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Rio 125 Rebooted Dutch Style.

S

spyder

Member
Joined
7 Mar 2011
Messages
1,019
Hi gang. I've been absent for a few years during which the tank got slightly neglected, no ferts, no Co2 and overrun with needle leaf java fern. The old journal is here. http://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/rio-125-orphans-island-5-week-update-plenty-of-pics.18020/

Anyway, onwards and upwards. I decided I'd had enough of seeing java fern and wanted to reboot the tank and had a quick look around here and decided to try and go Dutch, in a fashion. I'm not claiming this to be true to the Dutch style just a tank with plants, no hardscape with a sort of Dutch'ish flavour. Right now, for me, it's all about relearning about growing aquatic plants.

Tank - Juwel Rio 125l

Filter. Internal removed. Eheim Pro 3 600 (2075) Rated 1250 lph. Stock media.

Lighting - Stock Juwel twin T5's plus reflectors.

Co2 - 2kg pressurised FE. TMC dual guage reg with solonoid and valve. Up atomiser (about 4 years old) I want a new one. Had to buy a new dropchecker as I broke my old one.

Fert's - EI. Love the cheapness and it served me well last time. New kit was ordered from APF. :thumbup:

Substrate - Tesco's cat litter. (Again 4 years old) 😀

Plant list.

Tropica pots.

Alternanthera Reineckii "Pink"
Hygrophila Siamensis 53b
Ludwigia Palustris
Cryptocoryne Wendtii "Tropica x2
Cryptocoryne Becketti "Petchii"
Hydrocotyle Tripartita
Lindernia Rotundifolia
Pogostemon Helferi
Glossostigma Elatinoides
1-2 grow Eleocharis sp Mini

Aquadip

Cryptocoryne Lutea
Hygrophila Difformis

I also got a few unnamed bunches, 1 Bacopa and 1 Echinodorus which I believe may well be Quadricostatus and a fluffy stem that reminds me of Cabomba. The list was not my original desired list but after visiting 3 not so local establishments I grabbed what I could to get started. I was shocked to see that Tropica has discontinued Echinodorus Vesuvius which I had in the last setup and really liked. I also couldn't get my favourite Staurogyne Repens. I'm sure some plants will be removed and replaced over time and some will melt, others may well be moved from one place to another. I'm still not happy with placements and constantly find myself wanting to move plants.

The tank was planted and filled on Monday 21st and after a slight rearrangement I have a poor photo taken tonight during misty co2 hours.

24/3/2016 Day 1.

1sdw7m.jpg

There is 1 small lonely angel, 2 glowlight danio's and 2 oto's that came from the existing setup. The Angel will be rehomed over the coming weeks and once things have grown in a shoal of around 15 neon or cardinal tetras will be added followed by 8-10 Harlequin Rasboras.

Thanks for looking and I'll try and take weekly photo's before and after water changes/maintenance.

Cheers
 
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Always a good idea to get rid of your Juwel internal filter. I have a Lido 120 and replaced the internal with a JBL profi 901 and the difference it made was massive.
Dutch style or not all looks good. Have never been able to grow grasses in my Juwel so will be interested to see how you get on.
 
When I aquired the tank a few years back the first thing I did was remove the internal filter box. It takes up valuable space, looks ugly and I heard reports of it making a mess in the tank when performing maintenance.

The eleocharis is doing well. I've snapped a few pics of the foreground to check on progress, a few clumps are looking fatter than when they started.

In the old setup I struggled with tennellus and lilleopsis, excuse spellings, and those were the only grassy looking types I tried.
 
Not tried Tennellus yet, was going to add it when I ordered plants recently but it was out of stock. Thought it also looked quite similar to the Sagittaria that I already had growing.
Did you have C02 in your last set up as well?
 
Swordplay said:
Did you have C02 in your last set up as well?
Click to expand...
I did indeed, in fact all Co2 gear is from the previous setup including the 4 year old inline Up atomiser although I had to purchase a new drop checker due to breakage.

50% water change was done on Sunday. I took a quick snap later that evening after Co2 was shut off.

27/3/2016 - Day 7

b7gex1.jpg

I removed a few melting crypt leaves and everything else seems ok for now. The Ludwigia is showing signs of stunted new growth although it seemed like that when I purchased it. I'm tempted to chop it down and see what occurs. The clumps of Eleocharis mini are certainly looking a little plumper, although the Glosso doesn't seem to be doing anything just yet, but at least it's not melting.

As I mixed the ferts as per APF's starting guidlines I've looked back and discovered it is quite lean dosing compared to what I dosed in the past. I've decided to dose around 40ml of each instead of the 25ml and will mix it to my old strength mix once it's gone.

Thanks for looking.
 
I recently put in the same Ludwigia, I originally bought if for my small tank but found when it arrived that it was very tall and no matter how or where I planted it, it still looked messy. So I cut the tops off and replanted them but they don't seem to want to stay in the substrate, think I'll put that one down to experience.
In the same plant order I also got a Bacopa and Pogostemon Helferei both seem to be growing in well and are great little plants especially since i turned up my Co2 (yellow is the new green🙂
 
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