# Mr. Aqua 11.4G High-Tech Aquascape V2 | Updated 3/2/2015



## GreenBliss (Mar 7, 2012)

Looks great. Love the driftwood.


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

GreenBliss said:


> Looks great. Love the driftwood.


Thanks!


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

*Update: 1/31/2014*

I completed stage 2 of planting. :bounce: Sorry for the bright haziness. It's a combination of a cell phone camera and some cloudiness from bacteria I presume in the early stages of setup.

*Unedited*
















*Edited*

















I added some submersed grown HC cuba in the foreground, which I purchased from the AFA store in SF. They have a pretty good deal there, where if you buy 3 pots, you get the 4th free. Some pots aren't as lush as others, but the associates offered me the best they had. They are kept in tanks with MTS, so I did a PP dip and put the pots in quarantine for a few days before I planted them into my tank. If anyone hasn't been to the AFA store and lives in the bay area, I'd check it out! They have a good selection of plants, healthy fish, and pretty much your ADA needs. :thumbsup:

To the right, I added some hardscape (pagoda rocks) to create this plateau of staurogyne repens looking over the rocks. I'm hoping the open space to the right and the contrast of the AR mini and the staurogyne repens will look nice.

I'm waiting on some hydrocotyle japan from a generous RAOK (thanks OhNo123!) to fill the middle areas of the tank. I've never tried the plant before so I'm excited. Not sure what to expect on maintenance, but I hear people pulling out clumps of it frequently so we shall see how it plays out. 

Last but not least, I have some anubias nana and nana petite which have been growing pretty well in another tank. There are a bunch of budding rhizomes which I can't use and might go to a RAOK. The reason I haven't planted them is because I observed some very small yellow eggs under the leaves, which I've tried very hard to manually remove. Now they are in quarantine as I wait for what I missed to hatch. I might get impatient and grab a toothpick and magnifying glass to thoroughly inspect. 










Thanks to TPT for an awesome easy, surface skimmer idea. No more surface scum!

Final thoughts, wondering if the driftwood perches would be ideal for this shrimp.


----------



## devilduck (May 9, 2012)

Bamboo shrimp love current. Put the driftwood right in the current path. Your tank looks really clean, you might need to supplement feed them couple of times a week with very finely crush flake or First Bites fry food.


----------



## xmas_one (Feb 5, 2010)

Looking good, nice job on the wood selection/placement!


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

devilduck said:


> Bamboo shrimp love current. Put the driftwood right in the current path. Your tank looks really clean, you might need to supplement feed them couple of times a week with very finely crush flake or First Bites fry food.


Yes, I'm concerned if the current would be strong enough. I'd have to switch out the outflow lily pipe for a sprayer or get a stronger filter. There's certainly nothing for them to feed on in the water right now, but maybe a few months down the line.


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

xmas_one said:


> Looking good, nice job on the wood selection/placement!


Thanks! I went to Albany Aquarium and squatted for 20 mins arranging driftwood in the store. It felt a little embarrassing with people walking past me, but I needed the right driftwood! :red_mouth


----------



## RisingSun (Jan 5, 2014)

can you link me to instructions for building a skimmer like that? Hows it working for you? I heard restricting intake flow was bad for your filter, does that skimmer restrict the inflow? Great looking tank!


----------



## Jdiesels (Mar 20, 2013)

Asu1776 said:


> Hi everyone,
> 
> I'm starting a new journal after I decided to tear my old tank down, which you can visit here. http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=460161.
> 
> ...


Awesome tank !


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

RisingSun said:


> can you link me to instructions for building a skimmer like that? Hows it working for you? I heard restricting intake flow was bad for your filter, does that skimmer restrict the inflow? Great looking tank!


Here's the link.

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=293066

The skimmer is working wonderfully. I've found that making wider and longer slits makes it work better and puts less, if any, strain on the filter. Before, I had small triangular slits, which resulted in a pocket of air in the tube since the water falling into the tube was not faster than the rate in which the water was being sucked into the lily pipe. That's why using wider and longer slits lets water flow in at a steady rate, even when there is evaporation.

Thanks for the tank feedback!


----------



## RisingSun (Jan 5, 2014)

Asu1776 said:


> Here's the link.
> 
> http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=293066
> 
> ...


Thanks!


----------



## MB2 (Feb 6, 2007)

Very nice start. Will look great when filled in. The shrimp photo is pretty. Did you use a macro lens to take that shot or just cropping?


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

MB2 said:


> Very nice start. Will look great when filled in. The shrimp photo is pretty. Did you use a macro lens to take that shot or just cropping?


Thanks! Can't wait for the fill in! I found the shrimp photo online. Wish, but can't take the credit.


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

*Official Day 1*

With the exception of waiting for my anubias nana and nana petite to become sterilized, I wanted to make today as the first "measurement" day of this new scape and tank. I have finally added some hydrocotyle japan. Now it's time to up the CO2 and the nutrient levels. On to the pictures. 56k connections, watch out!


















The sparse addition of hydrocotyle japan.










Macro photo of dwarf baby tears.


















Limnophila aromatica coloring up real nice underneath!










The rotala bangladesh trimmings I received from AFA are a bit unusual. Half of the stems are on steroids, growing almost two inches in a few days, and the others are stunted at the tips and aren't growing. Notice how at night the right two stems are closed but the others are open. I'm thinking I'm going to lose the ones on the left, unless they sprout side shoots.










I'm expecting to do weekly updates, so stay tuned to see how things change across the weeks!


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

*Day 2 Update*

Had some free time today, so under high light and strained eyes, I removed limpet eggs from my all my anubias nana and nana petite and inserted them on the driftwood. Also added a drop checker.


----------



## OhNo123 (Jan 8, 2008)

Really liking how your tank is turning out! For your inline co2 diffuser, did you attach it to the outflow or inflow hose? I think I'm gonna get one of those since there's no circulation in my tank that would move my co2 bubbles around


----------



## Jonnywhoop (May 30, 2012)

Tank is looking good Arthur! Can't wait to get the reineckki soon!


----------



## h4n (Jan 4, 2006)

Nice Arthur.

Now I can see where the filter guard will be going


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

Thanks Han! Looking forward to that custom filter guard so I can keep an RCS colony in here.


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

OhNo123 said:


> Really liking how your tank is turning out! For your inline co2 diffuser, did you attach it to the outflow or inflow hose? I think I'm gonna get one of those since there's no circulation in my tank that would move my co2 bubbles around


Thanks! The inline diffuser is hooked up to the outflow. Pretty good idea to use one, although it products a very fine mist of bubbles which some may not like. You don't have as much gas off as you would if you use a diffuser if you don't break the surface of the water.


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

Jonnywhoop said:


> Tank is looking good Arthur! Can't wait to get the reineckki soon!


Thanks John! I basically gave you all my left over reineckii. Should be about 8 or 9 stems.


----------



## flutterbug (Jan 8, 2012)

Very nice setup! Your light hangers are interesting. I'd like to know more about them.


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

flutterbug said:


> Very nice setup! Your light hangers are interesting. I'd like to know more about them.


Sorry for the late reply, I haven't been home this weekend to take pictures and share about the light hangers. Here is a close up of the lights.



















The light are hung from an ikea bookshelf using these yoyo hangers. The original intent was for the height of the light to be adjustable, but then I realized that would require the shelf to be a lot higher than I needed it. Using the yoyo hangers actually turned out okay. Since I couldn't place the J hooks on each bracket directly in line with the middle of the tank, I use the extra string to tie the lights to the brackets so that it pulls the light towards the center of the tank. 

Here's another shot.


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

*Week 1 Update*

The first week update is here! :bounce:


















The baby tears are showing good growth and are nice and healthy. My melted downoi also seems to be recovering, although they are rather crummy looking at the moment.











The hydrocotyle is looking good too and showing lots of this new growth.



















Anubias nana still needing to take root. Wondering how long that'll take.










Limnophila aromatica had some dying tips. :frown: I'm guessing it's probably from the shock of switching between different tank conditions, plant dipping, and moving them back and forth in the initial stages of setup. However, the plant has seemed to rebound by shooting out many of these new tips. I'm expecting a huge aromatica bush to the left in a few months. roud:










Similar to the limnophila aromatica, the rotala bangladesh I picked up from AFA had two stems racing ahead of the others, and the other two stunted. It was particularly noticeable at night when the healthy stems were "closing up" where as the stunted ones were still open. I decided to pull the stunted stems out and grow them in another tank. In its place, I planted some pogostemon erectus. Initially, I couldn't decide between the two, but I guess the best way to tell is to grow them both! 

Thanks for following up! Please ask if you want more pictures or more info about the tank.


----------



## Brian_Cali77 (Mar 19, 2010)

Great tank build. Plants are looking good! That Hydrocotyle sp. Japan can get a little unruly, just have to show it who's boss when it starts growing all over the place. I might have to try that DIY skimmer idea someday on one of my lily pipes. Can't wait to see this tank fill in  

BTW, do you like that Finnex canister?


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

Brian_Cali77 said:


> Great tank build. Plants are looking good! That Hydrocotyle sp. Japan can get a little unruly, just have to show it who's boss when it starts growing all over the place. I might have to try that DIY skimmer idea someday on one of my lily pipes. Can't wait to see this tank fill in
> 
> BTW, do you like that Finnex canister?


