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New scape, new plants, new beginning

Very nice! :) It looks much nicer with the Aponogeton ulvaceus moved over to the side! :thumbup:
 
Hello!

I finally have a bit of time to give an update and upload some pictures tonight :)

So here is the tank how it was coming back from the holidays :

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I have added a second external filter with an inline atomiser from Co2art to improve the water flow on the front of the tank and it's working really well, all the plants are moving gently.
Although they were doing well, I was not happy with the layout...
The Echinodorus tenellus on the front side of the tank was taking too much place giving the impression that the tank is very shallow (front to back).
So I moved the rock that was in the right rear corner, placed it in the middle and replanted the Echinodorus tenellus.
I have also rearranged the hair grass and planted some Marsilea crenata.
With some floating fish line attached to the new lily pipes I am keeping the Riccia in the right corner. It gives a bit of shade for the fern and the fish.

Here is the result :

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I also got rid of the stupid pompom of Riccia from the small branch and gave a hat to the not so pretty plastic lily pipe and I think it looks much more funky :)

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Here are few shots of the ottos, cardinals, glowlight danios and the shrimps :

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And two more pictures of the Aponogeton ulvaceus that flowered :) :

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I want to add just another type of fish to go with the cardinals and the danios. Do you guys have any suggestions? It needs to be a small fish obviously, something that will contrast nicely with the rest...

I hope you enjoy the pictures and I look forward to your comments :)

Cheers!

Manu
 
Hi Manu, Hope you enjoyed your holiday:)

Tank is looking great Love the flower photos :cool:
Hi Greenfinger2,

Thanks a lot for your message.
The pictures of the flowers were taken a week ago, another one opened yesterday and two more are coming

I'm thinking of having a shoal of Boraras brigitae but I'm wondering if it will be too much flow and light for them...
The other I quite like having would be the ember tetras.
Do you have any experience with any of them?
Many thanks!

Manu
 
Hi Manu,

Congrats on the tank, it looks amazing! Also nice photography bro, that pic of the Otto is sick!! My favorite fish for small heavily planted tanks are CPDs... they would look so nice in your tank :).

I am currently in the process of rescaping my 70l tank and piecing together another 200l setup. I also just got a new macro lens and love to shoot my tank - your thread was definitely an eye catcher mate ;).
 
Hi Manu,

Congrats on the tank, it looks amazing! Also nice photography bro, that pic of the Otto is sick!! My favorite fish for small heavily planted tanks are CPDs... they would look so nice in your tank :).

I am currently in the process of rescaping my 70l tank and piecing together another 200l setup. I also just got a new macro lens and love to shoot my tank - your thread was definitely an eye catcher mate ;).

Hi Keybo!

Thanks for you message and I'm really happy you enjoyed the pictures

Before buying the glowlight danios I was very tempted with the CPDs, I love them too. Not sure anymore why I didn't get them in the end... One day I might swap the cardinals with CPDs

Today I've moved some plants around to improve the look and also the flow as I was getting some black algae... I'm not finished yet but hopefully I will before the end of the week.

Have you got a journal? I'm on taptalk most of the time so even if you would have the link in your signature I would not be able to see it
For the lense, I'm using a 100mm macro on 60d canon so it turns it in a 160mm
Otos are not to hard to shoot as they sometimes stay still but the glowlight are a real pain

Good luck with your projects and have fun with your new lense!

Cheers!
 
I dont have a journal yet but I think I will start one when I piece together the new setups. I linked my welcome post on this forum in my signature.

So I tried buffing the scratches out of my 70l tank but I cant get them to a level I will be satisfied with. So I am going to order two new tanks through my new job. One around 70l for my nano stuff and then another around 200 for a decent scape. Im getting them both made with Optiwhite glass on 3 sides so im expecting a better viewing experience than my old hand me down tank :).
 
Hi everybody,

It's been two months since my last update and I am glad I finally have a bit of time to post some pictures today.

Lots happened in two months : BBA, more BBA and the main reason was poor CO2 circulation around the tank.
Having the tank recessed into a wall and visible on both sides make things even more difficult as I want to keep the front and back free of pipes, spray bar...
I tried so many things to improve the water circulation around the tank and I think I have found the solution now.
I have spray bar along the left side and the filter has enough power that the flow actually hits the right side.
On the right side, I have two outlets at the bottom of the tank, one at the front and one at the back, and they blow toward the left side.
Those outlets are on the same filter and most of the CO2 is injected through them, keeping the CO2 bubbles a long time in the water.
I now have a clock wise flow and the outlets at the bottom of the tank help to get the CO2 to the carpet plants.

