TimT
Member
- Joined
- 24 Jul 2013
- Messages
- 117
I'll get to the details of the questions but first a little introduction to the setup and the thought and equipment behind it. Maybe a little too 'journal'-like for this section 🙂
I'm new to the hobby but have spend the last couple of months soaking up all the knowledge I could find about it. I found a cheap glass nano (19 liters, 47cm wide, 15cm deep and 25cm high), build my own LED system (9 CREE XP-G2 running with the dimmer set at ~700mA) and invested in a Tropica nano CO2 system running at 20 bubbles per minute. I put ~1cm Tropica substrate in and topped off with Aqua Soil Amazonia. After a couple of days 3 Amano shrimps and 4 Cherry shrimps was added.
A week in I think it is fair to say that I have started in a way that can both be described as a success and a failure. And I'm having a blast all along! The success? A pearling lush HC 'Cuba' carpet in a week(!), no algae problems, and a Hydrocotyle Tripartia that has multiplied its size several times in the same time frame. The water is crystal clear (sorry for the bad mobile phone pictures here below - they don't do it justice). I have a little Salvinia Natans floating in the surface to soak up excess nutrients that I plan to scrap once I'm sure the tank is running safely. The water in Copenhagen where I live is very hard. It was ~25dH some years ago but I can't find any new data and it is so high I cant even measure it correctly with my test kits that only goes to ~20dH. For the same reason I haven't found out how to adjust my CO2 by using pH values. I have just used the guidelines with bubbles per seconds that came with my CO2 set from Tropica. So I don't tribute my success with the plants and lack of algae to skill but more dumb luck 🙂
So what's the failure? My aquascape vision failed to be implemented. Badly. I had never tried to plant aquatic plants before and it didn't go too well. The HC kept bobbing up to the surface. Partly due to bad technique on my part but also to the fact that I had never envisioned how deeply they should be put into the soil. I had also put in too much water. All that commotion resulting in the slopes that I had carefully sculpted slowly was eroded away. I had even put in some small plastic sheets to prevent this. When I discovered this halfway through I was afraid to start over because I was worried I had already mangled the roots from my bad efforts.
Here is a picture of the vision and then the result:
The thought was a traditional Iwagumi setup where I wanted some slopes leading up to the stones and then the Hydrocotyle Tripartia should sort appear to have split the stones and cascade out between them. Instead I got a flat field and a heap of problems. I'll list them here as other might learn from them:
The diffuser is approximately ~4 cm in diameter so the 5 pots of ~5cm I cut up in ~9 portions each showed a lot of substrate in the beginning.
And here is a picture of the pearling:
And once again sorry for the bad mobile pictures. The water appears green on the top part but its reflections on the glass - it is crystal clear.
So my questions are:
And sorry for any spelling errors and such. English is not my first language.
BR
/Tim
I'm new to the hobby but have spend the last couple of months soaking up all the knowledge I could find about it. I found a cheap glass nano (19 liters, 47cm wide, 15cm deep and 25cm high), build my own LED system (9 CREE XP-G2 running with the dimmer set at ~700mA) and invested in a Tropica nano CO2 system running at 20 bubbles per minute. I put ~1cm Tropica substrate in and topped off with Aqua Soil Amazonia. After a couple of days 3 Amano shrimps and 4 Cherry shrimps was added.
A week in I think it is fair to say that I have started in a way that can both be described as a success and a failure. And I'm having a blast all along! The success? A pearling lush HC 'Cuba' carpet in a week(!), no algae problems, and a Hydrocotyle Tripartia that has multiplied its size several times in the same time frame. The water is crystal clear (sorry for the bad mobile phone pictures here below - they don't do it justice). I have a little Salvinia Natans floating in the surface to soak up excess nutrients that I plan to scrap once I'm sure the tank is running safely. The water in Copenhagen where I live is very hard. It was ~25dH some years ago but I can't find any new data and it is so high I cant even measure it correctly with my test kits that only goes to ~20dH. For the same reason I haven't found out how to adjust my CO2 by using pH values. I have just used the guidelines with bubbles per seconds that came with my CO2 set from Tropica. So I don't tribute my success with the plants and lack of algae to skill but more dumb luck 🙂
So what's the failure? My aquascape vision failed to be implemented. Badly. I had never tried to plant aquatic plants before and it didn't go too well. The HC kept bobbing up to the surface. Partly due to bad technique on my part but also to the fact that I had never envisioned how deeply they should be put into the soil. I had also put in too much water. All that commotion resulting in the slopes that I had carefully sculpted slowly was eroded away. I had even put in some small plastic sheets to prevent this. When I discovered this halfway through I was afraid to start over because I was worried I had already mangled the roots from my bad efforts.
Here is a picture of the vision and then the result:
The thought was a traditional Iwagumi setup where I wanted some slopes leading up to the stones and then the Hydrocotyle Tripartia should sort appear to have split the stones and cascade out between them. Instead I got a flat field and a heap of problems. I'll list them here as other might learn from them:
- I placed the stones too close to the back glass so I can't clean it. Think about maintenance when you set up your hardscape!
- The big stone and the Hydrocotyle Tripartia partly block the inflow from the filter so when the water has evaporated just a little the CO2 and the water flow in general doesn't reach the far right of the tank due to the angle the inflow hits the surface. The Hydrocotyle Tripartia also grows crooked to the one side because of the flow. Think about the flow from the valves! (mine can't be moved due to cheap tank)
- I usually feed the shrimps in front of the little small stone. As seen on the picture above the leftovers trickle down between the substrate (the bright line a few centimeters down) where it is hard to clean it. I will consider choosing a stone with a flat surface the next time so I can clean the leftovers effectively.
The diffuser is approximately ~4 cm in diameter so the 5 pots of ~5cm I cut up in ~9 portions each showed a lot of substrate in the beginning.
And here is a picture of the pearling:
And once again sorry for the bad mobile pictures. The water appears green on the top part but its reflections on the glass - it is crystal clear.
So my questions are:
- How long should I wait considering the state of the plants to redo the scape?
- Any suggestions on how I can keep the shrimps for the X hours before the tank is ready again. How quick will I be able to put them back in because the bacteria is (partly) established? Will a big bowl/bucket with their own tank water be just fine while I redo the scape?
- I'm planning not to disturb the Tropica substrate in the lower 1cm but simply move around the old Aqua Soil Amazonia and the (new) stones. Would that be OK?
- Any other suggestions?
And sorry for any spelling errors and such. English is not my first language.BR
/Tim
You clearly have learned the basics of plant growing, and although your tank looks great, you want to learn from some mistakes and realise your vision.....
