# Hanging Rock - 45p Iwagumi



## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Starting to plan another scape for my little apartment, this will be the 5th aquarium in a 70sqm apartment.

Tank - 45p Fire-Aqua 45x27x30cm
Filter - Ista External Mini Canister Filter 360lph
Heater - ?
Co2 - via UP Aqua In-Line Atomizer 12/16mm
Light - 45cm Chihiros A-Series Plus
Substrate - Cal Aqua Green Base and Cal Aqua Black Earth
Ferts - Cal Aqua Green, Red and Chrome

Plants - Carpet only I am thinking... Glosso, MC, HC, hairgrass mix? Various moss attached to the rocks. Probably Mini Pellia and Fissidens Fontanus, tho I have some flame, spiky and weeping moss, but dont think they will suit.

Picked up a big 9kg seiyru stone, which will be the main feature. I have started to play around with the layout and I think I am fairly decided on the last picture below, probably will have a lot of height and some of the stone emersed.





































Decided on something like this... hard to balance the big rock without any substrate so the angle may be improved a bit.










I will have sand on the left under the hanging rock and bank Cal Aqua Black Earth up on the right, the rocks will be lifted and tilted a bit to create more overhand, below is a ruff idea of planting


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## Nigel95 (Mar 5, 2017)

woohaah 5th aquarium thats some dedication 

Liking the little stones on the last pic. Gives a nice natural effect.


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## Mattb126 (Nov 13, 2016)

Subbed! Nice layout

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## sevendust111 (Jul 15, 2014)

I dig these kind of tanks. Looking forward to seeing it.


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## osmosis (Apr 19, 2017)

That is a beautiful piece of rock.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Thanks guys, hopefully get onto setting up the dry start this weekend!


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## Alf2Frankie (Mar 29, 2017)

First and last pic are my favorite, maybe look at combining them? Subbed!


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Got the big rock into the small tank, I like the look, the contrast in angle of the soil to the rock, I also like the idea of just using the one rock, no decorative rocks. But now I am undecided on if I should use sand on the left side, considering the soil is a land slide waiting to happen I think keeping the white sand clean will be a pain in the ass! So now I am thinking carpet all over. Here is the hardscape as it sits now. There is room at the back to plant stems if I dont want to keep this carpet plants only, not to sure about that tho.


IMG_9621 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## Opare (Sep 9, 2015)

I think stems at the back is not a bad idea. Since the rock is so big, you can't treat it like a normal iwagumi as such, cus you won't really see any carpet at the back. I wouldn't go sand cus yeah like you said cleaning won't be fun LOL.


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## Chlorophile (Aug 2, 2011)

I would keep the slope of aquasoil on the right and then completely flat on the left maybe only 2 inches deep.. 
Something like Pearlweed(babytears) on the right and Dwarf Hairgrass on the left (or Erio's?) could look really nice with a Rotala Rotundifolia bush in the back left and a Blyxa Japonica poking out behind the rock on the right...


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Thanks guys, yes I think I will flatten out on the left with more soil, need to push in some substrate supports (plastic sheets) to stop the soil from flatting out to much.

Plants I am considering are Glosso front right banked up the slop, HC front left, probably plant some MC directly under the rock as HC there wouldn't get to much light and may not grow well, I have enough emmersed MC here to carpet the whole thing instantly which is tempting but I want to try plants I havent grown before.

Background I am thinking HM and MU back right, tho perhaps a blyxa could look good but may get to big, I would also like to try Limnophila sp Mini "Vietnam" up the back.

EDIT- added the extra soil 

IMG_9622 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## Chlorophile (Aug 2, 2011)

doylecolmdoyle said:


> Thanks guys, yes I think I will flatten out on the left with more soil, need to push in some substrate supports (plastic sheets) to stop the soil from flatting out to much.
> 
> Plants I am considering are Glosso front right banked up the slop, HC front left, probably plant some MC directly under the rock as HC there wouldn't get to much light and may not grow well, I have enough emmersed MC here to carpet the whole thing instantly which is tempting but I want to try plants I havent grown before.
> 
> ...


What kind of dosing regime will you use? I find with tanks with only carpeting plants and light stems you have to keep the dosing a bit leaner.

