# The Approach 7.5g Nano Cube



## dukydaf (Dec 27, 2004)

To celebrate 1 month since the start of my aquarium, I decided to begin this journal. I will try to include all the steps and the missteps done until now. I am working into integrating this in another project but I am not yet ready to present it, and it might take some time.

The aquarium is a 30l (7.5g) Dennerle Nano Cube with rounded corners in the front. I use ADA Aquasky 301( 7000K LEDs) for light. The aquarium is fertilized using the EI method and DIY CO2.This aquascape is the first part of what I intend to be a series of aquascapes. When I have time I may speak more on the reason behind, but for now… I give you The Approach:

Day 2



Month 6

For quick glimpse I will update the images here for the latest view of the aquascape.


----------



## dukydaf (Dec 27, 2004)

The aquarium will sit in a corner close to the widow. It is visible from the front and one side. The side can be seen from the hallway so it is quite an eye catcher. I decided for ADA Aquasoil Amazonia as a substrate.


I see many people and ADA marketing team recommend the Powder, more expensive, type for small aquariums or giving a final cover. Money certainly plays an important role for most aquarists. There may be some uses for it but I believe the difference in price is not justified. First, topping normal ADA with Powder type is a small term solution since the smaller granules will always sink to the bottom. The smaller granules make the aquarium look larger, yes. However my plan includes complete cover of the Aquasoil , so it will not influence the look after the growth phase. 

Third, in a bag of normal ADA there are smaller and larger granules, usually sunk to the bottom. So you can select the smaller granules and use them where you intend to plant small foreground plants. That is what I did in the image below. 


The carboard is to help keep Aquasoil and sand separate.



Because I will use some tall stones I felt the need to provide support for them. So in goes the support stone. Most of it will be covered in substrate and plants.



Next the largest visible stone.



Fast forward, add the other stones on that line, smaller in the back creates more depth. Add some small stones to keep the substrate in place. Add all the aquasoil needed, up to 15cm (6inches) in the back. Add sand on the front and side, then remove the cardboard. 



Finally, I added a piece of wood to break the “plain”. It point a little off the corner giving the front view an open feel.
I felt the side view was a little artificial. I added the small rock with smaller rocks around to look more natural. This rock falls under the shadow from the main rock so it adds to the layered feel of the aquascape.




Left it sit for a while, just so I get a fresh view of it…


For the first time I used in vitro plants. This is one great way to avoid introducing BBA from the lfs. Most of them are from tropica and some from Anubias.



Here are almost all the plats I wil use. Form left to right I have: Hemianthus callitrichoides cuba (HC cuba), Alternanthera reineckii Mini, Staurogyne repens, Hygrophila pinnatifida, Vesicularia ferriei “Weeping Moss”, Ludwigia senegalensis, Hydrocoryle verticillata, Ludwigia arcuata (emersed form here ). Plants that are not in the photo are A. nana, A. angustifolia, Bacopa caroliniana.



I think some of plants adapt better than others to growing in vitro. For example Ludwigia senegalensis looked stunted and had almost no roots. The Weeping Moss looked the worst. I have never seen moss looking this yellow, poor fellow.


HC “cuba” looked great, with roots and all green.



Separated it into small pieces half an inch or about a cm round. Cleaned the agar from the plant roots and began planting.



Day 1 


After finishing planting I filled it with water.


----------



## theatermusic87 (Jun 22, 2014)

looking sharp! I've been envisioning something similiar for my dresser for a while


----------



## Zs_D (Dec 22, 2014)

Gorgeous! Beautiful hardscape


----------



## ChemGuyEthan (Apr 13, 2014)

Really great hardscape!

Now you just gotta get a new heater... or hide that one, haha.


----------



## kimchilee (Mar 2, 2015)

looking great! i'll definitely get a 7.5g cube for my next shrimp tank.


----------



## dukydaf (Dec 27, 2004)

*Green water*

:icon_mrgr Thank you very much for the kind words of appreciation. It has been years since I was able to flex my aquascape flippers. Hope you find some inspiration and knowledge from my experience:fish: Theatermusic 87 and kimchille looking forward to seeing your sparkiling nanos.:angel:

The heater… yeah, at this moment the weather is moody here in Germany. It can be 25*C (77F) one day and 10*C (50F) the next. There are 2 reasons I leave the equipment in. One is that it is too much of a bother to remove on routine photos. Second, this is the way I see the aquarium on everyday basis. I agree that there are situations when you would like to remove all equipment, add flashes and dry blowers to take a photo of the aquarium, eg contest shots. But this does not reflect the reality of our aquariums and can give false hopes to beginners. These photographs are for learning and documentary reasons. That being said, sometimes I will remove the equipment to allow a better view of the aquascape.
More equipment will distract your attention :red_mouth . Come summer I will remove that eyesore.

Back to the aquarium…:bounce:

Day 2 – Green water (heater removed)



Some slight greenwater developed. Maybe not that obvious in the photos but it is there. One reason could be the infamous initial Aquasoil ammonia leakage. A quick change of water solved things. I will change the water every day for the first week anyways.



HC “cuba” seems to want to float. It is the first time I use ADA Aquasoil . Didn’t really expect it to be so light :eek5:. I put HC a little deeper which seemed to solve the problem. 

