Tonys 'Peacocks Crypt' - The End

[Mark Evans]

Re: Tonys 'Peacocks Crypt' - 200L

Its a 100cm luminaire with 2 x 39w Power-Glo's and 2 x 39w Life_Glo's, 2 of which are on 10am to 5pm, and the other 2 are 12pm to 2pm. The luminaire is 20cm above the water.

relatively speaking (right word?) it compares to a 120cm tank with 2 x 54 then another 2 x 54 w for 2 hours...So similar to my set up.

I'm running just 2 x 54 at anyone time with the light 30cm away from the water and still getting good growth, so maybe kill the second 2 lights.

One thing I've noticed is, lowering the lights just 10cm induces pearling, and a lot of it, so this tells me the margins for error/algae are minute. I mean, who'd say 10cm was a big jump?...i wouldn't! but it's massive. I raised the lights to stop the pearling and give me 'breathing space' But with the same co2 injection rate as a high light tank...This is critical IMO

food for thought mate

Slick tank by the way 😀

 

[Tony Swinney]

Re: Tonys 'Peacocks Crypt' - 200L

Lovely, just lovely

Tank is still looking great Tony, you need to update your other Journal too

Thanks Sam and Paulo. The other journal will be updated later in the week - I'm waiting on the shoal of SAE's to prep that one for photos, but I think they're stuffed already

I'm running just 2 x 54 at anyone time with the light 30cm away from the water and still getting good growth, so maybe kill the second 2 lights.
One thing I've noticed is, lowering the lights just 10cm induces pearling, and a lot of it, so this tells me the margins for error/algae are minute. I mean, who'd say 10cm was a big jump?...i wouldn't! but it's massive. I raised the lights to stop the pearling and give me 'breathing space' But with the same co2 injection rate as a high light tank...This is critical IMO

Interesting observations mark, I'll give it a go 🙂 When the second light comes on I get pearling but only on the Balansae - its pretty thick on the surface now now so stops alot of the light getting down to the lower levels.

Tony

 

[George Farmer]

Re: Tonys 'Peacocks Crypt' - 200L

Wonderful updates, Tony, Thanks for sharing.

Image quality looks better too. You must have a new camera and lenses.... 😉

 

[flygja]

Re: Tonys 'Peacocks Crypt' - 200L

Nice! I think I like it without too much moss too. That first shot is really marvelous with all the fish in a school swimming through the foliage. It does look like they like to hide there.

The Bolbitis isn't look very lush though, I would probably remove it or bring them together onto one part of the hardscape.

 

[Mark Webb]

Re: Tonys 'Peacocks Crypt' - 200L

Looking stunning Tony . Balansae is looking, great but I have found it does kill the light to the lower part of the tank.

 

[Tony Swinney]

Re: Tonys 'Peacocks Crypt' - 200L

Image quality looks better too. You must have a new camera and lenses....

Thanks George, its taking abit of getting used to though !

The Bolbitis isn't look very lush though, I would probably remove it or bring them together onto one part of the hardscape.

Yep you're right Fly' - I've thought about doing that, but the whole thing may be rescaped in the next month so I may not get round to it 😳

Looking stunning Tony. Balansae is looking, great but I have found it does kill the light to the lower part of the tank.

I think you're right Mark, I may trim back some of the longer stems to let the light through a bit.

Tony

 

[Tony Swinney]

Re: Tonys 'Peacocks Crypt' - 200L

The end of an era ! This was my first aquascape, and its been running for over 2 years now, but today I stripped it down. I'd been trying to do this for a while now but work and another project (http://www.restokab.com) have got in the way of doing so, and have kept me off the forum for a while too 🙁

It had become overgrown and had a bit of BBA too, plus the cabinet had swollen on one side when there was a leak so when todays job was cancelled this morning I decided to crack on !

Sorry about the iphone pics, but there was too much water flyind around to risk the Canon This is pretty much how it was looking before hand ( an old pic but not much had changed since):



There were some mighty roots on the Crypt Balansae...



All the plants out...



These were all cleaned of old foliage and potted up in the storage tank for the next scape 😉

2 year old ADA Malaya disturbed...I found a very healthy Botia Striata in there, that I'd assumed dead a year ago !



So after it was drained and cleaned, I moved it to its new home on the other side of the studio, and placed it on its all new TGM cabinet 8)



So much as I'm sad to see it go, I cant wait to start playing with hardscape in the morning 🙂

Thanks for the 8000 views !

Tony

 

[Piece-of-fish]

Hehe. Cant believe you saying it was your first aquascape. Looking forward to your new scape and please do update the other journals 😀
This hardscape was an inspiration to me when I just started

 

[Barbapappa]

Awesome read this topic! Very interested in seeing what you come up with next! 🙂

 

[nayr88]

Great Journal and nice end product 🙂 I'm a little upset about how filthy that inlet is haha only joking.

Good luck with the next one mate, ill keep an eye out.

 

[mdhardy01]

Shame that this has come to an end,
Must say this was my inspiration for running a proper planted tank too
Matt

 

[Bobtastic]

Hehe. Cant believe you saying it was your first aquascape. Looking forward to your new scape and please do update the other journals 😀
This hardscape was an inspiration to me when I just started

Same for me. It was one of the images I used to convince my gf that it was a good idea! 😉

 

[mlgt]

Its been a great journal and shame I didnt get the chance to view it in the flesh 🙁

 

[bigmatt]

this is one of those rare tanks that we all 'know' - the Mona Lisa of the aquascaping world! And rightly so - it's an absolute masterpiece! Also a fantastic example of what can be done with undemanding plants that are (mostly) readily available. Genius! No pressure on the next one ... 😀 Matt

 

[George Farmer]

All good things...

Looking forward to the next creation mate.

For those that haven't seen Tony's interview - http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/c ... p?sid=2569

 

[Steve Smith]

Shame to see it go, but new beginnings are great for getting the creative juices flowing 🙂 I look forward to the next one Tony!

 

[Stu Worrall]

twas a beautiful tank tony and sad to see it go but onward and upward as they say 🙂 The new cab and lights look great, roll on the new scape..

 

[Tony Swinney]

roll on the new scape..

Funny you should say that Stu - the new scape will be rolling - I've had castors put on the cabinet so I can roll it in and out from the wall to allow me to play around with backlighting 😉

Thanks for all the wonderful comments folks. It's great to hear that this scape inspired a couple of people to get into aquascaping - thats what journals are all about

I've just got to come up with something better now - hardscaping started last night 🙂

Tony

 

[Mark Evans]

End of an era mate.

I've just received my Castor's too Tony. They came late for the 60cm, but for the 120cm they ll be installed.

 

[John Starkey]

That setup was a pleasure to watch from start to finish,i can,t wait for your next one,considering that was your first scape the new one has be special to beat it,

get planting mate,
john.