# The high-tech 22 gallon long (and other projects)



## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Since the tanks have gone through so many iterations in this journal, I'm going to log some "final pictures" here. I'm not a photographer, and a lot of times I didn't know I was taking "final photos" so bear with me if they aren't great quality.








Dutch-style for AGA 2020. Tragically submitted to the wrong category. 








This one won at the GSAS home show! Sort of jungle/nature aquarium/ collectoritis style.








This was an iwagumi with a lot of rotalas. It taught me a lot about growing plants, and was probably my most successful aquarium in terms of executing a vision.








My last version of the 12 gallon long as an aquascape before it became a grow out tank, then a terrarium. I think the vision was clear but it was very hard to keep clean and do things like catch livestock due to the crazy amount of hardscape.








Another version that was very valuable for learning. It was meant to be an island style with stems, but there was no room for the stems to grow in a 10" tall tank with 4" of substrate!

That should catch you up with the most recent goings on...

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Hey all,

I decided to start a tank journal for my recent rescape of my 12 gallon long tank. I'm pretty new to aquatic gardening so I'm hoping I can get your ideas and feedback.

This is what the tank used to look like:









While it was a fun start, I didn't save myself enough room in the background for stem plants, so I decided to do a full rescape a few weeks ago.

I used black diamond blasting sand on top of a very thin layer of worm castings, dolomite, and Mexican clay. The rock is all lava rock from Home Depot that I cut with a masonry chisel.

The idea was to have a concave shape with a path between the two sides. I wanted to grow some mosses, anubias, and bucephalandra on the rock in the foreground with plenty of room for stems on the ledges.

Here is the tank about a week after planting. Major plant groups, from left to right, are limnophila aromatica, staurogyne repens, ludwigia (repens I think?), Java fern, bolbitis heudelotii, limnophila sessiflora (just in there until the next GSAS auction), rotala rotundifolia, pogostemon helferi, and ludwigia senegalensis.









The tank got off to a really good start. I'm using injected CO2 and was very diligent about maintenance. The only inhabitants right now are my cherry shrimp colony and some otocinclus. Then came the holidays.

I didn't get the chance to properly prepare my tank, but I figured that with the light stocking and the timers there would be nothing wrong with just letting it do it's thing. I was wrong. Next pics are what I got back to last night.












































My worst ever BBA outbreak, it's all over the Java fern, bolbitis, anubias, limnophila and bucephalandra. There is also a good (read: not good) amount of GSA on the anubias nanji. The ludwigia, rotala, and pogostemon are in pretty good shape.

What happened was the water level evaporated below the level of the surface skimmer intake. I thought the bottom intake would continue to work, but it didn't. So for at least a few days there was no filtration, no heating (it's an inline heater), and no CO2 (inline diffuser).

Luckily the shrimp and otos are fine, and while there was some stress molting I haven't found any dead shrimp. I was too exhausted to do anything last night, so I refilled the tank with water and went to bed.

I'm going to do a big trim and replant on all my stems, I'm sure they will recover just fine. I'm more concerned about the epiphytes covered in BBA. Usually when a leaf gets BBA on it I just trim it off, since I've found that even when I kill it with Excel the BBA never really goes away. But I'm not ready to get rid of all my precious buce! I'm thinking of doing a bleach or H2O2 bath to try and kill all the BBA. Does anyone have experience with this sort of thing? I'd love advice if you have it.

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## Discusluv (Dec 24, 2017)

Your tank looks great despite the algae that came to visit over the holidays. 
I have no expert advice, just wanted to let you know that it still looks better than anything I could achieve, lol!


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Discusluv said:


> Your tank looks great despite the algae that came to visit over the holidays.
> 
> I have no expert advice, just wanted to let you know that it still looks better than anything I could achieve, lol!


Thanks Discus! I'm hoping to have it spotless again soon, but it's always a work in progress.

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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Did a big maintenance session tonight. After checking out the plants and parameters it was way worse than I originally thought. A lot of the bottom stems had BBA as well, there was hair algae and GSA on the glass, and many of the plants looked fairly chlorotic. Here you can see some buce brownie ghost and staurogyne repens looking particularly insipid:









Also in that picture is my sad looking L. aromatica. I trimmed all the stems to the substrate that had algae on them and replanted a couple healthy looking tops. I'm nervous to uproot since I can never get it to anchor well in my tanks. I'm thinking of giving up on it, I've been working on it for months and I just can't get it to grow vertically and get that lovely delicate pink color I have been hoping for. 

Ludwigia repens got a big trim. I'm thinking of subbing it out for rotala mini butterfly since the ludwigia grows like a damn weed and shades out the other plants on the left island. It also doesn't look as dense as the rotala. I trimmed off all the side shoots or the ludwigia senegalensis as well and replanted it. I'm hoping these will cooperate and grow towards the light! 

I took out a bunch of the mother plants of Java fern and bolbitis as the rhizomes were just too big to fit in those little gaps in the spider wood. I'm hoping if I sprinkle a few of the Java fern babies around they will grow a little more naturally and really let you see the character of the driftwood. I also got rid of the limnophila sessiflora. 

I checked the parameters and boy did I set myself up to farm algae! No ammonia or nitrates (essentially no nutrients), combined with the lack of CO2 was the clear issue here. I was only dosing micros before I left since I was still seeing nitrate growth, but now it seems like it's time to start a regular dosing regimine. Current plan is to go lean the next couple weeks and ramp up so the shrimp have time to adjust, since they can be sensitive. Here's what I'm going to start dosing (per week): 
10 ppm K
7 ppm N
3 ppm P
.2 ppm Fe (with micros)

Since the plants were looking starved, I added some osmocote+ balls. I'm hoping that will tide them over while not giving the algae access to too many nutrients. Hopefully solid growth will take care of all my problems!

My pH about two hours after the CO2 went off was at 7.5. I didn't realize how much the Fluval Stratum was lowering my pH in my old scape. I was buffering with crushed coral in the filter, but now I'm thinking I may take it out to get my pH closer to neutral for the corydoras I plan on adding.

I'm also having an issue with my cheapo CO2 setup. No matter how I adjust the needle valve, I can't get the CO2 to flow faster than about .5 bubbles per second. Not sure if it's a problem with the needle valve or with the in line diffuser, and I'm not sure how to find out. I'd love to hear suggestions on how to fix this, or at least narrow down what the problem is. Until the CO2 is fixed I've lowered the light intensity to 50%.

FTS is below:










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## lab_fly (May 6, 2018)

My complete amateur opinion is to just trim all algae covered plants even if you lose an entire species from your tank. You can always buy another plant, but you don't want to be fighting algae forever.


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

lab_fly said:


> My complete amateur opinion is to just trim all algae covered plants even if you lose an entire species from your tank. You can always buy another plant, but you don't want to be fighting algae forever.


True, that's my usual approach. I'm just unwilling to lose my bucephalandra, it can be pricy! I'm going to see how well the H2O2 dip worked before doing anything more drastic. Hopefully the added ferts, frequent maintenance and lowering the light intensity will have a beneficial effect.

I haven't fed my otocinclus or RCS in about 12 days. There are about 10 berried and saddled females, and I already have more shrimp than I wanted! I'm a little worried about the otocinclus though. Their bellies are round, but they aren't particularly chubby. There is plenty of natural algae in the tank, but should I be dropping some veggies in there anyways? I don't want to starve them. Picture is below, let me know what you think!









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## lab_fly (May 6, 2018)

gjcarew said:


> I'm just unwilling to lose my bucephalandra, it can be pricy!


How much is it? Just curious.


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

lab_fly said:


> How much is it? Just curious.


It varies. I think the brownie ghost was $10 for a couple plants, then I bought four small plants for $18. Part of the issue is I don't want to buy online since most buce sold online is wild collected from fragile environments. Not the end of the world if I lose it, but it looks like the hydrogen peroxide dip had some effect so I'm going to keep treating with Excel and hope my amano shrimp takes care of the rest. You can see here that the BBA has turned a pinkish color, a sure sign that it is dying/dead:









I stopped by aquarium co-op this evening and picked up a school of 10 pygmy cories. These guys are super cute and TINY! I'm thinking they must still be pretty young because they are at most three quarters of an inch. I had trouble with corydoras habrosus in my tank with a Fluval Stratum substrate, but I'm hoping the BDBS will be strong enough to keep my plants rooted with these guys roaming around. I'm thinking the final piece of livestock will be a Plakat Betta, but I'm not 100% on that. I'm worried the flow might be too strong for a Betta 









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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

I sold about 30 shrimp tonight, and still have a crazy amount. I can probably get more for them selling to a pet store than at auction, but I figured I might as well save myself a trip since I was going to the auction anyways.

I tore out the plants from the left side of the tank since I wasn't happy with it. The Ludwigia "super red" behind the driftwood did not stand out as much as I'd like, so I'm going to see if Ludwigia pantanal looks any better. I also got rid of the Limnophila aromatica. It has been limping along for months, and I just don't think it likes my tank conditions. Maybe my water is too soft? Who knows. I replaced it with Proserpinaca palustris and a single stem of Ludwigia inclinata "curly leaf" just to see what grows best and if I can get the mermaidweed to color up.









Hair algae has started popping up around the tank to go with my GSA, BBA and GDA. Hopefully the local club will start an algae horticulture awards program so I can really show off what I can do. The interesting thing is that there is still good growth. The rotala is pearling and needs to be thinned out soon, but still has BBA on it. 









There are new, good looking leaves on the anubias as well but the old growth is still looking super raggedy. I'm now leaning more towards cutting off the algae-affected leaves, but I want to make sure there are enough healthy leaves available for photosynthesis.









In other news, this is going to be a catfish only tank. I'm loving how playful and active the Corydoras pygmaeus are!

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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

New plants are getting acclimated in the 12 g long, I'm going to wait until the next maintenance session to update since not much has changed. In the meantime I thought i would share my office tank. It's a low tech dirted Spec V that I got secondhand. The idea was to do a deserted jungle style castle. I also added a dwarf aquarium lily and some rotala rotundifolia because I'm a sucker for colorful plants. 

I'm mostly impressed with how well the Vesuvius and rotala have done with only 4 hours of above-tank light a day!









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## Grobbins48 (Oct 16, 2017)

Very nice work documenting and sharing things so far. I like your scape with the lava rock, and hope you can pull through the algae attack. 

The BDBS should work great with the Corydoras, I have been using it and all my cory cats have beautiful barbells and are quite active.


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Grobbins48 said:


> Very nice work documenting and sharing things so far. I like your scape with the lava rock, and hope you can pull through the algae attack.
> 
> 
> 
> The BDBS should work great with the Corydoras, I have been using it and all my cory cats have beautiful barbells and are quite active.


Thanks! Things are already looking better. I made a few changes this week. The shadows on the wall behind the tank didn't look good so I moved the light up about 6 inches off the tank and correspondingly upped the light intensity 10% to compensate. The new plants are starting to get some growth. The mermaidweed is growing new side shoots where it was cut, and the Ludwigia inclinata curly leaf has already developed a new side shoot. 
















The plant I'm most worried about is the Ludwigia "pantanal." The trimmed bottoms do not appear to be growing at all. I trimmed the tops again and replanted, but if the bottoms never form side shoots how will I propogate it?? New growth also looks meager. For some reason some nodes are missing leaves and are generally strange looking.









Rotala is also a little washed out, which I'm assuming is due to the decreased light. It might also be adding nitrogen at EI levels, but I don't think that's the case. A water test showed nitrate levels close to 0!


















Looking more yellow than red, right? 

The good news is that diligent maintenance and fertilization has the anubias and buce looking pretty good. The anubias is growing enough new leaves that it's outcompeting the algae. The buce is also back with those pretty iridescent purplish colors!
















Unfortunately I'm seeing an increase in filamentous algae. I think I might be dosing too much phosphorus compared to my other ferts, so I'm going to try increasing everything else 10% to see what happens. I might also get a second amano to take care of what is left.

My jebao dosing pump and float valve for an ATO system cam in the mail today. I take 2 to 3 week trips every few months so I want to make sure the tank functions well in my absence. Stay tuned for the set up struggles! 

Final FTS:









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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

It's been quite a struggle the past week or so. My inline diffuser was not putting out enough CO2 (30 bubbles per minute when I want at least 60), so I tried taking it off the outflow line for a good cleaning. Unfortunately when putting it back on I overtightened the hose clamp and cracked it. The old HOB and Fluval diffuser came out of retirement for about a week while I sorted out my shabby plumbing job.

You see, I read on a forum somewhere that you should use reinforced vinyl tubing as it won't crimp. Unfortunately the stock hose clamps on my Hydor heater and Nilocg diffuser don't fit the thicker reinforced vinyl tubing. So I just used stainless steel hose clamps, and in the process of cleaning out all my accumulated aquarium detritus must have thrown out the stock connectors. The problem with aftermarket hose clamps is they just aren't as effective as the ones made for these things, so I had to order parts, get new tubing, and find time to set everything up.

Tl;dr: Just use regular vinyl tubing. It's what your aquarium equipment is made to work with.

Anyways, I finally got everything sorted, CO2 dialed, and the dosing pump set up. 









That funny little pump stand was just thrown together with wood scraps. I got fancy with the containers and used acrylic ninth pans plumbed with bulkheads and painted black, except for a strip where you can view the fert solution height. This is probably the most tech ever for a 12 gallon tank, but I want the tank to take care of itself when I'm away so I think it's probably worth it.

Finally, I trimmed the plants. B&A below:

















I was going to wait until the next GSAS meeting to trim so I could sell some plants, but it was just getting too out of control. 

Proserpinaca palustris has taken off, and there is decent growth in the pantanal so I trimmed the tops off and replanted with the hope it will come back more dense. 










The epiphytes on the wood are starting to fill in nicely and get that detailed, jungly look I'm hoping for.

I have one stem of Ludwigia senegalensis that has started to grow emersed. I've named him Tom. I will not trim Tom, I am going to see how tall Tom can grow. 









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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Quick update as I did a minor rescape. I removed the lava rocks on the left and right side to give more planting area and make the lava rocks look less like a straight line. Otherwise, things are going pretty well!









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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

I finally bit the bullet and removed all the anubias from the tank to trim off all the old BBA effected leaves.










The bolbitis and Java fern are finally starting to take their place as dominant textures on the hardscape. I'm conflicted about the whole look- is it too many textures? In the one section I have weeping moss, bolbitis, anubias, Java fern, bucephalandra, h. Tripartita, and pinnatifida. On the one hand it looks very intricate and "jungly", but I'm worried it might be TOO busy. Any thoughts?

There is a stupid amount of BBA on the rocks. I can't take them out since they are acting as a retaining wall for the substrate. I'm hoping enough excel application and brushing will do the trick. 

I'll leave you with a FTS from the side so my phone camera's white balance isn't thrown way off for once.









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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

I some how misplaced all of my aquascaping tools. I didn't want to get another set until I was sure they were gone, so the tank went almost two weeks without trimming, and it got pretty out of control.

Here's the before ( the Ludwigia pantanal was already trimmed, I got excited to use my new scissors):









You can see how badly the stems get bent in such a low tank. Also, the hydrocotyle tripartita mini was absolutely taking over.










I spent at least 20 minutes just disentangling it from the other plants and hardscape.

Next on the agenda was injecting some red into the tank. The rotala rotundifolia wasn't really standing out, so I picked out the last pot of h'ra from Aquarium Zen. Unfortunately the ADA tissue cultures they receive don't appear to be very good quality, it looks like they weren't created in a sterile environment as evidenced by the abundance of mold and fungus. Here is the pot that I got:

















They gave me a 50% discount due to the condition of the pot, and I'm hoping a few of the stems will make it. Still, I just want to be able to buy nice tissue cultures locally. The one shipment they got from Tropica was amazing, SUPER high quality. I heard Tropica hasn't been able to get their product across the border from Canada recently, but hopefully they will get everything sorted soon. Just to be clear, I'm not disparaging Aquarium Zen. It's my favorite store to buy plants at in the NW, and their pots are usually very healthy. ADA TC's just don't make it there in good condition.

The plants are doing well, but I'm still battling algae. I almost did the one-two punch, but I'm too afraid of losing the amano shrimp I've had forever and they are impossible to catch with how dense the planting is. 

Here are a few selected params, just before maintenance and about an hour after the CO2 went off:

7 gh
3 kh
13 ppm NO3
3 ppm PO4
6.8 pH

Edit: measured degassed pH the morning and I was showing 6.6... I think I need to get myself a probe

After seeing Dennis Wong's post on Reddit, I'm a little embarrassed to show my Ludwigia senegalensis, be here are the Ludwigias: 

















Growth tips are red, but not much else. Maybe increasing the intensity and decreasing the photoperiod would help?

Proserpinaca palustris is growing well, and the Monte Carlo is starting to carpet ...slowly. at least the buce is still looking pretty good.
















FTS post maintenanc









Gratuitous shot of all the shrimp I have to fish out of my filter every maintenance session









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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

This will probably be the last update on this tank. 

I was never technically allowed to have a tank in my apartment (what are they gonna do, evict me over a 12 gallon tank?), but we are moving apartments and I was told over the weekend I had to move it immediately. I took it over to my mom's house, but unfortunately on the way over the rocks forming the "canyon" collapsed together! 

