Tom's 40cm

[Tom]

Might as well make a journal of this tank now as its planted up 😀

Hardscape:






Took a trip to P*ts at Home this morning, and came back with far too many Tropica plants 🙄 I got 2 big Microsorium "narrow", 3 pots of Micranthemum umbrosum, and a pot of something I haven't heared of before but looks like Hydrocotyl

All planted up now, so here you go...





I've had to add some more Aquasoil on the right, and some small pieces of rock to hold the Aquasoil back, and I have lessened the angle of the main branch. Also I had a play with the "roots" in the back left but you can't see them now anyway.

I've started it off with 1ml Brighty K and 1ml Step1 daily, along with 1bps CO2. It all looks a bit tacky and messy now but give it a month or two to get going... 8)

Tom

 

[daniel19831123]

nice! Much nicer than my 60cm tank 🙁 Wished I started off on the right foot. Saving on the wood and plants and CO2 is not worth it.....

 

[Ray]

Very nice start. Its a 40cm 25L, right?

Excuse me if this is already in another thread but what light is that? How long and high above the surface? I have a 40cm 25L with a mini desk lamp style 13w but the problem is I don't get an even intensity accross the whole tank as you would with a strip lamp. Should I just mount it higher?

 

[Tom]

25l, yep 😀

It's a 24w Interpet T5, roughly 12" long and 3" above the surface. I would think 13w is fairly low lighting for a 25l. If you mount it higher you would probably lose more intensity. If I were you I would consider either a 24w or 18w compact T5 for your tank.

Tom

 

[Tom]

Better picture:



Tom

 

[daniel19831123]

Tom your filter outlet is right above the micrathemum umbrosum.... Would it be blown to pieces when it grow a little higher?

 

[Tom]

Thanks for pointing that out, I'll move it up a bit!! Was just trying to avoid the flow breaking the water surface but I can see it might be better higher up. 8)

Thanks,

Tom

 

[daniel19831123]

no problem. What is the flow rate of that filter? My tank only seemed to have 1x turnover of the tank volume. was thinking if I should add another pump in the tank to increase the turnover rate. How would love turnover rate affect the plants? Anyone here to enlightened me?

 

[Tom]

Elite reckon 220 litres /hour on full, but I doubt it works out that much with media in. So saying it's 200lph, I'd have a turnover rate of about 8x. I would definitely look to go higher than 1x though, as long as the plants aren't going to be buffeted by the flow.

 

[daniel19831123]

sorry my bad. Miscalculated my filter output. It's rated 400l/hour and my tank is 60l so even if output is half I should be getting nearly 4 time flowrate.

 

[Tom]

 

[Tom]

I've just added some of my baby cherry shrimp I found in my last tank and they seem to be enjoying the nicer conditions than the 1g they were being kept in 🙂 They are much hardier than I thought they were and so far seem indestructable, even at 2mm 😉

(By the way the filter has been running nearly 2 weeks and was re-seeded a week before adding them so I'm not worried about water quality and cycling issues. My 6 Emerald Eye Rasbora are doing well in there to 8) )

Tom

 

[Tom]

A few days in now, and there's already noticable growth on the umbrosum and Hydrocotyl. The moss is getting lighter green tips now so thats starting to spread out too. I am thinking of getting some more stems, maybe Rotala "green" and/or Rotala indica/wallichi to go behind the Java fern.

I'm getting a weird film on the water surface at the moment which builds up fairly quickly, but I suppose that's just from the substrate or wood and will hopefully stop soon.

Tom

 

[George Farmer]

This is gonna be good, Tom. Keep up the good work mate.

 

[Themuleous]

Yeh, it should really develop over the next few weeks 🙂

Sam

 

[Tom]

Time for some more pics. I've done 2 versions, at different focal lengths. I prefer the wider angle but I'm gonna need more backgroud for those

You can really see it starting to grow now:

Wide:


Not so wide:


I don't know whether I'll change the Java fern out for stems yet, but I think I might at some point. I'm not patient enough for these ferns!!

Tom

 

[Garuf]

I don't know about swapping the ferns for stems, to me its the stem's that look out of place, lovely scape though can't wait to see it grow out.

 

[Tom]

Thanks Garuf.

Just done my first trim after getting back from college. The moss if growing great, nice and compact. The umbrosum seems to be suffering a bit, whether it's just adjusting or not I don't know. Also, the Hydrocotyl is growing like mad but the leaves are a bit yellowy in the top few.

Looking at James's deficiency guide I could have sulphur, nitrogen or iron deficiencies. I am dosing 1ml Brighty K every day, and 1ml of Step1 and Spec Lights every other day at the moment. Should I just up these doses? I am currently dosing the same as I did for the last tank, which had far far more plants in. Any input would be great 🙂

Tom

 

[Tom]

I brought some HC and a bit of Riccia home from college yesterday and thats all planted in now, just needs to fill out. I also bought some of what I think is a Red Myriophyllum for the back behind the Java Fern.

The umbrosum is still struggling a bit, but the new growth seems nice and healthy. The moss is still going like mad and to my surprise the Java Fern is growing new (1-2") leaves so the old ones might be cut off soon.



Tom

 

[johnny70]

very nice, very natural look, what are the plans for fish stocking?

My umbrosum that I got from here is struggling too, got some new growth coming , hopefull it will start picking up soon 😀