# Mythin's Mr. Aqua 12 Gallon Long (Flooded 9/13/2012!)



## mythin (Jun 26, 2009)

Yep, another 12 gallon long thread. After seeing what everyone was doing with theirs and the cool shape of the tank I had to get one. I just got my other tank set up too, its been less than a month and Im already dropping down too much money on this new tank, oh well life is short. 


Still trying to decide what I want to do with this tank, I haven't kept fish in a while, so I definitely am leaning towards minimal iwagumi with more swimming space and really short foreground plants.

Just got bored and set up a hardscape quickly just so I could snap some photo's. These are probably the stones Ill end up using but not the final hardscape layout, still working on that. 

Equipment list so far:
Mr Aqua 12 Gallon Long
Brightwell Florin Volcanit Rio Escuro-XF
Some cheap T5HO dual 36" light 78w
Seiryu stones
Got a custom stand coming in tomorrow as well.

Planned Flora:
I am gonna be using pretty much exclusively e. hydropiper as my lawn, and maybe some s. repens. 


















I may need bigger stones?


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## bitFUUL (May 14, 2010)

Perfect amount of stones. Maybe take one or two smaller stones from the left side and arrange them on the right? Sweet setup.


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## zonamav (Feb 27, 2004)

Like the scape, these tanks are super cool. Seems like a lot of light though unless you are raising it quite a bit?


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## Centromochlus (May 19, 2008)

I think the stones are a perfect size! Looks amazing. Though i do think that due to the length of the tank, you need some more stones on the right to balance it out. I'm all for negative space but i think for this type of tank you really need something on the right side. The arrangement is also very nice.

Can't wait to see this tank all planted!


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## Kai808 (Jul 19, 2011)

Wow great start! I'm not familiar with e. hydropiper, or maybe I mistook it for glosso. I 'm very interested to see how it carpets!


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## gotplants (Apr 18, 2012)

Nice layout of the rocks. If it were me, I'd make a big slope/hill in the middle of the tank and put the rocks there. And maybe 2 or 3 smaller ones laid out somewhere else.


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## 2in10 (Feb 8, 2011)

Nice looking boredom response.


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## rocksmom (Mar 6, 2012)

I like the layout too, but I agree that there should be a couple small ones on the right side. Do you know what you're using for filtration? I debated on getting one of these tanks, but the lighting and filtration intimidated me. I ended up with a 25g cube instead.


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## etane (May 14, 2012)

I disagree. I think once the lawn grows out the "flatness" in the right will look pretty good. The rock on the very very left looks a bit out of place tho. It also looks kinda like a frog to me.


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## jreich (Feb 11, 2009)

I love this shape of tank, ur off to a great start so far, but i think ur rocks are to far over to the left.

Sent from my HTC Inspire 4G using Tapatalk 2


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## mythin (Jun 26, 2009)

Picked up my stand today and its the perfect size, maybe a half an each leeway on both sides, picked up locally for $40 bucks, definitely got lucky there. It does need to be repainted, but I may get lazy and not repaint it.

Redid the hardscape a bit, I dont know about that rock on the right still, I may move it to the back right behind the 2 main rocks, and leave it perfectly flat on the right. 





























Should be getting my e. hydropiper in tomorrow from tom barr, and I got some more coming in later this week too from another tpt user, man 2 golfball portions set me back $70 bucks.

Dry starting soon!


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## gotplants (Apr 18, 2012)

Scape looks 100% better than the first pic. That seiryu on the right does look out of place. If you're going to do the scape like that, I'd remove the right stone and just plant there.


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## meowschwitz (Sep 6, 2011)

Or maybe add one or two more small rocks on the right. Just a single rock does look out of place.


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## tharsis (Oct 9, 2009)

I really like the left rock grouping, it looks really perfect IMO. I think the right rock looks a little weird though and somewhat unsettling...why is it all alone? Is it lonely way out there??

I think that you can balance it by using taller plants on the right instead of more rocks...perhaps make a little hill over there and have DHG or something taller, with HC in the middle flats.

Just my opinion  

Man I really want to get one of these tanks though, they are so cool. Looking forward to the progression on this badboy, good job!