I was pretty stressed about it, but I've decided that maybe a little bit of natural chaos improved the scene. Here's how it now looks:









I cleaned everything up, of course. The plants are really starting to look nice, especially the Ludwigia pantanal and curly leaf.
















Anyways, for the next apartment I'm looking at getting a bigger tank so I'm not sure how much longer this one will keep going. No matter what I'll keep you all posted! 

















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## Jamo33 (Feb 18, 2014)

Sorry to hear about having to move the tank. You set it up at your parents though, so you plan to keep it running there until you move? 
I still think it looks amazing, very nice indeed.


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Jamo33 said:


> Sorry to hear about having to move the tank. You set it up at your parents though, so you plan to keep it running there until you move?
> I still think it looks amazing, very nice indeed.


I kept it running for a week or so, but it was on the other side of town so a pain to do maintenance on. I ended up selling the plants and shrimp and rehoming the fish since I couldn't take care of them. This was definitely a high maintenance tank, which is fine if you enjoy the process but really hard to keep going when it's not at home.

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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

I've moved in to the new place and I'm excited to get up and running again! I've decided that these tanks are best for iwagumi style scapes, so that's the next project. 

Anybody who has feedback on my preliminary hardscape setup would be appreciated. The goal was a triangular layout with green "couloirs" running through it. Let me know what could be improved!

Sorry for the horrible background, by the way. Having it on the ground made messing with it a lot easier.









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## Jamo33 (Feb 18, 2014)

I like it, however I think the rocks standing up towards the left would need to be leant backwards into the sloped substrate. 
Maybe thin out the right side a little as well.
Keep messing around and taking photos. That way we can see which look more natural and have the right flow.


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## Snapdragon (Mar 31, 2019)

It feels like the spacing between the rock clusters is too uniform and could benefit from some of the clusters being scootched closer together to leave a larger open space to break things up. The plants may end up taking care of that, though, depending on how they visually break things up.


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

I'm working on some different hardscape setups for the 12g but haven't found any I'm in love with yet. I appreciate the feedback and will probably post here soon for more 

In the meantime I thought I'd post my Fluval Spec V at work since it has been a couple months since the last update. It's looking pretty lush for a low tech tank. I have a fantasy of going full low tech Dutch with it, which means I would have to remove the spider wood and thin out a lot of plants/ make more distinct groupings. My only sticking point is whether I should keep the relatively large rock in there (that the weeping moss is growing on) or try to remove it. 

Let me know what you think! If I keep the rock, what epiphytes would look good on it?









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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Back from a two week trip and fussing over the damn rocks again. I tried to take the advice of leaving a bit more open space in this version, since after all do want a pretty large green "lawn", which I think this will have in the end. For planting I'm thinking eleocharis acicularis in the top left, a whole lot of Monte Carlo, and maybe some crypt parva in the foreground just to spice things up.









I forgot to take pictures, but this little unused area is where the tank will live:









There is only about 2 inches between the top of the tank and the bottom of the cabinet, so I got some white LED's, stuck them to the bottom of the cabinet, and hooked it up to a dimmer switch.









This is what it looks like with the lights on. Not sure what the par is, but I figure you don't need super high light for Monte Carlo and hairgrass anyways









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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

The AGA convention started today and I had the pleasure of seeing Dennis Wong's aquascaping demo. I forget what his name is on here, but I know he is on the forum.

First of all, the guy is stupid talented. He made what might be the coolest aquascape I've ever seen in about two hours. I'll post a pic tomorrow, I had to leave before it was flooded so I don't have one at the moment. 

One of the things we discussed was using the grain of rocks to draw the eye to a certain point, and he pointed out that rocks without a defined grain structure don't work as well as the focus point of aquascapes. That got me thinking about this whole lava rock iwagumi idea-- maybe it's just not the right material for the iwagumi style. 

Since I would like to use all the lava rock I've collected, I'm now thinking about a big tree root style, with epiphytes and low light plants in between the roots. I've posted a "rough draft" of the idea below, let me know what you all think!


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## jesseeka (May 5, 2019)

gjcarew said:


> The AGA convention started today and I had the pleasure of seeing Dennis Wong's aquascaping demo. I forget what his name is on here, but I know he is on the forum.
> 
> First of all, the guy is stupid talented. He made what might be the coolest aquascape I've ever seen in about two hours. I'll post a pic tomorrow, I had to leave before it was flooded so I don't have one at the moment.
> 
> ...




I love it!! It’s very balanced, and I love how it follows the golden ratio, if that makes sense. It looks very natural and beautiful. I can’t wait to see your progress! 


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Well, I tried gluing down all the wood for a while but it's just so damn fiddly. Definitely the last time I do one with this much wood detail. I figured everything was going to float anyways, so I just flooded it and left it looking like hot garbage for a week while everything waterlogged. 

I still have some areas to fix where branches started floating on me, especially in the "trunk" area, but at least there are plants in there and I can get an idea of what it will look like. As always, feedback is much appreciated.


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## pete1710 (May 14, 2019)

Amazing. Many thanks for the post and pics.
Have a nice day !!!


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## vvDO (Oct 18, 2010)

gjcarew said:


> Well, I tried gluing down all the wood for a while but it's just so damn fiddly. Definitely the last time I do one with this much wood detail. I figured everything was going to float anyways, so I just flooded it and left it looking like hot garbage for a week while everything waterlogged.
> 
> I still have some areas to fix where branches started floating on me, especially in the "trunk" area, but at least there are plants in there and I can get an idea of what it will look like. As always, feedback is much appreciated.




Nice layout.

That’s a really tight fit... how are you planning to do in-tank maintenance?


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

vvDO said:


> Nice layout.
> 
> That’s a really tight fit... how are you planning to do in-tank maintenance?
> 
> ...


Thanks! I put the tank on a layer of felt so it slides on the countertop. As for getting in there with my ogre hands and cleaning things... That's been a problem since I got this tank. I use scouring pads for cleaning the glass since they are pretty thin.

I'm also hoping the slow growers (crypt parva, eleocharis parvula, buce and anubias) and low levels of light will prevent me having to reach in there too often.

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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

I stopped by the co-op today and picked up a bunch of supplies and a few fish, including one very handsome Betta for the five gallon at work. He was in a community tank like all of their bettas so I thought he would be fine, but it turns out he's a little hate machine. I put him in the tank with my RCS colony and he immediately started chowing down. He ate shrimp that I could have sworn wouldn't fit in his mouth. I quickly grabbed as many shrimp as I could catch and took them home.

The 12 gallon isn't cycled yet- one of the things I was picking up from Aquarium Co-op was one of their big filter sponges, since there's no way in hell I'm using those cartridges that came with the aqueon internal filter. Testing the water last night it came out at 1 ppm ammonia. 

I also got a tissue culture of staurogyne repens and some marsilea hirsuta from the GSAS meeting, so I planted those, drained the tank, fitted the filter sponge, added some cycled media, did a 50% water change with seachem prime, added seachem stability, and finally dropped the shrimp. At this point it was 2 am so I called it a night.

I checked the params again today, and it was at .25 ppm ammonia, 0 nitrite, and 10 ppm nitrates. Thank God for the cycled media! In my experience shrimp can handle some ammonia, but nitrite kills them quickly. There have been no casualties in the 12 gallon so far, so as long as I keep watching the water parameters until there is no ammonia I think it should be good.

As for the betta? He ate every remaining shrimp in his tank overnight. I'm not feeding him for the next week, the little guy might explode. Picture of my miniature homicidal officemate below:









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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Since nobody asked, here's how I set up my substrate for a new tank. This is a 20 long I have in the works. Someday I'll get a regular dimension tank, but this is not that day.

Step 1: Worm castings. Lots of nutrients, and high CEC. Lots of organics too, so if you use too much you might be setting yourself up for algae.









Step 2: Activated carbon. You can use the dust, I use pellets as there's less of a chance of it being pulled up by plant roots. Super high CEC, it acts like a sponge soaking up excess nutrients and making them available to plant roots.









Step 3: The nutes. A lot of osmocote+ (too much?) and Mexican red clay for iron.









Step 4: Cover the whole thing in organic potting soil. If I was less lazy I would have sifted out the perlite and bigger chunks of organic matter, but I'm pretty friggin lazy. I also add more Mexican red clay at this point, not only for iron but because it mixes with the soil and makes it heavier, so if you have to pull plants the clay keeps the dirt from being suspended in the water column and it settles way faster.








If I was planning on uprooting plants frequently, I would not be using this method. It does take extra maintenance to clean up dirt around the tank with this method when you uproot things. This section of the tank is going to be dense bushes, so I hopefully won't be uprooting anything.

Step 5: Wet down the soil, making sure it's saturated and fairly compact. You don't want it mixing with the capping substrate.









Step 6: Cap it. I like black diamond blasting sand, but for this tank I'm trying aquasoil because @Xiaozhuang said so
















You can see it's a pretty thick cap (1.5 - 2 inches). You don't want the nutrients rich, high CEC layer to be mixing with the water column too much. 

Side question: I'm thinking of just making this a thread for the 20 long, since the lava rock scape is now low-tech (gross, I know). Does anyone know how to edit the title to reflect that?

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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Aaand what I'm thinking for the hardscape









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## Hapa Logie (Mar 28, 2018)

Nice, will it be planted? Here is my 12 gallon long. Thinking of redoing it with sand floor instead of carpet plants.










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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Hapa Logie said:


> Nice, will it be planted? Here is my 12 gallon long. Thinking of redoing it with sand floor instead of carpet plants.


I feel like sand does look nice, but every time I make a sandy area I just want to put more plants in it haha. Now I try and restrict my use of sand to the very foreground. I personally like the look of that carpet!

You can always switch it up and try something different for a while. I do a pretty major rescape every 4 months or so.

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## Hapa Logie (Mar 28, 2018)

gjcarew said:


> I feel like sand does look nice, but every time I make a sandy area I just want to put more plants in it haha. Now I try and restrict my use of sand to the very foreground. I personally like the look of that carpet!
> 
> You can always switch it up and try something different for a while. I do a pretty major rescape every 4 months or so.
> 
> Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk




Well I want to go for a clean look. Having carpet plants it gets dirty and is a decent amount to maintain. I was thinking sand floor and a big driftwood with java and anubius petite attached. Something like this but with plants attached to driftwood.










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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

You can tell it's getting nicer outside since the posts are slowing down... 

The 12 g long is finally not looking so upsetting. My crazy little mixed carpet is not yet a carpet per se, but the plants have adapted and are starting to do better.









Forgive the sideways photo, but I don't know how to rotate it and I'm too lazy to learn. The components of the "carpet" are eleocharis parvula, crypt parva, marsilea hirsuta, staurogyne repens, and my personal favorite, the lobelia cardinalis "mini". 
















The little round leaves are very charming and give a great texture. I lucked out on this one-- bought a 7-pack of random TC's and the lobelia cardinalis was one of the plants I got. 

There is a definite to do list on this tank. I'm going to see if I can pick up some buce and anubias nana petite at the next GSAS meeting for the rocks. I like the weeping moss, needs a little trimming but I think it is great for a forest look. It spreads pretty prolifically though, so its better of to be planted sparingly at the start. We will see if the fissidens fontanus makes it as well. There are also some spots on the front left that seem too empty, I'm going to need to glue some more twigs in there. 

FTS:









Since it's in a little nook under a cabinet, here is how I usually see it:











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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

And now a separate post for the 22 long. 

I planted and flooded yesterday. The water was wicked cloudy so I didn't get any pictures. Took a couple today though.

One of the things Dennis Wong talked about (specifically in reference to Luca Gallaraga's aquascapes) was the importance of making a scape look "grounded." First photo is as it was flooded yesterday:








Second photo is after adding some rocks to try and "ground" the main structure. 








It's an improvement, but there are not enough middle-sized rocks to bridge the gap between the huge ones and the pebbles, so it looks unnatural. Oh well, that's a project for another day.

I don't think I've talked about the planting yet. Here is a top down picture:








From left to right and back to front, it will be myriphyllum "Guyana", Rotala rotundifolia "Pink", Hemianthus micranthemoides, Rotala macrandra, Rotala sp. "Manipura", and Monte Carlo in front of all of them. 

The idea is to have bare rock and sand in the foreground with Monte Carlo growing over the front of the rocks to help make them look cohesive. Hemianthus micranthemoides will act as a transition layer between the foreground and the bright Rotalas in the background peeking over the rocks. 

Will it work? Depends on whether I can get the stems to cooperate. I'm hoping the rich substrate will help. 

Note to my future self about how long my CO2 lasts: I'm replacing it tomorrow as it is down to 400 PSI.

Oh yeah, light is at roughly 30%, I'm looking for some vertical growth first before I crank the intensity to get some reds going. Here is the spectrum I am using:









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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Not much to report. Tank still looks very bare since the stems haven't started poking out the back. Myriophyllum Guyana is doing pretty well, it's a very pretty little plant. Still very small stems, I expect they will get bigger as they grow but it's my first time growing this one so who knows 








The rotala rotundifolia "pink" decided to grow horizontally and shoot up bright green side shoots. I trimmed it back and planted some rotala h'ra very densely next to it to see if that will convince it to grow upwards. Side note-- I tried uprooting some of the rotala, no dice. It was already rooted waaay down in the dirt and didn't want to come up without a half pound of worm castings coming with it. It's gonna be a b**** to keep this tank clean...

Pearl weed is growing well, Monte Carlo seems to have adapted but it isn't spreading yet, and the other rotalas are growing up as well. None of them are coloring up yet. I don't know if I'm not giving them enough light or if the green hues are due to all the ammonia/nitrite/nitrate leaking out of the aquasoil. I requested to borrow a par meter but haven't heard back from the club chair about it yet.








I also played around with adding some crypt parva to the front to break up the monolith of rock, and I kind of like it. I think I'm going to add a few more to the foreground just to break things up.








I also super glued in some riccardia chamedryfolia on the uninteresting pieces of rock to give them some detail. It doesn't look great now but I think it will once it grows in.








Currently blasting CO2, much higher than ever before, and I'm only getting a .8 pH drop... I can hear a faint hissing noise coming from the inline diffuser, but I covered it with dish soap and saw no bubbles... Is that something that happens? Or do I have a leak somewhere that I haven't found yet? Or maybe I've just never properly injected CO2...

-Gavin

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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Myrio Guyana mini is currently dying from the bottoms up. Im going to see if I can replant the tops, but I might just move it back to my low tech tank where it was doing just fine.








Rotala manipura and macrandra are doing the best, even though it's not at the level of color I'm hoping for. That probably won't happen until the aquasoil stops leaching ammonia into the water column.








Background levels of nitrates are around 10 ppm. There are still some nitrites in the water (not much, but detectable) so I'm holding off on adding shrimp. I think I'm going to start adding fish this week as the tank is otherwise cycled. I replaced the weird Oase floating media with some regular Fluval biomedia I had left over for an instant cycle.

I like that you can start to see the plants poking our from behind the rocks. You can start to get an idea of what it's going to look like now.
















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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

I'm updating way too often to have anything useful to say, but I wanted to jot some ideas down regarding getting rotala to grow in an aesthetically pleasing manner. I'm going to be focusing on rotala rotundifolia "pink" because I have had it under all sorts of different conditions. It has the honor of being my favorite plant so I've kept it every tank I've owned so far. 

I suppose first I should define what I consider to be the ideal growth form. This is from my low tech tank, with lean fertilization and a substrate of wom castings and osmocote capped with BDBS. 








Notice the bright pink tips with a pleasant orange-pink color through the rest of the stem. The nodes are dense, regular, and evenly spaced and the leaves are uniform and healthy.

Compare this to the same plant in a medium-high light tank with injected CO2, EI fertilization, and the same substrate. 








Notice how it stretches sideways, is a much paler yellow green color, and has wider spaced internodes. The same pattern is showing up in most recent tank, with the rotala "pink" on the left. This one still has high water column ferts due to leaching substrate, and nosebleed CO2 levels.










The fact that the low-tech, low light tank version has better color indicates to me that nitrate limitation is very important to develop reds in Rotala rotundifolia (not a new idea by any means). The main question I have is what is causing the long internodes and creeping rather than vertical growth pattern. 

The creeping growth could be explained by the higher light, but the rotala is also planted more densely in the high-tech tanks so you would expect it to grow up to avoid competing with neighbors.

Internode length might be related to a few things. It could just be higher growth rate causing the greater internode length in the nutrients rich tanks. I think the color spectrum of the lights might also have something to do with it. On my low-tech tank the lights look to be around 7500-10000K. On the other tanks I lean more towards the red and yellow side of the spectrum to make the reds pop more. I read an article that suggests that light in the blue spectrum can INHIBIT vertical growth, thereby causing decreased internode length. I don't know if it's true but I'm going to try adding more cool light and blues to the spectrum to see what happens.

There are also chemicals called plant growth regulators (plant growth retardants or PGR's in this case) that can be used in hydroponics to slow or arrest vertical growth. Many of these are carcinogenic though so I'm not going to be the one to experiment with their effects on livestock. 

