# Andys 60l cube



## Andy Thurston (19 Jan 2014)

Now the silly seasons out of the way its time to start my new tank
I bought the tank before christmas, with the intention of building a stand when i was off over christmas. 
The tank is an aqua one cube 40




A few pics of the stand





And finally painted with tank and boyu 3x8w t5 light






Hardscape african aquarium rock and wood and a few river pebbles to bulk up substrate



Add the john innes 3 substrate



and 2kg unipac black quartz sand cap about an inch thick and fill with water(i thought i'd better check the tank for leaks at this point)



I removed any floating bits, drained the tank and started planting the carpet of hairgrass(thanks for the left overs Dan) next the 1-2 grow monte carlo picked up at calder valley aquatics yesterday afternoon









Cling filmed and wait 3-4weeks
I couldnt believe how much came in such a little pot i bought 2 and only used 1 with leftovers



These are going to dan to repair the oops in his rio 180
Just got to collect a filter and order solenoid and needle valve for my diy reg. ready for flooding in 3-5 weeks.

Thanks for looking 
Andy


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## Wallace (19 Jan 2014)

Nice work with the stand, looks really well made. 

Looking forward to seeing this grow in DSM over the coming weeks. 

Subscribed. 


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## Samjpikey (19 Jan 2014)

Subscribed  


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## Samjpikey (19 Jan 2014)

Fissedens on the lava rocks  


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## Andy Thurston (19 Jan 2014)

Wallace said:


> Nice work with the stand, looks really well made.


The joinery is not that good its held togeather with little plastic brackets from b&q. The paint jobs pretty good for a roller though


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## Andy Thurston (19 Jan 2014)

Samjpikey said:


> Fissedens on the lava rocks


I thought about that Sam but then i thought i'd quite like to see them when it grows and i can always add it later its growing quite well in my 35l


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## tim (19 Jan 2014)

Good start Andy, will be following this


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## Andy Thurston (19 Jan 2014)

Cheers tim i've been secretly following your latest low tech too, it looks mint


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## Ady34 (19 Jan 2014)

Looks great.
Baby wipes and coffee.....survival kit!


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## Dan walton (19 Jan 2014)

Looks great Andy I've put our name on that tank and filter I told you about if you fancy a ride out one night this week to collect it with me


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## Andy Thurston (19 Jan 2014)

Ady34 said:


> Looks great.
> Baby wipes and coffee.....survival kit!


Cheers ady, the coffee has to be the strongest latte iv ever had. Much needed after the stem by stem planting which took nearly 2 hours
The baby wipes are a useful byproduct of having a 16month old girl in the house.
How are you liking your reef?


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## Andy Thurston (19 Jan 2014)

Dan walton said:


> Looks great Andy I've put our name on that tank and filter I told you about if you fancy a ride out one night this week to collect it with me


Dr clown diagnoses chronic MTS
Ye ill have a ride out one night this week but it will have to be after 8 except wednesday when i can go any time. Im on daddy duty cos our lass is working


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## Dan walton (19 Jan 2014)

Weds will be perfect night school on Monday Tuesdays busy at work u over this evening ?


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## Andy Thurston (19 Jan 2014)

I'll have to call over to minimise the damage to the monte Carlo, shh dont tell sam


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## Ady34 (19 Jan 2014)

Big clown said:


> Cheers ady, the coffee has to be the strongest latte iv ever had. Much needed after the stem by stem planting which took nearly 2 hours
> The baby wipes are a useful byproduct of having a 16month old girl in the house.
> How are you liking your reef?


Ah, I was gonna say 'Dad' survival kit....I know the feeling well, strong coffee a must and I don't leave the house without a pack of wipes!

Yeah enjoying the reef and it's various algaes, makes me sick lol

Cheerio
Afy


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## Andy Thurston (19 Jan 2014)

Algae the bane of every fishkeepers life at some point


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## Ryan Thang To (19 Jan 2014)

Hey andy
Tank and stand Looking good.


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## Andy Thurston (19 Jan 2014)

Cheers Ryan
Hows your glosso doing? still nailed to the substrate, i hope
Any update on the nano


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## Rob P (19 Jan 2014)

Nice one Andy, great looking start. Are you putting the Aquamanta filter on this tank? lol


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## Andy Thurston (19 Jan 2014)

Cheers Rob
Yes Its been bedlam in our house for the last couple of weeks our lass has just started work and the cars insured again now. I'm determined to get to go fishing at filey brig or the harbour wall at brid before i flood this


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## Samjpikey (19 Jan 2014)

Looks great mate , 

You've planned it well and I hope it pays off  
Neat little set up 


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## nayr88 (20 Jan 2014)

Good start mate, 
Another subscribe from me too so ill be keeping a close eye on this  
Look after the light haha, she served me well! 

Cheers


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## Andy Thurston (20 Jan 2014)

Cheers ryan it seems to be working so far mate! The hairgrass is less yellow than on saturday


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## Ryan Thang To (20 Jan 2014)

Big clown said:


> Cheers Ryan
> Hows your glosso doing? still nailed to the substrate, i hope
> Any update on the nano


Yeah glosso doing good. And nano is doing just fine. Hard to trim plants as there is no room to put my hand in lol


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## Andy Thurston (23 Jan 2014)

New toys arrived today


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## Dan walton (23 Jan 2014)

Big clown said:


> New toys arrived today


Come trim this hc and plant this Monte Carlo they look nice


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## Andy Thurston (23 Jan 2014)

I might need bigger scissors for your vast carpet



Are you about tomorrow?


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## Andy Thurston (25 Jan 2014)

1 week in.
I've done nothing with this except wiped the front to take some pics 
Our lass seems to think its grown but  I'm not sure













Andys 60l cube | UK Aquatic Plant Society
Andys HC propagator step by step | UK Aquatic Plant Society
Juwel 180 first planted tank | UK Aquatic Plant Society
Rio 125 wood and moss | UK Aquatic Plant Society


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## Andy Thurston (1 Feb 2014)

2 Weeks



hopefully we'll see more growth in the next couple of weeks then i can think about planting the rear and flooding



Andy

Andys 60l cube | UK Aquatic Plant Society
Andys HC propagator step by step | UK Aquatic Plant Society


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## aliclarke86 (1 Feb 2014)

Getting there mate 

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## Ryan Thang To (1 Feb 2014)




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## Andy Thurston (1 Feb 2014)

Slow and steady. i think a heat mat could have speeded things up a bit but everything is greener than 2 weeks ago, so it seems to be working so far


Andy
Andys 60l cube | UK Aquatic Plant Society
Andys HC propagator step by step | UK Aquatic Plant Society


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## Ryan Thang To (1 Feb 2014)

It does look like its spreading. My dsm was slow but once it start you notice changes every day.


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## Andy Thurston (1 Feb 2014)

Thats what the hc was like. It took about 3weeks to get going but then you could see new growth daily
We'll see in the next couple of weeks


Andy
Andys 60l cube | UK Aquatic Plant Society
Andys HC propagator step by step | UK Aquatic Plant Society


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## Andy Thurston (8 Feb 2014)

3 weeks












Still growing slow but its still green


Andy
Andys 60l cube | UK Aquatic Plant Society
Andys HC propagator step by step | UK Aquatic Plant Society


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## Ryan Thang To (8 Feb 2014)

Its looking real good andy


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## Andy Thurston (8 Feb 2014)

Cheers Sam and Ryan 
Any ideas for planting the rear, bearing in mind i intend to run this low tech after the plants have made the transition to submerged growth


Andy
Andys 60l cube | UK Aquatic Plant Society
Andys HC propagator step by step | UK Aquatic Plant Society


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## Ryan Thang To (8 Feb 2014)

What you think of green rotala? Make it bushy and abit of colour you can have red cabomba which is my favourite plant.


