Journal of a Mad Scientist: ADA 120-P (56K warning!)

[dufus]

yea, but that is even more unnatural.

good luck with the erio serge

[Wö£fëñxXx]

Originally Posted by SuRje1976

I saw a couple of pictures on the Plant Profile here that lead me to believe that it is possible that each one of the stalks could open up into a new plant. I was wondering if anyone knew anything about this? I'm having a hard time finding much info online, and none of the books I have handy even contain anything on Eriocaulon at all.

I finally added some information on that last evening, hope it helps, if you have any more questions let me know, hopefully I can answer them for you, and will add it to the comment section for further data on that plant.

[SuRje1976]

Originally Posted by Wö£fëñxXx

I finally added some information on that last evening, hope it helps, if you have any more questions let me know, hopefully I can answer them for you, and will add it to the comment section for further data on that plant.

Thanks Craig - that's great info!

[SuRje1976]

I have not had a "real" day off in a few weeks, but today was my last day of work until next Monday, so I decided to pay some attention to the tank, which as you can see, has been truly neglected, but I don't see any reason to hide this kind of stuff.

One thing worth mentioning, however, is that the issue that I was having with thread/hair algae has completely "subsided" as far as I can tell. If I had to attribute it to something, I'd have to say that it was the army of caridina multidentata that took care of things.

I really like how the tank has been maturing; java fern, Crypts and Anubias are filling in nicely.

So here goes - from 6pm. I couldn't get a good shot because of the light bouncing off of the plants at the surface:




Started "trimmimg" at 10:30pm




Finished at 1:30am:




On the agenda for tomorrow is:
1) Replanting
2) Bleaching Pipes
3) Removing/top-dressing sand
4) Take a couple more pictures to post
5) Testing - been over a month since last testing. We'll see how close the parameters are to where they "should" be.

I will have an update on what I had suspected to be a magnesium deficiency about 2 months ago.

[Nightshop]

Looking great, that's a hell of a lot of trimmings!

How do you remove the AS from the sand? Patience? Or do you just bury it beneath a new layer of sand?

[SuRje1976]

Nightshop - there are hundreds and hundreds of stems there - WAY too many to count! I remove and replace half of the sand to "clean" it. I do NOT have the patience to separate it.

[SuRje1976]

I just took couple of pictures of the tank with the lights on, but no stems. Pretty interesting actually. I may need to refer back to these when I get tired of the constant trimming and need to rescape the background with slower growers!

[unirdna]

Originally Posted by SuRje1976

...but no stems. Pretty interesting actually. I may need to refer back to these when I get tired of the constant trimming and need to rescape the background with slower growers!

That's how I roll. Eventually, everyone gets lazy and leaves stemville.

Looks nice, Sergio. I'm glad you posted a "settled" photo. Now, how are you going to go about cleaning up that aquasoil ? [not trying to be an @$$, but] The left side of your tank is making me pretty satisfied with myself right now for having constructed plexiglass dividers between my AS and the sand in my tank. My recommendation for cleaning that stuff up is to use a 3/8" inside diameter length of tubing to siphon it out. A 1/2" ID tubing creates too strong of a vacuum to allow good control. I use the tubing that came with my mini gravel cleaner. The light/medium suction snaps up the AS without pulling in the sand.

* Sorry if I'm offering advice on something for which you already have a proven method.

[SuRje1976]

LOL - Ted, I do siphon the Aquasoil, and then replace the Brightsand as needed. Thanks for the tip on hose diameter! The divider would solve MOST of my substrate mixing issues, but I have to be honest, I see the shrimp swimming around with pieces of Aquasoil and dropping it into the sand like little bombers, mostly to pi$$ me off I think. I did inadvertently kill half of them off with the calcium fiasco a couple of months ago.

[SuRje1976]

Just keeping up with the play-by-play:

Left:




Center:




Right:




My favorite view - from the couch!




I still need to:
1) Bleach Pipes
2) Clean up/top dress sand
3) Test
4) More Pictures? Maybe in a couple days...

[kunerd]

wonderful tank. i must admit that i ran out of pages to click to. Read the whole thing past hour

[FelixAvery]

looks stunnign
instead of siphoning AS OUT you could try siphoning sand IN thats what i do and it works a treat

[Raul-7]

Looks great Sergio!

Ted while agree a divider will help, the rocks themselves (positioned as a barrier) are supposed to act as a natural divider. I think the mixing substrates arises when it's time to trim and replant.

[SuRje1976]

Sand Cleaned! Took about 15 minutes. Siphoned top layer off and replaced with fresh sand.










Still need to bleach the pipes. I'll do that tonight, after the baby goes to bed.

[zergling]

Wow!! Amazing job on cleaning it up!!!

are those rotala macaranda on the back left?