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Return of the nry :) 'Sticks and stones' Rescape/new pics!

Re: Return of the nry :) 'Helferi Hills'

No more green water, but having realised I was under-dosing EI by about 2/3 (wrong spoon to make my mix) I got hit by rhizoclonium which, after a filter clean and back to full EI dosing and 'normal' liquid carbonn dosing is hopefully on the clear. I added 6 cherry shrimp last week but 3 seem to have taken a dislike to something and given up the ghost...not sure why, the other three are doing well and are nice and cherry coloured!

Piccy from today, no closeups until the algae has all gone! The crypts started to take off a week ago and are slowly peeping above the rocks so another few months and they should be giving some better rear height!

may24.jpg
 
Re: Return of the nry :) 'Helferi Hills'

Not intentional but came out OK if a little out of focus :)

Now I'm dosing correctly the plants have picked up a gear too which is good :)
 
Re: Return of the nry :) 'Helferi Hills'

This tank is an algae magnet...initial teething problems coupled with a rather hectic few weeks of 'life' saw the tank deteriorate and I'm currently battling with a brown hairy algae which grows like the clappers. Came back from a week away, doing a 50% change and big clean up before I went, with a friend feeding the plants and the tank was infested with the stuff.

Tonight I'm doing a major clean up, with some plants on order (via here, cheers!) to increase the planting levels significantly. I've only got a few oto's and a couple of cherry shrimp in the tank - the p.helferi took a battering from the algae and I think with it dieing off a bit, this triggered a small ammonia spike kicking the algae up far too many notches...

I'll give it another 6 weeks (home learning course finishes mid-October), then it's getting stripped and re-started...

Hindsight makes me wonder if I started all this a little badly with the filter - after stripping the old 'scape down, I rinsed the filter out and left it sitting closed. Whilst it got rinsed out again before first use, it perhaps needed a better clean out, with any remaining residue causing an ammonia spike when the tank was first setup. A low initial plant mass then didn't help.

In the past, re-scapes have nearly always been done with a mature filter in use, so ammonia spikes would be negligible.
 
Re: Return of the nry :) 'Helferi Hills'

Still can't get this aquarium picture stuff sorted but hey ho, currently looking like this:

aug2010.jpg


The p.helferi took a battering from the brown algae, and I suspect in the end it was causing it when it was dieing off so it's all been stripped out.

R.green from a member here has gone in the rear centre with the c.wendtii browns moved to the rear corners a touch. Need some more foreground planting to take up the gaps in the rocks, might go for some more p.helferi which I like or perhaps try something like staurogyne instead...we'll see.

Still running a low livestock level - 1 cherry shrimp and two oto's, might pick up another half-dozen cherries from Maindenhead at the weekend, fingers crossed they won't all die on the filter intake like that last ones!
 
Re: Return of the nry :) 'Helferi Hills'

Fish and better full tank shot, now wish some more livestock :)

I have some Staurogyne sp. on its way from a member to fill in amongst the rocks, never tried it so hopefully it will work out :)

closeup.jpg


shoal.jpg


fulltank.jpg
 
Re: Return of the nry :) 'Helferi Hills'

Looks Great, Your Viets, should look amazing once they have settled and the purple and blue hues are more pronounced.
 
Re: Return of the nry :) 'Helferi Hills'

Okies, staurogyne in there now, nice plant, hoping it grows the way I want but liking the way things are progressing at the moment and the fish seem to be happy - always a bonus!

aug242010.jpg
 
Re: Return of the nry :) 'Helferi Hills'

Cheers :)

I still find the hardscape easier than the planting, but getting better with time and practice!

Liking the fish, whether the large group helps I don't know, but they are fearless little blighters :)
 
Re: Return of the nry :) 'Helferi Hills'

The higher plant mass seems to have knocked the algae on the head - it's a week tomorrow since the last 50% change and there is no algae growth at all beyond a very very very minimal touch on the front glass but nothing worth writing home about.

I almost expected a few issues after adding the fish but nothing so far.

