70L Low-Tech Set Up

Total change of plan, see later posts.

Looking forward to pic's.

Total change of plan, see later posts.

Total change of plan, using a 2 foot 70 litre set up now, Just need to get the lighting sorted for it, I have all relevant hard scape, pictures at the weekend.

Right as I said, I set this up at the weekend, Plants are all sorted, I grew all of my plants using fragmentation method and then grew them emersed, they're currently being gassed at 45PPM of CO2 in a small tank with lots of nutrients and lots of light until they're big enough to go in the tank, which shouldn't be too long, 2-3 weeks at most.

I tied some of the Microsorum pteropus and Anubias nana to some of the driftwood last night, I'm happy with the placement, I just need more Microsorum (some of which is growing out in the 'grow out' tank and some will be ordered from aquafleur, here's an image of the tank with just the wood and attached plants in there, there's also a little moss which I tied to some mesh, that is growing in, I didn't want to put it in the high light set up as it is likely to attract a lot of algae, the main tank has approximately 15ppm of CO2 injected, (this is an estimate, I dosed at approximately 30ppm, and then halved the volume of gas leaving the cylinder by adjusting the regulator) this is all rigged inline with the filter (Tetratex ex700):


There are just a few shrimp in the tank at the moment with the Microsorum and Anubias.

Beginnings of a nice triangle scape there. I like.

Hoping to transfer a load of plants tomorrow as well as buying a few other varieties, I'd quite like to get some Cryptocoryne undulata to go in the rear right corner and behind the Microsorum, I'm also after 6 or so Ember Tetra's to kick off the silent cycle, if I can't get Ember Tetra's I might give Green Neon Tetra's or Flame Tetra's a go. The substrate went in yesterday, quite complex too, which is why the water is a little cloudy, I first put a thin layer of peat down, then some mulm from another filter, I then made up a solution containing Potassium Nitrate, Potassium Phosphate, Magnesium Sulphate and Traces, I also added some aqueous Hydrochloric acid and some Ascorbic acid to prevent the chelated Iron in the traces from breaking down, the clay pellets then soaked in this for 24 hours until they'd soaked up the solution, they were then added, there's about a 1cm layer, then I capped it with a 4cm layer of play sand, thicker in some players to give it a bit of texture and to stop it looking so uniform. I'll add pictures tomorrow when something vaguely interesting and significant happens

Just out of curiousity and if you don't mind me asking, how much did it cost to do the kind of "DIY" substrate in comparison to buying it off the shelf?

The peat I got for free, the dry salts I already had, but the quantity I used would probably come to around 10-15 pence, the clay was £1.50 for a 2kg bag, I only used half of it, and the sand was £2, again I only used half, so in total about £1.85ish.

Pics should be up tonight, I still need another piece of wood and some more Microsorum, I hope to get these at the weekend to fill in the rear corner, the ambition is a jungle scape, I added the 6 Hyphessobrycon amandae on Sunday, and I also bought some Cryptocoryne bullosa.

Here's a pic from Sunday night, as you cans see the right corner is bare, I plan to add more Microsorum similar to the left hand side, but trying to not make it symmetrical, I've used the golden ratio to try and avoid this.



Also, my CO2 canister ran out, so I decided to give DIY a go again, 2 bottles, 200 grams of sugar in each with 3/4 of a teaspoon of yeast and I'm getting lime yellow on my drop checker, so all is good!

Also, another light unit will be added at the weekend along with additional plants and fish, I've been getting pretty consistent 0's on my ammonia test kit, so I presume that the plants are utilising it all or the mulm that I added is doing some form of biological filtration, which would seem to be the most logical hypothesis.

Afternoon all

I'm actually amazed at how much the Microsorum has grown within a 7 day period, I was comparing last weeks growth to this weeks and the difference is noticeable, I transplanted all of the plants out of the grow out tank tonight, so in the tank now is: Microsorum pteropus, Anubias barteri var nana, Cryptocoryne bullosa(I shall do a profile for them in the planted index later on)Cryptocoryne wendtii mioya and Cryptocoryne wilissii

I re-jigged the CO2 this afternoon, I've switched to a 2 bottle configuration to prevent unstable CO2 (Inevitable anyway but should help)

Here's how it went in pictures:

first of all I finished off the remainder of liquid in the bottles:

I then applied a liberal amount of silicone to certain bits

I then switched to a plastic bag for floor protection as I want to live to see 18

And all together:


Full tank shot to follow tonight when it gets dark

Looks really good. The fern has grown. You plan on adding more plants, right? Looks a bit sparse to me... But that's just me.

Liz

Yes, still more plants to go in, the lighting unit will be upgraded within the next two weeks, I'll be running a 24W T5 over it, I might even have a go at HC.

Blimey... they fern as really grown well. Is this a really easy DIY setup? I am dying to give it a go but scared i will make a mess of it.