An Iwagumi called; Seiryu Meadow

[Timon Vogelaar]

Hi all,
I'm new to this forum and i love it!
I recently restarted my aquarium and thought i'd share it with you.
Enjoy!

Setup Date: 05-08-2016
Tank: ADA's cube garden 60P
Light: Chihiros A601 with TC420 led controller, I also have Aquasky wich i use for growing basilicum
Filtration: Tetra EX 800 plus (790 l / h), Lily pipe outlet, skimmer inlet
Heating: Hydor ETH 200
CO2: 10ltr CO2 bottle with JBL Proflora Direct CO2 Diffusor, Two gauge solenoid with magnetic valve & Drop checker
Extra: Chihiros Doctor Mini
Hardscape: Seiryu Stones
Substrate: 1. Velda Pond Substrate 2. ADA Amazonia Soil
Fertilization: Easylife Profito
Plants: (for now) Eleocharis sp. Mini
Fish: Rasbora Galaxy

1. Hill of Velda's pond substrate

2. Topped with ADA's Soil and after several scapes this satisfied me.

3. Getting the soil ready for planting. It is good to let the soil impregnate with water.

4. Ten times Eleocharis sp. Mini In-Vitro. (from Hortlab in Croatia)

5. Planting with a pincet on a kitchen board. Works perfect!

6. Right after planting.

7. Two pictures for those who want to see the tools and technique i use.

I'll be taking a picture of it every day till day seven and share it with you.

 

[Aqua360]

Hi all,
I'm new to this forum and i love it!
I recently restarted my aquarium and thought i'd share it with you.
Enjoy!

Setup Date: 05-08-2016
Tank: ADA's cube garden 60P
Light: Chihiros A601 with TC420 led controller, I also have Aquasky wich i use for growing basilicum
Filtration: Tetra EX 800 plus (790 l / h), Lily pipe outlet, skimmer inlet
Heating: Hydor ETH 200
CO2: 10ltr CO2 bottle with JBL Proflora Direct CO2 Diffusor, Two gauge solenoid with magnetic valve & Drop checker
Extra: Chihiros Doctor Mini
Hardscape: Seiryu Stones
Substrate: 1. Velda Pond Substrate 2. ADA Amazonia Soil
Fertilization: Easylife Profito
Plants: Eleocharis sp. Mini

1. Hill of Velda's pond substrate

2. Topped with ADA's Soil and after several scapes this satisfied me.

3. Getting the soil ready for planting. It is good to let the soil impregnate with water.

4. Ten times Eleocharis sp. Mini In-Vitro. (from Hortlab in Croatia)

5. Planting with a pincet on a kitchen board. Works perfect!

6. Right after planting.

7. Two pictures for those who want to see the tools and technique i use.

I'll be taking a picture of it every day till day seven and share it with you.

Cool

 

[Alexander Belchenko]

Your tools and cabinet - are very well organized.

 

[Ryan Thang To]

Hi all,
I'm new to this forum and i love it!
I recently restarted my aquarium and thought i'd share it with you.
Enjoy!

Setup Date: 05-08-2016
Tank: ADA's cube garden 60P
Light: Chihiros A601 with TC420 led controller, I also have Aquasky wich i use for growing basilicum
Filtration: Tetra EX 800 plus (790 l / h), Lily pipe outlet, skimmer inlet
Heating: Hydor ETH 200
CO2: 10ltr CO2 bottle with JBL Proflora Direct CO2 Diffusor, Two gauge solenoid with magnetic valve & Drop checker
Extra: Chihiros Doctor Mini
Hardscape: Seiryu Stones
Substrate: 1. Velda Pond Substrate 2. ADA Amazonia Soil
Fertilization: Easylife Profito
Plants: (for now) Eleocharis sp. Mini

1. Hill of Velda's pond substrate

2. Topped with ADA's Soil and after several scapes this satisfied me.

3. Getting the soil ready for planting. It is good to let the soil impregnate with water.

4. Ten times Eleocharis sp. Mini In-Vitro. (from Hortlab in Croatia)

5. Planting with a pincet on a kitchen board. Works perfect!

6. Right after planting.

7. Two pictures for those who want to see the tools and technique i use.

I'll be taking a picture of it every day till day seven and share it with you.

looking good so far. nice bit of kits too. i like the way you use screws for your tool. nice one

cheers
ryan

 

[Timon Vogelaar]

Here are seven pictures of the first days with some water values. I'm very satisfied about the progress this far.

1. Ph: 6 NH4: 5

2. NH4: 1

3. PH: 6 NH4: 0,5/1

4. PH: 7 NH4: 0 NO2: 0/0,5 NO3: 50 PO4: 0/0,1

5. NO3: 25

6. NO3: 10

7. PH: 7 GH: 11 KH: 4/5 NH4: 0 NO2: 0 NO3: 10 PO4: 0

I thought it would be nice to make a GIF from these first days. Sorry for foto quality;

Here a picture of the aquarium standing in my room

My intention is to upload weekly progress of this aquarium.
Enjoy!

 

[Timon Vogelaar]

Hi All,
Normally you make weekly foto's but i'll be going on holiday for one week so now a GIF of day 1 and 12;

Within one week all the water values where good so twenty Rasbora Galaxy's joined the party.
Here i ask you for more livestock advise; http://ukaps.org/forum/threads/livestock-advise.42306/

Enjoy!

 

[tadabis]

Well done! Keep going!

 

[Joe Turner]

Cracking progress, enjoying the GIF's! Keep it up

 

[Timon Vogelaar]

Hi all,
Here a weekly status update. Growing very good and no algae

Enjoy!

 

[aripware]

wow... nice tank

 

[zozo]

Rather be carefull with that Brass brush (No idea what you are doing with that.)

