Joined
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431 Posts
About Me
Hello, name is John and I live in Sweden. English is not my native language so you have to excuse bad spelling and/or bad grammar. Have been reading on this forum for a while and even though it seems this is mostly an American forum I thought I could join in on the fun.
I have not been into the aquarium business for very long, I had a smaller tank when I was younger but was tank less from age 15 to 30 (I am 30 now). So I would call myself a total aquarium noob. I got a 120G Juwel Vision tank late last year and was going to go for cichlids and lots of plants. Since then I have learned a lot and also had some issues. Major ones were when traveling when working and a discus died in a non-visible place and rotted for a week and the tank crashed. After that I was struggling with a bunch of sick discus, plants dying and algae issues. Got it under control after a couple of weeks but when moving the discus to a temp tank for treatment I killed the discus by accident by Co2 gassing in a miscalculation of KH.
Anyway I learned a lot during these months, and I love every bit of it.
I have a special week spot for gadgets and stuff just so you know. Though I have seen lots of people here suffering from this disease
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Might as well list my equipment so we get that out of the way.
450 liter (120g) Juwel Vision Line Tank
Eheim 2080 canister filter
JBL CO2 kit with a controller and a rebuilt 6kg fire extinguisher as a CO2 tank.
Aqua Medic 1000 Reactor
Marine Magic Dosing pump
Eheim surface skimmer
Anyways, after getting the tank up and running I felt that I was not quite happy with the layout of everything so this is why I restarted the tank.
Made a project thread on a Swedish forum, will link a google translate link if you are interested in checking that out.
Link here
Short-term goal
I wanted a good looking rock formation in a light color and have lots more roots/wood in the tank. These were going to build more in the middle and top part of the tank. I felt the tank was a bit empty in those regions before.
Also wanted a piece that broke the water surface. The apistos would get more hiding places to play and make their territories. I also wanted a more "cozy" feeling in the tank for the viewer and have a layout that made the fishes movement more interesting to look at. The plant locations would be better thought through and include more reds and more shades of green.
Also wanted to achieve a softer water and lower PH, have a KH of 6 dkh out of the tap and it rose to 12-15 dkh after a couple of days.
Long-term goal
To get more fish to breed and the plants to thrive. Nutrition levels will be kept right and plants to be trimmed and replanted more frequently.
Planning
I did some "head-planning" for a long time and did some drawings and sketches of how I wanted it to look. Spent a month or two finding the perfect roots and rocks (for my goal). I let it take the time it need as I did not want to rush it this time. Did some sawing on the wood as finding perfect pieces was kind of hard. Then the pieces were lying on the living room floor for a couple of weeks. Girlfriend finally got tired of it and we decided to speed things up a little (had been slacking of). Started to look for the plants I wanted, originally I planned to go with only south-American but found so many other attractive plants so skipped that plan. I then made a reproduction of the tank bottom from a cardboard moving box and started the planning of the layout.
Layout Plan
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Plants
Foreground
Alternanthera reineckii 'Mini'
Hemianthus callitrichoides 'Cuba'
Micranthemum 'Monte Carlo'
Staurogyne repens
Mid
Alternanthera reineckii 'Rosanervig'
Anubias barteri var. nana
Anubias barteri var. angustifolia
Bacopa 'Compact'
Eleocharis sp.
Pogostemon erectus
Pogostemon helferi
Rotala 'Bonsai'
Shinnersia rivularis 'Weiss-Grün'
Background
Limnophila aromatica
Limnophila hippuridoides
Myriophyllum mattogrossense
Myriophyllum mattogrossense sp. 'Red'
Rotala 'Green'
Rotala rotundifolia
On rocks and wood
Fissidens fontanus
Ranunculus inundatus
Taxiphyllum 'Flame'
Utricularia graminifolia
Vesicularia ferriei 'Weeping'
Preparation
Considering the tank was in use and we did not know how long the re-scape would take we planned the entire day in detail. A couple of days before I got some of the technical stuff out of the way so we would save some time of re-scape day. Moved some stuff around and fixed the electrical stuff to get rid of the snake nest in the cabinets. Connected the AM 1000, mounted some led lights in there as well and hooked up the Dosing Pump.
The roots/wood had been soaking in a smaller tank for approx. 3 weeks with frequent water changes.
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Dosing pump from EBay with holes drilled in the Juwel cabinet shelf
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Containers for the pump, should last around 50 days.
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Getting rid of the snake nest (not sure if it is called that in English
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) by mounting some power strips in both cabinets.
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Left cabinet finished!
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And the right side!
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The AM1000 reactor many seem to like.
