# 70 Gallon Buce tank



## plantbrain (26 Jul 2013)

Freshly planted with all Buce's:
Notes: I have had some Buce;s that have thrived in here regardless of the abuses and other things I've done, mostly due to a lot of Amano shrimp.

Few folks have done larger all Buce tanks, I've not seen any with rock like Iwagumi style displays, nor wood used in such a fashion, so it's a non typical style/scape.

Few water changes, very clear water, dosing roughly 1/3 EI, basically maybe 1-2x a week dosing and a little traces.
CO2 is pretty high, but the plant's demand is low also.
There is not heater in this tank.
I removed the lava rock faux ADA powersand, it did nothing and started to come up through the ADA after a year or so. Added some old ADA AS to replace the volume.
Bushy nose and Amano's right now.
Might add some CRS, but likely lower grades and after the plants grow in more. This will give the fry some place to hide. I have SS mesh over the overflow and will change the return pipe to a glass elbow I have in the works.
This tank is darker, but open and brightly lit. Adding a bright colored shrimp will look nice against the Buce's. Not sure if I'll add fish really.
No heater on the tank, runs about 75-77F in the summer, maybe 70-74F in the winter. My 60p ADA will also lack a heater.


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## Iain Sutherland (26 Jul 2013)

Live the idea of this Tom, Buce's have a great variation of textures and colours.
It looks like they are planted though, I was under the impression that the rhizomes melt if planted? 
The 3 varieties I have all tend to flower at the same time, that would be quite a sight in this one.


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## sanj (26 Jul 2013)

The  price must have come down for you Tom or you just couldnt resist? 

I keep a few varieties, but I find they do get green spot algae in a similar manner to Anubias.


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## BigTom (26 Jul 2013)

sanj said:


> The price must have come down for you Tom or you just couldnt resist?
> 
> I keep a few varieties, but I find they do get green spot algae in a similar manner to Anubias.


 

Knowing how canny Tom is I'd guess that tank will be making it's money back every month in a little while. Really wish Buce's were more available and cheaper here. I think Tropica gave up on them, didn't they?

I anticipate extreme jealousy on my part once this tnak grows in!


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## sanj (26 Jul 2013)

I had no idea about Tropica and Bucephalandra. That is a shame. Any ideas?

I think Tomek "Vasteq" mentioned some time ago on one of the forums that he uses citric acid(?) to clean the Green spot algae off the leaves from time to time?

Anyway this tank will look amazing, it would be interesting to see how the plants grow and whether they experiance any issues.


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## plantbrain (26 Jul 2013)

Iain Sutherland said:


> Live the idea of this Tom, Buce's have a great variation of textures and colours.
> It looks like they are planted though, I was under the impression that the rhizomes melt if planted?
> The 3 varieties I have all tend to flower at the same time, that would be quite a sight in this one.


 

This is a myth, the rhizomes do not melt, they grow and root.


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## plantbrain (26 Jul 2013)

sanj said:


> The price must have come down for you Tom or you just couldnt resist?
> 
> I keep a few varieties, but I find they do get green spot algae in a similar manner to Anubias.


 

This tank has had very high resistance to GSA and other slower growing algae species.
It was not cheap, but I had a lot of of them prior in emergent growth also.

But I like this group and for this tank and my own interest, this was a good choice.
*This tank will really bloom and look very nice over the coming months/years*.
It is a tank based on patience and high quality. A very low energy tank, but not as boring to me as the dwarf Belem hairgrass. I can pick and arrange things in this tank. More eclectic.

I do not: dose much, few water changes, little cleaning with the present algae crew, use less light etc.
I have a 120 Gal dutch tank if I feel the need to do a lot of gardening.
I can trim and pull production crops from this tank, whereas the hairgrass, well, not that much.


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## Ian Holdich (26 Jul 2013)

Nice textures mate, I agree with Tom, I have the best growth from bucephalandra that was planted in the substrate.


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## tim (26 Jul 2013)

Fabulous Tom, enough buces to make anyone envious. Still love this layout with the manzi burls. One to follow for sure.


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## plantbrain (27 Jul 2013)

Well, taller plants will detract from the nice burl wood, so.....I did not want something too tall, the variety of Buce is among the smallest type, so they will make a nice carpet.
I have a few others in the rear and in the upper gallery, but I might go for 95% or more a single species.
Some of blue colors and the darker pretty shades are nice, so I hope to be able to use them effectively in scaping.

This is not about envy, it's about a plant that is slow growing like Anubias, which I've worked a whole lot over the years with already, darker colors, and a plant not aquascaped with much except with small to tiny tanks.
It's a slow growth tank, but still fun and a little bit modular, but with some constraints.

It really has done VERY well since I removed all the other stuff and went this direction.
I'm a bit amazed at how little algae and care it requires. But the CO2 is rocking good, light is at 50% for the peak, which is about 5% full light in a forest canopy. While this is high light for planted tanks, this species is exposed to this amount in nature. The CO2 adds to it, and the ferts are likely similar.


