[Asu1776]

REBOOT: 9/8/2014

Update: 9/29/2014

Update: 10/6/2014

Update: 10/13/2014



Update: 10/22/2014



Update: 10/28/2014

Update: 11/3/2014

Update: 11/11/2014



Update: 3/2/2015

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Start: 2/3/2014

Week 1: 2/10/2014

Week 2: 2/17/2014

Week 3: 2/24/2014

Week 4: 3/4/2014

Week 5: 3/10/2014

Week 6: 3/17/2014

Week 7: 3/24/2014

Week 8: 3/31/2014

Week 9: 4/7/2014

Week 10: 4/14/2014

Week 11: 4/21/2014

Week 12: 4/28/2014

Week 13: 5/5/2014

Week 14: 5/12/2014

Week 15: 5/19/2014

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Hi everyone,

I'm starting a new journal after I decided to tear my old tank down, which you can visit here. http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=460161.

Before the holidays, I realized that my tank had been overrun with a bunch of hitchhikers. I swear, I have had almost every bug from this website http://www.planetinverts.com/what_is_that_bug_in_my_aquarium.html in my aquarium. Apparently I had some plant leeches too, laying eggs under the leaves of my plants. I decided to kick the bucket and start fresh with clean plants.

I bought myself a Mr. Aqua 11.4 gallon rimless tank as a Christmas present back in December. I didn't sterilize the filter because I wanted to preserve the biological bacteria and realized I had reintroduced a few types of hitchhikers again! So I declared war. I soaked the plants in PP for 3 hrs and placed them into quarantine, boiled my new Eco-Complete substrate, and ran bleach through the filter and aquarium for a few hours.

It's been over a week now and I've decided its time to restart the tank. Here's the hardscape. Thanks to AnotherHobby for inspiring me to do this setup. You can see his journal here. http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=371193

And stage 1 of planting as I figure things out.

Tank Specs

Equipment: Finnex PX-360 filter, 5 lb CO2 Tank with Aquatek Regulator, Inline Atomizer, 13mm Lily Pipes, 36W Odyssea 6500k Light

Plants: Limnophila Aromatica, Ludwigia Sp. Red, Rotala Bangladesh, Alternanthera Reineckii "Mini", Blyxa Japonica, Staurogyne Repens, Downoi, HC Cuba

Livestock:

 

[GreenBliss]

Looks great. Love the driftwood.

 

[Asu1776]

Looks great. Love the driftwood.

Thanks!

 

[Asu1776]

Update: 1/31/2014

I completed stage 2 of planting. :bounce: Sorry for the bright haziness. It's a combination of a cell phone camera and some cloudiness from bacteria I presume in the early stages of setup.

Unedited

Edited

I added some submersed grown HC cuba in the foreground, which I purchased from the AFA store in SF. They have a pretty good deal there, where if you buy 3 pots, you get the 4th free. Some pots aren't as lush as others, but the associates offered me the best they had. They are kept in tanks with MTS, so I did a PP dip and put the pots in quarantine for a few days before I planted them into my tank. If anyone hasn't been to the AFA store and lives in the bay area, I'd check it out! They have a good selection of plants, healthy fish, and pretty much your ADA needs. :thumbsup:

To the right, I added some hardscape (pagoda rocks) to create this plateau of staurogyne repens looking over the rocks. I'm hoping the open space to the right and the contrast of the AR mini and the staurogyne repens will look nice.

I'm waiting on some hydrocotyle japan from a generous RAOK (thanks OhNo123!) to fill the middle areas of the tank. I've never tried the plant before so I'm excited. Not sure what to expect on maintenance, but I hear people pulling out clumps of it frequently so we shall see how it plays out.

Last but not least, I have some anubias nana and nana petite which have been growing pretty well in another tank. There are a bunch of budding rhizomes which I can't use and might go to a RAOK. The reason I haven't planted them is because I observed some very small yellow eggs under the leaves, which I've tried very hard to manually remove. Now they are in quarantine as I wait for what I missed to hatch. I might get impatient and grab a toothpick and magnifying glass to thoroughly inspect.

Thanks to TPT for an awesome easy, surface skimmer idea. No more surface scum!

Final thoughts, wondering if the driftwood perches would be ideal for this shrimp.

 

[devilduck]

Bamboo shrimp love current. Put the driftwood right in the current path. Your tank looks really clean, you might need to supplement feed them couple of times a week with very finely crush flake or First Bites fry food.

 

[xmas_one]

Looking good, nice job on the wood selection/placement!

 

[Asu1776]

Bamboo shrimp love current. Put the driftwood right in the current path. Your tank looks really clean, you might need to supplement feed them couple of times a week with very finely crush flake or First Bites fry food.

Yes, I'm concerned if the current would be strong enough. I'd have to switch out the outflow lily pipe for a sprayer or get a stronger filter. There's certainly nothing for them to feed on in the water right now, but maybe a few months down the line.

 

[Asu1776]

Looking good, nice job on the wood selection/placement!

