# 'Pot' scape - one WC in 2 months !!!!



## Zeus. (11 Aug 2018)

Hi All

My second tank I picked up cheap a Dennerle Scaper's tank which I have been playing with for some time with different lights and doing mini rescapes. I have planed to total rescape it and have already got the rocks and wood form Aquarium Gardens for it. But decided to experiment a little with it first to find out what will work well with the set up. My 500l litre tank is doing well which was the first planted tank I have done. But felt I needed the experience with something more flexible for plants so I could monitor the effects of flow and depth in the water and light intensity algae and plant growth and different fert regimes. +/- LC

So went  for a Pot scape, with what plants I had with some ADA AS in some pots and gravel in others. Pic says it all, pots didn't cost much at local garden center.






Pic taken 3rd June 2018

started off with EI ferts about 150% dose, lights low and have been increasing slowly well slowlyishadded some RCS which have young ones for next generation ATM 
also been spot dosing LC to some of the plants with algea on them 'ad hoc'

Got back monday from Holiday to





little tidy up and




It does seemed to have turned a corner as the plants have filled in algae wise which is what everybody advises OFC Plant heavy. But never had an issue with big tank, so it was a good learning experience to be getting a minor algae issue which ATM with a better plant mass seems to be resolving it, which confirms the advise Plant Heavy 

Nice to be able to move pots around and see the effect with better flow/CO2/distrubution , light intensity by putting pot higher in the tank, the way it effects the growth algea. Plus can you grow a carpet of HC at the bottom of the tank with your light.

Also makes trimming stems and replanting easy as you can just take the pot out 

Then when your happy you got plenty of plants ready to scape.

Thought it was worth a share and will keep it updated as it progresses and finalise my plant choices.

Do have a Pest snail problem in the tank also 

Zeus


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## zozo (11 Aug 2018)

This pot scape makes me think of those Terracota tubes in different diameters and sizes,
https://www.suncoast-stone.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/clay5.jpg
placed verticaly togehter.. Short pilars in front creating elevated terraces to the back with longer pilars.  The pipe organ scape.. Or whats that British coast line with those vertical rock pilars called again?. Something with giants..


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## Tim Harrison (11 Aug 2018)

Nice idea, and a great way to experiment and gain experience.
As for pest snails...pest is just one consonant away from pet 
TBH, I can't stand molluscs of any kind...eSHa Gastropex has worked for me in the past but I've had to double the dose and dose twice.


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## Zeus. (11 Aug 2018)

Tim Harrison said:


> Gastropex has worked for me in the past



Is that shrimp safe ?


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## Tim Harrison (11 Aug 2018)

Yes, it is if you stick to the recommended dose. Not sure about the effect of higher doses.


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## Zeus. (11 Aug 2018)

Tim Harrison said:


> Yes, it is if you stick to the recommended dose. Not sure about the effect of higher doses.



 Ordered  well if I can clear the snails plants good to use


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## DutchMuch (11 Aug 2018)

*I didnt know you can have pot in an aquarium.*


_Pun intended plz dont murder me._


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## Zeus. (11 Aug 2018)

DutchMuch said:


> *I didnt know you can have pot in an aquarium.*
> 
> 
> _Pun intended plz dont murder me._



Well I was expecting a post about the use of pot and thought it wouldn't take long


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## DutchMuch (11 Aug 2018)

Tim Harrison said:


> Nice idea, and a great way to experiment and gain experience.
> As for pest snails...pest is just one consonant away from pet
> TBH, I can't stand molluscs of any kind...eSHa Gastropex has worked for me in the past but I've had to double the dose and dose twice.


p.s. I wanna see how this works out for you zeus, I also suffer from
pestsnailidis and it can get annoying sometimes when I find they have eaten all of one of my plant sp. overnight 
_kill em all!_


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## Parablennius (11 Aug 2018)

zozo said:


> Or whats that British coast line with those vertical rock pilars called again?. Something with giants..


Giant's causeway, vertical pillars of basalt, I think. Parts of it are in Northern Ireland and there's a pattern piece off the S.W scottish coast if I remember correctly. I've a pic of my Grandparents sat on it.


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## mort (11 Aug 2018)

Parablennius said:


> Giant's causeway, vertical pillars of basalt, I think. Parts of it are in Northern Ireland and there's a pattern piece off the S.W scottish coast if I remember correctly. I've a pic of my Grandparents sat on it.



The Isle of Staffa is where the scottish causeway is. It's where Finn MacCool the irish giant built the causeway to so he could have a scrap with the Scottish giant, or so legend has it.


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## Zeus. (11 Aug 2018)

DutchMuch said:


> p.s. I wanna see how this works out for you zeus, I also suffer from
> pestsnailidis and it can get annoying sometimes when I find they have eaten all of one of my plant sp. overnight
> _kill em all!_



Me too  I also have a  Fluval Spec 19 Litre low tech which I keep spare plants in and I put the low colour quality shrimp in there of and there all wild colours so no loss if I loss them, as I have got the pest snails in there too . If the shrimp die in the process of clearing the snails out can put my nice RCS in there and treat the Pot Tank . Well thats the plan ATM.


