aclofty887
Seedling
- Joined
- 2 Jul 2014
- Messages
- 23
Hi
I thought I would create this journal about my new aquarium. I have kept many planted tanks over the years and when I was working in an aquatic shop in the early 2000's we had the Amano books and I would look at every photo with awe and admiriation and I said one day I would give it a go. Well after spending the last 10 years on marines I figured I needed a new challenge and a new way to drain my wallet lol. I went for an Iwagumi as I love the tranquil calming affect it has, I'm not too fussed about the specifics though I have tried to follow the basic principals along with my old knowledge of creating focal areas.
I decided to go for CO2 as I haven't used it in the past. I deliberately have done things on the "cheap" to see what can be accomplished, I trialed a 36W PAR38 LED on a Marine reef nano that cost £75 and it rivalled if not beat most of the TMC tiles in output so I know it could be done.
I will list what I have used first and then the initial pics.
Aquanano 40L without it's light unit
MarinereefLED E27 Goosneck fitting
15 Watt 90 degree lens COB LED PAR38 bulb - with a 20 Watt on its way for comparison.
ADA Aquasoil Amazonia
Seiryu Stone
CO2art Dual Stage Regulator with solenoid.
Metal bubble counter screwed into needle valve outlet
CO2art advanced Sodastream adaptor
Sodastream bottle
cheap Chinese glass diffusor
CO2art nano drop checker
black acrylic
CO2art glass lily tube.
The first photo shows the setup
The tank's main view is the front though it will often be seen at the right hand side so I needed to build it with that in mind.
I have used the following plants;
Eleocharis sp Mini
Alternanthera reineckii 'mini'
I wanted to use the alternanthera to break the green matt up and to add a splash of colour and intrest whilst also using a stem plant to help keep nutrient spikes down.
The following photo is what the tank looks like after 2 weeks of a gradual DSM.
The problem was I was intending to do a proper DSM for a month though after the first week the top layer was struggling and the Reineckii was struggling, so I added 1 litre of water to the tank every day until all the plants were covered, by this time I didn't have a single plant float. I also split 2 tubs of the Eleocharis up into individual plants which was a lovely task.
The tank has now been full for a week and I have started CO2 injection. At approx 2bps my dropper is changing to almost yellow but still on green. I am adding Aquaessentials macro+ on a daily basis.
I would like to point out my "fixes". I had read about people struggling with the pump and from my experience having all the flow hitting a point at the front glass would have disturbed the substrate way too much. I bought a small piece of black acrylic of a certain auction site and cemented it in then simply used a very small piece of tubing to attach the lily tube to the pump, the tube keeps the pump about 6" off the floor of the tank. The diffusor sits on the bottom of the tank, it releases it's bubbles upwards and they get drawn in by the pump which then spits the out in the tank. This works brilliantly and you can clearly see where the bubbles are flowing, the only issue is now that with the lily pointing downwards it only needs the pump on its lowest setting to push the flow down to the plants, on the next power level up we get a bit of movement of substrate, full power would send a months worth of hard work into suspension! I am going to wait until the carpet has formed a bit more and then increase flow. I also removed half the sponge to increase flow.
My plans moving on is to have s mall colony of shrimp and a main schooling fish of approx 10 fish which will be micro rasbora size (probably chili rasbora) and maybe a few bottom to mid micro fish like CPD since they can hide in the Reineckii. Other than that I am just going to see how it goes.
The current light spread does cover most of the tank but due to the primary stone casting a shadow the top left is a bit shaded, I have a 20 Watt coming so I will try that and see how it goes, if I think the light is too much I can always raise it, so far I am very impressed with a sub £10 bulb, the light in photo 1 is my 36 watt marine bulb and the second is the floodlight, I know they're completely different spectrums but the coverage is about the same with the same intensity.
I apologise for my ramblings but it is exciting me to think of what the tank will look in the future and if anyone is thinking of using any of this equipment I hope it inspires them. If you have suggestions for shrimp/ fish, plants etc or if you have any questions please let me know.
The water still has a high ammonia content though it has started to manufacture Nitrite, if anyone want to use a bacteria supplement to speed up cycling Tetra Safestart is the best product I have ever come accross. My pH is 6.3 (the Aquasoil really has done a number on it) with the heater set to 25C. I have left Nitrate and Phosphate for now while it settles in though I will be using the Red Sea super accurate ones (I believe they can be used on salt water)
I hope to have a photo next week hopefully with my DSLR since my phone is pretty pants at taking photos of tanks lol.
