# Frankenstein



## Courtneybst (10 Apr 2021)

The cat is out of the bag!

So I'm setting up another scape, this time a nano. I was planning to do this at a leisurely pace but when I realised I needed to rescue some cherry shrimp from my main tank I hit fast forward. And c'mon, does anyone _*really*_ need an excuse to set up another scape?!

It's a bit of a Frankenstein tank as it's a mashup of very old jerry rigs and brand new spanks and they've just collided beautifully like a supernova. I've also never done a high energy nano so this is more skill building for me.

I also completely clowned myself into thinking this was going to be an iwagumi. I should know better that I just love plants too much to choose just one! I kept the iwagumi layout but it'll have a nature/jungle/dutch vibe (we hope).

*Tank*: Dismantled Superfish Home 25
*Filter*: Oase Filtosmart Thermo 100
*Light*: Chihiros C2 RGB
*CO2*: 2KG Fire Extinguisher
*Hardscape*: Galapagos Rock
*Substrate*: Tropica Substrate, Alfagrog, Cal Aqua Labs Black Earth Premium, Fluval Stratum


----------



## shangman (10 Apr 2021)

Courtneybst said:


> I was planning to do this at a leisurely pace but when I realised I needed to rescue some cherry shrimp from my main tank I hit fast forward.


Whoops! Wonder if the you-know-whos had anything to do with that? 👀😂

This looks lovely already, really like that rock and how it matches the soil. Can I ask where you got it? 

Love that you've gone from lowtech to two hightech tanks rather quickly!


----------



## Courtneybst (10 Apr 2021)

shangman said:


> Whoops! Wonder if the you-know-whos had anything to do with that? 👀😂
> 
> This looks lovely already, really like that rock and how it matches the soil. Can I ask where you got it?
> 
> Love that you've gone from lowtech to two hightech tanks rather quickly!


They definitely did! 😅

Thank you! I always thought the rock was blue but I realised I just had it under crappy LEDs. I bought it from Maidenhead Aquatics years ago, I just picked up something nice looking lol.

I got hooked on the lush growth. I even kept some of the floating plants that were in the container and you can clearly see the difference between the ones that have had good light and CO2 vs the windowsill ones.


----------



## shangman (10 Apr 2021)

On the upside, if you ever have cull shrimp you know what to do with them! 😂

I think I did see something similar in a Maidenhead a few months ago, I really like how natural it looks, was thinking of using it in my pond tank to mimic soil/clay banks. Looking forward to waht you do with this one, do you have a plant list yet?

Aw man, that sweet, sweet lush growth, I can't wait to try it!! Can I ask where you got your fire extinguishers/CO2 tanks from? Wondering if it's local.

Good that those floaters are doing so well, lovely shades of green. Sorry for the greenfly, they are the BANE OF MY LIFE!! I chucked a 2L jug full of floating plants today that covered the 180L to try to get rid of them, now squishing every tiny one I see. The apistos don't even eat them, and they're usually so greedy! If at some point you want extra of that fancy salvinia sans flies I've got a few bits in another tank that are greenfly free I'm growing out, luckily that plant grows crazily quickly.


----------



## Courtneybst (10 Apr 2021)

shangman said:


> On the upside, if you ever have cull shrimp you know what to do with them! 😂
> 
> I think I did see something similar in a Maidenhead a few months ago, I really like how natural it looks, was thinking of using it in my pond tank to mimic soil/clay banks. Looking forward to waht you do with this one, do you have a plant list yet?
> 
> ...


Indeed! Plants should be:
Monte Carlo
Marsilea Hirsuta
Hydrocotyle Tripartita (stealing from the main tank)
Eleocharis Acicularis (stealing from the main tank)
Ludwigia Super Red (stealing from the main tank)
Cryptocoryne Albida Brown
Hydrocotyle Tripartita
Bucephalandra Kedagang
Rotala H'ra
Pearlweed
Lindernia Rotundifolia (hard maybe - stealing from the main tank)

Don't ask me how I'm going to fit all of it in haha, some might have to get relegated. The space is smaller than it appears. I got the FE from eBay, I can PM you the link unless others want to know too. Made friends with a place in Morden that will do cheap refills.

