Rewarding Myself To New Aquarium

[KirkyArcher]

Well found time to move along, sorry that a few stages have been omitted. Tank water stats had been stable for quite a while, good old bio media sharing speeded up cycling process, plants finally arrived from Seapets after a very long wait 

in the form of Cryptocoryne Beckettii, Pogostemon Erectus, Alternanthera reineckii 'Mini' and Eleocharis 'Mini' along with recycled & cuttings from plants from my other tanks that include some Rotala Wallichii cuttings, Cryptocoryne wendtii 'red' and some regular Eleocharis, (may add some Vallis variants or Rotala rotundifolia and some more Eleocharis 'Mini' if if think they are required) Some fish introduced over the past week, Co2 system installed and running, along with full tank length spraybar and 5 LED Blue moonlight lighting (very weak light may need revising) to run for 2 hours after main lights switch off.

 
(Today) 4 days after planting

 

[KirkyArcher]

Well after suffering continuing cloudy water for almost a month with absolutely no sign of improvement I have cut my loses and have cleared out the tank, removed the JBL Aqua-basis Plus the dirt from under the gravel, (wasn't too bad each morning but on return home from work was churned up either from I believe the Tiger Barbs or the Corydoras Agassizii having a good old root about amongst the plants and gravel even though there was at least 3cm of gravel on top of the dirt, So now I have a fine gravel/coarse sand substrate with 10 tetra crypto tabs buried in it, and I have changed one of the Life Glow tubes with a Power Glow that came with the tank as I also had the onset of a Green-spot Algae outbreak

 even with the "plant friendly" substrate plant growth/health was not that impressive either and probably far less than in my other tanks which just have sand or gravel in them.

 

[Blondielovesfish]

thats a shame it didn't work out the best!

 

[KirkyArcher]

After putting in the JBL Aqua-basis Plus (which I believe is peat moss based), I have since read that several other people have had issue with it, though not everyone specified what the trouble actually was! Ph of water still remained at 7.4 (roughly that of the tap water) I do know that Aqua-basis Plus does contain "clay pellets" that are supposed to act as a nutrient store, and to be quite honest with the water being a grey milky colour I think that may have been the ultimate cause, Huge and frequent water changes didn't make much effect for very long so I ruled out bacterial and algal blooms.  

 

[Ch4rlie]

That sounds really annoying actually having gone through all that trouble only to have the substrate giving you problems with cloudy water due to perhaps those 'clay pellets' nutrients!
 
Good to know for me! But unfortunately for you, you learned the hard way!
 
Hope when you replace substrate that you will have no more issues with cloudy water.
 
Think I would have been tearing my hair out in frustration after all these water changes to no avail!
 
Good luck with new substrate!

 

[KirkyArcher]

Well water tested fine so fish went back in after an overnight stabilising period, and so far water has remained Crystal clear
 

 
Took the opportunity to attach the background properly removing the trapped air bubbles and did a little hardscaping alteration including adding
my cleaned rocks that I plundered from my local waterway 

 
Also was getting very frustrated by the middle panel in the Roma 200 stand, it was fixed in place and really awkward to get at power supplies and filter 
so I determined that it couldn't possibly be load bearing so I've unscrewed it and fitted magnetic catches and dowels to hold it in place and make it easy
to remove for access. 
 

 
Probably more pleased with that than the clear water to be honest 

 
And finally altered the shelving, well cut the existing one down so that it would fit with the 306 in situ.
 

 

[daizeUK]

Nice job on the cabinet!
I like the big list of API kit instructions LOL

 

[KirkyArcher]

Simplified so that I can understand them DaizeUK and no foreign language pages getting in the way

 

[Ch4rlie]

Looking good all round.
 
Liking that cabinet setup, neat and tidy and a place for everything.
 
Clear water and fish looks good.
 
Nicely done!

 

[Blondielovesfish]

Good to know the cloudy water is resolved!
 
Under your Cabinet looks very neat and organised!

 

[Blobfish]

I will be interested to see this tank progress now that you have identified the issues and fixed them.

 

[KirkyArcher]

 

 
Well just a quick update, water quality/clarity remains excellent probably improved a lot since 1st removing the JBL Aqua-basis Plus
and these reduced sized images doesn't do it justice. bottom pic is looking end on through 39" of water.
Filter in the background is in place and full of carbon not to aid water clarity but I mistakenly assumed that the strange new smell was from
the water, but no it was from the plastic section of the canopy lid I replaced with some laminated stuff from work
(I didn't want to cut up original section to allow room for pipes and cables but looks like I may well have too pretty soon) ,
So when the heat generated from the lights warms it up it begins to stink, Good to have this journal to actually see some plant growth by comparing photo's
I realised that the Pogostemon Erectus had slow to moderate growth rate but it does seem painfully slow

but at least things must be settling down as they're not shedding leaves anymore.

 

[Blondielovesfish]

Looks great!
 
Glad to know the water quality is so much better!

 

[KirkyArcher]

Things looking a little bit bigger and brighter, few diatoms on plant leaves and stones, and a tinge of green algae on the wood, but the newly introduced Otos are loving it

 

[daizeUK]

Wow looking gorgeous!  lovely colours you've got there.
I see crypt beckettii at the front, is that wendtii at the back?
Also love your choice of fish.  Are they glowlight rasbora?