The CO2 started to bubble, proof that DIY with diffusor is possible. I also added 3 Dennerle Starter Tabs in the substrate, they are a mix of macro and micro nutrients.



I know the moss is in a bad condition, but I kind of like the yellow color it adds to the aquarium. Is there a moss that stays this color when under optimal conditions?


----------



## dru (Mar 9, 2013)

Great scape


----------



## Mikeygmzmg (Mar 19, 2015)

Very nice dukydaf. I love the hardscape of this one. Excited to see the progress.


----------



## dukydaf (Dec 27, 2004)

*One week in. Betta come in.*

Thank you dru and Mikeygmzmg. I hope I can rise to the expectations and all of you will say the same thing once the plants are grown:bounce:.

Some details…




Day 3 – the filter came. It’s an Eheim 2213. It came from a previous owner so it still has some beneficial bacteria. I added a bag of JBL micromec for improved bio-surface. Also in the first few weeks I use some active carbon. The flow is pretty strong since the media is clean. Also changed half of the water 
Day 4 – started with half the dose of micro ferts daily

We got pearling…:hihi:


Day 5 - Went to the pet shop and bought 3 Amanos. All of them adapted with no problems. Algae stay away. Also needed to cut L. arcuata and replant the tops.



Day 6 – Part of the aquarium negotiations involved a Betta:fish:. I would normally have a longer fishless cycle but because there are some time constraints we went and bought a red halfmoon. Because the plant biomass is high from the beginning, I think he will be alright. There was no interactions with the shrimps. I also cleaned the glass, changed ½ water. Oh, light is on for about 6 hours(2+4).

 I did not do any pixel retouching, just balance and wb.

Day 7 – Everything looks good. The flow is too strong for my Betta (Otto)… I’ll see what I can do. Plants grow pretty well but H. verticala shows signs of nitrogen deficiency on older leaves. I’ll start adding macros now.



Moss is actually green , who knew :flick:???


And now the whole aquarium pictures one week in.(with equipment). Can you spot Otto ?







Any suggestions,questions and comments welcomed.:icon_cool


----------



## dukydaf (Dec 27, 2004)

Keeping up those daily water changes. I can see that two shrimps have molded. Algae are now visible. Some small fuzz algae and green hair algae. I believe that there was an ammonia spike after I added the betta. Oh well they were bound to appear at one point. I had to move the output from the filter around so it will blast my L. senegalensis with CO2, it was growing very slowly.
The encounter


Look at that mushy face. 


Day 9 I cleaned the filter in addition to the water change
Day 10 I started adding macros, maybe I waited to long but I wanted to give plants some time to adapt to my hard water. Also, now that I have algae I can have 3 Ottos  and some sakura red cherry shrimps. Otto is interested in the shrimps …mostly because they are red. He just looks at them, sometimes the shrimps get scared but we are safe for now. I bet he is a good way to control the shrimp population when babies come. “The predator shapes the development of the prey.”

Day 11 I had to cut L. arcuata again. It is a fast grower indeed.


A sample of the inhabitants


Any ideas how to make the L. arcuata really red ?


----------



## dukydaf (Dec 27, 2004)

Not a lot of things happening in week 3. But I still marvel how fast HC cuba and other plants grow. I wonder what they'll do after they cover everything.
Photos first: 
Day 17




Betta is having an argument with me...

I switched to water changes twice a week and slowly increased the light to 8h. I tested the water. As expected it is rather hard. I suspect PO4 is low, maybe I dose both macro and micro the same day. Spot algae appear on day Day 15, a good indicator that I lack enough PO4. I doubled macro dosing and switched to alternate micro and macro dosing dasys.
Day 11- pH 7, KH 11, NO3 20, PO4 0.5
Day 14- KH 9. Due to Aquasoil the KH dropped 3 degrees in 3 days.
Day 17 - I moved the filter pipes in the other corner(from the front left) it seemed like L. senegalensis is growing slow , so I thought maybe because the CO2 is blasted onthe other side. Also you can admire my water flow reduction/ CO2 reactor device. It is just a temporary measure until my inline reactor will arive.

Day 20- some fuzz and hair algae start to grow. I cleaned the filter to lower the organics. It had a great fresh earth smell. By now PO4 is 2ppm and spot algae stopped.


----------



## dukydaf (Dec 27, 2004)

*Progress to the jungle*

Photos first, text later.

Day 23




Top down look. Nice colour variety



Detail of side view. Compare to first days above. 


The plant path to the jungle


Day 22 – algae clean. Spot and string and small fuzz. Cut L arcuata really down so it can become denser. What you see in the photos is growth from L. senegalensis after I changed the filter output to blast CO2 in its area.
Day 24 – redone the CO2, water change 10l. Found some B. brigitae in the shop. I now have 8 of them in the aquarium. Photos to come soon.The DIY CO2 is a little too much for this small aquarium. Combined with being away from home for most of the day makes my fish and shrimps not happy.
Day 25 - things were becoming a little to jungle like so I trimmed HC for the first time. Also some of the larger H. pinnatifida got cut.
Day 27 – again an algae clean. Curious that fuzz and hair algae grown a lot when CO2 is very high .

