'The Pool of Lethe' - 120x45x47, 'New pics'

[Tomfish]

This has been a long time in the coming!
I was always planning to invest in a great tank when I owned somewhere. I’ve had tanks before but always failed with plants (apart from vallis, obviously), I now realise because of my total ignorance. It’s been a year since I joined the site, so have gained a far bit of understanding of the issues and techniques. I think I grasp the certain general consensus points such as algae growths relation plant health and associated ammonia rather than excess nutrients, and I know to be mindful of the tricky nature of Co2 and flow. As for putting these theories into practice, staying on top of 50% water changes and doing the myriad of other necessary jobs, I’m a bit of a lazy procrastinator, so that’s where the really challenge lies.

Details

Dimensions -120x45x47, Optiwhite

Base - Sits on a battered oak veneer cabinet (sounds worse than looks)

Substrate - molar clay (cat litter without the smell), osmecote .

Hardscape – redmoor wood and dragonstone.

Filter - Fx5, filled with alfagrog and purigen, DIY spray bar 1m

Lights – all pond solutions T5, 4 tube luminaire (I suspect I’ll only use 2, anything for an easy life!)

Co2 – Fire extinguisher, JBL regulator and solenoid, asian needle valve and ceramic diffuser (planning placing it next to the Fx5 intake)

Fertiliser - full EI, two solutions.

Flora – hair grass, narrow leaf java fern, Ludwigia arcuata,
micranthemum umbrosum, rotala rotifundia, willow moss, as well as some others for fore/midground detail.

Where I’m up to now

After a very long wait (about 13 weeks I think) the tank has arrived from Aquariums Ltd. Although with a childlike desperation to get plants and water in the damn thing, I still do not entirely trust the cabinet to take the weight.

So I plan to do a DIY bolstering job on it + the redmoor has another week or so worth of soaking.

The dragon stone has taken an ungodly amount of cleaning. I can only hope that it is not necessary to remove all traces of clay, because my patience has been truly tested!

I’m still waiting for all the components for my DIY spray bar and being new to this sort of thing I am apprehensive about whether the parts will fit.

Some pictures

I hope it's strong enough!

Likely hardscape arrangment

With the addition of badly drawn flora

I can't wait to fill it

Any thoughts, opinions, advice all very welcome.I'll do my best to keep things up to date, cheers


Tom

 

[Ian Holdich]

Re: Probably an expensive disaster - 120x45x47, Opti-white

Nice plan and if exicuted correctly this could be a real winner!

Ps dragon stone is a pain, don't worry about the clay you can't reach.

 

[Tomfish]

Re: Probably an expensive disaster - 120x45x47, Opti-white

A bit of an update. I have bolstered the cabinet. I'm new to this diy game, so to be honest I’m chuffed to get it out of the way. I have faith in my stand again, an important thing with the ever present threat of an indoor tsunamis. Then got straight to the job of washing the molar clay, but didn’t finish as I have an awkward sink and stooping over the bath to wash it nearly crippled me.
Any way I threw the hardscape in (the fun bit). Opinions would be very welcome. (I’m kinda hoping these less prototype like pictures will elicit more interest).

in situ

I’m now busily trying to get everything sorted as I have just ordered plants from ‘planted tanks’ that are arriving on Saturday. I’ve ordered 10 pots of micranthemum umbrosum, 5 ludwigia arcuata (needle leaf), 10 HC, 5 hairgrass, 3 crypt wentii. Planning on more mid ground plants and narrow leaf java, but i'll have to source that elsewhere.

There are a few thing I’d be interested in hearing opinions on.

