myboyshay
Member
Five weeks on and your scape looks great, healthy growth, I love the fish (how many have you stocked of each species?) Mark
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Andyh's 60L kitchen tank
- Thread starter andyh
- Start date
Five weeks on and your scape looks great, healthy growth, I love the fish (how many have you stocked of each species?) Mark
Well things have a been bit challenging, I have had Staghorn algae in the the tank and still have! Although thanks to Clive (ceg4048) and other UKAPS members, i am winning that battle now! I have increased my CO2 and also the distribution of it using my Hydor power head. I am also over-dosing easycarbo every day to help combat it and spot dosing difficult areas. I seem to be winning! Shouldn't of said that. 
If you want to read the advice i have been given check http://ukaps.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=8064
The tank got a severe pruning earlier this week, to remove algae infested plants and leaves. I removed a few of the crypts as they were over run.
Here is a couple of pic's of the tank this evening looking a lot healthier than it has:
My cherry red shrimps helping combat the algae, they seem to love munching on the staghorn after its been blasted with easycarbo.
Another bit of good news is that a couple of my high grade crystal red shrimps are carrying eggs! For those who know what they are looking at, you can see the eggs/shadow on the CRS on the pic above!
Thanks for looking
If you want to read the advice i have been given check http://ukaps.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=8064
The tank got a severe pruning earlier this week, to remove algae infested plants and leaves. I removed a few of the crypts as they were over run.
Here is a couple of pic's of the tank this evening looking a lot healthier than it has:
My cherry red shrimps helping combat the algae, they seem to love munching on the staghorn after its been blasted with easycarbo.
Another bit of good news is that a couple of my high grade crystal red shrimps are carrying eggs! For those who know what they are looking at, you can see the eggs/shadow on the CRS on the pic above!
Thanks for looking
Themuleous
Member
Lovely tank Mate 🙂
Sam
Sam
vauxhallmark
Member
- Joined
- 29 Jan 2008
- Messages
- 569
Absolutely magical looking tank!
Themuleous said:
Thanks Sam 😳
nico said:great hardscape
your plantation is also very nice , i like the hydrocotile touch , it mixes very nice with the HC 😉
Yeah i am loving the Hydrocotile its one my fav plants, the beauty is you can just hack it back and it keeps growing back no problem.
vauxhallmark said:Absolutely magical looking tank!
Cheers Mark!
Still fighting the StaghornE though Mark!
The HC has taken a battering and i am waiting for it to recover, not sure whether or not to prune it back to help. If you can see on the pics above the Staghorn has damaged bits and were its been dissolved/attacked by the easycarbo has left dodgy bits of plant.
rawr said:
Thanks, the tank has turned out exactly how i wanted which was a natural look. Its recovering nicely after the Staghorn now.
Just planning my next tank and cant decide what to do. I have a 35l that needs scaping and i almost have all the bits. Just cant decide what to do next!
Well my setup is 8 weeks old this week and things going well, I am happy to say i think i have beaten the staghorn and the HC is slowly recovering. I have pruned the HC a couple of times to help it recover and the shrimp have been eating the remainder of the dead staghorn.
The one thing that took me a while to get my head round was the amount of CO2 a heavily planted tank requires, infact i think i am still out with the dosing as i sure the tank could utilize more ferts. ( i am dosing the ADA step 1 as per the instructions for a 60l). The 4dkh solution in my drop checker really made things clear to me and helped me to accurately measure the CO2 levels in various parts part of my tank and get the CO2 period adjusted to the right number of hours/bubble rates. I have also played a huge amount with the position of the glass diffuser and powerhead/filter outlet in the tank to get decent CO2 circulation.
I am currently running the following parameters:
Lights 2 x24w T5 for 7 hours a day
CO2 on 3 hrs before the lights for 6hrs (current bubble rate is 2-3bps)
Dosing:
ADA brighty K 2ml per day
ADA Step One 3ml per day
Easy carbo to help control/finish off the Staghorn breakout will decrease dose in 10days currently 3ml per day.
Minimum of 2 water changes per week.
I have taken a few pics of my favourite parts of the tank and the really natural mixing of the plants. My next challenge is keeping the tank running like this, i have a few subtle changes planned but they wont be happening for a couple more weeks as I plan to start another scape next week. (35l Nano)
The tank
End view, the dragon stone is excellent.
Pearling, as soon as i turn off the powerheads, you can see the plants pearling like mad.
The plants, i really like all the different species of plants mixed together.
A close up
Apologies if i post too many pics, put i always take loads and i am slowly becoming obsessed with planted tanks! 😀
Thanks for looking
Andyh
The one thing that took me a while to get my head round was the amount of CO2 a heavily planted tank requires, infact i think i am still out with the dosing as i sure the tank could utilize more ferts. ( i am dosing the ADA step 1 as per the instructions for a 60l). The 4dkh solution in my drop checker really made things clear to me and helped me to accurately measure the CO2 levels in various parts part of my tank and get the CO2 period adjusted to the right number of hours/bubble rates. I have also played a huge amount with the position of the glass diffuser and powerhead/filter outlet in the tank to get decent CO2 circulation.
