Once Upon A Time At The Riverbank

[ian]

saw this scape in it flesh/glass today. Its a great looking scape, even though AC had thined out it still look great. The lighting is brilliant!

AC is a top bloke, i got some Java moss and Needle fern off of him and its top quality stuff.


ps I think 2 shrimp survived, the rest where eaten by the Rainbows lol.

Thanks again.

 

[SuperColey1]

Lol

Can't beat live food Its also quite cool to watch fish naturally hunting doen prey. I remember in the good old days watching the Zebra Danios picking off molly fry. Was incredible to see.

Glad you like the scape and lighting and was good to meet you.

AC

 

[SuperColey1]

Ianho (a member on here) came round today and I thought I would share with you what he saw.

So I made a video. Unfortunately I used my webcom as I am waiting on a card reader for my camera but it gives and idea albeit with not great clarity

Hope you enjoy and yes the scape has had a bit of 'surgery' this week and been thinned out incredibly.



Regards
AC

 

[SuperColey1]

Lol @ ebay cheap camera bargains. I think the firmware on this camera is a little duff. Plug into USB and the computer doesn't do anything. No 'Found new hardware' and then cannot install etc. Just nothing. Installed transfer protocol and USB driver from fujifilm site and tried several mini USB cables but there ya go. lol

So here is the silly thing. I plug it into the TV and then take pictures of the pictures on the TV with the camera phone. lol.

Should've just used the cameraphone in the first place.

First 3 pics from cameraphone taking pictures of photos from the camera on the TV:

The next 4 from the camera phone directly. These are a little yellower than reality!!!:

AC

 

[SuperColey1]

Sorry to keep posting. lol

I am going to rip out the whole left to centre background and midground tonight. All the Crypts. Then I am going to size them and replant accordingly. Just looks a mess at the mo.

'Take out established 18 month Crypt roots' you say 'Gonna be a big mess' You say?

Watch and learn. These will be pulled up half an inch to an inch. curved scissors cut the roots. Leave the roots behind. The sand will hold the Tropica down.

Done it a fair few times before.

However with a major disturbance of a 3 year old substrate I shall be doing a fair few water changes over the next couple of days and open the windows cos it's gonna stink. lol. Good job its nice and warm at the mo.

So I won't be able to say 'I haven't done a waterchange for 10 months' anymore. It will be I've only done 1 water change in 10 months now. lol (I count all these water changes as one because it is purely to remove any nasties I am releasing from the substrate)

We are also talking circa 50 Crypt+ in that area

Will post up pics when done and water clear (if this card reader arrives and if the camera is any good)

Regards
AC

 

[ian]

yay, this will look good!!

 

[PDSimon]

Aye, looks great atm I think but looking foward to any changes

Also, are there any good articles on waterchanges for planted tanks that you guys can share?

 

[SuperColey1]

Why do you need an article on water changes?

Here I'll write one for you:

-Get a bucket
-Empty water from tank into bucket
-Repeat as many times as desired
-Fill bucket with tap water
-Add pond dechlor cos its much much cheaper than aquarium dechlor
-Put water in tank
-Repeat as many times as desired.

Ok there you go. Once you all read this I'm 'peer reviewed' on the subject of water changes. lol#

p.s. will do piccies later. took 48 minutes to remove 120 plants, trim roots, size them and then put them all back No messing.

And no Ian I didn't chuck anything out. I've kept the roots and all and chucked 'em in some compost. lol

AC

 

[PDSimon]

lmao,

I meant how often do you do them! I always do 30% a week. I don't really see much written about waterchanges for planted tanks though.

 

[SuperColey1]

The water change I did today was the first since late September 2009!!!

When I did PMDD+P I did 10% weekly. When I did EI I did 50-60% weekly.

OK for ya?

You're gonna love these pictures. Just sorting them out for the website first then I'll post them up.