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## mythin (Jun 26, 2009)

Went home for lunch and there was a package from Tom sitting there, I finally got my first batch of hydropiper. I wanted to start planting it, but it will have to wait til after I get home from work. It does look like its gonna be a pos to plant, it has super long roots, perhaps even longer than my substrate is deep, I heard its a good rooter, but wow its root structure is so nice, for such a tiny leaf, it looks like it has erio style roots.


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## mythin (Jun 26, 2009)

Dusted off my macro lens so I could take some pictures. My soil grain is average 1mm just to give you a size comparison. Some pictures of e. hydropiper:


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## meowschwitz (Sep 6, 2011)

That's going to look so nice once it fills out. Good luck on growing that e. hydropiper.


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## sayurasem (Jun 17, 2011)

cool substrate! how much does it cost?


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## Kai808 (Jul 19, 2011)

mythin said:


> Picked up my stand today and its the perfect size, maybe a half an each leeway on both sides, picked up locally for $40 bucks, definitely got lucky there. It does need to be repainted, but I may get lazy and not repaint it.
> 
> Redid the hardscape a bit, I dont know about that rock on the right still, I may move it to the back right behind the 2 main rocks, and leave it perfectly flat on the right.
> 
> ...


I like it like this. As you can see it is thought provoking of "why is the stone alone"? We can be alone and not feel lonely... Some of the best photographs don't follow the rules... or may be I just need to go to sleep already.


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## mythin (Jun 26, 2009)

sayurasem said:


> cool substrate! how much does it cost?


The substrate was kinda pricey at 46$ plus tax for a $15 pound bag, but I have about 1/3 of that bag left, but I had just bought some for my other tank and I really liked it. I think its better than amazonia, its a lot harder to crush and turn to mud (holds its shape better), it does still break down if you crush it between some tweezers as I found out, but still holds its shape much better. Amazonia turns to mush within a year, I can see this stuff outlasting that. Also it doesnt leech ammonia like crazy like amazonia, I was able to cycle my other tank in 3 weeks or so. 




Kai808 said:


> I like it like this. As you can see it is thought provoking of "why is the stone alone"? We can be alone and not feel lonely... Some of the best photographs don't follow the rules... or may be I just need to go to sleep already.


Lol, it was perhaps too thought provoking for me and I just moved it to the back right of the arrangement so I could have a nice flat grass field on the right, it did look too lonely out there all alone.


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## mythin (Jun 26, 2009)

Getting a little bit of melt from going from submerged to emerged, also getting a bit of mold/fungus where those dead leaves are, guessing a little bit is fine, it hasn't spread and the rest of the stuff looks green. Will take pictures weekly while it grows in. Got a second golf ball of hydropiper, havent planted it yet, but its going on the mountain side.


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## Kai808 (Jul 19, 2011)

Hey, How's the tank doing?


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## mythin (Jun 26, 2009)

Progress pictures:


















































Added UG / dhg belem / h. japan / s. repens to the left side.


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## meowschwitz (Sep 6, 2011)

The e. hydropiper seems to be filling in nicely. I see a nice big patch there on the right.


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## sayurasem (Jun 17, 2011)

update please hehe


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## mythin (Jun 26, 2009)

7/8/12 update:

Not much to report, more ug sprouting up, everything else spreading nicely, i added some h. japan to the left side, gonna keep pressing it down to the substrate hopefully have a nice low patch in that corner, but i may try e. triandra in that corner once i flood, dont feel like trying that one emersed. 

















cool rock with a split right down the middle, has a nice little valley that you cant really see from this angle. 
















some mini fissidens growing in slowly, right in the middle of the picture, had to break out the macro for this. 








i think this is mini pellia








i love the way UG spreads









And this was really cool, so i saw a dead decomposing leaf, and out of that leaf a whole string of plantlets was growing out of it. It looks like how invitro stuff grows out, anyone know what this is called exactly?


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## Kai808 (Jul 19, 2011)

Progress looks great! Are you running both bulbs on it? It doesn't look like too much light for an HO and you wouldn't want to burn out your plants. Or you might be shooting at f20 for your aperture.


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## mythin (Jun 26, 2009)

For the first few pictures I was using a 50mm 1.8 with a shutter speed of like 640, for the macro, its a 100mm 2.8f and i probably set the shutter speed to 200-300 range maybe higher, its hard to hold that sucker still on a long exposure. 

