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First effort - a rod for my back!

Rapid growth continues, need to trim and plant the offcuts but for now just enjoying a happy tank! Still a way to go to achieve the density I want. Great plant recommendations though thanks Guys.image.jpg
 

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Time for a change, the lump of wood has a big base and with rocks up front too there’s limited planting opportunities so …, just couldn’t resist this bit of fallen oak from the forest, it’s weathered surface and shape look great and it sticks with my original ethos of using local materials for the hardscape.

I prepared the wood by scrubbing with a wire brush and leaving outside in a water butt to soak then fixed a piece of roofing slate to the base to allow a stone to sit on it to weigh it down.

The install went ok, the tip is emmersed so I’m going to try and grow Java moss on that and other bits. There is certainly some planting space opened up. Water change will be interesting as it has little stability.

Cheers
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Settling in well, I like the wood a lot, moss attached at the base so we’ll see if it establishes itself in the coming weeks.
 

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It’s had it’s ups and downs this setup but coming up to 3 years and it’s still so rewarding. It’s time to move some of the emperors on, they’ve nearly doubled their number although the Angels seem to be an effective check on further expansion.
I’ve now gone ‘woodless’ having found that the local chunks of oak wood I foraged had a tendency to BBA, so we’ll see.
Cheers
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Another year passes so 4 years since the tank started and the only fish that have lasted are two corys, one of which was several years old when he went in. I guess my biggest disappointments have been BBA blighting my plants and effectively ruining the tank a couple of years back and in truth it’s not looked as good since I’ve had no wood in the tank as I think it helps but find it sterile without so now have some old heather roots and stems and it seems a healthy enough place so I’m planning to give Apistos another go - I had a wonderful male borelli and it was a sad day when he inexplicably died a couple of years ago.



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Needed a bit of life, and 10 Serpae tetras have definitely added it! Rarely seen such feisty wee fish! 😂👍 unfortunately they don’t stay still for long and the lights are dim so all a bit blurry…
Cheers
 

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Hi @Simmo, great to see the tank in its many iterations! I also have a juwel lido and managed to remove the internal filter (with some effort) using an oil paint palette knife to cut through the silicone. I did this before I scaped. It was a bit of a risky process as I was worried about exerting too much force on the glass or scratching it, but it worked pretty well! The only big issue with this method is it's a very awkward angle, and there's far more silicone blobs than you'd expect. It took a while, but I thought I'd share as you lamented the filter in some earlier posts.

You could also use a razor blade or similar (I just used what I had to hand), but the benefit of using a pallette knife or something similar is the long blade and the handle help with awkward angles. I think mine were originally from the midl' of Lidl, although it was a Christmas gift possibly a decade ago so I'm not 100% sure. They also work well as algae scrapers!
 
megwattscreative said:
Hi @Simmo, great to see the tank in its many iterations! I also have a juwel lido and managed to remove the internal filter (with some effort) using an oil paint palette knife to cut through the silicone. I did this before I scaped. It was a bit of a risky process as I was worried about exerting too much force on the glass or scratching it, but it worked pretty well! The only big issue with this method is it's a very awkward angle, and there's far more silicone blobs than you'd expect. It took a while, but I thought I'd share as you lamented the filter in some earlier posts.

You could also use a razor blade or similar (I just used what I had to hand), but the benefit of using a pallette knife or something similar is the long blade and the handle help with awkward angles. I think mine were originally from the midl' of Lidl, although it was a Christmas gift possibly a decade ago so I'm not 100% sure. They also work well as algae scrapers!
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Hi there, thanks for sharing that! Yeah, I tried to remove it but a bit half heartedly, I think as I’d bought the tank new I was a bit worried I’d scratch or worse, crack it or otherwise compromise it! You are clearly made of sterner stuff so well done!! I have to say that as a filter it’s worked fine, and I don’t object to it any more - I guess it just becomes the norm after a while! Of course if I was any good at this plant growing malarky it’d be obscured by lush greenery..
Good luck with your project, they are a good tank, perhaps not cutting edge style but pretty well made.
Lidl middle eh? I’ll keep an eye out 😂👍Cheers
 
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Thanks! I got mine thirdhand and already pretty scratched up, but I can't complain - the discount was well worth it. it was a ridiculous late night FB marketplace purchase, and much too big for my tiny flat 😂
 
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