# Evi's Semi-dutch - 90x45x45 ADA - 56k Warning



## Green_Flash (Apr 15, 2012)

looks fantastic, what LED fixture did you switch from?


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## marioman72 (Jan 22, 2010)

wow very nice scape! great right up def going to be following this one. im always a huge fan of dutch scapes, i just think they r gorgeous just to much maintenance for my taste haha


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## golfer_d (Oct 3, 2012)

sweet set up....much too high tech for my noob brain though


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## GMYukonon24s (May 3, 2009)

Welcome to the forum. Wow this is a great setup1


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## Evicene (Nov 20, 2012)

Thanks everyone 


> looks fantastic, what LED fixture did you switch from?


I was using the Maxspect Mazarras. They just really arent suited to planted tanks. The plants were all growing, but all the colours were just dull, red plants just didnt colour up the way they do with T5's.


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## Evicene (Nov 20, 2012)

Here's a quick pic of my hardware in action:









I had some issues with some weird melt in this tank. I have lost all my Staurogyne sp "Tropica", Ludwigia Glandulosa, Limnophila aromatica "Red" and Rotala sp "Green". 

I also had some major issues with the Rotala indica aswell, i believe it was grown emersed and melted when i planted it. Although I left it for a week after it melted and it sprouted new shoots - I have since removed these (1cm long) and replanted them away from the rot. Here they are 3 days after being replanted:









My UG is struggling also, i think that may be a lighting issue (Ill get to that in a moment). I also lots 80% of my Hemianthus micranthemoides. Im also getting patches of BGA. I have treated it with H2O2, so hopefully that will slow it down.

I receieved my ATI 6x39w Dimmable unit and cade light stands last week. The light stands attached really well and everything was hung in 1/2 an hour. I left the light unit covered in plastic warp until the globes arrived 3 days later. This is where all the problems started...
I ordered the following globes:
3 Giesemann Midday 39w globes 6000k
2 Giesemann Aquaflora 39w globes 5700 K
1 ATI Purple Plus 39w globe.

I received the following:
1 Giesemann Midday 39w globes 6000k
3 Giesemann Aquaflora 39w globes 5700 K
1 KZ New Generation 39w globe 14000k
2 KZ Fiji Purple 39w globe.

Well to say the least I was confused... I contacted the supplier and he's going to send me the CORRECT order this week. I unwrapped the unit and removed the 0.5mm acrylic cover over the reflectors and i was horrified. The reflectors were dented and bent in several places.









Not impressed in the slightest. I put the globes into the ATI unit - they weren't the right spectrum, but i just wanted to see if the damned thing even worked. I switched the unit on and turned both channels to 100%. 2 globes lit up, 2 globes flickered and 2 did nothing. Great so the whole unit doesn't work, even after hours of moving the globes around. So once again, I contacted the supplier and hes going to arrange a replacement.








(note the colour of the globes - also wrong!)

Ok so, moving on.
Ive had some fairly good plant growth and everything is colouring up. i did a big trim, didn't cut everything as low as i should have but i didn't want to risk any more melt.

My Rotala sp Colorata is growing like crazy and is colouring up really well. Persicaria sp. 'Porto Velho is growing really quickly and producing better quality further up the stem, so i pulled them up, removed the older, lower stem and replanted. I also did this with Tonina fluviatilis. Ludwigia sp Cuba is developing a rich yellow leaf with a orange center, really nice and hygrophila pinnatifida is sending our runners.









3 weeks FTS - Everything is still very messy but its growing. Ill need to shuffle some plants soon.
Note how purple the light is, hopefully when my new globes arrive, the tank will look less purple (marine)!









I finally have my lily pipe at the right depth and its got some nice whirlpool action going on. Its also a good indicator of when i need to clean my filter.









Im having a bit of trouble with deficiencies/overdosing in the plants. So i have cut all channels in my auto doser and am only dosing KNO3, glut, and trace (additional iron as well) until i can figure out the problem.
hygrophila pinnatifida has small brown spots/holes plus yellowing in the old leaves and the new growth looks stunted and curly. Im guessing trace deficiency or mg over dose. I doubt it is co2 as everything is pearling like crazy.


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## marioman72 (Jan 22, 2010)

sorry to here about the melt :\ hope u figure out whats wrong! other wise everythings looking super colorful


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## Evicene (Nov 20, 2012)

So I bought this gorgeous hunk of spunk Last week.









