Steve's Rio 180 Low Light Planted

[DevUK]

Just pruned and replanted a load of the H.polysperma Didn't realise it had grown so much!

Really need to work on the layout. Its a bit messy and not a lot going on. I sort of know what I want, its just difficult achieving it. Still, I'm leaving it alone for now to make sure things have settled. Planning pressurised CO2 aswell in the next month. Stepping slightly away from the low maintenance/low light setup I was originally after, but I've found it is still quite low maintenance

 

[Themuleous]

Looking good Steve, although mostly for high end tanks, CO2 will benefit most tanks. CO2 is an essential nutrient after all. The way I see it, even in low light tanks give the plants all they need then its only the light that is stopping them growing, that way you have a decent amount of control over how fast things grow, etc.

Sam

 

[DevUK]

Looking good Steve, although mostly for high end tanks, CO2 will benefit most tanks. CO2 is an essential nutrient after all. The way I see it, even in low light tanks give the plants all they need then its only the light that is stopping them growing, that way you have a decent amount of control over how fast things grow, etc.

Sam

Yep, fire extinguisher is sitting next to the tank, awaiting a solenoid and a regulator... Just need to order the regulator I'll write it up properly when I do it.

I'm also planning out the re-scape to start removing some of the H. Polysperma... More to come

 

[DevUK]

Ok. Re-scape ahoy!

Placed an order last night for a large piece of Redmoor wood from AE along with some other bits and bobs (gotta get that free shipping! ) I also have my regulator now, and its all attached to the fire extinguisher. I've ordered some more CO2 tubing to get it all setup correctly, and how I want. I'm starting to think I might not use a solenoid as some of the guys here suggest its good to avoid the PH swings, (thanks again for the solenoid though sam!)

So, my plan is this. On the right side I'll have the redmoor wood lying and branching towards the centre (and possibly beyond, it will be a large piece I think). Around the right side/base of the redmoor I'll have some other bits of bogwood and disguise them with needle leaf java fern, philippine java fern and then some mosses (probably flame or weeping). The mosses will be tied to the redmore in patches too. Also around the base of the redmoor I'll have anubias. Above all this, floating on the surface I'll have amazon frogbit maintaining a shadey end (growing wildly at the moment!)

On the left I'll have a fair few Crypt. Balansae growing along the edge and in the corner, along with a crinum calamistratum or two and maybe some Crypt. Spiralis if I can get some. I'm going to remove the large piece of wood thats in there at the moment and will plant a nice large bunch of Echinodorus latifolius to the right and slightly infront of the crypts and crinums, making a nice clump. Next to this I'll plant possibly some Rotala of some sort. Some sort of stem plant. This will be towards the rear of the tank and cover the middle section (behind some of the redmoor). In front of this I'll hace something either low growing or carpeting, maybe glosso, maybe even some utricularia graminifolia (like I'm planning for my small tank).

Thats about it! Hopefully it will look a lot neater than it does now. Its just rampant hygro. everywhere at the moment. Its a realy jungle at the moment! I'll try and scribble something in photoshop later

 

[DevUK]

Needle Leaf fern ordered, along with some flame moss Waiting on my AE order now... Tomorrow *fingers crossed* !

 

[DevUK]

Well, redmoor wood arrived and it looks fantastic:

Also got the pressurised CO2 up and running. Currently at slightly over 4 or 5 BPS and all doing well No pearling, but I'm not sure I'd really see any...

 

[lisa_perry75]

Update Dev? How swish is the new boglog looking?

 

[DevUK]

Not done much yet Been busy for the last few weekends and I was waiting on some plants

I'm still deciding on final planting aswell. Stuck with what to go with, but I have a good idea...

