# James' 60P



## MrHidley (18 Jun 2015)

6 Months after taking down my first scape we're finally settled in our new house, so it's time to start again. This is a bit of a blank canvas, built with only a vague idea in my head, we'll see how we go with it!

*Tank* *- *ADA 60P
*Stand -* DIY ADA-ish style
*CO2* *-* DIY set-up with 2kg fire extinguisher. Inline UP Aqua diffuser.
*Heater* *-* Hydor Inline 200w
*Filter* *-* Eheim classic 2215
*Lights* *- *24" Current USA Satellite Plus Pro 30W LED (decided to import one of these because I wasn't impressed with what's available in the UK for a reasonable price.
*Substrate* *- *9 Litres ADA Amazonia, Unipac Fiji sand. 
*Hardscape* *-* Baltic Rock from AE
*Flora and Fauna* *-* As yet undecided

I'm open to suggestions on just about anything. I'm definitely going to have some Monte-Carlo, Alternanthera Reineckii mini, probably some Anubias Nana petite and some S.Repens, other than that, i'm not currently sure.


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## parotet (19 Jun 2015)

Hi MrHidley

IMO MobyDick (the white one) catches too much your attention when you look at the tank. To give a more natural look I would go for rocks that are similar in color, texture, etc. It happens the same with the two stones on the left. The large one has a nice texture and I guess the smaller one too, but you're showing its flat/textureless face. Trying to align the rock textures can make a big difference (this is how rocks occur in nature). I would also play with them, for example moving one of them to foreground/background and seeing if you add some depth to the layout. Adding more medium size stones would help to fine tune the composition.
Finally another piece of advice. With this slope (and with the kind contribution of shrimps), the AS will roll over the cosmetic sand and it will be a pain. I've been there before... It's nice when you see it on Amano layouts but unless you plant, as Mr. Amano does, a thousand mini wabikusa in the foreground to prevent the substrate from sliding or you have 20 minions removing everyday the AS grains from the sand, you will end up with a mixed substrate that doesn't look very nice. Place some rocks/wood/mini wabikusa to create a barrier or cover it all with AS.
My two cents 

Jordi


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## MrHidley (19 Jun 2015)

I 100% agree on the rocks, the hardscape is nothing near final, I've also got another 6 rocks to play around with but I don't want to overload the tank. I was intending to use corrugated plastic to support the substrate and prevent it from rolling down the slope, will this not work?


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## parotet (19 Jun 2015)

MrHidley said:


> I was intending to use corrugated plastic to support the substrate and prevent it from rolling down the slope, will this not work?


It may work the first days, but if the plastic is high enough it will be ugly to see it. If it is at the same level than the substrate, AS grains will invade the sand due to shrimps' activity or gravity. IMO the key point is to prevent the soil from falling into the sand, and this can be achieved by adding a hardscape barrier (see in most of the journals/layouts it is done this way) or by heavily planting this area to fix the substrate. This is why I was mentioning the mini wabikusas for the foreground. They are themselves barriers, but additionally you can grow a significant biomass and root system in a short period of time. 

Jordi


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## MrHidley (19 Jun 2015)

parotet said:


> It may work the first days, but if the plastic is high enough it will be ugly to see it. If it is at the same level than the substrate, AS grains will invade the sand due to shrimps' activity or gravity. IMO the key point is to prevent the soil from falling into the sand, and this can be achieved by adding a hardscape barrier (see in most of the journals/layouts it is done this way) or by heavily planting this area to fix the substrate. This is why I was mentioning the mini wabikusas for the foreground. They are themselves barriers, but additionally you can grow a significant biomass and root system in a short period of time.
> 
> Jordi



I was planning on carpeting monte carlo around the edges, also planning to dry start the tank to build up the biomass. Was hoping that would be enough to help separate the substrates.


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## MrHidley (19 Jun 2015)

rotated the second rock round a little to give it more character, removed the third rock as it just doesn't look right. Don't know what i'm going to do about adding more rocks. I have a load left over, but they're all either rather large, or lack in character.


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## MrHidley (21 Jun 2015)

Bit of an update. Added a couple more rocks to the set-up, very happy with how it looks. Planning on planting sometime this week, doing the dry start method.



 



 

*Green - *Micranthemum 'Monte Carlo'
*Yellow - *Staurogyne Repens
*Red - *Rotala Rotundifolia
*Purple - *Need a bit of advice on this, was thinking some sort of grass or dwarf sword, thick leaves. Would love some Blyxa Japonica, but I don't think it's available in the UK. Was also thinking, possibly some Alternanthera Reineckii Mini in between the rocks and the S.Repens.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.


