# CD's 60cm



## Crawdaddy (6 Jul 2015)

*Latest FTS (Week 8):*




*
Latest Spec:
Tank:* ADA Cube Garden 60P (60x30x36)
*Lighting: *BOYU luminaire unit with 2 x 24w T5 on 6 hours per day
*Co2:* Pressurised disposable welding bottles. Co2Art dual stage regulator with adapter. Solenoid valve set to come on at 7 hrs before lights on and 1 hr before lights off. Up inline diffuser. 2bps.
*Filter: *Eheim classic 350
*Heater:* Hydor 300w
*Circulation:* Hydor 900 Nano
*Substrate:* ADA Power Sand Super (S), Tropica Aquarium Soil Black Powder
*Ferts: *DIY EI (using aquariumplantfood.co.uk recipe)
*Hardscape:* Redmoor wood, river pebbles, graded gravel, unipac sand
*Plants: *Tropica Vesicularia ferriei 'Weeping' Moss, Hygrophila corymbosa 'Siamensis', Hygrophila mini, Ludwigia palustris red, Micranthemum 'Monte-Carlo', Alternathera reineckii ''mini', Anubias_, _Bolbitis heudelotii, Eleocharis acicularis, Ludwigia Arcuata
*Fish:* Hemigrammus rhodostomus, Otocinclus
*Inverts: *Neocaridina davidi


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## Crawdaddy (6 Jul 2015)

So, I’m currently about 3 weeks in to my current project and thought that this might be the time to start keeping a journal. I read the forum regularly but rarely post so this is all a bit new for me.

I’ve kept a planted tank for a couple of years now and although I still struggle with algae here and there, hopefully all the serious mistakes should be behind me.

However this is my first ‘serious’ stab at an aquascape and I’ve upped my ambitions in terms of lighting and plant choice, so we’ll see how it goes. [GULP]

We’ve recently had a unit built in the living room and I decided to integrate my tank and plumb it in over the top of a cupboard. I had the existing tank situated here for about a month or so but thought it was time to do a rescape. My objectives for the scape were:

1.  Create a new layout that worked for the tank’s new placement in the corner of the room

2.  Experiment with a more demanding and interesting plants

3.  Create a tank that looked cleaner for longer in-between maintenance

Overall my aim is to create something that looks good in my living room. I hope to improve in terms of photography, but I’m not looking to create something for a photo shoot. I want a long term tank that I can tinker with over the next 12 months and improve my plant keeping skills.


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## Crawdaddy (6 Jul 2015)

I’d previously been using a 60cm clearseal tank that I had de-rimmed myself. This had worked fine but the corner sealant seemed to attract algae. Because of this and the blue tint to the glass I decided to spring for and ADA 60P (and yes I will take the sticker off eventually! ).


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## Crawdaddy (6 Jul 2015)

I decided to go for a hardscape that was based around redmoor wood. I used the plastic sheeting the tank was wrapped up in to simulate substrate. I initially wanted to ‘top down’ effect, with tree roots hanging into the water on the both ends of the tank and lots of immersed growth. However after experimenting a while I found that the hardscape I had to hand wouldn’t really work in that way.





Instead I went for this arrangement of a single piece of wood creating a triangle layout. I was aiming at creating a slice of river bank with some immersed growth on one side and gravelly river bed on the other. (You can just make out the old tank in situ behind the new one).






I added branches and river pebbles to try to make the wood ‘grow out’ of the river bank, over the rocks.

Now I just had to wait for the plants to arrive.


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## Crawdaddy (6 Jul 2015)

So came the day of the scape itself.

Here’s the tank in situ in its new home.





Here I’ve added substrate dividers. The one on the left is for the gravel. The one on the right is a square shape which I will use to hold a small layer of sand. I have fixed a piece of brick to the bottom of my hardscape wood in order to weigh it down and anchor it in place. The sand is to form a cushion underneath the brick and secure the foundation. 





With ADA power sand and foundation sand in place.





With main hardscape in place. You can see the brick foundation. I have nailed one of the extra wood branch pieces to the main piece of wood. I have already attached some moss to the lower limbs.





