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George's Nano Journal

Thanks everyone.
lljdma06 said:
Your wife has such a talent for aquascaping. I mean, really, you're rubbing off on her.....
Click to expand...
Ummm.....yes, I'm sure she'll be really pleased to hear that! :hyper:

Seriously though, I have some updates that I'm pleased to share with you all.

One beauty of the nano is that it can be emptied in seconds and transported to wherever you like. In this case my dining room table where I can sit comfortably, listen to the TV and drink beer!

Bucket full of plants, almost empty tank to make planting easy, spray bottle to keep plants moist once planted, scissors, tweezers and old tea towel.

All set for planting


About three short hours later - planted


And hey presto!! Something that resembles a planted aquascape. Note my experimentation with a new background - transluscent colourless plastic with rear lighting (an old 3000K T8).

I'm quite happy with the progress so far. CO2 is set to 1 BPS, dosing ferts as detailed earlier in the journal, 6 hour photoperiod to help prevent algae, no animals until the plants are well and truly established. Water change 50%+ twice per week.

Don't ask for water parameters, I have no test kits. Temp is stable at 24-26C with lighting. 21-23C without.

The plants are pearling nicely. My biggest hope is that the algae monster doesn't appear.


.
 
Looks good! :good:

It'll look even better when it fills out. I've only ever seen one tank ever with the Hairgrass looking amazing, so i hope you do well!
 
The background looks really cool. You've even given me an idea. I've got a spotlight on my cabinet where my PFK cube is going to go, I was going to use it for extra light, but if I can detach it from the top of the cabinet and stick it to the back, I could create a great effect when taking photos, if only it was a blue light! Or would this create glare on the lens? If I entered a competition I think it may look good like that.

Neal
 
George Farmer said:
One beauty of the nano is that it can be emptied in seconds and transported to wherever you like. In this case my dining room table where I can sit comfortably, listen to the TV and drink beer!
Click to expand...

Ok, what is it with some of the people here at TFF who insist on Aquascaping under the influence? You beer, me tawny port, another person with a 4g finnex was partial to wine...

The tank looks gorgeous, George. I love the background, it's beautiful. I think you captured your inspiration very, very well. Can't wait to see this filled out. I'll keep my fingers crossed regarding algae. But, as you said so eloquently before...

"One beauty of the nano is that it can be emptied in seconds..." I hope your tank never experiences that beauty except when you want it to.

llj :lol:
 
Go for it Neal - experimentation is good, the best way to learn.

lljdma06 said:
The tank looks gorgeous, George. I love the background, it's beautiful. I think you captured your inspiration very, very well.
Click to expand...
Thanks mate.

I'm happy with the planting and hopeful it will fill out nicely. It was tough deciding where exactly to position the hairgrass/HC but I decided on a simple layout with the hairgrass forming the background. I figured the simplicity in plant layout would compliment the basic stonework. Unfortunately I have little vision so only time will tell as to whether it looks effective.

I am excited about my background technique. In the photo you see it reminds me of dusk. I have a spare 6500K tube that I can also use to create a whiter light, with this against different coloured paper I can create different moods. I've already tried with my original blue and it looks 100% better than with no back-lighting, it shines just like the real sky and creates a lovely ambience. The only trouble is my spare T8s are 24" so looks ugly protruding 6" either side of the tank, so my next purchase will be a smaller tube.

So for now it's just a case of keeping on top of CO2, ferts, water changes and letting the plants do their thing.

I have no idea how long it will take for a carpet will fully form but when it does I'll stock a few Amano shrimp, then possibly some Microrasbora sp. 'Galaxy' or similar.

When it's "complete", assuming no major dramas have occured, I will then take it to the PFK studio for a photo shoot to hopefully go with a planted nano article (along with Moody's scapes).

Then I'll probably strip it all down ready for a new scape........but one step at a time. :rolleyes:

 
You've done a fantastic job there George (not that you need me to tell you that!) truly a lovely scape. My only comment would be the regimented hairgrass? Guess its very early to tell but seems to be a bit 'wall' like? I think it looks better in these sort of scapes when there are a few pieces around the rocks to break up their hard outline? Just a thought :)

Ingenious idea on the lighting too, could quite easily be a subset, that said I did like the blue.

Was wondering later night (and yes I do think about TFF most of the time! :p) what your water change regime would be. How does 2x weekly water changes work when it comes to dosing? The more I think about it the more I wonder if I should doing then twice a week on my nano.

Sam

PS - At 1 BPS CO2 I'm don't think you'll get an algae!
 
Themuleous said:
My only comment would be the regimented hairgrass? Guess its very early to tell but seems to be a bit 'wall' like? I think it looks better in these sort of scapes when there are a few pieces around the rocks to break up their hard outline? Just a thought :)
Click to expand...
Of course you are right Sam. I did spend a bit of time thinking about this but went for the "regimented" look in the end. When I look at scapes like Mr. Law's I see that the hairgrass is spaced more "naturally" , amonst stone to soften, but then he has a far more complex stone arrangement. As I mentioned, my simple planting, I hope, will balance with the simple hardscape. If it does not it will be a case up uprooting a few hairgrass plants are re-position. The rear will hopefully fill up with hairgrass, like a wall I suppose, but the growth won't be the same so should create a sense of depth, or I can acheive this by pruning the tips.

How does 2x weekly water changes work when it comes to dosing?
Click to expand...

I am dosing macros (NPK and Mg) and trace daily but at half regular concentrations.

When dosing EI (or my modified EI) more water changes just mean less possible build-up of nutrients. In a new set up like mine with no fast weeds I am assuming this should help prevent possible algae. I also have no animals and therefore minimal NH3/4. All this plus high CO2 I hope will prevent any problem algae.
 
Looking good George! :) love the background effect! (and the Stella) be intersting to see how the hair grass goes!
 
I personally think the hair grass should be put beside the rocks, just the odd one or two. This would give the effect that the lawn has been cut, but they couldn't get that close to the stones, therefore it has grew. I think it would look great like that, but that's just my opinion, either way it's still looking great. I just think it would give you the impression of looking up a hill in the sunset, with the background being the sunset. Have you got any pictures of how you done the background? Just pictures of the back of the tank and a birds eye view maybe? It would be interesting to see how you have it set up.

Neal
 
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