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"The Green Cliffs"

tadabis

Member
Joined
16 Aug 2016
Messages
177
Location
Northern Ireland
Hello UKAPS! :) Finally after 3 years time break I managed to set up a new planted tank which I want to share with you. This tank is the second one for me. My first tank I had 5 years ago was a low tech Juwel ~110 L custom built tank, which I had for about a year when I discovered this wonderful hobby. Then I changed the living country, home, work and didn't had a chance to get a new aquarium. Till now :)

Aquarium: Custom built Optiwhite 10 mm glass

-size: 900mm x 450mm x 450mm
-volume: ~182 L

Stand: Custom built, gloss white.

-size: 900mm x 450mm x 750mm

Lighting:

-lights: 2X Kessil A160WE Tuna Sun
-holders: 2X Kessil mounting arms

Filtration:
-filter: EHEIM Thermo filter Professional 3E 600T (2178)
-surface skimmer: EHEIM Skim 350

Heating:
-heater: Built inside the filter bottom

Twinstar Nano
Energenie power management system


Substrate, sand, hardscape:
- ADA Aqua Soil Amazonia powder 3x 9L
- ADA Mekong Sand
- ADA Power Sand Special S 6L
- Seiryu stone (aka mini landscape rock)

Flora:
- Eleocharis sp. 'Mini'
- Staurogyne Repens
- Pogostemon Helferi
- Echinodorus Tenellus 'Green'
- Micranthemum Micranthemoides
- Limnobium laeviatum
- Anubias barteri var. nana
- Alternathera reineckii 'mini'
- Rotala rotundifolia
- Micranthemum 'Monte-Carlo'

Fish/Inverts:
-

Ferts:
- EI macro / micro

CO2:
- Professional Aquarium CO2 Dual Stage Regulator with Advance Swiss Solenoid and SMC Valve from CO2Art and 5kg FE
- Bazooka intense CO2 atomiser diffuser @ 3bps

Camera: Canon 70D (to upload images in to the forum I need to downgrade image quality by almost 80% + resize the image size... thats why image quality isn't the best)

Journal started 15 Oct 2016

At the moment when tank is cycling I set the photo period time for 6 hours with max 70% light intensity for 1 hour, in other time lights ramping from 0% to 65% and after a peak time with70% lights goes down to 0% constantly.

Amonia is still sky high... but it needs more time :)

Less talks more photos :)

Day 3 after planting.

Day 3 after planting.JPG


Sp. mini day 3 after planting

Sp. mini day 3 after planting.JPG


Hardware. Cabinet still not finished, it needs shelfs and tools holder.

Inside the cabinet.JPG


Cabinet wiring.JPG


CO2art regulator.JPG


CO2 diffuser.JPG


Kessil A160WE Tuna sun LED.JPG


Kessil LED'S.JPG


Twinstar Nano2.JPG


Twinstar Nano.JPG
 
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Very nice hardscape, looks promising! :)

Beware; That echinodorus tenellus is gonna 'eat' all your eleocharis and the 'path' in the middle, You could try to replace it with some more staurogyne or small crypts?

As For the cleaning crew, here's my suggestion:
-20 amano shrimp
-8 otocinclus affinis
-4 crossocheilus siamensis

Cheers
 
Beware; That echinodorus tenellus is gonna 'eat' all your eleocharis and the 'path' in the middle, You could try to replace it with some more staurogyne or small crypts?
Cheers

Actually I was thinking the same, because I already cut 2 runners from echinodorus tenellus on the middle part to stop them splitting around and "eating" sp. mini... But can't decide to remove it completely and let sp. mini to take it's place or get any other plant to this place along the rocks...

I also was thinking that 10x Amano shrimp would do the job no? Do you really think I need much more like 20 for this tank size?
And I think SAE's are kinda big fishes when they grow up and will be to big for this tank later on.. maybe any other suggestions?
 
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Epic scape ☺ I've only got 7 Amano shrimp in my 240l (Had 8 but one took a hike when I stupidly left the lid open one night...) Im in Northern Ireland & I've got very large greedy ones from Exotic Aquatics in Belfast - definately worth the trip ☺ Probably unpopular but I also like malaysian trumpet snails - very beneficial to aerate the substrate which in turn benefits plants!
 
Im in Northern Ireland & I've got very large greedy ones from Exotic Aquatics in Belfast - definately worth the trip ☺

Thank you for nice words to everyone :) all the comments and advices are welcome because it's my first high tech tank and I still need to learn a lot about plants, fishes and water chemistry.

Hi Manisha, I am from Northern Ireland too :) never been in exotic aquatics in Belfast... Is it worth the trip (100km)? Do they stock fish or shrimps?
 
I know - that's why I mentioned it :D They've a good selection of both & stock 'tropica' plants ☺ Good range of live food too. I think their shrimp stock is from Sharnbrook Shrimp too ☺ If you have facebook they have a page & I think George Farmer reviewed the shop in Practical Fishkeeping too? MY favourite aspect of the shop is most of the staff I've spoken too appreciate snails and floating plants & most tanks have some live plant (albeit a bit poorly) Grosvenor tropicals in Lisburn is also apparently very good but haven't been...
 