The greenflies don't seem to have caused any issues with me but I have to say I'm surprised they're surviving in a closed top tank, almost submerged a plastic breeding box. I find that you don't noticed its really growing, just one day you're like oh its covering the whole surface.


----------



## Kogre (12 Apr 2021)

I like the layout of the rocks, already looks great. Having said that, I can't wait to see the transformation once it's planted. A great backbone to work on.


----------



## Courtneybst (12 Apr 2021)

Kogre said:


> I like the layout of the rocks, already looks great. Having said that, I can't wait to see the transformation once it's planted. A great backbone to work on.


Thanks Kogre!


----------



## Courtneybst (14 Apr 2021)

Scape Day!

Today was full on! Woke up earlier than I have in probably a year to beat the traffic and get a new FE. I'm running a 2KG on this so as long as there's no leaks or faults it should last ages. Speaking of faults... I've had to temporarily use some old Tropica Plant Growth System CO2 tubing as my new check valve was faulty. I won't name and shame 😅. I'm using the new style Twinstar diffuser which I think is now replacing the old style entirely.

Fitted the lily pipes and man they really do just melt into the scape, its a shame I can't use glass ones on my main tank. If you know me in person you'll know that I'm incredibly bougie 😂 and so of course I drilled holes into the "stand" so the filter pipes and CO2 tubing runs straight down into it. There's probably only 8" of completely straight filter tubing. It looks incredibly clean and there's surprisingly enough wiggle room to disconnect the pipes to clean the filter. The flow is a bit strong and there's not really enough room to fit a tap so I'll see how it goes and maybe I'll need to get a poppy. Time will tell.

I got an ADA garden mat and the feeling of it is so satisfying, it's hard to explain. As well as the tubing, it's the only ADA products I've ever owned so I'm intrigued now...

Plants are all in and it is TIGHT. There is virtually no ground uncovered. The stratum has a relatively large grain size so you can't get too precise but it held much better than when I tried years ago. I was also winging on here to another user about not being able to get Rotala Blood Red for less than £30 imported. Well my prayers were answered because a few hours later I managed to bag some!

I've gone with a totally mixed carpet; Monte Carlo, Marsilea Hirsuta, Dwarf Hairgrass and Hydrocotyle Verticillata. I've also mixed the stems in the back and will continue to do so as they (hopefully) grow. In the back there's; Pearlweed, Rotala H'ra, Rotala Blood Red and Ludwigia Super Red. The middle ground is; Hydrocotyle Tripartita, Cryptocoryne Albida Brown and Bucephalandra Kedagang. It's a complete mashup of in vitro, potted and trimmings so it looks odd right now.

Rotala has never done well for me but also I've never had a setup like this so I'm hopeful! I'm also dosing TNC Complete on this, not sure of the dosing yet but I'm starting with 1ml per day as everything has just been setup.

Thanks to @Aquarium Gardens  and @Horizon Aquatics  for the great supply/service as always.

Thoughts and prayers?


----------



## Kogre (14 Apr 2021)

Absolutely beautiful! Good work mate. Looking forward to seeing this grown in. Good work though on plant choices and layout. I personally think it looks amazing already.


----------



## Courtneybst (14 Apr 2021)

Kogre said:


> Absolutely beautiful! Good work mate. Looking forward to seeing this grown in. Good work though on plant choices and layout. I personally think it looks amazing already.


Thanks mate, I appreciate that! To think this was sat in the garage for over a year because I was planning to throw it out. 🙃


----------



## Kogre (14 Apr 2021)

That's a pretty crazy thought. You did well to work it to its current  aesthetic layout. Nice turnaround mate.


----------



## LondonDragon (14 Apr 2021)

You are now officially diagnosed with MTS! congrats on the new scape looking good


----------



## Courtneybst (14 Apr 2021)

LondonDragon said:


> You are now officially diagnosed with MTS! congrats on the new scape looking good


Thanks mate! Oh I was diagnosed a long time ago! At one point I had 4 on the go in one room. This is me being tame haha.