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## Zeus. (22 Aug 2018)

Dosed the eSHa Gastropex in my Fluval Spec at recommended dose oce and snails tool a small hit and scrimp was fine

Got impatient did 95%WC and double dosed the eSHa Gastropex and day after third day dose no snails moving in tank, had to knock a few back in as they tried to escape the water level.





Few scrimp in there seems fine  will repeat x2 dose in another 10days, then onto the 'Pot Scape'


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## alto (22 Aug 2018)

scrimp = scud X shrimp hybrid


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## Marc Davis (23 Aug 2018)

Zeus. said:


> Dosed the eSHa Gastropex in my Fluval Spec at recommended dose oce and snails tool a small hit and scrimp was fine
> 
> Got impatient did 95%WC and double dosed the eSHa Gastropex and day after third day dose no snails moving in tank, had to knock a few back in as they tried to escape the water level.
> 
> ...



 Im so sorry that all your snails died. Couldnt think of anything worse. My condolences


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## Zeus. (16 Sep 2018)

Decided to leave the snails in the 50l tank for the time being even added some Ramhorns snails as they are doing such a great job of keeping the algae at bay.

Been really happy with how well the pot scape is doing and great plant growth with some reaching the top of the tank and great colours and healthy stems, then the idea cam to mind with these potted plants, just drop them in my 500l.

So going to be using this tank as the Marine guys do with their 'Frag tanks' for their corals, picked up a few more plants to see how they do also.


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## Lee iley (16 Sep 2018)

Looks ace Zeus nice one. The potted tank is a great idea I might try that I have a spare 200 litre tank in my attic might just stick a load of plants in that in pots and then stick them in my 400 litre tank once they are ready.


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## Nebzu (20 Sep 2018)

People grow plants in pots underwater and I struggle to manage something as simple as basil on the windowsill 
I am so envious. It's beautiful, grats


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## Djoko Sauza (3 Oct 2018)

Any noticeable difference regarding plant growth in Aquasoil vs plain gravel?


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## Zeus. (3 Oct 2018)

Diogo Sousa said:


> Any noticeable difference regarding plant growth in Aquasoil vs plain gravel?



Nope not that I have noticed, but I am dosing EI at 150% plus the AS which is in some of the pots will be doing the buffering via its High CEC so not really a true comparison to a tank with gravel only with EI ferts

put some stems in ceramic rings for weights last week and they seem to be doing fine IMO




Sorry about the GDA on the glass


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## Zeus. (8 Sep 2020)

Still messing with this tank, mainly big trims every so often. I Have noticed the AS does seem to get bunged up with detritus in the pots esp after cutting plants off at substrate level and repeated replanting. Also with my hard water I feel the AS  may of exhausted its CEC ( Cation Exchange Capacity). Plants seems to do equally well without being planted in ASbut may be beniffing for the AS in other pots

So I have a big trim off my 500l coming up and was after some more  Eleocharis acicularis as removing the Riccia from the carpet has depleted the  Eleocharis acicularis as it tends to grow higher in the the carpet of  Lilaeopsis brasiliensis, so the Eleocharis acicularis gets pulled out removing the Riccia,  so the  Lilaeopsis brasiliensis is out competing the Eleocharis acicularis.

So will be needing some Eleocharis acicularis to replanted carpet after massive trim off Lilaeopsis brasiliensis so thought I would get some more in production.

Plus to make things more interesting using an inert substrate, so used some sand in some pots and potting grit in others.





Also ordered some Urea Prills after reading *Dosing with Ammonia and Urea *as having no fish in the tank a low dose of Urea with NO3 might help some off the plants. Not for the faint hearted using Urea.

But will be interesting to see how the  Alternanthera reineckii, Hygrophila pinnatifida and Staurogyne repens do with the changes as they have never done well before.


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## dw1305 (8 Sep 2020)

Hi all, 





Zeus. said:


> Also ordered some Urea Prills..... Not for the faint hearted using Urea.


Certainly isn't. If you didn't mind mucking about with the levels of the other nutrients you could use <"Miracle Gro"> as your urea source. It is <"really cheap"> to buy.

cheers Darrel


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## X3NiTH (8 Sep 2020)

It might be worth checking that the Urea you plan on using is low in Biuret, because the application method (dosing in the water) will be equivalent to foliar feeding in terrestrial crops and that is recommended to have a Biuret content of around 0.3% for safety.

Biuret in Urea Fertilisers


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## Zeus. (8 Sep 2020)

dw1305 said:


> Hi all, Certainly isn't. If you didn't mind mucking about with the levels of the other nutrients you could use <"Miracle Gro"> as your urea source. It is <"really cheap"> to buy.
> 
> cheers Darrel



Never thought about that  and an NPK 24-8-16 I could of worked with that 

already ordered 500grams from ebay Urea 97.5% prills £5.95



X3NiTH said:


> It might be worth checking that the Urea you plan on using is low in Biuret, because the application method (dosing in the water) will be equivalent to foliar feeding in terrestrial crops and that is recommended to have a Biuret content of around 0.3% for safety.
> 
> Biuret in Urea Fertilisers



Cheers M8  it doesn't mention Biuret in the listing so I will keep an eye out for yellowing of the leaves.