With Tropica Aquarium Soil in place.





With gravel, pebbles and remaining hardscape wood branches in place. I’ve chosen to use a more natural gravel over the fine white sand I had used on my previous tank. I found the fine white sand got dirty too quickly and spread round the tank far too easily.





Planted and filled. This will be my first attempt at carpets and red plants and my first serious crack at stems (believe it or not). Up until now I had been restricted to Anuabis, Java Fern & Crypts (& algae! J) due to lighting (1 x 14w). I really wanted to try some red plants and have a go at a carpeting species so increased the light to 2 x 24w. I was aiming at the medium difficulty plants (as defined by tropica). The white ball on the main piece of wood is sand in a carrier bag to weigh the wood. I’m not sure this was completely necessary due to the brick foundation but I wasn’t taking any chances.





With lily pipes fitted. There was more consideration here for keeping the tank looking cleaner for longer. I decided to replace the clear acrylic lily pipes with steel ones as you couldn’t see algae build up. Cleaning lily pipes is probably my least favourite part of maintenance so I wanted to keep this to a minimum. In addition I wanted lily pipes that had an integrated surface skimmer to keep the surface film free. This was for cosmetic and aeration reasons.





Here’s a shot of the guts. I’m using a Eheim 350 classic and Hydor 300w heater. Co2 is provided by disposable welding canister through a Co2Art dual stage regulator and Up inline diffuser. Currently I keep the gas on 24hrs per day for various reasons, but I’m considering introducing a solenoid. More on this later.





Here’s another couple of shots of the tank in situ on day 1. The quality is shocking but you get the idea. The fish are already in as I was transferring from an old tank. I’ve got 5 Rasbora Espei, 1 stray Rasbora Hengeli and 2 otos. The filter is mature so it should be fine at this stage. It’s one of the reasons I went for Tropica soil over ADA aqua soild – less ammonia.









The lighting is on for 6 hours a day at the moment. I may up this to 8 hrs later on. I am dosing full EI levels. I am using a 2 litre juice bottle to change 8 litres (about 15%) of the water every day. I’ve found this much easier than syphoning/pumping a larger amount a couple of times a week.


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## Crawdaddy (6 Jul 2015)

Here’s the tank three weeks later. Not much change visible in these pics using the phone but there has been a fair degree of growth. I’ve pruned most of the back stem plants and give the carpet a good haircut. I’ve added 15 cherry shrimp and not suffered any algae issues as yet.


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## Crawdaddy (6 Jul 2015)

I went away for 4 days. I spent lots of time reading the featured journals section on the UKAPS site. This was both inspirational, informative and completely depressing! 

I kept flicking between images of these beautiful tanks and back to my own effort. There were a few things bugging me about the scape and I spent a few days mulling it over trying to work out what it was. In the end I decided that:

-  The large grey stone on the left was too large and not in keeping with the rest of the tank
-  The large white stone on the right was far too distracting.
-  Overall the stone work appears too large and there is not enough transition with the sand causing an unnatural look.
-  The substrate level at the front (especially on the right) of the tank was too deep.
-  There was not enough transition from the right half of the tank to the left side of the tank. All the lower wood branches pretty much stopped bang on the half way mark.
-  The two central lower wood branches were not working well together ad looked congested. Neither really stood out.


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## Crawdaddy (6 Jul 2015)

After 4 days I returned home to find the tank was in pretty good shape.




There wasn’t much wrong apart from a dropped water level and a couple of the smaller stems had floated up to the surface. Also the water was a little cloudy but not too much. All the inhabitants looked fine.

However there were a few changes worked out in my mind…


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## Crawdaddy (6 Jul 2015)

…I decided to dive straight in and have a mini rescape. As follows:

-  Removed the large left hand grey and right hand white stones. Replaced with smaller, less brightly coloured pebbles.
-  Removed the right/centre wood branch to decongest that area of the tank. Relocated to the left side of the tank to provide transition from the left half of the tank to the right side.
-  Added graded gravels to provide transition from stones to gravel. I also added graded gravel around the main central branch and base of the main wood trunk in order to highlight the branch and create a visual flow.
-  Reduced the substrate level at the front of the glass.
-  Rearranged the stems and monte carlo slightly in order to fill in the gaps made by the hardscape changes.
-  Finally I added some terrestrial moss to the emergent wood branches.

