Craynerds Planted Tank Mk.2

[craynerd]

4cm when adult.

What 4cm !!!!!

I`m looking for 2cm max when adult ?

 

[planter]

Craynard any chance of a new pic ? I'd be intersted to see a before and after trimming (when it comes to it).

As for fish I have another suggestion Bororas Brigittae

http/www.aquariumfish.com/aquariumfish/d...cid=4150&search

 

[craynerd]

I think its time to give you a bit of an update.

Sorry for the late reply, i`ve been busy with work of late.

All is going well with the aquascape design. The pruning schedule is all going to plan and i am slowly developing some really nice bushy rotala plants which are complementing my aquascape well.
Hopefully another 4-6 weeks and i should have some pro photos done! The guy seems really keen.

I picked Glow-light Tetras for my fish, along with Ottos and Amano shrimp. I really like the glow-lights, they are good looking yet don`t draw away your attention too much.

Water chemistry is near perfect again. Ammonia and nitrite near 0. Everything seems to have settled now. Not lost any fish, just a few shrimps in the first few weeks.

Lily pipe and diffuser still get my top vote BUT the AS.....i am not 100%

It seems far far too coincidental that the only algae issues i get occur on the substrate!! nothing is there other than "nutrient rich" AS !! Also i find it very irritating to work with. Disturb it in any sort of way and you get a mass explosion of dust and cloudy water! It breaks down at every opportunity. Everyone seems to rant about it, so its obviously something i am doing wrong

And ....as much as i hate to say, Neil you were right. ...the hairgrass has been a pain in the butt since the day i put it in. I finally ripped it out after countless attempts to get it to spread and i am replacing it with glosso. Maybe it is the water i have around here, seems coincidental that both Neil and I have had problems or it was in poor health when i bought it from greenline....maybe a factor? Either way, it is no longer!!

Finishing on a good note, all in all very pleased.....i`ll plant the glosso in the next few days and post some pics as well.

Regards

Chris

 

[madcaow]

This one's 1.5 cm max
Microrasbora Nana
pics here: nana pics

those are totally sweet.

 

[George Farmer]

Anymore photos Chris?

I'm interested to see the algae on the Aqua Soil. Has it shifted yet? Did it appear after you dropped the CO2?

I'm still really surprised you couldn't get your hairgrass going. Was it E. acicularis?

 

[RYO]

Nice choice on the glow lights, i think they are an underused fish. I found they really take on a strong colour if black water extract is used with your water. (If you don't mind the brown tinge to your tank)

 

[zig]

Yes interesting comments on the AS Chris, ive read several times it will not cloud the water nor break down, your experience is obviously quite different.

I also have a hard time growing some types of hairgrass particularily Eleocharis Acicularis for some reason, it seems to grow incredably slow for me, it does grow but slowly, one bonus though is that it seems to always remain totally algea free.

 

[MoreCoffee]

.......It seems far far too coincidental that the only algae issues i get occur on the substrate!! nothing is there other than "nutrient rich" AS !! Also i find it very irritating to work with. Disturb it in any sort of way and you get a mass explosion of dust and cloudy water! It breaks down at every opportunity.........

Chris, My AS & PS substrate tank is about a week or so behind yours in terms of setup time. So far I've had similar experiences to yourself, particularly with regards to the ammonia spike (It's been VERY useful having somebody else experience it all a week ahead of me ). I've also seen some algae growth, but probably for different reasons.

What I've not seen is problems with the mass explosion of dust or the AS breaking down. When I've moved or replanted anything, I do see a small burst of dust, but it remains very localised to the area I disturbed and settles again very quickly. I have to admit, I've not moved anything with a significant root system yet ! But I've certainly not seen it 'break down'. ( I doubt it has anything to do with me using PS )

I have 9 ltrs of 'Amazonia' 'Normal' in a 60cm tank. What type of AS are you using ?


Al

 

[craynerd]

Hello Guys,

Its been a while and its nice to see people bringing this thread to the top and showing an interest in how the tanks doing! I`ve been really really busy since i start work Monday, any free time is spent maintaining the tank and sleeping!


If you remember i was having some algae problems and also struggling with the hair grass. Well i didnt want to post too soon, but now (2 weeks on) i am happy to say that algae has cleared up and the tank is back to full health. I did surrender the hairgrass tho, so much was dead that it was not worth continuing. It just grew so slowly!

To get rid of the algae i increased my CO2 dose and reduced the light to 10 hours a day 3 hours break for 2 hours and then 7 hours. I also turned one light off, so was only running 48w = ~2.5 wpg. I started fertilising less also during this period.
The problem cleared up within about 4 days, after a week it was gone and now 2 weeks on it has remained clear.
Maybe the initial algae burst started due to the addition of fish and thus ammonia spike, or maybe it was AS, lol, i guess we will never know for sure.
The problem is, with something like that, you change so many factors that you can`t hold down a specific variable as the cause for the algae.

Anyhow, I will fill you in with a few tank stats and facts.

Now running my lights back at 72w but maintaining the same lighting period as above. One of the biggest reasons for this, is so they are on when i am home

Fish:
6 Ottos
25 Amano Shrimp
7 Glow light Tetra
4 Calumbian Tetra


Co2: 2 bps in my JBL counter, probably equivelent to 4 bps in an ADA counter.

Lights: As above

Ammonia and nitrite near zero

I have now started increasing the dose of nitrate to 15ppm every other day, its interesting to see that my plants have really started perling since doing this. Also 10ml of bulk trace every other day

4 squirts of ADA Step 1 and K every other day inbetween.

