Afroturfs Pre-journal

[afroturf]

I'm taking a leaf out of Dave Spencers book and starting a 'pre journal journal' I'm planning a new tank that i sould get in about 3 weeks as it's my birthday soon the appox size will be 36"wx24"dx18"h. The tank will be viewed from two sides thats the reason for such a large depth to the tank.


The look i'm going for will be similar the image below, with lots of wood covered in moss with long leaved crypts coming up amongst the wood


It will differ from the above image in that there will be a greater amount of wood and less crypts and I think i'll have an open foreground rather than planted. with aid of my paint skills this is the plan.


I've been trying to come up with a list of presents and I'm not to sure on what substrate to use, though i'd like to use ADA i think it will come to a lot money, how much will i need? I'm only going to be covering about half the base with plants so the rest will be just sand. What cheaper alternatives would people suggest there doesn't seen to be much difference in price for ADA compared to tropica or eco-complete. I'm looking to get most of the stuff from AE.

Please give any comments or advise.

 

[SuperColey1]

Seeing as you want a lot of the substrate empty like mine (see avatar)

I used 1 5.8kg tub of TetraComplete and this gave me 1 - 1½cm. Then covered it with washed Argos play sand (the whole 15kg)

It was level when it went in, but looks much more natural now as the plecs and MTS have made dips and peaks in their various play areas.

(The tank is 125Ltr)

Andy

 

[Dave Spencer]

I used one bag of ADA Amazonia in my 60l, but that was with a highly sloped background in both corners. I reckon you could get away with one bag of what is considered to be the best substrate there is.

For the sandy foreground you could use Argos playsand at around £2.99.

I would love to set up a nature aquarium of crypts, mosses and ferns one day. This was how my 60l prejournal started, but then found its way to becoming an Iwagumi. It should be interesting to see what different thought processes you go through.

When is all the hardware for this project going to start arriving?

Jealous Dave.

 

[afroturf]

Andy i've thought of using tetra substrate as it is certainly cheaper although i have used jbl aquabase which is similar to tetracomplete i think and i haven't been to impressed with it.

Dave are you sure i could get away with just one 9L bag of ADA. I was thinking i'll only be using around half the tank bottom as planting area and it wont be as heavly planted as the photo plus it will have about 1/3 of the planted area taken up with wood. i might be able to get away with just one. And then add some thing like ADA multi bottom or Tropica plant nutrition capsules around the crypts.

I wont be getting any of the hardware till around the 11th of April (my birthday ) I just couldn't help starting the journal this soon.

 

[Dave Spencer]

I guess being 24" deep could be a spanner in the works. My Iwagumi has a base of 60cm x 30cm, and the substrate is averaging 8cm at the back and 4cm at the front, with a little left over for various spots in my forthcoming 24l. If there is a lot of wood, you could put this on the base of the tank and fill around it with Aqua Soil. Or you could fill out with small rocks before putting the AS on top.

One bag may not be enough, but two bags could be a waste of money. I would definitely consider buying any left overs from you, or you could sell it to anyone else interested.

It`s weird stuff to work with. When it is dry it is superb for aquascaping with, but when you add water it almost seems waterproof and you have to wait ages for the water to sink in before you can add more. I added my water over two nights after work, but it was crystral clear throughout. It is easy to plant in as well. I only had two clumps of HC float back to the surface.

Dave.

 

[thefirethief]

Ever thought of doing things a bit simpler this time round? Im talking a low tech set-up with soil as the substrate. The lower maintanance is starting to appeal to me and if/when I get the chance to set up another planted tnak thats the route I'll be trying. Not sure if the lack of emergant plants would be a problem in your set-up but duckweed could be the answer to that problem.

Just a thought!
Mark

 

[afroturf]

I think i'll more than likely go for just one bag and add some ADA iron bottom to it as i'll be using mainly crypt and some large Echinodorus eg uruguayensis which are heavy root feeders. I found this seller on ebay - http/stores.ebay.co.uk/Macbrushs-Electro...sQ3amesstQQtZkm super cheap ADA products .