Blyxa is technically a stem plant so not hard to control the size. 
HC is notoriously difficult for me especially in smaller tanks.
Given the size of this stone you could easily use HM as the foreground carpet and have an easier time. 
HM and blyxa are a lovely contrast and limnophilia or rotala would be excellent background plants as well. 
Personally glosso is too messy and leggy for a small iwagumi

Mixing MC and HC will make for irritating differences in growth and density IMO


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## Chlorophile (Aug 2, 2011)

Blyxa as a backdrop for large stones is always nice, perhaps use Marsilea in one of the back corner to droop over the main stone and creep into the foreground


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Chlorophile said:


> What kind of dosing regime will you use? I find with tanks with only carpeting plants and light stems you have to keep the dosing a bit leaner.
> 
> Blyxa is technically a stem plant so not hard to control the size.
> HC is notoriously difficult for me especially in smaller tanks.
> ...


Going to use the Cal Aqua range of ferts, I have used Cal Aqua Green base and Cal Aqua Black earth soil, will keep the dosing lean and use floaters at the start to increase plant mass. Mixing of the carpet is the kind of look I would like, more natural, I have done a few carpets of just MC and it got a bit boring.



Chlorophile said:


> Blyxa as a backdrop for large stones is always nice, perhaps use Marsilea in one of the back corner to droop over the main stone and creep into the foreground


Yes I would like to try a few patches of Marsilea around the base of the rock, will have to try source some, there is a species native to Australia but apparently its a slow grower doesnt really carpet, could suit my needed


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## Tnalp (Mar 25, 2017)

You won't have a problem with hc. You can find my tank journal and see that I have a full carpet in my 45p. Keep your feet up and c02. You'll be good


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## Chlorophile (Aug 2, 2011)

Gotcha, montecarlo and HC just don't seem dissimilar enough to me, I love a mixed carpet, Belem and Monte Carlo look wonderful together or regular hair grass and HM. Excited to see whatever you do all your options will look great with that nice stone


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Thinking about plants (which I have already ordered but could use in my other tanks if needed) here is my plan, obviously the plants will all mix together somewhat, which is what I would like to achieve... perviously I had not thought about using UG but managed to buy a small portion, perhaps there isnt enough room long the front right for both glosso and UG. Thoughts?










Here is the plan without the UG... which I still think may be the best option.


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## Opare (Sep 9, 2015)

I think I would go with either the UG or the Glosso, the space isn't really big enough for both. Maybe have the UG go a bit further down too. Although you can sort of play with it IRL.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Opare said:


> I think I would go with either the UG or the Glosso, the space isn't really big enough for both. Maybe have the UG go a bit further down too. Although you can sort of play with it IRL.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Yes I am just thinking the Glosso, the UG is on a SS mesh, perfect size to just plop into my bookshelf tank where my parva melted away, I can never seem to plant ground coverage once water is in the tank


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## Chlorophile (Aug 2, 2011)

Skip the UG..
I'd skip Glosso as well and replace with Hydrocotyle Japan


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Chlorophile said:


> Skip the UG..
> I'd skip Glosso as well and replace with Hydrocotyle Japan


Yes I wont bother with the UG, going to use the portion I purchased in my other tanks, dont really want to use Hydro Jap, can grow rather tall and wild, going to use the HM at the back for height.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

All planted, now to wait... probably need some more HM for up the back and behind the rock (not that you will see it behind the rock) Mixed the UG with the glosso, tho the UG was on a SS mesh and was impossible to remove without tearing the roots off, so will be interesting to see how it goes


IMG_9640 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## Tnalp (Mar 25, 2017)

Gorgeous!


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

1 week DSM updated photo -


IMG_9646 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

Getting a little white spiderweb like mold on a patch of glosso, tempted to flood but I dont have a heater yet... will try hold off flooding until next weekend when the heater should arrive


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## Chlorophile (Aug 2, 2011)

Looks good. Do you have the filter cycling on another tank?
My only failures with the DSM have been when I flood the tank and don't have a cycled filter, the imbalances sent me skyrocketing off into algae land and the HC was completely smothered and lost


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Chlorophile said:


> Looks good. Do you have the filter cycling on another tank?
> My only failures with the DSM have been when I flood the tank and don't have a cycled filter, the imbalances sent me skyrocketing off into algae land and the HC was completely smothered and lost


No dont have the filter cycling but I could use the sponge out of a cycled tank or just squeeze the sponge into this tank, have never bother doing this before but Im sure it will speed things up and maybe avoid to much algae once flooded.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Flooded, decided not to muck around with RO water, just tap... lets see how it goes, the HC lifted a lot when I flooded the tank, guess it needs more than 2 weeks dry start, the glosso is well rooted, here is a photo, the tank looks like sprite due to a new atomizor working really well, it will calm down over a few days I think.


