# The sails



## AnhBui (19 Jan 2017)

Been thinking for a while to see if it is necessary to start a new journal for my new planted tank. As this one is so special, it worths to start a new one

*Idea*
I wanted nothing but just a classic layout that you can see in any NA tank. It's a convex or island scape. As it was the last quarter of the year, I did not think I had enough time to start and take care of it alone. I talked with Manh, founder of Aqua Minh Long, and asked for his help. Luckily he agreed and started building a 1250x600x600mm tank

*Hardscape*
As we have many types of rock available at the local market, Manh offered me few different types such as dragon stone, elephant skin... But I told him I need him to use big rocks with different shapes and sizes for this layout instead. So the final 'chosen' one was Sedimentary rock
Choosing wood was not easy at all. In the mock layout Manh used Spider-wood with big branches and it was a disaster. The layout lost its balance and gave no impression. I told Manh I'm not happy with it and asked him to look for spider-wood with smaller and thin branches. I had to wait for one month to get what I wanted






*Reused left over material*
I had lots of material from my 350mm cube and from 1250x450x550mm tank. So I decided to reuse the ADA Colorado sand and ADA Powersand and ADA Amazonia

*Plants*
I'd been thinking very carefully about the plant lists. I am living in a subtropical humid area of Vietnam. In this area we experience different type of climate throughout the year. What concerns me most is the summer. During summer temperature can reach to 40oC mid-day. Therefore the plants must be able to cope with such extreme heat. And plants are

Anubias nana petite
Anubias nana
Rotala super red
Microsorum pteropus v. 'needle leaf'
Trident java fern
Mini taiwan moss

Manh also added
Juncus repens
Hygrophila pinnatifida
Crinum calamistratum
And after short discussion Manh's brother successfully convince me to used Bolbitis heudelotii

*Result*
Before planting

*


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1st planting
*





 
*
Final planting




Next post: Lots of algae and how we removed them


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## Ryan Thang To (19 Jan 2017)

Oh yeah that second last pictures is amazing. please keep up the good work and i hope you get the algae sorted. Just like me when i came back from vietnam my tank was a algae farm


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## AnhBui (20 Jan 2017)

*Algae outbreak*
Things went well before Rotala super red was planted. Tank was clean and we didn't need cleaning crew

Manh is very famous for his technic of optimal plant growth and colour. What he does is to keep very long and strong photo period (>12 hours/day) and mix ADA soils with his secret and rich iron soils. See example below





Manh planted Rotala super red, and applied the same technic. Things went bad few weeks later. One of the reasons was the little time he spent for the tank due to tight working schedules. Algae started out breaking. Brown diatom was the first problem, then next were green hair, staghorn, greendust. Hygrophila pinnatifida stopped growing and died. Some portion of anubias nana melted, and eventually died

We discussed and started with Otto to clean brown diatom and Cory to clean greendust at the sand. We wanted to fix the issue as soon as possible. So 100 of Otto and Cory were released to the tank. And again another problem just occurred. Fish death! But despite that troubles tank was getting better. Brown diatom and greendust algae were gone. Next was to fix staghorn and green hair on plants and wood. I used around 50 Amano shrimps for cleaning, however process was too slow. Manh released Siamese algae and golden algae eater for speeding cleaning process up

EWWW!













Tank's getting better and I asked Manh to moved the tank to my house. He moved it at the very end of first week of 2017. Moving was smooth and not really a pain thanks to Manh and his team

Next post: How I do water change


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## AnhBui (20 Jan 2017)

Ryan Thang To said:


> Oh yeah that second last pictures is amazing. please keep up the good work and i hope you get the algae sorted. Just like me when i came back from vietnam my tank was a algae farm



Thanks buddy. I sorted it out. Tank is clean now


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## David Shanahan (20 Jan 2017)

That woods great. I wish I could find some like that!


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## Tim Harrison (20 Jan 2017)

Very nice island scape, great natural looking hardscape and the red plant really sets it off.


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## Shane Puthuparambil (21 Jan 2017)

Really like it! I haven't seen rotala super red here in the US before.


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## AnhBui (22 Jan 2017)

Planty said:


> That woods great. I wish I could find some like that!



Thanks. It's Redmoor wood



Tim Harrison said:


> Very nice island scape, great natural looking hardscape and the red plant really sets it off.



