# 70 Gallon Buce tank the deed has been done, new wood 2.0



## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

I started trying to tie the plants, *screw that.*










I spent a long time attaching the plants to the wood. I would have spent much longer if I'd used string. About 4 hours at least. I'll plant the Gloss and the White Anubias tomorrow night perhaps, then work on the emergent aspects thereafter. 
It looks pretty good and gives a very different feel than the past scapes I've done for myself, I've done somewhat similar things for clients, but not for myself and certainly not with Buce's, Riccardia and nice lawn foreground. 
I was pondering belem hair grass for the foreground again. It would do well and would contrast well with the Buce's. I'm going with Gloss 1st. Then see.


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

I have to finish planting and also add a few other details still, but the fish/shrimp are back in the tank and it'll clear up and get running well in a couple of days.


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## zetvi (Jun 12, 2013)

Subbed


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## austin.b (Feb 9, 2012)

Im definitely excited to see what this tank will look like in a few months!! 

Subscribed!


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## Raymond S. (Dec 29, 2012)

Since I know nothin about that plant, I hope you know this is a question and not any type of criticism. Aren't those plants rather close to the surface on the uppermost limbs ?
Looks like you made that driftwood by planting it under the edge of the house and waiting till it grew out from under it to cut it down. Even when I go "collecting" I find
only evenly spread branches, nothing like that...awesome.


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## horsedude (Nov 10, 2012)

Looks really nice! Can't wait for it to grow in
Good luck...


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## c_gwinner (Mar 23, 2012)

Loving it already. Really like the first edition buce tank, but that new wood is killer.


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## Kat12 (Aug 11, 2013)

love those plants!


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## Harrisgo (Mar 18, 2013)

So how did you attach the Buce since tying them was too tedious?


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## Sprinkles (Mar 16, 2013)

I'm loving this already! That's one gorgeous piece of wood. I'm really excited to see how this one turns out!


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

Harrisgo said:


> So how did you attach the Buce since tying them was too tedious?


Drill 3/8 or 1/2" holes into the wood. You can see all the sawdust and drill shavings. I siphon those out later.


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## Charrr89 (May 15, 2013)

plantbrain said:


> Drill 3/8 or 1/2" holes into the wood. You can see all the sawdust and drill shavings. I siphon those out later.



That's an awesome idea! Haha will try that on my new current drift wood...


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## Ebi (Jun 29, 2011)

Still planning on rocking that ATI fixture? 

I remember last time you were talking about LEDs. 



Nice looking wood. Interesting to see how they all were attached together.  


Sub'd


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## ChadRamsey (Nov 3, 2011)

beautifully done......of course:flick:


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## chew (May 18, 2012)

Will the buces grow roots like Anubias on wood where they hang down under the wood? Or will they stay contained in the holes you drilled


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## denske (Feb 20, 2013)

New scape looks great bud, love those long leaved buces. What fish do you keep in there, just the plecos?


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

chew said:


> Will the buces grow roots like Anubias on wood where they hang down under the wood? Or will they stay contained in the holes you drilled
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


They will hang down like Anubias.
Gives an old over grown jungle feel with vines etc.


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

denske said:


> New scape looks great bud, love those long leaved buces. What fish do you keep in there, just the plecos?


Been holding off till I finished the new scape. 

I will go back to the Celestial pearl Danios I think and some CRS SS-SSS grades once things settle in a bit. There's also a large colony of isopods in this tank. They are about the size of adult brine shrimp.


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

Added the Gloss and belem grass as a transition today, will add the Emergent growth and moss later tonight, then ponder how I will hide the filter outflow and weir box. I've got a few different methods to do this, there's no rush on that. 
Still need to figure where and how to use the White Anubias effectively. Will add the Riccardia a bit tonight also. Then some pics.


