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Hi Roy, With the wedding and house move I have been away from the forums for a while. Looks like I have come back just in time if you are about to continue this project! Hope all is well?

You could try ND Aquatics. I have not used them personally as I live in Aberdeen, the tank price was good, but the shipping was too expensive. They are in Hertford and you appear to be in Watford, so pretty close to you. They seem to have a good reputation from what I have read online...

I had my TMC Signature towards the corner of a room, looked fine, but it was not at an angle in the corner, it was flat against one wall. You could always drive up to Aberdeen, not that far from Paisley, it's for sale :)

So the end is here! All the fish, shrimp and snails went to my LFS yesterday in search of a new home. I tore down the tank and spent all day today cleaning everything ready for sale. Check out my sale thread, everything must go...

If I was you, I would probably make the trip in to Glasgow and go to a decent fish store. Edit: I know where you are, sailed past you going in and out of Troon many times!

Where about in Scotland are you? I'm in Aberdeen and have a load of fish to re-home due to relocation, but assuming you are too far away if you are an hour or so from Glasgow.

Love this, it's a fantastic scape and really shows what you can do in a smaller tank. I know what you mean about a re-scape though, if it was me at this stage, I would be desperate to tinker :)

I'm no expert on fish health, so maybe someone else will comment with more info on that issue. Do you have an LFS other than Pets at Home where you can get fish? I have never been impressed in any Pets at Home store anywhere in the UK, the condition of livestock never seems good, always a lot of...

It's fantastic to read a journal started in 2008, when the tank was already set up for many years, and see it still going now in 2016. You have a lovely aquarium, I really enjoyed seeing it develop and change over the years. :thumbup:

I'm a little late to the game with this, but if you want to move plants with large root structures such as Crypts, you don't have to pull the whole root out and cause mayhem. For ease of replanting, you are likely to trim most of the root off anyway, so just ease the plant up so that enough root...

Last filter clean that I carried out I washed the pre-filter sponge in tap water, but just rinsed the pan scrubbers in old tank water and did nothing at all to the alfagrog. When I put it all back together I got the brown water for an hour or so, but did get a minor bacteria bloom in the tank a...

If you literally just cleaned the filter and turned it back on and the cloudy stuff looks brown, then I would say that is just disturbed mulm from the filter which has got in to the system. I had that after my last filter clean, but the filter cleared it up within an hour or so. If its white...

My other half is from the US, so for her she's going home. I'm looking forward to the move, have moved around a lot in my life so I'm kinda used to going somewhere new and starting again.

Yeah, been a bit of a strange time to be honest. Lost my job back in early May and as you will know yourself, Aberdeen is not a good place to be looking for a job right now. We have decided to move away as I can't find anything here. We will be relocating later in the year after our wedding. My...

I have just been away in the US for a week. I did leave everything running with an auto-feeder, but with there being some algae issues I dropped the light to 5 hours at 50%. As I was on manual dosing again now, I put in a large macro dose before I left and hoped for the best. There was actually...

Hi Fred, I have been away a while and just caught up on the last few weeks of your pond build. Looks fantastic! Hope you keep updating us with its developments over time :)

Here's a quick phone FTS after the changes today. I think it's better with the height decreasing from right to left as was originally intended. I've decided to ease back on the CO2 a little this evening. Although the fish seemed OK, I'm not comfortable pushing in to the yellow, especially...

As planned a bit of work has gone on today during an extra water change. I moved all the C. Balansae plants to the back right corner where the Ludwigia Palustris has been removed. I then moved some of the C. Petchii back in to the gap to give it some space as it was smothered by the Balansae...

Hi Roy, no worries, I have been away for a few weeks so was just checking in and thought I would see how you were getting on :)

;)

A quick phone pic before any changes to show the growth. It was only looking back at the FTS from early May today that I realised just how much things like the Crypt. Balansae have grown.

Well it has been a while since I posted an update. A fair bit has happened in that time and I was away from home for a while, about 10 days, so the tank was just running on automation while I was away with fingers crossed. A few days before we went away I increased the CO2 yet again, monitored...

Have a look at the video for Tropica Layout 75, they use suction cups... http://tropica.com/en/inspiration/layout/Layout75/5279

Welcome :wave:

The S. Repens. Alternanthera is colouring up a bit more now.