IMG_9690 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

Full setup sharing the co2, seems to work well. 


IMG_9688 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

False start, all the HC floated up so ive gone back to the dry start... annoying but at least i know the tank doesn't leak.


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## Dman911 (Nov 24, 2016)

Ouch... and it was starting to fill in so nicely.

Dan


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## StevieD (Jun 17, 2017)

Love this concept! I will be watching it closely.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Flooded the tank again about a week ago, the HC floated again, couldnt win with that stuff so I broke down all the larger clumps that floated into small strands and did a bad job planting it again when flooded.

The day after flooding I got green water, never had this before!

Green tinge to the water doesn't seem to be going away even with regular 90% water changes, will probably order a small uv tomorrow, the glosso is going wild and growing really fast, I increased the light to second max setting to see if it will grow more compact, the HC is growing but looks a bit crap at the moment, some thread like diatoms covering it, hopefully the extra light helps get it going. Quick iphone photo of the glosso below


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Photo from today, not sure if I should get a UV to kill off the green water or just wait it out.

IMG_9807 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

I ordered a TC420 from Ali-Express and it arrived the other day, today I had a chance to get the program (PLed) installed on my old PC, I dont usually use PC this days and unfortunately PLed does not run on OSX / Mac, also my PC doesn't have a tray style CD drive so I couldn't use the mini cd-rom that comes with the TC420 unit, luckily i found the program online.

The program pretty straight forward to use, just followed a online guide and made a simple test "mode" and also my full "mode" which is a simple 1 hour fade from 0 - 100% 5hrs at 100% then 100 - 0% fade over 1hr. Pushed the two "modes" to the TC420 and plugged my Chihiros A-Series Plus (45cm) power supply directly into the DC power in plug on the TC420 unit, I pulled apart a spare standard dimmer (purchased of ebay) used the male end and connected it to the V+ and CH1 and I can report it worked like a charm! 










Here is a quick time lapse, tho the iphone auto adjusts lighting and my tank directly next to the 45p was also on so its hard to see the fade up and fade down... I missed the start of the cycle with the video but you get the picture, seems to work fine. I am going to plug my Chihiros A-Series Plus (60cm) into the CH2 and hopefully get both lights running on the one TC420 unit

https://vimeo.com/226145489


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Update - 90% of my glosso decided to melt away, no idea why, the glosso was going great, if it was the old dry start growth dying off I dont really understand why it waited a few weeks to melt, so the glosso area is looking terrible and the green water wont go away, not winning! Tho the HC has started to spread nicely and should cover the lower area in a few weeks. I can see new growth in the glosso but all the dead / melted growth has made a mess, tried to syphon some of the dead stuff but its tricky without pulling up the stuff that survived, hoping to get some shrimp in here this weekend, just waiting on nitrates to drop!

Added a small 3w inline UV and moved my inline atomizer to the filter inlet side, pipes look a bit crazy tall at the moment... hopefully the green water clears... 


IMG_0055 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## Brian Rodgers (Oct 15, 2016)

Wonderful tank. Perhaps I missed it, how did you get the rock balanced at that angle please?


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Brian Rodgers said:


> Wonderful tank. Perhaps I missed it, how did you get the rock balanced at that angle please?


Thanks, hopefully it starts to stabilize soon, the big rock is kind of counter balanced with smaller rocks under the soil and the overall shape of the big rock helps it balance, its quiet secure.


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## Brian Rodgers (Oct 15, 2016)

doylecolmdoyle said:


> Thanks, hopefully it starts to stabilize soon, the big rock is kind of counter balanced with smaller rocks under the soil and the overall shape of the big rock helps it balance, its quiet secure.


Thanks. The rock looks like it in motion somehow. I love it.


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## Chlorophile (Aug 2, 2011)

I don't think that's green water but the humate from aquasoil making it brownish.
My newest bag of aquasoil did the same thing.
I could be wrong.
Keep on the water changes, high ammonia and nitrite melts some plants, it seems to have melted my staurogyne on my recent tank.

