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It is a wet/dry prefilter, CPR. I use wet/dry sumps on all my tanks, even the little tanks.

Colors match pretty good now, added the final plant groups. I'll trim the Red Pantanal in a couple of days since it's so weedy anyway.

Removed the tennellus and the pink ovalis. Added the pennywort and the Red ludwigia from before. See where this goes now.

So it's coming, I'll redo the hardscape in the next couple of months on this tank and do something a bit more appropriate for the scale and shape of this tank. It's just too shallow to do what I really would like. So I can buy a new tank or redo it. I'll move sometime in the next year or so...

I am okay with the green plants, but I'll need to add more color like the Right side to balance things. I might bring back the Ludwigia red, remove the Pink Ovalis. I might try it in the rear and move the Rotala mini butter fly to the spot where the A reineckii mini is now. I like that plant...

They do not have rest periods unless you have higher temps or poor conditions. They do not stop growing in my experience. Cooler temps help, so 25C or so or less, they should never stop growing. Even at 30C like my 180 Gal, they never once stopped growing. Since you keep things in the 21-25C...

I see no good reason to ever add CO2 24/7. ADA and myself are in agreement about a number of things, this is one of them. Amano says it is "taboo"(his words, not mine). It does not help nor helps fish in anyway. Poor delivery while the CO2 is being added it much more the issue or, too much...

I'd not worry about the size, they will grow well if you give them ferts and plenty of CO2. 60cm long leaves, x 10cm wide etc if you keep them long enough, Bulbs are fairly cheap. Just wait, they will fill in, I'd get 3-4 bulbs. You can do this now while you keep the other plants in there, then...

I keep double trunk elephant nose, they are hyper CO2 sensitive. So they are fine, same with my 180, it's sitting about 65-70ppm CO2. Realize I have good flow and wet/dry filters and higher O2 than anyone with a canister filter. This gives me more buffered room for CO2 dosing. I also am...

I will in a day or two, need to put it together now I have all the parts finally.

I already do 99% of the cooking in my house. When it's 40C here, cooking inside is not fun.

Pennyworts are all NO3 hogs, this makes them useful as "test kits" for NO3. Mic umbrosum is another plant similar in that regard. Pennyworts will go pale and yellowish without good NO3. 10-20 ppm etc. See the 180 Gallon cardinal tank of mine for the lace plant effects, I think you will see the...

Oh, once the ferns overshadow the Anubias, they will remain algae free. Nice new growth on the Java and the Bolbitus, that's what you want to watch.

Ady, what about a nice lace plant instead of the grass in the rear? Once those ferns and moss mature a bit, the tank will look pretty shape, good hard scape and thicker wood choices. If the Bolbitus wanes, it's CO2, so that's you indicator plant. Penny wort for NO3.

I understand, some things I see rub me the wrong way, maybe later on, folks come around, I often have to some elements that are added. Sand waterfalls? I'm okay if they are done well. REcently, addign a non aquatic bonsai tree to a tank, I'm still not okay with that, in a paludarium, okay.

BTW, some hobbyists really hate the rock placement. Haha :twisted: But..the tank, when you are sitting in front of it, is awesome to to look at, the stones look like they go back forever into the rear. The scape will evolve still also, some mini pellia and the penny wort will make the valleys...

HD with more fish:

Yes, this rate is pretty standardized actually IME. I've used my 180 Gallon as an example and been able to compare it to the 1600 Gallon and this tank and a few others. But the large fish school's health is well worth the degassing rates. Current is nice etc. I have used pure RO for one client...

I think you'll get about as well rounded advice here as anywhere. If you live in the UK, then it's even better. Trades, local get togethers etc. Then you can see the stuff in person, it's no longer voodoo. Then there's no debate, back and forth, you know.

He toasted the about 90% of the plants, most of the fish he removed in time, but the scape took a huge hit. So I get a call. Made a few improvements and we will see in about 3-6 months from now what it looks like. Another recent examples of the post look on the tank not even 1 month after set...

