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Journal The Green Dream _ My Cryptocoryne infested riparium

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Good night Ukaps :)
 
Ugh... Trouble in paradise
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This morning while sucking up and cleaning the tank i found this in the center of my tank...
I removed it all and cleaned it with washing and soaking the sand in some flourisch excel. Again a good rinse and back in the tank.

For a long time i am playing with the idea to remove the sand and replace it with a small nutrient soil layer (dennerle deponitmix black) with dark 1/3mm sand.

This situation could be maybe the last drop and maybe i go ahead with that plan...

Thing is, next week is the last week at home before i start with a new job. Problem is, saturday we will be on Samos for 12 days so i have 5 days to monitor the changes....
 
Ugh... Trouble in paradise
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This morning while sucking up and cleaning the tank i found this in the center of my tank...
I removed it all and cleaned it with washing and soaking the sand in some flourisch excel. Again a good rinse and back in the tank.

For a long time i am playing with the idea to remove the sand and replace it with a small nutrient soil layer (dennerle deponitmix black) with dark 1/3mm sand.

This situation could be maybe the last drop and maybe i go ahead with that plan...

Thing is, next week is the last week at home before i start with a new job. Problem is, saturday we will be on Samos for 12 days so i have 5 days to monitor the changes....
What is it? Cyanobacteria?
 
Tomorrow i get 40kg Dupla 'ground nature Los Nevados 2/8mm'.
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Think this is more riverbank Indonesia 'like' even its from Colombia 😁

Been a few times in Thailand/Indonesia and i have seen this darker sand many times. More realistic then the even coloured 'sand'.

Not sure if i do the operation before our holiday to Samos in a week.🧐
 
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Lolz... uhm.... Nope :confused:
Tomorrow ill go to some fs in the country since we dont have a good lfs nearby...
 
Mmmmzzz... I think i have suddenly a small potassium deficiency...

I upped my potassium daily from 7 to 9ml so lets see how it goes from here.

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Test spot with Dupla 'ground colour black star' 1 / 2mm.
Think it looks nice and the fish seem to like it also. Only thing its a b*tch to rinse since in the beginning almost everything floats.
 
Plottwist.
Yesterday evening we noticed from the couch the tank became to much of a dark spot. I always enjoyed the moonlight reflecting from the sand in the evenings. But not any more.

Every sparkle of light was absorbed.

So this morning i got 30kg of JBL zanzibar 'river' with a new bucket of deponitmix.
Today everything was cleaned and replanted.
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So after aprox 12 hours work divided over 2 days the tank is back to business.

I decided to take every grain of sand out after i discovered a few times of root rot/soil rot in the center of the tank.
I always liked the idea of dark sand in my tank but after some (expensive) tryouts me and the blond boss decided that light sand was the best option.

In the evening when the light was fading the riparium turned more into a dark 'thing' absorbing all the light and colours wich makes this usually a spectacular sight in the evenings.
The white sand in the blue 'moonlight' as a sweet desert in the end.

Also i thought that the dark sand didnt add something to the colours of the fish and plants.

Every plant was taken out and also every grain of sand. I cleaned up the left and right corners making it more brighter.

Since the fish stayed in and me having so much crypts i did it in 3 parts. So i could still indentify every crypt and the fish always had a corner to hide.

I added 4.8kg of Dennerle deponitmix and over this layer i added some scoops of my own clay/fe mix.
For the sand i choose JBL zanzibar 'river' with a mix of grain sizes.

I expect some melt over the next couple of days but we will see in what degree. Ill try to limit that to a minimum with some esha 'cryptoplus'.

This evening ill post some closeups of the tank but for now here are some overall picture.
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It was a tough week aquariumwise but everything is looking good atm.
Tomorrow we are off to a well deserved holiday in Samos for 12 days.

My best friend is looking after our house, plants and the riparium but i am also taking an peek once in a while :cool:
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Some closeups:
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Time is flying when you are having fun ;)

Eager to see how things are going back home but my first impression is that the damage to my fish and plants is put to a minimum.

Checking out my tank regulary with the securitycam but from what i can see things are going well after the immense operation prior to our holiday.

Nightvision pic def showing no real detoriation or melt of the crypts...
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Just came back yesterday from our well deserved holiday on Samos.
Quick update. Everything looks just great. No signs of melt, no algae en all my fish are looking great.
Plants are doing great. Massive growth and colours.

Will do some cleanup later this day and obviously post an update with pics.
 
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