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oldpunk's 60cm

14K views 76 replies 22 participants last post by  oldpunk78 
#1 · (Edited)
If you've opened this page to look at a cool tank, you're in for a little dissapointment.

I haven't started yet.

You can however read pointless neanderings that don't really have to do with anything.

Carry on.
 
#2 ·
Alright, Hudson is back to his happy self.

I've got 3 types of lighting I can go with. Led, t5ho, and hqi. Kinda leaning towards the leds but I still like the way t5s light up the tank.

I still have all of my co2 stuff so that's a go. I kinda want to try a cerges reactor this time. I have a couple inline atomizers but didn't care the maintenance involved.

The filter will be a xp3. Does anyone make plastic pipes anymore? I break the glass ones. ..

As far the scape goes, I need ideas. I think by now by I've seen it done just about every way possible. I like nature style but have only really pulled it off once. With all of my past tanks I've used locally collected manzanita. Probably not going to go that route thus time. So I guess I'm either going Dutch or rock. Heavily leaning towards the rocks.

Thinking about doing something like sand in front and rock piled in the back. Not going to do a carpet this time. I have plenty of aquasoil for the planted sections.

Plants. Oh the plants. I really the look of ferns. I've also never really mastered stems but am up for whatever if someone makes a good suggestion. I also love crypts and have lots of success with them in the past. The one thing that I've noticed though is that most of the grow too big to not be the main focus in a smaller tank. Hmmm.... see... I can't make up my mind at all here. A simple scape with minimal pruning would be best for me. Most days I come home from work dead on my feet. Doing more than forts probably isn't going to happen very often.

So to reiterate, given what I have to work with, would would you do?
 
#3 · (Edited)
Haha, even a busy father needs a hobby!

First off, I would like to thank you for contributing so much to this hobby and forum.
Your guides and advice along with bettatail's and darkblade's helped me setup my first CO2 system!
You guys rock (as well as the countless others who responded to my noob threads)!

Anyway back to the topic! I saw a nice nano set up using ohko stones (aka dragon stones) recently that maybe can inspire you for your 16g or 20 long.
If I can find the link I'll post it right away, but either way they look pretty cool and a lot of great setups utilize them.

For low maintenance, I literally just purchased some Crypt parva from the sale section for that exact reason as a gift for my brother.
He as well has almost no time for maintaining his 20 long, so I consider it a good fit for him!
It grows extremely slow, stays short and they're used as a foreground plant!

Stems seem to grow faster for me than root plants, not sure if there are extremely slow growing ones out there... Maybe some alternanthera reineckii mini since they stay relatively short and IMO don't require much pruning and special conditions, but they're still able to stay a nice red.

Any reason for not doing carpet?


Editaroo:

I found the scapes with it!
http://25.media.tumblr.com/8d8247ae536c94ae60074e624fbff05d/tumblr_mt7n8mKwkc1rfc73zo2_1280.jpg

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=347802
(posts 15 and 17)
 
#5 ·
Yea the island look is a great one that I'll hopefully be doing in a nano down the line (no space :frown:) .

However, I found the scapes I was referring too and put them in my first post. They're inspiring me for my next tank which also may be a year... haha.
I hope they give you a boost of inspiration as well.
 
#8 ·
I think a hardscape like this in either of those two tanks would be very nice.


I would use the crypts as a background plant, and use fern in and around the middle of the hardscape with some A.petite in the rocks near the bottom. This would be a tank you didnt have to mess with daily, and not to mention it would look awesome.
 
#15 ·
I sort of fancy the rounder stones sans driftwood in the photo. This would pave the way for any variety of plants and color varients without distracting. Maintenance would be limited to topping and replanting while the foreground would be open for options and quick swap out or just bare...

Call me a practical scaper but that's what i like these days :)
 
#16 ·
I don't think I could pull off a legit iwagumi. Shoot, I can't even pronounce it. I do like belem. Hmmm... I don't know about the regulator. I haven't put one together yet.
Nice inspiration. Thanks.
I sort of fancy the rounder stones sans driftwood in the photo. This would pave the way for any variety of plants and color varients without distracting. Maintenance would be limited to topping and replanting while the foreground would be open for options and quick swap out or just bare...

Call me a practical scaper but that's what i like these days :)
You know what? I live within walking distance from the Sacramento river. Maybe I should check out what there is in the way of free scaping stuff. Lots of round rocks lol
 
#17 ·
Get a Mr Aqua 18x18x24 inch tank.

Fairly cheap cost wise.

Much better tank size than the other two options.

Belem grass is EASY. Then add a few others to play around with and try.
Mini milfoil is easy and slower growing, Fissidens(will not infest the grass too easily), no Riccardia and other mosses etc for the grass though, you'll never pull them apart. The Mini butterfly Rotala I have is also a good plant to deal with. Trim the sucker like a hedge or pull and uproot and replant the tops once every 2-4 weeks basically.
 
#19 ·
Thanks for the suggestions, Tom. Unfortunately, I'm stuck with the tanks I have currently. Maybe I'll get lucky and one of the kids will smash it. I'm starting to feel the belem. Not sure how to utilize it though. I still want a sandy foreground.
Belem grass sounds good, you could make an iwagumi with that, Josh. For the regulators, there are some new plastic Victors out, supposedly on the cheaper side of things.