Photos to follow.


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## Sk3lly (6 Jul 2015)

Ive not had time to read fully, but i will!!! Tank looks really great! Great looking driftwood

Very nice job on this


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Rob Dahl (6 Jul 2015)

Wonderful job Crawdaddy, the only thing I would recommend is keeping a close eye on your lighting cycle. At the first sign of any algae I would cut back from 8 hrs. to 6.


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## 5678 (6 Jul 2015)

I like this, good location in your home too. 

Where did you get the steel pipes from?


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## Crawdaddy (7 Jul 2015)

Sk3lly said:


> Ive not had time to read fully, but i will!!! Tank looks really great! Great looking driftwood
> 
> Very nice job on this


Thanks Sk3lly! Yeah it’s a bit of a long read. Sorry about that but with 1 month of planning and 3 weeks of running the tank I had a lot to get off my chest! 



Rob Dahl said:


> Wonderful job Crawdaddy, the only thing I would recommend is keeping a close eye on your lighting cycle. At the first sign of any algae I would cut back from 8 hrs. to 6.


Cheers Rob. Appreciated. Just to confirm at the moment I am only lighting it up for 6 hours. I am roughly following the Tropica ap for lighting levels and water change quantities. So will probably up it to 8 hours when the app tells me too. However if I see any algaee will drop it back down again to 6. Thanks for the advice. 



5678 said:


> I like this, good location in your home too.
> 
> Where did you get the steel pipes from?



Cheers 5678. Yeah I think it works well on the unit. Pipes came from eBay. To be honest they weren't cheap but I could only really find one set and one sellar that included a skimmer and was the right diameter. They're slightly more distracting than clean glass lilly pipes, but since mine spent 95% of the time covered in diatoms these are a definite improvement. Also I quite like the technical/industrial look it gives contrasting with the plants and wood.


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## Crawdaddy (7 Jul 2015)

Here’s how the tank looks now after the partial rescape. I’m now using my Panasonic lumix camera instead of my iphone. It’s no DSLR but should be better quality. Also I’ve made sure to block out all ambient light and flicked on the spare 14w tube on the luminaire. This is probably about as good as the photos will get for a while until I decide I need a new camera! 

I think the overall look is now much more pleasing. The eye flows better around the scape. In particular the central branch now stands out much better and seems to add more depth. The changes to the stone works have also helped improve the sense of scale and added a greater intricacy to the design. I’m very happy with the changes (for the moment )

Unfortunately though it has been quite disruptive to the planting, particularly the monte carlo, and has probably set my carpet back a couple of weeks. 





Here’s the tank in situ again but better quality.





Here’s a shot of the terrestrial moss. I pulled it out of my Dad’s garden. Not sure what kind it is but appears to have a couple of other small plant species and a lichen species growing within it and looks lovely.

I was kind of inspired by Mr. Teapot’s Green Pekoe Pond here. I love the way he’s been throwing in different plant species on top of each other, including terrestrial species. I love the way mystery species keep popping up from nowhere. These end up creating a really rich and interesting natural scene.

As long as I can keep my plants alive I’m looking to do something similar and add in new species to evolve the scape over the long term.


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## Crawdaddy (7 Jul 2015)

Right, that brings us up to today. That’s a bit of an essay there. Sorry about that. Hopefully the rest should be a bit more ‘journal like’.


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## moroland (7 Jul 2015)

Great job tank looks very nice 
Is co2 still 24/7 ?
I'm running co2 same as you because i've got a lot of light during a day in living room but i'm afraid how fish and shrimps will react 
Did you have any problems ?


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## Crawdaddy (7 Jul 2015)

moroland said:


> Great job tank looks very nice
> Is co2 still 24/7 ?
> I'm running co2 same as you because i've got a lot of light during a day in living room but i'm afraid how fish and shrimps will react
> Did you have any problems ?



Thanks Moroland! 

Co2 is 24/7 at moment yes.