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## Andy Thurston (21 Jun 2015)

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/2615...3=1&ff11=ICEP3.0.0-L&ff12=67&ff13=80&ff14=108
I've bought plants from this seller before and the quality was very good


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## MrHidley (21 Jun 2015)

I assume there was no issues with snails or anything?


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## Andy Thurston (21 Jun 2015)

didn't find any but I already had snails in my tank. A good soak in carbonated water should kill any hitch hikers though


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## MrHidley (21 Jun 2015)

I've never heard of using carbonated water. Like a bottle of sparkling water?


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## Andy Thurston (21 Jun 2015)

yes sparkling water and you can use Esha Gastropex or if you have no fish co2 in high doses 24 hours a day for a few weeks will kill all the snails too


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## MrHidley (21 Jun 2015)

Excellent, that's some helpful advice, cheers. Won't be any fish or shrimp in there for the first few weeks anyway.


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## e.santoso (24 Jun 2015)

Would love to see this coming out nice.. I have such a crush wit seiryu stones and mountain - ish scape.. 


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## MrHidley (24 Jun 2015)

e.santoso said:


> Would love to see this coming out nice.. I have such a crush wit seiryu stones and mountain - ish scape..
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk



Thanks! although it's actually baltic rock, I chose it instead of seiryu, because I live in a very hard water area and it is inert.


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## MrHidley (24 Jun 2015)

Planted today. Ordered way too much Monte-Carlo, so it's already quite tightly planted, but better to have more than less. The alternanthera had got a bit beaten up in the post, so Co2 art are sending me a new pot, although i've tried planting it anyway, see if it recovers. Lights will be running at 40% 8 hours a day.


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## MrHidley (26 Jun 2015)

48 hours after planting, definite signs of growth already, can see the monte carlo roots pressing up against the glass. After reading some other dry start journals I decided to increase light to full brightness and add a bit more water to the tank.


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## MrHidley (1 Jul 2015)

1 Week after planting and everything seems to be going well, my Blyxa should be arriving tomorrow, then I just need to wait until friday for some elbow joins for my pipe work to flood it.
S.Repens is really starting to spread out, the Alternantherna is doing really well, rotala is really starting to move upwards and the monte carlo is doing well also.


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## Sk3lly (1 Jul 2015)

I dont think blyxa can be grown immersed. I realise its only one day but not sure how it will do


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## MrHidley (1 Jul 2015)

Sk3lly said:


> I dont think blyxa can be grown immersed. I realise its only one day but not sure how it will do
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Yeah, I know, it's going to be sitting in the box until the joins arrive.


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## MrHidley (2 Jul 2015)

Got lucky and everything arrived early, so today I flooded the tank. Did it very slowly using an airline tube to avoid disturbing the substrate and uprooting any plants. It all went very well and I'm delighted with how the Blyxa looks, unfortunately it completely covers up the Rotala, but once that grows in it should work. I've now reduced the lights to around 40%.






Hope you like it.


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## MrHidley (3 Jul 2015)

A lot of pearling going on. I'm doing 50% water changes daily in the first week, then 50% every other day in the second week, and probably every third day in the third week.


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## MrHidley (8 Jul 2015)

It's almost a week since the tank was flooded. Plants are doing really well. As you can see the s.repens and monte carlo have filled out pretty well and the rotala has now started to emerge above the rocks in the back corner. Alternanthera is still adapting to the conditions, so I think it'll be a while before I see those leaves turn lovely and pink again.





I also have a little side project going, which was to timelapse this tank from the moment I planted it until around 2 months into it's lifecycle, because I think it'll be pretty grown out by then. I'm doing this using a raspberry pi (a small computer that can be purchased for around £30), which I have programmed to take a photo every minute and dump them onto my server, I can then use software to make these into a video. Two weeks after it started taking pictures It's currently taking up 59gb on my server, so it's not something for people with a lack of storage. The raspberry pi is actually stuck to the top of my tv in the study using double sided tape, which isn't perfect, but it seems to work. Here's a couple images to illustrate.









And here's the first two weeks of the tank, in just over a minute.


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## Alexander Belchenko (9 Jul 2015)

Interesting idea with timelapse.


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## moroland (9 Jul 2015)

Great idea with timelapse 
You Might ended with couple terabytes 
What a clip it will be can't wait.


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## Aeropars (9 Jul 2015)

That look sgreat. Should ie lovely when filled in. where di you get you Blyxa from? I'm after soem but all places I've tried are out of stock!


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## MrHidley (9 Jul 2015)

Aeropars said:


> That look sgreat. Should ie lovely when filled in. where di you get you Blyxa from? I'm after soem but all places I've tried are out of stock!