Also, the light is a bit dimmer, its hard to tell in the pictures, but I started using a layer of parchment paper on the acrylic glass of the t5ho light, this diffuses the light and the reflectors. And there is no risk of burning since parchment paper goes into ovens and doesnt burn. My plants WERE burning/yellowing before i did this. After I did this, i got to see a lot of good horizontal growth, and no yellowing. 

I just ordered 2 new giesmann bulbs for this fixture though, the aquaflora and midday 6800k, both of those should really help with growth. These cheap oddesea fixtures are nice, but the bulbs they ship with just promote algae growth once flooded. Hoping this will both speed up the dsm time AND i should have less algae issues once i flood. I plan on making a hanging light out of it doing the bent conduit piping thing.


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## sayurasem (Jun 17, 2011)

Oh boy UG!


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## Vermino (Jun 14, 2012)

god looking at all these long 12 gallons makes me drool to buy one.. I'm seriously jealous of you...


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## Kai808 (Jul 19, 2011)

mythin said:


> For the first few pictures I was using a 50mm 1.8 with a shutter speed of like 640, for the macro, its a 100mm 2.8f and i probably set the shutter speed to 200-300 range maybe higher, its hard to hold that sucker still on a long exposure.
> 
> Also, the light is a bit dimmer, its hard to tell in the pictures, but I started using a layer of parchment paper on the acrylic glass of the t5ho light, this diffuses the light and the reflectors. And there is no risk of burning since parchment paper goes into ovens and doesnt burn. My plants WERE burning/yellowing before i did this. After I did this, i got to see a lot of good horizontal growth, and no yellowing.
> 
> I just ordered 2 new giesmann bulbs for this fixture though, the aquaflora and midday 6800k, both of those should really help with growth. These cheap oddesea fixtures are nice, but the bulbs they ship with just promote algae growth once flooded. Hoping this will both speed up the dsm time AND i should have less algae issues once i flood. I plan on making a hanging light out of it doing the bent conduit piping thing.


Cool! I have both of those lenses. Are you still using the xt? I still have mine and loved using it day light. The camera's now days try to cram too many megapixels into their sensors except for full frame ones. 

I may also pick up a T5HO one of these days... Maybe. Keep up the good work!


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## wabisabi (Jan 31, 2011)

Love the rock work. Great proportion to tank size. :thumbsup:


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## CmLaracy (Jan 7, 2007)

nice scape, and very nice growth, prime example of DSM. I love seiryu stone, and HC and UG are my two favorite plants, I'll be watching this.


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## mythin (Jun 26, 2009)

Vermino said:


> god looking at all these long 12 gallons makes me drool to buy one.. I'm seriously jealous of you...


haha, reading the 12g long thread pretty much made me have to get one. 



Kai808 said:


> Cool! I have both of those lenses. Are you still using the xt? I still have mine and loved using it day light. The camera's now days try to cram too many megapixels into their sensors except for full frame ones.
> 
> I may also pick up a T5HO one of these days... Maybe. Keep up the good work!


yeah trusty old rebel xt ive had for years, ive thought about upgrading before, but then i think about it and its like why, this thing takes some perfectly good pictures, and the lenses are really what make the difference.


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## Caleb19 (Sep 27, 2010)

What does this Brightwell Substrate buffer your water parameters to?


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## mythin (Jun 26, 2009)

Well, I havent flooded this tank yet, but in my other tank with CRS it buffered down to 6.2ish using R/O. I re-mineralize with fluval shrimp mineral, lots of happy CRS in that tank, prl and benibachi prl.


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## mythin (Jun 26, 2009)

Time for some updats 7/28/12:

added a few nodes of Lilaeopsis nova 'mini to the UG/dhg belem lawn on the rocky side. Should be an interesting and hopefully natural looking mix once it grows in, with the UG being the majority of the grass. Progress is slow but steady, i could probably flood it really soon if I wanted, but I like how it looks with out water at the moment. Got a bunch of rotala mexicana goias thats going to be behind the right back rock. But I will wait until I flood to plant those in there, they didnt seem to do too well emergent.