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## Samjpikey (8 Feb 2014)

Crypts , crypts and more crypts  


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## Andy Thurston (15 Feb 2014)

funny you should mention crypts sam



dan was thinking the same thing and gave me this which is in a shaded spot next to the hc in the 35l tank. i hope it survives ok on the high liquid carbon and ei diet

Anyway update time 4 Weeks
















Cheers
Andy


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## Greenfinger2 (20 Feb 2014)

Hi Big clown, Looking cool I Love the DW


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## Andy Thurston (20 Feb 2014)

I'm still unsure about the wood but we'll see, when the rears planted and grown a bit. I might have to cover it with fissidens and maybe add more wood. The plan is a bit of a jungle at the back left


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## Andy Thurston (21 Feb 2014)

5 weeks













Slow going this DSM the hair grass is growing well but slow and i'm starting to get a bit of melt on the monte carlo. Maybe too wet, too cold, ammonia burn, who knows. I might flood an drain the tank tomorrow to see if it helps.


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## Andy Thurston (28 Feb 2014)

6 Weeks


















The monte carlo is looking a bit sorry for its self, I don't think it likes this dry start but the hair grass is growing well, I've flooded it and added co2 via a 700l/h powerhead, result, bubbles everywhere. I should be adding a ehiem 2217 filter tomorrow. I've also added the unknown crypt that dan gave me, just need to find a plant for the top of the hill now.


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## Samjpikey (28 Feb 2014)

Looking good mate nice to see you've gone for those crypts , could be  cryptocoryne beckettii ?? 


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## Dan walton (1 Mar 2014)

Looking good fella


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## Greenfinger2 (1 Mar 2014)

Hi Big clown , Looking great,  For the plant on the hill how about Crypt-- Nevillii . Lovely long slender green leaves would look nice in that corner


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## Andy Thurston (7 Mar 2014)

Quick update
Week 7
Been and got co2 bottle and installed it
6kg bottle in 700 high cabinet just fit
£40 for the first full bottle and £16 to fill it, nice 1 bradford hydroponics


 
For now this has to be neatest cabinet I've ever had


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## Samjpikey (7 Mar 2014)

Snug fit for sure  


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## Andy Thurston (7 Mar 2014)

30mm to spare but you've got to put the top in first and i have to put my head in to see the gauges.
Monte carlo not doing good, it didnt like the DSM and it likes been wet even less. 
Our lass didnt help by turning all three lights on when she went to work on sunday, 12hours, ouch! monte carlo melted so its all on timers now. I'll add pics when the lights come on.


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## Andy Thurston (7 Mar 2014)

All i need now is some in/outflows to replace crappy eheim green, some different colour backgrounds and some plants for the rear


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## Ryan Thang To (7 Mar 2014)

looking good andy. I got my self one of this acrylic pipe. its not expensive so I thought I give it a try.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/200963584972?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2648


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## Andy Thurston (7 Mar 2014)

I think dans putting an order in for some soon i'll just add some to that. I keep thinking about stainless, it's only 13mm diameter i'm thinking about making a pipe bender for it, i just need something to make the formers from and a couple of sets of bearings


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## Andy Thurston (10 Mar 2014)

Quick update
Since the adding filters, timers, decent co2 I've been hoovering out the dead bits from the monte carlo and whats left seems to be getting greener, fingers crossed it will bounce back and start to fill in.
I was going to run this low tech after the transition but I've changed my mind, now i'm thinking high tech. Dans given me some glosso, which I'm going to put in front of the wood and possibly some pogostemon erectus behind the crypts and some proserpinaca palustris "cuba" behind that. What do you guys think?


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## Ryan Thang To (11 Mar 2014)

limnophila aromatic will look really cool at the back. I got my ordering soon


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## Andy Thurston (13 Mar 2014)

8 Weeks
Before






After









And the dwarf hair grass is spreading up the hill and mixing with the monte carlo nicely


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## Ryan Thang To (14 Mar 2014)

looking loads greener. nice to see grass spreading.


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## Andy Thurston (14 Mar 2014)

The grass is going great guns, at least if the Montecarlo fails i can just let the glosso and grass fill the gap


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## Andy Thurston (30 Mar 2014)

10 weeks


 
Alternanthera reinekii mini added


 
Up inline added


 


 


 
And the temporary home for the sakura shrimp


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## Ryan Thang To (30 Mar 2014)

Looking good andy. How the glosso doing?


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## Andy Thurston (30 Mar 2014)

Hi ryan Its growing a bit leggy hence the added up inline. We'll see how it grows with the extra .5ph drop over the next few weeks
The monte carlo seems to be bouncing back too no more melting it needs a really good clean but i've got 2 pots of pogostemon erectus for the gap at the back


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## Andy Thurston (30 Mar 2014)

Pogo added


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## Andy Thurston (31 Mar 2014)

I like the new inline diffuser. Plants look like this not long after lights on



I wouldn't like to put critters in though


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## Andy Thurston (9 Apr 2014)

I've put a better solenoid on my boc reg  because heat was messing with the bps, just in time to beta test co2art's new needle valve.


 
See you don't need a co2 reg but the adapter is quite expensive, its a good job I didn't pay a lot for the regulator. Anyway once I'd finished testing the valve I put this reg back on the cube on sunday. It leaked!  So on monday out came the thread lock/sealer, i took my reg in bits, cleaned off all the ptfe and glued it back together. A little plumbing and a temporary check valve


 
Sorted 1 bubble every 3 seconds lowers my ph by 1.5 so i guess the new up inline does its job well just need to see how plants do now.
All the plants seem to be growing well the glosso is growing upwards probably co2 related and the monte carlo has started to bounce back and is starting to spread, at last!


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 
Hair grass has reached the front glass theres no stopping it now


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## Ryan Thang To (9 Apr 2014)

Wow its looking good Andy. I loving the background with the bright green and red

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## Andy Thurston (10 Apr 2014)

I'm dying to put some shrimp in here but the john innes is adding 10 ppm daily and it rises about 25 ppm with ferts. i might try 3 water changes per week and see what happens. I might have to stick with sakuras unless it stabilizes.
The temp shrimp house has gone mental now


 



2kg fe just fits under the kitchen cupboard
This tank uses 4x more co2 than the cube because of its trickle filter in the hood


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## tim (10 Apr 2014)

Looking very good Andy, you could try rilli shrimp instead of sakuras, they are about as hardy as sakuras with some nice colour variants.


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## Andy Thurston (11 Apr 2014)

A little bit of a hoover, cleaned inside of glass and water change,all before lights on


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## Deer (18 Apr 2014)

Nice to see the carpet coming in.  Watching this with interest!


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## Andy Thurston (18 Apr 2014)

I'm going to do a waterchange now I'll get some update pics up later
I thought I was going to lose the carpet. the hairgrass has always done quite well but the glosso is growing a bit leggy, i might rip it up, if it doesn't improve.
I'm starting to dislike tropica 12 grow pots, they seem to melt in my tanks the Alternanthera reinekii mini is melting a bit and the monte carlo melted a lot although some of that was down to the CO2 problems I had shortly after flooding.
If any one has any spare amania bonsai in submerged form, I'm interested, please send me a pm


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## Deer (18 Apr 2014)

Shame about the glosso, I have some in my current tank also but hasnt grown much at all. It looks like it would make a great looking carpet if there was only a sure way to make it grow horizontal.


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## Andy Thurston (18 Apr 2014)

Deer said:


> Shame about the glosso, I have some in my current tank also but hasnt grown much at all. It looks like it would make a great looking carpet if there was only a sure way to make it grow horizontal.


