200 litre low tech

[Coread]

Hi Everyone

One of the things that drew me to signing up to ukaps was reading the journeys that a lot of you have been on (your experiences, your support, and your advice). I’ve asked for a little bit of advice over the last few weeks, and the responses have been exceptional… and with people’s journals being so inspirational and helpful to the journey I’m on, I though why not combine the two and write a journal of my own!

So here it is:

Tank - Aquael Opti 200
Lighting - 2x Aquael Leddy 14w day and night
Filter - Fluval 407
CO2- None

Hardscape:
Dragon stone
Sacapers Gnarly wood
Hugo Sand
Tropica Aquasoil

Plants:
Hygrophila Siamensis
Christmas Moss
Lobelia Cardinalis
Bacopa Caroliniana
Cryptocoryne - two types
Anubis
Spiked Moss
Java Fern
And a selection of vals/stem plants
Potentially some Salvia

Livestock:
TBC

My intention was to create a scape that was heavily planted with tall reaching plants in the back ground on both sides of the tank, with a sand bed through the middle. I ended up creating a bridge out of the wood that I got, and stacking dragon stone to create a little bit of height.



As I started to place the substrate in, I stood back I didn’t like how the rocks looked unnaturally stacked, and how the wood looked… actually I didn’t like it at all.

So I ended up spending a day going back at forth and ended on this:



I would have liked a little more height on the left (and may still add something there) but I’m happy with how it looks.

One annoying thing to note for the future, is my wood started to float about 3 hours after flooding the tank! Absolute chaos, hardscape ripped up, plants floating everywhere and sand flung into the water column… anyways, after a few hours of repairing and some rocks glued to the wood, we’re back to normal… although slightly flatter then before.



My intention is to grow moss across most of the wood and rocks, with only some of the foreground rock exposed.

I transfer some of my Crypts, vals and Anubis over from my old tank, interestingly I’ve had a little bit of melting and algae grow on them but nothing too serious. I’m also having some issues with other plants, but I’ll keep an eye on them over the next week.



I made a few mistakes with my plants, first I planted some of them in to cold water (10c-15c). Second I only fertilised with micro ferts. This was purely down to poor planning, and not thinking things through.

After a few days running, and the cloudiness in the water subsiding, I introduced macros… now only time will tell.

Yesterday, I pulled over my old filter media and sprinkled some flakes in to the water. I tested this afternoon for ammonia, but nothing is showing on the tests yet, I expected something from the soil but assuming the plants are sucking it up.

I’ve been doing 30% water changes every 3 days as well, I’m thinking I should change my fertiliser schedule to match (I’m dosing once a week).

If I could start again, I’d plan the planting of my tank differently, does complete fertiliser from the beginning, and because I use dragon stone, use a more pressured clean (as there is dust in all of the little holes running through the rock).

I’ll keep you updated on how things go.

My hope is to introduce the Cherry Barbs from my old tank into this one… but it’s likely I’ll drop in a post before I introduce any livestock (I feel like I’ve over complicated things and I’m not too sure what indicators I’m looking for).

 

[Coread]

A tiny update, with the tank just over a week old.


I’m starting to see some life in my plants now, no growth, more like recovery (greener, ‘wilting’ has subsided, and leaves uncurling). It has felt like the plants went through ‘transplant shock’ that you can experience when planting potted plants into the garden… maybe I’ve missed a hardening off process?

Some plants have melted away, the sword and a new crypt willisii have disappeared. My other crypt seems to have recovered from the hair algae though!

I went down a rabbit hole a little today when looking through old posts around maturing a tank and plants. Dark start, waiting a few weeks until I add plants etc. had a little regret around not following one of those processes - but each failure is an opportunity to learn, right?

Another thing to note, bio film has started to develop on the sand substrate, turning it black. I removed it and stirred the sand.

 

[mort]

Hi, I like the scape and can imagine a nice group of cherry barbs being very happy in there.

I would split your fert dosing if you are doing frequent water changes. It would also be a good idea to try and syphon some of the fungus from the wood when you are doing a water change.

One thing I can see is that not all of your plants are suitable, long term, for underwater life. It looks like you have a parlour palm on the right and the plant that is really struggling looks like a umbrella palm (selaginella wildenowii I think). Unfortunately these plants just survive for a while and then die off unless they are in the air. I'd perhaps swap them out for something else.

 

[Coread]

One thing I can see is that not all of your plants are suitable, long term, for underwater life. It looks like you have a parlour palm on the right and the plant that is really struggling looks like a umbrella palm (selaginella wildenowii I think). Unfortunately these plants just survive for a while and then die off unless they are in the air. I'd perhaps swap them out for something else.

Thank you Mort, this is extremely helpful.

 

[megwattscreative]

some of the fungus from the wood when you are doing a water change.

One thing I've seen recommended is scrubbing wood with a toothbrush or similar! This just helps speed up the process of removing the film.

Edit: lovely to hear why you started the journal btw! Excited to see more 🙂

 

[Coread]

A little update as we hit day 10.

I’ve been away for a few days, and came back to some interesting developments.

The sand had developed a brown haze at the back of the tank, at first I thought it was hair algae, but when removing it, I found it to be more like the consistency of biofilm. The glass had started to brown too, which could be signs of Diatoms.


it was easy to remove (satisfyingly so). I also found brown ‘dust’ settling on most horizontal surfaces. It was easy to syphon out, but I’m not sure what it was.

I’ve seen some growth on my plants, and the stem plants have ‘bent over’ throwing thick roots into the soil (I’ll get a better picture next update). Which looks like the result of strong flow. Some plants dislodged, but were easy to repair.

I’ve also had some snails appear too.



Here’s some top down pictures after the cleaning:



I’ve changed dosing to 2ml per day of TNC complete, to support the increased water changes - I’ll see how that goes, so far it looks like it’s working, the Salvia is multiplying too.

At the moment I still haven’t detected any ammonia - I’m not 100% sure on what indicators I’m looking for to add fish, so I’ll do a little bit of hunting.

 

[mort]

You are just seeing a tank maturing. Most tanks get an ugly stage with diatoms and some algae. I think the snails are encouraging because they are great at cleaning up.

There are a few ways to "cycle" an aquarium but for me the best is to plant and be patient. When the plants are growing strongly and everything looks healthy then you can think about adding fish. I would start with just a few and gradually build the numbers every few weeks. There is no detriment to waiting longer.