Keltezaa, 150CM x 70W x 70W Aqua Jurnal

Sooo, it has been a while since the last update. Well i got all the stuff as listed but then Novembers pay check went straight to Santa... damn that fat man...
Anywayz. While i was prepairing for the aquascape i decided to move my minature bristle nose fishies into my nice tank to clean off the soft wood stubs and stuff from the recently purchased wood. Haha nice supprize... since there are only BN in that tank... thai paired off and started breeding... lol totaly unexpected... the babies are now 7 weeks old. And another batch are 5weeks... aquascape is placed on hold untill these little okes are big enough to sell / trade / share.... i will upload share some pics soon. But the older batch are about 15mm long , head is about 3mm... i have a mixed batch. Dont know how. But there are a few albino and a few normal dark, with white spots and a small white edge on the tail. Adult size is about 90-120mm ... yup nice minitures for planted tank...


Ka-chaaa...

 

Well well, by accident comes providence new babies ,
About your planned scape, would it help if I posted some rock pics for you, Where i live there are a couple of nice nature scenes, which i would have liked to cut out and place in my tank as is, you seem to have the hang of it to work with fibre glass.. I suck at it. Then I think I understand what you wanted to do with the plant trays, especially if you moulded the rock scape to form baskets where into you could place the baskets.
Have you been able to collect any other hardscape materials?

 

Greetings guys,

First I want to thank everyone who have aided me so far with loads of advice. Directly and indirectly via your existing threads.

Soon after I made the last post, I added the wood in the tank, no substrate, so that it can mature and the tannis can leach out. I added the basic equipment, filter, heater, air also. A weel later a friend gave me 6 minature, common Bristlenose pleco's.. i decided to add them to the tank to chew on the wood, and help seed the filter media. Well supprise , supprise... ... those buggers started breeding..
Guess it was boring in the half empty tank, so they engaged in other activitys...

This was a dubble blessing, cause it gave me some time to search for more methods, and advice, before I officialy start, and I now have a rough estimate of 150 baby pleco's.

So after moving them to a grow out tank last week, I started preparing for my scape, and getting everyting I need ready.
Thanks to Brandon from BLA Aquatics who bought, packaged, and redistributed some Osmocote, I was as ready as I can be...

THE SETUP:

I added the various mixed sand to the bottom layer (40kg pool sand + 50kg Blastrite mix + 12kg, 2nd hand old school Aquarium gravel). Placed my hardscape, and sprinkled about half a tea cup, of Osmocote all over the bottom layer, ... covered the osmocote with 2-3 inch thk ADA aquasoil, 3x 9L bags, and capped it all with 50kg Blastright black sand. Added some underwater lights i had laying around. Placed the 2x CO2 diffusers in strategic positions so theat they are allmost invisible, and close to the under water lights, so they can create a nice luminated bubble tower or somethhing.... I will be adding the planst soon and update the photo's.

But here is some photo's of what it looks like now...

PS That CD in the tank are only there for scale, and it was a a prank gift from a friend, it contains Justin Bieber Music... so I was not worried about
destroying it...



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in this picture you, just a little to the left and below the middle rock there is a shiny white spot, that is the location of my diffuser, with pipes hidden under the gravel.....




in this picture the second CO2 diffuser was hidden in the "roots" in the bottom... right, just below my hand and brush. a small white spec shows the location.... kinda hard to see


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allthough still without water in the final picture, it will soon be filled and planted.... and some tidy-up and hiding of tupes and stuff...



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hope you like it

cheerz
Kelt

 

Tank is coming on nicely, can't wait to see it with the plants in as well!

 

Nice start. but what type of rocks are those? if the dolomite rock its gonna make your water as hard as hell. been there.

 

Hello Ivan. Thank you.
Yes I think you may be correct. Most of the back bigger rocks are possably Dolomite.
If dolomite are the rock they use when mixing concrete for foundation or floors.
Or those rocks under rail lines. Yes they look the same.




As for the other front rocks they are simlar to these.



I was hoping the wood would help to balance it out.
What else can I add to my tank to help with this?

I suppose the rocks will have to be removed,, I will do so if i can find affordable rocks of simlar size in the near future. The last rock I bought was the one my wife is wearing...lol..