I am currently running the following parameters:
Lights 2 x24w T5 for 7 hours a day
CO2 on 3 hrs before the lights for 6hrs (current bubble rate is 2-3bps)
Dosing:
ADA brighty K 2ml per day
ADA Step One 3ml per day
Easy carbo to help control/finish off the Staghorn breakout will decrease dose in 10days currently 3ml per day.
Minimum of 2 water changes per week.
I have taken a few pics of my favourite parts of the tank and the really natural mixing of the plants. My next challenge is keeping the tank running like this, i have a few subtle changes planned but they wont be happening for a couple more weeks as I plan to start another scape next week. (35l Nano)
The tank
End view, the dragon stone is excellent.
Pearling, as soon as i turn off the powerheads, you can see the plants pearling like mad.
The plants, i really like all the different species of plants mixed together.
A close up
Apologies if i post too many pics, put i always take loads and i am slowly becoming obsessed with planted tanks!
😀 Thanks for looking
Andyh
Jase
Member
Mark Webb said:Looking really nice.....you can never post too many pics
Agreed!
I can't remember if i've commented on this, but I really like it Andy, love the mixing of the plants
EDIT: Just to add, how much cleaning did you have to do to your Dragon Stone?
George Farmer
Founder
- Joined
- 21 Jun 2007
- Messages
- 6,742
Truly delightful, Andy!
The naturalistic mix of planting and hardscape works really well indeed, and the photography is very good too.
What a lovely addition to any kitchen! Well done, squire!
The naturalistic mix of planting and hardscape works really well indeed, and the photography is very good too.
What a lovely addition to any kitchen! Well done, squire!
Mark Webb said:Looking really nice.....you can never post too many pics
Mark, you shouldn't say that! I will go posting mad!
Jase said:Mark Webb said:Looking really nice.....you can never post too many pics
Agreed!
I can't remember if i've commented on this, but I really like it Andy, love the mixing of the plants
EDIT: Just to add, how much cleaning did you have to do to your Dragon Stone?
Thanks for you comments, 😳
When you saying cleaning, did you mean before putting it in the tank?
If yes, The holes where full of mud/clay, I used a screwdriver and my kitchen tap on full blast to get it out. The best bit was it revealed holes and details that i hadn't seen when purchasing the pieces. Allow yourself a fair bit of time to do this though it can take a while.
George Farmer said:
Thanks George! 😳 I have to be honest its all a tribute to UKAPS and Graeme at Green Machine! Basically all learnt from here! Although i tried to put my own twist on it. Just about to start a 35l nano, going to try something different to my kitchen set-up to challenge myself a bit more and use a few of the tricks i picked up at the Oliver Knott Day.
Ref the photography, thanks, Not quite up to your standards yet! (whens your PFK front cover coming?) Despite your recent advice on taking photos of the fish, I still haven't taken a pic that i am 100% happy of one my fish. My shrimps no problem as they are slow moving, but i keep practicing. 😵
regards
Andyh
Dan Crawford
Founder
Nice one Andy, that is really cool! Love the cherries too, red doesn't do that colour justice.
George Farmer
Founder
- Joined
- 21 Jun 2007
- Messages
- 6,742
That's great to hear!andyh said:
Even so, it looks like you have a natural ability to aquascape. How long have you been in the hobby?
What camera are you using?
My PFK front cover is out in the next (Dec '09) issue - out on 27th Oct. Look out for the Viktor Lantos Your Tanks feature too.
George Farmer said:
Not sure about a natural ability, think its luck 😉, I have kept fish for most of my life, i blame my dad he is well into fishkeeping! got both me and my brother into the hobby. My Dad is now into Aquascaping and brother keeps Marine and a 5ft freshwater(nasties tank! Arowana and Stingrays). I myself have had a whole host of different things including lots of catfish and a marine set up. The whole planted tank see caught my attention in Jan this year, this scape is my first proper attempt. My problem is i still have a passion for fish, and want to make the two work in harmony. I like to keep things to scale. I like the smaller tanks with small fish/shrimps. Its just works better for me! Some of the best scape's on here are the nano's, i really like all the attention to detail.
My camera is a Canon Powershot SX1 IS (Basically a bridge camera),Its a 10.0mp with cmos sensor, 20xoptical zoom and shoots 1080p HD footage) I sold my 400d for this as i wanted an all rounder for my other hobby which is kitesurfing and i always needed more zoom than i could afford for a DSLR and the HD video is pretty dam cool!
Looking forward to the next PFK issue even more now, i feared that it was going away from the planted tank scene!
George Farmer
Founder
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- 21 Jun 2007
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- 6,742
Nice one, Andy. A real family of fishkeepers!
That's a very impressive first 'scape. Better than my first effort and most guys on here!
Camera sounds cool. What's wrong with the fish photos? Blurred? Noisy?
PFK did have a break from the planted scene but it's back on now... 😉 The last three or four issues have features UKAPS members' tanks! I have some planted/aquascaping articles in the pipeline too.
That's a very impressive first 'scape. Better than my first effort and most guys on here!
Camera sounds cool. What's wrong with the fish photos? Blurred? Noisy?
PFK did have a break from the planted scene but it's back on now... 😉 The last three or four issues have features UKAPS members' tanks! I have some planted/aquascaping articles in the pipeline too.
