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Scape help

impromptu rescape, removed one of the rocks and while doing so dropped and I think i've smashed the base of my tank.
currently have all my plants in one bucket and all the fish in another.
wish me luck
 
I hope so too, I've ran out of buckets to store stuff in, looks like I'll have to refill the slurry and hope for the best.
 
After finally getting enough water and Aquasoil out I discovered the tank was cracked but I've sealed it and refilled, here is the aftermath.
3am this morning
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6pm today.
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8pm today.
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The water cleared enough to see the damage done, water still not totally clear, fish still not in the tank. I appear to need more substrate, where its gone I don't know,everything looks beaten up, washed out and generally a bit rubbish.
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All my plants too a beating from being out all night, especially the stems, shame they'd only really just taken off. I might replace them with something else, something healthier.
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This is the only area I like about the new scape, I'll be planting some Hc running into the hair grass. I don't know if it will work or not but then I'm so disheartened by this whole fiasco I'm shocked anything good has come out of it. Planting the hairgrass was difficult, no end of times it came unplanted, It looks a eye sore as soon as you notice the lack of skill in planting.
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Anyone want to step in and tell me where I can improve or donate a grand bunch of stems of something nice?
This hole affair has made me wonder why I didn't give up.
 
I don't know I hope so, I want to get a new tank soon anyway so its all good, I'm thinking a rekord 60, something already rimless rather than this bodge.
 
I think you're doing yourself an injustice Garuf, you've made a great job of this setup, when many people would have given up on it 😀

Where did you get the great piece of wood from? Sorry if you've already told us.
 
I got it from Glovers in Fenton, Stoke, It's my favourite part of the tank but unfortunately It means I get pretty poor co2 distribution.

The scape as it stands looks good except that my light blew a few days ago and effectively meant I inadvertently ran a 6 day black out which has all but wiped out my hair grass, one thing after another with this tank I swear.
It still has an algae problem too which seems to have been exacerbated by the drying out of the plants.
I've also planted the HC which promises to look fantastic, I hope it doesn't disappoint me because I have high hopes for it.

My biggest gripe with this tank is that I can't get my plants to grow anywhere near as well as everyone else on this forum yet my set up is superior to some in regards to equipment.
I always get algae and I always struggle with stems, I don't know what it is about them but they never grow as strong or as bushy as everyone else's. Hygropholia polysperma has been the only one I can happily say I have had luck with yet at the same time it just isn't right for this tank, it's leaves are too big and it drew far too much light from the scape.
Ideally I'd like to get a HM wall going but I've had it melt on me so once I have enough to replant it to a thick level I will give it another go but it feels like I'm doing something wrong that I just can't Identify.
The anubias are struggling too, I don't know what it is that I'm doing wrong but I must be doing something.
The bolbitis is yet to send out any new leaves so we shall have to wait to see how the scape fills out with their presence.

Ooo another thing I don't like so much, the substrate, to my eyes I don't appear to have enough, I think I'd like it to appear to be much more raised towards the centre and deeper at the front, I could be wrong but that's just my gut feeling.

ANYWAY I'm rambling so I shall discontinue.
 
I wouldn't worry about your biggest gripe, i think you'll find we all have some form of algae, and my hygrophilia is the only plant which grows out of control too.

Keep up the good work.
 
A week without light

No light for a week has wiped out the hair grass.
Enjoy.
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Refining the scape.

So this is what It looks like after a week without light, 4 days without co2 and after me with my hands in the tank trying to remove as much algae as possible.
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The stems all grow towards the left, where the window is so I'm going to get a blind fitted to it and block out as much as possible.
A positive is I found my first shoot of bolbitis and that I have mad pearling from the java fern rotala and HC, the negatives are I also have pearling from the ridiculous amount of algae I gained from the bulb blowing/ dead hairgrass fiasco.
 
Update

As you can see things haven't really improved, the presence of so much decay caused an enormous algae outbreak, since then I've been battling on, I've still got algae but I'm off college for 2 weeks so I can turn my attention to ridding it, I'm gonna get some excel and do 3 day's of dosing with a water change then a black out of 3 days, fingers crossed I'll be able to find some hair grass to replace that that died.
Today an update, I trimmed back all the stems and planted up the tops to double what I'd got, the bases of the hc rotted so that had to come out and get cut back and relayed so fingers crossed it'll catch on and spread.
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Tomorrow I'll clean the glass ware and do a huge water change, as well as continuing to remove as much algae and dead leaves as possible, I'll be keeping a close eye on the co2 too since I've upped it in an attempt to rid the BBA and Clado I've got since the cracked base broken light incident.
 
I didn't clean the glassware, I didn't do a water change, I did however take the wood out and give it a good scrub, I'll be doing all the planned stuff tomorrow after work, (mono rail driver 8) ).
 
Oh crap, thats a real shame Gareth. Think you have two choices. Rip it all apart and start again or battle through and let the plants sort the algae out. Which they can and will in time.

If you ever feel like giving up read my nano journal over on TFF, its taken me two years to get that tank sorted!!!!

Sam
 
I'm not tearing down, almost off of the algae is on one or 2 areas, mainly on the hardscape, which leads me to believe it shouldn't be too difficult to clear up once I've gotten my act together.
 
Take a look at the picture above, see the green slime, I now cannot see into the tank for said slime. holding down 2 jobs all holiday has meant that I've been unable to enjoy my tank and run maintenance, simply because I aren't home when the lights are on and other than pick out algae and dose I've been at a loss.
I'll be running a black out, hoping for the best, and going from there, what I need now is cegipedia and some excel,
 
This tank is no more, moral of the story, research everything use lower lighting than people from the us recommend and run your co2 high. Also, never buy a "Tahiti aqua" tank because the quality is shocking.
 
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