I took out solenoid because I had a cheap Chinese model that kept failing. Also I found it Difficult to get the timing right so I would end up with too much or too little gas during photo period. I found it much easier to set the gas to a small constant amount. In this respect it was much better on the fish (and plants) to keep it constant.

However I have bought a BMV solenoid from Co2 Art which I will fit soon. Primarily I bought this to cut down the amount of gas I was consuming. However I have noticed that my shrimp have been far less tolerant of co2 than the fish. The fish are fine with quite a yellow DC. Shrimp seem to need 'leaf green'. If it goes yellow they tend to 'sunbathe' near the surface on a branch. I'm going to use the solenoid to ensure the leaf green doesn't turn into yellow during the night.

Hadn't thought about the ambient room light though. My room is also quite light, so could cause probs. I will watch for this. Thanks for the tip.

CD


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## Crawdaddy (11 Jul 2015)

Quick update:


I'm now exactly a month in. There's not been a great deal of change since my mini rescape.


All the plants are looking healthy although the Monte Carlo isn't quite as dense as expected. I suspect this might be because I moved a lot of it around and then gave it a dramatic haircut. I'm going to leave it for a couple of weeks and see how it gets on. Also the Hygrophila corymbosa 'Siamensis' in the back right corner isn't quite as bushy and dominant as I thought it might be. I'm considering buying 1 or 2 more pots of something to mix in that corner and fill it out.


I've not had any algae blooms as yet which I'm chuffed about.



I've increased the lighting period to 7 hours.


I've installed a solenoid. It's a BMV from Co2Art.






Because I've been running Co2 24/7 I've been using quite gentle bubble rate (1bps). I'm going to stick with this bubble rate as I know that whatever happens I won't gas my fish. However this does mean that it will take longer to saturate the tank to the correct level. Because of this the gas will probably have to come on before the standard 2 hrs before lights on.


I’m going to start by setting the solenoid to come on at 10:00, 6 hrs before lights on. It goes off at 22:00, 1 hr before lights out meaning it’s 12hrs on, 12hrs off. I plan to adjust it later to get the timings right.


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## Dantrasy (11 Jul 2015)

might have missed it, but how are you diffusing your co2? i see no reactor or in-take diffuser. 

very nice scape btw


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## Crawdaddy (11 Jul 2015)

Thanks Dantrasy.

You can't really see it in the photo but I've got an Up inline diffuser (old style) on the filter out flow. Seems to work pretty well. Can't really see any bubbles unless you look hard.


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## Crawdaddy (12 Jul 2015)

I've been at home all day today working so I've been keeping an eye on the drop checker.  





The DC hits this kind of green about 2 hours before lights on and stays there. Fish ans shrimp all seem happy. 

I could push the timing back a bit but actually I think i'll leave it. There's a fair bit of ambient light in the room so not a bad idea to have some extra Co2. Besifes, i'm on 12hrs on, 12hrs off so I've already halved my Co2 consumption which is good enough for me.


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## Crawdaddy (14 Jul 2015)

I haven’t uploaded an FTS since my mini-rescape so thought I’d break out the camera last night. This is at 4 weeks 3 days:





It’s also worth pointing out I have been trimming constantly. The Monte carlo has already had 2 haircuts (and been moved once). Also I have been trimming and replanting the tips of the Ludwigia palustris red and Alternathera reineckii ''mini' almost constantly in order to get them to bush and fill their respective spaces.



Here’s a quick rundown of how the plants are doing a month in:

-  Tropica Vesicularia ferriei 'Weeping' Moss: This has been very slow to take hold which I’m not that surprised about. I am starting to see some new growth so hopefully settled now. I regret not buying more of this as it will take ages to cover more of the wood.

-  Hygrophila corymbosa 'Siamensis': I bought this particular species as I wanted it to fill the back corner and grow emerged. I reckon another week and it will be out of the water surface. It’s not quite as rapid as I thought it would be however. The tips have continued to grow upward okay but the stems where I had snipped the top are not throwing out bush shoots very quickly. I might be being impatient here. I’m considering whether to either hack the whole lot back or leave it to grow emerged and inter plant with another slightly lower, light tolerant species.

