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Hi Pedro, Another great looking tank. The detail in it is amazing. Congratulations! I was wondering about the silicon you use. I was thinking to do something similar for an upcoming scape. Do you find it easy to remove when you break down the scape? CD

And I've just seen that Takeshi Amano has died. What a shock and a real shame. Aquascaping genius aside he seemed like a pretty nice and interesting guy. His personal tank was the first scape I can recall seeing and what inspired me to do this hobby. It's still my favourite now. Goodbye Mr...

Cheers chap! Thanks Alexander! Yeah they look pretty spot on. Well done. I'm going to go with the Arcuata on my description just because aquatic plant central says it is sold more widely. CD

A couple of weeks have past since my last update and there's been a couple of significant changes. Here's a shot of the tank at week 7 (just before a hair cut for the Monte Carlo): I experimented with my camera set to vibrant which is why the colours are popping. You can see I added in a few...

TOYS!!!! :D Looking forward to seeing this in action. Tried building my own a while ago using a small water pump but never got near it working.

Sorry to hear that old chap. It's the worst when you're not sure why.

Hi Mr Teapot, I'm not really familiar with salty tanks. What is that pipe contraption on top of the tank? Is that the inflow/outflow? Looks crazy (and probably a bit of a filth magnet)!

Ahhhhhh okay. Thanks for the identification.:thumbup:

Here’s a 6 week update. (Apologies for the grainy image. I’ve done something to my camera settings. Possibly ISO?) There’s not an amazing change in the overall look but everything in the tank has stabilised again and is looking healthy. There’s been no more melt and a fair amount of new...

Since my nightmare last week, things in the tank have calmed somewhat. Initially the Ludwigia joined the party and shed a few leaves. I also noticed some transparency on the leaves of the Hygrophilia Siamensis. However, the reduction of photoperiod and the lengthening of the co2 period seems to...

Thanks Moroland.

:thumbup:

Thanks Sarpijk. Alto, thanks and thanks for the tips. Hopefully though I won't have to use them in future but maybe wishful thinking. This time though I didn't even get a chance to rescue them. I was at work. By the time I got home they were very very dead. I'm guessing it must have happened...

Cheers Andy. Yeah that was a bit of an essay huh!? Sorry Had to get that off my chest. :crazy:

So it would appear there is in fact a god of planted tanks. And I have royally p***ed him off! On Tuesday I was arrogant enough to say that I had two keys to success and that keeping planted tanks would be easy from here on in. Oh the hubris! Well someone or something, disagreed with me… big...

Cheers!

All in all I’m happy where this is all going. I haven’t had any major problems yet. Haven’t seen any algae. No plants are dying off. All fish are fine. A couple of shrimp deaths but these don’t appear related to each other. I realise that it’s probably looking like this is all par for the...

I haven’t uploaded an FTS since my mini-rescape so thought I’d break out the camera last night. This is at 4 weeks 3 days: It’s also worth pointing out I have been trimming constantly. The Monte carlo has already had 2 haircuts (and been moved once). Also I have been trimming and replanting...

I've been at home all day today working so I've been keeping an eye on the drop checker. :cyclops: The DC hits this kind of green about 2 hours before lights on and stays there. Fish ans shrimp all seem happy. I could push the timing back a bit but actually I think i'll leave it. There's a...

Hi Mr Teapot, Sorry to hear you're not well. Hopefully it's something you can overcome quickly. Just wanted to say what a stunning tank you have. There's lots of different ways to do this hobby but I think your take on it appeals to me most. Experimentation, getting a feel (and smell) for the...

Thanks Dantrasy. You can't really see it in the photo but I've got an Up inline diffuser (old style) on the filter out flow. Seems to work pretty well. Can't really see any bubbles unless you look hard.

Quick update: I'm now exactly a month in. There's not been a great deal of change since my mini rescape. All the plants are looking healthy although the Monte Carlo isn't quite as dense as expected. I suspect this might be because I moved a lot of it around and then gave it a dramatic...

Hi Wisey, I wouldn't rush into adding more light just yet. You've only just got things settled. Ideally you want the plants to have taken a hold and display a bit of growth. Then you can start pushing the accelerator (to steal another man's analogy). Maybe give it another week or two? After...

