Rob's 60P - First Tank

[_Rob]

I have only recently discovered Aquascaping so this is my first tank, although my parents did keep fish some ~15 years ago. I started this tank a few months ago, but spent along time trying to decide on the hardscape.

Equipment I current have is underlined, everything else is still to buy.

Equipment
Tank: ADA 60P
Filter: Eheim 2217
Heater: Hydor External 200W
Co2: 2kg FE with solenoid and diffuser
Lighting: Undecided but either the TMC 1500 Tile or TMC 600 Twin
Stand: DIY ADA style stand

So far I am thinking I will used the DSM with theses plants.

Plants
Eleocharis sp. 'mini'
Hemianthus callitrichoides 'Cuba'
Riccia fluitans
Taxiphyllum barbieri

Raised the substrate at the back as I thought it was to flat and added some smaller rocks into the sand for detail.

The stand with a previous idea I had.

 

[banthaman.jm]

Hi Rob, welcome to UKAPS. It looks as though you have everything planned out well, nice kit. In regards to your planting choices Eleocharis is very slow growing and i'm very impatient so i mixed it up a bit with Monte carlo. Good luck with DSM and will watch this thread to see how your tank evolves.
Jim

 

[_Rob]

Hi Rob, welcome to UKAPS. It looks as though you have everything planned out well, nice kit. In regards to your planting choices Eleocharis is very slow growing and i'm very impatient so i mixed it up a bit with Monte carlo. Good luck with DSM and will watch this thread to see how your tank evolves.
Jim

Thanks - I have been looking at Monte Carlo but I feel like it's leaves can be quite big. I don't plan on having a carpet of Eleocharis so speed is not really a problem for me, the idea was to plant a few groups into the sandy area in the middle.

 

[banthaman.jm]

I don't plan on having a carpet of Eleocharis

Sorry for my misunderstanding of your planting layout. Eleocharis does collect debris quite quickly i have found but with regular cleaning not really a problem, good luck with the planting.
Jim

 

[_Rob]

I finally decided on which light to go with, and that arrived in the mail today. The chosen one was the TMC 1500 tile, and I plan on mounting it above the tank with the suspension kit which should be arriving soon.

When testing the new light with the controller I was a little disappointed to find out that it makes a high pitch noise when not running at either 0% or 100%, and it seems this is a common problem. I guess more research was needed! Because of this my idea is to hang the fixture a lot higher than I had planned, but to leave it running at 100%.

Tbh I'm not sure if this will work but we will soon find out.

Also, I have started on a 2ed tank which lives in my works office. As the light arrived at the office first I could resist putting it over the tank and taking a few pictures. This tank, is super tall at 66cm and 40cm wide/deep.

Currently it is need of more rocks and substrate which will arrive next week. If people are interested in seeing a tall tank journal I might make one, but let me know.

The right picture is more how the rocks will be laid out, but unfortunately the top left rock was removed when the light arrived.

 

[Phil Edwards]

Nice rocks and rock work. Here's to patience and letting things grow in before giving in to the temptation to change things.

 

[banthaman.jm]

If people are interested in seeing a tall tank journal I might make one, but let me know.

I would be very interested in seeing a journal on this tank detailing the, seeing it going through all stages and how the flow is with the tank dimensions. I like the layout of the tank but i think it could do with more height in regards to the stone work and substrate, not easy with these dimensions. Will watch with interest

Jim

 

[_Rob]

Nice rocks and rock work. Here's to patience and letting things grow in before giving in to the temptation to change things.

Thanks. You are very right, patience is the key.

I would be very interested in seeing a journal on this tank detailing the, seeing it going through all stages and how the flow is with the tank dimensions. I like the layout of the tank but i think it could do with more height in regards to the stone work and substrate, not easy with these dimensions. Will watch with interest

Thanks, I will look into creating a second journal in the next day or two, but it is definitely going to be a tricking tank to scape. So far I have found it difficulty to get the high required as I am somewhat limited with the rocks that I have, but the idea is to use Eleocharis montevidensis (Giant hairgrass) at the tallest point, given the impression that it is taller then it actually is.

 

[banthaman.jm]

great plant choice to get the scale required, will keep an eye out for the journal.
jim

 

[_Rob]

Plants have been ordered. I have gone for all tropica 1-2 grow variants. Here is what I ordered, they should be arriving this Wednesday.

1x Vesicularia ferriei 'Weeping'
1x Echinodorus tenellus
3x Hemianthus callitrichoides 'Cuba'
2x Eleocharis sp. 'mini'

Although I still need to buy a few things (co2 FE, lily pipes) but because I plan on doing the dry start method they are not needed for a few more weeks. The tank has been wrapped up for the last day so that humidity can be built up in preparation.

I also installed a temporary humidity sensor running off a raspberry pi, which is reading 99.9% humidity, although the sensor has an accuracy of 2-5%;

Still need to make a journal for the office tank just need to find some free time.

 

[Iain Sutherland]

Looking good rob, just go easy on humidity, if its too wet everything will melt or rot... you only want it humid enough so the leaves dont dry out.

good luck.

 

[_Rob]

Looking good rob, just go easy on humidity, if its too wet everything will melt or rot... you only want it humid enough so the leaves dont dry out.

good luck.

Thanks! I have had the cling film off for a few hours now and I am still getting 99.9% readings from the humidity sensor, so I'm not sure if it is broke or having glass cover installed makes it really good at keeping the humidity high.

Going to run some tests with and without the glass cover and see what happens.

 

[_Rob]

My plants arrived today and as soon as I got home from work I started planting.

I over estimated how many plants I needed so I have have one Eleocharis sp. 'mini' and one HC left over, but it's better than not having enough.

 

[luckyjim]

strong start Rob.

I did a very similar dry start earlier this year, although using eco-complete which is not quite as well suited to the method.

The cuba grew insanely fast and flourished. The eleocharis struggled badly. When I flooded the tank, things turned upside-down. Despite absolutely blasting the tank with CO2, the Cuba totally died out and melted. The eleocharis skyrocketed. However, I did lose my CO2 for 3 days due to a hardware fault and that might have been the cause of the Cuba disaster. My advice is therefore run all your hardware a week ahead of flooding if possible! (Bucket?)

Good luck mate

 

[Lewis G]

strong start Rob.

I did a very similar dry start earlier this year, although using eco-complete which is not quite as well suited to the method.

The cuba grew insanely fast and flourished. The eleocharis struggled badly. When I flooded the tank, things turned upside-down. Despite absolutely blasting the tank with CO2, the Cuba totally died out and melted. The eleocharis skyrocketed. However, I did lose my CO2 for 3 days due to a hardware fault and that might have been the cause of the Cuba disaster. My advice is therefore run all your hardware a week ahead of flooding if possible! (Bucket?)

Good luck mate

In my terrarium the eleocharis is very slow growing, but it grew quicker when submersed.

 

[_Rob]

Apology's It's been a while. The tank is still growing nicely and I am looking to flood it within the next week or two. I've had quite a bit of algae growth on the sand, but it has been easily remove by giving it a quick spray with some water

Here are 2 pictures I have taken today.