Scott's boring aquascape aka 'undergrowth'

[Mark Evans]

Re: Scott's boring aquascape

looks great mate.

Here's an illustration of the light spillage with TMC Aquaray LEDs (for those who are interested):

i'm looking at buying this.....http://www.aquaessentials.co.uk/index.p ... ts_id=2238

just not sure if LED's are the future. i know the t5s are the core...but do LEDS add the certain something?

 

[GreenNeedle]

Re: Scott's boring aquascape

Otocinclus (Macrospilus?) enjoying the Bolbitis.

Looks like it to me The dark black stripe clearly breaks from the black 'spot' which is hexagonal in shape. This fish has wonderful looking fins when watching from above swimming. Very wide spread and shark like in shape. very pointed nose with no white line between the black and grey area with large freckled dark grey spots on light grey back. These should stay small.

Although you may see the labels in the shops say affinis or Vitatus you will rarely be getting either of these 2. Neither look anything like the fish you have.

Affinis is nothing like what we think of as Otos in that it is a golden browny colour and the traditional black line we think of is much fainter and again a dark brown rather than black. they also get much bigger than most Otos.

On Vitatus the black line carries on through the body and tail and there is a clear white line between the black and grey area.

Check this page for all the different varieties (There are a few more than this but about the best page I have found for IDs.)
http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/ge ... id=49#1083

I have had a few of these from several sources (all labelled affinis) although the ones I currently had (that Saintly brought after a cheeky request ) are the same as yours macrospilus

Macrospilus and Mariae are the prettiest 2 that I have had especially under the light. They are absolutely stunning fish in their own right rather than being just an unpretty worker. I did have 4 Cocama (which were obviously stunning) which I saw for the first couple of days after which I never saw them again!!!

AC

 

[GreenNeedle]

Re: Scott's boring aquascape

just not sure if LED's are the future. i know the t5s are the core...but do LEDS add the certain something?

Not sure on these strips but from my first test where I only used 8.4W (0.25WPG) of Luxeons, they definately are better, definately are the future and the sight of ripples, shadows is uber cool.

Check out the DIY LED thread as there are several of us in the process of trying and testing at the moment. (For a lot less money and retrofitted.)

AC

 

[scottturnbull]

Re: Scott's boring aquascape

Check this page for all the different varieties (There are a few more than this but about the best page I have found for IDs.)
http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/ge ... id=49#1083

Macrospilus and Mariae are the prettiest 2 that I have had especially under the light. They are absolutely stunning fish in their own right rather than being just an unpretty worker.

The planet catfish link is great, lots of detail. I was basing my ID on that website.

just not sure if LED's are the future. i know the t5s are the core...but do LEDS add the certain something?

I'm not getting as much pearling with LEDs alone, as I did with T8 combined with LEDs. (The photos above were taken after a water change, technically cheating.) I'm not sure if the LEDs are to blame, or whether my 'scape is still stabilising. One other thing: when you use more than one LED strip, the shadows are less pronounced. That's why I have mine switch on/off independently; so I can enjoy the shadows in the morning and at night, for a couple of hours.

 

[GreenNeedle]

Re: Scott's boring aquascape

I'm not overly keen on those TMC setups. Both price and the look of them doesn't really do it for me. We'll see once all the DIY ones are completed how they compare!!! The jury is still out. lol

AC

 

[scottturnbull]

Re: Scott's boring aquascape

I'm not getting as much pearling with LEDs alone, as I did with T8 combined with LEDs.

I upped the photoperiod of each LED strip. They're still on for 10 hours in total, but now there's an 8 hour overlap instead of 6 hours. I also tweaked the surface agitation. The pearling has returned with a vengeance, probably due to increased oxygen.

It was the fish that told me to do it. Along with the plants, they're the most reliable experts.

 

[sanj]

Re: Scott's boring aquascape

just not sure if LED's are the future.

Why do say that Saintly? I have little doubt that they will eventually be the mainstay of aquarium and many other forms of lighting.

 

[Mark Evans]

Re: Scott's boring aquascape

Why do say that Saintly? I have little doubt that they will eventually be the mainstay of aquarium and many other forms of lighting.

like i said...i'm not sure. it seems its for appearances only. i dont see any of the bigger lighting firms producing anything as of yet.

maybe your right. maybe it is the future. i'll wait untill prices drop in 4 years

 

[GreenNeedle]

Re: Scott's boring aquascape

The big firms will stay where the main sales are at the moment which is in cheaper fluorescent fixtures. As high powered LEDs come down in price they will switch. They are after high volume sales whereas lesser known brands are prepared to gamble a little more to gain a share of the market.

