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Superman's 180ltr Rescape

Superman

Member
Joined
29 Jan 2008
Messages
1,802
Location
Cheltenham
Here's a quick taster of my rescape...

20090502004.jpg


Tank: Juwel Vision 180
Fitration: JBL Cristal Profi e1500 External
Lighting: Arcadia 2x39w OT Luminaire
Substrate: Tropica Planted Substrate, Zambezi Gravel, Graded Gravel
Hardscape: Mini Landscape Rocks, Borneowild Wood
Flora: C. Parva, C. Balansae, Java Fern, E. Tenellus, other Crpyts.
Fauna: Celestial Pearl Danios, Otto Affinis, Pigmy Cories.
Ferts: EI via automatic dosing.
Co2: Pressurised via 2kg FE.

I'm waiting for the fern to grow in a bit and the wood to sink before showing the tank fully planted.
I never seem to have luck with replanting ferns!
 
Thanks for the comments. Once there's a decent outcome I'll post a full setup journal as I used my tripod to keep things stready.

The way in which I've planted is as follows...
Four java fern rhizomes to create a focus on the mound.
These are then flanked by brown a green crypts behind the lower pieces of wood.
The in front of those wood are bunches of parva.
The back middle and back right is planted with balansae to give height and to frame the ferns.
I've then planted tenellus sparingly amongst the remaining substrate but not 100%.

Inspiration had been taken from amano book 1 pages 82 and 83.

I'm loving the group of 20 Pygmy corys that I treated myself to.
I'm actually seeing my CPDs properly for the first time, I can see fish!
 
saintly said:
Superman said:
looks well nice mate. you do like crypts dont you.

is that tenellus in the back left?

Crypts are great! Easy enough to look after and beautiful too!
That's the largest tenellus I have in the back left as the "carpet" will go back there, but the smaller pieces are along the foreground.

I'm already seeing some melt but nothing too much.

Reminder: Check out the for sale forum to pickup my surplus crypts!
 
Have you got fish in there yet, Clark?

If not, put the CO2 up and keep the water well dosed. I accidentally discovered that this avoids crypt melt. I`ve not had a single crypt melt on me yet.

I wonder if it is down to the huge difference in available carbon to the emersed growth and the submersed growth, which results in the plant ditching its emersed leaves. By having higher CO2 levels in the water, maybe the difference in carbon availability is not great enough to trigger the plant giving up its emersed leaves.

Once it is established, you should be able to periodically reduce the CO2, ready for your fish, and slowly enough for your crypts to adapt to the lower carbon levels without melting.....this is all probably a load of BS :lol: , but I honestly never get crypt melt.

Dave.
 
Thanks for the advice Dave.
I've already got the fish in there so I can't go sky high with the co2.
Whilst I do have some melt it's nothing to really worry about as I've been through it before and accept its a stage that the plant goes through.
The main is from the plants that I've moved around rather than the new balansae I've bought.
 
Things have settled down on this and I'm pleased with it's progress. I've increased the co2 injection rate as there was small bits of BBA forming but that could be left overs from the previous scape.

As I wanted an easy life this scape will take a while to grow into what I've got in my head but I'm happy with that.

One of my Ottos died whilst spawning the other evening but the good news is that the CPDs are slowly starting to come out of hiding and getting braver by the day. The pygmy cories are fab and I'm so pleased I've got them, although I'm not 100% sure the Ottos are happy with them due to them eating the same set of food! Two Ottos are carrying eggs but not seen any spawning activity for a few days.

I've replaced normal java fern with more rhizomes of java fern needle as I think it has more delicate leaves and will suit the scape more.
In addition, I want the nice looking fern rosettes you see.

I've added some java moss to one of the pieces of wood, as I've never really done it before. So this is a trial to see how it goes, I'm not sure if I'll add that to all of the wood but we'll see how it goes.

Here's some photos of the planting layout, the tenellus have started to send out runners, which is encouraging. The only problem I'm having is keeping the largest piece of wood in the substrate as it floats. Yesterday, I took it out and boiled the chunky piece of it and that's improved the matter but still not sorted. That's why it's got the ugly piece of stone on it to hold it down.

Due to that issue, some of the graded gravel has become unarranged and will sort it out once the wood piece sinks constantly.

Full tank shot...
20090512002.jpg


Left side...
20090512003.jpg


Right side...
20090512004.jpg
 
It is really starting to look great Clark. I really like the sparse look it has at the moment. The substrate looks superb.

I hope the ET doesn`t make it too high maintenance.

Dave.
 
LondonDragon said:
Looking great Clark, just not sure why you didn't use more crypts in this setup??? Would look even better with some parts of the tank fuller.

The idea it to have it as a long term scape that will take time to grow in.

I'm starting to see the E Tenellus providing new shoots so it'll carpet nicely over time.

I'm having trouble mainly with Staghorn algae on old growth and have notice that a lot of dirt is suspended in the water column.
I inject as much co2 as possible so there must be a flow issue in my tank, I've added a koralia pump to help and thinking of mounting the spary bar vertically rather than horizontal as looking at the flow nothing really gets pushed towards the filter intake.

My crypts are providing new growth already and the balansae is getting above the midground planting.
 
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