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## PinkRasbora (Jan 22, 2005)

Uber Nice


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## Williak (Jun 26, 2012)

Great looking tank! All of these 12 gal longs are starting to wear on me... I've began looking around my place for a spot to put one.... :icon_neut


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## sayurasem (Jun 17, 2011)

finally start to filling in!


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## mythin (Jun 26, 2009)

Its really hard to notice progress when you look at it every day, but its definitely easier to see in a series of pictures.


Now I have noticed some BGA or some other kind of mushy blackish colored algae growing where my initial plantings had melted. I dont know how to get rid of this stuff prior to flooding in a few weeks. I tried to manually remove as much as i could with tweezers, but some of it is wrapped around the grains of substrate. I am gonna try some excel in my misting bottle and see if that helps, if not i may go get some antibiotics for it.


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## Kai808 (Jul 19, 2011)

mythin said:


> Its really hard to notice progress when you look at it every day, but its definitely easier to see in a series of pictures.
> 
> 
> Now I have noticed some BGA or some other kind of mushy blackish colored algae growing where my initial plantings had melted. I dont know how to get rid of this stuff prior to flooding in a few weeks. I tried to manually remove as much as i could with tweezers, but some of it is wrapped around the grains of substrate. I am gonna try some excel in my misting bottle and see if that helps, if not i may go get some antibiotics for it.


It still looking good! Sorry to hear about your algae/bacteria issues. Do you have pictures of it? One of my tanks had BGA(on the substate and glass) and I turned it into an emersed setup. I put some H2O2 directly on it and it got rid of it. One bad thing about it was it melted some of the HC surrounding it. 

But, I "WOULD NOT" try it in your tank, because it may kill your other plants. Good Luck!


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## mythin (Jun 26, 2009)

Kai808 said:


> It still looking good! Sorry to hear about your algae/bacteria issues. Do you have pictures of it? One of my tanks had BGA(on the substate and glass) and I turned it into an emersed setup. I put some H2O2 directly on it and it got rid of it. One bad thing about it was it melted some of the HC surrounding it.
> 
> But, I "WOULD NOT" try it in your tank, because it may kill your other plants. Good Luck!


Ill have to pick up some hydrogen peroxide, I kind of messed up and ended up burning a lot of my plants (I used excel in my mister). I think I had the concentration too high and I experienced a lot of yellowing/dying of my s. repens and some HC, but its mostly recovered now. It did kill some of the BGA, but not enough of it. The issue is that its hard to keep my hill side moist while keeping the flatter side not in standing water. I use paper towels to soak up excess water when ever I mist. 

I have thought about using maracyn or another anti biotic crushed and mixed into the misting bottle, I dont know effective that would be. I don't know if a black out of a few days would be effective too? Ill try to take some pictures of the the affected area when I get home.


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## sunyang730 (Jan 30, 2012)

Looking at the light that you got. It is really nice but it is 78w all together. Did you see any increase in electric bills? 

I am thinking of replacing my lighting for my 12gL not sure if I should get this or the finnex ray II :/


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## mythin (Jun 26, 2009)

sunyang730 said:


> Looking at the light that you got. It is really nice but it is 78w all together. Did you see any increase in electric bills?
> 
> I am thinking of replacing my lighting for my 12gL not sure if I should get this or the finnex ray II :/


Its definitely a lot of light, I have it about 18 inches above the substrate AND i have it filtered through parchment paper, so the actual par getting to the substrate might not be as high. I also replaced the crappy oddesea bulbs with some nice geissman bulbs, It remains to be seen how I can mute the lighting a bit once I flood or If I will need to, I plan on still parsing the light through the parchment paper, ill probably apply it directly to the acrylic glass cover. As far as electric bill goes, I live in texas and our summers are unbearably hot, so I usually get close to $200 no matter what each month, its a pain, but in winter Im usually only paying 40-60.


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## sunyang730 (Jan 30, 2012)

78w is double the amount of what I got right now, and it is trouble the amount for the ray II LED. LOL


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## mythin (Jun 26, 2009)

Some up to date pictures, a little bit of dieback and browning as I went after the BGA that had started to form, I think I got most of it, but may still have a little bit remaining, i have been trying to keep it much drier as far as substrate wetness goes, but still misting once a day or so. 

