Thanks Brian! I can see what everyone means by the hydrocotyle being unruly. It's the fastest growing plant in my tank. It's put out 2-3 times it's original leaf mass in 1 week or so.

The finnex canister is not bad. It's quiet and has a good amount of space for filter media, but I don't think it puts out that much flow on my lily pipes. It also can't sit too far below from the tank. I kind of don't like how it doesn't prime on its own, compared to an XP3 I had. I would prefer the Ehiem 2213 but this has a cost advantage. :/


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

*Week 2 Update*

*Tank Shot: 2/17/2014*










This week reminded me how much I still have to learn keeping a successful planted tank. I started playing around with some parameters of the tank and messed up the equilibrium. :icon_frow Originally, I had intended to speed up the cycling of the tank by adding Dr. Tim's ammonium chloride and tetra safestart. I was excessive on the safestart, which quickly coated all my plants with this slime that was difficult to remove. It smothered my dwarf baby tears, which all of sudden seemed to start dying quickly, turning blue and transparent with weak stems bending in the wind. You can see some pictures of the dead HC here. I've tried my best to remove the debris and dead stems. I'm really hoping the HC will rebound soon enough.



















Realizing the PH was kind of low for cycling, I decreased the CO2 levels and upped the KH levels and temperature. Plus my phosphates had gotten kind of low due to poor dosing. I also started playing around with the height of the light to encourage my ludwigia to grow straighter. I now have a pretty big diatom outbreak that is now replacing the slime coat of the tetra safestart all over my plants.  Green spot algae has made its way on to the lower leaves of the AR mini, the downoi, and the limnophila aromatica. I've upped the CO2 levels, done repeated 50% water changes to clean out diatoms, and resumed regular EI dosing. I'm hoping the diatom problem will be phased out soon as the tank matures and the green spot algae will disappear as the plants recover.

The downoi and l. aromatica are showing lots of new growth though, so that's a positive. Check out the spread of the hydrocotyle japan! It is a weed!




























Contrarily, some plants seem to show some sort of deficiencies. My anubias are showing recession from the outer edges and yellowing patches. Not exactly sure why.










Rotala bangladesh is yellow/whitish at the tips.










The staurogyne repens in the bottom front left is also showing some oddly shaped leaves. Not necessarily crinkled, but smaller and broader than what I am used to. 

I would love to have some help and feedback from people here on what are some good next steps. CO2 is pretty much maxed out right now. I added in two amanos from another tank to help with the algae problems. The CO2 is a notch right before they are swimming around trying to escape. I've upped trace dosing, so hopefully that'll show some effects.

I'm hoping next week's update will be better.


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

*Week 3 Update*

*Tank shot: 2/24/2014*










Over the past week, the tank was overrun by diatoms after I added the ammonium to provide food for the biological bacteria. While I was cleaning the tank, I bumped into the driftwood with the siphon and messed up the arrangement. I remembered AnotherHobby's advice that substrate moves and that it would be wise to secure driftwood to prevent erosion.

Here are some pictures of the driftwood secured to eggcrate using cable ties. It was quite an exercise to save the water, take out the plants, remove the substrate and put everything back in, but I think it was more than worth it! Borderline OCD, I know, but shooting for the stars on this one.




























Sorry if it's hard to see the cable ties securing the driftwood. The driftwood was wet when I did this. The extra cable ties at the edges are similar to "legs" so the egg crate sits evenly on the bottom.

I added some osmocote+ beads to the floor of the tank to provide some substrate fertilization. I also ordered nilocg's all-in-one macro and micro fertilizers, which I'm hoping will simplify the EI dosing process with a pump here and there. I do dose some extra iron to induce some more coloration from my l. aromatica and ludwigia. :thumbsup:

Interestingly, upon removing the substrate and putting it back into the tank, my tank has shown signs of nitrite over the weekend. Took about 4 weeks for nitrite to show up, but nonetheless a great sign that the tank is cycling and will soon be fish/shrimp ready. :bounce:

The pogostemon erectus is looking crummy with some twisted small leaves at the top.



















CO2 has been BLASTING and the light is 15 inches about substrate, which according to Hoppy's PAR analysis, puts out around 100 PAR. Can't be calcium because I have crushed coral in the filter, and also because Tom Barr has repeatedly explained that it's rarely seen. Nitrogen was kind of low before, so I'm guessing it's some sort of nitrogen deficiency. It has also been taken from AFA store, so maybe the transition between the two environments is causing the stunting. Nonetheless, I see many side shoots. This plant roots like crazy also! Within two weeks or so, it's more rooted than any other plant.

Last, I changed the placement of the lily pipes because I figured that placement of the inflow and outflow in the rear right would blast nutrients and CO2 to the stem plants, circulate it around the front and slowly back to the rear right. What I noticed with the other setup was that I would have strong flow near the front of the glass and as it lost momentum, I would lose even more flow with the stem plants and driftwood in the way. Let's see if I get better growth patterns this way.

Really excited for this! Thanks for following.


----------



## Projectp (Oct 7, 2013)

I cant believe you tore out the scape to fix the wood!!! Im OCD for sure but I'm also lazy, pretty bad combo. Tank looks good I really like it.


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

Sadly, I know. Instead of borderline OCD I should have said excessive OCD. :eek5: Thanks for the appreciation!


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

Unrelated to this tank, I went hiking this past weekend. You guys ever have those aquascaping thoughts go through your head when you come across something that would look great in aquarium, like a rock or piece of driftwood or even some plant growing in a stream or runoff? Well anyway, I hiked to the Golden Gate bridge this weekend. I picked the coastal trail since it was more scenic. 



















Came across these wonderful looking green rocks, which look like this below.










I thought to myself, how nice would it be to collect some for my nano tank. A green rock vs black sand contrast would look spectacular. But of course, you can't have time to stop and pick when you're hiking with your girlfriend who's already raising an eyebrow at you with 2 tanks in your room. On the way back, I saw a sign talking about the type of rock in the area. It was serpentinite. On the sign, it talked about how serpentinite rock is high in nickel, but low in magnesium, calcium, and NPK, and the plants growing in the area are uniquely adapted to these conditions and can only be found here.

I didn't collect them, but I wonder if these would have been bad for setting up a tank. Anyone use serpentinite rock?


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

*Week 4 Update*

*Tank Shot: 3/3/2014*



















Fifth week into the tank. I've been getting some green dust algae and diatoms. They blend together to look like green diatoms. They are attacking the old and dying leaves. The tank's almost done cycling (I hope), so in the next two weeks, I plan on moving my ottos and amanos into the tank to clean the glass and algae.

I've been struggling with stunting/twisted tips in my plants for a few weeks now. Here are some photos of my limnophila aromatica and AR mini.




























I've done a lot of research on why might my plants be stunting. Here's my deduction process.


Most threads typically explain it as a CO2 issue. Since I don't have any livestock in the tank, the CO2 is blasted to the point where the bubble counter shows a stream of bubbles and the drop checker at 5dkh turns yellow. I'm using an inline atomizer with a lily pipe that doesn't break the surface. The ph is at 6 or below. No noticeable leaks in the system. Circulation is also good given the plants are still short. Videos to show.











Lighting is not extraordinarily high either. Using Hoppy's PAR thread, I get about 100 par at the substrate. I've grown the same plants in a previous tank before with the light lower so not too much light.

Started dosing EI ferts from nilocg about a week or so ago. Nutrient levels have been tested and are good.

GH? I think this may be the culprit. I've been messing around with GH levels with crushed coral, making drastic changes in the past few weeks, which probably has lead to inconsistent KH and GH. The plants probably didn't like it. KH and GH had gotten a little high, so I did some water changes to lower the KH and GH. Since my source water is really soft (1-2 dKH and <1 dGH), I started remineralizing with GH Booster on my water changes this past weekend. Currently at 1-2 dKH and 3-4 dGH after adding GH booster. Let's see what happens next week.


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

*Week 5 Update*

*Tank Shot: 3/10/2014*



















Another week down. Getting a lot of good growth in the tank. I can grow plants! :tongue: Here's a top view of the tank when the lights are out.










The really good news too is that the tank has cycled! All this time my amanos, RCS, and fish have been sitting in an unlit quarantine tank on the floor. I wanted to start with adding the amanos and one RCS into the tank first, and then slowly stock with the rest of the fish. 



















Unfortunately my 15 or so RCS did not have enough cover in the quarantine tank and were picked off by my neon tetras.  The one above is the LAST one I have...

The one thing I'm having trouble with are my dwarf baby tears. Some parts seem to show great growth, sending a lot of shoots, and others show lots of transparent bluish melts of the new tips. Not exactly sure why they are melting. Here are some pictures. Notice the darker, bluish parts of the clumps. Those are all dying tips.


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

Midweek update. I received some cherry shrimp from lemonnoodle on this forum. She provided me with a colorful and plentiful batch of shrimps with great shipping. As you might expect, coming home after work and opening up the package was like Christmas morning for me. I geeked out pretty hard for a bit. After I added the shrimps, I added 5 otos from my quarantine tank. All were added via drip acclimation. I found that using this method has reduced casualties if not prevented them. I have not lost a single oto since I tried this method.

