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.

 

[Coread]

A quick update, as we enter week 3.

Earlier this week I had a bloom of microfauna covering the glass - you can read more here: White worms and white mites

A few days and a water change later, the covering has subsided!

I visited my LFS with the intention of buying some larger, broadleaf plants for the back ground of the tank (but they didn’t have any available until next Friday), some Monte Carlo (which was in stock), and something for the foreground (which I can’t remember the name of - I should really note things down when I go shopping).

The unknown plant has a rhizome, I’ve placed its roots into the aquasoil, and left its rhizome out of the soil:



With the Monte Carlo, I’ve placed the majority of it in and around some rocks - although a little worried it might need some substrate.



The last purchase, was of some subwassertang (I think).



I spoke to the gentleman who owns the shop about Co2, but we haven’t got a local bottle supplier, and the ones I can find online are at least an hours drive away - but I’ll keep searching. He did mention there are smaller bottles that he can supply, but I’ve heard that using them on a 200l tank would become really expensive.

Here’s how the tanks looking at the moment, some nice growth on the majority of plants. I’m going to play around with the light as I’m getting some terrible glare of the back of the glass.



Also, for anyone reading, do you know what the plant spiky plant in the middle is? It seems to have transformed, going from rounded leaves and its stems reaching upwards to spiky leaves and its stems growing all over the place (you can she older growth behind).

 

[Coread]

Very quick update, I started to develop some fuzz/thread and diatom algae (which looks to be normal for a tank going through the maturing stage).

I reached out for some advice - you can view the post here: Diatoms and thread/hair algae

Ive reduced the lighting duration to 6 hours, ordered some more filter floss and I’ve added some temporary plants from my old tank to help support the tank maturing (it looks like they’re lacking something, so it’ll be interesting to see how they develop in this tank):


I might add some more Salvinia, but I’m a little cautious of the current sucking them under (I’ve found that they really don’t like must movement).

 

[Coread]

Hi Everyone

An update as we enter week 4.



After some advice around the best time to move fish over from my old tank - I moved over my first batch of Cherry Barbs (you can see the discussion here: Thread 'Transferring to a new tank'

They seem to have settled it well, busy courting and exploring their new environment. Over the next 3 weeks I’ll slowly transfer over all of the fish.

I purchased some new plants from my LFS to replace some of the none aquatic plants that came with the stem plant bundle I purchased from Etsy.

I also have some moss arrive in the post, that I completely forgot I ordered at Christmas:

The presumed hair algae has started to subside, although there are still traces of it everywhere. Diatoms has creeped into some of the rocks (really hard to see due the the colour of the dragon stone). While the glass has small green spots appearing on it.

I moved the stem plants that were close to filter, hopefully allows more flow into the intake.

I’m going to continue with daily testing and 30/40% water changes every three days. I’ll also let the stem plants continue to grow for another week until I give them a hard trim back.

It’s likely I’ll keep most of the plants as they are now, and look to replace slowly as the vision of the scape grows.

I’m continuing with 2.5ml TNC complete daily, and 2ml Easy Carbo (no visible melting from the Vals).

On a side note, I purchased a turkey baster, best tool I’ve purchased so far!

 

[Coread]

A quick update on my tank, it looks to be going through the new tank uglys, as Diatoms has given the aquarium a dull tone:



I moved my Corys over today, and they’re already wreaking havoc with some of the plants - I’m having to replant some of the newly planted plans as they pop up out of the aqua soil.

I need to look into why some of my plants don’t look like they’re thriving - I’m not sure if it’s my fertiliser or light - or if I should stop with the Carbo.

I have a feeling some of my plants require Co2 injection:



I think in hindsight, I should have written the names of the plants down and researched them more before even purchasing them from the internet.

If anyone has advice on an app or a good method to ID plants, I would be eternally grateful for the advice. If not, I’ll continue pick up information from searching 😊.

Green spot algae is starting to appear on the glass (hardly noticeable until you really look), so I’ve swapped to scraping the glass before water changing now.

Next Sunday, I’m going to change over from 30% water change every 3 days to 50% every week. I’m likely to continue with the 2ml does of TNC complete every day unless I find out that the plants require more.

 

[Coread]

Slight change in plant maintenance, from today I’ll be running the following:

Lighting: 2x Aquael Leddy 14w day and night:
Light 1 running for 5 hours (4pm - 9pm)
Light 2 running for 5 hours (5.30pm - 10.30pm)
Giving me 6.5 hours of light, 3.5 hours of maximum light.

Fertiliser: TNC Complete
7ml daily

Water changes: 50% weekly on Sundays

Carbo: Easy Green Easy Carbo
5ml after each water change

Filtration: Fluval 407
Swapping over to a spray bar to support maximum surface agitation and to stop some of the plants waving about like their in a hurricane

 

[Coread]

Hi Everyone

A small update on my tank.

