2nd Coming

[Ruskie]

Its been a long time coming, way too long, but I've finally gone ahead with setting up a new tank. This will only be my second tank but I'm hopefully going to put into practice everything I've learned from my first and then confuse things even more by running CO2 as well! . First tank was somewhat of an 'adventure' to say the least as can be seen in the threads below.

First Tank
BGA Nightmare

I did eventually come out of the other side of that nightmare and the tank has been running well, albeit not the prettiest, for some years now. The old tank was sat atop an Ikea cabinet and when I first proposed the idea to the wife that I was going to rescape and use rocks instead her instant response was 'not on that unit your not you need something stronger'. Thats fine I said, but if I get a different tank I will need a new filter, new lighting etc. to which I got an eye roll and a 'whatever'. Ding ding! green light to go shopping, mission accomplished!!

So after shopping around, and the missus eyes getting wider and wider as more and more parcels arrived, I assembled the following:-

Evolution Aqua / DD Aquascaper 600 - 60x50x36 100L
Oase Biomaster Thermo 350
Chirhiros WRGB2
CO2 Art Pro SE Reg
Twinstar Diffuser
ADA Amazonia V2
ADA Power Sand
ADA La Plata Sand
Rio Xingu Gravel
About 20ish Kgs Seiryu Stone

Plan this time around was to do a dark start so after much faffing and rearranging of stone I finalised my layout. Filled the tank up, set the filter running and wrapped the baby up!



I think at this point the family thought I was going mad but had just stopped questioning me!!

More to follow.....

 

[LMuhlen]

Did you forget to take a picture before wrapping it?

 

[Ruskie]

I used the time while the tank was cycling to hook up the CO2 and start trying to dial it in.


I'm very much a novice at this and it took some time before I managed to achieve what I hope is the right level. I understand this is going to change somewhat as the plants start to develop. Expect a barrage of questions in the other sub-forum!

So the idea behind this tank is loosely based on the Brazilian style aquascapes and the work of Luca Galarraga, I love the way he uses stone with colourful stems to accentuate. Hes obviously a master of this style so if I can cobble together anything that vaguely resembles his work I'll be happy . Plant selection is obviously important too so I took guidance from various videos I have seen.
After fiddling and fine tuning over a couple of days I came up with the below which I am pretty happy with overall. Please excuse the rubbish photography and mucky tank!



Some finer detailing later and I have my final layout.


The tank was then flooded and wrapped up as stated in post#1. then the wait was on for the cycle.

 

[Ruskie]

Did you forget to take a picture before wrapping it?

I didn't 😉. I did intend to post again straight away but got completely sidetracked with work.

 

[Ruskie]

Once the darkstart was complete it was time to unwrap and get it planted. Order was placed ready for the weekend, all plants were in-vitro.


Full plant list:
Micranthemum tweediei 'Monte Carlo'
Eleocharis pusilla 'Mini'
Elecocharis acicularis
Marsilea hirsuta
Marsilea minuta
Pogostemon helferi
Staurogyne repens
Hygrophila lancea 'Araguaia'
Rotala H'ra
Rotala wallichii
Rotala 'Green'
Pogostemon erectus (deccanensis)

Had fun with the stems, never had in vitro ones before. Could have probably done with more of the Pogostemn erectus, or to do a better job with it! , but got it all planted and filled back up.






Now the exciting part - To see how this grows in over the coming weeks!

 

[Mike Singh]

Nice work!

 

[G mac]

Will look forward to seeing the development of this. Looking good so far🙂

 

[Ruskie]

A bit of an update as the tank approaches the 2 week mark.

Super happy so far with the growth, this CO2 stuff really works huh?!? 😀.

Everything seems to have taken well. Marsilea is growing quick and sending runners out all over the place. S repens are growing quicker than I imagined and the Hygrophila lancea 'Araguaia' is slowly starting to develop a tinge of colour.


Monte Carlo is covering well, am I right in thinking if I trim this now it will promote lower and denser growth? If so I think I may trim this at the weekend.


Stems are taking off, loving the Wallichii. Pogostemon Erectus is a little slower than the rest but I did kinda butcher them when planting.


This picture was taken a couple of days ago at the 10 day mark. My view from the sofa.

 

[Ruskie]

A little update 3 weeks in. Growing in nicely.
Marsilea sending runners out all over the place. It’s even started rooting directly in the thin layer of sand at the front of the tank. I’ll trim this eventually but just letting it loose at the minute.


Added some Amanos last weekend. They seem to have settled ok apart from one who must have jumped/climbed out of the tank while I was at work and managed to walk several feet into the kitchen before giving up 😢


Full tank shot.


I’m thinking of adding some Buce’s along the base of the large rock at the back right to break up that section a little. If anybody has any suggestions as to any particular ones that may fit this scape I’m all ears.

Still not sure if I’m 100% happy with the left hand side. The Pogostemon Helferi that’s planted in between the rocks seems to be relatively low, I was hoping this was going to grow a little bushier and be more visible above the rock line.


