# Re-doing My Fluval Spec II



## rice n curry man (Jun 18, 2008)

I think it would look cooler if you flipped the wood and added rocks at the bottom


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## GMYukonon24s (May 3, 2009)

rice n curry man said:


> I think it would look cooler if you flipped the wood and added rocks at the bottom


I agree flipping it and adding rocks would look cool and some moss to it or leave it like it is now and rotate the tallest part of the wood from back left to the back right to leave the front open to fill in with a lower growing plant and have some vals growing from the back.


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## Padded Wall (May 3, 2013)

You mean something like one of these?


































apologies for the terrible cell phone pictures.

I also have some dwarf hairgrass, HC, and cryptocorynes that I forgot about, but I'd need co2 for the HC. Has anyone done DIY co2 on their spec? Would that harm my shrimp?

You guys think that I should have like a moss tree with a carpet?

I'd need to saw the wood down a bit I think.

You suggested stones: what do you think of Seiryu stones?


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## MABJ (Mar 30, 2012)

I like my wood that goes above the water. You can see it in my CRS spec journal. 

I only like your first scape. The other two are.. Well upside down.


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## Padded Wall (May 3, 2013)

Yeah that's what I kind of figured, too, but I figured since the only two posters unanimously agreed I'd give it a shot. 

However, it was the scape I'd used before.

Here's a terrible picture of it when I first set it up last time:









I ended up removing the stems cause I felt it was too cluttered, and the the java moss I had on the back of the wood took over the tank. Oh and the vals. 

I've also considered just removing the wood all together.


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## Padded Wall (May 3, 2013)

I really do need a better camera...

Anyways, here's what I did yesterday:

Filled with aquasoil with my RO water ready to be siphoned in










Sloooowly siphoning. It took at least an hour to fill completely.










Little bits of hairgrass:










And here's what it looks like now. I'm not very happy and I know something's missing. It needs something kind of in the middle. Any suggestions?


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## Padded Wall (May 3, 2013)

I wanted something a bit more open than what I had previously, as my shrimp were never visible and the tank just looked cluttered. I figure the cover of the grass once it grows in will be enough to provide security to the shrimp.


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## Padded Wall (May 3, 2013)

Maybe I should pick up a seiryu stone or something for the middle. I'm not sure. Any opinions are more than welcome.


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## melanotaenia (Mar 26, 2013)

It definitely needs some type of Hardscape; perhaps one Seiryu stone as a statement piece would be good, or a few smaller ones that are offset to draw the eye to a certain "location" in the aquarium.


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## Padded Wall (May 3, 2013)

Yeah, I agree. I think I'll go pick up a nice centrepiece stone this weekend. I'm not too sure about my plant choice, either. I don't have extensive knowledge of plants, to be honest.


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## melanotaenia (Mar 26, 2013)

Padded Wall said:


> Yeah, I agree. I think I'll go pick up a nice centrepiece stone this weekend. I'm not too sure about my plant choice, either. I don't have extensive knowledge of plants, to be honest.


I guess it depends on what you are going for; are you going for a good ground-cover with lower-spread plants or are you going for more of a "Jungle" look?

For tanks of your size I like plants like H.C. (baby tears), Glosso, Micro Swords, Vals, hairgrass (which I see you already have), and my favorite, Staurogyne repens 049.

Try to position the rock off center to give the tank a more "non-symmetrical look"

Some of the plants you have in there now look healthy, but also look to be a little big for that tank, and once established, will probably overgrow the rear portions, especially as the tank is so small.


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## Padded Wall (May 3, 2013)

I also think the kH from the stone will be really beneficial because atm I'm using DIY co2 with pure RO water, so my pH is pretty darn low. I figure I have a month or so to get that all right while the Amazonia leeches ammonia and the tank cycles.


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## Padded Wall (May 3, 2013)

melanotaenia said:


> I guess it depends on what you are going for; are you going for a good ground-cover with lower-spread plants or are you going for more of a "Jungle" look?
> 
> For tanks of your size I like plants like H.C. (baby tears), Glosso, Micro Swords, Vals, hairgrass (which I see you already have), and my favorite, Staurogyne repens 049.
> 
> ...



I wanted a more simple look, but I also wanted to use a bit of the height in the tank instead of just having a patch of hairgrass and 8 inches of black background. I do feel like those plants are too big. I'm just not sure what I should use in the background. I have some vals on hand. Think I should give those a shot? I also have a plant similar to this:









I think I'll remove those 3 middle plants and replace with a taller grass kind of plant. I'll leave the crypts though, I think. I also have a little sword-like type plant that's only about 2-3 inches tall.


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## Padded Wall (May 3, 2013)

here's a messy shot with cloudy water, but I like the way it looks far better than that plant I had there before.


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## Padded Wall (May 3, 2013)

my pH right now is about 5.5. Is this going to be a problem? I'm using pure RO water. I haven't remineralized it yet, but should I?


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## MABJ (Mar 30, 2012)

Padded Wall said:


> my pH right now is about 5.5. Is this going to be a problem? I'm using pure RO water. I haven't remineralized it yet, but should I?


What do you want to keep?


