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Ed's Rio 180

ceg4048 said:
Looking good Ed. 😀 It seems like you have a better color balance now than on the earlier shots. Did you change the WB setting in camera or did you do it in post processing? Still not sure about the background though. Seems like blue or gray vinyl might be a better option. I keep wanting to post a classified Ad back there. :lol: :lol:

Cheers,
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I was thinking of a black background myself, but might try others. Whatever I do I'm going to try putting it on the wall rather than the back of the tank to keep the illusion of extra depth, well that's the idea anyway. It's the main reason I've held off adding a background so far.

Using a new camera instead! Canon 400D Digital SLR. Made a bit of a difference and best for me as I can't reliably alter setting when I'd probably completely mess the colours up! Still learning to use it though.
 
I do really love your tank. I have no constructive points to make but like many others apparently, I do like the effect of the H. lacustris. I have a hygro in my tank I had thought was possibly salicifolia, although not sure after seeing yours even though it is very hard to compare two pictures without a single point of reference for size etc.

The nymphaea is beautiful too - do you make any special effort to 'train' its growth any so that it stays compactish?
 
ulster exile said:
I do really love your tank. I have no constructive points to make but like many others apparently, I do like the effect of the H. lacustris. I have a hygro in my tank I had thought was possibly salicifolia, although not sure after seeing yours even though it is very hard to compare two pictures without a single point of reference for size etc.

The nymphaea is beautiful too - do you make any special effort to 'train' its growth any so that it stays compactish?
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Thanks very much! 😀
I love the H.lacustris too and to think I almost didn't buy it! To give you an idea of size, the longest leaves are nearly 6 inches long!
The Nymphaea has sent two leaves up near the surface, but they stayed under the water and I removed them today as they were dieing off. Other than that nothing else has been done. To be honest they're only just getting going and I may well need to trim them soon. However N.micrantha is supposed to stay smaller and rarely produce floating leaves. I'm really happy with their colours! If they do as well as I hope then I'm going to move them all to in front of the filter and put the Hygrophila sp.'Pantanal Wavy' that's there in another tank.

George Farmer said:
Looks nice, Ed. Very healthy too. You dosing EI then?
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Ish! It's rather irregular dosing and leaner than the normal recipe, but I am dosing macros and micros. I try to dose 9ml of the macro mix and 18ml of the micro mix daily, but I don't remember every day! They may have to be cut down further when the Biotoecus are stocked to spawn them - they have previously only been bred in very low TDS water and the ferts send that shooting up. I think the Aquasoil is preventing a lot of the problems I had previously with my less than regular dosing regime! At the moment I think that stuff is worth every penny!
 
Update today. The crinums and Nymphaeas have really got going in the last week. Also got a flower stem coming from the largest E.'Oriental' too so there'll be babies available soon guys! 😀
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I've decided that the lilies on the left side are coming out. Their leaves move too much in the current and get blown around and block the ends of the branches and block the light from the Rotala sp.'Pearl' (or 'Mini'). Instead I'm going to get some more Anubias to grow out towards the other Anubias and form the grove I had in mind. The height should work more too. Think I'll either get more Coffeafolia (there's one tiny plant at the back) or another type of var. nana, but not 'Petite' as it'll be too small there.

The Glosso has now almost completely grown in; needs another week to be at its best I think.
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I also managed to get a couple of pictures using the tripod of the shrimp which are breeding away now. I counted over 20 today.
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Been a while between updates but here is the tank on the morning of day 108!
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Obviously in need of a good trim. The Nymphaea micrantha have finally shot up to the surface so I removed the left hand group to my Apisto tank and trimmed the right hand group right back. I also gave the Glosso a good haircut and trimmed back the Cabomba piauhyensis.
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The Biotoecus have settled in now and I managed to snap one. It's still a baby and the colours are just coming through, but as they're all pastel and metallic shades they never come through on photos. They will develop nice fin extensions too.
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aaronnorth said:
Obviously in need of a good trim
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And a big one too! :shock:
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Actually didn't remove that much! Once the lily leaves were taken out and the Ludwigia floating plant was cut back then it made a huge difference to the light levels. I only removed 4 Nymphaea!!!! I just trimmed the front edge of the cabomba clump as it tends to grow forwards rather than up (unlike the C.furcata in my other tank that has hit the surface in a week!).
 
Amazing how much growth you get! I wish mine was the same!

I really like this tank it's always improving, any chance of more pictures from different angles?
 
Garuf said:
Amazing how much growth you get! I wish mine was the same!

I really like this tank it's always improving, any chance of more pictures from different angles?
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Thanks, I think it's getting there. I need to get some more Anubias now to replace the Nymphaea on the left side.

I'll try and take some pictures tonight. The only other angle I can really get to is the view from near the window. I realised while getting into my car the other day that there's a great view through the front window... :lol:
 
Looks great 🙂 wish my glosso grew like that, mine is more a brownish green lol not sure what is wrong really. Maybe its the substrate.
Keep those updates coming, its nice to see how it develops, congrats
 
Well it's been a while but here's an update of my tank!

These photos were taken yesterday. I've trimmed the stem plants at the back right down to get them to bush out some more so it looks a little sparse at the back! The glosso has recently been replanted so looks a little straggly. I'm trimming it back this week so it looks it's best for christmas!

Anyway I hope you like it.

Full tank view,
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Then the right hand side,
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And finally the left hand side.
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As you can see the Echinodorus 'Oriental' has thrived and I've replanted some of the babies from the flower stems so I've now got a grove of 7. I've also planted some new swords (E.osiris 'rubra' and E.'Ozelot Red') and some bits of Anubias 'Petite' and 'Gold' in the centre around the Crinum calamistratum bases. There's also Fissidens on the lower branch now too.

Fauna now is 3 old Nannostomus eques pencilfish, 1 remaining Pseudomugil gertrudae (they don't seem to be very long lived!), 1 male and 3 female Apistogramma agassizi 'Double Red', 2 Otocinclus sp., a pair of Aphyosemion bivittatum 'Funge' plus 5 babies of various ages and the latest additions 16 Poropanchax normani (Lampeye Killifish) along with Rainbow shrimp and some snails.
 
This tank is looking great, don't remember seeing it before! Great fish choice too, some of my favourite fish there.
 
Tank is looking great Ed! I particularly like the Crinum calamistratum - been thinking about some of that for mine. Bet it's going to look top notch by Christmas Day!

Have a great Christmas!
 
Thanks guys. I'll try and post some pics once the glosso carpet and stems at the back have grown back in again and it's looking it's best. Should be a couple of weeks or so.
 
Well great news this morning - my Apistogramma agassizi 'Double Red spawned and I managed to get some rather rubbish pics of the action!!!
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Hopefully she'll now be able to defend the cave and the eggs and fry against the other two females and the other fish. She's certainly keeping the male in check after spawning!
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