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YAR180 (Yet Another Rio 180).

Steve Smith

Member
Joined
19 Jul 2007
Messages
4,412
Location
Wellesbourne, UK.
After thinking it through I decided to abandon the 4ft tank idea and go back to my Rio 180, as I prefer the proportions and it looks a little nicer. Glass is in similar condition to the 4ft so no difference there.

Anyhow. This is still a work in progress. I think I've got the hard scape/substrate sorted and layed out. Just spent the last hour or so doing this :)

So far, the definates are:

Tropica plant substrate
Unipac Zambezi sand on top
large chunk of wood for hardscape

Definate plants so far are:

Eleocharis Acicularis
Eleocharis Vivipara
Blyxia Japonica

Other hardware:
Tetratec EX1200
Pressurised CO2 via 5kg FE
Rhinox 5000 - Thinking directly under filter intake
Juwel T8 lightbar (60w) with additional light unit to make up to approx 90w.

Some pics:

Tropica substrate is very dusty. Hopefully I've used enough!
Substrates.jpg


Bought a glass tank edge connector from AE. Seems reasonable quality though I'm wondering if I should of paid the extra £2 or £3 for the ADA one!
CO2_glass01.jpg


Thankfully it fitted over the edge of the tank perfectly :)
CO2_glass02.jpg


And this is the hardscape layout I've settled on:
Hardscape.jpg


That's it for now. Need to get a feel for the planting, and actually buy some ;) Anyone have any Eleocharis vivipara to spare? :?:
 
Re: From scratch. YAR180 (Yet Another Rio 180)

Sounds like it is going to be grasstastic.

I had some E. vivipara a while back. I get the occassional plant still growing through, so if I have room in my spare nano to grow it on a bit, I`ll send you some. The nano is currently housing cuttings I am growing on for another project.

Dave.
 
Re: From scratch. YAR180 (Yet Another Rio 180)

This is the sort of look I'm wanting. Need to add on some Blyxa and maybe either some Ludwigia arcuata or some other needle leaf style stem on the left where that big "U" shape in the wood is.

Moss will hopefully be some Fissidens if I can get hold of some.

Mock_up.jpg
 
Re: From scratch. YAR180 (Yet Another Rio 180)

Can't beat silicone tubing going over the glass to me :)
 
Re: From scratch. YAR180 (Yet Another Rio 180)

So, these are the plants I'm currently waiting for:

Eleocharis Vivipara Tall hairgrass
Quantity - 25

Ludwigia Arcuata or Needle leaf Ludwigia
Quantity - 25

Hydrocotyle Leucocephala or Mushroom Pennywort
Quantity - 5

Micranthemum Micranthemoides or Small Hezine
Quantity - 25

I'm also looking for some Pogestomon Helferi (Downoi) at the moment. Not having a great deal of luck though I've heard Maidenhead Aquatics sometimes have it in, and I might get to an MA this weekend (Gill, up for the trip?)
 
Re: From scratch. YAR180 (Yet Another Rio 180)

Themuleous said:
Decent hardscape is like gold dust.

your not wrong sam.

surely theres more than just mini landscape rock and petrified wood availble. i know AE has some different stone, but wheres all the stuff amano uses?...expensive to import i guess.

i asaid it before and i'll say it again. quality scape steve. cant wait to see it planted.

mark
 
Re: From scratch. YAR180 (Yet Another Rio 180)

Thanks guys :) I was a bit unsure about the wood after I got it home, it is quite a big hunk of wood (still, no soaking to make sure it sinks eh? ;)) From different angles it is a bit flat, but I'm hoping to combat this with planting.

Best of all, it was in a pile of other large bits similar to this and all were priced up at £19.99!

saintly said:
Themuleous said:
Decent hardscape is like gold dust.
surely theres more than just mini landscape rock and petrified wood availble. i know AE has some different stone, but wheres all the stuff amano uses?...expensive to import i guess.

You need to get yourself to TGM! I want to go nuts in their hardscape section but I just don't have the money...

Anyhow, I've managed to source some downoi now, thanks very much to JamesM :) Hopefully my plants aren't sitting in the post office, as I wasn't able to get home yesterday to check for parcels. They should be OK though (fingers crossed!)
 
Re: From scratch. YAR180 (Yet Another Rio 180)

SteveUK said:
You need to get yourself to TGM! I want to go nuts in their hardscape section but I just don't have the money...

ive been a couple of times. i cleaned them out of there sryiou stone. :D ok they had petrified wood and manten stone. not enough manten for a decent scape though in a 120.

mark
 
Re: From scratch. YAR180 (Yet Another Rio 180)

Does TGM have Yamaya stone?
I NEED that stuff.
 
Re: From scratch. YAR180 (Yet Another Rio 180)

Any thoughts on fish stocking for this scape? I currently have Pentazona barbs and Harle's but I want to go with something different :)
 
Re: From scratch. YAR180 (Yet Another Rio 180)

How about a big group of Nannostomus eques? They'd look great hovering over that grassy scape. I had a group of 12 and they were great, but 20 odd would have been awesome.
 
Re: From scratch. YAR180 (Yet Another Rio 180)

They look interesting Ed. I really liked the Nannostomus beckfordi at TGM when I visited for the UKAPS meet. I had wanted to try some but I've heard they can be hard to acclimitise. I think Chrisie keeps beckfordi's so I may ask her :)
 
Re: From scratch. YAR180 (Yet Another Rio 180)

Mine were wild caught and acclimatised fine into my water. The great thing about the eques is the 45 degree angle they swim at, very distinctive. Small danios or rasboras could work well though.
 
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