# Monte Carlo Mountains - 12g Bookshelf



## pdela (Aug 9, 2012)

Looks good, for DSM your plan sounds good, I think most people fail with DSM by putting too much water and rotting away/creating mold on everything but you seem to be ontop of that. The flip side is letting it get too dry, but I think as long as you keep it moist but not enough to actually pool water at the substrate level you will be fine.

What light is that?


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

pdela said:


> Looks good, for DSM your plan sounds good, I think most people fail with DSM by putting too much water and rotting away/creating mold on everything but you seem to be ontop of that. The flip side is letting it get too dry, but I think as long as you keep it moist but not enough to actually pool water at the substrate level you will be fine.
> 
> What light is that?


Yes I will need to keep a eye on water levels as the soil was completed soaked from my previous scape, but I syphoned out most of the water. Probably wont need to be misted for awhile.

The Light is a Up Aqua Z LED. I think its a low end light but hopefully will grow the MC


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## Buu (Feb 15, 2015)

Where does everyone get those FIRE brand rimless? They've been popping up a lot lately.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

I got my from a local shop here in Perth, I think they are made somewhere in Asia and more common around the oceanic areas.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Update - Day 09 DSM, Monte Carlo is real starting to sprout new growth and green up, hard to tell from the day 1 to day 9 photo but i am happy with the progress. I wonder how this cold weather we have had in Perth lately effects a dry start...


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Update - Day 25, grown out slowly but steady, removed some stone from the far right and pushed the big stone forward slightly, needed to make room for the surface skimmer I want to run which will also increase the flow from that end of the tank.

I can see the MC has put down roots that are about 1cm long!


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## ScubaSteve (Jun 30, 2012)

Great start! Can't wait to see it filled in!


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Day 33









and a mini jar of Gloss I am trying to grow


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Day 40, starting to get a bit of standing water, mite flood soon.










Intrestingly the MC that gets less light is a nice dark green, while the MC that gets full light is a bit pale, this pale MC also has less soil depth, I wonder if this has anything to do with it?



















I shoved some Dino Dung into the bare areas of soil, this is old re-used soil... hoping this helps with nutrients, tho i just read not to smash up dino dung pellets, which I did, will probably have a big of clay dust when I flood


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## Opare (Sep 9, 2015)

Possibly, the shaded MC is darker green because it needs to produce more Cholroplast to sufficiently harvest the light, compared to its less shaded buddies. Cus Choloroplast contains the Cholorphyll pigment, more Chloroplast would make it more green. At least that's how my logic runs.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Thanks Opare, very interesting! 

FYI this tank will run Co2 so it will be interesting to see the different growth between this bookshelf tank and my 2ft tank.


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## Opare (Sep 9, 2015)

It should be considering the other parameters would be similar.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Opare said:


> It should be considering the other parameters would be similar.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


will also run a heater in this tank... mite try aim to flood them at the same time tho the 2ft tank would have had about 2 weeks less dry time.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Update, 2 month dry start, not to much to report, the MC has grown slower but perhaps thicker in this tank compared to my other 2ft scape (which I have now flooded) I put this down to the recycled aquasoil.

Yesterday added hair grass and dwarf hair grass to the back left, originally i left this area clear for the heater thinking i would lay it down low but decided to just place it vertically in the left rear cnr. I mite flood this next weekend.










My glosso jar is going ok. I also planted the left over hair grass in a little plastic container and covered with a glass, tho its probably planted to thick to get any good growth.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

added some twigs of driftwood, perhaps helps with the scale, these are just ruffly placed at the moment, I will need to glue them to skewers or something to keep them in the soil.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Drilled the top of my stand today, made the holes about 4cm should be able to squeeze double taps through for ease of cleaning etc, edging closer to flooding, just need my pipes to turn up from Hong kong! Mite get a little more DHG to speed up the carpeting of the back left cnr... any ideas on how fast this stuff spreads?

Moved all the regular HG behind the rocks, will keep the left side low.


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## Opare (Sep 9, 2015)

A lot of people said it takes a while, then shoots runners like crazy. When I added it in a semi-established tank it pretty much instantly started going crazy. Then again that was Eleocharis acicularis, not sure which species you have, and this is also a dry start.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Thanks Opare, i have used Eleocharis acicularis 'mini' also, we will see how it goes!


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

About 70 days DSM today... Still waiting on my glass pipes ordered via [Ebay Link Removed] hopefully they arrive this week and I can get this thing flooded!


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Flooded this tank today, everything is looking good, flow seems good as I have a skimmer down one end. The Up aqua inline diffuser seems to work well the tank is full of co2 / o2 bubbles, this is what it looks like as of this evening! Only issue i had was the ISTA check valve had a leak so i am just relying on the bubble counter to stop back flow... will get a decent check valve ASAP!


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## Cmeister (Jul 5, 2009)

Looking good - can't wait for livestock.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Picked up some tissue culture plants today, which are pretty rare in Western Australia, we have crazy laws around importing flora and fauna, some of the tightest if not tightest in the world so it was nice to see a wide range of tissue culture plants at one of the better aquarium stores in Perth. As I am keeping planting fairly simple in this tank I only picked up some helferi and a bit more DHG











Here is a iphone photo after I planted the new hair grass, tank seems to be growing in nicely and is already cycled as I used re-cycled soil and a canister filter from a pervious setup. I added about 8 native "Dawrin" algae eating shrimp, I will probably add about 15 more, the dont really breed in these conditions but seem very happy.


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## Opare (Sep 9, 2015)

Does WA tend to be even more strict than the rest of Australia? Customs would be crazy every time I visited.


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## geisterwald (Jul 18, 2016)

Just looked up those darwin shrimp as I had never heard of them--wow, they're gorgeous! Your tank is amazing, too. Can't wait for more!


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Thanks geisterwald, hopefully I can keep this looking clean and maintained! The DAE shrimp are nice, they are farily tuff little guys and really seem to enjoy zipping around this tank, it has fairly high flow but they dont seem to mind!



Opare said:


> Does WA tend to be even more strict than the rest of Australia? Customs would be crazy every time I visited.


Hi Opare, Yes WA is super strict more so than the other states, I think Tasmania also have the same / similar laws, here in WA we cant even buy plants from other states so we are limited to what is already available in WA


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## Opare (Sep 9, 2015)

doylecolmdoyle said:


> Hi Opare, Yes WA is super strict more so than the other states, I think Tasmania also have the same / similar laws, here in WA we cant even buy plants from other states so we are limited to what is already available in WA


My goodness that is crazy! I guess if you want to reduce any chance of invasive species coming over it is the only way.