Thanks Tim


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## AnhBui (22 Jan 2017)

Shane Puthuparambil said:


> Really like it! I haven't seen rotala super red here in the US before.
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Thanks Shane


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## AnhBui (22 Jan 2017)

*How I do water change*
I do water change every week and one of the facts I do not really care much about the %. What I do care is the efficiency of my water change. Does it help to keep my tank clean, my fish healthy, put algae under control... So how?

*Different hoses for different types of tank*
I have five tanks with different sizes, from nano to medium and large. So in general I have five hoses from phi 8mm to phi 20mm
With the sails I use a phi 16mm hose for water in and phi 20mm for water out

*Use filter wool and razor scraper for cleaning*
I have tried several cleaning cloths but filter wool is the best tool I've been using so far. With razor scraper it is only for cleaning algae on glass

*Use surface skimmer for extra cleaning*




*Use DIY holder for hose*
You can easily find holder everywhere and buy it. But I made several holders from suction cups and cable tie. Cheap and easy to use




You may wonder where is the efficiency I mentioned at the very beginning. Let's start

At any water change I often start with positioning my hoses, first with water-in hose and next with water-out hose




When they are firmly in their position, then I do my cleaning with glass without turning my filter off. That helps to remove the dust or dirt, scum... from glass. Once I finish cleaning all glasses, I start siphoning. How? See picture below. I place the input of water-out hose to the filter outlet. With this I don't have to use my mouth to start the siphon




The next step I believe you all are aware and do it many times. Suck out all dirt, fish poop, extra food... I start  the water in when water level is lower to 70%, and keep siphoning and cleaning until I feel it's okay fill up my tank again. At this point I start the surface skimmer to clean the all the left over scum/oil... and gradually check and clean its sponge for better result


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## AnhBui (23 Jan 2017)

*Fauna*
I had about 40 fire red shrimps and 30 orange shrimps for cleaning my 125x45x55. At the first two months tank was good. It only turned into disaster when I added a pair of Melanotaenia australis and 15 Melatotaenia boesemani. I did not know shrimps are their prey. 70 shrimps were gone after several days and from then algae started out breaking. Otto and Albino longfin pleco could not get rid of BBA

Lesson I learned from my failure with large tank is that if you don't carefully select your fishes. It would eventually turn into disaster for your tank.

With the sails I use different types of cleaning crew to work on different type of algae

_Otto_ for brown diatom



_Golden longfin pleco_ for algae that appears on wood and rock



_Amano shrimp_ for stag-horn and green-hair algae



_Red cherry shrimp_ for cleaning plant leaves in areas where otto and longfin cannot reach



_Corydoras aeneus _for cleaning tank bottom

Since I love rainbow fish, I choose folktail blue eye and spotted blue eye. These fishes are small, schooling and not aggressive

Below is a before and after photo comparison of the Sails
_Before_



_After_


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## AnhBui (23 Jan 2017)

Here is photo update. Just want to show you how effective the cleaning crew is

Full tank shot. I really love warm colour that light and sand bring, however stem plant redness looks pretty pale
































Hidden path


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## AnhBui (27 Jan 2017)

New plants in
Cyperus involucratus




Myriophyllum mattogrossense?


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## dw1305 (27 Jan 2017)

Hi all,





AnhBui said:


> Myriophyllum mattogrossense


I think the _Myriophyllum_ is _M. aquaticum.
_
cheers Darrel


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## zozo (27 Jan 2017)

AnhBui said:


> Cyperus involucratus



Looks good, but that's not a small one..  I wonder where this will go onces it takes off. They root massively i have a cyperus in my ponds filter basket on inert fritted glass and took it inside for the winter, was impressed by the roots it grew. It grows as much roots as it has height above the substrate and this without getting additional ferts. 

Maybe C. Helferi would do better size, stays a lot smaller..


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## AnhBui (27 Jan 2017)

zozo said:


> Maybe C. Helferi would do better size, stays a lot smaller..


Thanks for suggestion. I will take a look around to see if I can get it here


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## zozo (27 Jan 2017)

AnhBui said:


> Thanks for suggestion. I will take a look around to see if I can get it here


Good luck..  That C. involucratus has a mature size of 4 to 6 feet.. An Eleocharis could possibly do as well is also a Cyperaceae. Lately there was a new one launched a bit more sturdy and also forming those decorative umbrellas. If i remember correctly Greenfinger2 had it emersed in his latest shallow scape. I forgotten its full name..

Ah p.s. Eleocharis vivipara (Umbrella hairgrass) +/- 30 cm.