There is... Lots of light and lots of co2
I'm starting to thing that 24w t5 lighting is not enough
Look at this in my mates tank
http://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/dan-and-andys-crypt.28846/page-6[DOUBLEPOST=1397844377][/DOUBLEPOST]I might double up the lighting and order another boyu light[DOUBLEPOST=1397845133][/DOUBLEPOST]Anyway pictures! Warts 'n' all


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## Andy Thurston (21 Apr 2014)

Disaster
Went to change a light tube on friday  to discover the ballast was dead. About right easter weekend and nowhere open to buy another and when  i went looking today nowhere local had anything suitable.  Plenty aquabars, too long for the tank, or marine tiles
The helpful staff who said they could order in for me got told "I may aswell order my self and get it delivered direct to my house for much less cost"
Tmc colour plus tile and controller ordered I hope it comes before the plants fade away much more.
It sometimes feels like this tank is destined to fail


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## Andy Thurston (23 Apr 2014)

Well TMC tile and controller turned up at dinner time today. So i got home from work unpacked it and set it up sorted, NOT, like everything else with this tank something has to go wrong. And i have to say for a light that costs so much to fail within 2 hours of been plugged in is f****** s***. To say i'm not happy is a massive understatement
Lets hope their customer care is better than their quality control


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## Ryan Thang To (23 Apr 2014)

Damn! I think it must been a faulty one.


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## aliclarke86 (23 Apr 2014)

Customer care is really good from what I've heard mate… hope you get it sorted. I've had no trouble at all with both my tiles 

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## Dan walton (23 Apr 2014)

Crying out loud it's proving to be a nightmare that cube hope you get the light sorted ASAP in the meantime how about renaming the journal Andy's 60 litres of misery bummer but you know where I am if there's anything I can do


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## Andy Thurston (23 Apr 2014)

Why do i always get the faulty one. I bet they won't pay for the plants that die as a result of this failure. 
If i didnt have so many hours in this tank i would have probably thrown it and its contents out of the attic window by now
I'm sure it's jinxed


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## X3NiTH (23 Apr 2014)

Like you my Tile appeared to fail after an hour or so of use after plugging into the controller. Turned out the tile power adapter wasn't seated correctly in the port on the controller (mines 8-way). It felt like it was in as far as it would go but the connector needed an extra little push and it clicked into place and the lights came back on. If your tile came with its own power adapter see if that powers the tile at max power (100%).


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## Andy Thurston (23 Apr 2014)

I think its a dead power pack the light on it went out


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## Andy Thurston (24 Apr 2014)

I sent the supplier an email after my post last night telling them the light had failed and how it failed. I have recieved this email back


> Sorry to read that you have had problems with your light. I have passed
> this email on to TMC this morning and they suspect that it is the power
> supply at fault. They have your address and will send you a replacement
> direct from themselves today.


Your right Ali it would appear their customer care is excellent, if it turns up tomorrow I'll be a very happy man. I packed it back into its box last night in case i had to send it back, If that had happened I would have asked for a refund


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## Ryan Thang To (26 Apr 2014)

Hey Andy how the new light doing?


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## Andy Thurston (26 Apr 2014)

Hi Ryan its working now. new power pack arrived lunchtime so set it all up when i got home from work. Now I can see how much i can nuke this tank and see if this glosso will grow flat. Hopefully the plants will recover. I've left the amania floating in the 35l until this is a little more stable.


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## Ryan Thang To (26 Apr 2014)

Big clown said:


> Hi Ryan its working now. new power pack arrived lunchtime so set it all up when i got home from work. Now I can see how much i can nuke this tank and see if this glosso will grow flat. Hopefully the plants will recover. I've left the amania floating in the 35l until this is a little more stable.


That good mate. The glosso will take over your tank once it get going lol. If you need more just let me know ok


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## Andy Thurston (26 Apr 2014)

At least i can dim the light if it grows too fast and dans got plenty if it doesn't


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## Andy Thurston (26 Apr 2014)

Baby shrimp in the 35l i thought the female had dropped her eggs before they were ready



 


 
Thats as good a pic as i can get on my crappy iphone4


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## Andy Thurston (26 Apr 2014)

Anubias sp. 'petite' added to the wood



The hairgrass didn't like the lighting failure





 
The montecarlo seems to be spreading slowly and unaffected by the lower light


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## Andy Thurston (29 Apr 2014)

Plants seem much better and are looking greener. the only one that isn't pearling is the hair grass. 


 


 


 


 


 
Hopefully we wont get a diatoms outbreak from the extra light


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## Andy Thurston (1 May 2014)

Knocked 25% off the lights, me and my big mouth, diatoms starting


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## Edvet (1 May 2014)




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## Claire (3 May 2014)

It looks good. Only thing I'd say is that you probably won't see much of the alternanthera behind the wood as it really stays small, but otherwise it's looking nice  I found my monte carlo actually grew during a 3 day blackout on my tank for green thread algae - once it gets going it seems to be pretty tough.


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## Andy Thurston (3 May 2014)

Thank you
I agree about the alternanthera and theres only 3 stems left after the lighting problem so I'm thinking about something else for there anyway. I'm also thinking about pulling a couple of crypts up to the left of the wood and putting some amania bonsai in and some fissidens on the wood too


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## Andy Thurston (17 May 2014)

A little more DIY in the form of stainless light shade


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## Andy Thurston (24 May 2014)

My ei kit came from aquarium plant food last friday and i started using it when the tnc complete ran out
I think I've finally managed to stop the diatoms outbreak and stopped melting the plants



Crypts are no longer melting, I've wiped most of the diatoms off but just spotted some missed bits



Monte carlo and hairgrass front right bouncing back nicely



Hairgrass at front left starting to show signs of life again, this was the worst bit of melting



Back right glosso still growing vertical and a few stems of alteranthera hanging in there just, theres a good chance these will be replaced, I'm open to sugestions for their replacements



Pogostemon erectus new green growth lots of lower leaves gone from too much light, I'm just waiting for a little bit more growth then i can remove the melted bits and replant the tops



Anubias sp. 'Petit' starting to attatch to the wood nicely



Added this hang on drop checker on friday this is just before lights on and I haven't change my co2 setup this got set by watching plants



I've just discovered i don't need to hold my ph pen any more, I can just fix it to the light with a rubber band



And a very yellow looking FTS to finish


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## Ben22 (25 May 2014)

What a brilliant setup. Amazing how you have took that stand and tank and made it look like a 400.00 set up at my local fs. Nice hope the lights now sorted 

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## Andy Thurston (25 May 2014)

A few pics of the temporary shrimp house


 

 

 added an extra 8W t5 light to this now using 3x 8w t5 in here, growth has gone nuts but I am just starting to get a little GSA and GDA on the glass and a tiny amount of BBA on the shrimp guard. I cant get a bigger ph drop than 0.8ph in this tank, with the nano ceramic diffuser because of the trickle filter. I might try a larger diffuser and see if that helps


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## Andy Thurston (30 Jun 2014)

Added a small patch of Hemianthus micranthemoides to the right hand side and moved the alternanthera reineckii 'mini' from behind the wood to the back right, when it grows a bit i'll replant the cuttings to make the clump bigger
When the amania bonsai, which is in the propagator is ready I'm going to fill the gap between the pogo. Erectus and the alternanthera reineckii 'mini'


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## Edvet (30 Jun 2014)

Mighty foggy in house


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## Dan walton (30 Jun 2014)

What's going on with the pics Andy they are a bit pea soupy ?


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## Andy Thurston (30 Jun 2014)

Dunno just took phone out of case and cleaned dirt off im off to take a couple more and see if its better[DOUBLEPOST=1404154250][/DOUBLEPOST]

 


 


 


 


 


 
Thats better


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## Dan walton (30 Jun 2014)

Much better


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## Andy Thurston (11 Jul 2014)

I've removed a few crypts and added Armania sp. bonsai, thanks Ryan yours will be on its way shortly
Upped co2 last night, growth has been slow and a couple of small clumps of mc and dhg were melting
Anubias has attached nicely and I've removed the ties


































And everything is pearling for the first time since the lighting failure that nearly killed everything


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## Andy Thurston (15 Jul 2014)

And still pearling 4days after the water change, happy days  
I'm off work in 2 weeks so i can think about some fish/shrimp, is a tds of 140 too low for cherries/sakuras?