My challenge is that I don't want to decrease CO2 or light since the other plants like it, but I still want that short spacing between nodes and reddish color. So I'm going to experiment with natural methods like topping, different fertilization regimes, and different light spectrums to try and see what helps. Any suggestions are appreciated [emoji6]

In the picture below, guess which side of the tank is closest to the window?









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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Updates: 
Stocked it with 9 Trigonostigma somphongsi, added two more otocinclus, and a SAE.

I gave it the first trim on Sunday. New growth looks more dense and colorful so maybe the blue light is working, or maybe it's just because I trimmed it [emoji2368]

There is a little staghorn on the rocks and I saw the first hint of hair algae and BBA on the rocks as well. Nothing in the plants as they are all growing pretty well. I'll treat the rocks with hydrogen peroxide this weekend as a preventative measure. There's still some diatoms and GDA as well, but I'm hoping the Otto's will keep it in check until the stool stops leaching (probably soon). 

I always suspected algae on the rocks would happen. Despite the high plant mass, only about 50% of the substrate area is actually planted.









I'm thinking of adding a carpet in the front section to prevent algae on the substrate. Possibly some hydrocotyle tripartita mini on some of the rocks and some buce in the lower light areas. I think it will help stop algae, but will also be higher maintenance in terms of trimming. 

Anyways, FTS below.









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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Update on the actual 12 g long:

I think I'm going to rescape it. Already. I know it's only been a month, but there are a few things that make me want to shake things up: 

1. The mixed "carpet"/ plants are my favorite part, and I rarely see them due to how high they are in the tank
2. This scape is mostly hardscape focused. I don't think there is much I can do plant wise to make it look better. I tried adding more buce and anubias nana petite, but quite frankly I don't think it helped. I could try adding more weeping moss, but I think it would take over the spider wood and ruin the look.
3. I didn't leave enough room between the hardscape and the front glass so maintenance is a bitch
4. Culling shrimp is impossible due to the rocks
5. I want to use this tank to separately condition the female somphongsi rasboras I'm trying to breed, but catching them out of this tank will be damn near impossible

Probably gonna take a "final shot" in the next few days and tear it down.









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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

A few changes since the last update: I got a new intake (surface skimmer broke) and some new plants, namely a bunch of buce. I left for a week without trimming and came back to a wall of plants.

















There was pretty bad shading and the fish had very little room to swim, but everything looked healthy regardless. I took out significant plant mass, and replanted some tops. Most rotalas were fine but the Manipura looked like the bases were dying back, so I thinned it out a bit.

















The good news is algae is still not a thing and the myrio Guyana has recovered and is growing well. I'm thinking about removing the pearl weed in favor of more rotala green, since the pearl weed grows absolutely out of control.

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## Discusluv (Dec 24, 2017)

Very nicely done. (thumbs up).


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## Hapa Logie (Mar 28, 2018)

Nice! I just re-scaped my 12 long. I went for a non-dirt-ADA-LaPlata-gravel-wabi-kusa-pea-puffer-tank lol. By far my favorite scape so far!! The pea puffers are definitely the most interesting fish I’ve had so far.

I’ll be adding Christmas moss along some of the branches and Buce assortments in middle area (looking for a good red one). Right now just has a few Anubias Nana Petite and 1 regular Anubias. Wondering what it will look like once it spreads and grows on the wood.











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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Hapa Logie said:


> Nice! I just re-scaped my 12 long. I went for a non-dirt-ADA-LaPlata-gravel-wabi-kusa-pea-puffer-tank lol. By far my favorite scape so far!! The pea puffers are definitely the most interesting fish I’ve had so far.
> 
> I’ll be adding Christmas moss along some of the branches and Buce assortments in middle area (looking for a good red one). Right now just has a few Anubias Nana Petite and 1 regular Anubias. Wondering what it will look like once it spreads and grows on the wood.
> 
> ...


Nice. You should start a journal! I just took everything out of the 12 g to use it as a breeding tank, so it looks pretty rough right now.

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## yanyan (Jun 13, 2019)

gjcarew said:


> A few changes since the last update: I got a new intake (surface skimmer broke) and some new plants, namely a bunch of buce. I left for a week without trimming and came back to a wall of plants.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


That's nice growth, really look cozy for the fish to hide in.

Bump: Wait, there's no fish or shrimp?


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

yanyan said:


> Bump: Wait, there's no fish or shrimp?


There are Somphong's rasboras, RCS, otocinclus, amanos, and an SAE. The rasboras are tiny and tough to see in a full tank shot.

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## somewhatshocked (Aug 8, 2011)

Love these tanks so much and have enjoyed following your journal. I fear it's nudging me into setting my 12gal long up again instead of selling it. 

What's the sand-like substrate you're using? It's nice and dark-ish - way nicer than pool filter sand.


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

somewhatshocked said:


> Love these tanks so much and have enjoyed following your journal. I fear it's nudging me into setting my 12gal long up again instead of selling it.
> 
> What's the sand-like substrate you're using? It's nice and dark-ish - way nicer than pool filter sand.


Thanks! It's Sakrete medium graded multi-purpose sand that I got from Home Depot. It's not very well graded so I suggest a lot of washing if you use it. 

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## somewhatshocked (Aug 8, 2011)

Thanks for letting me know what it is!

I'm gonna go on a hunt for it at all the stores this weekend. Home Depot, Lowe's, Menards. Surely I'll find it somewhere.



gjcarew said:


> Thanks! It's Sakrete medium graded multi-purpose sand that I got from Home Depot. It's not very well graded so I suggest a lot of washing if you use it.


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Since it's so hard to see the fish, I tried to capture a close up picture. They are pretty camera shy!

Trigonostigma somphongsi









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## desantes (Jul 3, 2019)

Fantastic tank first of all, thanks for sharing. May I ask what filter you're running? I also have a 12 long and was thinking about an Eheim 2215 which is rated at 164GPH. Do you think this is enough to get good flow from one side to the other? I’m worried that if I step up to the 2217 which is like 200+GPH it may be too much for fish and substrate.


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

desantes said:


> Fantastic tank first of all, thanks for sharing. May I ask what filter you're running? I also have a 12 long and was thinking about an Eheim 2215 which is rated at 164GPH. Do you think this is enough to get good flow from one side to the other? I’m worried that if I step up to the 2217 which is like 200+GPH it may be too much for fish and substrate.


The 2215 should be plenty. I was probably running at around 120 gph, any more and it just pushes your fish around too much.

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## somewhatshocked (Aug 8, 2011)

@desantes: Could even use a 2213 or Ecco 2232 if you have a spray bar.

Don't want to hijack the thread but I document one method in my 12gal journal. It could be classed way up by using better material than I did. 

I think a better grade than the bar I used - with a nicer end cap - would look much better than mine. Having a background on the tank would also help.

Here are some photos of mine:


































Even after a couple years, I still had so much flow with a smaller filter that I had to slow things down.


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

I don't think I've given an update on the 12g long in a while. I tore out all the lava rock and the amount of mulm was outrageous. Currently it is aging with a bunch of low-tech plants, waiting to become a fry tank. My plan is to only have low plants that I can easily catch fish around or rhizome plants that I can move.























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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Haven't done an update on the 22 in a while. Things are going smoothly, started to see some BBA crop up so I'm upping the CO2. Overall I've been able to keep it looking good for a few weeks so I think I have a good idea of the kind of maintenance it needs. The H'ra is still not looking as red as I'd like, but the color does seem to deepen with each trim. Unfortunately it's almost indistinguishable from the rotala rotundifolia "pink." 








Also, here is a little Wabi kusa I made. No idea what I'm doing, I pretty much just stuck a bunch of things there to see what grows.









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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

I've been trying to take out the pearl weed where I can. It just grows too fast. You'd think I would have guessed that from the word "weed" in the name, but I'm not a smart man. I also picked up two juvenile longfin albino bristlenose plecos. They're beautiful little fish. I'll have to try and get a photo, but they are fairly shy.

Ferts: I'm adding 20 mL of easy green and 3/4 tsp of Seachem Equilibrium for every 5 gallons of water changed. I know it's not scientific at all, but it seems to be working and I'd like to use up the easy green before mixing more dry ferts.

I have been trying to work on making the plant groupings more distinct. I'm not sure if it looks better, but I'd like to do a dutch tank next so it's a skill I want to practice. There are a few pictures below, in no particular order.























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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

The rotala was getting too dense, so I pulled it all and replanted tips. Unfortunately this dredged up a bunch of the raw soil and caused a major hair algae outbreak. Here is the tank a week after replanting:









And some of the green algae I'm dealing with:















I'm sure that morning sunlight is part of the reason. I'll probably end up pulling that S. Repens, it's just too covered. I'm also noticing some interveinal chlorosis, so it's time to up the easy green dosing! 

Two weeks ago I was gone for the weekend, and the Fluval 3.0 stopped working. I came home and one of my somphongsi rasboras was already skeletonized. I immediately aerated the water and the rest of the fish started to recover. A week later another rasbora who hadn't been eating well passed away. On Sunday I went over to a guy in the local club and traded the rest of my rasboras (he has a school already) for some interesting plants. Time for some plant pics:








This Blyxa alternifolia has been in the tank for months, but now that the rotala has been cut back you can start to see the pretty new growth. Definitely a slow grower, but no algae on this stuff!








Camomba furcata. Already turning a nice red in higher light.








Hygrophila polysperma "Sunset." 








Bacopa caroliniana "red". This one is new to me. I'm excited to see what its emersed growth looks like, it would be cool to find a Wabi kusa plant that stays reddish!

Finally, I've noticed that I have two different forms of Rotala "Manipura." One has narrower leaves, like Rotala rotundifolia, and the other has thicker leaves, like Rotala macrandra. I though at first I might have some green form Rotala Macrandra, but the stem of the wide leaf form is thick like the other Rotala "Manipura". I might try growing the two emersed and see if there are any noticeable differences. In the picture below the wide leaf version is at the bottom.









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## DanZ (Mar 3, 2019)

Wow this looks amazing. Some addition of red plants in both left and right corner would make it pop nice. I have 9.1 gallon long but unfortunately does not get even close to your look. I think it is time to get me some more plants :grin2:


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

It's been a minute. September was crazy for me, and the most recent algae outbreak from uprooting the rotala pushed me over the edge for a rescape. 

I have two new goals: get first place at the home show in February, and drastically reduce the amount of trimming and maintenance I have to do.

The first attempt was with this crazy lawn ornament I found in my backyard. Unfortunately, it was made of clay that started to disintegrate after just a few days, so I had to take it out.









The second iteration was this big mopani wood stump I picked up randomly at Petco a few months back. I wanted to have it emerging from the top of the tank so I put it on top of some dragon stones from the previous iwagumi scape.









There were quite a few stems in there that I wanted to save. I had to leave for almost three weeks though right after setup, and all but the hardiest ones melted 

Below is how it currently looks. Going for a busier look on the left leading down to a low carpet on the right. I have more to update, but it's late and I just wanted to get this posted before I let another month go by!









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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

The DHG carpet has been growing in, slower than expected. On the other hand, the CO2 is running pretty slowly on account of the slower growing plants so I think it's been growing in at a pretty appropriate speed. One thing probably inhibiting me has been that I haven't dosed any liquid ferts for about two months now. I know, not really best practice here but for a while it didn't seem to matter. Some holes have started to appear in the crypt wendtii and a I'm seeing more algae so I figure it's time to start dosing 

I finally finished a bottle of easy green and decided to try to make my own all in one ferts. Seattle water is VERY soft so I used a bunch of Equilibrium in the mix. I tried putting it in the Easy Green bottle to dose from but the equilibrium didn't dissolve so I'm just going to dry dose it for the Ca, Mg and K I need. 

On a side note, I've heard you can't mix iron with phosphate, but it seems like they can pull it off in all the all-in-one fertilizers so I don't know if that is actually true or one of those long-perpetuated myths.

Current dosing plan is

1.5 ppm NO3
.7 ppm PO4
5.2 ppm K
.04 ppm Fe
.4 ppm Mg

4x per week for a weekly total of

6 ppm NO3
2.8 ppm PO4
20.8 ppm K
.16 ppm Fe
1.6 ppm Mg

The Ca, Mg, K and some Fe is dosed up front, but the rest is every other day from an old easy green bottle.

Update pic below, which includes my living wall.









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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

The tank is coming along. My girlfriend pointed out that the right side looks way too empty, so I added another piece of mopani wood to it. I also added some spider wood near the big trunk to try and give it some structure, but I'm not sure if that will stay. Just planted a baby Nymphoides "Taiwan" on the left side that will hopefully fill in the empty space. 

Tank is super slow growing, lean ferts and low-medium light with almost no stems. I have a Ludwigia arcuata x repens and that weird Rotala "Manipura" variety I had in my last tank, and some other plants I didn't want to give up but didn't have room for elsewhere. This is my only tank at home and it kinda kills me, I wish I had a farm tank so bad. But that's city apartment life for you.


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Wanted to make a new post because my Christmas present to myself came today. The clips I was using to support my Fluval 3.0 looked like garbage, and I've been eyeing a true RGB light for a while. So I bit the bullet and got a Chihiros WRGB. 

It's amazing. This thing BLASTS light, and I didn't order the commander so it looks like I'm going to have to get my CO2 under control and start being serious about fertilization or this baby is going to turn in to an algae farm.

I took some before and after shots. Fluval will be first, then Chihiros.






























It's tough to tell since my phone white balances and color corrects, but the color rendition on this light is spectacular. It's definitely on the same level as the Twinstars. 

As far as the tank goes, I broke down and added some rotala nanjenshen and rotala indica to the group of stems I salvaged from my last tank. Hoping to fill in some of that empty space!

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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Turns out 150+ par, lean fertilization, and suboptimal CO2 can lead to some algae issues.

I'm seeing a lot of staghorn, which is a new and exciting variety of algae for me. I've read that either excess iron or low CO2 can be the cause. I don't think excess iron is the issue, so I did some pH readings and it turns out I'm only getting a .5 pH drop (6.1 to 5.6). 

I've been super neglectful of CO2 since I haven't been chasing fast growth in this tank, but with the new plants I want to start pushing it again. The bubble counter/ check valve had no water in it, and after seeing some white residue I gave it a thorough soaking in some white vinegar. That cleaned a lot of the mineral buildup out, but I still can't blow through the check valve. CO2 still makes it through, but I have to wonder about the efficiency.

After cleaning I filled the bubble counter with some food safe mineral oil that I found at Safeway. It is meant for bamboo cutting boards. It doesn't dissolve like water and is much more viscous so it is way easier to count bubbles since they move slower.

I'm heading out of town for 10 days. I imagine the tank will be a disaster when I get back, but I'm confident I can get it back in to shape by February. Hopefully some of the plants will have started to fill in by then!























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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Tank is looking fine. It simultaneously looks better up close, because the details are less chaotic, and worse up close since you can see more hair algae. 

I'm a little over this setup. Probably gonna tear it down and do a Dutch style tank come February.









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## schooldazed (Mar 31, 2013)

Really love this tank. As well as the 12 gal long and Spec V office tank. Each successive pic and iteration more than the previous. Amazing this journal has all taken place in a years time. A little sad this latest version will be broken down but understand what's just a few teaser pictures to us is a constant sight for you. And again, like previous versions, sure your next will be even better. Though at least one more shot before you go Dutch would be appreciated (but no rush).


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

schooldazed said:


> Really love this tank. As well as the 12 gal long and Spec V office tank. Each successive pic and iteration more than the previous. Amazing this journal has all taken place in a years time. A little sad this latest version will be broken down but understand what's just a few teaser pictures to us is a constant sight for you. And again, like previous versions, sure your next will be even better. Though at least one more shot before you go Dutch would be appreciated (but no rush).


Thanks! It's always nice when someone mentions they've followed the tanks' progress. Most of the time it feels like I'm talking to myself. 

I still need to take the "final" photo, so I'll be waiting for the rotalas in the background to grow out at the very least

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## ipkiss (Aug 9, 2011)

no, rest assured that you are not talking to yourself. this thread is one of my subscriptions so I do follow! perhaps the forum should show subscribers to the thread. would assuage us a little in our times of doubt  , but nonetheless, a journal is for self discovery sometimes so maybe it is for talking to oneself and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that either!


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

I was gone for 10 days before the home show, and I wasn't there to show the tank off. When I came back it was looking pretty wild, and a little bit of hair algae was there, but it was overall not bad. The below pictures are before any maintenance. Last one is a "stylized" photo my phone made automatically, looks like it just boosted saturation to 11. I thought it looked pretty cool though.






























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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

According to the fert mix I put together I've been adding (per week):

6 ppm NO3
2.8 ppm PO4
20.7 ppm K
.16 ppm Fe
1.7 ppm Mg

I know nitrate amounts are low, but I have aquasoil in there that is relatively fresh. I've been seeing signs of various nutrient deficiencies, including very slow growth. This hasn't bothered me for the most part since it's easier to maintain slower growth, but I finally gave in and supplemented with osmocote in places where the plants looked particularly unhappy.

Well it turns out that I've been adding 1/5 the amount of fertilizer I thought I had. I used an old empty bottle of easy green to dose, which I thought dispensed 10 mL per pump. Turns out it dispenses 2 mL per pump! Talk about a facepalm.

I'll update in a few weeks when the plants adjust to the new dosing.