Reflections everywhere drive my Betta crazy


----------



## dukydaf (Dec 27, 2004)

Before I go to work I though of adding some photos of my new additions  I added some 8 Boraras sp. They look like brigitae but I see there is some confusion on exact characteristics. Really nice energetic fish, but 30 min after I added them I had to rescue 30 from the eheim canister . So I added a sponge on top of the intake until I replace it.

Excuse the algae on the glass  seems I have to work on my cleaning skills.


No contrast with Althernanthera


Casual bystanders


On the glass


----------



## How3y (Jun 11, 2015)

I hope when I finally set my tank away it looks half as good as this, nice work







betta is lush too


----------



## dukydaf (Dec 27, 2004)

*Things start to be interesting*

Oh, you are too kind. Thank you very much. Look forward to seeing your aquarium and hope you can find interesting things in my experience. Enjoy the Betta.
So here are my one month celebratory pictures :bounce:


At the entrance of the approach:fish:


Go HC pearling

Nice mix of colours and textures



Just some details on what happened. I have problems with the DIY CO2 being too strong at first. I had to change the light schedule in order for me to be home and re-connect the CO2 when the light turn on. As you have noticed I now have a CO2 indicator from Dennerle. I like it because it contains the full mix of water and indicator, thus it is accurate for CO2 no matter what you put in the water.
Day 26 I started adding 1 ppm PO4 with my macro dosing .Hopefully this will stop the spot algae.
Day 31 After one overdose of CO2 I got a full bloom of fuzz, spot and long strings of silky algae. I wonder what caused the algae especially since I know I have enough macros in the water, 30no3, 3po4. Do you have a similar experience ? Where algae bloom happened after high CO2?:help:
What is apparent from the photos is that the HC needs a cut, which I did. Also trimmed some other plants.

Day 33 – tested some parameters NO3 30-40, PO4 3, KH 7. Somehow NO3 is a little bit to high but I do like the PO4 level.
Day 34 There is less spot algae but still some. Raised my PO4 to 2ppm with every macro dosing. Apparently I dosed 4x the amount of Fe recommended.:iamwithst It might be the cause of a nice bloom in long green silky algae and some necrosis on L. senegalensis leaves.
Or do you have any ideas of what could have caused this ? :help:

Day 39 Cut L. senegalensis and L arcuata down to 3 leaves. Another trim for HC cuba. Also some esthetic cleaning for S. repens, A reinechii and H pinnatifida.

The most difficult aspect yet is to have all the plants at suitable levels. Still learning their growth pattern.


----------



## mvbis (Mar 10, 2014)

Wow. Your tank looks amazing! Sweet photos too. Cheers!


----------



## TLE041 (Jan 16, 2010)

Awesome tank. I like the scaping.


----------



## dukydaf (Dec 27, 2004)

Thank you very much mvbis and TLE. It encourages me to hear others like the scape.

I think I need to learn more trimming techiques as I can less and less of the hardscape with each day. I forgot to mention in the post above that I got some glassware. The lily broke during shipping... bad packaging.For the time being I will have the jetflow from eheim, provides good flow. The outflow survived and I have to say it looks much better, especially in a small aquarium. I can say it slowed the filter a little but if I keep it clean it should not be a problem.

Just a small update at the begining of the weekend  Busy cleaning the filter and aquarium. 

The cleaning crew:




And 3 cherries which do not feel like posing 
Hope I'll post more at the end of the weekend.Thank you all for looking.


----------



## dukydaf (Dec 27, 2004)

*And the problems begin*

Yey... more than a 1000 views:bounce:. Thanks to everybody who follows this journal, you are part of my motivation. roud:Temperatures here are high enough that I do not need the ugly heater anymore.BUT>
After my overdose of Fe and CO2 I start to deal with the problems. Things begin to be interesting and sometimes frustrating. 
Continuing from Day 39. Just before the trim of almost all the plants. 


Notice the yellow CO2 indicator, more to come...


A little change in angle 


Here is the little hill of hydrocortyle I developed


I bought 5 painted red RCS from an online shop to add to my sakura stock. One of them was DOD(dead on arrival). In one week I lost an additional 3 and 2 of my RCS. Some suggested bacterial infection. I also suspect high levels of CO2 from the new DIY mix weakened them. Live and learn from the dead shrimp.:icon_roll
I am left with one female painted red RCS and two low grade males. I guess I will try to add some more when I have pressurized CO2.


I have a new idea to modify the landscape temporarily. And I am starting to experiment with a remote flash.. more to come soon.


----------



## dukydaf (Dec 27, 2004)

*Colours and Fe experiments*

I bought some background but can’t decide on the colour. What is your vote ? 
*Black Blue:fish: or White?*





Day 44 gave a good cut to the S. repens . It is already plenty dense but got a tad too tall for my small aquarium.
Day 46 cut the hill of H vertical. Only left a couple of stems to reduce the shadow on HC cuba
Day 50 cut the front HC cuba very close to the substrate. I felt that the carpet was becoming loose.
Day 62 cut the back plants, L arcuata, L senegalensis and H. pinnafida

*An experiment in Fe toxicity:*
After the massive Fe overdose I added, for a week small doses of Fe, like what I would normally dose 0.2ppm*3x/wk.. After which I sealed the deal and added 2ppm Fe EDTA:eek5: + other micros (20ml Feropol) over the second week. It was this dose that induced my A. reinechii to show the symptoms of Fe toxicity.



