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My 2nd iwagumi

Mark Evans said:
My dream is to meet Mr Amano.

did you get him to sign lots of things?... send me one, send me one :lol:
Click to expand...

Wanna buy my signed copy of Nature Aquarium World book 2 or "Glass no Naka no Daishizen" Takashi Amano Complete Works book? I gotta warn you though, his signature did increase the price of these books by quite a bit :lol:
 
So even after adding the powerhead and pointing it directly at a spot with BGA, the BGA still multipled and conquered. Looks like it was enjoying the additional flow even. So I reduced my lighting from 6 hours to 4 hours. It's been a week now and no BGA! GSA also looks like its under control right now. Looks like my lights are just too powerful for my tank.

The powerhead is helping my hairgrass though. Those in background have started growing and running. They're looking a much nicer green too!

HC's still lifting off the substrate in clumps. Here's a shot of how short the roots are compared to normal Aquasoil.
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By the way, how do my photos look on your screens? It looks OK on my home desktop's Dell IPS panel, but I find that every other LCD shows it as over saturated. My Dell panel is not calibrated though, I just copied other people's settings from the net o_O
 
Glad to hear that you are making progress with the algae. Congrats with the sucess of the HC. Amano is looking a little old these days. I am also jealous.
 
Taking a hint from Mark, I took a picture during my weekly water change. Wish I had bigger rocks. Or a shorter tank :lol:

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Went a bit overboard with the hair dryer though. Couldn't hold my flashgun and block the camera's on-board flash (acting as commander) and hold the hair dryer at the same time.
 
I think the rocks big enough, maybe back something underneath to raise it some more? I've noticed a lot of people are taking hints from Viv builders and packing stones with polystyrene so they don't sink or shift and easily gain more height.
 
Thanks for the suggestion Garuf. I may be able to do that soon seeing that...
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The shortly-rooted HC has lifted off exactly how I predicted it would. Chopped most of it off and donated it to a friend. Now that I look at it, a white sand path where the HC used to be might look good :crazy:

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Thanks Tom, that was what I was going for :thumbup: The fish will give the size away though. Might need to get some baby Rasboras next :lol:
 
Ripped out all the HC and replanted it a few stems at a time. The clump right in front was previously planted stem-by-stem so I left it alone. Lifted up the main rock a little since it has since dropped a bit. Also added one more rock on the back right side.

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Lighting is back up to 5 hours. We'll see if GSA and BGA will once again rear their ugly heads.
 
so are you doing the same scape again, with the same planting? I thought it' might be time to 'move on'

for me, you've achieved your goal.
 
You think so? One of my goals of this scape was to see if I could grow HC with my LED lights and without a chiller. That was almost successful apart from the fact that the HC's roots were way too short. I think I have myself to blame for that, need to trim them much earlier. I always chicken out come trimming time.

Also, the hairgrass at the rear is growing so darned slowly! Can't call myself a scaper without being able to grow a patch of bog standard hairgrass! The scape hasn't really reached its full potential yet, i.e. no final shot yet.

But I was extremely tempted to rescape in a big way... :shh:

And thanks for your comments, it means a lot to me coming from you. :thumbup:
 
Taking a hint from Mark, I installed a spare 36W PLL and reflector behind the tank to provide some backlighting. It looks really good in the flesh and helps with photography too.
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Here's a photo shot with the backlight on.
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Need to go get some plastic mounting cards to create a real white background. I also shot the photo at 90mm instead of my usual 20mm. I realised that the 20mm made the rocks in front look bigger while the main rock got pushed behind and looked smaller.

Here are the two shots laid one after another. The water level has dropped by about 1cm due to evaporation so please excuse the slight waterline difference.
20vs90_2.jpg


And here's a composite to show just how different the size of the main rock is
20vs90.jpg
 
great pics flygja. The lighting adds so much more.

Great study on the different focal lengths. If given the choice, I'd always grab a telephoto for tank pics.
 
Things haven't been going well. Got impatient and bumped up the lighting from 5 hours to 8 hours a day for the past 2 weeks and the BGA returned. Really persistent. GSA as usual on the rocks and some on the glass. My HC has strangely been melting. Temps and CO2 are stable, as with dosing. Out of curiosity, I measured the pH of my tank before a water change and..

DSC09834.jpg

:wideyed: I don't know if its true but I measured it twice. And my JBL pH reagant is less than a year old. None of the fish seem to be affected.

After water change, it returned to a more sensible..
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Have you guys had your cats drinking out of the tank? My cat seems to have discovered a taste for tank water. Will that cause problems with the water?
 
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