Anyway, thought I'd share the milestones with some pictures.





































Check out the size of the amanos compared to the RCS. This is the biggest I've seen them. One of the big ones recently molted. Check this video out of them side by side.






Since I have my industrious algae fighting team in the tank now, I have decided to lower the light by two inches, risking growing algae while I increase the intensity of the light on the plants to improve coloration. Check out the difference in the coloration of the limnophila and ludwigia red. This is all within a few days. Can't wait to see what they look like when they hit the surface.

Before:









After:


















Before:









After:









Also, check out this string of bubbles pearling by my blyxa. For lack of a better description, it's "leaking" oxygen...


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

*Week 6 Update*

*Tank Shot: 3/17/2014*










I added my neon tetras into my tank. Changed out one of the light bulbs in the fixture for a roseate bulb. It really brings out the colors in the plants and the fish and doesn't seem too dim when mixed with a 6500k light bulb. 










My bubble counter from Aquatek started leaking a few days ago. Found out with the water test. Seems like the CO2 corroded the rubber seal on the top of the counter. Nothing lasts forever. :icon_neut


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

*Week 7 Update*

*Tank Shot: 3/24/2014*




























Short update. I switched out the roseate bulb since I started noticing my limnophila losing a little color at the tips. Let's see how it turns out. 

My baby tears are having a hard time spreading. The stems seem to be frail. My shrimps pick at it a lot and frequently I see stems and leaves floating at the end of the day. I've started dropping in algae wafers to feed the shrimps so they don't need to scavenge so much. Hopefully that will make a difference.


----------



## talontsiawd (Oct 19, 2008)

Awesome tank. Reminds me I need to stop in Albany sometime soon as well. I used to always be out there but now I am so far East.


----------



## Heifzilla (Feb 11, 2014)

Looks great! I'm totally new to aquascaping and I tend to just throw stuff in and hope for the best. I'm setting up a 3 gallon shrimp tank and I plan to actually plan this one out. Subscribing for updates.


----------



## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

Nice work! I like the way you have the different textures together.


----------



## burr740 (Feb 19, 2014)

I love that scape. Very nice


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

talontsiawd said:


> Awesome tank. Reminds me I need to stop in Albany sometime soon as well. I used to always be out there but now I am so far East.


Thanks! I'm a big fan of Albany Aquarium, although it can be pricey. Their livestock is always really healthy. That store and AFA are my favorites in the bay area.



Heifzilla said:


> Looks great! I'm totally new to aquascaping and I tend to just throw stuff in and hope for the best. I'm setting up a 3 gallon shrimp tank and I plan to actually plan this one out. Subscribing for updates.


Thanks! I know how you feel. When I first started, I kept my plants in the pots they came in. Haha. I have a 3 gallon soon to be shrimp tank too. So easy to do water changes...:tongue:



hydrophyte said:


> Nice work! I like the way you have the different textures together.


Thanks! 



burr740 said:


> I love that scape. Very nice


Thanks!


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

Sharing the room with the two tanks!


----------



## gatorsmashed (Nov 20, 2011)

Really like the tank man. I think the 11.4 gives nice dimensions (added depth) for fully realizing an aquascape. Your tank looks really lush and colorful, I love that. I'm so jealous of your downoi and really need to pick some up for my 11.4 I'm setting up.


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

gatorsmashed said:


> Really like the tank man. I think the 11.4 gives nice dimensions (added depth) for fully realizing an aquascape. Your tank looks really lush and colorful, I love that. I'm so jealous of your downoi and really need to pick some up for my 11.4 I'm setting up.


Thanks for the kind words. The 11.4 is a great size indeed. It's on the leaner side of space, but that makes it more manageable and easy to work with. At some point I'm debating upgrading to a larger tank when I have more space, but then thinking if I got for the 60-P or 90-P and it just goes on. Haha. Downoi's a beautiful plant. Definitely suggest picking it up. :thumbsup:


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

*Week 8 Update*

*Tank Shot: 3/31/2014*


----------



## Duck5003 (Oct 1, 2012)

Looking really good! That foreground really filled in over the past week.


----------



## jcgilmore2 (Jul 10, 2013)

Awesome build, loved watching the tank fill in through the thread. 

Keep up the good work.


----------



## lamiskool (Jul 1, 2011)

Beautiful tank and very lush growth!


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

Thanks for the kind words! One of the main reasons why I rush home after work is to relax infront of the tank.


----------



## lamiskool (Jul 1, 2011)

Asu1776 said:


> Thanks for the kind words! One of the main reasons why I rush home after work is to relax infront of the tank.


hehe me too! That and to feed the fish before the lights go out.


----------



## parrottbay (May 14, 2012)

How many bulbs is the oddysea on this fixture?


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

parrottbay said:


> How many bulbs is the oddysea on this fixture?


2 18W bulbs. I want to go aquatic life 24 inch when I get a 60p.


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

Got that limnophila to color up right when under bright light.


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

*Week 9 Update*

*Tank Shot: 4/7/2014*




























Added in some purigen this week. I noticed that my water had a particular fine particle cloudiness and yellow tint, despite cleaning the glass. This stuff is AMAZING. What people say about the the clarity of the water that you can get is really true! I'm definitely going to be adding to my shrimp tank when my next purigen bag comes in.

Still having some cherry shrimp deaths. Not sure exactly why, but they are lethargic at times. It's probably a combination of low ph, low oxygen in the water, fert dosing, CO2 etc. It's sad that they are slowly dying off one by one, but I've made some adjustments and I hope my berried females will kickstart the population.


----------



## Crazy4discus (Jan 30, 2014)

Awesome setup! Filled in very nicely!!


----------



## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Stunning set up!


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

Thanks for the comments everyone!


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

*Week 10 Update*

Today is the first trim of the background plants. They've overgrown a good amount, and while it was nice to see the fish swim underneath it, it was blocking out some light for the plants below.

*Pre-trim:*



















*Tank shot post-trim: 4/14/2014*

Back to square 2!










For the limnophila and ludwigia red, I did the topping method as opposed to trimming off shoots.



















If you guys haven't guessed it, I have a slight obsession with the limnophila haha! It's a lovely plant, and getting it to color up is so rewarding.


----------



## ua hua (Oct 30, 2009)

Looking really nice.


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

ua hua said:


> Looking really nice.


Thanks!


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

*Week 11 Update*

*Tank Shot: 4/21/2014 *



















Middle of the past week, I completely replanted the hydrocotyle japan. The old leaves started to show increasing amounts of GSA, along with downwards curling of the edges. Little did I know, this plant happened to snake all around the back of my tank.

I also did a trim of the AR mini. I had originally started with 4 stems or so. With all the branching this plant does, the AR mini became really thick and bushy. While I didn't mind it, I thought I could give the whole middleground a fresh start so did a trim too and passed on the extras to others.










The baby tears were stagnant for the past 2 weeks, but now have started to show more growth. The amanos were historically very destructive with the HC. At night, the come and forage over the foreground with their large claws, picking away at the HC. It doesn't help that the HC has frail stems and weak roots. Many times in the mornings, I can see small stems and leaves floating up to the top. Without the shading from the background plants, I'm hoping they'll start to spread and grow faster. It's been 11 weeks and I still do not have a carpet!



















My downoi has been looking different than what it used to be. The leave are small and narrow, different than the wide broad leaves I see in other people's planted tanks. I'm wondering if it's because the light there is the highest, so it grows more compact with smaller leaves. 










Overall, the rest of the plants are doing great. Looking forward to their explosive growth in the coming weeks.

I had mentioned before that my RCS population has been slowly dwindling away, possibly due to a bacterial infection. This past week, I was a bit more consistent with dosing paraguard to the tank. These random deaths every now and then were starting to pile up, so I did the paraguard treatment at full dose for a week. I had expected that the more severely affected shrimps would die off, as they did, but the rest have seemed to be more active in foraging for food and hiding less. The best news is that the berried females in my tank have started hatching their eggs!




























My amanos just keep growing bigger. This was a major molt week. Almost everyday I'd pull out their exoskeletons. Many of them are now bigger than my neon tetras. Funny that they don't seem to want to eat their exoskeletons. I thought that was a standard among shrimps.










Last thought, sometimes I wish my tank lights never needed to turn off...


----------



## sevenportsOFFICE (Aug 5, 2013)

This is one of those tanks where I just want to shrink myself down and live in it. haha. Just me sitting on the log, chilling and enjoying my little ecosystem.  With a beer of course


----------



## parrottbay (May 14, 2012)

How did you know it was a bacteria infection with the shrimps? Where did you get the product to fix it?


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

SevenportsJohn said:


> This is one of those tanks where I just want to shrink myself down and live in it. haha. Just me sitting on the log, chilling and enjoying my little ecosystem.  With a beer of course


Funny I was thinking that the other day, sipping on a beer looking at my tank. Wish I could share it with the shrimps chilling on the log. Haha!



parrottbay said:


> How did you know it was a bacteria infection with the shrimps? Where did you get the product to fix it?