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

I'm still messing with the scape and will make some changes as things grow in a bit more. For now, I'm just getting some plant species mixed in that I want to grow in some more and not languish in a bucket or in the Quarantine tanks. 
I likely will add another emergent branch in the back and have the moss come up on it. After about 2-3 weeks, the moss and other plants will adapt well to the emergent growth and will start to look decent. 
As the Riccardia grows out, it will wedge itself in between the plants and form new clusters better. Some are just sort of loose and I'll need to replant and put some things back in, but that's easier than really securing everything.
I'll add more to the density and may remove the belem grass or I might accept that instead of the Gloss for the foreground. If I add the extra wood on the right side in the back, those Buce's will go up on the branches, and back towards the rear middle more. 
This will allow more of the foreground plants to sweep around and give a better focus on the wood and Buce tree epiphtyes. 
But for now...........

I'll pick and do minor things for the next month or two.

The only really major thing will be hiding the weir overflow box, pump and return.
I have 3-4 plans for this and I'll experiment with each to see what I prefer.

This will lead into doing this for all/most of my tanks' prefilter weir boxes and returns.
I have a very stepwise approach to experimentation to improve overall aesthetics. 

This scape design lends well to hiding all the equipment. So it makes sense to do it for this tank.
I still need to work on hiding the inflow and returns, need to plant the 15 or so smaller Anubias whites, wait a bit and then add the wood for the rear Right side.
Need to add more Fish(next Monday I suppose) and get some CRS SS or SSS grades, maybe 30-40. The ADA AS is aged now, so it's good for them, temps are nice and low, CPD do not prey on shrimp(at least the RCS).
The rest is just picking a little picking and making sure the plants are staying in place, doing 2x a week water changes etc.


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## audioaficionado (Apr 19, 2011)

Will you be adding any rocks?


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## c_gwinner (Mar 23, 2012)

How did you attach the emergent branch in the back, or was that already part of the driftwood? Looking really good and I'm sure will be breath taking when fulling grown in and finished planting.


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## ua hua (Oct 30, 2009)

Looks really nice Tom and will look really good after it grows in. What about one of the buces that do better not being submerged to help hide the overflow like Achilles skeleton king or whatever they call it now.


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## fraviz (Dec 7, 2012)

i wanna see pics after it fills..... congrat


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

audioaficionado said:


> Will you be adding any rocks?


No, no reason to. They'd just get covered over time.


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

c_gwinner said:


> How did you attach the emergent branch in the back, or was that already part of the driftwood? Looking really good and I'm sure will be breath taking when fulling grown in and finished planting.


Part of the wood and part of the plan. I might wedge another piece I have soaking outside into a few spaces, but I need to see how the plants will fill in and what it shades, I need to have enough light to grow things in the lower reaches underneath still.


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

ua hua said:


> Looks really nice Tom and will look really good after it grows in. What about one of the buces that do better not being submerged to help hide the overflow like Achilles skeleton king or whatever they call it now.


the Green Skeletons do fine, it's just the one black type that did not, every other plant/Buce has done nothing short of optimal, better than other folks under the submersed condition. It was in the same tank, with the same species etc, just a different type, like a poor variety not well adapted to the submersed condition. But maybe it was me............seems very very unlikely, but...........I only had one. I may give it a try again. 

Also, the exact type of these varieties is generally different from virtually every seller. While there are only 3 species within the entire genus, there must be 101 different silly made up names for them. They likely should name them based on the area where they were collected.


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## rdmustang1 (Oct 20, 2013)

Gorgeous start. Looks better than most people's finalized show tanks.

Out of curiosity, have you ever had an aqualifter go out? I love how clean/unobtrusive the overflows are on your tanks but I think I'd be too paranoid to trust an aqualifter in case the siphon ever broke. I know you've been using them for some time and was curious if you've ever experienced a failure.


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

rdmustang1 said:


> Gorgeous start. Looks better than most people's finalized show tanks.
> 
> Out of curiosity, have you ever had an aqualifter go out? I love how clean/unobtrusive the overflows are on your tanks but I think I'd be too paranoid to trust an aqualifter in case the siphon ever broke. I know you've been using them for some time and was curious if you've ever experienced a failure.


No, bit even if they did fail, the volume of the sump determines how much would overflow.

So if you have a 2 Gallon capacity and say the 1-2" to the top of the tank is 2 gallon, then no water would end up on the floor. You can also run a venturi to suck out the air.


