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Looking good, plant choice is key with lower lighting...mine are doing OK, pretty good but I think the HC is going to do little to nothing, but it is hanging on well enough, just not growing much. Added in 6 tiny panda corydoras yesterday, alongside 15 of these little beauties, tiny but...

From yesterday...

I have two lights also...stems, p.helferi and crypts/ferns are fine, not so sure on the hair grass and HC...though being away from the tank for 7 days, leaving it with reduced light and fertiliser means I'm not 100% sure yet - I don't want any more light though, so if anything I'll just change a...

Crikey the plants have really grown in seeing that photo! I'll try for some new ones this week. HC is...well not doing so well, it almost looks like nutrient issues, but it is likely light - I will 99% replace it with the other similar plant which I forget the name of but is fine in less light...

They'll get more in, I'm not rushing things, too much hassle - we also have a week away shortly, so I'm waiting to add any livestock until we get back to save extra faffing around :)

Second LED unit ordered today, it won't give me high light levels by any means, but it should match things better with the liquid carbon and NPK fertilisers. Had a day or so of a white bacteria bloom in the water which has now gone, may well schedule a few water changes in to keep things all...

All planted today after a stunning selection of plants from AquaEssentials, every single one in excellent condition and a great size too! I have since removed all of the floaty bits and it the water has cleared lovely:

So, the first step back into planted aquariums, something larger than I've had in 20 years, though still small compared to my future aims :) Juwel Primo 110 LED - 120 litres, 81cm width. Standard lighting, filter sponges replaced with generic sponge and filter wool. Substrate - Tetra Complete...

The tall central plant llikely died because it wasn't aquatic (the white/green leaved one).

Be careful with the CO2 via yeast with decent lighting, I found it hard to maintain a stable CO2 rate and gave up in the end on the same sized aquarium.

Nice shoal of neon's went in today - 6 for £5 so 12 it was. It almost became 11 when the lights went off as one got rather skittish and jumped out of the tank, though it was lucky enough to land on a plastic bag and it was promptly dropped straight back in again - random that I happened to...

Re: oddn0ise - 270L rebuild The first setup was lovely, I think I'd struggled to tear it down :)

Gush Jet CO2 drop checker went on last night and was a nice shade of light green after a few hours. It's still the same colour this morning (always find that with my aquarium, it never goes back to blue even with CO2 off for 12+ hours), so I am assuming CO2 levels are OK which is good. I'll...

A gentle ripple from the spray bar, nothing in any way excessive and there is no water surface being 'broken'.

Gush Jet drop checker kit on the way, I'm pumping an almost impossible amount to count of CO2 bubbles per minute, far more than in the previous setup, yet the fish seem to have no hassles at all. Strange that others here seem to run tiny bpm's for much larger tanks but mine has always needed...

That would be a leopard/trilineatus cory, not a Julii... http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/co ... rilineatus

Well the second group of 8 turned up in excellent condition! No problems at all, took 2 hours to acclimatise them last night, lights and CO2 off, all went straight from the bag into picking around the tank so fingers crossed the last ones were simply weak from the bag leak issues. The 1-2-Grow...

Never struggled with amano or cherry, they bred like rabbits...

I guess oops is one word, though I can't say I expected the water change to do anything...live and learn possibly, hope the replacements are better as they're due tomorrow...don't fancy killing those off too!

I'm guessing these bee shrimp are more fussy than cherry/amano as the one I know is still with me appears to have disliked the water change this evening...

Just need to ditch those plastic plants for real ones now ;)

One of them that stopped long enough :)

No panda cory, the LFS had some lovely looking trilineatus/leopard cory (yes, they are these and not julii's) so we got 4 this morning. Amazing how active cory's are, within 10 minutes they were having a good root around the tank and have settled in nicely - even the oto's have perked up in...

Thanks Gill :) Still unsure on fish...I'm possibly torn between a shoal of rummy nose or cardinal tetra, I always seem to end up with shy or dull fish, my wife likes the rummy nose, though she does like cherry barbs, however I'm not sure on them myself. Cardinals I know would stand out really...

All sorted - as I wanted a larger group than those surviving, they are sending me replacements for the deceased shrimp and I have ordered another 5 as well, their seller feedback is very good so I am assuming it was a one-off with the bag split, big shame either way though. They're not graded...