5ml of TMG at every water change. (don`t ask why )


Water Change: 30% twice weekly


----------------- have i missed anything out?

I tell you where i do have algae, on my lily pipe bend!! hopw irritating, i am going to have to get one of those special cleaning pipes soon.

I have replaced the hairgrass with glosso again. Only planted it a few days ago and it is growing well already. I didnt get much to be honest, i am confident within a few weeks it will form a decent carpet. There is no denying that i am gutted the hairgrass didn`t work out, but glosso was always an option from the onset!

I have a question, when i bought my glosso from greenline, it says:

"Cultivated from New Zealand stock before the blankit export ban"

What the heck does that mean....is this a different kind of glosso then?

--------------------------------------------------

I`ll shut up, here are the pictures my taken with my dads new Sony Cybershot H5, its a great camera!!

Sorry, the first has half of me on it, but i just thought it was a great shot of the tank!!

A macro shot completely side on of one of my glowlights!!

Lots of pictures, got a bit carried away!!

So furture plans, I am still pruning it into shape. All these pictures are false because tomorrow after work its time for the next big trim, where i will cut the rotala back down to about 6 inch and replant. Its a long process but i realise how it works now. If i get time later today, i`ll post my pruning schedule.

Hope you like it so far!

Chris

 

[MoreCoffee]

Nice pics Chris, the tank looks great.
Interested in your pruning schedule. When you say 'replant' are you planting the tops back into the substrate as additional plants, or removing the lower/older growth and replacing with the fresh top growth ?

Great macro pic of the glowlight !

 

[Fwapp]

Lovely looking tank, Craynerd, very nice look.

I'm currently browsing all the tank journals, gaining inspiration for my upcoming transistion from "fish and some plants" to a "Aquascape and fish" tank (hopefully!)

The picture of the glowlight is cracking. You should enter it into the PFK photography competition!

 

[planter]

HEY!!!! looking good craynard! just missing a foreground! I love glossostigma and am sure it will look better than the hair grass! nice tank and great pics!

 

[Qays]

I think its time to give you a bit of an update.

Sorry for the late reply, i`ve been busy with work of late.

All is going well with the aquascape design. The pruning schedule is all going to plan and i am slowly developing some really nice bushy rotala plants which are complementing my aquascape well.
Hopefully another 4-6 weeks and i should have some pro photos done! The guy seems really keen.

I picked Glow-light Tetras for my fish, along with Ottos and Amano shrimp. I really like the glow-lights, they are good looking yet don`t draw away your attention too much.

Water chemistry is near perfect again. Ammonia and nitrite near 0. Everything seems to have settled now. Not lost any fish, just a few shrimps in the first few weeks.

Lily pipe and diffuser still get my top vote BUT the AS.....i am not 100%

It seems far far too coincidental that the only algae issues i get occur on the substrate!! nothing is there other than "nutrient rich" AS !! Also i find it very irritating to work with. Disturb it in any sort of way and you get a mass explosion of dust and cloudy water! It breaks down at every opportunity. Everyone seems to rant about it, so its obviously something i am doing wrong

And ....as much as i hate to say, Neil you were right. ...the hairgrass has been a pain in the butt since the day i put it in. I finally ripped it out after countless attempts to get it to spread and i am replacing it with glosso. Maybe it is the water i have around here, seems coincidental that both Neil and I have had problems or it was in poor health when i bought it from greenline....maybe a factor? Either way, it is no longer!!

Finishing on a good note, all in all very pleased.....i`ll plant the glosso in the next few days and post some pics as well.

Regards

Chris

those pics are just WOW

 

[craynerd]

Thanks guys,

those pics are just WOW

I have to admit, these pictures are the best i have taken. Its damn good camera, the new Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H5 - you should see the originals, the resolution and quality is fab! I only played around with it for 30 minutes and to be honest, most of the ones i have used are taken in fully Auto mode!! the lens is equiv. to a 36-432mm and it s a Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar!! Excellent lens.

Planter - i agree, just short of the foreground, but then again at present i like it kinda empty, lol which is tuff because the glosso is growing already and its only been in a couple of days!!

Thanks again

Chris

 

[craynerd]

This is my pruning schedule to obtain lush bushey shaped stem plants :

Red line: Trim all to about 2" height. Keep the trimmed plant and cut it to about 3", replant the trimmings around the wood base. Those replanted ones should not be taller than the trimmed mother plant, because after the trim, the mother plant needs extra light to activiate them again.

Blue line: When the plant grow to about 7" height, trim all to about 4", the cut edge must be kept at least 1" above the first pruning, otherwise the split branches will be cut away and you have to wait for it to branch
again. Now your mother plant shoud have two branches and your replanted child wll split after this trim. Don`t wait for it grow to the top, because the prune point will continue to grow, if you trim too late, you may
cut all the branches.

brown line: The plant will grow from 4" to 7" again, this time, you only trim the top 1" and trim where ever is over grown. You also have to keep the record of the grow rate of different plants. This is so that you can adjust your last trim, say if plant A takes two weeks to recover and plant B takes three weeks. You then have to trim plant B one week before plant A to let them bloom at the same time.

Yellow line: This is your last trim before photo. you may according to your record to control the timing.

I am not going to trim all at once, instead trim section by section with an interval about 1 week.

If I cannot control the timing of the bloom, then I may find that I need to
repeat the cut to blue line again.

Also, note that as a rule of thumb, the more you trim the weaker the branches, if I cannot control the timing and keep on repeating the blue line stage the off shoot sprouts will get smaller and smaller. If I get into such situation the only thing you can do is replant the top part to the soil again.


Chris