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Magpie's 'Learning Curve' 90 x 75 updated 14/7 pics

Re: Magpie's 'Learning Curve' 90 x 75 opti-white

Cool... but I think I may have been a tad over-ambitious with this idea of a river and an island... I finished the first draft an hour or so ago ( :thumbup: ) and just took out all the rock and wood (and cleaned all the grotty bits of dragon wood from the bottom of the tank (you wouldn't want to be climbing this stuff, it's horrid-rotten) and worked out that I need the green lawn edging or something of that ilk again to form a barrier and then put rocks/wood on top of the substrate once I've filled the two islands...

but it looks desperately implausible.

Editor suggested I "take the weekend off" (pause to fall over in shock) so may head up to TGM again and have a total rethink...

anyone who can think of anything really cool and not too complicated to do with a 90 x 75 cm tank - post ideas (with pics!) here... 🙂

m (off to dog training class.. supposed to have read up the questions/answers for KC silver award. Haven't. Bad Dog Owner)
 
Re: Magpie's 'Learning Curve' 90 x 75 opti-white

arhh, sadly im still stuck for ideas on my 12x10x8 lol.
naughty dog! what dog is it? my partner has just taken our pug down to the vets, 🙁
 
Re: Magpie's 'Learning Curve' 90 x 75 opti-white

She's a working cocker spaniel. She's a star, I'm just a bad trainer...

and

I have a new question... will Hemianthus grow on sand? Without a Tropica Substrate? I'm harking back to the Amano image that Samc referred to herehttp://www.aquajournal.net/na/gallery/create.html - think I could do something similar... but would still like to have an area of hemianthus in the foreground - it'd be far, far easier if it'll grow on sand, preferably without needing a Tropica substrate....

will it work?

tx

m (sending best wishes to the pug... used to be a vet: Pugs were great for business... 🙂)
 
Re: Magpie's 'Learning Curve' 90 x 75 opti-white

HC will grow anywhere given that other parameters are up to scratch, especially CO2 and its distribution down there.
 
Re: Magpie's 'Learning Curve' 90 x 75 opti-white

OK.... so got tired of playing and decided to jump in. We can call this 'Learning Curve, 2.04' or thereabouts...

Initial outline:
img09963738388.jpg


Trial 1: (apologies for crap lighting)

img10043778577.jpg


Trial 1 side view:

img10033775764.jpg


Trial 2:

img09983757847.jpg


Trial 2 side view:

img10023772636.jpg


In the end, I think I'll take the longish piece of stone and put it in the large area of open sand to act as an island, directing in towards the cave. And I'll play with some stones to make the sand less uniform. Maybe. I'll see how it feels on waking.

Plant plan is hemianthus carpet on low ground, building through Staurogyne and maybe Pogostemnon to H micranthemoides and then Rotala green and red behind. Might have something small and wavy between the stone and the wood near the canyon so that it overhangs. Just not valis. I loathe it.
I rather like the idea of a nymphea lotus somewhere, but it might be too much. And acres of moss Taxiphylum, Vesicularia... everything... dripping from the wood and stone....

all comments gratefully received.
 
Re: Magpie's 'Learning Curve' 90 x 75 opti-white

Would love to see some bigger pics tbh, but from what I can see it looks great - cracking piece of wood Manda 🙂
 
Re: Magpie's 'Learning Curve' 90 x 75 opti-white

looks great, nice flow to it.

great stone and wood, real warmth to it.
 
Re: Magpie's 'Learning Curve' 90 x 75 opti-white

So..

planted it out last night and this morning

bearing in mind I'm trying out the Dry Start Method (partly because I haven't sorted CO2 yet, partly because I haven't got my head round the filter and didn't have time while I was trying to finish the first draft of the new book, and mostly because this is an exercise in learning to grow plants and DSM seems a particularly useful way to go)

so- atm we have Hemianthus cuba, P.helferi. Stuarogyne and various mosses. Stem plants to be added due course, but I'll see if I'm killing these or not first.

