daniel19831123
Member
After previously scaping a 16 gallon in dutch/natural style, I decided to strip the tank down and start of scratch. After looking at all the planted tank from cau aqua, I've decided to take the plunge and try something similar.
The most difficult task I find is getting bogwood which is of desirable shape to fit in a 24" tank. The nice one are either far too big or way too pricy. Redmoor wood sounds like a good option for me and I was tempted to buy a few of those when I visited the green machine but they were way too twisted for my liking.
After a long long search, I managed to find some manzanita wood that has some brilliant curvature. I bought a whole lot of it and get it imported from the states! This is how many wood I received. I only used 7 pieces of them and got about 20 pieces extra!
Substrate wise, I decided to stick to akadama as it lowers the hardness of the water and this is much favourable to me. Washing these substrate was a pain in the back.... Literally pain in the back. Those long hours of squatting and kneeling besides my bathtub running my hand through icy cold water just trying to get rid of those cloudy water really kills my back. And I'm only 24 :? Took me over 4 hours to wash 15l of the substrate and still I don't considered the substrate to be clean enough.
As if washing the substrate is not enough, I had a whole tank of topsoil that I need to clean from my tank before the akadama can go in the tank. Some corner with deeper end of substrate was foul smelling due to the lack of oxygen and formed dead space. Well to make the story short, my room stinks of rotten eggs by the end of the day. (Garuf, if you are reading this, maybe you are lucky that you didn't come and help me out )
CO2 is supplied by a 10L CO2 bottle through a nano diffuser sitting right under the inlet of eheim 2232. CO2 is regulated by a solenoid.
15kg bottle, 2kg bottle, and 0.5kg bottle in a row.
Lighting is supplied by a germany company that auction cheap overtank luminaire on ebay. I've decided to go with 4x24W overtank luminaire with 2 normal day light tube and 2 grolux tube. Lighting is left on for 10 hours continuously on a daily basis regulated by a timer.
I've taken most of my plant out from my previous tank. It never ceased to amazed me how much organic substrate that the tank has accumulated within a month period. Rotten leaves and fish dropping were accumulated in unbelievable amount in areas that is invinsible to our naked eye. No wonder my tank keep getting grey staghorn algae. Any suggestion as how to avoid this issue will be greatly appreciated. I suppose increasing the flow will help but that means I need to invest another 60-70 quid in a bigger filter...
Picture of some plants from previous tank
UG
mixed
crypt balansae. Got 25 of these little bugger. Pain to plant.... Ended up getting annoyed and trimming all the leaves away so they don't get in my way.
OK. after hours and hours of hard work, I finally managed to put together my bits and pieces.
Initial hardscape.
Will post more picture once the crypt starts growing leaves again and the plants are more settled.
Plant that will be going in this tank will be
Pogostemon stellatus broad leaves
Limnophila aromatica
Didiplis diandra
Crypt balansae
Urtricularia graminofolia
Rotala rotundifolia sp green?
Blyxa japonica
Hamianthus Callictrichoides
Maybe some bolbitis heudelotti if there is space for the plant and I can be bothered to remove the wood to tie them onto it.
The most difficult task I find is getting bogwood which is of desirable shape to fit in a 24" tank. The nice one are either far too big or way too pricy. Redmoor wood sounds like a good option for me and I was tempted to buy a few of those when I visited the green machine but they were way too twisted for my liking.
After a long long search, I managed to find some manzanita wood that has some brilliant curvature. I bought a whole lot of it and get it imported from the states! This is how many wood I received. I only used 7 pieces of them and got about 20 pieces extra!
Substrate wise, I decided to stick to akadama as it lowers the hardness of the water and this is much favourable to me. Washing these substrate was a pain in the back.... Literally pain in the back. Those long hours of squatting and kneeling besides my bathtub running my hand through icy cold water just trying to get rid of those cloudy water really kills my back. And I'm only 24 :? Took me over 4 hours to wash 15l of the substrate and still I don't considered the substrate to be clean enough.
As if washing the substrate is not enough, I had a whole tank of topsoil that I need to clean from my tank before the akadama can go in the tank. Some corner with deeper end of substrate was foul smelling due to the lack of oxygen and formed dead space. Well to make the story short, my room stinks of rotten eggs by the end of the day. (Garuf, if you are reading this, maybe you are lucky that you didn't come and help me out )
CO2 is supplied by a 10L CO2 bottle through a nano diffuser sitting right under the inlet of eheim 2232. CO2 is regulated by a solenoid.
15kg bottle, 2kg bottle, and 0.5kg bottle in a row.
Lighting is supplied by a germany company that auction cheap overtank luminaire on ebay. I've decided to go with 4x24W overtank luminaire with 2 normal day light tube and 2 grolux tube. Lighting is left on for 10 hours continuously on a daily basis regulated by a timer.
I've taken most of my plant out from my previous tank. It never ceased to amazed me how much organic substrate that the tank has accumulated within a month period. Rotten leaves and fish dropping were accumulated in unbelievable amount in areas that is invinsible to our naked eye. No wonder my tank keep getting grey staghorn algae. Any suggestion as how to avoid this issue will be greatly appreciated. I suppose increasing the flow will help but that means I need to invest another 60-70 quid in a bigger filter...
Picture of some plants from previous tank
UG
mixed
crypt balansae. Got 25 of these little bugger. Pain to plant.... Ended up getting annoyed and trimming all the leaves away so they don't get in my way.
OK. after hours and hours of hard work, I finally managed to put together my bits and pieces.
Initial hardscape.
Will post more picture once the crypt starts growing leaves again and the plants are more settled.
Plant that will be going in this tank will be
Pogostemon stellatus broad leaves
Limnophila aromatica
Didiplis diandra
Crypt balansae
Urtricularia graminofolia
Rotala rotundifolia sp green?
Blyxa japonica
Hamianthus Callictrichoides
Maybe some bolbitis heudelotti if there is space for the plant and I can be bothered to remove the wood to tie them onto it.