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## micheljq (27 Jan 2017)

Sorry just a quick question, is there injected co2 or not?

Thanks for sharing.


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## AnhBui (27 Jan 2017)

micheljq said:


> Sorry just a quick question, is there injected co2 or not?
> 
> Thanks for sharing.



Yes, there's Co2 and it's 24/7

Happy New Year everyone 






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## AnhBui (1 Feb 2017)

M. Aquaticum is growing very fast, but the interesting part is on its roots. They are white long thin and down like a curtain









I attached one piece of H. Helix on top of one wood branch, And cut off one piece of M. aquaticum. Then I tied it on the wood by using one thin black hair 









And here is tank view from a ~45 degree angle






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## AnhBui (6 Feb 2017)

Last weekend I collected this plant at my grandparent house. Frankly I don't know its name. Only thing I know is that its divisio is _Pteridophyta_





I can say this plant is very popular among local hobbyists and they can be found everywhere


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## dw1305 (6 Feb 2017)

Hi all, 





AnhBui said:


> I can say this plant is very popular among local hobbyists and they can be found everywhere


The main fern growing out of the wall looks like a species from the genus _Pteris. _
Something like_ <"Pteris ensiformis">. _

I like the "Strangler Fig" as well_,_ I've just read _<"Ladders to Heaven: How Fig Trees shaped our history">, _a good read._ 
_
cheers Darrel


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## AnhBui (7 Feb 2017)

dw1305 said:


> I like the "Strangler Fig" as well_,_ I've just read _<"Ladders to Heaven: How Fig Trees shaped our history">, _a good read._
> _
> cheers Darrel


It's a _Muntingia calabura. _This tree grows on top of a wall. 



dw1305 said:


> The main fern growing out of the wall looks like a species from the genus _Pteris. _
> Something like_ <"Pteris ensiformis">. _
> cheers Darrel


I took the picture last year while I was on my way to the office   What I like about it is that it's hardy and still thrives under extreme summer


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## AnhBui (7 Feb 2017)

> ="dw1305, post: 479156, member: 484"
> 
> I've just read _<"Ladders to Heaven: How Fig Trees shaped our history">, _a good read._
> _
> cheers Darrel


You've made me purchase a digital copy of it


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## PARAGUAY (7 Feb 2017)

I Like the way you just" go for it with" your plants.Looking good


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## dw1305 (7 Feb 2017)

Hi all,





AnhBui said:


> Muntingia calabura


I assumed it would be a Fig from the roots. I had to look this one up, and it is the  <"Jamaican Cherry">. 

cheers Darrel


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## AnhBui (8 Feb 2017)

dw1305 said:


> I had to look this one up, and it is the  <"Jamaican Cherry">.
> 
> cheers Darrel



We call it Fish roe tree  i have never eaten its fruits before. Local people grow this tree to create a natural dust shield in new suburban areas near construction works or along the road


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## AnhBui (8 Feb 2017)

PARAGUAY said:


> I Like the way you just" go for it with" your plants.Looking good



Thanks. I want to experience as much as I can. You have to risk sometimes to learn. The last things you will get are plants that suit you most

Local hobbyists and proscapers are doing very well to promote this hobby. In fact we meet so often to discuss and talk. And we share the same spirit. Try and accept the failure but never make it twice  There are many means to communicate today such as phone, mail, social media, forum... but there is nothing better than a good face to face, a real human, meet. It gives us a real life

The fern is adapting quickly with new environment. See young leaf is getting matured


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## AnhBui (10 Feb 2017)

I had problems with floating particles. Water looked very disturbing. The root cause of it was that Eheim classic 250 inlet is too short. It couldn't syphon all particles near tank bottom. If I hadn't taken any action, it would eventually cause BBA

Two days ago I purchased a monster Fluval FX6 (ouch!). Took the 250 out, installed Eheim Classic 600 in the former 250 position and FX6 in former 600 position. After 8 hours it fixed the floating debris issue. And here is the result after 1 day and half. So far so good


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## jackychun218 (10 Feb 2017)

AnhBui said:


> I had problems with floating particles. Water looked very disturbing. The root cause of it was that Eheim classic 250 inlet is too short. It couldn't syphon all particles near tank bottom. If I hadn't taken any action, it would eventually cause BBA
> 
> Two days ago I purchased a monster Fluval FX6 (ouch!). Took the 250 out, installed Eheim Classic 600 in the former 250 position and FX6 in former 600 position. After 8 hours it fix the floating particles issue. And here is the result after 1 day and half. So far so good



You can try using some wavemaker to improve the flow movement as well. Your tank is big, so it might need more flow movement to bring nutrient around. 