Staurogyne is settling in well, I can see the far left/right areas being changed sometime in the future though I'm not 100% yet if I want to go back down the carpet route again. I always love the look of a HC carpet but unsure if I want the maintenance overhead of one just yet. If the algae stays away then I'll have another think :)
 
Re: Return of the nry :) 'Helferi Hills'

Certainly no algae growth anymore, a little on the wood and rocks (not sure what) but the plants, glass and substrate are 95% algae free which is superb :) Water change on Monday was a breeze, first time in months I've not had to spend ages stripping algae out before the water change, I could just go straight to the siphoning :)

Beginning to give some consideration to the long term planting layout but for now I'm letting it continue to settle in and let the existing plants grow a while before the first pruning.
 
Re: Return of the nry :) 'Helferi Hills'

Lifted out some melted crypt leaves tonight, strangely never seen it before when moving plants around in the same tank and stranger still that only the ones to the right melted and the left ones are fine :)

Lots of new leaves there so all is well, got some BBA on the wood and rocks, upped the CO2 a little so will keep an eye on it. Suspect I could do with improved flow but no money at the moment so hopefully the increased CO2 levels will help.
 
Re: Return of the nry :) 'Helferi Hills'

I love the rock's!!! I think that with a little more fiddling around, and fine tuning, added to just letting it grow up a bit, it will look truly amazing, and it look's great now, I think that is definitely because of your excellent choice in rock's! Good to hear about the algae. How odd about the crypt leaves! is one side of the tank near a window or something? Just a guess!
 
Re: Return of the nry :) 'Helferi Hills'

The good side is closer to the window but obscured by a door, who knows :)
 
Re: Return of the nry :) 'Helferi Hills'

Would love to see more pics of this once it has matured a bit. It looks stunning!
 
Re: Return of the nry :) 'Helferi Hills'

Right crypts lost some more leaves, still some new ones coming through though. Left side lost two leaves but these plants have loads of healthy ones still going strong so who knows.

Not going to touch the plants beyond pruning for a while now - staurogyne is settling in well, rotala is growing like a weed as expected, just need to be patient with the crypts now :)

Oh, and I still have 3 oto's - thought one had given up the ghost months back but saw all 3 a few days ago, weird :)
 
Re: Return of the nry :) 'Helferi Hills'

No more crypt melt, all doing well. Got a Resun pump going in once it arrives from Hong Kong (£9.50 delivered!) which I hope will reduce or stop the marginal algae build up which I suspect is down to poor flow.

Got some cherry shrimp to go in tonight from Themulous, and now starting to think longer term - the rotala was only ever a stop gap to get some plant bulk in the tank. Unsure what would replace it though, debating either a taller/larger crypt or perhaps some vallis mini twister which I've always liked.

Staurogyne is doing well though they are slow growers, so for now it is staying with the hope that I can start to prune them into more suitable shapes in the long term.

Still debating a carpetting plant but we'll see how the Resun pump goes first.
 
Re: Return of the nry :) 'Sticks and stones' New pics 30/11/

6 weeks since the last update, and so far so good :)

Removed the rear-left rock - liking the layout much better now, and it opened up way more space for planting.

Over the past fortnight I've moved some crypts forward to make room for the r.rotundifolia at the rear-left. I've got some vallis mini twister on its way to fill the gap in but I'll be planting it slightly more forward than the stems to see how it looks.

Staurogyne sp. is doing OK, trimmed it a little while ago and it has kept quite low and compact. I may move it all to one area of the tank and put some p.helferi in, and that alongside the recently planted HC will probably be it for now. Looking for something to go to the back-left. not sure what yet though.

Koralia Evo Nano 900 on the way too, the Resun's were good but were a little too noisy for a living room tank. I had the Resun to the back-right pushing out to match the flow direction of the lily pipe. This gave a nice flow around the tank and created a slightly strange flow pattern to the front-right which was making all plants move in the flow so I figure this is a good place to start for now and the Koralia will be going there too. CO2 bubbles were getting everywhere which is a huge improvement over the lily pipe only.

Pictures:

nov30angle.jpg


nov30front.jpg
 
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