You didn't keep your Parker IR? :(
You would think out of the 7 I had that I would have kept one... I'm going to see how cheap I can make one. I've gotten pretty good at finding deals over the years. So the regulator is to be determined at this point.
 
#20 · (Edited)
Well, Hudson and I went to the river this afternoon to check out what I could find. Next time I'm taking some buckets and a shovel. I'm digging the stuff the Sacramento has to offer.

So how do i treat the river sediment? Just let it dry out?

Ok. So you know the Mr aqua add that's up in the adds at the top of page? I want to do something similar to that with river stones in a shorter (lengthwise) tank.

What you guys plant in the rocks and behind them?

This one:



On a side note, if you want a tired 15 month old, take them outside and let them run around for a while. Works every time:

 
#21 ·
HAHAHHAHaha !!!! That adorable, he all pass out.

The rocks you posted could be Ryuoh or Seriyu Stones, did you find a similar type of rock locally? I think you should go with ADA AquaSoil, river sediments are full of weird nasty stuff. I don't think you want that in the house. Suppose your local chemical factory decided to skimp on disposal fees. And then you end up with some glow in the dark DHG.

Hmm... actually.... that be pretty cool.
 
#24 ·
I've seen pics of your hands. I think I've got it.


Anywho...

AFTER MUCH THOUGHT, a few months worth, haha. I think I've got it. I'm going to try my first Iwagumi. Going to use seiryu stone and Belem grass and something else mixed in around the stone for more texture. My first thought was e. tennellus. I think it'll be a little much for this size tank though. 24x12x13.

Progress will be slow. I'm having a surgery a month from now so it'll probably happen when they won't let me go to work.

The plan is to use 2 current led planted plus with co2 and a cerges reactor.

What size housing would work best for this size tank? (16g)
 
#25 ·
Update I guess.

Drug the 'ol nuvo out of the garage.



^ yikes!



I also got a box-o-rocks in the mail today. More aquasoil should be in tomorrow.

Got to give a shot out to Mrbluepanda. Great stone. Now I just have figure how to use it. I'm also supposed to pick up some Belem form Mr. Barr on Saturday.

Good times.
 
#29 ·
Uhg... I hate waiting for stuff. Now that I've decided to set this one up, it's been a struggle to get the items I need to get everything going. I've also come to the conclusion that my toddler can't have all day access to the tank. That means it's probably going to have to live someone's bedroom. We're in the process of turning our 3 car garage into a 2 car garage with a bonus room. The room might be finished before I get this going. Perhaps it can be a fish room. :) Not likely hahaha

I think I've found a cheap cerges reactor filter housing at home depot. It uses what look like 3/4 fittings which would make it cheaper in the parts needed. It might be too small for the flow of the xp3 I was going to use. I'm probably going to have to out a ball valve on the return to slow it down anyway so maybe not too much.

Speaking of the xp3... I dug it out last weekend. I did a really bad job preparing it for storage. There's about an inch of water that's probably 2 years old still inside it. Ops...

Can you run it through the dishwasher? That would probably work fine for everyone but me it. I bet the dishwasher will kill the plastic. Better just hand wash it.

I also realized I don't seem to still have all the glassware I used to. I hate moving... it's always my stuff that gets misplaced. Oh well...

Ok, sooo. Rant over I guess.

On a positive note, it looks like I'll have time to master farming dwarf hairgrass. I know most of you use potting soil for emmersed set-ups. I have quite a bit of aquasoil sitting around. Can I assume that will work just as well? Also, would adding co2 to an enclosed farm tank be beneficial for emmersed gowing?
 
#30 ·
On a positive note, it looks like I'll have time to master farming dwarf hairgrass. I know most of you use potting soil for emmersed set-ups. I have quite a bit of aquasoil sitting around. Can I assume that will work just as well? Also, would adding co2 to an enclosed farm tank be beneficial for emmersed gowing?
AS works perfectly for dry start. However, in my experience with DHG, you have to keep the humidity very high or the leaves will brown and die off. To do this you'll have to mist it several times throughout the day. This makes it much more challenging compared to dry starting other plants like HC or UG.

No CO2 is necessary. There's more than enough of it in the air for plants.
 
#32 ·
Welp, I got my belem yesterday. Set up a make shift emmersed set up for it. It's a ten gallon with two current satellite plus's over it. The humidity looked good this morning. The little blades had water droplets all over them this morning. I think I'm going to try pumping co2 in there just for the heck of it.
 
#33 ·
Bah-haha-ha...

I finally named a tank journal.

Eh. I want to work on this so badly but there's no time until the week after next. I have read so many iwagumi scaping articles now.

The emmersed belem is doing well. I guess that's a plus. It looks like my 4, 2x2 portions are going to be 1, 8x8 portion by the time ready to plant.

One question I still have is how do people keep slopes from falling over time? I always just figured the carpet would hold it place but it looks like some people use pieces of plastic or other retaining wall type things to keep the slopes in place.
 
#34 ·
I've heard that over time, all slopes will eventually fall over. You can reinforce with plastic "cards" within the substrate or by using larger rocks as support underneath, but eventually the slope will slowly degrade.

Jealous about the belem, it's on my "next-tank" plant list :)
 
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