-  Hygrophila mini: These are a lovely little plant. Probably my favourite in the tank. They are nice and compact and have a lovely green colour with silver undersides to their leaves. I haven’t really trimmed these yet, only dead leaves. They are starting to get taller though so will have to soon. I think my tactic with these will be to uproot, trim bottom leaves, trim stem/roots and replant.

-  Ludwigia palustris red: This is the first of my 2‘red’ plants. Growing in the back centre. It was supposed it have a slight red blush to the stems. Ummmm….. There’s not even a hint of red. They weren’t even red when they came so I’m not sure if that’s on me or not. They’re growing well. I’ve been trimming and replanting almost daily and they are looking nice and bushy. However, I’m not actually sure if I like them or not. Considering swapping out and trying some rotalia rotundafolia.

-  Alternathera reineckii ''mini': This is a lovely little plant. I bought this to provide a low red accent to the left side, behind a large grey stone. The stone has long since gone and I have been trimming and replanting it quite aggressively in order to fill the space. It’s growing well although I’m considering buying another couple of pots to help fill the gaps quicker.

-  Micranthemum 'Monte-Carlo': As mentioned above the jury is still out a little on the ‘Monty’. It has shown growth and not shown any melt that I would attribute to poor co2. In just 4 weeks I have given it a haircut twice and moved it once (which is really aggressive). On the downside it is looking a little leggy and there are the odd yellow patches where some of the original stems that were planted incorrectly are dying back. Also I can’t see much evidence of spreading. I’m not really sure here. I think I am being impatient. I am I need to resist the urge to trim or move for another 1-2 weeks. Then I will hack it back to the substrate and give it another month. Then I’ll know.


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## Crawdaddy (14 Jul 2015)

All in all I’m happy where this is all going. I haven’t had any major problems yet. Haven’t seen any algae. No plants are dying off. All fish are fine. A couple of shrimp deaths but these don’t appear related to each other.

I realise that it’s probably looking like this is all par for the course and it’s easy. But actually this is the first time that I’ve had a tank in this condition, with this kind of growth. I’ve never had a tank like this before.

I think the two things that have really helped me and taken me up a level from where I was at are:

1)  Stable Co2: A dual stage regulator so you can set and forget, plus 24/7 co2 until I fine-tuned the drop checker, and only AFTER getting things stable using a solenoid to cut my consumption.

2)  Water changes: No one likes this to be the answer. People will obsess over PAR meters, colour temperatures, dosing schedules, drop checker colours etc etc. and not bother to change the water. Water changes are a PITA and people (including myself) are lazy. However if you look at the top guys there are a million different combinations of how to do the hobby. They all have success with different methods. The only thing that they all have in common (apart from stability) is regular water changes. That’s it. Since I realised I could just scoop out 8 litres of water and replace with 8 litres of tap water and that would be a 15% water change, I’ve been doing this pretty much every night. My water is crystal clear, my plants are healthy and growing well, my fish are coloured up in a way I’ve not seen before.

When things are going well everything just feels so easy. You can make fine adjustments and monitor their effect. And you know what the impact is of each little change you make.

When things are going badly it feels like everything you do just makes it worse and that you are having to ‘chase after’ problems all over the tank.

I’m not arrogant enough to believe I’ll never experience the later again, however I’m hopeful that the majority of my planted tank days will be the former from here on in.

I think the main danger for me will be getting bored and stopping water changes. But I think I’m a fair way off that for this tank yet.

Here’s an artsy low angle shot just for the hell of it:





Happy Tuesday all.

CD


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## johnchoi (14 Jul 2015)

WOW ! Beautiful!


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## Crawdaddy (14 Jul 2015)

johnchoi said:


> WOW ! Beautiful!


Cheers!


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## Crawdaddy (16 Jul 2015)

So it would appear there is in fact a god of planted tanks. And I have royally p***ed him off!

On Tuesday I was arrogant enough to say that I had two keys to success and that keeping planted tanks would be easy from here on in. Oh the hubris! Well someone or something, disagreed with me… big time.

