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Oase Styleline85 Beginner Aquascape

Nautilus143

Nautilus143

Member
Joined
30 Mar 2021
Messages
63
Location
South East
Hi all! I am new to UKAPS and loving the forums so far. I recently set up a tank (first one, not counting a tank my parents maintained when I was little) and thought it might be fun to track its progress here.

Firstly, my tank is an Oase Styleline85. I started watching George Farmer's videos and noticed that this tank features in several of them. I thought it looked great for a beginner since it comes with everything (tank, stand, filter, light).

I decided that I wanted to use dragon stone for the hardscape. As I was doing all my planning/purchasing during lockdown in January, I couldn't get out to a shop to purchase the things I needed. Fortunately, the team at Scaped Nature were a huge help. I sent them some pics for inspiration and they assembled a hardscape for me. They then priced up the stones and shipped them out. Below is a pic from the day I put the hardscape in.
20210209_185446.jpg


At this point I wondered whether I should have opted for taller stones as the tank is actually pretty tall. Nevertheless, I was happy with the results.

In terms of plants, I started with Bacopa caroliniana, Staurogyne repens and Monte Carlo. These were tricky to get due to Tropica shortages at time. I was really happy with my plants from the very beginning, but this photo from the day of flooding shows that the whole setup actually just looked really sorry for itself.
20210403_174426.jpg


I then started a fishless cycle using fish food. This was a bit of a nightmare as it made the tank (and by extension, the room it's in) smell awful. Plants started growing in nicely though. After three weeks, I added Anubias petite and water sprite to the tank. Note the lovely bag of fish food in the pic below.
20210226_094053.jpg


To be continued :)
 
By the time my cycle was complete, the tank looked like this:
20210312_134338.jpg


I was struggling with algae by this point. You can see the brown diatoms on the dragon stone and on the S. repens. There was also some cyanobacteria on the substrate, particularly at the back between the rocks. I didn't have a proper gravel vac at this point so manual removal was challenging. All along I had planned to get some Amano shrimp, so I figured I'd throw them in and they would sort it out (spoiler alert, they didn't). Here is one of my three Amanos sitting happily amongst a host of algae species.
20210315_090840.jpg


I added 6 Endlers livebearers at the same time as the shrimp. After initiating regular water changes and getting a proper gravel vac to do them with, the algae started clearing up. I also noticed that the Endlers were going crazy for the diatoms which really accelerated the process of clearing them up. The plants were continuing to grow well and I even had to trim the B. caroliniana. Here's how the tank looked after a little trim.
20210328_111002.jpg


My tank hasn't changed much since this last photo, with the exception of tufts of green algae developing on my glass, rocks and plants. I'm still not quite sure what kind of algae it is and it is really difficult to manually remove. I've seen my shrimp attempting to eat it but they can't pull it off the rocks or plants. I am currently trying to kill it by turning off my filter, spot treating with liquid carbon, then turning the filter back on 5 mins later. Here's what it looks like - if anyone has fought this and won, please let me know!
20210402_121240.jpg


I'm hoping to get some more livestock soon. I'd like to get a few more Amanos and maybe some sort of tetra. I'm thinking maybe another plant for the back middle area as well - if anyone has any suggestions please let me know!
 
I can’t help you as I’m a total novice and just set up my tank too. I have brown algae! I was hoping someone with knowledge would help me too ha ha. Good luck with the tank. It looks great. I haven’t got any shrimp yet. If I can’t keep plants alive I figure I’ve got no chance with the poor shrimp ...
 
Trakkajack said:
I can’t help you as I’m a total novice and just set up my tank too. I have brown algae! I was hoping someone with knowledge would help me too ha ha. Good luck with the tank. It looks great. I haven’t got any shrimp yet. If I can’t keep plants alive I figure I’ve got no chance with the poor shrimp ...
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Thanks! Whereabouts is the algae? I think brown algae is the same thing as diatoms. Although my Endlers ate almost all of mine, I am still getting it on the glass and have found that a basic kitchen sponge is really good for wiping it away.
 
Like it alot, did you make the recommended alteration s to the filter and filter chambers. Per richard thews youtube walkthru. As the stock design filters the water very poorly indeed.
 
Gill said:
Like it alot, did you make the recommended alteration s to the filter and filter chambers. Per richard thews youtube walkthru. As the stock design filters the water very poorly indeed.
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Thank you! I haven't modified the filter in any way but I'll look into this - I figured that it isn't the best filter in the world as most people here seem to use the external type, but I had hoped it would at least do the job
 
Nautilus143 said:
Thanks! Whereabouts is the algae? I think brown algae is the same thing as diatoms. Although my Endlers ate almost all of mine, I am still getting it on the glass and have found that a basic kitchen sponge is really good for wiping it away.
Click to expand...
image.jpg
 
I took everything out, cleaned it all and started again with clean plants as I had a disaster with a water change plus uncapped substrate! You live and learn eh! Reduced my lighting levels too
 
My tank is becoming totally overgrown! Did some pruning today. I have also been routinely trimming my S. Repens and replanting the cut-off bits.

Before:
20210424_131218_001.jpg

After:
20210424_134208.jpg


Still battling the tufts of green algae (no idea what species this actually is, havent been able to ID it) but reducing lighting is helping.

Changed my mind on next fish purchase - I'm now thinking honey gourami. I might be near a Maidenhead Aquatics tomorrow so may be able to pick some up.
 
Reading through this l feel some of these issues are not as bad as thought. Be unusual for any tank to not get algae. Plenty of water changes for the first couple of weeks , most cases stick with it the tank and plants and tank have to find a "balance" taking down a tank and redoing because of brown algae is not what l would do . Diatoms are very much expected Plenty of fast growers at the start not later Adding these plants at set up
 
PARAGUAY said:
Reading through this l feel some of these issues are not as bad as thought. Be unusual for any tank to not get algae. Plenty of water changes for the first couple of weeks , most cases stick with it the tank and plants and tank have to find a "balance" taking down a tank and redoing because of brown algae is not what l would do . Diatoms are very much expected Plenty of fast growers at the start not later Adding these plants at set up
Click to expand...
Yes, I definitely had diatoms at the start but they seem to have mostly gone away. Not sure if I mentioned it earlier in the thread but my Endlers were actually eating it, which probably helped. I definitely had my lights on too high whilst cycling (both bulbs 6h a day). I now put the rear bulb on for 3h and then the front bulb for 3h.
Andy Pierce said:
Your tank is looking great to me. I'm particularly impressed with the Monte Carlo - I take it you're not using injected CO2... What type of fertiliser regime are you going with?
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Thank you! The Monte carlo growth has been slow but I knew it would be without CO2. I had my heart set on it though so I gave it a go and it has turned out quite well! I am adding 1 pump of Tropica premium every other day. Have considered adding Tropica specialised too, but my tap water has moderate nitrates (~20-30ppm) so I don't know if additional nitrate will affect my fish health.

I picked up 3 more Amano shrimp today and 3 honey gourami. Wanted a pair but the shop couldn't sex them due to their age so I was advised to go for a small group. They are drip acclimatising as I write :)
 
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