Johns 450ltr (110 Gals) Journal

[john starkey]

Lots of leaf colours, shapes and textures......a huge shoal of a single species of fish as the centrepiece. Now that`s what I call a proper large planted tank, John. Get the Pogostemon (Eusteralis) stellata whipped in to shape and it will look fantastic. Superb first effort!How many Amano shrimp have you got in there?Dave.

Hi Dave, firstly thanks for your kind words most appreciated, i have twenty Amano shrimp at the moment i would to to add some cherry shrimp at some stage but at the moment i think i will just concentrate in getting the plants into top condition, regards john

Now THOSE are nice pics. Not perfect as you know, but 10,000 times better than the others! Now I can see your tank and it is fantastic! Very, very, very well done John. Your tank is a credit to this forum!Andy

Hi Andy, thanks very much i still have a long way to go with my photography but its another hobby to get into regards john

 

[Underwurlde]

^ Hell, me too. But just a few basic pointers that I found on t'internet made such a massive difference to my crappy shots.... As you are now witness to too. (is that an owl?).

 

[Themuleous]

Stunning John, and I rarely use that word. Reminds me of the behemoth Tom B did. Plants look ultra healthy and lush, looks great. You must be very proud, esp as its your first go and on such a large tank. The HC seems to be carpeting nicely too. If you can keep the HC happy the rest of the plants will follow suit.

You had much algae?

BTW how do you find the water changes? My next tank will be around the 100g mark and I don't really want to change 200lt of water each week!

Sam

EDIT - Did you happen to speak to a bloke from the Oxford MA shop the other day? He said he was chatting to a bloke re plants and they said 'you much know Sam' to him. Was in Worcester, was it you?

 

[john starkey]

Stunning John, and I rarely use that word. Reminds me of the behemoth Tom B did. Plants look ultra healthy and lush, looks great. You must be very proud, esp as its your first go and on such a large tank. The HC seems to be carpeting nicely too. If you can keep the HC happy the rest of the plants will follow suit.

You had much algae?

BTW how do you find the water changes? My next tank will be around the 100g mark and I don't really want to change 200lt of water each week!

Sam

Hi Sam, nice to hear from you mate, algae issues so far have only been a very slight outbreak of hair algae but i increased co2 and it cleared up in a week and the only other little bit i get si green spot algae but that is easily cleared up, Water changes have been easier than i expected i bought a long length of pond hoseing largish bore and then i empty it straight out of the patio door onto the wifes garden takes me about thirty mins to do a water change and refill, but i am going over to an ro unit soon so refilling will take longer, regards john

hi again sam it was me who spoke to a new guy in worcester, they have just turned my local garden ctr aquatics into a maidenhead aqutic store,

 

[Themuleous]

Was thinking emptying would be relatively straight forward, but I use Ro at the moment and the thought of needing to empty 8 20lt Jerry cans of mixed RO water was not something I was looking forward to. I am looking at trying either PPM pro or PMDD to cut down the need for water changes.

Thought it might have been you who mentioned me small world.

Sam

 

[jimbooo]

Hi All, i hope these pics are slightly better than the last lot i obviously need camera lessons

just noticed the slight hand shake causing slight fuzzyness, i need to get a tripod i think

regards john

Hi John, not sure how i missed this. the tank looks great. out of interest how have you found the HC. i understand this tank is relitavly recently set up. I wanted to carpet with HC in my new tank and George advised against it as it favors established substrate over clean new stuff. i was a bit disapointed as i have always wanted to try HC and thought a fresh batch of decent substrate would be a help rather than a hinderance. i dont mean this negativly but it looks patchy, not a problem as it works well in the grand scheme of the tank but how did you plant it? tiny bits spread all over or clumps? if i go that route i want a flawless 100% carpet like you get with Glosso. George suggested Glosso for mine at first then HC later, you know how it is though, done glosso and want something new and challenging lol.

As to your layout it's a perfect example of the Jungle style, no hard lines of plant groups and a little jumbled but stand back and look at the tank as a whole and the effect is stunning. i'd be more than pleased with that. the only thing i would do is hide the heater (back right) to somewhere behind the plants as it's distracting where it is now. well done old chap.

Out of interest do your cardinals shoal? in the pics they are spread out. i just wondered as i will have 130 in my tank and am looking for a tight shoal ideally. i'll have to get them to agee to this before i put them in and threaten relocation to the 60L if they don't play along! lol

 

[DevUK]

The old photos aren't working from when John planted, but if memory serves, he did seperate it off into lots of small groups. Definately not large clumps

 

[john starkey]

Hi All, i hope these pics are slightly better than the last lot i obviously need camera lessons

just noticed the slight hand shake causing slight fuzzyness, i need to get a tripod i think

regards john

Hi John, not sure how i missed this. the tank looks great. out of interest how have you found the HC. i understand this tank is relitavly recently set up. I wanted to carpet with HC in my new tank and George advised against it as it favors established substrate over clean new stuff. i was a bit disapointed as i have always wanted to try HC and thought a fresh batch of decent substrate would be a help rather than a hinderance. i dont mean this negativly but it looks patchy, not a problem as it works well in the grand scheme of the tank but how did you plant it? tiny bits spread all over or clumps? if i go that route i want a flawless 100% carpet like you get with Glosso. George suggested Glosso for mine at first then HC later, you know how it is though, done glosso and want something new and challenging lol.

