# 60L bialix's home tank - dragon stones + dirt substrate



## Alexander Belchenko (5 May 2016)

Hi all, I'd like to share with you my latest tank adventure. In March I've bought several dragon stones in online shop, I just loved its structure. Also, they perfectly fitted to my 60x30x36 tank - so I couldn't resist. 

Also, I always wanted to try the guide by Troi on dirted substrate and therefore I prepared some mix from potted dirt, sfagnum, peat, small gravel and something else, just to try it out. Covered with old & used Fluval Plant Stratum and some new small sized shrimp substrate.

And third new thing for me in this layout is new LED light. I've never tried to run aquascape under LED light, but I was lucky enough to get LED units from local manufacturer to try, so I'm testing and learning this LED sciense by my mistakes.

Too much text, let's look at the state of the tank almost month ago:

60x30x36 - about 3 weeks by Alexander, on Flickr

The tank looks clean and healthy enough (that's because first 2 weeks I run it with usual T5 lamps - 2x24W, not LEDs). Later I've removed most of tall plants as they didn't play well in the layout.

I didn't put any livestock almost for a month after set up, to avoid ammonia killing my shrimps or fish. Although, my tests of NH3/NH4 always showed zero. But I decided to follow "better safe than sorry" strategy, and only recently introduced shrimps.

About the beginning of the April I've got 2 LED units to test, and started to experiment with light, intensity, combination of cold and warm light, and so on. I'm still not confident enough with all this stuff.

As an expected result of my experiments - I've got a lot of green threads algaes on the rocks and plants. I guess it's spirogyra. Liquid carbon didn't help much, so next step was - put some cleaning crew. And last week 2 groups of shrimps (usual wild-style cherry shrimps and several amanos) was landed to the enemy territory. For my biggest and good surprise those amanos cleaned almost all the tank in 2 days. Just 2 days. They're animals! Crazy and good.

I've asked my daugther to help me with layout, to improve the colors and texture of composition. That was interesting experience for me - I know plants and she knows something about drawing and composition. I've transformed her thoughts into some changes in the tank, we all liked the result. But she doesn't really like to help me with maintenance of the tank, though  Only with ideas  But that's great anyway.

I don't have a FTS atm, just couple of fragments. We've added touch of pink with crypt flamingo and it's really pop under that light. What do you think?

60x30x36 - about 1+ month by Alexander, on Flickr

Cryptocoryne sp. Flamingo by Alexander, on Flickr

The idea is to have dark red on the background - with ludwigia sp. super red.


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## Tim Harrison (5 May 2016)

Looking really good...


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## AnhBui (5 May 2016)

Really love Crypt. Flamingo. I failed once with this plant. It lost red colour and started melting and eventually died


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## Alexander Belchenko (5 May 2016)

Yeah, flamingo is nice but somewhat picky plant. Although it survives in my low tech conditions. But it really needs hi-tech conditions to show all colors. Also, I found this crypt is very heavy root feeder: it needs a lot of root tabs, rich substrate, to grow successfully. This is my observations during last 2 years I own this plant.


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## Alexander Belchenko (10 May 2016)

Photo update:

60x30x36 - 1.5 months by Alexander, on Flickr

the picture was taken before a trim for glosso lawn. I don't really know this plant, and not really like how it develops. I've already started to mix in monte-carlo and have some hc cuba on the rocks, so I guess over several months either I will have big mix of different carpet plants, or glosso will go out. It's a little bit too big and it doesn't like to grow on substrate. Maybe my light level is too low.

You can spot a lot of snails everywhere. Recently got couple of dwarf puffers to control pests - inspired by great photos from Lauris journal(s). They are very funny tiny Bathyscaphes - with big eyes. So cute!

Also purchased apisto cacatuodies male - but I don't like it's behavior though, he looks nervous, so he will go out soon. Also bought 10 of nannostomus marginatus juveniles - they are so small - have to feed them 3 times per day, hope they will grow in next couple of months. Dwarf pencils are very good match to this scape in my opinion. Had to reduce flow a bit though.

Next weekend we will learn the trimming of stems on the background with my daughter. So she can understand better how to implement her ideas in aquascape. That should be fun.


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## AnhBui (10 May 2016)

Alexander Belchenko said:


> Next weekend we will learn the trimming of stems on the background with my daughter. So she can understand better how to implement her ideas in aquascape. That should be fun.



It always is more fun sharing with kids your hobby. My 2.5 year twins really love to feed fishes. Probably for them it is more than just a joy


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## Alexander Belchenko (14 Jun 2016)

When you don't have enough time to trim the lawn - it creeps on you:

60x30x36 - 2 months by Alexander, on Flickr

_Singing: I see fire... over the mountains!
_
Things didn't go well last month or so after my last post. I've bought ten of dwarf pencil fish, and recently ten of galaxy danios. Pencils are young, so I have to feed them well and regularly. Probably, that increased bio load destabilized the system, so now all my precious rocks are more black than anything due to green algaes film. And now BBA was coming (dirty filter I suppose). I started to clean the tank more often, also using H2O2 and liquid carbon for rocks.

