Sounds like you've got a nice set up! Can't wait to see it up and running!
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Acid washed the rocks with HCl to make them all evenly colored. And filled the tank. All the plants except the 'Monte Carlo' and Anubias are TC plants. I'll update again if anything interesting happens. I'll probably have to figure out something about the background. I was really lazy with planting the fore ground. Figured I'd let whatever roots, to root and then hack off anything that didn't in 2 weeks.
As for a word about the Kessil A80, it's a great light for a tank no more than 18" wide at its widest. I can see it lighting a 18" cube with med light easily. Any tank shower than 15" is probably going to be high light (Very subjective opinion). Color adjustment isn't the best but I think it's a nice light for a decent price. The shimmer on the tank is very nice too.
As for a word about the Kessil A80, it's a great light for a tank no more than 18" wide at its widest. I can see it lighting a 18" cube with med light easily. Any tank shower than 15" is probably going to be high light (Very subjective opinion). Color adjustment isn't the best but I think it's a nice light for a decent price. The shimmer on the tank is very nice too.
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nice dog 
2 week updates:
1. Swapped out the kessil A80 for a twinstar light. The kessil is good and gave me ridiculous growth and I liked the cooler colors. The rotala is already reaching the surface!) However, the geometry of the scape meant some critical areas were getting not enough light. I will keep it around for when I do an island type scape instead of the concave type.
2. Started dosing phosphorous today as I am noticing some hunger in the plants. Very lean dosing though, nothing close to EI. Still about 50% of what PPS-Pro would use. Starting to get diatoms, but that is OK.
3. Ammonia 0 but nitrites are sky high.
4. Glued h. pinnatifida to the rocks on the right. They are very obtrusive right now but once they fully attach and sprout new leaves (ones that grew in my tank rather than from the seller) I am going to do the following:
a.) Defoliate all the old leaves to force them smaller
b.) Lop off the top and reattach them lower down on the rocks.
c.)Prune them aggressively so that I can get a tight ridge of hygrophila in the mid ground right in front of the rotala 'h'ra'
I think this can be accomplished in about 1-2 months.
I think the tank will be cycled this weekend, at which point I'll be adding some half dozen amano shrimp. Will also trim some time this week to tidy up the foreground.
What's interesting is that the limnophila 'mini' is growing a lot slower than I thought it would. It's growing well; but compared to its full sized version it is growing rather slow. As for whether or not the seachem advanced helped anything? I think it did. Everything is rooting quite a bit. Almost, a little too well. I've never had anubias attach so quickly to rock.
1. Swapped out the kessil A80 for a twinstar light. The kessil is good and gave me ridiculous growth and I liked the cooler colors. The rotala is already reaching the surface!) However, the geometry of the scape meant some critical areas were getting not enough light. I will keep it around for when I do an island type scape instead of the concave type.
2. Started dosing phosphorous today as I am noticing some hunger in the plants. Very lean dosing though, nothing close to EI. Still about 50% of what PPS-Pro would use. Starting to get diatoms, but that is OK.
3. Ammonia 0 but nitrites are sky high.
4. Glued h. pinnatifida to the rocks on the right. They are very obtrusive right now but once they fully attach and sprout new leaves (ones that grew in my tank rather than from the seller) I am going to do the following:
a.) Defoliate all the old leaves to force them smaller
b.) Lop off the top and reattach them lower down on the rocks.
c.)Prune them aggressively so that I can get a tight ridge of hygrophila in the mid ground right in front of the rotala 'h'ra'
I think this can be accomplished in about 1-2 months.
I think the tank will be cycled this weekend, at which point I'll be adding some half dozen amano shrimp. Will also trim some time this week to tidy up the foreground.
What's interesting is that the limnophila 'mini' is growing a lot slower than I thought it would. It's growing well; but compared to its full sized version it is growing rather slow. As for whether or not the seachem advanced helped anything? I think it did. Everything is rooting quite a bit. Almost, a little too well. I've never had anubias attach so quickly to rock.
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Rotala got a trim. It should be back in 2 more weeks or so...
Algae under control for the most part. Porto velho went through a melt but new leaves are grayish/purple/ivy color so that's nice. Staghorn on old emersed growth which will be removed this weekend. Getting some spot algae now so will enrich my dosing schedule which right now is:
Daily:
0.3-0.5mL Flourish Comp
2mL Flourish N
2-4mL Flourish P
1.5mL Flouish K
3mL Advance (I really like this stuff)
However the tank is running relatively smoothly (knock on wood).
Added about 20? 24? Amano shrimp and 4 otocinclus. They keep the tank clean but I do have to supplement both their diets. Also added 10 blue velvet shrimp. I only ever see 1-2 velvets at a time. I'll probably get more because I can't tell if they're dying. Amano and otos are flourishing.
I've also added an airstone on a timer at night. It really seems to keep the livestock more vibrant at night and in the day. I think it helped a little with the algae too.
Hygrophila is growing well attached to the rocks. Been slowly defoliating one or two big leaves every couple of days. Really just waiting on them to branch more so I can be more aggressive with it. They are firmly attached to the rocks now though.
Hopefully in a month I'll pull out the DSLR and my flourescent fixtures and take some real FTS. But for now it'll just be my crappy iphone pic.
Algae under control for the most part. Porto velho went through a melt but new leaves are grayish/purple/ivy color so that's nice. Staghorn on old emersed growth which will be removed this weekend. Getting some spot algae now so will enrich my dosing schedule which right now is:
Daily:
0.3-0.5mL Flourish Comp
2mL Flourish N
2-4mL Flourish P
1.5mL Flouish K
3mL Advance (I really like this stuff)
However the tank is running relatively smoothly (knock on wood).
Added about 20? 24? Amano shrimp and 4 otocinclus. They keep the tank clean but I do have to supplement both their diets. Also added 10 blue velvet shrimp. I only ever see 1-2 velvets at a time. I'll probably get more because I can't tell if they're dying. Amano and otos are flourishing.
I've also added an airstone on a timer at night. It really seems to keep the livestock more vibrant at night and in the day. I think it helped a little with the algae too.
Hygrophila is growing well attached to the rocks. Been slowly defoliating one or two big leaves every couple of days. Really just waiting on them to branch more so I can be more aggressive with it. They are firmly attached to the rocks now though.
Hopefully in a month I'll pull out the DSLR and my flourescent fixtures and take some real FTS. But for now it'll just be my crappy iphone pic.
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