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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Updated FTS, really captured the tank pearling away at the end of the lighting period 










Also took a video which can be seen here - https://vimeo.com/180189909


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## Ilikefish (Aug 25, 2016)

so pretty. where did you buy those small driftwood?


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Ilikefish said:


> so pretty. where did you buy those small driftwood?


thanks  the small driftwood is actually just a bigger golden vine driftwood broken up. But I decided not to use it, looks cleaner without.


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## fusiongt (Nov 7, 2011)

Looks great, I think we have the same tank and light setup. Just curious, did you mean 60cm or 90cm (I'm pretty sure it's 60 which is 2 feet long).

You did it right, I did it wrong! I went with baby tears (though some monte carlo got in there too somehow!) but I flooded it immediately. Bad idea because that light is really freaking strong (especially since it's so close to the tank). I've faced every type of algae. I ended up getting a few female black mollies to clean up some hair algae I had only to have them pop and there were 2 batches of 15 babies. Quite the bio overload! I gave the babies away after they were big enough to not get sucked into typical filters. Flash forward to months after I started the tank and the baby tears really thrived. I had to trim them often and at one point when I went away for a weekend they were at least 3-4 inches tall, crazy. The tank thrived with crystal clear water and super pearling baby tears for months and all of a sudden I've been having the worst algae boom I've ever had in a tank. I don't think I'm overfeed or overdosing, I just think that light is really strong!

Anyway, good to see your tank doing well. I'm very impressed and hope you don't face any algae problems. I swear even with baby tears over a inch tall covering the whole tank (it was hard to keep up with the trimmings, especially in hard to reach rock areas) the light was still so strong it produced algae and I only have it going less than 8 hours a day. Guess I'll have to reduce it!


PS: Take some pictures of your filters/c02 and plumbing I'm sure we'd all love to see it!

PPS: Did you get the tank from ALA in San Jose, California? It's an interesting 8 gallon size I hadn't seen before I visited them, wondering where you got yours.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

fusiongt said:


> Looks great, I think we have the same tank and light setup. Just curious, did you mean 60cm or 90cm (I'm pretty sure it's 60 which is 2 feet long).


Thanks for the comments! The tank is 90cm long / 3ft, The brand is FIRE which is generally only available in Australian / Asia area, I am from Perth - Australia. I found using floating plants a good way to negate algae and also help with blocking some light, also I only use a short light period of 5 hours and also use co2 24/7 but only at about 0.5bps.

Also I use a local shrimp - Darwin Algae Shrimp they love keeping my tank clean, tho I just added about 10 Red Cherry Shrimp, dont think they eat much algae. 

Will get some snaps of the plumbing, tho its not that special! 

Cheers


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

3ft Bookshelf Aquarium 14-09-2016 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## Opare (Sep 9, 2015)

I think the carpet is ready for a trim! A tight schooling fish will really utilise that open space and make this scape perfect.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Opare said:


> I think the carpet is ready for a trim! A tight schooling fish will really utilise that open space and make this scape perfect.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Thanks Opare, yes I will try trim the carpet this weekend, its growing very fast. I am trying to hold off on fish until the new year, I am going away for a month later this year and fish will be one less thing to worry about, trying to work out who mite be able to do some tank maintenance / water changes while I am away. Have 3 tanks up and running now.

Tho I have been looking at getting some otos, dwarf loaches or pigmy corys. I like to keep fish that earn there keep  I dont want to overstock either so I will keep stocking minimal.


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## Opare (Sep 9, 2015)

*Monte Carlo Mountains - 10g Bookshelf*



doylecolmdoyle said:


> Thanks Opare, yes I will try trim the carpet this weekend, its growing very fast. I am trying to hold off on fish until the new year, I am going away for a month later this year and fish will be one less thing to worry about, trying to work out who mite be able to do some tank maintenance / water changes while I am away. Have 3 tanks up and running now.
> 
> 
> 
> Tho I have been looking at getting some otos, dwarf loaches or pigmy corys. I like to keep fish that earn there keep  I dont want to overstock either so I will keep stocking minimal.


Ah that is fair enough, having someone to come in and just do a water change weekly would probably help. Were you looking at Rosy Loaches? Those look really awesome IMO.


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## HaeSuse (Aug 18, 2016)

This is one of my favorite scapes I've seen on here so far. Beautiful rock work, @doylecolmdoyle.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

HaeSuse said:


> This is one of my favorite scapes I've seen on here so far. Beautiful rock work, @doylecolmdoyle.


Thanks for the nice comments


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Gave the MC a trim today, didnt really know how low to go, just tried to even it out a bit, perhaps should have gone lower

_MG_5714 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

glassware broke on me (cheap ebay / viv stuff) so I purchased some cal aqua glassware, hopefully these dont break on me! 

3ft Bookself Aquarium by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Another trim today, about 3 weeks since the last one.

3ft Bookshelf Aquarium / Aquascape by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

It's so clean, simple and beautiful!


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## viethung101 (Oct 7, 2016)

Wow, just amazing... Looking at your tank gives me peaceful feeling...


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## bsantucci (Sep 30, 2013)

Great looking tank! I'm starting my first tank with Monte Carlo myself and was curious how the bottom of yours is doing with your trims? It doesn't look like you're taking too much off from the top each time, is the bottom browning at all or coming up from the substrate? I wasn't sure how much I'll need to trim either.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Thanks for the nice comments everyone.

Bsanticci so far i have trimmed twice, after the first time everything looked ok but i did notice a few small patches that are dying / brown after trimming back today they look ok, some slight die off I think it was the growth from the dry start. I will keep an eye on the patches, but overall it seems you can really hack back the MC hard, I probably took about 1 - 2 cm off the top when trimming, looks like i will need to trim every 3 weeks


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

a few weeks after the last rim

_MG_5904 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## IntotheWRX (May 13, 2016)

cleannnnnnnnnnnnnn


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Took some photos of the shrimp in this tank today, lots of berried Cherries and a few berried Zebra shrimp and some Darwin Algae Shrimp, will be interesting to see how the Zebra's go. Put 10 in the tank today.