It seems that whilst I was typing my last post, congratulating myself on how I had achieved stable Co2 levels, I had an issue with my Co2 system and gassed all my fish and shrimp. 18 animals dead. Literally as I was typing that post.

Completely gutted. The lone Rasbora Espei especially had been with me for years. Worst thing is I’m now almost certain it was completely my fault.

It looked like a case of end-of-tank dump, except I have a dual stage regulator which has been working perfectly through several end-of-tank periods. I’ve been talking to Co2Art (who have been brilliant with me recently) and I think I have a reason narrowed down. For some reason I had the pressure knob all the way open and the working pressure cranked way up to 60psi. Apparently this coupled with increased pressure from an emptying tank can cause the symptoms of end-of-tank dump even on a dual stage reg.

When I set up the new tank I went from using a steady 40psi to opening the working pressure up fully. Not sure why I did this. I think I had hardly touched the regulator for 6 months prior to the move. Just changed the gas bottles. I think I just forgot how to set it. Like I say, my fault.

But there’s more…

So next night, I’m staring at a still and lifeless tank when I notice that my Hygrophila mini (you know, the one I was chirping on about in my previous post, about how well it was doing), were all starting to show quite serious signs of a Co2 deficiency. The leaves were starting to go see-through and some detached when I brushed them.

But how could this be? I had been pumping in so much Co2 that I had wiped out a community of animals.

Not sure if you remember a few posts back but I increased the lighting by one hour at the same time as introducing the solenoid to halve the Co2. Sounds a bit stupid right? What’s even more stupid is that instead of shutting off the gas at 22:00 (1 hr before lights out), I had it set for 20:00 (3hrs before lights out). I can’t even tell the 24hr clock. Nobody’s fault but mine.

If this is the reason, this has been going on since Saturday and looks like it’s only just now shown itself in terms of damaged plants. Needless to say I’ve cut the lights back to 6 hours and extended the Co2 period.



But there’s more…

Somehow during my investigations with the Co2 system I’ve done something to my solenoid. It now makes an annoying crunching sound every 10 mins or so. I think it’s either a loose bolt or a bit of dirt inside. I need to give it a good look later when I’m home from work. Nothing serious hopefully.

So there you go. Hopefully the god of planted tanks will see this post and back the hell off a bit!

However I stand by my two keys for success. I’m not going to panic. It’s been working fine for a month, so I’ll try to identify the problem, make some adjustments and monitor the situation. I’ll get the Co2 stable again, get the lighting right, carry on with my water changes and I’m sure it will work itself out.

In this hobby you’re never done learning, and I’ve certainly learnt a lesson this week... It’s just that I haven’t learnt all the lessons.

CD


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## Andy D (16 Jul 2015)

That sucks!

I hope you get it sorted.

(An informative update. )


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## Crawdaddy (16 Jul 2015)

Cheers Andy. 

Yeah that was a bit of an essay huh!? Sorry Had to get that off my chest.


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## alto (16 Jul 2015)

So sorry

Did you try immediate water changes? - go for 90% in this instance, also increase aeration as soon as you notice fish distress, have filter running & good amount of splash etc, use slightly cooler water as well as dissolved oxygen is higher ... don't forget that CO2 can be used to render fish unconscious (for treatments) but then recovery is quite rapid when fish are returned to usual tank conditions (newer drugs have mostly replaced this method)


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## Sarpijk (16 Jul 2015)

Sorry  for your loss! We all make mistakes.


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## Crawdaddy (16 Jul 2015)

Thanks Sarpijk.



alto said:


> So sorry
> 
> Did you try immediate water changes? - go for 90% in this instance, also increase aeration as soon as you notice fish distress, have filter running & good amount of splash etc, use slightly cooler water as well as dissolved oxygen is higher ... don't forget that CO2 can be used to render fish unconscious (for treatments) but then recovery is quite rapid when fish are returned to usual tank conditions (newer drugs have mostly replaced this method)



Alto, thanks and thanks for the tips. Hopefully though I won't have to use them in future but maybe wishful thinking.

This time though I didn't even get a chance to rescue them. I was at work. By the time I got home they were very very dead. I'm guessing it must have happened in the morning. By 7 there was nothing to be done.