And im going to be upgrading my hardscape with this new piece. Im still aiming for most of the wood to blend in and have the plants as the main focus but i feel the bulk and colour of the anubias will really help my scape.
Example:









Im already having thoughts (and dreams - yes ive been dreaming about aquascapes all night!) on how lovely the contrast will be having streets of plants meeting with this grogeous piece of DW. Also i think my cyperus helferi will look awesome growing out from behind this as well as mixing in some mini java fern. Im also going to transfer some US Fissidens.


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## marioman72 (Jan 22, 2010)

thats def going to change the whole look of the tank very nice. were r u thing about putting it?


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## Evicene (Nov 20, 2012)

> thats def going to change the whole look of the tank very nice. were r u thing about putting it?


Haha well i couldnt wait to put it in, here are some updated pics! 
I pulled up all the plants, removed dead leaves and trimmed everything.
took me a good few hours but this is how it looks.








Dust cloud! Yay!

So I did a 50% water change on the tank to remove some more dust particals and also cleaned out the filter.
Front of tank








3/4 view








Side view








And a close up









Now just have to wait for it to fill in a bit 

Im still waiting for a bunch of plants that should arrive early this week. The back right hand corner is still empty.


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## marioman72 (Jan 22, 2010)

yea once u get ome plants in the back corner its guna look sweet, looks much fuller then it did before. what kind of fish r thos, chili rasboras?


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## Evicene (Nov 20, 2012)

> yea once u get ome plants in the back corner its guna look sweet, looks much fuller then it did before. what kind of fish r thos, chili rasboras?


Ember tetras and hengels rasbora 

Im really happy with how much it has thinkened up the look of my scape


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## marioman72 (Jan 22, 2010)

they r so red! wouldnt have figured, gives it some nice color. thats the kind of fish im looking to get is something bright red


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## Evicene (Nov 20, 2012)

They are a lovely fish  They look pale at the store usually because of stress


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## marioman72 (Jan 22, 2010)

most def as do most fish, what r u planing to put in the corner of the tank now im curious haha?


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## Evicene (Nov 20, 2012)

Haha I have Limnophila aromatica red on order for that back corner - theres actually some planted there but its only about 1inch tall as the rest of it melted. I also have some Ludwigia glandulosa, Najas Roraima and some more stems of Tonina fluviatilis. Should arrive early this week


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## marioman72 (Jan 22, 2010)

love the aromatica, just got some of that in my new 10g, it has such nice purples def a good choice for that corner, very full plant.


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## Evicene (Nov 20, 2012)

Yes its a great plant, hope it works in that corner


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## marioman72 (Jan 22, 2010)

i dont see why it wouldnt, pretty hardy plant, did u ever figure out why thos plants melted?


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## Evicene (Nov 20, 2012)

Honestly, im not quite sure... maybe an ammonia spike from pulling up the plants and moving the soil.
But I find it strange that certain plants melted while other more touchy plants survived. Like i lost all my stauro tropica but the pogo plantlets next to it survived. My UG didnt melt either. A bit odd.


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## marioman72 (Jan 22, 2010)

that is quite strange, who knows the only thing that mater is that it dosnt happen again! gl to ya cant wait for the next update


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## Evicene (Nov 20, 2012)

Exactly, as long and the worst if over  Thanks, hopefully Ill have an update on growth in a week or so


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## marioman72 (Jan 22, 2010)

sweet! sounds good heres my thread btw check it out  http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=197396


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## Evicene (Nov 20, 2012)

Will do!


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## Evicene (Nov 20, 2012)

A bit of an update.
Theres been plenty of steady growth. Plants are colouring up well.

I have added some Ludwigia glandulosa which is loving it in my tank so far. It was planted on saturday and it already has roots about 2-3 inches long (i pulled one up to see if they were rooting in ok).Also the Tonina fluviatilis i recieved in the mail was stuck in 42oC heat over the weekend and isnt looking great. The seller is sending a new batch.









The Limnophila aromatica "red" that i ordered appears to actually be Pogostemon stellatus. Im just waiting to comfirm that.









I purchased these plants as Heteranthera zosterifolia.
The plant on the left is much messier, fast growing and throws out side shoots where as the one on the right maintains is structure much better and deeper colour stem.