----------



## shangman (15 Apr 2021)

Looks awesome!! Love the drilled holes so it's nice and clean. Love the mix of plants and the colours, will look lovely with the shrimp. 😍


----------



## Courtneybst (22 Apr 2021)

So it's been a week since I set this up and things are going good.

Monte Carlo is looking very um...straggly but it's bouncing back slowly. Lots of the leaves melted but you can see fresh green shoots. Similar story for the other foreground plants, none of them melted but they're showing new growth.
The Hydrocotyle also melted back *hard*, probably worse than the Monte Carlo _but _it's grown many new leaves and is starting to look in good shape. Same story for the Pearlweed, some melt but also plenty new growth.
The Ludwigia is doing grand, showing off as usual with no struggles. 
The Rotala is very interesting. Both are growing but the H'Ra is very narrow looking and growing straight up. The Blood Red is making lots of side shoots and aerial roots but is arcing over heavily.
The Buce and Crypt are being their beautiful selves. I wish I bought Cryptocoryne Albida Brown sooner because the colour and leaf form on the plant is stunning.
I've adjusted the lighting configuration so the colour is more appealing to me; currently 55% R, 35% G, 55% B.


----------



## Welearn (22 Apr 2021)

Stunning mate taking shape, have you up the blues 55% because on ours we have ramped up the whites to 75% and the blues to full and started now to 8 hours. Also we have added some rotala indica bonsai and is doing ok no mmore melt yet. Hydrocotyle doing well too. What I think about yours is its focal point straight away it draws you to the rock formation. Love it mate what does MTS stand for ?


----------



## Courtneybst (22 Apr 2021)

Welearn said:


> Stunning mate taking shape, have you up the blues 55% because on ours we have ramped up the whites to 75% and the blues to full and started now to 8 hours. Also we have added some rotala indica bonsai and is doing ok no mmore melt yet. Hydrocotyle doing well too. What I think about yours is its focal point straight away it draws you to the rock formation. Love it mate what does MTS stand for ?


Cheers mate, I don't actually have whites on my light unit, or if I do it's not configurable. I've just kept it low whilst things settle in to keep algae at bay. I turned it to this setting because ironically when I had the green on higher it made the leaves look kind of washed out. Still on 6 hours myself, with 30 minute ramp up/down.

MTS is Multi Tank Syndrome, it's highly contagious and you don't have any symptoms until it's too late.


----------



## Karmicnull (22 Apr 2021)

Courtneybst said:


> MTS is Multi Tank Syndrome, it's highly contagious and you don't have any symptoms until it's too late.


What's worse is you can catch it off this forum if you're not careful.


----------



## Courtneybst (30 Apr 2021)

I really like how this scape is taking shape.
Some interesting observations;

Rotala Blood Red seems to be colouring up a lot more than the H'Ra. The H'Ra is pretty much still green with pink under the leaves but I wonder if this is because it was from an in vitro cup and the plant isn't mature. I just thought it was interesting considering I'm not nitrate limiting at all. It did mention on 2hr Aquarist that it doesn't appear to require as much nitrate limitation to colour up. Still being realistic, it's not going to turn blood red in this setup.
If you give Hydrocotyle Verticillata desirable conditions to grow it actually grows pretty fast. Who'd have thought? 😂
I thought I read that Marsilea Hirsuta grows single lobed leaves in its submerged state? These ones are growing anywhere from 1 lobe to 4!
Bits of Monte Carlo are still breaking off and I've trimmed it to encourage some lateral growth. I think I might have to be patient with it, the larger grain stratum doesn't help. Next time I will 100% use a powder grain, even if it's just on top.


----------



## Deano3 (30 Apr 2021)

This tank looks great got to love a nano then stems filling in nicely and montecarlo is one you will have to wait hopefully growns back great  stunning nano mate

Sent from my SM-G970F using Tapatalk


----------



## Courtneybst (30 Apr 2021)

Deano3 said:


> This tank looks great got to love a nano then stems filling in nicely and montecarlo is one you will have to wait hopefully growns back great  stunning nano mate
> 
> Sent from my SM-G970F using Tapatalk


Cheers Deano, yeah it definitively is a waiting game!


