So, I finally decided to spoil myself a bit and get a Mini M setup with all the bells and whistles (well, mostly). I've got some pretty sweet manten stone and am currently just waiting on a few more items that were on backorder etc. to get to the good stuff. Here's a teaser shot, though.
Who knew playing with rocks would be this hard. The bottom right stone is just really oddly shaped...but the top has a great hue and features to it. It's a bit annoying to soften the edges to make it look right but I think I did an alright job. Moved the stones around on the left to give it a more open look as opposed to cluttered. Four stones apparently signifies death, so I'm rather reluctant to remove that top left stone but I think the scape benefits moreso from not having it...
Got tired of working with the rocks and had a nice talk with Frank about them (this doesn't mean that everyone else's input was null and void; every input was valuable to me and I tried them all) and ended up deciding on a single stone scape. The main rock is large enough to support itself and for an aquarium this size, it works well as a single scaping feature. It was also quite convenient as I had forgotten to put Clear Super in on top of the Bacter 100 :icon_redf. I want this to be as much about the plants as I do the rock. Glosso and DHG Belem foreground, Riccia and H. tenellum placed randomly around the aquarium (DHG will also be placed randomly to accent the Riccia and blend the scape together) and E. acicularis with H. tenellum will create a lovely natural background (plus the roots will hold the slope well). The plant order has been placed and should be here sometime mid/late next week, maybe sooner depending on how their shipping is working this week since I'm not 100% on how it'll be. I wish you guys could see the purplish hues this rock has....it's really something else and my iPhone (even after several attempts of focusing different object to correct the color balance) can't do them justice.
How much lower and why? What happened in your tank that made the substrate depth a bad thing? Actual substrate height in the front is 1.5" and height in the back is 4" for reference.
I agree with Kiran. I wish mine were lower too. Space is so limited; it just seems like a waste to use so much for foreground plant roots. It turns into this annoying 2" horizontal brown stripe across the bottom of your otherwise beautiful layout. I wonder if Amano factored in the constant battle with evaporation? That's 1/2" of viewing pleasure lost on any given day in my house.
1.5" honestly isn't that much...I don't see it as a distraction at all. Evaporation shouldn't be too horrible. If it gets out of hand I've got a glass top (which will likely be used the first few weeks anyway to prevent any jumpers). Push come to shove it's just topping it off with RO water.
Tank is planted. I'll post a picture of it when it clears up but everything went alright....for the most part. I underestimated the power of the 2211 filter and ended up getting my substrate line annihilated and a valley on the opposite side of the outflow. It's turned down to about 50% now to keep that from happening and still blowing CO2 around just fine.
Side note: For nanos, or any tank that's honestly in the 20-40g range...one pot of any carpeting/background plant is fine. I've got extra pots of E. acicularis and glosso that I can't do anything with.
cant wait to see the pic! I ruined my substrate line too, but it was when I was planting the glosso and trying to replant all the ones that floated to the top. lol
It's that, and the penac in the substrate making the soil "fluffy" from the oxygen bubbles. It's definitely got more volume in the front. It's funny, because I can hit the board that the tank is on with my palm and bubbles come up from the soil. Here's how the tank looks right now. There's not much surface agitation right now because the filter is throttled down. I'll drain it down a bit tonight to get some more oxygenation going and then finish draining it when I get out of class. Pro Razor Mini is definitely a great buy. I'm in love with hoe functional it is. One of my pet peeves about manual scraping of the glass is it tends to upset the substrate a bit too much from hand movement...it's almost non existent with this lovely little tool. Comes with 2 razors so you won't have to buy for a while.
Plants all came in very well except the riccia. The description on the website was extremely misleading. What was supposed to be a tennis ball sized portion of riccia was about the size of a 3-high stack of single saltine crackers and absolutely infested with duckweed/wateremal (I couldn't distinguish) and the quality was pretty rough. Nothing like Frank's picture of his lovely fluffy green mass. I only had enough for 4 small stones (which, is fine) after separating the riccia out. Hopefully it'll grow in well. I've still got a pot of E. acicularis and glosso floating in my 20 right now....not sure what I'll do with them since the 20 and 10 are loaded down as well. 1 pot of glosso is enough to fully plant a 20L if you separate them right, maybe even a 40B.
Here's the tank. The manten shows these amazing purple hues once wet...it's really spectacular. The tank is a bit cloudy, but oh well. It'll be better tomorrow. Not rinsing NA Carbon = black water of death while priming the filter. Luckily I caught it all in a pitcher until it ran clean. Penac bubbles are awesome. So are the little lazer beam spotlights from the AQUASKY. :hihi:
Same fish I just posted about in your journal. The stone thing was a result of wanting more plants vs stone accents. I think it'll look wonderful once it fills.
Will do. I'll just plant them as single sections to cover more ground.
Edit: decided to just go ahead and do it. Added 19 more glosso plantlets in less planted areas. It definitely looks fuller. First trim for glosso should be in about a week or so I believe.
50% water change, 4 drops of Green Bacter. Additional Glosso was planted last night. No brown stuff to trim at the moment, so that's good. The black bits on my diffuser are actually some carbon residue that got in there from a little mishap. It's not affecting the diffuser so I'm not worried about it right now. A little bleach will fix that come maintenance time. Water finally cleared up a bit!
When you get ready for needing glassware cleaning - get with me. I've got a Clean Bottle and Superge with your name on it. I'm not sure what is in Superge exactly, but it cleans + polishes the glassware within about 10-15 minutes of being used (so you can do it in the middle of your water changes).
The flow is cut 50% and there's still a very slight ripple. They create a nice ripple at full flow even being at that height. The only time I agitate the surface more is at night by lowering the water level a bit.
Can't wait to see it either. All of it is staying down except for one piece I had to replant when I got home. The 2211 really puts out! I'm very impressed.
50% water change, 3 drops Green Bacter, 1 squirt Brighty K.
Nothing out of the ordinary on this one. There's actually already a little bit of noticeable growth. Pretty impressive. Trimmed a few browning bits of hairgrass.
Great start. Looks good. I wish I could see that stone in person. I'm sure pics don't do it justice. Any chance of you posting a HD youtube video when filled in?
Greetings. Great sсape! Why you do not add Green gain? In the first week is necessary. Bryghty K can be added from the second week. Pay great attention to the amount of CO2. Overdose may end in failure, as here. P.S.My Mini M
Thanks! I don't use Green Gain right now because it's really only necessary after trimming. That, and I don't have any right now. I'll be here Tuesday. CO2 is in good condition and I lower the water level for extra aeration via the outflow for 14 hours.
Can question? Why so much? Why did you decide not to follow the instructions ADA? In the Mini M about 15-18 liters of water. According to the instructions needed to make a drop for every 10 liters of water. It turns out that two drops is the maximum dosage, if you follow the instructions. Why did you decide to increase the dose of Green bacter? I do not want to teach you, I'm just wondering why you do that?
It should be fine. Almost all of it is pearling and growing a bit.
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