I like videos from channel of Dennis Wong, his recent video about algaes and  types of planted tanks made me think about balancing my tank to lean dosing. Unfortunately, increasing the CO2 injection is no option, it seems CO2 has killed 2 of 4 of my otocinclus.

I made video after trimming:



In HD quality you will be able to see all algae I talked earlier. As a bonus: at 1:07 you can see what I think is spawning activity of my galaxy danios. About 3-5 males chase one female in dwarf hairgrass spot. As I can see they eat something in the process, probably fresh eggs, so I don't expect to see fry. The funniest thing: those fish are only couple of days in the tank, but started this activity the very next day I've introduced them to tank.


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## Alexander Belchenko (27 Jun 2016)

I mentioned in previous post: in that video you could see spawning of galaxy danios. I'm 100% sure it was spawning, cause tonight I saw one larva on the glass. Still not sure it will survive, all fish in the tank seem to like eat every possible food. But, maybe!


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## Alexander Belchenko (29 Jun 2016)

Last 1.5 weeks or so I started to work with this tank more "serious" trying to trim here and there the lawn and fast growing plants almost daily, every second day do a spot treatment with H2O2 and then liquid carbon on rocks where green and black algaes are, following by 50% water change. I noticed some positive changes re algaes: they become less visible. I hope my efforts will work. I just need to do brush work after spot treatments as well. And maybe 25% waterchange is enough, giving in mind I can do regular 50% wc once per week?

I've added new plants at the middle back of the tank: rotala walichi, and ludwigia sp senegal. After hard trim of rotala sp red and adding pink/bright red plants - the colors of tank shifted to light red rather than dark red as before. I guess I like this change.

60x30x36 - 3 months by Alexander, on Flickr

Still not very happy with the tank. It's about 3 months old, but still far from what I'd like to achieve. I guess couple more months are needed.


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## Manisha (20 Aug 2016)

I like your fire on the mountains! Generally your combination of textures and colours on your tank is looking really nice ☺Sorry to hear about your two Ottos, will you add more? Pencil fish are a lovely addition to a tank - shame you don't see them more often! Hope you got your algae under control ☺


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## Tim Harrison (20 Aug 2016)

Looking great, and I also like your scape slightly overgrown too...


Alexander Belchenko said:


> When you don't have enough time to trim the lawn - it creeps on you:
> 
> 60


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## Alexander Belchenko (11 Sep 2016)

It's almost here. This tank was difficult for me in term of plant selection and stones cleaning. I've tried to apply H2O2 and liquid carbon to stones - but they anyway became green. I've given up on stones. I've tried different stem plants on the background but almost eveything but super red ludwigia fell out of this scape for me. Sometimes I felt those dragon stones need only green plants around to get the best contrast and composition.

I was too tired and uninspired to do proper maintenance for 1.5 months I guess. Plus my wife decided we need our bathroom to be renovated, and that took entire August. No time, no energy, no desire. But now bathroom is finished and I'm slowly trying to go on track again. It took me more than 2 weeks to properly clean tank, external filter and trim all this crap off. But now I can see the really nice tank.

60x30x36 - 5 months by Alexander, on Flickr

The tank I can be proud of. Not all went as planned. I had to ditch my glosso and replaced with monte carlo. I should admit I'm unable to grow glosso carpet. All I got is glossostigma sp. verticilata in this tank. Look here, it was about 15 cm tall:

Starting a trimming by Alexander, on Flickr

The photo has been taken in the middle of carpet trimming so you can see how tall it was.

On the first photo you can see the tank with all equipment in. You can spot 2 circulation pumps on left and right side, each one 200 lph. The right one was cruicial to get the proper carpet near right side glass (where filter inlet and outlet). Without additional pump there was dead earth, but now it's nicely filling with mc. I've started to mix in mc at the beginning of the summer, and at the end of August it took over glosso. So far mc is proven to be the easiest carpet plant for me.


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## Tim Harrison (11 Sep 2016)

Still looking great


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## Alexander Belchenko (11 Sep 2016)

Tim aka Troi, thanks, as you might remeber this tank was setup with dirt based on your guide and I have literally no issues with dirt at all.


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## AnhBui (12 Sep 2016)

Alexander Belchenko said:


> It's almost here. This tank was difficult for me in term of plant selection and stones cleaning. I've tried to apply H2O2 and liquid carbon to stones - but they anyway became green. I've given up on stones. I've tried different stem plants on the background but almost eveything but super red ludwigia fell out of this scape for me. Sometimes I felt those dragon stones need only green plants around to get the best contrast and composition.


You can't get rid of green algae on dragon stone with direct and strong light. I had the same issue and then covered it with java moss. Problem fixed. Lol


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## Alexander Belchenko (12 Sep 2016)

Yeah, I've already noticed a lot of scapes with dragon stones have some moss cover over them.