----------



## shangman (1 May 2021)

Looks great, seems like everything is growing in beautifully, can't wait to see more shots of it!! Very intrigued by what colours you'll get with the rotala blood red without the effort of nitrate fiddling.


----------



## Ash_bash (5 May 2021)

Looking Great, can't wait to see this matured, where did you manage to get some blood red from? Been after it for ages!


----------



## PARAGUAY (5 May 2021)

Great tank


----------



## Courtneybst (5 May 2021)

Ash_bash said:


> Looking Great, can't wait to see this matured, where did you manage to get some blood red from? Been after it for ages!


Thanks Ash, likewise! 

I got the blood red off eBay but the seller appears to have stopped selling it. If they don't restock I can put some cuttings up when it gets bushy enough. 🙂 Mind you, they'll be small because the tank is tiny haha. 

One thing I've noticed though is that Dennis Wong was right, even without nitrate limitation the plant is turning pink and my H'Ra looks green/orange at best. Even pictures don't show it properly.


----------



## Courtneybst (5 May 2021)

PARAGUAY said:


> Great tank


Thanks dude!


----------



## Kogre (5 May 2021)

Courtneybst said:


> ... my H'Ra looks green/orange at best. Even pictures don't show it properly.


My ludwigia is doing the same thing.  Really difficult to capture on camera.  I've read that this is due to light intensity, at least for the ludwigia.  I imagine as it grows taller and receives more PAR it's likely to deepen in the uppermost leaves.


----------



## Courtneybst (5 May 2021)

Kogre said:


> My ludwigia is doing the same thing.  Really difficult to capture on camera.  I've read that this is due to light intensity, at least for the ludwigia.  I imagine as it grows taller and receives more PAR it's likely to deepen in the uppermost leaves.


I agree, although I wish I had a par meter to get a bloody reading lol. I'm basically having to take a holistic approach to lighting.


----------



## Courtneybst (13 May 2021)

At the *1 month* mark now.

I've had some drama with my CO2 equipment which has contributed to fluctuating CO2 levels. It seems to be all sorted now but stability is pending. Some staghorn has appeared in the hairgrass and Bucephalandra only. I can understand the Buce because it's a slow grower, up higher and in a decent flow path but the hairgrass is growing so I don't get that. Either way I'll do some spot dosing, water changes and I've added some floating plants.

In the last few weeks diatoms have covered the rocks but I've decided not to remove it. I like the aged look it gives and it covers up some of the blueish parts of the rocks.

The stems all seem to be doing well and have already had one major trim which instantly made it more bushy. Some of the plants took a 'pause' and some of the Rotala even turned white at the tips; I realised I was underdosing on fertiliser big time so I've increased it to 5ml daily and everything is chugging away again. I do wonder if that's why the Rotala was having an easier time turning orange... The Monte Carlo is also actively growing now and the Marsilea is going bananas!

Overall I'm happy with how things are going. Despite the slightly rocky beginnings, one of the cherry shrimp is berried! My only concern is the substrate. The grain size is quite large and so detritus is falling down between it and lots of different bugs have appeared, like all kinds. The monte carlo is not anchored enough to do a gravel vacuum either so I'll keep an eye on that. Also had one cherry shrimp skydive out of the tank to its death.


----------



## Kogre (13 May 2021)

That is looking stunning. I agree about the diatoms giving the rocks an aged feel.

Regarding the staghorn, I think I have some in both areas of decent flow and low flow, with it appearing on the slowest growing leaves or on any damages leaves (like on the S Repens where some of it began to melt). I've considered trimming these leaves but am not sure whether I'll be doing any good and may need to suck it up and see what happens in the long run. I'll keep an eye on this thread to see how your treatment of it goes and may follow suit as it's preferable to trimming unless the leaves are on their way out anyway.


