"Noobula" 90 x 45 x 60

[Wisey]

Good to see you got it planted! I'm struggling to tell whether your Anubias is attached to the rock, or planted in the substrate?

 

[tim]

The two in the back corners look like microsorum sp, they need to be attached to wood or rock as the rhizomes will rot planted as they are, don't worry too much about plant placement for now, get them growing and you can move them around as you feel they fit the scape.

 

[jaHko]

Hey guys thanks for the feedback. The anubias and the two in the corners ( see close up pics below) are planted in the soil.

I had no idea I had to attach these to rocks ! Will get em out asap




Sent from Nokia 3310 using Tapatalk

 

[Wisey]

Yup, those plants have the leaves growing from a rhizome. That rhizome needs to be out of the substrate or it will rot. There will also be roots coming off the rhizome, they can be in the soil, but you don't need to worry about that, they can feed from the ferts you dose in the water column and will go in to the substrate in time by themselves if they ever reach it. You can either tie those plants to wood\rock with a fine line, or use superglue gel to attach them which is my preferred method. Make sure it is the gel not the liquid. It will turn white in water, so use a small amount and be careful where you get it, but the plant should cover it in time if you are careful. Once the plant is established its roots will cling on to whatever you attach it to themselves.

You can see from these plants for sale how they should be:

http://www.co2art.co.uk/collections/plants-on-wood-rock

https://www.aquaessentials.co.uk/pl...9.html?zenid=17bc31b3d49d0cb82835bcade723f064

http://tropica.com/en/plants/aquadecor/

If you need a short term temporary fix, you can attach them with something like string or cotton until you get the right tool for the job. I attached all my Anubias to stones with string for a few weeks to keep them going before my rescape.

 

[Wisey]

This image from my rescape show Anubias and Microsorum Trident glued to the wood and river cobbles. You can see the white glue on the piece at the front right and also a bit on the bogwood at the back.

 

[jaHko]

Thanks for the great advice Wisey - I pulled the anubias and tied them with string. The other I left in but will get some cheapo volcanic rock tonight and sort all of em out!


Sent from Nokia 3310 using Tapatalk

 

[spyder]

The java ferns and anubias could also be wedged between the rocks if that is an option. They would attach themselves after a short time. That would save you having to remove rocks for tying or glueing or add additional rocks.

I love the wood you have used for the cabinet and admire your carpentry skills and perseverance with it.

I hope you get your flow nailed as deep tanks can be tricky. I'm not familiar with your choice of filter so I have no idea on its rated flow.

 

[Aqua360]

So I have made a few more tweaks to the hardscape and am pretty much ready to starting planting. What exactly I am not too sure. I want to go with something like Glosso, Montecarlo and hair grass and maybe something just a tad taller in the back, like Staurogyne Repens - dunno - suggestions welcome.

Anyway, I have AS Powder that I can use - the question is - do I have to? I've seen some people plant straight into AS and others go with AS Powder. What about anoxic conditions in the soil with AS powder? If I use it, how thick should the layer be? Do I have to dry start if only going with AS? Is dry start even an option because of the slopes in my tank?

Sorry for all the Q's - when I did research this wasn't really my original plan so never really brushed up on it

I got an awesome plant recently called pogostemon helferi, i'd recommend checking it out 🙂

 

[jaHko]

Quick update.... I removed the anubias and microsorum and glued it to small bits of volcanic rock ( same color as ADA soil so really not that noticeable ). Actually nicer this way as they can easily be moved without throwing a spanner in the works.

I decided to vacuum all the montecarlo up as most of it melted and had hair algae on it so my foreground is empty at the moment. Had issues with my CO2 in the first week which I think contributed to their demise. I added S. Repens to one of my slopes and will be adding another midground plant to the right side soon - opposite the anubias. Hair grass seems to be doing ok but started to struggle and get hair algae on it the most two days.

Light at the moment is at 8hrs ( too much?) and CO2 at 3 bps giving me a nice lime green on the drop checker. The problem ( or at least I think it is) is that my pH goes down to about 6.8 during CO2 injection and then during the night up to about 8.2?!?
Down to doing daily 30% water changes at the moment but am thinking of doing this every other day now ....

Nitrites and nitrates levels are ok so am thinking of adding some shrimp to help with clean up in the tank.

Tank is still quite hazy.....






Sent from Nokia 3310 using Tapatalk

 

[jaHko]

One more thing, I am a bit paranoid about algae and ambient light during the day so as a precaution I am closing the curtains. Also since this is in my living room I cover the tank at night with a blanket after tank lights off but with the living room lights still on.

Is this necessary?

Here is a photo showing ambient lighting during the day





Sent from Nokia 3310 using Tapatalk

 

[Wisey]

If you have a lot of ambient light you could try running your CO2 24 hours a day, at least until you get things stabilised. With no livestock you could also push the CO2 up to a higher level at this stage. 8 hours is quite a long photoperiod at this stage, I would drop to 5-6 hours (I'm personally still at 6 hours) and build up slowly, it's easier to add light slowly, than clean up dead plants and algae as you went too much too soon.

