The Juwel Jungle

[Duck and Dive]

Hi,

Specs

Tank: Juwel Rio 180 black with stand
Lighting: 2x 45W tubes one nature and one day
Filtration: Juwel Bioflow, pump 600gb. May add external later on.
Co2: None, might be getting a unit soon.
Fertilising: Using some tetra plantmin, really need more concentrated stuff though.
Plants: Anubis, vallis, giant vallis, java fern, java moss, glossostigma elatinoides, *checking other names*
Decor: Some slate to form slate cave, bogwood, * minds gone blank what is the wood in the middle!*
Heater: 200W juwel.
Fish: 4 swordtails, 2 guppies, 2 platies, 2 bristlenose (albino longfin), 3 cories from my breeding group still need to add the other 6.

I decided to take down all my small tropical tanks and get one larger one instead as the were so many extension leads and they looked pretty naff really.

So I bought a Juwel Rio 180 amd decided to do a planted setup. Here is a shot of the tank empty:

Filled with some fine black gravel, the gravel gets deeper towards the back on a gentle slope:

The hose going through the window to the upstairs bedroom (added decholorinator):

Added a slate cave:

Put a few plants around the cave including anubis and a bit of vallis (both from my old tank):

There was around a 2 week gap from then to this picture. Added a load of mature media to it from my biOrb, and a whole filters mature media from my 60L (It has two filters on it one large and one small, I took the media from the small one). Added a few fish at a time there is I think 7 livebearers including a few guppies platies and swordtails. Now I just have to wait for the vallis and other plants to grow a bit now to cover some of the back.Here is the pic:

I will be adding more pictures soon as it has changed a bit as I have added some glossostigma elatinoides to create a carpet effect, It is still growing though as I added it 3 days ago. The big gap at the back is now more filled with plants as they have done really well and grown a lot.

I shall get some more recent pictures soon.

 

[Gill]

Wow that is really Nice

 

[lljdma06]

Wow that is really Nice

I love insta-tanks.

Make sure to aim for 10x turnover with your filter.

llj

 

[Purity]

that is sweet. You make me green with envy.

 

[Duck and Dive]

Thanks for the comments !

Any suggestions for improvements? Any good plants which would look nice in it?

 

[Purity]

I think that red lotus thingy would look nice. It's called like a Red Tiger Lotus maybe? In the middle of the bit of driftwood?

 

[Duck and Dive]

I'll see if I can get some.

 

[keenonfish]

Looks great

 

[Duck and Dive]

The Pump on the filter is a 600gb. Does that mean it does 600lph? Sorry to sound stupid.
Also can anyone tell me what the plant is in my avatar which is also in the main shot of the tank along the back?

Thanks

 

[mixmaster jay]

yeah it will be around there mate 6oo lph

very nice planting mate looks fantastic

 

[Duck and Dive]

Managed to get a few more pics. All the plants seem to have grown rapidly over the past week, especially the vallis and this plant which I am not sure of the name:

The vallis which has grown a lot aswell:

The carpet starting too take place (glossostigma elantinoides):

The main shot of it now needing a bit of pruning:

Sorry about the breeding trap yellow pintail platy gave birth! Going to add some siamensis soon too keep the algea at bay, had no problems with algea at the moment *reaching to touch some wood and falling off seat laptop gone flying * Also going to try the yeast Co2 method tommorow after reading aarons thread.

No luck in finding any tiger lotus yet Still lookin

Any suggestions anyone?

 

[Duck and Dive]

Added a Co2 kit to the tank yesterday, haven turned it on yet though.

Ahh the wood I touched was fake!!! I am getting little bits of hair algea on my anubis and is starting on my slate cave! What should I do? I have added 2 siamensis and will be adding some amano shrip ang cherry shrip tomorrow.

On a higher note my corydoras are about to spawn for the second time!

 

[Duck and Dive]

Co2 now on and got a external filter which is 3L and does 800lph.

So now that is 600 + 800 = 1400. Which is 8x turnover per hour.

Plants are looking a lot better now with added Co2 siamensis seem to have eaten the hair algea, but the glossostigma elantinoides does not seem to be growing much at all, any ideas?

 

[RadaR]

Make sure flow is getting to the glosso and bump up the CO2 and nutrients. Are you dosing any nitrates and phosphates (tetra plantmin doesn't contain these, only trace elements).

 

[Duck and Dive]

I have tetra Co2, almost run out of plantamin, i'll see what else my lfs have. Any recomendations on fertiliser?

I'll also see if I can get some more pictures of it tonight, I also managed to add 6 cherry shrimp yesterday.