----------



## Courtneybst (13 May 2021)

Kogre said:


> That is looking stunning. I agree about the diatoms giving the rocks an aged feel.
> 
> Regarding the staghorn, I think I have some in both areas of decent flow and low flow, with it appearing on the slowest growing leaves or on any damages leaves (like on the S Repens where some of it began to melt). I've considered trimming these leaves but am not sure whether I'll be doing any good and may need to suck it up and see what happens in the long run. I'll keep an eye on this thread to see how your treatment of it goes and may follow suit as it's preferable to trimming unless the leaves are on their way out anyway.


Thank you Kogre! 

Yeah I'd much prefer to try and get rid of it than remove the leaves since Kedagang is such a slow grower. We shall see!


----------



## shangman (13 May 2021)

Courtneybst said:


> Thank you Kogre!
> 
> Yeah I'd much prefer to try and get rid of it than remove the leaves since Kedagang is such a slow grower. We shall see!


I had shedloads of staghorn on my buces after I did a blackout to get rid of spyrogira, 3 days of spot dosing with liquid carbon with the filter off for 10 mins fully did the trick, with buces totally fine after.

It's looking awesome, I love the rocks, algae on rocks def gives them that extra bit of drama. Looking forward to seeing it in another month now your big issues are sorted out!! 😍


----------



## Courtneybst (13 May 2021)

shangman said:


> I had shedloads of staghorn on my buces after I did a blackout to get rid of spyrogira, 3 days of spot dosing with liquid carbon with the filter off for 10 mins fully did the trick, with buces totally fine after.
> 
> It's looking awesome, I love the rocks, algae on rocks def gives them that extra bit of drama. Looking forward to seeing it in another month now your big issues are sorted out!! 😍


Oh thanks! That's actually good to know. I was holding off spot dosing it because I wasn't sure how sensitive buce was to glut. I'll give that a go.


----------



## Courtneybst (15 May 2021)

I wanted to upload these pictures so they were in the journal at the right time and not months later sitting in my camera roll lol. I'm re-learning how to use my DSLR after not picking it up for about 5 years. Also had to compress them quite a bit to upload so hopefully it still looks half-decent on your end! 👍

Thanks for looking. 🤓


----------



## Courtneybst (16 May 2021)

So I've run into an issue...

I had 3 shrimp die in the last week and I couldn't understand why. At first I thought I was changing the water too frequently. Then I tested my water... I've never seen nitrates that high. 😳 I think it's because I majorly increased my dose of TNC Complete from 1ml per day to 5ml.

Problem is, now that the nitrates are high, the foreground plants have stopped stunting and are growing well. However, I obviously don't want to kill my shrimp so I need to find a sweet spot between nourishing the plants and keeping the shrimp healthy.

I think I should go back to 1ml per day? It equates to 7ml per week which is almost 3x the recommended dose on the bottle. What are your thoughts?

Edit: Come to think of it, everything was probably in excess. I think I'll try reducing it (1.5ml per day - 10ml per week) Going by Rotala Butterfly.


----------



## Karmicnull (16 May 2021)

Seems sensible - if 1ml isn't enough for the plants and 5ml is too much for the shrimp then try half-way (2.5ml) and see if that works.  Or work your way up 0.5 ml at a time until you see a response from the plants.


----------



## Courtneybst (16 May 2021)

Karmicnull said:


> Or work your way up 0.5 ml at a time until you see a response from the plants.


Yeah I'm thinking this. 

Thanks!


----------



## noodlesuk (16 May 2021)

Wow, this look great, love the look of that rock. I like the softer lines it has, seems to be a trend to more dramatic, harsh sharp rocks, but this is beautiful and works well with your scape.  Such lush growth too!