The new leaves from A. reinechii were glossy, brittle and distorted:angryfire. Classic case. Interestingly enough, A. reinechii started to show some necrosis(black areas) in their leaves, very much like S. senegalensis showed. 



Speaking of which, the incidence of black spots for it has increased and became more severe… nearly translucent leaves:confused1:. HC cuba had some orange old leaves which turned translucent after a few days. So by now I am pretty certain that iron or something in the micro solution induced the symptoms shown by L. senegalensis. If it is toxicity or adsorbtion competition I cannot say.Let’s see if they disappear after I stop adding micros.


----------



## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

I wanna say black background. Lovely tank as always


----------



## dukydaf (Dec 27, 2004)

As the temperatures begin to drop I have more time to spend inside. So it is time for an update.


Since July I connected a pressurized CO2 system with the inline reactor. I removed the sand as I was getting lots of algae between glass and sand and Aquasoil was going over the sand all the time.





Things were going well and managed to reduce my iron levels to less than toxic levels until middle July. Due to a busy schedule and a failed timer I got no CO2 for about a week. This was the trigger for a huge BGA bloom. The BGA started in the glass-soil region but was a non-issue until the CO2 problem. During this bloom my otos and shrimps died , maybe lack of green algae(food) or cyanobacteria toxins reached toxic levels. I almost lost L. senegalensis as it was completely covered by BGA.





I tried to control it the natural way but it was to far gone. Easy Life treatment (dosed per instructions) did not do anything so I got hold of good ol' Erythromycin. Dosed a combination of 5mg/L/day or 2.5mg/L/day and after 2 weeks it is detached from plants, almost gone. The only part that worries me is deep under in the substrate I can still se blue. What do you think, should I continue treat?





So now the aquarium is recovering from the long nuclear BGA winter. I will post some photos soon (first have to finish writting the introduction for my article).


----------



## Julie7778 (Apr 21, 2015)

I adore this tank. Everything about it is beautiful. I saw earlier you mentioned 



> The DIY CO2 is a little too much for this small aquarium.


This tank is about 7.5 gallons correct? I'm now panicking because I plan on adding DIY (the bottle and yeast) CO2 to my 2.5g and if yours is getting too much my little tank will get destroyed.. Any ideas?


----------



## dukydaf (Dec 27, 2004)

Thank you very much for your words @Julie7778 .I hope you will find the coming updates as refreshing. It certainly brings a spark to an otherwise dull rainy October day.

Yes the tank is 7.5g ~30L. I think you can use DIY CO2 in your aquarium, but you have to be careful. Until you figure things out, it would be better if the aquarium did not have any shrimps or expensive/sensitive fish. 

Also from past mistakes:
- a drop checker is always a good idea to MONITOR your CO2 level. Be aware that it has a delay of around 1h in responding to changes;
- always have a one way valve on the CO2 line, put in THE RIGHT DIRECTION. Better to keep the water from bottle in the bottle, not in the aquarium.
- use bottles that can stand the pressure. Soda bottles are ok for the most part.
- speaking of pressure, if you have a way to stop the CO2 from getting in the aquarium, make sure you DISCONNECT THE BOTTLE so that it does not build up pressure;
- keep the bottle UPRIGHT, with enough space at the top for the foam to form and not reach the tubing;
- long day at work, you are in bed and about to start dreaming. Get up and disconnect the CO2 DURING THE NIGHT (lights off period).
-better to have the DIY CO2 connected when you can observe the fish and rapidly take action

You can adapt the standard DIY CO2 to better suit your aquarium’s needs
Limit the *time*
DIY CO2 produces CO2 at a rapid rate from day 2-5, depending on the mix and temperature. Put a one way valve on the CO2 line and disconnect the bottle after 1-2h, reconnect again after 2-3h. As you can see this is inconvenient, and if you forget to connect disconnect either fish die or algae grow.

Limit the *mix*
That is to say the sugar in the DIY mix. Less sugar = less CO2. So for a smaller aquarium you can create a more dilute solution (up to a point).

Limit the *size* 
For my aquarium I had about 1L of mix, maybe if you have half this much it would be easier to work with. But the mix might not produce CO2 for as long.

Limit the *temperature*
CO2 comes from the biological activity of the yeast. If you were to lower the temperature (up to a point), yeast would become less active and therefore generate less CO2. Again, this is hard to do as for the most part the DIY CO2 is at room temperature.

Hope you found this helpful. All the best with your 2.5 gallon.


----------



## Julie7778 (Apr 21, 2015)

Thank you so much. This will help me a 
Lot when I set it up. Once again love your tank can't wait to see more pics!


----------



## dukydaf (Dec 27, 2004)

Hello all, 

Today I got a chance to post some updated pictures, not my best photos. It also seems to celebrate 5 months since the opening of this thread. So happy 5 months. :grin2:

These days is seems one problems follows the other. After I finished with the BGA, there were signs of itch. Now I am glad I do not have any shrimps at the moment, as the treatment would have killed them. I started the treatment as soon as possible.