Fish were perfectly happy with the CO2 level, so I tweaked it up again this evening and with it just about to turn off, fish are just fine. Hopefully this will help with the MC as well as fight the BBA. I had a tidy up this evening, removed a few straggly leaves from the new Crypts, replanted...

Or if the current property market trends continue, when they leave home at 48 ;)

I have personally only used CO2Art so can't comment on CO2 Supermarket. Service has always been really good with CO2Art, they were really good at sorting out problems I had with equipment.

My Ember Tetras do spend quite a lot of time hiding down low, but are more active since I added 12 Rosy Tetra which are more confident out in the open water. They still all tend to stay mid to low level though, the Rosys only venture to the upper levels to take food from the surface and only do...

It's amazing how quickly life moves in! Pleased to hear its going well.

Aaargh, spotted more BBA! Some has appeared on the bogwood, more on the Anubias and even a few spots on a couple of the Alternanthera leaves. This has all happened since I thought that Otto was unhappy and reduced the CO2. I have tweaked it up a little higher tonight. Just starting to get this...

Ok, partial rescape completed with the assistance of Brewdog Punk IPA. I should have called this tank the Punkscape. First up I did some clearing out on existing plants, pruned back the Ech. Quadricostatus runners in a big way as they had gone wild. Also cut back the Hydrocotyle hard as it's...

Haha, best wishes for the new addition to the family! My fish and shrimps are my kids at the moment, although Mrs Wisey gives me a strange look when I say that. We're getting married in August, so have the real kids to look forward to at some point.

Oh, and if you are worried about spending an extra £100, this is not the hobby for you, haha ;)

Yeah, just don't bother buying all the snake oil ADA powders and stuff to put under it, really no need to waste your money on that stuff.

Before my rescape I was using Tropica plant growth substrate capped with Unipac sand. My Crypts did not grow well at all, they seemed healthy, but very small. When I rescaped I therefore decided to try a nutrient rich substrate, Tropica Aqua Soil (Didn't go ADA as I wanted to put fish back in so...

My deliveries arrived yesterday, well, sort of. I had to go collect one from the depot as DPD as usual are next to useless. DPD and Interlink are sister companies. Charterhouse ship Interlink who will deliver to my work address, but Aqua Essentials use DPD who will not deliver here because...

I used tights filled with cheap pea shingle to build up the height at the back of my scape, worth considering if you want any higher sections. Can also act like a cushion to put hardscape on as you can see in the first page or two of my journal linked below. The only mistake I made was I tied...

I find it a pain to keep it clean, but I love the look, so I put up with the hassle. It's really hard to stop it happening completely, but with clever hardscaping and planting you can reduce how much it happens. You may also find it's worse to begin with but is less of a problem once things...

If you look through the forums you will see quite a few threads on here which are plant and flower related rather than aquariums or ponds, so although its an aquatics forum, I think a lot of us here are interested in growing things in general, whether that would be in water or air! I'm sure...

I just run a small air stone on a timer that comes on when the lights go off and runs overnight. Offgases excess CO2, oxygenates the water for the fish, removes any surface film that has built up, has lots of benefits and its a cheap and easy solution. I use a violet pipe which gives zero...

From my experience, especially with substrate feeding fish like Corys and having shrimp in the tank, there is no such thing as a permanent divider. If you have it below substrate level, you will definitly get some mixing. One thing that does stop it is planting which holds the substrate, now I...

Hi Fred, looking good! I'm interested to see the whole garden and landscaping side of the project too. The pond I helped my parents with is lovely, but its the whole surroundings with the decking and patio and seating that make it an area you can sit and enjoy the pond.

Any update, Iain? :snaphappy:?

This is what I am doing now. I have run with a skimmer for ages due to surface film, but since rescaping and moving from a spray bar to a violet which gives zero surface agitation, I switched over to running an air stone from lights off through to 10am, so its on for 11 hours. Since doing this I...

Well if you need a good excuse for a new aquarium... bingo! :D

Just get the plexi cover, I'm sure you don't need to swap out the entire tank. Alternaitvely just go with my mains power idea :twisted:

If you can't fix it with duct tape, you didn't use enough :D

My fear with mesh is that it's not really cat proof. From experience of cats curiosity combined with persistence, I envisage you returning home to find a huge mess with shredded mesh or a cat actually stuck in the mesh. I think this picture demonstrates my fears quite well :D

I don't have a pythyon, water changes are quite a slow process for me, even though the kitchen sink is only about 8 feet away. My waste water goes down the toilet in the bathroom which is further away and the only place I can get my large 25 litre containers to fill them is in the shower. I have...