Will have to split them up into 2 or 3 posts though. you know how I hate long posts

Ian. You are going to see something with my lights you didn't see on Sunday. You liked the setup then but these new pictures are going leave you even more impressed. Not to sound big headed or anything but my lighting rig is one of the 'best in the world' for the money it cost to make. The LED pages on my website get more hits than I should guess some pages on this site get (not planted section of course)!!! And the hit count gets larger each month

An effect I can just turn on whenever I like without having to shift lights in and out as the pro guys have to.

This is all in situ part of the system (of course I made it. lol) and may even make some of the pro guys who use 'extra' lighting jealous that I have it there on hand without having to set anything else up. lol

Probs be tomorrow you see it. I've got to sort out about 100 piccies and see whats good and wots not. Be close to 3am when I get done, maybe later

Watch this space. lol

Regards
AC.

 

[PDSimon]

cheers AC.

i'm interested in seeing these pictures

 

[SuperColey1]

August mega update - part 1

A mega update this month. Unfortunately due to my camera breaking and my new camera using xD cards I am still waiting for an adaptor so the pictures here have been taken on a Samsung camera phone.

However whilst messing about getting used to it's 'quirks' I took lots of pictures and I liked quite a few of them. Therefore this.update will be split into 3 parts. This is part 1 and will focus on some major changes I have made to the aquascape.

I have felt for a while that I needed to sort out the midground in the centre and left of the aquascape. Due to the Crypts growing where they wanted to over the last 18 months It had become a little unbalanced and after the foreground was just a mass of stems. I also thinned out the needle fern to let some light down to these areas. Finally two of the anubias have been 'shortened' and the cuttings moved elsewhere.

So no messing about. Out came all the Crypts from this rear corner. 124 in all. I would estimate this to be circa £300 worth of plants.

Once they were out of the tank I laid them out in sizes and then started to replant from the rear left corner with the largest to the midground with the smaller ones.

This was immediately followed by a 50% water change to dilute anything that came out of the 3 year old substrate from this major disturbance. This is the first water change in nearly a year. The process can be seen below.

Regards
AC

 

[SuperColey1]

August mega update - part 2

Part 2 will focus on the livestock within the tank. With the tank thinned out somewhat I can now count the fish properly. I found 3 dried out Rasboras behind the tank. They must have been there a fair while. This tallies with my count of 12.

Of the 10 Cory fry that I put in the tank the runt of the 'litter' died last month. These are a bit harder to count as they are black and also some tend to 'rest' in dark areas whilst others are buzzing around the tank and then swap places. I managed to count 7 of them but 1 is in a poor state with tatty finnage. I don't think this one will survive. The large mother is still there and looking as majestic as always. She really is a stunning fish and pretty big to boot.

The cherry shrimp colony continues to dominate this tank. There is no way of counting these as there are quite literally hundreds. I give some away but each month there are 50+ in my filter alone when I go to clean it. I don't have the heart to let them go into the sink so they go back into the tank.

The MTS are a little more under control. The shrimp see to that. The shrimp are so quick to anything edible that the MTS tend not to find enough food and therefore their colony stays at a noticeable but manageable level.

Regards
AC

 

[SuperColey1]

August mega update - part 3

Part 3 is the outcome of today's endeavours.

The aquascape is looking quite bare at this point but even with no CO2 or ferts these plants grow fast. They may be considered as slow growers by most people but I can assure you that when you know how to grow them they grow fast and pretty thick too.

The Crypts are still looking a little messy but the leaves and stems are a little contorted from their previous positions. I expect them to adjust to face the light and therefore should tidy themselves up.

There is a noticeable space in the centre midground but this should be blocked from view by the needle ferns once they grow back in.

So as the sun sets on a particularly busy day the inhabitants of 'Once upon a time at the riverbank' can look forward to some peace at last.

The mega update completed I wish you goodnight (for now)

Regards
AC

 

[Verminator89]

Wow, Simply stunning. I remember following this on UKAPS when you started setting this tank up.

Vastly improved after it went wild, this will certainly look stunning once filled in again. How long do you bargain for your next water change, another year