Cardinals always look better against darker backgrounds. I had some other ideas for the tank plant's but the client needed to be able to grow those species, I knew he could grow this plant and it would be easy to care for.

Some pearling goes away when you add more flow. I still have it even with this amount of flow and the tanks at my home. Okay, now the tank has fish in it, he'll add more later.

Use a water filter canister, say a 10cm x 50cm size water cartridge(5 micron carbon block etc or 5 to maybe 50 micron sediment) and just soem PVC pipe and attach a large powerhead to push the water through.

Well, the Client wanted the minimal work load specifically. n the past, all the various stem plants and other plants he had trouble with took some of the value away really, it can take a 1-2 years for clients to realize this and come to their senses. I cannot convince them otherwise, each...

BTW, this is the same mini hairgrass you folks can get from Tropica, same genetic clonal stock. This is as tall as it gets. If you hate HC and trimming, this is your plant. Also, if you enjoy mixing HC and Riccia etc, and want some other plant mix to hold it down in place so you do not need...

He updated the tank and trimmed, added some livestock finally. The grass is almost totally grown in and looking good.

Hardly done much, plants have grown significantly, added some stumps from the White Anubias on one side, they should do very well in here also. I wanted to use higher light if possible to see how well these species do and if they get attacked by GSA. So far, no. They could easily grow with 1/2...

No need, 2-3x a week is enough for most any set up.

Th stocking will be done shortly, Amano shrimp and otto's, maybe 100 shrimp and then 40 Otto's, but likely will end up with about 10-20 Otto's. Some Painted Fire shrimp. Cardinals will go at 30 or so a week. About 400-500 total, but this too will widdle down to 350-400 or so. I'd add 100 a...

Update time: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIc_5oOMS-Y you can see after 20 days, the huge change in the plant, i's now a different color and submersed growth has started and taken over the old emergent growth. It's now time to trim the taller old emergent stuff down to the same height...

With newer tanks, I tend to do 3x a week for 2-3 weeks, then 2x a week, till the tank grows in well. Then, once a week thereafter. This seems good. ADA suggest a similar routine FYI independent of myself. Mostly to remove the NH4 in the start from the ADA aqua soil I suppose, but it also...

Start off with the standard non limiting, then tweak from there. Fairly simple and common sense. I think most like to over complicate. While you can continue to add and do good sized water changes frequently, these are not bad things/habits for any aquarists, they might not (99% they will...

I'll be down there tomorrow to work on this tank again. Client left for a few weeks had a maintenance guy dose 10X the correct amount of Excel, well......you can guess the rest. I'll fix it up and make look pretty again. Fixing mistakes is most of what I do.

A better article for folks to read: Tropica Aquarium Plants - Rådgivning - Tekniske artikler - Vandplanters biologi - Interaktioner mellem lys og CO2 Stick with adjusting light and CO2. As you can see from Table 1, plant growth rates(thus demand for ferts) will vary by 20X almost over the...

Put another way, if you dose CO2 and light, fish etc, but do not add anything, then suddenly add ferts, well, yea, even if the amount is limiting, adding ANY ferts will yield more growth/better planted tank. The upper bound of dosing(non limiting) is a more useful tool in Science and for the...

FYI, you might try contacting a local glass blower to make the eblows and then simply slip some vinyl tubing over the U shaped pipe so all you see in the water is the glass elbow. Should not cost much and you can add a flare or other customized things, or dabble with glass blowing yourself. I...

No, this is at the evening when the plants are pearling like mad, note, there is a lot of current in the tank. At 100%, the lights wash out all the colors and the various bulbs on this tank can make some colors look weird, but mostly due to the pearling, 30 inches front back depth, but the light...

Yes, starfire. About all I use these days. No, we did nothing to the rock, I dusted it off and rinsed it before. But not even much of that for this tank. Yes, the tubing is an eye sore to me also. I suggested a nice stainless steel tubing set, say 17mm ID. He has cats and they would likely...