Algae crew is 4 Amanos and 5 Otos. As you say, the Otos are not bothered with the MC. I have seen an Amano grazing on the MC in recent days, but only when the lights are off. They are not out that much. I keep meaning to get more, but they are rarely in my LFS. I'll certainly persevere, I did...

This is why I am worried what's up, its not supposed to be that demanding. I could try turning the filter down a few notches to see if that helps, but it does not look like its getting battered in the flow at the moment, its not really moving for example. I can see the flow of CO2 bubbles over...

My Pogo is in the same state, it has green tops, but browning lower down. I was told this was probably due to lack of light in the corners with my tile. Planning on removing the Pogo and replacing with more Crypts for the darker background. Would like to make the MC work though. Unfortunately...

Hi All, I posted in my journal, but thought this question might get some more exposure here. I added MC to my aquarium 4 weeks ago today. This first pic is just after planting, please excuse the photo-bombing Oto's! 4 weeks later this is what I have: Certainly growth, gaps have filled in...

So I have been running without the skimmer since Saturday and no surface film visible at all, so I will definitly be removing that this week to be replaced with a second Hydor Koralia 900. I have just been to Aqua Essentials and placed an order for the following plants: 1 x Ludwigia Palustris...

There appears to be fresh growth, but also a lot of browning on the edges of older parts. Is this to be expected as the MC switches to life underwater? My Hydrocotyle looks a little brown on the edges too and that's on fairly recent growth.

Hi, I'm guessing the lack of response may be due to this question being asked so many times and the information is already out there on the forums for you to find. If you are going high tech, you could try this thread in the tutorials which covers filtration...

I don't have experience with a lot of those plants, but my understanding is that the Vallis will not be happy if you dose liquid carbon, it kills them. Without going through your list plant by plant, you do have a lot that will grow low tech, but you definitly have some plants in there which...

I have no experience with that heater, but it might be worth checking if your screw down collars are supposed to screw the other way. On both the UP inline atomiser and the Eheim double tap sets that I have, the collar should be close to the body of the item in question to be loose, then you...

Ah man, that's a shame! I keep mine pretty wet to be honest, I spray almost every day. I'm not sure my MC is going to do well, but everything else grows well. I think it's worse if they get too dry, so I keep it nice and damp. No heat in mine at all, just sits in the kitchen.

Dropped the tile so it's about 12cm from the water surface now. Cover still on, so will see how that goes for a few weeks. I've switched the skimmer off again so will see if that can be taken out in a few days.

How did you get on with your propagator? I did buy the third, but it's sat empty until today. The S. Repens has gone crazy since the weather got better and it's had more light. I started with this earlier: I trimmed and replanted 28 S. Repens plants and threw away all the Hydrocotyle...

The Murdannia Keisak is a nice looking plant, I considered it in my previous scape. I think it would look really good in a miniature landscape setup with MC or HC around it and the Murdannia looking like a stand of trees in the landscape. I like the look of the C. Crispulata although Aqua...

Ok, so after about an hour of feeling a bit dejected about the light situation, I'm now looking at it as an opportunity for a rescape of the back left corner! I'm considering removing the stones at the back left, them remove the tights full of shingle supporting them and fill in with spare...

Just checked, around £125 for the tile plus £220 for the 8 channel, or £55 for a second 2 channel. That's not going to happen right now. I could always slide the tile further to the left, it's going to look weird, but the more demanding plants are at that side. I'll try lowering a bit more...

Hmmmm, annoying, that's an expensive upgrade as I only have the two channel controller so would need both a second tile and the 8 channel controller. Got a wedding to pay for in August, so that's just not going to fly right now. I guess I'll have to rethink plant choices.

My tile is still about 20 cm from the water surface then has a good 40cm to go to reach the substrate. I think I will drop it another 10 cm this weekend and see how that goes, should give me more intensity on those plants that need it, but could also mean more drop off in to the corner where the...

Haha, good point! She is actually alive and well, just living with a friend these days as I went off out of the UK for a number of years.

Yeah, could be worth trying it somewhere else, but I don't really want it anywhere else, so if it won't grow in that corner I would probably be more tempted to try something different. It does seem to be growing better than it was before I improved flow, I am maybe being impatient. The tops are...