I have ordered some acrylic pipes to build something neat but here is a picture of the temporary pipe work:

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I have also removed the wood, added a stone and I having a go at growing some Fissidens moss :)
I have changed the position of many plants, still a lot to learn :)

I brought back the glowlight danios to the shop as they kept bullying the other fish, the dominant males were scarring the others (probably not enough females in the shoal) and I found three fish dead on the floor in two days...
I have increased the group of embers and cardinals and they really good.

Here are some pictures of the tank, as you can see, it looks a bit "flat" at the moment but the rotalas should soon take over again... I have been a bit heavy with the scissors... I am trying to get them very bushy, I hope it's gonna work :)

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This a wide shot of the tank within the room :

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And the back:

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The shrimps are breeding, I was so happy to find this shrimplet on the DC :

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And here is the big belly of a pregnant amano shrimp:

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And more creatures:

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Thanks for watching :)

Cheers,
Manu
 
oh wow. your tank and pictures are amazing. im still up for some camera lesson lol

how the frogbit doing
Hi Ryan,
Thanks mate
The frogbit is doing well, growing quite fast. Thanks for giving me those

I'll be happy to give you some tips with the camera. Let me know you're in MK and we'll organise something.

Cheers,
Manu


Sent from my D5803 using Tapatalk
 
Hi all,

This is a quick update, but no picture, sorry...

After a good start from the beginning, then many changes in terms of planting, hardscape and gear, I was quite disappointed by the growth rate I had lately.
I mentioned earlier about the flow issue which is now solved, but I was still not getting the same results that I had at the beginning.
So I decided to make an experiment with two bubble counters.
Yesterday, I connected the JBL bubble counter (that I started with) in-line after the co2 art bubble counter. Most of you won't probably be shocked by the result but anyway, here is why the growth was so slow: with the JBL counter at 1/sec, the co2 art counter was at nearly 4/sec...
When I started the tank I used the JBL counter at 2.5 bubbles per sec. Then I swapped to the co2 art counter and struggled to get the DC lime green with 5 or 6 b/sec... I was scared to kill the fish by going at a higher rate when actually I could have gone to 9 or 10 b/s.
I'm glad I've sorted this out and I'm expecting a lot of growth in the coming days and bye bye algae

I've also build the new pipes out of acrylic, the flow and co2 distribution is now fantastic.

I'll post some pictures this next weekend

Cheers,
Manu
 
Yesterday, I connected the JBL bubble counter (that I started with) in-line after the co2 art bubble counter. Most of you won't probably be shocked by the result but anyway, here is why the growth was so slow: with the JBL counter at 1/sec, the co2 art counter was at nearly 4/sec...
When I started the tank I used the JBL counter at 2.5 bubbles per sec. Then I swapped to the co2 art counter and struggled to get the DC lime green with 5 or 6 b/sec... I was scared to kill the fish by going at a higher rate when actually I could have gone to 9 or 10 b/s.

Glad you've sussed this. Bubble counters are only there as a visual aid to set your co2. You cant measure co2 input with one and they all have different size bubbles, this is why you need to watch your plants and fish, they will never lie.

If you want to measure your co2 input then you need an inverted measuring jug to catch the co2 with. Then you can see how long it takes to to inject x amount of co2.

I've never tried this, I'm too lazy, I just use livestock and plants as a drop checker.
Plants melting = not enough co2
Fish gasping = too much.
Plants melting and fish gasping = too much light and/
or poor flow
 
Glad you've sussed this. Bubble counters are only there as a visual aid to set your co2. You cant measure co2 input with one and they all have different size bubbles, this is why you need to watch your plants and fish, they will never lie.

If you want to measure your co2 input then you need an inverted measuring jug to catch the co2 with. Then you can see how long it takes to to inject x amount of co2.

I've never tried this, I'm too lazy, I just use livestock and plants as a drop checker.
Plants melting = not enough co2
Fish gasping = too much.
Plants melting and fish gasping = too much light and/
or poor flow
Chers mate,
Just to make sure I didn't mean anything bad about the bubble counter from co2art. I'm a big fan of their products , not to mention the friendly staff,I just think that this bubble counter is maybe for suited for smaller tank where a rather small amount of co2 is needed. In that case, it would be perfect to dose very accurately.

The fish are fine and the plants are pearling nicely so I must be doing something right

Cheers!
Manu
 
Wow, this is a dream first tank. Imagine how your next tank will look like!
 
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