Some of the shrimps were turning milky white and the pattern of consistent die offs seemed to suggest they were dying when the infection had taken its toll. I bought Paraguard online but I heard you can use Maracyn 2.


----------



## HybridHerp (May 24, 2012)

You've never had the amano try jumping with that open top?


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

HybridHerp said:


> You've never had the amano try jumping with that open top?


Oh I have, to find their dried up bodies in random places of the room. However, they seem to only do that when something is off (too much CO2). No casualties as of late.


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

*Week 12 Update*

*Tank Shot: 4/28/2014*



















The weeks seem to be piling up! Can't believe it's been 12 weeks since I started this tank. Wondering what type of life this setup will have and if I might want to change it up at some point.

Anyway, I did a thorough cleaning this weekend. There was a lot of GSA growing on the sides of the tank and on the drop checker. What's with GSA and glass, seriously? I love that look when the glassware in your tank is sparkling clean. It almost feels like a new aquarium. Hoping that this can last atleast another two weeks.

I seemed to have lost a tetra and 2 cherries from jumping out of the tank. I filled the water too close to the brim the other day and found these crispy critters on the ground. Sigh. Will have to remember to keep the water level lower.

Plants are also starting to show some signs of stunting. It's hard to believe that it's a CO2 deficiency, but that's what I'm leaning towards, since I do EI dosing and add GH booster. I cranked up the CO2 slightly so hopefully the plants will respond better. 

This female red cherry you see below has been hatching her eggs. I see little shrimps hiding among the leaves of the staurogyne repens. Looking forward to a shrimp explosion as these guys grow. My population has dwindled a good amount, so I'm hoping they will rebound soon.










The baby tears are finally spreading though!


----------



## parrottbay (May 14, 2012)

Awesome tank like always... glad to hear that your shrimp are better now. I will have to remember to use that stuff next time I have a problem with my shrimps  ALSO!!!! CONGRATS on making the news letter, so awesome!


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

parrottbay said:


> Awesome tank like always... glad to hear that your shrimp are better now. I will have to remember to use that stuff next time I have a problem with my shrimps  ALSO!!!! CONGRATS on making the news letter, so awesome!


Thanks parrottbay! Dosing paraguard consistently really does help. Even though the sickly ones seem to die off, it does stop further die offs of shrimps. By the way, I didn't know I made the newsletter until you told me! AWESOME! I'm all pumped up so I'm gonna celebrate with a nice ice cold beer.


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

And the first video of this tank!


----------



## Brian_Cali77 (Mar 19, 2010)

Cool video... tank looks great! Gotta love that YouTube video stabilization. Makes the cam glide so smoothly! LOL.. My only critique is the panning is a little too abrupt though. Might want to pan a little slower and fluid.


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

Thanks Brian! Youtube stabilization is awesome indeed. Wish I could use it for all my videos instead of Youtube suggesting it. I do gotta work on the panning. I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted to cover and in what order, so just kind of went with it. Next update, I'll get fancier.


----------



## mistuhmarc (Oct 1, 2013)

I see you've added back the diy surface skimmer! What did you use for the pipe? I've been looking for one that stays rigid.


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

mistuhmarc said:


> I see you've added back the diy surface skimmer! What did you use for the pipe? I've been looking for one that stays rigid.


Yes, I added back the surface skimmer. I was having a hard time tolerating the surface grime collecting the CO2 bubbles, and the lack of gas exchange which was probably stressing the fish and shrimp. 

This was version 3 of the DIY pipe. The tricky part came down to getting the right cuts at the top to make sure enough water pours in, but no so much that it doesn't "suck" at the surface, while accounting for evaporation and little shrimps getting sucked in. roud:

For the tube, I use Lee's rigid tubing. My LFS was selling it, but you can find it online. Not that cheap though. :/


----------



## gatorsmashed (Nov 20, 2011)

Everything is looking great! Your lily pipes are super clean! What method did you use to clean them? Keep up the awesome work.


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

gatorsmashed said:


> Everything is looking great! Your lily pipes are super clean! What method did you use to clean them? Keep up the awesome work.


Thanks! For my lily pipes and tubes, I picked up this tube cleaning brush which you thread through the tubes. BEST idea ever. Takes me 5 mins to clean the lily pipes, tubes, and inline atomizer.


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

*Week 13 Update*

*Tank Shot: 5/5/2014*

Nothing too fancy this time around. Didn't get much of a chance this weekend to snap many shots or video, but got a few. 




























The pogostemon erectus was getting way too bushy, and trapping too much debris, so I RAOK'd one of the main stems to another member. I'm thinking about switching up the plants in the background to keep this aquascape more dynamic. 

It's been a good run so far with eco-complete. Since the start, I'd bet that the osmocote beads have probably exhausted their supply of nutrients into the substrate. In retrospect, having seen how well aquasoil has done for others and having experience with it in my shrimp tank, I would have probably paid the extra $ for aquasoil instead of eco-complete. While eco-complete is great, it's not made of nutrient packed granules, which can feed the plants from the roots up. Eventually, I feel the eco-complete runs out of nutrients, which never makes it the same as when you first use it. I find that as a nutrient source, aquasoil is excellent.

There was a period when most of the cherry shrimps started dying and the population dwindled. I could only spot 5-10 shrimps out of the 50 I had purchased. The explanation to myself was that my shrimps suffered from a wave of bacterial infections. Strict adherence to dosing paraguard killed off more of the random few that I saw, but did keep a few alive. However, I did see some berried females occasionally when they would come out of hiding at night to graze on biofilm. Soon enough, they began hatching their offspring, but I wasn't able to find the shrimplets at all. With frustration, I was about to kick the bucket and call it quits with keeping cherry shrimp, until I started seeing more and more of these little shrimplets. Seems like the hatched shrimps were simply hiding and growing and once they got more comfortable (conveniently at the same time), they all appeared and the tank looks stocked again.










The shrimplets love to hide under the hydrocotyle. You can faintly see a juvie on the driftwood below the leaves.










This female has been berried twice since I've had her. Somebody keeps knocking her up, not that I am complaining. :biggrin:










While the baby tears are growing, they are taking forever to spread over the foreground. I see that some new tips turn translucent and die. I have a feeling that they are being outcompeted by the other plants for nutrients. I'm going to see if increasing the dosing and CO2 will help the baby tears. Now that I think about it more, I'm becoming more bummed that I didn't grow these in aquasoil.


----------



## mistuhmarc (Oct 1, 2013)

You're doing great! Better than any growth that I had when it came to HC. Hahaha. Do you ever have neons actively hunting your RCS? I feel like I'd end up with a school of neons and no shrimp after.


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

mistuhmarc said:


> You're doing great! Better than any growth that I had when it came to HC. Hahaha. Do you ever have neons actively hunting your RCS? I feel like I'd end up with a school of neons and no shrimp after.


Thanks! My neon's haven't actively hunted the shrimps, but if they see tiny babies when I happen to drop fish flakes in, they'll attempt to eat them as in a "picking up the scraps" frenzy. Also, if a shrimp swims near the surface and looks like falling flakes, they'll try to attack, but the shrimp usually flicks away. Doesn't help that my cherry shrimp are the same color as the tropical fish flakes. :icon_neut However, for the larger cherry shrimp, they usually leave them alone. It can be quite a relationship they have.

Now, what's interesting is when amanos swarm when I drop algae wafers and push the tetras out of the way. :hihi:


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

*Week 14 Update*

Another update installment. This was a trim week. When I trim my plants, I usually top them since those parts look the best. I'm crossing my fingers but I'm really hoping that this time around the tips won't stunt (still don't know why it happens after topping my plants). Before and after pics are below.

*Pre-trim*





































*Post-trim*



















L. Aromatica colors seem to get washed out when they are at the surface, but when the tops are kept and replanted, they show their vibrant colors! This plant can be so dynamic at times.










Downoi still looking small and skinny. They are anorexic I swear. I've added some osmocote near their roots to encourage larger growth. Not sure why it would help, but, hey, why not? 










Invertupdates! One of my huge female amanos is berried. Sad that it will mean nothing since the young larvae can't survive in freshwater. 










Sadly, my two-time RCS mother died from some reason. I'm thinking it was a mismolt, since there are partially molted pieces near her half eaten body (carnivorous amanos). Yet, she didn't die in vain. You can see the little shrimplets hiding among the leaves of staurogyne repens. She had good color, so good genetics. I'm hoping some of these offspring will be very red. 










On a side note, when I received my RCS, I noticed a large scud that had come along for the ride. I removed the scud and all I saw the RCS. I swear I triple checked the tupperware for anymore scuds. However, it seems that I must have missed something and now have noticed scuds scurrying around the tank! Man...what a bummer. I thought I was going to be successful keeping wanted creatures in and unwanted creatures out. Well, I'm hoping they won't pose much of a problem. I feed sparingly and I still see shrimplets. Tonight, I'm going to build a simple scud trap and see if I can catch these suckers.


----------



## AnotherHobby (Mar 5, 2012)

Great tank! You've made nice transitions from front to back, and I like your plant selections. I like the hardscape, and you've also left nice space for your fish to swim around. 