_MG_6107 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

_MG_6221 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

_MG_6099 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

_MG_6073 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

_MG_6323 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

_MG_6170 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

_MG_6144 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

_MG_6118 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


_MG_5964 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## ArchimedesTheDog (Apr 9, 2012)

This is a really nice tank, great work. The shrimp look great as well.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

_MG_6356 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## Mattb126 (Nov 13, 2016)

doylecolmdoyle said:


> _MG_6356 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


Looks great, so simple and elegant!


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## BettaBettas (Aug 21, 2016)

wow very, interesting to say the last  like it a bunch, keep it pic heavy as is XD


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## Bananableps (Nov 6, 2013)

That carpet looks deep. You don't have any problems with the smothered montecarlo dying?


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## LuckyBetta (Nov 13, 2016)

This tank is absolutely gorgeous! You've given me some serious inspiration for a new tank.


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## jumpzakjump (Jun 15, 2015)

Gorgeous tank! I love wide & shallow tanks, give such a good sense of scale.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Thanks for the nice comments guys.



Bananableps said:


> That carpet looks deep. You don't have any problems with the smothered montecarlo dying?


No it seems fine, I try trim it back once a month, will trim back harder in a few weeks as I am going on a month long holiday.


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## bcbishop (Dec 7, 2013)

How often do you have to top up the tank? 
What is the room humidity at?
How often do you do water changes?


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## filipem (May 1, 2008)

Really nice. Less is more. You've inspired me.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

bcbishop said:


> How often do you have to top up the tank?
> What is the room humidity at?
> How often do you do water changes?


Have to top up the tank every 1/2 days, perhaps more when it gets warmer in summer, the room humidity would be high, Perth summer weather would advertage 30°C tank seems to stay about 25°C over summer


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## al4n (Nov 18, 2008)

tank growing nicely!


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## CPD (Feb 7, 2012)

Wow this tank looks amazing!!


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## Akaliman (Jul 28, 2014)

nice looking tank.

how is your fert schedule?


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Akaliman said:


> nice looking tank.
> 
> how is your fert schedule?


Thanks, been dosing to medium / low EI levels using Cal Aqua ferts and Seachem Liquid ferts, I have just changed to a all in one Macro/Micro mix dosing daily (to about he same low EI levels)

Makes it much easier and fool proof with just the 1 dose daily, I am leaving my 3 tanks in the hands of my Mother for 4 weeks so it will be interesting to see how they fair with minimal water changes and sporadic ferts


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

very pretty!


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Took this photo of a baby Zebra shrimp (Australian Native) resting on a leaf of MC, they need lower PH levels apparently but hopefully these guys can adapt and continue to breed. 

_MG_6370 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

_MG_6381 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## filipem (May 1, 2008)

doylecolmdoyle said:


> Took this photo of a baby Zebra shrimp (Australian Native) resting on a leaf of MC, they need lower PH levels apparently but hopefully these guys can adapt and continue to breed.
> 
> _MG_6370 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr
> 
> _MG_6381 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


Geez how in the world did you even spot it? BTW much respect on your photographing skills


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Time for a big trim and clean tomorrow then going to leave the tank in my mothers hands for a month, hopefully it survives, I have mixed up a all in one fert and she is just going to take a few scoops of water out and replace a few times a week. Decided to leave the lights and co2 as is for the month. I have been using the combined macro micro fert for a few weeks and all seems good, perhaps a bit more green dust algae / spot algae probably due to the lower Po4.

_MG_6427 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## ScubaSteve (Jun 30, 2012)

Good luck!!! LOL!


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Trimmed! 

_MG_6437 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

About 40 days later on autopilot while I took of for a month or so for holidays, dirty glass but all went well. Needs a good trim, I cleaned the glass and did a water change after this photo, shrimp population is growing! 

_MG_7239 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## Opare (Sep 9, 2015)

Wow it stayed growing very well in your absence. Hope you had a good holiday, but it is time for a trim!


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## filipem (May 1, 2008)

Sorry I may have missed it somewhere but didn't see any mention of co2 are you using co2?


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## Brinkdw (Dec 29, 2016)

Amazing tank and such an inspiration!


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## Opare (Sep 9, 2015)

*Monte Carlo Mountains - 10g Bookshelf*



filipem said:


> Sorry I may have missed it somewhere but didn't see any mention of co2 are you using co2?


Pretty sure this tank has injected CO2.
I think you can juuuuust see part of the drop checker on the right in the latest photo.

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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

filipem said:


> Sorry I may have missed it somewhere but didn't see any mention of co2 are you using co2?


Yes, this tank runs co2, it actually runs 24/7 at about 50 bubbles per minute, so just under 1bps.

Bump: I took this photo about a week about, still yet to trim the mc after my holiday, coming up to 2 months without a trim... the frogbit covers the surface now which has slowed growth... which I like, I was sick of trimming every 3 weeks, tho I will try trim this weekend, I plan to keep the surface covered with frogbit.

_MG_7248 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Brought 20 Rasbora's today, I am not sure of the species they where labeled gold line Rasboras at the fish store but after googling they look a little different and there isnt much info on "gold line" perhaps they are black line?... can anyone ID these?

EDIT - found out the fish are "Boraras urophthalmoides"

Also got around to trimming the MC carpet, was a pain to remove all the frogbit, trim, clean then put it all back in... but the fish and shrimp seem to like the cover and are very active. 

_MG_7382 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

_MG_7338 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Here is a iphone video of the fish schooling, very cool to watch.

https://vimeo.com/200638729


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## Vinster8108 (Sep 1, 2016)

Your tank looks great!! I'm currently doing a DSM on my spec III with MC. I unexpectedly bought enough to cover everything so, it seems ready to flood but i'm not sure. The issue I'm having now is mold/fungus maybe. It's starting to cover some of the MC and kill it. 

Should I just flood the tank anyway? It's only been planted 10 days. Would flooding the tank stop the mold/fungus?


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## Opare (Sep 9, 2015)

Vinster8108 said:


> Your tank looks great!! I'm currently doing a DSM on my spec III with MC. I unexpectedly bought enough to cover everything so, it seems ready to flood but i'm not sure. The issue I'm having now is mold/fungus maybe. It's starting to cover some of the MC and kill it.
> 
> Should I just flood the tank anyway? It's only been planted 10 days. Would flooding the tank stop the mold/fungus?


