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Two Rocks Balanced - 64L - Low tech

TallDragon

Member
Joined
5 Mar 2013
Messages
211
This will be my very first planted aquarium. I have been reading UKAPS for a long long time. Now, I finally have the chance to start a tank. I did not start from scratch, I bought a complete 1 year old aquarium, took it apart, moved it, then rebuilt it in my own style. (read more here)

Start (rebuild): 2015, Feb 7.

Aquarium: 60x30x36cm, 64l, Opti-white
Filter: Eheim 3071, with Seachem Matrix in bottom tray, and Eheim Substrat Pro above
Lights: 2x24W T5 (Plant + 6500 K Tube) -> disconnected Plant tube on day 2.
Timing of lights: 8am-10am, 4h pause (siesta), then 2pm-8:30pm

Substrate:
1 year old JBL Aquabasis Plus + ADA Amazonia

Flora:
Ceratopteris thalictroides
Cryptocoryne beckettii (?)
Bacopa caroliniana
Limnophila sessiliflora
Eleocharis acicularis

Fauna:
15 red cherries
21 Neon tetras
3 Otocinclus affinis
1 Botia lohachata

Stones: 2 stones pulled from the frozen ground of my back garden. Initially to keep the wood down, since I did not soak it, but over past few days A) I have grown fond of the stones B) It provides a superb hiding place during the day to the Otocinclus.

Heater: need to get one (tank is presently at 21.5-22 Celsius

The tank did have BBA, and still does, but I am trying to get it under control, with 1.2 ml of Easy Carbo every morning.

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old tank
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Here were are, exactly a week after day 1. This being a weekend, I had time for a more involved maintenance:

- Cleaned all glassware that came with tank. Now both inflow and outflow are crystal clean
- Also changed the filter tubing totally. I regret not bying transparent tubes.
(Is there a pro/con of green vs. tranparent tubing?) Now the tubes from filter are longer, allowing me to place both the inflow and outflow on the right. I am now learning that the scape needs to take into account the flow.
- Changed the 1 year old Sylvania T5 24W tube to a Giesemann Midday tube
- Baught a small batch of Cryptocoryne axelrodi and planted some near the inflow at the back-right and a very small chunk to the left of the wood.
- Cleaned prefilter -- Lesson learned: wash sponge in bucket, not in sink -- two (or more?) of my RCS are on their way to the shrimp heaven.

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Looking good

I'd caution that 2 x T5's is almost certainly too much lighting for a non CO2 tank. i suggest you only use one tube while things settle and you decide whether to go full high tech with co2.

Pros of clear tube, looks great when clean...less great dirty
Pros of green tube, looks similar either clean or dirty...
 
Lesson learned: wash sponge in bucket, not in sink -- two (or more?) of my RCS are on their way to the shrimp heaven.
Its too bad shrimp don't come with better guides ... just when I think I've got it sorted, I find a new way to torture them ... last was rinsing the net that had been "catching" surface flotsam, rinsed in sink with rather warm water, look & see slightly boiled looking sad yellow shrimp :banghead: - luckily he seemed to recover as I see him about the tank again after a few days absence.

Tank is looking good, you might toss in some fast growing stems while you're deciding on plants (I quite like this Ludwigia )
 
Its too bad shrimp don't come with better guides ... just when I think I've got it sorted, I find a new way to torture them ... last was rinsing the net that had been "catching" surface flotsam, rinsed in sink with rather warm water, look & see slightly boiled looking sad yellow shrimp :banghead: - luckily he seemed to recover as I see him about the tank again after a few days absence.

Tank is looking good, you might toss in some fast growing stems while you're deciding on plants (I quite like this Ludwigia )
Thanks alto for the recommendation. Red... And only needs low light and low CO2! Adding it to my shopping cart ASAP.
What other stems do you think would look good?
Also, this Cryptocoryne beckettii 'Petchii' looks good.
 