Below are a few pics, one from last week, one of the shrimps and the algae ridden hairgrass, and one with a little morning light.























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Edit: For my own records, I replaced the CO2 canister today, just added Tom Barr's pellia to the driftwood, removed Rotala Nanjenshin (not growing well) and replanted Pogostemon erectus to hopefully get more light


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## Cinnamonamon (Oct 24, 2018)

What absolutely gorgeous tanks you have! They are ALMOST enough to make me want to jump into high tech...but not quite  Someday maybe! Seriously though, thanks for keeping up this journal!


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Something a little different... I put this UNS 60s on the filing cabinet next to my desk as a paludarium. No journal for this one as the only aquatic plants are floaters and ferns.









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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

First an update with the increased dosing-- reds are looking a little less intense, but the plants seem to be healthier as they are no longer acquiring algae.









I moved some Rotala mexicana "goias" from the back of the tank to the front, first so you can see it and second because that side of the tank gets a lot of sun, and I'm hoping rotala on that side will prevent the hairgrass from getting algae. I also had to remove a bunch of the lower rotala macrandra stems, they get super ratty super quickly. Let's hope over time the increased dosing-- will sort that out.









This is the left side of the tank, which I don't really like. I took out a bunch of crypts that weren't doing well for whatever reason, including a c. Wendtii in this corner that kept getting holes in it's leaves. I'm not really a fan of the tall Eleocharis parvula either, so I'll probably get rid of that at the next meeting as well. In its place I want some stems. If something looks good in the auction I'll pick it up, if not the ludwigia arcuata will just go on that side. I do kind of want some varied color though, so I'm going to keep an eye out for stuff that isn't in the pink-green spectrum so many of my plants seem to fall in to.

















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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Well here it is... The beginning of something new. I've been promising myself that I'd try to do a Dutch aquascape at some point, but I've been putting it off due to it being ski season turns out this whole "quarantine" thing has left me with a whole lot of time on my hands, so I ripped everything out, cleaned the substrate thoroughly, and replanted.

It doesn't look good right now. As I've mentioned before I have way too many pink plants, and I need to drastically pare down the number of species before it begins to look Dutch.

I'ts going to take some trial and error to see what forms the best looking groups, but I'm thinking the keepers are going to be the myrio Guyana mini, crypt spiralis tiger, rotala macrandra "green", Pogostemon erectus, ludwigia arcuata and nymphaea micrantha. I might see how the rotala mexicana "goias" does as a foreground plant, but I'm leaning more towards crypt parva or staurogyne repens.

It doesn't look good right now, but I wanted a record of where I started. It's gonna look great someday.









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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Did a little maintenance yesterday, starting to propagate plants I know are going to make "the 9" and try to get others into attractive groups to see if I should keep them.










On the right side of the tank, I have a bunch of myrio Guyana mini that I'm propagating to make a nice group. The Pogostemon erectus can stay too, and the crypt spiralis tiger. I'm also thinking of keeping this weird rotala macrandra variant I have.

The ludwigia arcuata will is on the chopping block as it's a little too sparse to make a nice grouping. I'm also growing out some surprise rotala Nanjenshin to see how it looks but I think it's too close to the r. macrandra, p. erectus and m. Guyana in appearance. Both the nymphoides Taiwan and the dwarf aquarium Lily will also need to be rehomed as I want to keep the nymphaea micrantha gefleckt and I don't think I can do more than one specimen plant in this size of tank. I'm keeping the buce and pink crypts in here until I can find a better home for them.










The right side of the tank has what will hopefully be the star of the show, the nymphaea micrantha "gefleckt." It doesn't look great right now as I just trimmed off some leaves with GDA but it's a stunner when in form. 

I'm not so sure about the rotala mexicana "goias" since it doesn't really look neat. On the other hand, it's such a unique looking little plant that I don't really want to get rid of! trident fern is the same way, it looks great in a nature aquarium but in this case I think it's just too chaotic. It will be switched out for some true needle leaf Java fern. This is the problem with only having one tank...














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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Prepare for one of my sillier projects: Moss Wall. This tank is 12 inches deep so it's too easy to see the back wall. Gotta cover that up! 

Step 1. Build a frame out of corrugated plastic and screen mesh.









Step 2. Fill it with moss and try to keep the moss in place by sewing over it with fishing line. Do such a poor job that your fiance takes pity and finishes it for you. Guess I'll never be a seamstress!










Step 3. Put it in the tank and hope it works. I've got flame moss in there which has always been a prolific grower for me, but I've never seen someone use it in a wall. If it fails I'll go for something more traditional like Christmas moss or weeping moss.









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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

The first moss wall was ugly and didn't really work. I went with Burr's method instead. I had trouble finding the mesh at first but if anyone's looking it can be found if you search for "fur suit eye mesh" on Amazon (I know, weird AF). I'm currently trying two different walls, right side is mini Christmas moss and the left side is anubias nana petite.










I also got rid of a bunch of the plants I didn't want for the Dutch and picked up some syngonanthus belem, rotala bonsai, lobelia cardinalis and staurogyne repens to see how they work out. The crypt spiralis red needs to come to the right a few inches and the groups generally need to be bigger and thicker. I think the Java fern looks too much like the crypts, so I don't know if they should be symmetrical in the tank. Final note-- I know the macrandra looks like garbage, I'm just starting to trim it into a thicker bush.









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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Now taking votes on the mini Christmas moss vs. Nana petite wall. Still gonna wait at least another couple weeks before deciding.

















I also put in a background and have been just propagating plants like crazy.








That's all for this week!

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## andrewss (Oct 17, 2012)

I like the moss wall in progress! Patience will pay off I think


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

andrewss said:


> I like the moss wall in progress! Patience will pay off I think


I think I'm with you on the moss wall. The anubias wall looks too busy IMO

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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

I decided to go with the moss wall instead of the anubias. Currently debating whether I should keep my mini christmas moss attached to the stainless sheets they came on or try to spread them out more.










I really wish my lobelia cardinalis was growing faster. I need more but can't find anyone selling it in submersed form and this pitiful portion is all I got from buying emersed-grown pots.










The syngonanthus macrocaulon really contrasts well with the lily and the rotala, so it got moved there. 










I'm not sure about the Java fern yet, but I don't know what else I'd put there. Maybe blyxa japonica? It just looks kind of messy and doesn't contrast well with the pogo erectus.








On the plus side, the pink crypt spiralis are looking great! They are starting to grow super long leaves.










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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Currently thinking of adding a reactor as a weekend project, as the level of CO2 mist is pretty distracting. Most likely going to to with a Griggs reactor as it looks like the easiest to make. Any suggestions? Things to watch out for? I'm not very handy...


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Well, I didn't make a reactor. Got 4 yards of mulch delivered so I've been pretty occupied in the garden the past couple weeks. 

In aquarium news I'm seeing some algae and slight yellowing on the syngonanthus, so I increased ferts to previous levels. I've been lazy about maintenance so I cleaned the filter, lily pipes, substrate etc. Otherwise not much to report. I'm waiting on more lobelia cardinalis that I accidentally sent to an old address on the other side of the country, hopefully it arrives alive. I also still don't know what I'm going to do on the far right foreground. Maybe move the staurogyne over? Maybe some blyxa japonica? I don't care for the rotala bonsai.









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## andrewss (Oct 17, 2012)

Lookin more filled in! Perfect clean lily pipes 

The back moss wall is coming together nicely too, will be great when it is wall to wall!


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

andrewss said:


> Lookin more filled in! Perfect clean lily pipes
> 
> 
> 
> The back moss wall is coming together nicely too, will be great when it is wall to wall!


I took the moss off the stainless steel mesh and attached it straight to the background, but it doesn't seem to be attaching well... When the stems grow out it hopefully will block some of the bare areas!

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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Before and after. Thinned out the s. repens, moved the syngo, and ditched the lobelia cardinalis. It just isn't growing well in this setup, the water might be too soft for it. Going to try for a hydrocotyle tripqrtita street between the lotus and the syngo, which I'm sure is going to be a huge pain to maintain...

This nymphaea micrantha is kind of driving me crazy. It's super up and down on if it wants to grow or not and stunts for no apparent reason. If I can't get it growing soon I might trade for something like lagenandra meeboldii.
















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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

(Semi) exciting news- after a brief foray as a terrarium, the 12 gallon is ready for water again. This time as a low-tech epiphyte only tank. I want to go with a minimal hardscape style- top picture is with spider wood I had on hand and bottom is is some madrona I picked up at the park today. Leaning towards the madrona since it's less busy and looks like mini manzanita. The colors look different because the second was taken in "sunset" mode.
















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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Things are getting too dense now, I need some more separation between groups. The nymphaea micrantha is still struggling, it's close to getting the boot.

The 12 gallon was flooded and a little anubias nana petite added yesterday. The general idea with this tank is to make a nature style aquarium that is as pretty as possible with the least number of components- to practice simplification. It still needs more plants IMO but it's on the right track and I think with a single betta in there the whole tank will look very serene.









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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Fiance said it looks too empty. The work paludarium had some extra needle leaf Java fern and bolbitis, so I brought that over to this one. I still want to plant in kind of sparsely to let it grow in naturally.

On the far left side I've considered adding either mini Christmas or fissidens to the branches, but that also means more trimming work. I also think the betta will eventually hang out in that side for food and attention so it might be nice to have it empty...









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## Asteroid (Jul 26, 2018)

That looks good, I would only go bushy at the base on the right and not really tall since you have the driftwood going higher on the left. Over there I would only go moss on wood in addition to the low stuff you planted in front of rock. 

A school of small size schooling fish would round it out and work much better for scale then a betta, although a betta could work as well. That's just the way i see it with my scapers hat on.


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

I was hoping the filter outlet would push the Java fern leaves to the left so everything would "flow" from right to left. I can try moving them by hand but another option would be to use trident fern rather than the needle leaf do a little bushier of a shape. Did it seem a little TOO empty with just the nana petite?

From a scapers perspective I'm with you on the small fish. But due to the strange location in the kitchen I'm worried there would be nothing to draw the eye in with a small school. My fiance also works from the kitchen and specifically asked for a betta so I'm trying to be diplomatic!

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## Asteroid (Jul 26, 2018)

Yeah I don't think the nljf is going to give that effect. You could use a val or a plant like Cyperus helferi that can flow toward the driftwood. I don't think it's too sparse. You could add some moss covered stones around the base to give it a slightly fuller look. Also a nice shcool of colorful fish will make a big difference. The one thing with minimalist scapes are that most of the time less is more. Every time i go to far with planting you start losing the look of the hardscape and I didn't like it as much. I guess it's a personal thing.


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

A couple random plant questions: this was sold to me as mini Christmas moss. It's dense, but the fronds are pretty big. Is this what mini Christmas moss looks like? I like it, I've just heard a lot about it being misidentified.









There's also some GSA on my staurogyne repens and it's looking a little pale. Maybe an ammonia deficiency? I'd love to hear some diagnoses.









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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Big trim this week on the Dutch scape. I had to get rid of some root mass so all the groups except the cryptocoryne got uprooted, trimmed, and the tops replanted. I'll be adding some blyxa japonica, I was just never able to get that nymphaea micrantha looking like I wanted it.








You might also notice the moss wall is missing. I started trimming it, but it just wasn't well attached with the fishing line and I ended up with big bald patches and moss going everywhere. I'm trying the "sandwich" method to get the between two sheets of needlepoint mesh. Hopefully the moss grows out of it! It's definitely going to be at least a month before it looks alright again, but it will hopefully be a much more sustainable moss wall.

The 12 gallon long got its betta as well. Let's hope this tank is as easy as my low tech paludarium at work! I like the look at least, and I'm hoping that with super low light (Fluval 3.0 on at 20%) I can keep the algae at bay.









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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

just read the whole journal and love the combination of the two different tanks and all the rescapes
it's so hard to only have 1 or 2 tanks, you always end up with different ideas, plants, and fish but seems like you've managed to get it all working

I am so jealous of your naturally soft water up there in seattle, i've got rock hard water here in San Diego 
I noticed at some point you had the dosing pump, do you still use it?

PS random question, I've noticed you keep the water line a half inch or so under the rim, is it just natural evaporation or is that what you normally keep it at? see less jumpers?


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Thanks! I'm lucky in that we have the GSAS up here that allows me to trade fish and plants pretty cheaply and easily. I suppose I've been doing this for two years now, but I still consider myself a beginner and I'm constantly learning. It's one of my goals to try all the different aquarium styles (nature style, iwagumi, dutch, diorama, ryoboku, biotope, Brazilian style) so I can eventually find out what MY style is. So basically once a layout looks as good as I think it's going to get, it's time for a rescape.

I would like to eventually have larger tanks, but I don't know if I'd want more two tanks at once. I think maybe the 90U size (36"x22"x22") or 90P (36"x18"x18") and the 120P (48"x20"x20") would be my dream tanks. I like the way Dennis Wong has one "scape" tank and one "farm" tank. It is nice to be able to give two tanks the attention they deserve rather than having more tanks that don't look as good or aren't doing as well. 

I'm very grateful for the soft, clean water around here. It's super impressive to see the dedication of a lot of the hobbyists on this board with their R/O sheds, mixing stations, etc... I'm glad I don't need to do that. 

I was using the dosing pump, but as an experiment I tried mixing up a batch of all-in-one fertilizers and dispensing out of an old Easy Green bottle. Since I feed the fish every day I've just been using my little all-in-one mix. I still have the dosing pump and I might set it up again in the future though!

The low water level due to a few factors. When the water level is at the very top, I do get more jumpers. It also makes it impossible for me to reach my hands in there without causing the water to slosh over the sides if I need to replant something, trim a dead leaf etc. On the 12 gallon, I need to physically pull it out from under the cabinet it is under for maintenance and that also would be difficult if it was filled to the brim.


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

The aforementioned super low maintenance paludarium









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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

The blyxa japonica arrived in terrible shape, but it has some new growth so it looks like it will bounce back. The new growth is redder than I expected, but that may just be a stress response from shopping and adjusting to new conditions. I also did some maintenance on the staurogyne repens to trim the horizontal shoots and plant the tips. The horizontal stems turn yellow close to the base instead of that nice deep green.

Usually Pogostemon erectus grows in the classic big, wide, steady shape but every once in a while a stem that has had the roots trimmed will stunt at the apex and start sending off side shoots like crazy. I haven't figured out why that occasionally happens.

The 12 gallon is going pretty steady, my fiance already loves the betta and has taken to feeding him. There are definitely diatoms and I thought about adding an otocinclus but I think I'll just see if the problem resolves itself as tank conditions stabilize. I noticed a small patch of BGA on the substrate and and some BBA that came in on some plants as well. Given the low bioload and low light it shouldn't explode over the next few days. I'll give it to next week before doing a more thorough cleaning.
















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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

ahh, thank you, yeah maybe I'll lower the water line on mine when I introduce new fish to keep them from jumping. that's the main problem with being rimless ( oh and the evaporation)

Yes, those dimensions would be awesome. I love the 40 breeder dimensions but wouldn't mind if it was a bit deeper both width and height. 36x20x20 would be very perfect. 
Tank looks good, I've found that my pogo also does the same thing, I've been ok with it since when the stunted plant starts side propagating it does a bit more bushy but they're also nicer when they're straight up. I've found if the stem gets too old then it starts growing a bunch of side roots and makes it messy looking. 

yeah, the 12g should cycle itself and diatoms should die down. I guess patience is the best thing


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

monkeyruler90 said:


> ahh, thank you, yeah maybe I'll lower the water line on mine when I introduce new fish to keep them from jumping. that's the main problem with being rimless ( oh and the evaporation)


On the 12 gallon I actually cut my own lid out of glass that covers everything but the filter inlet/outlet. It's almost invisible.


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Trying out some new locations. I wasn't wild about how Myriophyllum Guyana looks when it gets tall so I moved it to the midground and moved the Pogostemon erectus to the left side. Now I have a big section available for a new group on the right hand side. What should I put there?









The left side looks pretty good but kinda crowded where the Myriophyllum now is. I might move everything off to the right a bit to give everything more space.









The right side looks too contrived/symmetrical with streets of both syngonanthus and hydrocotyle tripartita, so I'm planning on turning the hydrocotyle tripartita into a bush instead of a street.









The moss wall is still growing in but it looks fairly even so I think it's gonna be nice and lush in a month or so.

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## chicken.nublet (Mar 29, 2018)

gjcarew said:


> Trying out some new locations. I wasn't wild about how Myriophyllum Guyana looks when it gets tall so I moved it to the midground and moved the Pogostemon erectus to the left side. Now I have a big section available for a new group on the right hand side. What should I put there?
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Can't think of any specific plants for the right but... I think you need something red for sure.


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

@chicken.nublet I'm going to try out your red plant suggestion with some Ludwigia super red I had in a wabi kusa. Convention dictates you shouldn't have a red plant on the edge of your tank as it makes the corners seem darker and the whole tank a little smaller.

That said, I would agree that the whole composition is lacking color. And maybe with the hydrocotyle tripartita in the foreground it will balance out.

I also picked up some water wisteria to try out. I'm not sure if I'll keep it but it's cheap so might as well.