Sorry to hijack the thread a bit Doyle, but just wanted to chime in on Vinster's questions.
If you are getting mold then you need to either air out the tank a bit more (take off the wrap a few minutes every day), or you need to stop spraying so much water. You should only use enough water that it is just in line with the substrate. Any visible pools of water above the substrate and trouble will be brewing.
You could probably just flood if you already have full coverage. Just remove all the dying MC and any mold or fungus.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Vinster8108 said:


> Your tank looks great!! I'm currently doing a DSM on my spec III with MC. I unexpectedly bought enough to cover everything so, it seems ready to flood but i'm not sure. The issue I'm having now is mold/fungus maybe. It's starting to cover some of the MC and kill it.
> 
> Should I just flood the tank anyway? It's only been planted 10 days. Would flooding the tank stop the mold/fungus?


I agree with Opare's post above give it more air and make sure there is no pooling water, tho you can probably just flood, I have read many posts of ppl flooding once they start getting mold, pretty sure the mold one survive once flooded


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## bereninga (Mar 18, 2006)

You can use some H2O2 to get rid of the mold. Mold means that it's too humid. You need to air it out once in a while.


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## Vinster8108 (Sep 1, 2016)

bereninga said:


> You can use some H2O2 to get rid of the mold. Mold means that it's too humid. You need to air it out once in a while.


I sprayed it down with 50/50 3% H2O2 / water and left it to air out. I'll probably just leave it uncovered for now. If I don't see improvement in a week, I'll probably go ahead and flood it. 


I've been spraying it a lot to keep the substrate directly under the MC wet. With my layout, the water level is about 3 inches below the substrate level...

Not sure why the photos are rotated.. sorry


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## bereninga (Mar 18, 2006)

Hopefully that'll fix it. Whenever I do an emersed setup, I keep it partially uncovered just to get the right humidity level. Keeping it completely uncovered would dry it out over time. 

Good luck!


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Vinster8108 said:


> I sprayed it down with 50/50 3% H2O2 / water and left it to air out. I'll probably just leave it uncovered for now. If I don't see improvement in a week, I'll probably go ahead and flood it.
> 
> 
> I've been spraying it a lot to keep the substrate directly under the MC wet. With my layout, the water level is about 3 inches below the substrate level...
> ...


As others have said leave a cnr open or poke some holes in the cling wrap, looking at those photos you have a good cover of MC, as long as it has put some roots down I would flood, mine grew so much faster once flooded with high levels of co2 pumped in.


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## Vinster8108 (Sep 1, 2016)

I will probably flood it sometime this weekend. Any thoughts on not filing the tank all the way? My concern is the MC has only been planted about 10 days and, while they do have roots, I'm not sure that they are truly into the Aquasoil. I'm afraid turning on the filter/pump might loosen them up. 

Filling it to about 3/4 an inch above the MC and not running the filter, I could keep pretty high CO2 conc but, I would loose water circulation ...

I guess it would probably be best to flood it all the way and stick some pre-filtered, cycled media in the filter compartment. If I have issues, I could easily just turn the pump off.


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## klibs (May 1, 2014)

beautiful tank


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## Justboose (Jan 26, 2017)

Hey man, what plant is that you have growing on your rocks?


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Justboose said:


> Hey man, what plant is that you have growing on your rocks?


Hello, the plant growing on the rocks is Mini Pellia


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## TFC (Jan 27, 2017)

I have never seen a tank started like this...wow...Can y'all tell me what DSM is? And, how are you maintaining heat?? MC needs warmer temps, right?


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## Justboose (Jan 26, 2017)

doylecolmdoyle said:


> Hello, the plant growing on the rocks is Mini Pellia


Thank you sir 👍🏼


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

TFC said:


> I have never seen a tank started like this...wow...Can y'all tell me what DSM is? And, how are you maintaining heat?? MC needs warmer temps, right?


Thanks, DSM is short for Dry Start Method, to keep the humidity high you wrap the tank with cling wrap and then air out the tank every couple of days and spray the plants with a mist of water to keep them moist, where I live the temp is usually in the high 20s even into the high 30s (Celsius) so there was no need for extra heat, I have seen ppl use humidifiers while doing dry starts.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Starting to get the hang of trying to photograph these little guys, still cant figure out AI Servo tho... Wanting a macro lens badly! 

IMG_7648 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

IMG_7653 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## BettaBettas (Aug 21, 2016)

stunning photographs! and fish


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## Vinster8108 (Sep 1, 2016)

You photo's look awesome! 

I found some MC at my LFS that was growing submerged so, I went ahead and just replanted the MC and flooded the tank over the weekend. The old MC was surprisingly well rooted.

Bump:


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## t0p_sh0tta (Jan 24, 2008)

doylecolmdoyle said:


> Starting to get the hang of trying to photograph these little guys, still cant figure out AI Servo tho... Wanting a macro lens badly!


The pics look great as-is.

You may already be doing it, but Ai-Servo works much better with _Back Button Focusing_ (IMO).


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

t0p_sh0tta said:


> The pics look great as-is.
> 
> You may already be doing it, but Ai-Servo works much better with _Back Button Focusing_ (IMO).



Thanks, yes I had just been using back button focusing which seems to help, what was confusing me in spot and expansion focus modes the focus "Square" didnt track with the subject, but I have since learnt that the focus square only tracks the subject on 16 point auto focus (if I pre select the subject) with the 7d... I need to try play with the camera / AI servo on other not so erratic / fast moving subjects.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

slowly but surely my MC carpet is turning yellow (some bad patches) I think it was due to letting it grow so thick and also the surface covered with frogbit... Have thinned out the frogbit and will continue to thin it out to try get the carpet growing again

IMG_7810 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## bereninga (Mar 18, 2006)

*Monte Carlo Mountains - 10g Bookshelf*

Hahaha wow that carpet is pretty think. Def need to trim it down before too much of it underneath dies. Then it'll take a while to bounce back.

This tank looks awesome though!


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

bereninga said:


> Hahaha wow that carpet is pretty think. Def need to trim it down before too much of it underneath dies. Then it'll take a while to bounce back.
> 
> This tank looks awesome though!


Cheers, that photo above is a few weeks after a trim... check the photo below (after leaving the tank for about 6 weeks) if you want to see a thick carpet 

_MG_7239 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## r.s.hutchinson (Jun 4, 2014)

Simply amazing. So simple and clean.


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## bereninga (Mar 18, 2006)

Hahah MC grows like a weed and it looks like you're growing it to its potential!


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Added some H. Pinnafida behind the rocks and some Anubias nana Petite, seems like the MC carpet is starting to bounce back after i discovered it was all dead under the nice thick green growth, bit more GSA on the rocks because I cleared away most of the frogbit, may need to increase the dose of PO4.