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## Ryan Thang To (15 Jul 2014)

That is looking awesome mate


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## Andy Thurston (20 Jul 2014)

Fissidens added


 


 
Mc and dhg suffered a bit when i lowered co2(thinking about adding fauna)


 


 


 
Crypts growing steadily

 
Anubias petite doing well

 
A little bit of melt on the Alternanthera reineckii mini

 
Armania bonsai is growing like crazy


 
Pogostemon growing very slowly


 
Fts


 
Pulled the hm because i was sick of replanting floaters
I might put some more pics up when the co2 goes off


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## Andy Thurston (25 Jul 2014)

Did a ph profile on this last weekend

1200 ph 7.3 blue
1400 Co2 on ph 7.3 blue
1800 Lights on ph 5.9 blue/green
1900 ph 5.9 green
2000 ph 5.9 lime green
2100 co2 off ph 5.9 lime green
2200 ph 6.2 lime green
2300 ph 6.4 lime green
2330 lights off ph 6.5 green
0000 ph 6.7 green
0030 ph 6.8 green
0600 ph 7.4

I did another profile today and every reading was 0.1more than last week
I'm not overly worried ph climbed by 0.1 this week, maybe its time to recalibrate my ph pen

There is a huge delay with the dropckecker i'm so glad i wasn't trying to achieve lime green at lights on


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## Andy Thurston (26 Jul 2014)

I finally got sick of the evaporation causing unstable co2 levels and bba in the 35l tank so i stripped it down and added 
1 sakura shrimp
4 amano shrimp
2 ottos
5 Hemigrammus erythrozonus
To the cube more sakuras to follow


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## Andy Thurston (4 Aug 2014)




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## Alastair (4 Aug 2014)

Looking great Andy. Seems odd that your co2 has to be on sooooo long before lights on. The co2 on my 1300 litre only came on 3 hours before hand. 

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## Andy Thurston (4 Aug 2014)

I upped surface agitation because the co2 wasnt gassing off on a night. I'm still in the process of increasing bps and reducing prelight co2 time. But i broke my ph pen so am just waiting for a new one to arrive then i can get closer to what i want ,1-2hours

Edit.
Just come home and realized i've typed co2 on on the wrong line and its had another hour taken off last week too. I'll edit that profile
Oopps


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## Andy Thurston (12 Aug 2014)




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## Andy Thurston (26 Aug 2014)

New camera


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## X3NiTH (26 Aug 2014)

And it shows, nice one!


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## Ryan Thang To (26 Aug 2014)

nice picture andy. good job


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## Andy Thurston (27 Aug 2014)

X3NiTH said:


> And it shows, nice one!





legytt said:


> nice picture andy. good job


Cheers guys
Quality is much better i can even see the bba on the fissidens.
Will the fissidens grow back if i pull it all off? Its the only speck of algae in the tank, it was on the moss when i tied it to the wood and i want it gone


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## X3NiTH (27 Aug 2014)

I really like the way the fissidens crams itself in and follows the valleys in the bogwood, I've got some growing out in my tank on mesh but I'm wondering if I can tease bits of it out and cram them into some tight corners on my bogwood.


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## Andy Thurston (27 Aug 2014)

I just jammed the bits that were too small to tie on into the cracks with my thumb nail, it was fiddly and I had loads of floaters but it attaches in a couple of weeks and it seems to be growing everywhere i put it


----------



## Andy Thurston (31 Aug 2014)




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## Ryan Thang To (1 Sep 2014)

Big clown said:


> Cheers guys
> Quality is much better i can even see the bba on the fissidens.
> Will the fissidens grow back if i pull it all off? Its the only speck of algae in the tank, it was on the moss when i tied it to the wood and i want it gone


Morning

Sorry about that andy. The fissiden i gave you was giving to me. I use what i can and then gave you the rest. If i spotted algae on on it i wouldnt use it or give it away. Sorry dude.
I also suffer abit of algae on my fissden. I just trim it every couple of weeks to get rid of it. I would give it a big trim and soon it will grow in no time

Cheers
Ryan


----------



## tim (1 Sep 2014)

Some lovely images there Andy, as Ryan stated trim fissidens right back you have your setup spot on by the looks of things so the regrowth will be lovely and algae free.


----------



## Andy Thurston (21 Sep 2014)

A few pics of the inhabitants


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## Ryan Thang To (21 Sep 2014)

Are those fish glowlight tetra? If they are they look awesome.


----------



## Andy Thurston (21 Sep 2014)

There not looking as awesome as they did a few weeks ago I'm really pushing it with the co2 at the moment and they tend to loose their glowline with too much gas. I'll try find a pic
Look at the red gills on the otto a sure sign of too much.
Going to reduce lighting and co2 and ei, ready for the painted reds which should be here next thurs/fri
Be nice to have something different to take pics of


----------



## Ryan Thang To (21 Sep 2014)

Yeah shrimps are much more fun to take pictures. They dont move to much lol


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## Andy Thurston (21 Sep 2014)

Dunno the amanos have been a bit lively lately. The glowline's have been a bit sluggish for the past week


----------



## Andy Thurston (21 Sep 2014)

These 2 pics were before i turned up the co2


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## Ryan Thang To (21 Sep 2014)

Wow the differences in colour is amazing


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## Andy Thurston (21 Sep 2014)

Yep all because of too much co2 
The second 2 pics are about 3 weeks earlier
Ph 5.9 in first pics and ph 6.1 in last pics, nothing else has changed
Livestock and plants are probably the most accurate drop checkers we have
Plants melt and get algae with low co2 and fish show changes in behaviour and appearance when it is too high. different fish are affected differently at different times, some symptoms appear long before any deaths occur and in my tank all this happens in the time it takes my drop checker to change from green to yellow
Its like having lots more colours


----------



## The_Iceman (21 Sep 2014)

Amazing pictures!

I like it 

Cheers,
Christian


----------



## Samjpikey (28 Sep 2014)

Hi Andy , loving  the pics . 
Tank looks brill . 
Haven't been on for a long time :/ 
Have you got any mini hair grass spare ?  
Cheers


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## Andy Thurston (28 Sep 2014)

Ayup sam
Its getting somewhere now. Hows your tank getting on since the move?any plans for a rescape.
Unfortunately the dhg is growing very slowly and a bit yellow. Its been a long slow recovery since the lighting failure. Im in the process of increasing light intensity, trying to speed things up.The dhg doesn't seem to like change... Every time i change something it suffers a bit of melt and takes a week to recover. 
The carpet has had zero maintenance It grows then some dies it seems like i have the same amount as when i started. The monte carlo seems to be getting thicker since the last light increase.
Hows your projects coming on?


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## Andy Thurston (11 Oct 2014)

Quick update
Split up with our lass so no photos till i've got my new house sorted.
Tanks pretty much same old weekly 50% water change, 1.5x EI dosed when i visit the kids macro and micro at the same time 2x per week seems to work fine.
Lets hope it survives the move, god knows how i'm going to move the 350l clown loach tank
Anyways thanks for looking


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## Samjpikey (11 Oct 2014)

Ahhhh noooo , savage dude , 
Don't worry about the pics , 
Get yourself sorted .....


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## Andy Thurston (15 Oct 2014)

Oh dear what have i done?