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## plantbrain (6 Sep 2013)

Hardly done much, plants have grown significantly, added some stumps from the White Anubias on one side, they should do very well in here also. 
I wanted to use higher light if possible to see how well these species do and if they get attacked by GSA. So far, no. They could easily grow with 1/2 the light, but at a slower pace.

I might do that later, but for now, while the new growth comes in, I'm okay with this.


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## flygja (11 Sep 2013)

So you have more time for the grill outside


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## plantbrain (11 Sep 2013)

flygja said:


> So you have more time for the grill outside


 

I already do 99% of the cooking in my house. When it's 40C here, cooking inside is not fun.


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## plantbrain (8 Oct 2013)




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## plantbrain (8 Oct 2013)

Compare the 1st pic and this one above. A lot more growth than I thought.


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## foxfish (8 Oct 2013)

Oooh yes looking nice! I would like some....


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## Nathaniel Whiteside (8 Oct 2013)

plantbrain said:


> Compare the 1st pic and this one above. A lot more growth than I thought.



It gives a striking impression, almost very sharp in terms of contrast and texture.

Nice, tom.


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## aliclarke86 (8 Oct 2013)

I'm with foxfish
........
Try get these in the UK ha

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## tim (8 Oct 2013)

That's some growth over 3 months for a slow growing plant Tom, looks fabulous


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## foxfish (8 Oct 2013)

tim said:


> That's some growth over 3 months for a slow growing plant Tom, looks fabulous


 Hey Tom, could you stick a post up here Just how much C02 do you use! | UK Aquatic Plant Society


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## plantbrain (9 Oct 2013)

I use mls/5 minute, not bubbles/sec, which are worthless units.


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## flygja (9 Oct 2013)

How would you measure that?


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## aliclarke86 (9 Oct 2013)

Is propagation of bucephalandra similar to anubias?

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## plantbrain (9 Oct 2013)

flygja said:


> How would you measure that?


 

Take a cooking measuring cup, invert under water, remove all the air, then take the CO2 line and bubble the gas into the inverted container. Measure the total volume of gas collected after say 300 sec/5min.

This is golden, it will be the same standardized measure no matter WHAT, for anyone, anywhere and you can convert to mls/sec or min or 5 min or 1 hour or estimate how long the gas tank will last for you aquarium.
You cannot do this for bubbles per second. It's also very simple and FREE. If you make any changes to the CO2 system, replace or upgrade, resetting the flow rate is VERY easy using this method and is far better than per sec.


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## plantbrain (9 Oct 2013)

aliclarke86 said:


> Is propagation of bucephalandra similar to anubias?
> 
> Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk 4


 

Yes, essentially the same.


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## Nathaniel Whiteside (9 Oct 2013)

plantbrain said:


> Take a cooking measuring cup, invert under water, remove all the air, then take the CO2 line and bubble the gas into the inverted container. Measure the total volume of gas collected after say 300 sec/5min.
> 
> This is golden, it will be the same standardized measure no matter WHAT, for anyone, anywhere and you can convert to mls/sec or min or 5 min or 1 hour or estimate how long the gas tank will last for you aquarium.
> You cannot do this for bubbles per second. It's also very simple and FREE. If you make any changes to the CO2 system, replace or upgrade, resetting the flow rate is VERY easy using this method and is far better than per sec.



Excellent tip sir! Thanks


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## plantbrain (1 Feb 2014)




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## plantbrain (1 Feb 2014)

foxfish said:


> Hey Tom, could you stick a post up here Just how much C02 do you use! | UK Aquatic Plant Society


 

See comments on using an inverted measuring cup, this should make standardization of the units world wide the same and it's cheaper and easier than any other method. 
Much better than bubbles second that ADA suggested or pH or anything else actually.


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## Bellaaquatics (1 Feb 2014)

What kind of filter are you using? I've never seen one like that

BTW, nice collection of bucephalandra there


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## aliclarke86 (1 Feb 2014)

Wow 6 months has been very good to this one 

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## plantbrain (2 Feb 2014)




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## LondonDragon (2 Feb 2014)

Buce paradise!! cracking Tom


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## CreepyCobra (28 Feb 2016)

Hi everyone, new to this forum. I'm from California and about 6 months into the aquascaping culture. Of course, I'm infatuated with it at this point. I ran across a thread where someone was selling Buce. Still kinda hard to come by here, so very little information is available. 

I'm about to put together an all Buce and moss tank. 22g Long Mr. Aqua. with a 6500k-756 Lumens Plant LED, fluval stratum, and Seiryu Stones. I can definitely throw in line co2, and will be dosing with GreenLeafAquarium PPS-Pro Fertilizer Package. 

This will be my first time using Buce, but look forward to having my tank look as awesome as the OP's. Any tips, guides or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

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## EdwinK (28 Feb 2016)

My only advice is to try and see. From my point of view it's a big myth that Bucephalandra is a difficult plant.


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## rebel (29 Feb 2016)

EdwinK said:


> My only advice is to try and see. From my point of view it's a big myth that Bucephalandra is a difficult plant.


I agree. The difficulty is to keep off GSA while giving them medium light.


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## mr. luke (11 Mar 2016)

Buce will grow in ambient room light so no need to go too high on the light


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