As to your layout it's a perfect example of the Jungle style, no hard lines of plant groups and a little jumbled but stand back and look at the tank as a whole and the effect is stunning. i'd be more than pleased with that. the only thing i would do is hide the heater (back right) to somewhere behind the plants as it's distracting where it is now. well done old chap.

Out of interest do your cardinals shoal? in the pics they are spread out. i just wondered as i will have 130 in my tank and am looking for a tight shoal ideally. i'll have to get them to agee to this before i put them in and threaten relocation to the 60L if they don't play along! lol

Hi Jimboo, i planted the HC in what i thought was small clumps but George said it would do better if i split it up even smaller, so i did it in one area of the tank and its spreading really well so i may split up the clumps you mention even smaller as i look at my tank right now whilst on the laptop the patches you mention are the areas that new HC is coming through,the heater will get hidden eventually when the plants thicken through trimming, considering this tank has only been planted since 5/8/07 i am quite pleased with it, the jungle effect i have at the moment isnt the scape i really want i just did this to avoid any algae issues, when all the plants have really taken off i will remove some and slowly work towards the scape i really want .As for the cardinals they do swim together at times but mostly stay in a sort of split shoal but when they do swim together its amazing to see, i did speak to mine also but you know youngsters they dont listen all the best with your setup i will look in from time to time,regards john

 

[jimbooo]

great, in that case i may well try HC now after all. if it doesn't work i can always revert to glosso quite easily. Good to hear the cardinals still shoal on occasion. i guess once they feel comfortable in their surrpondings they loose the need to do it constantly hence the splitting up. i didn't realise the tank was that young, fantastic job you've done so far and i now see the reason for the jungle layout. i do like it though.

 

[DevUK]

great, in that case i may well try HC now after all. if it doesn't work i can always revert to glosso quite easily. Good to hear the cardinals still shoal on occasion. i guess once they feel comfortable in their surrpondings they loose the need to do it constantly hence the splitting up. i didn't realise the tank was that young, fantastic job you've done so far and i now see the reason for the jungle layout. i do like it though.

You could always keep threatening them. Fear is a great motivator...

(I'm joking, of course )

 

[john starkey]

Hi All, i am about to plan a rescape in the next few weeks, i plan to swop some plants especially stem plants in the gackground corners, i may try some cryp parva, i have already split up the H C into smaller clumps to see if it spreads any quicker if this does not work i may give Glosso a try, the one plant thats seems intent on not growing well is Heteranthera zosterifolia so this one is deffo going to be removed, i have already removed Pogostemon Stellata it grew ok but it would not show its true red couloring so i decided to remove it from the middle to give the H C more light, i will add more updates and pics when things have taken place regards john

 

[George Farmer]

Brilliant, John. Just brilliant!

And for a first attempt at planted too...

It just shows what a bit of research and investment in good gear can do.

Well done mate. My hat goes off to you.

 

[john starkey]

Brilliant, John. Just brilliant!

And for a first attempt at planted too...

It just shows what a bit of research and investment in good gear can do.

Well done mate. My hat goes off to you.

Hi George,well what can i say with praise like that from someone i hold in very high regard in this lovelly hobby of ours, i must admit it is very time consuming ie water changes, prunning and so on, but one of my favourite things is working out the dosages of plant food and finding the right balance to things, in january i hope to do a 60 x 60 x 60 set up in the living room area (the wife has agreed) and as you say i do like to plan my setups well in advance so i will be reading plenty of books now the winter is on its way, regards john

 

[George Farmer]

..so i will be reading plenty of books now the winter is on its way, regards john

No need for books, mate....

 

[lljdma06]

I am so sorry I missed this John. I was looking forward to the planting too. Like George, I'm impressed. Everybody loves the HC, and as much as I love it too, what is really grabbing me in your tank is the moss. That is some lovely, bushy, straight growth there. In lower light setups, moss can be more stringy, which is not as attractive, but I, as a low-light person, have to make due.

I echo Sam's sentiment, however, how do you do the water changes? You must have a Python or something, or biceps of steel, because I'm just not seeing it done with buckets, which is how I do things.

Lovely aquarium, the massive shoal of cardinals is it, really works well. Impressive, especially for a first attempt. Again, research and the right equipment. I'd love to be able to do that one day, I just can't ever afford the best equipment.

llj