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This is looking super nice!

Overall pretty happy with how things have gone. My main concern is the BGA that is neither going or increasing in mass. The place where it appears is in good flow and nitrate levels seem to be fine. Also hopefully my photography will get better with practice, any advice on that would be...

4 weeks (post trim)

4 weeks - (pre trim) BGA taking hold on the moss by the water surface. Whenever I try to remove it small bits drop off and get caught in the hairgrass. If anyone has any advice it would be muchly appreciated. Flow and Nitrates seem to be fine.

23 days (better camera) Finally dug out my camera so no more phone pics :) Hairgrass getting long now! Diatoms in full swing. Some moss tied back on and some BGA appearing on moss. Rotala going crazy!

18 days All the moss apart from the top section has now fallen off. Diatoms blooming everywhere. Hairgrass thickening up while ferns seem to be doing nothing.

10 days Hairgrass starting to fill out, emersed Marsilea growth sending runners through substrate and starting to turn brown on top. This is the point I realised I'd made a massive mistake tying all the moss on with cotton. First few bits of moss start to drop off as the cotton disintegrates.

week 1 So far so good. Hairgrass seems to be taking nicely. Due to the filter and heater coming from an already set up aquarium the fish were introduced immediately with an Evolution Aqua Pure aquarium bomb along with a mature filter.

Plants: Dwarf hairgrass 'mini' 1-2 grow! x5 Marsilea Crenata 1-2 grow! x4 Weeping moss x2 Bolbitis difformis in vitro Pearl moss tissue culture Staurogyne repens 1-2 grow! Hydrocotyle verticillata Pogostemon Helferi Cryptocoryne Beckettii 'Petchii' Java fern trident 2x Java fern mini 2x Java...

Substrate: Tropica Aquarium Soil Hardscape: Redmoor wood Mini landscape stone

Hi, here's the journal for my latest tank. It's been a few years since I set up a hi-tech tank so I've had a to do a lot of refreshing and catching up. This will be my 3rd set up over the past 8 years and as with the previous tanks nearly all the knowledge I've applied has come from this forum...

Great, thanks!

Thanks Konsa, so I can dose macros in the evening after water change and micros in the morning the next day without this having a detrimental effect on the phosphates and iron?

It's usually water change in the evening, dose micro in the morning, then macro the next morning, then water change that evening. I guess it could be worth dosing in the evenings instead so the nutrients has had time to properly disperse into the water column by the time the lights get going.

Hi, I set up my 100l hi tech planted tank 3 weeks ago. I've seen strong growth in hairgrass carpet and stem plants and not so great growth from moss and ferns which I assume is fairly normal while they initially adapt. Around 2 weeks in diatoms and small amounts of BGA started to appear, again...

Anyone had any experience with these? https://www.atledtis.com/cookie-e Really like the look of them but can't find much info or reviews on them. Looking for something to light an EA aquascaper 600 rear mounted and not too bright. These seem to be the best fit. Open to suggestions though!

Wow that sounds interesting, love the idea of hanging it in the sea.

That looks like a cool project there Foxfish, were you using them to line the bottom of the tank or the back wall?

Cheers Foxfish, yeh was looking at the bbq coals originally, I've added some coarse foam which has helped but think the lava rock (or alphagrog) will really trap the bubbles well.

Search Alphagrog and a bag comes up for about £20, shame they only do big bags as certainly won't be needing 15kgs of the stuff!

Cool I'll give it a go, anyone know where it's sold? Tbh the reason I've never used it or been able to find it is because I always thought it was called Alpha Frog! :oops:

Hi guys, thanks for getting back to me, I was thinking of using it in the last stage after some mechanical to try and keep debris to a minimum, never used alpha grog before so will check it out. I did have it on the outlet to start with but was never keen on the mist and neither were my...

Hi I inject co2 into my external filter via an UP inline atomizer but have to inject a massive amount and don't quite hit the lime green I would like, its green but not lime. I'm trying to find a way to trap more bubbles in my filter without losing too much flow, does anybody have any...

I've had mixed results with this, which could be down to the time the leaves were left emersed covered in carbo. I've burnt the top section of a large broad leaf anubias before and it looked terrible. Just don't over do it is the key I think.

