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Planted Do!aqua Cube 60P - Finished

codliveroil

Seedling
Joined
15 Dec 2011
Messages
12
Location
Berkshire
Hello APS,
Thought I'd share my first effort at a planted tank, with inspiration drawn from all of you!
Still deciding what livestock to put in this. Suggestions very welcome.

Aquarium - Do!aqua 60P Cube 60x36x30
Lights – eBay Luminaire 2 x 24w T5s, with 865 GE tubes, 7hrs per day.
Filtration and CO2 – Fluval 206 without carbon, with filter floss.
Heating - inline Hydor.
CO2 from TMC expert set (upgrading to D-D system soon).
Glassware – Dazs / TMC Lily pipes and intakes and Drop Checker.
Substrate – 12L Colombo Florabase brown.
Ferts – AE Design Aqua Nourish and Aqua Nourish+, and Aqua Carbon.
Hardscape - 10kg AE Mini Landscape Rock.
Water - berkshire tap water, v hard >200mg/L, ph 7.6, but with co2 and florabase, dropped below 7 now, will measure again later this week.

Plants:
Hemianthus Callitrichoides HC
Lilaeopsis brasiliensis
Hydrocotyle Verticillata
Vallisneria spiralis 'Tiger'

Piccys
1 week ago / day of planting:
6877768803_299fcabe91.jpg

Today, a week after planting. looks to be growing ok, x-fingers:
6877773059_e889be4dc6.jpg

[Floating stuff is left over Lilaeopsis, i'll leave it until tank is settled]. Started fishless cycling now.
Enjoy.
 
Hi,
looks like a great start, love the rock work.
Ady.
 
That hardscape looks brill :) Unsure of the plant in the right background, looks a bit lonely. Great job for a first effort though! I think a school of pygmy corys would fit in nice :)
 
looks great. Like the tank sizes. And i know all about Berkshire tap water!
 
Thanks all for comments. :thumbup:

The vallis in back right 'should' form into a nice thick bush, already its sprouted nice greeny-red shoots. According to plant info should get to 40cm and therefore have leaves floating on the surface, will see in another couple of weeks if it still looks out of place. Might replace it with a Spongebob figurine set i saw at my lfs? :lol:

Will start looking at suitable fish now, gonna go small species i think ...
 
the rock formation is smashing :) open just enough for nice planting.
 
That's a very nice setup and aquascape you have there, well done.

One critique would be that I don't think you need the vallis in the back right. Long term (as it does now) it will brake the balance of the tank. If you would like something in the background, may I suggest some Blyxa behind the three stones at the back of the tank?
 
i agree with dan, the vallis just looks out of place. other than that looks magnif.
 
Wow, Good job! :clap:

Tank looks really great, I look forward to seeing it grow.

J.
 
Dan Crawford said:
One critique would be that I don't think you need the vallis in the back right. Long term (as it does now) it will brake the balance of the tank

Thanks for advice, everyone I'll dump the vallis in the next week or so. Don't worry, I will break the news gently, 'its not working', 'its not you, its me' or something :)

Re suggestion on pygmy corys, are they diggers? don't want to upset the HC?
 
Re suggestion on pygmy corys, are they diggers? don't want to upset the HC?

Pygmy corys don't really dig they just like a rummage, I don't think they would manage to uproot HC!

Tom
 
Update:
As per suggestions, i've now removed the Vallis, and added some Echinodorus 'red devil' behind topmost rocks. :thumbup: Done a minor bit of re-arranging. Got to force myself to stop tinkering!

Lilaeopsis growing like mad, love this little plant now, nice compact elongated rounded leaves to match the rounded leaves of the new Echinodorus. HC doing well, looking ragged as opposed to a carpet, but IMO thats also complimenting the rocks and plants. HC doing well despite large grain size of the florabase, which was a worry.
Next time I might try taking a couple of kg of the florabase and crush it under a rolling pin to get a powder form, may be better for carpeting plants? Anyone tried that?
And one correction, i'm using florabase black not brown, although it is actually dark brown.
6897310107_a39a508a56.jpg

Echinodorus 'Red Devil' behind rocks mixing it with Lilaeopsis.
6897306455_8baa09e887.jpg
 
Thanks Iain and Gary (good name).
Not sure how soon i should consider trimming the HC? Should I let it fill in fully first?

Gary.
 
Re: Planted Do!aqua Cube 60P - 8 weeks in

Quick update :
Had a brief battle with hair algae after a weekend away, and sods law my diffuser came off the tube. Daily water changes and aqua carbon helped.
Then diatoms came to visit and were finally brought under control by a hungry horde of shrimp and otos.
Added some lively Silvertip Tetra who are enjoying swimming in and out of the the Blyxa and Echinodorus.

6847945444_dcbc5c33b8.jpg
 
codliveroil said:
......HC doing well despite large grain size of the florabase, which was a worry.
Next time I might try taking a couple of kg of the florabase and crush it under a rolling pin to get a powder form, may be better for carpeting plants? Anyone tried that?

Hi, loving the look of this tank. Just thought you might wanna know, although ADA call their smaller substrate "powder", its not actually a powder. Which is what you would probably get if you tank a rolling pin to the Florabase. HOWEVER, the good news is that the 2.5kg small bags of Colombo florabase are a smaller particle size :)

Keep up the great work. Dan's earlier suggestion about the vallis was on the mark. Looks much better now :)
 
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