Arcadia will wait until then as they sell plenty of fluoros even at their inflated prices!!!

AC

 

[Garuf]

Re: Scott's boring aquascape

LED's themselves could themselves be rendered obsolete, I was recently reading that they have found a new set of chemical floresence that produce a pure white light rather than the blue you get with LED'S.
If I could remember where I saw it I'd post it up as it was good reading.

 

[scottturnbull]

Re: Scott's boring aquascape

LEDs are still in early development at the moment. They work. I'm getting decent growth. Nothing is dying off and shrivelling.

A couple of things need ironing out, though. The shadows cut off light to lower growing plants. And taller plants seem to gravitate towards the emitters, making the shadowing worse. Lots of small emitters might be a better solution.

 

[sanj]

Re: Scott's boring aquascape

Hi Saintly,

I understood peoples scepticism when the Aquarays came put in April, information was so sketchy, but since then there have been a few successful tanks amongst those who were brave enough to take the plunge. Have you seen George's Tank under Aquarays?

I am currently setting up a reef aquarium and will use soley LED lighting. I am confident having seen a few 6-9 month old setups with thriving soft coral and LPS coral setups. it already seems to be working for both environments and this is first generation in the UK.

I understand the issue of the initial expense, although it does pay off in a couple of years at todays leccy prices. You are right though they will come down in the future.

There are other makes around; Green skies, Eleos a few others i cant remeber the name off, but they are very expensive at the moment and have ot be imported.

There is a lot of pressure to move towards energy efficency and reducing power demand in europe, that is one of the big reasons i think LEDs are going to gain popularity over the next few years.

 

[Garuf]

Re: Scott's boring aquascape

Scott, are you using a tmc or a diy set? I'm still watching the led move, when I did my research a year or so back I found that LED's can be fitted with reflectors and soeul recommended they were.

There was a website going by something like glassbox or clearbox who had a series of reviews of led's and of new ones coming onto the market and there was one which was a retrofit for metal halide and this to me looked by far the most promising.

The problem with many most led luminairs I've seen is that they all look so very star trek and to me just look silly. Just because it's a new technology doesn't mean it has to look all starship when there could be something more industrial in aesthetic.

 

[GreenNeedle]

Re: Scott's boring aquascape

I think we should take this discussion into another thread really so Scott's journal doesn't turn into an LED discussion.

I will cut and paste everybody else's posts in the following thread and we can continue from there:
viewtopic.php?f=50&t=4130

AC

 

[Wilis]

Re: Scott's boring aquascape

Hi, Are you talking about a paper by the National Taiwan University:New Fluorene-Acceptor Random Copolymers: Towards Pure White Light Emission from a Single Polymer where "The present study suggests that the single polymers based on three fluorene-acceptor segments could be potentially used for pure-white-light-emitting diodes." I think they can somehow isolate the polymers that emit the blue or green,red or yellow & produce 'pure white' somehow apparently? I came across this somehow when looking into high output LEDs,searching through google, in the Wiley Interscience Journals online?
Will

 

[scottturnbull]

Re: Scott's boring aquascape

I'm thinking of changing the title of this aquascape. While trying to come up with a title, I wrote a poem:

Where the CEO "bailed out",
A cedar now
Has fallen.

If there's any Haiku purists out there, I apologise for any injury caused. Needless to say, I haven't come up with a title yet.

 

[scottturnbull]

Re: Scott's boring aquascape

Week 5 update:

As you can see, I removed the Wisteria. It was monopolising the light from the LED emitters, and blocking the light. The tank is going through a bit of a transitional phase at the moment, a bit like myself. I'm feeling deeply ambivalent about aquascaping.

Couldn't sign-off properly until I posted some pearl-bubbles.

 

[scottturnbull]

Re: Scott's boring aquascape

For this week's instalment, some pictures of a fine cherry shrimp (one of Paulo's specimens).

The second one is spooky. I'm not sure I like it when they stare head-on.

 

[TDI-line]

Re: Scott's boring aquascape

Great pics Scott.

 

[LondonDragon]

Re: Scott's boring aquascape

Nice photos Scott, tank is looke great
Those shrimp will get reder the older they get
Any losses?