I bought some similar rock, so if anyone is after it, try









						Galapagos Rock per KG
					

Porous mostly dark rocks, like the rough cliffs in Galapagos. The porous surface is good for placing plants on. For characterful, rough layouts. We




					www.aquariumgardens.co.uk


----------



## Courtneybst (16 May 2021)

noodlesuk said:


> Wow, this look great, love the look of that rock. I like the softer lines it has, seems to be a trend to more dramatic, harsh sharp rocks, but this is beautiful and works well with your scape.  Such lush growth too!
> 
> I bought some similar rock, so if anyone is after it, try
> 
> https://www.aquariumgardens.co.uk/gal



[QUOTE="noodlesuk, post: 648536, member: 20076"]
apagos-rock-per-kg-2519-p.asp[/QUOTE]Thank you very much! Much appreciated 🙂

I love the rocks too, I didn't even know what they were when I bought them lol. The shop has since closed down too.


----------



## Courtneybst (24 May 2021)

The war on staghorn has begun!

I've been doing some more water changes, siphoning out the stratum which traps a lot of waste. Also dosing some easy carbo and tomorrow I'll clean the filter. At some point I'm thinking to take some Amano shrimp from my other tank too.

It's interesting how much more difficult the nano has been to balance compared to my big tank. I know big tanks succumb to less fluctuations but damn.

The algae is not going to win though!


----------



## noodlesuk (24 May 2021)

Courtneybst said:


> I wanted to upload these pictures so they were in the journal at the right time and not months later sitting in my camera roll lol. I'm re-learning how to use my DSLR after not picking it up for about 5 years. Also had to compress them quite a bit to upload so hopefully it still looks half-decent on your end! 👍
> 
> Thanks for looking. 🤓
> 
> View attachment 168834View attachment 168835View attachment 168836View attachment 168837View attachment 168838


Really stunning pictures, what camera/lighting setup do you use?


----------



## Courtneybst (24 May 2021)

noodlesuk said:


> Really stunning pictures, what camera/lighting setup do you use?


Thank you noodles! For the majority of the pictures I use my iPhone 12 but the most recent string of photos were taken with a Nikon D3200. Really basic entry-level camera.

I don't use any supplemental lighting though.


----------



## Courtneybst (6 Jun 2021)

Things are on the up...

I seem to be winning the war against staghorn algae! Whilst it's not gone it doesn't appear to be actively growing and if it is growing then it's doing so at a snail's pace. Some of the things I did was;

Remove the Purigen pouch which has increased the flow quite considerably but I've fitted a tap into the pipes so it's not a tornado and just gently blows the leaves.
Cut out as much staghorn as possible. There's more in the back from the original stems which I should have done already but I'll do that on the next maintenance.
Started double dosing liquid carbon to spot treat the affected areas.
Increased my CO2 slightly.
Kept my fertiliser consistent.
I didn't reduce my lighting intensity. I actually increased it but moved it slightly higher to get a better spread and the plants seem to be happy for it. The Monte Carlo is finally growing quickly and healthy to compete with the Marsilea.
Cleaned the rocks somewhat as although I liked the look I realised that the algae on it was dying and probably contributing to DOC which wouldn't be helping the m situation.
Aside from the algae, the female cherry shrimp gave birth to the shrimplets in the last few days and survived her slightly worrying molt just fine. There's also 2 Amano shrimp in there which ironically are a lot more calm in this tank. Active but calmer, maybe because there's no females.

I'm a bit conflicted on whether I should let my background stems grow emersed or trim them back. On one side I like the sculpted look but I also like the emersed growth. I was thinking maybe to wait until the shrimplets were a bit more visible and then trim it? So I don't accidently scoop any out.


----------



## Welearn (6 Jun 2021)

Hi Mate,looking great is this. Love the Monte Carlo!! How green it's looks 👌 Hope you manage to finally overcome the staghorn Algae!! Your background plants let um grow, do you keep to the whites on your lights? Or do you mix it .


----------



## Courtneybst (6 Jun 2021)

Welearn said:


> Hi Mate,looking great is this. Love the Monte Carlo!! How green it's looks 👌 Hope you manage to finally overcome the staghorn Algae!! Your background plants let um grow, do you keep to the whites on your lights? Or do you mix it .


Thanks mate, I'm glad it's finally growing well. Yeah that staghorn is definitely backing down.

There isn't actually a white option on these lights, just RGB. Is that what you meant?