FTS











































Erio Kimberly, with lilaeopsis novae mini, UG, dhg belem









UG is by far my favorite color and texture as far as grassy foreground plants go. The green is really eye pleasing for some reason.

























Left side view


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## pedropete (Feb 27, 2012)

i'm loving this journal! the scape is nice and the plant choices are exceptional. 

what fish/shrimp are you planning on stocking this beauty with?


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## mythin (Jun 26, 2009)

pedropete said:


> i'm loving this journal! the scape is nice and the plant choices are exceptional.
> 
> what fish/shrimp are you planning on stocking this beauty with?


Thanks! Im not sure what I plan on stocking it with yet, been thinking about a few things, if I do shrimp, i think i want some black tigers in there. If I dont end up doing shrimp, and theres a good chance I wont, Id like some interesting nano fish. Anyone have any stocking suggestions? 

The scape will be mostly green, so I was thinking maybe rasboras brigittae, but Ive had them before and they dont school that well, but they are colorful. Other thought is perhaps some kind of tetras, but im really open to suggestions.


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## Capsaicin_MFK (Nov 15, 2009)

A buddy of mine just got 100 lbs of that substrate, it looks really nice. Great tank! I bet you are itching to fill it up any day.


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## sayurasem (Jun 17, 2011)

I can't wait till the tank it's flooded! That ug will be very awesome! I have a DSM setup with ug on it, maybe I'll add that to my tank hehe.


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## mythin (Jun 26, 2009)

sayurasem said:


> I can't wait till the tank it's flooded! That ug will be very awesome! I have a DSM setup with ug on it, maybe I'll add that to my tank hehe.


Yeah man, ug is nice, im pretty sure it would even grow in the shadowy area of your tank, its a creeper. I cant wait until my HC fills in like yours.


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## mythin (Jun 26, 2009)

Well the DSM days end near, I just ordered co2 and filtration. 

Victor 450E being made by nielsheh, ehiem 2236 (on sale new for $105 from big al's pets if you google for a big al's coupon code to get the additional 10% off, and free shipping!), 50mm atomic diffuser from gla, mr aqua bubble counter from fleabay, 4dkh sol and drop checker, all in all an expensive but still thrifty day. 

I think I Im about 3 weeks away from getting everything in hopefully, so I will probably flood at that point. 

Ive been looking into fuana for once its cycled, i like ember tetra's and mosquito rasboras, since the scape is mostly green i think the reds might pop a little, might put some pfr's from my other tank in there too.


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## mythin (Jun 26, 2009)

My DSM days are at a near close, It's been 104 days if I counted correctly, as soon as I get my filtration and co2 equipment in, i will be flooding, so probably sometime next weekend. 

The last of the DSM pictures. 









































Progression:


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## KenRC51 (Oct 13, 2011)

Nice progression for 10 weeks, When you saran wrap your tank you you air tight seal it? For my 60-f I have it almost air tight, just a little hole on one corner but daily I open it up to spray the leafs.


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## senor0kun (Sep 3, 2012)

Great setup, mythin. Where'd you pick up the tank up from?


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## mythin (Jun 26, 2009)

KenRC51 said:


> Nice progression for 10 weeks, When you saran wrap your tank you you air tight seal it? For my 60-f I have it almost air tight, just a little hole on one corner but daily I open it up to spray the leafs.


Yeah, i kept it 100% wrapped for maximum humidity, i keep my apt really cold so it was harder to keep the humidity up without it being covered besides when i mist it once every day/other day. I like the footprint on the 60-f, my next tank is going to be a similar foot print, i just want it longer. 



senor0kun said:


> Great setup, mythin. Where'd you pick up the tank up from?


I ordered the tank from marine depot, i think it was like 88 bucks shipped, greenleafaquariums is selling the same tank (91-b) for even cheaper right now.


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## sayurasem (Jun 17, 2011)

What fauna for this tank?


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## mythin (Jun 26, 2009)

sayurasem said:


> What fauna for this tank?


Definitely red animals. Ill probably throw in a few PFR with some either ember tetra's or mosquito rasbora's, whatever I can source first.


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## nycfish (Nov 6, 2009)

it must've taken a lot of patience to go DSM for 3 months =) . Have a quick question on your substrate - is it seachem florabase or azoo grower bed you are using?