I saw on the last page that you don't like it when the lights go out. To solve that, I made four 2' long strips of SMD 5050 RGB LEDs. I run them from 5:45am until midnight in different mixes on their own and with my main lights (main lights only from noon to 10pm). At full bright they only register 1 PAR on my meter near the water surface, and nothing down where the plants are, so no risk of running too much light. They aren't bright, but they get the job done so that I can enjoy my tank every waking hour.

Also, I see you've got a little hair algae showing up on the glass. You'll want to keep on top of that, but I'm sure you know that.


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

AnotherHobby said:


> Great tank! You've made nice transitions from front to back, and I like your plant selections. I like the hardscape, and you've also left nice space for your fish to swim around.
> 
> I saw on the last page that you don't like it when the lights go out. To solve that, I made four 2' long strips of SMD 5050 RGB LEDs. I run them from 5:45am until midnight in different mixes on their own and with my main lights (main lights only from noon to 10pm). At full bright they only register 1 PAR on my meter near the water surface, and nothing down where the plants are, so no risk of running too much light. They aren't bright, but they get the job done so that I can enjoy my tank every waking hour.
> 
> Also, I see you've got a little hair algae showing up on the glass. You'll want to keep on top of that, but I'm sure you know that.


Thanks AnotherHobby! All inspired by your own tank. :wink:

I really liked the RGB setup you had going as well. It added more color and mood to your plants/fish/overall tank, which would be nice in my setup since the 6500k bulbs seem to wash out colors a little. I'm not that techy, but I'd imagine it would require securing the led strips on the sides of the light and connecting them to a timer? Arduino will fry my brain.

What you see as hair algae is actually CO2 bubbles flying by. Knock on wood, but haven't had a hair algae problem in this tank at since the start.


----------



## exv152 (Jun 8, 2009)

Nice setup. I've read that higher nitrates tend to make Limnophila Aromatic look washed out, even slightly higher than normal, like with EI dosing.


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

exv152 said:


> Nice setup. I've read that higher nitrates tend to make Limnophila Aromatic look washed out, even slightly higher than normal, like with EI dosing.


Thanks. Bummer that EI dosing doesn't really go with nitrate limitation. I've got a premix bottle of EI ferts too. :/ The plants do show some color as they near the surface.


----------



## AnotherHobby (Mar 5, 2012)

Asu1776 said:


> What you see as hair algae is actually CO2 bubbles flying by. Knock on wood, but haven't had a hair algae problem in this tank at since the start.


That's good! I've had it on my glass before, and it looked almost identical to your photos. Now that I know they are bubbles, it's pretty obvious when I look at your pics.


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

Tank shot as plants have settled post trim.


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

*Week 15 Update*

*Tank Shot: 5/19/2014*




























I did a deep clean this weekend. Picked up a Kent Marine scraper with removable heads. The metal razor does such a better job at cleaning the glass than filter floss. It also helps me get into those tough to reach spots like at the bottom of the glass infront of the baby tears. Speaking of the baby tears, they are doing quite well. More CO2 has helped. 



















I saw that others usually do some awesome macro shots, so here they are! Look at that HC pearling!




























Shrimps are happy too and more and more seem to be popping up. Probably aren't any berried females at the moment, but all the young from before are getting noticeably bigger.










Looks like this was a secret meet up spot.


----------



## ua hua (Oct 30, 2009)

Your tank is filling in really nice and everything looks really healthy. The only thing I would change is I would use a smaller breed of fish as the neons don't fit the scale of the tank too well. Something like rasbora kubotai would look nice. Other than that. Well done


----------



## mistuhmarc (Oct 1, 2013)

Your shrimps are doing great. Sadly all of mine disappeared...they either expired or one day disappeared and I'm pretty saddened about it . I wish I knew what went wrong.


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

ua hua said:


> Your tank is filling in really nice and everything looks really healthy. The only thing I would change is I would use a smaller breed of fish as the neons don't fit the scale of the tank too well. Something like rasbora kubotai would look nice. Other than that. Well done


Yeah, I see what you mean. When I got first got my neons, I didn't expect them to get this large. The rasboras you pointed out look pretty awesome. I also thought about adding some celestial pearl danios.



mistuhmarc said:


> Your shrimps are doing great. Sadly all of mine disappeared...they either expired or one day disappeared and I'm pretty saddened about it . I wish I knew what went wrong.


Wish I could help. Hard to say why the shrimps have disappeared. Shrimps can die for a large number of reasons or might even simply be hiding. Maybe there's something toxic in your tank, because I don't think neons can wipe out all the shrimp, provided that you gave them hiding spots.


----------



## mistuhmarc (Oct 1, 2013)

Asu1776 said:


> Yeah, I see what you mean. When I got first got my neons, I didn't expect them to get this large. The rasboras you pointed out look pretty awesome. I also thought about adding some celestial pearl danios.
> 
> 
> 
> Wish I could help. Hard to say why the shrimps have disappeared. Shrimps can die for a large number of reasons or might even simply be hiding. Maybe there's something toxic in your tank, because I don't think neons can wipe out all the shrimp, provided that you gave them hiding spots.



I actually don't have any neons. It was just the shrimp in the tank, so it might be likely be something that's already in the tank. I'm clueless xD...


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

Probably something in the tank. Have you considered bacterial infection?


----------



## mistuhmarc (Oct 1, 2013)

Asu1776 said:


> Probably something in the tank. Have you considered bacterial infection?


I've treated that with paraguard. My next assumption would be that high nitrates from EI dosing could be possibly be killing them off. I'm going to test my water later to see if that is the case.


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

My nitrates never go above 40 ppm, although 40 ppm and 80 ppm look really close on the API test. I'm reading your thread and will see what I can come up with.


----------



## gnikwoc (Jan 9, 2014)

How's this tank doing?


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

Sorry for the disappearance! I got bottled down with preparation for my CFA test in June and kind of forgot about this for a little while. Here's a quick update on the tank.

*Tank Shots!*



















As you can see, not much has changed. Lately, my plants have been showing weird signs of stunting and melting of lower leaves. While it's been improving, I'm starting to think that there's something toxic in the water that the plants don't appreciate. First guess would be the latex finger cot I use to secure the skimmer to the intake pipe. Since it's so close to the heater, I'm wondering if it's degrading it at an accelerated rate. Within a few weeks, the rubber is full of holes.

The downoi has overtaken a lot of the dwarf baby tears, shading them out. As a result, I see a lot of broken stems of baby tears floating to the surface. It's becoming sort of a hassle to keep fetching stems of baby tears floating around the tank. The baby tears carpet is also starting to lift up from the substrate slightly due to it's density. It's also trapping a lot of organic debris which is hard to vacuum without disrupting the carpet.

I also switched to a spray bar instead of the lily pipe since it distributes the water better across the tank. The lily pipe output was nice for the time being, but I didn't like it afterwards because of how it projected out into the tank and how it did not agitate the surface enough, nor provide ample flow.










Perhaps the most interesting change to the tank has been the addition of some new livestock! I added some CPDs and chili rasboras. The chili rasboras sold to me weren't the ones I were intending to buy (the bright red ones), but more or less I still like them. They are cool little fishes, but very fast movers, hence the difficulty in taking pictures. Sorry for the bad quality!



















And the shrimps are still hanging in there. No breeding though, I suspect it's a CO2 issue.










That's the update. After my vacation in the second half of august, I plan to redo the tank. The hardscape would generally be the same, but I want to swap out the Eco-complete with some Aquasoil. I'm hoping that having a better substrate system will promote better growth and more flexibility with dosing irregularities. I also plan on switching on the dwarf baby tears for dwarf hair grass and some of the background plants for finer and smaller leaved plants to create a better sense of scale.


----------



## mistuhmarc (Oct 1, 2013)

Asu1776 said:


> Sorry for the disappearance! I got bottled down with preparation for my CFA test in June and kind of forgot about this for a little while. Here's a quick update on the tank.
> 
> *Tank Shots!*
> 
> ...


After moving over to my 10 gallon as an aquascape, I've noticed an increase in the survival rate of the cherry shrimp, though I have not seen them as of recent. My guess is that they're just simply hiding in the riccia bushes I have in the tank. But in any case, the co2 hasn't been a problem for them. Granted, I lost a few amano shrimp due to them jumping, but I believe that was cause of their breeding patterns....feisty little guys. :icon_roll 

I switched over to the spray bar too as I found it definitely worked better at keeping the surface from developing too much surface film. You probably no longer need the later finger cot after switching over to a spray bar, but that's your choice. I just think the spray bar does the job better.


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

Yeah, my cherry shrimp are frequently hiding in all the nooks and crannies around the tank. My CO2 level has been pretty high recently in an effort to combat stunting of the tips. However, it's never dipped super low, so that's why I'm thinking it's something toxic in the tank. Anyway, I've lost a few amano and fish to suicidal tendencies too. Just got to play it careful. 

Spray bar is great. My surface still develops surface film, but I have the spray bar angled upwards so that it still creates a pocket in the surface film to promote gas exchange. The skimmer is gone, so no need to worry about that. I still need to find an effective way of having the skimmer attached to the intake pipe. Perhaps I might just use aquarium sealant, but then the lily pipe intake would always have the skimmer attached. Spray bar does a great job of circulating the tank.