 
Just had to move this to my temporary home due to the ex threatening to kill this and the 15 painted red sakuras that went in yesterday. I only wanted to move this once. Even the animals have their world turned upside down. I wish she'd disappear so i can have a nice peaceful life with my kids and fish, anyway back to the update
Landslide. Thank god it didn't expose the ji3


 
Half the carpet burried
Moss is filthy


 


 
One of the new additions


 
Some work to clean this up but i ran out of time today
I might get some decent pics up tomorrow


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## Sk3lly (16 Oct 2014)

Shame  rescape in the pipeline or make good original scape?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Andy Thurston (16 Oct 2014)

Just had a look now... Good news the water is crystal clear and there are no dead critters.
I cant afford to rescape until i know how much my house is going to cost to run Hopefully I can get some female painted reds that will breed and sell to pay for new plants/hardscape. I'm going to sort this this weekend.
The shrimp have cleaned all the plants and moss overnight so all i have to do is syphon the sand off the carpet and put it back where it came from, sounds easy but i bet it isnt


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## Andy Thurston (17 Oct 2014)

A few shrimp pics


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 
and a yellow drop checker the fauna doesn't seem to mind


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## Andy Thurston (24 Oct 2014)




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## Andy Thurston (24 Oct 2014)

And a quick phone pic cos I've just noticed apfuk reading
Thanks for the fancy glassware john does the job nicely, shame i clicked the wrong size and had to get a local glass place to cut it down for free
Flow seems much better in all areas of tank now cheers


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## Andy Thurston (30 Oct 2014)

A few more iphone pics will upload some proper pics tomorrow 


 


 


 


 


 
This tanks never had pearling like this Shame i killed a load of fissidens with lc


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## Andy Thurston (4 Nov 2014)




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## Ryan Thang To (4 Nov 2014)

look awesome andy. I love the mix colour of the plants


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## Andy Thurston (4 Nov 2014)

Cheers ryan
Im thinking about getting a buce or something to go on the rock just left of the wood and i want something to go in the gap on the right
Any ideas?


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## Ryan Thang To (4 Nov 2014)

buce is nice. I won a prize draw on facebook for one tiny one lol you have it if you like


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## Andy Thurston (4 Nov 2014)

Sweet cheers dude
I'll have to pm new&temp addresses


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## Andy Thurston (9 Nov 2014)

Finally!!! I had to cut the carpet this tanks really taken off since the move. I'm not sure if it was the new glassware increased ferts or the huge water changes but its definitely growing like crazy now
A few phone pics


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## Andy Thurston (13 Nov 2014)

Fts to compare growth


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## Samjpikey (13 Nov 2014)

Looking sweet


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## Andy Thurston (13 Nov 2014)

Samjpikey said:


> Looking sweet


Cheers Sam
Lets hope it still does tomorrow after i have a shuffle round.
I left the plants, which hoggie sent me at work so i cant do anything tonight
The crypts are going, every time i touch them, even accidentally, they suffer some melting.
Just thinking where I'm going to put everything. Hey ho choices choices


----------



## Samjpikey (13 Nov 2014)

Nice , look forward to see what you do 
I'm going to give back lighting a go  
Have you got any fish in this yet ? 
How you finding the glass spraybar ??


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## Andy Thurston (13 Nov 2014)

Its good sam. I left john feedback
http://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/...cro-picture-included.28049/page-3#post-372822
Livestock is
3 glowline tetras
3 ottos
4 amano shrimp
15 painted red shrimp males
Waiting for painted red females to arrive in stock
The glowline tetras will probably get put in the clown tank when the new shrimp arrive, just leaving the ottos and shrimp
Have a look at the last few pages for livestock pics.


----------



## Andy Thurston (14 Nov 2014)

Thanks for the plants Hoggie and Ryan
They all arrived safely and are floating in the tank waiting until i've taken my kids home then i can get my elbows wet


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## Andy Thurston (21 Nov 2014)

Photo bomb only iphone though
Still not had a shuffle yet just bunged stuff in temporary locations the buce is staying there i hope!


 
Seems to be growing cheers ryan


 


 


 
New stems a bit twisted from floating in the tank


 
And the p. Erectus is growing out of the top of the tank, needs a trim.
Hopefully grow the stems on from hoggie and then reshuffle when i have more plant mass. I might make a few minor changes to get ready though


----------



## Ryan Thang To (21 Nov 2014)

looking fabulous


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## Andy Thurston (22 Nov 2014)

Sorry for the co2 snow


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## tim (23 Nov 2014)

That's looking great andy, bouncing back well after the move.


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## Andy Thurston (23 Nov 2014)

tim said:


> That's looking great andy, bouncing back well after the move.


Thanks tim
Its growing better since the move than its ever grown. I'm still pushing it where lights concerned tmc 1500 colour plus tile set at 35% on 1 channel and 75% on the other channel so about 55% power.
If i didn't keep forgetting to top the tank up i might be able to manage to get rid of the little bit of bba i keep getting on the wood


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## GHNelson (23 Nov 2014)

Hi Andy
I would strip most of the emersed leaves of the Rotala...they will just die off eventually!
Two advantages...less gunge in the aquarium...it also produces new submerged leaf growth! 
Nice tank Andy!
Cheers


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## Andy Thurston (23 Nov 2014)

Cheers Hoggy 
I am probably top the rotala as soon as theres enough immersed growth to plant  the rest will probably be discarded


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## Andy Thurston (25 Nov 2014)

Eriocaulon taiwan and Eriocaulon cinereum added cheers Ed @ freshwater shrimp


----------



## Andy Thurston (29 Nov 2014)

A quick phone pic
Two hours and a load of plants binned and hopefully it will look much better when it grows in.



 
I'll get some decent pics when the water has cleared and the co2 is off


----------



## Andy Thurston (30 Nov 2014)

And yes its pretty dirty pulling crypts up from the ji3 theres dust everywhere


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## Andy Thurston (9 Dec 2014)

Where the landslide happened


 
Mc and dhg filling the empty space on the right


 


 


 


 


 
I think i need to clean the BBA off my hardscape, pull that bad leaf of the Erio. and maybe pull crypts up as and when they appear but apart from that happy days everything's growing like crazy


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## Andy Thurston (15 Dec 2014)

A bit of a tidy a mini trimmed and tops replanted. A few new crypt leaves were dug up this week and i had to lift the rocks to get the last few roots out. 
I've started dosing 5ml of tnc carbon to try get rid of the bba on the wood and heater. Just need to clean the filter, pipework and glassware


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## Andy Thurston (27 Dec 2014)

Just trimmed this. The new stems were growing out of the tank. Got rid of the red Ludwiga . It grows too fast and far is too big for what I want. I'm going to fill the gap with the other stems from hoggy.
Carpet plants look great but I'm not a big fan of trimming them every other week and removing all the bits is a royal pita.
Photos later


----------



## Andy Thurston (1 Jan 2015)




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## Andy Thurston (4 Jan 2015)

I called at CVA today and bought a pot of rotala wallichii from his much increased selection of plants, good to see my lfs moving into planted tanks lots of dragon stone too
Anyway a quick phone pic from now.



Oh and I've upped tmc tile to 75% too
4h ramp then 2hours at 75% then 4h ramp


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## Andy Thurston (5 Jan 2015)

My new plant is turning red
24hours between photos


 


 
I'm trying to work out if its new growth or the leaves changing colour


----------



## GHNelson (5 Jan 2015)

Emersed Rotala sp wallachii
Bit of both..... I would think! 
As the leaves are quite thin and soft and have a reddish hue when transformed to submerged!
This plant needs a shake every other day as it collects detritus very easily!
hoggie


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## Andy Thurston (5 Jan 2015)

Cheers hoggy
A bit of both the top inch is immersed you can see in the second pic back left stem, all what you can see is immersed growth and below that is the emersed growth slowly melting
Your right about the dirt shaking the p. erectus is pretty bad for it too
I'm just about to cut your bonsai do you want a few stems of this too?


----------



## Andy Thurston (11 Jan 2015)

Dodgy first video upload, I think I need a tripod and remote shutter release


----------



## Andy Thurston (11 Jan 2015)




----------



## Andy Thurston (4 Feb 2015)

Quick phone pic 


 
I cant add any more co2 so think i need to lower my lighting a little bit.
Still getting a little bba on the harscape and the older leaves of the anubias and buce 
Pogo needs a trim again, im thinking about trying another plant here


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## Andy Thurston (23 Feb 2015)

Another quick iphone pic. Welcome to the jungle. I really do need to sort my pc but after moving the clown loach tank on saturday/sunday i just haven't had time to maintain this tank or the pc


----------



## Samjpikey (23 Feb 2015)

Can't see no pic dude


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## Andy Thurston (23 Feb 2015)

Wow sam that was quick i've just edited post and added the pic. I'm off to feed the clowns later i'll get a couple of shots of their tank but you'll have to excuse the algae


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## Samjpikey (23 Feb 2015)

That's 
awesome ^^^^

Nice carpet


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## Andy Thurston (23 Feb 2015)

Cheers sam 
Its only taken a year but its getting there now
I'm going to rip out all the stems at the back and replant the pogo is getting a little bit thick then the rotala's will get sorted next trim.