But I use them to clean sparkplugs and also still had one unused in the draw.. Tried to use it to clean some found rocks, i noticed they wear off and it leaves residue on the rock. Also a regular steel brush does that.. I'm not so sure if it is healthy for fish and shrimp if this residue disolves in the water column, metals are usualy highly toxic especialy to shrimps. I'm not using them anymore for tank cleaning purpose because of that..

 

[Timon Vogelaar]

Rather be carefull with that Brass brush (No idea what you are doing with that.)

But I use them to clean sparkplugs and also still had one unused in the draw.. Tried to use it to clean some found rocks, i noticed they wear off and it leaves residue on the rock. Also a regular steel brush does that.. I'm not so sure if it is healthy for fish and shrimp if this residue disolves in the water column, metals are usualy highly toxic especialy to shrimps. I'm not using them anymore for tank cleaning purpose because of that..

Thanks for the heads up!
I use it to clean my stones. I used them in my previous setup but i didnt know they wear off. Did not notice that either. I also saw other people on UKAPS using them too.

 

[zozo]

I once found a black rock and it needed some intesive cleaning from a sandy deposite, after rubbing a few minutes with such a brush i noticed a brass colered finnish on the rock. Later i tried with a steal rotary brush on the cordless drill, same story i noticed a silver color finish on the rock. It probably depends on how long you brush it before you notice, but it will be on there long before you do i guess.. Rock is much harder than brass and or steal actualy logical after you notice it.. Your not polishing the rock you are polishing the metal.. Hence a knife is sharpened with a Whetstone..

We all know not to use any copper or brass material in our filter setup etc, not to disolve metal in our tank water..

 

[Timon Vogelaar]

I once found a black rock and it needed some intesive cleaning from a sandy deposite, after rubbing a few minutes with such a brush i noticed a brass colered finnish on the rock. Later i tried with a steal rotary brush on the cordless drill, same story i noticed a silver color finish on the rock. It probably depends on how long you brush it before you notice, but it will be on there long before you do i guess.. Rock is much harder than brass and or steal actualy logical after you notice it.. Your not polishing the rock you are polishing the metal.. Hence a knife is sharpened with a Whetstone..

We all know not to use any copper or brass material in our filter setup etc, not to disolve metal in our tank water..

I agree with you! Small note here, i like my stones without algae so this is how i use my soft brush and when needed steel/copper brush.
1. With weekly maintenance i always use my soft brush for precaution of algae.
2. Because of good maintenance i hardly use the hard brush but when i do i gently wipe the algae off or damage it so dies or growing stagnates.

I think because i rarely use the hard brush and i don't need to brush hard or long the chance of it getting dissolved in the water is very small although i would like to have a replacement for this tool to surely prevent it!

 

[Timon Vogelaar]

Hi all,
Weekly update here.
I made a mistake of the tanks age in the previous picture; day 28 is today and the last picture is day 21. [I'll get that corrected asap]
Second mistake was made yesterday when i chose to trim the Eleocharis while not taking a picture first for you to see the difference.

Sorry for that but i stil made a picture of the setup a day after it was trimmed. Just to be clear. This picture is of day 28 which is today

This is a GIF of day 1 and 28;

p.s. i know image quality is not good. When the tank is a bit more mature i will read on how to photograph it properly (some of you seem to be experts in this because your pictures are beautifully made)

 

[Manisha]

Hi Timon, nice to see the difference in growth throughout the first 28days with your last GIF. Your background (or lack of) complements the scape well Your celestial pearl danios are very cute! I wonder if a darker background would bring out their colours more? But overall looking great as is!

 

[Timon Vogelaar]

Hi Timon, nice to see the difference in growth throughout the first 28days with your last GIF. Your background (or lack of) complements the scape well Your celestial pearl danios are very cute! I wonder if a darker background would bring out their colours more? But overall looking great as is!

Thank you for your kind words! The wall behind it is plastered and light grey. The main colour of the danio's body is also grey[ish]. So i think your right about that one but i don't know how to give the background a colour. Do you or someone else have info how to do that?

 

[Manisha]

Hi, I used this http://www.pro-shrimp.co.uk/aquariu...-black-aquarium-background-4001615057928.html but have seen it advertised at The Green Machine as 'light diffusing background'. I find that as it's applied to the outside of the tank it can be changed or removed easily without disturbing anything inside the tank ☺ I installed a juwel internal background in another tank which is a medium gray & unless I break down the tank it's there to stay! I have silvery transparent parambassis ranga ( indian glass fish ) in my tank with the grey background & feel they would suit a blackground better...

 

[Timon Vogelaar]

Hi all,
Here a weekly update :]
- Raise in maintenance because some algae and diatoms but i feel i'm controlling the situation.
- Started dosing Aquarebel's NPK.
- The picture make it seem that the Eleocharis is very dense. It is but i feel there is a long way to go making it a field. I trimmed it twice now. Advice in making it go faster is very welkom since i am waiting for it too close for a cleaning crew the come in the tank. And parts of the substrate got some algae on it.
- Couple of Rasbora's died after i placed them because of the sunken belly disease. Here you can see how that looks;

In the comment section evelyn eve placed a comment explaining exactly what's happening. The store that i bought them compensated the dead rasbora's. I feel this is a downside to the hobby since the fish you buy get mistreated before you get them.
- Next week some floaters will arrive. I think the Rasbora's will love that too :]
- I thought it would be cool to show you my Daphnia culture. Don't know when thought

Here is a GIF of day 1 and 35 which is today :]

Brrrrr bad quality... Don't know how too improve this other then buying a good camera...
Enjoy

 

[Manisha]

Sorry about your Rasboras Its sad to see them struggling like that