----------



## AKEP0711 (Apr 9, 2014)

Your tank still kick butts compared to mines. I'm losing the battle black hair algae. CPD is also nice to your collections!!!


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

*REBOOT!*

So I pulled the plug on the old system this past weekend. 

*The process:* Setup a temporary 10 gallon tank with AC20 filter for livestock. Took out the plants, the livestock (fished out all the cherry shrimp too!), and all the equipment. Then pulled the hardscape out leaving just the Eco-Complete behind. Painfully washed and poured out the substrate, followed by scrubbing all glass surfaces. :frown: Then...decided that the original hardscape could use improvement, so cut the cable ties and tried to rearrange. Wanted to minimize the profile of some pieces, but then realized I had no saw. :help: Pause. Drink a beer. Brainstorm... :icon_idea #1. Search tool box, find a hammer, pound away bits that I don't want. Realize malaysian driftwood is very tough. :icon_idea#2. Use steak knife to saw away. Rearrange driftwood, tie them down to egg crate. Clean filter equipment and secure them to the tank. Time benchmark: 2.5 hrs. Begin filling with old aquasoil, but forgot to start taking photos prior!!! :angryfire. Photo 1 below.










Continue filling with new aquasoil. Remembered I wanted a slope. roud: Photo 2 below.










Filled with water. Photo 3 below.










Got some plants in and put some old plants in too. Will share next week when the water is not so cloudy. Hoping the cycling process won't be long. I've started to think about venturing into saltwater sometime soon. Depending on how ambitious I am, I think this might be the last of the planted tanks for a while. 

Hope this was somewhat entertaining.


----------



## mistuhmarc (Oct 1, 2013)

Asu1776 said:


> *REBOOT!*
> 
> So I pulled the plug on the old system this past weekend.
> 
> ...



Interested on how this would turn out. What will add as plants this time?


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

Taking out hydrocotyle, ludwigia sp. red, golden creeping jenny, and maybe limnophila aromatica 

Adding monte carlo, lobelia cardinalis (small form), ludwigia pantanal, rotala macrandra, rotala rotundifolia, bacopa carolina


----------



## mosART (Nov 5, 2013)

Rebooting is always a good thing, IMO! Tank looks naked... Can't wait to see it after you dressed it up next week!


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

Cloudiness is starting a settle a little bit. Updated shots below.



















I'm thinking about taking out the limnophila aromatica, since it's kind of large for a small tank.


----------



## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

I've had the itch to rescape lately too, does it always take longer for your than originally estimated too? (I think 3-4 hours tops.. takes 6-8 x,x)
I am 1/3 of the way through redoing my 2g: removed plants, moved shrimp to puffer tank (snack time!) and hardscape, wash substrate, rung out sponge filter (holy crap that thing was filthy!) and cleaned out the jar of diatoms/algae/baby snails. Still need to dip the moss to kill hair algae, add equipment to tank, figure out driftwood placement, then retie on moss. Wanted it done in a day.. but have to have dinner, clean, sleep and all that [censor] so will be 2 day project.
My husband and I learned even with an electric saw (or in our case a saws-all) manzantia is NOT easy to cut! We split a piece that was about 2-3 thick down the middle with me holding it and my husband cutting, kept all our digits but all those tiny bones in your hands.. yeh those hurt like hell after the *severe *vibrations from sawing that [censor].
Like the new scape btw, look forward to seeing it grow in!


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

This is my second time rescaping this tank. It certainly does take a lot longer than you'd expect. What I didn't necessarily realize was that rescaping isn't just a one tank job. It actually involves tearing down 1 tank and setting up 2. You first setup the temp tank, then move everything you want in, then you tear down and clean the other tank, and then basically setup it up again. You add in some intermediary steps like cleaning the equipment/tubes/filter/sterilizing plants, you are looking at a full day's worth of work. I made the mistake of doing it on a weeknight, so was pretty grouchy the next morning. Lesson learned: Rescape over the weekend. :thumbsup:


----------



## RajahTank (Sep 10, 2014)

Looking forward to the new scape! 

BTW, which brand/model spray bar that you are using?


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

RajahTank said:


> Looking forward to the new scape!
> 
> BTW, which brand/model spray bar that you are using?


It's the standard spray bar that comes with the Finnex Px-360


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

*Update: 9/29/2014*

Updated tank shots as of yesterday.



















I finally decided to swap out the old Odyssea t5-ho lights for the Finnex Ray2. I found that with the Odyssea lights, I would get this distinct line on the back wall of the tank where the algae seemed to stop growing. The plants were also tending to grow towards the middle, which lead to the conclusion that the reflectors and the spread on the Odyssea lights were poor. I did some research and due to the bandwagon effect, I bought myself a Finnex Ray2. The light looks sleak and streamline with a slim body and powerful output. It has a 120 degree spread so I'm confident that the tank will be well lit on the sides. My only complaint is that the color looks a little washed out and I would have liked some more color. I saw a post on a RGD led strip light which I could add to the fixture, but I want to make sure that I have the tools and expertise to do it. Next upgrade for sure. Oh, here is how it's hung. Much better look than before IMO.



















I also decided to decommission the inline diffuser. I started to question how effective it was since the output was so close to the surface and that I might be degassing a lot of CO2. I switched to an atomizer from AFA on the right side with a glass J tube. I think it looks pretty clean. This setup allows the water that gets pushed down the right wall of the glass to mix with the CO2 bubbles in a rotating manner sort of like a dryer. CO2 dissolution is good, drop checker is in a part with low circulation, but still shows lime green in a few hours. Will run with this for a little bit to see if it is an improvement after all.


----------



## Jalopy (Aug 11, 2013)

Pictures not working.


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

They seem to be working for me. :/


----------



## lamiskool (Jul 1, 2011)

Awesome scape! This is going too look real nice when it fills in! Also love the hanging kit lol


----------



## Jalopy (Aug 11, 2013)

OK I think work blocked the photo sharing site. The tank looks awesome.


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

*Update: 10/6/2014*

Big update here! Since getting the Finnex Ray2, I've been feeling that the colors of the plants and fish in the tank have been washed out. I remember that AnotherHobby build some add on LED strips for his tank when he was using the Finnex Ray2, so I decided to recreate the LED strip mount myself. I picked up a LED kit and additional connectors from Amazon, and aluminum angle brackets, aluminium shingle, and some nuts and bolts from Home Depot. The structure mounts to the Ray2 through some small screws that thread through the sides of the mount into the gutters for the Ray2 legs. Here's a photo of the LED mount.



















I opted to go for solderless connectors since I didn't have a soldering kit, but wish I had challenged myself. The gapless connectors have poor connectivity and it's easy to break the current if you don't align the strips perfectly with them. As a result, I made some adjustments after this picture so that I use 2 separate strips, each with 1 connector instead of 1 strip with 3 connectors.

Testing to see if it works!



















And the lights in action WITHOUT the Finnex Ray2. Sorry for the crappy picture quality but was rushing to get out the door.




























Took some more proper photos yesterday to give you an idea of what it looks like.

*Ray 2 only*










*With red setting*










*With purple setting*










*Evening lighting*


----------



## Jalopy (Aug 11, 2013)

Hey the new lights look great. I can't find the post were AnotherHobby did this. Do you mind posting a link of that here? Also, can you share a list of your materials?


----------



## mistuhmarc (Oct 1, 2013)

Nice work on the LEDs! I'm expecting things to work out better now that you switched over to the Ray2.


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

Jalopy said:


> Hey the new lights look great. I can't find the post were AnotherHobby did this. Do you mind posting a link of that here? Also, can you share a list of your materials?


http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=371193&page=6

Materials include:

*From Amazon*

Amazon.com: SUPERNIGHT® 16.4ft 5M Waterproof Flexible strip 300leds Color Changing RGB SMD5050 LED Light Strip Kit RGB 5M +44Key Remote+12V 5A Power Supply: Musical Instruments

Ledwholesalers 4 Pin Splitter for One to Two LED RGB Color Changing Strips, 2355 - Led Lights - Amazon.com


*From Home Depot*

http://www.homedepot.com/s/aluminum%20angle?NCNI-5
Aluminum shingle - can't find it on the website but it's less than a $1 for 1. It can be cut with scissors to the shape you need.
Nuts/bolts, wiring, whatever you are missing

You would need to have drill/hacksaw/screwdriver etc.

Bump:


mistuhmarc said:


> Nice work on the LEDs! I'm expecting things to work out better now that you switched over to the Ray2.


Thanks! Growth is vigorous in the tank with the Ray2 and the Aquasoil. No more stunting at the tips either. My staurogyne and AR mini's are looking pretty vibrant and the monte carlo is spreading so fast. Got some chili rasboras this past weekend and getting some cherries this week to repopulate the tank. Exciting times soon to come! roud:


----------



## mistuhmarc (Oct 1, 2013)

Glad to hear that! . I re-did my tank too, I haven't put up pictures of it yet either. But I'm hoping that the growth will be fast!


----------



## Jalopy (Aug 11, 2013)

Asu1776 said:


> http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=371193&page=6
> 
> Materials include:
> 
> ...


Great write up. Thanks!