I've superglued the mosses- largely because I couldn't think of a way to wind thread round the large lump of wood - also I wanted to try it out. Some of the bits aren't utterly stuck down - and so will presumably die tho' I thought I'd see what I could do with endless spraying cling-film mediated high humidity. (I ran out of superglue. Also thinking of renaming the tank Superglue City. Or Moss-Fingers...🙂)

I've watered with rain water and am spraying with same tho' if I've understood the Cegipedia correctly, I could do it with unaltered, chloramine-laden tapwater and it would be fine at this stage... might do that - or perhaps add very small amounts of one of the proprietary ferts to the spray/watering water?


pics below:

'Before' (actually, I moved a bit of the front left sand and increased the substrate after this shot'

img10104066873.jpg

and 'After'

Front view:

img10124082156.jpg

Side view:

img10124082156.jpg

Close ups:

img10174122892.jpg

Clearly bits of the substrate are leaking onto the sand, but the sand is currently a quagmire so I'm not inclined to play with it. I'll tidy it up later.

Lights are on a 12h time - 4 x T5, from Lamp Spec

Comments/thoughts all welcome.

m
 
Re: Magpie's 'Learning Curve' 90 x 75 opti-white

that is bloody amazing, it looks like a little area of a beach lol, due to the tank been so wide and low it makes the whole scape fit so well.
im so :twisted: i havnt got any room for one like this 🙁
cant wait to see it grow in :thumbup:
 
Re: Magpie's 'Learning Curve' 90 x 75 opti-white

Top left corner will be taller stem plants. Not sure exactly what yet. Maybe rotala sp, maybe hygrophila, maybe something more adventurous. Fancy a clump of Shinnersia rivularis (Weiss-Grün) for contrast somewhere

and some java fern on the wood, possibly also some bolbitis and an Anubias of some descritption - I don't want to smother the wood - it looks too good for that, but do want a wall of green, tapering down at both sides...

thanks for comments, guys.

m
 
Re: Magpie's 'Learning Curve' 90 x 75 opti-white

Wow! Magpie this is a great looking tank :thumbup: . I love the size and 2 viewing angles. How are you lighting it?

I struggled with my stems, they turned to mush. Best advice I can give is make sure you give them as much co2 as possible, keep the drop checker yellow not green. Once everything is growing then resist the temptation to reduce your co2 for the fish, obviously want to consider their welfare though. I added shrimp to start (trouble is they hide so you never know if you have lost a few) then a single ottocinclus. They survived fine so eventually added more fish. I switch off CO2 3 hours before lights out to try get a drop in CO2 for the night when O2 is more limited for the fish.

The point I'm trying to make is don't be scared of CO2 put as much in as you can get away with. How are you going to generate enough flow around the tank?

Who is going to live in the cave? 😀

I see you are into animal behaviour. My other half is a no practicing behaviorist, now spends most of her time running our vet practice. We spend so much time trying to correct the advice of the likes of Caesar Milan!! A bit off topic but if you don't mind a bit of swearing this is a funny comedy clip on http://youtu.be/HXuj3Kss9c4
 
Re: Magpie's 'Learning Curve' 90 x 75 opti-white

omygosh... I'm in the midst of a quiet fish forum and someone says the words (whisper) Caesar Milan....

argh :silent: argh :silent: argh :silent:

Don't you spend your life trying to tell people he's a raving maniac? We try saying, 'Watch it with the sound off. Watch the dogs. Watch the body language. Then come back and tell me it isn't rank abuse."

Nobody's come back yet, but maybe it's because we go puce and look as if we might start throwing things... I'm in mourning just now because my clicker training mentor, Alexandra Kurland, is in the UK and I don't have the time or the cash to go and see her... Of course if I hadn't set up a fish tank... but I have (2 - will start a journal on the nano sometime soon) so no visits to clicker-lady. And missing agility tonight 'cos I have a blinding headache, which in turn is because the hens have red mite and I spent the afternoon with my head in their coop spraying dettol everywhere. Yuck. But the propane flame thrower first was fun. Burning the little b***ers is so very satisfying...

anyways, back to this - I've got 4x39W T5s in 2 x 2 strips so I can turn down to small lighting when I finally flood it. Need to get some pictures up - the Hc has gone wild, the Staurogyne isn't liking it though... so will wait a while and see what it needs. And may try some stems if I can find someone who produces *good* emersed stems - TGM's Tropica are all submersed by the time we get them. (might ring Jim and see if I can get them off the boat, so to speak)

