Rio 125 - Orphans Island. 5 Week update, plenty of pics!

[spyder]

3 weeks after the brutal hacking of the Stauro, it's bouncing back. 😀

Here it was Sunday morning prior to maintenance.



I somehow skipped last weekends WC due to a busy schedule and started having little outbreaks of algae, especially on old leaves. Combined with the flow reduction due to plant mass a good thin out was in order. I originally planned to mow most things back a lot harder but when it came around to it, I kinda wussed out.

After Maintenance and light haircut.



A little BBA back on the wood in places, been scrubbed with EC & toothbrush, will hit any surviving BBA again this weekend.

And 3 weeks after it's ordeal here's the Stauro coming back. Complete with invasive Quadricostatus and Vesuvius runners.

 

[LondonDragon]

Tank is looking great, staurogyne carpet is coming along nicely, it does take a while to recover but then it will be even more compact 🙂 I was aiming for a similar feel on my 125 but now the staurogyne is about 20-25cm high and in need of a massive prune LOL

Great work 🙂

 

[Mr P]

hi, It has been great seeing the tank fill out,great colours,,the staurogyne has grown brilliantly, all the best ,skankypup. 😀

 

[spyder]

Tank is looking great, staurogyne carpet is coming along nicely, it does take a while to recover but then it will be even more compact 🙂 I was aiming for a similar feel on my 125 but now the staurogyne is about 20-25cm high and in need of a massive prune LOL

Great work 🙂

Cheers LD. 20-25cm Wow that is high, please update your journal with a cheeky snap.

I don't think I will grow it out so long before the next trim. I was seeding it so it was at different growth levels so I let it grow out before chopping it hard.

hi, It has been great seeing the tank fill out,great colours,,the staurogyne has grown brilliantly, all the best ,skankypup. 😀

Thanks, Skankypup. It's been my pressurised co2 tester tank. It's been fun 99% of the time. Staurogyne has done well for me. My nemesis plant right now has to be pogostemon helferi. I might make a space in the centre for a pot or 2 and try again. 😉

 

[Antipofish]

Spyder, what problems have you had with the Pogo ?

 

[Ady34]

Looking good Spyder!
I couldnt grow Pogostemon halferi either, mind you, i also cant grow staurogyne 🙁 !
Give it another shot, im sure youll have success this time round, everything seems very healthy in there now so you must have the tank in the sweet spot
Cheerio,
Ady.

 

[creg]

such a lovely looking tank everything looks so healthy

 

[spyder]

Spyder, what problems have you had with the Pogo ?

The same issues you had recently. Dirty brown algae on lower leaves. It was front center in the early days. It never really took hold. It did come from low tech tank. May try again with a fresh pot.

Looking good Spyder!
I couldnt grow Pogostemon halferi either, mind you, i also cant grow staurogyne 🙁 !
Give it another shot, im sure youll have success this time round, everything seems very healthy in there now so you must have the tank in the sweet spot
Cheerio,
Ady.

Cheers Ady, your Stauro looked nice in the pic you posted. If it's tall enough to trim and replant I would shave it off, clean up trimmings and fill in gaps, it may encourage it to give a little growth spurt.

I think the "sweet spot" comes and goes. I noticed a difference after trimming out the stauro then skipping the following weeks WC. GSA and little bit's of staghorn showed up. The filter and pipe scrub was quite recent I think. Oh I kinda slacked a bit on ferts last week too. 😳

Wonder why you don't get any close ups?

such a lovely looking tank everything looks so healthy

Thank you.

 

[AndyVox]

Beautiful tank. Looks so healthy and impressive.

 

[deepak267]

Amazing setup. Thanks a lot for the description at each step.

 

[spyder]

Cheers guys.

After our little break away I had to leave ferting and fish feeding to the old folks. Came back to this.



Another skipped water change, (was in Spain) so a bit more thread n fuzz and the start of staghorn appearing on some older leaves. Full filter clean and pipe scrub along with bad leaf removal. Co2 was almost out and working guage dropped from 2.5 bar to just under 2bar but up still running. Bubble count had dropped right down and I now have a dark emerald green DC. Got myself a replacement FE cylinder today and my 3kg has gone off for refill. Lights disabled for today and time to start getting it right again.