He has the volume cranked on the video, it's very quiet and can be made even more so if he wanted. He has a bean animal which is the the quietest design. He works mostly from the couch(does IT code), so he's right next to the tank most of the day.

We use 20lbs tanks, so 8-9 kg. They run about 6-7 weeks.

A few more trims and another 2 weeks or so, it'll be looking decent. the MC will grow in pretty nicely by then, but not piled too much on itself. I figured out a few ways to beat the UG back without having to trim it. Red pantanal(likely 2 more times or more in the next 2 weeks) and the Tonina...

It's much less noisy than you think. More video of my putting the soil in. you get an idea of the size of the rock in this one.

So you give(unless you are a top winner) your hard work and intellectual property to ADA to help them promote and build their business eh? You guys okay with that and how they operate there? AGA, all the club contest etc do not play this game. I understand protecting one's intellectual...

Viktor, I like ADA, fear not, but the games? No. No one does. Truong is a nice guy, no issue there and the rock work is superb. Same with Amano. I've met him a few times now. This has nothing to do with the past works or this works, rather, how the work is being presented in an annoying way...

I do not like being annoyed with blacking out the images for the winner, just stop the games and make people wait till the end when they present it. It's like pop ups and ads, or videos you have to watch for 30 seconds till you get to the content, it does not build interest, it annoys people...

I am making a post pruning filter for this and some other tanks, basically a rigid hang on pair of U shaped hooks with a big old powerhead, then a 45cm x 10 cm filter cartridge with a carbon and 5 micron cheap disposable. This should help after a few hours remove the fines from ADA AS.

Yes, I saw 107 which I think was very very poorly placed. Novel aquarium. Same with the warped look of Long Tran's. He has placed highly and that is one of the view tanks that made me look 2-3x and really try adn figure out what was going on there. Same for ChaoWang's.

Yes, but a blacked image simply is not as nice the real thing. It does an injustice to the scape itself. And it creates assumptions by many, as I would not put it past ADA to have a high ranking tank with no fish or plants in it, some come amazingly close already. Yes, they are nice, but the...

Be awhile, and a phone video ain't cutting it.

True, better than the USA. 20th is the highest and it was George from AFA, next would be way back a few years ago to #105 for the USA. You have to be very good with rock work to place high and you also need a larger tank, 120 cm or 180 cm tank. Suiseki might be a good idea to focus on strongly...

Yes, they blacked out the photo, but why even show that? No beer required:p I do not drink alcohol anyway, so drink mine:) ADA makes them submit to this, but the blackout of the image is something new. Better to just make them wait. Otherwise folks see it and go" WTH?" Like me. Agreed...

Okay, they did a blackout on the image and the other top winners. Some others mentioned this, he had some other designs with the same group of rocks, he did spend a lot of time and it is evident with the various arrangements here did. But...........even those, there's not much plant examples...

George, you are going to have to bow to Stu, Iain, Tony, Ian now:)

So I saw the no1# tank on the Viet boards, there is not a single plant or fish view able in the picture. International Aquatic plant layout contest? Without plants or fish? The tank could be empty or set up 1 hour ago. Suiseki? Yes, nice, well done, nothing ground breaking or oh and ah over...

No, it's more for mixing the CO2 at the start up phase, then plenty of current at night to degas. A 2x1 meter surface area that's skimmed and clean offers a massive area for degassing, so we do not need that much flow since the tank is wide and long and shallow, even more so with 1/3rd of the...

Hi Foxfish, the CO2 is run through a 4.5" x 20" inch tall clear water filter and uses a stand pipe that pulls water from the bottom to exit. So it's similar. This out put then mixes with the sump water and is placed near the return pump, the intake is near the start of the sump, exit near the...