Thanks! I went to Albany Aquarium and squatted for 20 mins arranging driftwood in the store. It felt a little embarrassing with people walking past me, but I needed the right driftwood! :red_mouth

 

[RisingSun]

can you link me to instructions for building a skimmer like that? Hows it working for you? I heard restricting intake flow was bad for your filter, does that skimmer restrict the inflow? Great looking tank!

 

[Jdiesels]

Hi everyone,

I'm starting a new journal after I decided to tear my old tank down, which you can visit here. http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=460161.

Before the holidays, I realized that my tank had been overrun with a bunch of hitchhikers. I swear, I have had almost every bug from this website http://www.planetinverts.com/what_is_that_bug_in_my_aquarium.html in my aquarium. Apparently I had some plant leeches too, laying eggs under the leaves of my plants. I decided to kick the bucket and start fresh with clean plants.

I bought myself a Mr. Aqua 11.4 gallon rimless tank as a Christmas present back in December. I didn't sterilize the filter because I wanted to preserve the biological bacteria and realized I had reintroduced a few types of hitchhikers again! So I declared war. I soaked the plants in PP for 3 hrs and placed them into quarantine, boiled my new Eco-Complete substrate, and ran bleach through the filter and aquarium for a few hours.

It's been over a week now and I've decided its time to restart the tank. Here's the hardscape. Thanks to AnotherHobby for inspiring me to do this setup. You can see his journal here. http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=371193

And stage 1 of planting as I figure things out.

Tank Specs

Equipment: Finnex PX-360 filter, 5 lb CO2 Tank with Aquatek Regulator, Inline Atomizer, 13mm Lily Pipes, 36W Odyssea 6500k Light

Plants: Limnophila Aromatica, Ludwigia Sp. Red, Rotala Bangladesh, Alternanthera Reineckii "Mini", Blyxa Japonica, Staurogyne Repens, Downoi, HC Cuba

Livestock:

Awesome tank !

 

[Asu1776]

can you link me to instructions for building a skimmer like that? Hows it working for you? I heard restricting intake flow was bad for your filter, does that skimmer restrict the inflow? Great looking tank!

Here's the link.

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=293066

The skimmer is working wonderfully. I've found that making wider and longer slits makes it work better and puts less, if any, strain on the filter. Before, I had small triangular slits, which resulted in a pocket of air in the tube since the water falling into the tube was not faster than the rate in which the water was being sucked into the lily pipe. That's why using wider and longer slits lets water flow in at a steady rate, even when there is evaporation.

Thanks for the tank feedback!

 

[RisingSun]

Here's the link.

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=293066

The skimmer is working wonderfully. I've found that making wider and longer slits makes it work better and puts less, if any, strain on the filter. Before, I had small triangular slits, which resulted in a pocket of air in the tube since the water falling into the tube was not faster than the rate in which the water was being sucked into the lily pipe. That's why using wider and longer slits lets water flow in at a steady rate, even when there is evaporation.

Thanks for the tank feedback!

Thanks!

 

[MB2]

Very nice start. Will look great when filled in. The shrimp photo is pretty. Did you use a macro lens to take that shot or just cropping?

 

[Asu1776]

Very nice start. Will look great when filled in. The shrimp photo is pretty. Did you use a macro lens to take that shot or just cropping?

Thanks! Can't wait for the fill in! I found the shrimp photo online. Wish, but can't take the credit.

 

[Asu1776]

Official Day 1

With the exception of waiting for my anubias nana and nana petite to become sterilized, I wanted to make today as the first "measurement" day of this new scape and tank. I have finally added some hydrocotyle japan. Now it's time to up the CO2 and the nutrient levels. On to the pictures. 56k connections, watch out!

The sparse addition of hydrocotyle japan.

Macro photo of dwarf baby tears.

Limnophila aromatica coloring up real nice underneath!

The rotala bangladesh trimmings I received from AFA are a bit unusual. Half of the stems are on steroids, growing almost two inches in a few days, and the others are stunted at the tips and aren't growing. Notice how at night the right two stems are closed but the others are open. I'm thinking I'm going to lose the ones on the left, unless they sprout side shoots.

I'm expecting to do weekly updates, so stay tuned to see how things change across the weeks!

 

[Asu1776]

Day 2 Update

Had some free time today, so under high light and strained eyes, I removed limpet eggs from my all my anubias nana and nana petite and inserted them on the driftwood. Also added a drop checker.

 

[OhNo123]

Really liking how your tank is turning out! For your inline co2 diffuser, did you attach it to the outflow or inflow hose? I think I'm gonna get one of those since there's no circulation in my tank that would move my co2 bubbles around

 

[Jonnywhoop]

Tank is looking good Arthur! Can't wait to get the reineckki soon!

 

[h4n]

Nice Arthur.

Now I can see where the filter guard will be going

 

[Asu1776]

Thanks Han! Looking forward to that custom filter guard so I can keep an RCS colony in here.