Asian spirit

Ok here is my new journal 😉 Hope you do not hate me with the spamming 😀

This tank is in my living room at home, so this is not a gallery tank. Earlier i had this scape there:


ADA IAPLC 2010 #96 final shoot by viktorlantos, on Flickr

A few weeks ago i sold the tank and the hood. Bought an optiwhite tank and changed the Arcadia legs to a hanging one. The overall impression is already better, so it was a nice moment to start a new scape 😀



A few specs:
Filters: 2 x Eheim 2075 prof 3 with glass pipes
CO2: pressurized with AM1000 external reactor
Light: Arcadia OT2 4x54W with Osram 865 tubes 8 hours a day
Substrate: ADA Aqua Soil Amazonia New 27L, ADA Power Sand Spec M 6L, Mekong Sand SS 8KG, Penac W, Penac P, Tourmaline BC
Decor: 30-40kg Seiryu Stone, Red Moor woods
Curent plant list (in progress still): Parvula, HC, Tenellus, Hydro Sp, Stauro Sp, Fissidens, Riccardia, Christmass moss, Ranunculus inundatus, Rotala Sp. Green, Rotala Rotundifolia, HM
Fertilizers: ADA Brighty K, ADA Step series

The initial version is a 1st step only. I would like to work on the details in the following weeks. The bottom part will have some supportive stones or pebbles, upper part will be expanded once i remove the 5 supportive stones which weight down the red moor woods currently.

So take it as a draft 1st version and you will see how this progress with the add-ons in the following months. The goal is to have a nice scape again for IAPLC 2012.

Setup day:


New setup is in progress by viktorlantos, on Flickr


New setup is in progress by viktorlantos, on Flickr

after i filled up with water


New setup is in progress by viktorlantos, on Flickr

on the 4th day i added in some extra items to the bottom part and refined the hills with HC and mosses


Asian Spirit by viktorlantos, on Flickr


Asian Spirit by viktorlantos, on Flickr

The tank will be a week old tomorrow. So i will throw in the cleaning staff as the water parameters are optimal by now.

This time i choose a name from the start, as i was inspired by many asian talent nowadays and in the past. SO the plan is to build an asian style NA tank with many details.

Will keep you updated, but in the meantime please shoot me any questions, feedback you have.
Thanks for watching my new journal.

Westyggx said:

Looks great so far victor!

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Orlando said:

Another spectacular start.

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Alastair said:

If your a spammer then you must spam more often lol. Looking great viktor.

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Thank you guys 😉

Alastair said:

What size is the tank?

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This is 121x41x45 10mm glass. If i deduct the glass thickness i have only 39cm deepness on this tank which is not too much. So the idea was that to make it look much deeper and wider than it is.

flygja said:

Gonna miss that old tank. That was the one which introduced Viktor Lantos to the world 🙂
Latest one looks great and would mature quickly and nicely.

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Thank you my friend. Just need to add a bit more details to look more exciting. 😀

Mark Evans said:

Another quality scape. Spam all you like viktor. 😀

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Thank you Mark. I am coming after you

spyder said:

Gief moar spam haha.
Looking good, another one to watch and learn from. Great stuff. 😀

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Thank you 😉

I did not documented the back side of the tank, but i kept a 5 cm deep by 5-10cm height area on the back for stems. So the bottom part of the stems are not visible on the front side, only the crown. At least that's the plan 😀 Will see how this work out.

A few shots from today. The tank is a week old now. 2nd water change is coming tomorrow. Just started to add ferts.

Plants are growing and the algae is here too 😀 I see some brush on the red moor wood. Will change the CO2 to the optimal level, currently this is too much now. Also will add in some shrimp and otocinclus by monday to clean up the tank.


Asian Spirit by viktorlantos, on Flickr

here is the back side with the stems. you can see how deep we planted them behind the decors


Asian Spirit by viktorlantos, on Flickr


Asian Spirit by viktorlantos, on Flickr

close up


Asian Spirit by viktorlantos, on Flickr


Asian Spirit by viktorlantos, on Flickr

cheers

cheers guys thank you for your feedback

andyh said:

1. How do you keep the substrate from mixing with the sand?
2. Have you got any pics before the Hardscape went in?

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Andy, the substrate will not mix with the sand as the stones keeping it away. I put extra stones to fix the weak points. The tank is 2 weeks old now and i do not see any problem with it.