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## Samjpikey (23 Feb 2015)

Sweet . 
Mine seems to take a lifetime to grow but I've had a few times here and there when the light has been off for over a week and then a lack of water changes.  
But I'm determined to keep a routine now 

Would you like some queen moss ?


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## Andy Thurston (23 Feb 2015)




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## Andy Thurston (23 Feb 2015)

And yes please re the moss


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## Ryan Thang To (23 Feb 2015)

wow. andy im loving the carpet and i like it how it is. nice one

cheers
ryan


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## Andy Thurston (23 Feb 2015)

Cheers Ryan what you cant see in the pics is the BBA forrest in the bottom of the pogo behind the wood. I still have plenty pogo to give the big bush effect. I want the stems from Hoggie  back left(cant remember the name)to catch up a bit


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## Andy Thurston (24 Feb 2015)

It would appear the clowns didn't like the position of the anubias


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## Andy Thurston (25 Feb 2015)




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## Ryan Thang To (25 Feb 2015)

looking awesome mate. how the bruce plant doing?


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## Andy Thurston (26 Feb 2015)

Cheers ryan. A tiny amount of bba on the older leaves but its growing well


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## Ryan Thang To (26 Feb 2015)

Might as well trim them bits off lol did i tell you how i got that one plant sent to me?


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## Andy Thurston (26 Feb 2015)

Was it a facebook comp? I cant remember if its written in the journal or the pm, lol


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## Ryan Thang To (26 Feb 2015)

hahaa yeah it was fb. i never win anything in my left. i put my name down and i got chosen out of 5 people. lol


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## Andy Thurston (2 Mar 2015)




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## Crossocheilus (2 Mar 2015)

Great photography Andy! That first picture is stunning, the buce looks really healthy and that fissidens is so happy! You've also got a really dense carpet, although I am happy I have good plant health in my tank now, the lowered light means growth is so slow and I can't wait for a carpet like yours!


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## Ryan Thang To (2 Mar 2015)

nice and healthy plants lots of pearling


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## Andy Thurston (2 Mar 2015)

legytt said:


> nice and healthy plants lots of pearling


that pearling might be something to do with the colour plus tile running at 60%. I think I'm going to turn them down, growth is just insane, the monte carlo has grown 2cm thicker this week and is in need of a big trim again


Crossocheilus said:


> Great photography Andy! That first picture is stunning, the buce looks really healthy and that fissidens is so happy! You've also got a really dense carpet, although I am happy I have good plant health in my tank now, the lowered light means growth is so slow and I can't wait for a carpet like yours!


Improve your flow and co2 and growth will become faster once this is right then you can increase your lighting to speed things up even more.
I was using easycarbo at double dose in here but have stopped now, hence the bba, but then i did make the tank go cold turkey when i ran out


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## BBogdan (2 Mar 2015)

Hi Andy ,
Nice pearling  ... i see you have one bucephalandra in there looking really well.


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## Andy Thurston (3 Mar 2015)

Yes buce isnt too bad a tiny bit of gsa and bba on the older leaves but its not unmanageable.
Just a small reduction in light and more waterchanges should see these last few algae problems disappear


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## Andy Thurston (7 Mar 2015)

Is it possible to rotate video like you can with images?


----------



## Ryan Thang To (7 Mar 2015)

i had that problem but never  found a way to do it


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## BBogdan (7 Mar 2015)

Try using Sony Vegas Pro you should manage to fix this issue.


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## Andy Thurston (8 Mar 2015)

A few close ups


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## Andy Thurston (9 Mar 2015)

these are not as good but I'll post them anyway


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## Ryan Thang To (9 Mar 2015)

hey have you still got the hair grass growing? my dhg is growing so slow


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## Andy Thurston (9 Mar 2015)

Under the left hand tetra in last pic its still there but you cant see it in all the montecarlo


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## Greenfinger2 (30 Mar 2015)

Hi Andy, Playing catch up. Fantastic little Scape and journal. This one has truly come together.Through all the up's and downs Congratulation  Love the photos too.
Me and the wife were having a bet on the Bubbles videos .As to when the bubble would fly away. I lost


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## Andy Thurston (30 Mar 2015)

Thanks Roy this one has been a little neglect over the last month or so thanks to Bradford council chasing me for £300 that was paid over a month ago. I have a small bba problem  in the stems to the rear but am going to clean it up this week and bring it back to where it was before. it hasn't had a water change for 3 weeks and fertz for 2 weeks but its still growing. I might put some before and after pics up, too warts and all
I'm also thinking about replacing the mopani for some redmoor root and start again with the fissidens.
thanks for filling my inbox with like alerts, it should keep me on the most likes page for a little while longer


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## Greenfinger2 (30 Mar 2015)

Hi Andy, Don't go there Councils F%%""!! Waste of time they only employ?? NO brain idiots for lots of dosh at the top   Sorry to all the other hard working council workers who make things work
Sorry rant over 

Looking forward to your updates  Redmoor with Fiss


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## Andy Thurston (30 Mar 2015)

lol, i told the woman from the council to bring on the summons over the phone, she was sooo shocked and said there was probably no need for that. 3 emails a day threatening court action.


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## Greenfinger2 (30 Mar 2015)

Wall and shoot them comes to mind


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## Andy Thurston (30 Mar 2015)

so does guy fawkes and ei salts


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## Rob Dahl (9 Apr 2015)

Andy, your tank looks terrific, especially after all the hassles, both, domestic and aquatic. I hope you keep posting, I would love to see the tank mature.


----------



## Nick_V (9 Apr 2015)

May I ask what light you have for this thank? It's very nice


----------



## Andy Thurston (9 Apr 2015)

Nick_V said:


> May I ask what light you have for this thank? It's very nice


light is a tmc colour plus 1500 tile mounted in a custom cover I made at work












Rob Dahl said:


> Andy, your tank looks terrific, especially after all the hassles, both, domestic and aquatic. I hope you keep posting, I would love to see the tank mature.


thanks rob
unfortunately this tanks coming to an end this weekend its getting rescaped with 5kg of woodstone and Im keeping the monte carlo carpet. the rotala bonsai and the rotala wallichi is going to be used for the background.
the co2 finally is running out and I'm going to get a refill on friday. i'm sick of the bba on the wood and I dont really like the look of it, its far too bulky and it causes flow issues at the back of the tank, hopefully the next scape will be a bit easier to manage.


----------



## Crossocheilus (9 Apr 2015)

Big clown said:


> its getting rescaped with 5kg of woodstone and Im keeping the monte carlo carpet. the rotala bonsai and the rotala wallichi is going to be used for the background.
> the co2 finally is running out and I'm going to get a refill on friday. i'm sick of the bba on the wood and I dont really like the look of it, its far too bulky and it causes flow issues at the back of the tank, hopefully the next scape will be a bit easier to manage.



Sounds good, do please keep us updated (with pics )


----------



## Andy Thurston (9 Apr 2015)

just made a 40cm box out of that plastic that tgm sell as substrate supports for a fortune. if anyone wants any I have a 6'x4' sheet left over.
will be playing with hardscape later


----------



## Ryan Thang To (9 Apr 2015)

Bring on the new scape!!!!


----------



## Andy Thurston (18 Apr 2015)

Well I've started. now all I've got is a muddy puddle


----------



## Andy Thurston (18 Apr 2015)

well things pick their moments to go wrong. just discovered that the body of my inline diffuser is cracked half hour before all my lfs close and the ones that are still open don't sell co2 gear nice. looks like its an email to co2 art for a replacement which wont show up till Tuesday/Wednesday.
looks like the co2 is going to be put in the filter as a temporary measure. will add pics of the tank later


----------



## alto (18 Apr 2015)

new scape sounds exciting - agree with you on the wood
Tough luck on the diffuser (maybe add a cheap in tank diffuser to have around as a back up)


----------



## Ryan Thang To (18 Apr 2015)

Oh bommer. Same thing happen to me when i was cleaning out my filter.