Thanks! blyxa was from this person http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/2615...3=1&ff11=ICEP3.0.0-L&ff12=67&ff13=80&ff14=108 I was recommended them on the first page of this thread. I will say that it arrived almost rootless, but seems to be settling in pretty well now.


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## MrHidley (10 Jul 2015)

Bit of melt going on with the S.Repens and the monte carlo, I assume that it's just to do with transitioning from emersed to submersed, but to be on the safe side I've reduced the photo period to 6.5 hours and increased the co2 a bit more.


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## MrHidley (23 Jul 2015)

Been a couple weeks, so time for an update. All is well now, the melt was pretty widespread, i put this down the poor co2 distribution, moved the powerhead to the other side with the outlet, and that seems to have fixed it. The S.Repens has come back really well, and while the Monte Carlo has taken a bit longer to hit its' stride, it's doing well now. I added 5 Amano Shrimp last week to help remove the remaining melt from the plants (that i wasn't able to remove myself without tearing up the whole tank), and they've done a tremendous job and the tank has really come on in the last few days. Ammonia and Nitrite readings have reached zero, so it's time to get some fish. I'm thinking a fairly large group of ember tetras (i really wanted kitty tetras, but no where seems to sell them near me), probably 15ish and a few otos, maybe 6.


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## MrHidley (7 Aug 2015)

So, The time has come for the final timelapse, I wanted it to go a little longer, but I now need to use the tv on which the raspberry pi is stuck, because the football season is coming! I'll keep updating with pictures however, as the tank still has some developing to do (especially the monte carlo). Fish have been in for a week, so there's now 15 Ember Tetras, 5 Amano shrimp, and 6 Otocinclus


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## Ryan Thang To (9 Aug 2015)

hey
i love what you did with laylout and your choices of plants. i also have a 60p. they are  great not too big or small so its affordable too scape every now and then. you got be thinking to rescape lol. by the way have you ever though about moving the Blyxa on the left to the back so your scape would be lot more open and you can see more of the red plants.

cheers
ryan


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## MrHidley (9 Aug 2015)

legytt said:


> hey
> i love what you did with laylout and your choices of plants. i also have a 60p. they are  great not too big or small so its affordable too scape every now and then. you got be thinking to rescape lol. by the way have you ever though about moving the Blyxa on the left to the back so your scape would be lot more open and you can see more of the red plants.
> 
> cheers
> ryan



Thanks for the great comments! On the Blyxa, yes I had thought about moving it to the back, but it's actually in that position, because I look at the tank from a 45 degree angle most of the time, as my desk is in the opposite corner of the room. I'm actually considering removing the rock on the right hand side of the tank, as it's creating some flow issues, the Monte Carlo on the right side of it isn't growing as well. I don't really want to remove it at this stage as I think it's grown in quite nicely. I also had to re-plant the A.Reineckii as well, because it was just growing out of the substrate without having enough roots, if you understand what I mean.


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## Ryan Thang To (9 Aug 2015)

MrHidley said:


> Thanks for the great comments! On the Blyxa, yes I had thought about moving it to the back, but it's actually in that position, because I look at the tank from a 45 degree angle most of the time, as my desk is in the opposite corner of the room. I'm actually considering removing the rock on the right hand side of the tank, as it's creating some flow issues, the Monte Carlo on the right side of it isn't growing as well. I don't really want to remove it at this stage as I think it's grown in quite nicely. I also had to re-plant the A.Reineckii as well, because it was just growing out of the substrate without having enough roots, if you understand what I mean.


i total understand. some side view are way better. i guess if the tank is at home then it wat ever the weather it up to you how you like it. the A.Reineckii did you mean roots from the bottom or side roots? if side roots then that normal they will eventually root down to the substrate.

cheers
ryan


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## MrHidley (9 Aug 2015)

legytt said:


> the A.Reineckii did you mean roots from the bottom or side roots? if side roots then that normal they will eventually root down to the substrate.
> 
> cheers
> ryan



It was the bottom roots, it was odd, sort of pushing itself up and out of the substrate.


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## MrHidley (3 Sep 2015)

Stauro and Monte Carlo continued to melt, Monte Carlo seems to be coming back strong after upgrading the filter and moving to a spray bar along the back of the tank. Unfortuantely, the Stauro is looking really bad and I'm getting very tempted by the idea of pulling it all out and replacing it with something different. Any one got any ideas how I can fix this? I've tried lowering the light output, so the LEDs are at only 20% now. Also tried increasing the dosing of Macros, and upgrading the filter as I've said (now running a Hydor Professional 350 rated for 900lp/h. 



