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Slow Grow Island

zanguli-ya-zamba

zanguli-ya-zamba

Seedling
Joined
6 Oct 2012
Messages
911
Location
Democratic Republic of Congo
Hi every one
Maybe some if you have seen that my first scape ( forest of Congo ) is finish since 4 days.
I have decided to rescape it, and do a low maintenance tank.
Unfortunately the same day I have inspected the cabinet, and due to my old filter leakage the cabinet is slowly collapsing !! But I think I have 2 month to create a new cabinet and certainly a new tank because I hate the dimension of this one !
So here is the tank and the set up

Tank : 140x40x50 cm 280 L
Light : 2x 54w T5 1 Arcadia marine hybrid
1 Arcadia plant pro
Co2: 5 kg FE trough up aqua atomizer
I don't have a bubble counter or a drop checker ! I am following it by monitoring algae and with a ph meter.
Ph initia 7,3 ( degassing water ) and ph after 2 hours on is 5,7.
Filtration : 1 x FX5 +1x 1100 l/h external filter but I will remove it soon.
Ferts : EI dosing + calcium + Mg and WC 50% once a week.

Substrate : white sand from a natural source ( I have just kept the big Crystal of this sand ) and Congolese laterite. I had
This in the previous set up and it is working well so no need to change it.
I have just steer it and vacuum it the best a could.

For the plants:

Microsorum pteroptus
Anubia Nana
Crypt undulata
Cryp wendtii green
Spiky moss
Lilaeopsis NZ
Hydrocolite vert.

That's for now ! I have to make an order today or tomorrow, several crypt and other species for our pond where we grow emerge plants. It is our stock for plants.

Sorry for the long intro ! Now here is a pic of the tank.
Sorry also for the pic with material inside the tank. I was in a hurry when I took the pic !

y7e5esa5.jpg

e7a3ady4.jpg



Hope you will like it ?
And please feel free to put any comment about the scape of this tank !?
I will be very happy to have some feed back about this scape please.

To be continued

Cheers zanguli
 
Hi Zanguli, the tank's looking great, to improve the looks a bit more you can even the soil in front of the glass and keep it a bit thinner.

Cheers,
Mihai
 
Hello Guys,
Long time since I have done a real update!!
So I will have to explain what going on for the tank !
First the new plants :
-staurogyne Porto Velho is taking place and showing very good sign of growth.
-Eusteralis stellata is growing suite fast, I am very happy how it has settle easily in my tank. I ll take pic if that particular plant.
- cryptocoryne legrois red also is taking place, giving new leaves every day with a nice red purplish color very nice
-ludwigia inclinata var verticillata Cuba, this plants have some small adaptation problems ! Don't know why the new leaves are exactly the same than the one growing emerge, and the leave are a bit curling down ????? If some one have already grown this plant if I could have some info on it, it would be nice
- two stem of Rotala macrandra (to see how it grows the rest is in the pond) it s growing slowly but healthy and with a nice red colors
-ludwigia arcuata
- flam moss and spiky moss
-Anubia nana var petite

Initially I wanted to add more crypts but I have changed my mind lol.

Regarding the set up :

My light is a bit too strong 108w for 260L, and I needed just a bit less. So what I have done is push back the light against the wall like that I have only one bulb that gives direct light to the tank and the other is just reflecting the light on the wall. I have done that since two weeks and it s working very well ! But it s not aesthetic so what I will do it is just removing my reflectors. I think it will drop the light off to 25% ????!!!
I also took out the second filter (1100L/h), on this filter I had a up aqua atomizer 16/22. Now I have only the FX5 running, I change the outlet of it because the one that comes with the filter is a flow killer, and I replace it with a 90* plumb pipe and now the flow coming out is flipping power full (I like it). To replace the up aqua I have place a ceramic disc of 5cm diameter at the opposite of the outlet. Bubbles are blast around like crazy !!! I have also a 900l/h koralia nano that trap the bubble that try to reach the surface.
Since Monday I have this set up and it's working very well. Now my Ph at lights on is 5,57. Initial ph is 7,3. So I assume that CO2 diffusion is ok. I will monitor it closely for two weeks before being comfortable lol.

More than a month ago I have been too lean and not regular on fertilizer. So I stared to have GSA on the leaves and on the glass, I also had a start of BGA on the substrate.
So I started dosing more PO4 and KNO3 for three weeks and 2x70% WC a week. Now no more algae, only the substrate is a bit dirty, I am steering slowly 1/4 of the tank surface per week.

I will put two or three pic that I took yesterday 30 min before lights go off. I really need to borrow my sister s camera (canon 5D) and a tripod. Because my shots are not very nice, and the only way to get a nice and clear picture is to put the phone on the table and shot. But the phone is at the substrate level so it's not a nice view.

asuby9uz.jpg


Side view
aqaqasan.jpg


Hope you like this up date, I will take pictures if different plants that are in there !!

Cheers guy hope to have some feed back on that tank
 
Ha ha, yes that is sad. I think it's looking good, nice shape overall and has a very natural unforced feel to it. Plants look healthy too, but where are the fish?
 
Hi Ian
I have two tank, and both of them are fish less ! I want to learn as much as I can on plants. I have been keeping fish for 15 years I wanted a change lol. There is an other reason is that I know that if I turn down a bit the CO2 I face small algae issue. And at the concentration of CO2 I have fish will not support it !
But I am more and more thinking about adding fish in this tank.
I am thinking of butterfly barb, because this is a Congolese fish and I know I can find it easily here.
Thanks for answering mate

Cheers
 
Just looked up the butterfly barb, very nice but look difficult to keep. Ph of 4?
 
Ph of 4 hum I doubt it ! Ok it s living in river in the equatorial forest where there is a lot of leaves and branch in decomposition in these river and water is black almost like coke. I will find a pic that my mother took when she was in basankusu ( equatorial region of Congo ) you will see how the water is.
I also have a friend that have them in his tank at ph 6 and they are doing fine. Even if they are wild source they seem to do very fine.
 
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