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## mythin (Jun 26, 2009)

nycfish said:


> it must've taken a lot of patience to go DSM for 3 months =) . Have a quick question on your substrate - is it seachem florabase or azoo grower bed you are using?


Its actually Florin Volcanit Rio Cafe-XF and I love it, I consider it nicer and sturdier than amazonia.


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## CryptKeeper54 (Apr 14, 2012)

mythin said:


> Its actually Florin Volcanit Rio Cafe-XF and I love it, I consider it nicer and sturdier than amazonia.


First time seeing this product. Never even heard of the company till now. Is this an American based business? Doesn't seem like they have an online store. Maybe I'm missing something. I would love to support "made in the USA" products. This is exciting, hope it works out for you in the long run.


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## caykuu (Jul 30, 2011)

This is just great! I love these kinds of scapes.  
Are you planning to inject co2?


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## mythin (Jun 26, 2009)

CryptKeeper54 said:


> First time seeing this product. Never even heard of the company till now. Is this an American based business? Doesn't seem like they have an online store. Maybe I'm missing something. I would love to support "made in the USA" products. This is exciting, hope it works out for you in the long run.


Brightwell is well known in the salt water tank community, they dont seem to have many fresh water products, but honestly I cant say enough good things about it. I basically will never buy amazonia if I can get a hold of brightwell from now on, its so much nicer, holds shape better, less ammonia leech, buffers to 6.2-6.3 with r/o, takes longer to break down into mud, and since it holds its shape better you can actually see that water flow THROUGH the substrate is really good. 



caykuu said:


> This is just great! I love these kinds of scapes.
> Are you planning to inject co2?


I plan on blasting the co2 for atleast a month with no fauna inside, and then taper off and get some red colored nano fish, maybe throw in some of my pfr's in there too. 

after waiting for 110 some odd days, im finally getting anxious about filling it.


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## mythin (Jun 26, 2009)

What happens when you do a dsm for 100+ days? random stuff flowers, like Hydrocotyle sp. "Japan"


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## Geniusdudekiran (Dec 6, 2010)

Looking great, when are you filling it? A truly inspiring scape.


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## KenRC51 (Oct 13, 2011)

mythin said:


> Its actually Florin Volcanit Rio Cafe-XF and I love it, I consider it nicer and sturdier than amazonia.


How do you buy it?


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## mythin (Jun 26, 2009)

Its done! DSM is done!


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## mythin (Jun 26, 2009)

I added r. colorata behind the rocks and gave it a nice short trim, and rotala indica behind the right side rock, planted right on top of crypt parva, hope it doesnt mind.


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## Bluek24a4 (Mar 16, 2010)

Nice tank. How good does it feel to have finally flooded it?


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## sayurasem (Jun 17, 2011)

Hope the UG grow like crazy!


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## Capsaicin_MFK (Nov 15, 2009)

I wish you good luck with the transition phase. Such a nice layout.


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## mythin (Jun 26, 2009)

Bluek24a4 said:


> Nice tank. How good does it feel to have finally flooded it?














sayurasem said:


> Hope the UG grow like crazy!


knowing ug, im going to have to give it a haircut shortly, it likes to get really long and i need it to fill in a bit more before it decides to do the whole get really long thing. 



Capsaicin_MFK said:


> I wish you good luck with the transition phase. Such a nice layout.


Thank you! this is my first time doing such a long dsm, and my co2 isnt in til saturday, but i figure a few days wont hurt, im just doing daily water changes and excel overdosing at the moment.


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## SaltyNC (Jun 26, 2012)

Congrats on completing your DS. Your scape looks excellent. I wish you the best of luck during the transition, and look forward to seeing your red animals.


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## caykuu (Jul 30, 2011)

Amazing  Good job!


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## Kai808 (Jul 19, 2011)

Congrats on the flood! Looking Great!


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## gus6464 (Dec 19, 2011)

Looks awesome. Where did you get your Florin Volcanit from? I have been looking for it for weeks now and no one seems to carry it.


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## mythin (Jun 26, 2009)

caykuu said:


> Amazing  Good job!


Thanks!



Kai808 said:


> Congrats on the flood! Looking Great!


