Easternlethal
Member
Hi Everyone!!!
About Me
Although I have been a member for a long time I don't think I have ever posted a journal. I live in Hong Kong and started scaping around 10 years ago when I first came across IAPLC articles on the web. Since then I have had several tanks following different approaches. I have had a range of dirted low techs and variety of high techs over the years. My most recent tank was an ADA style tank which switched to EI after the substrate ran out. I love tinkering and have always experimented with different techniques for layouts, flows, co2 etc. so I have never repeated the same type of tank. However I have always maintained a love of technology - especially CO2, and been fascinated by the notion of a perpetual substrate - i.e. a substrate which remains active indefinitely and replenishes itself from waste products generated by plants and fish. I have reared most of types of freshwater fish and plants bought from LFS. I have also grown most plants, again bought from LFS. I was born in Malaysia and have also been lucky enough to visit Indonesia and East Malaysia to see how wild buces and see how aquatic plants and freshwater fish do in the wild.
tank at its busiest - maybe around 6 months in. it could grow anything I put in there
Why The Journal?
To be honest I was never a huge fan of UKAPS and have always been more active over at BarrReport and TPT, where I have posted journals. I think it's because I was not a big user of powerheads or spraybars and never held the view that co2 and flow were all that important.
Anyway two years ago I came across some videos about deep substrates and decided to try one for my next build, which I have posted about also in the other forums. The purpose of such a build would be to try to get the plants to derive most of their nutrients from the substrate and fish instead of dosing ferts in the water column. At the same time I also decided to buy some discus for my daughters, one of whom loves fish and never owned one. So the idea was to set up a tank which would get almost everything from discus feed and substrate. Initially I found this topic quite difficult to discuss because most readers couldn't understand why I would bother with something like this, as opposed to just EI / aquasoil. However eventually I found a bunch of threads and members who shared a similar interest, but under the general nomenclature of 'lean dosing'. Unfortunately this was over at TPT. Long story short, the moderators there didn't understand and didn't approve of this kind of talk and started censoring my posts and questions to other members. So I made my way back here and to my surprise found the same bunch of people who had also been similarly censored, banned or chastised.
So I am creating this journal mainly as thanks to UKAPS for hosting our crazy talk. And sorry for the crappy photos as I am not a photographer and hardly post photos on the web so I don't know how to edit them to look good. The thread which inspired me to create the journal can be found here: Lean dosing pros and cons. Be warned that you will need 5 cups of coffee to make it through in one piece.
Same tank most recently with a different layout and big haircut. It was starting to become a bit too dutch style so I cleared most of it to make it more nature style
About Me
Although I have been a member for a long time I don't think I have ever posted a journal. I live in Hong Kong and started scaping around 10 years ago when I first came across IAPLC articles on the web. Since then I have had several tanks following different approaches. I have had a range of dirted low techs and variety of high techs over the years. My most recent tank was an ADA style tank which switched to EI after the substrate ran out. I love tinkering and have always experimented with different techniques for layouts, flows, co2 etc. so I have never repeated the same type of tank. However I have always maintained a love of technology - especially CO2, and been fascinated by the notion of a perpetual substrate - i.e. a substrate which remains active indefinitely and replenishes itself from waste products generated by plants and fish. I have reared most of types of freshwater fish and plants bought from LFS. I have also grown most plants, again bought from LFS. I was born in Malaysia and have also been lucky enough to visit Indonesia and East Malaysia to see how wild buces and see how aquatic plants and freshwater fish do in the wild.
tank at its busiest - maybe around 6 months in. it could grow anything I put in there
Why The Journal?
To be honest I was never a huge fan of UKAPS and have always been more active over at BarrReport and TPT, where I have posted journals. I think it's because I was not a big user of powerheads or spraybars and never held the view that co2 and flow were all that important.
Anyway two years ago I came across some videos about deep substrates and decided to try one for my next build, which I have posted about also in the other forums. The purpose of such a build would be to try to get the plants to derive most of their nutrients from the substrate and fish instead of dosing ferts in the water column. At the same time I also decided to buy some discus for my daughters, one of whom loves fish and never owned one. So the idea was to set up a tank which would get almost everything from discus feed and substrate. Initially I found this topic quite difficult to discuss because most readers couldn't understand why I would bother with something like this, as opposed to just EI / aquasoil. However eventually I found a bunch of threads and members who shared a similar interest, but under the general nomenclature of 'lean dosing'. Unfortunately this was over at TPT. Long story short, the moderators there didn't understand and didn't approve of this kind of talk and started censoring my posts and questions to other members. So I made my way back here and to my surprise found the same bunch of people who had also been similarly censored, banned or chastised.
So I am creating this journal mainly as thanks to UKAPS for hosting our crazy talk. And sorry for the crappy photos as I am not a photographer and hardly post photos on the web so I don't know how to edit them to look good. The thread which inspired me to create the journal can be found here: Lean dosing pros and cons. Be warned that you will need 5 cups of coffee to make it through in one piece.
Same tank most recently with a different layout and big haircut. It was starting to become a bit too dutch style so I cleared most of it to make it more nature style
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