The corner in question









This is the blyxa japonica with adjusted white balance so you can see what I see better. Pretty nice subtle reds and browns, it's gonna be fun to see how this grows out long term.









Final pic is just the view of my little corner of life. Our apartment is not very big (865 sq ft for two people over 6' tall) but I do love how this tank fits in the space.









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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

First things first... I'm hoping someone here can help me with a plant ID. I got this plant labeled as Staurogyne sp. Kerala but I don't think that's what it is. It's the plant with the small roundish leaves in the pictures below.
















My understanding was that Staurogyne sp. Kerala leaves come to a point, while these are rounded at the tips. This is also growing more vertically, and more quickly, than I'd expect from a staurogyne species. Could it be Clinipodium brownei? Let me know what you think it might be.

Overall the tank is starting to look really good. The red ludwigia on the side doesn't stand out enough from the background so I think I'm going to use the water wisteria, or some other lacy plant, for the right hand side.










Speaking of the background, the moss is still giving me trouble. The tank would be ready for a "final" shot in a couple weeks if I could get the moss to grow out. I might try placing it in a tray of water outside in the sun for a week or so and see if I can kick off some growth.

The highlight for me right now is the crypts. They've gotten really dense and attractive leaves. I have no idea why it goes in cycles of looking amazing then suddenly melting, but at least it looks good for now!









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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

I honestly just want to be able submit something to the AGA and have them say, "Yes, that is a Dutch aquascape." Don't get me wrong, it would be great to do well, but I feel somewhat limited in my composition options by the height of the tank (12"). To be able to just be considered would be very cool.

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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

it looked a little bit like lobelia cardinalis "mini" but it is stretching out too long. Hmm was it something you traded or bought from someone on here?
I always love these random intruder plants but hard to ID

I love the last tank shot but if you switched the water wisteria for the L.Red I think it would help comply with that "green on the corners" stuff and actually make the structure a little better. The ludwigia looks good just needs time to grown up and redden up. 

The blyxa is great because it gives you both red/green contrast when it's happy. The hydrocotyle tripartita looks good as a bushy blob on the side.I wonder if it's hard to keep maintain if you want it super narrow as a divider.

pshh, the height doesn't matter, the tank looks great! definitely a dutch scape once everything starts to fill in!


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Not a whole lot to report. Still just waiting on that moss wall to fill in. Everything's looking super lush though!


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

monkeyruler90 said:


> it looked a little bit like lobelia cardinalis "mini" but it is stretching out too long. Hmm was it something you traded or bought from someone on here?
> 
> I always love these random intruder plants but hard to ID
> 
> ...


One of the guys in my club thinks the mystery plant is hygrophila serpyllum, and it does look a lot like that. I can't confirm though so I'm currently transitioning to emerged growth to be able to tell the difference.

I did move the ludwigia as you said and after a week it looks so good that it gets to stay there. Unfortunately that meant another plant had to get the axe (stupid Dutch rules!) so the hydrocotyle tripartita is gone. The problem is that now with the blyxa all over the right hand foreground it's way too red, so now it might have to switch places with the staurogyne repens.... It's never ending!

I'm currently visiting family for a couple of weeks so I'm sure I'll have some sort of disaster on my hands when I get back. Oh well, as long as we're quarantined I have nothing else to fill my time!

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## andrewss (Oct 17, 2012)

Oh the tank really is fillin in! Lookin good 

Good luck when you get back, heres to hopin nothing bad awaits you


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Back from a vacation in Utah. What a beautiful part of the country! 

My dreams of aquatic disaster were unfounded. The tank (really just the rotala) is way overgrown, but I have to admit I kind of like it. Very wild looking! No algae even with no water changes for two weeks.

I'll get my hands in there tomorrow for a trim and water change, I'm too exhausted tonight. Stay tuned for an update!









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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

very nicely grown in tank! for 2 weeks without maintenance I think it did pretty awesome!
how did you manage to feed the fish during that time? did you fertilize at all?


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

My mom came by and fed the fish and watered the garden. I front loaded ferts at about half the usual level

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## stlhokie (Aug 21, 2018)

Your mystery plant looks like Lobelia Cardinalis, possibly the mini variety. I have it in my tank as well currently. It grows short and thick under high lighting, but tends to stay tall and slender under lower light levels (normally).


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## [email protected] (Jul 19, 2020)

time for a trim


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

The staurogyne repens and pogo erectus need to be uprooted and replanted, but I'm putting it off for another week. Anybody think the crypt spiralis needs to be thinned out too? I can't decide.

I want to expand the ludwigia red grouping. I also need to fix the syngonanthus as it's a pretty uneven street at the moment. 

On a more structural level the blyxa kind of blends in to the substrate and I wish it was more green. I'm going to see if some osmocote will help it turn green. 

I'd also love feedback on the spacing of the groups. Is it too crowded? Anyways, pic below.


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## ipkiss (Aug 9, 2011)

gjcarew said:


> The first moss wall was ugly and didn't really work. I went with Burr's method instead. I had trouble finding the mesh at first but if anyone's looking it can be found if you search for "fur suit eye mesh" on Amazon (I know, weird AF). I'm currently trying two different walls, right side is mini Christmas moss and the left side is anubias nana petite.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Hi @gjcarew, 

How'd you end up attaching the mesh to the back of the tank? I was planning out something similar to anchor my mass of moss and was considering magnets but curious of what you used. 

thanks!


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

ipkiss said:


> Hi @gjcarew,
> 
> How'd you end up attaching the mesh to the back of the tank? I was planning out something similar to anchor my mass of moss and was considering magnets but curious of what you used.
> 
> thanks!


Since it's two pieces of needlepoint mesh it's actually pretty rigid. I just shoved it in to the substrate in the back and it stands up on its own.

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## ipkiss (Aug 9, 2011)

hmm.. nice. plus its a low height so you don't have that leaning out at the top.


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

I originally had it essentially "paperclipped" to the top with a piece of wire but that ended up being unnecessary. I think a binder clip would also work in this situation.

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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Not an underwater shot but this is a log that I've been pumping water over that was covered with pieces of flame moss, riccia, Monte Carlo, hydrocotyle tripartita, and buce. It gets sprayed once a day. I love how lush it looks!









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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

I haven't uploaded for a while because the tank has not looked good. I figure I'll let you see the struggle though. 










I had to trim all the crypts down to the ground as they were getting too long. The s. repens was also overcrowded and needed to be uprooted and replanted. I also uprooted and trimmed roots on the rotala macrandra and the Myriophyllum Guyana. 

I don't like how often I have to trim the pogo erectus so I took it out. I have some as a backup so it's definitely not gone forever, but I'm trying out some hygrophila siamensis "53b" in the back right. The good news is it is growing a lot slower, the bad news is that it has been in there for two weeks and barely grown at all. There were some pinholes in some of the leaves so I also added some osmocote around the tank.

Next an update on the 12g: 

There were some pinholes and unhealthy growth on the anubias and java fern so I upped the light. Now there is some green hair algae but it's not too bad to remove. I may be bottoming out on ferts, so I'll try dosing more over the next few weeks to see what happens. Overall not much has changed since setting this tank up, it looks pretty much the same. The plants have filled in a bit but I have yet to trim since the start of June. 









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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

*New fert regime*

I was looking at @Greggz journal and he was talking with someone about how his nitrate dosing is low at 15ppm per week, and I realized I was only dosing 7 ppm per week with extremely dense plant mass... I was copying @Xiaozhuang for dosing levels without considering that his tanks are often have a lower plant mass and he uses dirt and a lot more osmocote than me. 

With this realization things started to make more sense-- you can't see it much but the lower leaves on the macrandra, syngonanthus and hygrophila "53B" are all dropping which I assumed was due to overshading, but in hindsight it's probably exacerbated by insufficient nutrients. Long story short, I'm almost doubling what I dose per week, and dry-dosing macros after a water change rather than dosing throughout the week. Here's the new regimen...

Front loaded macros: 
14 ppm NO3
6.5 ppm PO4
32 ppm K

From GH booster, also front-loaded:
8.5 ppm Ca
2.6 ppm Mg
.12 ppm Fe
1.77 dGH

Micros - CSM+B in solution:
.35 ppm Fe (.47 total including GH booster)

FTS tax below


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

I wonder how the higher nitrate levels will do with the coloration of the plants


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## Greggz (May 19, 2008)

monkeyruler90 said:


> I wonder how the higher nitrate levels will do with the coloration of the plants


I will be curious too, but my guess is very little if any change. If anything, maybe more color on some.

Most plants display best color when well fed under high light.

It's a relatively small subset that responds to Nitrate limitation. Mostly some Rotala's.

But that being said, we'll see.


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## Xiaozhuang (Feb 15, 2012)

gjcarew said:


> I was looking at @Greggz journal and he was talking with someone about how his nitrate dosing is low at 15ppm per week, and I realized I was only dosing 7 ppm per week with extremely dense plant mass... I was copying @Xiaozhuang for dosing levels without considering that his tanks are often have a lower plant mass and he uses dirt and a lot more osmocote than me.
> 
> With this realization things started to make more sense-- you can't see it much but the lower leaves on the macrandra, syngonanthus and hygrophila "53B" are all dropping which I assumed was due to overshading, but in hindsight it's probably exacerbated by insufficient nutrients. Long story short, I'm almost doubling what I dose per week, and dry-dosing macros after a water change rather than dosing throughout the week. Here's the new regimen...
> 
> ...



Yep, lower plant mass... lol


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## Greggz (May 19, 2008)

Xiaozhuang said:


> Yep, lower plant mass... lol


Yeah Dennis I would say that tank is very much "plantcentric"!!
@gjcarew just to be clear, my current weekly dosing is NO3/PO4/K at 7.5/4/17.5.

With inert substrate, I was never able to lower my NO3 to these levels. With the active soil, I need far less NO3 than previously.

Now keep in mind I have a pretty heavy fish load compared to most planted tanks. My theory is that the soil is soaking it up and providing a lot NO3 to the roots. But just a theory. All I know for sure is that since the changeover, my tank requires far less NO3 to keep it happy.

May bump up PO4 slightly again just to please a few of my gluttonous stems.


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## Hendy8888 (Mar 6, 2008)

Xiaozhuang said:


>


What's the street value of that Buce log? lol Love it!


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Hendy8888 said:


> What's the street value of that Buce log? lol Love it!


Gotta be at least $10,000 USD. I see people selling brownie ghost 2011 for $275-$300 for a 5-leaf plant. Although I imagine selling that much at once would significantly distort the market and drive down prices?



Greggz said:


> Yeah Dennis I would say that tank is very much "plantcentric"!!
> 
> @gjcarew just to be clear, my current weekly dosing is NO3/PO4/K at 7.5/4/17.5.
> 
> ...


That's on me for not understanding the tank parameters worksheet. So if I understand correctly pre-water change you would be around 23 PPM NO3, post-water change you're around 7.5 ppm NO3, and then you dose 7.5 ppm to bring it up to 15 ppm? 

I really need to dial in once and for all what my NO3 accumulation due to fish load is. I can't imagine it's very high as there are currently only 10 neon tetras and some shrimp in there.



Xiaozhuang said:


> Yep, lower plant mass... lol


Thanks for stopping by! It looks to me like a macronutrient dosing issue with the syngonanthus. Leaves that are exposed to light are yellowing and melting. CO2 at 30+ PPM, medium-high light, very clean conditions (no algae, weekly substrate cleaning with the 50% water change). The only other thing I could think of is that the syngonanthus doesn't like the warmer summer temperatures, but even so the tank has gotten at max 84 degrees this summer and usually is around 74. If you have other suggestions I'm all ears. Excuse the glare, picture was taken this morning.








I'm getting to the end of my rope with it. Might have to find another plant to make a street with, maybe go back to the hydrocotyle tripartita despite its atrocious maintenance demands.

Also, the hygrophila siamensis 53B is showing pinholes and decaying lower leaves despite not being particularly shaded and (according to other reports) being able to handle lower light levels, hence thinking this could be a low-macros issue.


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## Greggz (May 19, 2008)

gjcarew said:


> That's on me for not understanding the tank parameters worksheet. So if I understand correctly pre-water change you would be around 23 PPM NO3, post-water change you're around 7.5 ppm NO3, and then you dose 7.5 ppm to bring it up to 15 ppm?
> 
> I really need to dial in once and for all what my NO3 accumulation due to fish load is. I can't imagine it's very high as there are currently only 10 neon tetras and some shrimp in there.


I admit the parameters spreadsheet can be confusing. I like to think in terms of "target" dosing. That is, what ppm do I want in the water column. So I look at this way. If I remove 70 gallons of water, I dose the new 70 gallons to my target. Right now, that number is 15 ppm in the water column. 

But for some reason, EI dosing is posted as dosing the entire tank and then you need to take into account accumulation. So I show my "target" dose, then also show the typical EI terms which would be 7.5 ppm assuming 50% water changes.

But keep in mind I have a pretty high fish load, and an active substrate. So my tank is generating NO3, and the substrate is likely supplying it to the roots. When I had inert, I could never get by at levels anywhere near where I am at now.

Now as to the syngo's, what is your KH? And I sure have it listed somewhere here, but what is your substrate?

And in general, don't ever be afraid to adjust dosing to see what happens. I would keep dosing those levels for a few weeks and see what happens. I can tell you I have dosed levels that would make most folks head spin, but that happened to be what was working in my tank at the time.


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

@Greggz I have Amazonia II in this tank, about a year old now. I've never had more than 0-1 KH, but I checked today and I'm at 3 KH and 4 GH. Looks like the buffering capacity of the soil has run out. I was reading about it and it looks like Amazonia II has less buffering capacity than either the original Amazonia or Amazonia Light. I might just give up on the syngonanthus in this case, I don't really want to replace the substrate or try to soften the water.

I also did a nitrate reading tonight and it came out to about 5 ppm NO3. I did a 60% water change and dosed 15 ppm NO3 yesterday so either the plants absorbed 10 ppm in one photoperiod or my test kit is off.

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## Xiaozhuang (Feb 15, 2012)

Late to the post, but yea Syngonanthus requires low KH. Could try HCL if you are borderline high on the KH scale and don't want to go RO/replace buffering substrate


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

Interesting about the pin holes. Curious to see what the root cause is.

I had the same thing and started dosing a little bit of Epsom salt. Week 3 so waiting to see how plants grow out but so far looks like an improvement


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

It's been 2 weeks since the new EI dosing regime. Here's what I've noticed:

- Hygrophila 53B leaves are looking a lot better
- Myriophyllum Guyana is growing a lot fatter and faster. Still undecided on whether this is a good thing.
- Syngonanthis didn't respond to higher dosing so I sold it and replaced with hydrocotyle tripartita. It must have been the KH that was keeping it from thriving.
- Blyxa Japonica is getting greener. Rotala macrandra "green" is a little less yellow and more green. I'm happy with both these changes.
- Crypt spiralis leaves that I trimmed down to substrate have come back even bigger- about 16 inches.
- Rotala macrandra bottoms are still bare, but it's losing leaves less aggressively.
- No real algae issues. Not that I thought there would be, but another data point against the "high water column ferts = algae" folks.

I ran out of CO2 today so will have to pick some up. Here's some pics:








Blyxa Japonica greening up!








Massive Crypt spiralis red leaf








New king of the tank, the largest of 5 apistogramma cactuoides triple reds. Got these for free, I'm probably gonna have to give away the subdominant males as he is getting feisty.








Pre-trim. Notice how big the "mini" myriophyllum is








Post trim. Water is a little cloudy from the GH booster and dry ferts.

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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Been two weeks of moving so everything was very overgrown. 









Trimmed up!










Gonna take a "final photo" most likely in the next two weeks, I have some ridiculous plans for a massive living wall that will use this tank as an irrigation reservoir. It's going to mean putting a pretty big pump in here so I will have to come up with some sort of scape that will hide it. This is the wall I made:










I suppose I could do a separate reservoir under the tank in the stand, but the stand is already pretty crowded.

Dutch style is fun, but it's very involved. I'd like to go back to something low(er) maintenance for a while. Believe it or not this is already one of the longest running aquascapes styles I've ever kept. I could definitely see myself coming back to a dutch or collectoritis style in the future but there are still so many different style scapes I want to do!

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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

aww the tank looks great, yeah I agree that the Dutch style takes a lot more maintenance. The pic of it overgrown and being trimmed looks so different, there's probably a good week or two where everything is bushy and looks amazing then it just gets too overgrown. 

I love the idea of the living wall, it's going to look great! so you're going to use aquarium water to spray on the living wall? basically increasing plant mass? I wonder if that will throw off the fert stability in your tank with the terrestrial roots sucking things out. I would probably do a separate reservoir and just use a hydroponics premixed fert.

What type of plants are you thinking about? lighting?


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

monkeyruler90 said:


> I love the idea of the living wall, it's going to look great! so you're going to use aquarium water to spray on the living wall? basically increasing plant mass? I wonder if that will throw off the fert stability in your tank with the terrestrial roots sucking things out. I would probably do a separate reservoir and just use a hydroponics premixed fert.
> 
> What type of plants are you thinking about? lighting?


It's a recirculating system, so water from the reservoir is pumped up to the top of the wall where 4 gph emitters drip it down to water the plants. The plan was to use aquarium water. The plan (as it so often does) has changed.