IMG_7872 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## Opare (Sep 9, 2015)

I like the new added details to the rocks 


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## ScubaSteve (Jun 30, 2012)

I second what Opare said....love the additions to the rocks. Adds some wonderful contrast!


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## BettaBettas (Aug 21, 2016)

really pretty!


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Opare said:


> I like the new added details to the rocks


Thanks!



ScubaSteve said:


> I second what Opare said....love the additions to the rocks. Adds some wonderful contrast!


Thanks!



BettaBettas said:


> really pretty!


And Thanks!!!


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## Charrr89 (May 15, 2013)

*Monte Carlo Mountains - 10g Bookshelf*

How did you manage to keep the Monte from looking dead? I just pulled my mc out because it became a nightmare 


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Charrr89 said:


> How did you manage to keep the Monte from looking dead? I just pulled my mc out because it became a nightmare


Hi, at first I always let it grow to about 5 cm deep, perhaps more, then I would trim back to about 3cm deep, while I was away on holidays it grew to about 10 -15cm deep and the under growth died away, I guess due to no light etc, so I trimmed back hard to about 1cm or less (back to the substrate) and it started to grow again, there was a fair bit of dead growth but it either decomposed or the shrimp helped clear it away. Now I will try maintain the carpet no thicker than 3 - 5 cm, which is a bit painful and will require trimming every 3 weeks or so.


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## Charrr89 (May 15, 2013)

Darn. Shud have not ripped it all out haha, i guess I'll probably try again next time I'm running a finnex planted 24:7 I almost thought I didn't have enough light on such a shallow tank 


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Time for a trim tomorrow.

IMG_8763 
by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

IMG_8963 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

IMG_8931 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

IMG_8886 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

IMG_8867 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

IMG_8901 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

IMG_8913 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

IMG_8936 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

IMG_8937 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## Nigel95 (Mar 5, 2017)

Love the hardscape!


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## BettaBettas (Aug 21, 2016)

nice pics


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## Opare (Sep 9, 2015)

You are making the most of that macro lens and I am loving every photo that comes from it.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Opare said:


> You are making the most of that macro lens and I am loving every photo that comes from it.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Thanks it is fun to use, interestingly find it harder to take photos of the shrimp, I may try a lens extender next time so I can get even closer to them.


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## ScubaSteve (Jun 30, 2012)

Man....I am loving the new plants you added to the scape. Makes such a difference. Looks like a South Pacific Tropical island or something. Wish I had that on my desk at work.


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## Nigel95 (Mar 5, 2017)

If you would start over again would you flood it earlier? Can't wait to flood mine haha (currently in dsm)


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## dru (Mar 9, 2013)

Amazing tank!


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Nigel95 said:


> If you would start over again would you flood it earlier? Can't wait to flood mine haha (currently in dsm)


Yes, I would flood after about 20 - 30 days or when the MC starts to root and grow, no need to wait so long, grew much faster after I flooded.


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## ipkiss (Aug 9, 2011)

glad I found this journal! very inspiring! thanks for creating!


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## onlycrimson (Sep 7, 2010)

The new version looks really good!


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## Nigel95 (Mar 5, 2017)

How did you attach the anubias petite?


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Nigel95 said:


> How did you attach the anubias petite?


Usually use Gel Super Glue and glue to lava rock/stone or just wedge them between some rocks / hardscape


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Ordered some Crypt parva, to get ready I added some more soil to the right, will clear out a bit more MC on the right side when the plants rock up. Interestingly I had 3 shrimp die (stuck to the outlet pipe) hours after I added the aquasoil, must not have liked it. Also have done two rounds of the 1-2punch, using about 40ml of h2o2 the second time, just cant seem to clear the bba of the rocks, will give it one more go before I add the crypts, I hear they can be sensitive to h2o2?

Also removed the skimmer and raised the inlet pipe to really get the surface moving, have read a lack of o2 can bring on bba, will see what happens.

IMG_9123 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## Opare (Sep 9, 2015)

Yeah the kicking up of stuff/the H2O2 probably made the shrimp not so happy. However, the addition of Crypt parva should be nice, I really like that plant. Not sure what causes the BBA on hardscape, something I've sort of been battling with as well. Why did you remove the skimmer though? I would have thought it increases surface agitation, and therefore O2 levels.
On H2O2 and Crypts, I've been finding whenever I dose Excel (at recommended levels) I get melting in the form of holes on Crypt leaves, mainly C. walkeri. Not sure if you will see this with H2O2, but possibly.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Opare said:


> Yeah the kicking up of stuff/the H2O2 probably made the shrimp not so happy. However, the addition of Crypt parva should be nice, I really like that plant. Not sure what causes the BBA on hardscape, something I've sort of been battling with as well. Why did you remove the skimmer though? I would have thought it increases surface agitation, and therefore O2 levels.
> On H2O2 and Crypts, I've been finding whenever I dose Excel (at recommended levels) I get melting in the form of holes on Crypt leaves, mainly C. walkeri. Not sure if you will see this with H2O2, but possibly.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Cheers, the first 1-2 punch I did over a week ago, no deaths used about 25ml of h2o2 and 5ml of excel, the deaths where pretty much hours after adding the ada soil on sunday, it did create a lot of dust may have had a ammonia spike. At lunch time today I did another round of 1-2 punch this time using 40ml of h2o2 and 5ml of excel, doesn't seem to have done much but perhaps to early to tell. 

Removed the skimmer because now the surface is moving so much I dont think the skimmer is needed, it always annoyed me how many shrimp it sucked up and I dont like the look, will add it temporarily if surface scum re-appears

Getting sick of trimming the carpet so if I can replace the hard to get at areas with parva I will be happy, I have a feeling the MC will just creep over tho and mix with the parva, making trimming a pain, time will tell!


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## Opare (Sep 9, 2015)

Oh yeah sorry I misread it adding the soil is probably what did them in cus of the ammonia leaching. They may have been closer to the area where you added soil as well. I don't think you'll have to worry about the shrimp health after this though, they should be fine.
Ahhh I get it, yeah if the scum doesn't turn up it in a day or two it probably won't come.
Given time I think the MC will do just that! Oh the pains of a carpet no matter how good they look. The DHG in my tank is just everywhere but I'm not even gonna try to control it. At least it is relatively short, so I don't have to worry about it choking plants out.


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## JJBTEXAS (Jul 8, 2013)

tank looks fantastic!