Thanks man, I cant wait to see your FTS flooded!



gus6464 said:


> Looks awesome. Where did you get your Florin Volcanit from? I have been looking for it for weeks now and no one seems to carry it.


I get that question a lot, my LFS carries it ( fish gallery in houston), its about $55 for a 15 lb bag, so not cheap, although when I purchased my first 2 bags it was only $43, they raised the price up recently.

I also just tested my water today, the tank has cycled in 24 hours, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 20-30ppm of nitrate. Pretty awesome I just need to figure out what kind of fish i want to get now!


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## jeander (Sep 9, 2012)

Wow I loved to go through this whole thread. Man I want one of these tanks and you did a great job!


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## mythin (Jun 26, 2009)

jeander said:


> Wow I loved to go through this whole thread. Man I want one of these tanks and you did a great job!


Thanks! yeah, I read every page of the 12 gallon long club thread, but I had already decided a few pages in that I had to get one, seeing all the other journals really convinced me, im happy i got one, i want to get a second one!

I just got fauna!!

10 ember tetra's 
10 neon green tetra's

The embers are awesome schoolers and are barely spooked at all, i can get right up in their face and they just chill, they are so awesome. They aslo look a lot better in person than pictures seem to do them justice on the internet.


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## mythin (Jun 26, 2009)

FTS:









My dogs new hobby.


































Really got to say I am pleased with the ember tetra's, they are not too skitish, and the school really really well. The green neons are good schoolers too, sometimes they will both school as one big shoal, sometimes they will segregate, really like how this tank is coming together. I also got co2 hooked up now, keeping an eye on the drop checker so I dont gas my new tank inhabitants.


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## meowschwitz (Sep 6, 2011)

Fish! Embers and green neons look great together, but I'm sure you already knew that. :icon_wink

How's the e. hydropiper coming along? It looks good from the pictures.


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## bitFUUL (May 14, 2010)

Very sharp mythin!


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## tizzite (Mar 28, 2010)

Love the tank!

The scape is truly artistic. Even my non-aquarium-obsessed friends appreciate it.

Where did you get such good rock in Houston?


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## mythin (Jun 26, 2009)

meowschwitz said:


> Fish! Embers and green neons look great together, but I'm sure you already knew that. :icon_wink
> 
> How's the e. hydropiper coming along? It looks good from the pictures.


The e. hydropiper melted long ago, most of what you see is HC, there is a little hydropiper left, but i have another little patch growing emersed in a tub, I may move it to the tank soon now that I have co2 going and see how it does, it did not DSM at all though, but it may have been because all the hydropiper I bought was already submerged and it didnt like converting back to emersed. 



bitFUUL said:


> Very sharp mythin!


Thanks bitfuul!



tizzite said:


> Love the tank!
> 
> The scape is truly artistic. Even my non-aquarium-obsessed friends appreciate it.
> 
> Where did you get such good rock in Houston?


Like almost everything else in the tank I got it from someone off TPT, the only rocks in houston I could find that looked ok were volcanic lace rock, I do want to hit up ADG for some unzan stone though, that looks nice to work with.


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## meowschwitz (Sep 6, 2011)

mythin said:


> The e. hydropiper melted long ago, most of what you see is HC, there is a little hydropiper left, but i have another little patch growing emersed in a tub, I may move it to the tank soon now that I have co2 going and see how it does, it did not DSM at all though, but it may have been because all the hydropiper I bought was already submerged and it didnt like converting back to emersed.


Aw, it melted? A carpet of E. hydropiper would have looked amazing. But HC ain't a bad replacement at all. The rest of the plants look great, though. :thumbsup:


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## mythin (Jun 26, 2009)

FTS 10/1/2012:













































meowschwitz said:


> Aw, it melted? A carpet of E. hydropiper would have looked amazing. But HC ain't a bad replacement at all. The rest of the plants look great, though. :thumbsup:


Yeah, i have a little bit growing emersed, but not much, i may try it again soon once I clear a spot to grow it, im blasting the co2 at the moment, the fish dont seem to mind.


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## mythin (Jun 26, 2009)

First trim of the left side, the UG was getting long, and the hydrocotyle sp japan was starting to try to take over the whole hill, i had to show it whos boss. 