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## AnhBui (10 Feb 2017)

jackychun218 said:


> You can try using some wavemaker to improve the flow movement as well. Your tank is big, so it might need more flow movement to bring nutrient around.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk



I thought of it before purchasing FX6. Thing is 250 and 600 couldn't work effectively then I opted for FX6. Better flow and better filtration


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## Alexander Belchenko (10 Feb 2017)

Would be nice to see a video of your tank


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## AnhBui (11 Feb 2017)

Alexander Belchenko said:


> Would be nice to see a video of your tank



I made moss trimming last night. Pretty ugly for filming now. Let's wait for a couple of days


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## jackychun218 (11 Feb 2017)

AnhBui said:


> I made moss trimming last night. Pretty ugly for filming now. Let's wait for a couple of days



You probably like to film "before and after" condition, too. Haha! I personally like seeing the transformation of tank from time to time. 


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## AnhBui (11 Feb 2017)

A snapshot 




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## Doubu (12 Feb 2017)

I finally get why this is called "The Sails"!


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## AnhBui (12 Feb 2017)

Alexander Belchenko said:


> Would be nice to see a video of your tank



Your wish is my command  Here is 2 minute video


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## AnhBui (13 Feb 2017)

Water change today. Manh came, adjusted tank stand and helped me trimming. I took these pictures while filling water


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## CooKieS (13 Feb 2017)

Nice healthy looking plants!


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## Alexander Belchenko (13 Feb 2017)

Thank you for video, really great tank!


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## TomatoandEgg (14 Feb 2017)

Well planned and executed, looks lovely


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## AnhBui (14 Feb 2017)

Post trimming picture


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## AnhBui (16 Mar 2017)

dw1305 said:


> Hi all,I assumed it would be a Fig from the roots. I had to look this one up, and it is the  <"Jamaican Cherry">.
> 
> cheers Darrel



I had a chance to go back to where it grows on few days ago, and carefully looked at its leaves, roots. You're right about it. It's a fig. Sorry for my misleading

Finish my reading few weeks ago. It's a good read but leaves me more questions. Any suggestion about similar books for a dummy like me?

I go by this tree everyday. The magic thing about it is there are ripe fruits. So it must be pollen wasps somewhere





Ah this is a photo update


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## AnhBui (4 May 2017)

Another summer and battle with heat

Plants grow quite well and I can split small clumps and glue them to new areas





And this is a new plant I have last weekend. A gift from LFS


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## AnhBui (8 May 2017)

This is my tank picture took last Saturday


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## jackychun218 (8 May 2017)

AnhBui said:


> This is my tank picture took last Saturday



The fern is so nicely grown and lush! 


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## AnhBui (9 May 2017)

Nature is full of surprises. You'll never know what you are going to get. This moss is silently growing and one day it shows up on my camera


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## CooKieS (9 May 2017)

That looks like some kind of terrestrial fissidens...got some on my tank too


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## AnhBui (9 May 2017)

CooKieS said:


> That looks like some kind of terrestrial fissidens...got some on my tank too


This is my first time seeing this moss. I can see it is growing in one area near Bolbitis difformis


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## AverageWhiteBloke (9 May 2017)

Moss must be number one plant for hardiness. I had a piece of root in my garage which must have been there bone dry for God knows how many years, definitely more than 5 anyway. It was a nice shape that fitted into my current scape so I gave it a good going over with a wire brush to remove a lot of the dead bark which brought up some nice looking grain underneath. Soaked for 48hrs before putting in my scape about 12 months ago and it's now starting to fill out with Moss. I didn't want any Moss so I spot dosed it with Excel which turned it grey for a while but now it's making a come back. 
I've gave up on it, if it wants to stay that much who am I to argue with it  looks like I'll have to incorporate it into the scape some how. 