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Planted the parva, here are some photos, have read the parva should / may flatten out a bit once it adjusted to the tank conditions, could also all melt away  I could maybe do with another 10 portions and continue the crypt around the hardscape a bit more, I am predicting the MC will creep across and making maintaining the right side a pain again.

IMG_9129 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

IMG_9130 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

IMG_9131 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## Opare (Sep 9, 2015)

Yeah for me it flattened out with the new leaves, but didn't melt too bad just a few leaves here and there. I really like it as an accent/midground plant in smaller tanks, but it gets covered by DHG in the 60P unfortunately.


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## BettaBettas (Aug 21, 2016)

will look interesting when it begins to spread out and get more lush, good luck


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Got a light stand today so I could raise up the light, doubled the height to the substrate, added 1 hr extra to the light period, hoping to slow down growth and trim the MC less often. 

iPhone photo


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## Nigel95 (Mar 5, 2017)

Are you brushing your stones for algae? The top stone doesn't really look firm.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Nigel95 said:


> Are you brushing your stones for algae? The top stone doesn't really look firm.


No dont really brush them, i squirt 3% h2o2 on them every now and then, the top / largest stone is one big stone and is sturdy in its place


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## Nigel95 (Mar 5, 2017)

doylecolmdoyle said:


> No dont really brush them, i squirt 3% h2o2 on them every now and then, the top / largest stone is one big stone and is sturdy in its place


Oh lol thought it were 2 stones balancing on each other when I saw the picture of day 1


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## hardcastle.scott (Jan 11, 2017)

Something very simple and attractive about the tank- beautiful!


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Nigel95 said:


> Oh lol thought it were 2 stones balancing on each other when I saw the picture of day 1


kind if looks like that but is one stone, was a nice ridge in it which I have stuffed with mini pellia moss


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Trimmed today, much quicker without the MC around the rocks

IMG_9151 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## bereninga (Mar 18, 2006)

Looking good! How's the parva doing? I just recently added some to my own tank, and it's wayyy bigger than I thought it would be. I was always under the impression that it was a small plant.


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## Opare (Sep 9, 2015)

bereninga said:


> Looking good! How's the parva doing? I just recently added some to my own tank, and it's wayyy bigger than I thought it would be. I was always under the impression that it was a small plant.


I found when I planted it, it was bigger than expected, but after growing in it is now too small LOL. Now it can't really show through my DHG except for a few of the older leaves. I think in time (maybe in high-tech conditions specifically) it starts to flatten out and leaf size gets smaller, that is what I found anyway.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

bereninga said:


> Looking good! How's the parva doing? I just recently added some to my own tank, and it's wayyy bigger than I thought it would be. I was always under the impression that it was a small plant.


Its doing ok, some yellowing leaves, I have heard they need a bit to acclimatise to new conditions so I am wondering if the slight yellowing (maybe half a dozen leaves) is to do with that or my lean dosing schedule I am now using.

As Opare said when first planted it was very upright and looking "big" it has since relaxed a lot and I can see some small new growth, looks much more compact after a month or so.

Will try get a updated photo tonight.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Updated photo, bit hard to tell but if you click on the link and zoom in via flickr you can see the parva has relaxed a bit!

IMG_9193 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## gnod (Mar 24, 2011)

sick sick tank! love the scape and the clean relaxed look. btw, where'd you get that over the rim drop checker?


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

gnod said:


> sick sick tank! love the scape and the clean relaxed look. btw, where'd you get that over the rim drop checker?


Cheers, Hinterfeld I think


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## Trnt (Jul 18, 2015)

Beautiful tank. Gorgeous photos too, I thought I wanted a 6D but after seeing your shots I might think twice when that time comes. One hobby at a time for now.

How deep would you say the Monte Carlo's roots are? I would like to use them as a carpet for the 112 I am setting up, but there is a good chance this tank will have a high turn over rate (15-20x) and I am worried the carpet wont be able to hold the substrate in place.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Trnt said:


> Beautiful tank. Gorgeous photos too, I thought I wanted a 6D but after seeing your shots I might think twice when that time comes. One hobby at a time for now.
> 
> How deep would you say the Monte Carlo's roots are? I would like to use them as a carpet for the 112 I am setting up, but there is a good chance this tank will have a high turn over rate (15-20x) and I am worried the carpet wont be able to hold the substrate in place.


Thanks, I would say the roots are about 1/2 inch deep, but they hold well, they are perhaps deeper in places. I have about 15x turn over and very high flow, havent had any issues with it uprooting, tho I would recommend a dry start to let the roots establish.


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## Opare (Sep 9, 2015)

doylecolmdoyle said:


> Its doing ok, some yellowing leaves, I have heard they need a bit to acclimatise to new conditions so I am wondering if the slight yellowing (maybe half a dozen leaves) is to do with that or my lean dosing schedule I am now using.


I found the same it melted it's old leaves at sort of a delayed pace compared to my other Crypts. I think it is normal, because I dosed somewhat lean, but I have Aquasoil and they are fine now so probably weren't deficient in anything.




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## n70me (May 8, 2017)

Wonderful tank.

Have you dosed any fertilizers when on DSM mode?

Iam on DSM with MC for about 3weeks now, i just see new leaves and the growth looks very slow now as shown below. Should i dose any fertilizers?

Thanks


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## Opare (Sep 9, 2015)

n70me said:


> Wonderful tank.
> 
> Have you dosed any fertilizers when on DSM mode?
> 
> ...


What substrate do you have? You shouldn't really have to supply fertiliser during a dry start unless your substrate is inert.
Give it some time usually growth starts to explode after a month. You might wanna start with just a bit more plant mass though, you don't have a lot of plants, so you may have to wait a while for it to carpet.

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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

n70me said:


> Wonderful tank.
> 
> Have you dosed any fertilizers when on DSM mode?
> 
> ...


No I didnt dose any ferts when doing the DSM, just give it some more time! Once it starts growing you could trim of some runners and fill in gaps to try make it carpet faster, my DSM took like 70 days or something, grew a lot faster when flooded


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Took a quick video on my phone this evening.

https://vimeo.com/216820957


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Did some maintenance today, trimming the carpet is never fun, left it for about 6 weeks, was still pretty nice under the bushy growth not to yellow this time, removed all the frogbit, looks so much cleaner without. Thinking I could do with more crypt parva a bit melted away in the middle, perhaps will try source some more.