Hi Ben, the L183 was £21, Kesgrave tropicals have a rather large ebay shop and offer a decent courier service for £15. The L183 isn't listed in their ebay shop but I know they still have atleast 2 in there. If you pm'd them through ebay i'm sure they would stick up a listing for you to buy. Mine...

Cheers for all the advice guys! I went to Kesgrave tropicals in Ipswich yesterday and managed to pick up a beautiful little L183 and an L-10a for a decent price. Both stunning little fish, when they decide to show themselves I'll get some pics.

OK great I'll check them out, cheers

Cheers for all the responses guys some very helpful insights. Darrel that L169 is stunning and stays around 8cm which would be ideal. Do they have a buy/sell section on that site? I guess I should sign up and find out. I have been looking at some Peckoltia and they seem to stay quite small...

I'm hoping to find a nice small plec for my planted tank, its 250l with lots of bogwood. I'm not overly keen on Bristlenose plecs and would rather go for something a little more unusual but not sure if any are really that suited to a planted tank. It has to stay pretty small. Does anybody...

Cheers, I'll try trimming them like you suggest, if they still look a mess I think I'll have to remove them

My Vallis has gone a bit overgrown and I can't really work out how to control it without ripping the whole lot out. Is it prunable? I'm sure the website I purchased it off said it would grow to 50cm (the height of my tank) but after separating a leaf out its about triple that! I don't really...

I have a single stage regulator on a 2kg fe which has just ran out out and I did not experience a dump, it just ran out that is all.

Didn't see this guy again until yesterday, I spotted it again today and tried to feed it a blood worm but it wasn't interested, I noticed small lumps on it back as if wings were growing. This evening I spotted him climbing up the aponogeton so I lifted the top the leaf out of the water and he...

Its a ninja shrimp, just seen it chilling on some moss so all good :)

It was odd, I think it must have happened as I switched the filter off and maybe there was some back suction that sucked it in. Can't see if anywhere now though :( hopefully its alright

cheers guys was willing to destroy the bar but it didn't come to that, tried pulling but too wriggly gave it a little push and it made it through phew!!

right on a bit of a tricky one here, shrimp is trapped in one the holes in my spray bar, he's still alive but jammed half way through pics coming in a sec. Any ideas of how to free it?

Ouch not good! Although that lampeye does look like a youngen, think I'll try and get it next time I see it just in case.

Just got home to find this guy chilling on the front glass of my tank, managed to get a shoddy phone pic before it scarpered, its a damselfly larvae right? Is it safe to be in the tank? I added a few fish yesterday inc some neons and some shrimp, will they be alright? I've seen similar things...

Wow how can he live with himself trying to sell that death trap? Lets just hope it fails abysmally

Very nice love the height you've got in there!

Cheers Iain, definitely won't be adding extra light then. Is the lilaeopsis NZ similar to lilaeopsos mauritiana? Can the grassy foreground plants be mixed or will they grow better on their own? I like the idea of different plants growing around and between each other but don't know if this is a...

Cheers for the advice guys Ceg4048, It was the advice you and others had given on this forum on previous threads that made me question my lack of lumens theory so thanks for already averting disaster! ;) The thing that got me was some of the plant retailer's websites saying plants need X...

HI all, I recently set up a 250l high tech tank with injected co2, EI ferts, tropica substrate capped with play sand and a decent washing machine flow pattern from a spraybar. Heres the journal..'Maya Cenote' 250l jungle | UK Aquatic Plant Society Now so far no major problems, most plants...

Yesterday was 2 weeks from planting so I decided it was time for some pics, unfortunately they are very poor quality, if anyone has any tips for pics that would be much appreciated! Anyway heres what I got, I might try some more with a different camera once the lights come on. The Aponogeton...

Ah sorry didn't realise it was manzanita in particular, guess I should have read the whole thread :rolleyes:

I've always found ebay to have a decent selection, 2 mins of looking and found this lot.. gre0044 | eBay

very nice!

Hi I've been trying to get my head round my Co2 and have a few questions. I didn't realise the water would look so fizzy from the inline atomiser, after doing some digging on the forum I found some threads from a few years ago saying you could switch the inline atomiser to the filter inlet and...