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## AnhBui (10 May 2017)

AverageWhiteBloke said:


> Moss must be number one plant for hardiness. I had a piece of root in my garage which must have been there bone dry for God knows how many years, definitely more than 5 anyway. It was a nice shape that fitted into my current scape so I gave it a good going over with a wire brush to remove a lot of the dead bark which brought up some nice looking grain underneath. Soaked for 48hrs before putting in my scape about 12 months ago and it's now starting to fill out with Moss. I didn't want any Moss so I spot dosed it with Excel which turned it grey for a while but now it's making a come back.
> I've gave up on it, if it wants to stay that much who am I to argue with it  looks like I'll have to incorporate it into the scape some how.
> 
> Sent from my STH100-2 using Tapatalk



Can you take a few shots of it and post here? I would love to see it


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## AverageWhiteBloke (10 May 2017)

Sorry for the picture quality but I only have a phone. As you can hopefully see the moss which was greyed out is starting to green up again at the edges. I'm not a fan of moss really as it tends to clog up with debris and I'm always conscious that I may end up siphoning out any shrimp that might be grazing in there if I try and syphon the debris off so decided not to use any in this setup but sod it. I'll see where it goes. 





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## AnhBui (28 Jun 2017)

This is it before i did some trimming last week


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## AnhBui (7 Sep 2017)

I trimmed off almost everything. This is season change, and summer is finally over. My plants will grow up and generate new leaves in next couples of month

Last week I took out one of my crypt to see how it adapts to aquarium environment (strong flow, less light and nutrition). Overall it has less curvy, more transparent and thinner leaves









Yesterday I bought more shrimp from LFS. They are local shrimp. I am not sure if any expert has named it. This species has black trips along its white body. They are also perfect cleaning crew. They eat most of popular algae even Cyanobacteria. I can tell they clean brown diatom even better than otto
This is their picture during water acclamation


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## Ryan Thang To (7 Sep 2017)

They look like tiger shrimp anh

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## jackychun218 (7 Sep 2017)

Yup, that looks like tiger shrimps to me. Haha. It is quite expensive here and all of them I bought last time died. 


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## AnhBui (7 Sep 2017)

They are all wild caught and very cheap. I paid only nearly 20 pounds for 500  and fyi they are only for sales during summer


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## AnhBui (7 Sep 2017)

This is my tank after 3 day trimming. My trident ferns, on the right hand side, are growing back after trimming two months ago





And here is a closeup of local shrimp. Their origins are from a mountainous area near Thanh Mai pagoda, Hai Duong province, Northern Vietnam






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## AnhBui (23 Sep 2017)

Come visit Hanoi Aquarium and back home with little portion of terrestrial moss. We often call it star moss. This is tricky moss, few have successfully grow it submerged while other fail. Let’s hope the force be with me


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## Ryan Thang To (23 Sep 2017)

I have some growing emerse. It grow so so slow and very nice moss to look at.


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## AnhBui (23 Sep 2017)

Local folks often use it in mountain-water-panorama set. For those who don’t know what is it refer to link below

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hòn_Non_Bộ

There are lots of rain this season so I hope I have more chance of success


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## Tim Harrison (23 Sep 2017)

Really nice scape, love those mosses


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## AnhBui (24 Sep 2017)

Thank you Tim


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## AnhBui (24 Sep 2017)

Thank you Tim


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## AnhBui (12 Oct 2017)

Update: star moss is developing its submerged form. This is my short video filmed yesterday


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## AnhBui (24 Aug 2018)

It's been nearly 11 months since my last update. The tank has been developing well and in next two months I will celebrate its 2nd birthday. Time flies, isn't it?

As it is so mature I don't really change anything for scaping but only add more plants here and there. There is only one thing that does not make me happy is my light hanger. It causes some troubles for me to clean side glasses. I am lucky enough to create an early bird order for a new and better light hanger from local manufacture. The manufacture's called DaLab. If interested you can visit its page at https://www.facebook.com/dalab.vn/ for further information and order. Dalab deliveries internationally for some of its product range

My tank is slightly longer than standard 120cm, so it takes few more days to complete the light hanger. Below are my unpacked

Wrapped with thin plastic foil. For international delivery it may have better packaging and protection





Cramp








Completely unpacked




And here is my tank's new look


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## TBRO (24 Aug 2018)

Lovely looking tank, the Hygrophilia pinitifada on the wood is cool.

Remember trying Star Moss years ago, I couldn’t keep it alive (low tech setup). Well done  


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## AnhBui (25 Aug 2018)

TBRO said:


> Lovely looking tank, the Hygrophilia pinitifada on the wood is cool.
> 
> Remember trying Star Moss years ago, I couldn’t keep it alive (low tech setup). Well done
> 
> ...



Thanks. Star moss is tricky plant. It loves to be attached to rock rather than wood and it may require you not to change or remove it from its rock base. My moss died off when I untied it from rock and tied it to the wood


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