IMG_9504 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

IMG_9506 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

IMG_9508 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

Here is a bad photo of the 3 tanks ive got setup in my apartment, there is a 4th next to the 60p in my study, may get onto starting the dry scape for that tomorrow.


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## hassan.nabeel (Feb 22, 2016)

Inspirational tank


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

hassan.nabeel said:


> Inspirational tank


Thanks


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Had the camera out, not much has changed but the hydroctyle is spreading around the back / side to the front, starting to look cool now with the mix of plants down that end


IMG_9642 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_9643 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_9644 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## SLOBY (Feb 21, 2017)

Very NICE!!!!!!


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Really liking the look of the right hand side now, the Hydrocotyle tripartita is just starting to get out of control


IMG_9653 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_9657 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## Trnt (Jul 18, 2015)

Back when I had Hydrocotyle tripartita in my 10, it would take over my tank in a matter of 3-5 days between trimmings. I found that physically pulling clumps of it out worked better than just trimming alone.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

So far the Hydrocotyle tripartita has been growing fairly slow, nothing to unmanageable so far tho it would be nice if it just stopped growing


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## SKYE.__.HIGH (Mar 18, 2017)

Alright can I get a full plant list on this tank? Thanks 

Ps: I know a couple plants such as Monte Carlo HENSE THE NAME


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## Trnt (Jul 18, 2015)

SKYE.__.HIGH said:


> Alright can I get a full plant list on this tank? Thanks



I may be mistaken, and I am sure doylecolmdoyle will chime in and correct me, but I believe this is a pretty accurate plant list from my own observation/clicking through the thread.

- monte carlo
- fissidens fontanus
- mini pellia
- hair grass
- Hygrophila pinnatifida
- Frogbit
- Anubias nana Petite
- Crypt parva
- Hydrocotyle tripartita
- some type of buce?


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

SKYE.__.HIGH said:


> Alright can I get a full plant list on this tank? Thanks
> 
> Ps: I know a couple plants such as Monte Carlo HENSE THE NAME





Trnt said:


> I may be mistaken, and I am sure doylecolmdoyle will chime in and correct me, but I believe this is a pretty accurate plant list from my own observation/clicking through the thread.
> 
> - monte carlo
> - fissidens fontanus
> ...


Thanks Trnt, that pretty much covers it off, not sure of the species of buce and ive removed the frogbit the past few months!


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## Trnt (Jul 18, 2015)

doylecolmdoyle said:


> Thanks Trnt, that pretty much covers it off, not sure of the species of buce and ive removed the frogbit the past few months!


Whoops. You know, I had noticed that but when I was flipping back through the thread to see if I was forgetting something I had it in my mind that there WAS frogbit in the tank. Stoked I got everything else though [emoji106].


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Added 15 Boraras maculatus (Dwarf Rasbora's) today to see if they would bring the Boraras urophthalmoides out a bit more, in the shop you could clearly see the Dwarf Rasbora's where not as shy, they do seem more adventurous and hang out in the open water area but the Boraras urophthalmoides still just hang down the right hand side in all the plants when the lights are on, perhaps because this is where I always feed them and they know they will get food while the lights are on? The Dwarf Rasbora's will often swim down to the right hand side and join all the other Boraras. They have only been in the tank for 6 hours so perhaps to early to see if any behaviors change.

Also something had been nipping at the Dwarf Rasbora's fins, would have either been at the aquarium shop or supplier i guess, didnt notice until i took the macro shots. 

Raised the light up to maxium height, partly because I am sick of trimming the carpet and also to see if the lower light level makes the fish more active. 

I may start feeding the fish down the other end of the tank to see if that stops them from only hanging down the right end when lights are on, once the lights are off they do start to swim all over and hang in the open water a little more.


IMG_9798 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_9796 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_9792 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_9700 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_9696 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_9802 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_9804 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## Kramflowz (Aug 6, 2014)

Awesome shots. What macro lens are you using? Sorry if it's already been stated


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Kramflowz said:


> Awesome shots. What macro lens are you using? Sorry if it's already been stated


Thanks! I have been using a Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM Lens on a mk1 7d, actually used the 100mm for the tank shots above and they are very sharp tho its hard taking a photo of thank from about 6 mtrs back, usually use a 20mm for the tank shots.


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## JonA (Mar 8, 2017)

doylecolmdoyle said:


> Thanks! I have been using a Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM Lens on a mk1 7d, actually used the 100mm for the tank shots above and they are very sharp tho its hard taking a photo of thank from about 6 mtrs back, usually use a 20mm for the tank shots.


I've been struggling with getting shots right. I think there is too much light bleeding in from the tank light. I tried firing the flash into the top of the water, nothing I do seems to work out.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

JonA said:


> I've been struggling with getting shots right. I think there is too much light bleeding in from the tank light. I tried firing the flash into the top of the water, nothing I do seems to work out.


Are you also using a macro? Its tricky, I use a speedlight flash mounted on the camera. Below is a general guide to the settings ive been using for macro shots, full tank shots usually are not a problem.

Aperture - F8 to f12 (anything lower/smaller f-stop and the DOF / focal range is just to fine / shallow)
Shudder 1/150 or above (think my camera tops out at 1/250 with the flash)
ISO 800 or 1600 depending on how much other light I have


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## JonA (Mar 8, 2017)

I use nikon gear. 
Glass, two 50mm primes, 18-55, 55-200
SB600 flash, I have a flash cable to move it off the body. 
I have a reversing ring, and a macro coupler. The 18-55 has a really close focal distance so you can get near macro shots with that. Sometimes I use the 55-200 at 200, but I have to be pretty far away. 
I was using ISO 200. I might have to experiment a little more with it to see if I can come up with better results.