CD


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## Chris Jackson (16 Jul 2015)

Oh bummer! Part of the attraction of this hobby is that the learning never ever ends...


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## Crawdaddy (16 Jul 2015)

Chris Jackson said:


> Oh bummer! Part of the attraction of this hobby is that the learning never ever ends...


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## moroland (19 Jul 2015)

Oh no 
Sorry for your loss.


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## Crawdaddy (20 Jul 2015)

moroland said:


> Oh no
> Sorry for your loss.


Thanks Moroland.


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## Crawdaddy (20 Jul 2015)

Since my nightmare last week, things in the tank have calmed somewhat.

Initially the Ludwigia joined the party and shed a few leaves. I also noticed some transparency on the leaves of the Hygrophilia Siamensis. However, the reduction of photoperiod and the lengthening of the co2 period seems to have stabilised things and I’ve not had any more dropped leaves or more damage for the last couple of days.

This weekend was all about trying to get the lush growth back on track.

On the Hygrophila mini anything resembling a damaged leaf was removed. I topped the larger stems of Hygrophila Simensis and replanted to thicken the whole lot up. Same with the Alternathera reineckii ''mini'. I got completely medieval twisted on the Ludwigia palustris cutting it right back, removing anything damaged and replanting the tops to thicken everything up at the substrate level.

Here you can see an above shot of the Alternathera (back left) and Ludwigia (back right)




Here’s the pile of leaves that I removed. From the tank. Quite a lot.




Here’s an FTS. As you can see the Ludwigia is barely visible over the large central stone and the Hygrophila ‘mini’ are now really really mini.




I’m sure everything will grow back bushy and with a vengeance and I’m looking forward to see how long it takes.

There’s a couple of other bits:

1)  I’ve introduced Purigen into my filter. I haven’t seen a massive difference but then my water was pretty good anyway. However I have noticed the surface sparkles more in the mornings with the lights off, casting a nice reflection.

2)  I’ve changed my photo period/lighting again. This is a bit of a gamble and I’ve struggled with the decision because of what has happened recently. Basically my Monte Carlo and ludwigia were looking a bit leggy and the Alternathera and Ludwigia were not looking as red as I 'd hoped (or at all). I’ve decided this might be due to strength of lighting so I have flicked on the third light (14w) on my luminaire giving me a total of 62w. To compensate for the extra light I have reduced the photo period to 5 hours. This could well be a huge mistake but since I’ve cut everything back I thought this might be a good opportunity to see if the additional light will grow things more colourfully/compactly. Obviously I’m watching closely for any leaf damage. Time will tell.

CD


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## Crawdaddy (27 Jul 2015)

Here’s a 6 week update.




(Apologies for the grainy image. I’ve done something to my camera settings. Possibly ISO?)

There’s not an amazing change in the overall look but everything in the tank has stabilised again and is looking healthy. There’s been no more melt and a fair amount of new growth. I’m still sticking to my maintenance schedule of changing 8 litres per day.

Midweek I got cold feet about the increased lighting. I was sleep walking into the classic mistake of trying to fix issues with more light – Had I learned nothing!? I decided lanky, green plants were better than no plants at all J. I reverted back to the original lighting plan. Reduced power down to 2 x 24w bulbs but increased photo period to 6 hours.

The ludwigia and Hygro mini have responded by not melting and showing new growth. The Hygro Siamensis new leaves look less transparent. I keep topping the Renekii mini and it has almost filled its space now so will soon let it grow. The Monte Carlo is looking nice and dense on the left side of the tank (where the outflow reflects off the far glass). It’s looking less dense on the right, below the outflow. One of the hardscape branches effectively cuts across the foreground and deflects the Co2. This is not especially surprising but it is something I need to keep an eye on. I may have to plant something slightly taller in there that catches the co2 (hair grass?).

Finally I have finally restocked the tank with fish/inverts. I went for 10 x Rummy nose tetras, 3 x Ottos, 10 x shrimp.

Here’s a shot of the Rummies (possibly Fireheads?).




