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My First Planted Tank (The End) Juwel Rio 125

LondonDragon

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UKAPS Team
Joined
21 Feb 2008
Messages
12,580
Location
London
Hello everyone,

Just thought I would post a few photos of my Juwel Rio 125.
I haven't been in the planted scene for too long, I have really started using real plants in the past 9 months, was using mainly plastic before.
Started reading the various forums on the web and also asked a lot of questions and realised the standard equipment on a Rio was no really ideal to grow plants.
Upgraded the filter to Eheim 2224 and also the lighting to 4x24w T5, using DIY CO2 recipie on two nutrafin kits (considering upgrading to pressurized as its not very stable), and I am dosing a combination of liquid and dry fertelizers.

This is an overal photo of the tank a few months ago before it was a little neglected due to the house being refurbished and looking like a building site, and me not having much time for the tank other than feeding the fish and water changes.

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And below some photos of some of my fish that I have in the tank and some that have been rehouse.

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Hope you enjoyed the photos, critics and comments are always welcomed. :)

UPDATE: Just thought I would add my dosing regime that I posted somewhere else in the forum.

For the past year I have been using a mixture of dry and liquid. I purchased a gram scale (on ebay cheap) to measure the right amounts of dry ferts needed for my tank, don't think the table spoon method to be reliable, I have about 6 or 7 diferent table spoons :p

For my Juwel Rio 125 I dose the following:

Dry:
KN03 (Potassium Nitrate) 1.4gm 3x a week
KH2P04 (Mono Potassium Phosphate) 0.3gm 3x a week
K2S04 (Potassium Sulfate) 0.4gm 3x a week

Liquid:
Tropica Plant Nutrition - 5ml 3x a week
Kent Botanica Fe - 10 drops 3x a week

50% weekly water change

I do water changes on Saturdays and on that day I don't dose anything.
I dose the dry ferts on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Then donse liquid ferts on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

Its been working for me so far and algae as not ever been a problem. I get the odd spot on the glass which gets cleaned when I do water changes.

Thanks, Paulo
 
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Re: My First Planted Tank - Juwel Rio 125

Great pics! If that's what your tank looks like when you're neglecting it, I can't wait to see more pics!! :lol:
 
Re: My First Planted Tank - Juwel Rio 125

nickyc said:
Great pics! If that's what your tank looks like when you're neglecting it, I can't wait to see more pics!! :lol:
Thats was before the housing works, now its not looking as good, I will post some recent photos soon, thinking about changing the gravel, so haven't been doing many changes other than re-housing some of the fish.
 
Re: My First Planted Tank - Juwel Rio 125

Oh i'm so jealous of you. Mine doesn't look anywhere near as good. Well I guess it is only a couple of months old, but the plants never grow as fast as you'd like!
 
Re: My First Planted Tank - Juwel Rio 125

Thanks Chrisi
lstratton said:
Oh i'm so jealous of you. Mine doesn't look anywhere near as good. Well I guess it is only a couple of months old, but the plants never grow as fast as you'd like!
Don't be :p hehe My plants grow way too fast, I have to trim them every week during the water changes, soon enough I will have to start giving some away lol
 
Re: My First Planted Tank - Juwel Rio 125

Hi dragon,
Nice healthy tank, great aquascape and wonderful photography. Thanks for sharing and welcome to the forum. :D

Cheers,
 
Re: My First Planted Tank - Juwel Rio 125

Wow, if my Rio 125 looks like that in a few months I will be a very happy lady!!! I love the lotus, it doesn't look overbearing or anything in this tank, it looks amazingly in tune with it's surroundings. Is it the Tropica variety?

The pics of the fishes are also awesome! Do you have any photography tips?
 
Re: My First Planted Tank - Juwel Rio 125

Thanks Ceg :)

Lisa_Perry75 said:
Wow, if my Rio 125 looks like that in a few months I will be a very happy lady!!! I love the lotus, it doesn't look overbearing or anything in this tank, it looks amazingly in tune with it's surroundings. Is it the Tropica variety?
The pics of the fishes are also awesome! Do you have any photography tips?
Thanks Lisa, I trim all the leaves of the lotus that go to the surface as and when I see them, last time I trimmed it properly I ended up removing about 30 leaves, they really grow very fast sometimes and can reach the surface in just a few days, and yes is the Tropica potted variety, should have some little ones from the main plant if you interested I will put one on the post for you.

