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Dutch Donut

Geoffrey Rea

Geoffrey Rea

Administrator/Committee Member
UKAPS Team
Joined
27 May 2017
Messages
2,100
Location
Cambridgeshire
So the tank is Dutch style, I’m the donut running it and yes, it’s an immediate fail under Dutch rules as the equipment is clearly visible in tank. Always good to start strong 😂

Planting at start up:

1623874163996.jpeg

Plant list:

Eriocaulon cinereum
Hottonia palustris
Hygrophila lancea ‘Araguaia’
Limnophila hippuridoides
Lindernia rotundifolia
Myriophyllum mattogrossense
Pogostemon helferi
Rotala wallichii
Staurogyne repens

Equipment list:

Aquascaper 600
2 x ONF Flat One’s
Co2Art Pro SE regulator and Flux diffuser
Wet/Dry sump filtration
Schego Titanium heater and temp controller

Substrate is ADA Amazonia and ADA Bacter 100 sprinkled on the base along with root tabs. Water is 1KH and 5GH remineralised RO.
 
beautiful tank. and a lot of light! it'll be interesting to see the contrast in texture once the plants convert.
 
I'm interested to learn how to grow H. Lancea in Dutch Style. My H. Lancea would simply crawl along the substrate rather than form a neat bush. Please share your trimming techniques as well!
 
plantnoobdude said:
beautiful tank. and a lot of light!
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Ample with two units:

1623910607915.jpeg

Maximum drop to the substrate is 12 inches in this setup. Good spread to all four corners of the footprint, plus the overlap of both units across the middle. Also not the first rodeo using this light setup, it’s a bit of a beast and probably wouldn’t end well without the wet/dry system.

erwin123 said:
I'm interested to learn how to grow H. Lancea in Dutch Style. My H. Lancea would simply crawl along the substrate rather than form a neat bush. Please share your trimming techniques as well!
Click to expand...

That’s what we’re here to do... Your designated donut will do his best to oblige. Have never run a Dutch style tank before @erwin123 so will be learning as we go along too. Much more disciplined compared to the usual ‘live and let live’ attitude applied to growth in the other tanks.
 
Geoffrey Rea said:
Also not the first rodeo using this light setup, it’s a bit of a beast and probably wouldn’t end well without the wet/dry system.
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Great start, will be watching this one, I have been looking into a dutch style for a while now.

How does a wet/dry filter help when you are running this much light over a system?
 
Nick potts said:
Great start, will be watching this one, I have been looking into a dutch style for a while now.
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Thanks @Nick potts it’s still freshly planted. Think that it is good to show how crappy things can look at startup when transitioning plants from emersed to submersed though. A lot of folk who are new to the hobby get it in their head that it’s picture perfect from the start. It ain’t when using emersed growth from the grow houses. But hopefully they can appreciate how quick the transition is.

Species list subject to change too...

Nick potts said:
How does a wet/dry filter help when you are running this much light over a system?
Click to expand...

Higher continual dissolved o2 levels. Check this post out for more detail on o2. Posts #121 through to #133. You can afford more push down on the accelerator pedal, or in this case, more light, growth and waste management. Still requires thought on how to dish out nutrition through the water column and substrate though.

Wet/dry systems are, in a word, brilliant. They need not be complicated either. This one is an old Dennerle 55l tank, a plastic box and the glass lid of the tank repurposed to make the baffles:

1623932723358.jpeg

If anyone else fancies building this it got documented in the Taking a sump. Back in five minutes... journal. Sumps make for a fun project and pretty sure the design can be improved.
 
Geoffrey Rea said:
Thanks @Nick potts it’s still freshly planted. Think that it is good to show how crappy things can look at startup when transitioning plants from emersed to submersed though. A lot of folk who are new to the hobby get it in their head that it’s picture perfect from the start. It ain’t when using emersed growth from the grow houses. But hopefully they can appreciate how quick the transition is.

Species list subject to change too...



Higher continual dissolved o2 levels. Check this post out for more detail on o2. Posts #121 through to #133. You can afford more push down on the accelerator pedal, or in this case, more light, growth and waste management. Still requires thought on how to dish out nutrition through the water column and substrate though.

Wet/dry systems are, in a word, brilliant. They need not be complicated either. This one is an old Dennerle 55l tank, a plastic box and the glass lid of the tank repurposed to make the baffles:

View attachment 170815

If anyone else fancies building this it got documented in the Taking a sump. Back in five minutes... journal. Sumps make for a fun project and pretty sure the design can be improved.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info and links. So true about seeing a tank at the very start, everyone wants that lush looking tank but you have to remember it takes a bit of time and patience to achieve the results.

I have always been a sump user on my marine and a lot of my FW community tanks, but have stayed away from them on my planted setups because of the potential to drive off CO2, obviously, I need to rethink that position.
 
PARAGUAY said:
Guessing more work trimming etc but easy to maintain because of lack of hardscape
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All the hardscape in the tanks here just end up with plants on them anyway 😂 Might as well go full tilt.

Always been impressed by the Dutch scapes that use just a few species but do it really effectively. Tend towards collectoritis so this is a good exercise. Ten species or less for this one. Force my own hand to be selective and think about contrast of colour and form.
 
Geoffrey Rea said:
Still using the bazooka diffuser in front of the return pump @Mr.Shenanagins .
Click to expand...
Cool deal I took your advice and did the same. I don’t particularly like the massive cloud of bubbles so I’m thinking of maybe getting a better diffuser, not sure if that will make a difference. I got a cheap one on Amazon that works great, but the bubbles are larger than I’d prefer. I’m also considering getting a needle wheel to feed into to chop up even more. I don’t mind the mist I just don’t want to clearly see it across the room
 
One week:

1624460870170.jpeg

Still shedding the emersed growth. Will let things grow for another week or two before cutting anything.

1624466996843.jpeg

1624467076755.jpeg
 
Cheers @Deano3

Not a clue what I’m doing with regards to the Dutch style but it’s all very exciting 😂 Run towards your weaknesses I guess.

Currently just monitoring growth rates of each species in the setup so we know what to expect for trimming throughout each month.
 
Think so @Libba even if it isn’t intentional.

Remember the first time reading Tom’s thread and it blew me away. Total inspiration and led to an upping of my game on this journey. It’s a decade old now and the hobby has changed a lot since then.

It’s this thread if anyone fancies a good read this evening.
 
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