The treatment also involves 50% water changes every other day, which is a good opportunity to lower my kH from 8 with osmosis water. 
My tap water is ~13 KH, but after a few days aquasoil brings it to around 8. Now if I do 50% water change with RO my KH comes down to ~ 4 KH. But after a few days it slowly goes back up to 7 or 8. I think this is due to the unstable bonding of ‘carbonates’ by Aquasoil . So now I have to change my water with RO until I wash my substrate.



I think this aquascape has been more of a way for me to gain experience with the shape, texture and overall look of some plants. This is the first time I tried to grow HC, L. repens , althernathera, L. senegalensis and H. pinnatifida. Mostly all the plants in this aquarium. It has been an interesting study on the plant growth and I feel I can now trim them better. 

Unfortunately, I had the opportunity to rescue some plant species and the collectoritis bug bit me again. So, now I added have Marsilea hirasuta, Sagitaria subulata, H. corymbosa, 2 new mosses, Süßwassertang and Nymphea micrantha. A lot of plants for a small aquarium. I miss having shrimps . So maybe a new aquarium will come for Christmas. Hopes up but need to talk with my wife.


----------



## rosssavo (Oct 25, 2015)

Subscribed! Gorgeous tank and layout!


----------



## dukydaf (Dec 27, 2004)

*A small photo update*

Thank you very much @rosssavo. Hope to hear your feedback in the future as well. :grin2:

A small photo-update.

Oto, the boss
Well actually a platy that I raised from fry inside the aquarium. Oto sometimes chases it, I guess because of its color. But it seems plenty fast.

Plant touching
:help:Now some serious stuff. I got an on-going BBA bloom. My CO2 is up there with an yellow drop checker and pH 6, KH 5 . By the end of the injection period there is some stress visible on fish, so I would rule CO2 out. Maybe coincidence but I noticed a simillar bloom when I changed 50% of the water every other day with tap water. Since my tap water comes with a KH of 13, the increased carbonate hardness. 

A more relevant issue is that I did not clean my filter since last month. My biological filtration was impacted by the treatment with erythromycin and the treatment for itch. I think this is my main problem so this Thursday at the end of the itch treatment I will clean the filter and wait for the biological filtration to re-establish. Since I have an abundance of BBA, I also set up an experiment of which I can write about in a different thread. If you have any suggestion please reply.:help:
Finally, a photo from a local park:wink:

A very productive week. May your plants grow.


----------



## Tihsho (Oct 10, 2007)

Following this thread more so now because of the photography! Nice shots! If you wouldn't mind, what gear are you using?


----------



## dukydaf (Dec 27, 2004)

Tihsho said:


> Following this thread more so now because of the photography! Nice shots! If you wouldn't mind, what gear are you using?


I am honored that you like my photography. 
I have my old but good Nikon D90. For most tank shots I use a 15-105mm DX VR Nikon lens. The last photos were taken with a Tamron lens 70-300mm. I find that the use of an off-camera flash, though tricky, greatly helps altering the mood of the photograph.

I don't take as many photographs like I used to, but maybe next summer I will have time to invest in enhancing my skills.

I started the BBA experiment:
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/23-algae/949082-bba-some-exploratory-experiments.html#post8489250


----------



## Tihsho (Oct 10, 2007)

Ugh... Nikon user... Just kidding. Glad to see another DSLR fan on here!


----------



## Zaki (Jan 27, 2015)

Sehr gut... ;-) 

Stunning work my friend... Just keep it up and keep us updated..


----------



## dukydaf (Dec 27, 2004)

Tihsho said:


> Ugh... Nikon user... Just kidding. Glad to see another DSLR fan on here!


What are you saying here ??? You cannot run from the light forever. 0 . Cheers. Modern DSLRs are such a piece of technology...



Zaki said:


> Sehr gut... ;-)
> 
> Stunning work my friend... Just keep it up and keep us updated..


Danke sehr @Zaki. It is still work in progress, never ending progress.:nerd:

The aquarium is slowly recovering from the treatments. I blame the organic waste from the great BGA destruction for the BBA bloom. The filter was more dirty than ever. Cleaned and added RO, now have KH 5, GH 4. Also started spot treating with Easylife Easycarbo

The Nymphae grows at spectacular speed, as expected and all the other plats seem to have adapted. I just added some Süßwassertang to see how it grows. In the past, I had good success for some months and then complete breakdown.

And this week's update

The S. repends needs some growin after the trim and obviously the left side needs some time.
Looked at the starting photo, how small the Anubias was 5 months agh how fast they grow...


----------



## Tihsho (Oct 10, 2007)

Sorry, I'm a Canon guy. If someone gifted me a Nikon though, I wouldn't say no to using it and having a reason to collect more glass 

How did you attach your Hygro. Pinnatifida to the wood?


----------



## dukydaf (Dec 27, 2004)

I agree with you @Tihsho . A tool is just that. Got to admire the remote control capabilities on the Canon.

I planted a H. pinnatifida between the rock and the wood. In time, it sent out plantlets towards the rock where it self-attached via roots. The roots have some adhesive hairs that are strongly attached. You can then remove the plants you don't want. H. pinnatifida will tend to try to colonize all available surface.