I went and talked with Steve at Aquarium Zen who has a pretty cool living wall of a similar design. His is pretty much just ficus pumila and spathiphyllum at this point. He said when the wall WAS recirculating but that plants just didn't grow that well-- the terrestrial plants wanted heavier fertilization, but it was negatively affecting the shrimp he was trying to breed in the tank that was acting as a reservoir. Nowadays he just sprays the wall down with a hose to water it, though he expressed interest in getting the recirculation going again. He also said I could probably get away with foliar fertilization, which does seem like a decent option.

Another factor is just my own personal desires-- I've worked hard to get as much tech out of the tank as possible, do I really want to stick a giant pump in there? It's not a big tank. It would severly hamper the types of aquascapes I could do. And when it comes down to it houseplants are really a secondary hobby to aquariums, I don't want to cripple one hobby for the benefit of the other. There are also other issues like potentially clogging emitters with fish waste.

So I ended up getting a little 7 gallon waste bin that will act as a reservoir with hydroponic nutrients. It will sit under the stand like a sump does. Plant list so far is:

Epriprenum aureum "Golden Pothos"
Epriprenum aureum "Snow Queen"
Epriprenum pinnatum "Cebu Blue"
Philodendron hederaceum "Micans"
Philodendron hederaceum "Lemon-Lime"
Philodendron hederaceum "Brasil"
Rhaphidophora tetrasperma
Nephrolepsis exaltata
Asparagus plumosus
Adiantum microphyllum
Tradescantia zebrina
Philodendron "Prince of Orange"
Philodendron "Moonlight"
Philodendron "Mccolley's Finale"
Monstera adansonii
Various phalaenopsis orchids
Scindapsus pictus "Silver Splash"

I'm expecting a good amount of attrition due to transition stress. I traded someone for a bunch of philodendrons and all of them were on death's door. I'm trying to nurse them back in some sphagnum moss but who knows whether they'll make it.

Lighting is just 6 feet of t-5 style LED grow lights that I'm hanging from the ceiling. All the plants can handle pretty low light so I'm not particularly concerned about that.


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

Yes, fully support the idea of keeping the two systems separate and that way you can fine tune each if they need it. 
this is going to be an exciting addition. are you going to keep documenting the build on this thread or starting a new one?


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

monkeyruler90 said:


> this is going to be an exciting addition. are you going to keep documenting the build on this thread or starting a new one?


Probably just occasional updates on this post. It's already built, just needs to be mounted to the wall today.

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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Plant wall is planted! Now I just have to hope everything survives









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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

I'm taking the final photo for the AGA contest tonight. It doesn't look as good as I'd hoped, but hopefully it's one of those things where the flaws look much worse to me than they do to other people. At the very least it follows the rules of a Dutch tank!

I haven't posted the 12 gallon long recently. I used to think low-tech tanks were boring, but I change the water on this every two weeks, easy green once a week, and it just looks good with no effort. It's such a pleasure to have such an easy tank. 

I'm probably going to rescape the Dutch shortly. I haven't decided between a nature style or an iwagumi but it's gonna be something without many stems. On the other hand I always say that then end up with like 4 groups of rotala [emoji849]










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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Welp you probably won't see another post of the Dutch-style tank until AGA results come out in December. Here's a little preview-- I got ahold of my fiance's DSLR and was able to take some nice photos.


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

oh man, you have us teased! fine, we'll wait till Dec

the colors on the apistos look amazing!


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

After I took pictures for the AGA things got hectic with work and long story short the tank went to s***. There was a bad BGA outbreak and a bunch of BBA. I did nothing but change the water for about two weeks.






























There were a few factors contributing to this (at least that I know of):
- Too much plant mass. Lots of dying overshaded lower leaves.
- Low flow, partially from just needing to service the filter and partially from the excess plant mass
- Low CO2. I must have bumped the needle valve because it was way down.
- Lack of water changes/ general maintenance

I still kind of want to do an iwagumi, but I don't have the hardscape I want right now. So I pulled out all the plants I don't love and added some mopani wood for a rough "triangle" composition. It doesn't look good right now but I'm happy with where it's going as an "interim" scape. I'm also trying to grow out some of the hygrophila serpyllum that I've been growing emersed for a while now.

Hopefully it will get back in to nice shape in the next few weeks!


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

Oh no,

what a loss  yeah that's the problem with these high light tanks that they deteriorate much quicker if something isn't just right 

aww, I'll miss the dutch style you had but excited about this new layout


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

I apparently changed up too much at once and got myself an algae bloom. Two weeks ago I upped the lights (they were way down to let the plants establish a bit), switched to a new GH booster, and last week I added some osmocote balls. I was also gone for the past week so couldn't do extra water changes, plus I suspect the cat sitter might have done some fish feeding too. This is the result:








Lots of duckweed









Browniah hair algae on the glosso (though it does appear to be growing)









Some blyxa melted down to the roots









Weird stunted and twisted growth on the nesaea pedicellata. I can't figure this one out because the rotala macrandra and rotala nanjenshan are both doing just fine, I assumed as another lythracea the nesaea would do the same as them.

The monte carlo is growing great, as are the myriophyllum Roraima and Guyana. I also added some bolbitis, hopefully that does alright.

So I did a big substrate clean/water change, trimmed some fast growers, and cleaned the glass. Hopefully just a matter of time before it's back on track again. I think I may have just caused a mini ammonia spike that caused the blyxa to melt, which caused algae. I also re-added the airstone to get rid of the duckweed.

Question time: Do you clean your non-viewing surfaces? I only clean easily visible algae, and don't really clean the back glass. Does anyone else leave non-visible algae or do you scrub everything?

New (still unattractive) photo:









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## Greggz (May 19, 2008)

gjcarew said:


> Weird stunted and twisted growth on the nesaea pedicellata. I can't figure this one out because the rotala macrandra and rotala nanjenshan are both doing just fine, I assumed as another lythracea the nesaea would do the same as them.


Sorry to see the algae outbreak. My guess is get things back on schedule and you'll be fine.

As to Nesaea P., it's a different animal than R. Macranda. Macranda is much more like Ludwigia, in that it is a hungry stem. Likes a richer water column. The Nesaea would prefer very little in the water column and rich substrate. 

And I believe your instincts are correct, Blyxa does not like ammonia and melts quite easily.


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Starting to recover from the algae bloom with mixed results. Myriophyllum Roraima has been growing like crazy., This was before I trimmed it:








Everything but the twisted tips of the nesaea pedicellata melted away, so I planted those. We'll see if they pull through. I also added some eleocharis parvula in the back right side just because it was on sale.








Maybe the biggest change was getting rid of the fish currently in there. They had killed all my shrimp, even the amanos, so I'm going back to a real nano tank. I sold those guys and got some ember tetras.

















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## BOTIA (Dec 23, 2003)

Nice to see another 12 long..
Just getting ready to set mine up


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## Greggz (May 19, 2008)

Interesting to see Myriophyllum Roraima in there. 

Mine grows over an inch a day! You must be trimming it several times a week???


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Greggz said:


> Interesting to see Myriophyllum Roraima in there.
> 
> 
> 
> Mine grows over an inch a day! You must be trimming it several times a week???


I don't know if it's going to be a long-term fixture in the tank, I won it from the local club. It's just too fast growing. But good Lord what a pretty plant!

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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

The reds it produces are amazing... I wonder if there's a way to just stunt that specific plant and let everything else grow 

it's a weed!


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Got some bloody mary cherry shrimp and some black galaxy fishbone caridinas. I was only able to get a picture of the bloody mary because the caridinas are hiding (at least I hope they are, otherwise I wasted $50).










Glosso carpet is slowly coming in. The algae is dying back for the most part, though there is some BBA. I'm presuming this is due to how often I've been fiddling with the CO2. 










I'm trying to get healthy but slow growth, and it's a narrow path. Most of the plants are on their way to that except the myrio Roraima which doubles in size every week. You can see how little growth there has been since last week.











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## Asteroid (Jul 26, 2018)

gjcarew said:


> Got some bloody mary cherry shrimp and some black galaxy fishbone caridinas. I was only able to get a picture of the bloody mary because the caridinas are hiding (at least I hope they are, otherwise I wasted $50).
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Come on man, don't go cheap on the shrimp photos, LOL. I can't tell from that shot, maybe someone else can.


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

@Asteroid these shots are for you, I tried to do a little better. I don't really want to break out the DSLR because I don't have a computer with an SD port at home, I have to take the card in to work to get any pictures off it. Promise I'll get some good ones when the carpet grows in more and the algae is under better control!
















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## Asteroid (Jul 26, 2018)

gjcarew said:


> @Asteroid these shots are for you, I tried to do a little better. I don't really want to break out the DSLR because I don't have a computer with an SD port at home, I have to take the card in to work to get any pictures off it. Promise I'll get some good ones when the carpet grows in more and the algae is under better control!


You better, LOL, thanks. I think it is a Blood Mary by the solid glassy red look, but @Zoidburg would know better than me. 

P.S. Get yourself a SD to USB adaptor.


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

No real update today. I've been thinking about how easy and fun it is to just put plants where I like them, not push par, allow algae to grow where it wants... 

I've been reminiscing on the Dutch-style journey and how unnecessarily stressed out I got about it. I was also looking through past pictures and realized that the final picture I submitted to the AGA was not when the tank looked best - if I was going to do it again, I would take pictures along the way and then choose my favorite. The biggest thing that kept me from doing that was getting the moss wall to look right. I think Burr has the right idea with anubias/buce walls, they are just lower effort since they grow slowly but are still pretty bulletproof.

Sometimes I take planted tanks way too seriously. It's nice to just relax, watch some pretty plants and fish, and remember that it can be a super relaxing, stress relieving hobby.


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## Ventchur (Apr 29, 2018)

Gorgeous blyxa! How's the living wall going?


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## Fat Guy (Nov 19, 2003)

How do you like the chihiros light so far? Do you have any issues with the app or it getting too hot? I’ve been eyeing one of these or a twinstar 600s. How is the light spill on the chihiros? I know they sell shades for them but haven’t seen many with the shades attached. Tank looks great! W


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Ventchur said:


> Gorgeous blyxa! How's the living wall going?


Thanks! Not completely sure why it grows so red in this tank. I've sold it to other people in the area and it grows completely green, even under seemingly high light. 

The living wall is going pretty well. I've added a lot of plants since I last posted here, and there has been some growth. Winter is not the best time to start a project like this since a lot of tropical plants go dormant in winter. It seems like I've got the watering down, now I just have to figure out fertilization.

I'm in the middle of a two week ski vacation, so the big test will be whether all my sensitive calatheas have survived!



Fat Guy said:


> How do you like the chihiros light so far? Do you have any issues with the app or it getting too hot? I’ve been eyeing one of these or a twinstar 600s. How is the light spill on the chihiros? I know they sell shades for them but haven’t seen many with the shades attached. Tank looks great! W


I like the Chihiros. I can only compare it to the Fluval 3.0 but the spread, color controls and aesthetics seem a lot better to me. I haven't had any heat or app issues. I'll admit it's not a super intuitive app but once I figured it out it at least performs consistently. I don't have any shades and it hasn't been an issue so far, but I imagine if you were going to hang it pendant-style you might want shades since it is super bright.


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## mourip (Mar 15, 2020)

gjcarew said:


> I've been thinking about how easy and fun it is to just put plants where I like them, not push par, allow algae to grow where it wants...
> 
> I've been reminiscing on the Dutch-style journey and how unnecessarily stressed out I got about it. I was also looking through past pictures and realized that the final picture I submitted to the AGA was not when the tank looked best - if I was going to do it again, I would take pictures along the way and then choose my favorite. The biggest thing that kept me from doing that was getting the moss wall to look right. I think Burr has the right idea with anubias/buce walls, they are just lower effort since they grow slowly but are still pretty bulletproof.
> 
> Sometimes I take planted tanks way too seriously. It's nice to just relax, watch some pretty plants and fish, and remember that it can be a super relaxing, stress relieving hobby.


These are words of wisdom. I have come to the same conclusion. My other hobby is audio, which can also become obsessive to the point where you forget to listen to music. After watching so many YouTube videos with remarkable tanks one feels that they have failed if one's own tank cannot reach that high bar. It is easy to forget how much time and money these folks put in to keep their tank looking like that and also that they are often filming it at a peak, fleeting moment.

I now am concentrating on Buce/Anubias/Crypts ...and patience. At some point it is good to just sit and gaze at the tank like a person recovering from a fresh lobotomy...


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## Fat Guy (Nov 19, 2003)

gjcarew said:


> I like the Chihiros. I can only compare it to the Fluval 3.0 but the spread, color controls and aesthetics seem a lot better to me. I haven't had any heat or app issues. I'll admit it's not a super intuitive app but once I figured it out it at least performs consistently. I don't have any shades and it hasn't been an issue so far, but I imagine if you were going to hang it pendant-style you might want shades since it is super bright.


Awesome thanks for the info. Looking forward to the light as it will be replacing a Fluval 3.0 as well. All the best, w


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Everything looks a lot better than expected after so long away. The dying 53b leaves seem better, but it is turning a little pinkish which I haven't seen before.









Rotala "Green" looks good from the side but the top shows extensive pinholes. Not sure what it is- maybe micros? I dropped some osmocote balls in the soil next to it just in case. Hopefully it won't cause any issues with my shrimp.

Side view:









Top view:









Finally, a FTS. I didn't do a large trim (except for the myrio Roraima), the rotala nanjenshan needs to be shaped.









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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

I just found 1 hole in my Rotala M Green.... Debating what it could be, maybe I haven't been adding enough Mg

how long has yours been like that?


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

monkeyruler90 said:


> I just found 1 hole in my Rotala M Green.... Debating what it could be, maybe I haven't been adding enough Mg
> 
> how long has yours been like that?


In my experience the main trouble with Rotala macrandra "Green" is that it needs good light and can't deal with overshading. The lower stems never stay healthy if they're planted as densely as other rotalas. I've grown it in very rich and very lean conditions and it has been alright, overall it doesn't seem too picky. My working theory is that when it gets too long and lays across the surface it shades itself out pretty quickly, leading to those pinholes which are the beginnings of melt.

That said, I also have fairly low (2-3) GH in this tank so I can't rule out a magnesium deficiency.


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

*Misidentified plant?*

I'm pretty sure I have a misidentified plant in here. I had bought something labeled as Rotala nanjenshan in a bunch plant form just a couple weeks before the AGA deadline since one of my groups was struggling and I needed to fill out the tank. It didn't look like what I remembered, but I attributed that to different growing conditions in the LFS tank. After going through old photos of Rotala nanjenshan from an ADA tissue culture it's pretty apparent that the plant I recently bought is not Rotala nanjenshan.

This is the Rotala nanjenshan from the iwagumi rotala tank from 2019: 









This is from the current setup: 









I'm guessing it's Mayaca sellowiana, not Rotala nanjenshan. From a little googling it looks like Mayaca sellowiana is often confused for and mislabeled as Rotala nanjenshan. The funny thing is that I bought both the ADA tissue culture and the bunch plants from the same store (Aquarium Zen), and I'm pretty sure he's grown TC Rotala najenshan in his display tanks before so he should know what it looks like.


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## rzn7z7 (Aug 17, 2013)

FWIW APC's plant finder entry for R. Nanjenshan looks like the 2nd pic

https://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/plantfinder/details.php?id=169

The first pic looks like a R. Rotundifolia variant, or perhaps it's a cross of the 2?....hmmmm


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

rzn7z7 said:


> FWIW APC's plant finder entry for R. Nanjenshan looks like the 2nd pic
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Ya know I think you're right. The TC I got must have been mislabeled, because it looked more like regular rotala rotundifolia than any nanjenshan pictures I can find online.

Problem is I can't find any good botanical description of the difference between rotala nanjenshan and mayaca sellowiana, so I don't know how to tell what it is!

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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

No big update today. Things are going pretty smoothly, the only algae is a little BBA on the driftwood.

The Nesaea pedicellata "Golden" appears to be making an unexpected comeback. Still growing very slowly, but it looks healthy.










I also got a tiny ludwigia sphaerocarpa "mini" which is a very charming little plant. I'm interested in seeing how it grows in this tank. I'll probably hold on to this for the next Dutch project if it does well, it's got such an interesting form and color.










Last water change I did a big thinning out, and removed over 50% of the stems. It was probably a bit aggressive. I'm hoping to break out the fancy camera to take photos for the GSAS home show and I'm not sure if it will recover in time!

I haven't dosed micros in about a month. I'm not doing any fancy experiments, I just don't have a dosing bottle at the moment. I should probably get on that...









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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

*AGA 2020 scape*

Well, I'm more than a little frustrated. After all that effort, I somehow managed to submit my Dutch tank in to the regular AGA aquascaping category rather than the Dutch category. I was rather looking forward to having it judged. Anyways, here is the link to the AGA submission and the full-tank shot is below.


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## Greggz (May 19, 2008)

Beautiful! Not many understand the effort that goes into creating a presentation like that. 

Probably would have done well in the Dutch category. If you want to send it to one of the judges and get some feedback let me know.


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## Asteroid (Jul 26, 2018)

Regardless, very nice!