Bumble bee shrimp arrived today, though unfortunately the inner two of the double-bags split badly down the seam inside the box and three of them found there way between the two bags and didn't survive the journey. Lack of oxygen most likely, as this also escaped from much of the inner...

Update post-water change:

4 oto's going strong, the one I thought was looking dodgy has coloured up and seems to be back with the pack :) Luminaire is working too, bulbs in this evening - it doesn't seem that much brighter in the tank than the twin T8's, probably a mix between the white reflector used in the luminaire...

They got 40 minutes in the bag, adding a little aquarium water every 5 minutes, usual routine.

Kind of, the filter isn't new, one of them looked less than good when I got home, colouration all grey with poor fin condition too.

Re: Barb Island. DIY reactor and spraybar fitted. I'm guessing the only reason one end flows more than another is down to water pressure being uneven along the length of the bar - I wondered if my Tetra spray bar would do this when I lengthened it with a spare bit of Tetra spray bar, however it...

Think my oto's have suffered from the seemingly common die-off of new ones...2 down overnight, one looking not too good this evening, the other three happy as Larry with good colour, plenty of munching and some nibbling of the blanched cucumber...

Personally? Don't worry about the cycle - plant and add some oto's and shrimp, then give it a few weeks and add some other fish :)

Still waiting for the bulbs - I just missed a Royal Mail parcel today which I presume is the said items :) A bit of a trek around the LFS today to find some oto's which resulted in 6 being added this afternoon - rather active little blighters, plenty of pooping going on so I'm happy they've...

Luminaire is here, cracked holders repaired though no bulbs yet - despatched from LampSpecs on Tuesday but nothing here so far - rang them to check and they confirmed despatch on Tuesday by Royal Mail first class. I'd have assumed they'd be here by now, given AE sent my plants on the same day...

Yep, pics, now ;)

Lots of healthy plants = no ammonia = no cycle as you get with a fishless cycle = no issues for shrimp. Plus, correct me if I'm wrong, but plant growth is driven by light - it is hindered by insufficient nutrients (CO2 included), but sufficient nutrients in themselves won't make them grow fast...

Crypt melt is not about the cycle, it's about how crypts behave - plants LOVE ammonia, they would use this over nitrates and nitrites, however they will happily use these too which is why they negate the cycle and you can add small numbers of fish/shrimp once the plants are in. They should...

Plants negate the cycle anyhow providing they are sufficient in quantity and health...

Postie will be busy this week, by the time they deliver the plants (despatched today, cheers AE!), the luminaire, the T5 tubes for said luminaire and a second spray bar kit for the filter so it will stretch the full length of the tank. I'm guessing Thursday for the plants, though it could be...

Sufficient planting pretty much negates the cycle, so if you plan to plant soon the cycle is not directly relevant - tests kits also appear to be pretty inaccurate too if you go by others on here :)

Re: 125L First tank, low turned high tech, plant and pic hea I'd have been more inclined to have all the rocks together, to make them all look joined up beneath the substrate, though as the hair grass spreads it should fill all the gaps in :)

Good to see the spray bars have had such a positive effect - I've also ditched my lily pipes in favour of the same thing, as it really seems to offer a noticeably better result!

Those filters appear very good value, what do you make of them?

Did a brief visual test on the CO2 bubbles distribution with the spray bar and the overall flow appears to keep the tiny bubbles in suspension for ages - the water flow moves across the surface, down the front glass, along the substrate then back up again, where it is caught by the spray bar...

I have a crypt to go there, it should stay a good bit lower and less densely planted than the wood/left hand side...at least that's the plan :)

Liking that a lot, looks great :)

More than I already added in the last photo's?

I am curious on those, however the wattage seems very low - not a bad thing always though! I'll be keen to see how you get on with the Beamworks unit :)

Well, bargain of the century perhaps, was an Arcadia 2 x 24w T5 luminaire from eBay for £6! OK, it needs tubed, but even then and the faff of sorting collection, is well over £100 cheaper than one new! I'm unsure if it'll work without too much glare in the room, nor if it may well be too much...

Blood sweat and tears :) I've chopped the internals out completely and bolted in the Arcadia dual-T8 controller bulb holders into the lid, then clipped the reflectors on to the bulbs. Pretty even coverage of light as the bulbs are spaced well, though space is tight - if I lift the flap for...

Re: The green green grass my first try If nothing else, if things haven't changed plant wise since the last photo's, I'd be looking to add LOADS more plants at this stage.