Just some small updates. Perhaps because I reduced my KH, the CO2 gets higher in the aquarium so I need to readjust. For example gassed off water pH is 7.5, KH 5. Early morning before CO2 injection I have pH 6.5. 4 hours after CO2 injection pH 5. At this point I can see the fish becoming lethargic , not gasping but not active.

Another observation: 
Before water change : KH 5;
change 50% with RO (KH0)
Shortly after water change KH 3; ( well maybe not exactly 50% wc)
3 days after KH 5; (given limited evaporation)

Why is my KH doubled ?
One assumption I made is that ADA Aquasoil gives back some accumulated carbonates. My tap water has KH 13 and ADA Aquasoil has been exposed to this for about 3 months, during which it usually reduced my KH to 7. Did anybody have a similar experience ?


I also noticed pinholes in S. repens' older leaves. Do you think it is K deficiency ? 

Now let the photos begin 

You know I'm the boss

And you just mosquitoes

Until later, 
Mihai


----------



## WaterLife (Jul 1, 2015)

@Tihsho
You have a DSLR!? Which model and what's your favorite lens for aquarium/plant/fish photography? 
Where the pictures at!? Can never have too many high quality pics!

Man, I really gotta get me another DSLR or any decent camera for that matter


----------



## dukydaf (Dec 27, 2004)

WaterLife said:


> @Tihsho
> Where the pictures at!? Can never have too many high quality pics!


Agree, need visual proof  @Tihsho

Update on the whole aquarium:

More to come 

Now growing snails


----------



## dukydaf (Dec 27, 2004)

So I wanted to keep these observations in a separate post from the update. 

You can see the HC that is in the shade from the Anubias leaf is deteriorating. Good argument for trimming at the right time. I feel this Anubias got a bit too big for this place, maybe I will replace it.


The L. senegalensis looks great with this dosing regime. It recovered from the Fe overdose 3 months ago and the more recent BGA. Happy I was able to save it.


A. reineckii is a little to orange for my taste but that can be because it is almost at soil level and does not receive enough light. It developed good roots though.


But here start some problems.... I identified some pinholes typical for K deficiency 


I highly doubt K deficiency as I add full EI with ~30ppm per week. Somehow K is prevented from getting in the plants. Clue number 2

S. repens grows a lot less, also has pinholes in leaves and BBA on it. 

Clue This Alternathera reinekii has severely distorted new leaves.


I assume the symptoms appeared after I used only RO water for w changes. For a time I just wanted to dilute the high GH and KH I have. I now reached KH 4 and GH 3. Lower GH might mean lower Mg levels. But Mg suppresses the uptake of K so I should not have any problems with K uptake. High level of traces (Cu, Fe, etc) also prevent K uptake. 

So I added some MgCl*6H2O and the progression of symptoms seems to have stopped. Following the thread here , I wonder if I should also try lower trace levels to see what happens.
Have you observed something similar ?
Any thoughts or suggestions are welcomed: D


----------



## bereninga (Mar 18, 2006)

Wow, this is a very nice tank. The composition is very dynamic and very natural-looking. It seems like your eye for photography transfers well to the aquascaping! How do you get your betta to behave with so many tankmates? I never thought that they would be a community kind of fish.

Hygrophila pannatifida is getting more and more popular these days, and I really like your use of it. The exposed roots and all.

Your tank has a wide variety of species which, to me, is very hard to blend together well. You've found a way to make it work together in a very nice display. Great job!

Also, great photo work! For the full tank shots, what focal length do you feel gets the best results for you? I've tried many, but haven't found any that I particularly like. I'm wondering if longer lenses are better because I'm more of a wideange junkie.


----------



## dukydaf (Dec 27, 2004)

*GIF of S. subulata*

Oh , a month has already passed since my last update. My schedule is full since we are closing a big laboratory project. Maybe I have time later this week, until then a 4 day growth of S. subulata and Marsilea : 


And a week's growth after the last photo:




Thank you @bereninga . I designed this aquascape with dynamism in mind, thus I am glad it conveys my intention.
H. pinnatifida is indeed a very nice fast growing plant. Compared with it, most plants that attach to wood or rock have a very slow growing rate. Although this position is not the one I planned in the aquascape I learned to be more flexible and place each plant where it shines in this aquascape. I will certainly include it in my future scapes. 
I now have 20 plant species in this 30L aquarium. The disease of collectoritis keeps coming back . 

The focal length I end up shooting at is usually slightly telephoto (75-100mm 35mm equivalent). Longer than this makes things flat, reduces depth of field etc. Wide angles tend to distort and I do not like to spend the majority of my free time editing. I have to say, having used a variety of focal lengths, I do not actively think about this but rely on my habit muscle. And of course it depends on the space you have available, a nano is easier in this aspect.

An issue that affects planted aquarium photography is the angle of photography and light. For most of us, shooting aquariums is just a small part of our photographs. If so, we are not used to think about the other layer of glass between us and the plants. Sure keeping the aquarium glass clean on both sides is a given (not that I do it ) , but much more is happening at the water-glass-air interface. You will want your lens to be as close as possible to 90* (all axes) with the aquarium to avoid glass distortion. Have a dark room so that nothing is reflected in the glass. But what I found out is that, the angle of the aquarium light is also important. If you want to maximize contrast, reduce the amount of light reaching the glass. Either lower the light or even better angle it away from the viewing panel. In this way you also get more light on the plants you want to photograph. 