I really could have done with one of these a few years back and looked everywhere for something similar. When modifying my fluval edge I ran the co2 tubing into a hole in the hob filter to then get mashed about inside before going into the tank. One of these would have made it a lot more sufficient.

Just a quick one, should I water change before lights go on and also should I dose the full tank straight after water change or just the water I'm changing? I'm assuming I should do the whole tank but as its an assumption thought it's worth an ask thanks

Love the journals section on here it's taught me so much! The whole forum has but the journals section seems to be the core of what this forum is about, seeing people go through the process of setting up, how to overcome problems and lots of advice from the experts. I've just set up my first...

Nice layout looking forward to seeing it planted!

Hmm maybe I'll drop it an hour or two, don't want to give the algae any kind of leg up cheers :)

Also there is only 2wpg light on this tank and its quite deep, should this be sufficient? Full light 7 hours with an extra 2 hours dimmed

Was thinking about power heads, I can see the bubbles getting pushed down the front glass and slight movement in the plants at the bottom but don't know if this is enough. The drop checkers are different types and in different positions so this might be why, I'll take some pics when the lights...

Thanks for the feedback guys its given a bit of faith that it just might work :cool: most of the plants chosen should be reasonably easy to grow and the harder plants are more of an experiment to see which will take and which will need replacing. There's a nice layer of tropica substrate beneath...

Cheers guys I'm hoping the moss covers all the wood and goes a nice green, at the moment it's looking dull and brownish. On top of the wood on the right is a load of HC which will hopefully overflow onto the moss. Just need to keep an eye on things and hope for a bit of luck.

Hi guys I've finally got it together to start my first journal, this is my second planted tank and my first large one so please go easy ;) Now the idea of this tank is to make a thick jungle surrounding a cave system with inspiration taken from the cenotes of Central and South America...

It's odd mine is working fine now, I've got a month or so with no fish so will watch for fluctuations but if it's still fine by then I'm not going to bother changing it. (Probably really regret this at a later date :meh: )

Cheers man guess I should have researched into that one a bit more, last night it was steady at just over 1.5 bsp and my drop checker went lime but don't know if that was down to the fact there was extra co2 in the water as I'd just filled the tank. Guess I better find a dual gauge before I...

Sounds good, to post images use an image hosting site like ImageShack® - Online Photo and Video Hosting

Ouch! I already just brought one of these UP Single Gauge CO2 Regulator (A-148) just to get the adapter for an FE as mine was missing :( well I'm getting greener so I might see if its enough, if not I guess I'll have to sell them both and hope there's not much more to pay for an upgrade. (Sorry...

I assumed the FE would have more than enough pressure to get the Up atomiser going. I'm using UP Single Gauge CO2 Regulator - Solenoid (A-152) with UP Inline CO2 Atomizer 16/22mm (D-508-16). Got around 2.5 bubbles per second now and drop checker seems to be going more green. Surely the regulator...

Mine seems to have increased in speed slightly and has certainly steadied out since earlier, drop checkers starting to drop to greenish blue but I now have HC floating everywhere! Oh the joys

Mind you Nepenthes and Venus fly trap are totally unrelated plants

I've got a nice Nepenthes on my window sill, not sure of the exact variety but only cost me £1.50 from a carboot. I'll chuck up a pic when I upload a load tomorrow. Killi69 is right about nutrients, I water mine with rain water and if I use tank water (which I use on the rest of my plants) it...

Anybody know if these things take a while to get going?

Mine is on a 2kg FE too, was very irregular to start with then realised my check valve is faulty, removed it and now it cant seem to push past 1.5 bps. Hoping and praying this is just it settling in as it's never going to be enough.

I've just installed mine half an hour ago, seems a bit sketchy at the moment but I'm hoping it will stabilise over the next couple of hours. WHat kind of cylinder are you using?

hemianthus callitrichoides Should be receiving my order from here tomorrow including some HC, they're Aquadip so European grown and only £2.45 a pot. I'll let you know if they're up to scratch but i'm pretty confident they will be.

I keep shrimps with pygmy puffers with absolutely no problems at all, they've never gone for the shrimps even after wiping out my snail population

I'd probs go for an island scape so it works on every side, manzanita branches with ferns and other undemanding plants. I assume you're not going to be adding a Co2 system and extra filtration? What's the filter like?

