Going Dutch by the book - tank sponsored by Tropica

[Aqua360]

Some updates… starting 15 days after the last ones.
I'm probably starting to repeat some type os photos... sorry.

I’m very happy with the health of the tank. Completely clean from algae with no need for water changes or other type of maintenance besides the 50% water change at sundays.
Maintenance is around 3 hours (mainly trimming and replanting, but includes water change).
Even the glass stays clean from sunday to sunday.
Fish are happy and 0 deaths.

A large quantity of plants, good fertilisation and a good schedule of maintenances are paying!
I also believe that, for the fish health and top of the water surface, the small air pump and good air diffuser (~5 hours at night) are also contributing.

It’s obvious that i wouldn’t say badly about Tropica products (Soil, ferts and plants) in this topic, but i’m really very happy with this only-tropica tank and the way is going. Couldn’t say better things for the “complete Tropica pack” and it’s the first time with the soil.

Regarding the layout… there are some things i would like to improve, like the Rotana Macandra “road” and i should have chosen a larger Cryptocoryne.
I suppose that for a “small” Dutch (120x50cm) the depth and appearance are not very bad.

Some infos:
1) Montecarlo it at the middle/foreground;
2) Eleocharis sp. and UG are out;
3) Ciperus are at the right side/wall;
4) Crinun was partially changed to go more to the left/wall (it’s now growing very well and it’s easily seen at the last photos);
5) Hygrophila corymbosa 'Siamensis 53B' entered behind Bacopa and in front of Myriophyllum let’s wait for some large leafs to appear;
6) 1 - 3 cm of substrate at the front and keep trying to get some nice borders between the plants (difficult with the mad growing).
7) 20 new Hyphessobrycon Ornatus white fin Tetra

Day 70:

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Details of the new Hyphessobrycon Ornatus white fin Tetra:

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Some details of plants:

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Really in love with Lobelia. It's there for such a long time and it's the first time i use it:

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Staurogyne Repens and CO2 bubbles...

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Congo Tetras are mainly at the middle/top and Ornatus white fin Tetra at the bottom:

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Day 71:

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Some underwater lettuce 🙂 (love this photo!)

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The bad guys...

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Day 77:

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Day 78:

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Day 80:

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Bacopa:

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Day 84:

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I’ll now prepare a trim for a video (and photo) shooting without equipment for the 3 months milestone.

Pedro.

looks fantastic, hope I can aspire to reach this someday!

 

[Pedro Rosa]

Stunning pedro.
Congos do that, they used to eat almost ever new anubia leaf in my African tank. Very annoying. This doesn't look any the worst for it though, no doubt you grow it quicker than they can eat it!

It grows but for 4 or 5 months they were very quite. I suppose they're growing and needing more food 🙂

 

[Guest]

Looking fantastic...

 

[Godween]

I read this thread. I am stunned by the condition of plants and plant layout. Well ... this is Pedro! Congratulations!
How many lumens to light?
Godween 🙂

 

[Pedro Rosa]

Hi there,

A few days agora i took a few pictures and shared on FB. Forgot to post them here 😳
Well, here they are...


Day 227, a trimmed tank 😀



... and now for "Something Completely Different": a non-trimmed tank 😀



... and some details:





Enjoy.

 

[fandango]

beautiful tank! Both trimmed and not!

 

[Alexander Belchenko]

Non-trimmed is great and so.. full!

 

[BBogdan]

I like it more non-trimmed 🙂 , such beautiful colours !

 

[rebel]

Thanks for the non-trimmed version! Good for us newbies to see how much it takes to create and maintain this sort of scape!

 

[Martin in Holland]

It's a jewel of a scape....wonderful

 

[Pedro Rosa]

Thanks guys.
I should return to "aquascaping" but i'm thinking in changing a few things before taking it down!

Pedro.

 

[Pedro Rosa]

... I don't know exactly when but a video of the lifetime of the aquarium (since day 0) should come in the near future!

Pedro.

 

[Luís Cardoso]

Masterpiece...

 

[tmiravent]

i like the jungle style! amazing!

Enviado do meu B1-750 através de Tapatalk

 

[alto]

... I don't know exactly when but a video of the lifetime of the aquarium (since day 0) should come in the near future!

Pedro.

A reminder of previous request 😉
- I'm not consistent enough with trimming (nor knowledgeable enough 😳 ), it would be great to see video detail

I'd love to see a video of the trim & tank maintenance, followed by tank regrowth

PS did the Congo's get to stay or did you manage to remove them without plant destruction

 

[Pedro Rosa]

A reminder of previous request 😉
- I'm not consistent enough with trimming (nor knowledgeable enough 😳 ), it would be great to see video detail

It's there 😉

PS did the Congo's get to stay or did you manage to remove them without plant destruction

Still there. Very difficult to catch 🙁

 

[alto]

It's there 😉

😀

Still there. Very difficult to catch 🙁

sympathies
I had green neons (wild) in a planted tank, finally stripped the tank down to remove the incredibly predator wary, incredibly clever green neons
OTOH I really like the new scape 😀

 

[Alexander Belchenko]

Just seen a video about your tank on Tropica youtube channel. Great video of great tank!

 

[Pedro Rosa]

Thanks Alexander 🙂
Well, here it goes:



A video of this Aquarium from the creation to day two hundred and something 🙂 ... the lifetime of a Dutch.

Enjoy.

Pedro.

 

[BBogdan]

Just stunning !