I have something interesting for the next update. Coming soon.


----------



## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

What sp. of Nymphae is that in your tank? love the green and red look of its leaves. Also I think someone I talk with on a betta forum may have bought that recently (they're trying to ID it still).


----------



## dukydaf (Dec 27, 2004)

@AquaAurora It is Nymphaea micrantha "Gefleckt". The one I have here is a baby which I try to keep small by cutting its leaves. A 60g would be more suitable for this plant. It is easier to keep compared to N. zenkeri. Even easier to propagate, as once the leaves reach the surface, it will grow small bulbs at the base of the leaf blade

By the way, I started adding Ca and Mg to my osmose water up to 3 GH. S. repens is completely restored.

Starting with the good.
Surprise 1: Found these cute Aspidoras pauciradiatus at the lfs. They are cute and don’t seem to bother HC. They go nuts for microworms. 

I also added some amanos. They went into the plants and were never seen …

Surprise 2: We have lift off…


So you remember the the part of HC that was shaded by Anubias. I spot treated the rock above with 2x EasyCarbo for BBA. Left the filter off for a longer time than usually and later that day the snails were eating the melted HC. 
A few days after that : 
A small surprise inside the surprise. I realized why the HC never attached in one area. You can see in the middle large piece of rock… duh.

So I took it out and replanted small pieces in that area… now I have to wait for it to fill. More to come…


----------



## dukydaf (Dec 27, 2004)

Some photos of the whole setup taken shortly after I replanted the HC in the corner.
With the landscape as a whole, I am waiting for some plants to grow to where I want them, the left side to fill in. Also will head for a jungle look until next massive pruning.




To answer your other question @bereninga, my Betta, Otto, is rather well behaved. To begin with, the petshop had it in a mixed tank, not the small boxed or worse, cups. Nevertheless, it is the uncontested master of the aquarium. The platy gets chased after at feeding time, I guess mostly because it is also red. No serious biting or injury occurs.The smaller fish and shrimp are ignored. When I added the Aspidoras he laid on a wood above and watched them a little bit… fish curiosity I guess.

BBA is mostly gone a few colonies here and there waiting to be harassed or restart the problem. 

On the 8th Dec., I started dosing 0.5ppm urea (0.23ppm N, eq of 1ppm NO3). Too soon to see any real effects, probably the dose is too small for anything but safety testing. Tested right after and at dif. timepoints, no NH4 was detected. I dose after several hours of light/CO2 and notice a somewhat increased formation of bubbles on the leaves that are nearest (maybe biased in my obsv.)

I started having troubles with S. senegalensis again (before the urea dosing). I find it interesting that some tips have necrosis (dark red –black- transparent patches) while others don’t. Trying to figure out what would stop the necrosis appearing in new leaves. Anybody experienced this ?


----------



## dukydaf (Dec 27, 2004)

Right after I posted the photos, I did a big trim on the Ludwigia and removed a big part of the failed experiment with Hydrocortyle. Now 2 weeks after those photos:






The way the tank looks now reminds me of my teenager room  I left the plants grow because I did not have time and I want to give some away. The shadowing and limitation of current flow were big problems.

The urea experiment went well, I think some plants grew alot faster. The perling was always intesified after dosage of 0.5 ppm NO3 equivalent. I will raise the dose a little bit. 

A weird thing happened one day. With the exact same routine, shortly after dosing the normal dose of Easy Carbo, my fish and shrimp headed for the surface as when CO2 overdose occurs....still a mystery on why it happened on that day.

Meanwhile seems hunger was driving my snail insane.... slugging the wrong way



A severe cut is coming soon.


----------



## dukydaf (Dec 27, 2004)

That was a lot of Hygrophilla and Ludwigia to remove. Ah well, at least the nutrients went in right place 

Here it is a day after the trimming.


After removing all that cover noticed some spotting on some plants that were shaded. Althernathera in one corner has these spots, but in the other corner all is ok. One anubias has these spots the other does not... looks to me like something was to concentrated and went with the water flow burning some plants. Don't know the exact cause, all the nutrients except Fe and micros were at EI levels. I will monitor to see if these spots appear in other regions. Do you have any ideas ?



And on a brighter note...


Keep digging for that aquascape hidden in your aquarium.


----------



## bereninga (Mar 18, 2006)

There's that missing hardscape!

Do you dose dry? It does look like something burned the leaves.


----------



## dukydaf (Dec 27, 2004)

You may be on to somethig. I did try some Dupla Ferrogan granules which might have caused this... given that the dead spots are distributed all over the aquarium, in different plants. Not all plants of the same species show this. The dead spots are not present in the oldest leaves but in the 2nd newer or close to it. 

However, the spots are growing in size rather fast, turning the leaf clear in a matter of days. The spots are on some leaves that are rather vertical. I think I am seeing new spots developing even after 3 or more days. I did cut the leaves with spots to see more easily if new spots are developing. Time will tell...

I did recently work on a rather sad aquarium, which had developed very anaerobic and rotting conditions. I wonder if some bacteria /virus could have contaminated my aquarium ... But I am a microbiologist, so I have a hammer and see nails...