I believe the one on the left is indeed Heteranthera zosterifolia but the one on the right... is Eichhornia diversifolia. So i have removed the messier Heteranthera zosterifolia and kept the Eichhornia diversifolia. 

I had to trim the crowns off my Ludwigia sp Cuba unfortunatly as they were getting too tall. On the plus side, i now have doubled the amount of stems!









Persicaria sp. 'Porto Velho' has gone nuts with growth as well - I will need to sell some of this plant off next trim. Rotala mexicana 'Goias' has finally started to spread as well, very pretty plant.

Im haiving issues still with my Hemianthus micranthemoides melting as well as my Pogo helferi. It seems to grow really green and then melt... grow back and melt again. Really confussed. My UG seems to not be doing much in terms of spreading either although it remains green.

I also had another algae outbreak - i have used some H2O2 and glut so hopefully it will not return.









I feel like i need some Staurogyne sp "Tropica" to contrast agains the red colour of the Ludwigia glandulosa. Unfortuantly, all my Staurogyne has melted.

Heres a quick FTS - before and after trim (excuse the dust cloud!)


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## zoragen (Nov 3, 2009)

wow & wow!!! Beautiful

Love the pics of the set up.


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## marioman72 (Jan 22, 2010)

looks great, i find UG to take a little bit to take off, just my experience with it. colors r looking amazing!


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## thesawguy (Dec 26, 2011)

Very nice! What is that purple plant in the center?


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## Evicene (Nov 20, 2012)

Thank you for your kind comments 

The plant in the center is Ludwigia glandulosa  lovely plant. Need high light and iron


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## marioman72 (Jan 22, 2010)

what do you dose for iron or ferts in general?


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## Evicene (Nov 20, 2012)

At the moment im dosing trace, KNO3, glut and iron. I mix up my own dry ferts generally or if im being lazy just tip in some powder


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## kwheeler91 (May 26, 2009)

This is a very nice tank with healthy looking plants.

Welcome to the forum!


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## marioman72 (Jan 22, 2010)

Evicene said:


> At the moment im dosing trace, KNO3, glut and iron. I mix up my own dry ferts generally or if im being lazy just tip in some powder


oh ok cool, im always curious to see what people r using i want to start trying some new ferts.


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## PaulPage (Feb 14, 2012)

You know the MarineColour MC-03 can you set it up to dose from different pumps on certain days as I want to dose every other day one of the ferts ?


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## howze01 (Dec 4, 2012)

This is an absolutely beautiful tank! I am in the (very) preliminary stages of setting up a tank and I will be ecstatic if mine came out half as nice as yours. The colors of the plants are just amazing!


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## Green_Flash (Apr 15, 2012)

Any updates?


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## Centromochlus (May 19, 2008)

You have an awesome tank there! Wonderful arrangement and contrast of different colors. Very well done!

The plant on the right in this pic is _Eichhornia diversifolia_. 
http://i47.tinypic.com/zojevn.jpg


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## Evicene (Nov 20, 2012)

Quick update!
Im having issues with cloudy water at the moment








It doesnt seem to be green water and my ammonia is at 0.
I have put a uv sterilizer in the tank but it seems to be doing nothing so im going to be doing 20% water changes everyday for a week to see if it helps.

Interestingly enough the plants are loving it. Everything is going crazy - the Rotala sp. 'Goias' has almost fully carpeted the left side, Staurogyne sp "Tropica" has settled in nicely and my UG hs started to spread! Also my Syngonanthus sp 'Belem' is finally looking green rather then a sickly dull lime colour.

My Eriocaulon has split into 9 new plants in the past month and again it has turned a brilliant green rather then sickly yellow.








Any ideas on what type of Eriocaulon this is?


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## marioman72 (Jan 22, 2010)

looks like everything is growing realy nice! have u ever tried a biological water clarifier. It usually helps a lot in my tanks when i have a cloudy water problem. could be worth a shot?


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## karce87 (Dec 6, 2012)

Your tank really inspires me to make a Dutch style one for myself. Sorry about the cloudy water though.


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## Green_Flash (Apr 15, 2012)

Bump for update


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## zetvi (Jun 12, 2013)

bump for update!


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## pweifan (Nov 2, 2006)

Evicene said:


> Last Activity: 10-05-2013 10:02 PM


I don't think we're going to get one


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