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## Padded Wall (May 3, 2013)

Some sort of dwarf shrimp. I was going to do Red Cherry simply because they're the "easiest" and I want to start off with something simple so there's less of a chance of me messing it up.


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## melanotaenia (Mar 26, 2013)

You should definitely re-mineralize with some type of supplement, I like Seachem Equilibrium but others use shrimp specific brand buffers (don't know their names off hand)

If you cut the Vals down and allow them to shoot runners they will form a more dense thick "taller" carpet in the background. I agree they look better than the larger leaf sword plants.


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## Padded Wall (May 3, 2013)

They actually aren't vals, they're the other plant I posted. I'm not sure of the name. How low would you recommend trimming?


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## Padded Wall (May 3, 2013)

those plants seem to be Cyperus Helferi, and I just found out I have some Lilaeopsis Mauritiana in another tank. do you think there's a place for the lilaeopsis or is it too much like hairgrass?


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## Padded Wall (May 3, 2013)

Checked my parameters today:


4 gh
<1 kh
~5 pH (might be less)
2.4 ammonia

That ph seems awfully low. Should I try to get some crushed coral for kh?


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## Padded Wall (May 3, 2013)

bit of an update today. Went out on saturday in search of stones and picked up a nice Seiryu stone from a LFS I don't usually go to due to ridiculously high prices (B grade CRS are 12 dollars each to give you some perspective). But I digress.

I found a lovely stone and added it to my tank today after a quick boil:










Really wish I had a better camera, but hopefully this gives a bit of an idea of what the tank is like.

I've stopped worrying about parameters as I read somewhere that it's normal for ADA Aquasoil to drop ph very low at the beginning, but it eventually stabilizes at 6.5. I'm just going to leave things alone for now. The hairgrass appears to be spreading, as I see little green shoots popping up. Very exciting.


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## Mao (May 21, 2013)

I'll be honest...I think the upside-down tree with a carpet of moss would have been really cool xD But that's just me 

The tank really does look nicer with the stone.


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## Padded Wall (May 3, 2013)

Thank you  I seriously considered it, but the wood was just too large, and the moss on top would have completely shadowed the entire floor so I would have been unable to grow plants down there. I also wanted something a bit more simple and open than my last scape so I'm quite pleased. I definitely am glad I went and got that lovely stone. The tank may not be perfect but it's much better with the rock.


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## Mao (May 21, 2013)

Padded Wall said:


> Thank you  I seriously considered it, but the wood was just too large, and the moss on top would have completely shadowed the entire floor so I would have been unable to grow plants down there. I also wanted something a bit more simple and open than my last scape so I'm quite pleased. I definitely am glad I went and got that lovely stone. The tank may not be perfect but it's much better with the rock.


Yes, you would have had to figure out a way to insert a light in underneath the moss tree xD

Still, woulda been pretty cool


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## Padded Wall (May 3, 2013)

After doing some testing today, I've found that my kH is currently 3.5. I'm not sure if that's just from the Seiryu stone, or if it's from the coral (that I removed) but I'll be watching the kH constantly and see what happens. It looks like my dreams of CRS are gone.


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## Padded Wall (May 3, 2013)

I guess Amazonia probably buffers ph too low for any sort of tiger shrimp, eh?


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## Padded Wall (May 3, 2013)

Tank is beginning to cycle. My parameters today are:

ph: 6.5
kh: 5
gh: 8
Ammonia: .6
Nitrites : .1
Nitrates: 5


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## Padded Wall (May 3, 2013)

I decided to replace my Seiryu stone with an Ohko stone I got for relatively cheap in the hopes that it's inert and therefore suitable for CRS. So far it doesn't appear to have changed the parameters, but I'm still going to monitor it. The plants are growing nicely, however my plants seem to a have a fine brownish fuzz on them. I suppose that's algae? I will be picking up my co2 diffuser and TDS meter tomorrow. Hopefully the co2 will clear it up.


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## Padded Wall (May 3, 2013)

Went down to the states today! Picked up my TDS meter, co2 diffuser, as well as a 5.5 gallon tank for sale for 7 bucks at petco. A great birthday if I've ever had one.


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## mosspearl (Jan 30, 2013)

Happy birthday!


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## Padded Wall (May 3, 2013)

Thanks!


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## Black Hills Tj (Jul 19, 2008)

Happy Birthday. Nice progress on your tank. ITs coming along nicely!


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## Padded Wall (May 3, 2013)

Thank you! The hairgrass has really grown, and I'm about 2 weeks into my cycle. I'm happy with my diffuser and I expect this will deal with some of my algae problems.

As of now my parameters are:
ph:5.5
kh:2-3
gh:~6
Nitrites and nitrates are maxed out on my test chart (I did a 50% water change but I didn't test afterwards)
Ammonia: 0-.6
TDS: a ridiculously high 304 (with RO water) but I believe this is just due to the cycling (super high nitrates and nitrites) as well as the co2 which I will stop before adding my shrimp. Also I may have added too much gh booster. 

It appears as though the rock isn't drastically raising my kh or gh, so it looks like I should be able to get some CRS down the line.

Any comments or helpful tips are more than welcome as this is my first CRS tank.


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