spooky and trippy lighting going on here lol.

The yellow and blue crowntail is mine... ;)
 
In the last few days I've switched to EI dosing of so I can control and tailor my ferts to the tanks needs a bit better

All micro and macro mixes will be dosed 3 x a week at 10ml (diluted in 500ml), GH booster will be added once a week after 50% water change

Macro: 30g potassium nitrate, 8.5g potassium phosphate
Micro: 5.4g APF chelated trace elements
GH Booster: 30g magnesium sulphate on its own at the minute, got calcium sulphate on the way so I can add if needed

Will keep an eye and see how the plants react and if its worth adding magnesium to the macro mix as well

Got a nice bit off manzanita wood delivered, cleaned up, soaked for a week, Christmas moss added and placed in the tank
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The wood did the trick, I'm 100% sold on this being a nice looking tank now. The only thing for me that's a bit of a negative is the back of the tank doesn't seem as well lit. It's would be nicer for the tree to stand out more. It's going to look banging once the red plants have grown in. Do you plan on adding any more fish/plants to the tank or are settled as it is?
 
The wood did the trick, I'm 100% sold on this being a nice looking tank now. The only thing for me that's a bit of a negative is the back of the tank doesn't seem as well lit. It's would be nicer for the tree to stand out more. It's going to look banging once the red plants have grown in. Do you plan on adding any more fish/plants to the tank or are settled as it is?

Thanks mate, the comments are much appreciated

The back is actually pretty well lit this pic was just taken with the lights turned down to the lowest setting as the photos end up pretty saturated with it up full, I really need to get a few better pics rather than a quick update as my terrible quick phone pics don't do it justice

I added 8 celestial pearl danios at the weekend, with their already being 8 espei rasboras and the betta, fish are split between all levels now so actually have more space than it sounds

Funny you mention about the reds, I'm thinking about ordering either Rotala Rotundifolia and Limnophila Hippuridoides, while I'm not expecting to get much reds at all from my low/moderate lighting it'll be a good test and learning curve, maybe an anubias nana on the wood as well then I'm done for now

The hygrophila salicifolia isn't really doing it for me in the back right corner
 
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Thanks mate, the comments are much appreciated

The back is actually pretty well lit this pic was just taken with the lights turned down to the lowest setting as the photos end up pretty saturated with it up full, I really need to get a few better pics rather than a quick update as my terrible quick phone pics don't do it justice

I added 8 celestial pearl danios at the weekend, with their already being 8 espei rasboras and the betta, fish are split between all levels now so actually have more space than it sounds

Funny you mention about the reds, I'm thinking about ordering either Rotala Rotundifolia and Limnophila Hippuridoides, while I'm not expecting to get much reds at all from my low/moderate lighting it'll be a good test and learning curve, maybe an anubias nana on the wood as well then I'm done for now

The hygrophila salicifolia isn't really doing it for me in the back right corner

You could try the spadeleaf plant Gymnocoronis spilanthoide in the back right instead. It'll probs look a lot better and will give a more filled in look.
 
You could try the spadeleaf plant Gymnocoronis spilanthoide in the back right instead. It'll probs look a lot better and will give a more filled in look.
Already ordered a couple more plants so i'll see how i get on with them first but cheers i'll keep it in mind

Love Your moss wall :)
Thanks mate :thumbup:
 
Today's lesson - don't buy some 'Cuba' over paypal as they think it's a drug reference and suspend your account pending investigation...........
 
Quick update, it got its first trim and added Rotala Rotundifolia and Limnophila Hippuridoides (hidden behind the manzanita atm) as my new back ground plants in place of hygrophila salicifolia (some still behind the filter but most lives in my QT now). Also added Anubias nana mini to the front of the manzanita wood and normal Anubias nana towards the back.

Also moved my the monte Carlo to the QT and replaced with HC, not sure how well it'll do under the shade of the bonsai but we'll see I guess

Happier with my co2 being stable at 2bps after a bit of trial and error and settling into my first week of EI dosing. Plants seem to be responding well and roots have been growing like mad

Got a bit of brown algae on the rocks but no algae anywhere else for now thankfully

Going to stop tinkering and let things settle in now as I've been changing things far too often :oops:

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So my no tinkering rule lasted 2 days...

Wanted something in the front left as it felt a bit bare so picked up some lilaeopsis novae-zelandiae this morning

Also took back 2 espei rasboras (still got 6) as they were much bigger than the rest and we'e c and nipping the others, they seem calmer and sticking together already, the 8 celestial pearl danios are doing great and not shy at all and the betta seems to get on with everyone as well, not a single flare or show of aggession in the weeks they've been together so far

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Doing a pH profile today and anything that goes into the tank always draws a crowd, nosey bunch

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Since I've seen a better picture of your Betta now, it's definitely a rosetail.

Yeh his caudal fin does overlap his dorsal at times but I was on the fence tbh

Got to love a betta
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My nano tank has been cycling over the last 4-6 weeks and is finally good to go so setting it up as a shrimp breeding tank before moving the colony into the main tank once a bit more substatial

New arrivals (7 and a baby managed to hitchhike along). Acclimating over 3 hours adding 5-10ml of tank water every 5min
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Not massively happy with my flow and i've got a couple of dead spots (front left and back right) so i've ordered some 16mm pipe to create a DIY spray bar

It came with a 170mm spray bar but it doesn't even cover half the tank and runs the length of the tank. As my filter is on the right, Co2 on the left i'm going to try mounting a spray bar running front to back (depth of the tank). Thinking is it'll pick up the co2 and hopefully create enough flow to get a gentle sway around the tank and also help my HC which is struggling at the minute

Filter outlet is 10mm ID, as i'm using 13mm ID pipe i'm expecting to lose some pressure, plus it will need to hit a T-piece connection and will again lose pressure/create back pressure, so will keep the spray bar holes small to start with and see how it gets on.

10mm outlet = 78mm2
10 x 2mm holes = 31.4mm2 (will start with this)
10 x 3mm holes = 70.7mm2
 
the more i get into this and learn, the more i'm slowly thinking i should have spent a bit more in the first place on the tank and setup

light spread isn't great front/back/sides and just focused centrally (picked up earlier in the thread but i think i was a bit ignorant to it), think i'm going to be chasing trying to get a tank with zero dead spots without achieving it fully due to location on internal filter and housing

it's a great wee all in one tank for the money but i'm getting that itch..... (and not the bad kind)
 
My flow definitely improved after I moved the filter backwards. Prior to that, I'd removed the spraybar, and pointed the outflow at the back wall, and as far left as I could turn it in the cut out. It gave me less deadspots, but it also caused a bit of a swirl in the centre. I put that down to the shape of my hardscape..

The way it is now, I've managed to keep the deadspot away from the planted area and it's working fine.

I agree about the light too. I disconnected the blue led's because (to me) they looked cack, and it annoyed me that they reset every time the timer turns off. I have added a secondary DIY light fitting that just sits on the glass, and it's helped my Monte Carlo no end...although, my co2 is off atm, so I've turned it off.

I think I'll continue with that, and make a filter upgrade the next priority. Then look at modding the case and fitting a new light...

I think the point of this ramble is...
Keep at it...you've got plenty of avenues to play with before you upgrade.. and it's looking pretty good already...
 
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