Looks great so far :thumbup:

You're not the only one!:rolleyes:

Seriously though mate. Ignore the top drop checker. It's lying to you. Trust the lower down one.

Hi Wisey, good looking tank. Sorry to hear about your Co2 problems. I had similar issues to yours. I am no expert by any means but here's a couple of observations of mine: - ditch the hang on DC. I had one and always showed yellow whilst other lower down DC showed dark green. The design...

Thanks Moroland! :) Co2 is 24/7 at moment yes. I took out solenoid because I had a cheap Chinese model that kept failing. Also I found it Difficult to get the timing right so I would end up with too much or too little gas during photo period. I found it much easier to set the gas to a small...

Right, that brings us up to today. That’s a bit of an essay there. Sorry about that. Hopefully the rest should be a bit more ‘journal like’. :angelic:

Here’s how the tank looks now after the partial rescape. I’m now using my Panasonic lumix camera instead of my iphone. It’s no DSLR but should be better quality. Also I’ve made sure to block out all ambient light and flicked on the spare 14w tube on the luminaire. This is probably about as good...

Thanks Sk3lly! Yeah it’s a bit of a long read. Sorry about that but with 1 month of planning and 3 weeks of running the tank I had a lot to get off my chest! :D Cheers Rob. Appreciated. Just to confirm at the moment I am only lighting it up for 6 hours. I am roughly following the Tropica ap for...

…I decided to dive straight in and have a mini rescape. As follows: - Removed the large left hand grey and right hand white stones. Replaced with smaller, less brightly coloured pebbles. - Removed the right/centre wood branch to decongest that area of the tank. Relocated to the left side of...

After 4 days I returned home to find the tank was in pretty good shape. There wasn’t much wrong apart from a dropped water level and a couple of the smaller stems had floated up to the surface. Also the water was a little cloudy but not too much. All the inhabitants looked fine. However there...

I went away for 4 days. I spent lots of time reading the featured journals section on the UKAPS site. This was both inspirational, informative and completely depressing! :( I kept flicking between images of these beautiful tanks and back to my own effort. There were a few things bugging me...

Here’s the tank three weeks later. Not much change visible in these pics using the phone but there has been a fair degree of growth. I’ve pruned most of the back stem plants and give the carpet a good haircut. I’ve added 15 cherry shrimp and not suffered any algae issues as yet.

So came the day of the scape itself. Here’s the tank in situ in its new home. Here I’ve added substrate dividers. The one on the left is for the gravel. The one on the right is a square shape which I will use to hold a small layer of sand. I have fixed a piece of brick to the bottom of my...

I decided to go for a hardscape that was based around redmoor wood. I used the plastic sheeting the tank was wrapped up in to simulate substrate. I initially wanted to ‘top down’ effect, with tree roots hanging into the water on the both ends of the tank and lots of immersed growth. However...

I’d previously been using a 60cm clearseal tank that I had de-rimmed myself. This had worked fine but the corner sealant seemed to attract algae. Because of this and the blue tint to the glass I decided to spring for and ADA 60P (and yes I will take the sticker off eventually! :D).

So, I’m currently about 3 weeks in to my current project and thought that this might be the time to start keeping a journal. I read the forum regularly but rarely post so this is all a bit new for me. I’ve kept a planted tank for a couple of years now and although I still struggle with algae...

Latest FTS (Week 8): Latest Spec: Tank: ADA Cube Garden 60P (60x30x36) Lighting: BOYU luminaire unit with 2 x 24w T5 on 6 hours per day Co2: Pressurised disposable welding bottles. Co2Art dual stage regulator with adapter. Solenoid valve set to come on at 7 hrs before lights on and 1 hr before...

- fella, you aint kiddin. Mike, Ian, Darrel - Outstanding response. Thank you. Now if you would excuse me gentlemen, I'm off to the light shop.

Actually now you mention it, (from left to right) the second, third and fifth leaves are on new plants (2 weeks old today). The rest are from old plants (a few months old) but i don't think those leaves sprouted in my tank.... thinking about it there's not been that much new growth from this...

You know, I hate to disagree with a guy who’s tank looks like that asian dreams one, but I’m still not convinced it is a light issue. I've attached a photo of the latest batch of leaves that i have removed: Are these symptomatic of lack of light? Google seems to points to...