Edit: if it just started melting maybe you're at the nitrites spike phase.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Chlorophile said:


> I don't think that's green water but the humate from aquasoil making it brownish.
> My newest bag of aquasoil did the same thing.
> I could be wrong.
> Keep on the water changes, high ammonia and nitrite melts some plants, it seems to have melted my staurogyne on my recent tank.
> ...


Yah my nitrites spiked around the time the glosso melted, they are dropping now and the glosso is coming back slowly, the soil I used if cal black earth, bit different from ADA Aquasoil, meant to be cleaner less dusty etc, the water is green, very noticeable when I do a water change into a white bucket


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Updated photo, finally clear water, that Purigen stuff is magic, @Rebel suggested I try it and less than 24hrs after adding about 50g to purgin to my filter the water is looking nice and clear! The UV filter had no effect so perhaps it wasn't really green water but something else staining the water. Glosso is starting to establish itself again after a big melt off, I have notice the new growth has a much smaller leaf size than the initial growth, making me think the melt was the older submersed growth. Mini Pellia moss is also starting to colour up, could probably trim the HC next weekend.

I should take the equipment out for the photo... but cant be stuffed.


IMG_0064 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## Tnalp (Mar 25, 2017)

What are the floating plants? 


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Tnalp said:


> What are the floating plants?
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Hi, they are amazonian frogbit, good for take-up of excess nutrients, I find them useful to use while the tank finds its balance.


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## SKYE.__.HIGH (Mar 18, 2017)

Hey man, do yah have an update for us with the green water and the carpet. 


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

SKYE.__.HIGH said:


> Hey man, do yah have an update for us with the green water and the carpet.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Green water is gone, the purigen worked great, cleared it up over night, the carpet is going well, glosso really bouncing back, will take a updated photo next weekend.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Tank is going well, here are some photos from tonight, I did plan on taking the filter out but again couldn't be bothered, the water looks like sprite due to the mist from the up-aqua atomizer, the moss on the rock is going well, I also started adding floating bits of HC on top of the rock and they are going pretty good, need to keep the water level a bit higher than what it is in these photos.


IMG_0097 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_0096 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_0089 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Here are some close up shots of the pearling, tricky to get in focus, there is a bit of Riccia fluitans that started growing in the Glosso and also scatter about the HC, I have just let it go, it pearls so much, I kind of want to do a full Riccia fluitans carpet now, perhaps my next iguwami I will utilise this plant, even tho previously I have thought of it as a pest/weed, when its pearling its beautiful.

Co2 and light is pretty high in this tank, even the rock / green algae is pearling... probably not a good thing 


IMG_0123 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_0119 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_0118 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_0117 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_0114 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_0110 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_0109 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_0108 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## StevieD (Jun 17, 2017)

Always impressed by the artistic quality on here, nicely done!


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## Chizpa305 (Feb 13, 2011)

Nice close ups. What camera and magnification you used?


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## Bleuwater (Aug 5, 2017)

That Mini Pellia moss looks pretty awesome


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Chizpa305 said:


> Nice close ups. What camera and magnification you used?


Thanks, I use a canon 7d with a 100mm macro


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Had to leave all my tanks for a week while I went on holidays, they did well, I used some slow release feeding ring / food things and dosed heavy on the ferts before I left. Took this photo before my water change today.

The top of the rock is starting to get a nice green algae covering, probably going to be hard to keep clean, I hit it with the toothbrush and excel after this photo.

Starting to get a fair few seed shrimp so I think I will add some fish next weekend, just need to decide on what kind of fish.


IMG_0322 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Photo of the tank with all the equipment in and light at the level I usually run (not increased and moved to the front of the tank for the photo), looking scruffy and over grown, needs a good trim this weekend and I will try remove the riccia from the HC area, also there is a bunch of HM popping up from when I added some (then removed) during the dry start, I am thinking I will just add more to the back, also thinking about adding some hair-grass just to fully turn this into a carpet plant jungle 

IMG_0353 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## houseofcards (Mar 21, 2009)

Looks really good. Like the plants hanging from the top of the rock.

BTW What regulator are you using. Is that a large disposable cylinder?


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## Chizpa305 (Feb 13, 2011)

Really nice. The moss on the rocks is really well distributed.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Thanks Chizpa, I took a little time to make sure all the mini pellia moss as placed in kind of natural locations, its growing well in this tank.



houseofcards said:


> Looks really good. Like the plants hanging from the top of the rock.
> 
> BTW What regulator are you using. Is that a large disposable cylinder?


