A pine root planted randomness

[Lauris]

Outstanding tank in terms of fish, plants, equipment, technical kit, neatness, and your photography is superb and, like most, I love the green walls.

You said the pH probe was a great bonus and said how convenient and effective the RO water system and storage tank etc., are for changing water, the light and plant health speak for themselves to tell me that they are part of this incredibly successful recipe.

You seemed to use a Twinstar electrolysis device initially, and then it seemed to disappear, did you think it was a bit of a minor player/or even a bit of a gimmick?

Sorry if I missed a reference. I came to your journal late.

Thank you so much!

Everything you listed matters, except the twinstar steriliser. I was one of the first batches years ago who jumped on the “superpower” bandwagon. Years to come I gained understanding that it is not changing anything in my setups. If you have the basics right and you know your setup you really don’t need one. If I had a problem twinstar was never the solution to it.. imho it is well marketed gadget that takes space and attracts unwanted attention. I finally sold it to someone willing to give it a try.

Cheers,
Lauris

 

[Connswater]

Thank you very much for your reply and for sharing your lovely tank and your journey. In exchanging experiences and information I believe we can continue to improve the general level of success of hobbyists, which is of course why this site is, with the addition of some real scientific expertise from some, so wonderful.

I too failed to see measurable impact with a slightly cheaper Chihiros electrolysis product.

I have found water softening, to a point, Phosphate control and CO2 injection, to be, with bright white light, the recipe for algae control. Really healthy vigorous plant growth in my experience additionally requires careful attention to macro and micro nutrients, certainly in high energy tanks.

I am currently continue myself to amateurishly experiment with lighting, and so far, after some some 10 years of using a huge range of products, I am unable to correlate improved plant growth and less algae with the use of any lighting product designed/marketed specifically for aquarium plant growth. However, in terms of appearance, installation, colour rendition and energy use I suspect a number of specialist products are better overall than any of my DIY combinations. The initial cost however, puts a very different angle on things.

Very kind of you to take the time to reply, much appreciated.

Kind regards.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

I am unable to correlate improved plant growth and less algae with the use of any lighting product designed/marketed specifically for aquarium plant growth.

Yes, there is only one sun, and photosynthesis has been around for several billion years <"January 18. Gunflint Chert">. It is a bit of stretch to imagine that somebody has found <"a light spectrum"> that grows some photosynthetic organisms, but not others.

In terms of the green algae <"Any advice on how to fix algae and poor growth?"> they have exactly the same basic physiology and photosystems as the rest of the green plants, they are just "green plants".

For the other algal groups, BGA, Diatoms, the Red Algae, they all have chlorophyll A, but with some other pigments present. The chloroplast is actually an organelle, a cyanobacteria that was captured by another cell.

cheers Darrel

 

[SamTheMan]

Hi,

Been busy with life, but update is coming. Still going well, but I my soul is crying for rescape. This one is now 24months old and I need to refresh the scenery at my dinner table 🙂

I will do a final update in 2-3weeks time before I strip it down.

And thanks for asking,


Cheers,
Lauris

Will love to see what you do next!

 

[Lauris]

Ok, so I have been enjoying this for 2 years now. These are final shots before it gets stripped down in the coming days (a new journal will come up very soon).

Having it at the end of the dining table was a true pleasure, but now it is the time to move on. My soul is crying for new shapes. All fish will move out to the temp. tank to come back to new home in few weeks 🙂












Thanks to everyone for following through on this journey.

Cheers,
Lauris

 

[PABrooks]

Hi all,

3 years back I had to make a decision to wrap up everything and store it in the attic until the right time and place will come again.

Bought a new house and the only place (pointed out by my wife) I was allowed to plan my next aquascape was in the kitchen.
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So a little prep was required before, to make a room for it...
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So once the obstacle was out of the way, it took no time for me to get into an attack and dust off the inventory.. (finally after 3 years of a wait)..
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And so my next aquascaping journey can kick off again. Picked up the tank and new cabinet last week (for me this is an exciting upgrade as all my previous scapes were only in 19-90L volumes).

So, here it is.. a fresh start..

Tank + Cabinet: AquaSys230 (12ml optiwhite)
Dimensions: 90x55x53cm
Volume: 230L

Soil-Substrate:
ADA Amazonia v2: 27L
ADA PowerSand: 12L
ADA La Plata sand: 16kg
ADA Aqua Gravel: 0.5kg

Hardscape:
5 Marsh Wood (different sizes)
35kg Dragon Stone

Other bits and pieces still in delivery -
Light: Chihiros Vivid 2 (10th anniversary)
Filtration: Oase Thermo 850
Surface Skimmer: Eihem skim 350
CO2 Reactor: AquaCare 50 External CO2 Reactor

Not sure if I missed something, there were a lot of bits and pieces on the shopping list, but I'll update once again when things will move closer to planting and flooding it.

So here it is, right at the end of the dining table. in the kitchen (p.s. still need a solution for the background, not sure if to get something like hang on on the wall or paint it just for the tank in a different colour, as I'm sure the green will not work well for contrast..)
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Thanks for reading... I'll be back soon with more updates 🙂

Beautiful hard scape 🙂

 

[Lauris]

Beautiful hard scape 🙂

Thank you 👌

 

[hydrophyte]

Beautiful tank. I look forward to seeing its reimagination.

I bet there is some interesting ecology in that deep substrate. I think I see areas of purple and pink(?) Any chance you could get a couple pics with some brighter light shining there before you tear it down?

 

[Lauris]

Beautiful tank. I look forward to seeing its reimagination.

I bet there is some interesting ecology in that deep substrate. I think I see areas of purple and pink(?) Any chance you could get a couple pics with some brighter light shining there before you tear it down?

Thank you 🙂

The colours were probably the algae getting into it.. sorry, i had a 12hours straight go at it.. blank canvas now