Also thinking of adding in fish either this weekend or next. Currently thinking a nice school of green neons but again I’m open to ideas.

View from the sofa.


Thanks for looking.

 

[funkymonk1984]

Looks really nice mate, makes me want this tank even more!

 

[G mac]

Great job 👍
A decent size shoal of Green Neons is always a lovely sight..

 

[Ruskie]

So after the last update I went ahead and purchased a small school of 12 green neons, love these little guys. Hopefully going to add a few more in the coming weeks to take that up to maybe 20.
Nothing major to report over the next week. Fish settled in, plants all growing nicely.

The following weekend it was time for the first trim. Decided to have a full maintenance session at the same time. All glass and pipes cleaned, diffuser cleaned etc. It was after this I ran into my first issue with the tank which was covered here
Luckily I was on hand and caught things early enough, all livestock still ok.

The following week (this week) I have been working away from home. Came back to the tank yesterday to be greeted with a lovely brown/orange/rust coloured algae covering all the rocks, a fine film on some of the plants and on the lower glass and sand level


I’m hoping this is just diatoms and not a result of having to mess with the CO2.



I’ll be scrubbing the rocks and doing a clean/water change at the weekend and keeping my eyes on it over the next couple of weeks before I look at the CO2 again as, like I said, I ‘think’ it’s just diatoms.

A couple more (bad) pics I’ve taken while trying to get the fish and the obligatory’View from the sofa’ pic.

 

[Ruskie]

A few more weeks on now, tank is at around the 2 month mark. Gladly I've passed the ugly diatoms stage from the pictures in the previous post and all is looking well again.

Everything seems to be growing nicely and so far so good on the algae front. I've had a little bit of GSA on the glass and rocks once the diatoms had settled but its easily managed. Also had a little bit of stringy stuff near the diffuser pipework of all places but that was removed easily enough and seems ok at the minute.

Rotale H'ra and Wallichii had a trim at the weekend. I need to try and shape the Wallichii a little better and replant the tops better as I seem to have lost most of the colour from them after the trim. H'ra faired better. I will probably trim the Pogostemen Erectus this weekend, some of the stems are really quite thick and look almost palm tree-esque !! 🙂

Thinking of now starting to up the light after this initial settling in phase to try and promote the reds. Light is a Chirhiros WRGB2 currently set at 50% intensity and RGB at 50/40/60. I might up the intensity to 55% and see how we go. Should I also change RGB or just leave that and up intensity, thoughts?

A few pictures:-









FTS



Thanks

 

[Kaliilo]

Gorgeous tank and I love those green neons!

 

[bazz]

Should I also change RGB or just leave that and up intensity, thoughts?

I think that is entirely up to what is most pleasing to your eye. It's the total intensity that will effect your plants one way or the other.
A disclaimer, I do know some people are saying that for example, high blue light causes algae but for our intents and purposes I can't really see that using 60/40/50 or 40/50/60 is going to become a problem. They used to say red causes algae but I had a 1 hour red sunset every evening for 2 1/2 years and never had a problem. Etc etc with other colours.
Tank is looking good!

 

[Ruskie]

Gorgeous tank and I love those green neons!

Thanks. I love the green neons too, especially when you catch them at the right angle under the lights. I've yet to capture this well on a photo as yet!

I think that is entirely up to what is most pleasing to your eye. It's the total intensity that will effect your plants one way or the other.
A disclaimer, I do know some people are saying that for example, high blue light causes algae but for our intents and purposes I can't really see that using 60/40/50 or 40/50/60 is going to become a problem. They used to say red causes algae but I had a 1 hour red sunset every evening for 2 1/2 years and never had a problem. Etc etc with other colours.
Tank is looking good!

Thanks bazz. I did think it was just intensity that mattered and the RBG settings were a personal preference. The reason I asked is because on the Chihiros app when you adjust the intensity it also messes with the RGB levels as well so I wasnt sure if the 2 were related. As it stands I've upped intensity to 55% then tweaked the RBG levels back to how I had them when at 50%.
Thanks for the kind words on the tank.

 

[Ruskie]

Been a while since an update so thought it about time to share!

Working away from home a lot and trying to maintain a high tech tank is not a marriage made in heaven - That’s a lesson for any newcomers to take on board, you want a nice tank you have to work for it!
I was away for 2 and a bit weeks and came back to this:-


Not a disaster by any stretch of the imagination but work to be done. Green dust algae on all sides of the tank and pipework. A patch of cyano on the sand at the front. String algae hanging onto the helferi and h. lancea. The wallichi was covered in it, I think maybe because the H’ra had run wild and messed with the flow and lighting they were receiving. Marsilea had ran rampant 😂.

Anyway, big maintenance session later, everything cleaned, trimmed and cut back and we are back to this:-

Hopefully I’ll get more time to tend to the tank and keep on top of any potential issues I might be facing but all in all 3 months in I think we’re doing ok 👍🏻
I do go away on holiday soon for a couple of weeks so fully expect it all to go south again pretty quick 😂 Any one got any tips or ideas for sustaining a tank when not in the country? 😂