Tips on photography, well I use a Konica-Minolta 5D Digital SLR, with a 90mm Tamron Macro Lens and an external hotshoe flash unit.
The tips from what I do would be to always use the settings on manual, exposute, lighting, etc... and also use manual focus, problem with auto focus is the fish swim so fast that by the time it takes to focus even on the fastest lenses you will loose the moment. My macro lens is fixed at 90mm so I can't zoom in or out, I just move back and forth to get the right shot.
Other tip if to always make sure the glass of the tank is clean and take the photos at a slight angle so you don't get the reflexes of the flash on the glass, use a diffusor on the flash, if you don't have a proper one just tape a bit of an A4 sheet of printer paper on top of the flash ;)

Hope that helps :)
 
Re: My First Planted Tank - Juwel Rio 125

Oh wow, cheers on both accounts.

I would love a green, I've just bought a red one (hopefully crosssed fingers) so when that grows up I can send you a red :D
 
Re: My First Planted Tank - Juwel Rio 125

Very nice tank and pics. Love the Hoplo too (Or is that Megalachis now..?!). Used to love mine and I'm always tempted to get some more everytime I see them in a store.
 
Re: My First Planted Tank - Juwel Rio 125

eds said:
Very nice tank and pics. Love the Hoplo too (Or is that Megalachis now..?!). Used to love mine and I'm always tempted to get some more everytime I see them in a store.
It was sold to me as a Upsidedow catfish, but in the end it wasn't, I think you are right about it, also goes by the name of Armoured Catfish if I am not mistaken, but it grew too much in a couple of years and then I re-homed it a few months back.
 
Re: My First Planted Tank - Juwel Rio 125

LondonDragon said:
eds said:
Very nice tank and pics. Love the Hoplo too (Or is that Megalachis now..?!). Used to love mine and I'm always tempted to get some more everytime I see them in a store.
It was sold to me as a Upsidedow catfish, but in the end it wasn't, I think you are right about it, also goes by the name of Armoured Catfish if I am not mistaken, but it grew too much in a couple of years and then I re-homed it a few months back.

It's definitely a Megalachis thorocata, but used to be called Hoplosternum thorocatum. Actually it's probably not that species, but was always sold as such! Great catfish, but wouldn't want one with a glosso foreground! ;) :lol:
 
Re: My First Planted Tank - Juwel Rio 125

Thanks for the positive feedback guys :)
eds said:
It's definitely a Megalachis thorocata, but used to be called Hoplosternum thorocatum. Actually it's probably not that species, but was always sold as such! Great catfish, but wouldn't want one with a glosso foreground! ;) :lol:
Thats why I gave it away to a friend, also re-homed the Clown Loaches that kept lifting my riccia and plants. They are lovely when small but unfortunatly grow way too big too fast, at least mine did in the 3 years I had them.
 
Re: My First Planted Tank - Juwel Rio 125

For a first attempt it looks superb.

Good to se a Zenkeri Green as so many people are obsessed by the red ones and ignore the green which IMO is much more striking.

Keep up the good work.

Andy
 
Re: My First Planted Tank - Juwel Rio 125

Personally since seeing the Zenkeri red in MA in Fareham I have been blown away by the red. Theirs has grown very low and bushy, it looks awesome! Though the green does look lush too.
 
Re: My First Planted Tank - Juwel Rio 125

Thanks for all the positive feedback, I also prefer the green, never really been a fan of the red version, would be nice to have a go if anyone as one for a swap ;)

Just read this months issue of Pratical Fishkeeping magazine and my tank is featured in the readers tanks page :) and also in the PFK online blog 2nd Edition. :)
 
Re: My First Planted Tank - Juwel Rio 125

Hello mate,
I really like your tank... despite I love crypts... :D

By the way, you are not portuguese?

Cheers,

Joe Faria.
 
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