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## TheMakani (May 31, 2017)

i was scrolling through looking at all your photos and was very confused for a while. there were amazing photos posted next to iPhone videos; so i thought the photos/videos were all taken on your phone. i then began to doubt my skills as an iPhone photographer because my photos didn't look nearly as good as yours, but then was happy (relieved) to discover you have a fancy camera and i can still pretend like i have skills on the camera phone

on a separate note, your tank looks amazing. i really like it with the right side filled with plants


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

TheMakani said:


> i was scrolling through looking at all your photos and was very confused for a while. there were amazing photos posted next to iPhone videos; so i thought the photos/videos were all taken on your phone. i then began to doubt my skills as an iPhone photographer because my photos didn't look nearly as good as yours, but then was happy (relieved) to discover you have a fancy camera and i can still pretend like i have skills on the camera phone
> 
> on a separate note, your tank looks amazing. i really like it with the right side filled with plants


Thanks  yes most photos are taken with a digital SLR, some are on my iphone when I cant be bothered getting the big camera out. I should take a video on my slr camera but... that takes to much effort


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## JonA (Mar 8, 2017)

I'm going to make a post in the photography sub-forum to keep this post on topic.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Took a video with my SLR, kind of tricky because my couch is in the way. 

https://vimeo.com/226620961


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## SKYE.__.HIGH (Mar 18, 2017)

Pretty video, but that music ): 

(if you want to call it that) JK


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

SKYE.__.HIGH said:


> Pretty video, but that music ):
> 
> (if you want to call it that) JK


Hahah I made that music myself  not exactly a radio hit I know


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## SKYE.__.HIGH (Mar 18, 2017)

doylecolmdoyle said:


> Hahah I made that music myself  not exactly a radio hit I know




That's so creepy, because in the back of my head I thought that it was self made. And I was hesitating to make that joke. Not offensive just giving people some sh*t sometimes. After all your tank looks so good you have to have something less than perfect. --> your music <--
[emoji23]LOL, Funny that you responded because I was just looking at your 1 ft cube thread to help me fall asleep, LOL [emoji17][emoji99]


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

SKYE.__.HIGH said:


> That's so creepy, because in the back of my head I thought that it was self made. And I was hesitating to make that joke. Not offensive just giving people some sh*t sometimes. After all your tank looks so good you have to have something less than perfect. --> your music <--
> [emoji23]LOL, Funny that you responded because I was just looking at your 1 ft cube thread to help me fall asleep, LOL [emoji17][emoji99]


lol its ok, I try make many different styles of music, more for my own pleasure, I just used that track at random on the video as I know if you use commercial music Vimeo / Youtube will take the video down. Glad you like the cube tank!


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Trimmed the carpet last on the 4th June, let it grow for about 10 weeks before trimming which is pushing it but the under growth wasn't to yellow, hoping now the light is extended full height I can push out the trimming to about 12 - 15 weeks. Since adding the Dwarf Rasboras the Explanation Point have really came alive, the tank is now very fun to watch with about 40ish little fish buzzing around.

IMG_0078 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

IMG_0079 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## freshestemo412 (Aug 19, 2016)

As someone who also has a 12 long, I love the right side.

How do you keep the Hygro P so.. erm.. small? Just cut the stem off and keep replanting the top? 

I am interested in keep a stem or 3 in mine.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

freshestemo412 said:


> As someone who also has a 12 long, I love the right side.
> 
> How do you keep the Hygro P so.. erm.. small? Just cut the stem off and keep replanting the top?
> 
> I am interested in keep a stem or 3 in mine.


Thanks  yes I trim and replant the tops often, only a few stems have actually started to grow horizontally, which I read they can do, interestingly the few stems that decided to put out side shoots only did so after I raised the light up, the plant needs a lot of Potassium (K) older leaves really suffer from pin holes if you dont dose heavy on the K


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Coming up to 2 months since i last trimmed the carpet, could probably leave it another few weeks, the tripartita continues to take over everything, wouldn't recommend this plant if you dont like trimming... I hate trimming  I will cut back the triparita from the MC next weekend If I have time.


IMG_0698 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Have decided to end this scape, the carpet started to lift and I think its time for a change. Going for a slow growing buce / anubias scape attached to driftwood / lava stone. I want to re-use the substrate, not that much will be planted in the soil, new scape will hopefully be dark and moody and low maintenance.

Thanks too all who read along with this journal.


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## Vinster8108 (Sep 1, 2016)

If you decide to make a new journal for the next scape, please post a link here so we can follow along again!


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## SKYE.__.HIGH (Mar 18, 2017)

Noooooooo, yeahhhhhhhh!!!! I love your “low tech” cube. Let’s see what low tech greatness you can bring to a tank a little larger.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Vinster8108 said:


> If you decide to make a new journal for the next scape, please post a link here so we can follow along again!


Cheers will do!



SKYE.__.HIGH said:


> Noooooooo, yeahhhhhhhh!!!! I love your “low tech” cube. Let’s see what low tech greatness you can bring to a tank a little larger.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Thanks, want to try keep things simple, have lost the drive to constantly trim carpeting plants! Technically my cube isnt low tech... its low light with co2, I find co2 helps with any setup, probably never bother doing a tank without!


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## SKYE.__.HIGH (Mar 18, 2017)

doylecolmdoyle said:


> Cheers will do!
> 
> 
> 
> ...




LOL that’s why I put quotation marks around low tech, anything with co2 isn’t exactly low tech in my book.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

lets call this the final photo, hopefully get around to setting up the new scape in this tank on the weekend. 


IMG_0734 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## RisingSun (Jan 5, 2014)

Been following your thread with interest, not only because it looks amazing but because I'm also running a majority MC iwagumi as well. I'm a little sad to see it go though. Do you think MC carpets have an expiration no matter how well you take care of it? Or do you think more trimming, more light would have made it last longer?

Currently I trim once a month down to the substrate and it's been going strong for 3 such iterations so far. But maybe the end is near for me too :crying: 

Gunna be a sad day when I achieve my dream scape and the damn carpet decides it wants to be an airplane.


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## SKYE.__.HIGH (Mar 18, 2017)

RisingSun said:


> Gunna be a sad day when I achieve my dream scape and the damn carpet decides it wants to be an airplane.




LOL [emoji23]


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

RisingSun said:


> Been following your thread with interest, not only because it looks amazing but because I'm also running a majority MC iwagumi as well. I'm a little sad to see it go though. Do you think MC carpets have an expiration no matter how well you take care of it? Or do you think more trimming, more light would have made it last longer?
> 
> Currently I trim once a month down to the substrate and it's been going strong for 3 such iterations so far. But maybe the end is near for me too :crying:
> 
> Gunna be a sad day when I achieve my dream scape and the damn carpet decides it wants to be an airplane.


No I think if you keep on top of trimming and keep it short then you will be fine, this scape ran for almost 2 years which is awhile for any planted tank. 

In the end I got sick of trimming the carpet and the last 3 trims where all about 2 months apart which was to long and the MC got way to thick and the undergrowth died off, hence the lifting. I probably never really cut it short enough.

The carpet is still actually floating around in this tank as I havent go around to breaking it down and getting my next scape ready.... its still growing well


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