Been giving it some thought and I think I should be good for dosing 6-7ppm NO3 with the Urea Prills as that's the equivalent dose the ADA Mighty brighty and Tropica Specialised Nutrition yield weekly


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## LondonDragon (8 Sep 2020)

Looks to me like a Potty Dutch


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## Luketendo (9 Sep 2020)

Yeah interestingly the N source in the ADA Fert is urea as well.


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## dw1305 (9 Sep 2020)

Hi all, 





Zeus. said:


> with the Urea Prills


The actual prills may be physically quite large. It depends on the spreader they are intended for.





Zeus. said:


> 500grams from ebay Urea 97.5% prills £5.95


Should be all right, I'd probably try and avoid the really cheap ones sold for de-icing, for the reason @X3NiTH mentions.

cheers Darrel


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## Zeus. (9 Sep 2020)

dw1305 said:


> The actual prills may be physically quite large. It depends on the spreader they are intended for.



Think their large size may come in handy, count out 100 weigh them, mass per unit work out the yield for given tank then maybe one prill on macro day or one prill dissolve in 100ml water add say 15ml on macro day. Gives an easy way to see how the plants/inmates respond without making up 500ml of macros, plus easy to stop


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## zozo (9 Sep 2020)

This scape brings back distant memories...  In my very first community aquarium in the 1970s, housed a couple of Kribs and used an upside-down Terracotta pot i nibbled an extra hole in, for them to enter and make a nest. And they did rather soon have babies.

I don't know why I never had Kribs again because it was the most beautiful play I've ever observed.   Mommy bringing babies back into the pot at nightfall and the little rascals escape again trough to hole in the roof keeping mommy bussy. 🥰

Can't help seeing Kribs in this pot scape...


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## dcurzon (9 Sep 2020)

love this potscape  

What size ceramic rings did you find for the stems?


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## Zeus. (9 Sep 2020)

dcurzon said:


> What size ceramic rings did you find for the stems?



I got them with the Fluval FX6 filter on biggertank plus ordered some off ebay


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## Zeus. (11 Sep 2020)

Urea turned up today





the Prills wasnt as uniform I as hoped




So scrapped the counting idea.

Did the maths for my 50l tank (just happened to have a handy calculator to do it on )





So weighed out 4.0 grams and added 100 ml of RO water wait 10 minutes till dissolved, quick stir then dosed 1ml to 50l tank.

dose x3 week  to yield 1.14 ppm N or 5.01 ppm NO3


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## jaypeecee (4 Dec 2020)

Hi @Zeus. 

You may want to take a look at the following:

Aquarium Plant Fertilizers - Sources of Nitrogen

I have also been considering urea prills. As with most things, there's more to these than meets the eye!

JPC


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## Zeus. (4 Dec 2020)

jaypeecee said:


> Hi @Zeus.
> 
> You may want to take a look at the following:
> 
> ...


I have been following it but been too busy to post , we do have quite a few Urea and ammonium salts in the new IFC Aquarium Fertilizer Calculator - just released today


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## Hanuman (5 Dec 2020)

Zeus. said:


> Cheers M8  it doesn't mention Biuret in the listing so I will keep an eye out for yellowing of the leaves.


Late to the party but here is my go. I have read that all Urea will contain Biuret. That's due to the manufacturing process. No way around that. This said depending on how it was manufactured, levels of Biuret will vary, so yours will contain some.


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## Zeus. (6 Jul 2021)

Been some time since I updated this 'experimental/practice' tank/journal, but learning lots from it.

Moved just over two months ago, which was a trying time moving everything all my tanks and one being 500l. To make things worse I injured myself and could hardy walk, been slowly getting better. But as a consequence tank maintenance went out the window and had to do the plumbing to mix the water. Both tanks have suffered esp the 'Pot' scape with it being high tech, I converted the 500l to low tach before the move.
last night was the fist clean in two months and tanks had had a WC about 4 weeks ago, it wasn't looking good at all and the 500L filter was making burping noises  so was producing some gases and didn't sound healthy at all.







The tank had RCS, Ramshorns and MTS. None of the RCS survived 😨 in the Pot scape and never seen the filter sponges so dirty. It was pretty shameful. Had sons spare 60l tank handy which made the process much easier. put all plants in 60L cleaned tank in garden cleaned filters, trimmed plants and fill it all.



The 500l had plenty of RCS so thought clean the filter and resolve the loss.

Thought wrong big time, no RCS in FX6 filter and sponges dirty beyond belief. It was gone 1.00am when I got done.

The 500l tank still had plenty of RCS so when I feed them tonight scooped about 50 out to replenish the 50l.

The moral of the story/post Water Changes (WC) are critical esp in high tech tanks, if they do't happen you your tanks livestock will suffer. The plants may look fine but I am sure they paid the price as well.


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