Ah.... That's pretty embarrassing actually. I've been trying so hard not to make a classic schoolboy error that I've gone and made an even schoolboyier one. :facepalm: Any recommendations for a suitable light set-up for an open top tank (hopefully for around the £100 mark)?

Ceg, thanks for the feedback. Ill double check the distribution, although I actually rescaped with CO2 distribution in mind and have made a few alterations like moving tank furniture in order to ease flow. Darrel, thanks for the input. As i said above the problems I have had in the past tend...

Hi Ceg, Thanks for getting back to me. I probably didn't explain that very well as i was trying to keep the post length down. The filter is a fluval 305 so should have adequate turnover for 70litres. What i meant was that it holds 8 litres of water. I know that most folks wont count that in...

Hi all, I think I may need a bit of a hand with my EI dosing schedule. I was previously using the formula listed on the Aquariumplantfood website. However I was seeing some deficiencies which 'i believe' are nutrient based. I have calculated (perhaps incorrectly) that litre for litre the...

By the way just one more quick thought on this that i forgot to mention which might have an impact. As i mention in my OP i am dosing EI with the micros being flourish. Since I believe this contains Magnesium Sulphate i kind of put 2 and 2 together and left out the Magnesium Sulphate out of my...

Ceg: Yes it is 4dkH and yes the DC tends to run a this colour (or slightly more lime) from lights on to lights off. The white blob you are refering to is either a suction pad for the DC, a rock or a fish. The CO2 is diffused by an up atomiser into the outflow of the filter so is on the other...

Ah and there was me thinking all this time that I was going rediculously overkill on the lighting. Thanks for the clarification. So with that in mind, presuming we are actually talking comparatively low lighting levels, should i actually be droping my lighting height? Or, taking into account a...

That makes two of us. It's an 11W daylight tube that is allegedly the equivalent of somewhere between a 60-75w tungsted bulb (depending on who you believe). I've been using the 60-75w figure as the bench mark when trying to judge how strong my lighting is - hence why my lighting is now 15...

Okay thanks for the diagnosis. I knew I wasn't exactly saturating the tank with Co2 but I was under the impression my plants had fairly limited requirements. I'll crank the CO2 up as suggested. "Medium to high light for 6hrs - This could be the source of your problem" Do you also recommend...

According to Thames water i'm in a hard water area... ... but no i've not grown it successfully before. This is my first crack at a proper planted tank. The only thing i've really grown with any success before is annuabis and algae! :)

Hi all, The title is pretty self explanatory. Basically I'm having a problem growing Vallis (Red Vallis Spiralis) which is driving me nuts. I understand for most people it grows like a weed so it's irratating the hell out of me. I have Vallis spread all along the back of my 24 inch tank. The...

That's a pretty comprehensive list of cons right there. :shock: Thanks for the heads up, i'll bear all those in mind. As mentioned, I already have a submerable pump - it's tiny and can draw liquid from an extremely shallow pool. Perhaps I'll do some tests to see how it works when situated...

I did actually have a read through your post before - your system looks great. :clap: Unfortunately however I'm a bit of a dunce when it comes to circuitry - I have a resistance to resisters you might say. I was planning on going down a much simpler/cheaper route...

Hi, I'm currently working my way through a bottle of profito (that i bought before properly researching :oops: ) and dosing an additonal supply of potassium phosphate and potassium nitrate to make up for any shortfall. I'm currently dosing these on alternate days to stop the iron precipitating...

Yeah that was a thought that crossed my mind. Also the heavily panted set-up with (hopefully) crystal clear water sounds like it's more suited to the CPDs natural environment. Plus if they're anything like the zebra danios that i've kept in the past, as another poster suggests, then they should...

Thanks for the info Kat. Apart from the shrimp I'm just going for 1 fish species I think. I'll start on 15 and maybe add another 5 if it "feels right". At the moment I'm torn between the mosquito rasboras and the CPDs. Do I go for the shoaling, upper level swimming of the MR, or the low level...

Hi all, I have a quick couple of questions regarding stocking my 67 litre planted tank. I have an idea to stock it with 15 Celestial Pearl Danios and then 10 cherry shrimp for the clean up crew. The tank is a 24lx15hx12w. It will be heavily planted, though the majority will be dwarf hairgrass...