1 Placing my ceramic diffuser next to my fx5 filter intake for better diffusion of co2
2 whether my 1m spray will do for my 4ft tank and Whether hardscape is likely to create issues for flow.
3 I’ve gone for a HC carpet. Should I be worried, as it’s a new set up? Any tips?
4 what sort of lighting period would people suggest at this early stage for 2 120cm T5s

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated

Ps I‘ve also come up with a pretentious title

 

[Ady34]

Re: 'The pool of Lethe' - 120x45x47, Opti-white

Absolutely love it!
If being hypercritical the centremost rock looks a little out of position compared to the rest and the right midground rock could do with burying a fraction more, but i really like the wood position...perfect!
Looking forward to it planted.
Co2 under fx5 inlet would be better still at dissolving and distributing c02, and full length spraybar would be ideal, but with the flow from the fx5 your 1m one should do a good job...you can always alter if necessary at a later date.
Prob start with a 5hr photoperiod, adjusting upwards as your plants settle and you optimise c02 and distribution.
Good luck.
Cheerio,
Ady.

 

[Alastair]

'The pool of Lethe' - 120x45x47, Opti-white

I used to run two fx5s on my 5ft tank originally and had the co2 diffusers placed near them and they smashed the co2 up fantastically. No worry of an airlock either as the pump is at the bottom. The only downside is you can sometimes slightly hear the swooshing of the co2 inside the filter if it's packed with lots of media.
Tank looks great though


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Tomfish]

Re: 'The Pool of Lethe' - 120x45x47, 'planted pics'

Firstly apologies for not replying to comments, i've been really busy, cop out i know.

If being hypercritical the centremost rock looks a little out of position compared to the rest

I agree, it was very much a moot point and have changed it now, still not perfect but what can you do.

I used to run two fx5s on my 5ft tank originally and had the co2 diffusers placed near them and they smashed the co2 up fantastically

Yes, it does the trick. After a bit of fiddleing with diffuser placement about 90% of the bubbles get dragged into the filter. Got to be better than just relying on bubbles being blown around, and i can definatly live with the swooshing.

I ordered a whole lot of plants from an online retailer. 10 pots of micranthemum umbrosum, 10 pots HC, 5 pots ludwigia arcuata, 1 penny wort, 5 hair grass and 3 crypts wentii. They were cheap, had a reasonable selection and the chap i spoke to seemed to know his stuff. There were some delivery issues, with plants arriving 4 days late but on the whole the plants seemed to cope ok (getting 6 extra pots of HC as compensation).

Then came the horror of horrors - planting, or rather planting, then floating, then replanting, then floating, then replanting etc, etc.

There were a lot of plants (about 40 pots), but 13 hours over the best part of 2 days seems a long time.
I found the only way to get stems to stay put was tying rockwool plugs onto the bottom.

Unfortunately the battle with floating plants led me to take out the wood. I’m going to put it back when the stems at the back are more rooted in.
So here it is planted up.

the pots of narrow java are obviously intended to be on the wood

Any thoughts?

 

[Polyester]

Re: 'The Pool of Lethe' - 120x45x47, 'planted pics'

Hope you are able to get the wood in the same position, looked awesome.
Very good start you got there though

 

[Tomfish]

Re: 'The Pool of Lethe' - 120x45x47, 'planted pics'

yeah, i'm itching to get the wood back in. i'm also tempted to chop some off the woods rather chunky bases. Fingers crossed i'll get it the same. I think it looked cool , if i dont say so myself.

also i'm wondering if people could fill me in on how plants move from their emersed to submerged forms. I've got some ludwigia aracuata (pictured with added rockwool) that at the moment looks like a slightly larger version rotala rotifundia and has a ridgidity more akin to terrestrial plants and a some similarly chunky and ridgid hairgass. so what should i expect and how long will it take? cheers

 

[darren636]

Re: 'The Pool of Lethe' - 120x45x47, 'planted pics'

i think it looks good without the wood.

 

[faizal]

Re: 'The Pool of Lethe' - 120x45x47, 'planted pics'

Yeah,...same here. Nice stones too.

 

[Ian Holdich]

Re: 'The Pool of Lethe' - 120x45x47, 'planted pics'

i really hope you can get that wood in without uprooting again...this will/should look really awesome if you can do it. I would also do it sooner rather than later, as we know stems don't tend to root that much.

 

[Tomfish]

Re: 'The Pool of Lethe' - 120x45x47, 'planted pics'

So here it is planted up.

