120L Juwel Lido - 'eternal Cycle'

[Ch4rlie]

Wow!
 
Lot of things happening.
 
Can understand the frustration of the leaking Co2 airline, hopefully you'll get that sorted without too much trouble. 
 
And the light breaking is unusual, you say plug casing, presumably that is the actual plug for the power supply socket? 
If so, then yes, best not to use that again, for safety reasons.
 
In fact, might be worth contacting Amazon saying these lights/plug have a malfunction and could be potentially dangerous, see if they reply.
 
Hope the new LED light from M.A is better for you and the plants  

 

[daizeUK]

Hey Charlie!  Yes, the plug literally fell apart.  The live pin became completely detached from the plug housing - very dangerous!  A shame because the LED light-strip itself worked fine and I was fairly happy with it.  But never mind, it was always a bit too short since it was originally intended as a backlight for my little 45cm tank which is now retired and the new backlight now fits this 60cm tank properly.
 
I also came back from holiday this week and was dreading coming home to an algae-infested tank, it wasn't as bad as I feared though!  I was just starting to feel like I had the BBA under control before the holiday but what with absence and CO2 problems it's trying to make a comeback again.  I hope I get some pressure through this diffuser soon!

 

[Munroco]

Just found this journal, enjoyed reading/watching it very much. Beautiful tank. I really enjoyed watching the centre island develop over the months.

 

[daizeUK]

Thanks Munroco, glad you enjoyed it!
 
Hadn't noticed this tank is a year old now...
 
The stock is still doing well, I've still got my original male platy in there plus the 7 original male threadfins, five amano shrimp (now huge!), 7 female threadfins, one blue-eye and a young male platy who is best friends with the older male and keeps him company.
 
I never did manage to buy more blue-eyes to keep the lonely female company.  My LFS doesn't stock gertrudae but they occasionally get one mixed in with the threadfins by accident.  I saw a nice healthy looking female blue-eye a few weeks ago and I would have loved to give her a home, but she was in a tank with cottonmouth-ridden threadfins and I didn't want to risk infecting my threadfins with that again.

 

[daizeUK]

Today's pic.

 

[Ch4rlie]

Beautiful clear water
 
Looks like not so many Silvinia Natans floating about, just done a tidy up?
 
Your java ferns have grown just lovely and all plants looking lush and green.
Very well done daize, you must be doing things right

 

[daizeUK]

Thanks Charlie.  Still battling the black algae but I think I've fixed the CO2 leaks so I'm hoping to keep it under control again.
 
Yes I chucked out yet another armload of salvinia this week!  I've learned to be quite brutal with it as otherwise it overtakes the tank in no time.  The leaves are growing much smaller now than they originally were, though.  Have you noticed if your salvinia leaves are smaller than normal?  Perhaps mine are lacking something they need...
 
The tall java fern has also been thinned out quite heavily.  The rhizomes were so thickly matted that they were becoming detached from the wood so a few weeks ago I pulled most of it out, binned about a third of it and reattached the rest.  The fish have a bit more space to swim through the leaves again and there's plenty of new growth!

 

[Ch4rlie]

My silvina are not doing well tbh, think its lack of ferts.
 
Have upped the fert dosages, hope that works.
So am getting some more to replace most of what have lost.
 
But thinning out the java ferns as you did, seems to have worked really well, looks nothing short of brilliant tbh

 

[daizeUK]

Cool - let me know how you get on with the new batch of salvinia.  It's quite odd the way mine have shrunk in size so I'd be interested to know if your new stuff does better!
 
I don't think salvinia likes liquid carbon either.  Mine seemed to die back a bit when I started dosing it as an algaecide.
 
Thanks again for your comments, you're very kind!

 

[stanleo]

That is beautiful!

I have baby tears that grow at the surface like that and every week I have to take out 2/3rds of them or they block all the light.

 

[daizeUK]

So a bit more than a year after setting out on this journey I finally feel like I have achieved my original vision.
 
This is the concept I was aiming for when I arranged the rocks and wood and tied those first few straggly strands of needle fern to them.  I had a picture like this in my head, except with a bit less algae and more moss, although the bare wood look is definitely growing on me
 
This is my TOTM entry.  I'm really happy with both the plants and the fish, they give me a lot of pleasure and pride (and a not inconsiderable amount of hard work)!
 

 

[Goggy]

very good aquascaping esppecially the platy jungle!!!!!!! 

 

[daizeUK]

This tank is nearing the end I think... algae has taken over since I was ill through most of December and missed a couple of water changes, I think I'm giving up because it's just ridiculous now.  I put a lot of hard work into this tank but I can't keep up the amount of constant maintenance it seems to need.  One holiday or a couple of week's illness and all the effort I put in is down the drain....
 
I dismantled the CO2 system today.  I've no idea what will happen from here.  Either the plants will all die or maybe just the algae?  Probably not but I can hope!  

 

[Primous]

This tank is nearing the end I think... algae has taken over since I was ill through most of December and missed a couple of water changes, I think I'm giving up because it's just ridiculous now.  I put a lot of hard work into this tank but I can't keep up the amount of constant maintenance it seems to need.  One holiday or a couple of week's illness and all the effort I put in is down the drain....
 
I dismantled the CO2 system today.  I've no idea what will happen from here.  Either the plants will all die or maybe just the algae?  Probably not but I can hope!  

 
My humble advice here would be don't give up. If I had your tank right now I would be thrilled and that's not because over the past 4 months my tank has gone to bits. Your TOTM picks looks great and although I'm not sure what algae the tank has at the moment, from reading through this thread I'm quite sure, almost certain you can defeat it.

 

[RCA]

Thanks for the warning about bloodworms, Charlie.  I have fed them bloodworms once or twice (mainly for the harlequin's benefit) but I won't try it again.
 
I also feed them mainly Hikari micro pellets along with occasional finely crushed flake, peas, shredded blanched lettuce, live or frozen daphnia and live or powdered brine shrimp.  I want to increase the amount of live food they get.  The adult brine shrimp are often too big but I've never seen baby brine shrimp for sale - do they come in separate bags?  Also I'll look out for cyclops, I haven't tried that yet.

Hi Daize,
BBS is available in jars, and I feed it to my young fish as well as some of my smaller species including the Threadfins. Not been around as much lately due to other priorities, but have enjoyed scanning through how you have been doing. I know what you mean I terms of feeling a tank has "hit a wall", although in your instance I think you have a great tank. I have just had to close down the tank which won TOTM in my signature due to an illness that alas is not treatable . Hope you keep going with this one, but if not look forward to seeing what you do next.

Maybe you would be allowed a fire extingusher in the house, as after all they exist in many, many buildings around the world . Good Luck.