Gerry says the tank is really nice and super clear now. I have been using these larger clear CO2 reactors, just large water filter housing basically, but you can add the filter cartridges and still use them as CO2 reactors also, they sell these cheap carbon block 5 micron cartridges for a few...

I did a fair amount of trimming. The Red mac looks nice after a good trim though. Note the MC growing in pretty fast. I hacked the mini butterfly in the back section, I may pull that plant into a row spot at some point.

You can see the Monte Carlo regrowing well. Mowed the Red Pantanal, need to mow the Red macrandra. Likely need to replant the Downoi and pack it in good. There's a few Botia out roaming around.

Looks more natural than the last one, and likely easier to keep and deal with.

You can spot treat with H2O2, you can also do a larger water change, add Excel/Easy Carb, that will kill anything, or if not too much trouble, remove the stones one at a time and scrub, Excel etc them in a sink, then return. Some report good results with zebra nerites. A toothbrush and good...

We were a little thin on of nthe hair grass, the front edge is something I tend to do, it'll fill in and look similar to the 70 Gallon I did with the Manzy burls and belem grass. Gerry is fairly good with CO2, and maintenance so he should have few issues with this scape. Sitting on the couch...

I just finished up a nicely scaled ridge style lava rock scape using some faux Unzan stone. Tank came out very different from what the client had expected. He really likes. Video a couple of days later:

Due to the shallow depth, the tank rarely is allowed to get too overgrown or bushy. I wish the tank was maybe 22" tall, even 24"(60cm) tall really. Then I could make the wall effects with the rows. I have new tanks coming for when we move, so there might be a few like that on the table...

Did a little trim and rearrangement for the red panantal, I might switch it with some other plant's location to get better color dynamics across the view. Will add the Hydrocotyle later this week in the corner, I'd wanted some mini riccia and I have some, but it's more trouble and the pennywort...

Any landscaping supply places also.

The wet/dry sump maintains, consistently among 6 reps'(not just one single tank), 1-2 ppm's higher O2. Consider the average 100% at the temps I have are roughly 7 to maybe 7.6 ppm. The canister filters never once hit those 100% maxima except during the latter parts of the day. 1 to 2 ppm...

We'd happily give them a try in the USA if there's an importer. They look sharp. A well done tank without hardscaping is not an easy task. Cut cut cut, trim trim trim.

I like those lights. George has a pair.

About 5.9 and then 7.1 at night.

This is true for hairgrasses, the grain size is important, if you can chose 2-3 mm, this is a good trade off, the powder is 1-2 mm roughly, but it does break down pretty fast relative to the normal size. I had some when it first came available, I only see dust these days. the normal stuff is...

To simple and not enough going on for you George? I felt that way about my 70 Gallon with hair grass and the nice manzy burl hardscape, so I went all Buces. But....I have my stem plant and color fetish in the 120 gallon also, if all you have is the 1 tank, that's tough. You must be motivated...

I have a few more tweaks with the wood to go.

You need to figure out a way to get them the food, turkey baster with brine, put the food in the caves, feed them at night etc.

Nice idea, do not need no stinking sediment to grow these aquatic weeds. Moss makes good media for this type of styling.

You need to simply feed them more and more frequently. I've had dozens of of them come in, only to fatten up and do well nicely later on. Brine, RCS culls, feed 2-4x a day.

Oh yea, I forgot to mention this: Scaping, this is reverse from nature style actually. I chose the plants.............. then added and changed the hard scape to suit the plant species I wanted. Most tanks and nature style does the hardscape 1st, then chooses the plant species afterwards to...

Made some changes, like about 1 hour ago. Water is still pretty cloudy after the rework. Added some different wood slats to border the plant groups. Added the red pantanal weed back, at least for now till I figure what else to do with it or find a new plant to take it's place. The wood, I'm much...

Great tank shape. UG will give more head ache than HG ever would. Monte Carlo might be fun. Moss stones or Mini pellia etc in various spots with some other bright green plant would look nice and make the wood to appear to creep out from the main log. You'd need a few smaller 3-5" cm dia...