I'm not sure on stems, really not sure - mainly because they grow like wildfire and they need trimmed all the time, however I did debate some crypt balansae or similar...

I think I've decided to go for some cardinal tetra in this one - along with ~6 oto's and some shrimp. Not entirely sure how many cardinals to go for in this size of tank, 12-15 or is that too many do you think?

Any better? I'm not adding the small pebbles until the plants are on the wood, they're a fiddle to fish back out of the small gravel :)

The lack of live plants has nothing to do with algae, and it needs little nutrients.

It'll be fine, there will be other plants giving substrate cover too and I am thinking of keeping some of the front area clear of plants.

HC isn't hard, you've got the CO2, lights and substrate to make it extra easy :)

I am debating that, I've got oodles of substrate left so I may rinse some more.

Plants ordered today: 2 x Tropica Eleocharis sp. 'mini' 1-2-GROW! for carpet 1 x Cryptocoryne costata for rear-right 1 x Microsorium Pteropus Windelov for wood 1 x Microsorium mini also for wood I'm guessing they'll be here next week given the bank holiday :)

15kg may be sufficient, I reckon I used 15kg in my 60cm x 30cm aquarium, I bought a 25kg bag for £15.99 in a local shop, 5kg individual bags were £5.99 each, it was cheaper to buy more than I needed :)

Re: 80x35x45 Opti White - Planted up.. I like those APS luminaires, the prices are superb!

www.tropica.com has some good videos on planting. In simple terms carefully rinse or tweezer away any wool the plants have been grown in, and separate the stems carefully, leaving the roots attached. Push them into the gravel (thin tweezers are really useful), stems can be pushed as far as you...

An UP regulator and a £25 2kg CO2 fire extinguisher + a solenoid may be cheaper and also cheaper in the long run on a tank that size. If memory serves, the D-D kit uses a 500g bottle (£12+ from welding shops), so twice the price or more of a suitable FE...just a thought :)

From experience, I'd up the filter to a larger EX600 with lily pipes really drops the flow rate down, if choosing again I may even be tempted to go for the much larger EX1200. EX700 might be a happy half way house...

You may well not need to replace the sponges, just squeeze them out I old tank water then put them back in - the only one you may want to actually change is any fine mesh/wool type pad, as this is generally used for fine filtering and the other sponges will handle the biological filtration...

That first shot is absolutely stunning, I don't think I'd change anything :)

I have 25kg of substrate, I suspect I can rinse some more :)

Banking makes sense, I perhaps need to bank it more as it is raised higher already :) The wood would lift out, I wasn't sure if it looked better with the roots in/out of the substrate like above, or more of them out. If I lift it too far it looks like it is sitting on the substrate as opposed...

Okie dokie, the tank from the skip is great, no scratches, no leaks, not entirely sure why it was just dumped but hey ho! It is actually 60cm w x 30cm d x 36cm h - in short, 5cm taller than my existing tank. That doesn't sound much, but the tank space just seems so much bigger! Cleaned...

Re: Return of the nry :) 'Sticks and stones' Rescape/new pic New journal starts here: viewtopic.php?f=35&t=22935

Re: Return of the nry :) 'Sticks and stones' Rescape/new pic Yep, though it is getting entirely replaced this week with a higher height tank, 70L instead of 54L.

Re: Return of the nry :) 'Sticks and stones' Rescape/new pic Not entirely sure :) The HC got infested with hair/thread algae, I stripped it out and should probably just have re--planted, but instead I put the rocks back in, played around a little, and never quite got it right again :)

In light of finding a 60h x 45h x 30d (cm) tank in a skip at work, wanting to rescape completely, and having regretted not buying this dimension in the first place (prefer the height, I bought a 60x30x30 originally), here begins the saga of my next aquarium setup. Genera specs will be: * 70L...

Stunning tank George :) What large rocks/pebbles did you use?

Re: Return of the nry :) 'Sticks and stones' Rescape/new pic Thanks all :) It kind of developed on its own, the lighting (twin T8's) results in the growth pattern of a higher central area with the edging plants growing lower/smaller as they get less light. I took the rocks out as I got sick...

Re: Return of the nry :) 'Sticks and stones' Rescape/new pic Sticks and stones have gone, BBA on the substrate is almost none existent, HC is a touch wild on the right however this is where the last of the BBA has hung around so I'm letting it go a bit nuts to get good coverage - it has however...

