Cats Amazonia

[Andy Vox]

Nice take - very much improved by the rescape. It's great how the tank looks mature even though you only just moved everything round.

Thank you. To begin with I was sort of just experimenting with plants and how they grow, how to trim them, then wanted to use that knowledge to create something new. I'm please with how it turned out, It's grown a lot over the last few days, I guess things have finally settled back in.
I set out with the intention of making it look like a actual scene from a river so added moss to the log to try and achieve that from the outset. This probably accompanies my lack of patience, it had to look how I wanted immediately!

Oh! Possibly, mines 2600 and that's in a 4ft with a very restrictive bogwood. I imagine 3000 blows everything everywhere!

Haha yep it almost demolished the plants. I've managed to improve the flow now anyway, turns out I'd forgot to clean the powerhead's propeller and its was full of gunk. Now its nice and clean and the fish are loving it they're all purposely swimming into the outflow and the CO2 is all around the tank

Good good. Glad to hear it, it's all about keeping the bubbles under the water as much as physically possible, every bubble that reaches the surface is wasted CO2.
I take it the new FE worked then?

 

[RossC]

Yer its brilliant no issues as of yet LOL I tried to run two tanks of it but was more hassle than it's worth to get the pressure's right to each tank. Picking my pub-bottle up on Sunday hopefully and bought a stand for the 48 litre to get it back off the floor haha

 

[Andy Vox]

Good news!
Yeah splitting it is so difficult, I tried to run two diffusers in my tank off one bottle but I couldn't get it right. I imagine in two tanks it'd be even harder.

 

[RossC]

I'm guessing it would need a T connection and for the two tubes to be exactly the same length to get even pressure, that's just sounds awkward haha

 

[Andy Vox]

Things are moving on nicely, tank photos taken 5/7/12.
Need a big trim next weekend!

Glosso is slowly carpeting (front left)

HC is taking off finally (front right)

Also starting a new tank:
Got it dirt cheap in a bad way, refinished in white and cleaned.
New finish left, old finish right

Finished article (will start a new thread for this one once i decide what im doing)

 

[RossC]

Ooh another to watch lol, tanks looking awesome by the way mate carpet looks promising. Sorted my flow out too I got rid of my rubbish hang on and bought a canister and its brilliant.

 

[Jay1983]

great progress on tank, on the new tank looks good although I'd bank the left hand side more so that it almost looks like the wood is coming out of it. Just looks a bit flat to me

 

[RossC]

Yer because it kinda reminds me of a river back with the larger pebbles so a bank is a good suggestion

 

[Llegmore]

I really like the larger pebbles on the right side of the new tank. It's all looking great.

 

[Andy Vox]

Ooh another to watch lol, tanks looking awesome by the way mate carpet looks promising. Sorted my flow out too I got rid of my rubbish hang on and bought a canister and its brilliant.

The HC just doesn't want to grow, I keep pushing it down and trimming it but it doesn't seem to want to spread lots, I feel like progress should be faster. The glosso is taking off, growing up, out and everywhere!
Good good.
Externals are the way forward, so much better. I'm running three on this at the moment until my new tanks finished, at least it'll be pre cycled! I had a look at your tanks on here yesterday they are coming on well since the CO2, really looking good.

great progress on tank, on the new tank looks good although I'd bank the left hand side more so that it almost looks like the wood is coming out of it. Just looks a bit flat to me

Thank you! To be honest we had a few bits around the house that the Mrs was moaning about so I threw them into the tank with little care for the layout. I'm still building a luminaire to fit it and getting the pieces together for CO2 so it'll be a little while until I scape it properly and flood it.
My thoughts for this one might have changed since your suggestion actually. I need to add some proper planted substrate or cat litter but I was thinking of doing a dry start with HC. I'm now thinking that it might be a good idea to have the pebbles as a river (thanks RossC) then build up the substrate like your suggestion to create a bank with the wood coming out of it. I might need to get some different pieces of bogwood or break that one into a few pieces, or even use the one out my main tank, break that down and re-scape both. It's not going to look right with that piece now I've got the idea in my head.

I really like the larger pebbles on the right side of the new tank. It's all looking great.

Thanks you for the kind comments!

 

[Jay1983]

Sounds like a great plan! Look forward to seeing it progress.

 

[Andy Vox]

I started building a luminaire for the small tank. Need to start a new thread, will do once its ready, then do a quick break down of photos and onto the good stuff.