Thanks I am unsure of the HC / MC mix ontop of the rock, I kind of like it has it starts to drape down but also its starting to take over some mini pellia that is at the top of the rock and that stuff is too expensive to hide  

The Regulator is just a cheap WYIN Top mount Dual Gauge (not sure about dual stage) regulator mounted on a 0.7ltr ISTA bottle which can be refilled or exchanged at my local aquarium store. co2 doesnt last to long running 24/7 via this small bottle, split to two aquariums, but I have a heap of other bigger (and smaller) bottles so I generally never go without.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Added 10 Neon Green Rasbora's yesterday, they seem happy with there new home, can really see the glosso suffering towards the back right, I have been told glosso does better in harder water, will see if it bounces back again

IMG_0597 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Added 4 Pigmy Cory's today, had 3 of the Rasbora's jump, which hurts when they are $10 a pop, down to 7 of the Neon Green Rasbora's, no idea why they jump, hopefully the rest stay in the tank!


IMG_0626 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## Tnalp (Mar 25, 2017)

Rasboras tend to be jumpy. I’ve had several cpd’s jump on me 


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Tnalp said:


> Rasboras tend to be jumpy. I’ve had several cpd’s jump on me
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


I keep CPDs in a 30cm cube and never had one jump, tho the surface is pretty much covered with frogbit, I also keep about 40 dwarf and explanation point rasboaras in a 12g bookshelf tank, I think ive only had 1 jump... fingers crossed no more jump out of this tank.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Updated photo, the glosso continues to die, regrown and die again, would love to remove it all but that would be a pain, added a bit of HM back right, I like the look should have stuck with my original plan and planted HM from the start. Frogbit is going crazy and does detract from the over all look, but I would rather have messy looking frogbit than algae.

Fish are going ok, lost 5 out of the 10 Neon Green Rasboras, two didnt look well few days after adding them, very white and not swimming and 3 jumped, perhaps this tank was to small for them, thinking about putting the 5 left in with my other rasboras (40 odd) in my bookshelf tank and then just stock pigmy corys in this tank, I lost one of the pigmy corys (so only 3 left atm) I think it swam into the outlet of the skimmer when I turned it off during the lighting period one day, I found little chunks of dwarf cory all over the tank.


IMG_0697 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## houseofcards (Mar 21, 2009)

Small open-top tanks and fish are a tough combination. I think the chances of jumpers are greater. On my 3.5g I made a cover out of a plastic grid (type used to increase hardscape height) and I put it on at night or when I'm not around. The setups also look better with a high water line, but definitely a no, no with fish.

I also have an A-Series Chihiros on my Mini S, but yours looks wider then mine. Do you know how wide your light is? Where did you buy it and the height extender - thanks!


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

houseofcards said:


> Small open-top tanks and fish are a tough combination. I think the chances of jumpers are greater. On my 3.5g I made a cover out of a plastic grid (type used to increase hardscape height) and I put it on at night or when I'm not around. The setups also look better with a high water line, but definitely a no, no with fish.
> 
> I also have an A-Series Chihiros on my Mini S, but yours looks wider then mine. Do you know how wide your light is? Where did you buy it and the height extender - thanks!


Gday, yes fish with open top tanks can be a problem, I hadn't had any jumpers in my other tanks for so long it was a bit worrying to find the rasboras on the ground. The 5 left seem ok but I think I will move them to one of my other tanks.

The Chihiros light is an A-Series Plus it has 2 extra rows of LEDs, I just purchased it direct from hinterfeld(.com) this light comes with the long wire legs rather than acrylic stand


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

The big rock fell while i was doing maintenance, couldnt get it stable again so I had to remove it, gone with a simple look now, should make maintenance easier

Not sure what to do with the big seiryu stone, has a bunch of mini pellia attached, dont think I will use the rock again, to big for any of my tanks. Anyone in Perth interested in it? 


IMG_0719 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## Tnalp (Mar 25, 2017)

Did you get that drop checker off eBay? Been wanting know if those 


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## houseofcards (Mar 21, 2009)

You did a great job with the replacement. Looks like it's been there all along. You just need the front to fill in some more.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Tnalp said:


> Did you get that drop checker off eBay? Been wanting know if those
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Hi, the drop checker was from aliexpress similar to ebay but usually cheaper but slower delivery, I am sure they would be on ebay also.



houseofcards said:


> You did a great job with the replacement. Looks like it's been there all along. You just need the front to fill in some more.