SAE are optionnal but amano's and otos are a must.

10 amano is ok too but the more they are, the more active they will be. :)

Got 6 of them in my 40l iwagumi and they are happy and very active.
 
Small update and question about algae.
FTS: (sorry for quick phone image)
2016-11-07 22.02.26.jpg

Thinking to add some red (Alternanthera reineckii 'Mini') next week and maybe some Rotala in the background :)

And now question about brown and green algae on the rocks. I know that brown algae is common in newly established tanks but what I am doing wrong that green algae apears on the rocks? Tank is still cycling. Water temp 25C, Kessil leds on 65% power, 6 hours period, EI ferts 30 ml macro/micro. Chelated iron 2x week, CO2 30-40ppm (according ph and kh table).

Algae on the rocks image:
2016-11-07 21.50.21.jpg

Can someone comment what I am doing wrong and how to get rid of green and brown algae? Thinking to start use liquid easy carbo. Would it help? Btw I do get pearling some times, maybe I should lower the light intensity to 60% or even less? Thank you.
 
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Liquid carbon will help but not significantly. Diatoms will disappear if you keep doing regular water changes. In combat with green algae shrimps and neritina snails would help a lot. I would consider increasing the phosphate levels because brand new AS tends to absorb phosphorus very well. Do it slowly and observe if it helps. Personally I am adding a 1 ppm every day without any issues.
 
Looks nice, love the rock arrangement, some taller background plants / stems would look good if you can fit them in. RE green algae on the rocks I find increasing phosphate will help, if you can drop the water level and scrub them with a toothbrush soaked in excel / liquid carbon that will help, tho I think to eliminate green algae all together on rocks is almost impossible, you dont have much at the moment I wouldn't worry about it, brown diatoms are best attacked with a clean up crew in my experience but should slowly go away when a tank is fairly new.
 
Hi all,
I agree with the others, the rocks look really good.
but what I am doing wrong that green algae apears on the rocks?
You aren't doing anything wrong, your just lucky that you rocks will develop a natural green patina. If your water is hard enough Nerites will graze the algal turf from hard surfaces. Red Ramshorn snails are another option. They will survive softer water, but are fairly prolific breeders.

cheers Darrel
 
Your tank is great, with simple plants and setup, gives a feel of serenity. I like the minimalist looks without too many plants or contrast. Hardscape are excellent with nice depth.
Most plant in your tank can thrive under lower lighting such as hairgrass, repens and tenellus. Not sure about helferi and stem plant at the back(forget name)
Maybe you can reduce the light a bit so that plants can grow slower and get a better control of algae? (less trimming and maintenance)
u can get a par meter(sense specific light) or smartphone Lux meter(sense all light) to measure light intensity.
Sorry for my lousy English.

Sent from my MX4 using Tapatalk
 
Thank you everyone for the comments and good words :) So far in a war against algae I started to use easy life liquid carbon 5ml/day. I updated my macro ferts recipe removing KNO3 like EdwinK suggested because of AS. Lights are set at 60% intensity and will try to increase intensity over couple of weeks by 5 % each week to see how it goes. After tank will cycle and water conditions will be good enough I will put the cleaning crew.
 
Hi there tadabis I will answer your private message here, as it can be of help for someone else,

In my experience the EI recipes that I posted in my own thread are the ones I use personally, I tend do dose leaner for my tank I should be using 30ml of those mixtures to reach EI levels, but I find that with half I don't get deficiencies, so why dose more ??
1 week is not long enough to notice any real differences in plants health, give a month of dosing and see how it goes, In my opinion EI ratios are well balanced, so a good starting point to mix the ferts, and then you dose more or less depending on your plants mass and consuming rates, you have a layout that has low plant mass, dose less start by dosing 9ml of each everyday and see how it goes, I think this will be more than enought for your tank, maybe you'll need less than that ... I like to have 10ppm NO3, 0,5ppm PO4, 15ppm K, and 0.1ppm FE, that's What I get normally in my end of the week testing.
I also have GSA in my hardscape with the high light that I use is almost impossible not to get those, I've taken a look to your setup, those Kessils seem to my that are to strong, but without a PAR reading on those I can not advice you to cut more or less on the light's ...
Find people with similar setup, and see how they are managing things, maybe you can find some PAR readings over the web ;)

I will try to keep track on your journal ;)

Regards, Nuno Matos
 
Lovely rock work, for me I like rocks to have a little algae on them, scrubbing them clean leaves it looking sterile... just so long as it doesn't cause problems with the plants, what's the plan for the hair grass, keep it manicured or let it grow natural?
 
Hello Nuno!

Thank you so much for taking time and answering my questions! I will follow your advice and see how things looks after a month. I am gonna update scape layout photos tomorrow and will post new ones after a month. I lowered Kessils power to 70% 7 hrs a day. Increased CO2 bps rate to ~5bps becouse running at 3 bps I couldnt get DC lime green or even yellowish... My kH is 4 and with 3 bps I have ph of 6.4-6.6... that looks like OK, but maybe my test readings are false?... DC never was yellowish... So increased to 5 bps to try on and will lower it if it will be to much. will try to dose your recipe and see how it goes month later. Thank you!
 
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