Litopótamus

[gmartins]

Hi,

This weekend I decided to rescape my previous tank and thought it would be nice to create a journal so everyone can follow.

Details:
Tank: 30 x 20 x 20 cm
Light: 18 W 8000K Blau
Filter: hang-on eheim liberty 100
CO2: pressurized via blau difusor + excel (0.5 ml daily)
Substrate: ADA Amazonia II powder (my first test with ADA substrates)
Rocks: Collected basalt
Ferts: EI with dry salts

Flora: all re-used from my last scape - HC, Staurogyne repens, Eleocharis parvula, Echinodorus tenellus, Hydrocotile sp. "Japan". HM is floating for now to help absorving all the nasties. It will be gone afterwards.

Fauna: around 40 red-cherry. I know AS leaks amonia during the first weeks but I just had no other place that could use for them. I'm doing 70% daily water changes. They seem fine so far. I also used some water (and filter media) from previous scape so ciclying should be faster???

The water is still a bit cloudy, something I never experienced before (only used inert river gravel in the past). It was a nightmare to plant HC cause this time it had no fibre attached to be used as an anchor. Other than that, it was rather straightforward.

Here are some pics (it is still a bit messy with heater, floating HM, etc...:

General

Comments are very welcomed.

Thanks for watching

Gustavo

 

[gmartins]

The water was still a bit cloudy (whitish) this morning Is this normal?

I hope it gets better with the daily wcs.

 

[JohnC]

The water was still a bit cloudy (whitish) this morning Is this normal?

I hope it gets better with the daily wcs.

From what I understand of ADA aqua soil it does tend to be a bit cloudy. I'm no expert on that front thou so I cannot advice on how long it usually takes to clear. I wouldn't worry for now.

Lovely rocks, I bet they are pretty geologically "fresh" being the Azores.

Best Regards,
John

 

[gmartins]

Will wait a few more days to see if it clears up.

The rocks are basalts. The age differes among islands and among areas within islands ranging from 50 years to 8 million years. The area where these were collected has 350 thousand years. so yeah, they are quite "fresh".

cheers

GM

 

[Nelson]

That looks great .Love the rocks.

 

[gmartins]

Thanks Nelson

Just a few more pics. This time without all the equipment.

Hope you like it

GM

 

[faizal]

Looks very nice indeed.
What does "Litopotamus" mean?

 

[darren636]

looks like a volcanic island

 

[gmartins]

Thanks for your comments

Litopotamus does not mean anything, however, I deliberately joined two words:

Litos (greek) = Lithos = rock
Potamus (greek) = from the river

So it is basically a fancy word standing for "rock from the river" or "rocky river"...

The water is still a bit cloudy (whitish) 1-day after wc. I'm considering using a bit of activated carbon. What do you think?

 

[logi-cat]

looks good, ill would just let the water clear by itself, no need to add carbon.

 

[gmartins]

Hey,

Just a tiny update

Hope you like it.

Some more news hopefully next week...

cheers

GM

 

[darren636]

the nice green plants against the black rocks looks great.

 

[Ian Holdich]

love the fresh look of this, this is a placed competition tank, well done mate!

 

[darren636]

well done on making a small tank look so big. That takes a bit of talent.

 

[gmartins]

Thank you for your kind words guys.

I have put a lot a effort into this scape and a lot of planning was done one so it's nice to get some nice feedback.

love the fresh look of this, this is a placed competition tank, well done mate!

It was my idea to give it a try at IAPLC provided that the tank gets ready prior to the deadline. But I am still planning to make some changes, so I'm not sure it'll be ready within the deadline. I have been wanting to replace the Hydrocotyle by Utricularia. But it has been a nightmare to get it. I only got the pot yesterday. Hydrocotye will then be used as very small portions here and there to give it a more 'natural' feeling...

cheers,

GM