They should send one out asap.

Are you doing a dry start andy?

Cheers
Ryan


----------



## Andy Thurston (18 Apr 2015)

cant I've got fish


----------



## Ryan Thang To (18 Apr 2015)

Oh yeah. Lol
My ehiem filter as a reactor work great for me. You should be fine for a few days. 

Scape look awesome by the way. Be interesting what plants you will be adding


----------



## Andy Thurston (18 Apr 2015)

Well that was fun just found my email has been hacked and now temporarily blocked too. It would appear that the ex is trying to screw with me. just had to use a different account to contact co2art.
cheers Ryan your the only person thats seen the new scape. lol, I had to think what you meant then, I thought you were on about the muddy puddle for a second or so


----------



## Andy Thurston (18 Apr 2015)

speaking of new scape I'd better crack on.
plants will be
monte carlo
rotala bonsai
rotala wallichi
and I'm going to put the buce, in the shade under the largest rock


----------



## Ryan Thang To (18 Apr 2015)

Big clown said:


> Well that was fun just found my email has been hacked and now temporarily blocked too. It would appear that the ex is trying to screw with me. just had to use a different account to contact co2art.
> cheers Ryan your the only person thats seen the new scape. lol, I had to think what you meant then, I thought you were on about the muddy puddle for a second or so


Lol sorry i had a late night last night so i thought i tell you in your thread. Have fun planting


----------



## Andy D (18 Apr 2015)

Looking forward to the updates.


----------



## Andy Thurston (18 Apr 2015)

sneak preview pic of my sand pit


----------



## Andy Thurston (18 Apr 2015)

not happy just broke my glass outlet pipe, at least it was the cheap piece and i can make do with crappy green pipe and elbows. just the fish to catch then I can get some pics up.


----------



## Andy Thurston (19 Apr 2015)

Pics.
Waters a bit hazy and there's a free floating buce in there waiting till tomorrow to be sorted



temporary flood to wet substrate ready for planting and get rid of bits



some neglected monte carlo hope I have enough lol



rotala wallichi (back left) lets hope it bounces back, these were the best bits from the last scape



rotala bonsai and a couple of eriocaulons (back right). buce trapped under rock in the middle is going in the shade under the biggest rock tomorrow



fish looking very pale after been in a bucket all afternoon/evening



middle close up






another fish shot



FTS



FTS without the light
a bit of a tidy up needed in here tomorrow and co2 needs setting up properly
Thanks for looking


----------



## Andy Thurston (19 Apr 2015)

no deaths overnight so I must have done ok at rinsing the bleach off. just been to bradford hydroponics for a new gas bottle prices have gone up £65 for a full bottle and £18.50 for an exchange


----------



## Andy Thurston (27 Apr 2015)

Day 8 since the rescape.
new up inline replaced thanks Karol and Co2art. new reg and needle valve on beta test Also from co2Art. All seems well with these just a minor pressure adjustment needed on day 2 of use, co2 seems dialled in in 2 days plants seem happy as do fish.
New rear exit pipe for spraybar fitted, Thanks John and Aquarium plant food UK for the speedy service.
Anyway pics please excuse the bba left from the neglect in the last scape, new growth looks nice and algae free happy days


 
Rotala bonsai, will trim the bba when I have enough new growth to replant


 


 
Same with the rotala wallichi



hoping the snails will clear the dead bits of this 


 
Otto trying to hide and finally FTS


 
Thanks for looking


----------



## Andy Thurston (27 Apr 2015)

need an inline heater and some backgrounds now


----------



## Andy Thurston (29 Apr 2015)

one of the glowline tetras has decided it didn't like its new home and has committed suicide, the remaining 2 and the ottos are looking ok still


----------



## Ryan Thang To (29 Apr 2015)

My neon did that last month


----------



## EnderUK (29 Apr 2015)

nice setup Andy, shame about the glowlight.


----------



## Andy Thurston (29 Apr 2015)

Cheers Kenny its the same cube you have, where did you get it from? I was thinking about getting another one but didn't fancy driving to Harrogate


----------



## EnderUK (29 Apr 2015)

Yeah Harrogate, they had to order it. So I guess anywhere that sells aqua one tanks would be able to get it. I was thinking of upgrading the shrimp tank to either the 40 or the 30 but then I would have another spare tank.


----------



## Andy Thurston (3 May 2015)

Things seem to be going ok.
sorry for the co2 mist.
Thanks for looking


----------



## Andy Thurston (8 May 2015)




----------



## Laurie Dear (8 May 2015)

That's a beautiful video. So peaceful.


----------



## Andy Thurston (10 May 2015)




----------



## Andy Thurston (16 May 2015)




----------



## EnderUK (16 May 2015)

Wow what a huge growth spurt. Filling in nicely.


----------



## Andy Thurston (16 May 2015)

EnderUK said:


> Wow what a huge growth spurt. Filling in nicely.


It really is growing like crazy now. The MC needs trimming every 2-3weeks and the glosso is getting bits cut all the time to stop it invading the other plants.
I'm not sure why people recommend starting a tank with reduced lighting lights have been at 70% for 9 hours a day with this since the rescape. I've only changed the water once a week too but I would recommend people do at least 2x per week to keep the water crystal clear


----------



## Rob Dahl (16 May 2015)

Andy looks like everything is cranking on. Good work!


----------



## Andy Thurston (16 May 2015)

Thanks Rob, I'm pretty pleased with how this is growing now. I just need to keep up with removing the BBA from the rocks and equipment


----------



## Andy Thurston (22 May 2015)




----------



## Ryan Thang To (22 May 2015)

took the mc in no time to carpet. nice one


----------



## Andy Thurston (2 Jun 2015)

legytt said:


> took the mc in no time to carpet. nice one


the glosso fully carpeted in 2-3 weeks too


----------



## Rob Dahl (3 Jun 2015)

and nice pearling


----------



## Andy Thurston (3 Jun 2015)

cheers rob, I'm quite proud of my plants growing and pearling. I just need my scaping skills to catch up.
I really need to change the water in this tank before things start going horribly wrong, I'll try get some new pics up tonight after I've cleaned the glass and changed the water
I'm on with making a stainless spraybar for this, I just need to measure the hole size and pitch on the glass one because flow is pretty good, then I can finish it before the crack in this one gets worse


----------



## Rob Dahl (3 Jun 2015)

You can never go wrong with a water change.


----------



## Andy Thurston (3 Jun 2015)

Rob Dahl said:


> You can never go wrong with a water change.


you can!  I should have changed it on saturday


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## Greenfinger2 (4 Jun 2015)

Hi Big Clown, Looking good love the pearling


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## Rob Dahl (4 Jun 2015)

Andy,  Is there a reason that you chose stainless instead of plastic?


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## Andy Thurston (4 Jun 2015)

yes I'm a metal worker and I got it for free, also you cant see the dirt inside a stainless one
I'm thinking about making a pipe bender and having a go at a stainless inflow pipe too


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## Rob Dahl (4 Jun 2015)

That would certainly be a unique look. And you're right; no one could see the gunk buildup .


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## Andy Thurston (5 Jun 2015)

finally clean water, clean glass and a FTS


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## Sk3lly (5 Jun 2015)

Your rotala wallichii is very impressive! That is if I have ID'd it correctly. Lovely simple scape in my opinion. Looks very nice  
Any plans to attack the BBA on the rocks?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## Andy Thurston (5 Jun 2015)

Thank you
your ID is correct, not a bad bush from half a dozen bba infected stems, I just wish the rotala bonsai would grow as fast.
yes theres some chemical warfare going on I've been experimenting with H2O2 over the last few days


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## Sk3lly (5 Jun 2015)

I found in a past setup with a bit of BBA, the H202 followed up closely with excel or other liquid carbon very effective


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## Ryan Thang To (5 Jun 2015)

looking good. glosso and mc goes great together


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## Andy Thurston (29 Mar 2016)

Wow its been a while.