Unfortunatelly i do not have pic before the hardscape. But i used the standard 2 island with sand in the middle layout. Only added in powersand under the islands.

Jur4ik said:

Hi Viktor,
already seen this beauty on your flickr account, doesn't took long to appear on forum 😉

Asians are dominating IAPLC world ranking so their work is good source for inspiration, but after the Amano lecture in Denmark I believe nature observation and landscape photography is much better to learn from. I'm not sure Amano said that, but this must have been the sense of what the translator has said: copy from the nature and not from a copy, otherwise you will copy the mistakes automatically. Good example was the placement of stones and plants in his nature photography, he said nobody is using Anubias the right way, as nobody has seen how Anubias is growing in nature and than he showed some photos with just Anubais in a fast lake stream. I would never have used them that way, because I have never seen them in their natural habitat before..

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You're right my friend. Nature is the best for inspiration for sure, but many asian folks teached us how detailed a tank can be with some additional work.

update as the tank become 2 weeks old now.

So far so good. After 2 weeks the tank is running well. I do not have any algae issues. Had a bit of a BGA as i added in a plant which had it, but that's gone. Last week the CO2 was too much and i got brush algae on the wood. Shortly after i fixed the injection (lowered) the brush eliminated in a day! I do not see the regular new tank algae yet like diatom or brown one. Well they still could come will wait for them 😀

The water is crystal clear. Using 200mg Purigen to make sure it is 😀 100mg in each filter.

Last week i added in some sawbwa resplendens, otocinclus, and amano shrimps. They are doing really well and the maintenance crew keep the decors clean. Did not cleaned them at all yet. But they cleaned the old tank mess on the stones too (some stones i reused from the old tank and they were green and brushy).

Changed the light bulbs today as the old was too old i guess. Forgot when i changed them last time 😀 Hope i will not forgot where i live.... more problems with aging 😉

HC is not doing well, probably i do not have enough CO2 now. Using a 3 yrs old CAL indicator, and that's probably not working anymore. Will change that tomorrow to a new one. Warm water is not a problem probably as the tank is running with 25 Celsius.

Water is still hard and i am softening it continously but with this much stone it is not easy 😉

Next week will trim the stems and the parvula too. I already trimmed the Hydrocotyle SP Japan as that was the fastest.


Asian Spirit by viktorlantos, on Flickr


Asian Spirit by viktorlantos, on Flickr


Asian Spirit by viktorlantos, on Flickr


2 weeks comparsion:


New setup is in progress by viktorlantos, on Flickr


Asian Spirit by viktorlantos, on Flickr

schraptor said:

Looking really good Viktor
One thing made me think, too much CO2 causing algae, that I was not aware of. I knew varying levels are not good - as always learning new things from you guys. Thanks for sharing !

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Thanks mate 😀

Yup too much CO2 and you will have brush algae. I've seen this in several cases and i hope some expert here will confirm this. Funny but you will have brush too probably if you do not use any 😉

This is especially something what need to check, as with the more precise CO2 injection methods like in-line diffusers, external reactors people can fall easily in this trap. Too easy to inject more with these equipments. Every time i had this i do lowered the CO2 and the brush died off shortly.

Cheers guys, a quick update on this tank. Last week i removed the stones from the wood. So it is time to grow really. 😉

Currently have some diatom an hair algae. Will throw in a mass ammount of amanos tomorrow.
Had a bit less algae when i shot these images last week.


Asian Spirit by viktorlantos, on Flickr


Asian Spirit by viktorlantos, on Flickr


Asian Spirit by viktorlantos, on Flickr

Still a long way to go to achieve the final form. The tons of Seiryu harden the water a lot. So need more RO to keep it down.

Not updated this journal a while ago. A week ago my daughter was born, so the time is a bit hectic around me these days 😀

The tank is 2 months old now. Not everything is in that shape as i had planned, but there's still time for progress.

Just a reminder i started the tank 2 months ago with this:


New setup is in progress by viktorlantos, on Flickr

the current phase is this. i used a different camera setting that's why it' not that vivid green here.


Asian Spirit by viktorlantos, on Flickr

As soon as the background stems will look good and i add in a few more wood sticks with mosses and align the rest of the mosses on the rocks a bit better the scape will be completed. I may will replace Rotala Rotundifolia to a finer red plant like L. Arcuata etc.

Cheers
Happy New Year to you guys