Aquascaper 600

Wills said:

All done now oh my god so stressful! Hose pipe didn’t quite go to plan and sprayed water everywhere at the tap end, filter was really really hard to prime because the water had come out the pipes and everything was so heavy to move. Because of where it is I had to do it all by myself and yeah it’s not the biggest tank but the biggest I’d want to move by myself.

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sorry I had to lol at this bit

sorry to hear about your dad, is he going to be alright?

Wills said:

Would love to hear peoples thoughts - sorry to be needy but would be lovely to get some feedback if you are reading this.

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Move the thermometer.

Do the puffers eat plants?
if not, add more plants along the back, maybe Ambulia or Hygrophila ruba or something like that.

Not keen on the roots in the front right corner. Can you move that plant to the back?

No puffers have never gone for the plants, more predatory with snails and live food. Definitely moving the thermostat haha! I'd just lost the will a bit last night.

Still got quite a few plants to add, including a few pots of Ambulia which I'm thinking of planting along the back wall maybe both 'back' walls actually.

Looks like my dad is ok but going to be in hospital a few days.

Wills

Happy puffers this morning All 5 out and about, didn't eat all their breakfast this morning but there are 15 less fish in there now so probably about right - all got nice round bellies. Mr puffer looks in good shape so I think his incident with the syphon is behind him.

Few update shots - managed to finish the planting.

Looks like all your hard work has paid off,looks great.
ps what filter are you using.

Interesting update compared to above few months in now. Had a big trim today but think you can see the changes.

Wills said:

Interesting update compared to above few months in now. Had a big trim today but think you can see the changes.

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Looking good, Wills...I really like the layout of the rock structure

I've had a hard time balancing the lights and the over head growth on this tank recently, there are a lot of floating plants and emerged plants growing on the mesh lid so at its peak I had my Twinstar SM at 70% which is what I had it at when I used Co2 - previous low tech scapes in here have been between 40-50%. In this I've managed to get some good plant growth but also getting some black beard algae which is a bit frustrating.

I had a big trim yesterday to get rid of as much algae as possible and give the healthy plants the best chance so in trimming back I've also dropped the lights back to 55% and I can see how it goes this week.

Fish and shrimp in here are all doing great still really happy with the puffers and glowlights. Some of my Amano shrimps are huge now! I do get an urge sometimes to maybe change it up as the puffers do lurk quite a lot and the cloud of Glowlight Danios disappear very quickly if I move too much even after a few months now. Tanganyikans are probably top of the list if I went down that route but not sure...

Wills

Great to hear from you, Wills. I love those emergent plants. My next tank is going to have plants like that.

Thanks for the pic, and update...I love the "offset" look of the tank, with that exposed & open substrate on the right

How about a short vid of the tank?

I have just read the whole thread, really awesome read so thank you. Tank looks awesome and irrubesco are what i am looking to get/ breed eventually. Cool fish and an awesome scape which isn't run of the mill, AND isnt high tech! Now i have something to aspire to so thank you Wills

Wills said:

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I've had a hard time balancing the lights and the over head growth on this tank recently, there are a lot of floating plants and emerged plants growing on the mesh lid so at its peak I had my Twinstar SM at 70% which is what I had it at when I used Co2 - previous low tech scapes in here have been between 40-50%. In this I've managed to get some good plant growth but also getting some black beard algae which is a bit frustrating.

I had a big trim yesterday to get rid of as much algae as possible and give the healthy plants the best chance so in trimming back I've also dropped the lights back to 55% and I can see how it goes this week.

Fish and shrimp in here are all doing great still really happy with the puffers and glowlights. Some of my Amano shrimps are huge now! I do get an urge sometimes to maybe change it up as the puffers do lurk quite a lot and the cloud of Glowlight Danios disappear very quickly if I move too much even after a few months now. Tanganyikans are probably top of the list if I went down that route but not sure...

Wills

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@Wills You should enter that tank in TOTM

Hey, @Wills , how are your emergent plants attached? Do you just have them growing in hanging baskets back there? I really like the look and I'm wondering how you did it.

Kateratat said:

I have just read the whole thread, really awesome read so thank you. Tank looks awesome and irrubesco are what i am looking to get/ breed eventually. Cool fish and an awesome scape which isn't run of the mill, AND isnt high tech! Now i have something to aspire to so thank you Wills

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Thanks so much Its great to know that people are reading these! Irrubesco are a great species really love having them, they are quite sedate a lot of the time so just to be aware of that as it is a bit frustrating sometimes when you look at the tank and never see them... feeding time is always good though. From what I've read (and failed to do so far) moss is a key part of the small freshwater species breeding I've tried to grow it a few times but always failed to get going to the scale I've wanted.

Also on the scape its quite easy to dismiss the bigger scapes as impossible low tech but just takes a bit of creativity and implementing some of the high tech principles around layout and picking the right plants. I have to admit I have a pretty nasty black brush/beard algae problem that may push me to a rescape or replanting at some point soon as I am losing the battle.

WhistlingBadger said:

Hey, @Wills , how are your emergent plants attached? Do you just have them growing in hanging baskets back there? I really like the look and I'm wondering how you did it.

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Hi the monsterra is in a perspex basket that attaches to the glass but the pothos is just loose and rests in a gap between the glass and the cover. The mesh cover I have provides a base for the plants to grow on which works pretty well - the only issue I get doing it this way is the light is pretty unpredictable, I have a layer of floating plants under these too so what level of light actually gets to the aquatic plants I'm not sure. But it works quite well for the emergent plants as a surface to support them - the monsterra is interesting at the moment where the vine has spread and I'm getting clusters of leaves 2/3/4 at a time growing vertically from the mesh lid.

The real pain comes from when I need to take the lid off as I have to lift the light off, then take the plants out and take the lid off which is quite messy and I've failed a few times and ended up with the light in the tank haha!

Wills