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## rdmustang1 (Oct 20, 2013)

plantbrain said:


> No, bit even if they did fail, the volume of the sump determines how much would overflow.
> 
> So if you have a 2 Gallon capacity and say the 1-2" to the top of the tank is 2 gallon, then no water would end up on the floor. You can also run a venturi to suck out the air.


My fear wouldn't be the sump overflowing but rather the siphon breaking and the sump continue to pump water into the main tank. In this scenario most of your sump could end up on the floor. Or does your overflow have a method to prevent this? I'm not familiar with over the top overflows. On my tanks if my drains clogged then the return pumps would flood the main tank and overflow onto the floor.


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

rdmustang1 said:


> My fear wouldn't be the sump overflowing but rather the siphon breaking and the sump continue to pump water into the main tank. In this scenario most of your sump could end up on the floor. Or does your overflow have a method to prevent this? I'm not familiar with over the top overflows. On my tanks if my drains clogged then the return pumps would flood the main tank and overflow onto the floor.


That's what I stated, the sump will run dry if there's a 2 gallon over head capacity. Since most folks do not have the water level at the very top of their tanks, that adds some buffer room before the tank overflows should the siphon fail.

You come home and the tank is very full. So you clean the pump out and you are done.

Snails, leaves etc, can get caught in the venturi intake inside the pre filter and clog it and I take a pipe cleaner and ream it out. I think a small screen around where the air inlet is on the inside of the pre filter or a deflectors etc, would prevent this.

If you have say 10 Gallon worth of water in the sump and have the the water level very high and the tank is small, the sump water level is high etc, then you are running a risk.

the reality however is that you notice the over flow is not sucking the water down much/as well and you can see air pockets in the pre filter, so you know you need to ream the intake and clean it out. It's not something that just 100% fails, or 100% works fine, there's a few days in between.

So it's relatively easy to catch if you feed fish daily etc.


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## Overfloater (Jan 12, 2004)

What is the purpose of twice weekly water changes at this point?


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## Jeffww (Aug 6, 2010)

I have a similar system running albeit on a smaller scale, what fertilizer regimen are you using?


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

Overfloater said:


> What is the purpose of twice weekly water changes at this point?


Keeping it clean and well tended, less algae during this stage, I just redid the entire sediment and refluffed it, I also added a lot of new wood etc. 

I'm pondering switching over to all Belem grass for the foreground, the Gloss is growing a bit fast for this particularly tank, so it will engulf the Ricciardia. 

I'll redo that and then add a row of the larger purple leaf's snaking through the sediment in the front like one of the branches. This will look good against the Buce's color and texture wise. And Belem does not need trimmed much, folks like to buy it quick, gloss? No much these days.


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## jimmyjam (Dec 25, 2008)

looks good tom, man you really need to ship to Canada. I know you have done product, but I want your plants! =)


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## Overfloater (Jan 12, 2004)

Belem would look good however it may be too invasive also. My experience though so YMMV.


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

I'm feeling the Belem more than the Gloss, the Riccardia is the issue and I know how Crypts look very nice in belem grass lawns. The Buces will be similar.


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## jimmyjam (Dec 25, 2008)

I think glosso would be more invasive if your running slightly lower lighting for the buceps. I'm feeling Belems, plus more demand for Belems 


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

Belem has been done and planted:

See the 50 CPD Danios?
Neither do I

I put a very rare unusual knife fish in here, of the 2, one was attacked while I ate dinner by the shrimp. the other was removed and housed in a shrimp free dark tank in the garage
I was hoping they would eat a few of the shrimp here or there. 
No such luck. 

Steatogenys elegans but a color morph that's black and white bars. Never seen one before ever.


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## HybridHerp (May 24, 2012)

What knife species?


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## talontsiawd (Oct 19, 2008)

From a purely ascetic/design perspective, I think this my favorite tank I have seen from you. I really love the wood and the jungle look to it. It has a nice, natural, unruly feel to it that is very tranquil but intriguing.


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## lamiskool (Jul 1, 2011)

HybridHerp said:


> What knife species?