Update time, the wood is in!

Hope you are able to get the wood in the same position

i really hope you can get that wood in without uprooting again

It’s in with no floating stems and I think it’s about the same!

It took the best part of a day to stick the mass of narrow java fern and christmas moss thats been waiting patiently in my tank. The wonders of super glue, although I covered my hands to such a degree I looked like I had some horrible skin disease.

Things have been going ok. The hc is starting to send out ground hugging stems and the background stems are showing reasonable growth. I shouldn't forget the hair grass as it sending out runners all over the place, it’s even invading patches of hc.

BUT, there is algae. It’s nothing too dramatic, just a few strands here and there of greenish and stringy stuff. It prompted me to buy a clean up crew consisting of 5 otto’s and 5 amano shrimp. Mr amano may have funny ideas about how much a piece of glass is worth, but he is not wrong about these little chaps love of algae, my rocks were spotless after day one and they couldn't look more busy if they tried.

My otto’s are likewise busy little chaps but they seem to focus 90% of their attention on the glass. Will this change as they settle in?

And here it is in situ

All opinions very welcome.

cheers

 

[darren636]

with such little visible algae, i would think about supplementing their diet... Really is a fab looking tank.

 

[Ady34]

Hi,
looks superb, really great job of getting that wood back in.....and very worth your hands looking like your avatar, as the ferns look really natural around the bases and the moss will look great once it gets going. The whole scape is filling in beautifully, you must be well chuffed
You given any thought to fish choices yet? (other than the ottos of course )
Cheerio,
Ady.

 

[leemonk]

Lovely........ and even with the planting and the removal of the wood 'issues' you made it seem effortless.

Looks fantastic.

 

[Tomfish]

I had intended to respond quicker this time, but i didn't factor in my 1 year old son being ill. It's the hardest thing about being a parent and more importantly it has screwed with my water change routine! if i suffer the dreaded algea bloom there will be some differred punishments in the pipeline, poor little sod

Really is a fab looking tank.

looks superb

you made it seem effortless

Big thanks for all the positive comments, as this is my first attempt at an aquascape so it means a lot
as for 'effortless', I don't know about that, I still have my doubts about how certain aspects will workout.

i would think about supplementing their diet

I'm gonna put some courgette in for the otto's tomorrow. I've read that it is best to boil it for a short time. i'm interested to know what other people do?

You given any thought to fish choices yet?

I'm thinking of having two different types of little shoaling fish, 20 of one and ten of another. I' not really sure about which, maybe carinals for the larger group and possibly black phantoms or mayby endler guppies. Im not really sure, and would like to hear others oppinion on combinations? For larger fish maybe a handful of dwarf gouramies. Possilbly a community of sakura cherry shrimp. I'm open to suggestions.

 

[jack-rythm]

I think your tank is amazing, these are the tanks that I like to look at all day so good and clean, how old is it now? as for shoaling fish I have leopard and zebra danios, a lovely silver and black colour. I went for this colour because i did not want to take the focus to the fish, the fish are beautiful things, all shoaling together around the tank but my main focus was the tank itself. I recommend you take a look at these fish? check out my journal... I may have some photos of some danios there. But be aware it is to no such greatness as your own tank. Also rummy nose tetra are amazing fish, beautiful but not focal if you know what i mean? if you want small and colour crazy, check out endlers...

jack

 

[Tomfish]

Thanks jack. I have similarly spent a long time looking at the crisp and beautiful tanks on show here. I'm well chuffed that you see it in line with other good tanks

how old is it now?

Only about a month, so plenty of time to lose that clean quality you speak of ha ha

In terms of shoaling fish I get what you mean about the value of less overt colour, but unfortunaley part of selling the idea of a 4ft tank to my girl friend was the inclusion of colourful fish. What can I say, she's a god damn philistine!

p.s. I think your tank has a charming simplicity, and you're a braver man than me using that much riccia

cheers

 

[Ady34]

If its colour your looking for, look no further than the cardinal tetra, they will look mighty impressive in that surrounding, id say 40 of them at least!