Asian Biotope

[Truck]

ignore the above post i dont know what i was thinking!

anyway, a small picture-less update, ive added some vallis in the rear right corner (valliseneria nana) which was bought from baron von bubba, some amazing specimens over 80cm high! really chuffed with that.

i may add some rotala sp green to break up the vast height difference between the crypts and the vallis.

pressurized CO2 is on the list, as soon as ive finished stocking it, i am going to buy a D+D kit, i would love to go FE route but my mother is not having it!

still going on with the fish in cycle and i still have no nitrite! when i tested ammonia before the water change it was 0.5 and then i did a water change, ive been doing this for the past 20 days! and still no nitrites, any ideas?

 

[Truck]

right pics as promised:

there is a 10cm gap between the vallis and crypts so i can get some rotala sp green in there.

heres a picture of the ember tetras for geoff, as i know hes planning a shoal of these

and one of the best piece of Pogosteemon helferi i have:

comments and criticisms

 

[AdAndrews]

looks nice mate, should be good once fully planted, am i right in thinking you are leaving the whole front section blank?

 

[Truck]

looks nice mate, should be good once fully planted, am i right in thinking you are leaving the whole front section blank?

cheers
i may, not sure yet, may try and get a carpet of HC going once ive got pressurized CO2 going

 

[AdAndrews]

once ive got pressurized CO2 going

goin all serious i see
cant wait to see if full!

 

[Truck]

heres a small update:

As you can see i added some microsorum pteropus on wood which i tied on myself. i might do the same on the other side but with a mixture of microsorum pteropus and the narrow variant.

Everything is pearling, if only i had moon lights or LEDS

this is my favourite photo i have taken today

thats all folks, constructive criticisms/comments welcome as always

forgot about the water marks left over from the WC

will be adding more fish soon, nitrite is nearly at 0, it drops that bit more each day, i think i may be clear tomorrow, but im skint, so no difference either way

 

[AdAndrews]

looks nice mate, mastered the pearling i see, even with pressurised co2 i can only get pearling some of the time

 

[Truck]

looks nice mate, mastered the pearling i see, even with pressurised co2 i can only get pearling some of the time

thanks mate, i thought it was fake pearling, so seeing as my nitrite is below ten i thought i would skip a water change today and yep sure enough, theyre pearling like mad

 

[Nick16]

i think the contrast between the vallis and the crypots is too large, and i dont think the rotala will honestly help. how about using something thicker like some blyxa?

Also, i think some staurogyne sp. will look very nice in the back right corner, so it peeks out from being the microsorum.

 

[Truck]

i think the contrast between the vallis and the crypots is too large, and i dont think the rotala will honestly help. how about using something thicker like some blyxa?

Also, i think some staurogyne sp. will look very nice in the back right corner, so it peeks out from being the microsorum.

yeah i do agree, I will be removing the vallis at some point and adding a piece of wood with more microsorum strapped to it

 

[Jack Middleton]

I will now be updating progress from this account.

I Agree with you nick, I don't like the height contrast too much, but I am planning on thinning out the Vallis and selling it on here, and then I will buy some more wood, and tie more Microsorum pteropus to it, so i have a long piece on the left, and a shorter piece on the right...its going take time though as I'm on a very tight budget up until Christmas!

 

[Truck]

I will be updating this journal tonight, growth has really come on, and I have now switched to EI dosing methods

 

[Truck]

Heres the update as promised,

I've added 10 crystal black shrimp and 10 cherry shrimp and I now have loads of 'ickle' shrimplets
Also in their is a wild caught pair of Blue rams, A fantastic specimen of a male, set me back £50
Anyway, I'll let the pictures do the talking from now on

The brown diatoms featured in the last picture were caused by a TPN+ overdose, an expirement gone wrong due to the high ammonium content of TPN+

Now that I am on EI, it is slowly receding.

Cheers, Jack

 

[Wills]

Beautiful rams! Have to say £50 is a bit steep but if your happy I really love the shape of your tank with the valis jungle on the left I might try and mimic that in my new tank! Mix it with some blyxa and it could look really nice IMO Your shrimps are cool as well Were they expensive? Just seen the article in PFK about the £8000 shrimps knocking around at the moment, I take it these are not them lol.

Wills

 

[Truck]

I'm going to fill the vast height difference between the vallis and crypts in with some more microsorum on wood, and maybe some moss too!

The cherry shrimp were £5 for 10 and the crystal blacks were £15 for 10 with them being of a good quality, I have the odd poor one, but the majority are good.

I saw the PFK article and died when I saw some of the prices, I ordered 5 saluwesi shrimp a few weeks ago and the flipping royal fail killed them all!! £80 up in smoke! luckily I managed to get compensation.