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To sump or n̶o̶t̶ to sump? (Swan Lake)

Ooh the eggs are gone already, I guess there are to much predators in the tank.
So I took some pictures of the updated water line with new orchids and mist.. :) There is also Echinodorus uruguayensis 'flowering' only the flowers that are opening are empty like the petals has rotten the plants from it grows anyway.

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Ooh really that's even cooler, shame that they are gone. Maybe there are some small fry somewhere but its hard to spot something in a jungle like this.
You sometimes get lucky and get the odd one or two survive however I recon you might struggle with the cichlids in your tank.
 
You sometimes get lucky and get the odd one or two survive however I recon you might struggle with the cichlids in your tank.
Yes I think so, and I just added a krobia in to the tank. The apisto died of old age and the krobias got bullied by a bigger one in my other tank so I transferred him and now he's a confident hunter.
 
The tank was getting some BBA around alot of leaf edges. Don't know what was causing it, I think there was too much decaying matter in the tank pruned and cleaned all plants there where really alot of roots under the buces cut back most of the bad rizomes and added a few rocks too the back ground. Got rid of the emersed bolbitis planted it undewater again and made some empty space so the fish have some room to play.

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After four years it's time to strip this tank and start over. Going to use most of the plants i have in here it will be naturestyle themed with mostly epyphites only more emersed growth. I was looking for a diffrent cosmetic sand but could not find anything that fitted my vision. So ive bought a few bags and mixed my own. I think this will work well, will add Dennerle Xingu gravel on the sides hopefully the Krobia Xingu likes that. 😆
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I've got a question hope that someone has experience with. Got to hold some heavier wood picies straight up. Should I use aquarium save expanding foam or use cotton/super glue with rocks?
The scape has to last a few years again.

Look forward, this was one of my favourite tanks on here.
Cheers!

Thanks, that means alot with all those outstanding scapes on this forum.
 
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I've got a question hope that someone has experience with. Got to hold some heavier wood picies straight up. Should I use aquarium save expanding foam or use cotton/super glue with rocks?
The scape has to last a few years again.

Certainly it depends on the specifics; weight, dimensions, centre of gravity and angle you intend to place the wood. You did say straight up but will it be truly straight up?

Could the wood be positioned at that angle just using supporting rock work? In that case using a blob of JBL Pro Haru on the base glass to hold the wood down will do and Pro Haru is easily scraped off later.

Foam works when the positioning is at odds with any additional support. It is expanding though so a quarter of what you intend for final coverage when squirting it in initially. Watched a few folks get a bit enthusiastic with a foam gun and it expands way beyond what is needed. Be conservative in its application in other words. It’s a pain to clear down afterwards but you’ve stated this scape will be for a few years.

Looking forward to seeing your work @DeepMetropolis 😎
 
Certainly it depends on the specifics; weight, dimensions, centre of gravity and angle you intend to place the wood. You did say straight up but will it be truly straight up?

Could the wood be positioned at that angle just using supporting rock work? In that case using a blob of JBL Pro Haru on the base glass to hold the wood down will do and Pro Haru is easily scraped off later.

Foam works when the positioning is at odds with any additional support. It is expanding though so a quarter of what you intend for final coverage when squirting it in initially. Watched a few folks get a bit enthusiastic with a foam gun and it expands way beyond what is needed. Be conservative in its application in other words. It’s a pain to clear down afterwards but you’ve stated this scape will be for a few years.

Yeah you are right it's more at an angle then really straight up. That Pro Haru looks good to me, too fix the underside of the wood on the glass and the upper part then could be supported with rocks superglue and cotton.
As you said expanding foam is really hard to clean indeed if I ever end up wanting to use some of the materials later on for something else it will be a hassle. Thanks for the help :)
 
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Okay not quite finnished jet but here it is already, sorry for the bad phone camera footage I was to tired to fetch a good camera. And if you ask yourself why the fish are already in there after 2 days flooding, I kept my sump running standalone all the time, the fish in tubs with wavemakers including the plants. For me this seemed better then that. I keep up with daily water changes, the plants and stones are reused ones plus de base layer of the structure was a mix of the old used aquasoil with crushed lavarock, ive topped it all of with a thick layer of fresh aquasoil before scaping.
Does anyone knows why my backfoil looks so bubbly? It was static window foil the thickest I could get, cleaned back of the glass with the best degreaser I could find, some microfiber cloth after that then with demineralized water and cleaned it with microfiber again after that I sprayed it with the water again to put on the foil it looked nice and neet, went to bed and the next day it looked like this.
 
It's looking brilliant, love the new hardscape and how you've planted it, especially with the ermergent parts. Looking forward to seeing this one develop, the last scape was so beautiful.
 
So I have planted the top part and added a sprinkler system and a humidifier. Now all there is to wait until it starts growing.
For those who are intrested in the emersed plant list :
Orchid : Pleurothallis groby, Pleurothallis sonderiana, Epidendrum porpax, Stelis sp. Panama, Bulbophyllum ambrosia, Bulbophyllum falcatum, Bulbophyllum saltatorium, Zootrophion serpentinum, Gomesa Radicans.
Moss: Taxiphyllum alternans, Taxiphyllum barbieri.
Fernmoss: Selaginella erythropus, Selaginella uncinata.
Fern: Bolbitis heteroclita difformis, Lemmaphyllum microphyllum.
Others : Neoregelia akeso, Nephentes hybrid, Solanum sp. Ecuador, Ficus quercifolia.

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So running almost a month now, had to combat brown algae it was most persistent in the submersed moss on the top wood and alot of bba on the buce.s The plants are starting to settle a bit more and the lotus bulb started to get some leaves .Got me a ph pen to make an profile got a 1 point ph drop after 4hrs before lights on and that stays stable whole day round. Also have otocinclus laying eggs most where eten but rescued one and put in in the floating box thingy it hatched and still survives they soon laid some new eggs and now waiting for them to hatch. Yesterday I went to a terrarium fair and got a new orchid, bromeliad and a mini begonia.
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Ooh I realise now seeing the last post it has been more then a year from the last update.:oops: It is still running although not as great as I hoped for. The emersed part does great but the submersed is a pain I got almost no algae accept for BBA the keeps growing on buces and ferns but not so much on the hardscape, there is a ph drop of one at lights on so that should be good. Ive been riding with EI daily since the tank started but as from 2 weeks ago started with APT 3 copy just to try something else so now also all the crypts shows sings of melt.. Hope it will bounce back once the plants are re-established.

Past summer I decided that we needed some Pteropyllum Leopoldi but we could not find any. So someone hinted me towards Scalare sp. Rio nanay. After doing some research I kinda fell in love with these so Ive been calling and driving from store to store to find the best there where available. So happy with them now.

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