----------



## Welearn (6 Jun 2021)

_Hi mate, could you explain to me what RGB is ? 
On our superfish 45 I've raised the whites to 75% and the blues still at 25% I realised that by doing this I have a minimum of brown diatoms along with 40% water changes twice a week. No other algae issues so far! Due to add livestock within a couple of weeks, to start with can't decide if snails or octocilinis. Glad to see your set up looking so lovely👍.
Cheers,_


----------



## Courtneybst (6 Jun 2021)

Welearn said:


> _Hi mate, could you explain to me what RGB is ?
> On our superfish 45 I've raised the whites to 75% and the blues still at 25% I realised that by doing this I have a minimum of brown diatoms along with 40% water changes twice a week. No other algae issues so far! Due to add livestock within a couple of weeks, to start with can't decide if snails or octocilinis. Glad to see your set up looking so lovely👍.
> Cheers,_


Ahhh I see, I'm not using the stock light that comes with the superfish home, I'm using a Chihiros C2 RGB light unit. The RGB stands for Red, Green and Blue which are form the colour spectrum for LED lights. So the diodes can produce a mixture of red, green and blue depending on your settings.

Some LED units are white only, white and blue (like yours), RGB or RGB + white.


----------



## Welearn (6 Jun 2021)

Thanks for the explanation, I will remember now what it stand for.


----------



## Courtneybst (16 Aug 2021)

I almost called curtains on this scape but a friend convinced me to hold on a little longer and I'm glad I did.

I did some minor adjustments in to get it back from its wild look and make it more clean looking again but also committed some schoolboy errors.

I lowered the substrate at the front by half, forgetting that I have Tropica Substrate (base layer) underneath which needs to be capped. That, followed by haphazardly inserting root tabs into a soil which has poor hold and removing almost all the Rotala and hacking everything back. Needless today I had a huge ammonia spike. Imagine Pompeii but ammonia instead of lava.

Sadly but luckily I lost only 2 shrimps (although both berried females) and the tank has stabilised again. Well... somewhat. That ammonia spike contributed to an outbreak in BBA which I'm now winning the war against. Unfortunately I feel that this substrate does an excellent job of collecting waste and so I'll be constantly battling it in some way.

The shrimps are breeding well too despite the high CO2 levels. I've got shrimps of all sizes and there always seems to be little ones.

The plan is to keep this tank running, and scape my 45p which the shrimp will move into. It'll be a slow process over a couple of months but for now Frankenstein is not doing too shabby.


----------



## Courtneybst (12 Oct 2021)

*Long Update Alert*: Frankenstein is born again!

I wanted to keep some plants in a holding tank in their submersed form for my contest scape for a couple of months so I've made some changes. I've removed the CO2 from this tank and have put that on the holding tank. The C2 RGB is now also illuminating my propagation station.

In this process I fitted the LED that originally came with this tank (glad I didn't bin it as it was one day away from going to the dump!). The lighting is quite poor but the centralised spotlight effect created a very moody feel that got me thinking...






Since this is now a low tech setup, why not get experimental and do things I normally don't do. That's when a blackwater setup came to mind. I have plenty of botanicals and manzanita laying around, and I'm sure the shrimp and pygmy corys will appreciate it! (Oh yes, I forgot to mention I have pygmy corys in here now 😅).

So last night I made a quick hardscape using manzanita. I had this vision long ago for the jungle tank to use the huge manzanita logs and just lay them in a pile like it had fallen there, and fill it with botanicals. I've essentially created a smaller, slightly more polished version of that dream. The goal is tannin-stained, low maintenance and simple.







Today I started to break down the old scape, so it could be cleaned and rescaped. I originally put some Tropica Soil in the background but I realised 3 things;
1. I don't have anything to plant there yet.
2. I can't be assed with rooted plants.
3. I also can't be assed with a potential ammonia spike.





As a result, it is just sand in there. I've got some rocks weighing down the wood which is spoiling the look a bit at the moment but for now here's how it's looking.


----------



## Courtneybst (13 Oct 2021)

.


----------