Greggz said:


> Probably would have done well in the Dutch category. If you want to send it to one of the judges and get some feedback let me know.


I guess they stopped doing it or too many entries but I thought AGA gave commentary on every tank as opposed to IAPLC where you just got a ranking. So no ranking and no comments :frown2:


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Asteroid said:


> I guess they stopped doing it or too many entries but I thought AGA gave commentary on every tank as opposed to IAPLC where you just got a ranking. So no ranking and no comments :frown2:


Well the Dutch category only had 26 entries, and Vin wrote an essay of feedback for each one. I was thinking of just sending it to him and asking for feedback. I already know some things I could improve on (not enough contrast between C. spiralis and Blyxa, too many red plants, could use neater trimming) but it would be nice to hear what else I could work on.


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## Asteroid (Jul 26, 2018)

gjcarew said:


> Well the Dutch category only had 26 entries, and Vin wrote an essay of feedback for each one. I was thinking of just sending it to him and asking for feedback. I already know some things I could improve on (not enough contrast between C. spiralis and Blyxa, too many red plants, could use neater trimming) but it would be nice to hear what else I could work on.


Yeah, I guess with 90+ entries it would be too many and they just gave feedback on the Top 10. I would send it if your interested to see what he would say.


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Another couple weeks have passed with little to report. There's a a touch of BBA on the wood that I think is dead as I sprayed it pretty heavily with glute, but it's still just sitting there. I'm thinking of some fissidenss fontanus on that wood for the dark green color and to hide it. Same photo, you can see the nesaea pedicellata starting to look a nice delicate yellow-pink color. It isn't that color in Christel Kasselman's tank under 500 par so I'm assuming it's due to the lean ferts. The hygrophila 53B is also getting pink at the tips. 










I think the ludwigia sphaerocarpa is doing well. Kinda curly leaf margins but I think that's just a normal ludwigia thing so I'm not concerned about it. New growth is slow but I wouldn't call it stunted.










Overall everything is growing nice and slow and easy. Light intensity is down around 40%, ferts are lean, fish and shrimp seem happy and overall things are moving slow and smooth. Perfect conditions for ski season when all I have time for on weekends is water changes. The only plant that really needs weekly trimming is the myrio but it's just so darn pretty I'll deal with a little extra care.


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Thought I might as well do an update on the "and other projects" part of this journal...

I rescaped the 12 gallon long. It had Pacific madrone in it which was just decomposing into a thick layer of mulm and looking gross and growing algae all over. I tried going for an iwagumi style but I don't care for it right now. I don't have the right rocks to make it look good at the moment.










The bedside ikebana is doing alright, starting to see some holes in the bacopa leaves. I really need to get the light on a timer. I wish it was a bit denser but I think that is down to plant choices. Also forgive the low water line, I forgot what I was doing partway through a water change.










Finally, the living wall! I changed the lighting, we'll see how it works out. I'm hoping it doesn't burn my Anthurium veitchii which is kinda up at the top there. 












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## Asteroid (Jul 26, 2018)

gjcarew said:


> Thought I might as well do an update on the "and other projects" part of this journal...
> 
> I rescaped the 12 gallon long. It had Pacific madrone in it which was just decomposing into a thick layer of mulm and looking gross and growing algae all over. I tried going for an iwagumi style but I don't care for it right now. I don't have the right rocks to make it look good at the moment.
> 
> ...


If that rock on the left can be positioned, broken or changed out for a rock that makes it look like the whole thing was once one rock and it broke into 3 pieces this could be a really interesting scape. The middle piece and the one on the right work perfectly.


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Recent FTS from my fiance's camera. I have no idea how to use it so most of the pictures were garbage. I really should just research what all the little buttons do but it's so complicated!










No real updates. 50% water change every two weeks, occasional trimming and very lean dosing still.


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

yo that nesaea pedicellata is so picky for me!!
There was a time it was doing amazing. I moved it and ever since i can't get the plant to have regular leaves. just curled leaves  and when I try to make it happy the rotala macrandra just looks brown 

happy that it's growing well in your tank
for the rotala m green, did you ever find out what was causing the holes in the leaves?


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

monkeyruler90 said:


> yo that nesaea pedicellata is so picky for me!!
> There was a time it was doing amazing. I moved it and ever since i can't get the plant to have regular leaves. just curled leaves  and when I try to make it happy the rotala macrandra just looks brown
> 
> happy that it's growing well in your tank
> for the rotala m green, did you ever find out what was causing the holes in the leaves?


The nesaea pedicellata a picky one. I don't know if you're referring to the uppermost leaves pointing vertically, I'm kind of convinced that is just what the plant does. It had a really rough transition for me and then melted again when I put root tabs under it, so I've been very lean with fertilizing it since then.

In my case I'm convinced that the rotala macrandra green was just suffering due to over shading. It was being outcompeted by the more robust hygrophila siamensis and myriophyllum roraima, so I moved it to give it more breathing room and it looks like it's recovering. All three of those get more frequent osmocote deposits, about once a month.


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Just testing out the macro setting on my new phone. I also got some pygmy corydoras!


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

I didn't feel like trimming the carpet again so I tore it out. Probs gonna start getting ready for Dutch 2021.

Some new developments include an anubias wall, some hyptis laciniata, and you can finally see how cute the ludwigia sphaerocarpa mini looks! [emoji7]






























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## Ravs (Dec 18, 2020)

gjcarew said:


> I've moved in to the new place and I'm excited to get up and running again! I've decided that these tanks are best for iwagumi style scapes, so that's the next project.
> 
> Anybody who has feedback on my preliminary hardscape setup would be appreciated. The goal was a triangular layout with green "couloirs" running through it. Let me know what could be improved!
> 
> ...


 I wanted to buy the plastic thingy... u have at the bottom ie below the tank... 
I couldn't figure out what is it when i was setting up my tank... with a heavy heart, i put the rocks on the glass! ... where did you get it and whats the name?


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## Ravs (Dec 18, 2020)

gjcarew said:


> Well, I tried gluing down all the wood for a while but it's just so damn fiddly. Definitely the last time I do one with this much wood detail. I figured everything was going to float anyways, so I just flooded it and left it looking like hot garbage for a week while everything waterlogged.
> 
> I still have some areas to fix where branches started floating on me, especially in the "trunk" area, but at least there are plants in there and I can get an idea of what it will look like. As always, feedback is much appreciated.


I love it.. the look


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Ravs said:


> I wanted to buy the plastic thingy... u have at the bottom ie below the tank...
> I couldn't figure out what is it when i was setting up my tank... with a heavy heart, i put the rocks on the glass! ... where did you get it and whats the name?


Light diffuser panel. It also goes by "egg crate," I've used in lots of projects. Look for it in the overhead/commercial lighting section of home supply stores. Plaskolite 4 ft. x 2 ft. Suspended Egg Crate Light Ceiling Panel-1199233A - The Home Depot


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

After taking out the carpet I had a GDA bloom. I think the carpet and was starving out some of the other plants, because I'm also seeing more healthy growth in the stem plants.

This reminds me of my first days with the last Dutch tank, and I'm happy to back at it!









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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

I wouldn't say things are going badly, but they are somewhat unsettled. There is some GSA on the ludwigia sphaerocarpa mini, but it does appear to be growing. 










The rotala macrandra "green" is struggling more than it ever has before. I've just been able to get some healthy enough tips to propagate this week. @brohawk I haven't forgotten about you and will get you some as soon as it's growing again!









I got some lobelia cardinalis for free from a local club member, which has been crazy hard to find recently!









The hyptis laciniata isn't really growing yet. Looks like it's just starting to push out some new growth at the tips.

The myriophyllum is still growing like crazy, of course. Looks like I managed to save some mini Christmas moss as well, I may try to incorporate that into the next Dutch scape!









I got a FTS and tried to color correct it, but it ended up looking way too saturated. Oops!










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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Testing this upload- trying to figure out why my pictures look like crap recently









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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

I put some osmocote in a couple weeks ago and the ludwigia sphaerocarpa has taken off and looks very healthy.

I'll have to remember that this is one that really appreciates root feeding.









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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Still in propagation mode! Here's a little before and after after two weeks away from home. 

I lost the hyptis laciniata, it just never adjusted. The rotala macrandra green is clinging to life, but everything else is doing well.

Edit: uploading pics in higher quality


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Not really an update and forgive all the glare since it's broad daylight out, but it's starting to fill in and I love it [emoji4]









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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Uploading this again because I recently got in touch with Vin Kutty and asked if he would give me some critique on it. For some background, I had meant to submit this picture to the AGA aquascaping contest in the Dutch category, but I goofed and submitted it in the main category instead. Vin Kutty was one of the judges for that competition, and as far as i can tell one of the foremost American experts on Dutch aquascaping.

He gave me a lot of very valuable feedback. I had already tried to self critique it, but the real value comes from someone seeing it with a fresh pair of eyes to tell you what could be improved. I'm going to summarize his feedback below:

"First is the Hydrocotyle...it looks like a street. But it doesn't go anywhere or direct the eye to anything. Ideally, the street narrows and DISAPPEARS behind another group of plants.

Make the street more diagonal - left to right or vice versa.

Based on [rule of thirds focal points], you need to move the red plants just a hint. I would make the Ludwigia red group smaller, tighter, shorter and a little bit more to the center of the tank. Make it a dense red bush. It is too loose and spread out right now.

I'd make the Mini Myrio bush more compact and extend it all the way in front of the Crypt bush. You don't want the pinkish red crypt and the pinkish red blyxa next to each other.

Make the Blyxa bush smaller and keep it in front of the Hygrophila.

You need a couple of curtain plants on the left front and right front corners. Pennywort will do well.

You desperately need a tall grass!!

Tall grass that is green and somewhat out of the way... [in] the back.

The [hygrophila] bush has see thru holes in it that need to be filled.

The staurogyne needs better trimming with fewer errant stems sticking out of the bush here and there.

The top right corner of the tank has a huge dead space. This could be a good place for a tall grass."

It's one of those things where I didn't notice a lot of these details until he said it, and now it looks blatantly obvious. The hydrocotyle tripartita "street" looks painfully awkward now when I look at it! 

I think I got so obsessed with trying to move groups around each other that I didn't have the confidence to just completely shift a group (like the ludwigia or the blyxa) when I clearly should have. I knew the contrast between the blyxa and the crypt wasn't there, but I never even thought to move the myriophyllum to make it stand out.

He also sent me a picture of Willem van Wezel's tank as an example of how to do good groupings. I notice in his tank the groupings are planted very densely, with very distinct spaces between each group.










It makes me realize I need to constantly be working on creating attractive groups, because I'm not very good at it. Too often I fall into the trap of thinking the tank is just in grow out/propagation mode and not trying to make it look good. It seems that I should rather be trying to create attractive groups no matter what plant mass I'm working with, since that's the only way to practice. I notice most of the aquarist I really admire like Burr, Greggz, Hendy etc. always seem to have neat groupings even when their tanks are growing out, I would like to try to emulate that.

Final note, Vin is a super nice guy. He took probably at least an hour out of his day to help me improve. He also said a bunch of nice things and was overall extremely pleasant, I only copied the critiques exerpted above.

I learned so much from his Rotala Kill Tanks and the AGA talk. They say you should never meet your idols, but all the best aquarists I've interacted with have been incredibly generous with their time and knowledge and I can't express how grateful I am for this community.

Finally, I've gotten rid of the driftwood and am moving further towards Dutch in my current tank. I also need to get myself a tall grassy plant. Maybe some cyperus helferi?


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

I got some saggitaria subulata and some leopard val to try out as "tape" style plants. The dwarf sag is a bit too green so I'm gonna go with the leopard val so it will stand out better. I'm also probably going to get rid of the blyxa japonica at some point and switch the ludwigia sphaerocarpa with the nesaea pedicellata for better contrast. 

The main thing is the groups are way too small and need a lot more plant mass to hide the back wall. At this point in time the anubias walls are not gonna cut it, I'll have to see how I can arrange them once the groups fill out a bit. Worst case scenario I still have a bunch of mini Christmas moss.









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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

A few more macro shots


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Rearranged and removed some groups. I like the composition, but I still need to work on the shape of the groups and, of course, let them fill in.









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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

I found some tiny reddish leaves in my tank. I thought it was some strand of leftover Monte Carlo or glosso, but after further inspection it looks like the AR I put in had seeds on it that germinated in the substrate. First time I've had this happen!









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## Plinkploop (Jan 24, 2021)

Too cool!! Congrats!!!


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

FTS first in case you don't want to listen to me ramble.









I was checking out the camera settings @nntnam uses so I could try them out, since he always takes really nice photos with a camera phone. I noticed with his settings, my photos turn out super dark. 

This led to a whole horrendous sequence of trying to check my light settings, finding out my Chihiros app isn't working, disconnecting the light to try to reset it, getting distracted and leaving it unplugged, realizing at work, rushing home to find fish gasping at the surface (CO2 on with no light) and a quick water change/bubbler application. Long story short, all the livestock is fine. If your chihiros app isn't working, you have to restart your phone. Force quitting alone isn't enough.

Anyways, I've had my light on between 50 and 60 percent since the scape between the last Dutch and this one. It's been kind of nice, the plants are easy to keep trimmed and it's very forgiving. But I think that's why I've run in to a lot of the problems I've been having.

The rotala macrandra green probably just needed more light, that's why it hasn't been growing. Many of the plants have been leaning hard towards the window, I'm guessing that's because the light above them isn't bright enough. 

I turned the light up to 100% and upped macros 30% in conjunction. I'm going to be out of town for the next week so hopefully this doesn't cause any major scenes.

Now about the scape: I know I said I was happy with the composition, but it wasn't perfect. The ludwigia sphaerocarpa did not stand out enough from the substrate, it just didn't have an impact as a group. Dwarf baby tears are the tentative replacement because they have a very small leaf texture, bright green contrast, and can be formed into an interesting shaped group. Remind me of this post when I have once again sworn off ever growing another carpeting plant in my life.

The nymphaea is mediocre as a curtain plant. Once it grows tall enough, all you see on the bottom half is bare stems. Also, people just don't like it for some reason. I think it's beautiful but I've heard multiple people say it is a week point. So I moved the isoetes japonica to be used as a curtain. Many of the leaves were damaged in transit, but it is pushing out new growth gradually. I'm replacing the nymphoides Taiwan with hygrophila pinnatifida "UK" for now. I'm hoping it will contrast well with the green and yellow on that side of the tank, plus it has a nice unique shape. Only issue might be if it gets too red and draws the eye away from the ammania pedicellata.

After trimming the Mini myrio low, I'm wondering whether that is pulling it's weight visually. It might just be too small and indistinctive a group to be worth keeping, especially if it means I can beef up the alternanthera reineckii which is meant to be a focal point plant.

I used to trim once a week, now I do it over three or four days, sprucing up sections as needed. It feels like less effort and I think the tank gets more maintenance overall. That's a tip I heard from Tom Barr years ago but never put into practice until recently.

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## Phil Edwards (Jul 18, 2003)

What a bummer that you entered that tank into the wrong category! I'd have scored it pretty highly in the Dutch group.


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## Notg2009 (Feb 6, 2016)

I'm happy to have stumbled upon this thread. Great photos and great scapes. I also wanted to second what you mentioned previously. Vin and Gregg have been immensely helpful and generous with their knowledge. I have received great advice from them and others in the hobby. 

Keep on the great work.

Omid


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Phil Edwards said:


> What a bummer that you entered that tank into the wrong category! I'd have scored it pretty highly in the Dutch group.


If I can get ahold of you once my current tank grows in more I'd love to get some feedback! Only if you're sure you're done with judging, that is


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## Phil Edwards (Jul 18, 2003)

gjcarew said:


> If I can get ahold of you once my current tank grows in more I'd love to get some feedback! Only if you're sure you're done with judging, that is


I'm POSITIVE I'm done with judging. I originally started with helping to develop the current rules Biotopes (my first love) and then Dutch and ended up being volunteered to judge them every year starting in 2011. I'm grateful for the opportunity to provide some consistency in judging, but both categories have gotten large enough that I got burnt out. I just don't have the time to comment on every one or deal with all the behind the scenes mumbo-jumbo any more. At this point I think I can do more good for the hobby by giving constructive criticism while people develop their aquacapes than I can as a one time judge. On top of that, I now have the option of participating as an entrant if the spirit moves me enough to put the time in.


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## burr740 (Feb 19, 2014)

That was a pretty good Dutch, and great feedback from Vin


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Yet another rescape on the 12 gallon. I wasn't liking the rock only setup









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## Phil Edwards (Jul 18, 2003)

That scape looks a lot easier to maintain given the tank's dimensions. I'm looking forward to seeing it progress!


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Pretty tough to get a good photo of this one, since the top is very bright and the bottom is very dark and jungly. Very little maintenance here, a little easy green and a small water change weekly. You can probably tell that I rarely even clean the glass in here!


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

I haven't been updating as much because how many ways can you really write "everything needs to grow more?"

I switched out the hygrophila for myriophyllum Guyana  because it stays green in high light and has a better contrasting leaf texture with the AR. Otherwise I've just been thinning groups as needed and waiting for those background plants to grow in.

