[Dan110024]

My 8 gallon rimless. It's been through two stages. The first attempt crashed when I used the wrong dry ferts (bought from a hydroponics store, who apparently don't use the same potassium nitrate as we do). Second attempt is under way. Changed the layout a bit due to flaws in the layout the first time round.

Equipment
Filter: Eheim 2215
Light: Maxspect Razor Nano
Heater: Fluval Tronic 100w (DIY inline)
CO2: CO2PRO Professional
CO2 reactor: Cerges' DIY

Flora
Limnophila sp Mini Vietnam
Lindernia Rotundifolia Variegated
Bacopa sp. Japan
Hemianthus Callitrichoides
Eleocharis Acicularis (may soon be swapped for something more bushy)
Hemianthus Glomeratus
Substrate - Aqua Soil Amazonia

Fauna
Red Cherry shrimp
Some other kind of shrimp - Some clear, a couple brown


14/09/2014 - A couple of weeks in of dry start

21/09/2014 - Filled

29/09/2014 - Last photo, days before it crashed due to inappropriate ferts. Notice the eleocharis not growing behind the rock...bit of a design flaw in my scape.

01/12/2014 - A bit of time went by....eventually got it rescaped and replanted. It's had a pretty extreme prune a couple of days before this photo, trying to reset things now that I have a proper fertilisers now. Eleocharis still isn't growing. Keen to get something bushy in place of it. It also needs some glass lilly pipes. Just not sure how to go about it with shrimp.

28/12/2014 - Replaced Eleocharis Acicularis with Blyxa Japonica

Plumbing

 

[ChemGuyEthan]

Looking pretty good! That was the perfect place for that plant.

I might suggest raising the smaller stones in the foreground up out of the substrate a bit more, once your plants grow in you'll barely see those stones anymore unless you're extremely diligent with your trimming.

And I can speak from experience that bacopa plants grow very well above water. Got mine to flower even, haha. Just keep in the humidity and you're good to go.

 

[Dan110024]

The height of those rocks did cross my mind. I'm hoping I'll stay on top of the trimming. I might see what I can do when I go planting the rest.

Does it matter how much space there is between the Bacopa stems? They're probably 1cm apart in some places. I'm not sure if that's too close together.

I checked your tanks... I never knew Bacopa flowers like that! It's beautiful.

 

[ChemGuyEthan]

The height of those rocks did cross my mind. I'm hoping I'll stay on top of the trimming. I might see what I can do when I go planting the rest.

Does it matter how much space there is between the Bacopa stems? They're probably 1cm apart in some places. I'm not sure if that's too close together.

I checked your tanks... I never knew Bacopa flowers like that! It's beautiful.

I think the spacing is fine. My understanding of this particular species of bacopa is that it forms tighter groupings like a bush rather than longer stems like the rest of the family. So planting it close together and keeping the runners trimmed should help with that.

I was pretty excited to see the little purple flowers! I was gone for a week and left the thing unattended other than a timer for the light, came back and there were flowers, haha. They have since withered away, maybe the recent heat wave here...but it was cool to see. I think they'll only flower when grown emmersed like that, I'm not sure they flower when submersed.

 

[Dan110024]

The Hemianthus Callitrichoides and Hemianthus Glomeratus arrived.

I'm hoping that the HC and HG planted on the higher level of the substrate (which is pretty much all of it) doesn't dry out. At the same time, I've got a small pool of water in the bottom right of the tank which I'm trying to get rid of, while not drying out the rest of the tank too much.

Just waiting on some Eleocharis Acicularis to place around the back of the large rock.

Due to the rock on the right casting a shadow across part of the HG, I've setup a spare light I had. Hopefully, once it's grown to length and submersed, it will get enough light when it rises up above the rock.

 

[ChemGuyEthan]

The Hemianthus Callitrichoides and Hemianthus Glomeratus arrived.

I'm hoping that the HC and HG planted on the higher level of the substrate (which is pretty much all of it) doesn't dry out. At the same time, I've got a small pool of water in the bottom right of the tank which I'm trying to get rid of, while not drying out the rest of the tank too much.

Just waiting on some Eleocharis Acicularis to place around the back of the large rock.

Due to the rock on the right casting a shadow across part of the HG, I've setup a spare light I had. Hopefully, once it's grown to length and submersed, it will get enough light when it rises up above the rock.

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Looking good! If you're diligent with your misting, the HC on the high levels will grow without you needing to keep a puddle in the bottom right corner. The HC will likely mold cause it's too wet and hasn't transitioned to emmersed growth yet.

I have a new emmersed with HC on a hill that was doing great! Then we had a heat wave here in SoCal the past few days and it's dried out quite a bit. I'm hoping I can bring it back from the brink... But all I've been doing is keeping it misted in the mornings and sometimes at night if it looks dry. I also keep it covered in cling wrap except for a corner. I'll keep it that way for another week or so, then start opening it up a little more. HC grows really well emmersed, as long as you keep it at the right humidity level.

 

[Dan110024]

Looking good! If you're diligent with your misting, the HC on the high levels will grow without you needing to keep a puddle in the bottom right corner. The HC will likely mold cause it's too wet and hasn't transitioned to emmersed growth yet.

I have a new emmersed with HC on a hill that was doing great! Then we had a heat wave here in SoCal the past few days and it's dried out quite a bit. I'm hoping I can bring it back from the brink... But all I've been doing is keeping it misted in the mornings and sometimes at night if it looks dry. I also keep it covered in cling wrap except for a corner. I'll keep it that way for another week or so, then start opening it up a little more. HC grows really well emmersed, as long as you keep it at the right humidity level.

