But I like it
Good job! Looks very natural compared to the 'over scaped' tanks that people do.
Cheers, the natural look is probably down to me letting things grow where they want to grow give or take a few plants which were positioned to hide hardware. I've always been a fan of jungle scapes, although that's probably just a cop out for knowing nothing about scaping. Something I need to look more into. The tank wasn't actually scaped in any way or form. I moved it from my other house with fish and plants in a heated bucket so I didn't have time to ponded how it would eventually look. I just needed to get everything back in and running.
Very nice will be even better when the hairgrass fills out in the front and wanders a bit a round the other plants front left to male it natural,good job!Cheers mark
I can only dream
It's not the fastest growing of tanks. I've had a shot at carpeting a few times but nothing has ever took. This is about the furthest I've ever got. I've decided that when the entire substrate is covered with a lawn then and only then will I accept I may know what I'm doing
There are three types altogether, hair grass which is doing ok, ech tennelus also ok but doesn't seem to be spreading far and on the far front left some plant I'm unsure of. There was one surviving plant of this which wasn't doing so good so I just stuck it there out the road and it seems to have took well. I also have a pair of kribs in there which seem to like a bit of hair grass gardening. They're a nuisance in general, always bickering, nothing like their mam and dad which provided my lfs's with young krib for free for a good two year. I dare not put any RCS in from my colony fear they'll be lunch but the kribs were born in the tank and will die in the tank can't part with them. They're probably older than me in fish years. When they go I'm replacing with some endlers and my shrimp and staying away from cichlids. I tried pointing the koralia at the hair grass but it was disturbing the gravel and blowing up plants too much. I was also getting a bit of surface scum so put it higher in the tank to eliminate both problems as you can see in the second pic.
Looks great, what does the set up consist of?
The specs are Aqua-one AR850 tank, was supposed to be 165ltr according to the literature but refilling it was only holding 137ltr including the canister.
Lighting is 3xT8's 2x30" 15000k 25watt and 1x10000k 23.5" 20W or roughly 2.4watts per gallon on for 7hours 5 to 12pm
Filter is aquaone 1250pro canister with a koralia for better movement. The original trickle filter that came bundled with the lid was useless when it came to dosing co2, it just gassed off too quick.
CO2 is by the way of Sera 1000 reactor and FE setup. I just don't like the misty bubbles in the tank you get with diffusers and atomisers. The main issue with the reactor is timing. I have co2 start 4 hours before lights on and off 4hours off before lights off. It seems to take a lot longer to get up to target but the co2 stays in the system a lot longer. I also add 4ml of diy liquid carbon.
Ferts is by EI dry powders.
Substrate is Tesco cat litter with some Osmocote underneath.
IMG-20120423-00022 by
AWB70, on Flickr
The new background plant was Echinodorous Cordifolious by the way not Ocelot has I mentioned earlier
great progression, all the plants look very clean and healthy.
Did you add an extra rock? looks better balanced now with the one further to the right.
Thanks, yes the extra rock was added later. The area it is in was originally set aside for a carpeted area which never went as planned
My lack of foresight scaping wise had the other two stones just about hidden now. I was going to change the layout to make all the stone a bit more visual but I'm just glad I have a tank with plants as oppose algae at the minute and don't want to upset anything.