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The big day
We started early on the Tuesday morning by getting the plants that was shipped from Danish Tropica to my local aquarium shop here I Malmö, Sweden. Then we went home with the Styrofoam box and started to empty the tank and moving the fish to the temp tank in our closet, we used the big tanks water in the temp tank. The day before I had performed some cleaning of the filter so it was just to move that to the temp tank and let it run there on reduced power. Did not want to have to re-cycle the filter.
It took an hour or two to get all the plants and fish out and another hour for the amanoshrimps. I thought I had like 5 left but we lost count after 35.
Emptied all the water for the last ones as they were some energetic little jumpers.
Some boxes with plants and substrate.
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Most of the old stuff is gone and only the shrimps are left, can't see them due to the muddy water though.
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After all the living things were out we emptied the tank completely.
Then we started cleaning out all the old gravel and mud. Sweaty work
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Success!
![]()
While we were working hard the energy level on the balcony was somewhat different.
Luna / Juno / Nova (lazy)
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When everything was clean we threw in 10 liters of Tropicas substrate and then 5 x 10 liter bags of Oliver Knotts gravel went in. Used mixed sizes of gravel. Gravel is not supposed to be rinsed so that was kind of nice.
![]()
![]()
Then we moved on to the decorations, pretty big rocks so I took it extra careful. It did not fit exactly as planned but after some rethinking it ended up better than initially planned which was nice.
![]()
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On to the plants! Sorting them all out and cleaning out gel and the wool. Some pruning and we were good to go.
![]()
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We started planting, and I quickly noticed that it was somewhat harder to plant in Oliver Knots gravel due to its light weight. But some long pincers helped out a lot. The ones on the rock and wood was either wedged or attached with some sewing thread.
Planting and finally topping the tank.
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First plant coming loose
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Some more pics
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1 week later
It has now been a week since the re-scape and almost everything has been going smoothly. All the plants are growing and looking good with the exception for "Limnophila aromatica" and "Utricularia graminifolia" the first one rots under the gravel and the last one kind of falls apart. Have reattached them 2 times now using fishing line and plastic covered steel line. So hopefully they will stay there now and recover. Unfortunately my angelfish (Pterophyllum) finds the UG quite delicious and love ripping it.
And I am still not quite sure if you even can grow the UG on wood?
Other than that I already have had to trim down most plants and have replanted that to make denser groups. Also added some Cuba on the roots (not sure if that will work though). Water values are looking good and I now have softer water around 3-4dkh (sits stable at this even after a 60-70% water change and does not seem to drop below it either after a full week.
Will be taking some more pictures tomorrow to show the progress and the minor changes made.
Thanks for reading !!
Hello, name is John and I live in Sweden. English is not my native language so you have to excuse bad spelling and/or bad grammar. Have been reading on this forum for a while and even though it seems this is mostly an American forum I thought I could join in on the fun.
I have not been into the aquarium business for very long, I had a smaller tank when I was younger but was tank less from age 15 to 30 (I am 30 now). So I would call myself a total aquarium noob. I got a 120G Juwel Vision tank late last year and was going to go for cichlids and lots of plants. Since then I have learned a lot and also had some issues. Major ones were when traveling when working and a discus died in a non-visible place and rotted for a week and the tank crashed. After that I was struggling with a bunch of sick discus, plants dying and algae issues. Got it under control after a couple of weeks but when moving the discus to a temp tank for treatment I killed the discus by accident by Co2 gassing in a miscalculation of KH.
Anyway I learned a lot during these months, and I love every bit of it.
I have a special week spot for gadgets and stuff just so you know. Though I have seen lots of people here suffering from this disease
Might as well list my equipment so we get that out of the way.
450 liter (120g) Juwel Vision Line Tank
Eheim 2080 canister filter
JBL CO2 kit with a controller and a rebuilt 6kg fire extinguisher as a CO2 tank.
Aqua Medic 1000 Reactor
Marine Magic Dosing pump
Eheim surface skimmer
Anyways, after getting the tank up and running I felt that I was not quite happy with the layout of everything so this is why I restarted the tank.
Made a project thread on a Swedish forum, will link a google translate link if you are interested in checking that out.
Link here
Short-term goal
I wanted a good looking rock formation in a light color and have lots more roots/wood in the tank. These were going to build more in the middle and top part of the tank. I felt the tank was a bit empty in those regions before.
Also wanted a piece that broke the water surface. The apistos would get more hiding places to play and make their territories. I also wanted a more "cozy" feeling in the tank for the viewer and have a layout that made the fishes movement more interesting to look at. The plant locations would be better thought through and include more reds and more shades of green.
Also wanted to achieve a softer water and lower PH, have a KH of 6 dkh out of the tap and it rose to 12-15 dkh after a couple of days.
Long-term goal
To get more fish to breed and the plants to thrive. Nutrition levels will be kept right and plants to be trimmed and replanted more frequently.