Anyways update time! This tank got moved 180 miles and ended up with green water through neglect so I decided to keep it running and sort the issues. I did 50% water changes twice a week. 3 months later the water cleared and I could see that all of the plants had died apart from the rotala bonsai and a few stems of montecarlo so I decided to replant it with pots that were getting thrown out at work

Heres a pic a few weeks after planting after planting excuse the bba on the rocks, most of this is gone after excel spot treatment



 
 and today with new spraybar fitted






 


 


 


 




 



 
possibly the first stainless spraybar on ukaps


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## Greenfinger2 (30 Mar 2016)

Hi Andy, Good to hear you got the green water sorted  Scape is looking great now and nice plant growth 

Love the SS Spray bay


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## Rob Dahl (30 Mar 2016)

Nicely done Andy. Everything is looking healthy now.


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## Andy Thurston (30 Mar 2016)

Thanks guys

I nearly forgot the tmc tile is now running at 100% and I want to change the stems at the rear corners to something a bit shorter, I want to keep the rotala bonsai though


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## GHNelson (6 Jul 2016)

Nice set-up Andy!
Looking good!


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## Andy Thurston (6 Jul 2016)

cheers hoggie. just need to find a good plant for the back left, perhaps http://www.aquariumgardens.co.uk/ludwigia-sp-mini-super-red-tissue-culture---hortilab-1237-p.asp will be a good choice


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## alto (6 Jul 2016)

Do we get an update photo


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## Andy Thurston (6 Jul 2016)

sure when I clean my hardware at the weekend


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## Andy Thurston (7 Jul 2016)

alto said:


> Do we get an update photo


Just for you I've just taken a quick snap. the pic is uploading please excuse the dirty glassware and the floating bits where I've just removed the last of the plant from the back left. this tank has been neglected since my car caught fire last month


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## Andy Thurston (7 Jul 2016)




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## alto (7 Jul 2016)

Big clown said:


> since my car caught fire last month




Hope all is well!


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## Andy Thurston (7 Jul 2016)

ye all is cool I was not in it at the time it was quite exciting watching the fire brigade put it out. I have new wheels now


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## Andy Thurston (10 Jul 2016)

New plant added back right Many thanks Neil (Nelson)


 
I am planning on cleaning the hardscape and cutting the carpet. This tank will be coming to an end shortly to make way for my next project hopefully everything will come together for the final shot in about a months time.

I picked up my new tank today, Many thanks Ryan, with a bit of luck some of yours and Ian's talent will have rubbed off on it.

Here's the new tank with the rocks piled in the middle


 
Just need to sort the lighting


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## Nelson (10 Jul 2016)

Big clown said:


> I picked up my new tank today


.


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## Andy Thurston (10 Jul 2016)

Nelson said:


> .


Sorry mate, Ryan offered it to me a few months ago but I didn't have the cash. I was just lucky that I was online when he added it to the sales section. I hope I can do it justice


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## Nelson (10 Jul 2016)

Big clown said:


> I hope I can do it justice


I'm sure you will .


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## Andy Thurston (22 Jul 2016)

Quick pic. co2 has run out and haven't changed it yet. I have reduced the light to 50% and continued dosing excel @ 5ml daily everything seems fine no algae on the plants, just the equipment and hardscape


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## Nelson (22 Jul 2016)

Clean it off .


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## Andy Thurston (22 Jul 2016)

the snails and shrimp appear to be starting to eat it. I need more so they do it faster and I can be lazy


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## Manisha (23 Jul 2016)

Lovely tank & what a change in a few months!


Nelson said:


> Clean it off .


I agree ☺ your hardscape rock is really nice - it would be nicer to see more of it


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## Andy Thurston (24 Jul 2016)

Manisha said:


> Lovely tank & what a change in a few months!
> 
> I agree ☺ your hardscape rock is really nice - it would be nicer to see more of it


Ok I'll start with a carpet cut and a water change this afternoon. Then I'll start dosing the excel directly to the bba. The tank should be clear in a couple of weeks.

I might try and convert this to low tech once the bba is gone to give me a bit more time for my new high tech project


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## Andy Thurston (25 Jul 2016)

Chemical warfare has begun




a quick plant pic



and my lone otto


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## Ryan Thang To (26 Jul 2016)

nice macro shots Andy


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## Andy Thurston (26 Jul 2016)

Cheers Ryan

There not bad but I would really like a dedicated macro lens.
These were taken with the 55-300 and 32mm extension tube, no flash just under the tank lights at 100%. I started running out of light when the dimmer kicked in and gave up trying to get a shot of the galaxy rasboras. I will get a decent shot of them one day though


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## Andy Thurston (31 Jul 2016)

Manisha said:


> I agree ☺ your hardscape rock is really nice - it would be nicer to see more of it


What a difference a week makes just waiting for livestock to finish the job


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## Nelson (31 Jul 2016)

Wow.Bye bye BBA .


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## Ryan Thang To (31 Jul 2016)

oh wow. i can see the rocks now  now just need to clean the glass lol

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## Andy Thurston (31 Jul 2016)

There is still a little bit but it wont take long and I'm going to clean the filter and glassware next weekend. Rome wasn't built in a day


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## Manisha (31 Jul 2016)

Wow also ☺ That rock looks really nice - a bit like fossilised wood, & who's this Thurston fella? All the staff are posting their full names - crazy times!


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## Andy Thurston (31 Jul 2016)

Manisha said:


> Wow also ☺ That rock looks really nice - a bit like fossilised wood, & who's this Thurston fella? All the staff are posting their full names - crazy times!


it is fossilized wood.
Perhaps I should put formerly known as big clown in my signature


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## Manisha (1 Aug 2016)

Might be a good idea actually - would be helpful to new members reading information on older threads ☺


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## alto (1 Aug 2016)

Andy Thurston said:


> Then I'll start dosing the excel directly to the bba


Impressive result - did you drop the water level very low or just dose in usual tank volume with filter off/syringe etc???

Congrats on the new tank & rock


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## tim (1 Aug 2016)

Nice clean up Andy, looking forward to your signature setup


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## Tim Harrison (1 Aug 2016)

Looking good Andy (aka Big Clown)


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## Andy Thurston (1 Aug 2016)

alto said:


> Impressive result - did you drop the water level very low or just dose in usual tank volume with filter off/syringe etc???
> 
> Congrats on the new tank & rock


pretty much the tank gets 5ml of excel every day. I turn the filters off for about 20 mins and squirt it slowly onto the bba with a syringe with some co2 tube attached. I don't drain the tank while doing this. oh yes I turned the tank lights off for 2 days a couple of times per month when I go up north to see the kids


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## Andy Thurston (1 Aug 2016)

Manisha said:


> Wow also ☺ That rock looks really nice - a bit like fossilised wood, & who's this Thurston fella? All the staff are posting their full names - crazy times!


 Not just staff it would seem


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## Andy Thurston (26 Sep 2016)

I'm quite surprised that this is doing so well considering its been running low tech for a month


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## Nelson (26 Sep 2016)

Looking good .


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## Greenfinger2 (26 Sep 2016)

Hi Andy, Looking great mate


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## Manisha (26 Sep 2016)

Andy Thurston said:


> I'm quite surprised that this is doing so well considering its been running low tech for a month



Perhaps this Thurston fella is a bit more on top of maintenance than the ol' clown 

It looks great Andy  Your (rotala & ludwigia?!) stems look very healthy...


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## Andy Thurston (26 Sep 2016)

Manisha said:


> Perhaps this Thurston fella is a bit more on top of maintenance than the ol' clown


perhaps not... I've only topped it up twice and chucked some fertz in now and then since i turned the lights down


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