unirdna's ADA 90P

[dapellegrini]

Excellent setup and awesome photo journal!

[macclellan]

top notch setup.

ditto on the unnaturalness of the driftwood. I'd add that the same might be said about the peacock moss hedges. They need to broken up somehow (intersperse some anubias nana 'golden', you can obviously afford those ). I love the idea, and peacock is my favorite moss, it just needs tweaked a bit.

[Cwickham]

thats looking awsome so far... stand is amazing

[unirdna]

Thanks for the kind words. I'm glad to be able to share this with you because man has it taken a lot of work (and research).

And I appreciate your aquascaping advices, but lets let it grow in a bit before we start rearranging the wood . Believe me, I have invested a lot of thought into this, and I need to see things develop before I start tearing it up .

[Nightshop]

Yet another wow reply. You deffinately have chosen the right components for success. I'm still deciding whether or not I approve of the wood placement, but you know, you really can't judge the scape on day one. Excellent job!

[jeffboyarrdee]

this is an awesome setup unirdna! I will eventually set something up like this, but i had already invested in my 50 gallon a tek lights a while ago. Maybe in the future ill be able to go with the ADA style tanks that are larger....so far i only have a 45cm ADA...

[Jessica]

I am so thrilled to see the final design with that Manzanita!

You really planned this out to the detail and took your time. Nice work, it'll pay off beautifully.

[TheOtherGeoff]

thats really cool.

[unirdna]

I'm not usually prone to rapid updates, but this one is significant, and I wanted it documented.

The first week went a little rough. Ammonia was constantly present - around 4ppm. Fungus was growing on the driftwood. And to ice the cake, when I tried to clean the glass, I was continuously bumping the driftwood. Now, I mentioned that I wanted to give the aquascape a shot. But, I am not a big fan of dancing around the driftwood every other week. And then, I knocked over the left side .

Add the fact that the peacock moss was growing "out and up" not along the wood, and it was clear that a redo was in the making. Jon warned me that peacock moss isn't much for grabbing wood, but I went forward with it anyway because I liked the look of it.

Changes made:

- Removed all peacock moss from all wood (including all of the small pieces - ugh).
- Wood was then wrapped with Taiwan moss. A few extra small pieces were added.
- Cleaned all fungus off drifwood.
- Removed about 30% of the driftwood and rescaped using a vertical expression. No wood touches glass, now - making cleaning very easy.
- Transplanted established Eheim Substrat from another filter to more quickly establish the N-cycle.
- Added Eheim carbon pad to filter
- Recharged Purigen - it was red with tannins.
- Trimmed off bulky leaves of bolbitis.
- I upgraded my CO2 tank from 5lb to 10lb (I still need to clean things up under there)
- Finally, I removed the drywall background and replaced it with a piece of foam-core board - cut to size.

[Nightshop]

Excellent improvement!

I think the whole "no wood touching glass" theory improved the tank.

[KDahlin]

That's really nice, although I liked the first scape as well. Maybe some needle leaf java fern?

[nornicle]

Ted, what are you dosing with in terms of liquid ferts?

or what do you intend to dose with and how much?

oh btw how long did it take to build the cabinet.. it looks beautiful and I want to give it a go as well!

Cheers

Richard

[unirdna]

kDahlin,

There is some needle java in there - just not much.....yet. You can see it tied to the wood on both sides (look closely).

Richard,

I have only dosed potassium (via K2SO4) - nothing else. I don't intend to dose much (if anything) in the way of NO3 or PO4. There's plenty of N coming from the Aquasoil. Eventually, when the tank fills up, I may need to start dosing. I'll do this on a "need" basis, and then sparingly.

The cabinet took 2.5 days. It could be done quicker, if you were willing to cut a few corners - I wasn't. Every piece is exact, and the top dimensions match the tank perfectly. It would likely take you only an afternoon if you used MDF and painted it - even less time if you used screws instead of biscuit joints.

[zig]

Best step by step journal I have seen in a while.......great work!

definitely prefer the rescape but can appreciate the effort and time you put into the first layout, this has happened to me as well, enjoy your tank, looks great so far.

[Betowess]

Ted, I'm sure you are aware of this. Can you lower the light just for photo shoots to clear the top 1/3 reflection - or maybe be able to swing/pivot the light towards the back to do same? Going to look sweet. But it looks like you took out some of the wood too.