FTS pre trim:

















FTS after trim:









Details:


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## KenRC51 (Oct 13, 2011)

Very nice Mythin! Did you have any problems with the UG melting when you flooded the tank?

I'm setting up a 20g long with UG and I'm scared that they all would melt. I planted a small clump in my 60-F and they melted in 1 week. 

You think I should blast the Co2 then I flood the tank? I'm not going to have any fish or inverts in there for about a month after I flood anyways.


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## mythin (Jun 26, 2009)

KenRC51 said:


> Very nice Mythin! Did you have any problems with the UG melting when you flooded the tank?
> 
> I'm setting up a 20g long with UG and I'm scared that they all would melt. I planted a small clump in my 60-F and they melted in 1 week.
> 
> You think I should blast the Co2 then I flood the tank? I'm not going to have any fish or inverts in there for about a month after I flood anyways.


I had a little bit of melt, but that was more due to me having to use H2O2 to take out some BGA I had cultivated during my DSM. The UG in the area's that I treated with H2O2 died, other than that I got very little melt once I flooded. I got a little bit of diatoms that lasted a few days. After I flooded I waited a month and a half or so before I gave all the UG a haircut, and now its growing in nice and thick. It takes about a month to recover going either way, from emersed to submerged or vice versa. It will take a month before you notice any growth, meaning you will probably notice melt rather than growth, but after that initial month, whatever UG survives, it should start spreading quite quickly.


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## if_fishes_were_wishes (Jul 29, 2007)

Wow is that stunning! So serene!


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## KenRC51 (Oct 13, 2011)

mythin said:


> I had a little bit of melt, but that was more due to me having to use H2O2 to take out some BGA I had cultivated during my DSM. The UG in the area's that I treated with H2O2 died, other than that I got very little melt once I flooded. I got a little bit of diatoms that lasted a few days. After I flooded I waited a month and a half or so before I gave all the UG a haircut, and now its growing in nice and thick. It takes about a month to recover going either way, from emersed to submerged or vice versa. It will take a month before you notice any growth, meaning you will probably notice melt rather than growth, but after that initial month, whatever UG survives, it should start spreading quite quickly.


I didn't know BGA can grown when in DSM. I thought that when in DSM it makes it harder for algae to grow, am I right?

Diatoms are so easy to take care of. Just get a few oto cats and they will take care of it. So far, every new setup I have started had diatoms algae.


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## mythin (Jun 26, 2009)

KenRC51 said:


> I didn't know BGA can grown when in DSM. I thought that when in DSM it makes it harder for algae to grow, am I right?
> 
> Diatoms are so easy to take care of. Just get a few oto cats and they will take care of it. So far, every new setup I have started had diatoms algae.


Yeah, you can get BGA in a DSM, it being a bacteria and not truley an algae. Its called "blue green algae" because its able to photosynthesis light much like algae, but its still a bacteria. I was blasting the light too hard near the start of my DSM and the BGA started to form, but it was really easy to get rid of once flooded with a syringe and spot H2O2 treatment. 

Just make sure you have 0 standing water, and that the waterline comes only half way up the substrate depth. I only misted every other day, just kept the plastic wrap on 100% the rest of the time, and I had very little other issues.


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## mythin (Jun 26, 2009)

Just a quick cellphone shot, will probably do a proper post in another week or two once the few last bald patches fill in.


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## bigd603 (May 10, 2011)

I'm really loving this tank. So simple but enthralling. Where do you get those stones? Are they seiryu? If so, did they alter your h2o parameters at all?


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## bitFUUL (May 14, 2010)

Lookin' good mythin!


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## mythin (Jun 26, 2009)

Ive decided to re-do this tank completely, After I moved into my new apartment most of my UG floated up, due to substrate moving during my move and I decided I want to start over with this tank anyway. I am selling off all the seiryu and HC and UG in this tank, and maybe the substrate too. I am going to set this up as a sulawesi cardinal tank, perhaps a planted sulawesi cardinal tank, my tap water is 8.0 out the tap, and ive always wanted cardinals so im gonna give it a go. I have my seiryu rock for sale on APC if anyone is interested.


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## sunyang730 (Jan 30, 2012)

Oh man, so sad that you are selling everything. They look so good. LOL


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