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## tim (12 Sep 2016)

Really like this scape Alexander, personally I like a bit of algae on rocks, it adds an aged feel to the hardscape IMO


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## Alexander Belchenko (13 Sep 2016)

Tonight made small video. Only one light unit (closer to front glass) was working, I've noticed interesting effect: the water level was exactly at the top of outlet and output stream made aeration bubbles for free 



I should admit the quality of the video is really worse than I see with my eyes. My pocket camera is not good as video recorder.


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## Greenfinger2 (13 Sep 2016)

Hi Alexander, Just catching up.Your Scapes Stunning as always


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## Alexander Belchenko (13 Sep 2016)

Thank you, Roy! I'm really happy with this one, I was depressed to see it in neglected state, but now it looks much better.


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## Alexander Belchenko (27 Sep 2016)

I think this is my best scape so far, but I should admit photo is not my strongest point.

60x30x36 - 6 months by Alexander, on Flickr

And this is left side view - I'm enjoing it very much

60x30x36 - 6 months - side view by Alexander, on Flickr


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## Ana Pinheiro (27 Sep 2016)

Hi Alexander

If photo is not your strongest point, I want to be like you 

I love your tank, it's so beautiful.


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## Greenfinger2 (27 Sep 2016)

Hi Alex Wonderful Scape Nice photos too  Love the side view apart from the algae on the silicone joint on the right hand side  Sorry.


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## Alexander Belchenko (27 Sep 2016)

You're right Roy.


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## Greenfinger2 (27 Sep 2016)

Hi Alex, Apart from that  Easy to fix thought Bit of Carbo and a light rub with a tooth brush


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## Alexander Belchenko (27 Sep 2016)

Well, I've tried that before, sometimes it's not too easy. But I'll try. Should admit I rarely look too long on silicone, probably this is my blind spot.


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## Nuno M. (7 Oct 2016)

Lovely colors here Alexander 

Try a black canvas next time it will give you more sense of depth, also a hair dryer  rippling the surface is a nice addition to a photo without no equipment  ...

Keep them coming


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## Alexander Belchenko (7 Oct 2016)

Thank you Nuno for suggestion. Will try black background this weekend.
I'm not very satisfied with photos of this tank, I was about to send photo of this tank to EAPLC, but then chaned my mind.
I'll try with black, I hope it'll give me better picture.
Recently I switched light unit back to good ol T5 2*24W and I should admit I like color rendition (esp. green plants) better comparing to LED light.
I hope new RGB led units will produce better colors in real life and on photos too.

Unfortunately I'm going to finish this tank very soon. I have no idea, but it went down hill, a lot of BBA started to appear, I managed to overstock it with different fish, I want to change something.


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## Alexander Belchenko (11 Oct 2016)

Well, I didn't have a chance and inspiration to make another photo shooting session last weekend, so, I have only pictures from previous session.

60x30x36 - 6 months by Alexander, on Flickr

I'll publish more photos in the near future.


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## hrishi007 (12 Oct 2016)

Amazing work man..


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## Alexander Belchenko (17 Nov 2016)

Love this view

OLI_9999 by Alexander, on Flickr


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## CooKieS (17 Nov 2016)

Lovely setup! 

How shy are your ember tetra? Are the other fishes acting as dithers? 

Thanks


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## Alexander Belchenko (17 Nov 2016)

@CooKieS thanks, there are about ten nannostomus marginatus which are dither fish. Although embers still look a bit shy, but there is no really place to hide, so I can see them all the time. It's funny but it seems embers are actually more brave then galaxy rasboras, so they actually also dither fish for galaxies.

Last month I've pulled out all the rocks, and now the tank is only with plants, not many. Last night I saw my embers spawning in the tank, while pencils have good dinner with eggs.


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## alex08 (17 Nov 2016)

Nice setup, Alexander! 
I really enjoy it, especially the bluish background effect.


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## mikehookipa (27 Dec 2016)

Wow that is amazing tank. Is it possible to take off co2 after the tank has grown in?


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## Alexander Belchenko (27 Dec 2016)

mikehookipa said:


> Wow that is amazing tank. Is it possible to take off co2 after the tank has grown in?


I don't think it would be a good idea to remove CO2 injection, because the light is quite strong and without CO2 I'd expect to get a lot of algaes. Also, I've never had long term success to keep ludwigia sp. super red in my tanks without CO2.


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## zgmarkozg (28 Dec 2016)

very nice setup!


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## Alexander Belchenko (10 Aug 2017)

Sometimes it's hard to get good photo for contest, for different reasons. I don't satisfied with photo quality, and the work itself was not really great. That's life.
IAPLC 2017 - 1044 place




60x30x36 - IAPLC 2017 - 1044 place by Alexander, on Flickr


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## rebel (10 Aug 2017)

Looking good my man. Many would struggle to grow the super red mini as nice as that.


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## Alexander Belchenko (10 Aug 2017)

Honestly, I always think it's easy plant (but it needs CO2 anyway).


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## alex08 (13 Aug 2017)

Such a nice one, Alexander!


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