 

Any help would be very useful.


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## robh (26 Oct 2015)

Hi

A quick question what do you think of your LEDs I'm after some now and I don't know what to buy so any input would be appreciated and did you pay import charges for LED unit and if so how much please just getting a idea of what to buy the Satallite plus pro or the aquaatlantis cheers and Hope to hear from you soon and oh NICE TANK!


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## MrHidley (11 Nov 2015)

robh said:


> Hi
> 
> A quick question what do you think of your LEDs I'm after some now and I don't know what to buy so any input would be appreciated and did you pay import charges for LED unit and if so how much please just getting a idea of what to buy the Satallite plus pro or the aquaatlantis cheers and Hope to hear from you soon and oh NICE TANK!



Hello,

Sorry it took me so long to read this, been a bit busy lately so hopefully my thoughts are still of use. I really love the fixture, I bought it because it was the only one reasonably priced which had a timer and dimmer built in. I love being able to customize the spectrum to whatever i fancy. It's certainly powerful enough for a high tech tank, I run it at about 30-40% most of the time. I did pay import duty, but because i purchased it through ebay it was all included in the initial price. Took about 3 weeks to arrive, i think. I know nothing about the aqualantis unfortunately. TMC tiles are very nice, but the price of the controller is very expensive, which was what put me off those.

Regards,
James


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## REDSTEVEO (11 Nov 2015)

robh said:


> A quick question what do you think of your LEDs I'm after some now and I don't know what to buy so any input would be appreciated and did you pay import charges for LED unit and if so how much please just getting a idea of what to buy the Satallite plus pro or the aquaatlantis cheers and Hope to hear from you soon and oh NICE TANK!



Mr Hidley (James, sorry to hijack your thread with the question on LED's)...

Hi Rob,
I bought the US Current Satellite Pro plus off eBay, yes I did pay import charges and airport tax for it, but all told I am very happy with it. Total amount, $90.10 

My Staurygene Repens and the Reineckii Mini were just about gone, gradually melted and very stalky. You can see pictures of them now on The Full Monty Journal.

Cheers,
Steve


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## REDSTEVEO (11 Nov 2015)

MrHidley said:


> Stauro and Monte Carlo continued to melt, Monte Carlo seems to be coming back strong after upgrading the filter and moving to a spray bar along the back of the tank. Unfortuantely, the Stauro is looking really bad and I'm getting very tempted by the idea of pulling it all out and replacing it with something different. Any one got any ideas how I can fix this?



Hi James,

Don't give up yet on the Staurygene Repens just yet, mine was in a much worse state than yours is now so I certainly wouldn't pull it up just yet. If you are dosing with EI method are you mixing a solution or just adding it in dry powder form straight into the tank? The reason I ask is because I was mixing up my own solution before and not 100% happy, especially as the Repens was slowly disappearing.

So...get this, I mix all my dry powders for the EI Macros in a plastic pot, add three teaspoons of the mixture into another pot and add a tiny amount of water, just enough to cover the surface without it all dissolving completely. Then I get a plastic syringe and suck up a tube full of the mixture, then dose it it directly to the plant, over the leaves, around the stems at the base of the plants. Yes some of the mixture dissolves on its way out, but a lot of it stays in wet powder form so you can physically see where it is falling.

See the results below.









Both these lots of plants were almost gone before.

Cheers,

Steve


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## MrHidley (12 Nov 2015)

I didn't give up on the stauro in the end, however i did swap the montecarlo for eleocharis acicularis, hasn't grown out completely yet but the tank is recovering.The Blyxa took a nose dive after I thinned it out too much, so it'll be a few weeks before the tank is back to how I like it to look. I've been using the guide that came with my salts from Aquarium Plant food and mixing up a solution. So you make one massive mixture of powders and then dilute a small amount every time you dose?


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## alto (12 Nov 2015)

MrHidley said:


> however i did swap the montecarlo for eleocharis acicularis,


If you decide to try 'Monte Carlo' again, you might plant "single" stems rather than the larger clumps - done this way I don't find it particularly sensitive to light/flow/CO2 ... other than it fills in slower, in areas where conditions are less ideal.


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## banthaman.jm (12 Nov 2015)

alto said:


> If you decide to try 'Monte Carlo' again, you might plant "single" stems rather than the larger clumps - done this way I don't find it particularly sensitive to light/flow/CO2 ... other than it fills in slower, in areas where conditions are less ideal.



I used this technique when I planted my tank, it's a great way to locate poor flow areas.  i started my tank off with Eleocharis, just could not get it to take, Mc is almost too much of a quick grower, need to trim every few days. You could give Mc another try.
Jim


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