Aquascape in progress

[magicmagni]

Had some time on my hands so I decided to redo my 10 Gallon "quarantine" tank. Wanted to try some rock arrangements and also simulate a grassy field.

Hardware: Aquaclear HOB filter, no C02 (maybe a mini pressurized Co2 system later) 2 screw in 20W department store "energy savers bulbs", Eco-complete/ Flourite substrate.

Plants: So far mostly hairgrass, but there are a few Riccia stones in there to vary the texture a bit. Also a few plantlets of Echinodorus Tenellus. Still to add glosso or HC depending on what I can get my hands on.

Fish: Half a dozen cherry red shrimp, 5 Rasboras, 3 panda cory cats, 1 oto cat.

Setting it up.... Step 1



Step 2....


Step 3... No filter yet so it's a little cloudy


Step 4... All cleared up fish added. That's it for now. Just some more foreground plants to add later.

[Jdinh04]

Wow not bad of a scape, it looks fantastic!

[aquaphish]

Looks nice!!! I am always amazed to see small tanks with a neat aquascape. I will be doing two 5 gals. for some bettas very soon. Will use your tank for inspiration!!!

[magicmagni]

Thanks! This was a fun tank to set up. I never really worked with rocks to this extent before, but I just studied other folks tanks as well as some from Nature Aquarium World book 1 and the went for it. The hardest thing for me when doing this scape was restraining myself from putting more types of plants and fish, but now that I look at it I am really happy with the results.

Here is an updated picture with the foreground planted with some Glosso that I picked up from the plant swap today. Hopefully there is enough light for them, but not too much that it becomes invasive.

[Marc]

sweet! nice layout Jeff. Cant wait till the co2 system is set up.

[mrbelvedere]

Are you putting in any background plants? Looks great thus far but I would use a few vals or something like that for the back.

[magicmagni]

Thanks Marc. I'm gonna post some pics of the co2 system when I get it set up. Can't wait to start playing around with it.

mrbelvedere138: On this tank there will not be any background plants. I wanted to simulate an open field, although the thought of using Cyperus helferi (val like plant) in the back corners did cross my mind. I tried it out, but decided it threw off the scale of the tank. It seemed to make the tank feel smaller than it was and I wanted it to look bigger than it was so I decided to utilize more open space to accomplish this.

[Craiger]

Excellent layout! I've got an extra 10G and a 5G just sitting with nothing in them. Perhaps it's time to get them going with something like this.

[Wiggawam]

I really like that mix of the two substrates!

[magicmagni]

Just got a new toy from a brown truck today. I pieced together a "nano Co2" system for the tank. It is a pressurized system that uses disposable Cartridges. It is almost identical to the system ADA sells, but less expensive. Here's a pic



And a link to the thread that got me interresting in this (thanks Marc)

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/f...0684#post80684

[bpm2000]

Thats awesome! How long would something like that last?

[Marc]

SWEET! Jeff, nice job. what bubble rate were you able to set the valve to?

[medicineman]

Gack.. teeny weenie bottle for nano tanks.... how cute. I never know such thing exsisted and that regulator to fits. I hope it can last 1 month or otherwise back to DIY or the bigger fella.

[magicmagni]

We'll see how long it lasts. I'm hoping a couple of months at least. Note that I did loose a little Co2 when setting up. Due to a leaky solenoid vavle, but I don't think that it's enough to make much of a difference.

Marc: The lowest I've tried is 2 bubbles a minute, but I am now up to 4 bubbles a minute.

I've never used a diffuser before, but for some reason I thought that it would put out a finer mist. Most of the bubbles come out of only one spot on the disk and float right to the top. I would have thought they would float around the tank more. It's brand new so I don't think it could be clogged yet. Anyways going to fine tune the bubble rate over the next few days to dial it in.

[magicmagni]

I did get the Co2 situation stable for now. I was having problems with the solenoid leaking so I removed it a few days after initial setup so I'm injecting C02 24/7 for now at a bubble rate of 1 per second. I also removed the diffuser because it wasn't working well. I've always had good luck with powered reactors so I decided to try one of those Venturi Reactors that Tom Barr designed. The whole setup has been running "dialed in" and untouched for the last 10 days. Co2 pressure still holding steady.

Here's a pic of the one I built:



It's working extremely well. It distributes minutely small C02 "mini bubbles" throughout the tank that flow in the current of the tank and settle on the leaves of the plants. These are smaller than any diffuser that I've seen in action and the nice thing is that it needs virtually no maintenance in comparison to a diffuser.

It's powered with this http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Produc...5&N=2006+22768
It is the one on top of the page. It is smaller than any power head measures approximately 1-3/4" x 1-3/4" x 1-3/4" and has an adjustable flow rate of up to 60 gal/hr. A nice feature is that it has suction cups to attach it to the glass and it can also run for 30 days dry before failure.