Wow this tank is going to be immense! Next time i'm in London I'll be checking this out for sure is it going to be low or high tech?

I have sand with mine, really works well with their colorus

Thanks for all the tips! I'll be gluing tomorrow so I'll chuck up some pics

This is going to look superb!

You're right there Mike! Looks like I got the 7 and the 3 the wrong way round :crazy: maths never was my strong point. That's made me even more sure of my decision now, a) it is! thanks

Now there's one I really should have tested! Just dismantled everything and cleaned the small pond I created on the kitchen floor ;) I guess that as I need the heater and atomiser in the system it wouldn't have made a great deal of difference to my end decision but would have been very...

OK so test results are in! Note that I've removed all media for this experiment. a) Heater and atomiser inline with 18mm tube with hose clamps. 10l in 37 seconds which if my calculations are right gives 973 litres per hour. note - small leak in atomiser connection to 188mm tube, nothing...

Just discovered the switch for the UV was on, this was a stupid mistake I made but you would assume the switch to be off when sent new and also something in the instructions saying to make sure you install the UV before turning on the filter. So anyway I've turned that off and attached the glass...

Well unfortunately I just tried to test it done something extremely stupid :sour: I didn't install the UV as I didn't think it was necessary for the test, this however meant that there was the live UV bulb connectors in the filter it doesn't take a genius to work out what happened next :meh:. So...

Cool idea look forward to seeing how this turns out.

Cheers Mike very informative, this has flipped my ideas again however think i'm starting to get a little bit of a grasp on the matter. I guess the easiest way to find out is to have a little test today, I'll just test a) and b) and see which gives better flow rate and go with that thanks Jacob

Cheers guys you both have very interesting points, I'm now thinking that due to the filter outlet id only being 14mm anything over 14mm won't make much difference as the amount of flow has already been limited by that. I have 3 options, think I might run a test to see which gives better flow...

Ok so now I'm really stumped :wacky: I was just piecing together my pipework when I noticed something, on the T junctions the id of the18mm bits are actually 14mm. It says 18mm on it so is obviously designed for that size tube but limiting down to 14mm is going to cause the same bottlenecking as...

OK cheers Foxfish, guess i'm just fussing over a few mm without actually testing to see if the system works Couldn't find 18mm Ys so went with Ts, the 18mm goes straight through with the 16mm angling off the T, my thoughts were that the atomiser would still put the same amount of Co2 into...

The heater and atomiser will be ran off a T junction downsizing to 16mm leaving an 18mm straight as not to disrupt flow, however if the outlet diameter is only 14mm is this actually necessary?

Ok cheers mate would save a lot of messing around, I'll give it a go when its set up and see what its like, I've noticed other components aren't 18mm like the pipe as well, the filter outlet itself is 14mm and so is the 16/22 atomiser. I might make one out of cheap overflow piping which has an...

I know this subject has been covered greatly on here but after measuring the diameters of various components I have some queries. After recently purchasing an APS 2000 external filter I discovered that although the hose id is 18mm, the spraybar right angle piece id is only 10mm with the main bar...

Cheers Mark, thats some very helpful info! Think I'll have to get on the build

That's what I was thinking, however as it's supplied with the filter I thought they might have sized it to work best with it. Maybe its the same one they do with their smaller externals. Probs best to just build one

I recently purchased the APS 2000+ external filter for a new setup i'm planning. It came with a spray bar but the inner diameter is only 10mm where as the hose is 18mm. Going by what I've picked up on here this will make a big difference to flow, has anyone got any experience with this spraybar...

Really nice layout very detailed

Very nice, looks like a slice of river

cheers guys, that's saved me finding out the hard way :cool:

Hi just a quick one, is there a difference? One seem to be 3 times the price of the other but surely they are very similar if not the same thing?

Ah Darrel thanks a lot for the info! I did wander about the clawless crayfish but as the locals called them crayfish I went with it. I've found a picture of the clawed ones.. Google Image Result for...

Last summer I visited Tobago in the Caribbean, It's very close to Venezuela so shares a lot of its wildlife and luckily hasn't been ravaged by tourism. Whilst on a jungle trek I came across 2 fishes in a stream as well as various crabs and crayfish. The fish look a lot like a killifish...