 

[jaHko]

I am keeping things pretty dark when the light is off just to be on the safe side. I have programmed my CO2 to come on twice during lights off period for 1 hr at spaced intervals - just to keep things topped up. Check this morning and it seems to be working just fine. Dialed down lighting period gradually to about 6.5hrs.

I have a lot of melting going on at the moment - is this normal? My Ludwiga was growing like a champ and then all of a sudden started melting in the past two days. Trying to scoop out as much as possible....

Nitrites are pretty much zero with nitrates about 2ppm. I added Amano shrimp to help with clean up - some hair grass and dead plant matter.

Also added Montecarlo again so will see if that works this time round. Tied them to little pieces of volcanic rock to prevent floating otherwise too much of the plant is below soil level and things start to rot.

Thanks for all the advice peeps - keep it coming!




Sent from Nokia 3310 using Tapatalk

 

[Wisey]

Most of the plants you buy have been grown emmersed, with almost unlimited access to CO2 in the air so it is not unusual for them to go through a transitional stage when they are planted underwater. You may see old emmersed leaves die back, but if things are good, you would usually start to see new immersed growth coming through. The leaves that grow under water often look different to the original emmersed growth.

I would either run the CO2 24/7, or stick with running it as you were before. Fluctuations in CO2 levels are not usually helpful, so having it coming on and off multiple times may do more harm than good. I'm no expert on the different algae, but I believe some of them thrive when CO2 levels are unstable. Your room does look quite bright, I would be tempted to run 24/7 for now, it is what I did when I could not get stability when I first set up my aquarium last year. Hopefully one of the more experienced forum members can chip in with more advice.

As for the MC, I have just ordered this myself. The advice I was given by alto on my journal was:

I MC a lot (it's like the ground cover version of M umbrosum ) - when you plant, just go with the (almost) individual stems set quite deep in the substrate (they'll also be less likely to float), you can also stash some "clumps" amongst the rock line to help control substrate movement (shrimp & cories are good at defeating any efforts of yours to maintain soil-free-sand 😉)
- this way you also get to compare growth 🙂

 

[Wisey]

Looking back at your plants list, the Ludwigia and I think the Pogo. Helferi are your two plants that will require more CO2 to thrive, so if you are seeing melt on those plants, that does suggest you may not have adequate CO2 levels.

Now you have added shrimp you need to be careful with your CO2 levels. A lot of people run their CO2 with a yellow DC for a number of weeks to help the plants make the transition from unlimited CO2 to limited CO2, but you don't have that option now.

 

[Wisey]

Your DC in post 29 also looks quite dark, you are aiming for something like this:

 

[jaHko]

Hey peeps! I think it's about time for an update. Quite a bit has gone down since my last post. Got my CO2 levels about right - and the plants stopped melting Luckily the tank cycled just before I left on holiday for 10 days at which point I had 3 Amanos and 6 Neon Tetras. When I came back everything was tip top which is also nice to know that I can leave my tank for that period without a WC. I also had custom low iron glass covers made to keep the cat out (wife was freaking out that the cat might drown ) Am pretty chuffed with it . . .

Moving on . . . I added some Rotala Macranda but am still having difficulty getting this and the Ludwiga Glandulosa to be nice and red despite adding iron . . . The Eleocharis sp. - Minima is also super slow going. Montecarlo is starting to carpet nicely (the ones on the right I added last week)

I currently have the following Fauna:

12 Neon Tetras
13 Ember Tetras
11 Celestial Pearl Danios
3 Ottos
4 Amano Shrimp

What is the max I can stock for a tank this size? (I want to keep it at about 50-70% of that) I got the neon tetras simply cause they are 'hardy' but now that I am a bit more comfortable and haven't killed anything I will probably flush em down the toilet and get something else. As I am new to the hobby I still want to get different types of fish but eventually only want a single or at most two species tank. But let's see how that goes . . .

I also want to add Red Cherry Shrimp but have heard that the bigger Amanos can be a bunch douchebags to smaller shrimps - anyone have experience with this?

For now the tank is purring along nicely with 6hr45min of light that I am slowly ramping it up to 8hrs over the coming weeks. I am dosing Excel every 3 days with a 20% WC every week. Do I need to dose additional ferts or is this enough?

Without further delay . . . here are some pic updates (sorry for the quality - best I can do at the moment - will do a DSLR pics in a few weeks time)

 

[Joe Turner]

Looks great, sterling effort from the start! Plants look lush 🙂

 

[rebel]

Great result! Keep up the good work.

 

[jaHko]

Thanks guys! I am having a bit of a weird situation trying to keep my CO2 levels where it should be. I am almost running a steady stream of bubbles, never mind 2-4 bps.... Is this normal? Anyone else running like 10+ bps on a tank this size ?
I am also running it 24/7 otherwise my pH bounces back above 7

Sent from Nokia 3310 using Tapatalk

 

[jaHko]

So my first fish pegged in spectacular fashion. One of my Celestial Pearl Danios managed to jump out of the small openings in my tank cover and by the time I found the poor fella, he was dried to a crisp.....

Does anyone else have experience of Danios jumping? To be honest, these guys are a bit too (hyper) active for my liking and I might just swop them out....


Sent from Nokia 3310 using Tapatalk