Another pic of these snugly funny fellows


----------



## danarl (May 13, 2015)

I hate you. 
Why? 
Cause juat after felling nice with my lowtech tank i have seen yours. And that made me feel like why mine isnt that beautifully looking tank. I feel ashamed. Good job. I subscribed to this journal. Amazing amazing and again AMAZING. 
Ps. Can you tell what kind of stones are they

Ps2. Sorry for bad english im from foreign country. 

Sent from my LG-H815 using Tapatalk


----------



## bereninga (Mar 18, 2006)

Those cories are funny! They look like cartoon characters.


----------



## dukydaf (Dec 27, 2004)

Happy new year everybody. May you have rich crops this year 



danarl said:


> Cause juat after felling nice with my lowtech tank i have seen yours. And that made me feel like why mine isnt that beautifully looking tank.
> Ps. Can you tell what kind of stones are they


Place enough on this Earth for beautiful aquariums:grin2: Had low tech myself, I find them easier to maintain but more difficult to scape with the limited plant choice. They also Thanks for the appreciation and don't worry your english is good. Hope this journal helps you better manage your aquarium.

The stones are Holzsteine... I guess woodrock would be the direct translation. I like the texture of them and the color. Most woodrock in the shops is reddish however.

Thanks for taking the time to comment.




bereninga said:


> Those cories are funny! They look like cartoon characters.


Yes, they are very hilarious, especially when they burry their heads and stay vertical in the substrate. Looking for dinner I suppose. 
/*Rant:*/
Just hope Disney doesn't make any movie with fish or plants, they usually make so many mistakes. In 'Finding Nemo' they had the coral reef have algae (Kelp) in the background... because it looked good. After they hired a biologist as a consultant they had to erase all the macroalgae from the movie but they are still there in some scenes...:surprise:
Nemo's dad... well not for long a dad :x
/*end rant;*/

As this is the first post of the year here is a photo update:


I think I am on to something with the L senegalensis... still have to confirm my results. Finally after more than 6 months of trial...:grin2:


On the other side I still have these localized spots . They spread in one region only, start as brown areas and then necrosis develops around them. Didn't dose dry so that can be almost excluded.



Regards,
duky


----------



## dukydaf (Dec 27, 2004)

A quick photoless update. 

At the moment, I am waiting for plants to grow, fill in and have the right shape for the last scape photo. Some small changes will be done afterwards...

I did not notice any additional holes in the leaves... still don't know what caused them. One thing I discovered was that I was dosing 4 times less Mg than I though... due to varying crystal density. 

Some interesting things in the two different patches of Alternathera. On the left side, behind S. repens, Althernathera has tip top leaf shape, condition and colour. On the right side, in the corner most plants have crimpled leaves, and pink-orange colour. I've seen many people here linking crimpled / deformed leaves with trace toxicity. These plant groups share the same water and substrate conditions. What is different is that left group is near the filter output receiving good CO2, closer to the light due to slope and unshaded. The right group is near the filter intake, at the end of the 'whirpool', shaded by H. pinnatifida and others. In my case it is CO2 not traces.

The reason for the lack of images is that I am letting the GDA grow on the glass for 2 weeks now, see if I manage to get rid of them using this treatment. I did not get the blanket cover other members report , maybe it grows slower in my aquarium. Do you have any experience with leaving GDA alone for some time ? How did you remove them ?


----------



## brandonhauser (Nov 6, 2015)

Not to worry, this tank isn't low-tech (it has co2 and ferts)! I agree, though, very beautiful aquascape.



danarl said:


> I hate you.
> Why?
> Cause juat after felling nice with my lowtech tank i have seen yours. And that made me feel like why mine isnt that beautifully looking tank. I feel ashamed. Good job. I subscribed to this journal. Amazing amazing and again AMAZING.
> Ps. Can you tell what kind of stones are they
> ...


----------



## dukydaf (Dec 27, 2004)

brandonhauser said:


> Not to worry, this tank isn't low-tech (it has co2 and ferts)! I agree, though, very beautiful aquascape.


Thank you. Yes definitely not a low-tech. Had plenty of those when I was a kid . I find them interesting to setup, and once you get them going you can run them with minimal maintenance. In one of them with a Vallisneria forest, layer of debris on the sand and sunlight , Puntius tetrazona decided to breed. Tank was self run, maybe 2-3 times a year I would do some maintenance.
/**Stop memory lane;**/

The GDA “treatment” seems to have worked. One week of growth and no GDA on the glass but some string algae… largely due to sunny days/ direct sunlight. The lily pipes, however, still get covered in green.
Thanks to roadmaster, I discovered the source of the necrotic spots… insufficient water circulation leading to CO2 deficiency under high light. This is also in keeping with my previous observations on the performance of Althernathera reinekii. At one point, I turned the CO2 off during the first half of the day and turned the filter output away from the corner of the aquarium. Observed the exact same thing followed by an increase in BBA and staghorn. Is your CO2 and water movement good ? 

It seems I've reached a high plant density that requires high conc. and distribution. of CO2 to be able to keep growing


----------



## bsantucci (Sep 30, 2013)

Love the hygro on the wood! It stays smaller growing on the wood right? Do you plan to let it complete cover the wood? I think that would look awesome. 

Can't wait to see an updated photo. 

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk


----------