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I like Petchii but find it always goes a rather dark bronze in my tanks
(low tech & very soft water, GH & KH run 0-1 depending, pH 6 - 6.5 ie whatever variations in tap, presently tank is running ~pH 6 despite adding some Ocean Direct "original" mixed in with "Sunset Gold" - the SG on it's own packs very dense so this has a nice texture & I thought some KH would not go amiss, though I've yet to measure)

In contrast I find that C willisii & C wendtii "Green" & C parva remain green.

Rotala rotundifolia grows faster than the Ludwigia.
I've been trying to get this Lindernia as I prefer the color & leaf shape - apparently it's finally cleared for import!!!

The Staurogyne didn't melt (1-2 grow pot) but it was being eaten so I pulled the last couple of stems - I've not grown this before so no idea how it might fare in a low tech setup.

Note that Tropica always suggests more light/litre than is recommended on this forum: tank 60 x 45 x 55, lighting 2 Giesemann HO T5's, Eheim 2071, Tropica PF & SF, Tropica Substrate, Flourish Excel, twice weekly 60-70% water change (daily for the first week, plant load was much lower & reduced water column fertilizers) ... I suppose I might as well list the rest of the plants

E parvula - slow growth after 2 months
Eleocharis acicularis 'mini' (1-2 grow) - mostly disappeared, some may return (2 months)
E montevidensis - arrived melting & has virtually disappeared, waiting to see if it re-emerges (3 weeks)
E tenellus (1-2 grow) - slowly establishing (2 months & 2 weeks replacing the vanished "min")
C wendtii "green" - 2 months, doubled, I'm hoping for smaller leaf as it settles in
C beckettii "petchii" - 2 months, more melt than "green" & slower growth
Cyperus helferi - 2 weeks, plants arrived with considerable algae & brown tips, just added it as I cant seem to find any V nana
Bacopa "compact" - 4 weeks, plant arrived as a rather tall stem, slow compact growth now (I left the height)

Cardamine lyrata - 4 weeks, removed the remnants after 2 weeks - old & new growth leaves were being damaged/eaten until what I removed was mostly stem (plant was very well grown upon arrival), oddly the C Sterbai seemed stressed while this was going on, removed the plant, large water change & they returned to their normal "happy" activity level.
I've read accounts of fish stressed by this plant but have kept it in the past without issue, but Sterbai would "re-activate" with every large water change, then return to "inactive" by the next day, with the C lyrata gone, Sterbai re-activated & remained active. (Note they are also more confident with a dither shoal)

These are just a few stems (for this list) added as overflow from another tank:
C undulata "broad" - 2 weeks, couple leafs melted, new leafs emerging
Hygrophila corymbosa 'Siamensis 53B' - 2 weeks, arrived with leaf damage which was eaten/melted, looks good now with some new growth
Ludwigia palustris (which arrives as L "sp") - 2 weeks, no melt, slow growth
Rotala rotundifolia - 2 weeks, no melt, 2-3" growth
Bacopa australis - 4 weeks, slow growth

Yes it's now "chaos" tank though the fish & shrimp seem "happier" with the increased foliage.
Tank was planted (quickly) 2 months ago, it had been running with no substrate as a quarantine tank (that I decided needed to look somewhat decent for a party). Sterbai were already in for Q & have just remained - sand substrate was for them.
 
This evening, I stopped by a fellow planted tank enthusiast, who is a few weeks away from tearing down his tank, and got my hands on some plants. He has a high-tech tank with lots of light, so the plants are coming over to my low-tech tank in their full red colored glory. Very curious to see how they change under my single T5 light.

Hygrophila polysperma rosanervig
Ludwigia palustris
Blyxa Japonica
Pogostemon helferi
Ludwigia repens

Also noticed, that my Botia has created a tunnel under the wood. I took these pics before I started planting. Check back for new photos soon, when the plants have recovered, are upright, and worth taking pictures of.

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Added 10 amano shrimp today. They are quite small, and hiding.
Also bought an external Hydor 200W heater. Plan to install during the weekend, to crank up the heat from the current 22C to ~24C.
 
I like this because it is different. In the distance shot that stone looks like a huge snail.
 
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