I am fully aware of what benefits there are in Dragon rock and Lava rock. But I cant seem to convince myself to pay those amount of money for a rock, in the sizes I want and the qty I need.
Wood and spider wood is a totaly diffrent matter. But to get those sizes would prob. cost me close to 1000 Madiba's, and I know there must be some alternative. Cheaper option.

So If any one have good alternatives please share.
Until then I would like to know how to keep my water acceptably softer.
I will do regular GH and KH tests.

On an entirely diffrent matter.... I am also looking for some SAE please
If anyone know wherebi can get some. Let me know...

Thank you all.

 

true that...
i will do the RO for now,
i know they sell the 5- stage home units, i have one here, but the filters need replacing anyway...

what filters to you sugest i get...

i will try to get the SAE next weekend , if my budget still allow it after this comming weekend...
going to party like there is no tomorrow,,,

if i make a DIY filter system to cycle my tank water, and not replace it ... will it effect the fertz in the water column or only the GH

just a thought...

thanx

 

You can recycle your tank water, but you would need a pump to get the pressure up. But, just because you can does not mean that it is clever..

You put contaminated water through the RO unit you will clog up the filters too quickly, it does not make sense to do so.

Now about rocks.. hike, go to landscape places and just keep an eye for it.

Granite is good rock to use.. at 80c a kilo, you can buy huge boulders..

 

Thanx guys. My tank have been running for a week now rocks and all. The only change is I added the plants stil in their pots. (I know I should have removed them from the pots) but i simply did not have the time I have been away. Anyway. I also added some Excel as per recomended dose.
I will do a water test with my tank water and compare it to my tap water. To see if there are a significant change.
And will repeat the tests every week. I am fortunate to have the "koi" complete test kitt that have solvents to test everything from Cu, Fe, no, Na, GH, pH, KH and more....

One question though. How long kan you use the stuff after opening. I have the kit for just over a year now
I will update some time this week when i get back home...

Thanx..

 

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Hello guys, I am looking for nice foreground carpet plants...
PM me if you have some i can get,

Thank you

 

Hay Guys, it has been a while since the last pictures we shared, I just did not get around to doing it, but here are the more recent update on the tank...



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I know the photo's is a week ago, I will take some more in another week or two.
but i have been trimming some down a bit that needed some maintenance either from some algae or that was growing so fast it did 5-10cm in one week... I still need to increase my lighting, the DIY light covers are build, bit i still have to find the time to do the over head "hanger" and do the wiring.

as you can see my algae is mainly limited to the rocks and wood. I do kinda like the green top.
Recently bought "supposed to be" SAE from a local guy, ut they are "somewhere" in the tank... it is kinda overgrown at the moment.
I can really see the difference my substrate provides, my crypt is much dark greener compared to another low tech tank, and when my lights are up, other plants will really jump up...

side info,
pH 6.0-6.5
GH 5

will do more tests but need to go buy the kits.

Thanx and please share your thoughts, proposed changes or recommendations...




Cheerz for now

 

Hello all, Long time since I Last visited here. Things got a little out of hand and no time to sit down. Most of the Miniature BN plecos found a nice and cosy home. Some that were kept grew to 2-3 inch young adults as I understand it, and have a few more babies looking for a home. Babies are about 1 inch.

That was for the Good news...

Bad news is I lost the contents of the entire planted tank. After a total unexplained fish wipe out, I was totally discouraged and started to neglect the plants too.. only a few tough plants linger. I may have been knocked down, but I am getting back up.

In time I will clean and re-scape, thus far my plan is to do a "soft" look with mainly foreground plants and carpets to form some thing that resemble a rice patty field... below is a picture of something I am aiming for... but getting a big tank to look like this will be a bit challenging.
But I gladly take on the challenge.




Please Submit some plants that is recommended, and any advice and suggestions.
Any suggestions as to what to build the "mountain" structure from coz to fill a big slope like this will take 200L-300L of substrate
tank is 1.5m long, 0.7M wide and 650 deep. will need some strong light for carpets at that depth. currently have 6 T-5's
As for Fauna, I am aiming for tetra, cory, SAE and shrimps...

I have some time, and need to build up some resources.

Keep well
Kelt