The moss is starting to take hold now, which is starting to create a more natural feel. I’m going to give it a trim over the weekend, hopefully that’ll encourage it the spread.

I’ve just given the stems on the right a huge trim, they grow extremely fast, turning the right side into a tangled mess.

The corys are a bit of a nightmare, and I’d advise leaving them until your plants are fully rooted before adding them 😊.


The crypts have done really well, this started as a tiny plant around 8 weeks ago!



My Java fern is messy with lots of new plants grown all over.

the spray bar has helped distribute the flow more evenly, and the fish are active all over the tank now.

I still have lots of white bits around the tank. I’m 90% sure that these are all coming from the sand. Hopefully as time goes on, it’ll get less and less.

 

[Coread]

Hi Everyone

A little update, on the Tank.



I’ve increased plant mass by adding some new plants as recommended by some really helpful members while discussing lights here:
Looking for a Light

And here are the additions:
Heteranthera zosterifolia
Red Tiger Lotus Bulb
Anubis Coffeefolia
Cryptocoryne Balansae
Cryptocoryne Wendtii (green gecko)
Frogbit

Some of my plants are changing, I’m not sure if it’s natural through maturity or they’re lacking something, I’ll keep a close eye on them:

My Anubis is getting covered with Staghorn - it’s at the bottom of the tank, although fully exposed to the light and I’m not sure if its liking it or if it’s still acclimatising to submerged life:


My other Anubis is developing black spots on the leaves, they might just need a good clean, or it could be BBA depending (or maybe something else) - newer leaves are quite pale (but I’ll wait until fully formed to see if action is needed):



I’ve moved my Buce away from the substrate, and attached it to the rock:




My Cryps are starting to change colour, to more a brown colour on the outside of the leaves.

My Frogbit is in, an odd yellowing to the leaf, maybe damaged through transport (but only developed yesterday). No roots yet, so I’ll keep an eye on them over this next week - my tank is lidded, so I’m not sure how they’ll hold up.

 

[Coread]

Hi everyone

I’ve been neglecting an update on livestock!

So we have thus far the following:

6x Peppered Corys
9x Cherry Barbs
9x Neon Tetras
2x Dwarf Gourami
8x Cherry Shrimp

I also spotted some Cory fry during lights off and some of the shrimp are due to drop shrimplets soon!



I’m still waiting on the new plants to establish and start growing on the right hand side - so far there has been little movement except from the bulb sprouting leaves:



I think I’ve spotted some BBA appearing on the snags within the dragon rock and some of the Anubis and rock has started to develop black spots… I’ll keep an eye on it, and so have some easy Carbo to spot dose if needed.


The Staghorn on the other doesn’t seem to be a problem, it pops up and disappears over night - I haven’t determined a pattern, except for it ‘sweeping’ across the tank, appearing in a section close together and then moving on to another part of the tank.


My new Anubis leaf looks healthy (I think) - so no worries there. Although I am concerned that the other leaves are getting blacker by the day.


My other Anubis leaves are loosing its deep green colour and starting to yellow - again, this could be a slow reaction to being fully submerged.



My Frogbit doesn’t look healthy at all, I’m going to assume that the damage is due to movement/surface flow. No roots have formed yet either.

It feels like to tank is trying to stabilise - I have periods of rapid growth and then periods of stagnation. I’m going to see if these are tied into water changes (which are done on a Sunday at 40/50%) - although it could be due to the tanks immaturity.

 

[Coread]

Hi Everyone

It’s been a few weeks since I last posted, and I’ve been on a bit of a journey! A few weeks ago, my plants weren’t doing very well. I was experiencing the following:

• Leaves falling off
• Holes in leaves on several plants
• Blackening of leaves
• Plants decaying
• Dull colouration
• Slow or no growth
• BBA and Staghorn algae

Wow, there was a lot going on. Since then, I’ve changed a few things around and the tank has bounced back to life!

The changes I’ve made are:

• I slightly twisted the light at the front to face away from the front plants.
• I now add some Epsom salt after each water change.
• I’ve reduced the amount of fertiliser and now dose after a water change (20ml of TNC Complete).
• I have an army of Ramshorn snails and RC Shrimp

The biggest change I’ve seen is the stem plants growing rapidly (now needs trimming once a week), and the algae disappearing.

The little bit of Monty Carlo I left in has started to grow, the BBA has disappeared from the rock.


My Frogbit was too far gone before the tank started to settle, but I added in some hornwort (which I really like):

With the removal of some plants, this side looks even more sparse - although I have some plants in there that should start filling it out soon:


I’ll keep you updated once the right side has really started to establish itself.

 

[Cazza]

Looks great! Well done on getting a grip on the algae. Amazing what a few tweaks can do.