Don't get me wrong with my mains supply joke, I love cats too and used to have one :)

The most effective method would be to wire the tank rim in to the 240 volt mains supply. Failing that, a cover would be a really good idea! I got a 6mm plexiglass one cut for mine, due to jumpers rather than cats. The only advice I can give you is DO NOT USE http://www.plasticsheets.com they...

Hi Roy, Im in Aberdeen, my water is super soft, like 2 german degrees according to the water report. I guess it must be something else. I'm sure its probably light with my cover being such a diffuser, but also don't want to go too far and cause a huge algae outbreak.

Welcome :wave:

Pleased to see you are back up and running with this one. Looking forward to an update and some pics sometime!

Thanks Lindy, always good to get food recommendations, I like to try to vary their diet as much as possible. Thanks Roy, it's coming along! Some things going better than others, but progress for sure. I still need something to fill in that back right corner, but have not got round to ordering...

Fred is offshore at the moment, so probably working shifts. I think his wife is sending him updates and he is updating us :)

I spot dosed some Easycarbo on the BBA tonight so have to see if that helps. Quick FTS, bit more fish activity now. The MC has certainly grown and there is some fresh new growth, but also some browning of older leaves. Also noticed a little melt on a couple of leaves. Should I just leave as...

Looking good, following :thumbup:

Welcome :wave:

Welcome :wave:

All we did was lay out the rough shape with a hose, then I got out a spade, very little planning. It's about 7 years of evolution, with a mixture of controlling it at times and letting it do its own thing most of the time. Looking forward to seeing yours evolve too, Iain :)

Loving our new Rosy Tetras, really active fish and boy are they HUNGRY :eek: I'm going to need to make sure the Embers get fed, the new guys are food hoovers! What is good is they seem to like the frozen food that others were picky with in the past. I bought four different frozen foods...

Thanks for the input, it's water change day tomorrow so I'll try spot dosing some Easycarbo and leave it a few mins with the filters off while I'm working on things.

I'll hang in there, Fred. Keep it coming :)

It appears I have the first signs of the dreaded BBA on my slow growers. Just this bit on the end of one of the larger Crypt leaves: And a few bits forming on the edges of some of my Anubias leaves: I thought BBA was related to poor CO2 levels and distribution? I just added loads more...

If you need dry weather, its lucky you only work out of Aberdeen rather than live here; I have the joy of living in Aberdeen! On Friday it snowed, on Saturday it was sleet and hail, on Sunday I was sat by the River Dee with a glass of wine without a coat on. You can't plan anything weather...

He's gonna have more posts than Paulo soon!

My bad, just checked back at my journal and it was Aqua Essentials and Freshwater Shrimp, not Aquarium Gardens. Too many orders from different places recently!

Aqua Essentials sell them in various sizes, but were out of stock when I looked last week. Aquarium Gardens also sell them. Both companies that are sponsors and I have had good experiences with.

Great start, looking good! :thumbup:

The Rosy Tetra's seem to have had the desired effect. They are out and about most of the time and they tend to draw the Embers out too. The Corys are also spending more time out the front, even when they are not being fed and the Otos do appear to be out more too. Noticed some of the Corys...

The link Troi posted said it was 18/25 hose?

I like the look of that prefilter acting as a reactor, wouldn't fit in my current setup, but definitely something I would consider for the future, it's a shame that it's not 16/22 hose though.

Sorry to hear of the disaster. You definitely want to site it somewhere better, keep it away from direct sunlight, draughts, heat sources etc. I would personally wait longer for cycling too. As you say, treat it as a learning experience, you won't make the same mistakes next time.

Took a trip out to Fishkeeper at Dobbies today. They had some harlequins, but decided something peaceful but a little larger than the Embers would be better. They didn't have Black Phantom Tetra, only yellow which I considered, but in the end decided on some Rosy Tetras. I have 12 of them...

Welcome! :wave:

Hi Darrel, my concern with floating plants is that I already have signs of light deficiency in my Pogo and my Alternanthera Reinecki Mini is getting a little redder, but certainly not the red I would like to see. If I add shade in the way of floaters then I might cause myself more issues with...

Haha, yeah, it desperately needs more fish, see what they have available for sale at MA tomorrow if I have time to get there, I am sure they had harlequins on the order this week.

Ok, here is the latest FTS. Please ignore the floating bits of Pogo, just got home from dinner out and CBA to sort those tonight!