# An Iwagumi called; Seiryu Meadow



## Timon Vogelaar (12 Aug 2016)

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.


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## Aqua360 (12 Aug 2016)

Timon Vogelaar said:


> 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!
> ...



Cool


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## Alexander Belchenko (12 Aug 2016)

Your tools and cabinet - are very well organized.


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## Ryan Thang To (12 Aug 2016)

Timon Vogelaar said:


> 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!
> ...


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

cheers
ryan


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## Timon Vogelaar (15 Aug 2016)

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!


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## Timon Vogelaar (17 Aug 2016)

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!


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## tadabis (26 Aug 2016)

Well done! Keep going!


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## Joe Turner (26 Aug 2016)

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


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## Timon Vogelaar (27 Aug 2016)

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


 

Enjoy!


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## aripware (27 Aug 2016)

wow... nice tank


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## zozo (29 Aug 2016)

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..


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## Timon Vogelaar (29 Aug 2016)

zozo said:


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


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## zozo (29 Aug 2016)

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..


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## Timon Vogelaar (29 Aug 2016)

zozo said:


> 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!


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## Timon Vogelaar (2 Sep 2016)

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)


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## Manisha (3 Sep 2016)

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!


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## Timon Vogelaar (3 Sep 2016)

Manisha said:


> 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?


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## Manisha (3 Sep 2016)

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...


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## Timon Vogelaar (9 Sep 2016)

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


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## Manisha (9 Sep 2016)

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


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## Timon Vogelaar (17 Sep 2016)

Hi all,
Weekly update here with just some random shots. I am very happy with the progress so far. The Eleocharis is spreading fast :]
- I tried to photograph the fish but i cant get sharp images with my Panasonic/Lumix DMC-FZ18
- I am dosing K2SO4 with 4ppm each day with great succes since i started dosing. Green even gets greener ;]
- I added Limnobium laevigatum
- Still some diatoms remain; mainly on the glas and rocks. Some advice how to reduce it could be helpful!




 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 

Enjoy!


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## tadabis (18 Sep 2016)

Very nice! Keep going forward!


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## Greenfinger2 (18 Sep 2016)

Hi Timon Love the Scape


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## Manisha (18 Sep 2016)

Very close to a full meadow now ☺


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## AndreiD (20 Sep 2016)

Add otos and amanos for diatoms , they will clear diatoms in 1-2 days


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## Timon Vogelaar (20 Sep 2016)

AndreiD said:


> Add otos and amanos for diatoms , they will clear diatoms in 1-2 days


True! I am waiting for the meadow to fill up though  

Verstuurd vanaf mijn HTC One met Tapatalk


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## castle (20 Sep 2016)

Hello,

Scape does look nice

I'm a little concerned with the CPDs, once they're mature enough to breed (Edit: which I think they are), females don't have many places to hide, neither do the weaker males. Now this could be traits unique to my experience, but in heavily planted tanks they're something else, and show more confidence. With that said, your male to female ratio looks good, but tricky to tell.

Are you going to let the Limnobium laevigatum put out lots of roots/plants? I think that will help them somewhat.


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## Timon Vogelaar (20 Sep 2016)

castle said:


> Hello,
> 
> Scape does look nice
> 
> ...



Your right about that!  At first they were a bit afraid but now they are swimming freely and they look gorgeus. They arent even scared when you pass by. 

I was thinking about Blyxa Japonica behind the rocks. For now i will keep the limnobium but for esthetic reason i think i will ditch them. Thnx for noticing!


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## Timon Vogelaar (9 Oct 2016)

Hi,
As some maybe noticed weekly updates have been off. 
I've been busy and it seems that i wont be doing weekly updates. Though i'll try to update as much as i can.

In the previous updates you can see the soil assimilating. Of course it is not the soil but algae. At some point i think i did something wrong because it is BGA (blue green algae - cyanobacteria). I think because of low nitrates.
Since i started this scape everything went just perfect. Good growth and no algae. You may find it strange but i love a challenge and none was given. So now i started to see spots of BGA and the challenge started.

I've read about the "one two punch" before and was very eager to give it a try. So after some H202 spot treatment and more research i gave it a try. More info here;
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/23-algae/203684-one-two-punch-whole-tank-algae-treatment.html
It was succesfull but it didnt kill the BGA completely. For those against this method - I've tried it without fish in my aquarium.

Second up was a blackout. Like the "one two" i was very curious how this would work out. I did a 4 day blackout and uncovered my aquarium today with stunning results. BGA gone, Eleocharis a little palish and other green algae also gone.

Next week i will try to upload some pictures of Seiryu Meadow. For now, as promised, i will share my Daphnia culture with you;
*Setup Date:* 06-2016
*Tank:* 60x30x30 (no brand)
*Light:* 2x 15w T8. Selfmade fixture inspired by ADA
*Extra:* Cooling fan from pc to cool in when summer. (I have to say that this works very good!)
*Filtration: *Moving K1 filter
*Heating: *None, I will do that when winter comes.
*Plants: *Elodea and Lemna (Duckweed)
*Fish: *Daphnia and pond snails



 


 


 


 


 


 

Feeding time!
I feed them a mixture of dry yeast and milk. I do the when the water is clear and just enough to make it cloudy. They love it!


 


 


 


 


 

Enjoy


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## Manisha (9 Oct 2016)

You attempted & managed an extremely challenging scape so should be very proud! Your daphnia culture is certainly more reliable & cheaper than my lfs source ☺


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## dw1305 (10 Oct 2016)

Hi all, 





Timon Vogelaar said:


>


If any-one is using the <"Duckweed Index">, that is what really healthy Amazon Frogbit _(Limnobium laevigatum)_ looks like. Mine never looks that good, even after I've added fertiliser.





Timon Vogelaar said:


> I feed them a mixture of dry yeast and milk


Your _Daphnia_ culture looks good, when you feed them on yeast you need to sub-culture them fairly regularly because the cultures are very prone to <"boom and bust">. 

If you add some <"dried grass (hay or straw)"> to the culture it will last a bit longer without sub-culturing. You could also try using <"Gram (Chickpea) flour and paprika"> as an alternative food source. 

cheers Darrel


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