I've removed the Cyprus Helferi. It was covered in BBA on my return and I find I'm constantly cutting leaves off it. The Hygro 53b will go soon along with the Alternathera. I'm going to change a few plants around now. I have no after shot this time but will update when I get around to ripping some out and filling in the gaps with something new.

Cheers.

 

[spyder]

Not much to report but thought I would throw a quick update up whilst at work.

I took this shot prior to the photoperiod today, hence darkish dropchecker. Co2 is looking a lot better and I have been double EI dosing for a week to cover any possible problems in that area. The Staurogyne seems to have greened up a little and started to be a little chunkier. It seemed to have yellowy, skinny leaves upon return from our holidays.



As I have this weekend off a trip to a LFS is on the cards. They usually have aquafluer pots in, mainly crypts so I will be clearing out some plants and replanting the island with more crypts. The Hygro will come out along with the alternathera. The Echindorus Quadricostatus on the left will be pushed back into the rear corner. The Staurogyne will be seeded further back down the sides so hopefully, I'll be able to see the island again. The right side will have a little wall of Blyxa and behind it I want to try some Ludwigia, a nice red one will do. 🙂

I really want to move the Angels on but when I suggest it to the other half, she insists on keeping them. She don't like it when I tell her to start saving for a larger tank though.

 

[Nathaniel Whiteside]

I really want to move the Angels on but when I suggest it to the other half, she insists on keeping them. She don't like it when I tell her to start saving for a larger tank though.

I love it when mine tries to tell me what to do with what too!... Naaat..

She likes big horrible fish unsuitable fpr the planted tank, so she gets told to shh.

😛

 

[spyder]

Not much happening in here right now. I have removed a lot of plant mass and had a shuffle around. I'll get around to a new FTS tomorrow, but for now you can have this one.

A pair of angels have spawned so I need to sort out a breeding tank for them out in the garage. That means a nano or two to shut down to make some space and also make sure I don't use too much leccy. 😉 Mummy is the golden pearlscale, daddy is the platinum, or that's what I'm guessing he is. Genetically I think I would be in for a load of silvers unless the parents are hiding some random genes. I won't find that out until I raise any fry though, this batch will soon get eaten.

 

[rehman73]

nice choice of a plants and a very nice looking tank you got there spyder especially the stourogyne looks really nice well done mate.

 

[spyder]

nice choice of a plants and a very nice looking tank you got there spyder especially the stourogyne looks really nice well done mate.

Thanks.

Unfortunately the Staurogyne is no more. With working weekends and other things popping up the tank got slightly neglected. A recent Co2 outage and erratic ferting meant I lost all Staurogyne and the Blyxa went into total meltdown.

I'm now on a mission to reboot this tank. I have this weekend off work so I will be closing down a low tech in the garage along with my emersed cube. I will be doing a rescape on the 125l. I've really wanted to to remove the hardscape for a good scrub for some time now and this gives me the chance to thin out the crypts.

The plan will be, higher island and more open with the wood and rocks so I can try DHG and Lilleaopsis in between them. I have plenty in emersed form ready to go. I have a small culture of the Staurogyne which will be going in to. A big mistake I made with the large rocks was hiding too much of them, this is soon realised when your trying to plant background stems and keep hitting rock. This time I plan to be a little bit more adventurous by having a stronger, bolder hardscape. I now realise just how fast the hardscape can just disappear.

That's all planned for Sunday. I will grab before and after shots. Right now I'm gonna grab another coffee and check out the trade forum for trimmings.

 

[spyder]

Got the tank done as planned but so busy right now photo's having just been sitting on the memory card. I forgot to snap it before I ripped it apart but I have got some shots.

A nice bunch of crypts. Had a few portions like this although this was the biggest of the bunch.



The next highlight snap was during refilling.



And a final blurry shot I just quickly snapped.



Lessons learnt this time around. Don't try HC with Angels. They love ripping it too shreds. 🙁