Rotala is responding well to the high light with much faster growth. Only downside is the tips are getting very red, I'll have to dial back the light once it grow in a bit more. The lobelia cardinalis is also getting a distinct purple sheen.









I was late on my water change and fertilization this week which I assume is why they are coloring up so much. I know I bottomed out on ferts as well because I got a pretty gnarly case of spot algae on the glass.









I added some ADA root tabs to hopefully keep the plants happy if I miss fertilizing them again.

Not much else to report. Things are getting there but it's just gonna take more time. Disregard the uggo ammania pedicellata in this FTS, I just redid that group.









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## Phil Edwards (Jul 18, 2003)

I like the rearrangement!


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

It keeps looking like nothing is growing because I've been constantly propagating the rotala macrandra and the mini myrio. The myriophyllum Guyana will eventually extend from behind the vallisneria to in front of the alternanthera reineckii. I also have a bunch of mini Christmas moss walls growing out, I've decided that the other plants pop better against a dark green moss background than against the anubias. Also, the anubias just wasn't looking too hot.

Between less frequent maintenance (9 days since last water change) and high temperatures in Seattle, it's time to step off the gas. I've reduced light to 80% to hopefully reduce the amount of slimy green algae on the lower leaves and get better color differentiation.

Question for anybody but specifically for @burr740 -- I'm growing isoetes japonica in the front right corner, inspired by your use of isoetes lacustris. It is growing outwards though, almost like an eriocaulon, rather than up. Is there any way to get it to grow vertically? Or does isoetes japonica just have a different growth habit than isoetes lacustris?









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## burr740 (Feb 19, 2014)

Looking good! Ive never had japonica so not sure how it grows. Lacustris would be good for right there


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Everything survived the heat wave pretty well. I went lights and CO2 off for 4 days there. After the heat subsided I turned the light back on but apparently forgot the CO2. I didn't get algae but some plants stunted for a few days after. 

I'm officially concerned about the isoetes japonica. It's not growing like I expected it would. I might have to find something else for that corner, hydrocotyle leucocephala is a strong contender because I know I can grow it. I have until September to take a final photo but I know from experience that that is going to come up pretty quickly. I'd also like to send a photo to some folks to get feedback before submitting in case there are tweaks I should make. 

The dwarf baby tears look pretty good, but are growing super slowly. It's great for a carpet plant in a regular situation but I kinda need it to spread right now. Light should be adequate so I'm going to make sure CO2 is dialed this week.

The biggest change is probably the moss background that is woefully sparse right now, but I used a nice loose netting on top so it should grow out no problem. I am somewhat concerned about accidentally gillnetting my tetras 

I did before and after trimming photos. Nothing too drastic, just making small adjustments so groups will grow out how I want them to.
















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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

I put the isoetes lacustris in my ikebana bowl and replaced it with hydrocotyle leucocephala as a curtain plant. As a side note- sometimes I think how if anyone I know IRL found this journal and read the preceding sentence they would think I was speaking absolute gibberish.

The moss is already growing through the netting, which I amazing. It took over a month to start to be visible when it was sandwiched between needlepoint mesh.

I've noticed a pattern in the rotala where three or four stems will grow out very quickly and start to overshade the others. They don't want to grow out evenly as a bush. I just keep trimming the outliers and hoping they'll get there eventually... I also put some osmocote under the bush to promote greener growth. I don't want the color too similar to the ammania pedicellata.

I was hoping the hygrophila pinnatifida "UK" would be more brownish-red, the dark green kind of gets lost in the background there. Maybe it will color up more as it spends more time close to the light.

Finally picked up some medaka for the pond outside and brought the "long fin" white clouds inside. They are beautiful fish, but the fins are at most medium length. They were wasted in the pond outside, while the medaka are a beautiful iridescent white. I put a spawning mop out there so hopefully they'll breed this summer!









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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

I bought some ozelot swords for that back wall.









I sent that sort of "preliminary" picture to some dutch aquascaping folks to ask if there are any glaring errors I should change and Bart Laurens said that echinodorus should be a solitary plant and works better in the midground.

As a result it got swapped out for hygrophila difformis. It doesn't contrast super well with the hydrocotyle leucocephala from a color perspective but it takes up a lot of space on the back wall which helps hide the somewhat anemic amount of moss. I might switch the positions of the hydrocotyle and vallisneria for better color contrast.

I messed around with the panels to help fill in that back wall, and did some trimming and rearranging to create clear separation between groups. I should have done it for this photo but I plan on raising the moss wall up eventually. It is super annoying when it is at the waterline usually because it traps detritus and looks horrible.









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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Mmiller2001 said:


> What kind of rock is that? Very eye catching!


American Fire Glass XXL Lava Rock. There won't be any showstopper pieces but I still use that bag that I bought two years ago as filler and to build up structure in aquascapes. You can get 20 lbs. from Home Depot for $29.31, so it's about 50% less expensive than any other lava rock I've found. It's definitely got an interesting open structure compared to most lava rock!


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

I've got a friend coming over this weekend to take the "final photos" for this. Once that's done I'll probably give the whole thing a significant thinning, I don't think the fish like being so crowded in there with the crazy plant mass. I've been super busy the past couple weeks so I missed a water change, but surprisingly with a little supplemental fertilization nothing went too awry.

Why so busy? I just went under contract for a house (and I'm getting married in two weeks)! My posting will definitely slow down over the next six months or so (I'm assuming) as the house needs some TLC. But once that's taken care of, there just happens to be a few hundred square feet of basement that could be used for, I don't know, just about anything ... 😈


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## somewhatshocked (Aug 8, 2011)

gjcarew said:


> Yet another rescape on the 12 gallon. I wasn't liking the rock only setup


Man, I love simple tanks like this so much. Especially with the contrast of dark wood with lighter-colored hardscape.

How's this 12gal going? Bet the moss is starting to look really nice.


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

somewhatshocked said:


> Man, I love simple tanks like this so much. Especially with the contrast of dark wood with lighter-colored hardscape.
> 
> How's this 12gal going? Bet the moss is starting to look really nice.


Unfortunately I had to sell this tank to a guy in the local club. It was on my fiance's desk and she got a new standing desk. I had nowhere else to put it.

I'm with you though, I find myself gravitating to very simple nature-style aquariums as I get further into this hobby. 

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## somewhatshocked (Aug 8, 2011)

gjcarew said:


> Unfortunately I had to sell this tank to a guy in the local club. It was on my fiance's desk and she got a new standing desk. I had nowhere else to put it.


Bet you could hear my defeated sigh as I just read this.

Guess it's time to stop living vicariously through your tank and set my empty 12gal back up. Dang it.


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

somewhatshocked said:


> Bet you could hear my defeated sigh as I just read this.
> 
> Guess it's time to stop living vicariously through your tank and set my empty 12gal back up. Dang it.


Do it! Someone needs to carry the torch. 

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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Well I submitted a photo to the AGA, not gonna post it here until the results come out because apparently I'm superstitious. Its not my best work, but I don't think I'll be able to do my best work until I get a taller and deeper tank. 

A few days after taking the final photo, here is what the tank looked like










Pretty much overgrown. Such is the problem with a 12" tall tank, some of these plants are growing 2" a week so I'm redoing groups multiple times a week to keep up with growth. I consider it Type II fun.

To celebrate being done with Dutch for the year and also because I needed to clear out a bunch of plant mass, I now have a fruit stand!









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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Mmiller2001 said:


> Is the elevation effect from the substrate, or just taller plants in the back?
> Wish I could get ammonia to grow like yours, sigh.
> Amazing work, good luck on your submission!


Thanks, just from taller plants in the back. The substrate is pretty much flat.

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## IScapedAThing (Mar 16, 2021)

Thank you for posting these! I really like most of them. I agree it is a challenge to execute a vision and get good depth with this sized tank ( I have a very similar tank) but the panoramic view for the size is worth it. I really like my tank despite the challenges. I have yet to find the right parameters for good growth. Despite ample CO2 injection I have waited for a few months for the micranthemum Monte Carlo to grow in from a dense planting. What fertilizer system do you use?


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

IScapedAThing said:


> Thank you for posting these! I really like most of them. I agree it is a challenge to execute a vision and get good depth with this sized tank ( I have a very similar tank) but the panoramic view for the size is worth it. I really like my tank despite the challenges. I have yet to find the right parameters for good growth. Despite ample CO2 injection I have waited for a few months for the micranthemum Monte Carlo to grow in from a dense planting. What fertilizer system do you use?


I mix my own liquid ferts. Nothing fancy, loosely based off NilocG's composition with CSM+B for micros. The numbers are in this journal somewhere, but I haven't mixed a new batch for a few months so I don't know off the top of my head what my numbers are. I also supplement with Osmocote Plus.

Monte carlo is generally pretty easy for me. I'll take a look at your journal and see if there's anything I notice but I'm not the best at diagnosing problems!


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Gone for two weeks so no water changes or ferts, and there were no apparent issues with the tank. The rotala and ammania pedicellata look better than ever with a little bit of nutrient stress. There was a small amount of GSA on the glass but that's it.

Everyone knows @Greggz is a shill for the Big Phosphate industry, but he might have a point. 
Next time I mix a batch of ferts I'll have to try out raising my phosphate:nitrate ratio.

It's wildly overgrown, but I'm resisting trimming until the GSAS auction next week.


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## Greggz (May 19, 2008)

gjcarew said:


> Everyone knows @Greggz is a shill for the Big Phosphate industry, but he might have a point.
> Next time I mix a batch of ferts I'll have to try out raising my phosphate:nitrate ratio.


LOL is that what I am known for? 

Most of the time it's trying to convince people that PO4 is not the devil. Interesting thing is that most of the best tanks that I follow dose more PO4 than most realize.

And great set of pics. This tank keeps getting better and better. Well done!!


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

I'm rarely home for it but this time of year the tank gets pretty much full sun from 5-6 pm. It's a great look.









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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Long time no update! I bought a house and have been swamped with projects, particularly trying to get some basic yard maintenance done before it settles in to rain for the next 9 months here in Seattle. I have lots of big aquarium plans, the only challenge at the moment is finding the time between two jobs and a house remodel.


The aquarium move went OK, I lost some cherry shrimp and an old otocinclus to a mini cycle. I didn't put the plants back in any particular order, so the layout doesn't look great. The good news is that all the plants are resilient, and despite neglecting a water change for two weeks and a week now without CO2 (canister ran out), they are alive. 

Biggest change was removing the moss wall. It was overshadowing the plants a bit too much. I want to start making a new Dutch layout, even if I do plan on moving everything to a 75 soon. The tank always languishes when I'm not working towards a goal.









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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

I've been in poor health lately so maintenance slipped a bit. I got a lot of GSA on the glass, but the plants are overall doing pretty well. I'm starting to chip away at getting this back into presentable condition.

My hope is that I'll be able to start on the big tank in late November. I seem to have endless new house tasks on the weekends, and the next few weeks I'll be rewiring the house so it's not the best time to start something.

First pic is just to show how gnarly that GSA got...
















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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Apparently the CO2 working pressure dropped so some BBA popped up most likely due to low CO2. I need to trim everything in to groups, but am still struggling to find time as we are now having problems with our sewer [emoji30]

Planning on getting a Marineland 75 ensemble for Black Friday, and eventually moving these plants over to that. That still might be a while though, as I have to gather lights, filters, etc. I will probably be needing a bigger CO2 tank as well, this one has been operating on a 5 lb and I just don't think that's gonna last in a big aquarium.









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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

I just found out I won the AGA aquascaping contest in the Dutch category! That's a much better result than I was expecting. 

As the judges pointed out, I did follow the rules and aim for an authentic Dutch tank. I even got feedback from Bart Laurens about a month before submitting the tank, and I think overall it's unmistakable Dutch-style. 

That said, I think I could do better. I feel a little guilty when I see the other tanks in the top 5, as they all have a real WOW-factor that I think my tank lacks. I also used all easy plants, while many of the others had very unique and exotic plants, many of which I've never even heard of before. I don't want to post my inner monologue about all my doubts, since maybe I'm just being overly self-critical. 

I highly suggest is you check out the other competitor's entries, there were some truly stunning tanks this year. One that I thought was amazing that didn't make the top 5 and unfortunately ended up right at the bottom was Pavlina Pevna's work. Talk about plant porn!


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## Greggz (May 19, 2008)

Congratulations! That is quite an accomplishment. 

Not many understand what a true Dutch presentation is. There are many, many rules and you followed them very well.

Beautiful presentation and you should be proud. Well done!!


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## rzn7z7 (Aug 17, 2013)

Congratulations!


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## EmotionalFescue (Jun 24, 2020)

Amazing accomplishment, and well-deserved. Congratulations!


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## Asteroid (Jul 26, 2018)

Congrats!!!


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## rzn7z7 (Aug 17, 2013)

Just read your AGA entry in detail:

1. The Ammannia pedicellata "Golden" really stands out to me....Ammannia's can be fussy and prone to stunting but that's not an issue here. Any tips or does it just like your setup?
2. Thoughts on the Chihiros LEDs?


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## Notg2009 (Feb 6, 2016)

Congrats!

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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

rzn7z7 said:


> Just read your AGA entry in detail:
> 
> 1. The Ammannia pedicellata "Golden" really stands out to me....Ammannia's can be fussy and prone to stunting but that's not an issue here. Any tips or does it just like your setup?
> 2. Thoughts on the Chihiros LEDs?


1. If you check out the judges' comments, I got excoriated by Vin for tip stunting on the Ammania pedicellata. It's not as bad as tip stunting can be, but they stunt to some extent every single time I trim or move them. I've also noticed more stunted behavior when I use osmocote under them. So overall I'd say give them fairly lean fertilization and leave them alone. 

I love that plant, I think it's one of the prettiest when you can get it to grow well. A short midground location is not the best for it, since I needed to trim it fairly frequently and as a result had to deal with stunting. Given the rest of the layout though and the fact that it draws the eye so heavily, it needed to be at a focal point and that seemed to be the best place for it.

2. I like it. My previous experience was with the Fluval 3.0, and I don't like the spectrum or the spread of the Fluval light so it was a definite upgrade for me.


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## IScapedAThing (Mar 16, 2021)

Wow! Well done and congratulations! You had a lot of good competition!


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I've been super busy working on the house lately and fishkeeping has felt more than ever like a chore. I finally got a chance to sit down and hang out with the tank today. It's nice to finally catch up with the inhabitants!






























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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

I'm up to 15 species in this tank. Many aren't even visible but my collectoritis is back with a vengeance









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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Mmiller2001 said:


> How's the 75 coming along?


Just waiting on the substrate at the moment., it's apparently arriving today. I also need to plasti-dip the back of the tank, then the plan is to set it up and dark-cycle the new filter while I'm away for the holidays so it will be ready for fish and plants come January. It's a slow build but I'm hoping all the plants and fish will have a smooth transition as a result.


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## Notg2009 (Feb 6, 2016)

gjcarew said:


> Just waiting on the substrate at the moment., it's apparently arriving today. I also need to plasti-dip the back of the tank, then the plan is to set it up and dark-cycle the new filter while I'm away for the holidays so it will be ready for fish and plants come January. It's a slow build but I'm hoping all the plants and fish will have a smooth transition as a result.


What substrate will you be using?

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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Notg2009 said:


> What substrate will you be using?
> 
> Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk


Aquasoil and fine gravel. I have some leftover Amazonia VII, some Spectrastone brown gravel (about 3-5 mm grain size), and the bulk of it will be Caribsea Peace River gravel (.25-1 mm grain size). I ordered 60 lbs of the Peace River so hopefully the other two can make up the difference.


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Big yikes. Got rid of the ludwigia arcuata, rotala macrandra "green", ammania pedicellata, crypt spiralis, and isoetes lacustris. They're nice plants but I was just hoarding them. I want to try growing out some new ones.

Currently in the tank (l-r): AR variegated, HC Cuba, lagenandra meeboldii "green", nymphaea stellata, hygrophila siamensis, blyxa japonica, myrio [emoji1121], mayaca sp. "Santarem Red Fireworks", buce "brownie something", Java fern sp. India, bacopa (either sp. csp or regular caroliniana, I can't tell yet).

They're almost all rehabs and looking questionable. I'm gonna throw a bunch of osmocote under them and see how they do while I'm gone over the holidays. I'm guessing some will completely melt away and some will explode, that's just how it goes!









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## SkaleyAquatics (Nov 9, 2021)

@gjcarew any updates on this? 

Also I am curious if you remember the settings you used on the Chihiro's?


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

SkaleyAquatics said:


> @gjcarew any updates on this?
> 
> Also I am curious if you remember the settings you used on the Chihiro's?


I took this one down when I started up my 75 gallon tank. I'm brainstorming plans for it but tentatively thinking of turning it into an open- front paludarium.

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## raharlow (3 mo ago)

I know this was an older post, but wanted to comment because it was very informative, and Thank you for sharing!!



gjcarew said:


> Uploading this again because I recently got in touch with Vin Kutty and asked if he would give me some critique on it. For some background, I had meant to submit this picture to the AGA aquascaping contest in the Dutch category, but I goofed and submitted it in the main category instead. Vin Kutty was one of the judges for that competition, and as far as i can tell one of the foremost American experts on Dutch aquascaping.


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