 

[lljdma06]

Ever thought of doing things a bit simpler this time round? Im talking a low tech set-up with soil as the substrate. The lower maintanance is starting to appeal to me and if/when I get the chance to set up another planted tnak thats the route I'll be trying. Not sure if the lack of emergant plants would be a problem in your set-up but duckweed could be the answer to that problem.

Just a thought!
Mark

I second that thought actually. The plants you want are all slow-growing, low-light plants. What are your plans for lighting? Love the idea, however, I think it'll look great.

llj

 

[afroturf]

I have woundered about the fact the plants are quite slow growing so i'm almost certainly going to add some type of floating plant which will help with excess neutrients and wouldn't harm the other plants in terms of light as they are all ok with lower light levels. I may also add a stem plant just to give a different type of leaf shape possible Juncus sp.

I'll try to recreate something similar to a south american river bank with the wood being the root of the trees on the bank, i think a floating plant will also help icreate this feeling although i'm not going to be using south american plants the fish will be. I'm thinking of a few Angelfish, Checkerboards or Apistos, Corys and one or two types of Tetras. I'd like to use green neons but i think these could end up as Angelfish food.

llj the lighting is the only thing i'm unsure about i've got what filter co2 etc i want but not the lighting. I'd like to have some form of susspended lighting as its easier for maintainence plus i could have some wood above the waters surface. These are the current front runners for the lighting http/cgi.ebay.co.uk/4x24W-T5-Lighting-ha...oQQcmdZViewItem

Just a list of the plants i'm thinking of using. ?=unsure
2 or 3 types of moss
1 Fissidens sp - ?
Java fern or Bolbitis - ?
Phyllanthus fluitans
Juncus repens or other stem plant - ?
Marsilea hirsuta
Utricularia graminifolia - ?
Echinodorus uruguayensis
Crypt balansae, albida, lucens, parva?, beckettii 'petchii'?, wendtii var?.

 

[Dave Spencer]

I don`t know whether you saw Sam`s thread about EQJ, but he found the tubes to be a bit lacking. Aquatics Online are selling D&D tubes at a reasonable price.

Dave.

 

[afroturf]

Dave I have and I've already got a EQJ light on my current tank and replaced the tubes. They are still alot cheaper than other alternatives even with buying new tubes. But if i can find any similar priced alternatives i would choose them over the EQJ fittings.

 

[afroturf]

I’ve been e-mailed the price for my tank from wharf aquatics, I asked about the size above and also a 38â€￾ x 23â€￾ x 15â€￾H tank which was significantly cheaper than the 36â€￾ tank. The 38â€￾ option will be longer and shorter than my original idea, I decided on this as I thought the this shape tank will give a better feeling of natural river scene than a more square shaped tank. But if I choose this option I shall not be using Angels in the tank, just a large shoal of tetras and a few small SA cichlids.

Has anyone had experience of keeping checkerboards and apistos together? Will the apistos be to territorial?

I’m also considering building my own suspended light unit rather than EQJ or other fitting for two reasons. 1, the tank will be 23â€￾ wide and the proposed lighting unit is only 20cm wide it wouldn’t give great coverage. 2, it will be a lot cheaper I already own a 30w T8 starter unit so I’ll just have to buy a new T8 tube for this and probably a Interpet twin compact T5 unit plus two 36w TriPlus tubes.

 

[afroturf]

I have finally managed to pick the tank up from wharf aquatics this weekend and heres a photo the beauty -



I'll put up some better photos in the next few days when i start the set up properly.

 

[Liam]

Really like your plans for the tank, am looking forward to seeing it set up. Looks like you got some nice wood for it.

 

[afroturf]

I've got round to laying the soil substrate i decided to go for, it has been quite messy works but as it hascost less than £5 i can't complain.

First i layed a mix of soaked soil, fine gravel and play sand at a ratio of 2:2:1


I then put a 1" of fine gravel on top of the soil mix and filled in the forground and the path with play sand.


Heres a couple of photos of the pair of Pelvicachromis taeniatus 'dehane' which i brought as a bit of a impulse when i went ot pick up the tank, they kept getting trapped in the bags for the Tropica plants where i'm keeping them till the tank is ready.

Female


Male


I should get the planting done tomorrow as long as i doesn't take forever to cover the amount of wood i'm planning on using in the tank. I'll post some more pics when i've done.