Re: Return of the nry :) 'Sticks and stones' Rescape/new pic No smaller rocks and yeah, the wood is not quite right though never looks the same in pictures as I view it in reality :)

Re: Return of the nry :) 'Sticks and stones' Pics added 30/1 Major re-scape using existing materials. Got completely sick of the massive build up of what I can only assume is BBA and a very dark coloured staghorn. I could not get the stuff to stop, and I', unsure what I'm doing wrong - I do...

Lovely! Nice choice of scape name too, think I named mine later than you but never noticed you had the same name!

Re: Krish's 60cm Rescape - 7 Week Old. Looking great, always good to see what people do with the smaller aquariums like this and mine :)

Re: Re: Tom's Mini M All these far too good looking 'scapes are making me want to re-do my own...even though as usual it still isn't 'finished' :) Looking lovely, once filled it should look even better!

Perfect as is! Honestly, first attempt, are you sure you've not been secretly studying with Amano himself?

Re: 10l - Atomizer fitted :) I'd give the HC another week or two then give it a hard trim - I've only ever planted HC in individual strands, pushed right into the substrate, leaving only a couple of leaves showing. For me, this seems to encourage sideways growth instead of the upwards growth...

If that is your first planted tank then I shall just go cry in a corner :) Looking superb!

Re: 10l - Atomizer fitted :) Impressive, way smaller bubbles than my Boyu - I suspect one of these may be purchased shortly :)

Re: FishBeasts 500 Ltr "Forests Edge" (Blood, sweat & tears) Nitrogen as ammonia? Is that right and if so, a good or bad thing? Bad thing now I read the above posts fully...I wonder if the plant fertiliser you added is the cause of the ammonia spike?

Re: 60cm Nature Aquarium.Planted Just like that, there you go, looks almost easy to create something stunning! Shame it isn't :)

Re: Return of the nry :) 'Sticks and stones' Pics added 30/1 Stems are growing in nicely, getting the hang of this trimming malarky now I think! The left/right midground is still not working for me, suggestions welcome. I'd like something there, perhaps exending the HC to replace the...

Re: Forrest Bridge. Update 23 Jan. Whoops! Oops, greenwater is horrible, I ended up buying a UV filter to clear mine!

And get someone to video you moving it around so if you drop it, there's £250 to be had from You've Been Framed ;)

Re: Return of the nry :) 'Sticks and stones' Pics added 30/1 Cheers :) Still got a little BBA (at least I assume it is BBA, it's very tufty, like mini-blyxa!) on the substrate, keep picking the affected granules out when I see them. Staghorn has gone too, and the HC is slowly getting there...

Re: Return of the nry :) 'Sticks and stones' Pics added 30/1 Last nights water change proved how much difference the Koralia has made - I had no algae build up on the glass from last week at all. Normally there's a noticeable green film which is scraped off, but nothing at all this week :)...

Re: Return of the nry :) 'Sticks and stones' Pics added 30/1 Original plan was to have the vallis all along the back - time will tell if that comes off or not :)

Re: Return of the nry :) 'Sticks and stones' Pics added 30/1 Rocks cleaned, rotala green gone to George, waiting for the myriophyllum mezianum to start rearing its head above the rocks now:

And if I can grow HC with a measly small '30watts' of T8's over an equivalent sized tank, you should be able to manage glosso with 48watts of HO T5's :) Interesting on the hormone side of things, honestly, plants in aquariums used to be so simple :)

Re: Return of the nry :) 'Sticks and stones' Pics added 30/1 My pictures are hosted on my own webspace which is unlikely to be blocked by web filters. Rocks will be cleaned tonight, I've seen BBA before, and whilst growth is now slower than before the Koralia, it is very weird - growing in...

Re: Return of the nry :) 'Sticks and stones' Pics added 30/1 Update from today, some myriophyllum mezianum coming from the free delivery TGM sale last week to replace the rotala green which is heading towards George ASAP when the MM arrives :) Koralia has had a huge impact on growth and algae...

Didn't know carbon removed chlorine, my lesson for the day :)

Re: Along time coming.... Forrest Bridge! Black Hole is a glaze, I wonder if it would be good applied over a decent wax, should give more durability and lastability :) And cheers yeah, aside from being a right pain to keep clean, white on black (or any primary colour) works in my opinion :) A...