My lounge tank took a huge trimming and a slight rearrange, liking it a lot more now. Just needs to grow back in slightly.
Anyone got any tips to make the tiger lotus grow smaller leaves lower down rather than shooting to the surface in a week? Is it just a case of keep trimming the large ones?

HC is now showing good growth, been trimming the tops off every week to encourage it to grow outwards. Seems to be working now! HURRAH!
Added a hoard of ottos - 15 in total now, they love it!

In a bizarre series of events, I'm now seriously considering completely rescaping again. I'm not happy with wood, want to break it into two pieces, I want to use a different substrate, get rid of the gravel and find some new plants to have a go at. Any help scape wise would be greatly appreciated, because Im super un-artistic!

 

[Andy Vox]

Right I'm going to use cat litter as the substrate and save as much of the eco-complete which is currently under the gravel as possible, hopefully this under the litter plus the addition of some root tabs, and some liquid ferts into the base layer before water will help to saturate the litter with some nutrients, even though I will continue with EI as normal once done.

Somehow I'm going to remove all the fish, plants and bog wood. My idea is to split the wood into 2-3 pieces, which is a shame but its too big and didn't turn out the way I wanted.
So what I'm looking for is examples of aquascapes that use thick pieces of wood rather than spindly ones, which people seem to be going for at the moment. Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated. Plan is to do it on Sunday. It's going to take me probably more than a day, but I'm lucky that I can move all my fish and plants into the 3ft during the rescape. Catching the khuli loaches might be abit difficult... Especially with that wood in!

 

[RossC]

Good luck mate when I swapped out the substrate in mine catching all the fish was the hardest part lol

 

[Andy Vox]

Right my rescape is nearly complete.


Caught all the fish and gave them a new home for a few hours.
Really like this tank, I cannot wait to get things moving on it!

Empty at last

Bog wood out... So heavy filled with water.

Nice deep layer of Tesco cat litter (suffice to say after hours of washing this stuff was well worth it.
I left a layer of eco-complete at the bottom.

I removed all the moss from the bog wood and reattached on the side I intend to use.

Much prefer this side of it. Also added a couple of small java ferns and some anubias nana.

Bogwood in, looks like a completely different piece. Dug it right into the substrate and then put more in on top to make it look as natural as possible.

Unlike before I planted the glosso and HC individually, never had much luck with either before so I thought it would be best to start out the right way. Seems to be paying off so far, took hours due to the amount of space there is now in the tank.
Glosso

HC

Filling slowly not to disturb the plants

Filled out the back left with Vallis, Bacopa caroliniana, Amazon Sword and a crypt.
Decided to try out a full length spray bar again, now that there is some more space.

Koralia is absolute overkill for the tank no with so few plants. Taking it out for the time being.

Should carpet nicely! I hope.

I decided I didn't like all the open space so added Limnophila sp. 'Mini' to the left hand side and removed an amazon sword.
On the right I have added pogostemon helferi, more HC, anothe crypt and a couple of other stems that I can't, any help? I've moved the front left amazon to the middle and filled it in with more glosso. I have about half a pot of HC to plant still, need to get that done tonight. I'm hoping to add some hygrophila sp. starogyne and stellata to the right hand side eventually. It's fairly regimented at the back right at the moment but I'm really hoping it'll grow into a tiered bush given the right trimming technique.

Apologies for the slightly murky water.

I have removed my CO2 diffuser and instead I'm using this

It's attached at the back right on the spray bar, I've managed to put an airstone into the pipe to break up the bubbles. So far, after a days use I found I had to reduce my bubble count, my CO2 indicator was lime green near yellow and very few bubbles are coming out the spray bar, you can see a very micro mist if you get right up close to the tank. Everything is pearling like crazy so I can only guess that its working a treat.
I was trying to use an old external filter with a pipe bringing the water from the bottom of the filter to the outlet with the co2 on the inlet as a reactor, but I couldn't get it to work. Worked great in the sink, couldn't for the life of me manage it on the tank, it just wouldn't pressurise. I will give it another go at some point but at the moment I'm happy with how its doing.

Just need to plant the rest of the HC and wait for it to grow for the moment.

I'm considering removing all the fish bar my 20 neon tetras, 20 glowlight tetras and 15 oto's, potentially adding another specie of schooling fish, or even just more tetras, otos and glowlights, but I want to add some shrimp. Thinking red cherry shrimp or amano. Which would be best?
Also any ideas for a shoaling fish that might look nice with the current ones and layout would be welcome.