I thought I would create this journal about my new aquarium. I have kept many planted tanks over the years and when I was working in an aquatic shop in the early 2000's we had the Amano books and I would look at every photo with awe and admiriation and I said one day I would give it a go. Well after spending the last 10 years on marines I figured I needed a new challenge and a new way to drain my wallet lol. I went for an Iwagumi as I love the tranquil calming affect it has, I'm not too fussed about the specifics though I have tried to follow the basic principals along with my old knowledge of creating focal areas.
I decided to go for CO2 as I haven't used it in the past. I deliberately have done things on the "cheap" to see what can be accomplished, I trialed a 36W PAR38 LED on a Marine reef nano that cost £75 and it rivalled if not beat most of the TMC tiles in output so I know it could be done.
I will list what I have used first and then the initial pics.
Aquanano 40L without it's light unit
MarinereefLED E27 Goosneck fitting
15 Watt 90 degree lens COB LED PAR38 bulb - with a 20 Watt on its way for comparison.
ADA Aquasoil Amazonia
Seiryu Stone
CO2art Dual Stage Regulator with solenoid.
Metal bubble counter screwed into needle valve outlet
CO2art advanced Sodastream adaptor
Sodastream bottle
cheap Chinese glass diffusor
CO2art nano drop checker
black acrylic
CO2art glass lily tube.
The first photo shows the setup
The tank's main view is the front though it will often be seen at the right hand side so I needed to build it with that in mind.
I have used the following plants;
Eleocharis sp Mini
Alternanthera reineckii 'mini'
I wanted to use the alternanthera to break the green matt up and to add a splash of colour and intrest whilst also using a stem plant to help keep nutrient spikes down.
The following photo is what the tank looks like after 2 weeks of a gradual DSM.
The problem was I was intending to do a proper DSM for a month though after the first week the top layer was struggling and the Reineckii was struggling, so I added 1 litre of water to the tank every day until all the plants were covered, by this time I didn't have a single plant float. I also split 2 tubs of the Eleocharis up into individual plants which was a lovely task.
The tank has now been full for a week and I have started CO2 injection. At approx 2bps my dropper is changing to almost yellow but still on green. I am adding Aquaessentials macro+ on a daily basis.
I would like to point out my "fixes". I had read about people struggling with the pump and from my experience having all the flow hitting a point at the front glass would have disturbed the substrate way too much. I bought a small piece of black acrylic of a certain auction site and cemented it in then simply used a very small piece of tubing to attach the lily tube to the pump, the tube keeps the pump about 6" off the floor of the tank. The diffusor sits on the bottom of the tank, it releases it's bubbles upwards and they get drawn in by the pump which then spits the out in the tank. This works brilliantly and you can clearly see where the bubbles are flowing, the only issue is now that with the lily pointing downwards it only needs the pump on its lowest setting to push the flow down to the plants, on the next power level up we get a bit of movement of substrate, full power would send a months worth of hard work into suspension! I am going to wait until the carpet has formed a bit more and then increase flow. I also removed half the sponge to increase flow.
My plans moving on is to have s mall colony of shrimp and a main schooling fish of approx 10 fish which will be micro rasbora size (probably chili rasbora) and maybe a few bottom to mid micro fish like CPD since they can hide in the Reineckii. Other than that I am just going to see how it goes.
The current light spread does cover most of the tank but due to the primary stone casting a shadow the top left is a bit shaded, I have a 20 Watt coming so I will try that and see how it goes, if I think the light is too much I can always raise it, so far I am very impressed with a sub £10 bulb, the light in photo 1 is my 36 watt marine bulb and the second is the floodlight, I know they're completely different spectrums but the coverage is about the same with the same intensity.
I apologise for my ramblings but it is exciting me to think of what the tank will look in the future and if anyone is thinking of using any of this equipment I hope it inspires them. If you have suggestions for shrimp/ fish, plants etc or if you have any questions please let me know.
The water still has a high ammonia content though it has started to manufacture Nitrite, if anyone want to use a bacteria supplement to speed up cycling Tetra Safestart is the best product I have ever come accross. My pH is 6.3 (the Aquasoil really has done a number on it) with the heater set to 25C. I have left Nitrate and Phosphate for now while it settles in though I will be using the Red Sea super accurate ones (I believe they can be used on salt water)
I hope to have a photo next week hopefully with my DSLR since my phone is pretty pants at taking photos of tanks lol.