Amano shrimp, say 5-10 per 80 ,liters of tank is wise also, it'll clean a lot of things up. Lightly vac the sediment surface without pulling up the gravel. That and the other advice should help. I suppose RCS will work and they breed well, but you need more of them, which is not an issue...

Well, taller plants will detract from the nice burl wood, so.....I did not want something too tall, the variety of Buce is among the smallest type, so they will make a nice carpet. I have a few others in the rear and in the upper gallery, but I might go for 95% or more a single species. Some of...

This tank has had very high resistance to GSA and other slower growing algae species. It was not cheap, but I had a lot of of them prior in emergent growth also. But I like this group and for this tank and my own interest, this was a good choice. This tank will really bloom and look very nice...

This is a myth, the rhizomes do not melt, they grow and root.

Freshly planted with all Buce's: Notes: I have had some Buce;s that have thrived in here regardless of the abuses and other things I've done, mostly due to a lot of Amano shrimp. Few folks have done larger all Buce tanks, I've not seen any with rock like Iwagumi style displays, nor wood used...

Also, I would suggest to test which plants respond best to various trim methods, then make a catalog (mentally or otherwise) of which methods are best suited to various species. For example, I've found poor regrowth if you top R. wallichii, but if you uproot and replant the tops, it grows...

They are weeds, so cut cut cut. A few old methods,= uproot and replant tops only= more work. But a clean consistent look. Topping= easy as dirt, but need to wait for regrowth. Over time, you will likely end up topping mostly, and uprooting only the few must have species. Topping works best...

Cut cut cut!

I hacked the Monte carlo back, but I think I'll just whack the suck to the bone and replant the tops.

If you read through the post, you will see I just redid and moved a lot of plants around, when you do this with sediment like ADA aqua soil, it'll cloud the tank. There's also mad pearling and a little CO2 mist, you are looking at front to back distance of about 80cm also, much deeper than most...

Also, I think the finer ADA powder type may help root better for the UG. You know you have to beat this plant, otherwise it'll bother you forever:) That's the way this stuff goes.

Viktor, I think if you can do a nice HC rug like this, you can certainly do the UG. 99% is CO2 related.

Hi Viktor, I have a 75 Gallon I plan on doing for a client and I will likely do something fairly similar to this display. I showed him the Youtube to see if he'd be okay with the maintenance routine. He said okay, we will see:) How do you like the ATI fixtures? I love them.

Yes, but I typically spread and use the plant in various client's or friends, other tanks and get a lot of it going so I can learn more about it, then I have a lot to sell. A little delayed gratification helps. The bricks are solid plant biomass, so a 8x8cm brick is a lot of plants!

I think for many folks contest are fun and pushes them to develop and hone their skills. But, when you suggest a nice tank is not worthy of a competition, at that point........well...........now you are where the "growth and fun" are no longer offering you any benefit. It's no longer fun with...

I stopped doing so much work on the tank, you can see some plant species subs and I've just been topping the background plants, not uprooting. I seek a balance with the work though, so some stems will return even though they offer little $ sales and require more work perhaps.

Oh yes, the same thing will happen as the mat of UG grows, it'll pull upo in some spots, but this is due to the fish in some cases digging under the mat, and perhaps strong pearling O2 etc, the roots are healthly under neath those sections where it lifts off. Not like the HC or Gloss issues I...

Yes, livestock often has some issues when you have more CO2, but, you also get more growth which means higher O2 ppm. I am at 9-10 ppm of O2 in my tanks, but my CO2 is also high. I use wet/dry filters and sump;s, I lose more CO2 from degassing, but, I get more O2 and a more resilient tank. I...

Nice rug, and I think you are quite correct, such a tank is a tough choice for home aquarist, but it has a strong visual pull. So the trade off with the store is it allowed you to leave it be and not be tempted to add more to it, just leave it be. Glad to see the tank come to this point and not...