The puddle isn't something I'm trying to maintain. The problem is getting rid of it while still spraying the rest of the tank. I've tried sticking some small tube into it and sucking it out, but it's kind of hard without getting it in your mouth and it's too restrictive to siphon. I'm worried some sort of algae is going to start growing there. Might give it another crack this weekend with an absorbent towel or something.

 

[ChemGuyEthan]

Ah yes, I figured you weren't intending to keep the puddle and didn't mean to imply so, despite what it sounds like from my response, haha.

DSM with hills like that is definitely a little more tricky (from my admittedly limited experience), just gotta keep an eye on things and I think it'll be fine.

 

[Emplanted]

I did a dry start with hc...And hills I figured a trick!
I propped the lower side up with books lol so it stayed level. Light at an angle. Totally worked!

 

[Dan110024]

Ha! That's a little creative. That could very well work with the puddle I have although I'm sure gravity might have something to say about my big rock precariously sitting there.

 

[Dan110024]

I received the final plant during the week. The Eleocharis Acicularis. Now all the plants are in, we sit back, watch and wait.

I've moved the light from being mounted on the glass to a board that I mounted to the desk behind the tank. When I have time, I'm going to buy a larger board and spray it white so it acts as a backdrop for the tank.

I had been wanting to do this for a little while for aesthetics (not a fan of the light attached to the aquarium), but the clamp was creating a shadow over the Eleocharis Acicularis when I planted it. It ended up being a quick function over form kind of thing with some scrap MDF from down in the shed, so the ugly unpainted board is only temporary.

 

[Powerclown]

Looks like your drystart is working,nice tank btw

 

[Dan110024]

Thanks! I am having a bit of a problem with brown spots on the Bacopa. Not sure if it's because it went from submerged to a dry start, or if the light is too intense (running at 90% of a 60w array for 14 hours) or some other reason. Hopefully someone can shed some light in the thread that I started.

 

[ChemGuyEthan]

I wouldn't worry too much about the bacopa, it's likely transitioning from the submerged form to the emmersed form. Many plants tend to lose the old leaves and grow new ones, in the process they look like they died, haha. So even if they drop all their leaves, give 'em some time before you tear them out as they just might pop back up in short time. Staurogyne repens is notorious for doing this. They look so nice when you plant them and within a few days all the leaves wither away and die off and you fear the worst, then all of a sudden new leaves are sprouting from the once dead looking stems, haha!

Unfortunately though, I don't really remember whether or not my bacopa did this when I grew it emmersed... But still, I wouldn't worry too much.

 

[Dan110024]

That sounds logical. We'll see how they go.

I got a little creative yesterday.... I've mentioned how I'm having trouble with the puddle accumulating in the bottom right corner where the substrate is at its lowest... Well, I came up with a way to easily extract it while keeping disturbance to the plants to a minimum.

I got sick of sucking it through a tube and ending up with half of it in my mouth. This way, I can suck it up and have it drop into the bucket with no discomfort of swallowing aquasoil water.

 

[pewpewkittah]

That sounds logical. We'll see how they go.

I got a little creative yesterday.... I've mentioned how I'm having trouble with the puddle accumulating in the bottom right corner where the substrate is at its lowest... Well, I came up with a way to easily extract it while keeping disturbance to the plants to a minimum.

I got sick of sucking it through a tube and ending up with half of it in my mouth. This way, I can suck it up and have it drop into the bucket with no discomfort of swallowing aquasoil water.

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Try some paper towels .

 

[Dan110024]

Ah yes. It's usually the simplest things that work best

Although I like this because it's no mess. Suck excess water out each morning and then empty the bucket at the end of the week.

 

[mistuhmarc]

Ah yes. It's usually the simplest things that work best. Haha

It's always fun to get creative though. The whole purpose of the hobby!

 

[Dan110024]

We're getting some solid growth from the hemianthus glomeratus to the right of the tank. It's really thickening up. Can't wait to see it when I put water in it!

The HC is growing a little slower than I would like, but this is my first time growing it, so maybe it's normal. I'm noticing that the parts of it which look most healthy have come from the couple of tiny, single strand roots that I planted. I thought they wouldn't do much at all. It goes to show that patience goes a long way in this game!

The Eleocharis Acicularis is sending runners and there are a few new shoots coming up in their region.

The Bacopa Japan is looking very healthy too. It's really improved compared to a week or two ago when particular leaves were starting to brown.

I love that it's all coming along quite nicely, considering it's my first attempt at growing a proper planted tank.

I think yesterday I had some tiny flying insects hatch/appear/whatever they do. I haven't seen them before and I had aired it out yesterday morning. Last night when I looked, I managed to count 3-5 of them. They don't exactly look like mosquitos, but im no baby mosquito expert. I'm sucking up excess water each day after spraying, so it's not like it's too stagnant.

Anyway, here's some updated photos. I've put some tin foil on the left to try to reflect light back under the large rock to ensure any eleocharis shoots in shadows receive as much light as possible. It seems to work.

 

[Dan110024]

I've managed to get a photo of the type of insect which seem to be breading inside the tank. They are about 2-3mm from head to tail. I don't think it's any species of mosquito which is lucky...I wouldn't fancy a mosquito farm in my bedroom.

edit: After a couple of seconds of searching on Google, I've come to the conclusion that it's a fungas gnat.

"Fungus gnats, also known as soil gnats, cause very little damage to houseplants. However, certain types of fungus gnats can damage plants when the larvae feed on roots. Usually, the pests are simply annoying little nuisances that buzz around potted plants."

http://www.gardeningknowhow.com/plant-problems/pests/fungus-gnats.htm