----------



## AnotherHobby (Mar 5, 2012)

Nice job! Looks great! I might turn the 4 end screws around so they stuck inward if possible to conceal them, or get some shorter ones.


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

AnotherHobby said:


> Nice job! Looks great! I might turn the 4 end screws around so they stuck inward if possible to conceal them, or get some shorter ones.


Thanks man! It was a success with your help. I should turn the end screws inwards. It was a quick and dirty, didn't want to worry about tight corners because I couldn't wait to get them up and running. :tongue:

More pics guys if anyone is interested in how it looks from the sides and wiring cleaned up.




























If anyone's curious, the screws to the Finnex are small enough to not scratch the plastic, but large enough to prevent the structure from falling.

Some eye candy!



















My favorite, nighttime lighting!


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

Mainly a photo update. Monte carlo is taking off. It's a great carpeting plant, especially since it roots a lot deeper than HC so it holds better. Still thinking about removing the blyxa and replacing it with AR mini, but blyxa and I go a long way. I picked up some more galaxy rasboras and some pygmy cories to add to the tank. Last, my rotundifolia seems to grow horizontal at the surface now. I'm raising the light a little more to lower the PAR. The plant has now started to creep like monte carlo near the substrate! Growth is good, but this weekend I'm returning the Ray 2 and going for Archaea Ultra-Gro to get more red spectrum boost for my red plants.


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

Upgraded to the ecoxotic e-series. Loved it in 2 mins time.


----------



## TheAnswerIs42 (Jul 10, 2014)

Really like your setup and plant selections. I'm curious because it is similar to mine in fauna and flora; how social are your pygmy Cories? I have 12 and I never see them during the day. They seem to really enjoy foraging in the dense foliage and will only occasionally shoot up for gasp of air or to briefly swim with the CPDs. It's unfortunate, because they are such a great little fish to watch. I have a feeling it's because I have no "open" gravel for them to look for food and I never see them in the DHG. Do your Cories forage and rest on the Monte Carlo?


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

Thanks! I've got 3 of the pygmy cories. The day after I got them, one did a dash to the surface a little too fast and ended up jumping out. Thankfully, I was there when it happened so I saved him. I don't necessarily see them that often and I'd presume you are right that they might prefer to sift through the open gravel. I do see them feed on plants and near the driftwood at times, but I think the monte carlo portion is too open without enough cover for them to feel safe. Hope that helps!


----------



## jsarrow (Jun 10, 2008)

Could you provide a link to the thread for the surface skimmer you built? Looks really simple to make but would be curious what was used in the process.

Thanks!


----------



## AnotherHobby (Mar 5, 2012)

Nice swap! You made the same switch from the Ray2 that I made, except you skipped the dual Sat+ in the middle. Tank is looking great!


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

jsarrow said:


> Could you provide a link to the thread for the surface skimmer you built? Looks really simple to make but would be curious what was used in the process.
> 
> Thanks!


Here you go. http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=293066



AnotherHobby said:


> Nice swap! You made the same switch from the Ray2 that I made, except you skipped the dual Sat+ in the middle. Tank is looking great!


Thanks man! Felt like I was getting left out from the fun following your tank and Brian's. The light's ultra fun to play with.


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

Quick shot. Rotala macrandra, once settled, grows like its on plantroids.


----------



## legomaniac89 (Mar 16, 2008)

The contrast between the _A. reineckii_ and the _S. repens_ (I think?) is striking. Very well done!


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

legomaniac89 said:


> The contrast between the _A. reineckii_ and the _S. repens_ (I think?) is striking. Very well done!


Thanks so much for kind words. Yes it is S. repens.


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

Quick photo update. Will do better when I get home today.


----------



## mistuhmarc (Oct 1, 2013)

I have a question, when growing monte carlo vs hc, which do you prefer?


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

I prefer monte carlo over HC because monte carlo grows faster, has longer roots so it is less likely to float up, and seems to be less finicky. The only downside is the leaves are slightly larger, but the benefits definitely outweigh HC.


----------



## mistuhmarc (Oct 1, 2013)

Asu1776 said:


> I prefer monte carlo over HC because monte carlo grows faster, has longer roots so it is less likely to float up, and seems to be less finicky. The only downside is the leaves are slightly larger, but the benefits definitely outweigh HC.


Interesting. I might try that in the future. It'd work out well in a 20 gallon long like mine.


----------



## pewpewkittah (Jan 14, 2014)

Looks great Azu! Nice job with the rescape. 

It's really impressive that you made the tank look much bigger then it actually is. Then I see the tetras and it messes with my eyes! Haha


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

*Update: 11/11/2014*

A long overdue photo bomb post. Starting off with some full tank shots *AND* a *VIDEO* roud::bounce:. 










Seems like I found a berried shrimp!!! I was worried that CO2, fert dosing, and low PH was stop my cherries from breeding, but apparently not. First berried female I've seen in the tank, although I'm not too confident about the survival rates of the young given 5 neon tetras, 5 super fast CPDs, and 6 chili rasboras, and 3 other microrasboras. She's been hiding a lot, and don't think I've seen her since this photo, but probably good that she's taking care of the eggs.






Was finally able to get some decent shots of the fish swimming out in the open with cell phone camera. You can see how quickly the CPDs swim, so it's incredibly hard to get a clear photo. I agree with pewpewkittah's comment about how the neon tetras mess up the sense of scale, but I love their addition of color and their brave attitude when I feed my fish. If they only came in micro versions....







My one and only otocinclus. The others committed suicide, jumping out of the tank as they dart to the surface for air. This one seems to be the smartest of them all. Hopefully I'll be getting this guy some friends in the near future.



I love the look of the plants grazing the surface of the tank, especially with color enhancing LEDS from the E-series. Till this day, the E-series is still my favorite purchase for this tank.



I did a trim of the monte carlo with some wave scissors this past week as well. It was quite an aggressive trim, and some areas I tried a little too far to where the stems were yellowing. However, this plant has proved to be so robust that it has grown back very nicely and rapidly. My favorite thing about monte carlo is that it roots much better than HC, so I can essentially vacuum debris caught in the monte carlo, without the carpet floating up at all! How awesome is that?


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

A belated update! The tank's gone through a bit of a rollercoaster ride since November. With a lot of trips out of town during the holidays, it was difficult to keep up with the maintenance. On one occasion, I was messing with the intensity of my E-series light, but forgot to reactivate the timer function before I left for Yosemite. I came back in 3 days and the whole tank was covered in green hair algae. I couldn't see into the tank at all. It was a disaster. These photos are 2 weeks after I did a massive trim, got my params back in line, and nuked the tank with Excel. Thinking I might do some scape changes in the near term, but for now, going to let it grow out a little more.


----------



## xenxes (Dec 22, 2011)

Looking good!  nice balance. I find a lot of dutch-like scapes the hardscape eventually disappears, but the vertical wood placement looks prominent.


----------



## lamiskool (Jul 1, 2011)

Glad to see everything bounced back great! I had a similar incident in one of my tanks lol I think I finally got everything dialed own and hopefully the algae doesnt return


----------



## dru (Mar 9, 2013)

Really digging everything

I skimmed your journal and may have missed it, why did you ditch the inline atomizer?


----------



## Freemananana (Jan 2, 2015)

I do really like this tank. The otos jumping out is sad. That's one of the reasons I don't mind having a rim, I don't feel like I'm taking away from the look when I added my hood  The rimless and lidless look is beautiful though. Even more so with a suspended light. 

What are the fish in the second to last picture?


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

Thanks for kind comments everyone! 

The hardscape is holding together well. It's a bit tricky though since the flow in the center of the tank isn't that great, which made it challenging to get high enough CO2 and nutrients in the water since the light is the strongest there.

Algae hasn't returned for a week and a half besides a slight tint of green to the glass. Dialing everything in can be challenge. I have been battling stunting and black beard algae for over a month. I didn't want to say it was a CO2 problem, since I visually saw so much CO2 mist in the water, but until I really pushed it to the point where the fish were stressed, I confirmed it was a CO2 problem indeed. I've lowered the lighting intensity so that there is less CO2 demand and the fish could be comfortable. 

I did exchange the inline atomizer for a diffuser because it would start to collect a lot of debris really quickly, making the CO2 bubbles larger. I saw in some of Amano's tank that he placed a diffuser down low opposite the return of the filter, so I wanted to give it a try. So far it's doing well, but still looking to find a solution to avoid the 7-up mist look.

Fish in the last picture is boraras maculatus. Awesome fish for small tanks. They like to stay by the top and in the front of the tank.


----------



## kman (Dec 11, 2013)

Just read your whole journal. Great job on that little tank!

The E-Series is a great light, for sure.

Two quick questions: Why did you get rid of the Hydrocotyle Japan? I thought it looked really really good, and the shrimp seemed to love it, too. I ask because I'm about to add some to my tank. And second, what kind of inline atomizer did you have before? I haven't been too interested in the Atomic atomizers, but I'm really digging my "hybrid" diffuser, the NAG inline one which essentially puts a normal glass nano diffuser in a glass outer shell that you can put inline. So far so good! Gives a lot more "dwell time" for the tiny bubbles to be absorbed than a short tank can usually offer. Way less 7-Up than the regular nano diffuser, at least the one I was using.