Planning
I did some "head-planning" for a long time and did some drawings and sketches of how I wanted it to look. Spent a month or two finding the perfect roots and rocks (for my goal). I let it take the time it need as I did not want to rush it this time. Did some sawing on the wood as finding perfect pieces was kind of hard. Then the pieces were lying on the living room floor for a couple of weeks. Girlfriend finally got tired of it and we decided to speed things up a little (had been slacking of). Started to look for the plants I wanted, originally I planned to go with only south-American but found so many other attractive plants so skipped that plan. I then made a reproduction of the tank bottom from a cardboard moving box and started the planning of the layout.
Layout Plan
Plants
Foreground
Alternanthera reineckii 'Mini'
Hemianthus callitrichoides 'Cuba'
Micranthemum 'Monte Carlo'
Staurogyne repens
Mid
Alternanthera reineckii 'Rosanervig'
Anubias barteri var. nana
Anubias barteri var. angustifolia
Bacopa 'Compact'
Eleocharis sp.
Pogostemon erectus
Pogostemon helferi
Rotala 'Bonsai'
Shinnersia rivularis 'Weiss-Grün'
Background
Limnophila aromatica
Limnophila hippuridoides
Myriophyllum mattogrossense
Myriophyllum mattogrossense sp. 'Red'
Rotala 'Green'
Rotala rotundifolia
On rocks and wood
Fissidens fontanus
Ranunculus inundatus
Taxiphyllum 'Flame'
Utricularia graminifolia
Vesicularia ferriei 'Weeping'
Preparation
Considering the tank was in use and we did not know how long the re-scape would take we planned the entire day in detail. A couple of days before I got some of the technical stuff out of the way so we would save some time of re-scape day. Moved some stuff around and fixed the electrical stuff to get rid of the snake nest in the cabinets. Connected the AM 1000, mounted some led lights in there as well and hooked up the Dosing Pump.
The roots/wood had been soaking in a smaller tank for approx. 3 weeks with frequent water changes.
Dosing pump from EBay with holes drilled in the Juwel cabinet shelf
Containers for the pump, should last around 50 days.
Getting rid of the snake nest (not sure if it is called that in English
Left cabinet finished!
And the right side!
The AM1000 reactor many seem to like.
The big day
We started early on the Tuesday morning by getting the plants that was shipped from Danish Tropica to my local aquarium shop here I Malmö, Sweden. Then we went home with the Styrofoam box and started to empty the tank and moving the fish to the temp tank in our closet, we used the big tanks water in the temp tank. The day before I had performed some cleaning of the filter so it was just to move that to the temp tank and let it run there on reduced power. Did not want to have to re-cycle the filter.
It took an hour or two to get all the plants and fish out and another hour for the amanoshrimps. I thought I had like 5 left but we lost count after 35.
Emptied all the water for the last ones as they were some energetic little jumpers.
Some boxes with plants and substrate.
Most of the old stuff is gone and only the shrimps are left, can't see them due to the muddy water though.
After all the living things were out we emptied the tank completely.
Then we started cleaning out all the old gravel and mud. Sweaty work
Success!
While we were working hard the energy level on the balcony was somewhat different.
Luna / Juno / Nova (lazy)
When everything was clean we threw in 10 liters of Tropicas substrate and then 5 x 10 liter bags of Oliver Knotts gravel went in. Used mixed sizes of gravel. Gravel is not supposed to be rinsed so that was kind of nice.
Then we moved on to the decorations, pretty big rocks so I took it extra careful. It did not fit exactly as planned but after some rethinking it ended up better than initially planned which was nice.
On to the plants! Sorting them all out and cleaning out gel and the wool. Some pruning and we were good to go.
We started planting, and I quickly noticed that it was somewhat harder to plant in Oliver Knots gravel due to its light weight. But some long pincers helped out a lot. The ones on the rock and wood was either wedged or attached with some sewing thread.
Planting and finally topping the tank.
First plant coming loose
Some more pics
1 week later
It has now been a week since the re-scape and almost everything has been going smoothly. All the plants are growing and looking good with the exception for "Limnophila aromatica" and "Utricularia graminifolia" the first one rots under the gravel and the last one kind of falls apart. Have reattached them 2 times now using fishing line and plastic covered steel line. So hopefully they will stay there now and recover. Unfortunately my angelfish (Pterophyllum) finds the UG quite delicious and love ripping it.
And I am still not quite sure if you even can grow the UG on wood?
Other than that I already have had to trim down most plants and have replanted that to make denser groups. Also added some Cuba on the roots (not sure if that will work though). Water values are looking good and I now have softer water around 3-4dkh (sits stable at this even after a 60-70% water change and does not seem to drop below it either after a full week.
Will be taking some more pictures tomorrow to show the progress and the minor changes made.
Thanks for reading !!
