Aquascaper 600

Wills said:

It's a tricky one to get rid of - the guides I've read about say its to do with the Co2 in the water (even in non-injected tanks) and that it likes high flow. Main thing it advises is to manually remove it, I've been doing it with a kitchen knife but I want to get an aquascaping pick. I know ADA do them which is mega expensive but I have seen them from other brands for reasonable prices, when I keep on top of it and take most of it out it does die off so I think being thorough each session it would eventually eradicate it.

Wills

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I'll give it a good go during water change. Flow is quite high in both tanks now but it was in the tank with a dodgy filter and useless flow. Hopefully I can sort it. Thanks for advice

Caught my new Rotala H'ra pearling today

Bit of maintenance last night. The Tripartita is really taking over!!

Wow! Those plants have really filled in since I checked in on this project (somewhere around page 2). The integration of plants and hardscape looks really natural and beautiful. Well done!

Thomas

Looking great now with the plant growth behind the rocks to the back right. Great tank.

Thanks guys I only see the negative in it at the moment as there are so many changes I want to make so good to see it through other peoples eyes!

Wish I had got a before shot as just realised it doesnt reflect the work I put in tonight haha! I'm down to one change a week at the moment, dont fully know where my time goes but in that time the tank got really overgrown. I've been floating some of my Moneywort (taken out for the pic) to help shade some areas to cut down algae.

I've had an outbreak of staghorn algae in the front right corner (algae outbreaks always start here...) so I cut down my hairgrass and the H.Araguia and actually burried the hairgrass with some new soil as in cutting it some of it started to uproot.

Getting really annoyed with the hardscape as you just cant see it and there are some great rocks in there, I've bought an other big branch that caught my eye at the weekend so thats going to get added soon with some of the wood from earlier in the thread I want to move the rock and plants under the wood, plants will probably just come out but the rock will move to the right side and I'll move the H. Araguia under there.

The Rotala H'ra in the back right is growing nicely, want to get that trimmed soonish so it starts to bush out a bit more

Looking great. That back right corner looks good.

Bit of an update after water change tonight. Having real trouble with staghorn and black brush algae. I think both are because I left my powerhead off for a few weeks, I prefered the more serene look of the lower flow but the algae is not good...

Going to change the tank up quite a lot while I am off work for the hols. The wood has just fallen appart too much and I have lots of new wood and Im ordering some more rock. Going to keep the front 3rd as Im really happy with that (apart from the staghorn algae issues) and the rocks on the back right with the H'ra.

Really like the Rotala H'ra and falling out with some of the other plants so going to try some other rotala species - though I know some wont do well in my hard water so going to avoid them. Planning to keep the Limnophila as well as it does really well, I have a chunk of Siamensis 53b in there that takes up a lot of room but doesnt grow as fast as I thought it would.

Wills

I can't manage black beard algae at all

So I started the clearance tonight, the right hand side of the tank was pretty thick with all the various hair type algaes I've had issues with the past few weeks as I was getting worried its just going to get transfered to the new scape. I've taken out 4 big rocks too (not that you can tell)



Hoping to get to an LFS tomorrow for a couple more fast stems and maybe some crypts and then I've got the 29th penciled in as the big day!

Such a beautiful tank. Have you added fish?

AilyNC said:

Such a beautiful tank. Have you added fish?

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No not yet, happy that I understand the Co2 system now though so once this new scape is settled in I want to add a school of galaxy rasboras to the tank.

So the planned rescape day came and went family stuff happened and I had a better day for it so I cant complain I did get some time this evening to have a play with my rocks (old and new) and came up with this.



Been really inspired by Jurijs Jutjeves and Filipe Olivera recently particularly these videos.


I really like Filipes planting style mixing in lots of different species to make really natural looking spaces and I've always liked Iwagumi layouts but there is no way I could keep on top of the algae risk so finding the Brazilian style that builds up more plant coverage with lots of stems means I can keep my really fast growing stems (which is a lesson learned!) like Limnophila Sessiflora and I've ordered an other Limnophilla which is similar too. Otherwise the rest of the stems are Rotala species and I have a Ludwigia species to try too.

The plan for the carpet is to fill out the front with a mix of hairgrass, marsillea and I have a few pots of Littorrela Uniflora to add in too which I am excited to see how it does. The idea is for the carpet to go round the front and along the right hand side and I'll underplant the rocks to make it look more natural.

Undecided on if I want to do a sand path up the middle or grow the carpet up there? Not sure if sand paths are just for show photos as it feels like a nightmare to maintain?

Wills

And here we go ended up having to rush at the end so not 100% finished but going to be on daily water changes to compensate for the new soil I added so will be able to tweak. Want to get some moss on some of the rocks and I'm not 100% happy with the rocks in the back left corner so might try and get them closer to the planning image I just couldnt get them to work the same in the tank but think I see the issue now acutally.

Let me know what you think

Wills