Stems will hopefully be:
Needle Leaf Ludwigia (Ludwigia arcuata)
Pearl Grass (Hemianthus micranthemoides)

To add to the existing Crypt. Balansae and give more height in the left corner will be Cyperus helferi

I've got about 30 - 40 young shoots (about 6 - 10 rhizomes) of needle leaf java fern, and I've got a couple of nice narrow leaf java fern in another tank which will come into this tank (they've grown well so gives me something mature to look at while the rest grows )

Also got some flame moss. It got stuck in the postal strike with the needle leaf fern, but its not in bad shape. Got it tied to some mesh and in the tank to get it growing

I'm contemplating trying to carpet some glosso in the foreground. I've got not fish that really need a bare substrate so we'll see how that goes

 

[DevUK]

This has sort of stalled of late. The redmoore wood is soaking in the water butt outside and has been for a good 2 weeks or so. I've had a big hair algae outbreak too, and most of my Hygro Polysperma stems melted for some reason Also binned all of my amazon frogbit as it was just being anoying (and was infested with hair algae). It was all a bit disheartening. The tank looks a little bare as I've taken out one of the temp bits of bogwood which had narrow java ferns on it.

Anyway, today I have spent some more money... Ordered 3 10kg sacks of black river sand from AE along with a new tube for the spare light controller I have kicking around. I'll have 110 watts of light when I get that set up. Also ordered the following plants from Greenline:

Ludwigia Arcuata
Cyperus Helferi
Echinodorus Latifolius
Echinodorus Tenellus
Bacopa Monniera

Starting to wonder if I've ordered enough, but I guess I can add more. This is it. Its going to be a major strip down, new substrate, new sand, (mostly) new plants and new wood. I might take some time off next week to get it all sorted...

Edit: Oh yeah, and Chris very kindly sent me some Glosso which arrived today

 

[nry]

Was meaning to send the glosso all week, hope it is OK! The crypt had given the ghost up so not worth sending!

Good stuff that black river sand

 

[DevUK]

deciding if I want to put any substrate under it at the moment. I read a post from Tom Barr a few weeks back in which he said there isn't too much evidence that crypts areactually heavy root feeders, more that the roots are anchors for seasonal fast flowing waters etc. I'm inclinded to think that I'd get away with root tabs and my normal EI dosing.

Thoughts?

 

[nry]

The whole point of EI is that you don't need a nutrient rich substrate, I have seen a few on here without such things who have amazing plants....depends if you are on a real cost saving exercise I guess, it would be a pain to come back in 6 months and think 'oh, I wish I did that'.

 

[mlawson]

They don't need a nutrient rich substrate if you give them additional fertilizers, just like they don't need addiitonal fertilisers if you give them a nutrient rich substrate. I think a lot of aquatic plants (including crypts) are pretty adaptable at changing whether they recieve nutrients from either the substrate or the water column.

 

[DevUK]

Well, Gravel arrived yesterday, plants are sitting next to me at work. We're go for re-scape

I'm going to forget about specific substrate, my CAE likes to burrow under his bog wood cave and when he does it sends tetraplant complete all over the place. I think it'll just be easier to forget about that.

Looking at the plants I ordered, I don't think I've got enough... We'll see I guess.

 

[DevUK]

Well, I spent the best part of yesterday sorting out the tank, and its still not 100% and the fish aren't back in yet. I was a bit anoyed by the plants from Greenline. Whilst good quality, the stems were quite short, averaging about 8 - 10cm or even a little shorter (and longer) in some cases. Because they'd had to be stored for a few days they'd all started to curl and grow funny, but they should strighten up.

I dug out most of the gravel, but decided to leave a layer at the bottom as it was mixed in with the sand (failed "mixed" substrate idea) and Tetraplant. I had enough of the new sand to completey cover it over with about 4cm or so. I got the wood out of the water butt and gave it a scrub and cleansed it. It seems I have bloodworms in my water butt! Something to bare in mind for food at a later date maybe

Anyhow, got it arranged in a way that I think looks OK, and then set about planting. 25 dwarf and 25 pygmy chainswords does not a happy man make I got it all done and dusted by about 12.30am

12 hours from start to finish, with some leisurely breaks in between. Still more to do though