They’re really beautiful but I don’t think they suit the tank quite as much as the Rasbora Espei. Perhaps too big? Wrong colour? I thought that might be the case but I’ve kept Espei for a few years now so felt like a change, plus I’ve wanted to try them for a while. I’m sure I’ll get used to them.

I got a bit of a deal on the shrimp as they were a mixed bag of odds and sods left over from different batches. They are mostly low grade cherries but there’s one or two that look like they could be something else:



They’re kind of brownish. Low grade Tiger’s possibly?

Anyway feels like I’m back on track.



CD


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## Alexander Belchenko (27 Jul 2015)

You shrimp looks like usual "wild" colored cherry shrimp. I have many brown and sometimes black ones.


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## Crawdaddy (27 Jul 2015)

Alexander Belchenko said:


> You shrimp looks like usual "wild" colored cherry shrimp. I have many brown and sometimes black ones.


Ahhhhhh okay. Thanks for the identification.


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## Crawdaddy (10 Aug 2015)

A couple of weeks have past since my last update and there's been a couple of significant changes.

Here's a shot of the tank at week 7 (just before a hair cut for the Monte Carlo):



I experimented with my camera set to vibrant which is why the colours are popping. 

You can see I added in a few extra plant species in order to fill things out a bit and try and stop it looking too clean and manicured.

I covered more of the wood limbs with Weeping moss. Added some bolbitis to the main wood to soften the cut edge. I've also dotted some hair grass round to break some of the planting up a bit. Finally I added in some kind of Stem plant to the back middle to fill in where the Palustris died off. 

I think it's some kind of Hygrophila but I'm not certain:



If anybody knows what it is I'd love to know.

Anyway, that was two weeks ago. This last week I decided to do a small bit of rescaping (again). The left hand side was nagging me a little. It looked a bit vacant and wasn't really balancing well with the right. I played around with some photos on photoshop and decided the overall layout could benefit from the substrate being raised  in that corner.

I pulled out the Monte Carlo, hygro mini and althernaria, plus the hardscape from that corner, and poured in some more substrate to make a mound. I added in some plastic strips for support. I slightly rearranged the hardscape including changing the angle of the largest central stone plus putting down some more sand and graded gravel. Finally I replaced the plants to fill the new shape. One other change I made was to strip the moss from the low central branch of wood. This made it stand out more against the plants and draws eye from the central foreground of the tank to the right hand midground .

Here's the left hand 'grassy knoll':



As you can see there's quite a lot of height in there now. 

The other significant change is that I've introduced a koralia. I wasn't happy with the flow around the back right corner. The leaves on the hygro siamensis were looking a bit glassy and deformed. At the front, the growth rates of the hygro mini and Monte Carlo were very low.

Here you can see dark patches on the leaves. This is actually where they are transparent. The white along the leaf edge is where the leaves are curling over:




I've had to sacrifice my design principles a bit having a koralia in the tank. Also the increased surface movement seems to be hitting the co2 levels so I'll need to keep an eye on that. Hopefully I'll get used to the look of it and see an improvement in the plant condition.

Here it is on week 8 (after big hair cut for the Monte Carlo):




Overall I'm pretty happy with the balance of the new layout. The left now looks like it's playing a part in the design. Also, cleaning the moss from the central branch has made a big difference I feel. Really happy with it at the moment. 

CD


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## Sk3lly (10 Aug 2015)

I should think your happy! Looks great


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Alexander Belchenko (10 Aug 2015)

Your unknown plant could be ludwigia arcuata or brevipes, check them. It's hard to tell for sure right now.


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## Crawdaddy (11 Aug 2015)

Sk3lly said:


> I should think your happy! Looks great



Cheers chap!



Alexander Belchenko said:


> could be ludwigia arcuata or brevipes.



Thanks Alexander! Yeah they look pretty spot on. Well done. I'm going to go with the Arcuata on my description just because aquatic plant central says it is sold more widely. 

CD


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## Crawdaddy (11 Aug 2015)

And I've just seen that Takeshi Amano has died. What a shock and a real shame.

Aquascaping genius aside he seemed like a pretty nice and interesting guy.

His personal tank was the first scape I can recall seeing and what inspired me to do this hobby. It's still my favourite now.

Goodbye Mr. Amano.


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