I also seem to be growing some green algae, which is frustrating, 'cos I *can't* put any shrimp in yet... 🙂

Have got the FEs ready for the CO2 although I have to say in the long run, I'm pretty sold by Tom Barr's description of a low tech tank - and Saintly's experiences with his low tech nano were interesting. So I think CO2 to start and then back off and let the plants do their thing.

and in the tunnel... who knows... I'm going for zillions of small fish rather than big ones, and do so want some chocolate gouramis as the main focus, but may never get water quality good enough (plus the muck that comes out of our taps is essentially liquid chalk, and rain water collection is a tad dodgy now that summers have come back). So we'll see... Badis badis, maybe? Or a Ram?

will get some pics up later, for now, back to book - got a whole chapter to throw away and rewrite from a new perspective.

what kind of vet practice do you have?

mx
 
Re: Magpie's 'Learning Curve' 90 x 75 opti-white

magpie said:
I also seem to be growing some green algae, which is frustrating, 'cos I *can't* put any shrimp in yet... 🙂
Click to expand...
On the rocks? I also had a tiny bit but I got an old tooth brush in there :thumbup:. Either that or wait for the big fill and let the snails do their thing.
 
Re: Magpie's 'Learning Curve' 90 x 75 opti-white

Nope - all over the sand... 🙁

can't wait to get snails in, but it's another 2-3 weeks, at least.

pics to follow asap
 
Re: Magpie's 'Learning Curve' 90 x 75 opti-white

Any updates on pictures? It's looking pretty amazing... :clap:
 
Re: Magpie's 'Learning Curve' 90 x 75 opti-white

Pictures after tomorrow night when my partner's daughter brings the camera back from holiday... the hc has almost grown to a complete carpet, the moss is doing interesting things, P.helferi seems happy and Stuarogyne is thriving - sand looks crap, but I'll top it up after the tank's flooded.

I've got a thread on that running in the EI natural/low tech section...

so - pis soon, promise!

thank you

ms
 
Re: Magpie's 'Learning Curve' 90 x 75 opti-white

New pics - this is 5 weeks into the DSM - hemaianthus is growing out nicely. Sand looks crap and I'm going to reduce it and increase the area of florabase. Staurogyne and Pogotemon doing nicely, as are the anubias and the mosses are in emersed mode at last

Overhead shot of left side and back - there's Hygrophila siamensis in the far corner behind the bog wood and rotala rotundifolia - both chosen because they were in the 1-2-Grow system and therefore ready for emersed growth. The hygrophila has worked, the rotala really hasn't (yet - but only 2 weeks in). Because I am now going for low-tech, non-CO2, (see thread on that here: http://ukaps.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=12189) I might lift these and replace with crypts
img10963422951.jpg


Then front left - staurogyne, which had some black leaves untilI started spraying with TPN+ - and pogostemon - I love this, but gather it's likely to melt when I go to low light submersed, so will probably replace with crypts - tho' might wait and see. The strange stems north of the staurogyne are something I bought on spec and can't now remember what they were - they were dying horribly, but are perked up now...

img10963422951.jpg


Then distant front view - I didn't have time to take the cling film off to disperse condensation, so this is how it normally looks just now

img10983437674.jpg


Then end right view- you can see pockets of what I assume are HS gas in the sand - but I'll tidy that up before I fill it - got some ADA nile sand and graded gravels ready. The good bit, though, is the Hc on the right - it's almost a complete carpet

img10993442544.jpg


Close up of the hemianthus:
img11003448101.jpg


and finally

the new tank - 40litre Superfish Aqua Qube -thanks to Gareth for recommending it - this is called 'dolmen' and is also DSM and I'll start a new journal when I'm back - gottgo now - path of Hc to a single standing stone. If I get the rest right, it should have a waving lawn of lilaeopsis and then forest all about... 🙂

img11013456722.jpg
 
Did I recommend it? Loving the tank it's so well grown in for just two weeks! I'm fully envious, what's your lighting specs do you know? I didn't notice them anywhere in the thread. How many wpg or number of tubes for how long a day?
 
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