Cheers, yes as much as I am bummed the big rock fell over I am happy with the new look, and makes getting in there to trim the plants much easier.


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## SKYE.__.HIGH (Mar 18, 2017)

Tnalp said:


> Did you get that drop checker off eBay? Been wanting know if those
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk




FYI I bought the same one off of amazon with quick shipping for 3.99$ it was great quality, just look up u drop checker.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Had time to give this tank a good trim today, should rename this thread to "running up hill" I think I will just stick to shrimp only in this tank now.

Turned the light down 10% to peak at 70% across a 6 hr light cycle, will see if that will help with the green algae growing on the rocks, saying that I dont really mind green algae on rocks, no other annoying algae to deal with yet. 


IMG_0740 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## hivemindhermit (Oct 19, 2017)

I actually really like the algae on the rock, kind of looks a bit like it's a really big rock with moss growing on it, viewed from a distance!


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Dantrasy was nice enough to offer me his CRS and RCS, have put them in my 45p with my existing RCS and NQ / NT Algae shrimp, I hope I can keep them alive and breeding so I can gift them back to Dantrasy when he is ready for them! 
Fingers crossed! 

Here are a few photos, forgot how tricky macro photos are to take after not touching my camera for a few months, lovely looking shrimp! Thanks again Brad! 


IMG_0801 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_0794 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_0809 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_0814 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_0805 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_0759 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Gave the tank a trim today, the CRS seem to be doing ok, not sure if they are breeding yet but some are berried, hopefully start to notice some baby crs soon, I am guessing it takes time for the colours to develop? Thinking it would be hard to distinguish them between baby red cherries?


IMG_0988 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Unfortunately the CRS didn't survive in this tank, still have a couple kicking around but with the warm weather here in Perth, Australia, they have pretty much all died.

Here is a post trim photo, starting to thinking about a new scape or pulling this tank down, trimming carpet plants is something i no longer enjoy 

IMG_1201 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## houseofcards (Mar 21, 2009)

Sorry to hear about the shrimp. Many species are so sensitive. Trimming stems got old for me a while back. Pretty much everything I do has mostly ferns, moss and maybe one area of stems. I think if you do that, every once in a while you might be motivated to do a more stem intensive setup again.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Added some purigen today, water was turning green again, pretty disappointed that the cal aqua soil has this effect on the colour of the water, purigen seems to do the trick tho, water is almost crystal clear after a few hours.


IMG_1214 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

Oh man, bummer about the shrimp. That soil has to be frustrating with the color it’s adding to the water. I can handle a bit of the tannins tinting but green is not acceptable. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## tankninja (Jan 27, 2018)

Cool tank, sorry the original concept didn't work out. That huge rock looked precarious! Bummer!


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

tankninja said:


> Cool tank, sorry the original concept didn't work out. That huge rock looked precarious! Bummer!


Thanks, yes the original scape really had impact... tho was a pain to maintain, the current scape has grown on me and ease of trimming the plants really helps, was not much room for my hand and scissors in the tank with the huge rock.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Found time to trim this tank today, it really needed it, here is a before and after photo 


IMG_1376-Before by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_1376-After by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

This tank as been moved outdoors on to my balcony in a rack with 2 other fish tanks. So far so good with the shrimp tank outdoors for a bit over a week, I installed shade cloth cover on the front and side of the rack so the tanks dont really get full sun, ive kept the light on from 5pm - 10pm at the lowest setting, looking at the tanks as the sunlight fades and LEDs start up is pretty nice, like very vibrant colours etc.

Here is a photo from late at night, its hard to maintain the tanks in the rack, so its going to look messy from here on, the riccia has really going crazy since going out doors, it pearls 24/7. I am wondering because there are no fish in this one will mozzies or other bugs make it home, maybe I will add a few small danios.

IMG_1386 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

The tank is going well outdoors, no real increase in algae and growth is much more dense and lush with the extra light, trimmed last weekend and just took this photo now.


IMG_1417 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## Phil Edwards (Jul 18, 2003)

I'd say that last picture is prime time for this aquascape. It looks right at it's best point.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

probably the last photo of this tank, sick of trimming, planing a different low maintainence tank

IMG_1860 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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