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1300 litre chocolate lake

Ian Holdich said:
Looks like you've placed that wood perfectly!
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phew thanks ian... wasnt sure as it looks so different In the tank. 🙂

Iain Sutherland said:
thats a bad boy al and can envisage how look its going to look when planted, not to mention with 100 chocolates serenely drifting around. Absolutely will be booking a trip up to you in the new year!!
I actually quite like the wood layout in the image above mate but thats just me. What are your thoughts plant wise to filling in behind the wood and around the back areas or leaving open?
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Cheers mate. Realisations finally set in as to how big this really is now. I seriously need to curb turning my day dreams into reality ha ha.....
That's anothet plus on the wood position too which is great. It's all in bins soaking now. The huge tree peice just sank so that's good. I was worried about that piece.
Thought wise for planting behind the wood I was thinking of banking the substrate up towards the rear right and have crypts going up and towards the back on the right with some retro spirals behind those and actually behind the wood rear right I was thinking either vallis nana or something similar so it hits the surface and is pushed across. I dont want it dominated by plants I still want to see a fair bit of the wood.
Im writing out my plant list this morning..
Ian Holdich said:
That's it then, party at Als in the new year...
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Iain Sutherland said:
you have all the best ideas pal.
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ABSOLUTELY. ... Im up for that 100% 😀😀😀😀
 
Alastair said:
Thought wise for planting behind the wood I was thinking of banking the substrate up towards the rear right and have crypts going up and towards the back on the right with some retro spirals behind those and actually behind the wood rear right I was thinking either vallis nana or something similar so it hits the surface and is pushed across. I dont want it dominated by plants I still want to see a fair bit of the wood. Im writing out my plant list this morning..
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sounds like a good plan, no doubt youll nail it.
Retro spiralis has been a real PITA in Asian dreams, leaf edges arent crimped and is very slow growing. I even moved a plant to the 60 with high light and plenty of co2 in amazonia and its still not happening.... have no idea why?? Maybe it likes hard water or more low tech?? Can i ask where you your buying? took me ages, ended up via a german site and they were really in a bad way when i received wrapped in asian newspaper. Well worth buying twice as much as you need if your going the same way to allow for waste.


Alastair said:
ABSOLUTELY. ... Im up for that 100%
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woop
 
Iain Sutherland said:
sounds like a good plan, no doubt youll nail it.
Retro spiralis has been a real PITA in Asian dreams, leaf edges arent crimped and is very slow growing. I even moved a plant to the 60 with high light and plenty of co2 in amazonia and its still not happening.... have no idea why?? Maybe it likes hard water or more low tech?? Can i ask where you your buying? took me ages, ended up via a german site and they were really in a bad way when i received wrapped in asian newspaper. Well worth buying twice as much as you need if your going the same way to allow for waste.



woop
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Hope so mate. I want it to look aged once planted if that makes sense. As if its grown in from the start..
The retro spiralis I have in the chocolate box is at the surface and has only very slight crimped leaves. Could be just spiralis but its extremely healthy and vibrant. Maybe your right with it preferring low tech. Its shaded by floaters too.
In fact its one you sent me that was about 3 cm tall.
I can get both varieties from my lfs. I get them cheap as I gave my shallow puddle to them for free. If you want any let me know iain.
And think we need to arrange a meet up at mine once done.. few beers good food and a massive armchair right infront of the tank
 
Iain Sutherland said:
You still got space for a massive armchair?!

Totally forgot i sent you some mate, next scape in my head has a good amount of spiralis (if i make it do as its told) so may take you up on that al.
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Ha ha no I dont think there's room for a massive armchair. Maybe a small one. My bikes have been sent to my bedroom for now 🙁
Absolutely mate any spiralis you need ill get you for free.

My lighting has arrived today too which im looking forward to having a play with later.
Tmc grobeam 1500 nd's and multi controller.
No lenses over the crees which will give a much better spread and reduce par levels
K2DpiTp.jpg
 
Edvet said:
Whole tank with only three of those?
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Yep its only low tech remember with low light loving plants such as crypts anubias ferns etc and the tiles will be 5 cm above the water surface. These with out lenses will give a good 120 degree spread each.
If one unit is fine for a 60cm tank 3 should do for this and most of the planting is around and on the wood 🙂
I can always add one more if it really needs it
 
Edvet said:
Well i've got two of those already , but also 2x 80W T5 and 2x 150W HQI, but i could go low tech later with just one tile more? That's food for thought. I could go that route if i have the plants as i would like.
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Wow that's a lot of lighting. What size tank is that lot on ha ha.
Ive ordered a 4th light to be on the safe side and can always add it if 3 isnt enough
 
Hi Alistair,

its all looking great. You got wood like that in this country! I could not find anyone selling it before.

I was looking at lighting from TMC tiles a little while ago, but I was looking at around 8 for my tank. Just thinking about light spread I take it you are focussing it in a few areas. 5cm seems pretty close to the water surface, but have a play. I do know from my own personal experiance from my low tech breeding tanks some of the plants are growing in only 8 par, slowly though. I would imagine if you had somthing like 20-30 at the substrate, that would not be bad for non co2 injection.
 
sanj said:
Hi Alistair,

its all looking great. You got wood like that in this country! I could not find anyone selling it before.

I was looking at lighting from TMC tiles a little while ago, but I was looking at around 8 for my tank. Just thinking about light spread I take it you are focussing it in a few areas. 5cm seems pretty close to the water surface, but have a play. I do know from my own personal experiance from my low tech breeding tanks some of the plants are growing in only 8 par, slowly though. I would imagine if you had somthing like 20-30 at the substrate, that would not be bad for non co2 injection.
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Hi Sanj
Hope your ok mate. Ive got some of this small grass to send out to you yet.
I think I struck very lucky on the wood. The huge piece sinks but the rest is jammed inside flooded bins out back and weighted down.
Well with the new 1500nds they dont come with lenses over the leds now so you get a really good 120 degree spread from them. If I had the lenses in this drops to 80 degrees but increases the par considerably
I may use the 4 and have them all 10cm above water level. Most of the planting will be on or around the wood so I dont have to worry too much about the outer edges and very front of the tank as I want this quite open.
I think ill purchase a par meter or unless someone on the forum has one I could borrow..........
Hows your coming along mate. Are you going for the tmcs then on your big tank???

Little-AL said:
That is ridiculous...

...ly brilliant.

Jealous Al, very jealous!
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Ha ha thanks little Al. Im getting giddy for plant up day. Just getting the new bike set up for a peddle out to find rocks
10379743783_2b48830faa_b.jpg
commencal meta 2013 by Mr-T-, on Flickr
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commencal am 2013 by Mr-T-, on Flickr
 
Nathaniel Whiteside said:
Must be wedged! :lol:
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If only mate if only. ....

malawistu said:
Nice bike similar to mine but I ride hard tail iv had problems with the shram botton bracket tho keeps clicking

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2
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Ive also got an ns bikes core hard tail with sram bottom bracket and had the similar click problem but just replaced it and its been great.
 
Thread alignment ? in my younger working days I was a cycle specialist ( my first proper job title lol 🙂 ) at halfords and used to get quite a few bikes with this as a recurring problem and 9/10 it was misaligned threads due to manufacturing errors so it might be worth having it checked out
 
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