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

Thanks kman!

I loved the Hydrocotyle Japan, but it's a very fast grower and I ended up getting a lot of runner's spreading across the tank. I wanted the maintenance to be a little more manageable, so that's why I replaced it with Lobelia cardinalis.

I used an up-aqua inline atomizer, nothing premium. I took a quick look at the NAG Inline and it looks cool, especially with the glass. My next project is to build a small reactor which I could fit behind my tank to make sure there's virtually 100% dissolution. 

I took a look at your 17 gallon tank. Love it! Especially digging the build of AnotherHobby's auto fert dosing mechanism. I'm not that techy so I opted to buy a Jebao 4 pump auto doser which I have yet to set up. I figured it would also be a good segue as I move into a saltwater aquarium. But I like the minimal look of your system. Was it particularly complicated to setup?


----------



## kman (Dec 11, 2013)

Setting up the tank as a whole, or setting up auto-dosers?

Arduino-controlled auto-dosers aren't too crazy to set up, but AnotherHobby's full iAqua controller is a BEAST. That was an enormous amount of work to set up, although it's definitely been a blast, too. Simpler auto-dosers aren't bad at all, though. There are several threads discussing them. You don't really need it, though, since you already bought a commercial one. If you mean you want to set up the commercial doser like I did, no, that's not tough at all. Coming up with the perfect material to make the hanger for the glass vials was the only complicated bit (and getting nice clean holes in it). Otherwise, it's just buying stuff off EvilBay and waiting weeks for items to arrive from China, and stringing it to the pump input and output.

Setting up the tank as a whole, on the other hand, has been quite the adventure, as you saw in my tank journal. 

I really like the look of the HJ, and want some in both of my tanks, frankly, but I worry a little about how fast it spreads. I definitely don't want it to take over my DHG Belem in my main tank, or become too much maintenance in my new office tank (hopefully low tech would slow it down?).

I want a salt water aquarium bad, but the cost and maintenance needs are kind of terrifying...


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

Yeah, the arduino-controlled auto dosers are appealing since you have the option to customize it so that it looks aesthetic with your setup. I like having hardware away from the tank and I think the way you have it with just the peristaltic pumps on the side is nice. The Jebao auto doser is bulky, about 10"x3"x6" or something close. Would be nice to opt for a smaller system, but still going to give Jebao a shot and see how it works. 

Yes, the HJ offers such a great foreground look, especially when it feels nested with other plants like HC. But you are right to worry about how quickly it spreads. Under highlight and good ferts/nutrients starting with a few nodes, you'll be cutting off strings of nodes in a few weeks and then every week to maintain the look. Low tech would slow it down, but I wonder if it looks the best with higher light (more compact and less leggy) . 

I've been setting up a budget for a Nuvo 16 reef tank, planning out the details and specs of things I want. I can't justify the splurge right, but one of these days....when I have more space, I am going to go for this below. :icon_mrgr


----------



## kman (Dec 11, 2013)

My LFS offered to sell me a completely turnkey JBJ 8 gal nano reef tank, established for a year, fully stocked with corals, fish, and other critters, for stupid cheap. Beautiful little setup. At first he said "this is everything you need! just feed the fish!" Then we started to get into how often I need to buy (and change) special filter cartridges. And something like 5 different kinds of food to feed the fish, the corals, etc., and maintaining water parameters, and testing... it got out of control really fast. I declined the offer.


----------



## xenxes (Dec 22, 2011)

That would be a cool setup, side-by-side fresh/salt day/night.

Are your neons picking on the shrimp? How's the colony holding up?

I know CPDs are voracious hunters, boraras are mostly ok, especially chilis. I love CPDs but decided against them in favor of shrimp. Right now I have 40+ boraras, different species (chili being the skinnest and most docile; maculatus being the largest and most aggressive), 12 otos, 28 pygmy cories, and my shrimp population (adults & juvies) feed out in the open. Still too early to see if the babies will be safe.


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

Single shot of the tank. Did a big trim of the rotala and rearranged the midground plants. The macrandra isn't doing as well as I had hoped. The bottoms keep rotting off. I'm getting close to done with the plant. Was thinking about swapping it out for rotala wallichii or ludwigia sp. red. 

I think I've been able to dial in the lighting/co2/ferts enough to avoid any glass algae, which, let me tell you, is AWESOME since the view of the tank is clear all the time. I've got some BBA that has been sort of taking over the tank, particularly the driftwood. Been doing the excel dose to kill it off, but will need to think more about why it keeps popping back up. 

@xenxes. I have exactly 2 red cherry shrimp left in the tank. :/ They've either slowly died from CO2 and low ph or my fish, especially the CPDs, have picked away at them. I love the boraras, especially how they swim near the surface. My tank is stacked such that the CPDs float around the back and lower sections, my neons in the middle, and the boraras at the top.


----------



## xenxes (Dec 22, 2011)

That's weird, macrandas are easy, maybe the plants adjacent to it are outcompeting it for root space. I'm not a big of rotala wallichii (even though I have some, and enie), I think their needle-leaves look out of place compared to the leafy stems. L. red is a good choice, much hardier and grows weedy, easy to keep red too. I think Persicaria sp or Ammannia sp would look good too.

What's your light cycle on? Lowering it to 8-10 hours and having CO2 on during that period helps a lot.

Sorry to hear about the shrimps, CPDs are very good hunters, they check under foliage and are just the right size to get under everything. Neons too from what I hear but I remember they stuck more to mid-water.


----------



## kman (Dec 11, 2013)

Yeah, I strongly suspect the CPDs are getting the shrimp. You have a lot of cover so it can (usually) be done, but you need a very strong colony that reproducing faster than the CPDs can eat them, to pull it off.


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

xenxes said:


> That's weird, macrandas are easy, maybe the plants adjacent to it are outcompeting it for root space. I'm not a big of rotala wallichii (even though I have some, and enie), I think their needle-leaves look out of place compared to the leafy stems. L. red is a good choice, much hardier and grows weedy, easy to keep red too. I think Persicaria sp or Ammannia sp would look good too.
> 
> What's your light cycle on? Lowering it to 8-10 hours and having CO2 on during that period helps a lot.
> 
> Sorry to hear about the shrimps, CPDs are very good hunters, they check under foliage and are just the right size to get under everything. Neons too from what I hear but I remember they stuck more to mid-water.


My macrandras were initially growing really well when I set up the tank. I'm also wondering if the placement of the plant doesn't provide it enough nutrients now that the aquasoil has leached out its goodies. The wallichii would function more like a smaller pantanal. Might be kind of cool to see the two next to each other. I've had the ludwigia red before. Awesome plant and grows fast. My only gripe is I can't get it to grow compact. Anything with bigger leaves I'm afraid will ruin the scale of the tank.

Light cycle is for 10 hrs at 80% intensity on the E-series. CO2 kicks on 90 mins before lights on and off 30 mins before lights off.



kman said:


> Yeah, I strongly suspect the CPDs are getting the shrimp. You have a lot of cover so it can (usually) be done, but you need a very strong colony that reproducing faster than the CPDs can eat them, to pull it off.


My guess is the CPDs too. I bet the RCS were stressed and the CPDs had at them happily. I have 5 in the tank, which is enough to probe all the nooks and crannies. My remaining two red cherries are ALWAYS hiding and only come out when the lights are off. Poor shrimp. Might move them in with the CRS tank.


----------



## xenxes (Dec 22, 2011)

Maybe give ammannia senegalensis a shot, pretty compact imo and relatively smaller long leaf foliage. Also less common than l.red, which everyone seems to have these days. If your aqua soil is >6 months old insert some osmocote+ root tabs, easy peasy.


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

*Update: 3/2/2015*

An exciting change to the system, but first the full tank shot.










After taking a few trips with no one to maintain the tank, I decided that I needed to find a way to automate fert dosing to keep the system going. I considered building an Arduino but felt like it was outside of the expertise, so I took the easy way out and got a Jebao auto-doser. I figured it would come in handy here and also when I move to a saltwater tank. Anyway, pics of the system below. 














I'm not a fan of the tubing set, but it was all the airline tubing I had left. Will be cleaning it up when I get more tubing. More shots of the tank below.







I've noticed that dosing more Flourish Iron has caused the tips of my ludwigia pantanal to redden a bit. I'm hoping that using chelated iron in my micro mix will really bring it the colors out even more.



I've been doing a good job of keeping the green spot algae off of the anubias. It was really bad for a while, but keeping those phosphates up, adding more CO2, and dosing excel has been doing wonders for the algae issue. It's amazing to not have to clean the glass for two weeks simply because there's no algae. I was cleaning it every 2 days before.


----------



## kman (Dec 11, 2013)

Looking good!

I recommend hitting FleaBay for some glass J-hooks to clean up the dosing lines. Makes it look a lot nicer, IMO.  And super cheap, as long as you're in no hurry...


----------



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

Thanks kman! I've had one of those j hooks before for my CO2 diffuser. Overexerted on it when I was trying to keep the tubing on tight and it snapped. Pretty cheap though I must agree.


----------



## andrewss (Oct 17, 2012)

great tank!


----------