I think in his post he states "Steatogenys elegans"


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## HybridHerp (May 24, 2012)

lamiskool said:


> I think in his post he states "Steatogenys elegans"


Totally missed that, my bad :S

Tom, you keep some very unusual and interesting fish it seems....we need more pictures of your fish as well as your plants


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## Overfloater (Jan 12, 2004)

Is there a reason you use such a thin layer of AS? It seems to be extreme shallow especially near the front.


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

talontsiawd said:


> From a purely ascetic/design perspective, I think this my favorite tank I have seen from you. I really love the wood and the jungle look to it. It has a nice, natural, unruly feel to it that is very tranquil but intriguing.


It will take some months to develop, but with age, it'll really look nicer and nicer.
Certainly a tank that requires patience, but the pay out is quite high and the work involve is minimal.


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

HybridHerp said:


> Totally missed that, my bad :S
> 
> Tom, you keep some very unusual and interesting fish it seems....we need more pictures of your fish as well as your plants


You missed it because I went back and edited it in there:tongue:

Fish often do not cooperate with pics, plants have little choice.


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

Overfloater said:


> Is there a reason you use such a thin layer of AS? It seems to be extreme shallow especially near the front.


Never been a fan of looking at a tank full of sediment personally. It's deeper just a few inches back and is nearly 7" deep in the rear. The grass will grow to the front and fill in that space, with or without the sediment being deep, and I'd rather use the space more effectively than larding on another 1-2" of sediment there. 

I want to see plants, not sediment. You?


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## cape (Oct 26, 2013)

If you don't mind sharing:
What type of lights?
Dosing regimen? 
Any CO2?


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Any updates on this tank Tom? I'm fixing to work on a buce scape and need more inspiration haha


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

Growth is slow, but that's sort of the point, so nothing really new. Updates are done maybe monthly at best.

Cape, CO2, yes, ATI 6x39W run at 50% at 18" above thr water surface.
Dosing is EI modified. Roughly 1/2 EI and water changes done once a month after the 3-4 months after set up, so once the plants are filled in, then the water change is reduced.

Till then, I do 2x a week.


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

Bushy nose plecos have breed, spotted about 4-5 babies roaming around.


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## Duck5003 (Oct 1, 2012)

Fry are always a good sign! So what are the chances of us getting some fts photos....The suspense is killing me


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## ua hua (Oct 30, 2009)

plantbrain said:


> Growth is slow, but that's sort of the point, so nothing really new. Updates are done maybe monthly at best.


Ok, it's been at least a month now. . I would love to see some new pictures of this tank, Tom.


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## Duck5003 (Oct 1, 2012)

ua hua said:


> ok, it's been at least a month now. :d. I would love to see some new pictures of this tank, tom.


+1 :icon_bigg


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## 180g (May 20, 2014)

Duck5003 said:


> +1 :icon_bigg


+1:icon_twis


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)




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## freph (Apr 4, 2011)

Now THAT is amazing. Got any roots hanging down from the plants yet or are they still too short to be of much aesthetic value?


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## Jalopy (Aug 11, 2013)

Holy crap the pictures look amazing.


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## pandacory (Apr 18, 2011)

Woah...like all your tanks...


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## AnotherHobby (Mar 5, 2012)

Wow! That's just nuts. There are so many buces!

Sorry if you already posted it, but I didn't see — what are the dimensions of this tank? I'm assuming it's custom built.


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

freph said:


> Now THAT is amazing. Got any roots hanging down from the plants yet or are they still too short to be of much aesthetic value?


Yes, they are shorter than say Anubias, some of the Whites are a good 6" long, the Buces get about 3-5" thus far. 

I've had Anubias nana's and petites get almost a ft for client's.

Bump:


AnotherHobby said:


> Wow! That's just nuts. There are so many buces!
> 
> Sorry if you already posted it, but I didn't see — what are the dimensions of this tank? I'm assuming it's custom built.


Tank is a 70 gallon, 24"W, 18"D x 36" long, 1/2 starfire Lemar tank with an ABS base glued to the glass.


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